2024: The Jukebox Musical

January - Here I Am, Bryan Adams

Ah, optimism... I always start the year full of hope and determination.

I promptly spent most of January arguing on the internet with people who lacked reading comprehension, media literacy or often both, and trying to maintain that sense of hope against increasingly obvious signs that the year was NOT going to turn out like I'd hoped.

Mayhem, Misery and Disaster reigned, with Wars, the world seemingly going mad, politicians dithering about Optics rather than doing their damn jobs, and ending the month with a vicious bout of Gastro that saw me in hospital overnight then home sick for three days.

At least I had an excuse to avoid the Bogan Botherations and other Nationialistic Nutjobs running around draped in Australian flags on January 26th; I was too busy bowing to the porcelin goddess and throwing up everything I'd eaten since Christmas.

I did enter a bunch of Vocal writing Challenges, though I also continued my ongoing streak of not placing in any of them.

February - Non-stop, Hamilton

Sprecifically the refrain "Why do you write like you're running out of time?" Because Deadlines, that's why.

February was a busy month for me.

I won my first Unofficial Challenge through Queer Vocal Voices, swore that the book I was finishing would be a standalone (much to my Beloved's prophetic amusement), and continued many of the online arguments I started in January.

I also published the second half of a duology and thought I was done, only to get swarmed by plot bunnies for an anthology of all the short stories that happened off-page. It should be noted that this was a recurring theme with me...

March - Breakaway, Kelly Clarkson

In March, NaNoWriMo broke with a huge scandal of Fraud and accusations of Grooming, and the Main Organizer doubled down rather than apologizing and working to fix it.

As a result, the NaNoWriMo group that formed a large part of my social life, rebranded as the Sydney Writes Club. Being located in Australia, we weren't as connected to the main organization as many of the USA NaNoWriMo Groups, so there wasn't a huge change, other than no longer being forced to follow USA restrictions and guidelines that weren't really even relevant on a completely different continent.

April - The SCA (parody), Mark MacLeod

Most of April was focused on two of my major bookstalls of the year: Rowany Festival and Ironfest. Rowany Festival ran for a week, from Set-Up Sunday to the following Pack-Down Monday. The weekend after that (after much-needed hot showers and dealing with the Festival Laundry Mountain) was Ironfest, back after five years of COVID Cancellations.

The two weeks prior to festival were spent doing costume repairs, planning and prep, and some last minute organisation for people with social anxiety. Once Ironfest was over, there was something like three days left of April.

May - The Lesbian Hunter vs The Sad Sad Alpha Man, Vinny Marchi

In May, I discovered a new artist and promptly binged everything he'd ever produced.

I wound up listening the most to the teaser for this particular song, because it combined social justice with an artist listening to their fans, and it's just a damn funny song.

June - This Is Me, The Greatest Showman

June is Pride Month, so of course I picked one of my favourite LGBTQI+ Anthems for this month. Even if, since Australia was suddenly plunged into winter, "Let It Go" might have been more appropriate, for once.

July - Jack Frost and the Hooded Crow, Jethro Tull

Since July is Australia's Winter, we get a lot of "Christmas In July", and I get to binge all the traditional Seasonal Songs that mention snow.

This song always stuck out to me as a Christmas Favorite in the spirit of Dickens calling people out to actually care about other people in less fortunate situations.

August - August, Taylor Swift

Yeah, August slipped away almost before I noticed that it was even here, so this song felt particularly suitable for the month...

September - September, Earth Wind & Fire

September is weird; There's so much happening, and yet it seems to pass in a blink before anything happens.

October - The Schyler Sisters, Hamilton

Again, for a very specific refrain: "Work, work", because that was my October.

I organised a Re-enactment Halloween Event, so of course I spent the entire month planning the menu, testing recipes, double-checking allergy lists and shopping to feed 30 people a three-course meal.

The Feast was on October 26th, and spent the last few days of the month recovering.

November - This Is Not A Feminist Song, SNL

We entered November full of hope for the future. Between Trump's many gaffes, blunders and blatant misinformation, and Kamala running rings around him in the debates, surely the election was in the bag...

Yeah, we all know how that went.

On the bright side, I'm geniuniely hoping that the prospect of what Trump has planned for US Healthcare will convince my Dad to move back to a country with Universal Healthcare, especially now that he officially has a pre-existing condition.

December - Lift the Wings, Roverdance

Most people enter December hyped up for the holidays, but I got news of my Dad discovering Bone Cancer, and the closest thing I had to an older brother dying in his sleep at just 40.

In something vaguely like a silver lining, my workplace reaffirmed that they are an awesome place to be employed, because they skirted the Bereavement Leave rules (Usually it's one degree of Immediate Family, and Godbrother doesn't actually count) to let me avoid using up my personal leave or taking unpaid leave for the funeral.

January, 2025 - He Set Her Off, Emily Anne Roberts

As I write this, it's 2025 in Sydney Australia, and my mother started the year by giving both my neieve and nepher toy katanas that light up and make noise.

Why. Mum? What did I do to make you hate me this much?

2025, off to an extremely questionable start....