Canary Wharf Magazine January 2020

A NEW DECADE, A NEW OLYMPIC GAMES, A NEW RELATIONSHIP WITH EUROPE AND, ER A NEW GHOSTBUSTERS MOVIE. THE TRENDS FOR THE DECADE AHEAD SUGGEST ANYTHING FROM ECO-CONSCIOUS REVOLUTION TO ALL-OUT APOCALYPSE. SO, TO MAKE SOME ORDER OUT OF 2020 WE’VE CREATED A BIASED, PERSONAL, UNSCIENTIFIC AND YET UTTERLY SUBJECTIVE GUIDE TO ONE THING HAPPENING FOR EVERY MONTH AHEAD THAT SHOULD BE GRABBING YOUR ATTENTION. LIGHT THE TOUCH PAPER, AND STAND WELL BACK…

January

Brexit. You just never get sick of hearing that word do you? So be prepared for another national bout of unbridled unity, togetherness and joy among all sides as Boris Johnson’s majority government attempts to take us out of Europe on the 31 st January. Expect plenty of photos of blue passports to be posted on Twitter and at least one BBC broadcaster (odds on current favourite: Laura Kuenssberg) to collapse from nervous exhaustion.

February

Fresh from defying homophobic laws in the United Arab Emirates by openly kissing a male audience member at a live gig, Matt Healy's The 1975, by a lengthy guitar string the hottest band in Britain today, release their fourth album on 21st February. Entitled Notes on a Condidtional Form, Healy has stated in interviews that "we wanna graduate... into being a small emo band." But their rejection of mass stadium rock hasn't precluded them from a few Bono-like tendencies; the new single from the new album features a spoken word monologue from Greta Thunberg.

March

From the 12 th of the month until September, Marilyn Monroe, Campbell’s soup and Coca-Cola take centre stage at the Tate Modern for a blockbuster new Andy Warhol exhibition. Less familiar is a re-creation of his mid-1960’s ‘Exploding Plastic Inevitable’ multimedia events which he curated in New York. The house band for these events were The Velvet Underground, though don’t expect a reunion gig this time around – chiefly as all but one member of the band are now dead.

April

The 25 th Bond film, and Daniel Craig’s last, is called No Time To Die. What do we know so far? It’s certain that the film begins with Bond retired in Jamaica and the 007 codename now in the hands of a female spy (played by Lashana Lynch). Plus Rami Malek dons a half mask as a villain called Safin. It seems that the whole movie could be mistaken for an Aston Martin ad – four of their models appear during the film this time around.

May

Despite the fact that the UK may have left the EU by now, we will still be granted our annual points humiliation at the Eurovision Song Contest, which this year is hosted in Rotterdam. Duncan Lawrence with his haunting and actually quite good number Arcade took the spoils for the Netherlands last year in one of the tightest contests in years. Bulgaria and Ukraine are returning after their, hardly missed, absence last year while 2020 will have to do without Hungary who have withdrawn with an inside source for the state broadcaster stating that the competition has become ‘too gay’.

June

It’s time for the biannual pleasure of watching the England football team fail to get over the line in a vital knock out stage of an international competition. The European Championships are, for the very first time, not staged within one nation this time but spread out over the continent. Watch the prices for budget flights to Budapest, Copenhagen and Munich soar as England battle it out with the usual suspects of Germany, France and Spain, as well as Finland who are competing in their very first international finals event.

July

‘Who you gonna call?’ seems a little reductive in the age of WhatsApp but no matter, Ghostbusters: Afterlife (released in the US on 10 July and the UK shortly after) reunites Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd and Sigourney Weaver with 12-year-old Captain Marvel star McKenna Grace. Look out for Finn Wolfhard too, whose 80s obsession seems to know no bounds following on from his role as Mike Wheeler in Stranger Things.

August

Starting late in July and running until 9 August, Tokyo hosts the Summer Olympics. If shotput and even the 100m sprint does little for you, try navigating the fringes of the Games where a slew of new sports are making their debut, including 3x3 basketball, freestyle BMX and men’s and women’s Madison cycling. The latter, for the uninitiated, is basically a relay race that, when first invented in New York in the 19 th century, caused delirium and hallucinations among riders for the extreme lengths of time needed to be spent in the saddle.

September

The first major museum exhibition of one of the world’s most renowned fashion brands arrives in London. Prada: Front and Back at the Design Museum promises to tell the full story of CEO and head designer Miuccia Prada. Since joining the family in the mid-1970s she, with her husband Patrizio Bertelli, fundamentally altered the fashion landscape. The show is certain to be immersive, fascinating and, of course, reassuringly expensive.

October

Finally, an international event in which England have a chance of not embarrassing themselves. The T20 cricket World Cup comes to Australia in October though the qualifying rounds (held in the UAE) earlier in the month are the place to be if you fancy watching some of crickets emerging nations including Oman and Papa New Guinea – the latter of which have never reached this stage of an international cricket tournament before.

November

It’s the US Presidential Election on the 3rd , where we find out whether the Orange Haired One gets his second term in office (presuming the imminent impeachment proceedings doesn’t remove him beforehand) or we get one of what is still a fairly open field of Democratic candidates. Will America decide to go with Elizabeth Warren who, as her catchphrase reminds us, ‘has a plan’? Or will voters decide to ‘Feel the Bern’ of candidate Sanders as the veteran makes one final shot at taking the White House?

December

A total solar eclipse won’t be visible in London but, if you happen to be in Chile or parts of Argentina on 14 December then you might just get lucky. It’s only expected to last about two minutes but, as December is peak summer season in South America, the chances of cloud ruining the event are slim. If you’ve ever dreamed of witnessing an eclipse while eating Ajiaco (Meat soup) or the native pork roll called Arrollado huaso (and let’s face it, who hasn’t?) then this might just be the highpoint of your decade.