The Didge Digest 2015 in Review... Part II

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Whether you're nursing one helluva hangover from the New Year celebrations (for my Aussie friends, anyway) or amping yourself up to welcome 2016 with open arms (for those abroad), I'd like to personally welcome you back to Part II of the Didge Digest 2015 in review.

Since I already killed your patience with the previous intro, I'll just keep it a brief recap. I explored the areas of university, gaming and DeviantART itself in a piece highlighting the several highs and lows that I've experienced; from improving grades to busy participation on the site, all of which you can read in its entirety at the link below:

The Didge Digest 2015 in Review... Part I Given this is an entire year in review, this will be perhaps my longest entry to date... Taken together, perhaps twice that if not more than the longest one before...
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

As the fireworks roar over the neighbourhood skies while setting the Melbourne skyline alight (about $8 million worth last I heard), the drinks have been going down smooth, and the revellers have went out in full force,  it's pretty much official that 2016 has been given the red carpet treatment. The television has promised that it'll be their biggest NYE celebrations ever, to which I offer a simple counter-point... "Until the next one."
Regardless, it's fair to say that we have kicked past the halfway hump of the decade with a bang. 
From myself and to all my Australian friends, as well as those abroad for the future, I'd like to wish everybody a very safe, prosperous and above all happy new year for 2016. 2015 was a year full of amazing discoveries and terrifying


This time, it's time to explore what the areas of movies, music and social life allowed me to experience, and take a peek into the future of 2016 and what it could hold in store in me. So once again, without any further ado, let us dive right in!

Merrie Melodies (and Movies) 
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Make no mistake, the year of 2015 for film was a pretty lucrative one, given that the top ten films of the year grossed well over $10.6 billion alone, a full THIRD more than last year. This, despite the promising new shows on Netflix and potential discoveries on Youtube, among other things, seems to prove that despite our near-limitless choices, nothing beats a good old-fashioned trip to the cinema.

Given some particular examples, it was also a year where you didn't necessarily have to be good to rake in the big bucks; Minions, a barely-passing film according to Rotten Tomatoes, was one of the movies to break the billion-dollar box office milestone, and currently stands as the 2nd highest-grossing animated film of all time. Yes, even higher than Toy Story 3... Just let that sink in a little. Crying

As for music, we've also had all kinds of surprises both on stage and off... Aside from the wardrobe malfunctions, since they're always a ten-a-penny thing (plentiful and as a result, of little value), we also had on-stage injuries, award show callouts and, heaven help us all, a musician's express desire to run for the presidency.

For one, a quick read on Dave Grohl's situation and I have a new level of respect for the man. If I literally broke a leg on stage I'd have likely been screaming in agony, but he not only played the rest of the show, he did so in style. Guess that's why he's a 25-year veteran and I'm just a writer. =p

Given that I'm not interested in catfights, particularly more so if they involve Miley Cyrus and Nicki Minaj, I'll move onto the, ugh, presidential ambitions of one Kanye West.

In an acceptance speech that could best be described as disjointed, he made the declaration that he would run for the Oval Office in 2020. Now, I've already written that he was a major success in his own right, and hell, if Donald Trump ACTUALLY gets into the presidency, then by default he'd be the better choice, but there are certain issues I have here...

Barring the fact that he has no senatorial or even any form of governmental experience, could you imagine what would happen to the concept of the First Lady? Rosalynn Carter, Barbara Bush, Nancy Reagan... Kim Kardashian? I don't pretend to know whether the former ladies were sterling pillars of society or not, but they'd have to be better by default!

Every man, woman and child will either know, or come to know, about Kim's prior indiscretions (You think there's no scrutiny as a celebrity, imagine the Presidency) and the fact she has bombarded us with 11 seasons of rubbish reality TV into her life. There were instances where her charity work left a TONNE to be desired, given her net worth, and things she has said which could be seen as not only heartless, but hopelessly out-of-touch.

Nobody's perfect, I understand that, and maybe she'll do a complete 180 and knock the role out of the park, but if it does happen, then right off the bat she'll be subject to such intense, vicious scrutiny the likes never seen before, or probably since. 

I guess Hollywood and the music industry's full of surprises, huh? Anyway, with that done and dusted, what did 2015 have in store for me?

As far as movies went, I can't say that I recall many films that I saw at the cinemas this year, despite the smorgasbord of choices on offer. Scouring through my journals the only movies I seem to have watched include the likes of Inside Out, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Ant-Man and Chappie, which really doesn't say a whole lot. I barely remember Chappie, but at the very least, I had a rollicking good time with the other three.

Now Inside Out I've already written about, however briefly, but the other two I really don't think I discussed in detail. Given they existed in the realms of secret agents and superheroes respectively, you'd expect they were high on the action, and they delivered.

Kingsman had quality performances from a lot of top names, including Colin Firth and a haemophobic villain in Samuel L. Jackson, and set pieces and action scenes that were very fluid and well choreographed. It was a style I remembered previously from the Kickass films, and Matthew Vaughn brought much of the same to the table in that film, to great effect.

In particular, the "manners maketh man" scene as Galahad locks the pub doors and flings a glass mug into a thug's face, then proceeds to whoop their asses in a 6-on-1 fight, was simply amazing, and a great sign of things to come.

Ant-Man, in much a similar vein, was also full of wonderful action; fight scenes, a likeable hero in Paul Rudd, and awesomely trippy special effects that took me into imaginative new worlds. And I think it's fair to say, there were instances where I felt myself cringing in excruciating pain at some of the deaths depicted. Perhaps later on down the road I could see myself writing reviews for those movies and anything else I've come across.

Meanwhile at home, I was able to check out the 1995 mafia film Casino, with the likes of De Niro, Pesci, Sharon Stone, and Don Rickles amidst a star-studded cast, with Martin Scorsese at the helm... I figured it'd be a quick movie to watch before I went to bed, but it clocked in at nearly 3 HOURS running time! What was more impressive, however, was that it pretty much kept me hooked throughout the entire thing.

An R-rated flick with no limits on the brutality, depravity or choice words, the story worked brilliantly at helping us realise the slow-burning downfall of the main character, "Ace" Rothstein, thanks to the company he kept, the politicking games, and even a beautiful woman who we slowly witness turn into a drugged-out screeching banshee, determined to make Ace's life hell. The subtle change in looks, the ability of the actors to completely flip on a dime, the emotion in some areas... Just quality film-making from start to finish. Give it a watch if you haven't already.

As for music, I suppose for the majority of the year I've been out of the loop, given that I enjoyed video game music and older tunes more often this year, and given that we "enjoyed" such Top 40 tunes as that damned "Watch Me" song, I suppose I'm thankful.

There was, despite all that, still a lot of additions to my music collection over the year, including stuff from the A State of Trance podcasts, tracker VG music from the likes of Peter Hajba, Jonne Valtonen and Alex Brandon, and other classics among the rest of them. Overall, I must've added nearly 200 songs, the majority from video games and DVD recordings.

Needless to say, I'm gonna enjoy listening to them all again sometime over the new year. And here's to more great music in 2016 and beyond... Fingers crossed. =p
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The Social Story
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Given how I've just written a essay on the movies and music I enjoyed in the past year, you'd be forgiven for thinking I had no social life whatsoever. In a sense, you would be right, as there were only very occasional times when I ventured outside of the house to go see somebody, most of those times being family. Most of the year was spent at home playing games, studying, or other bullshit.

Pretty much each time my family would see my older brother and his partner, who were living in or around the Melbourne city, and each time it would end in conversation and drink. There was nothing like catching up and sharing a bottle of Crown Royal, Jack Daniels or whatever else, and occasionally mixing up with Coke.

Every now and then, they would pop down to visit us, way up in the sticks (so to speak) and enjoy a good talk and drink. If I recall properly, the last time they paid a visit we played a game of Boggle, first to 50 points, and with a couple of well-found 7-letter words and general variety, I whipped their asses. Nice to get bragging rights over a sibling, now and again... ;)

All jokes aside, it's with great pleasure that he has been doing pretty good for himself, given his line of work as a personal trainer. In fact, it's bound to get better at least temporarily with the "New Year's Resolutions" crowd either growing desperate to lose the pounds of barbecue they ate New Year's Eve, or merely trying to lose the weight they promised they would lose last year. Good luck to them and all, but there's a reason we continue to make the same resolutions every single year. :lol:

That being said, despite the several family visits, and the one birthday party late in the year (which I already touched upon, so no real recap needed) I was able to attend some big Melbourne conventions at the start and middle of the year, SupaNova in April, and OZ Comic-Con in June.

Now, I already covered those in previous journals, but as a brief recap, it's fair to say that for my first times, they were wonderful. It was a lot of fun looking and seeing everybody dress up as their favourite characters, checking out the various displays and sculptures, and at one point, even witnessing live wrestling. Perhaps most importantly, it helped me to "develop" my experience with photography (Get it? Get it? =p)

I reckon I could definitely look forward to going again, and by that time, I'm pretty sure I'll have a much better grasp on my camera than I do now.

There were also rare occasions when I went out to visit friends, and one of those was for my friend's 23rd birthday party way out in the country. I've already written about that in a previous entry, so for a brief review, in that party there were lots of drink, pizza, darts, beer pong and stories, and yet somehow I got away unscathed. Not only that, but I built up a good buzz and got chatting with many friends there, even if I did look like an ass for failing to read closing times on a fish n' chip shop. Well, beyond that point, I didn't really care. :D

I don't think anything else special comes to mind, so as far as social life went in 2015, I guess it was THERE, but not exactly a major part of my year. Every so often I would go out with the family to do some shopping and enjoy a bit of lunch, but aside from the movies, munchies and other mayhem, there was really nothing else to write home about.
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To 2016 & Beyond...
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Whew... now this was a 2015 worth remembering! At least, judging by the over 4,000 words I've written thus far without even coming to this point. Now that 2015 is pretty much written in the history books, you might be wondering, what does 2016 have in store?

Well, I'm pleased to report that we were able to grab some pretty decent seats to go and see Weird Al's Mandatory world tour; the 
Melbourne leg at Palais Theatre to be exact. I can't even remember the last time I went to see a show at an actual theatre, but given how much I've enjoyed Al's work over the years, you can bet that come this Sunday, I'll be waiting in gleeful anticipation, nervously counting down the hours.

A normal bit of tradition for the new year is to hunt down the Top 10 lists from the various gaming and entertainment channels that I've been subscribed to. I could only imagine what the likes of The Black Hokage, Angry Joe, and others have in store for their best and worst games of the year. Hell, I've already watched the Jimquisition and, while I assume Steam Greenlight releases won't be included in those other lists, keeping it more mainstream, it's safe to say I enjoyed his list too.

As I've already mentioned, this year will be the year where a long-running chapter of my life is finally closed; the graduation of my double degree is imminent and I'm hoping to finally start making myself useful to the world, besides the writing obviously. Perhaps after I finish, I could look towards a career or, just to get my bearings, maybe some volunteer work to build some foundations. Can't say I know what's in store there, but I'm looking forward to finding out.

With the new year of course will come new pieces of poetry, additions to photography, and hopefully down the line, my Milestone project for this site. In fact, with a couple of tweaks I'll be soon able to publish my latest piece, The Binary Blues, a look into the various problems of computing, in traditionally versed form. As far as photos go, I could see myself attending more conventions and snapping even more shots, as I get more comfortable.
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Well, how about that?! Here's the final paragraph of this entry, full of accomplishments for 2015 and the dreams of 2016. Now I know my Didge Digests have been long, winding looks into my life, but regardless, I'd like to give a warm thanks to everybody who checked them out and my poetry over the past year and hope that you can look forward not only to my new works, but also my feedback. This year promises to be bigger than ever. At least, I hope so.

Once again, a very safe, successful and above all Happy New Year from Australia to all of you, and see you on the other side!

David Nicholas
AussieDidge.
© 2016 - 2024 AussieDidge
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