Frohes Neues Jahr!

It’s January 1, 2026. Wow. We made it. We got through 2025. And if I’m being honest, I’m not entirely sure that 2025 doesn’t slide in right above 2020 if we’re ranking recent years by how much of a shitshow they’ve been. 2025 was a shitshow, and there’s no mistaking it.

Normally right about now I’m tucking into a lengthy year-end quiz-thing, but this time…I’m not going to do that. At least, not right now. I’m already working on it, but it probably won’t be appearing until Saturday, 10 January. Why so? Because 2025 was a year that needs some thinking about. Lots of dust to settle, and much of it won’t settle for years anyway. I just want to take my time with this, is basically where I land here. So stick around. Regular posting will resume now…though also with a few changes there to come, which I’ll be announcing soon. (Nothing bad, by the way, but I’m going to try adopting a more structured approach to my content creation, in hopes of spinning it into something possibly lucrative.)

Longtime readers will know that my annual tradition is to, at some point in the first few days of the New Year, watch the New Years From Vienna concert, featuring the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. This year is no different. If you’ve never seen it, I strongly recommend it! PBS always has it on Great Performances, but they do an abbreviated version of the program, which is why I recommend, if you can find it, the BBC’s full version. Still, it is always a wonderful way to bring in the new year and send out the old. And if you just can’t manage that at all, well, here’s the work that is always heard second-to-last in the program. A musical cliche, yes…but cliches become cliches for a reason, and not always bad.