End-Of-Year-Count 2020: not much of anything, really

I think that was what the classical Greeks would have called “a funny ol’ year and no mistake”. I did a lot of it backwards, naturally – not working from home at first (in common with many, of course), and only being able to start doing so at the point where a lot of people were being forced back. There’s a lot about that (and a lot about much else) that makes me Feel Some Kinda Way, but… ah, you’ve heard it all.

End-Of-Year Count 2019: Films

Not many of these either this year, but… well, y’know. Films.

End-Of-Year Count 2019: Books

It doesn’t feel like I’ve managed to read enough this year.

End-Of-Year Count 2019: Stage

All the world is one, or at least that’s what I’m told.

End-Of-Year Count 2019: Gigs

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas. Now it’s that list-mekin’ time of the year.

End-Of-Year Count 2018: Books

I’ve just put these in alphabetical order by author.

End-Of-Year Count 2018: Films

This is the one that really might not be completely spot-on.

End-Of-Year Count 2018: Gigs

No worries at all about any of these having been missed, since I have the the ongoing list on this very blog.

End-Of-Year Count 2018: Stage (including operations)

There were some problems with this list.

Festival Festivities 2018: This was all carefully planned, but that doesn’t seem to have made any f’n difference (Lunar)

Lunar Festival, at the Umberslade Farm Park in posh Tanworth-In-Arden. Just the Sunday for me, for this one. The Stranglers were by far the least interesting of the three headliners, but the line-up through the day looked good (it later occurred to me that this was because most of the bands were already familiar to me, which isn’t necessarily the best way to approach these events, but then again it’s not like this was Supersonic) and you get the bonfire on the Sunday. FIRE! At last!

Let’s get the important bit out of the way. Lunar festival contained…

No sousaphones! Not even one in the brass band for the procession. I’m a bit disappointed by that.

The themes were clear, at least. There was some ooblocks about ‘Seven Elements’ in the programme and preliminary blah, but what we really had was the traditional four elements and plenty of them. Water from sky – oh mercy, so much water fell from the sky. So, so much. Earth, in the form of mud. Air, in the form of wind. And later on FIRE. (Also stands to be noted – having the Lunar Festival on the weekend of the blood moon eclipse seemed apt. Apt, I say).

Didn’t it rain though, children. It didn’t seem so bad to begin with – after all, Dorcha were on first and they’re a great band to twirl your umbrella to (being, as they are, a wolfpack of Mary Popinses). After a while it starts to get you down, though. At my lowest I was tempted to abandon the music entirely and go into one of the indoor bits in the other field, but then I realised that was also somewhere around the time that Jess Phillips was running a No Homers Diane Abbotts club (VIP seats reserved for Lord Ashcroft) in one of them. You don’t want to blunder into that by accident.

Jane Weaver summoned the first bit of sun we saw all day (regrettably she also summoned Janice Long as an unadvertised compere) and that seemed right and fitting, but that didn’t last. Still, it was actually quite a nice day by the time that it wasn’t daytime anymore, and then we got the procession and bonfire (FIRE)! Great for drying your bum. The pyre was just a big triangle this time, though, rather than the (previously) customary Gigantic Woodbird. I don’t know if it makes me bloodthirsty to want to burn an animal in effigy. Sapthirsty, maybe.

Musical turns of note: Dorcha (with and without Damo Suzuki), Galleon Blast, The Swampmeat Family Band, Jane Weaver, AK/DK, Songhoy Blues (band of the day), and I don’t know who the brass ensemble doing the procession were but, y’know, them.

(Title quote courtesy of Mark Radcliffe).