It’s well into January and you probably thought you were finally free from all the year-end talk. But I find myself with a few hours to spare while I wait at the vet. Just enough time for a little look back.
I set out with big dreams and intentions for 2025, including plans for this newsletter. It was going to be my year of devotion. All that was swiftly derailed a month later when we got a puppy and it became instead the Year of Marge. But that’s ok. She’s taught me a lot about devotion in her own way. And just look at her:
A few other quick hits from the year:
Bellingham really started to feel like home. We hosted visitors, we’re finding our spots, we’re making friends. It’s feeling good.
I got a regular yoga class at the studio.
I started learning to play the harmonium and singing in front of people (!!!) which I never in a thousand years would have thought I’d willingly do.
I paid off my student loans!
I saw Oasis!






Now on to some favs from the year:
Reading
I finished the Wolf Hall trilogy with Bring Up the Bodies and The Mirror & The Light; loved Grief Is the Thing With Feathers and haven’t seen the adaptation yet (sounds like maybe one to miss?); I liked Little, Big but also had major issues with it; The Deptford Trilogy read alongside some Jung by coincidence which really enhanced the experience; a very Pynchon year with Vineland and Shadow Ticket; Leaves of Grass (1855 edition as recommended by Michael Bourne in his article Embracing The Other I Am; or, How Walt Whitman Saved My Life); There’s Always This Year which I loved and wrote about; Dead and Alive, it’s always nice when Zadie Smith is back in the rotation
Rereads: The Secret History I liked this a lot more than I did the first time I read it years ago, a minor detail that made me laugh out loud was all the dealers and partiers forming an anti-drug trivia team and absolutely dominating; The Buried Giant again I liked this a lot more than on my first read, this meditation on time and memory and forgiveness and love and identity and myth feels like one I’ll come back to often.
Never skip newsletters:
Watching
We felt kind of uninspired by a lot of newer stuff this year so we ended up rewatching a lot of prestige TV high–water marks (Sopranos, The Wire, Deadwood, Mad Men, etc) and reliable favs (PTA, Scorcese, etc etc etc). But a few other favs from the year:
Docs: Buena Vista Social Club (1999); Mur Murs (1981); The Decline of Western Civilization Part II (1988)
Features: The Color of Pomegranates (1969); La Chimera (2023; maybe my favorite watch of the year); Body Heat (1981); One Battle After Another (2025); The Secret Agent (2025; technically we saw this earlier this week but time was still a little hazy then so I’m counting it); Like a lot of people, I had myself a Lynch marathon: Fire Walk With Me (1992) plus Twin Peaks + The Return, Lost Highway (1997), Blue Velvet (1986). Some favs from our local indie’s special screenings: Alien (1979), Rebecca (1940), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), and Jesus Christ Superstar (1973).
Listening
I tried and failed to move to Apple Music. My brain refuses to understand their UI and also there was a really annoying bug with my favorites that I lost hours of library cleanup to and couldn’t bring myself to start over. Maybe I’ll try again this year.
Staples from years past:
You Forgot It In People, Broken Social Scene
Comfort to Me, Amyl and The Sniffers
I Got Heaven, Mannequin Pussy
Hadsel, Beirut
HEAVY JELLY, SOFT PLAY
Dreams, Gábor Szabó
Silver, Say She She
22, A Million, Bon Iver
New (to me and new-new):
SABLE, fABLE, Bon Iver
Natural Pleasure, BRONCHO
NEVER ENOUGH, Turnstile
Double Infinity, Big Thief
41 Longfield Street Late 80’s, Kieran Hebden and William Tyler
False Lankum, Lankum
Is It Now?, Automatic
Heungboga, LEENALCHI
Teeth of Time, Joshua Burnside
The Smashing Machine soundtrack, Nala Sinephro
LOWER, Benjamin Booker
The Scholars, Car Seat Headrest, but specifically Gethsemane which I wish was 40 minutes long
Writing:
I did next to no writing here this year. But I’m ok with what I did manage to post:
And with that, my time in this vet’s lobby is drawing to a close. I’ll be back next week with a look at the year ahead. I’m reviving some of those dreams I had for this newsletter, so stay tuned. Take care of yourselves and the ones you love <3



also read Grief is a thing with feathers, and also hesitating to watch the adaptation... love benedict but have read some tough reviews!
that bss album is a forever staple for me