Here are my 10 favourite new 2018 released tracks that I discovered. There is an Apple Music Playlist to listen to them here.
Ariana and the Rose – Lonely Star.
Chrysta Bell – 52 Hz.
Franz Ferdinand – Always Ascending.
Yonaka – Waves.
Yonaka – Fired Up.
Yonaka – Death By Love.
Manic St. Preachers & The Anchoress – Dylan & Caitlin.
Mackenzie Davis & Carrie Coon – Axemen.
KT Tunstall – Human Being.
Ina Wroldsen – Sea.
Final 2018 walking stats (as recorded by Apple Watch)
Steps taken: 1,881,343.
Miles walked: 1,013.54.
Charts and monthly data table below. I think my target was 1,200 miles. So I missed it by about 15 miles per month. I will aim for 1,200 miles in 2019 again.
There are lots of good podcasts available. So many good ones it’s like a renaissance in radio, but for the digital age. Roger Taylor was quite prescient with his lyrics in Radio Gaga by Queen:
So stick around cos we might miss you
When we grow tired of all this visual
Quite. Although to be fair there is an explosion in video content as well with Netflix and others.
Here are the podcasts that I enjoyed the most in 2018:
I only read 27 books in 2018 (got through 52 in 2017.) I’ll set a goal of 26 for 2019 and aim to read a book a fortnight. From the 27 I finished here are my favourites. I read all four of the books in the Fractured Europe Sequence but I’ve just listed the two most recent ones in the list below.
One film per week is still one of the best decisions I have made in the last few years. Since starting it in February 2015 I have seen 207 newly released films. This year I only hit 48 in total due to a five-week gap in April & May due to a loud rasping cough that wasn’t cinema friendly. A few of the films I would have seen then I watched at home later in the year when they appeared on iTunes UK. With those and a few others that never made it to the local cinema, the total number of new films I saw in 2018 was 56.
From the 48 I saw in the cinema here are my top 10. They are listed in the order I saw them during the year.
Time flies. It’s 15 years to the day since I first posted that I might have testicular cancer. I did. A pure seminoma it turned out. Which is a good type to get, if you have to get any at all. Very treatable.
So, you should still get to know your nuts!
I didn’t write as much this year as I did in 2016.
I only wrote 21 new articles in 2017. Compared to 50 in 2016. I edited or rewrote ten pieces in 2017. Compared to 16 in 2016. As a result, my income from writing was 14.9% before tax. It was 18.8% of my pre-tax income in 2016.
The plan is to get back to 2016 levels of output in the forthcoming year. There is a lot to do I hear. Happy days.
There was a lot of good music released in 2017. Here are my top five albums or EP’s that I discovered. There is an Apple Music Playlist of my top 10 favourite tracks here.
Yonaka – Heavy.
When I Was Young – MØ.
Truth is a Beautiful Thing – London Grammar.
Plunge – Fever Ray.
At The Rainbow – Hawkwind.
I continued the One Film Per Week thing I started in 2015 this year. I highly recommend it. From the 52 films I saw in the cinema here are my favorite ten, in no particular order.
2nd June – Wonder Woman.
Rating: 10/10.
31st March – Ghost in the Shell.
Rating: 9/10 – Read my review.
21st April – Their Finest.
Rating: 10/10. – Read my review.
4th July – Baby Driver.
Rating: 9/10.
29th July – The Big Sick.
Rating: 10/10.
24th February – A Cure For Wellness. Rating: 9/10.
18th March – Get Out.
Rating: 9/10.
15th September – Mother!.
Rating: 9/10.
6th October – Blade Runner 2049.
Rating: 10/10.
26th October – Happy Death Day.
Rating: 9/10.
I managed to read 52 books in 2017. Over the three formats of paper, iBooks, and audiobook. My favourites, in no particular order, are the six below. It was initially going to be a list of five, but Who Let The Gods Out? snuck onto the list in the final week of the year.
