Annual Media Roundup

2021.01.10
Media I consumed over 2020... 4 star in red, 5 star red and bolded... # of items more or less fully consumed in parentheses, with the +/- from the year before after.

Movies at the Cinema(2 (-9))
WBCN and The American Revolution, Stop Making Sense
So... not too many movies in person in 2020 for obvious reasons. The background of "WBCN and The American Revolution" was cool to see at the Somerville Theater... (The concert film Stop Making Sense was pretty cool as well)

Movies on Video or Streaming(53 (+14))
Booksmart, Fortune Feimster: Sweet & Salty, Hustlers, Brittany Runs a Martathon, Parasite, Logan Lucky, End of Envagelion, Homecoming, End Times Fun, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Astartes, Event Horizon, React for Beginners, Maria Bamford: Weakness is the Brand, The Shawshank Redemption, Sincerely, Boyz N The Hood, Modern Times, Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future, Patton Oswald: I Love Everything, Beyond, UHF, It Happened One Night, Just Mercy, Dave Attell : Captain Miserable, Moonlight, Eric Andre Legalize Everything, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Knives Out, Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, Jim Jeffries Intolerant, School of Rock, Dolemite is my Name, Sam Jay: 3 in the Morning, The Beastie Boys Story, Shazam, Rob Schneider: Asian Momma, Mexican Kids, I'm Thinking of Ending Things, The Science of Sleep, What Happened Was, Zach Galifianakis Live at the Purple Onion, The Machinist, Halloween, On The Waterfront, American History X, Lewis Black: Thanks for Risking Your Life, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, Sarah Cooper: Everything's Fine, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, The Oath, Uncle Frank, The Witches of Eastwick, The Great Dictator
Alot of live comedy on Netflix. "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" was my social birthday flick, early in quarantine. "I'm Thinking of Ending Things" has stuck with me, and I liked the otherwordliness of "The Science of Sleep".

TV Show Seasons(16 (-7))
Big Mouth Season 2, Star Trek The Next Generation Season 1, Big Mouth Season 3, Superstore Season 4, Star Trek The Next Generation Season 2, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness, LEGO Masters, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 14, What We Do In the Shadows Season 2, Travel Man Season 1, Workaholics, 90 Days The Other Way, The Eric Andre Show, Chapelle Show Season 2, Rick and Morty Season 4, Veep (Random Seasons), Big Mouth Season 4
"Big Mouth" is such an interesting thing - it's hard to tell who it's aimed at - like it's stuff you think teens (and maybe younger) should know, but too raunchy to feel ok with showing them - but the way it personifies things like anxiety and depression is so dead on. It was good going exercising my geekdom with "Neon Genesis Evangelion"

Books(30 (+/- 0))
Checkpoint, The Society of Mind, Getting Over Homer, Exhalation, milk and honey, In Defense of Elitism: Why I'm Better Than You and You are Better Than Someone Who Didn't Buy This Book, The Three Marriages: Reimagining Work, Self, and Relationship, My Digital Generation 2.0, The Complete Cosmicomics, How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems, When Einstein Walked With Goedel, Atomic Design, aha! Insight, Existentialism Is a Humanism, Instantiation, aha! Gotcha: Paradoxes to puzzle and delight, Art of Atari, How to Be an Antiracist, Daddy: A Memoir, James Acaster's Classic Scrapes, Contagious: Why Things Catch On, My Tank Is Fight!, Homegoing, Making Sense, Planet Funny: How Comedy Took Over Our Culture, Majora's Mask (Bossfight Books), Dreams from my Father, Garner's Quotations, Such a Fun Age, Home Buying Kit for Dummies
Ted Chiang (of "Exhalation" - I pull quotes from it here) makes such good, thought-provoking sci-fi. A lot of Black literature, thanks in part to a reading group at Belmont UU I joined.

Audiobooks/Podcast(16 (-1))
Poetry Unbound, No Stupid Questions, Retronauts, The Talk Show with John Gruber, Watch Out for Fireballs!, Triple Click, My Brother, My Brother And Me, St Elwick's Neighbourhood Association Newsletter Podcast, Making Sense, The Allusionist, 99% Invisible, The Anthropocene Reviewed, The Argument, Baby Geniuses, Beef and Dairy Network, McGST Podcast
"Poetry Unbound" has seriously moved me at times. And I'm happy to be part of the community that helps with "McGST", a spin off of a small tech blog I've liked for a long while

Comic / Graphic Novel(14 (+5))
Atari Force (1-5), Bucko, Stuck Rubber Baby, The Invisibles Book One, The Invisibles Book Two, The Invisibles Book Three, The Invisibles Book Four, Transmetropolitan, Vol. 1: Back on the Street, DC Meets Looney Tunes, Let's All Shut Up and Make Money!, The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975, WE3, Creating a Champion, The Cartoon Introduction to Philosophy
"Stuck Rubber Baby" was an excellent semi-autobiographical piece from the Civil Rights movement in the South, from the point of view of a white man also coming to terms with is homosexuality.

Video Games(12 (-5))
Luigiā€™s Mansion 3, DOOM: Knee-Deep in the Dead, The Nightfall Incident, Super Smash Bros Ultimate, Woebot, What The Golf, Animal Crossing: New Horizons,Minecraft, Star Wars: Squadrons, Star Wars: Squadrons, Red Dead Redemption 2, Saints Row IV
I played "Animal Crossing" at behest of my super niece. In retrospect I'm not sure how I feel about it- charming though. "Red Dead Redemption 2" was seriously moving - took me a while to really groove on its mechanics (a few too many systems for my liking) but it emotionally engaged in a way few games have. "Star Wars: Squadrons" is the game I thought I wanted. Also I think it proved to me that VR helmets just aren't my thing.