Written by Sarah Nicole Prickett. (@xoxsnp)
Well, need is a strong word. Let me revise. Ten Things You Should Know in 2012.
No, that’s still not… I mean, “should” is so prescriptive. In 2012 I am resolving, for one, to be less prescriptive (any article beginning “how to” is so, so 2011). It is my job to tell you what to do, but I promise I will try harder to make it sound like I am merely suggesting, you know, out of the unrationed kindness of my heart. Let’s say: Ten Things I Want You to Know About in 2012.
But what if you already know about them? What if you know more about them than I do? I’m not as cool as I used to think I was.
Ten Things I Want You to Know About in 2012 If You Don’t Already.
There!
1. Forget Azealia Banks vs. Kreayshawn, forget Nicki Minaj vs. Lil Mama, forget Nicki Minaj vs. Lil Kim, because Reema Major is about to win everything. The 16-year-old Sudanese-Canadian rapper has a video with Rick Ross, a deal with Interscope, a year of hype behind her and style to burn. Listen to “Double Time” and realize, yes, that’s how quickly Major’s living up to her name.
2. Are you old enough to rent a car but not old enough to remember to put gas in it or renew your license maybe ever? Do you live in a city? Is it hard? Do your parents not “get” what you do for a living? Do you feel like you should be paid more because you’re secretly amazing, it’s just that nobody’s ever really understood you? There is a show for you, girls. No, I mean, it’s called Girls. This very buzzy television event is the brain-baby of Judd Apatow, who you know from the movies, and Lena Dunham, 2011′s number one Twitter crush, and it comes to HBO in spring. I’m getting HBO.
3. Norwegian Wood was the first Haruki Murakami novel I read and thus remains my sentimental fave. If you haven’t read it, read it now. Then go see the Anh Hung Tran adaptation, which came out some time ago in its native Japan but is fiiiiiinally here, in Toronto at least, on January 27. The film stars Rinko Kikuchi, Kenichi Matsuyama, and Kiko Mizuhara, and is set in the late ’60s, making it something of a Japanese counterpart to The Dreamers, if you will. But it’s something else entirely, something so beautiful, you guys, so unworldly and delicate, like a moth in wintertime. You’ll be scared to breathe. See it! Please?
4. In 2012, travel will be even more expensive. That’s just my expert opinion. Luckily, there’s a site called Touris.ms, which does what almost all travel journalism purports—but fails—to do: make you feel like you’re there. Young, raw photographers capture their hometowns, or their sojourns elsewhere, in filmic/offhand series that make you feel part co-voyager, part voyeur. The site, launched by Australia’s Native Digital, has a thing for Canada: they’ve already covered Toronto, Vancouver, and Thunder Bay.
5. Emma Straub has written true stories I like for Rookie and the New York Times, and has a book of untrue ones called Other People We Married, which came out in the fall. Her new novel, Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures, is really good according to Lorrie Moore and Lorrie Moore counts for a lot. It will be published sometime this year by Riverhead Books.
6. This is crazy and excellent: a curator at MASS MoCA, which is the contemporary art museum in Massachusetts, go figure, has undertaken the largest survey of Canadian art ever produced outside these borders. !!! For “Oh, Canada,” Denise Markonish spent three years visiting museums, galleries, and studios in our home and native land, then culled from her expeditions a group of 60-ish artists: Michael Snow, Douglas Coupland, Shary Boyle, Kim Adam, Micah Lexier, Kelly Mark, et al, many of whom are unknown to the vast majority of Canadians. Road trip, everyone?
7. The new Sarah Polley movie, Take This Waltz, stars Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen, and a super wet-dreamy guy with dark hair and hazel eyes, which is just the best combination, Jesus, I’m barely typing just thinking about it. It’s no Blue Valentine (my favourite movie of 2010 mostly because I measure how good a movie is by cupfuls of my own tears), but it’s sweet, often true, and stays with you. What’s it about? Um, 1) a Leonard Cohen song, obviously; 2) choosing between love and romance. Yes, you do have to choose. It’s called being an adult and it’s the worst. Anyway, if you don’t relate to this movie in some way, you’re probably lying. It comes out in late spring, or maybe early summer.
8. I’ve seen Trust, the melancholectronic Toronto band, play a lot of shows. Well, maybe four shows. Their drummer is also the drummer in Austra, and it’s true that if you like Austra, you’ll like Trust. It’s also true that you might not like Austra, but will still like Trust. Or that you like Austra and won’t like Trust. Whatever, just listen to Trust. Trust. Their debut LP is out onnnnnn… January 28.
9. In the most recent summer I met a guy who had the most interesting and contemporary tattoo, like nothing I’d ever seen. He said his friend designed it in Montreal. I said, you let your friend design your tattoo for you? Yes, he said, because some people understand that tattoos are art and not just random/sentimental doodles you get stuck on you forever (he didn’t actually say that, ’cause he’s nice). Eventually, I looked up this friend of his, and her name is Emilie Roby. She’s a legit visual artist who uses a needle like Frank Stella used a brush; even her online portfolio is more compelling than 90% of the art shows I’ve been to. If you want an original Roby, you have to email her and get a consultation and wait six months and then you have to show me right away.
10. Letters of Note is one of my favourite blogs. It’s a collection of letters from famous people, mostly from a time in which said famous people were still people and not caricatures drawn in Photoshop by E! producers. They had feelings and thoughts, and they knew how to use paper. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, nostalgia. Anyway, Letters of Note is being turned into a nice hardcover book; it comes out in October but can be ordered right now via Unbound. The internet is cool and all, but you’re nothing until you’re a book.
Sarah Nicole Prickett is a writer living in Toronto. She is in the know.