Jack Yan looks back at the last 12 months, and the events that come to mind when examining his Tumblr archive

What has been going on this year?
   I’ve kept a Tumblr blog for some years, where I put a lot of pithy blog posts. For me, Tumblr’s pièce de résistance is the archive section, which allows you to look at everything you’ve posted in a graphical manner. As you scroll through, you get a feeling of the big topics of each month—kind of like scrolling through Facebook Timeline, but without the wordy posts, and in a faster fashion.
   Therefore, in the spirit of my ‘History of the Decade’ series, here are the unimportant—and some very important—things that piqued my interest during 2011.


January: The Hustle crew is back in Brum, but without the ‘created by Tony Jordan’ credit on some episodes.

January
   Why is Tony Jordan’s name missing from these episodes of Hustle?
   Zen is awesome, even if the male cast largely speaks with English accents and the female cast speaks with Italian and French ones.
   John Barry dies. My favourite composer. RIP.

February
   The Christchurch earthquake and stories of tragedy and heroism.
   The fall and fall of Charlie Sheen, and if recasting Two and a Half Men, put Martin Sheen in it and set it in 2040.
   Mad Dogs begins.


February: Mad Dogs: great British telly. Philip Glenister adopts a Gene Hunt pose, but with Marc Warren instead of John Simm.

March
   The Japanese earthquake and tsunami.
   Kelly Adams is off the market, boys.
   Mad Dogs finishes.
   The Americans make William & Kate with Los Angeles and Hollywood standing in for Buckingham Palace, London, Klosters, St Andrew’s and other locations. No one looks at the arse of the actress who plays Pippa. Come to think of it, I’m not sure if it was even filmed.

April
   I go on telly to dis the copyright amendments in a new bill, which has been spurred on by Hollywood lobbyists. Farewell the presumption of innocence and due process.
   Elisabeth Sladen dies.
   Everyone talking about Pippa Middleton’s rear end.


April: This seems to be the enduring image of the UK Royal Wedding.

May
   Cheryl Cole goes to America for X Factor USA. Then she comes back.
   Karen Gillan films We’ll Take Manhattan with the first on-set photo released.


June: Australians unite against homophobes who pressure a billboard company to take down a safe-sex ad.

June
   Australians unite against a billboard company that takes down an ad featuring a gay couple. The CEO responds within the day, which is a contrast to how Wellington Airport conducted itself over public outcry over ‘Welly-wood’ Part II.
   A redhead wins Miss USA.

July
   People go on to Google Plus to talk about Google Plus.
   The Murdoch Press phone-hacking scandal.
   UN says that the internet is a human right.

August
   I think the movie The Avengers is about John Steed and Emma Peel.

September
   The Unscripted exhibition and I get photographed with Jekyll himself, James Nesbitt.
   Facebook Timeline.
   Old School, New School exhibition has Joe Churchward and Mark Geard’s typeface designs.


October: The Russian Sam Tyler.

October
   Rugby.
   Russians remake Life on Mars.
   Gaddafi owned a Toyota (just like bin Laden).

November
   Mongrels is back.
   Ricky Gervais will be back for the Golden Globes.
   The Sweeney will be back.

December: Britney Spears gets engaged again. A few years ago, The Times of India talked about her first marriage to Jason Alexander—and finds the wrong photo.

December
   Facebook Timeline gets rolled out to the public, so they make it worse.
   Occupy continues.
   Britney Spears gets engaged: remember that time she married George Costanza off Seinfeld?

Jack Yan is publisher of Lucire.