2015 in review - Music

This post has been a long time coming.  I made a start on it a while ago, but never got around to posting it.

I listened to a lot of EPs during the year. The ones that really have stood out are:

• Christa Wells Covers project - probably the most played album / EP through 2015. Great covers of some of my favourite 80s/90s tunes.
• Andrew Osenga's Heart, Flesh, Soul and Bone project (covering four genres Singer/Songwriter, Blues/Soul, Rock and Instrumental).
• Sleeping At Last's 'Atlas' project (this year focused on Life and our Sense)
• Jon Foreman's The Wonderlands project (built around themes of Sunlight, Shadows, Darkness and Dawn)
• Matthew Perryman Jones - Cold Answer
• Nichole Nordeman - The Unmaking (Nichole's first release of new music since 2005).

I spent a lot of 2015 listening to recordings from U2's Innocence and Experience concerts, I loved Songs of Innocence, and how the old songs were reinterperated in light of contemporary situations. The sequence of songs from Every Breaking Wave to With or Without You is almost perfect. Just watch the Paris DVD and you'll get what I mean. I will write a review of the DVD soon.

The albums I can remember buying during 2015 were:

• Caitlyn Canty - Reckless Skyline
• Glen Hansard - Didn't He Ramble
• Amanda Opelt - Seven Songs
• Colm Mac Con Iomaire - Agus Anois An Aimsir
• Coldplay - A Head Full of Dreams
• Jenny & Tyler - Of this I'm Sure
• Jewel - Picking up the Pieces
• Katrina Stone - Never Wanna Grow Up
• The Paper Kites - Twelvefour
• Sandra McCracken - Psalms
• Sara Groves - Floodplain
• Sarah Blasko -  Eternal Return
• Wilco - Star Wars

The Frames also released Longitude during the year. Longitude celebrated their 25th Anniversary and was a collection of songs they liked, with one new song 'None But I', a few different songs were re-recorded.

From that list, the ones that have lasted through the year are:

• Sandra McCracken - Psalms
• Glen Hansard - Didn't He Ramble
• Jenny & Tyler - Of this I'm Sure
• Colm Mac Con Iomaire - Agus Anois An Aimsir 
• Amanda Opelt - Seven Songs 

2015 - Favourite NZ Sporting moment

I may have posted this in one of my sports posts, but the Halberg Awards are coming up, and there is a viewers choice for the sporting moments of the year. View the full list here. Here's my standouts. 

(1)    The Football Ferns win against Brazil.

(2)    Grant Elliot’s innings against South Africa, and his sportsmanship after it, in the World Cup Semi Final     

(3)    The Kiwi’s winning the ANZAC Test against Australia in Rugby League – the first time in 17 years.

2015 Cricinfo Awards

One of the highlights each year is reading the nominations for the best individual performances in the different formats of Cricket for the previous year. I've picked my favourite from each category. Read the full list of nominees here:

Test Cricket:

Test Batting performance of the year

Tamim Iqbal (Bangladesh) 206

Easy to pick Ross Taylor for his 290 against Australia in Perth. Ross Taylor broke one of Cricket's oldest records (The highest score by any visiting batsman in Australia, Tip Fosters made 287 in 1903/1904), and given his form going in to the Perth test it took everyone by surprise. But I'll pick Iqbal's 206 - the highest score for Bangladesh. He shared in a 312 run stand for the first wicket in Bangladesh's second innings (the highest opening stand in the third or fourth innings in test history), saving the test match.

Test Bowling performance of the Year

Stuart Broad (England) 8/15

One of the more perfect bowling performances I can remember. Australia's full innings lasted 114 balls. I still scarcely believe this scorecard, given it was on the opening morning of the fourth Ashes test with so much at stake.

One Day Internationals:

ODI Batting

Mahmudullah (Bangladesh), 128* 

One of two centuries Mahmudullah made during the World Cup and this innings drove Bangladesh to a competitive total, which NZ after a few anxious moments chased down.

Hon Mention Elliot's 84* in the World Cup semi final, not only for the innings, but for one of the moments of the World Cup - the photo of Elliot reaching out to Dale Steyn will live long in the memory. 

ODI Bowling

Mitchell Starc (Aus) 6/28

Starc's spell almost won the game for Australia, after a Trent Boult led New Zealand had bowled Australia out for 151.

Hon mention: Tim Southee (NZ), 7/33 

Best bowling figures for a NZ in ODI cricket, and the best bowling figures at the 2015 World Cup.

T20 Internationals

T20 Batting

JP Duminy 68* (South Africa) 

Others have made higher scores, but he guided South Africa who at one stage needed 107 off 61 balls.

Hon mention: Gayle's 90 which kickstarted the West Indies successful chase of 231 (the highest score made batting second in any T20).

T20 Bowling

Harder to judge what makes a good performance in T20, dot balls are as important as wickets. Interesting looking at the best bowling figures for 2015, all but four are all from players in Associate teams.

I'll make it easy and pick Wiesse's 5/23.

Captain of the year:

Mashrafe Mortaza (Bangladesh) who inspired the Bangladeshi team to one of their best years in international Cricket.

Hon Mention, Brendan McCullum, for both the style of cricket he's inspired NZ to play, and the results through the year. (Tests 4-3, 1 draw, ODI 18-5, 1 no result)

Disappointing that there's no Female cricket of the year on CricInfo, but there will be next year :)  I would give it to either Elysse Perry or Meg Lanning, probably the two most consistent women cricketers across all formats last year. Though Jess Johanson's performance in the Ashes would put her up there too.

2015 In review - books

I haven't read as many books this year as I was intending too, but thought I would write about the books I did manage to read through during 2015.

Searching for Sunday - Rachel Held Evans
Rachel’s journey with the church – even in Australia context I find it easy to relate to the stories she tells. Love the authenticity and honesty she writes with. Definitely pick up the album by Amanda Opelt (Seven Songs), it’s a perfect accompaniment.

Out of Sorts - Sarah Bessey
Probably my favourite book for 2015. I can totally relate to the journey Sarah has been on. The chapters on the practice of lament, and Christian community are the best thing about the book. Sarah’s writing style is so conversational as well making the book easily accessible.

As an aside the song best capturing a message I took from Bessey and Held Evans books is Jars of Clay’s Shelter, from the album of the same name.

In the shelter of each other, we will live, we will live (In the shelter) 

In the shelter of each other, we will live, we will live (You will never walk alone) 

In the shelter of each other, we will live, we will live (In Your arms are all around us) 

In the shelter of each other, we will live, we will live (In Your arms are all around us)

If there is any peace, if there is any hope 

We must all believe, our lives are not our own 

We all belong God has given us each other 

And we will never walk alone

Class act - Maxine McKew

McKew looks at the education system, and what some schools are doing right.

This Changes Everything - Naomi Klein
On the changes our world needs to make to adjust to the changes in our environment. A confronting read, and I find it hard to argue with its key message. Our world is changing, our environment is changing, and we need to adjust to these changes.

Keating - Kerry O'Brien
The book is a transcript of Kerry O’Brien’s interview with former Prime Minister Paul Keating. I was a fan of Keating in the 90s, and vividly remember the night he was voted out. Keating is one of a few politicians with a vision of what Australia could become. It was intriguing reading his reflections, both on his time in politics and the current state of Australian politics. Sadly, we don’t have any leaders like him in our current Parliament, who are more interested in shaping opinion than following opinion polls.

The Narrow Road to the Deep North - Richard Flanagan
The only novel on the list, I quite liked Flanagan’s writing style and the story he was telling.

A Thousand Wells - Jena-Lee Nardella
Tells the story of how the charity Blood Water was formed, as well as an autobiography of one of its founders Jena Lee.

In progress

• A Path Appears – Nick Kristof and Cheryl Wu Dunn, so far, the book is a powerful reminder that however dark this world seems to be, there are people working to make a difference, and people who have inspired others to seek to bring change to the world. The world changes one person at a time, and we don’t know how powerfully we can shape the lives of those around us.  
• Chasing Shadows - Tim Lane. Peter Roebuck is one for my favourite Cricket writers. Roebuck had a sense of the game, understood its spirit, its characters, and had a vision for its future. I loved listening to him on ABC Radio. Along with Benuad he was one of the voices of summer. So I’m interested in reading the book to find out more about him and his life.

2015 in review .. Sport.

So, it has been a busy year in sport. For me the highlight of the year would be the All Blacks becoming the first team to win two consecutive Rugby World Cups.  Other contenders:

• NZ performance at the Cricket World Cup. (no they didn't win, but how the game is played matters more than results to me). 
• The start of the Women's Big Bash League
• The Matlida's performance at the World Cup in Canada. Australia's first Quarter-Finalist at the Football World Cup. The US performance against Japan in the Final, was virtually flawless
• Yep, I wanted the Silverferns to win, but the Diamond's achievement in winning the Netball World Cup. (The last game of the Constellation Cup was also super impressive, were NZ beat the Diamonds by 12 goals, falling just short of the 14 they needed to win the cup.
• Michelle Payne - not really a fan of Horse-racing, but her achievement to get the ride, and win the cup, in a male dominated industry was very impressive
• The Socceroos winning the Asian Cup. 
• The Highlanders winning the SuperXV tournament. Yes, I do support the Hurricanes, but I've always had a soft spot for the Highlanders.
• Thurston's field goal to win the NRL Grand-Final
• Djokovic and Serena Williams were possible the sports-stars of the year. Both won three out of the four majors. 

The less said about the AFL season the better - it was really soured by treatment of Adam Goodes, and another lack-lustre Grand Final. 

Test Cricket team of the year:
Now I'll turn my attention to my test team of the year. Yep, there's still two tests to go (Australia v West Indies & South Africa v England), but don't think that any performance would change my team.

1. Daivd Warner (Australia)
2. Alistair Cook (England)
3. Kane Williamson (New Zealand), capt.
4. Steven Smith (Australia)
5. Younis Khan (Pakistan)
6. Virat Kohli (India)
7. Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), (Pakistan)
8. Stuart Broad (England)
9. R. Ashwin (India)
10. Joshua Hazlewood (Australia)
11. Mitchell Starc (Australia)
12. Yasir Shah (Pakistan)

Captain, hard choice - have to admit, not impressed with any current/former captains, Steven Smith is too conservative for me, so maybe I'd give it to Kane Williamson. Conversely found it hard to pick the middle-order (5-6) and wicketkeeper.

The easiest picks: Williamson (the rankings don't lie, the best batsman in the World this year, 1172 runs at 90.15), Ashwin (best performing bowler this year, 62 wickets at 17.2), Warner and Hazlewood. Taylor's 290 against Australia in Perth, and Stuart Broad, whose 8/15 v Australia was the bowling performance of the year.

In ODI Cricket, hard to go past AB de Villiers 44-ball 149 as the ODI innings of the year, and Mitchell Starc's 6/28 (against NZ) as the bowling performance of the year.