1998

1998 has a special place in my heart. My memories of that year are full of warmth.

This is a clear sign of misplaced nostalgia. I spent the summer in detention at school. I wrote a suicide note and seriously considered acting upon it. I had very few friends. My Mum broke up with my stepdad which was a source of anguish for her and thus for me.

Sounds like a fairly crappy year, right? I've almost convinced myself. However I consider it the year that I truly came of age.

It is the year I finally got a real sense of myself as an individual. It is the year I accepted my sexuality. This is the year my tastes in music, movies and books coalesced into something recognisably similar to my current tastes.

In 1998 I still believed magic was possible and hope could still win over cynicism. And it was the year men really became super hot.

So, in order to help me find things to post about every day and to mark off the 20 years since then, there will be regular 1998 themed posts to take you, Dear Constant Reader, on a little trip through time and see the events, music and films that made me... me.

Now men with longish dark hair like this were highly important to my development and this picture isn't exploitative objectification but totally relevant to the post above...