Consumption Diary - September 2026

MUSIC

INTERLUDE - IN MEMORIUM

I found out today that Dunedin author Majella Cullinane passed away on 29 September. While Majella had been battling cancer for several years, she seemed well and most definitely in high spirits the last time I saw her. This was at the launch of her short story collection, Islands Ever After in May. I was reading the collection in chunks around other things and finished it earlier in September... 

There's something about Majella's voice that is both present on the page and in person. (I know the tenses need some attention in that last sentence, but not right now.) A kindness and an exactness. There are words that are just Majella words. Some of that might be down to being a Kiwi from Ireland, but not all of it.

Majella was one of the first Dunedin writers to reach out to me when I moved down for the Burns in 2017, and again when I moved back for good in 2021. Our catch-ups in the staff club were infrequent but she had a way of making these gaps feel insubstantial.  

It's tempting to think of everything we have lost with her passing at just 50 - the poetry and fiction that we won't get, the future catch-ups and support - but there is solace in what she did create, the gifts she has left for anyone keen to discover.

The poetry collections Guarding the Flame, Whisper of a Crow's Wing, and Meantime.

The novel, The Life of De'Ath.

And the stories in Islands Ever After.

BOOKS

The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI: How to Think About Artificial Intelligence - Before It's Too Late by Cory Doctorow (non-fiction, audiobook, Canada, 2026)

I saw a talk this week where someone said that they didn't have much hope for the future: either climate change or AI would wipe us out. If you're specifically worried about the latter, I recommend reading Doctorow's latest - he's good at getting to the heart of the AI bubble (growth stocks gotta keep dangling the potential for future growth, baby) and why AI bros keep talking about doomsday scenarios brought about by their own toys.

(It's perfectly fine to worry that, until the bubble bursts, how far back the gross inefficiency of corporate AI compute and resulting egregious use of energy and resources will put the climate cause. But even then, the best antidote to despair is to engage in local repair. Offline, in the flesh, with other meat bodies.)

I See You've Called in Dead by John Kenney (novel, audiobook, US, 2025)

The obituary-writer conceit felt a little half-baked. At times it felt more like the protagonist (mostly an agonist) was better suited to a slice of life humourist for the New Yorker (like Kenney)... And the Manic Pixie Dream Girl detector was making a racket in the second half of the book... And structurally it was looser and more meandery than a book like this should be... And yet, I still liked it.

Life of M by Rachel Cusk (novel, audiobook, UK, 2026)

I've read a lot of Cusk, but always in physical format (and one e-book on my phone). This was my first audiobook experience and I freaking hated it. I think I would have disliked this book in any format (after loving the Outline Trilogy, liking Second Place and being mixed on Parade). 

Life of M shares a similar bent, erring away from traditional story elements and centering an author (who may or may not be Cusk). Even she's partially excised from the text, the absence makes it even more about her. And even though most readers will know the actress M is based on Natalie Portman, with whom Cusk has an acquaintance, the game seems to be how far real Cusk push the unlikability of her stand-in author and what real-life ripples her game of funhouse mirrors with Portman she can cause.

But cripes, there isn't much concrete for the reader (or listener) to grasp here. It's just thoughts and arm's length observations. I'm trying to think who I could recommend this book to... Masochists? Insomniacs? Cusk completists? It's a short list.

Dissolution by Nicholas Binge (novel, audiobook, UK, 2025)

This novel starts with the kind of sci-fi set up that I do not find engaging. It's dialogue between two characters, one who apparently has no memory and the other is guiding her through some kind of arcane technological process. I just feel like Malcolm McDowell on the reprogramming chair in A Clockwork Orange with passages like this.

Thankfully, I made it to the next section, which is set in the 1950s and told from the perspective of the husband of the memory-less character in the opening section, back when he was a school boy. The novel alternates between these more engaging sections and the sci-fi, memory-hopping stuff, until they largely converge. 

Which is to say I was eventually drawn in and found it somewhat interesting on memory and time (is it too basic to call these topics "obsessions"? Like saying I'm grateful for oxygen).

When the Deep Dark Bush Swallows You Whole by Geoff Parks (novel, audiobook, NZ, 2025)

If you're expecting a lot of bush, sorry, there's hardly any. A more accurate, but equally prolix title might be: When a small rural town in the King Country harbours a budding psychopath.

Joke Farming: How to Write Comedy and Other Nonsense by Elliot Kalan (non-fiction, audiobook, US, 2025)

I've purchased my copy of Kluge, but keep putting off reading it. But maybe if you smush Doctorow's AI book and Kalan's comedy book together, you get Kluge?? We'll see.

A Violent Masterpiece by Jordan Harper (novel, audiobook, US, 2026)

Harper also writes for the screen, and this did feel very adaptable. Lots of short, declarative sentences. Lots of violence. A little bit What if James Ellroy wrote about LA in 2026, which isn't a bad thing.

And it gets bonus points for using a Protomartyr song heavily in one of the chapters.

Islands Ever After by Majella Cullinane (short stories, physical book, NZ, 2026)

🎕

FILM & TV

Lanterns, Season 1 (just got the finale to watch when it drops on Monday) - the best superhero show since Watchmen... Yes, I'm a Lindeloff stan.

Michael Clayton - first time watching this movie from 2007, sought it out because it was written by Tony Gilroy... and surprise, surpise, I loved it.

Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie* - a rewatch for me, first time for my kids, I thought they'd like it more than they did. I still liked it a lot. The first time up the CN tower didn't pop the same on the small screen (and knowing what was about to happen). But a second viewing was more rewarding in terms of piecing together how it was made and getting some of the jokes I missed first time around. Check it out on Netflix if you haven't seen it!

Fever Pitch* (US version with the Red Sox instead of Man United) - my daughter chose this. Man, Jimmy Fallon is annoying.

AEW Dynamite - just mentioning this for the most recent episode, which was a tribute to Ben Satterley, aka Pac, who died last week, the day after a big pay per view, and the company did such a good job of putting on a show. Super emotional. Managed to turn kayfabe down to, like, 2 out of 10, and talk about the man behind the character, and how he came up with spots, and it was sad and complex and glorious. 

The Agency - Have started watching season 1. People rave about it, but it feels similar to a lot of spy shows. The Jack White opening song is trying to be like Slow Horses, but so far The Agency doesn't have the humour or charisma.

Alone - finished season 13

Only Connect - the latest season's episodes so far

The Dark Side of the Ring - seasons 1 & 2

The Secret Lives of Dentists

Warm Bodies

Con Air*

Offshore Service - the playlist

The wait is over. Here it is. The playlist for Offshore Service & Other Stories, which comes out on 13 August and has its public launch here in Dunedin on the 19th.

(You can find my playlists for previous books here: A Man Melting, The Mannequin Makers, and Nailing Down the Saint).

As with the playlist for my first story collection, I've picked one song per story. Here's a little about each selection.

1. 

The story: My Yale and My Harvard

A man reflects on his childhood in Brisbane where he spent his evenings in the passenger seat of his father's cab (solo parent, economic necessity). He later moves to Auckland for the first America's cup defence, only returning home when his father becomes ill.

The song: Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away) by Deftones

A classic from Sacramento's finest (sorry Cake). In my head, this is the soundtrack to the narrator when he returns to Brisbane and leaves the Mater Hospital in a stranger's cab. That blend of quiet and loud at once. Sadness and anger.

2. 

The story: Offshore Service

A kiwi engineering grad heads to the mines in Queensland in search of easy money but winds up crewing a helicopter that services the coal ships waiting off the coast. "Service" has a few meanings.

The song: Hanging in the Wire by Dave Dobbyn

You can already tell from the first two stories that people hoping from one side of the ditch to the other is a bit of a theme in this collection. So it's important this playlist features some acts from either side of the Tasman. It's funny that in Australia, Dobbyn is considered a one-hit wonder (Slice of Heaven), whereas in Aotearoa he's more revered. That gulf is part of what these stories explore.

This track comes from the 1998 album, The Islander. I was asked to write a story for an island themed issue of the Griffith Review, and it became 'Offshore Service'. 

I don't think Dobbyn is singing the lines, 'Whatever you need for your redemption / Anything you want I can supply' ironically... but he is for the purposes of fitting with my story.

3. 

The story: Parents in Decline

'Everything is fine and then one day it isn't...' 

Starts in the first person plural 'we', as if all the calamities affect the whole community equally, but eventually an 'I' voice emerges - posing the question: was he just projecting the whole time?

The song: I Me Mine by The Beatles

Is there a better song about selfishness and pronouns? 

4. 

The story: Recessional

Amelia is a twenty-something Kiwi working in Perth on the cusp of the next recession. She's invited to a colleague's annual ANZAC Day barbecue, wherein differences between how they each perceive of ANZAC Day become clear.

The song: Holy Grail by Hunters and Collectors

One of Amelia's gripes is that the barbecue's playlist is exclusively Australian bands. Many are name checked in the story, but 'Holy Grail' gets the nod here for the way it was later co-opted by the AFL (and maybe the NRL also...) and skirted over all that religious crusade stuff to focus on good old Aussie mateship.

5.

The story: Processional

Picks up right where 'Recessional' left off, but has a very different approach to time than the first story (which covered a week or so). Here we get the rest of Amelia's life, from marriage, children, infidelity, empty-nesting in the space of a few pages.

The song: Distant Sun by Crowded House

Crowded House is one of the few truly Australian-New Zealand bands Amelia can come up with in 'Recessional' for a more appropriate ANZAC playlist. It's also the name of a hostel on the Gallipoli peninsula that Amelia visits in both stories.

'Distant Sun' is paddling in similar waters to 'Recessional' - thinking about what you might change, the process of time, and putting things into an astronomical scale - while still being a love song.

6. 

The story: Connective Tissue

Told in the form of 24 author bios from the British writer Terry Voss, moving from early in his career through the literary successes of his wife (and then children) and other family dramas to the eve of publication of his potential magnum opus...

The song: Sigourney Weaver by John Grant

Like 'Recessional', there are lot of songs/artists namechecked in this story, from the cook at his estranged father's house who liked to sing 'Da Doo Ron Ron', 'Do Wah Diddy Diddy' and 'Let's Spend the Night Together', to a full list of songs to play at his funeral for his kids... which is where 'Sigourney Weaver' crops up. 

It's such a weird song, lyrically, which vibes well with Terry Voss and his novel about Tim Berners-Lee and the members of One Direction fighting a zombie apocalypse.

7. 

The story: The Waikato Farmers

A numberless, nameless group of farmers from the Waikato try to find purpose while on holiday in Fiji. They get excited when a tropical cyclone looks as if it may wreak havoc on the island, as they might finally be allowed to make themselves useful.

The song: Hurricane by Kyuss

Okay, so you don't get hurricanes in the  South Pacific, but that hasn't stopped a Super Rugby franchise from the lower North Island rocking that name for the last three decades. 

I think this Kyuss song manages to capture the drive and excitement of a cyclone/hurricane/typhoon, while lyrically it's more like a panic attack, or at best: a dog chasing its tail.

8. 

The story: Ranger Ranger Ranger

Sierra is a sustainability-minded high school history teacher in a small Otago town. She keeps getting cut-off on her bike by utes. Her partner drives a ute. Life is peachy.

The song: A Change is Gonna Come by Sam Cooke

This is the song Sierra sang to herself on her socially-isolated walks during COVID lockdown. Unfortunately, the new normal isn't much better than the old normal... 

9. 

The story: The Pits

This is actually a sequel to the story 'Copies' from my first collection. In 'Copies', Angus was on the cusp of becoming a father, but unfortunately we find out in 'The Pits' that his son did not survive infancy, triggering a period of self-sabotage and his partner leaving him. Angus moves back home to Palmerston North to regather himself and figure out what next. 

The song: Oh! You Pretty Things by Harvey Danger

I chose Harvey Danger's song 'Diminishing Returns' for 'Copies' in A Man Melting' playlist back in 2010, so it seems appropriate to pick another track from them (albeit a cover, so I can echo the echo motif).

10.

The story: Robinson in the Roof Space

Robinson has taken time away from paid employment to finally write his novel, but must resort to extreme measures (writing in the roof cavity above his garage, with the ladder only replaced by his wife after enough time has elapsed) to actually get some words down.

The song: Stayin' Alive by Bee Gees

At one point Robinson feels taunted by the flashing cursor in his word document and wonders if matched the beats per minute of 'Stayin' Alive'. But he can't Google it because he deliberately doesn't have internet access while in the roof space.

There's something manic about both the beat and the falsetto ah ha ha ha's (and all the background stuff Barry - I think - does in the latter half of the song) that matches poor Robinson's overactive imagination and underactive fingers.

11.

The story: 30 Ways of Looking at Marumaru South

Actually, it's thirty 100-word micro-stories, all set in the fictional South Island town of Marumaru South (which featured in my historical novel, The Mannequin Makers, but everything in '30 Ways' is set in the present.

The song: Eleanor Rigby by Aretha Franklin

Okay, I realise this the second Beatles cover, and third song written by The Fab Four. But things are connected.

This version is explicitly referenced in the section: The Karaoke Queen, which was one of the two most worked and reword sections (the other was The Dieter). It feels like the kind of song you could really go to town on in a TV singing competitions (in this case: Homai te Pakipaki) - at the risk of a televised train wreck.

12. 

The story: Kia Kaha Ōtepoti

A refugee family rocks up on some dude's doorstep and manages to wrangle their way inside, and slowly it becomes clear that this is not an isolated incident. Families across Māori Hill and Roslyn now have 'house guests'... all of this prompts a shift from the individual to the collective. 

(So basically, the opposite to 'Parents in Decline', here we start with 'I... I... I...' and then move to 'we', which become more inclusive with every utterance).

The song: Heavenly Pop Hit by The Chills

Gotta be a Dunedin band for a Dunedin story. This might be Martin Phillips' most upbeat song (maybe that's not saying much) - but I love the way it works in different perspectives (the sun setting on five billion faces / 'we swoop low on trees, or we sweep under carpets' / 'I find it hard to believe'), and the gift economy.

13. 

The story: Paper Universe

Jared moved back to Wellington after pulling pints on his OE in the UK. He moves in with a friend from high school, Daniel, who is still working towards his doctorate in astronomy and hasn't ever had a proper girlfriend. Maybe Jared can help with that...

The song: Resident Evil by Friendship

While 'Paper Universe' is told from Jared's perspective, it's really Daniel's story (or a story about why Jared's not the right narrator). So I like pairing it with this great song of Friendship's 2025 album Caveman Wakes Up. 

I imagine it's Daniel singing the lines 'New roommate moving in / Guess this is how some people live x2 / Some shithead in my living room / Playing Resident Evil / Playing Resident Evil', reflecting on what a fuckup Jared is (yet the chicks seem to dig him).

(It's also valid to interpret Dan Wriggins' lyrics as a kind of dissociative moment, where the singer is looking at himself playing Resident Evil, but my story is definitely not a Fight Club / Shutter Island / Secret Window / The Machinist / Nabokov's 'The Eye' scenario... because there's enough of those already, eh?).

14. 

The story: The Kick Inside

David visits his dying mother in hospital. The narrator intrudes a lot to tell us about his middle name and warming to Kate Bush and his love of Robert Lowell...

The song: Pigeon Camera by The Tragically Hip

I could have picked a Kate Bush song (the story shares its title with a Kate Bush album) or even Bush or Soundgarden who get namechecked... But it wouldn't be one of these playlists without at least one Hip/Gord Downie song (I actually had one Hip and one Gord Downie solo song for The Mannequin Makers playlist).

The intrusive narrator, on one of his tangents, says the story of Robert Lowell watching his mother bathe when he was young reminds him of the lines in 'Pigeon Camera' about a brother and a sister with something they could no longer contain.

Plus it probably has the best guitar solo in the entire Hip catalogue.

---

Consumption Diary: Sept-Oct 2024

MUSIC - SEPTEMBER

PARA-LITERARY INTERLUDE

I came 2nd in the Sargeson Prize with my story 'Robinson in the Roof Space', which was subsequently published at Newsroom. I wrote the first half of this story in my first month of the Burns Fellowship in 2017, alongside two other stories, when I was loosening up for the novel that would eventually become Nailing Down the Saint. I wrote the second half of the story in my last week at the Michael King Writers Centre in Devonport in June this year (alongside one other story). There's clearly something about the figure of Robinson that appeals to me when on a writing residency...

In terms of the composition of the story itself, it follows George Saunders' approach of building a story sentence by sentence, and though I hadn't read A Swim in a Pond in the Rain when I wrote the first part. It does have a Saunderian vibe, though. And adding each new sentence so that it was adding to the story, making it better, like a bricklayer building a wall, made it pretty easy to pick up and finish seven years later.

In other publication (non)news, the agent I pitched both the novel and short story collection I worked on while in Devonport didn't want anything to do with short stories and was lukewarm on the novel sample. It helped clarify how I was feeling about the novel manuscript: it still wasn't wholly what it wanted/needed to be. So another draft is on the cards, when I can manufacture the time/headspace/roofspace. 

A university press also passed on the story collection, citing the horrors of the marketplace. Oh well.

So for now this turtle has pulled his head right back into his shell. It's nice to have some things in the chamber when I feel like pitching again or the Universe comes knocking.

READING

The Nix by Nathan Hill (novel, audiobook, US, 2016) - I read Hill's sophomore novel, Wellness, earlier this year and reading his debut cemented a few things for me. Wellness wasn't flawless, but it's felt more unified than The Nix, and will definitely be in my end of year top 10. When you add Hill's two novels to the two Paul Murray doorstoppers (Skippy Dies and The Bee Sting), and possibly also Gabrielle Zevin's novel (see below), I think these are the sorts of books my novel manuscript is wanting to become. Bigger. Polyphonic but in a more sedate way. Timelessly topical. 

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (novel, audiobook, US, 2022) - I liked but did not love this one. But having read Sam Brooks' ludicrous review for The Spinoff, suddenly I'd die for this novel. The references thing in particular - I thought this was well-handled. Just to pick the first from Brooks' list, Metal Gear Solid isn't a throwaway line, but a long passage about stealth games, the game's designer/publisher deciding to rebrand the series to appeal to an American audience - all of which was germane to the characters' own decisions about their games AND hit that nostalgia dopamine release for the days of the original PlayStation.

Companion Piece by Ali Smith (novel, audiobook, UK, 2022) - The great Ali Smith keeps on being great in uncomfortable ways.

Say's Who? A kinder, funner usage guide for everyone who cares about words by Anne Curzan (non-fiction, audiobook, 2024) - Cliff Notes version: languages evolve, go for it.

Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood (novel, audiobook, Australia, 2023) - The adjective Woody, in this case, refers to something intimate and yet bone-cold. 

Murder at the Museum by Alasdair Beckett-King (novel, audiobook, UK, 2023)

You Don't Have to Have a Dream by Tim Minchin (non-fiction, audiobook, Australia, 2024)

BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (non-fiction, audiobook, NZ, 2024) - I left this particular BBQ early.

The Mires by Tina Makereti (novel, audiobook, NZ, 2024) - So great to have NZ books available as audiobooks, even if they aren't all to my tastes (see above).

Above the Noise: My Story of Chasing Calm by DeMar DeRozan with Dave Zarum (non-fiction, audiobook, US, 2024) - So great to have DeMar DeRozan on the Sacramento Kings.

Chosen by Geoff Cochrane (poetry, physical book, NZ, 2020)

Conventional Weapons by Tracey Slaughter (poetry, physical book, NZ, 2019)

MOVIES & TV

Severance, Season 1

Slow Horses, Season 1 & 2

Ted Lasso, Season 3

Presumed Innocent, Season 1

Starting 5, Season 1

Reform, Parts 1-3

Mr McMahon

Anyone But You

Late Night with the Devil

Knock at the Cabin

Inside Out 2

Holiday on the Buses

MUSIC - OCTOBER

Consumption Diary: Jan-Feb 2024

MUSIC - February

BOOKS

Right Story, Wrong Story: Adventures in Indigenous Thinking by Tyson Yunkaporta (non-fiction, audiobook, Australia, 2023) - A worthy successor to Sand Talk, but I'm worried I might come across as one of the wrong kind of fans of Yunkaporta's books (who Yunkaporta addresses in this latest book).

She's a Killer by Kirsten McDougall (novel, physical book, NZ, 2021) - Holy Moses this was great. This seems weird to say, and only just occurred to me several weeks after reading it, but it's like a grown-up Fight Club. The disaffection. The bifurcation. The sardonic wit. But without the empty nihilism and cheap shocks.

Madness is Better Than Defeat by Ned Beauman (novel, audiobook, UK, 2017) - So long. Too long. Lots of Pynchoneering. But about three-quarts of the way through it starts to reference how long it is and then it starts to get really good. 

Happy Place by Emily Henry (novel, audiobook, US, 2023) - The third (I think) book I've read of Henry's... not as good as Beach Read, better than You and Me on Vacation. Perfectly acceptable summer holiday fare.

Shy by Max Porter (novel, audiobook, UK, 2023) - The usual Porter: lyrical, Alan Garner-esque, get-in get-out before you can be accused of dark tourism (grief, depression, despair)... but probably his most affecting (very short) novel to date.

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray (novel, audiobook, Ireland, 2023) - The Irish Franzen? As if anyone would deliberately set out to do that, but when pitted against Sally Rooney's sparser, more caustic vision of young people in Ireland, perhaps Murray had to go generational? 

Border Districts by Gerald Murnane (novel, physical book, Australia, 2017) - I don't read a lot of physical books due to eye/brain/life issues. I can't decide if this kind of book is perfect for people like me or a bad idea: it's so interior and meandering that it works well in 3-5 page spurts. It's clear he's a genius, turned an an oblique angle from most of the rest of us, but I'm not sure the angle is particularly... interesting??? Or am I making the mistake of reading this as fake fiction (a.k.a. autobiography without a fact checker)? Guess I'll have to read another Murnane and report back.

Baumgartner by Paul Auster (novel, audiobook, US, 2023) - Auster can be hit or miss. And sometimes he can wedge the dart right in the frame of the dartboard, like with this book, which is kind of neither. 

World Within a Song by Jeff Tweedy (non-fiction, audiobook, US, 2023) - meh. I didn't like the Dylan book where he tried a similar thing of using individual songs to anchor each chapter (but with more brio), so maybe it's just a bad approach?

I am Homeless If This is Not My Home by Lorrie Moore (novel, audiobook, US, 2023) - I love Lorrie Moore. Nothing will change my affection for Birds of America and Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? and Self-Help and A Gate at the Stairs, but IAHIFINMH was kinda forgettable, sad to say.

Sure, I'll Join Your Cult by Maria Bamford (non-fiction, audiobook, US, 2023) - felt too much like stand-up, not booky enough, soz.

Death and the Conjurer by Tom Mead (novel, audiobook, UK, 2022) - nope.

*

Checking in on my semi-random reading targets for 2024:

• At least ten single-author poetry collections: 0/10 (fear not...)
• At least one book from every continent: 3/6 (Asia, South America and Africa to go... may also need to read a book about Antarctica for completeness)
• At least four books in translation: 0/4
• At least four books by Australians: 2/4
• At least five different genres of novel: I'm going to say a conservative 3/5 (romance, mystery, and lit-fic), but pretty confident there'll be some hard sci-fi and detective fiction coming down the chute. Maybe I should have aimed higher, or set a more specific target? Oh well.

PRODUCTIVITY INTERLUDE

From December I've been participating in a Creative Impact Lab focussing on climate change. You can read more about it here or here (I'm guessing these event-based links might break one day). It culminated in a group exhibition at Tūhura Otago Museum (my first time having "art" [text-heavy video works] exhibited) and a few public events (like this one) in support of it. May potentially go a bit further (exhibiting elsewhere, and maybe a supporting publication/book). 

It's been great to be thrust out of my comfort zone, but in a really supportive environment. 

FILM & TV

Carol and the End of the World - Season 1 - So good. Watch it! It's slow-thrilling like Better Call Saul, has a couple of episodes to rival "Forks" (The Bear) as best standalone, self-contained masterpiece episode of 2023, while being this deadpan, dry-as-cold-toast animated 

Fargo - Season 5 - I have a hard time differentiating seasons 1-4, and maybe 5 will get put in the memory blender shortly, but right now it stands out for leaning less into the strong female cop and more the strong female suspect/victim/hero. Super enjoyable, but also frustrating (John Hamm is so good at being baaad).

The Curse - Season 1 - gave up after 3 episodes (it's deliberately cringy, which isn't my favourite genre) but returned after I caught wind of a crazy ending. And yep, the second half of the final episode sure is crazy. Verdict: worth it.

One Day - Series 1 - good sound track, middling execution (my wife didn't realise the premise of the show was each episode was the same day in successive years until I mentioned it in episode 4 - and I totally can understand how), some good acting, but ultimately *spoiler alert* let down by making cycling seem unsafe (LOL) and revealing that the show (and the novel) had a main character and it was the one you cared less about.

Curb Your Enthusiasm - Season 12 (still in progress)

Spaceman

Mister Organ

Sleeping with Other People

Paper Planes

Leave the World Behind

The Other Guys

I Love You, Beth Cooper

MUSIC - JANUARY

Consumption Diary - September-December 2023

Four months. 

Dog dramas, kid conundrums, my own health hobblements (lingering costochondritis). 

A depressing election result and ever-more-depressing as the coalition of cut-backs moves into delivery (or de-delivery... livery?). 

But I am looking forward to making my best of 2023 lists, which means revisiting good stuff and wielding (imaginary) power. My sense is that it was a very good year for albums and post-prestige TV, but it will be slimmer pickin's on the reading front. 

Check back in early Jan (promises, promises) for the actual, official, lofty-but-also-wholesome-and-grounded, This Fluid Thrill 2023 awards.

MUSIC - SEPTEMBER & OCTOBER

Speaking of awards: best gig of the year was Black Belt Eagle Scout w/ Mount Eerie at the end of September. The official billing was BBES was supporting Mount Eerie, but BBES was who I was excited about and they didn't disappoint (despite being limited to a two piece due to the cost of gigging crisis). And then said two-piece formed the backing band for Mount Eerie (normally just Phil Elverum) and they rocked out way more than I expected.

Also, pour one out for Dive, just one more Dunedin venue to fall by the wayside.

BOOKS

Exit Stage Left: The Curious Afterlife of Pop Stars by Nick Duerden (non-fiction, audiobook)

Bodies: Life and Death in Music by Ian Winwood (non-fiction, audiobook)

This Is Memorial Device by David Keenan (novel, audiobook) - been on a bit of a music book kick lately.

The Fifth Season: The Broken Earth, Book 1 by N. K. Jemisin (novel, audiobook)

Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention by Johann Hari (non-fiction, audiobook)

I put off reading Hari's previous book, Lost Connections, which was about depression, for almost two years, but when I did it caused a minor breakthrough in my own personal life. I noted the changes I made when I put Lost Connections in my top ten reads of 2020.

(Interestingly, I had forgotten Hari's book had any role in the decisions I made in 2020/21 until I went back and re-read the two posts linked to above.)

I did a similar thing with Hari's next book, Stolen Focus. It took be about a year to start listening to it, and then I had to stop after two chapters because it felt too close to the bone listening to this as an audiobook while doing dishes, cycling or some other activity that probably should be an opportunity for meditative reflection. About ten months later I returned to it, mainly because I plan on cancelling my Audible subscription (dirty ol' Amazon) and felt obliged.

Am I going to quit social media now? It's not like I'm massively online. But I do think I'll download Freedom app to cut off the internet for designated periods. 

So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan (standalone short story, audiobook) - I loved Foster. I liked Small Things Like These. But So Late in the Day wasn't for me. It's a short story. Why is it a standalone book? It's not enough. It's too on the nose. It needs to be surrounded by sibling stories that complement and contrast and round off some of the nosey edges.

The Bell by Iris Murdock (novel, audiobook) - Loved it.

Jewish Space Lasers by Mike Rothschild (non-fiction, audiobook)

The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue (novel, audiobook)

The Hard Way (10th Reacher novel) by Lee Child (novel, audiobook)

High Heat by Lee Child (standalone short story, audiobook) - After reading another Reacher novel, and falling out with Claire Keegan, I checked out a standalone Reacher short for comparison. Funnily enough, I have more vivid recollection of this story than The Hard Way.

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman (umm, audiobook) - sorry, I just can't get into the work of someone who signs off as Neil Gaiman, visionary.

Āria by Jessica Hinerangi (poetry, e-book)

Classic American Poetry by various authors (poetry, audiobook)

Dear Girls by Ali Wong (non-fiction, audiobook)

The Dawnhounds by Sascha Stronach (novel, audiobook)

Fungi of Aotearoa: A Curious Forager's Field Guide by Liv Sisson (non-fiction, physical book) 

My Christmas present to myself. The first few chapters felt repetitive, perhaps worsened by the fact I'd previously read many of the books Sisson uses for reference (Robin Wall Kimmerer, Melvyn Sheldrake, Michael Pollen, plus work on Hua Parakore). 

And when I got home after my trip to Queenstown, it had clearly been a wet week in Dunedin and my lawn was sprouting 'shrooms... though I couldn't find them using this field guide :( 

Might have to go back to those early chapters!!

Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut (novel, physical book)

My final read of the year was my first re-read (and one of only a couple of physical books). It was on the shelf at the house we rented in Queenstown between Xmas and New Years. I'd recently rediscovered the mini-essay I wrote for the Iowa City Writers Festival in 2013: The Vonnegut Effect: Entering the Potato Barn, when Academic.com wanted to add it to my profile (LOL). So of course I dived back into the world of Rabo Karabekian.

The thing that stood out to me this time around was the pacing, specifically the way new characters are introduced throughout the novel. It's so measured. And there's no wasted characters (Sam Wu, Celeste, Fred Jones). It'd be cool to graph all of the character mentions, like Ngrams, and visualise way the supporting cast are rolled out...

FILM & TV

A Murder at the End of the World - I loved the OA, for all it's rough edges and over-reaches. A Murder at the End of the World was not it. Bad dialogue. Obvious big bad. 

Squid Game: The Challenge - Season 1

Bodies - Limited Series

Last Stop Larrimah

Taskmaster UK Season 16

Taskmaster Australia Season 1

Welcome to Wrexham Season 2

Alone Seasons 7-9

Stavros Halkias: Fat Rascal

T2 Trainspotting

Rudy

Music and Lyrics

The Lost City

Sport (basketball, rugby and cricket world cups, start of another NBA season: GO KINGS, and some NFL)

PRODUCTION INTERLUDE

I'll be taking up a 3-week mini-residency at the Michael King Writers Centre in Auckland at the start of winter next year.

My review of Pip Adam's Audition was published in November. (Minor disappointment: they didn't use my suggested title: "Grow, Don't Tell").

In December, I took part in a Creative Impact Lab on Climate Change, hosted by the Otago Museum and funded by the Leonardo Institute/US Embassy. It runs through to February, so we'll see where it goes...

Oh, and the story the opens my debut (and thus far only) short story collection, 'Seeds', was included in the Penguin New Zealand Anthology: 50 stories for 50 years in Aotearoa. Must be time to corral a second story collection and give the anthologists some new options!

MUSIC - NOVEMBER & DECEMBER

June, July, August 2023 consumption diary

MUSIC - JUNE

Maybe it's more appropriate to call this three-month update an emissions diary, as my family of four flew to Europe and back in June and July - perfectly timing our stay with family in Italy to coincide with the heatwave (what were we thinking?), then got a puppy (what the fuck were we thinking?).

As I said in my last post, I rationalised the trip as it stacked business travel for my wife to the UK and Portugal with downtime in the the Algarve with our friends, then said family time in Northern Italy. My daughter (10) hadn't been overseas since she was 11 months old (coming back from our semester in Iowa) and my son (8) had never left the country. And we aren't planning on going anywhere else anytime soon, financial and environmental limitations being aligned in this respect.

But I still felt fuckin' bad about it.

And then we're over there and people are fainting in the heat and getting burns from the footpath and the next day it's hailing and ice floes are careening through Milan and people are spouting conspriacy talking points about the 15 minute city and not believing cows contribute to climate change until they see the research (fuckin' LOOK) and the there's fuckin' Dubai, where we spent a couple nights on the way back to break up the trip home, which is like Total Recall-style, massive infrastructure spend to support life and luxury in an inhospitable place, built on the back of the fossil fuels that (ruminant animals aside) have fucked the rest of us... And so I get back to my desk at the University of Otago as the Net Carbon Zero Programme Manager, trying to get our 30,000 tonnes of CO2-equivalent in 2022 (down from 49k pre-pandemic), down below 20,000 by the end of the decade, and keep these gross tracking down and down beyond 2030, while connecting with others so that what we're doing can have a ripple effect and maybe 10x our impact, or 100x, but whatever-x we do, others are probably going to take advantage and choose growth over justice, profit over planet, now over next. 

And then I'm supposed to pick up by doctorate, looking at sustainability cultures within government organisations and how they response to the dictates of the Carbon Neutral Government Programme...

And I think maybe writing a pissant short story isn't such a daft thing to do while Rome approaches melting point.

And maybe as we approach melting point it's time to finally let the walls between booky-me and worky-me dissolve and coalesce and just do what feels right at the time.

Maybe.

BOOKS

Cousins - Patricia Grace (novel, audiobook, NZ)

Flux - Jinwoo Chong (novel, audiobook)

A Thousand Ships - Natalie Haynes (novel, audiobook)

Don't Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You - Lucinda Williams (memoir, audiobook)

Getting Lost - Annie Ernaux (memoir, audiobook)

Everything is Beautiful & Everything Hurts - Josie Shapiro (novel, audiobook, NZ)

Golden Days - Caroline Barron (novel, audiobook, NZ)

Lioness - Emily Perkins (novel, audiobook, NZ)

Nothing to See - Pip Adam (novel, ebook, NZ)

Audition - Pip Adam (novel, physical book, NZ)

Poor People with Money - Dominic Hoey (novel, audiobook, NZ)

Sellout: The major-label feeding frenzy that swept punk, emo, and hardcore 1994-2007 - Dan Ozzi non-fiction, audiobook) - the rightful heir to Michael Azerrad's Our Band Could Be Your Life, which was a foundational book for the failed novel I wrote during my MA in Creative Writing about an indie band that all individually want/need to become famous but can't admit it to each other and thus must connive their way to infamy behind each others backs... This book slots in between the pre-Grunge alternative scene of Azerrad's book and the late-90s/early00's slacker indie (think Pavement) of my manuscript (written in 2006). I can't say Ozzi's scene is my favourite musically speaking (At the Drive-in, Jimmy Eat World and Green Day were the only bands that get full chapters I've ever had much time for), but it's a great book.

MUSIC - JULY

Film & TV

The Bear - Season 2 - sometimes who and how you watch a show has a big influence over how you react to it. Season 1 I watched with my wife who really dislikes shouty shows. Season 1 was A VERY SHOUTY SHOW. (She also dislikes ranty books, an example she'd give is Phillip Roth). So I watched Season 2 myself (sometimes on the TV while she was doing a puzzle, sometimes on my phone in bed while we took turns sleeping downstairs in the first fortnight of having the puppy and needing to be handy if it needed to pee in the night). I was swept up in the feast of the seven fishes (ep.6). I cried at the end of Richie's episode (#7). I listened to The Watch podcast's 3-part breakdown of the series as I made it through each chunk, then their interview with co-showrunner Christopher Storer, who spoke about how Season 2 needed to be lighter (incl. visually) and less shouty than Season 1. I communed with the content. I loved it. I might go back and rewatch Season 1 then get my wife to join me next time through Season 2 (maybe closer to Season 3, whenever that may drop).

Colin from Accounts - Season 1

Black Mirror - Season 6

Alone - Seasons 7,8, 9 (all those available on TVNZ+, though I just noticed Season 5 is on Netflix...) - the TV version of whale song or ambient rainfall while I make the kids' lunches in the mornings

Quarterback - Season 1

Muscles & Mayhem: American Gladiators - Season 1

The Great Dictator, Charlie Chaplin Keystone Collection and Chaplin (biopic starring Robert Downey Jr) - there was a Chaplin collection on Emirates in-flight entertainment

Inside Man

John Wick 4

Dune

Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond

David Brent: Life on the Road

The Brothers Grimsby (abandoned midway)

Champions (Woody Harrelson bball coach flick)

Taskmaster NZ - Season 4 (eps 1-4 so far)

The History of the Minnestota Vikings (Dorktown) - eps 1-5

MUSIC - AUGUST

May consumption diary

MUSIC

So I heard 'Give Me Back My Man' for the first time in May 2023. The B-52's had always seemed a novelty act to me. 'Love Shack' being trashed in the Fat Ladies Arms when I was 18 probably didn't help. But holy hecka, this song. It's like the sort of thing I'd go crazy over if you said it was the Bush Tetras or something similarly obscure. But the B-52's?

Blink 182 was wrong. I guess finding out bands you'd dismissed your whole life are actually amazing is growing up.

BOOKS

Boxer by Ryan Pinkard (non-fiction, physical book, 2022)

I love Bloomsbury's 33 1/3 series. I pitched to write the book on Monster Magnet's Powertrip back in 2018, but didn't make the cut. Hard to know whether it was their view about the potential audience for any book about Monster Magnet, or their view about the version of the book I pitched (with two sample chapters), or both. 

Boxer is one of my favourite albums. I trashed it during my year of a million words (2008), when I wrote most of my first book, A Man Melting, and book and album have become entwined since then. Pinkard's book is a pretty straight-forward account. There's one intrusion of the "I" voice in a footnote during the book, and an I-forward epilogue... I guess I still prefer these pocket-sized books to be more than biographies of an album thanks to the challenge of having less words to play with.

As another aside, it did make me feel bad for falling out of live with The National after High Violet. The reason Boxer was so important to me in 2008 was because it was such good writing music, and I was writing a lot. The album was a grower. While I'm probably still right that The National haven't gone far enough into new territory in the last 15 years, I haven't listened to new albums 5, 6, 7, 8 times in close succession. It doesn't help they got super popular and it kinda feels too true-to-label, normcore, beardy dad to like The National... I always think of the kid in the Seattle grunge doco, Hype, who has cotton buds (or cigarettes?) stuck up his nose and bemoans everyone is starting to like the bands he liked so now he needs to find something else.

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (novel, audiobook, US, 2001)

Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace (short fiction, audiobook, US, 1999)

Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility - Edited by Rebecca Solnit & Thelma Young Lutunatabua (non-fiction, audiobook and ebook, 2023)

I'm a Fan by Sheena Patel (novel, audiobook, UK, 2022) - I was not a fan.

M Train by Patti Smith (non-fiction, audiobook, US, 2015)

Martin Dressler by Steven Millhauser (novel, audiobook, US, 1997)

To read Millhauser is to flirt with fables and the fantastic, but never quite cross over. It's fascinating. I think I prefer his shorter works, where you spend more time - proportionately - on the knife's edge.

BIOGRAPHICAL INTERLUDE

The nuclear family is going to Europe in three weeks. We're trip-stacking (wife is going for a conference in UK and site visit for work in Portugal; we're meeting friends from Germany in the Algarve who we haven't seen in person since our co-honeymoon in NZ; then taking the kids to meet their cousins in Italy and connect with that part of their whakapapa)... but it still feels WRONG. Like, our household carbon will be about 4x higher this year than last year because of this trip. And it's insanely expensive. Like, double what it might have been five years ago.

The cognitive dissonance is worse than normal since I just audited an Australiasian version of the Carbon Literacy Trust's carbon literacy training, AND had to do an exercise on household carbon footprints for my DBA.

But it does provide a nice break between finishing up the last of my papers for my DBA and going full thesis (or pulling the pin if I can't face my own research project when I get back).

The challenge is the opportunity cost of doing another 2 years on my doctorate is writing any more fiction.

I've toyed with ways to combine the two (sci-fi futuring workshops... deconstructing the lone hero narrative... using cathedral thinking to drive a story...) but it feels like taking a baby elephant to calf club day.

I have three novella (or long short story or short novel) projects I want to finish (the short novel I wrote last year that centres around the COVID mandate protests at parliament, but continues forward in time multiple years), a story about climate refugees reshaping life in Māori Hill for the better (a kind of reverse prepper manifesto), and something that I might publish under a pseudonym so better not say much more about it (coded message for future sleuths: books read this month and last month are part of the inspo, but it's an idea I've had for years).

FILM & TV

Woman at War

Bo Burnham: Inside and Inside Outtakes - couldn't get past 10 mins when it first came out, perhaps because it was "too soon", but genuinely very good. 

Succession - Season 4

Avatar - rewatched, this time with kids. Best parts: all the things that made sense on big screen 3D but not so much streaming on Disney+

I think you should leave - Season 3 - I gobble up each new season in 90 mins then wait 18 months of more, tided over only by the NBA x ITYSL memes on Twitter

The Pez Outlaw

Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain

Ugly Delicious - Season 1

The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker

White Men Can't Jump (2022) - turrrible. 

The Gone - Season 1 - turrrible title, decent Kiwi-Irish crime noir

March and April Consumption Diary

BIOGRAPHICAL INTERLUDE

It's the first of May as I start this. I have COVID for the second time. Last year it went through my house at the start of the Easter school holidays. This year it was at the end of the holidays. Like last year, I was the last in my family to succumb, so my isolation period will be longer. Unlike last time, I'm not putting the finishing touches on the first draft of a novel. That first draft remains unimproved. Instead, I'm preparing for a presentation on my doctoral research proposal. I started my doctorate in July last year and the first twelve months involve upskilling each cohort to be able to go off and complete their research and thesis in 2-howevermanyittakes years.

Oh, and the Sacramento Kings lost in Game 7 to the Golden State Warriors this morning. Stephen Curry scored 50 points and the Kings imploded in the third quarter when they couldn't grab a defensive rebound. It was a fun season and Kings fans haven't felt this feeling in 17 years... actually longer. It's more like 1999-2000 when the last great Kings team was on the come-up, but needed to experience adversity to toughen them up for period like today's third quarter. 

So now I have more time to think about non-basketball things... maybe, even with my doctorate, I'll have time to return to last year's novel...

Oh, I'm going to Europe with the family at the end of June (health and geopolitical stability willing). So maybe not?

BOOKS

Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid (novel, audiobook, US, 2019)

I grew up with a father who loved rock documentaries so I enjoyed this. Spent a lot of time wondering why others who might be less of an anorak when it comes to music would enjoy it - the love triangle never quite joins up, which means it skirts around the worst cliches of these kinds of tails but it doesn't really have a huge amount of tension to drive the narrative forward. 

Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid (novel, audiobook, US, 2022)

From rock stars to sport stars, in this case tennis. More of a straightforward first person narration with occasional "implags", the interest here was whether the story was going to use Carrie's position on the Autism spectrum as a "twist"/big reveal. It didn't. I was glad. Again, I'm a bit puzzled by how this worked, when the outcome of every tennis match described was easy to forecast and the description of said matches was often something like: "I served, she returned, I returned, she returned, I returned, she missed... Then it was match point and I won with a forehand slam."

The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson (novel, audiobook, US, 2020)

Another kind of novel that doesn't care much for things like character development or careful observation at the micro-level. This is all about the macro: what if poor performance against the Paris Agreement meant there was a Ministry for the Future to try and drive intergenerational justice (and what if that needed to be complemented by a dark-wing to get stuff done without bureaucracy). I got very depressed to begin with (I deal with this shit every day, so nothing was a surprise, it was more like: why I am listening to this while I work in my garden?!) but it kind of justified this depression through the journey it goes from this launching point. 

Quit by Annie Duke (non-fiction, audiobook, US, 2022)

I didn't know about Mohammed Ali's late career exploits. Great way to start a book about why gritting it out isn't always the best approach. 

Better the Blood by Michael Bennett (novel, audiobook, NZ, 2022) 

My brain enjoyed this, but I didn't really feel it elsewhere in my body, if that makes any sense.

Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy (novel, audiobook, US, 2022)

All talk. Madness... Genius.... Where's the line? I think McCarthy is possessed of both, so maybe there is no line.

Foster by Claire Keegan (novella, audibook, Ireland, 2010)

It's probably only a short story, but it's packaged as a standalone book, much like Small Things Like These. Loved this one. Every books should be this short.

These Precious Days by Ann Patchett (non-fiction, audiobook, US, 2021)

Essays penned during the pandemic. Manages to avoid being intolerable. Patchett is smart and kind. I've enjoyed her novels in the passed. Convinced me to go back and read Bel Canto.

The Story of Art without Men by Katy Hessel (non-fiction, audiobook, UK, 2022)

Listening to an audiobook about art isn't the best experience, but it helps to know what you don't know much about (so long as you keep asking questions).

Remote Sympathy by Catherine Chidgey (novel, audiobook, NZ, 2020)

There's always a hump to get over when a novel is set in Nazi Germany, especially when it's a NZ author's second book set there (though it's a standalone tale), but I got sucked in and bowled over. Good stuff.

The Philosophy of Modern Song by Bob Dylan (non-fiction, audiobook, US, 2022)

I enjoyed the playlist I found on Spotify of the songs mentioned in this book more than Dylan's parsing of the lyrics or hepcat word associations (and don't get me started on his version of making America great again).

Nonzero by Robert Wright (non-fiction, audiobook, US, 1999)

Culture and Sustainability by Janet Stephenson (non-fiction, PDF, NZ, 2023)

FILM & TV

Down in the Valley (40 for 40) - great watch on the eve of the NBA playoffs

The Matrix Resurrections

Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel

Men - I vow never to watch another Alex Garland thingamee

Emily the Criminal

Nope

Lewis Capaldi: How I'm Feeling Now

Mindhorn

Beef - Season 1 - I mean, how could I not fall for dialogue like, "I thought I was Webber, but I might be Stojaković, right?" 

The Last of Us - Season 1 - gave up after 10 mins of the pilot (zombie is my least favourite flavour of apocalypse) but was lured back in by raves. The Ron Swanson-Armond romance episode was sweet. I liked the way the season dealt with time (...three months later...). So yeah, worth watching.

Succession - Season 4 (first half) - sometimes you just want to hang with characters from the bottom right corner of the D&D moral alignment chart

Chad and JT go deep - Season 1

Cunk on Earth - Season 1

Taskmaster UK - Season 15 

The Night Agent - Season 1 - I kinda hated this  for being so fucking basic, but I devoured it like a stupid idiot anyway

Barry - Season 4 (1st half) - feels like a real drag... Like the writers got sick of the characters, or gummed up by what happened in Season 3...

MUSIC - APRIL

January & February 2023 consumption diary

MUSIC - JAN

BOOKS

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton (novel, physical book,  NZ, 2023)

Potentially the best book I'll read this year and it's only Feb. If you loved The Luminaries you'll love this. Don't let the thriller billing lead you astray (though it does get thrilling) - this is a novel that revels in moving fully rendered, psychologically complex characters around the stage and getting them together at opportune/inopportune times (or, excitingly, for me at least, alone: a couple of these lonely, quiet moments seem to act as tent poles for the three act structure). 

If you are one of the people who talk openly about never finishing The Luminaries, when in the last 10 years did you start admitting this like it was a badge of honour? Go take a hard look at yourself in the mirror, then read Birnam Wood, though you might find it too slow as well. In which case, I've got nothing for you. I guess you don't need to be devastated as deeply as I do. 

The Mirror Book by Charlotte Grimshaw (non-fiction, audiobook, NZ, 2021)

A different kind of devastation. Bold, sure. No one comes out looking good. The way certain phrases (mostly one's her father used in his work or interviews) keep coming back, unrelentingly... I couldn't decide if it was artful or unhinged (like Coach Mosley's church deacon-esque tirades in Last Chance U: Basketball).

Radical Uncertainty by John Kay & Mervyn King (non-fiction, audiobook, UK, 2020)

I don't put everything I read for my doctorate up here, but this felt general fiction-y enough to qualify as a book "consumed". 

Haven by Emma Donoghue (novel, audiobook, Ireland, 2022)

I enjoy bleak survival tales, especially when they're largely self-imposed. Monks, eh?

This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub (novel, audiobook, US, 2022)

I enjoy family dramas told via time travel, especially when they get the level of meta-ness right. This did.

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (novel, audiobook, UK, 2009)

Yeah, okay, I get it now.

Brightness Reef by David Brin (novel, audiobook, US, 1995)

My first sci-fi for the year, if you don't count Straub's time travel lit-fic. 

1979 by Val McDermid (novel, audiobook, UK, 2021)

1989 by Val McDermid (novel, audiobook, UK, 2022)

I saw McDermid speak at an event in the tail end of last year and she mentioned how her Allie Burns series was her way out of writing her autobiography. I enjoyed 1979. 1989 felt more of a pastiche, with perhaps too many big events from that year being brought into the narrative. Or maybe I'd just read it too soon after its predecessor??

--

Tracking stats: 78% female, 100% white, 100% anglophone, 78% fiction

On pace for: 54 books read in 2023 (if you don't count the three other books I'm partway through, 2 physical and one audiobook).

FILM & TV

Andor Season 1 - I haven't watched any of the Star Wars shows since season 1 of The Mandalorian (snoozefest) but kept seeing people rave about Andor... And gosh, this was right up my street. I loved the stretch where Andor was in prison. The closed world, the arcane routine. And it came after a heist that felt like it might be the climax of a normal season, and before another big showdown. All with minimal faffing around with The Force or reliance on Skywalker family ties.  

Star Wars: Rogue One (rewatch)

The Banshees of Inisherin

Poker Face Season 1

Top Gun: Maverick

Last Chance U: Basketball, Season 2

The Menu

White Noise - one of my favourite novels... didn't like this film. Too faithful to DeLillo's dialogue. It seemed to be about the dialogue, as if that's what made it great. It was like someone adapting Roald Dahl and depicting every cruelty as it is described (or dashed-off) in the book. (I guess adapters will have issues with that now that Dahl's been watered down... This is not a statement for or against the literary sanitation dept... Whatever I say can and will be used against me in my public shaming).

ANNNND...

The Sacramento Kings keep lighting the beam, baby! On Saturday my time they won a double OT thriller against the stacked Clippers in the 2nd highest scoring game of all time, which isn't a knock on the defence: both teams were trying, but the Clippers in particular were locked on, and the refs were very suss... Incredible that heart and superior chemistry got the Kings over the line and they're closer to 2nd place in the West than 4th. They've been the healthiest team in the league this year, though, and they're young and inexperienced. They can't keep this up for another 24 games and win a first round playoff series, can they?

MUSIC - FEB

This Fluid Thrill Awards: Best Music of 2022

You can find a playlist at the bottom of this post if you want to listen while you read.

You can also find previous editions of my yearly music lists here: 2021 albums and songs, 2020, 2019, 2018 albums and songs, 2017 albums and songs, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012.

Best albums released in 2022

Spanish Villager No.3 by Ondara

The Kenyan Bob Dylan. Kind of a reverse Paul Simon's Graceland. My discovery of the year. So good.

Ghost Woman by Ghost Woman

New-psych at its finest. I honestly need to listen to this again now.

Teeth Marks by S.G. Goodman

Gutsy, country-fied rock from this female singer-songwriter. I added two songs from this album to my monthly playlists twice, and then, when listening closely just wanted to keep adding new track to the list. So good.

Leave the Light On by Pillow Queens

Best Irish rock album of 2022 (sorry Fontaines DC). Go Queens!

Gemini Rights by Steve Lacy

'Bad Habit' could have been the song of the year, but the rest of the album continues the zany, lo-fi indie rock-with-hip-hop-vibes deal, and propels Gemini Rights into my top ten.

Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You by Big Thief

Longer blurb for a longer album...

I had tickets to Big Thief in Wellington in March 2020, but COVID nixed that. They finally came down to NZ in 2022 (with the size of the venue increasing twice to reflect the growth in their popularity) and despite having moved to Dunedin and being a reluctant flyer for climate reasons, I had to make an exception. It was totally worth it. Big Thief have to be the most dynamic, vital, hard working band on the planet right now.

I listened to DNWMIBIY a lot in 2022, but I also listened to Big Thief's preceding four albums (and Adrienne and Buck's solo albums and pre-Big Thief collabs) as I'd picked them as the soundtrack to the short novel I was writing in the first half of the year, and was swotting up for the concert in December.

I think Dragon Long-title has too many songs on it. Classic double album failings. Reminiscent of 2019 when they released two great albums (UFOF and Two hands): so much content, with many of the songs as slow burners, that it's hard to see the whole picture at once. Let alone the fact that these albums followed albums in 2017 and 2016, plus Buck Meek's solo debut and Adrienee Lenker's Abysskiss, both released in 2018. 

Case and point, 2022 was the year that I finally paid attention to, and fell in love with, their song 'Mary' from their 2017 album Capacity. Some things take time.

Dragon has plenty of songs with instant appeal, like 'Capacity' and 'Time Escaping' and 'Spud Infinity' and 'Simulation Swarm' and I'm confident there are other favourites that will emerge over the years. 

Laurel Hell by Mitski

I was cooling on Mitski. There just didn't seem to be much in the way of evolution with each album. But I heard the single 'The Only Heartbreaker', which hinted at a more up-tempo/raucous sound so I queued up her new album and went outside to mow the lawn. 

Unfortunately, on this first listen, the first five tracks didn't really stand out. Track 6 was the song I'd already heard, followed by 'Love Me More', which was even jauntier, though still pissed off and angular in the way that most Mitski songs are, 'There's Nothing Left for You' and 'Should've Been Me'. After this stretch of four songs I'd completely changed my mind. It's such a killer run and lends a glow to what comes before and after. 

The whole album rocks... you might just need to wait a while to find the key that unlocks its rockingness for you.

Boat Songs by MJ Lenderman

"Jason Molina with a subscription to The Athletic". I can't trace the original provenance of this description of MJ Lenderman, but it's so apt. Not just the way that Lenderman is clearly inspired by Molina's sound and references a lot of sports, but the exclusiveness of those two signifiers (I'm not sure many of my friend group would know who Jason Molina or Songs: Ohia are/were -- if that's you, go listen to 'Farewell Transmission'!; or the Athletic, let alone what kind of sports fan they cater too).

The album opener, 'Hangover Game', is a clear standout and the best example of the Molina+Athletic vibe (it's about Michael Jordan's infamous flu game).

I've since been back through the MJ Lenderman back catalogue - his EP Knockin' is vvvvv good - and it's now time to return to 'Boat Songs' for another thrashing.

If I never know you like this again by SOAK

Another Irish album! Oh, I mean, a Northern Irish album. I guess you could call it rock... it has guitars. It's more atmospheric indie pop? Whatever it is, it's gold.

The Overload by Yard Act

I feel like this album came out 5 years ago (though it was Jan 2022). And it's on Yard Act's debut. This year's Dry Cleaning - though I rate The Overload over Dry Cleaning's sophomore album which dropped in '22. More please.

Dishonorable mention

• Chris by Ryan Adams - Mr Adams is a dick, at best. He withdrew from the public eye for a while, then released a bajillion albums (okay 4) in 2022. I was curious what all those songs, presumably written and recorded while nursing his narcissitic, self-inflicted wounds, would sound like. Just the sheer volume of them! And dammit, there's a lot of songs that are right up my street. Chris has the highest strike rate of the lot. But, there's still, the fact he's a dick, at best.

Honorable mentions

• Warm Chris by Aldous Harding
• Pray for me I don't fit in by Melt Yourself Down
• Lucifer on the Sofa by Spoon
• Weather Alive by Beth Orton
• Barn by The Long Lost Somethins
• Havasu by Pedro the Lion - an important piece in David Bazan's ongoing autobiographical suite, but the songs are a little... boring at times. 

Best albums from past years I didn't encounter until 2022

• Shallow Bed by Dry the River (2012)
• No Medium by Rosali (2021)
• Due North by Liam Kazar (2021)
• People in Cars by Curse of Lono (2021)

Each of the 2021 albums would have made my top ten this year if they'd been released in 2022, or in 2021 if I'd heard them then. Interestingly, there weren't many more 2021 albums nipping at their heels.

As for Dry the River, they appeared in my ears while I was gardening and the album I'd been listening to ended and Spotify autoplayed songs in a similar vein. I think I'd been listening to Local Natives, but I might be wrong. The thing is, DtR don't sound much like Local Natives (besides there's the higher pitched vocals and the emotionally vulnerable lyrics). There's a Fleet Foxes/Animal Collective orchestral/choral vibe, but the Dry the River is more muscular and direct. There's an earlier britpop vibe, or maybe even The Bends-era Radiohead, but when I try to pin down where, it evaporates. It's like someone made a venn diagram of all the music I like and created a band than sat at the area of greatest overlap (well done Spotify!), only to find out they've long since broken up and there isn't much beyond Shallow Bed available. Better to have loved and lost, and all that!

Best song of 2022

After eliminating artists whose albums appeared above, there was a clear winner. It doesn't feature nonsense syllables like many past Songs of the Year winners, but it's very much a singalong in the car kind of tune.

Stick Season by Noah Kahan

This one might've been spoiled slightly for the seven people who looked at my 40 songs for 40 years playlist two days ago... So be it!

I like the songyness of 'Stick Season'. It's like a really good Greek statue. It's got enough detail to place it within an exact time and place ("Doc told me to travel, but there's COVID on the planes"), while being timeless (dude reduced after breakup; sad sack singing over jangly music).

If Die Hard is a Christmas movie (it is!), then 'Stick Season' is a Christmas song!

I concede that this will probably sound like Mumford & Sons when the glow of its newness has faded, but right now I DON'T CARE.

Best songs not from 2022

• Chemtrails over the Country Club by Hayley Mary (2021) - a rocking cover of Lana Del Rey - would have been a real contender for song of the year if not for chronology... it's have to settle for being THE GREATEST COVER OF ALL TIME (maybe?)
• Godzilla by Blue Oyster Cult (1977) - no, I can't be bothered with the diaresis. Delved into BOC's back catalogue this year and discovered this silly ol' gem, which my kids also love.
• Hocus Pocus by Focus (1971) - fun to say, fun to listen to. Another one my kids request to hear.
• The Pills Won't Help You Now by the Chemical Brothers (2007) - featuring Tim Smith from Midlake (original lineup) on vocals, this was the next best thing to a Midlake reunion (NB: Smith-less Midlake is pretty good, but with-Smith Midlake is god tier).
• My Pal by God (1988) - I'd heard this song before, but it wasn't until I heard Bad//Dreems' cover (2020) in 2022 that I went back and listened to God's stuff and really appreciated what an amazing teen punk treasure 'My Pal' is. 
• Goodness Pt.1 by The Hotelier (2016)
• Wasteland of the Free by Iris DeMent (1996)
• Headlines by Charlotte Cornfield (2021)