Previous lists: 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015
This is too long with the complete media consumption list. So I have posted that in a separate entry, that I spared you guys from emailing it to you.
The totals: 39 books. 599 albums. 8 live acts. 68 movies. 31 TV Series.
Changes from last year: +9 books. +24 albums. +3 live acts. +11 movies. -8 TV Series, but that’s because I’m still working on a bunch, and we watched 14 seasons of Mythbusters.
And, of course, I have a weekly podcast where I go over my media consumption (along with other mundane aspects of being alive).
Thoughts:
Man I listened to a lot of music.
I can’t believe it was possible to go to fewer films in the theater than I did in 2020, but I managed.
My reading levels aren’t back up to where they were before the pandemic, but they’re recovering.
We watched a lot of Mythbusters and it was infiinitely satisfying until they canned the build team that was a horrible mistake.
I wrote this last year: “Every year I say this exercise was tedious and I don’t want to do it anymore, but then I do it again, and I suspect that’ll be the same for next year.” I say it again this year. Triply so.
Books
Research papers and government documents are included if they are over 100 pages. I include comic books if the typewritten text totals over 100 pages (I use a draft Sandman script published in the back of a Sandman anthology as a comic-page-to-typewritten-page conversion metric). I aim for 52 books a year — one a week. Didn’t even come close this year. Books recommended for the layperson have an asterisk.
Here is my Goodreads profile, if you’d like to follow along next year hahahahahaha.
*Exhalation by Ted Chiang
33 1/3: Ode to Billie Joe by Tara Murthy
*The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson
*Kill Switch: The Rise of the Modern Senate And the Crippling of American Democracy by Adam Jentleson
*Estate Sale DIY: How to Run your own Estate Sale Instead of Paying Someone Else to Do It by Annie Smidt
*The Long Way to a Small, Angry planet by Becky Chambers
A Closed and Common Orbit by Beck Chambers
*Fears of a Setting Sun: The Disillusion of America’s Founders by Dennis Rasmussen
Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers
The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers
*The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu (re-read)
The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu (re-read)
Death’s End by Cixin Liu (re-read)
*The Secret Life of Groceries by Benjamin Lorr
*Nobody’s Victim: Fighting Psychos, Stalkers, Pervs and Trolls by Carrie Goldberg
The Provocative Joan Robinson: The Making of a Cambridge Economist by Nahid Aslanbeigui and Guy Oakes
Making Sense of Joan Robinson on China by Pervez Tahir
If Then: How the Simulmatic Corporation Invented The Future by Jill Lepore
Crash Test Girl: An Unlikely Experiment in Using the Scientific Method to Answer Life’s Toughest Questions by Kari Byron
*Concrete Planet by Robert Courtland
Nonbinary: A Memoir by Genesis P-Orridge
Art Sex Music by Cosey Fanni
*This is the Way They tell Me The World Will End: The Cyberweapons Arms Race by Nicole Perloth
*March: Book One by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell
March: Book Two by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell
March: Book Three by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell
*Run: Book One by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell
Tumblr Porn by Ana Valens
*Untitled by Lisa Carver
The World According to Star Wars by Cass R Sunstein
Epic Games v Apple; Rule 52 Order After Trial on the Merits by Yvonne Gonzales Rogers
*What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America 1815-1848 by Daniel Walker Howe
The Whore of New York by Liara Roux
*Who’s Going to Love the Dying Girl by Bree Rolfe
To Drink from the Well - The Struggle for Racial Equality at the Nation’s Oldest Public University by Geeta N Kapur
Laserwriter II: A Novel by Tamara Shopsin
The Dawn of Everything - A New History of Humanity by David Graeber and David Wengrow
*Skyward Inn by Aliya Whiley
*Red Rising by Pierce Brown
Recorded Music
Listened to roughly 599 new (to me) albums and EPs this year. Here are my favorites, very quickly culled by running through the list once and pasting the ones here that stuck with me. Especially beloved ones are starred. There is a playlist of my favorite songs from 2021 on Spotify. It is very long. There was a lot of music this year. Music kept me sane. Thank you, musicians, for making awesome shit even as the world mostly abandoned you.
My vote for the top three new (ish) albums of the year: Saint Etienne - “I’ve Been Trying to Tell You,” Floating Points Pharoah Sanders and the London Philharmonic - “Promises” and the self-titled For Those I Love album.
Blake Mills - "Mutable Set"
Skullcrusher - "Skullcrusher"
Bartees Strange - "Say Goodbye to Pretty Boy"
*Mountain Men - "Look at Me Don't Look at Me"
Svalbard - "It's Hard to Have Hope"
Sunburned Hand of the Man - "The One you Forgot to Forget"
Thalia Zedek Band - "Via"
Trippy Hearts - "Lacewing"
Chris Brokaw - “Puritan”
*Black Country New Road - “For the First Time”
*Steve Earle - “JT”
Mogwai - “As the Love Continues”
Ex:Re - “Ex:Re with 12 Ensemble”
*Trent Reznor Atticus Ross and Jon Batiste - “Soul: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack”
Tindersticks - “Distractions”
Consolidated - “We’re Already There”
*For Those I Love - "For Those I Love”
Parque De Cometas - “Intenciones - Demos y Maquetas 2017-2019”
*Floating Points Pharoah Sanders and the London Philharmonic - “Promises”
Loretta Lynn - “Still Woman Enough”
*Insides - “Soft Bonds”
*Raised by Swans - “raised by swans is the name of a man volume 1”
Angel Olsen – "Song of the Lark and Other Far Memories
*First Aid Kit - “Who By Fire: Live Tribute to Leonard Cohen”
Miranda Lambert Jack Ingram and Jon Randall - “The Marfa Tapes”
*Iceage - “Seek Shelter”
*Oliva Rodrigo - “Sour”
Holly Macve - “Not the Girl”
Matt Sweeney and Bonnie Prince Billy - “Superwolves”
Matthew Dear - “Preacher’s Sigh & Potion: Lost Album
*Aaron Perrino and Tanya Donelly - "Åårøn & †he ¬ørd
*Six Organs of Admittance - “Last Station Veiled Sea”
SAULT - “Nine”
quickly quickly - “shae”
*Loamlands - “Lez Dance”
Nation of Language - “Tournament”
*MAN ON MAN - “MAN ON MAN”
*Lingua Ignota - “SINNER GET READY”
Glen Campbell - “Live at the Troubador”
Halsey - “If I Can’t Have Love I Want Power”
Follakzoid & J Spaceman - “London Sessions”
Low - “Hey What”
*Saint Etienne - “I’ve Been Trying to Tell You”
Ministry - “Moral Hygeine”
*Robert Levon been - “The Card Counter (Original Songs from the Motion Picture”)
*Lana Del Rey - “Blue Bannisters”
*BLACKSTARKIDS - “Puppies Forever”
Snail Mail - “Valentine”
*Taylor Swift - “Red (Taylor’s Version)”
Endless Boogie - “Admonitions
*Peakes - “Peripheral Figures
*Mary Lattimore - “Collected Pieces: 2015-2020”
*Brandi Carlile - “In These Silent Days”
*Rosey - “I’d Move House if my House Moved like Yours”
*Aeon Station - “Observatory”
*Meridiane - “To Walk Behind the Sun"
Live Music
Live music is back! Lol. Well sort of. Sometimes. For some people. For me, I did manage to see more shows than 2020, but that’s not saying much:
Psychedelic Furs at Cat’s Cradle
Genesis at PNC Arena
Genesis at MSG
Yo La Tengo and Eleventh Dream Day at Bowery Ballroom
Wet Leg and JW Francis at Mercury Lounge
LCD Soundsystem at Brooklyn Steel
Movies
Movies with an asterisk are recommended. Movies listed here are only movies I saw for the first time, new or old. In addition I re-watched about 20 or so, listed in the master list below. Recommended films have an asterisk. The Dagger † are films I saw in the theater. All two of them.
Because I see most of the “best of” the year films in January, I’ll save my Best-of film list till right before the Oscars.
Superintelligence
On The Rocks
*B-Movie: Lust & Sound In West Berlin 1979-1989
Sunburned Hand Of The Man: No Mask Required
*Promising Young Woman
*One Night In Miami
*Swans Where Does A Body End
MLK/FBI
*Putin's Palace The World's Largest Bribe
*A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood
*Southland Tales (Cannes Cut)
I Care A Lot
*Depeche Mode Spirits In The Forest
*Nomadland
*Minari
Zack Snyder’s Justice League
*The Way I See It
*Seth Meyers Lobby Baby
Mulan (2020)
Thunder Force
Mitchell Vs The Machines
The Tomorrow War
Forrest Gump
Monster Hunters
Scary Movie 4
Black Widow
*Woodstock ’99: Love Peace And Rage
*Industrial Accident – The Story Of Wax Trax Records
The Suicide Squad
*Respectable: The Mary Millington Story
*Summer Of Soul (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised
*Whirlybird
*The Sparks Brothers
Fast 9: The Fast Saga
*The Green Knight
Annette
Reminiscence
*Pig
*A Quiet Place
A Quiet Place Part Ii
*Zola
*First Reformed
*Cruella
Come Play With Me
Inauguration Of The Pleasuredome
*Last And First Men
*Hartley’s Opera Number 1
Mortal Kombat (2021),
*Zabriskie Point
Skin: A History Of Nudity In The Movies
Day Of The Woman
Women In Cages
Vixen!
*Free Guy
*Dune (2021)
*Shang Chi And The Legend Of Ten Rings
Venom
Alice In Wonderland (1976)
Venom Let There Be Carnage
†Eternals
*Adrienne
*The Matrix Resurrection
*The French Dispatch
*Don’t Look Up
*Encanto
†Spiderman No Way Home
Power Of The Dog
*The Last Duel
Television
The below are shows I completed at least a seasons’ worth. Recommended with an askterisk. I am still working on Succession, Rick and Morty and the Book of Boba Fett. I couldn’t finish Hacks, Bridgerton, Cobra Kai, LEGO Masters, Super Store or Schmiggadoon.
Star Trek Discovery
Star Wars Clone Wars
Doctor Who
Star Wars Rebels
*The Expanse
*Wandavision
Battlestar Galactica (2003) (Re-Watch Of Season 1)
The Great North
*Saturday Night Live
Drunk History
*Adventure Time Distant Lands
*Umbrella Academy
Falcon And The Winter Soldier
*Resident Alien
*The Nevers
*Great British Baking Show (Four Seasons)
Star Wars The Bad Batch
Jupiter’s Legacy
*Mythbusters (All Fourteen Seasons)
*Loki
*Sweet Tooth
*McCartney 321
What If?
*Lower Decks
*Foundation
*Ted Lasso
*What We Do In The Shadows
The Great
Hawkeye
*The Beatles Get Back
*Only Murders In The Building
Wheel Of Time
The Full List
In the style of Soderbergh: http://extension765.com/sdr/22-seen-read-2014
BOLD CAPS MOVIES, CAPS TV, Italics Books etc., “Plays Quotes”, “Italic Quotes Short Stories”, Bold LC Albums, BOLD ITALIC CAPS LIVE SHOWS, [comments in brackets], podcast bold all lower case underlined\
1/1 - Billow Observatory - "III: Chroma/Contour," Kate Bush - "The Sensual World," Lake Street Drive - "Free Yourself Up," Benjamin Booker - "Witness," Black Books - "Can't Even," Dan Richard - "new breed," Tamaryn - "Dreaming the Dark," SUPERINTELLIGENCE
1/2 - Alasdair Roberts - "The Songs of My Boyhood," Brendan Perry - "Songs of Disenchantment: Music from the Greek Underground," Paul McCartney - "McCarthy III," Blake Mills - "Mutable Set," Dogleg - "Melee," Half Waif - "The Caretaker," Nick Hakim - "will This Make Me Good" Anna Roxanne - "Because of a Flower," Clem Snide - "Forever Just Beyond," STAR TREK DISCOVERY (2)
1/3 - Skullcrusher - "Skullcrusher," Ghost Work - "You'll Be Buried With," ShitKid - "Crotchbook," Bad Nerves - "Bad Nerves," Hub - "Hub," James Wilsey - "El Dorado," ON THE ROCKS, CLONE WARS
1/4 - DOCTOR WHO
1/5 - GEORGIA ELECTION RETURNS
1/6 - A COUP!
1/7 - MSNBC, CLONE WARS
1/8 - Shamir - "Shamir," Bartees Strange - "Say Goodbye to Pretty Boy," Special Interest - "Spiraling," Opal - "Northern Line," STAR WARS REBELS
1/9 - STAR WARS REBELS (2), STAR TREK DISCOVERY
1/10 - Mountain Men - "Look at Me Don't Look at Me," Sun Kil Moon - "Welcome to Sparks, Nevada," Metric - "Dirt Road Sessions," B-MOVIE: LUST & SOUND IN WEST BERLIN 1979-1989, CLONE WARS (4)
1/11 - Sunburned Hand of the Man - "Wedlock," Malaria! - "Compiled 1981-1984," Svalbard - "It's Hard to Have Hope," Benjamin Booker - "Bemjamin Booker," Bruxa Maria - "Human Condition," MSNBC