Music

Music I most enjoyed discovering this quarter:

• Vampire Weekend: Only God Was Above Us (2024)
• Toby Talbot: Sneaker Wave (2004)
• Eunuchs: Harbour Century (2024)
• Chelsea Wolfe: She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She (2024)
• Maruja: Knocknarea (2023)
• Lara Fabian: “Caruso” (2000)
• Long Fin Killie: Valentino (1996), Amelia (1997)
• Bedrich Smetana: “Vltava [The Moldau]” (1879)
• Water Damage: In E (2024)
• Various: Télescopages Volume 2 (2008)
• Raze the Maze: 7am Dream (2022)
• Sydnie Christmas: “My Way” (2024), “Tomorrow” (2024)
• Sachal Jazz & Wynton Marsalis: “Take Five” (2013)
• Willow: Empathogen (2024)
• Mabe Fratti: “Kravitz” (2024)

Rediscovered or revisited, and really liked:¹

• Neutral Milk Hotel: In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (1998)
• Of Montreal: Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? (2007)
• Air: Premiers Symptomes (1997), Moon Safari (1998), 10 000 Hz Legend (2001), Talkie Walkie (2004)
• Antony and the Johnsons: I Am a Bird Now (2005)
• Death Cab for Cutie: “Transatlanticism” (2003)
• The Postal Service: “Such Great Heights” (2003)
• Mount Eerie: “Pale Lights” (2012)
• Vas Deferens Organization: “First Plane Not to Plummet Seaward” (1996), Zyzzybaloubah (1997)
• Sound: Drunk on Confusion (1999)
• Acid Mothers Temple: IAO Chant from the Cosmic Inferno (2005)
• The Delta 72: The Soul of a New Machine (1997)
• The Dandy Warhols: Dandys Rule OK (1995), The Dandy Warhols Come Down (1997), Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia (2000), “We Used to Be Friends” (2003)
• Long Fin Killie: Houdini (1995)
• The Hives: “Hate to Say I Told You So” (2000)
• Shark Quest: Battle of the Loons (1998)
• Acumen: Territory=Universe (1996)
• Jimmy Eat World: “The Middle” (2001)
• Wilco: Summerteeth (1999), Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002), “Spiders (Kidsmoke)” (2004)
• 16 Horsepower: Sackcloth ‘n’ Ashes (1996)
• The White Stripes: White Blood Cells (2001), “Seven Nation Army” (2003), “Blue Orchid” (2005)
• Modest Mouse: “Float On” (2004)
• The Raconteurs: “Steady, As She Goes” (2006)
• Pinetop Seven: Bringing Home the Last Great Strike (2000)
• DeVotchKa: How it Ends (2004)
• Dengue Fever: Escape from Dragon House (2005)
• Belle and Sebastian: If You’re Feeling Sinister (1996), “Step Into My Office, Baby” (2003)
• Eels: Beautiful Freak (1996), Electro-Shock Blues (1998), Souljacker (2001), “Trouble with Dreams” and “Old Shit / New Shit” (2005), “Fresh Blood” (2009)
• VAST: Visual Audio Sensory Theater (1998), “Thrown Away” (2003)
• Grandaddy: “AM 180” (1998)
• Sufjan Stevens: Michigan (2003), Illinois (2005), The Age of Adz (2010), “All Delighted People” (2010), The Ascension (2020), “My Rajneesh” (2020)
• Nicolai Dunger: Soul Rush (2001)
• Jim White: “When Jesus Gets a Brand New Name” (1997)
• Andrew Bird: Thrills (1998), The Mysterious Production of Eggs (2005), Noble Beast (2008)

Movies/TV

Ones I “really liked” (no star), or “loved” (star):

• Various, Fallout, season 1 (2024)
• Various, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, seasons 6-11 (2008-2016) ★
• Villeneuve, Dune: Part Two (2024) ★

Games

All games I finished or decided to stop playing:

• [none]

Books

I post book ratings and reviews to my Goodreads account instead of here.

Five-star reads this quarter were: Speaking Bones, The Pillars of the Earth, Before They Are Hanged, Last Argument of Kings, Of Mice and Men, Stoner.

My initial impressions of written fiction still hold. Some additional comments:

• Since I started reading fiction as an adult in late 2023, the works of “classic literature” I’ve read (or DNF’d) so far include The Stranger, The Sound and the Fury, The Metamorphosis, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, The Death of Ivan Ilych, The Great Gatsby, The Catcher in the Rye, Of Mice and Men, Lord of the Flies, The Little Prince, 1984, The Old Man and the Sea, Their Eyes Were Watching God, and Candide. I found them to be a mixed bag. Of Mice and Men and Lord of the Flies were fantastic. The Metamorphosis and 1984 and Watching God were great, with some flaws. I DNF’d Catcher and Sound and Fury and Candide despite them seeming possibly great aesthetically, because I didn’t care about their subject matter: I have little interest in a 1940s teenager’s rambling musings on life (Catcher), I have little interest in a mentally disabled guy’s scattered memories of his life (Sound and Fury), and in the 21st century I don’t need much dunking on Leibnizian optimism (Candide). The Little Prince was awful. And with Stranger, Wonderland, Ivan Ilych, Old Man and the Sea, and Great Gatsby, I have a suspicion that ~everything they did well has been done better since their publication (and perhaps before) many dozens or thousands of times, including in lots of genre/commercial novels. For example, are the storytelling, characterization, and the insights on death, personal morality, and other themes in Ivan Ilych really better or more philosophically sophisticated/provocative than those in (say) The Dandelion Dynasty (an epic fantasy series published 2015-2022)? Having read both, I am skeptical.
• The last point above shouldn’t be surprising. Due to the human population and wealth explosions of the 20th century, the vast majority of novel authors in history started publishing after (say) 1970. Moreover, the best writers of each generation get to learn from, and find ways to improve upon, what came before them. Earlier authors may have an edge on “innovativeness,” but that’s presumably only one piece of any reasonable criterion set for aesthetic merit, and presumably has little direct bearing on hedonic enjoyment for most readers.
• Given how consistently I like thrillers, I’m surprised that I haven’t yet read one that I gave five stars (for hedonic enjoyment).
• It’s a big shame that Goodreads is by far the dominant “reading tracker” website, but it (1) hasn’t gotten major system or UI improvements in years, and (2) doesn’t even allow most written fiction works to be added to the database (no short stories published only in magazines, almost no web-only fiction, etc.).
• Goodreads says I’ve read between 4500 and 5700 pages each month this year (not including pages from DNF’d books). That feels like a lot, and I’m surprised it’s been so consistent.

1. I think I hadn’t heard some of the classical pieces before, but I’m not sure which ones. [↩]