2012 in Lists

Posted & filed under End of Year Round-up, Life, Lists.

For me, 2012 was a pretty good year. I’m still having quite a lot of fun at work, and I managed to buy a house. This is my annual list of other, well, accomplishments.

As every year, the books come first. I read a cubic busload of ’em—or 39, depending on your counting preferences. Fifteen of them were ebooks, and most of those were shorter works, which inflates the total a bit.

  1. Cthulhurotica (edited by Carrie Cuinn) (2012-12-24—2012-12-31)
  2. John Polidori — The Vampyre (2012-12-20—2012-12-24)
  3. Tim Quirk — Endlessly Horny for Wonder and Magic: How Jim Steinman’s Bat Out of Hell Perfectly Captured the Pre-Pubescent American Id (and Nearly Ruined Me for Life) (2012-12-20)
  4. Michael Moorcock — Elric of Melniboné (2012-12-12—2012-12-19)
  5. Terry Pratchet — Faust Eric (2012-12-05—2012-12-10)
  6. Rini van Solingen & Eelco Rustenburg — De kracht van scrum: Een inspirerend verhaal over een revolutionaire projectmanagementmethode (2012-11-17—2012-11-19)
  7. Arthur Machen — The Great God Pan (2012-11-14—2012-11-16)
  8. Edgar Rice Burroughs — A Princess of Mars (2012-11-07—2012-11-14)
  9. Stephen King — Mile 81 (2012-10-30—2012-11-06)
  10. Justin Cronin — The Twelve (2012-10-19—2012-10-29)
  11. Stephen King — Ur (2012-10-17—2012-10-18)
  12. Joe Hill & Stephen King — Throttle (2012-10-16—2012-10-17)
  13. Jonathan Stroud — Green Fields (2012-10-15—2012-10-16)
  14. Kevin J. Anderson — Mythical Creatures (2012-10-14)
  15. Michael Scott — The Death of Joan of Arc / Billy the Kid and the Vampyres of Vegas (2012-10-13—2012-10-14)
  16. Rudyard Kipling — The Jungle Book / The Second Jungle Book (2012-10-10—2012-12-04)
  17. Thomas Jefferson — The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth (2012-10-08—2012-10-13)
  18. John Green — Zombicorns / The War for Banks Island (2012-10-05—2012-10-08)
  19. William Shakespeare — King Lear (2012-09-28—2012-10-05)
  20. Jonathan Stroud — The Last Siege (2012-09-20—2012-09-27)
  21. William Shakespeare — Macbeth (2012-08-17—2012-08-19)
  22. Mark Twain — The Adventures of Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn (2012-08-16—2012-09-18)
  23. Jonathan Stround — Buried Fire (2012-08-06—2012-08-15)
  24. Hans Sibbel — W2P, Welcome to Paradise (2012-07-22—2012-10-09)
  25. Michael Scott — The Enchantress (Book Six of The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel) (2012-07-08—2012-07-21)
  26. Johann Wolfgang Goethe — Het lijden van de jonge Werther (Die Leiden des jungen Werther translated by Thérèse Cornips) (2012-07-02—2012-08-05)
  27. Terry Pratchett — The Fifth Elephant (2012-06-22—2012-07-02)
  28. Lewis Carroll — Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There (2012-06-04—2012-06-22)
  29. Stephen King — The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the Keyhole (2012-06-02—2012-07-07)
  30. Ernst Jan Rozendaal — Hier: 20 jaar BLØF (2012-05-22—2012-05-30)
  31. Guus Kuijer — Het boek van alle dingen (2012-05-15—2012-05-21)
  32. Marion Bradley Zimmer — The Mists of Avalon (2012-03-26—2012-06-04)
  33. Joe Hill — Heart Shaped Box (2012-03-12—2012-03-25)
  34. Italo Calvino — If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller (2012-02-02—2012-03-11)
  35. John Green — The Fault in Our Stars (2012-01-30—2012-02-01)
  36. Frank Tashlin — De beer die geen beer was (The Bear That Wasn’t, vertaald door Dennis Gaens) (2012-01-21)
  37. Christopher Paolini — Inheritance, or The Vault of Souls (Inheritance Book Four) (2011-12-27—2012-02-18)
  38. Anne Frank — Het Achterhuis (2011-12-26—2012-01-27)
  39. Stephen King — Nightmares & Dreamscapes (2011-10-08—2011-11-12, 2012-02-19—2012-05-14)

John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars is my favorite by a long, long stretch. In fact, I even bought a Dutch copy to pass around. You need to read this. Other favorites include The Wind Through the Keyhole, De beer die geen beer was, Het boek van alle dingen and Elric of Melniboné. Of those I read from my list of forty books to read before my fortieth birthday, The Mists of Avalon and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer were the most rewarding.

The only book I haven’t finished this year is the one currently on my nightstand: a copy of the Brothers Grimm’s Complete Fairy Tales. Given it’s length, it will be there for a while.

On to the music. Last.fm tells me that I spend the most time listening to the following artists:

  1. Bløf (250)
  2. Jenny Owen Youngs (206)
  3. a balladeer (187)
  4. Meat Loaf (182)
  5. Daniël Lohues (164)
  6. Dusty Springfield (151)
  7. Bruce Springsteen (148)
  8. Acda en de Munnik (142)
  9. Kiss (132)
  10. Melissa Etheridge (99)

Most of these artists had a new album out this year, which in the case of Jenny Owen Youngs, a balladeer, Daniël Lohues, and to a lesser extent Springsteen and Acda en De Munnik warranted excessive replays. Kiss is there because I finally caved in, and expanded my collection to include their live albums.

Favorite new albums include the ususal suspects:

  1. a balladeer — I Can’t Keep Track of Each Fallen Robin. After four years, Marinus de Goederen’s a balladeer returned as a band, with an album that’s filled with another batch of stellar songs.
    5 Minutes Beside A Hospital Bed by a balladeer
  2. Jenny Owen Youngs — An Unwavering Band of Light Crowdfunded through Kickstarter, this album delivers song after song.
    Wake Up by Jenny Owen Youngs
  3. Bruce Springsteen — Wrecking Ball It’s not an easy album. It’s both depressing and uplifting. It’s stark and majestic. It’s a grower.

Other favorites include Lohues’s Gunder, Yori Swart’s eponymous debut album and Threshold’s March of Progress.

Naming individual favorite tracks is a chore I’ll pass on, but I’ll mention two: Suiker en azijn by Acda en De Munnik, my favorite cover of the year, and my new personal feel-good anthem, Mama Cass’s Make Your Own Kind of Music:

The list of bands I’ve seen live is not as long as last year’s, but it’s still quite long:

  1. 2012-12-20 — BLØF, Paradiso, Amsterdam
  2. 2012-12-08 — Eefje de Visser, Blauwe Zaal, Stadsschouwburg Utrecht (early show)
  3. 2012-11-23 — Maiden United + Nylon Maiden + Meat Love, Estrado, Harderwijk
  4. 2012-11-15 — a balladeer + Martijn van Agt, Tivoli De Helling, Utrecht
  5. 2012-11-03 — BLØF, Ziggo Dome, Amsterdam
  6. 2012-09-18 — Roosbeef, “De grote demoshow” (try-out, early show), Tivoli De Helling, Utrecht
  7. 2012-09-02 — Limburgs Symfonie Orkest, Otto Tausk (conductor), Hannes Minnaar (piano), Concertgebouw, Amsterdam
    • Jean Sibelius — Valse Triste
    • Edvard Grieg — First Peer Gynt Suite, op. 46
    • Edvard Grieg — Pianoconcert in A minor, op. 16
  8. 2012-07-13 — Jon Oliva’s Pain + Max Pie + Kingcrow, 013, Tilburg
  9. 2012-06-24 — Theatergroep NoNonsense, “Carpe Noctem”, CC De Boodschap, Rijen
  10. 2012-06-10 — Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Stadio Artemio Franchi, Florence, Italy
  11. 2012-06-01 — BLØF, Zomerspektakel aan het meer, Alphen aan de Rijn
  12. 2012-05-24 — Wende, “Wende bespeelt de maan”, Museumpodium Speelklok, Utrecht
  13. 2012-05-18 — Solo & a balladeer, “Two Men, One Story”, Ekko, Utrecht
  14. 2012-05-16 — Acda en De Munnik, “‘t Heerst”, De Flint, Amersfoort
  15. 2012-04-23 — Brooke Fraser, Melkweg, Amsterdam
  16. 2012-04-21 — Marco Borsato + Crazy Pianos + Dj Quintino + Dj Whoolhouse, Amsterdam Convention Factory, Amsterdam
  17. 2012-04-21 — Tommy Ebben + Erwin Nyhoff, Velvet Amersfoort (instore)
  18. 2012-04-14 — Yori Swart + Lucas Hamming, Tivoli De Helling, Utrecht
  19. 2012-04-07 — Anneke van Giersbergen en Marijn Bosman, “De beer die geen beer was”, Hedon, Zwolle
  20. 2012-03-17 — Daniël Lohues, “Gunder”, De Kleine Komedie, Amsterdam
  21. 2012-03-10 — BackAlive + Snow Control, De Schuur, Hoogmade
  22. 2012-02-23 — Melissa Etheridge, Heineken Music Hall, Amsterdam
  23. 2012-02-10 — Anneke van Giersbergen + Paper Fox, Hedon, Zwolle
  24. 2012-04-04 — Crystal Dream plays U2 + Route 66½, De Schuur, Hoogmade
  25. 2012-02-01 — Dream Theater + Periphery, IJsselhallen, Zwolle
  26. 2012-01-26 — mr. a balladeer, “Save Your Drama for Your Mama”, Papenstraattheater, Zwolle

My single favorite moment of all those gigs was Melissa Etheride playing Like the Way I Do. Springsteen in the rain deluge was the most epic show by far, Maiden United and a balladeer (once again as band) were awesome, and in fact, it was a very good year for seeing bands.

In other theatrical performances, I saw:

  1. 2012-12-30 — Dolf Jansen, “Oudejaars 2012”, Kleine Komedie, Amsterdam
  2. 2012-10-12 — Schwalbe, “Schwalbe speelt vals”, Theater Kikker, Utrecht
  3. 2012-10-09 — Het toneel speelt, “King Lear”, De Flint, Amersfoort
  4. 2012-09-13 — Aluin, “Ken je Klassiekers!” (premiere), Theater Kikker, Utrecht
  5. 2012-08-17 — Toneelgroep Amsterdam, “Macbeth”, Rabozaal Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam

Both Shakespeare’s were quite good, but Schwalbe made the biggest impression.

Every year I think I should visit more museums, and this year’s no exception.

  • Rijksmuseum Twenthe, Enschede (2012-03-04)
  • Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder, Amsterdam (2012-03-17)
  • Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo (2012-03-31)
  • Museo del Bargello, Florence, Italy (2012-06-10)
  • Opera Medicea Laurenziana (Basilica di San Lorenzo, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana) + Cappelle Medicee, Florence, Italy (2012-06-11)
  • Galleria delgi Uffizi, Florence, Italy (2012-06-12)
  • Tylers Museum (Rafaël drawings), Haarlem (2012-12-30)

In 2012, I spend the night in the following places (* indicates multiple stays):

  1. Amersfoort*
  2. Noorden*
  3. Den Haag
  4. Voorthuizen
  5. Florence, Italy
  6. Beerze
  7. Eastermar, Friesland
  8. Capelle aan den IJssel

While I didn’t quite make it to crossing of five items from my List of 100 Things, I’m pretty chuffed I can call #34. Formal Friday, where you show up at work on friday more formally dressed up than the rest of the week, seems to be catching on.

  1. #34: Invent a holiday, and have it celebrated by others.
  2. #67: books read from my list of 40 books to read before my 40th birthday: Het achterhuis, If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller, The Mists of Avalon, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass, Het lijden van de jonge Werther, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer / Huckleberry Finn, The Jungle Book

That’s it for this year. Finish it off in style, and mind your fingers.