In the spirit of not being a bummer, and to be kind to myself, I chose to give myself some credit this year.
One of the best things that happened this year was my progress in my transition. I came out to everybody in my life in March, after being out as a trans woman only to my partner and close friends for a while. Furthermore, I started HRT in January and am now coming up on one year of being on hormones. Overall, it has been a year of just living as my true self, that I've been wanting to be for years. It's been nice personal progress that I've made happen.
To have more of a creative output and force myself to write more I started Transfixed! Woohoo, that's this thing. I very much find joy in it. There is something nice about putting down my thoughts and feeling like in some way I have a contribution to discourse on the world and art, partially due to my personal perspective. I like this thing, and if anything, I hope to do more with it in the coming year.
The last big achievement that I had this year was being admitted to the Columbia School of Journalism. Like this blog it is something that I am doing for myself to improve my writing and hopeful give myself a better skillset for being a productive critic and writer. And although I have not talked about it a lot, as an end of year celebration I will give myself a pat on the back. It is an accomplishment, and I am proud of myself.
On top of these things continue to be lucky to have an incredible partner in my life and great friends.
Now as the year ends look back with me on the things throughout the year that brought me the most joy. I hope you enjoy, and I encourage you to try out everything on this list!
Is This a Room
Simply put, “Is This a Room” is a play that uses the transcript from an interview between the FBI and Reality Winner, who leaked government documents showing Russian interference in the 2016 election. It is 70 minutes with no intermission.
The show felt like an absurdist piece of theatre, with the dialogue being almost nonsensical and disjointed from what the characters are trying to accomplish at times. Something that is made even more terrifying when you think about how this really happened, and where Winner’s last moments before being detained for 5 years (she is currently still under house arrest).
Working with a transcript as the script added an element of choreography. The show is a finely directed dance, with each actor exuding a naturalness in their motions even when they must be carefully chosen, a perfect action repeated every performance.
It also carries so much emotion that I didn’t expect. Once the bows happened, I could feel how tense my body had been for the entire 70 minutes of the show. After I left the theater, I found myself thinking about Reality Winner the person, over the character.
And for Broadway as a space for art, “Is This a Room” can stand for so many shows that made up this season. With a lack of tourists seeing shows, theaters were open to producing more “New York” work, which really means a lot of incredible plays from living playwrights. Things that only see short runs Off-Broadway were able to reach a wider audience, even if it was just for a moment.
Action Button Reviews Tokimeki Memorial
This video came out January 1st, 2021. I watched it the day it came out in one sitting. Since then, I have watched this single video a total of at least four times. It is six hours long. I love this video. It is incredible.
Season 1 of Action Button Reviews acted as a decoding of the modern video game, its elements and where they come from. The overall thesis of this specific video is that to understand modern video games, one must understand Tokimeki Memorial.
The beauty of Tim Rogers’s videos is that they are so intensely created. Each video is dripping with countless hours of work that you can feel. All in the service of finding some meaning for these games.
Many agree that there is a lack of knowledge about the history of games as an industry, and as an art form that goes through movements and changes just like any high art. Rogers searches for this.
Overboard
This game is made with crack in it. Every attempt takes eight in-game hours, which translates to roughly 45 minutes to an hour of real-world time. This is just enough for me to regret every mistake or missed opportunity and immediately sit down for another try, this repeats for hours.
On top of this addictive gameplay loop, “Overboard” holds back on its true depth until you survive your first attempt. At this point the game draws back the curtain just a little bit, letting you know you have just scratched the surface.
It reminds me a lot of the game “Elsinore”, a favorite of mine. There is so much more going on beyond just getting away with a murder, and the game entices you to discover every secret.
In a year that was filled with time-loop narratives, this one was the best.
Beli
I love this app. and yes, I do kind of feel like a pretentious New York Foodie using it, but in a good way.
The lowdown is that Beli is a restaurant tracking and ranking app. The method of ranking isn’t a star system but instead a this or that mentality. Once you say you have been to a restaurant the app starts asking you to choose between the restaurant you just visited and other restaurants you’ve been to in the past, which eventually results in a ranked list based on these comparison choices.
It also has a three-tiered ranking system, with the option to say if you loved, liked, or disliked the restaurant.
The downside of it so far is that it is invite only. You must know someone on the app to get an invite to use the app. Although if you are interested, the Instagram often gives out invite links, as the app is still young.
Batman: Wayne Family Adventures
The best comic of the year, full stop.
This is the first product from the deal between DC and Webtoons, to make content staring DC characters. It slaps hard.
What makes this comic great is its emphasis on the family. At this point in the comic canon, the things that make Batman great are his collection of strays that make up this wonderful cast of characters who all care about each other.
Batgirls, Robins, Alfred… these are the things that humanize Bruce and help explain why he cares about being Batman. This is also a piece of Batman media that just throws out the need for Batman to be dark and broody. And it works, in fact “Wayne Family Adventures” is currently the most popular Batman comic DC publishes, with 500k subscribers, the flagship Batman comic at DC currently sells about 125k per issue.
Let Batman be fun, he is fun. He is just a single parent struggling to parent all his weirdo kids.
Neon Genesis Evangelion
I am allowing myself to cheat just a bit with this answer.
Technically "Evangelion: 3.0 + 1.0 Thrice Upon a Time" came out this year, and I did watch it. However, I also watched the entirety of the Neon Genesis Evangelion series. The original series, The End of Evangelion, and the Rebuild series of films.
Evangelion is a fucking trip. I love it. The philosophical, psychological mixing pot that is seen through Shinji Ikari's pubescent mess of a life just continues to hit hard.
The main reason for this is because of creator Hideaki Anno's introspection of himself and Evangelion as a series.
Evangelion has always been about loneliness and the struggle Shinji (and humanity) face with reaching out for support from those around them. It is a series that sees so much failure. Shinji fails in the original series. He fails to overcome his personal struggles to exist with others.
Yet as Anno has said, Evangelion is a series that repeats. And in the Rebuild series we see Shinji progress, inch by inch.
The series has never been about fixing yourself in one shot, it has been about the hard-earned progress that it takes to become slightly better, how hard it is to fight against yourself and your trauma to make things incrementally better. And at its heart it is also a show that believes in the strength of human connection.
Inga Lam
These videos are comfort food. They just relax you and for me they have gotten me through a lot of stress.
Inga is a producer and personality on About to Eat, as well as Tasty. This is her personal YouTube channel that she uses to show her own personal cooking as well as some of the behind the scenes to her other videos.
It’s almost ASMR in how sensory it is. The sounds are quiet and calm, and the food is beautiful and makes my mouth water. I personally am a huge fan of all the drinks Inga makes.
As someone who also cooks to destress these videos just satisfy something deep within me, and often I find myself trying to make something after.
What We Do in the Shadows (Season 3)
“What We Do in the Shadows” continues to become better and better. First a cult hit indie movie. Then a tv show that managed to live up to the hype of the original.
Since the show premiered, each season has continued to fulfill the morose and delightful expectations that come with the vampiric comedy.
The show manages to give every character a plot that could make them a viewer’s favorite character.
Yet this season belongs to Colin Robinson. His search for his past, an explanation of his entire existence as an energy vampire becomes the best buddy movie, due to the genius comedic pairing with Laszlo.
With a finale that truly upsets the status quo of the show and leaves me with anticipation for season 4, now is the perfect time to binge the show if you have yet to experience it.
Luca
Love me some trans-coded kids movies.
But seriously this movie is the best from Disney / Pixar this year. (No, I don’t care for “Encanto”
Focused on a small seaside town in Italy “Luca” sees two sea-creatures pursue their dreams in the human town.
The movie captures childhood wonders and fear at the encroaching idea of growing up just as well as any of the Hayao Miyazaki movies that influenced it. While the love for Italian cuisine matches the mouthwatering scenes from “Ratatouille”.
Many have said this movie is too safe or simple, but I would say that it is understated in its storytelling. Because it knows what it is about more than any other recent Disney / Pixar movie.
Worst Thing of the Year:
Flying Over Sunset
What can be said about this show that hasn’t already?
I think the best way to encapsulate my thoughts are “I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed”. This show just boggles the mind, and not because of its drug focused story.
Helen Shaw says it in her review, “The key post-show discussion question in my small group was ‘How did this get made?’ The Vivian Beaumont is a big house to sign over to a musical so dramaturgically inept, so lacking in connection, philosophy, or fire.”
The beautiful set and costume design cannot save a musical so bereft of any…thing.
I was lucky enough to see this show for free (which I should’ve wondered why Lincoln Center had free seats they were so eager to throw at anybody), but I cannot imagine paying for a show like this. It wasn’t even good bad, where you could enjoy the show and find something to really talk about, if you want that go watch “Diana: The Musical” on Netflix.
This is also the first show in my entire life that I couldn’t bear to finish. I fully left at intermission. Which meant I made it fifteen more minutes than the couple next to me who left mid song. I don’t blame them.
Woohoo, the year is over. Happy New Year to you all and see you in 2022.