Top Two for 2011: Introduction

by Steve

Man checking over lists. He is wearing a great hat.

I really don’t like End of Year lists. Well, I like reading other people’s, but I really don’t like composing my own. So, don’t worry, I’m not going to veer into some “Art is subjective, lists are objective, so lists of books/albums/cross-stitching are bad”-type argument. Organising stuff into lists can be fun, and for any sort of year-end retrospective seems entirely sensible. Over the years many End of Year lists have pointed me in the direction of a lot of fun and worthwhile stuff.

I think my issue with writing said lists is down to feeling that my experience of any one art form (or whatever else) hasn’t been necessarily broad enough in order to put together a meaningful list. Perhaps I’m just too much of a Gentleman Dabbler.

To illustrate my situation, let’s take music as an example. While I do still buy plenty of music, I buy far less than I did in my younger days of greater disposable income. I might have listened to just as many albums, through streams or Spotify or whatever else, but I’ve spent less time with them than if I’d bought the physical product. So, basically, I’m not convinced I’m that well enough qualified to compose a proper list to appeal to all and I’m not sure my personal tastes are that fascinating for me to inflict in-depth lists of stuff I may or may not have spent much attention on over the past year.

However, there is a way out of this troublesome conundrum!

Regular of this parish, Mike, suggested:

http://twitter.com/#!/optimusleghorn/statuses/141892707227406336

Now, I quite like that idea. Even I can probably decide on my favourite *whatever* for this past year. By making it a top two, I can cater for my generally indecisive nature in the event of Number One not being completely obvious. Also, writing about two of something is certainly easier for me to complete (or so I say now…) and is probably more preferable to you, dear reader, than wading through my half-arsed musings for ten, or twenty-five, or fifty things. Can you imagine how awful that would be?

So…the Top Twos will begin appearing shortly. I’m happy to take requests too for possible subject areas, although my busy work schedule/hectic social life/pathological laziness may preclude me from completing them.

Now,where the hell did that past year go?

Image from the Library of Congress, via Flickr