DISPATCHES FROM THE BLACK HOLE #4: New Yearing
Reflections on the year gone by and the year to come...
Here we are then. The end of the road for 2022. Boy, that went fast!
This time last year I was about to properly start a new job after a week long induction of sorts. This January, I’ll be the guy helping two new people settle into a school environment, which has always felt like jumping onto a fast moving train whenever you start halfway through a year. I’ll be glad not to have that feeling this time around.
This time last year I was also acutely aware that I hadn’t done nearly enough on the book due in midway through 2022, a book which became The Cinematic Connery: The Films of Sir Sean Connery. Some things don’t change; I have the same feeling this year about my book on the unmade history of Star Trek series & films! I’ve made good progress but due to the impact largely of a busy & stressful term at work, less has been written than I would have hoped by December 31st. Maybe it’s the same for every writer.
It could also be that I in 2022 devoted almost as much time to podcasting as I have writing. My blogging slowed to a crawl at points and I’ve anguished a fair bit about the direction I want to take with writing. I made a decision not to write outside of my own web space unless paid this year. Fortunately, I’ve managed to make that a reality over the last year, even while freelance writing always remains a challenge requiring constant input & chasing. My words have worth.
That’s part of why I’ve started this blog space in the hopes you’ll become a subscriber at least and supporter at best. The latter in monetary terms I’ll launch when the time is right but first and foremost, I want to feel when not being paid to write, that I am writing for people who really want to engage with what I have to say. Walter Chaw, an excellent writer I follow, recently remarked—I paraphrase—that “all critics write about themselves” and I’ve not been able to shake that recently. It’s so true. Even when I’m writing about Avatar: The Way of Water or A Banquet, it’s all filtered through my own prism, my belief system, values and subjective feelings.
That’s also why podcasting appeals so much and why, in 2022, it cranked up a notch, despite the fact I’ve been recording for almost a decade now. I recorded more episodes than ever last year - over 110. I have what I consider the best mic I’ve ever used (a Shure MV7 - expensive but worth it) for sound quality. I now going into 2023 finally—finally—have settled on the projects I really am passionate about and devoted to working on (cultural commentary, film reviewing & talking British sitcoms!). I have the most fantastic collaborators across a network I created, We Made This, which is going from strength to strength. I’m in perhaps the best place I feel I’ve ever been when it comes to podcasting.
On a creative level, I feel incredibly satisfied with 2022. I was very proud of the Connery book, in no small part thanks to Polaris, the publisher, who pushed me to make it a better second draft than first. I was thrilled it led to opportunities such as promoting on BBC radio, writing for the Daily Express, guesting live in Birmingham with the top man Simon Brew on Film Stories Live. It has certainly raised my profile a bit and helped me engage with more terrific people online. I’m hopeful for similar with the second book, even if that might have logically more of an American reach and interest than British.
2023 is all about building on these successes and choices, while engaging with the cultural elements I love the most. I watched 980 episodes of television last year (no, I really did, because I log them all on a spreadsheet!). I watched around 220 movies. I read around 15 books (this is the number I hope to grow next year). There are life changes coming for Mrs Black & I which might logically reduce those numbers—that I’ll discuss when they become more of a reality—but I have no doubt in 2023 I’ll be still as fuelled up with excitement at the passions I have and those who share them with me. This is my 40th year—2023 is my 41st—and while the body might be steadily starting to slow down, my mind is the opposite. I have more I want to see, read, write about, discuss and experience than I will ever live to have time for.
Were there setbacks in 2022? Of course. No life is perfect. Some were personal and there’s no need to rake over them. Some were about the world beyond us, which I’m sure we all—as liberal minded, progressive people—have felt despair over at points. Broadly, though, 2022 was a good year. Better than 2021 and certainly 2020, for reasons we all shared. 2023 feels like a year, however tough the challenges will be, that we all are a bit more Teflon-coated to brace ourselves for. We all need to curate a space of like minded people, with like minded joys and passions, and excise what brings us down. Life is too short. There is too much great stuff in this world to be enjoying.
On that rousing note—haha—here’s me raising a glass to anyone reading this, thanking you for doing so, and wishing you the happiest & healthiest of 2023s. I hope to see you over there!