It has not felt like the best of years in many respects.
My last post of the year made that very apparent.
And yet, how can a year have been that bad when I can find so many things to place in this review? How can a year have been that bad when it included our mega-European holiday to Brussels, Nuremberg, Vienna and Budapest?
I guess the other post gives the background from which these events emerge. Or you could say that I continue to find refuge from reality in what you read about here.
Anyhow, enough of the backchat. What about the awards?
We continue with the principle that an event must be rated with three and a half stars or more (ie to be at least very good) to be included in these lists.
So, on with it.
And straight into the categories.
The three nominations are
And whilst I should love to give the award to 500 Days of Summer because of its gentle and intelligent quirkiness, the award has to go to
because of its sheer daring, the scope of its imaginative intelligence and the brilliance of its execution. I also get to keep my eye on Joseph Gordon-Levitt who was in both films.
Last year was an astonishing year for theatre attendances. This year, there's hardly been anything and only one thing which broke the three and a half star barrier.
And so, without question, the award goes to
by Dion Boucicault in a live transmission from the Royal National Theatre at FACT in Liverpool for making me laugh out loud. It also starred Simon Russell Beale who was in last year's winner, The Cherry Orchard.
Simon Russell Beale also crops up in this category too as he played George Smiley in the Radio 4's adaptations of John LeCarré's novels featuring the spymaster. However, there are a number of other nominations too.
As ever, it's an interesting blend of factual and fictional. Downton Abbey was such a surprise that I would like to give it the palm but the award goes to
because it moved me to tears and well as grabbing my attention over four successive Sundays.
This year, I was pleased to make the acquaintance of new (to me) authors like Kazuo Ishiguro and Giles Foden. I also read quite a lot by Ian McEwan although he does not appear in the list below. But, as the list below shows, the year really belonged to David Mitchell.
Out of the three David Mitchell novels which made it to the list, the one which takes the prize is
because it is yet another wonderfully rich, inventive and imaginative literary work by a master story-teller.
Over the years, I have begun to watch opera in circumstances other than in the live, lyric theatre. Yes, television broadcasts have been going on since I was a young man. More recently, video and then DVD have become available. Now we have live relays of performances in cinema surroundings.
There are seven nominations below. Only three are for events at which I was physically in the same auditorium as the performers.
Two of the nominations merited four stars on the night. I'm going to stick with those first impressions although I have to add that the performance of Das Rheingold was good enough to have me looking forward already to Die Walküre in May 2011. The awards go to
and
the first given by Opera North on a night of excellent entertainment and the second gripping me despite being seen at Roland's flat - one live and one recorded.
This year, I have not attended any live dance events and, though I enjoyed Birmingham Royal Ballet's performance of Cinderella on television over Christmas, it wasn't good enough to warrant an award.
My musical year was coloured by two deaths - those of Sir Charles Mackerras and Dame Joan Sutherland, two of my icons and Australians both.
Thereafter, it must be said that is was a good but not outstanding year for music events. There are, however, four nominations.
And the award goes to
because it was without question the event of the musical year.
Just two purchases make it into the nominations this year.
It is nip and tuck between the two but, eventually, the award goes to the
because I keep hearing more and more new things in each work every time that I listen to the discs.
Reading down the list of nominations below reminds me of what a visual culture-fest my mega-European holiday with Rossi was.
And this is so difficult. I loved the Van Gogh Museum. The Klimts were gorgeous. The Bruegels were astonishing. But it was the Medieval which was the revelation of this summer and so I am going to give a joint award to both the
and the
because the quality of the Medieval artworks in both completely bowled me over.
One of the ways that I can tell that this has not been a vintage year is that there was not a lot to record in this section when I started to look through the year's postings.
Nevertheless, a number of things suggest themselves in this category. The nominations are
I really ought to record my parents' achievement of sixty years of marriage. However, the most numinous moment of the year for me was entering
because I was suddenly grabbed by the Medieval and my jaw hit the ground.
Although
I would love to give the award to the slippers because wearing them has changed the level of comfort which I feel round the house but I'm going to give the award to the
because I have never really considered myself to be a good practical cook and have found it difficult to follow recipes in most celebrity cookbooks; yet with this volume I have produced
The list almost makes me sound like a proper cook.
The nominations, spread between two family meals and two holiday meals, are
Once again, I feel that my parents' 60th wedding anniversary meal ought to get the award but, instead, I am going to give it to
because it was one of a string of highlights from a very special holiday.
This year, I am going to hold back and not give this award to anyone.
In the past couple of years, I have extended the scope of this award by giving it to Sir Charles Mackerras and Crosby.
I'm going to continue in that vein this year by giving the award to
who has been involved in so many of the most enjoyable and memorable theatrical, televisual and radio events of the past few years. For example
It's an interesting list. Reading a talking book. Presenting a TV programme about the European Choral Tradition. Starring in a piece of classic theatre. Taking on an radio adaptation of a sequence of contemporary novels. Camping it up in a classic Victorian comedy. Enlivening a TV series with a sequence of cameo appearances. Relishing a contemporary comedy thriller.
I hope to continue enjoying his work for many years to come.
It's been a couple of years since I last rounded up my men of the year. So I thought I'd add the notion to this year's awards.
Mehcad Brooks set a high standard of callipygiousness for the year in True Blood.
Ashton Kutcher was right up there too in Spread.
Nicholas Hoult also rose to the challenge.
Tom Daley had the advantage of wearing Speedos.
However, the winner is
who came up with the goods again
and again
and again
and again
and again
and again.