2020, what on earth was that?
Never before have we so looked forward to the new year. Never before have we experienced such bizarre times. Ideally, we’d love to just erase this year from our memory. But let’s not forget that , aside from the thousands of lows, there were also highs. And even the highlights of the lowlights are interesting. We asked AB employees what we should definitely remember from 2020. Or what we shouldn’t. These are the lamest lists of 2020:
Ilse Schoonackers (HR Manager)
What was your favourite Corona-meal? Dahl with Spinach
What was your favourite Corona-album? Kruangbin - Mordechai
What was your favourite Corona-book? Drift – Bregje Hofstede
What was your favourite Corona-film? The Painted Bird (Vaclav Marhoul)
What was the artistic revelation of Corona? My new neighbour from Limburg playing guitar
What was your favourite Corona-ritual? Unlimited sweets while working from home.
What was your most memorable Corona-moment? Streets filled with half-masked faces
What are you most looking forward to in 2021? Parties! Colour! Dancing!
What was the most annoying Corona-trend? ‘how to survive corona’ checklists
Did you cut your own hair? Didn’t need Corona to do that.
What Corona-word do you never want to hear again? Curve
Where would you have rather been for all that time in 2020? On a lonely French peak
Which Corona-hobby did you soon give up? jogging
Who or what have you absolutely NOT missed at all? Airplanes flying (too) low above Brussels
How many kilos have you gained? Don’t want to know.
What was your worst Corona-purchase? A 2000 piece puzzle: still haven’t started it.
Ward Cannaerts ( Marketing & Communication Manager)
What was your best cancelled concert of 2020? IDLES on every stage imaginable.
What was your favourite Corona-meal? A take-away meal from Jour de Fête
What was your favourite Corona-album? Perfume Genius - Set My heart on fire immediately
What was your favourite Corona-book? De Avond is Ongemak - Marieke Lucas Rijneveld
What was your favourite Corona-film? Concertfilm 'Bitterzoet' - Eefje de Visser ❤️
What was your most memorable Corona-moment? Becoming a father
What are you most looking forward to in 2021? The festival summer and the euphoric dance orgy between September and December
What was the most annoying Corona-trend? Wearing face masks and not being able to smile at people any more
Did you cut your own hair? My girlfriend did, an absolute success!
What Corona-word do you never want to hear again? Security Council
Where would you have rather been for all that time in 2020? In Mexico, at any mezcal farm
Which Corona-hobby did you soon give up? Sport in general
Who or what have you absolutely NOT missed at all? Sport in general
How many kilos have you gained? 4,6 kg
What was your worst Corona-purchase? Sports clothing
Kurt Overbergh (Artistic Director)
What was your best cancelled concert of 2020? The unannounced Feeërieën festival with Beatrice Dillon, James Holden, Vula Veil, BaBa ZuLa, Alabaster dePlume and the Chinese electronica label SVBKVLT with the likes of 33EMYBW…
What was your favourite Corona-meal? Shin Ramyun Noodles
What was your favourite Corona-album? The superb heart breaking 6-part torch soul series ‘American Soul Music 1952-1972’
What was your favourite Corona-book? ‘Stranger Than Kindness’ as inspiration for my upcoming Nick Cave-monologue.
What was your favourite Corona-film? No film. But plenty of Netflix, Netflix, Netflix,…
What was the artistic revelation of Corona? The improv/noise clips of Petr Válek. For some a novelty, but he’s real!
What was your favourite Corona-ritual? Hitting my big bass drum at the stroke of 8pm every night, which actually resulted in a local street band.
What was your most memorable Corona-moment? Someone posted: ‘There’s a band playing live near the church NOW’. I ran there as fast as I could. Heard a John Zorn’s Masada-cover and it seemed as if I was hooked up to a happiness infusion. I miss it THAT much.
What are you most looking forward to in 2021? Fogged up café windows and sweaty concertgoers. And licking Zwangere Guy’s back again.
What was the most annoying Corona-trend? Zoom. Zoom. Zoom. The highlight was someone in a zoom who was ALSO in an OTHER zoom meeting. For real!
Did you cut your own hair? For more than 25 years now. But every year a little less.
What Corona-word do you never want to hear again? Corona!
Where would you have rather been for all that time in 2020? Escaping is cheating. You have to get through this to have the benefit of seeing the beauty in it (again).
Who or what have you absolutely NOT missed at all? The dictate of having to be everything and be everywhere. Things are good at home. And it’s cosy.
How many kilos have you gained? No idea. I don’t care.
Want more lists: HERE you go. Unfortunately it's in Dutch.
