In keeping with the season when people make resolutions they will probably never observe, I offer here my New Year’s Resolutions -- which I will probably never observe. But it feels good to get them off my sun-tanned chest.
I will watch to the bitter end any television programme in which Peta Mathias takes us to some exotically foreign country to indulge her passion for its food.
I will read to the bitter end -- without wailing “Why are they bothering?” -- any newspaper review of Coronation Street.
I will express genuine surprise when one of our high profile, overpaid and over-indulged sportsmen is involved in a fracas in a bar at 3am.
I will wave cheerfully at any driver who just about ploughs into me because they are gabbing on their cellphone, and I will smile at cyclists I just about wipe out because the morons have just run a red light.
I will not delight in the downfall of any idiot in Parliament, of whatever party or persuasion.
I will listen to my wife when she says, “Don’t do that, it’s dangerous”.
I will read an article about one of our famous fashion designers without wondering where the journalist’s critical thinking went while the interview was happening.
I will watch an episode of Shortland Street. Because it is there.
I will stop saying, “But where are the policies?” every time I see John Key appear on television.
I will never again wonder aloud why news items obviously desperate to create drama are allowed to air -- such as the recent Radio NZ one which said graffiti kids had “targeted” the prime minister’s residence (only to have the police say the kids didn’t know it was her house).
I will not be sceptical about Kiwi bands who are said to be making it big overseas.
I will go to a movie starring Lindsay Lohan, Brittany Someone or one of the cast of Desperate Housewives.
I will buy local produce even if it is waaaay more expensive.
I will read more blogs, because they are “citizen journalism” and are therefore probably giving me more truth than long established media outlets.
I will stop being self-indulgent, over eating, opinionated, lazy, remote-hogging and selfish. (I will stop being me.)
And I will stop saying that “I don’t drink too much, I drink exactly the right amount”.
Righto: your resolutions welcomed.
Finally, if you are interested -- Music From Elsewhere currently has posted (with tracks you can listen to) about 50 of the best albums of last year, in my not-so humble opinion.
I doubt you’ll see another list which has everything from piano jazz to music from the sub-Sahara of Africa, to alt.rock and bent folk, to dark Southern music to belly dance. It’s a wide and eclectic -- some might say eccentric -- sweep and it’s all right here under Music From Elsewhere.
If you wish to subscribe to Music From Elsewhere just flick me an e-mail using the link from the site. It’s free and you’ll get a weekly newsletter telling you about the new music posted. I do extravagant CD and book giveaways every week also.
And actually finally: For many years I, and then one of my sons, bought the UK music magazine Q every month.
We stopped about two years ago. But I have, free to a good home, about four or five year’s worth of these fat glossies sitting in boxes in a cupboard.
I could do the whole TradeMe thing, but I think someone out there -- maybe an institution like a library, school or music college -- might like them. They contain literally hundreds of articles on rock, alt.country, reggae, hip-hop etc -- and many thousands of CD, book and DVD reviews.
Send me an e-mail via this site if you are interested. You’d have to pick them up from central/suburban Auckland.
Cheers, and have a good 2008.