So, it's late and I've tried to do this about 5 or 6 times. I'm going to break this down into categories and I'm going to make it a list because I tried writing about everything and it's going to be an essay by the time it's done. I tried writing it out and just mentioning things, almost in a narrative style... that didn't work. I'll still probably miss some stuff or forget some stuff, but as of right now this is what has impressed me/good things that have happened this year in the world of punk/hardcore/music/living/traveling/records/tapes/food/my life. I also find it really hard to remember what year stuff happened, there isn't much of an order... It's been a great year for stuff and a pretty fantastic year for me when you tally it all up. Enjoy some opinions from some random dude...
Tapes / Demos
Toy Boats: 2 A.M. Bones
Shackles: Demo
Shackles: Preliminary Harm
Sick People: Demo
Thick Skin / Step Down: The Galapagos Split
Iron Mind: Guilt
Seven Inches / EPs
Disengage: Look Back EP
Minority Unit: C.M.F.
Minority Unit: Minority Unit
Title Fight: Flexi
Tigers Jaw / The Sidekicks: Split
United Youth: Something 2 Prove
Refrain: Refrain 7"
Records / LPs
Iron Mind: Hell Split Wide Open
Backtrack: Darker Half
Trapped Under Ice: Big Kiss Goodnight
Crash of Rhinos: Distal
Rotting Out: Street Prowl
Shows
Sick Of It All with Trapped Under Ice, Backtrack, Take Offense, The Hundredth... and someone else... @ Broad Street Ministry, Philadelphia PA.
Thursday, the day they announced breaking up @ Irving Plaza NYC
Title Fight with Touche Amore, Break Even and Headaches @ The Old Museum Brisbane
Cruel Hand @ Sun Distortion, Brisbane, and The Y.A.C. Byron Bay
BANE with Rotting Out, Dead End Path and Miles Away @ The Cobalt Cafe and Chain Reaction, California.
Last Burst City show (was that this year?)
Travels
New York
New York
New York
San Francisco
Defiance, Ohio
Scranton / Wilkes Barre / Kingston, PA
That Sydney trip I took at the start of the year to see OFWGKTA at the Opera house
Thick Skin trip to Sydney (was that this year?)
No Pants Party to Byron for that show that time
Food
Shake Shack
Pier Burger
Goodburger
New York Burger Co.
In n Out
Urban Bites
Having Italian/Belgian housemates
Panzerotti
Misc.
Meeting Benny Gold / the Benny Gold store in San Fran
Getting tattooed by Mike Adams / Eli Quinters / Nick Rodin and Christian Peters
The ONLY NYC office & corner store
Breaking 100MPH on an interstate (somewhere in Western Pennsylvania, I think on the I-60)
Getting my license
Not crashing a car (kind of)
Not ending up in legal trouble when I probably should have
Starting Film-making projects
Breaking 2000 readers in around 3 months
Thanks a bunch to everyone who actually reads this stupid blog and cares about what I write. I've gotten a handful of emails and comments from people which has kind of made this all more worth while than just posting about stuff to fill in the time / create a hobby. I have a stack of shit to post about in relation to records, but I'll probably leave that until the new year.
