Happy New Year 

View from the deck of my Liberty Street office.

“Here's to new years, new beginnings, new tryings, new failings, new tragedies and new triumphs.”

Objects in Mirror 

What a year, huh? What’s the warning from our side view mirrors? “Objects in mirror may be closer than they appear.” That’s how looking back at a year feels to me. It’s funny how things that you thought happened last year was really two or three years ago. Stuff that happened this year seems further back somehow. Maybe because it was kinda crappy. Except maybe the Olympics - which also seems crappy in retrospect.


obligatory year in review graphic

How about those Sochi Olympics? Those crazy Russians. Remember that one thing messed up in the opening ceremonies but we didn’t care because a police choir sang Daft Punk’s Get Lucky with Russian accents. Crazy. Remember how good the Canadian athletes were? Remember that insane comeback by the Canadian women’s hockey team? Remember when that Cossack beat Pussy Riot with a whip? You don’t see that everyday. Then again, this was a government that made promoting gay stuff illegal. Not even the Pope is against gay folks anymore. Hey Vlad, you can’t stop a gay party, because a gay party just don’t stop (see above Daft Punk reference)! Then the whole annexing Crimea thing? Crazy Russians. Read more »

Holiday Home Run 

Just a few photos from the last couple of days.

So SFO 

I had a day to myself recently in San Francisco so I rented a bike and rode over the Golden Gate Bridge to the Marin Headlands. It was a gorgeous day and you could understand why people would risk grass fires, earthquakes, drought and high real estate prices to live there. If I get another chance at a day in San Francisco I'll bring my cycling kit and rent a road bike for a day long ride north of the city.

By the way, the music used in this video is “Match 104” from a James Murphy (previously of LCD Soundsystems) project done with IBM wherein they converted data from US Open tennis matches into music. You can hear more of it here.

The 2014 Absurdly Quotidian Omnibus 

This year's Omnibus has only just been fired off to printers – if you cannot wait for the cracking of the spine of the printed ephemera sent your way (expect delivery in the first week of the new year), then you can virtually snap it here. It is agreed that really the only satisfaction of the Omnibus is the thing itself, so a digital version is no doubt, a disappointment to everyone. The digital edition lacks a certain door-stopping, fly-swatting thwack that is dearly missed yet it is merely a delay in the ultimate delivery of the ultimate diversion.

Your humble editor.

2014 Winter Solstice Playlist 

Rdio subscription required to stream the playlist above

Consider this a sort of “Year in Review”, a playlist that has a bit of old and a bit of new and whatever it was that caught my ear this year.

If you don't have a Rdio.com subscription you can stream the playlist from tapely.com

If you're a fan of 8tracks.com then there's a playlist for you too:

2014 Winter Solstice from rowdyman on 8tracks Radio.

A detailed track list will follow.

Seen in November 

Icelandic glacier as alien world. Image via Screenrant

In November I saw two of the more memorable movies of this year, Interstellar and Birdman. I doubt I could convince you to see Interstellar. It's a long beautiful film but with a kind of cosmically whacky third act. Birdman however, felt like a tour de force. For me it was great and worth seeing on a big screen, but for some it may have been too “showy” to enjoy. You're grown-ups. You can decide for yourself. Read more »