Now that we’re 10 days into 2024, I can finally muster the courage to try to look back at 2023. This list will likely be shorter and less involved than recent lists, like THIS ONE or THIS ONE or even THIS ONE. I’m not sure I have the energy to live up to those standards. Then again, 2024 marks the 20th anniversary of “…an endless banquet” (!!). There are traditions to uphold, right? Anyway, without any further ado, here’s a list of things that quickened the heart (in a positive way) this past year.
Audio: Song
Altin Gün, Ask
Altin Gün, On
Tim Maia, Nobody Can Live Forever: The Existential Soul of Tim Maia
Destroyer (“solo”), Higher Ground, Burlington, VT & Levon Helm Studios, Woodstock, NY
Rosalía, “Tuya”
Fleetwood Mac, “Rhiannon (live 1976)”
Jimmy Scott, The Source
Mavis Staples, s/t
Mavis Staples, “You Are Not Alone”
The Staple Singers, Be Altitude: Respect Yourself
Sandy Denny, The North Star Grassman and The Ravens
Lewsberg, Out and About
ODESZA, “The Last Goodbye (feat. Bettye LaVette)”
Petula Clark, “La Nuit n’en finit plus”
Felixson Ngasia & the Survivals, “Black Precious Color”
Ibrahim Hesnawi, “Never Understand”
Sudan Archives, “Selfish Soul (ODESZA re-mix)”
Sudan Archives, “Nont For Sale”
Sudan Archives, Natural Brown Prom Queen
Latto, “Big Energy”
Coi Leray, “Players”
Vusi Mahlasela, Norman Zulu, and Jive Connection, Face to Face
Bob Dylan, “Murder Most Foul”
Bob Dylan, The Bootleg Series, vol. 9: The Witmark Demos, 1962-1964
Bob Dylan, Great White Wonder (bootleg)
Lightning Dust, Nostalgia Killer
Meg Baird, Furling
Mary Lattimore, Goodbye, Hotel Arkada
CFCF, You Can Live Forever (Original Motion Picture Score)
Audio: Podcasts
This American Life, “The Call”
This American Life,”Eight Fights”
The Ezra Klein Show, “A Revelatory Tour of Martin Luther King Jr’s Forgotten Teachings”
The Kids of Rutherford County (The New York Times/Serial Productions)
The Retrievals (Serial Productions)
The Coldest Case in Laramie (The New York Times/Serial Productions)
This American Life, “The Show of Delights”
The Ezra Klein Show, “What a Poetic Mind Can Teach Us How to Live”
Rumble Strip, “Finn and the Bell”
The Daily
Moving Images
Anatomy of a Fall (2023), dir. Triet
The Red Angel (1966), dir. Masumara—Thank you to Cinéma Moderne for this one!
Saint Omer (2022), dir. Diop
Tori et Lokita (2022), dir. Dardenne Bros.
Le Pupille (2022), dir. Rohrwacher
Geographies of Solitude (2022), dir. Mills
Women Talking (2022), dir. Polley
The Pigeon Tunnel (2023), dir. Morris
Showing Up (2023), dir. Reichardt
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), dir. Scorsese
Oppenheimer (2023), dir. Nolan
Stop Making Sense 4K (2023/1984), dir. Demme
May December (2023), dir. Haynes
Reality (2023), dir. Satter
Blackberry (2023), dir. Johnson
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (2023), dir. Fremon Craig
Narcos: Mexico, seasons 1-3
The Crown, seasons 5 and 6
David Grann, Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
Noah Gallagher Shannon, “The Genius Behind Hollywood’s Most Indelible Sets,” The New York Times
Greil Marcus, Folk Music: A Bob Dylan Biography in Seven Songs
Peniel E. Joseph, The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King, Jr., The Trumpet of Conscience
Doreen St. Felix, “How Sudan Archives Became the Violin’s Domme,” The New Yorker
Rebecca Solnit, Orwell’s Roses
Nastassja Martin, In the Eye of the Wild
Rachel Corbett, “The Inheritance Case That Could Unravel an Art Dynasty,” The New York Times
Robert MacFarlane, Landmarks
Josiah Thompson, Six Seconds in Dallas
Josiah Thompson, Last Second in Dallas
Robert Kolker, “The Botched Hunt for the Gilgo Beach Killer,” The New York Times
John Branch, “Ghosts on the Glacier,” The New York Times
Michelle Sterling, Camp Zero
Maggie Nelson, On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint
Questlove, Music is History
Jon Mooallem, “Michael Stipe is Writing His Next Act. Slowly.,” The New York Times
Florian Gadsby, By My Hands
Jody Williams and Rita Sodi, Via Carota: A Celebration of Seasonal Cooking
Bricia Lopez, Asada: The Art of Mexican-Style Grilling
Natasha Pickowicz, More Than Cake: 100 Baking Recipes Built for Pleasure and Community
Hettie McKinnon, To Asia, With Love
Hettie Lui McKinnon, Tenderheart
Rick Easton w/ Melissa McCart, Bread and How to Eat It
Irina Georgescu, Tava: Eastern European Baking and Desserts from Romania & Beyond
Food & Drink
Ernesto’s, NYC
Bread and Salt, Jersey City, NJ
Vin Mon Lapin, Montreal
Etna Pastificio, Montreal
Carlota Boulangerie, Montreal
Kitano Shokudo, Montreal
Son & Seigle Boulangerie, Montreal
Eventide, Portland, ME
The Honey Paw, Portland, ME
Famiglia Baldassare, Toronto
Pasquale Brothers, Etobicoke, ON
Casavant, Montreal
Alma, Toronto
Tapisserie, Paris (flan!)
Parcelles, Paris
Mokonuts, Paris
Bar Cravan, Paris
summer strawberries
Canal House Station, Milford, NJ
Kitty’s, Hudson, NY
Quinine's Good Food, Hudson, NY
Churchtown Dairy, Hudson, NY
Oaxaca Fest, Calais, VT
Poppy Café, Burlington, VT
San Fu, Montreal
ongoing experiments in homemade pasta shapes of all kinds
Bonci panbriacone
Tandem Coffee Roasters & Bakery, Portland, ME
Island Oysters, Toronto
OXO Cold Brew Coffee Maker
Lawson’s Finest Liquids, Waitsfield, VT, including Lawson’s Scragarita
AEB Spanish-themed Holiday Extravaganza
Miscellaneous
A.THERIEN, Cairo, NY
S.W. Welch, Montreal [R.I.P.]
Musée de la chasse et de la nature, Paris
The Monkey’s Paw, Toronto
Baba Yaga, Littleton, NH
Stanley Swain, 10-year-old artist
“Leonard Cohen: Everybody Knows,” Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
Pinhole Camera Workshop, Niagara Artists Centre, St. Catharines, ON
YMC sweaters
Yosukata carbon steel woks
Terry Fox Run 2023, High Park, Toronto, ON
R.I.P.
Sinead O’Connor
Daniel Ellsberg
Tina Turner
André Braugher
Rodriguez
Tom Verlaine
Robbie Robertson
David Crosby
Adolfo Kaminsky
Michael Balga
and thousands of other innocents
CEASE FIRE NOW
aj
