They’re everywhere. Lists. Judgements. Retrospectives. Loud condemnations. Paeans of praise. Make your own on this thread!
24 Responses to “Best and worst of 2008”
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I’m going to try and make a list of 10 of the best things of 2008 and 10 of the worst, not in order of preference. See how I go.
Best:
1. Kevin Rudd’s stimulus package for pensioners.
2. The Apolgy.
3.Being able to buy out of print books on teh net that I can’t get in bookshops.
4. Knowing JWH is finished.
5. The election of Barrack Obama as President.
6.Arab reporter throwing shoes at GWB.
7.Withdrawal of most Aussie troops from Iraq,
8. End of the Pacific solution.
9. Reading some excellent books on the American Revolution – among the top 2 – John Ferling’s A Leap in the Dark and Almost a Miracle.
10.Not dying of COPD or prostate cancer.
The Worst:
1. Krudd’s shitty carbon emissions targets.
2,Nearly dying of COPD + chest infection and not realising till I got out of hospital.
3. My best friend/ex-girlfriend (not the one in Paris) dying of liver cancer last November.
4. Current bombing of Gaza by Israel.
5. GWB being President.
6. RWDB’s still having control of the Liberal Party.
7. Having to watch Andrew Bolt and Piers Ackerman on TV.
I have to say I’m pretty lucky when it comes to worst things. I can’t think of too many worst things that really rate a mention. There were some boring DVDs, so boring I can’t remember their names.
Best: Hooroo Howard! Bye Bye Bush! Worst: Confirmation of the inhumanity of the powerful, Middle East, Zimbabwe, Sudan etc.
Hey PB, I like disagreeing with you too much to have to die on me. Stick around for a feisty 2009. But in the interests of cross-party harmony I’ll do my top 10 CD purchases of 2008:
1. Stillpoint (Remastered) – Madder Lake
2. The Dream – The Orb
3. Doughboy Hollow (Remastered) – Died Pretty
4. Carried To Dust – Calexico
6. Beautiful Waste – The Triffids*
2. At Home With You (Remastered) – X
5. Underbelly – Soundtrack
7. Lust Lust Lust – The Raveonettes
8. In Rainbows – Radiohead
9. Past Imperfect – The Wreckery
10. Ladyhawke – Ladyhawke
*All the Triffids remasters are fantastic but these songs were hard to get previously.
With an honorable mention to MGMT; Santogold; The Stems; The Phoenix Foundation; and The Dark Knight soundtrack.
Oops. PIMF. Anyway, you get the idea.
Craig Mc,
Can’t help with music. Have a tin ear – but:
Best Books I’ve read this year (not in any particular order):
1. John Ferling, A Leap in the Dark.
2. John Ferling, Almost A Miracle.
3, John Keay, India – A History.
4. Christopher Tyerman, God’s War.
5. John Gascogne, Captain Cook.
6. The Diary of Frederick Mackenzie.
7. Ann Hulton, Letters of a Loyalist Lady
8.Pauline Maier, From Resistance to Revolution.
9.Peter Martin, Samuel Johnson – A Biography.
10.William Wordsworth, A Life in Letters.
I think I read all this books in 2008. It gets hard to keep track. I’m not going to list the worst books. Fortunately there were only one or two. There’s more than this 10, of course, and quite a few that were good but not outstanding.
6. Beautiful Waste – The Triffids*
Seconded. F*cking great!
The way the credit crisis provided an x-ray of finance capitalism — fascinating.
This will go down, I think, as one of the big years. 1968. 1989. And 2008.
The most exciting primary season in history. The first year of the Rudd government — even with our atrocious media, you can discern that ambitious reforms have been attempted, and with the benefit of hindsight I think we’ll consider Rudd more progressive than Hawke. The collapse of laissez-faire deregulatory capitalism. The first tremors of a Great Recession. Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and a full-blown land war in Asia, involving the first partial occupation of a democratic nation since the second world war.
Add to that: The Dark Knight. Oh yes, and Barack Obama was elected president.
Also my first year of uni, my first year driving, and the first time I’ve ever tried cooking for myself (results: interesting), and we have an epochal year.
Any year in which AC/DC releases an album is a good year. Especially one that delivered for the fans.
Lucinda Williams, Abbe May, Jeff Lang and CW Stoneking all had might fine albums in 2008
Personal highlight was to see Bob Brozman two Saturdays running in September. Outstaning gigs and he’ll back in Oz during 2009.
Thirded on those Triffids reissues, especially Beautiful Waste. Domino/Liberation did a great job on all those albums. REM’s Murmur remastered packaged with a live show of that era was also a worthy reissue.
my best of list of original releases [ie not reissues]:
nick cave and the bad seeds – Dig, Lazarus Dig!
frightened rabbit – The Midnight Organ Fight
silver jews – Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea
tallest man on earth – Shallow Grave
sigur ros – Med Sud….[etc]
tip my hat to You Am I – Dilettantes, simply because the pub tour was wonderful, but the album maybe didn’t leave as much of a lasting impression.
As for worst of 2008? I’m just going to post a link to Medecins Sans Frontieres worst humantiarian crises: http://doctorswithoutborders.org/publications/topten/
Here’s my highlights and lowlights of 2008:
Linked text
Obama election a highlight, also apology, Julia Gillard, Radiohead “In Rainbows” and the Five-Thirty-Eight US election blog site.
Lowlights: as well as Global Financial Crisis, try Robert Mugabe, Telstra no-show for National broadband Network bid, Corey Worthington, sports stars in rehab, federal Opposition, NSW state Labor government, Guns’n'Roses “Chinese Democracy”, and mandatory Internet filtering.
At Home With You (Remastered) – X
Ah. Yes.
I should get that. My vinyl copy is languishing in the cupboard for lack of a turntable.
Happy new year everyone.
Dog training wise, best is Demi finally graduating from Grade 3
Dog training wise, worst is Demi bombing out at the trial last night
did everything really well but in the recall ran to me and I thought it was in the bag but at last second swerved and ran past me. Damn!
The stunning progress in Iraq and the ascendancy of COIN. Odierno promoted MNF- I commander and Petraeus on to Centcom. Gates to stay Secdef.
The very great relief that Obama is far more likely to be a centrist than I feared. Likewise Rudd although this will make him far harder to remove for my side of politics.
Also surprised by how much more I liked Julia Gillard than I ever thought possible.
The confirmation that Govt yet again leads to financial collapse via the “new” twist of forced lowering of lending standards to minorities coupled with the stock standard monetary policy set on “massive expand”
A great nagging fear about Pakistan.
Another year the world didn’t warm.
The emergence of “Ronald Reagan in a dress” and the left side of politics rushing to build her into just that. Thankyou.
Biggest disappointment that Western Nations in Afghanistan can’t even provide 50% of what they have committed to to train up ANA. Popn’s of Iraq and Afghanistan about the same and ISF about 5 times bigger yet invaded second.
Agree with everything Kingsley, and this surprised me too. Far from being Jim Cairns reincarnated, she’s setting herself up as Rudd’s natural successor in a way that should provide a lesson to the likes of Peter Costello and even Paul Keating before him.
As Holt was to Menzies, or Chifley was to Curtin perhaps.
“The stunning progress in Iraq and the ascendancy of COIN. Odierno promoted MNF- I commander and Petraeus on to Centcom.”
Ho-ho. That’s exactly the kinda statement that’ll come to back to haunt you.
By the way what should I be watching out for at the polls Another Kim?
Kingsley, your sweeping pronouncements, like AK and the rest of us, are as all dust in the ned.
Or “end”. Bloody thick drinken fingers,
“The very great relief that Obama is far more likely to be a centrist than I feared.”
Oh for fuck’s sake. He always was a ruthless and very smart pollie running for the biggest job in the world. Only dim and ideologically arteriosclerotic hard core lefties and righties could possibly assume he’d be a real boat rocker.
On the other hand he knows which way the oars should face and how to talk to the cox. Which should make a refreshing change from the last administration – up the creek, pulling barbed wire out of their cracks and frantically looking for the few paddles they haven’t sold off.
The UK’s Independent, quotes of the year: a better 2008 result for the LA police it seems.
Palin the Great White Hope of the Right?? If that’s true then Wingnuts may as well slash their wrists right now.
Given the quality of this political insight, Kingsley’s other causes for optimism suddenly become more explicable.
Weeks old Palin goss:
Bristol had the baby, Tripp or Twig or something and the son-outlaw dude Levi’s old lady got arrested on a number of drug charges. Wasilla the iciest ice capital.
Will have to refer to the wingnut outrage playbook for the entry on being related to, and palling around with, drug dealers.
BlackMage @ 8: Barack Obama IS The Dark Knight!
Triffids reissues: yay! There probably hasn’t been an Aussie band as good since (though I’d welcome suggestions). The holy trinity of The Triffids, The Go-Betweens and The Lime Spiders are still something like the pinnacle of Australian indie rock for me.
“Another year the world didn’t warm.”
Another La Nina year, you mean. But still in the top 10 hottest ever.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/12/17/2448582.htm
Klaus, the Dirty Three would be in the mix for me. You Am I ebb and flow, as do The Church, but I doubt there ever be a more eloquent voice than David McComb.
Apart from numbering off, you shouldn’t be talking to the cox.
Ah yes, the Dirty Three might make their way onto my top five list as well. And I do like a lot of You Am I songs, but they are hit and miss. I would also add Nick Cave to my 80s list when he was having a good day, and credit is due for consistency over the decades (with 2007-8 a particularly rich period IMHO).