2011

In the last couple of years, I've had reviews of my favourite musical releases. As I didn't work in radio for most of the year, I felt rather disconnected from what was happening musically, so decided to branch out my reviews (also inspired by these guys)

Gigs of the Year
4 - Parking Lot Experiments @ Workers - a great way to cap off my first week in Melbourne
3 - Wintercoats @ The Evelyn - far exceeded my very high expectations
2 - Caribou @ CALH - kinda 'lost my shit'
1 - Beach House @ Laneway - I was covered in shivers the whole time

Albums
5 - Memory Tapes - Player Piano
4 - PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
3 - Cults - Cults
2 - Tennis - Cape Dory
1 - John Maus - We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves

Songs
Glasser - Ring (Delorean remix)
Summer Camp - I Want You
Neon Indian - Polish Girl
Rhianna - Only Girl
Shocking and Stunning - Salvia Gravity
Atlas Sound - Te Amo

Best Books I read this year
Sherman Alexie's The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven blew my mind. And I loved David Foster Wallace's Consider the Lobster

Favourite Films of the Year
Midnight in Paris was delightful. Source Code and Tyson were probably my fav dvds

Food items of the Year
Anything from La Panella (vegan bakery!), Log Cabin nachos, Gina's bagels, vegan licorice all sorts from Northcote IGA

Best Kebab
Abbott House of Falafel (aka 'King of Falafel'), Coburg. $5 of incredible

Girlfriend of the Year
Gina - Practically Perfect in Every Way

Suburb of the Year
A tie between the wonderful St Albans, Chch; and Northcote, Vic

Art Gallery Shows of the Year
Stabs @ Backwoods
Nior @ No Vacancy NGV
Eveline Tarunadjaja @ No Vacancy QV

Clothing of the Year
Probably a really nice fitting white polo I got from Tasman Traders. Also, cut-off shorts were the only way to short in '11

Most Aussie Thing
A drunk guy saying 'fair dinkum' regarding my review of Tyson

Event of the Year
Without doubt the earthquake. Changed most parts of my life, and was a very big motivator for the runner up: moving to Melbourne

Overall Trend
Learning that things will happen and people will do things that are totally outside your control, so you've just got deal with it the best you can