beer_good_foamy

During lockdown, while many other artists are doing mini-concerts from their homes, I thought I’d do you all a favour and not.

— James Blunt (@JamesBlunt) March 25, 2020

My 2020 in media. The good thing was, we all had a lot of time to watch and read. The bad thing was, it was hard to do anything but just rewatch and reread old favourites. But still, here goes.

10 new movies I really liked this year:
First Cow
Bacurau
Dick Johnson Is Dead
Never Rarely Sometimes Always
Possessor
Wolfwalkers
Babyteeth
Relic
Ema
Deerskin

5 TV series that did really good things this year:
She-Ra And The Princesses of Power: A final season that has Chekov's guns firing every 30 seconds. This and The Good Place shows what you can do when you write towards an ending.

The Queen's Gambit: It's not about chess, it's about obsession. And also chess. I've yet to see Anya Taylor-Joy not impress in anything. The ending has some issues, but up until then, wow.

Tales From the Loop: Brilliant adaptation of Simon Stålenhag's books of retro small-town sci-fi to an American setting; takes the look and then expands it into a slowly unfolding, character-driven story.

What We Do In The Shadows: Season 2 was a huge improvement on a season 1 that was already really good. I mean, the open stage episode alone...

The Good Place: TGP ended in January 2020?!? It feels like five years ago! It was a good ending, whichever decade it happened.


5 TV series that occasionally did worthwhile things this year:
Warrior Nun 
The Haunting of Bly Manor
Rick and Morty
Lovecraft Country
Wynonna Earp

10 songs I loved this year:
Zombie Girl - Adrienne Lenker
Under the Spell of Joy - Death Valley Girls
Pulling the Pin - Run the Jewels feat. Mavis Staples & Josh Homme
For You - Laura Marling
The Prettiest Song in the World - Man Man
Told You Once In August - Dion (who, at 81 freaking years old, is sounding way too good)
A Hero's Death - Fontaines DC
r(E)volution - Sa-Roc
Murder Most Foul - Bob Dylan
I Know the End - Phoebe Bridgers

Five new-ish books I loved this year:
The Mirror and the Light, Hilary Mantel
Taking Izmail, Mikhail Shishkin
Lost Children Archive, Valeria Luiselli
The City We Became, NK Jemisin
Harrow the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir

Five old-ish books I loved this year
The Emperor of Portugalia, Selma Lagerlöf
The Dispossessed, Ursula LeGuin
The Exploits of Moominpappa, Tove Jansson
Babel-17, Samuel R Delany
Invisible Man; Ralph Ellison

Whatever happens, for whoever needs it.

Aaaaand done! Thanks for sticking around through this. Hope people found something worth listening to over these 30 posts, and that I didn't annoy people looking for fandom stuff too much.

30. A song that reminds you of yourself
Courtney Barnett - Pedestrian At Best 

Courtney Barnett is easily one of the best new artists to come along in the last 10 years for me; the way her lyrics tumble out head-over-heels with enough humour to offset the self-doubt, half-spoken and half-yelled, all internal rhymes and angular contradictions out of meter... (As someone put it in the Youtube comments, "Why would she end the song on the line 'I'm a scorpio' when the whole thing is the most scorpio thing ever?") And I love the irony that she followed up her first few underground hits with a theme song about impostor syndrome and the fleetingness of hipster popularity that became her biggest hit to date, because somehow it's just a perfect little retro-grunge pop song that's so damn secure in its insecurities.
Put me on a pedestal and I'll only disappoint you
Tell me I'm exceptional, I promise to exploit you
Give me all your money, and I'll make some origami, honey
I think you're a joke, but I don't find you very funny

Getting towards the end...

28. A song by an artist whose voice you love
Angel Olsen - Shut Up Kiss Me

I have so many favourite singers with distinct voices, from bottomless marvels like Mahalia Jackson and Frank Sinatra to those who somehow make it work like Waits, Dylan and Nico... But let's go with a new(ish) favourite. Angel Olsen once said that anyone who can scream like a horror movie victim can sing; her voice somehow splits the difference between Patsy Cline and Björk, country-ish twangs that stretch into those diamond-sharp edges... 

Bonus, just because I can; during the lockdown she did a concert from her living room that included this gorgeously simple cover of "More Than This".

26. A song that makes you want to fall in love
Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit - If We Were Vampires

Yes, it's a song about death. But what's the point of death if not to live before it? Besides, this is supposed to be a Buffy fan account...
If we were vampires and death was a joke
We'd go out on the sidewalk and smoke
And laugh at all the lovers and their plans
I wouldn't feel the need to hold your hand
Maybe time running out is a gift
I'll work hard 'til the end of my shift
And give you every second I can find
And hope it isn't me who's left behind

(And yes, that's his wife singing harmony.)

24. A song by a band you wish were still together
Sonic Youth - The Diamond Sea

By the time they broke up (goddamnit, Thurston) Sonic Youth had probably done all the world-changing they were going to do. Still, I miss them. This is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I know, going from one of the most straightforward shoulda-been-a-hits SY ever did, to something more disturbing in the solo, then back to the hummable song again, and then into that 10-minute coda where the glittering peaceful ocean stretches out as far as the eye can see, gradually gets stormier and stormier until all hell breaks loose... and then as the waves drag you down, the calm returns as it fades out and keeps going forever.

20. A song that has many meanings to you
Gillian Welch - Revelator

Gillian Welch is one of those songwriters who, at their best, can write directly from that free-association place in the subconscious while still making everything sound so straight-forward that you don't even notice that time has ceased to mean something. "Revelator" is both traditional and brand-new (well, in 2001), both a fuck-you to those who consider her "the queen of fakes and imitators" and dusting of heels, the personal and the universal, and Dave Rawlings plays a solo on a 70-year-old guitar that ends up quoting "Purple Rain"... Time reveals all, but what it shows is never unambiguous, because music is never ONE thing.

18. A song from the year you were born
Pink Floyd - The Great Gig In The Sky

Dark Side of the Moon is still one of the best pieces of music I know, and this sits right at the centre. Nothing else ever sounded like it. Also, this video is, as I believe the kids say, #2020mood.

16. A song that's a classic favorite
Buster Williams - Concierto de Aranjuez/Summertime medley

I'm not sure what the meme is asking for here exactly - I mean, I like classical music, and I love some of it, but it doesn't really fit in with the rest of the challenge... then I remembered a few years ago I got to watch Buster Williams do this medley live, and it's absolutely brilliant. He mashes up two tunes that already mash up classical and folk music, Gershwin and Rodrigo, the blues and flamenco and jazz and classical, and turns it into this slooow sound poem, and he does it all with just four strings and a big-ass double bass.

14. A song you'd love to be played at your wedding
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Straight To You

Heaven has denied us its kingdom
The saints they're all drunk and howling at the moon
The chariots of angels are colliding
Well, I'll run, babe, but I'll come running
Straight to you
For I am captured
As songs about "for better or worse" go, this is certainly one.