2020 in review: it sucked!
It is not news to anyone that 2020 has been a complete fcker of a year!
Whatever plans we each may have had, got instantly erased as the threat of COVID rapidly escalated… And as if that wasn’t bad enough, the phenomena of the COVIDIOT became apparent, leaving me to wonder whether Anti Vaxxers are really prepared to die for their warped beliefs?
We are finding out in the most hideous way.
Good Things ex 2020
SHICHIRIN – Charcoal Yakitori BBQ
mine via Little BBQ
THE PRACTICE – Shipping Creative Work (book)
By Seth Godin
KEEP GOING – 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad (book)
By Austin Kleon
MICROCOSM (hypnotic effects pedal)
SUPERMASSIVE (epic reverb plug)
PATCHULATOR 8000 (patchbay thing)
WMD DVCA (eurorack VCA module with zero crossing detection)
KORG SQ64 (sequencer, pre-ordered!)
BANDCAMP (site)
Bandcamp Fridays is a lovely gesture, and as a local pundit commented, also motivated more than a few procrastinators to release some new music. But a platform that is already so equitable in approach deserves support seven days of the week. Thank you to Bandcamp, for leading the way. And kudos to MERCH TABLE for creating an easy way to support artists while simultaneously tweaking the latent guilt of Spotify parasites.
Worthy Ideas ex 2020
GROWING FOOD
One surprising response to the first total lockdown in New Zealand was that the companies who sell vegetable seeds were suddenly struggling to keep up with demand. More time forcibly spent at home, combined with concerns about food security led to a LOT of people in NZ suddenly being motivated to grow their own food. And while this is more challenging for renters and/or apartment dwellers, growing plants in containers is an easy & affordable start. (Its funny – when I moved out of my apartment, I deliberately left the sunroom unlocked and told the downstairs neighbour as much, inviting them to use it until they too left before demolition. Having grown nothing except a few cactii, imagine my surprise to return only a few weeks later to discover she had filled a few large plastic moving crates with soil and had a great crop of lettuce established! What a dummy was I, to not make use of a sunny spare room, to generate fresher vegetables than supermarkets can provide.) The only group I really follow on FB nowadays is a local vege growers group, providing access to local knowledge… Growing your own food is such a rewarding way of observing the passage of time, and fresh is best!!
My old apartment is now completely erased, like it never existed…
SHOOTING FILM
The more film I shoot, the more I LOVE it! I suspect what many people do not appreciate (especially the ‘you can get the film look with plugins’ crowd) is that one of the most joyous aspects of shooting film is the decoupling of shooting a photo, and seeing the results. It took me a year or two of shooting film, to retrain myself to stay in the moment and stop looking for a tiny LCD display on the back of the camera. It has taken conscious effort to slowly banish the combination of insecurity (is the shot any good?) and the need for instant gratification. It may seem counter intuitive but it really does generate multiple joys: first when you commit to a shot…. And again when you see the results, fresh from the lab.
Prints are next!
CREDIT RESET
For the first time ever, I suffered credit card fraud this year. Before I realised it, two days in a row my card was maxed out and the only clue I had was that the funds were taken by someone who had access to my card and appeared as my Google Ads account. Also strangely while the bank was investigating it, Google contacted me to advise me my Google Ads account was being closed due to non-use after 15 months. (Fifteen seems a really odd number – why fifteen? And why did my card get maxed out 2 weeks before the account was closed?)
Coincidences aside, one outcome is that I now have a very useful tactic that I will use from now on! Every six months I am going to contact my bank & tell them I have lost my credit card, to please terminate the old CC and arrange for a replacement. A replacement card cost me $5 last time, but what it also did was it forced me to audit every business that had my card on its records.
Of course with my new credit card I rapidly updated my billing on all my critical services, but the rest I left. And one by one, when their billing came due and my old card failed, I got to decide whether I actually wanted that service or subscription anymore.
MINIMISING SOCIAL MEDIA
If there is one thing I can do to help my creative work, it is to reduce distractions. Having disabled all notifications a while ago, I have slowly been weening myself off social media. During the first COVID lockdown I volunteered to help admin a FB group for my local area as the current admin was getting exhausted by it. And OMG what a window into a nonsense world. The absolute crap that people spray at each other, which they never would IRL… I did it for 2 weeks and then stepped aside – it was more stressful and time consuming than maintaining HISSandaROAR.
But what really stuck in my craw was that every neighbourhood, in every city, has a FB Group which someone has to manage. They do it not for free, but at great cost to their mental health. Oh, and to help FecalBook scrape data, to profit from advertising.
Less, much much less of all that next year!
Plans for 2021?
While New Zealand has been lauded for our COVID response, such praise tends to omit a few key factors. First, our ‘borders’ are massive oceans. No one gets to sneak into this country. And with the border closed, returning kiwis can only enter via a strict two week quarantine with multiple tests. This aspect could be seen as good management, and it is, but we were also very lucky to have the right Government at the right time. The lame duck Opposition spent the first many months of COVID politicising it, demanding the borders be opened etc… Had they been in power, their thirst for the economy over the health of the people, would have cost us dearly. New Zealand also does not lack for COVIDIOTS. Thankfully their ideas have been directly challenged and their powers limited…
During early 2020 it was also common to hear people say they ‘couldn’t wait for life to get back to how it was….’ But that talk slowly dried up, as it became apparent we are never going back to how it was. Hopefully we evolve, and reconsider our relationship with daily reality and evaluate what is otherwise so easily taken for granted. For example, COVID has forced us to reconsider what we consider an essential service. ‘Food, clothes and shelter’ was a great chant in a Gary Clail song, but add ‘health’ and we arrive at what should be a fundamental right for every human on the planet. Everything else is a luxury.
COVID has also forced many more companies and individuals to move their business online.
Directly related to this idea, a very worthy read:
The digital marketplace should be a public good
Last of all, an excellent and very timely article:
The real way to find meaning in an unplannable life
Advice from crisis psychologists, intelligence analysts, chronic illness experts, and more
