The Rec Center #417
Hi all! As per Rec Center tradition, our final newsletter of 2023 is a year-in-review post from each of us, covering our year’s fandom faves and some ~general thoughts. We’ll be back next week with Yuletide fic recs! — Gav
year in fandom: Gav
Just over a year ago, I became bewitched and enraptured by the magic of ice hockey—specifically the Pittsburgh Penguins, a choice that would’ve been de rigueur around ten years ago, but now elicits questions like, “...why?” At which point I start monologuing about my favorite players in the same tone that people use to describe their ancient one-eyed misbehaving cat. (He’s really so sweet when you get to know him.)
In fact it’s been a very dynamic year for my beloved Pens. By which I mean, they’re losing in a narratively compelling manner. Last season I arrived just in time to see them miss the playoffs for the first time since superstar captain Sidney Crosby was still a teenager. (He is now a beautiful salt-and-pepper 36.) Then over the summer, we got a fresh and forward-thinking new manager who launched a bold new era of… coming second-to-last in the division? Apparently I’m doomed to watch these men flop in increasingly frustrating ways, while also being exposed to new flavors of bigotry because the NHL is a dumpster fire.
The one major upside here is that in a similar vein to my “learning to cook for Hannibal reasons” era, hockey fandom led me to become a ripped jock who runs 5k a day. So there’s that.
In a broader fandom sense, 2023 had a real end-of-an-era vibe IMO, both personally (I got laid off and went freelance as a pop culture critic) and in general (the gradual decay of social media; the collapse of the MCU). One can only hope that the monoculture will shift away from franchise slop and embrace more stuff like Barbenheimer, while more niche fandoms continue to flourish around underpromoted queer TV shows and obscure historical figures. A healthier ecosystem all round.
Otherwise I’ve had a fun and fruitful few months writing about things like Our Flag Means Death and Scavengers Reign and classic horror movies, and will wish you a happy new year with the classic freelancer’s send-off: I’m available to write about TV and movies and fan culture and the coming resurgence of Black Sails on Netflix, so if you want to hire me, get in touch! g.baker.whitelaw at gmail, folks. xoxo
year in fandom: Elizabeth
Professionally, I had a v good year writing about—and especially reporting on!—fandom stuff after a few years of doing minimal journalism/mostly working in tech. Specifically, I started writing for WIRED early in the year, and I began writing a column on fan culture(s) for Atlas Obscura this past month! I rounded up everything I published in 2023 (as well as all the guests we had on Fansplaining) in a big post this morning.
Fandom-wise, I’m still writing lots of X-Men fic, and I am waiting with bated breath for IWTV s2, which is supposedly coming in the spring (DID YOU SEE THE ARMAND/LOUIS CLIP?? DID YOU SEE LESTAT’S PINSTRIPES????)
I saw a few films I loved this year—Oppenheimer and May December were probably my top two—and I seriously enjoyed the fantastic final seasons of two of my all-time favorite (and extremely different lol) shows, Barry and The Other Two. (OK, did I actually “enjoy” the final season of Barry? Extremely good television, though!!)
But my favorite show of the year was probably…
Somebody Somewhere (watch it now!!), which thankfully has another season coming. I loved it so much I went to Murray Hill’s annual Christmas show here in NYC a few weeks back (which included Jeff Hiller doing a version of “Santa Baby” that literally had me laughing so hard I wept), truly a joy!! <3
FINAL THOUGHT
As a reminder, please send us your Yuletide 2023 faves! Depending on how many we get, we’ll run those recs in the first 1-2 newsletters of the new year. Make sure to include “Yuletide 2023” in the themes/tropes field of our submissions form. And Happy New Year, everyone! — Elizabeth