It was spending my 6th Christmas with my wife. It was getting not 1 new car but 2! It was traveling to Arizona and expanding our pickleball knowledge and skill level. It was finishing our house renovations and hosting a hoard of friends for the first time in the time I've lived here. It was hosting that same hoard to celebrate my wife's finishing of her degree -- oh, did I mention that they came over for the baby shower at the same time? That's right: 2019 was the year I got my wife pregnant. Pulled the trigger! Bam! Job done. That was a damn' pretty big part of 2019, and the 2nd half of the year was a pretty good time planning our future together as a party of 3. Or should I say six? Well, 3 fur animals will always be a big part of our family as well.
So yes, I opened this blog with some very tragic and dismal things that remind us how nothing in life is ever for certain. At the same time, I am motivated to continue to try and live the best life with my wife (and child). Short of that, the best I can do is to summarize some of the "bests" -- maybe a few of the other lows of the year in list form. Here's what that looks like:
1 - Suicide Helpline, Territories, Fire Next Time
2 - Worst Days Down / Seth Anderson
3 - PUP with Brass @ Starlite Room
4 - Satanic Surfers with Belvedere and Wolfrik in Calgary
5 - Satanic Surfers with Belvedere and Wolfrik in Edmonton
6 - Roadside Bombs, The Foul English (but missed Trashed Ambulance)
7 - Downway w/ Grizzly Trail, A Gentleman's Pact, and Nicholas Rage
8 - Ten Foot Pole @ the Aviary
9 - LIGHTS at the VOGUE in VAN
10 - The Weekend Kids w/ Audio/Rocketry, James Renton and The Old Wives
11 - No Fun At All with Wolfrik, Last In Line, and The Unwashed
12 - Off With Their Heads w/ The Nielsens and Slingshot Dakota
13 - Teenage Bottlerocket with The Isotopes and Suicide Helpline
14 - Grizzly Trail, The Morons, Western Frontline, and Sessions
15 - Mobina Galore with The Ripperz and Broken Yolks
16 - Mistaken Point at the Buck (Blake's new hxc band)
My wife was happy to come out to more than half of these, and I applaud her for that!
Best Albums. The 30 Best Punk Rock Full lengths were these:
Slick Shoes - Broadcasting Live
Face to Face - Live in a Dive
Authority Zero - Live at the Rebel Lounge
SNFU - And Yet Another Lost Pair of Suspenders
Casualties - Until Death
They are fine.
I did binge on a lot of Netflix this past year, with only The Dark Crystal, Sex Education, and Derry Girls being the highlights of 2019. Others might have premiered before 2019, but the following are my list of the Best TV shows of the decade include the aforementioned, and 27 others:
I did binge on a lot of Netflix this past year, with only The Dark Crystal, Sex Education, and Derry Girls being the highlights of 2019. Others might have premiered before 2019, but the following are my list of the Best TV shows of the decade include the aforementioned, and 27 others:
With honourable mentions to:
The Best Movies.
It appears that I watched a total of 24 2019 movies either at theaters or at home, most with my wife. If there was a 25th movie we watched, I certainly don't remember it. I assigned the movies I watched letter grades...
Coming up with the best movies of the decade would require quite a bit more time and reflection and time spent on wikipedia, so we will leave that one alone. I did, however, come up with a list of the 10 best punk rock albums of the decade:
Not to mention - The Decade's Best Concerts:
Worst News
Andrew Thomson (2010)
Danny Howard (2019)
Chris Salacki (2019)
Mom (2014)
Other sad, bad things have happened in the past decade, but those ones are the saddest.
Let's hope the next decade sees fewer sad, sad things.
Happy New Years Friends.
Happy New Years Friends.
