Old acquaintance
unforgotten

By JACK OATMON

We’re getting into some pretty wacky territory. The past year has been an undeniably transformative watershed in many of the domains that influence our cozy little lives. Many pensioners across the country lost a third of their worth as formerly stalwart fixtures of the capitalist world were pulverized by our increasingly burdensome collective debts. The aristocracy discussed previously unheard-of measures from party coalitions and parliamentary suspension here to hope and social reformation elsewhere. The Internet invaded our mobile lives in new and ever more fascinating ways. A commercial vessel finally sailed the Northwest Passage after five centuries of ambitions, the environmental and territorial implications no less visceral for the general lack of attention we paid to this symbol. And so on.

But amidst the titanic reverberations of progress and consequence rocking the world in 2008, the popular evolution of the musical arts seemed strangely muted. For all the chaos and catharsis, it seems as though our ears have been largely treading charted waters. That’s not to say it’s been a year of stagnation in the absence of paradigm shift. It’s been a year of the eloquent sophistication of rough themes from the recent past. A year of elaboration, taking movements made familiar and adored since their raucous and invigorating inceptions, and performance-engineering them.

The most exciting artists and styles of 2007 have remained so for 2008. They’ve just gotten better at what they do. Or we’ve taken note of what they had been doing. But for the large part, true revelations seem to have escaped our collective radar either because of or in spite of all the other noise on the radar screens this year.

But, true to form, the maturation of our dearest movements has made us impatient and leery toward them, as the rejection of immobile culture is ever the most inspirational force spurning art forward. In that we can predict that 2009 will be a year of trailblazing, as our bards and artists inevitably begin to make comprehensible sense of all this confusion and change, in ways that communicate things otherwise unspeakable, as we trust them to do.

It has been a great year, and one that will no doubt be remembered as a definitive time early in the millennium. And there’s no turning back, as they say. I hope you’ve had as wild and instructive a time as I have this year, and I’d like to thank all the people who read my stuff, all the musicians, DJs, promoters, venue owners, freaky dancers, random conversationalists and bartenders—especially the bartenders—that made this such a fun job to do for another year.

As for the inevitable year-end resolution-making, I have decided that in 2009 I will be nicer, more fun, smarter, richer, more productive, a better dancer and more in shape. I will finish more projects, eat better, receive a multi-billion dollar liquidity injection, go to more art galleries, learn to cook lamb shanks, pay off all debts owed, learn to drive, grow several inches, get A’s and give a lot of kisses. And you should too.

Finally, if you’re looking for a wild and wonderful alternative to club happenings on New Year’s Eve, and you want to hit something real, drop me an e-mail for info on a most fantastic, funky house and techno rager being organized by the beloved Brendan Duvall, oldGold’s Jonah Leslie and photographer Nico Stinghe of anothersidewalk.tv!

NOW WHERE THE CUP O’ KINDNESS AT? jack.oatmon@gmail.com