You know what? 2022 was a real banner year for ya girl.
Anyway, here are some things I enjoyed immensely in 2022. It’s an incomplete list, for sure, so don’t take offense if you’re not on it! I liked pretty much everything I heard this year.
I’m too fried to write anything substantial about them, but they all receive my stamp of approval:
Books
- Beatrice Adler-Bolton and Artie Vierkant, Health Communism: A Surplus Manifesto (Verso)
- Heather Corinna, What Fresh Hell Is This? Perimenopause, Menopause, Other Indignities, and You (Hachette)
- Caryn Rose, Why Patti Smith Matters (University of Texas Press)
- Jim Ruland, Corporate Rock Sucks: The Rise and Fall of SST Records (Hachette)
Music
- Added Dimensions, Added Dimensions (self-released)
- Big’N, Discipline Through Sound reissue (Computer Students™)
- Casual Dots, Sanguine Truth (Ixor Stix)
- Flasher, Love is Yours (Domino)
- Hammered Hulls, Careening (Dischord)
- Hurry Up, Dismal Nitch (Comedy Minus One)
- Kurt Vile, (watch my moves), (Verve)
- Mali Obomsawin, Sweet Tooth (Out of Your Head)
- Oneida, Success (Joyful Noise Recordings)
- Ut, Griller reissue (Out)
Live
- Airport Confection (Fairport Convention cover band) at Lunar Inn
- Carly Rae Jepsen at the Met
- Chris Fleming at PhilaMOCA
- Golomb, Heavenly Bodies at Launderette Records
- Hammered Hulls, Clear Channel, Pinkwash at Foto Club
- Hotline TNT at JB’s
- Ilia Malinin’s quadruple Axel at 2022 Skate America
- Lifeguard at JB’s
- Long Hots, David Nance + Mowed Sound at Jerry’s
- Mali Obomsawin, Yo La Tengo at Bowery Ballroom
- Meg Baird, Chris Forsyth at JB’s
- Oneida at Seuffert Bandshell
- Pavement, Weak Signal at the Met
- Pet Shop Boys, New Order at the Mann
- Petty Bunco block party at Philadelphia Brewing
- Shannon Lay at Union Transfer
- Yo La Tengo, Superchunk at Frantic City Festival
Film & Television
Note: I don’t watch a lot of TV or movies. Or more specifically, I don’t watch a lot of new stuff.
- Eric Appel, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
- Todd Field, Tàr
- Rian Johnson, Glass Onion
- Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once
- Philipp Virus, Freakscene: The Story of Dinosaur Jr.
- Kids in the Hall reboot
- Derry Girls S3
- We Are Lady Parts S1
- Girls 5Eva S2
- Abbott Elementary S1
Etc.
- Learned to surf on my vacation to San Diego, then kept on surfing in New Jersey. I’m reaaaaaaaal bad but wow is it fun! Nothing like letting the ocean put you in your place.
- Related: Swapping out my bathing suits for surf suits when going in the ocean. What a gamechanger. Even when the ocean temperatures are nice (65°F+), these suits manage to keep me from not feeling the chill. They’re usually made of materials like Yulex or doubled layers of heavy Lycra. The cuts are better at providing 🍑 coverage, too. If you’re wondering whether they’re too much for hanging out on the beach, nope. I have spent entire days in them (and walked away unburned). I’m a big fan of the one from the Seea, specifically the Zuma, Lido, and Gaviotas suits.
- Bought a house. More specifically, bought the house I’ve been renting in for 8 years. I guess after 25+ years of living in Philadelphia and all that I have contributed to it, it is safe to assume I can call myself a local, but I’m getting used to the concept.
- Discovered I could run a 5K. Actually, let me rephrase that: I discovered I could run. I’m slow and I don’t care; apparently that’s a good thing.
- Won my day job’s “Employee of the Year” award. For all the time I’ve worked in tech it’s been Pretty Bad, Verging On Nearly Killing Me, but the place I’m at is wonderful and I really feel like I am doing well. You see me slacking online? Sorry, I am just exercising Model Employee Behavior. Anyway, where’s my UBI?
- I put out a goddamn record of my own. And an EP. And a Christmas single. All of which can be purchased on Bandcamp. I’ll write a longer post about this, but I am absolutely overwhelmed by all the kind things everyone has said about Afternoon Destroyer and the airplay its received. This might be the first time I’ve made something that’s garnered any kind of response (positive or negative), so it’s a whole new territory for me. And to think I almost did not release this because I had convinced myself it was awful. Thank you, I mean it.