January 2, 2025

Good Morning. Hello. How are you? #1405

2024 Media Consumption

Good morning! Hello! I am “back at work.” I am, shall we say, easing into it this week. We are still in Somerville. We drive home tomorrow.

So, the year in media.

Every year, I keep a long, detailed list of all media I consume. I have been doing it for a very long time. It has spanned platforms. I think I have done it on Livejournal, Facebook, Medium, Substack, probably something else. I THINK I can find a set of links for past years. Here are the lists from 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015. Wow let’s click on those links and see where they go. Substack, Substack, then seven Medium links. Looks like I did not bother to find the earlier ones and, reader, I am not going to bother this year.

Rather than bore you with the entire list, I am going to do some overviews here. But if you want to see the entire list, it is here. You do not need that in your inbox.

The Totals:

• 13 books, down 7 from last year, down 27 from 2022.

• 546 new albums, down 33 from the year before.

• 60 live acts, up forty-six from 2023.

• 34 new (to me) movies (-28 from last year), 38 re-watches (+18 from last year)

• 30 TV series this year, and down 20, but it’s actually down even more because this year I am counting re-watches and did-not-finishes, and I didn’t used to count those.

Thoughts:

• Live music is back, baby

• Way into re-watches of movies and TV. COMFORT.

• I need to read more books this is really embarrassing.

• I accepted I am not in a mental state to read difficult non-fiction at the moment. Once I accepted that, things unclogged a bit (thank you, Tolkien).

• I did music.

Books:

I went a loong time in the middle of the year not reading any books. It was… I dunno, I was in a funk. I think I started by “taking a break” from books to read my article queue, and then.. I dunno. Poof. Six months went by.

I got out of that funk by realizing a) I am really into cozy fiction, hence Malka Older and Becky Chambers, b) I am just gonna read some comfort food and if I don’t read Tolkien’s entire legendarium soon, I won’t ever get to it, so I may as well just read the whole thing. Things picked up a bit after that. Nonetheless, this is my worst-performing book-reading year in, oh, twenty-five years. It is embarrassing. I was really off to a good start, too.

Here’s my Goodreads profile, which I just updated again. Took like four minutes. And here’s the whole list. Recommended ones are bolded.

I am reading all these Tolkien books at a pretty good clip, and I have like ten or so left, so I will almost certainly do better than this in 2025. Fingers crossed.

• Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet by Ben Goldfarb

• Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

• Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers

• Fan Fiction By Tavi Gavinson

• The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles By Malka Older

• Moonbound By Robin Sloan

• The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien (re-read)

• The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien

• Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle Earth by JRR Tolkein

• The Book of Lost Tales Part One by JRR Tolkien and Christopher Tolkien

• The Book of Lost Tales Part Two by JRR Tolkien and Christopher Tolkien

• The Lays of Beleriand by JRR Tolkien and Christopher Tolkien

• The Shaping of Middle Earth by JRR and Christopher Tolkien

Music

Music is getting its own entry this year, haven’t done that in a long time. But I’m trying something new this year, it came out pretty interesting! It’s coming to you tomorrow. I listened to 546 new records. It’s a job! It takes constant vigilance! I did clear out the 2024 “To investigate” list before winter break, thanks for asking Ivelise. I now have 406 songs, 28 hours in my 2025 “to investigate” playlist, which I hope to start on by, oh, next Monday.

Live Shows

Live music is back baby. Up 200%+ from 2023. Plus it didn’t even kick in, really, till spring. I remember vividly I was at some show and I thought “this is awesome! I am going to do more of it!” and here we are. I mean, I’m not back to the 400-500 bands a year like “the good old days,” like people like Bradley still do. But I find this rate very respectable. I have learned to go to shows alone, which is very hard! The last show of the year, here in Boston, I knew 80% of the crowd, literally, and that is what I am still used to, after ten years of living in NC. I miss that. BUT I have found some nice things about going alone. Like you can leave early, lol. You can stand where you want.

But really I just… decided. To get over my inertia and go. Even if only for a little bit.

• KMFDM and Morlocks at Cat’s Cradle

• Unwound at Cat’s Cradle

• Olivia Rodrigo and Chappel Roan at TD Garden, Boston

• Young Fathers at the Sinclair, Cambridge

• Deathcab for Cutie and the Postal Service at the Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek

• The Magnetic Fields at Carolina Theater

• The Church and the Afghan Whigs at Royale Boston

• Lipsmear & three other bands at O’Brien’s

• Flaming Lips at Koka Booth Amphitheater

• Helium, Red Kross and Mountain Goats at Cat’s Cradle

• M. Ward, William Tyler and the Impossible Truth, Wye Oak, Rosali, The New Pornographers and Lambchop at Cat’s Cradle

• Quivers and Eric Bachmann at Orange County Social Club

• Stephin Merrit/Claudia Gonson, Mike Krol, The Clientele, HC McEntire and Portastatic at Cat’s Cradle

• The Chameleons, Lovinia Falls and a Cloud of Ravens at the Sinclair, Cambridge

• Andre Obin at the Middle East, Cambridge

• The Ghost of Tony Gold, Honeyglazed, The Falsies and Goliath at the Middle East, Cambridge

• Love and Rockets and Jane’s Addiction at the Red Hat Amphitheater, Raleigh

• Buzzcocks at Cat’s Cradle

• Sigur Ros at DPAC Durham

• The The at DPAC Durham

• FIDLAR at Cat’s Cradle

• Gillian Welch at the Haw River Ballroom

• The Ocean Blue and Riverside at Cat’s Cradle

• Six Organs of Admittance and Tashi Dorshi at Cat’s Cradle

• Slowdive and Wisp at The Ritz Raleigh

• Alan Sparhawk and Bella Nona at the Haw River Ballroom

• Ride and Rocket at Cat’s Cradle

• Andre Obin, Sean Drinkwater and Telelectrix at Deep Cuts, Medford

Movies

Lot more rewatches this year. Probably going to be even more next year, since this re-watch kick really took it up a notch in November or so. It is very soothing. I am all about soothing, opiate for the masses, and all that.

As ever, most of the “best of 2024” films will come in January. Recommended films are bolded.

• Killers of the Flower Moon

• Saltburn

• May December

• Mutiny in Heaven: The Birthday Party

• The Marvels

• Civil War

• Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom

• Mean Girls (2023)

• Dune 2

• Elemental

• Taylor Tomlinson Look at You

• The Road to Ruane

• Godzilla Minus One

• Ghostbusters Frozen Empire

• Furiosa

• The Fall Guy

• I Watched the TV Glow

• Poor Things

• Deadpool and Wolverine

• Longlegs

• The Substance

• Ali Wong Single Lady

• The Joker Folie A Deux

• Effie Grey

• Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

• Monella

• The Love Witch

• Alien Romulus

• Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

• Olivia Rodrigo Guts World Tour

• The Wild Robot

• Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim

• Nosferatu (2024)

Television

This year I am including any show I can talk about intelligently with you at a dinner party, even if it is a re-watch (marked) or a did-not-finish. Even including those, way down from past years. I don’t feel like I watched less TV, and I suspect this is down to two things: the Olympics and our re-watch of all seven-or-so seasons of 30 Rock. Recommended stuff is bolded.

• For All Mankind

• Percy Jackson and the Olympians

• After Midnight

• Saturday Night Live

• Halo

• Garfunkel and Oates (re-watch)

• True Detective Night Country

• Flight of the Conchords (re-watch)

• Fargo

• 30 Rock (re-watch)

• 3 Body Problem (HBO)

• Bluey

• Star Trek Discovery

• Resident Alien

• Star Wars Bad Batch

• Fallout

• Doctor Who

• Dark Matter

• Star Wars the Acolyte

• Upload

• America’s Sweethearts

• The Olympics

• Interview with the Vampire

• Rings of Power

• Watchmen (re-watch)

• The Penguin

• Agatha All Along

• Slow Horses

• Only Murders in the Building

• Disclaimer

• Great British Baking Show

• Legend of Vox Machina

• What We Do in the Shadows

• Star Trek Lower Decks

• Dune Prophecy

• Silo

• Man on the Inside

• The Good Place (re-watch)

• Bad Sisters

• Shrinking

• Black Doves

• Day of the Jackyl

• Star Wars Skeleton Crew

There you go. Thank you for your time and consideration in this matter. Here is a photo of the last show of the year, from last week.

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Thanks for reading.

And hey! Maybe buy one of my books!

Good Morning, Hello, How Are You vol 1.

Agency: The definitive guide to starting a consultancy

The Economics of Star Trek

Man Nup: A Groom’s Guide to Heroic Wedding Planning