Nineteen days after the year in question came to an end, I finally complete my list for 2009. Not particularly timely, I know, but here are my final three nevertheless. And although this list was never in any particular order, I do consider these three things to be my favourite discoveries of 2009. So without [...]
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A List for 2009 —
Category Archives: A List for 2009
A List for 2009 - District 9
This was the best movie I saw all year. District 9, by Neill Blomkamp. It’s like a creature from a bestiary, made from the parts of many different animals. It’s a sci-fi blockbuster with aliens and giant robots, yes, but it’s also an exploration of prejudice and a take on possibly the best short story ever [...]
A List for 2009 - The Ooser
I just love this fella. He’s the Ooser (who I wrote about in the summer). Knowing that this big, dopey-looking wooden head exists is enough to bring a smile to my face. Since initially posting about him on this blog, I’ve found two great pieces of journalism that I wanted to link to. The first [...]
A List for 2009 - www.butdoesitfloat.com
I can’t even remember how I discovered www.butdoesitfloat.com, but I’ve found myself going back there with increasing frequency as 2009 has gone by. For the best explanation of what the site is like you only have to visit it once, but I think it’s more rewarding to check in there quite often. It’s remarkable that the people [...]
A List for 2009 - Far From The Madding Crowd
Then there came a third flash. Manoeuvres of a
most extraordinary kind were going on in the vast
firmamental hollows overhead. The lightning now was
the colour of silver, and gleamed in the heavens like a
mailed army. Rumbles became rattles. Gabriel from
his elevated position could see over the landscape at
least half-a-dozen miles in front. Every hedge, bush,
and tree [...]
A List for 2009 - Stornoway at the Sheldonian
Stornoway have been playing wonderful little gigs around Oxford for the last few years, but in 2009 things really took off for them. Their clever, melodic folk-pop has started to gain attention nationwide, and they’ve shown up several times in the papers and on shows like Later with Jools Holland. For a while they had a [...]
A List for 2009 - The Troll Witch
Mike Mignola has been creating something remarkable with his Hellboy series of comics for over a decade now. For me, his short The Troll Witch is a perfect ten-page distillation of what makes Hellboy so special. I read it for the first time this year, in the compilation of shorts The Troll Witch and Others, which [...]
A List for 2009 - Rain-Charm for the Duchy by Ted Hughes
The first item on my list for 2009 is the poem Rain-Charm for the Duchy by Ted Hughes. As mentioned in the intro to this list below, not everything I’m going to mention was published in 2009. 2009 is simply the year in which I first discovered it.
I’m a big Ted Hughes fan, but I [...]
A List for 2009 - explanations
I’m a part of what was probably the final generation of teenagers to listen to their music on cassette tapes. As such I spent a good deal of time in my formative years agonising over tracklists and the correct order in which songs should appear. I wasn’t quite as bad as the guys in High Fidelity, but the [...]
