The qatsi awards
Dec. 31st, 2022 04:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
qatsiIn some ways a more normal year; in others a truly abnormal one. We took a holiday in the UK in late spring, and ventured abroad at the end of August; we are both mostly working from home with semi-regular trips into the office. The Elizabeth line is open and the Proms are back.
I gather doctors have stopped asking "Who is the Prime Minister?" as a quick check for dementia. Younger people have had their present trashed by the Truss/Kwarteng budget, with a rapid increase in interest rates; older people have had their future trashed by the same, with a crash of bonds and gilts, so-called "safer" investments. One of these is visible to all; the other may go unnoticed by many who do not watch over their pension funds. Internationally, Putin discovered that there is a limit to how much of a blind eye the West will turn to his periodic reconstruction of the USSR, hardly before time and at great cost to all. If any good can come out of this, it is that we will really scale back our use of fossil fuels, but that seems far from certain.
Still, here are some highlights from my year:
Honourable mentions for The Sense of an Ending, The Cambridge Murders, and The Honjin Murders (fiction); The Mythical Man-Month, The Man from the Future, The Story of Crossrail and Thenford (non-fiction); the Theremin concerto, Aurora Orchestra and Ukraine Freedom Orchestra, all at the Proms (music); and Das Rheingold which doesn't quite fit into film and theatre.
It is not looking particularly good for 2023. Perhaps we should enjoy stability instead of the chaos of 2022. Anyone who isn't a politician seems to have noticed that Brexit is a disaster - Keir Starmer, I'm looking at you. We need proportional representation over House of Lords reform, and we need membership of the single market (at least) over the gibberish of "making Brexit work". A change of government would be lovely even though it would only be a signal for a change in direction. The country is well and truly broken and I don't see anyone with the ability to start setting it right.
I gather doctors have stopped asking "Who is the Prime Minister?" as a quick check for dementia. Younger people have had their present trashed by the Truss/Kwarteng budget, with a rapid increase in interest rates; older people have had their future trashed by the same, with a crash of bonds and gilts, so-called "safer" investments. One of these is visible to all; the other may go unnoticed by many who do not watch over their pension funds. Internationally, Putin discovered that there is a limit to how much of a blind eye the West will turn to his periodic reconstruction of the USSR, hardly before time and at great cost to all. If any good can come out of this, it is that we will really scale back our use of fossil fuels, but that seems far from certain.
Still, here are some highlights from my year:
- Fiction - A Long Petal of the Sea, by Isabel Allende
- Non-fiction - Electronic Dreams - How 1980s Britain Learned to Love the Computer, by Tom Lean
- Music - Mahler 2 conducted by Sir Simon Rattle at the Proms
- Film and Theatre - none
- Museums, Exhibitions and Visits - the remains of Pompeii
- Food and Drink - Mussels at The Belgian Cafe in Eastbourne
Honourable mentions for The Sense of an Ending, The Cambridge Murders, and The Honjin Murders (fiction); The Mythical Man-Month, The Man from the Future, The Story of Crossrail and Thenford (non-fiction); the Theremin concerto, Aurora Orchestra and Ukraine Freedom Orchestra, all at the Proms (music); and Das Rheingold which doesn't quite fit into film and theatre.
It is not looking particularly good for 2023. Perhaps we should enjoy stability instead of the chaos of 2022. Anyone who isn't a politician seems to have noticed that Brexit is a disaster - Keir Starmer, I'm looking at you. We need proportional representation over House of Lords reform, and we need membership of the single market (at least) over the gibberish of "making Brexit work". A change of government would be lovely even though it would only be a signal for a change in direction. The country is well and truly broken and I don't see anyone with the ability to start setting it right.