Whisky Prajer’s 2020 Year In Review — A Miscellany!

Two-faced so-and-so that I am, I’ve cooled on “end of the year” lists, but here are two I very much appreciate:

• JAZZ.FM91’s Year in review: 25 of the best jazz albums of 2020.
• Aquarium Drunkard :: 2020 Year In Review

And now: Whisky Prajer’s 2020 Year In Review — A Miscellany!

Last movie I saw in a theatre:

• Star Wars, thanks to a Disney attempt to nudge the box office stats by lowering tickets to $5. Enjoyed watching it with the younger. Prior to that we drove out for Parasite after Bong Joon-Ho won the AA. In both cases I was dispirited by just how many screens were competing with the silver screen I’d paid to see. It’d be nice if every ticket purchase was preceded with a EULA: “By hitting ‘purchase’ the customer agrees to keep cell-phone activity restricted exclusively to the lobby, on penalty of complete forfeiture of theatre access.”

Movies I was set to drive out to, before . . . you know:

• Dune — after missing Contact in the theatres it’s now my policy to watch Denis Villeneuve on the large screen.
• James Bond — I’ve gone back and forth on this, and might some more. Craig’s 007 cooled on me faster than I could ever have anticipated. Still, spectacle on this scale is best served as large as possible. So, who knows?

Songs that forced me to pull over and clear my eyes:

• The live version of “Spirits Will Collide” by Devin Townsend. His latest hasn’t moved me as much as his earlier stuff, so I was not expecting this.
• “Church House Blues” by Crystal Shawanda — another pleasant surprise. The entire album rocks, in fact, and her cover of Tragically Hip’s “New Orleans Is Sinking” is exactly what a cover should be — a repossession so thorough it takes place at a cellular level and becomes Shawanda’s song. There isn’t a weak link anywhere on this album.

Games I finished:

• Horizon: Zero Dawn. A so-goofy-it-skirts-dangerously-close-to-lame premise is well-served by excellent gameplay and a story with some surprises.
• The Outer Worlds. Ran through this one twice, actually, and might try a third go-round, just to explore the Complete Idiot storyline.

Book I most enjoyed:

• 2020 was mostly about re-reading, actually, and the few new titles I did read to conclusion were not well-served by my 2020-altered focus. However, Andrew Unger’s Once Removed was the pleasant exception that broke through my fog and took hold of my consciousness. Review forthcoming.

Most satisfactory acquisition:

• A blonde Squier Classic Vibe '50s Telecaster, made in Indonesia. 

There are so many wyrd eddies and sworls that looped around this instrument finding its way into my hands. First of all, I’ve never liked the look of 'em. Telecasters always struck me as a little blocky, while the Les Paul looks like Rock ‘n’ Roll, or The Blues, or Jazz — just about any genre you care to name. Telecasters look like Merle Haggard (not that there’s anything wrong with that).

Secondly, I made the purchase physically, immediately after lockdown ended. I phoned Long & McQuade in Oshawa and asked them to set it aside for me, then drove down to try it out. It was a brutally hot day. When I got to the store, things were busy, though not disturbingly so.

That changed. People kept arriving, the store got fuller, and finally a staff member leaped to the door and locked it until the situation was back under control.

Meanwhile my phone was ringing. The psychiatric assessment my wife and younger daughter were attending had concluded with my suffering kid being remanded into emergency custody for the first time. I took this news while dumbly holding a guitar that now struck me as an utterly dipshit whim. I hurriedly bought it — in the box, not strumming so much as a single chord — threw it in the trunk and took it straight home. During the ride the calls continued as we tried to sort out the various “What do we do now?” scenarios, all of which were complicated by COVID.

It was some days before I took it out of the box and plugged it in. My heart wasn’t in it, to say the least. But I did some basic explorations, jigged various settings, and to my surprise found myself playing this guitar differently than I was my others — including, especially, the LP. The Tele was pulling me in unusual directions, prompting different expressions, suggesting new routes and avenues to check out and play in.

It felt like a gift. It still does.

More anon, hopefully. Safe holidays to you and yours, and Merry Christmas.