Well, this is it. The last day of 2020. And what a year, eh? Many people are glad it’s over. For me, at least at this point, the transition from 2020 to 2021 is just another day, and I’m not sure life will be much different tomorrow than it is today. But perhaps years from now I will be able to look back and see that I was happier in 2021 than 2020. And if so, then perhaps I will one day share the feelings of others. But not yet. Give it time.

Below are some of my thoughts on the quarter, some of the things I’ve accomplished, blog posts I’ve written, books I’ve read, movies I’ve watched, music I’ve listened to. I hope you’ll find some of it entertaining. Maybe you’ll discover something new, something you might enjoy. Maybe you’ll have some ideas for me, and if so please leave a comment below and let me know. I’d love to hear from you.

Photography

This was my most productive quarter of the year, photographically. I got out hiking more than I had the rest of the year, and I hope to continue that trend. I don’t know that I’m ever completely happy with what I produce, but I’m happy with the direction I’m moving.

Below are links back to this quarter’s posts. Check them out if you missed any or just want to revisit.

Reading

This quarter I continued reading lots of fiction, but also mixed in a little non-fiction about mythology and history and even a cook book (yes, I read a cook book). The fiction included a classic, mysteries, science fiction, fantasy, horror, comics and more.

Below are the books I finished this quarter, and below that are descriptions of my favorites.

The books I consumed this quarter (paper, ebook, and audio).

My favorite reads of the quarter include:

Dune by Frank Herbert

A reread of this classic of science fiction, this time using the audiobook. I love how listening to an audiobook can bring an entirely new dimension of enjoyment to a book we already love. Granted, it takes the right narrator, or narrators in this case, but when you get the right people it’s a great experience.

Kabuki Library Edition Volume 3 by David Mack

David Mack is one of my favorite graphic artists and storyteller, who’s works are usually published as comic books. His artwork is so different from anything you’ve likely seen in the comic medium, and well worth checking out.

Lazarus: The Third Collection by Greg Rucka

Greg Rucka is another great writer. I’ve read many of his comics as well as some of his novels. In this case, it’s a comic about a far future dark vision of what might become of the world. It’s not a great place to live, but I love the story and the artwork.

Cook Anime by Diana Ault

And now we get to the cook book, one I won through a goodreads giveaway. If you enjoy anime and/or Japanese food then you might enjoy this. It features dishes from various anime shows and includes lots of nice little extra sections related to anime, history, food and culture.

Almond by Won-pyung Sohn

This was a last minute addition as I just recently finished it. What a wonderful little book. Translated from Korean, it’s about a young boy who’s born with a brain abnormality that leaves him unable to feel emotions the way most of us do, and yet it was able to evoke such strong emotions in me. There is some tough stuff in this book (some violence and language) but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Movies

This quarter I really got into some movie watching and enjoyed most of what I watched.

My favorite films of the quarter were:

Anime from Makoto Shinkai

As I mentioned in My Favorite Books and Films from 2020 I rewatched just about the entire catalog of anime from Makoto Shinkai. He’s one of my absolute favorite anime creators and I so very much enjoyed watching these. My favorites of his are Weathering with You, Your Name, The Garden of Words, Voices of a Distant Star, The Place Promised in Our Early Days, and 5 Centimeters Per Second. He creates such emotionally powerful work, I just love it.

Logan

This has to be my favorite of the Marvel movies. I grew up reading many of the Marvel mutant comics such as X-Men, The New Mutants, and others, and Wolverine has always been one of my favorite characters. So I was very pleased to see how well this movie came out, featuring Logan, also known as Wolverine, later in his life, showing what’s become of the world and mutants place in it.

The Tower

A Korean film similar to Die Hard but with a flair all its own. Instead of focusing on one man and his efforts this one focuses on a group of fire fighters as they attempt to save as many people as possible from a set of burning high rise towers. I thought it was very well done, though I have seen reviews from folks who didn’t seem to enjoy it as much as I, so your mileage may vary.

Music

Something about this quarter led me to listen to a lot of emotional music, occasionally music that brings a smile to my face, but much more often deep and meaningful music that prompts reflection in one way or another.

First I want to share a musician who’s been around a long time, though he’s new to me. I discovered him through my journey learning to play acoustic guitar, as he’s an absolute master of the instrument. Tommy Emmanuel is from Australia and has been touring the world and creating music since the 60’s. The song I’m sharing is a short, soft and sweet song with an uplifting feel to it. It’s called Song for a Rainy Morning, and I think the title perfectly fits the song.

Now we begin to get into the emotional music with a message. I’ve previously shared the Japanese group ONE OK ROCK, now one of my favorite groups. This quarter I’ve been listening quite a lot to their song, We Are. This version is from the end of their 2018 Ambitions Japan Dome Tour. Its message is so appropriate for these times, one meant to help us believe in ourselves and bring us together.

And I continued down the emotional roller coaster ride of music. I’ve been a fan of the hard rock group Disturbed for some time, though until now I’d not kept up with what they’ve done in the last several years. They’re most known for heavy, hard hitting music with aggressive, yet melodic, vocals and lyrics, ones that usually have an underlying message if you listen. But they are also very capable of creating much softer music suited for a more general audience, still very powerfully done and, as always, with a message.

The first video from Disturbed I’m sharing is of a cover of the Simon & Garfunkel song, The Sound of Silence. They performed their rendition of the song live on Conan on March 28, 2016, and I can’t believe I only now discovered it. This was such an incredibly powerful performance, it surpassed their studio recording of the song. Backed by a small orchestra of strings, with piano, guitar, and tympani drums, David Draiman, their vocalist shows the incredible range and control he has over his voice. If, like me, you haven’t seen this performance please give it a watch. I can’t speak highly enough about it. It gave me the chills. Apparently Paul Simon watched the performance and was so taken by it he contacted the band afterwards to congratulate them and shared it on his own social media.

The final music video I’ll share this quarter is perhaps the most moving and emotional of the group, very personal and one I think most of us can understand and relate to. The song is called Hold on to Memories, and is an original composition by Disturbed. This one is a very melodic acoustic piece with beautiful vocals and such incredibly meaningful lyrics. I recommend watching this video more than any of the others. It’s such an important message and more people should hear it. While their rendition of The Sound of Silence gave me chills, Hold on to Memories brought me to tears.

Life

In early January I put up a post with some goals for the year. Granted, most were somewhat generic, but I hoped they’d help provide me a little direction. Of course, all this was before the virus started spreading wildly and localities began locking down. This had a bit of a negative influence on achieving some of my goals, while others shouldn’t have been affected and yet I didn’t do that great with them either. Here’s a quick rundown of my goals and how I did.

Goal: Get Out More Often

Ok, so this one suffered greatly from the lockdowns. I avoided going out for long portions of the year, and though I’ve begun getting back out it’s still been at a slow pace. I’ll likely keep this general goal for next year.

Goal: Print My Photos

If anything, the lockdowns should have given me more opportunity to do this, and yet I didn’t. I printed almost nothing this year, I’m sad to say. I felt very uninspired. But I keep looking at that printer and keep thinking I’d like to print more, so I’ll keep the goal and try harder next year.

Goal: Start a Project

Another casualty of my lack of inspiration and motivation. I did not start a project, and though I occasionally thought about what sort of project I could pursue I never came up with anything concrete enough to begin. Another goal I’ll hope to work on next year.

Goal: Read Photography/Art Books

Again, the lockdowns should not have had any adverse affects on this. I’ve read more this year than any other, and yet very little of that was photography or art related. Instead I was immersing myself mostly in fiction, as that’s where I found the most pleasure. But I did read 2 photography books, so it wasn’t a complete loss. And I do still have plenty of unread photography/art books around the house, so I’ll keep this as an ongoing goal.

Goal: Read Non-Photography Books

Finally! A goal I achieved with flying colors. This year I’ve read far more than I’ve ever read in any previous year. Granted, some of those were graphic novels, but even discounting those I still surpassed any previous year, especially when looking at the number of words read in the year (as counted by goodreads). I will keep this goal in future years, as I love reading.

Goal: Education

I had planned on watching some online classes, hoping to watch at least a class every two months. I’ve loved watching those from CreativeLive in years past and hoped to get back into that. But I didn’t end up watching much. I don’t think I watched an entire class on any topic, just little segments here and there. So this is another goal I’ll carry forward.

Goal: Visit a Museum

Yeah, that didn’t happen. And it likely won’t happen next year, either. But I do look forward to one day getting back into a habit of periodically visiting museums. They can be such educational and inspirational locations.

Goal: Relax

Hmmm… Well, did I accomplish this goal? I don’t know. In some ways perhaps I did, but in others not so much. It’s tough to fully relax with the state of the world these days, but I’ll keep trying. Perhaps that’s why I read so much fiction. That was one way to really relax. Perhaps that’s also why I’ve taken up learning the acoustic guitar. I just love the feeling of the vibrations from the strings moving into my chest as I hug the guitar to my body, strumming a cord or plucking a string. I find that very relaxing. So perhaps I did well with this goal. Granted, it wasn’t exactly a measurable goal, but it still gave me something to work towards. And this is a goal I’ll always keep. There will always be new ways to find relaxation, to find peace and calm. I will never stop working towards them.

Final Words

2020 has been a challenging year. And 2021 will likely continue that, though I’m hopeful later in the year we’ll see some improvements. I hope you’ve managed to have a good year, despite any hardships. And I very much hope 2021 is even better for you.

I want to thank you for all your support throughout the year. It means a lot to me that you would choose to spend some of your valuable time reading these words and viewing my photos. I hope you’ve gotten at least a little enjoyment or education from that time, and I’ll try very hard to create even better work in the coming year.

Happy New Year!

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