A Year in Culture 2011

There is a tendency, or I should say I have a tendency, to frame a year within a typical school year. A new year starts in September (or whenever a new year of classes start) and ends around May or June (or whenever classes end). I realize that a new year starts on January 1st, but when I think about my year I'm thinking between September and June. The summer kind of acts as a stand alone thing that I didn't account when I started this entry. However when one does a year end list, it's generally accepted that one is writing about the time between January 1st and December 31st of X year.

So how was this year culturally for me? Odd. I've discovered that I listen to fewer and fewer actual albums and more and more listen to playlists that are made up of songs from every year of music I have in my collection. This means that I generally associate a song not with its year of release, or even the album it originally appeared on, but with the year I listened to it and the playlist it was a member of. That's how I end up every year marveling at the fact that what I listened to wasn't actually released in the year I associate it with but usually with the previous year or even longer ago. Also, thanks mostly to law school, I haven't read all that much this year. I've probably watched more TV than I've read books which is kind of sad but I've found that as I get older I get even more picky about what I read and with the limited amount of time I now have for just about everything, the last thing I want to do is read some more after reading upwards of a 100 really dense pages of legal jargon. Moving to Boston though has been a boon for my theater going life. I've seen more ballet productions this year than I have in probably my entire life. I got to see Yo-Yo Ma perform with the Boston Symphony and hear Handel's Messiah live after years of listening to it on CD. I also finally got to see "A Doll's House" which is probably one of my favorite plays that I was assigned to read in high school (and just generally one of my favorite plays). And of course there are the hours of television I watched, some live, some on Netflix. This year has been a hodge-podge of low and high art for me some of which is difficult to categorize as "best" or "favorite." "Follies" is not one of my favorite musicals by Stephen Sondheim, but getting to see Bernadette Peters perform live is something that one doesn't forget very soon. Finally getting to go to a comedy gig and having it be one of my favorite British comedians is also a once in a life time experience, even if I can't say it was the best thing I've ever seen. 2011 though has been a year of cultural enrichment for better and worse. So now let's categorize it and par it down, like people like to do.

Albums I Actually Listened to This Year

As I mentioned I tend to listen more to individual songs on playlists as opposed to entire albums. However there were 5 albums I listened to this year. Generally speaking if I listen to an album it means I like it. And if it's on this list it's because I liked it. So here are my top 5 albums of this year:

1. "The Wombats Proudly Present...This Modern Glitch" by the Wombats
2. "The Future is Medieval" by the Kaiser Chiefs
3. "Aim and Ignite" by Fun.*
4. "21" by Adele**
5. "Welcome to Condale" by Summer Camp***

The Songs of 2011

This list, with the exception of the songs by the Kaiser Chiefs, the Wombats, and Adele, was largely aquired within the last 2 months. Up until then I was doing fine just listening to what I had been listening to since 2010. However around late October my current collection began to bore me so I sought out new music. This was done largely by seeing what my friends had been listening to on Spotify and by seeing what had been released recently and was good at least according to Zune Marketplace. And of course there was some music heard during commercials and on TV shows but most of those were not released in 2011, so they don't count. Here are the top 10 songs of 2011 in no particular order:

• "Cousin in the Bronx" by the Kaiser Chiefs
• "Rumour Has It" by Adele
• "Everybody Wants Somebody" by Patrick Stump
• "Raconte-Moi Une Histoire" by M83****
• "Still Life" by the Horrors
• "Ahead of the Wave" by Non-Commissioned Officers
• "We Are Young" by Fun.*****
• "Gangsta" by tUnE-yArDs
• "You and I" by Lady Gaga
• "Anti-D" by the Wombats

I did go see a few movies. Of the handful I saw in theatres the two I liked the best were "Fright Night" and "The Muppets" neither of which were critical darlings, though at least "The Muppets" did really well in the box office. Of the three****** books I read this year the only one I would recommend is How The Beatles Destroyed Rock and Roll the subtitle of which is "An Alternative History of American Popular Music" which goes a long way to explaining what the book is actually about. I couldn't possibly recommend what TV you should watch because much like music (which I feel I can recommend) what you spend your time watching is fairly individualized. Also, I watch the same five shows on repeat so I have a fairly narrow view of what's good and what isn't.

So that's 2011. I hope your year in culture was good and here's to next year being even better.

*Two things. The band is called "Fun." The period is part of the name. Also, this album was actually released in 2010, but since I've been listening to this and Summer Camp nearly non-stop for the past few days, I'm including it. Sue me.

**Adele is probably the only artist within my top music lists that was included by anyone else. As is typical my taste in music largely diverges from what is considered popular by other people.

***I discovered this album because a friend of mine from my time in London was listening to this album quite a lot on Spotify. thanks Jade!

****Everyone loves "Midnight City" so much. I think this song is much, much better. Besides, who wouldn't want to turn into a magical frog?

*****I first heard this song as a cover by the cast of Glee, so that's probably the only song I heard on TV that wasn't released in 2010 or earlier. However, as is typical, the original is better.

******This is a vast exageration. I don't know how many books I read this year, but it wasn't a very large number and far fewer than I would have liked.

Law School for Dummies

I am by no means an expert at the game of law school. I'm currently writing this entry as a way to avoid studying for finals* which is an indication of something.** However what is you need to know to succeed at law school you learn fairly quickly. Sure I may still be confused by what the hell a bailment*** is, but I do know some basics on surviving law school. If you're considering law school, I'd take these suggestions under your wing for the future.

Don't Live Alone There's a certain temptation, particularly if you didn't have the best roommate(s) experience in undergrad to live on your own at least for the first year of law school. This is a very bad idea. Particularly if you're moving to a new city (like I did) your roommates will be your first life line and even after you make friends will still people with whom you can bitch. If you're really lucky they'll be going to law school and even if it's a different school or they have different teachers you'll all be able to complain about how tough classes are and bounce ideas about what reasonable care**** is of each other after spending way too much time in the library. Living alone can be a death knell to your succeeding at law school because it can lead to introversion which in turn leads to insanity.***** You may not want to live with the same people once your lease is up in August or September, but having at least one other person to complain to will help immensely.

Make Friends, Even if it Hurts I am not an outgoing social person. It takes me awhile to make friends. However even the most introverted person will be able to make friends in law school for one very special reason: You're all going through mental bootcamp. It's a bonding experience that can't be underestimated. Making friends though, much like with having people to live with, will make the torture less torturous. Having buddies to moan to and drink with****** helps when the days get longer and the hours spent in the library become too much. Good friends will convince you that you're not making the biggest mistake of your life and may even help you get better grades. Humans are naturally social creatures, but law school proves just how valuable friends can be. So make some, even if socializing goes against every fiber of your being.

Don't Skip A Single Reading (or Class) Full disclosure: My freshmen year I did not have the best attendance record. I got better, but I always allowed myself to miss one or two classes in any given course in a single semester. Also, keeping up with reading was not always my forte. Just ask my Ancient Greek history professor. However if you want to have any hope of understanding the material presented in law school, let alone doing well on your exams, you have to do all of the reading. If that means sitting in the library for four+ hours so be it. First of all there is always the chance you'll be cold called on******* in class and trust me, it's not fun trying to explain a case you haven't read. Secondly, as confusing as some of the judges can be, reading the cases is vital to understanding the underlying principles at work. You can read all the chestnuts on torts you want, but if you don't at least know the basic outline of a case (which, depending on the era in which a case was written is all you're going to get) those summaries won't help you a bit. The same goes for classes. Yes sometimes it seems like the professors let students meander with no really direction into a land of slippery concrete,******** but ultimately it's to your benefit to go to every single class. You just never know when the professor is going to cut off the idiots and make sense of future interests.*********

Don't Freak Yourself Out Law school is hard. It's intense and all consuming. However you'll only make it worse for yourself if you psych yourself out. Whether that's by buying into some garbage BarBri is trying to sell you or watching "The Paper Chase" you're doing yourself a disservice if you let the stress get to you too much. Relax every once in a while, have a beer (or five) on a occasion.********** Go see a movie with friends or go to a museum if that's your thing. Spend an entire day doing nothing. People will go on about how you have to study every day or you're going to fail everything, but that's simply not true. Relaxation is just as important as studying if you want to succeed at law school. And not relaxing ends badly. Usually the people who burn out the quickest are the ones who didn't take sometime to do nothing. Law school is a marathon, not a sprint. Take sometime to smell the flowers.

So that's my advice. If you do plan on going to law school you'll hear a lot of variations on what I've said and some real gunners telling you to hole up in the library and never leave. Ultimately you do what's best for you, otherwise you'll leave school with a massive amount of debt wondering why ever thought this was a good idea. Best of luck either way.

*Evil, evil finals

**Namely not wanting to study

***Contracts. I'm pretty sure that's from contracts.

****Reasonable care is dependent on your judge. Much like everything in negligence based torts.

*****This isn't necessarily true. But it could happen. Law school does funny things to one's brain.

******The first of many times I will mentioning drinking. There's a reason lawyers are considered alcoholics.

*******This is when a professor calls on you out of the blue (aka you didn't volunteer) and asks you to explain the facts of a case. It is hell.

********True story. Someone brought this up in torts. It will never die.

*********Property. I could go on, but it's confusing.

**********So much drinking. Also, you don't have to drink like a fish to have fun in law school. It's just most everyone else will be because that's just how stressful law school is. However a designated driver/walker is always good, so if you don't want to drink that's fine.