Best of 2023

Photos

Books

  • *Cormac McCarthy, Stella Maris, 2022 (The second novel in Cormac McCarthy's The Passenger series; an exquisite exploration into grief, longing, and the nature of existence.) Recommended.

  • Chuck Klosterman, The Nineties, 2022 (A sobering survey of the 1990s that helps place it into context of history. A must read for members of Generation X.) Recommended.

  • Patrick Bringley, All the Beauty in the World, 2023 (A profound meditation on art and the influence of art written by a former staff writer for the New Yorker who left his post to become a security guard at the Metropolitan Museum following his brother’s death). Recommended.

  • I.S. Berry, The Peacock and the Sparrow, 2023 (In this crackling debut thriller, the vividly detailed and morally complex world of today's CIA in Bahrain comes to life through the eyes of an "aging threadbare bureaucrat." Navigating the aftermath of the Arab Spring, a series of bombings, and a web of ever-shifting loyalties, the protagonist's journey becomes as intricate as a Bahraini mosaic, challenging the boundaries between personal relationships and professional obligations.) Recommended.

  • Michael Stagg, Lethal Defense, 2020 (An admitted killer: but does his violent means constitute self-defense for another? Or, will the jury send him to his death? While clearly fictional, the writing captures the very real perspective of a lawyer in the midst of investigating and ultimately trying a case.)

Movies

  • The Killer, 2023 (David Fincher's stylish thriller follows a methodical assassin who becomes embroiled in an international manhunt after a job goes wrong, offering a taut, visually striking exploration of a professional killer's psychology.) Recommended

  • Dragged Across Concrete, 2018 (This gritty crime drama follows two suspended police officers who venture into the criminal underworld, presenting a slow-burning, morally ambiguous tale that challenges you perceptions of right and wrong.)  Recommended

  • Sharper, 2023 (A twisty neo-noir thriller set in the world of New York City's wealthy elite, following a group of con artists as they scheme and double-cross each other in a high-stakes game of manipulation and deceit.)

  • The Covenant, 2023 (Guy Ritchie's war drama tells the story of a U.S. Army sergeant who returns to Afghanistan to rescue the Afghan interpreter who saved his life, exploring themes of loyalty, duty, and the complexities of war.)

Series

  • Barry, Season 4, 2023 (The final season of this darkly comedic series brings Bill Hader's hitman-turned-actor saga to a gripping conclusion, delving deeper into Barry's psyche as he faces the consequences of his past actions. This season pushes the boundaries of genre, blending intense drama with black humor while exploring themes of redemption, identity, and the inescapable nature of one's choices.) Recommended

  • Anatomy of a Scene, The New York Times, ongoing. Recommended

  • Tour de France 2023 Extended Highlights, 2023

Music

Videos

Articles

  • Leslie Jamison, "Not Fooling Anyone,” The New Yorker, February 13 & 20, 2023 ("[I]mpostor phenomenon, as a concept, effectively functions as an emotional filing cabinet organizing a variety of fraught feelings that we can experience as we try to reconcile three aspects of our personhood: how we experience ourselves, how we present ourselves to the world, and how the world reflects that self back to us. The phenomenon names an unspoken, ongoing crisis arising from the gaps between these various versions of the self, and designates not a syndrome but an inescapable part of being alive.")

  • Evan Osnos, “Trust Issues,” The New Yorker, January 23, 2023 (“So how, exactly, do the well-to-do find a way around taxes? There are functional concerns and ethical ones. The line between avoidance and evasion is not mysterious. It’s perfectly legal to avoid taxes by honestly reporting losses and deducting expenses, and it’s perfectly illegal to evade them with lies… The more intriguing terrain is where most Americans dwell, between avoidance and acquiescence. Researchers who study I.R.S. data chart our behavior on a continuum, from “flagrantly defiant” (people who cheat even at great risk) through “strategic” (calculators of costs and benefits) to “conflicted” (moral agonists) and “pathologically honest” (bless their hearts).”

  • David Marchese, "Marina Abramovic Thinks the Pain of Love Is Hell on Earth," The New York Times, October 26, 2023 ("The most vulgar way of transmitting knowledge is if the master talks to the student. The highest is if they’re sitting in silence and there’s no word mentioned. If you get that kind of communication, an object between you and the viewer is not necessary. It’s a pure energy exchange. This is the highest art.")

  • Osho, “Existence is a cosmic joke.” The Times of India, August 1, 2012 (“Laughter is far more sacred than prayer, because prayer can be done by any one; it does not require much intelligence. Laughter requires intelligence, it requires presence of mind, a quickness of seeing into things….To be able to laugh, you need to be like a child - egoless. And when you laugh, suddenly laughter is there, you are not. You come back when the laughter is gone….Laugh so that your whole body, your whole being becomes involved, and suddenly there will be a glimpse. For the moment the past disappears, the future, the ego, everything disappears - there is only laughter. And in that moment of laughter you will be able to see the whole existence of laughter [the wholeness of man]….”)

  • Jerry Saltz, "Zombies on the Walls: Why Does So Much New Abstraction Look the Same?, Vulture, June 17, 2014 (“Most Zombie Formalism arrives in a vertical format, tailor-made for instant digital distribution and viewing via jpeg on portable devices. It looks pretty much the same in person as it does on iPhone, iPad, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, and Instagram. Collectors needn’t see shows of this work, since it offers so little visual or material resistance. It has little internal scale, and its graphic field is taken in at once. You see and get it fast, and then it doesn’t change. There are no complex structural presences to assimilate, few surprises, and no unique visual iconographies or incongruities to come to terms with. It’s frictionless, made for trade. Art as bitcoin.”)

  • Connie Chang, “Does Sugar Actually Feed Cancer?,” The New York Times, July 10, 2023 (“The “sugar feeds cancer” narrative goes back to the 1920s, when a German physiologist noticed that some tumor cells consumed more glucose than healthy cells did…Sugar isn’t a carcinogen…Still, a limited yet growing body of evidence has linked the overconsumption of added sugars (the kind found in cookies, cakes and soft drinks) to cancer. [Further,] excess sugar consumption has been shown to spark chronic inflammation,…lower immunity,...and may lead to obesity and diabetes, conditions known to increase the odds of getting cancer.”)

Quotes

  • In the military everyone gets a gun; only some people get the bullets.

  • Ars longa, vita brevis (Latin) see Life is short, art long, opportunity fleeting, experimentations perilous, and judgment difficult. —Hippocrates

  • The kiss is a wordless articulation of desires whose object lies in the future, and somewhat to the south. —Lance Morrow, "The kissing style of the great screen lovers," The Sun-Herald, January 19, 1986

  • Laughter is far more sacred than prayer, because prayer can be done by any one; it does not require much intelligence. Laughter requires intelligence, it requires presence of mind, a quickness of seeing into things…. To be able to laugh, you need to be like a child - egoless. And when you laugh, suddenly laughter is there, you are not. You come back when the laughter is gone…. Laugh so that your whole body, your whole being becomes involved, and suddenly there will be a glimpse. For the moment the past disappears, the future, the ego, everything disappears - there is only laughter. And in that moment of laughter you will be able to see the whole existence of laughter [the wholeness of man]….” —Osho, “Existence is a cosmic joke.” The Times of India, August 1, 2012

  • Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life work super fucking hard all the time with no separation of any boundaries and also take everyhing extremely personally.  —Jacob Shedeurs, X post, October 26, 2023

Twitter accounts:

Tweets: