I had every intention in the world to do my normal multi-part series to wrap up this year. I had fun with it last year. But life is what happens when you are busy making other plans and all that. Plus this year felt like a decade and I am still finding out that actual events that involved my own human person occurred this past like, March, and not in 2018 and that is fucking wild.

So without further ado here are a few things that did indeed stand out.


The Twentieth Anniversary Of 9/11

Nothing, I don’t think, has ever made me feel older than remembering the 20th anniversary of arguably the most horrible day in American history. Possibly the worst part of this day was that we were all so burned out from the pandemic and every other shitty thing going on in the world that we didn’t even have it in us, in my opinion, to give it its due. Maybe that’s for the best in a way, as I’ve heard multiple families of victims say they’d rather not see it played on loop on their TVs once a year. Either way it’s not something we should ever forget. If not to remember how we all stood together for a brief few months after that.

I Was Reminded I Sort Of Caused The Pandemic

Being of a certain amount of Irish descent I fully believe in jinxes, karma, or whatever you want to call putting something into the universe that you may come to regret. I guess I briefly forgot about that at the culmination of 2019. For that I am truly sorry. It was during a discussion with a very close friend at that time. We were talking about where we were in life and where we wanted to be – our goals, our hopes, all of it. To that end we both had an odd feeling that we were on the precipice of some great happenings in our lives. Just an instinct that things were about to come together. And then we made the mistake of stating as such. I believe what was said was, and I quote, was, “2020 is going to be our year.” Needless to say three months later we realized how wrong we were. And a couple of days ago I was (fucking) reminded of that.

Long Live X

DMX was a man and entertainer who truly transcended any kind of labels you could possibly come up with – from his proper occupation, to his proper genre in the music world, to his place in the cultural zeitgeist. He was beloved by all of the generation during which he rose to prominence, famously hypnotizing a crowd of 300,000+ Limp Bizkit fans into mosh their faces off at Woodstock 99′. Unfortunately, he was also a testament to the phrase that the brightest lights burn twice as fast. His own demons caught up to him eventually. I don’t know how someone who goes that hard in every aspect of life was suppose to last too long. But he gave the world literally everything he had. There indeed was X.

Life Finds A Way (Back To Normal)

Memorial Day Weekend of 2021 marked the first weekend Boston officially “reopened” meaning bars and restaurants lifted all restrictions pertaining to Covid. It was glorious. Beers were drank, Ubers were puked in, Churches were broken into. Life seemed to be getting back to normal. Things have since gotten a little more dicey but it seems like for now the powers that be will stand strong in keeping life “open” as opposed to going back to the dark days of 2020 where there was nothing wrong with getting blackout drunk on my couch, alone, on a Friday at 6pm. It’s this writers opinion that at this point if you’ve taken your precautions, gotten vaccinated, and feel up to hitting the town you should be able to. If you are terrified of the reality we are never going to escape (probably), don’t. I don’t understand how this is still a debate.

A Guy Dressed Like Someone Going As A Viking To The Electric Daisy Carnival Leads A Storming Of The Capitol Building

Ya, that was this year. Insane. People’s reaction to this greatly interested me. Some sort of shrugged, ostensibly understanding that a small subculture of our country were indeed batshit and this just made sense. Some were shaken, our main federal governmental building and thus the epicenter of our nation had just been attacked by its own citizens. That is the kind of chaos saved for 2nd and 3rd world countries, not the great US of A. Some were even passively or directly supportive of QAnon Ragnar and thought he and his peeps were some sort of unemployed freedom brigade. I’m not here to talk politics. I just know it was a weird day.

Britney Is Indeed Freed

For whatever reason I can’t convince myself to care more about this. Maybe it’s because Britney Spears is indeed completely batshit. But good for her because her Dad has no right to control her money or her birth control (you creep).

Everyone Wears Big Dumb Hats Now

Have you ever observed a fashion trend from afar and just known that if you indeed participate you’ll hate yourself in retrospect? That is this new trend of coachella-esque big ass hats. It’s the ultimate red flag. If I see a girl in a big red hat I figure she either desperately needs it to have one discernable personality trait or she has MANY THAT SUCK and thus needs a now socially acceptable one to make up for it. Stop it with the hats.

You Cannot And Will Not Beat Dave Chappelle

Dave Chappelle put out a special in 2021. It was the last on his deal with Netflix and he is expected to sort of disappear for a bit again after this. So he went quietly with a pretty steady, run of the mill special.

Just kidding.

Among the other jokes he told and observation atom bombs he dropped he decided to slip in the fact that he isn’t 1000% behind the trans community, all over the course of discussing a trans friend of his who had committed suicide. The backlash to this bit was swift and furious. And one gigantic misstep. At this point the powers that be in the trans community probably should know that Dave Chappelle is a.) A comedian that takes his job as someone who lampoons every last inch of society very seriously a.) Therefore is largely considered above reproach as it pertains to doing that job. The calls for his head weren’t nearly as notable as the calls for him to sit down with local (Los Angeles) leaders of the trans community. I cannot begin to imagine the smirk of Dave Chappelle’s face upon hearing very average citizens he had never heard of were demanding to speak with him. He in fact did not acquiesce to their demands and has since ridden out the controversy, which included an awkward moment or two with his high school alma mater. It is kind of poetic that in the year we lost DMX’s body, Dave Chappelle’s soul refused to die.