Favorite culture things of 2021
This year did not go exactly as planned, but there were some good things in it.
BOOKS
2021 was the year I discovered Charles Portis, whose writing is hilarious and precise. I listened to Donna Tartt reading True Grit and whoa buddy, that is the good stuff. I read three of his novels, may read the other four next year.
I read some Scandinavian mystery novels and some Jack Reacher. I listened to the His Dark Materials trilogy while I was splitting logs and doing summer things, great books.
These were my favorite books that came out in 2021. (This list and all these lists are in no particular order.)
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
Madhouse at the End of the Earth: The Belgica’s Journey into the Dark Antarctic Night by Julian Sancton
Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor. A novella about the Angel of Death walking through a near-future African dystopia. Recommend!
Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson
Why Bushwick Bill Matters by Charles L. Hughes. A friend, Central Wisconsin Book Festival returning champion and WPR interview guest in a segment I produced. The man has interesting things to say about a rapper who was one of my favorites when I was 13 and about whom I had not bothered to think a lot about since then, until this book became the occasion to change that.
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe
Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh. This came out in September 2020 but I read it in January and it absolutely caused me to laugh so hard my stomach hurt multiple times, and in fact I am laughing right now remembering it because it is one of the funniest things ever.
MUSIC
According to Spotify my most-binged artist of 2021 was MF Doom. This does not surprise me, because for a while after his death in January I listened to nothing else — Madvillain and King Geedorah, obviously, but also other Doom records I had not had a previous relationship to. R.I.P. Daniel Dumile.
New stuff:
I thought “Old Town Road” was great but in 2019 I guess I would have considered it an open question whether Lil Nas X would be able to follow it up. Well, that question is settled! Not only did he pull off some of the most ridiculous and hilarious marketing stunts ever, but also Montero is really terrific. I love “Industry Baby” but I think my favorite is “Lost in the Citadel” — one of his weakest singles by chart position, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. That song was also part of the fun and somewhat unexpected mini-trend of emo revival, with “Good 4 U” and “Transparent Soul” and others.
I think my favorite single of the year was “Good Ones” by Charli XCX. We got a good song of the summer this year in “Levitating” by Dua Lipa. I enjoyed the 10-minute-long “All Too Well,” like everyone.
My favorite album of the year was Call Me If You Get Lost. I don’t think I ever made it all the way through Donda, though I guess it had its moments.
For these, I mostly followed the arbitrary rule that the albums and singles list should not overlap.
Albums:
Tyler, the Creator, Call Me if You Get Lost
Olivia Rodrigo, Sour
Lil Nas X, Montero
Boldy James and The Alchemist, Bo Jackson
Billie Eilish, Happier than Ever
Jazmine Sullivan, Heaux Tales
Songs:
“Good Ones,” Charli XCX
“Up,” Cardi B
“Levitating,” Dua Lipa feat. DaBaby
“Sandman,” A$AP Rocky
“Good 4 U,” Olivia Rodrigo
“Half of my Hometown” Kelsi Ballerini feat. Kenny Chesney
“Mohabbat,” Arooj Aftab
“Gasoline” by Haim feat. Taylor Swift
“Stay,” The Kid Laroi feat. Justin Bieber
“Calling My Phone,” Lil TJay
“Lanyards” by The Hold Steady
“All Too Well (10-minute version),” Taylor Swift
“Astronaut in the Ocean,” Masked Wolf
“Save Your Tears (Remix),” The Weeknd and Ariana Grande
“Satellite,” Thundercat feat. Genevieve Artadi and Louis Cole
Some not-new music that was a big part of my 2021:
- Somehow I got on a Clash kick at some point and am still sort of on it. Not sure if you’ve heard of a record called London Calling, for instance. It’s good!
- The Beatles, after the Get Back documentary.
- Every couple of years I want to listen to nothing but Randy Newman for a little while, and this was one of those.
TV
Despite what you may have heard, there are only two good TV shows, and they are Reservation Dogs and Joe Pera Talks with You. (Late addition, I will add that we are super enjoying Wheel of Time.) We are at a point where there are plenty of competent or expensive-seeming or even prestigious shows, and I have no beef with anyone who wants to pass the time watching something that is perfectly fine; I do it myself. But I mean, Nine Perfect Strangers? Falcon and the Winter Soldier? The Morning Show? What are we doing here, exactly?
Reservation Dogs is something different. It is funny and weird and sad. It is the show everyone should watch, the only good show.
Good:
Reservation Dogs
Joe Pera Talks with You
The “Dan Flashes” sketch of I Think You Should Leave
Wheel of Time
Pretty good (honestly not as good):
Ted Lasso
Only Murders in the Building
Lupin
Bridgerton
WandaVision
What We Do in the Shadows
I do not have HBO so I did not watch the HBO shows. I don’t actually believe they are good either, though. But I do want to see some of them.
P.S. I will also mention here one of my favorite television-watching experiences of the year, which was the reality show Alone season 7 on Netflix. Amazing what people can do!
P.P.S. And I would like to mention the worst and most hateful show of the year, which was Squid Game. A moral disaster, pretend “satire” that is really an excuse for creators and audience to indulge their own sadism and juvenile fantasy. Writing bad!! It sucked in every way that matters!!
MOVIES
Well my favorite movie of the year was the Beatles documentary Get Back. For all its sprawl it was absolutely spellbinding and I also enjoyed reading all the takes for the couple of weeks earlier this month when it was the biggest thing on the internet. My own is that it is a movie about the amount of sheer repetition involved in creative work.
I did not care for Inside by Bo Burnham. It was plenty impressive but I didn’t technically laugh and also sort of didn’t … trust it? But then I also did not completely trust Derek DelGaudio’s In and of Itself but I guess I distrusted it in a way I found interesting. I contradict myself, what can you do.
I guess Tenet came out in 2020 but like a lot of people I watched it this year when it came to streaming and found it delightful. I am pretty sure it makes no sense even on its own terms but, sorry, it is cool as hell and I would like to watch it again.
I actually liked a bunch of movies this year! All of these were good, to me:
Summer of Soul
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Get Back
In the Heights
The Mitchells vs. the Machines
Nomadland
In and of Itself
Dune
Haven’t gotten to a theater to see West Side Story but I am pretty excited to see it. Also looking forward to watching Power of the Dog in this post-Xmas free time.