Day 12 - My Fault or Everything Else?

Rain falls over all too familiar surroundings, generously casting more achievable expectations with its grey murk. Sometimes I wonder if it is me becoming more miserable, or if the things I used to like are worse now. The former seems more likely but I'm not entirely sure.

He used to be one of my favourite comedians but in the last few years I have found James Acaster to be incredibly irritating. Is it him or me? A sense of relief and justification came when I listened to a 2019 episode of Adam Buxton's podcast featuring James Acaster as a guest and I genuinely enjoyed it. You've changed James Acaster. Thanks for making me question my mental wellbeing. It's all James Acaster's fault! After that realisation I can finally get back on track.

There are others. I'm a bit done with Stewart Lee's whole schtick. Blindboy gives me a weird and depressing uneasy feeling now. Charlie Brooker is shit. Danny McBride is fading. Seth Rogen seems to have stopped. Labour. I've spoken on football before (that one is definitely my fault). I'm feeling slightly fatigued with movies - although as with James Acaster I don't think this is me, I've still loved plenty of the older films I've watched recently. Something has changed. The majority of my favourite films from the last few years have been horrors, which says something as it isn't even nearly my favourite genre. Music doesn't count as there is always a natural ebb and flow to the relationship with what I most enjoy (although landfill post-punk is becoming a pet hate - Mark E Smith wouldn't have stood for this).

It is an annoying way to be fucked with. Very gradually being chipped away at through years of hoping to enjoy the things you like as your expectation incrementally fades, whilst also being pretty sure it isn't necessarily me causing this. 2020 was the year it turned. I'm not quite sure what but I have a feeling there's a caveat there...

Anyway, it's grey and rainy, lets be positive! Here is a list of the things I've enjoyed most from 2020 on:

Films:
- Brian and Charles
- Pearl
- The King of Staten Island
- Bad Trip
- Titane

TV:
- Stath Lets Flats
- Pen15
- I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson
- Bo Burnham: Inside
- Succession
- Severance
- The White Lotus

Music/Gigs: 
- Morrissey
- Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
- Bob Dylan
- Lana Del Rey
- Sugababes
- Dirty Dike

Podcasts:
- Mandatory Redistribution Party (Episodes - Paddy McGuinness: No Likey My Lifey; Keir Starmer: Wretch)
- Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast

Food:
- Georgia's Birria Tacos
- Homemade Laksa
- Lavang (Sheffield)
- Gino e Toto Sorbillo (Naples)
- Osteria dal 1931 (Rome)
- La Coupole (Paris)
- Le bon, la butte (Paris)

Other Stuff:
- 2020 Euros & 2022 World Cup
- Holidays to Paris, Rome & New York

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