Return of the Top 5 (sort of)

In which I reminisce on a year that just ended.

Welcome to another year of FILLER.

Last year, I kicked off this newsletter with a series of Top 5 articles, in which I detailed my favorite movies, TV shows, albums, books, and random events that I loved. 

I didn’t feel like doing that much this year, but I still wanted a little documentation of things, and maybe give you a thing or two to check out that you might not have heard about. I also didn’t want to bombard your inbox for five days straight with different pieces. I know how irritating multiple emails from one person can be. If I get more than one or two a week it feels like overkill, and I find that ‘unsubscribe’ button as quickly as possible.

My goal for last year was to drop one post each week, so that every Friday you’d have a little something from me waiting in your inbox. That did not happen. I sent a total of 13 posts over the course of the entire year. So, I didn’t hit my once a week goal, but I didn’t drop below once a month (in the aggregate) either! I’m going to do a separate entry for 2024 goals, probably next week, and passing 13 posts a year will definitely be on there.

Right now, Filler is glorified blog content, but I have a feeling that’s why most of you are reading anyway. So with that in mind, let’s get on with the show.

We’re going to do a little ‘Year in Review’ type thing for the rest of this post. A 2023 by the numbers, if you will. I keep a spreadsheet of my media consumption every year, and wanted to give you a little peek at it. I still limited each category to a Top 5, even though I’m not counting it as such.

Movies

I watched 86 movies last year, but only 27 of them were released in 2023. 10 of them were older releases that I never got around to, which means that 49 were comfort rewatches. I tried to watch all the SCREAM movies before the new one came out, but only got through the first 4. I also tried to do a David Fincher rewatch before THE KILLER came out, but got sidetracked after about 4 of his films. There seems to be a pattern forming there.

2023 was a weird year for movies (and TV) because of the writers guild and SAG AFTRA strikes. A lot of stuff that was on the books for this year got pushed to 2024, since neither the writers or actors were doing promotion during a work stoppage that lasted from May through October.  There’s also a LOT of stuff that I haven’t gotten around to watching yet. I usually only go to the theater when the movie is playing on a screen that has the Open Caption option, which isn’t very often. Megaplex theaters usually has a couple a day (Valley Fair has the most), and Broadway does open captions on Wednesday screenings. Most things I usually have to wait for them to be available on streaming so I know what the fuck is going on. My watch list for the month of January is mostly 2023 releases that are just now becoming available for me to catch at home with the captions on. I’ll probably have to update this list in a few months (and have already done it once since I started writing last week). But anyway, here are a few of my favorites in no particular order.

• The Iron Claw

• Barbie

• Poor Things

• Killers of the Flower Moon

• Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

I saw BARBIE twice in theaters, and have thought about it a lot since then. The degree of difficulty for that movie was SO high. It could have been—and probably should have been—terrible, but Greta Gerwig knew exactly what movie she wanted to make, and they let her do it. POOR THINGS felt like Stanley Kubrick made a Wes Anderson movie in all the best ways, and ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE probably would have been my favorite thing I saw all year had it not ended on a cliffhanger that won’t get resolved until 2025. THE IRON CLAW and KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON were emotionally draining (in different ways) but beautiful at the same time. Lily Gladstone’s performance is crushing, and she deserves every bit of recognition that she gets.

TV SHOWS

I watched 38 new series this year—all of them released in 2023. I also rewatched all of SILICON VALLEY, random episodes of SEINFELD, most of NEW GIRL (skipping the last season because I don’t care about plot points that involve kids), part of 30 ROCK, and a few seasons each of CALIFORNICATION and EASTBOUND AND DOWN. I hang out at my house kind of a lot, if you haven’t noticed. 

There was *a lot* of good TV this year, and narrowing it down was really hard, but I gave it a shot.

• Succession

• The Bear

• Shrinking

• Beef

• The Last of Us

I marveled at every episode of SUCCESSION, and thought about the writing and performances for the entire week between episodes. I liked season one of THE BEAR more, but season two had so many great moments, and I still smile when I think about cousin Richie driving through Chicago blasting Taylor Swift. SHRINKING was the perfect “here are some people that you’re going to LOVE hanging out with for a little bit every week” show. BEEF didn’t end as strongly as it began, but I’ll watch Steven Yeun and Ali Wong do just about anything. THE LAST OF US kept me, a guy that has no patience for video games and hated THE WALKING DEAD, coming back and engaged every week.

Music

This is where I get overwhelmed easily. There is so much new music coming out all the time that it’s hard to keep up. I try, but always end up retreating to my little playlists and the comfort albums that I loved 20 years ago. Here’s some stuff that I really enjoyed this year though.

• Queens of the Stone Age - In Times New Roman

• The Armed - Perfect Saviors

• The Kills - God Games

• Militarie Gun - Life Under the Gun

• Drain - Living Proof

Queens is on constant rotation, and the new record has a couple of my favorite songs that they’ve ever written. The Armed is such a weird band conceptually, but the new record is so catchy that I couldn’t stop listening to it. The Kills are a band I always forget about until they pop up, then I listen to them for two days straight. Militarie Gun had a huge year, with a great album that always finds a way into my playlists. The Drain album is so much fun, and so heavy, and I love how happy the band looks in every photo. It’s all bright colors and sunshine, which is the exact opposite of every other HC band.

My Top 5 artists of 2023 according to Spotify Wrapped (in case you’re curious) were: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Queens of the Stone Age, Death From Above 1979, The Hives, and Jets to Brazil.

Books

This year I got really into Elmore Lenoard again, and read four of his lesser known books. He’s always been one of my favorite writers, and his stuff is always great, but none of those books made my Top 5. There were a few others that I liked way more, and think you should check out.

• Crying in H Mart - Michelle Zauner

• Down and Out in Paradise - Charles Leerhsen

• Billy Summers - Stephen King

• MCU: The Reign of Marvel - Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales, Dave Edwards

• Falling - TJ Newman

Michelle Zuaner’s book stuck with me the most, and I spent a lot of time watching Korean cooking YouTube videos—even though nothing was vegan and none of it looked appetizing at all. Leerhsen’s Anthony Bourdain book (unauthorized, which is the best kind because they tell you all the shitty parts, too) also had me watching a lot of old episodes of No Reservations and Parts Unknown. I did not appreciate that guy as much as I should have while he was alive. Stephen King is a staple, and Billy Summers is one of his recent books that’s a straight crime novel. I loved it. Falling was written by a former flight attendant about a plane that gets hijacked. It’s very silly at times, but wildly captivating. I read the whole thing in 2 days. I’m also a sucker for a good behind-the-curtain Hollywood book, and this one, about the entire history of Marvel’s movie studio, was like catnip for me.

Live Shows

This is the first year that I tracked all the live shows that I went to, and I hit 48 in 2023. That’s almost one a week, which is probably way more than a normal 43-year-old guy goes to. But hey, that’s one of the perks of being a #SingleSuccessfulGuy. If I’m not watching movies or shows, you can probably find me at a random venue listening to bands. I’m sure there were a few random shows that I forgot to log, but that’s still a ton.

• Katy Perry

• Jesus Piece

• Weyes Blood

• Kilby Block Party - Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Japanese Breakfast, Remi Wolfe, Run the Jewels, Caroline Polachek

• Quicksand

I wrote about Katy Perry in my Vegas recap, so I’ll spare you from hearing about it in detail again. I’ve thought about it a lot since then, though. Great show. Jesus Piece is a band I’ve heard about forever, but never got to see in person until this year, and was blown away by their live set. I’ve also been trying to see Weyes Blood since 2020, and got to see her twice this year. Kilby Block Party was so much fun, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs were incredible. I also got to see Caroline Polachek, The Strokes, Japanese Breakfast (Michelle Zauner from my book list’s band), Run the Jewels, The Pixies, Remi Wolfe and a ton of others that weekend. I had such a good time that I bought tickets for the 2024 event before they had even announced who would be there. Quicksand was a show I was looking forward to all year long, and they played SLIP in its entirety. I was smiling through the entire set. Honorable mentions go to Spiritual Cramp, who I heard for the first time this summer. Xibalba came back for the first time in like 10 years, and is still amazing to watch live. So, so heavy. Drain played in a parking lot downtown, and was one of the most fun shows all year. I also (finally) got to see Sunny Day Real Estate again after 20 years. Live music is great and I love watching bands play. I can’t wait to do more of it in 2024.

Some honorable live show mentions go to Vanessa Carlton, who I watched play one song at Urban Lounge. Local boys Sunsleeper and Absolved, who I definitely saw the most this year. Marc Maron, who I saw twice in one weekend and laughed my ass off both times. Dishonorable mention to Everclear who played a free show in Pioneer Park. They were wildly boring, and kind of bad. I left halfway through.

That’s it for now. Thanks for reading (if you made it this far), and stay tuned for more rambling throughout the year.

And if you have any suggestions on what you’d like from this newsletter, please let me know.