There's a part of me that loves year-end lists; whether it's "Entertainment Weekly," "GQ," "Rolling Stone," or some other magazine I've not yet seen, there's a simplicity and a bit of status to these lists which provides average readers like myself with a chance to catch up with the best and brightest of the past year. However, there's a part of me that's alarmed at how early people decide to view the calendar year through the amber lens of the rear-view mirror.
I found myself at a Manhattan newsstand today, and I was surrounded by magazines and their year-in-review coverage. I had to check myself a bit with a bit of reality. It's December 7th, and publications around the world are calling a close to the year. Which, as much as I love it, seems to be a touch premature; I mean, if magazine editors were this quick to summarize the year in, say, 1941, the defining moment of the year (the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor) would have been a footnote in their coverage. In 1980, there'd be no mention of another defining cultural moment - the killing of John Lennon in front of his Upper West Side apartment building. Heck, even last year, in the waning days of the year, America lost a former president (Gerald Ford) and the world lost a Godfather of Soul (James Brown).
So, perhaps in awhile, I'll have some kind of retrospective of the year. But, until then, there's music for me to listen to, and movies for me to see, and a current day to experience. Curmudgeonly? You bet.
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2 comments:
Why does "the year" end early? One word: shopping. All the "best of" lists get put out in late November/early December because it sells magazines, books, music, etc. People want guidance for their holiday shopping and the entertainment industry want to give people that guidance. Since new releases typically dry up after Thanksgiving, there is little new out there these days anyway.
That said, I would hope there aren't too many year-end issues out there dealing with things that are not holiday commodities.
So I'm only assuming that you didn't appreciate my "best albums of 2007" list, eh? Haha.
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