Hopes for 2007

Ok, so it’s a week late…

I shan’t call these my new year’s resolutions because to be fair, I don’t resolve to keep them all – they are more like hopes and intentions… I am so non-committal.

So in 2007, I hope/plan to…

Take advantage of the fact that the ‘Best Midlands’ is currently a great place for live music and new/unsigned bands. I plan to see more live music (at the end of 2006 I saw The Twang, The Gravity Crisis, The Ripps, Untitled Musical Project, Murdoch, Deluka) and I reckon if you haven’t heard of any of these bands yet – you might in 2007. The Twang were recently named one of the sounds of 2007 in a poll published on the BBC website.

I also plan to improve my knowledge of the arts (and also theatre). When I was younger, I considered myself to be fairly artistic. I wasn’t bad at art and I enjoyed taking trips to galleries in Birmingham but recently I have stopped doing these things so I need to start again… As a first step towards improving my knowledge of the arts, I have enrolled in an history of art module with the Centre for Lifelong Learning ‘Artists in context’ which starts tomorrow evening.

Along a similar line to above – I intend to watch more documentaries and less reality TV. I watched a great programme the other night about the drug/gang culture in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro which was fascniating. Also, I saw a great programme advertised that is on tonight about the California music scene during the 60s and 70s so I will be tuning in to that. And I hardly watched any of the mind-numbingly rubbish Soapstar Superstar or Just the Two of Us.

I also intend to make better use of this blog. I have trained as a journalist and I work in Communications so I hope that I can produce more interesting reading matter on here instead of just general chit-chat about my flat and stuff! Expect more reviews…

I should probably make note of a resoultion suggested by my Mom. She told me I should ‘make a concerted effort to find a boyfriend’. Now, I am not sure exactly how you are meant to ‘make a concerted effort’. It’s not like I’m not keeping my eyes/options open – the right one just isn’t coming my way… plus the fact that I am committment-phobic is a slight hindrance here. Which brings me to my next resolution…

‘Say yes and worry less’. By say ‘yes’ – I just mean, take advantage of the opportunities that come my way instead of fretting about them and worrying ‘what if?’ all the time. I think I will go and buy ‘Yes Man’ by Danny Wallace and see if that helps… although I am not going to say ‘yes’ to everything – so don’t ask!

Another thing I need to remember this year is that I am only 24 years old – not 44!! Since I got my flat and my mortgage I have been staying in more (which is fine since it will help me to fulfill the aims above) but to fulfill my other aims such as find a boyfriend and enjoy the Birmingham music-scene a bit more, I need to remember that it is ok to go out on a work night, a large proportion of my weekend should not be taken up with hoovering and tidying up, and I have the rest of my life to save money. But then when you have a nice cosy flat to go home to it is tempting to become a hermit!

So there we go – my ‘hopes’ for 2007 – we’ll see how it goes…

Eleanor Lovell : 08 Jan 2007 13:28 |  Tags: Arts Flat Gigs Hopes Music Plans Relationships TV Writing |  Comments (8) |  Report a problem