Hi all, and Happy New Year. I don’t know how many January well-wishes from a dormant substack it takes to count as *tradition* but this ought to bring me one post closer. Three headers waiting for your scroll - a best of, a playlist, and the latest from my Notes app.
I scan end-of-year lists for the bolt of electricity/recognition that goes “oh hey! forgot about THAT.” Or the confirmation when you’ve seen the same title mentioned from multiple people and someone gets to be the final nudge that brings you there too. In the spirit of reciprocity, here are…
Alphabetically, The Very Best (According to One Person’s Limited Perspective and Taste) Shows, Books, Newsletters, and Tweets of 2021
📺
📚
Fake Accounts — Lauren Oyler
Klara and the Sun — Kazuo Ishiguro
No One is Talking About This — Patricia Lockwood
Our Country Friends — Gary Shteyngart
Treasure Island!!! — Sara Levine
🗞
A Piece of Cake — Bill Clark
constellations — Marissa Lorusso
Links I Would Gchat You If We Were Friends — Caitlin Dewey
Money Stuff — Matt Levine
Today in Tabs — Rusty Foster
🐦
Wait I Only Made Two Playlists This Year? Well SHEESH Here’s The One I Liked Better:
Ambrosia by Rosie Tucker
Stellate (The Districts Remix) by Samia & The Districts
Unto Caesar by Dirty Projectors
Diver by Lala Lala
Long Wave by Bonny Doon
Severed Logic by Half Waif
Lately by Porches
One Mississippi by WHY?
Hannah Sun by Lomelda
Neon Blue by Amelia Meath & Blake Mills
🍎:
https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/you-are-who-youre-supposed-to-be/pl.u-MRRdWIW27M1D
❇️:
And Finally, The Pinned Note I Returned to Throughout 2021
TO LICINIUS
Be hopeful in trouble,
Be worried when things go well. That’s how it is
For the man whose heart is ready for anything.
It’s true that Jupiter brings on the hard winters;
It’s also true that Jupiter takes them away.
If things are bad right now, they won’t always be.
Apollo isn’t always drawing his bow;
There are times when he takes up his lyre and plays,
And awakens the music sleeping upon the strings.
Be resolute when things are going against you,
But shorten sail when the fair wind blows too strong.
—
Fair winds to each of you in 2022. 🌬