2016 Review of the Year

So here we go with a look back at 2016. And it will involve a bit of  'Apart from that Mrs Lincoln what did you think of the play?' Elephants in the room, even if they stand quietly, tend to leave dents in the floorboards.

Album of the year? Well I remain of the view that in a year when Radiohead put out a new album everyone else should fight over second place. This is indeed the case. A Moon Shaped Pool is an astounding, magical, soulful, dramatic, creative and haunting piece of work. Best of the rest was Steve Mason's Meet the Humans.

Film of the year. Didn't spend as much time at the cinema as I would have liked which meant that much watching was last year's. Rogue One was excellent fun. Jack Reacher ignored the advice of the title Never Go Back and went back. People got hurt. I really enjoyed The Accountant though. I like maths, dialogue, thrills and espionage. All boxes ticked.

As previously noted I also have trouble reading books in the year of publication. So nothing from me about works that were actually published in 2016. My two favourite books of the year were as pictured.

Paul Mason was the only person I read who wrote a realistic guide to why Brexit might be a good idea - he then advised against it because the timing was wrong. In Post-Capitalism, he asserts that the era of the technological revolution has gone on too long and soon not everyone will need to work. But we will need to contribute and the world needs to work out how to pay us. I reviewed it here.

Everything Magnus Mills writes leaves me convinced I am being taken by the hand and led slowly somewhere very profound. At the end I wonder if I have read something deep, imaginative or a simple children's story. Any piece of writing that lets the reader decide what it was all about without comment - you read or hear few interviews with Mills - is a job well done. Reviewed here.

Eating out? It was the year we discovered Maitreya Social in Easton. As a seasonal, organic, local-produce, vegetarian restaurant in an ethnically diverse part of Bristol you might want to beware of catching right-onness. But the tastes are amazing. And if you don't contract a hipster beard there you certainly will do at WB at Wapping Wharf. Fish, chips and craft ale. I might have been its greatest fan/evangelist this year. By Saturday I will have taken almost everyone I like, who has visited the south-west with a mealtime to spare, there. (Takes quick break to issue another invitation.) Their Smokin' Barrels was my beer of the year.

Some honourable mentions. @porrdidgebrain entertained me on Twitter on a daily basis (sometimes hourly). Eddie Mair on Radio Four's PM made broadcasting seem an absolute breeze. As Did Danny Baker, both on Radio Five of a Saturday morning and as @prodnose on Twitter. Nacer Chadli restored my belief that there are players who will make a lung-busting run for the cause of West Brom (See his second goal in the 4-2 defeat of West Ham.)

See you at the end of 2017.

2015 Prizes

It is all too hard not being sent review copies of stuff or having the time and space to keep up with popular culture. It means that when I look back to decide what was the best of last year I usually discover that I spent a lot of the time catching up with previous years.

I enjoyed reading The Elements of Eloquence by Mark Forsyth but it was first published in 2013. Sub-titled 'How to Turn the Perfect English Phrase' it was a list, chapter by chapter, of rhetorical devices and how to employ them properly.

Matthew Engel's Engel's England is fun and informative as it describes England county by county; as is David Byrne's How Music Works - did you know orchestras developed so that the music's volume drowned the crowd? Neither was published in 2015 and both remain unfinished.

My favourite non-fiction work of 2015 was Jonathan Sacks' Not in God's Name which I reviewed here. The former Chief Rabbi examines the common heritage of Christianity, Islam and Judaism.

Dave Eggers' novel The Circle imagined life when an all-seeing internet giant took over everyone's provision and promoted complete transparency. Brilliant, but that too was published in 2013.

Tom Wolfe's Back to Blood was an epic tome which caused me the usual problems of a 700 page hardback in bed last thing at night. But I loved it. No-one writes in such bold as he. No-one makes a character crash and burn like he. No-one does redemption quite as he does. 2012 though. Wish I could keep up.

Martin Amis' Lionel Asbo was a good read. 2012. I only finished two novels actually published in 2015 and the better of the two was Chris Brookmyre's dark crime caper Dead Girl Walking. Brookmyre writes black comedies with witty observation about the state of the world as Christopher and more conventional crime stuff as Chris. This one was about a missing pop star and included some well-observed back-stage stuff about tours and inter-band jealousies.

Found some good albums this year including Blur's The Magic Whip, Calexico's Edge of the Sun and Peace's Happy People. Hate giving the award to the same band two years running so although Jaga Jazzist's Starfire deserves to win I think Everything Everything's Get to Heaven just shades it.

Star Wars V11 was a good romp and The Theory of Everything poignant. Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation passed the time, as did Spectre but The Imitation Game was my film of the year.

Review of the Year

For many reasons it was a tough year for both me and Mrs A professionally, none of which need concern us now. It was a year that started for me with surgery and ended with many drives up the M5 to support my Mum through her hip replacement. It also included the first bad holiday we have had for years and ended with us both being ill at Christmas. 2012 is already being better in many ways.

January 31st is perhaps a little late for a review of 2011 but, in my defence, I'm really slow. I started it and forgot I hadn't finished.

These things made 2011 bearable.

Album of the year. Worthy mentions for Atlum Schema's four EPs, Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn. All good and at least one belting track on each. The lad deserves fame and fortune soon. Loved the second Battles album, Gloss Drop, Metals by Feist, Glasvegas' Euphoric Heartbreak and 4Ererevolution by Roots Manuva.

But for sheer vocal virtuosity, a skill which the Apprentice rarely acknowledges, Claire Maguire's Light After Dark gets the prize. She can sing so you hear Florence Welch, Annie Lennox, Kate Bush, Stevie Nicks and Joan Armatrading; yet all melanged uniquely.

Harry Baker's slam poetry at Cafe Create, Nailsea was beathtaking. Find him, see him live.

Bonobo Live at Bristol 02 was a good evening out; not least because the family came and we have few areas of cross-over. Last time we tried it was Herbie Hancock and I don't think I've quite been forgiven.

Comedy gig award to a rambling, and not especially sober, Dylan Moran. I wish I could be as erudite and amusing without rudeness when pickled.

Source Code was my escapist film of the year. Didn't quite take me where I expected and left a few things open at the end. Let's just pray they have no plans for Source Code II.

The i Paper improved my life immensely. If  I didn't fancy reading in bed there was a choice of three puzzles to do.

The New Battle Axes at Wraxall offered fine services to mid-week evenings off with Mrs Apprentice. Slightly pricey (you pay for the refit) but their two local real ales Flatcappers and Battle Axe are to die for. As is their way with a fruit crumble. Alcoholic pick-me-ups at home provided by New Zealand sauvignon blancs. Hard to find a bad one.

Escapist book of the year was Robert Harris' The Fear Index. A day in the life of a risk-taking banker. A bad day.

2010 Postscript

A very good morning to you and a happy birthday to Mrs Mustard who has been packed off to work to escape her husband's one-day-a-year company at breakfast, smelling sweet and with a better-than-usual packed lunch. Did you know Mrs M eats the same thing for breakfast and lunch, five days a week every week of the year except hols? Not today.

But it is time for a brief review of the year, a matter which MSS prefers to leave until all other reviewers have written theirs in the period 26-31/12 in case they manage to remind it of something it might have forgotten.

My favourite award is always album of the year and this would have been walked most years by a new Faithless album but, if truth be told, The Dance was only great and not quite outstanding. Never mind. There's always the wonderful Kieran Hebden whose Fourtet project consistently excites me. There is Love in You would also have been my album of the year if it was not for Steve Mason. The distinctive-voiced former Beta Band vocalist's solo album Boys Outside was tuneful,  haunting, somewhat enigmatic and delightful company on several journeys. The album that keeps on giving. Big acknowledgment to Wrongtom's Roots Manuva remix Dippy Writer.

Book of the year award is often a sad acknowledgement that I read no new books and merely caught up. That would be true of fiction this year as I read no books published in 2010. My favourite novel was Magnus Mills' brief The Maintenance of Headway (2009) which will be of interest to anyone who ever took a trip on a 1970s nationalised bus service.

Of non-fiction I loved Brian McLaren's A New Kind of Christianity, John Lanchester's economics treatise Whoops! (hear him talk about it at the Bath Literary Festival next month), Cole Moreton's Is God Still an Englishman? and Andrew Rawnsley's The End of the Party. But for the brilliant, poignant and carefully argued analysis of the art of the intelligent stand-up my book of the year is Stewart Lee's How I Escaped My Certain Fate - The Life and Deaths of a Stand-Up Comedian. Not for the easily, or even the uneasily, offended.

Some interesting films of which The Ghost and The Social Network were both good fun. The Hurt Locker was not this year but I saw it  for the first time this year and it was superb. Loved The Infidel (note to all big-budget comedy films - comedies should make you laugh) but give my award to a well-acted and easy-watching romcom (amazingly) Up in the Air. Maybe it came at the right time when I needed light-hearted cheering up at the movies but I loved it.

One or two other mentions. Facebook status update of the year from Joseph Clucas, 'If you have a parrot and you don't teach it to say, "Help, they've turned me into a parrot", you are wasting everybody's time.' (October 9th).

Innovation of the year - theipaper. A summary of everything you need to know with some full-length articles for just 20p. Finally convinced me to give up trying to read a broadsheet every day.

Gig of the year - I loved Shlomo's Friends at The Old Vic - a celebration of everything beatboxy - but for the sheer hell of the putting-on-a-show of it all thanks to The Pet Shop Boys for a great night out in Cardiff last July.

On TV I finally watched all the way through the five series of The Wire and loved every moment. On live TV both Springwatch and Autumnwatch entertained us, The Apprentice, the Masterchef franchise and even Strictly Come Dancing drew us in and Mad Men was a cut above.

In a year when politics was a bunch of cheating liars saying anything to get power and then spitting in our faces thanks to Boris Johnson and Ken Clarke for at least answering the question when asked.

Finally my own thanks to the lovely people of Holy Trinity and Trendlewood, Nailsea for turning the dream of not losing our parish's Old Rectory into reality through acts of extraordinary generosity and the lovely young adults who endured living in it for two years while we negotiated and kept it from vandalism and disrepair.

Lastly (never believe a preacher saying 'finally') thanks to Australia for being rubbish at cricket for a change and for telling the people of England that floods really aren't that bad here after all as long as snakes and gators don't move in to your bedroom. 3.6 earthquakes. No great shakes. We live in a green un... I mean and ... pleasant land. May goal-line technology make your 2011 a better year.

Awards 2

So here we are at the Mustard Seed Shavings Awards Ceremony and it's very tense as we wonder quietly if St will be able to remember anything worth making an imaginary award for. And how many sentences start with a conjunction and have a preposition to finish with.

A man was putting up a sign saying fish and chips but he wrote fishandchips by mistake. The owner complained that he hadn't left enough space between fish and and and and and chips. Five ands in a row. A little thought will tell you that an infinitely long sentence can thus be constructed using gaps between and and and. That's a personal favourite of mine and a little anecdote to begin this no expense spent ceremony.

Step forward Bono to make the presentation of the 'Using your celebrity to make a difference in people's lives' award and hand it over to Jamie Oliver. Terrible public speaker, great youth and children's worker. Thank you for showing us what went into a chicken nugget.

Next Tony Benn comes on stage to present the award for 'Sod the party politics let's speak our mind and be interesting award,' which goes jointly to Boris Johnson and George Galloway. Thanks guys. Disagreed with you but enjoyed the discussion. The Conservatives may now have achieved their objective of appointing a leader with no visible political philosophy or policies - a genuine rival for Blairism.

A woman asked her son to come in out of the rain. He shouted back, 'It's not raining so there's nothing to come in out of from.'

Book of the year. Nothing highbrow here. Christopher Brookmyre's 'All Fun and Games Until Somebody Loses an Eye' combined black comedy with thrills as ever. He can't be here to accept as he has to be writing his next book. Please God he must. Magnus Mills will present the award to himself as he'll probably win it back next year.

Album of the year. Beating off stiff competition from the Alabama 3's Outlaw and Ambulance LTD's debut we have the Dead 60s. Thank you. The Specials, the Clash and Madness after being put through a vehicle crusher.

No-one to present it as I forgot to invite them.

Gig of the year - The Alabama 3 at Oxford Zodiac. A great 50th birthday present. Saw them a second time at the end of the tour and they looked a little weary and slightly more mashed than usual if that be possible.

Sports personality of the Year. Hard to argue with Freddie although tempted to give it to Richard Adams of Leamington FC for regular entertainment or Geoff Horsfield for the goal that kept the Baggies up. In the end I plump for Shane Warne. What a series he had.

Bored now.