Fin De Décennie

It's the "fin de décennie". Technically, the end of the decade is 12/31/2020 so we have a year "grace period".

This is a sign advertising a Y2K20 New Year celebration. This one is actually accurate because it marks the exact 20-year point when we thought the world would end because of a computer glitch. We would want a year to contemplate such a dud of an event, and yet, another one looms on the horizon with 11/2020.

We have a tradition of celebrating numbers, not duration. Celebrating numeric changes by multiples of ten is our way to "drop-frame" the passing of history.

Drop-frame is a video frame rate where the frame numbers are altered so that the timecode matches clock time. It comes from the world of broadcast TV where shows are exactly 30 or 60 minutes long. It's a misnomer because the speed of the video is not changed. The speed of decades do not change.

Decembers also include a ritual of curating my photography for the year. Here's 2019.