Rob Mentzer’s certified finest in culture, 2019
This is something I do at this time of year because it is fun. I also like hearing what other people liked, so please share your favs with me. It was a good year for things! As usual I did not excel at watching things but did pretty well at reading and listening.
BOOKS
The first thing I’d like to say is that possibly my most enjoyable reading experience of the year was Norwegian Wood: Chopping, Stacking and Drying Wood the Scandinavian Way. It came out in 2011. I am embracing my true identity as a middle-aged dad, and this year I split and stacked a cord of firewood and read a nicely illustrated book on the subject. I found everything about it extremely soothing and therapeutic and I recommend it to all.
Some other not-new books I read and enjoyed this year and recommend: Circe, Beowulf, North of Boston, The Greenlanders, People Who Eat Darkness. I also read the third of the four magnificent Neapolitan novels, following my self-imposed plan to read one each year.
I was super excited for Black Leopard, Red Wolf when it came out in February but I ended up failing that book, which is still sitting on my nightstand and which I found very hard to really engage with.
I liked The Second Founding and I have recently started Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of Your Enemies and it is absolutely rules.
My favorite 2019 books:
The Queen: The Forgotten Life Behind an American Myth by Josh Levin
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory In Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe
Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino
Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
How to be a Family: The Year I Dragged My Kids Around the World to Find a New Way to Be Together by Daniel Kois
A Fortune for Your Disaster by Hanif Abdurraqib
MUSIC
I mean, it was the year of “Old Town Road” and of Lizzo, which means it was a pretty good musical year.
Forrest loved the movie Spider-Man Into the Spiderverse as much as I did, so we spent a lot of time listening to the soundtrack, which was good. I guess it came out in late 2018.
I said when it came out that The Hold Steady is probably the closest thing I have to a guilty pleasure; I feel anxiety about it because it is so demographically appropriate for me to like it. But, welp.
In no order, some favorite albums:
Solange, When I Get Home
Lizzo, Cuz I Love You
Flying Lotus, Flamagra
Freddie Gibbs/Madlib, Bandana
The Hold Steady, Thrashing Through the Passion
Danny Brown, uknowhatimsayin¿
Maggie Rogers, Heard it in a Past Life
Rapsody, Eve
In precise order (all lists are silly and all ordering is arbitrary), some favorite songs:
20. “Gone,” Charli XCX feat. Christine and the Queens
19. “This Life,” Vampire Weekend
18. “Circles,” Post Malone
17. “High,” Young Thug
16. “Use This Gospel,” Kanye West feat. Clipse and Kenny G
15. “Tempo,” Lizzo feat. Missy Elliott
14. “Throw it Back,” Missy Elliott
13. “Blame it on Your Love,” Charli XCX feat. Lizzo
12. “Venice Bitch,” Lana Del Rey
11. “Hot Shower,” Chance the Rapper feat. MadeinTYO and DaBaby
10. “Paper Rings,” Taylor Swift
9. “What’s Good,” Tyler the Creator
8. “Coming Home” Pusha T feat. Lauren Hill
7. “Best Life,” Danny Brown
6. “Highest in the Room,” Travis Scott
5. “Old Town Road,” Lil Nas X
4. “Bury a Friend,” Billie Eilish
3. “Summer Girl,” Haim
2. “Juice,” Lizzo
1. “Entitlement Crew,” The Hold Steady
PODCASTS
I will not list all the podcasts I enjoy because, I mean, come on. Let’s see. I’m a little underwhelmed by Dolly Parton’s America; I still love Heavyweight; and the Revolutions podcast is doing the Russian Revolution rn which is fascinating. I’ve been enjoying ESPN Daily when it does NBA stories (I skip the NFL ones, just me); I listened to the somewhat campy historical fiction podcast 1865 (Edwin Stanton vs. Andrew Johnson!) and what can I say, I enjoyed it.
Some podcast highlights of 2019 for me:
Podcast series
White Lies — In some ways it is squarely inside the style of first-persony, earnest-crime-investigation genre podcast, but in other ways it is nothing like all the podcasts in that genre. It is about history and memory, it’s sad and infuriating and actually very funny sometimes, and it all pays off.
Anthem: Homonculus — Okay I will be honest, sometimes the narrative zaniness was too much for me. But the songs are touching, the whole thing is an incredible production, and its sounds are always interesting.
Podcast episodes:
Reply All, “Roman Mars Mazda Virus” and (especially) “30–50 Feral Hogs”
1619, “Episode 3: The Birth of American Music”
Decoder Ring, “Baby Shark”
Without Fail, “Ira Glass: The Man Who Launched a Thousand Podcasts.”
TV
My favorite show was Derry Girls, which is pure delight. I agree with everyone about Fleabag and Russian Doll which were very enjoyable. The Good Place is still great. I enjoyed the reality show Rhythm and Flow, it’s not deep but it was fun. I do not have HBO so I did not watch the HBO shows, I’m sure they’re good.
Also: Lodge 49; Nailed It; The Great British Baking Show.
MOVIES
In May, I watched 10 Werner Herzog movies, for no reason other than I got started and kept going. Highlights: Fitzcarraldo; Lessons of Darkness; Cave of Forgotten Dreams; My Best Fiend.
Another documentary I really enjoyed was the largely plotless, visually arresting documentary Hale County This Morning, This Evening which I guess came out last year.
I guess my main favorite 2019 movies all happened to be netflix movies, but I wouldn’t read too much into that. They were:
High Flying Bird — A bit of basketball, a bit of a caper, it was probably the movie I enjoyed watching the most this year.
American Factory
Dolemite is My Name
Some other movies I liked, maybe I didn’t quite love them for various different reasons: Booksmart; The Irishman; Always Be My Maybe; Toy Story 4; Joker; Captain Marvel. There follows a much longer list of movies I would probably like if I saw them. But I probably won’t see most of them.
OTHER CULTURE THINGS
I became a new NBA fan in 2019. It started out as blatant Bucks bandwagon-jumping in the playoffs, but then I was like, “Man, basketball rules,” and now I love it and got a boosted Hulu subscription and watch as many games as I can. It is fun to have a new hobby. And because I am very new at it, I know that I don’t know as much as most fans, and it is fun to learn new ways of understanding the game.
I am not much of a gamer but I played a story-focused game called Firewatch that I enjoyed and would recommend.
Two good things on the internet this year were Lizzo’s joyous Tiny Desk Concert the absolutely hilarious, often-awkward Funkmaster Flex interview with Tyler the Creator.
I have also been enjoying people’s end-of-decade lists.