The EOY Wrapped Edition
The Best of 2022
Colin and Noah here. From Spotify Wrapped to Netflix’s most popular TV and movies list, ‘tis the season for year end lists of what we consumed. We decided to tap into our very interesting contributors to have them share their Top Three (or thereabout) lists of new (mostly) things they loved this year.
Hopefully there is something in here that can fill in some of the much deserved downtime. Thanks for all your support this year.
A plug for Noah’s new project:
BrXnd is a new project at the intersection of brands and AI. Have a play with the first experiment: AI brand collabs. Try it now.
Onto the picks:
FILMS
Chris Erickson
ASVV
Everything Everywhere All At Once - healing generational trauma through the multiverse.
Turning Red: Pixar makes taking on period taboos adorable.
Triangle of Sadness: For the Balenciaga / H&M moment alone - but so much more.
Matt Locke
Todd Osborn
Russell Davies
Top Gun: Maverick - it’s been an honor, Captain
Boiling Point - one shot kitchen tension
Living - beauty, restraint and tea
Eric Matthies
Lindsay Tuchman
Elvis (I’m a sucker for a musical biopic, so runner up Weird: The Al Yankovic Story)
TELEVISION
Chris Erickson
ASVV
White Lotus: Anything I say would be a spoiler.
Derry Girls Season 3: The perfect ending to the perfect show about growing up in the midst of history
Pachinko: Beautiful, multilingual, multigenerational and sorely overlooked drama about Japan, Korea and America
Matt Locke
Mark Slavonia
Todd Osborn
Graydon Gordian
Russell Davies
Sherwood - real-life crime drama in East Midlands mining community
Taskmaster - funny, happy, silly telly
Slow Horses - MI5 dumping ground makes for drama with the jokes you actually get in real life
Eric Matthies
Lindsay Tuchman
ALBUMS
Chris Erickson
ASVV
Beyonce “Renaissance”: Dancefloor-as-healing
Kendrick Lamar “Mr Moral and the Big Steppers”: Kendrick goes to therapy.
Sault - 5 album drop: still working my way through but damn what a prolific, expansive, generous experiment.
Matt Locke
Harry Styles - Harry’s House
Lianne Le Havas - S/T (2020, but I listened to it a lot this year)
Todd Osborn
Monophonics - Sage Motel
Jimetta Rose - The Gift
Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio - Cold As Weiss
Graydon Gordian
Mondays at the Enfield Tennis Academy - Jeff Parker
Step on Step - Charles Stepney
The Forever Story - JID
Russell Davie
Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek: DOST 2 - Anatolian psych folk pop mixed with gentle Berlin funk
Warpaint: Radiate Like This - Moody, lush, tuney
Hart: Moon Jazz - Hiphop meets jazz in South Wales
Eric Matthies
Lindsay Tuchman
I listen to almost exclusively 80s New Wave so nothing new…
BOOKS
Chris Erickson
Incredible Doom, vol 2 by Matthew Bogart & Jesse Holden
Clandestinity by Antonio Moresco
After The Revolution by Robert Evans
ASVV
My Los Angeles, Edward W. Soja - a collection of preeminent geographer/planner’s post-modernist writings on Los Angeles
Wilding, Isabella Tree. Escape to the rewilding of the countryside
The Data Detective, Tim Harford. Touring data with real data enthusiast
Mark Slavonia
Over the Edge of the World: Magellan by Laurence Bergreen
Seven Games: A Human History by Oliver Roeder
The Tim Tebow Chronicles by Jon Bois
Graydon Gordian
Late Victorian Holocausts - Mike Davis
The Years - Annie Ernaux
The Bond King - Mary Childs
Russell Davies
The Candy House - Jennifer Egan - fascinating ideas and sentences on every page
Ways of Being - James Bridle - the most coherent, important artistic response to the climate crisis
Fen, Bog and Swamp - Annie Proulx - an essay of bog facts punched up with great writing
Steve Bryant
Eric Matthies
(Read this year, not necessarily published this year)
The Castle Of Crossed Destinies - Italo Calvino
Drive Your Plow Over The Bones Of The Dead - Olga Tokarczuk
Underland: A Deep Time Journey - Robert MacFarlane
Lindsay Tuchman
ART
Chris Erickson
ASVV
Umair Rashid - post-colonial pop culture maps and mash-ups
Victoria Gitman, Everything is Surface at Francois Ghebaly - the most intricate miniatures of the most pretty little things
Julian Rosenfeldt, Euphoria at Park Avenue Armory - an hour and a half journey through capitalist thought.
Matt Locke
Cornelia Parker retrospective at Tate Britain
The Horror Show! at Somerset House
Eric Matthies
Sam Szafran - Musee Orangerie, Paris
Sabine Weiss - Peter Fetterman Gallery, LA (photography)
Belonging - Blue Lapis Light, ATX (aerial dance)
LIVE MUSIC
ASVV
Grace Jones at Hollywood Bowl - an epic piece of performance art as well as a killer music show
Polo & Pan / Parcels at Hollywood Bowl - pretty much anything is incredible at the Hollywood Bowl
Automatic at KCRW Studios - My first intimate indoor show since the pandy did not disappoint
Eric Matthies
Paulo Cangalhas - Porto, Portugal
Channel One Sound System - Porto, Portugal
Khruangbin - Austin, TX
FOOD
ASVV
Kato, Taiwanese bar tasting menu in Los Angeles
Nobelhart & Schmutzig in Berlin.
Quiadaiyn, hearty Oaxacan food in LA
VIDEO GAMES
Mark Slavonia
Elden Ring
The Return of the Obra Dinn
Zwift racing
PODCASTS
Mark Slavonia
Russell Davies
The Curiously Specific Book Club - a warm, funny podcast about dates and locations in books
The Briefing Room - a panel of experts briefs you on stuff in the news
Between The Ears - experimental radio and sound
Steve Bryant
PLAYLISTS
Steve Bryant
—
Thanks for reading,
Noah (NRB) & Colin (CJN)
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