the beginning of the end...

two days to go and 2008 is nothing but 365 days of memories... in between spurts of productivity at work i'm scanning through year-end lists -- mainly just of the culture and music sorts...

what albums made waves? best flicks on the silver screen? who was the hottest couple of the year? yes... i actually, willingly feed myself this crap... it's beyond a guilty pleasure because reading it has honestly become more of a routine... especially at year's end, i have such a soft spot for re-capping it all as best possible... although i have to admit that this year and last i've been feeling slightly more behind the times... as i scan through album top ten lists i'm opening a new tab on my internet browser in order to find out who the hell certain bands even are/where they came from/why i should care...

it's not that the yukon is cut off from all and any cultural feasting... i guess it's just that i'm not seeking said knowledge like i used to... breezing through the pitchfork top 50 albums of 2008 was more like taking a pop quiz on pretentious band names... and then the rolling stone and spin magazine lists border on boring and are a little too friendly with whatever the billboard charts deemed worthy... working at the ceeb has only increased penchant for canadian content, but even the chart magazine top fives/tens are lackluster...

however, if i had to build a list of top tens for this year i think it would just all end in either a headache, or i'd end up compiling a list that included albums from 2006 and 2007 that i just discovered -- and movies i always had on that list of things to see...

a few years ago i was asked to create a year-end retrospective for a magazine i was writing for... seeing as i hadn't had it in the back of my head all year that i'd eventually have to recap it all, the task ended up being more than i'd bargained for... suddenly i was trying to figure out what albums i bought that year versus the one before and strongly relying on what had happened from october to december, as it was the most familiar in my mind...

think of it as though you're writing a book about your life -- but you never took notes... nothing... suddenly you're confusing timelines and truths against tales...

alas, in many ways this was a monumental year for me... just a few hours ago i was waltzing down the street for my morning coffee and i had one of those moments where you look around and wake up to where you are... the crisp cold and mountain backdrop reminded me that i'm far away from what i used to know...

but this year... it's all become a lot more familiar...