Once more, as in previous years, we look back over the year at the rough and smooth and make special mention of the best.
As usual, we start with...
and there's the usual mixed bag.
Titanic dominated the early part of the year and The Man in the Iron Mask followed on behind. It was nearly a Leonardo di Caprio year. The X-Files, Lost in Space and Armageddon were silly. Deep Impact made more impact for being less about special effects and more about people. Gattaca was fine and showed that sci fi can actually have thoughtful content. Starship Trouper was controversial good fun and gave us Caspar van Dien's buttocks and Boogie Nights was credible, thought-provoking and gave us Mark Wahlberg's buttocks. Brassed Off was much better than The Full Monty. Good Will Hunting was better than expected. However, the award goes to
for being well acted, well dressed and having the tension of a political thriller despite being based on historical fact.
I seem to have missed out on most of the good theatre this year whilst catching the year's biggest turkey in Anthony and Cleopatra at the National. The Day I Stood Still by Kevin Elyot was good. However, it was the Edinburgh Festival that gave this year's winner in the form of Calderòn's
Truly, European theatre as modern today as when it was written over 350 years ago.
Very slim pickings here as I seem to be watching less and less television. I am almost tempted to give the award to John Peel's Radio Four programme Home Truths out of pique were it not for an excellent BBC Classic serial. And so the award goes to
for being thoroughly modern whilst retaining the spirit of the original.
I continued catching up on various masterpieces through talking books at bedtime among which Dumas' Three Musketeers, Kipling's Just So Stories and The Jungle Book, Conan Doyle's The Lost World and Bernard Cornwell's Arthurian trilogy were the highlights. Actual books read included a re-visiting of Graham Greene's Brighton Rock which was very nasty, Guy de Maupassant's Bel-Ami which was very cynical and the prize-winner
which was an unexpected delight.
The Royal Opera was a complete disaster this year. However, it threw up one of the great performances of the year in the 5 hour French version of Don Carlos which I caught at the Edinburgh Festival. Elsewhere WNO's Jenufa and Holland Park Opera's L'Arlesiana are worthy of mention. ENO pulled itself out of the trough with three good new productions, The Tales of Hoffman, Il Trittico and Manon. However, it was two revivals that made the season. I'd not seen Hansel and Gretel before and loved it but the prize goes to
for being a powerful revival of an average production that offered beautiful singing in support of committed acting. A great operatic night.
Only one contender here.
Highly enjoyable. How come it's been 44 years before I got to see this?
The exhibition of Russian icons was good but the best was
An absolutely stonking exhibition and I shall certainly go to any other by the same artist.
There's been a number. Special mention must be made of the fact that, having been ill, I seem to be getting on better with my sister, Linda. I've been grateful for peace in Northern Ireland and my trip there in September brought a glorious arrival by plane flying through a rainbow of hope. As my year of development progressed, I liked learning about Saturn and its effects. More socially, I enjoyed my day with gay company at the Anish Kapoor exhibition which was a real tonic at the time. I also had a good time building a bender at the midsummer gathering of Quakers. Then there was the discovery of muscles in my legs. But the award goes to spending the
with Ross as it was just a perfect day and I still have the flint and the grasses I collected that day in front of me in my work room.
In some respects the advent of the car was the most important aspect of the year as it permitted so much else. I should also mention giving up smoking and changing the bedrooms round upstairs. I loved the flowering passion flowers in the garden but the best of all was
in the form of runner beans in the back garden.
It's been a surprisingly rich year for nookie. Nothing elaborate or extraordinary. The only moment of slight sophistication was a very delightful threesome with Cambridge Chris. There was the possibility of a foursome when he and his partner Ed came to visit but it never transpired. Instead, it's been a year when Ross and I have both put down shields and been more and more open with each other. So, here's to
with someone you know and love.
This year, there is
I want to expand this a little since I should like to include meeting people through the Quakers, through my yoga, through massage and through healing. Of them all, I want to single out
who has made an enormous impact on my life.
There was a time early in the year when I thought that this might be a somewhat dim year. Ross went back to Barton. I couldn't handle the idea of a partnership. We looked set to go separate ways. And yet we haven't. We've seen it through and begun to redefine how we are together. And so the award goes to my love,
And so to 1999 and the approach of the millennium.
