I would like to start new 2017 with quick glance back at previous year that many people consider unlucky, difficult and troublesome - while its true that that year had its share of troubles, dangers and problems, I think this perception has more to do with the way our world is connected by media nowadays so its easy to focus only on negative things instead of thinking what was nice, good and positive. After all, every single year in the past could be described as difficult if you remember only bad things but there must be something worth remembering.
Theatre:
Back during my previous vacation I truly enjoyed several visits to theatre and saw several plays, one beautiful concert tribute to great, late Arsen Dedić and even opera "Eugen Onegin" in Croatian National Theatre. Not only it was all a joy and pleasure, but I was in a dear company so sharing these moments with good friends was unforgettable experience and something worth remembering, for me this is what life is all about.
Books:
I did pretty good, all considering - it would have been perfect if I managed four books per month (that would make 48 annually) but total ended up being 36 which is still great since these 12 missing can be explained with my work (I work seven days a week) + some books simply need more time and attention than others. Sheer numbers don't mean anything after all, since its the quality, new discoveries and pleasure derived from reading that counts. I did try to start with my self-imposed task of reading SF but did not really move further than The Wonderful Visit by Herbert George Wells and The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury before I got sidetracked into something else. Another self-imposed task was re-visit to old classics and they were represented with Robinson Crusoe, The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe and Pygmalion - they were all pleasure but definitely I needed to focus just a little more on them and read them slower than usual choices (only three classics in the whole year is actually surprising as I thought there were more of them). On other hand, I had great time with non-fiction which might be my new favourite genre: I read Zecharia Sitchin classic The 12th Planet which was better than I expected, extremely detailed Salt: A World History that took forever, The God Gene, excellent Loot: the battle over the stolen treasures of the ancient world and two books about Titanic and its passengers. This 2016 was also the year when I discovered Neil Gaiman who must be my biggest discovery of the year and I read his The Ocean at the End of the Lane twice (I read three Gaiman's novels this year). Because of my travels, I also gave a chance to classic of children's literature Anne of Green Gables and that was unexpected treasure that should inspire me to read more of children's books. Also worth mentioning were Unbroken, Penelopiad and The Firebrand but by far the biggest kick were trashy novels that I didn't need to force myself to read at all - I gulped Anne Rice sequels about Mayfair witches (Lasher and Taltos), Kitty Kelley's biography of British royal family and Diana Gabaldon's Outlander (for the third time). Surprisingly, this year there was only one celebrity biography worth mentioning and that was Baby, Let's Play House: Elvis Presley and the Women Who Loved Him by Alana Nash, that was really a good one.
Music:
Even thought I did not exactly plan it, I continued to write my music reviews but this time around I decided not to go for international releases by pop stars everybody knows and focused on discography of Croatian artists instead, so I patiently went trough music of people I never truly listened before, like Gibonni, Doris Dragović ,Tony Cetinski ,Vanna and Nina Badrić - not everything was earth shattering and quite a lot of it was generic but I gave them all a proper attention and tried to find positive things to say about all of them. It was actually interesting, since I usually go for 1960s music so this time I moved on into something just a little bit out of my comfort zone and got acquainted with albums released when I was either busy with other genres or out of the country. Perhaps the biggest discovery was 1960s Macedonian singer Nina Spirova who really had magnificent voice and I also went trough phase of careful research of traditional folk music, which is something I indulge in from time to time.
Movies:
More than ever, I enjoyed old black & white classics and almost completely gave up on new movies that depend too much on special effects and computer animation for my taste. I re-visited Gone with the Wind, Rebecca, Night of the Hunter, The Wizard of Oz and treated myself with complete 1930s serial about detective Mr.Wong that gave me more pleasure than anything current. It was only when I was on vacation and enjoyed movie nights with neighbors that I checked out something like Bridge of Spies, The Dressmaker, 10 Cloverfield Lane and celebrated new horror The Witch (Shyamalan's The Visit was also good) but they were only casual fun and I got really upset with suggested Warcraft because its huge worldwide success points at direction where cinema goes now - tons of computer animation and calculated sequels to no end. I wept trough Saving Mr. Banks (slightly older but somehow I missed that one) and surprisingly got really moved with war movie Anthropoid that was perhaps just another action/war movie but for some reason it really upset me (probably because it was based on a true story and all characters actually lived trough this) and conversation afterwards casually mentioned two brothers who were born in this very house where I sit now, who were killed in WW2, which really blew my mind because I always considered this place to have been lazy, quiet countryside. The best discoveries of the year were old classic that I never saw previously - original 1940s French Beauty and the Beast and Orson Welles famous The Third Man and Citizen Kane so although from time to time I am pressed into checking something new, I know that my taste goes in that direction. I also enjoyed TC documentary about history of Dubrovnik (Republika) and medieval kings of Croatia (Hrvatski kraljevi) and naturally I was completely besotted with latest Game of Thrones which was the only TV serial I actually watched in 2016.
Places:
Not bad at all - I treated myself with tourist exploration of Vienna and its museums, I also visited Bermuda, Greenland and Iceland for the first time. I also got to see Canada and truly became very familiar with places like Halifax, Charlottetown and beautiful Quebec which must be one of my all time favourite places ever. Re-visited Barcelona, Malta, Napoli, Athens and Palermo but the biggest kick of all was New York where I loved The Metropolitan Museum of Art and enjoyed every second of it.
People:
Unfortunately 2016 was the year where we said goodbye to lots of celebrities and while the rest of the world was shocked with passing of so many stars, nothing really touched me as much as death of Leonard Cohen whom I always loved dearly. My beloved Kay Starr also passed away but she was really in her late years so I kind of expected it and besides, she had wonderful, rich and exciting career and by far outlived almost everybody from her generation. From local artists, unfortunately this was also goodbye from Jadranka Stojaković, Lola Novaković and Ljupka Dimitrovska (I wrote about all of them). At this point it shouldn't really be surprising that many pop stars slowly wave goodbye as age eventually catches with all of us.
Work:
Professionally 2016 was interesting year as I finally moved on into different paths and although it didn't made me wealthy at all these changes signalled that people think highly of me and after initial misgivings I actually accepted that I can take care of new challenges. After many years where I had to work physically the time came when my main task was purely psychological and had to learn my way around different kind of worries, but so far I am actually not bad at it, so perhaps this is just as it should be. Sometimes we forget that the only thing that holds us back is actually our own doubt and 2016 was good lesson about it.
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