2022 - REVIEW OF THE YEAR

Introduction

It's been a while since my last proper review of the year, but a pandemic, a war in Ukraine and 52 Prime Ministers later - here we are!  I know a lot of folk haven't had the best year and I definitely have had my share of bad times, but in true social media fashion I'll leave those unmentioned.  So here is all the good shit I have been doing this year!  I will also be keeping politics out of it this time - but what a shower of bastards though eh?

2022 in the Life of Ben

After being stuck in the house for the past 2 years due to Covid I finally managed to get away on a few trips in 2022 largely from money saved not doing much in 2020-21.  

We just wanted a nice relaxing holiday after the shitness of the past two years -  Lanzarote in January seemed nice.  I scuba dived for the first time and generally ate and drank most of the island.  We hired an economy car to travel round the island, the car rental guy looked a bit sheepish and admitted to giving away the last economy car.  He asked "is it just the two of you?".  Shortly after he drove round the corner in an Abarth Spider, needless to say I had a lot of fun pelting that around the island for a day - all for a £35 daily rental price.

Living out my boy racer fantasies.

In May I travelled to Poland to finally meet my old friend Lucas Giel in his home country and town for the first time.  First half of the trip was spent in Wroclaw which was a return for me as I had visited previously in 2011 sans Lucas.  The second half was spent riding Lucas' rickety childhood bikes around his hometown of Kepno.  Did Lucas care that I had major PTSD from breaking my arm on a bike 2 years prior?  No he did not.  Wish I could tell you it was long nights of debauchery and heavy drinking but generally I was passed out by 11pm.

Sozzled by 5pm.

In July me and Clare travelled to Vienna to finally put to use the Pearl Jam tickets we purchased in December 2019, a wait of two and a half years.  The show was at the end of the trip so we enjoyed all that Vienna had to offer.  An absolutely amazing city that may have overtaken Berlin as my favourite European city.  I can't go to a new city and not try and find some filming locations so we visited numerous locations from Before Sunrise and I found the Harry Lime doorway from The Third Man.

Doorway from 'The Third Man'

Breakfast at Cafe Sperl, the cafe from 'Before Sunrise'.

The day of the Pearl Jam concert arrived, it was one of the hottest days of the year (35c).  Awesome wife Clare queued with me during the day to secure the lucrative Pearl Jam poster print (a must at every PJ show).  With the print secured we began queuing early for the concert to get front row, almost dying of heat exhaustion.  Door opening time arrived at 7pm and with no entry into the main hall we were getting very anxious.  Eventually a security guard came out and told us the show was cancelled - Eddie Vedder had fucked his voice.  

As we were one of the first in the queue we were the first to find out, it was a strange sensation to walk out and back to the hotel against a sea of people wearing Pearl Jam t-shirts excitedly hurrying to a show that isn't happening.  As with all things recently, some things are uncertain and wasn't the only big show cancelled last minute for me this year.  (Guns N Roses and Rage Against the Machine also had last minute cancellations).  We still had a brilliant time and luckily I had seen Pearl Jam two weeks prior in London but that was quite far back with cheap tickets, knowing I had the better tickets for this one!  Gotta count myself lucky that I have seen the Scotland shy band five times, there just wouldn't be a sixth this time.

Waiting to get into a Pearl Jam concert that wasn't going to happen in extreme heat.

Other highlights of the year included a trip to Slam Dunk Festival in Leeds at the start of June for the now annual pilgrimage to the emo/punk/rock fest.  Unknown to me at the time I had Covid and felt especially horrendous in the drive back up to Scotland the next day. I upheld an earlier promise to Clare to visit Alnwick Gardens on the way back to Scotland.  Shivering and white as a sheet I trudged around that damn garden for 3 godawful hours.  I'm hoping I didn't spread my Covid to any of the boomers that were also visiting.  Found out I had Covid when I returned home and did a test.  Alexisonfire were the highlight of the weekend, playing their best set I have seen them play.

Front row for Alexisonfire.

In early July I concocted a scheme and gaslit... I mean convinced Clare that we should go to 2000 trees festivals far south in the Cotsworlds, get a nice airBNB and also check out Pearl Jam in London at the end of it.  All to mark our 10th wedding anniversary.

I've always wanted to go to 2000 trees and it didn't disappoint, it is now my favourite music festival and hope to be back.  Best live band was Turnstile but it also provided the best Jimmy Eat World live set I have seen out of the nine times I have seen them.

Me and Clare in front of the large 2000 Trees sign that greets you on entry.

How cool is that for a stage?

Whilst in Cotswolds, Rivers Cuomo (singer from Weezer) posted on his Twitter that he was hiding his Hellamega tour (Green Day/Weezer/Fall Out Boy Summer 2022 tour) backstage pass underneath a barrel at Cotsworlds brewing company, 20 minutes down the road from us (of all places?).  We jumped in the car and sure enough we found the backstage pass!  The tour is over but it is a nice memento, River even tweeted me back the wee speccy legend!

Other highlights of 2022 included Colette's (Clare's mum) long awaited marriage to Mitch at the Aberfoyle registrar in May, lovely day but shame it was torrential rain.

We adjourned on a camping trip to the Fraserburgh area with the Fergusons in April. Lovely area but it was blowy as fuck man.

In August me and Clare went on a lengthy walk to Glen Tilt in Pitlochry, mostly to check out the Star Wars: Andor filming locations.

In 2022, me and Clare shared a number of anniversaries - 10 years married, 20 years together as a couple and 30 years since we first met in Primary 3.  Think she might be a keeper.

Looking Forward

For those that know me it has been my lifelong dream to visit Japan, I've been wanting to go for about 20 years.  Between March 2020 and October 2022 Japan was closed to tourists. I had begun saving for a new kitchen but when Japan finally reopened in October I thought fuck it, the time is now - lets go!  So we have a 3 and a half week trip booked for April 2023.  As with all recent uncertainty I won't believe it is actually happening until I set foot in Tokyo Narita airport.  This could be the trip of our lifetimes.

We are popping into Doha in Qatar on the way back to see Lucas and the Giel family and hopefully some other friendly faces if they happen to be working there at the time, but who cares ;) when Qatar is one of the few places that have the Cheesecake Factory chain outside of America.  I hope this utter insane water slide is open by the time we get there:

If I go in that thing, I'm not coming out.

It's been four years now since I last directed a short film.  Filmmaking is stressful as hell but its also something I've missed dearly.  I will be spending some time in 2023 getting a new project off the ground.  I wrote a feature film during lockdown that i'm really proud of but is still a little ambitious unless a millionaire comes along and funds it.  No idea how I can get a new film off the ground without the help of funding but I have a good creative team around me and we've achieved the impossible before.  It is my hope that I can get something filmed before I turn Forty in November 2024 one way or another.

Films

A very fine year for films.  Lots of indie gems and two really decent blockbusters in Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: Way of Water.  Great year for horror (Barbarian, X, Scream, Black Phone, Smile) But genuinely feel the time of the multiplex is over with the sheer quality and quantity either going straight to streaming or coming to streaming very soon after cinema release.  Biggest surprise was Top Gun, biggest letdown was Thor: Love and Thunder.

Favourite 20 Films of 2022:

01 - Everything Everywhere All at Once

02 - The Banshees of Inshirin

03 - Barbarian

04 - Top Gun: Maverick

05 - Avatar: The Way of Water

06 - All Quiet on the Western Front

07 - Athena

08- The Northman

09 - Gullermo Del Toro's Pinnochio

10 - Nightmare Alley

11 - The Black Phone

12 - Prey

13 - The Worst Person in the World

14 - Fresh

15 - Scream

16 - Red Rocket

17 - The Batman

18 - Brian and Charles

19 - Nope

20 - Triangle of Sadness

Most anticipated for 2023:

01 - Suzume

02 - Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

03 - How Do You Live?

04 - Scream VI

05 - Dune Part Two

06 - Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One

07 - Oppenheimer

08 - Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

09 - Spider-man Across the Spiderverse

10 - John Wick 4

11 - Salem's Lot

12 - The Fabelmans

13 - Killers of the Flower Moon

14 - Next Goal Wins

15 - Beau is Afraid

16 - The Pale Blue Eye

17 - Asteroid City

18 - Cocaine Bear

19 - Renfield

20 - Super Mario Bros Movie

Music

My Favourite 10 albums of 2022:

I witnessed 72 live sets in 2022, all good but these were the top 10:

01 - Turnstile -  July 8th - 2000 Trees Festival, Cotsworlds

02 - Machine Head - September 6th - Liquid Rooms, Edinburgh

03 - Alexisonfire - June 3rd - Slam Dunk Festival, Leeds

04 - Jimmy Eat World - July 7th - 2000 Trees Festival, Cotswolds (best time I've seen them)

05 - Pearl Jam - July 9th - Hyde park, London

06 - The Menzingers - October 6th - Barrowlands, Glasgow

07 - Coheed and Cambria - October 20th - SWG3, Glasgow

08 - Funeral For A Friend - March 10th - O2 Academy, Glasgow

09 - Green Day - June 29th - Bellahouston Park, Glasgow

10 - My Chemical Romance - May 30th - Hydro, Glasgow

Favourite song of 2022:

Anticipated albums for 2023:  Metallica, The Dirty Nil, Blink 182, Spanish Loves Songs, The Menzingers, Hundred Reasons.

Television

Favourite show of 2022 goes to the final season Better Call Saul closely followed by Severance and Andor.  But I have also enjoyed:

Cobra Kai, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Barry, 1899, Derry Girls, Game of Thrones: House of the Dragon, Lord of the Rings of Power, Willow, Blackbird (the Apple series, not the Michael Flatley film), Stranger Things and The Boys.

Very much looking forward to Last of Us and Mandalorian Season 3 next year.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading everyone.  2022 has definitely taught me to be thankful for what you have and to have good friends and family around you.  I'm going into 2023 feeling optimistic about the future but that could be me being a little foolish.

Have a good Christmas, and a happy new year!

Lots of Love, Ben

xxx