2007 Year-end wrap-up

I don’t add too many posts to the “personal” category these days (actually, I haven’t been adding many posts to any category lately…), but I thought it would be nice to sum up the events of 2007. Maybe I’ll look back on this someday — forsan et haec olim meminisse juvabit, as they say. So in rough chronological order, here’s what I did, and what happened to me, this year:

1. I started out the year with a very nice, very unexpected phone call from the admissions office at Harvard Law School. I sent my app in September and had more or less given up hope of admission when I got the call in the second week of January. At any rate, getting in more or less ended my law school admissions cycle, and set up the path I’d take in the fall. Probably the best start to 2007 that I could have hoped for.
2. Then, in March, I submitted my senior thesis. Far from perfect though it is — I can already look back at it and see that some of my analysis and a lot of my writing was overblown — I nevertheless consider seeing it through from start to finish it one of my biggest life accomplishments to date.
3. In April, I graduated. Very nice ceremony, cool to see Bill Clinton speak, and a good way to gain some closure to the whole college experience.
4. Early in the summer, I finally made the jump and switched to a Mac. This doesn’t fit with the other entries on this list as a moment I’ll remember forever, but, as a computer geek, it was a paradigm shift nonetheless. I’d wanted to move to OS X for at least a year prior, but I waited until Apple announced its updated MacBook spec to do it. Couldn’t be happier with my choice.
5. Over the summer, I had a lot of free time, and I spent a substantial portion of that making this very website. I’m no professional web designer, so it probably took more than eight weeks to put together, but it was a labor of love.
6. After quitting my job, I spent a week and a half in Europe with Jessica. Simply awesome. Neither she nor I had ever been on the European continent before, nor spent any real length of time outside a majority English-speaking environment. We went first to Berlin, then to Prague, and finally Brussels. Though it was only ten days, I thought the experience was very satisfying, and I hope I can do at least as much traveling in 2008.
7. Finally, in September, I started law school. This has pretty well taken over my life, but it’s been a great experience overall. At this point, I’ve finished the class portion of my first semester, and have exams to look forward to next week.

Also (why not?), I thought I’d look back and make a list of the best music I discovered this year. This comprises both music from 2007, as well as earlier albums that I heard for the first time. iTunes, go!

1. Aphex Twin - Drukqs (2001): I’d had this for a while and never really thought about it, but I only really discovered it this fall. I hate to classify music as “study music,” but this is ambient in the best possible sense of the word.
2. Arvo Pärt - Tabula Rasa (1984): Remarkably similar to my discovery of Drukqs, actually. Pärt’s music is almost overpowering at times, but the album as a whole fits together very well (not always the case with classical recordings!). I’d really like to listen to more of his work.
3. Battles - Mirrored (2007): I guess this is the prog it’s OK to like? I just missed seeing Tyondai Braxton at the Pitchfork Music Festival in 2006, and now that I’ve heard his album, I wish I could have seen him live. Unlike a lot of mathy stuff I’ve heard, this doesn’t just sound difficult, it sounds good.
4. Big Star - #1 Record/Radio City: Everything you’ve heard about America’s favorite power-pop band is true.
5. The Ethiopians - Everything Crash (Best of): I’m still a novice to Jamaican ska, but this was the best I heard in 2007.
6. Feist - Let It Die (2004) and The Reminder (2007): For whatever reason, I never listened to Feist until this year, but I made up for lost time in 2007. I don’t care if “1-2-3-4″ was unescapable in those iPod ads, it remains a great song.
7. Iron and Wine - The Shepherd’s Dog (2007): Sam Beam takes some time to really explore the studio space. I’m not sure I like it as much as 2003’s Our Endless Numbered Days yet, but between this and the electric sound of his Woman King EP, I don’t think there’s any style under which Iron and Wine’s songwriting won’t hold up.
8. The Jam - Snap (1983): I’m not sure what made me pick this up, but I’m glad I did. I’ve heard a little of Paul Weller’s latter-day output and wasn’t impressed. His first band, though, made a great career of three-minute power pop songs in the tradition of the Who and the more melodic of the ‘77 London punk scene.
9. José González - Veneer (2003): Another musical party to which I was late coming. Beautiful compositions, and he manages to channel Nick Drake without sounding like another acoustic guitar pastische.
10. Mark Ronson - Version (2007): I heard his covers of “Valerie” (with Amy Winehouse) and “Most Likely You’ll Go Your Way” and realized that I had to hear his album. Brilliant, blue-eyed soul production for the twenty-first century.
11. The Police - Every Breath You Take (The Singles) (1990): I’m not particularly proud of this entry to the list, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t get significant play on my stereo in 2007.
12. Radiohead - In Rainbows (2007): Of course.
13. Young Marble Giants - Colossal Youth (1980): Just heard this for the first time a few weeks ago. YMG were a Welsh post-punk band that lasted for only one album. I hear traces of Stereolab, and I like that.

And hey, why not a travelogue of ‘07? Here is every city I spent at least a night in last year (having taken the idea from Eightface, who borrowed it from Kottke):

1. Ann Arbor, MI
2. Ottawa, ON, Canada
3. Owosso, MI
4. Boston, MA
5. Berlin, Germany
6. Prague, Czech Republic
7. Brussels, Belgium
8. Cambridge, MA
9. Alpena, MI