It’s wrap-up time!
As the year comes to a close, I like to look back and consider the things that made the year rewarding, enjoyable, interesting, understandable, or just plain bearable. In past years I’ve reviewed the books I read, but this year I decided to expand my retrospective to include movies, TV, music and other things I enjoyed.
Looking at everything together, trying to pick out themes, I came to a realization: I need to keep better track of what I do. I have a notes app list of all the books I read, but when I tried to remember every movie, TV show and album, I came up blank. So, top of the to-do list for next year: better notes.
But another theme that came through was auteurs and subversion. I found myself drawn to projects where creators took the reins and took big swings, trying new things with old genres, properties and formats. A sheer joy and excitement about creativity also came through, whether that’s talking about the creative process or going all-out with ideas that shouldn’t work but somehow do.
Here’s the list of some of my favorite things that I experienced in 2022 — not all from this year, but all speaking to me this year. Hope you find some new things here to add to your various lists, queues, subscriptions and notes apps.