Listmas 2024: The finale

I have to teach in two days, so minimally annotated!

Even more than last year, all I did for fun was listen to music and read (and go to South America), so these lists are thinner than usual. Should have more time this year; might even start playing video games again.

MOVIES

1. Evil Does Not Exist (Ryusuke Hamaguchi)

2. I Saw the TV Glow (Jane Schoenbrun)

3. Anora (Sean Baker)

4. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer)

5. The Wild Robot (Chris Sanders)

6. Descendant (Margaret Brown)

7. Jawan (Atlee)

8. A Thousand and One (A.V. Rockwell)

9. La Chimera (Alice Rohrwacher)

10. Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet)

And I also liked Afire, The Boy and the Heron, Civil War, Godzilla Minus One, The Holdovers, Inside Out 2, May December, Poor Things, and Wicked.

Unrateable: Postcards from Earth at the Sphere. A breathtaking technical achievement, and very, very dumb.

TV

Usual caveat: I’m years behind and am mostly trying catch up with Joey Daniewicz’s lists (mostly cartoons, ignoring anything that seems too prestige-y until I absolutely have to watch it) in an extremely haphazard way.

Frieren: Aura arc
Pluto
Last Week Tonight: The West Bank
Succession season 2 on x1.5 speed
Hilda series finale
Better Call Saul second half of season 5
Heavenly Delusion: Their Choices
Bob’s Burgers: The Plight Before Christmas

MUSIC VIDEOS, EXCLUDING ANYTHING THAT MADE 99 LIVES

Riize: “Impossible”

yeah that’s all I remember

LIVE MUSIC

1. Olivia Rodrigo, Lexington, KY (attendance: 16,200)

2. Hamell on Trial, The Orbit Room, Bloomington, IN (attendance: 20? fewer?)

3. Billie Eilish/Wussy post-election catharsis weekend, Cincinnati, OH

SPORTS

1. Olympic Day 5 swimming finals, Jul 31

2. Real Madrid vs. Bayern Munich, Champions League semifinal, May 8

3. Iowa vs. UConn, NCAA Women’s Basketball Final Four, Apr 5

4. Simone Biles, Yurchenko double pike, July 28

5. West Indies in Australia, 2nd Test, Jan 25–28

6. Chiefs at Bills, NFL Divisional Round, Jan 21

7. India vs. South Africa, Men’s World T20 final, Jun 29

8. Carlos Alcaraz vs. Alexander Zverev, French Open final, Jun 9

9. Olympic men’s 1500 m, Aug 6

10. Indy 500, May 26

And I didn’t even include anything from New Zealand cricket’s greatest season. Objectivity!

ART, PORNOGRAPHIC

hey did I mention I went to Peru

ART, SEMIPORNOGRAPHIC

Post Human, Jeffrey Deitch, Los Angeles. I think a lot of the Hirst/Barney/Cattelan/Murakami names are kind of passe in some circles, but are still at least occasionally revelatory to us kids from the sticks.

ART, NONPORNOGRAPHIC

Olafur Eliasson, OPEN, Geffen Contemporary, Los Angeles. I liked the pretty shadows and mirrors and the questioning of the respective realism of illusory physical openness and psychological openness; could’ve used some interrogation of what to do about the fact that about half the world doesn’t consider any kind of openness to be a virtue at all.

ART, SHAMELESSLY CAPITALIST

I quite liked Meow Wolf’s Omega Mart in Vegas.

THINGS I ATE (NON-PERUVIAN)

I did a Bluesky thread on this (warning: omnivorousness.)

Best coffee: Be Bright, Los Angeles. Best drinks: Attaboy, Nashville and Juniper, Birmingham, AL.

Fish mug, Attaboy

MONUMENTAL ARCHITECTURE

1. Sacsayhuamán

2. Ollantaytambo

3. The Sphere

4. Machu Picchu

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The 14th Annual Expert Witness Poll is open. Vote for your albums, singles, and EPs of the year, and make heartwrenching decisions for Artist of the Century!