Tag: Statistica

Boy, was i wrong! I definitely thought the Covid-19 shit was on decline, it was vaccination protecting us sufficiently and that all the things i love can pick up again … i was so wrong.

The 2021 statistica shows it well…

… in 2020 i was able to see 7 shows with 21 bands and even that did decline in 2021:

Bands	20
Shows	7
Venue	Shows	Bands	Bands/Show
Knust	6	12	2
Molotow	2	2	1
MS Hedi	1	1	1
Hafenklang	1	2	2
Monkeys Exile	1	1	1

Best show? De/ALL at the Knust (Dirk, Perry and Arne are forever in our collective debt for all they pulled during these damn days, your reward will be eternal friends!) during the short and happy summer as we believed it would go uphill soonest.

Now it is Omikron and again the circuit has been shutdown. Even for a show out in August 2021 like Descendents in Hannover i see a high risk of not happening. Damn.

On the reading front i kept almost the same pace as in 2020: Same number of books (67) but 1.963 pages less. Dropped below 80 on pages read per day. Where did the time go? It went into quality time with me love actually, this Covid stuff glued us even deeper together.

	# of books	# of pages	# of days
Crime	57	20.314	337
Music	9	1.994	35
History	1	436	4
Scifi	0	0	0
Total	67 books read	22.744 pages read	77 pages per day

Loads of Crime for sure but also more on Music (a welcome extension if you ask me). Top stuff is still the Crime series of the Polar Verlag, followed by the stuff that Thomas Wörtche orchestrates for Suhrkamp.

Best reads? On the crime front it was the two books by Ryan Gattis, followed by Doug Johnstone. Doug Johnstone penned the perfect crime story and Ryan Gattis … not only continued to paint a perfect view of L.A. but also sported the best playlist in a book:

And on 01.01.2022 i started the new book by Ivy Pochoda (another stunner on L.A.) and about 100 pages in i almost believe that i am reading one of the 2022 best books (and sorry for picking it nor earlier from the backlog next to me bed).

And on the vinyl side? What records did impress me in 2021?

Make your choice, here in no particular order:

Huge surprise from France:

Killer update from a beloved band:

Outstanding Oi! from CPH:

New stuff (and great cover of “Shape Of Things To Come“):

For all other mu-sick-al likes refer to the three 2021 playlists published:

Songs From The Holy War Archive Volume Seventeen – www.gehkacken.de

Songs From The Holy War Archive Volume Eighteen – www.gehkacken.de

Songs From The Holy War Archive Volume Nineteen – www.gehkacken.de

Thanks for all the people who supported me in 2021, you know who you are and i do love you. Lets try to make the best outta 2022 because there is nothing else left for us.

Fuck it.

2020 in numbers should reflect the gruesome death toll of Covid-19, should it not? For all the years to come Covid-19 has impacted 2020 and will continue to impact 2021 too. So no surprise that my tracking of both seeing shows and reading books reveals an impact:

On the show side 2020 was all fucked, my treasured season ticket at the Hafenklang was literally of no-use (but a perfect sponsorship for a club that needs the money, as it has been cut off from any income). So i saw less (but ended up giving more, including auctioning off memorabilia via Punk Rock Hamburg and it’s Solidarity campaign and selling some pricey vinyl to fellow collectors and donating the money) and i do fear for my loved local clubs.

Bands	21
Shows	7
Venue	Shows	Bands	Bands/Show
Hafenklang	2	5	3
Monkeys	0	0	0
Molotow	1	2	2
Stellwerk	1	5	5
Knust	3	3	1

Best show? That was the Solidary Punk Rock Days at the Knust, without a doubt. A huge “Love & Kisses” to Dirk, Perry and Arne for that weekend!

Little did we know that this joyful feeling of warm summer days and the return of shows would not last at all. Now the circuit is dead way into 2021 and i guess it will even take up to 2022 to give us back international touring. Damn.

On the book front i had the feeling that did read less but as it turns out i did read exactly the same number of books, though slightly more pages with an average of 89 pages a calendar day.

	# of books	# of pages
Crime	58	21.299
Music	5	1.920
History	4	1.488
Scifi	0	0

What did i read most? Sure crime! 14 books came from Polar Verlag, still by far the most exiting edition of crime books around. On 2nd place Suhrkamp, with 7 books from the capable Hands of Thomas Wörtche. Other cool editions are Ariadne, Ars Vivendi and Atrium Verlag – by coincidence a triple A.

Best read 2020? That is spread but almost all female:

Outstanding was Valentine Imhof – Aus Lauter Zorn (Polar Verlag, 2020), the best combination of music, violence and tattoos. In a crime setting. With a female main character. Just eye and brain cinema pleasing.

2nd best and only by a short margin was Melissa Scrivner Love – Capitana (Suhrkamp Nova, 2020) with her 2nd book on lovely Lola Vasquez.

On 3rd i would place all the Canada stuff (Dietrich Kalteis – Shootout (Suhrkamp, 2018), Ron Corbett – Preisgegeben (Polar Verlag, 2020), Scott Thornley – Der Gute Cop (Suhrkamp, 2020) and Mike Knowles – Tin Men (Polar Verlag, 2020)) that surprised me so much in 2020 as a crime location.

Biggest pain? My all time favorite James Ellroy making it a pain to read 959 pages of … whatever.

Best music read was Debbie Harry – Face It (Dey St., 2019) for being totally honest with herself. And surprising me with details i had no clue about.

Best record of 2020? X, with a surprise new record.