In the past, I’ve silently updated my annual lists of my favorite art as a way to commemorate the flipping of the calendar, but my editors have demanded that I editorialize about the year that has been.
I asked them, “Why?”
The editors replied, “Because your readers demand it.”
I followed up with, “What readers? And how are they communicating with you?”
They haven’t gotten back to me.
A year of upheaval for the United States, in which decades of coordinated attacks on our systems and institutions have finally paid off for the ultra-wealthy. We (the American citizenry) find ourselves divided by the people who benefit from that division, stripped of a common perception of reality and truth, hurdling towards the future Wall-E portended.
But, hey, at least the Eagles won the Super Bowl!
2025 Highlights
Wedding after wedding after wedding after wedding …
And one elopement!
Re-located to Santa Barbara from Washington D.C. and visited friends, older friends, and oldest friends along the way.
Travelled to Sweden, Denmark, Colombia, and Hawaiʻi.
Spent a lot of time hanging out on my own and leaned into talking to strangers, which led to some really fun experiences! [Pictured below]
2025 Lowlights
[Redacted by editorial staff]
Quick Notes about 2025’s Best Movies and Books
This year, I made an effort to watch more new movies, so for the first time (since I started listing favorites in 2019), all of my ranked movies were released in the past 13 months. I am making a special point to mention this because, in years past, Portrait of a Lady on Fire would have topped my list. But, my editors have forced me to demote it to honorable mention. C’est la vie. This was a great year in film! As the calendar approached its final days and the lists neared publication, my honorable mention list was so busy that I developed a fear of seeing new movies.
I still haven’t learned how to put down a book that I’m not connecting with. And, as a result, my reading pattern resembled that of a sprinter’s training regime (reading some books in a week and others taking months). Moving didn’t help, I had to join the back of the library’s hold list for many of my most anticipated reads of the year. In 2026, I hope to find a better balance between the ease of streaming digital media and the delayed gratification of diving into a novel for an extended period of time. Full disclosure: This attentional balance could be considered my personal holy grail and I’m incredibly unlikely to succeed.
The great irony of making these three lists is that I spend more time watching television than I spend watching movies, listening to music, or reading books. But, the fates provided me an avenue to talk a bit about Sterlin Harjo’s new show The Lowdown. As you would expect, if you watched Reservation Dogs, he manages to introduce idiosyncratic characters that feel incredibly complex and authentic, even if they are only on the screen for five minutes. And his love for Oklahoma (a largely ignored part of the U.S.) oozes through the screen. No one does a better job making a setting feel more lived-in than Harjo. All of this to say: When Ken Pomeroy appeared on screen singing “Bound to Rain” I became the Pointing Rick Dalton meme because the Spotify algorithm recommended her music to me a month earlier and I had been repeatedly streaming it.
Some shows you might have missed but you need to watch: Families Like Ours (Familier som vores), Big Boys, and Such Brave Girls.
Happy New Year!
