I’ve never done this before, assuming a certain shelf life to what I write here, but maybe I’ll start. Now, this is completely self-indulgent, so you are warned. Here are my personal favorites of the Distal Muses for 2012:
Narratives And The American Landscape
Petty Stuff, Harlan Ellison, and Therbligs
The Golden (Silver?) Good Ol’ Days
Reflections On The 4th of July: A Personal Statement
Jon Lord, Deep Purple, Legacies
I’ll leave December alone. The last one is, I think, appropriate to end the overview.
I have selected almost no political posts—most all of them were topical, concerned with what was happening at that moment—and the few of a political nature included are far more general, more philosophical.
We had many deaths in 2012. Here is a good list of the musicians we lost. Here is a list of the “notable” deaths of writers. I quibble and chafe at the label “notable” because there are so many whom the L.A. Times would never notice who mean so much to so many. As well as Ray Bradbury, K. D. Wentworth passed away, a friend and writer, a wonderful person who left too soon. Certainly more people will know who Ray was.
We should remember in order to go forward on solid ground. Take what was good and make it better. Learn from the bad so as not to make the same mistakes. But never give up.
Have a safe, happy new year.
