2025, Wrapped
I have made several stabs at writing this post this week, none of which really felt like they stuck the landing. It is very hard to cleanly capture a year that contained both my marriage and my mom's death. Some days I have felt better than I have in years, some days like I will never see sunlight again. Focusing on one or the other side of it feels like an incomplete picture, but writing an essay about how sad I am that's also about how happy I am doesn't really mesh tonally. So: it's been a hell of a year. I am desperately ready for it to be over but I will be looking back on parts of it fondly for a long time.
With all of that, some key stats from this year:
- -1 mom
- +1 wife
- +1 kitten
- -1 art studio
- +1 job (I'll be teaching again next year)
- 57 books read (plus 4-5 I ended up dropping, plus however many more I end up reading this month)
- 36 movies watched
- 77/100 days of blogging (or 1 unsuccessful 100 days attempt, depending on how you look at it)
- 30/30 days of ATProto
- 109 total blog posts, including this one (I did finally get to 100!)
- 2500 unique visitors to this blog (more than I expected!)
I also played a whole lot of videogames but I would prefer not to know the final numbers there.
BEST OF:
Book: Same Bed, Different Dreams by Ed Park. A Pynchonesque kaleidoscope of an experimental novel. It didn't always land, but one of my clearest memories of this year is coming off off the train after reading it, deciding to walk home in the rain, and feeling alive and a part of the city. A book that does that is always gonna be a winner to me.
Movie: Cloud (2024), dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa. This is, arguably, the great crime movie of this decade: examines the supply side of greed, consumption, and internet madness with a clear and devastatingly cruel eye. Kind of crazy that Kurosawa made decade-defining films for both the '90s and 2020s but some people just have it, I guess.
Game: The House In Fata Morgana (2012). My friend Ryan wrote a good piece about this after I convinced him to play it that says most of what I have to say. This is a game that consistently pulled the floor out from under me, that tricks you into thinking it is a dozen things none of which it is, and that captures the way people can be unbearably cruel and unthinkably kind in different circumstances in a way that will stick with me forever.
TV: Once again, I mostly watched anime this year, but The Chair Company probably wins. Between this and Bugonia it's a great year for pyrrhic victory: something about the story of a guy who is correct but still wrong does it for me every time.
Thing I Did: Look, it's the wedding. What the hell else am I supposed to say. Best non-wedding - probably going to the Spring Street Salt Shed for Open House New York. I learned so much about our city's bravest soldiers.
This month: I've been reading Europe Central by William Vollmann, which is a strong candidate to end up being the actual best book I read this year if I finish it in time. Outside of that, I have been playing a lot of ARC Raiders, trying to get ready to teach again, and spending a good bit of time being social. I am hoping to have some more work to write about in the new year, but I'm headed to St. Croix next week and will be Doing Nothing until at least January 2nd. That's it for this year - see you in the next one. Onward!