2012: The Year In Review

January

In January I got real excited about the music of 2011, which was kind of a start to the album reviews I would do later in the year. I also went and checked out Parachute which was pretty fantastic. It was also the month where I had to break by far the most meaningful and difficult news to the 29 or so followers: The impending breakup of my former band (which was also what this blog used to be about). As well as leaving me feeling more than a little lost musically, I had to also wonder: just what was I going to do with this blog? What was there to write about anymore? Should I even keep at it?

February

February was an interesting month - it was all about endings and beginnings for me. As I ended my 3-month stint working and prepared for the changes of university I got a little bit retrospective with this post. On top of that I moved into the hostel, and had a deep and meaningful revelation about giving.

March

This was a sweet month I spent meeting everyone in the Hostel and making plans for the year. I also finally reached 30 followers! Ok for everyone out there with blog followers in their hundreds, that's not too much of an achievement, but I was pretty stoked about it! I also got a bit of attention with a sweet post about justice, which was unfortunately linked with the Kony craze going on at the moment. But despite being slightly misinformed on that fact, I don't regret anything I said. I also wrote my first song of the year "I Can't Say".

April

Chilled out in the holidays, tried to learn blues, bought a new guitar, blogged about Saturdays and about my favorite guitar models. That was pretty much April for me...

 May 

In May I blogged some more about guitar models and went to watch The Avengers (such a good movie!!!). Unfortunately I got a little bit gutted about life & my musical direction - which was kind of ironic seeing as May was when I also got my second song for the year - "Breathe". This song out of any I've written highlighted my desire to want to make something new and "blaze a new trail", as well as musically telling of my experimentation and growing fascination with ambient music.

June

In June I finally took the first steps in re-creating my musical direction with a change of blog address and launching my Youtube channel (which unfortunately has been shamefully neglected of late). On top of that I was in the thick of it at Ucol spending long days practicing for our rock gig (Cream & Tool are not the easiest bands to cover!!!) and recording/mixing music. This was an important month for me too, as I discovered a band which now rank up in my top 5 artists - Imagine Dragons. I also went a bit nuts reviewing their incredible EP.  

July

We had our mid-year performance at the Globe in July, which was were I took this photo. Somehow, despite being spectacularly busy, I managed to blog the most this month, with a grand total of 14 posts. Some of my the best from July were my musings about My Favorite Guitarists, Life being awesome and my review of Sigur Ros' Valtari. 

August

I didn't post much in August (probably because I was worn out from July!) but it was still a pretty good month. I went up to Mt Ruhapahu with some friends and pretty much had the best day ever. I also was hugely surprised when the reggae song I'd written,"We Are Still One", won the best song award at our gig and we got to record it the next day. 

Oh and I got a year older...

September

In September I blogged about two topics which have had a large impact on me: Love and Insomnia.  I also got a physical copy of Night Visions by Imagine Dragons and went on a bit of a rave in my review.

October

October found me rekindling my love with lists in this post. I also found out that writing about 31 things takes up a whole lot of time! I also wrote another list, this one on things you can get up to in the holidays, and had a bit of fun at Ucol jamming everyone's favorite style of music - country. 

November

November was a good month. I wrote one of the coolest songs of my life with "Prodigal" and had fun performing it at Murpheys Brewery, despite tuning problems (a guitarist's worst nightmare!). Despite having problems with writers block, I managed to blog a bit. I somehow managed to create a post that was retrospective, tinged with sadness and yet hopeful for the future with "I spent all November saying goodbyes". We also had our final performance for the year at the Regent, which despite epically failing this one intro, was the best night of my life and some of the finest stage work/musicianship I've been privileged to be a part of.

December

Well the last month of the year is well and truly upon us - in fact in one day it will be over! It hasn't been without it's share of adventures though, what with moving into a flat, working long days, surviving the end of the world and Christmas. I also managed to find the time to start my current feature "19 Things I Like About..." with this post.

There's so much I could say about it, but it's late and I'm mega tired so everything from now on will probably be a blur as I zone out and my fingers keep typing random words.... hgahghahg9aiidz;dkakznvoanga 0jgoaerkzg[a p[jga[jga gja-

Ok that was a joke but seriously I've always wanted to do that on my blog. Haha.

What I shall briefly say before we part ways is thank you so much for following/ reading my adventures through 2012. Your support really means a lot, and I hope you've enjoyed reading my posts as much as I have writing them!

Catch you on the flipside,

Jordan