It was a fantastic year! Honestly. (OK, yes, politically, world-view-y, for-all-mankind-y, there’s layers of nuance that “fantastic” kind of flies in the face of, but this is a blog, not the Dead Sea Scrolls [omg what if it was though], and as far as the marbles in my own personal human head are concerned, they had a great time rolling around this year.)
…
Now I’ve been sat here for five minutes trying to remember all of the things I enjoyed this year and I can’t think of a single thing—or if I can, I can’t confidently say it was something from 2019.
I mean, the whole end-of-the-year list industrial complex really is a joke if we’re being honest here. Taste is subjective. Calendars are dumb. Time is relative. Measuring its passage is needless and immature. Et cet eraaaaaa. And now that we’re at the end of a whole decade it’s even more bonkers. All that being said:
LANA DEL REY
I never thought I’d see the day I turned back on to her, but here I am playing her new album on repeat every day. Gosh she’s good at what she does. I enjoyed her back when she first popped up as this sort of wishy-washy enigma. I liked the music, mostly. I liked the bandwagon of conspiracy theories that followed her around, which, in hindsight all read very misogynistic and shallow. I stopped listening to her almost entirely since then—until now. And now? I’m making up for lost time. I love nearly all of Ultraviolence, a few songs off Lust for Life, and all of Norman F****** Rockwell. Haven’t touched anything from Honeymoon yet, but I will. And, in a shocking twist, can’t stand any of the first big hits she came out with.
FLORENCE PUGH
Was intrigued by her back in Lady Macbeth. Then this year I saw Midsommar and Little Women and loved her in both. She’s just got it and I hope she hangs onto it.
WATCHMEN
It’s the best TV show. For me it might be the best ever, honestly. Everything about it feels like a miracle, there’s not a single misplaced beat, and the fact that it’s so rigorously, unabashedly linked to the graphic novel makes it all the more miraculous. I can’t imagine what it would be like to watch Watchmen without having read the original comic, but I would hope it would be just as fulfilling. Aside from the mythology, the easter eggs, the perfect, absolutely perfect plot twists; the slow burns; Regina King; Jean Smart; the music; aside from all that, it’s the most radical, daring show about America. What it has to say about race, our current political battle stations, and history is electric and so NOW. Everyone in America needs to watch it.
(It was so good it made me go back and re-read the comic for the first time since high school, which I was happy to find, still holds up today. The show and the comic perfectly compliment each other, I’ve truly never seen anything else like it.)
PROCRASTINATING MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL
I hit 60k subscribers and one of my videos hit 1 million views this year. Yet, I only made five new videos this year. I’m horrible. I’m a horrible knitter and horribly lazy. My goal for 2020 is to finally learn how to knit a sweater. I don’t know how! Can you believe it? 2020’s the year. It’s going to happen.
In the meantime, I’ve been meandering over on my animation channel, which has *ahem* a hearty 104 subscribers, barely any views, zero monetization. Drawing mooses! Drawing grocery store self-checkouts!
THE FAREWELL and LITTLE WOMEN
Two stunners. A tie for Best Picture, please. And here’s to quiet, low-stakes, human dramas with powerful, relatable performances. Both movies blew me away and I just wanted to live in their worlds. Also, Little Women made me really wish I hadn’t grown up in such a testosterone-laden household with two brothers, or, at least, that the 90s’ twisted brand of masculinity had had the intelligence to make space for the 90s version of Little Women to exist as much for boys as it did for girls back then. I had never seen any of the previous versions until this years’ and it’s just… essential. It’s life.
Rapid fire round to close:
- Loved Rosmersholm as I wrote about before and still think about it every once in a while.
- Honestly, loved the Detective Pickachu movie.
- I became obsessed with Kasey Musgraves, surprising myself.
- Also became obsessed with jump roping.
- Ice by Anna Kavan
- The Bon Appétit extended universe on YouTube.
- The new Star War sucked as it always does, but my gosh the discourse, the discourse, the discourse. These kids online these days, I swear.
- The gelato shop down the street, which I treat as if it’s my damn freezer, even in winter.
- And finally, watching my cactus grow this wormy appendage:
