The list at the end of the year

When I was covering music and entertainment for a site called pbpulse.com (don’t look for it, it doesn’t exist anymore, except on Internet Archive), and even before that for the Palm Beach Post, the year-end list was part of the deal.

You would gather your favorite albums (or books, or movies, or whatever your expertise was), and tell everyone your favorites for that year.

The effect was tying up the year in a little bow and sending it on its way into history, forging ahead into the future. Or something to that effect.

Often, for me, this was a trying task. Many years, I loved WAY more than 10 albums or songs, and whittling them down to 10 was impossible. Others, well… let’s face it, you maybe had 5 good albums, and then 20 mediocre ones you kind of liked.

Anyway, as I moved away from entertainment into news, then into general web work, and now into my much more niche journalism role, the need to keep up with music (and TV, and movies, and books) has drained away.

Now, I’m more inclined to want to listen to something from 20, 30, 40 years ago. I’m still catching up on shows released 5 years ago.

I just saw a great movie I’ve never seen before! Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. Released in 2003.

And that’s OK. A lot of what’s being released in entertainment these days isn’t made FOR me. It’s made for people much younger. Which is the way it’s always been.

That said, that Zach Bryan album was mighty good.