And so onto 2018, with the thought that 2017 was a pretty lousy year but frankly looks better than 2018.

I don’t think I can provide a list of doings — some of my cinema going has been reviewed and books get skewed by Clarke reading that I can’t admit to. I have been to exhibitions at galleries in Chichester, Salisbury, Greater Manchester, Norwich, Eastbourne, Bergen, Chelmsford, Compton Verney, Glasgow, Woking, Liverpool, Hecksinki, York and London (Courtauld, National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, Whitechapel, Tates Britain and Modern, Dulwich Picture Gallery and probably others). I think Liverpool Tate wins out of the four Tates — which is unfair to St Ives which I haven’t got back to. I really liked Paula Rego at Hastings, Nash at Tate and Norwich, Dix at Liverpool, and others. It’s a bit of a cheat, but I think it’s quicker and easier to get to Helsinki than Compton Verney. Highlight of the year was probably seeing American Gothic.

Must write stuff up.

I have been to the theatre several times — Travesties, Angels in America, Glengarry Glen Ross and Young Marx are those I remember.

On the publishing front I have published two chapters — ‘Invoking the Holy Trilogy: Star Wars in the Askewniverse’, Star Wars and the History of Transmedia Storytelling, edited by Dan Hassler-Forest and Sean Guynes, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press and ‘Reinscribing Patriarchy in the Star Trek Films 1979-1994’, To Boldly Go: The Star Trek Universe, Identity, Gender and Beyond, edited by Nadine Farghaly, Jefferson NC: McFarland, 2017 — and various reviews.

A number of chapters are out in the wild, two are for companions (with one missing in action) and one is on John Wyndham.

I have wiped my to do list off the whiteboard and rewritten it: first up are two chapters on cyberpunk film, then I need to finish the Ex_Machina article, write the Avatar and Cthulucene chapter for the Organic Systems book. I have a book manuscript to finally fucking get back to and two or three book proposal. Paul March-Russell and I need to do something with the Clarke conference. And I think I said I would write up the paper on Monsters I’ve given at various places (there was rumours of a proceedings volume). I should get back to the A Scanner Darkly paper and War of the Worlds (the other other 2005 film), but not any time soon.

In the near future — Chichester and (a day trip to?) Liverpool, and some wider expotitions.

I’ve twice said to people, “I can’t write that for you, because I’m focusing on film”, and unfortunately they’ve said, “Fine, write that on film.” The word “No” may yet have to be deployed.