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2007 Year End Summary
12/31/2007
Some years you excitedly enter into new endeavors. Others you finish them with satisfaction. This year felt more like 12 months of wandering in a maze and hitting mostly dead ends. No real sense of anything new nor accomplished. I don't mean to sound so negative as I'm not at all despondent. I'm just irritated that all my hard work and the sacrifice of most of my weekends and evenings this years produced so few successes.
My band the Mesmers really ground to a halt with very few shows this year, no west-cost tour, and not even the completion of our 4-song EP. We sold almost no CDs. The many months I spent working on an electronic show really didn't pan out nor did the many more months I poured into my solo EP. Other various things that I'd hoped for but didn't arrive include:
- Testifying before congress
- Taking a vacation
- Having a pumpkin party (for the first time in seven years)
And don't even get me started about the 3 attempts at getting something going for a new years celebration that collapsed.
Still, it's no big deal. I'll just reevaluate my strategies and buckle down for another year. I will say that the work itself was very satisfying even if the results haven't been.
And there were numerous positives as well. All those weekends made me into a far better musician than I've ever been. I can sing, write, record, preform and play in ways I never could before. I did take back up martial arts, and we did take a few good small trips. The Web design industry is booming and my efforts there have been very fruitful and in demand.
Other Things In My Life
- The big NREPP Website I'd been working on finally launched
- Made a large investment in a super-secret company (no I still can't talk about it)
- I took back up Hapkido and earned a few belts.
- Took trips to:
- Lived to 40
- Released a solo EP: Awayness
- We started using a maid and Peapod which are both totally worth the expense and free up our weekends nicely
- Took some database classes
2007 Best Of Pictures
Best pictures/graphics taken of me, by me, or, uh, by my cat.
Of Friends and Family
- Kevin and Heather had their first child, Alexandra
- Jim and Matt split up
- Jay and Lea moved in together
- My brother and his wife had their second child.
- Peter and Jenn had their first child
- Will bought another new truck (the one he bought last year turned out to be a lemon)
- Mike and Scott re-landscaped their house with Will's design
- Scott built his train set in his basement
- Tom and Rob moved in together
- My dad made a full recovery from his heart problems of last year
- The big project that Will had been working on for years imploded.
In Passing
- Kathryn "Kate" Fleming
- Boris Yeltsen
- Jerry Falwell - religa-bigot extraordinaire
- Luciano Pavarotti
- Lots of pets: Tyran the cat, Comet and Scooter dogs, and Sandy the turtle
- Benazir Bhutto
In the World
- Apple launched Apple TV and the iPhone
- Massive wildfires raged in California
- Pakistan went into democratic meltdown
- The Iraq war got worse and worse and then a bit better
- The US economy really seemed to slow down as it suffered a huge burst in the housing market
- "Green" became the new fad in culture and economics as everyone tried to cast their products as environmentally friendly. Even Burning Man had a green theme this year.
- The sale of video games soared
- The music industry contiued to tank with CD sales off another 15% and concert sales generally disappointing.
- Hollywood writers went on strike to protest their lack of payment from DVD and online content.
- The 2008 Presidential race essential started this year with candidates for each party peppering the public with their reasons to be made commander in chief. For the first time a woman and a black man are serious contenders.
Films & Shows I'll remember
A golden age of Television continued and saw me personally enjoying TV continued to be excellent with Heroes, Lost, BSG, and so many others.
- A Touch of Zen
- The Graduate
- Lawrence of Arabia
- Grand Hotel
- The Lady in the Water
- Shortbus
- Borat
- The French Connection
- This Film Is Not Rated
- Scum
- 49Up
- Lost Horizon - my favorite film of the year and one of my new all-time favorites
- The Prestige
- The Seventh Seal
- Pan's Labyrinth
- Things To Do
- 300
- Hidalego
- Beowulf
- Ratatouille
- Pirates of the Caribbean - At the World's End
- Renaissance
- Out of the Past
Books on the Night-stand
- Fantastic Voyage - Ray Kurzweil, Terry Grossman, MD
- The Seven Pillars of Wisdom - Thomas Edward Lawrence
- The Ivory Tower - John Richards
- Plutonia - Vladimir Obruchev
- Lost Horizon - James Hilton
- The Shazam! Archives, Vol. 2 - Various
- The Voice of the Mind - Edgar F. Herbert-Caesari
- The Lucifer Effect - Philip Zimbardo
- Microtrends - Mark Penn, E. Kinney Zalesne
- Marvel Masterworks: The Fantastic Four, Vol. 2 - Stan Lee, Jack Kirby
- A Week in the Zone - Barry Sears, Ph. D.
- Chimpanzee Politics - Frans de Waal
- The Prophet of Yonwood - Jeanne DuPrau
- The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier - Alan Moore, Kevin O'Neill
- Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham - my favorite book of the year
Memorable Music in the Player
- A Strange Education - The Cinematics
- She Wants Revenge - She Wants Revenge
- Tiki Moon - Kenny Sasaki & The Tiki Boys
- One Cell in the Sea - A Fine Frenzy
- After Hours - Raul Malo
- Are You lookin' At Me? - Colin Hay
- Marshmallow World & Other Holiday Favorites - Raul Mal
- Hooverphonic-The President of the LSD Golfclub - Hooverphonic
12/31/2007 | Permanent Link
