Because it has been conditioned into me since I started as a journalist, and because I am fastidious about collecting my thoughts and experiences into lists to return to years down the line, December is a time for wrapping up: in layers, in paper, in digestible listicles that serve as a concrete statement of everything experienced and felt and consumed. I thought it might be fun to distill my 2023 into discrete categories to tie up this newsletter for the year with a nice tidy bow before crawling into a hole to hibernate for a couple of weeks. So, without further ado, here are some of my best/favourite/most memorable Things from 2023.
Meals
Through The Woods, Crouch End
Meat platter at Diyarbakir, Green Lanes
Singburi, Leytonstone (not sure what their bookings are saying for the new year as. they were booked from September all the way to the end of this year but absolutely get down if you can)
Chuku’s Nigerian Tapas, Tottenham
Albums
Desire… - Caroline Polachek (obvs, I am nothing if not a stereotype of myself)
Famous Last Words - CASISDEAD
2nd Draft - Celia Hollander
Come With Fierce Grace - Alabaster DePlume
Lahai - Sampha
GUTS - Olivia Rodrigo
Radio Red - Laura Groves
Burning It Feels Like - Fran Lobo
Universal Mother - Sinéad O’Connor
Judee Sill - Judee Sill
Gentle Confrontation - Loraine James
In Brine - jellyskin
Films
My Cousin Vinny (1992)
Aftersun (2022)
Rye Lane (2023)
Asteroid City (2023) - I think maybe my new favourite Wes Anderson!
All The Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022)
They Cloned Tyrone (2023)
One Fine Morning (2022)
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (2021)
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)
Nine to Five (1980)
Recipes
Any Italian pasta stew with a parmesan rind
Red wine braised aubergines from Jess Elliott Dennison’s book Tin Can Magic (this book makes an incredible gift for literally anyone and everyone, thank me later)
Meera Sodha’s tomato curry in East (also her summer pilau in this book!)
Books
Vagabonds! - Eloghosa Osunde
The Doll’s Alphabet - Camilla Grudova
As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner
A Ghost in the Throat - Doireann Ní Ghríofa
Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl - Andrea Lawlor
Minty Alley - C.L.R. James
At Certain Points We Touch - Lauren John Joseph
Women, Race and Class - Angela Y. Davis
Real Life - Brandon Taylor
Lanny - Max Porter
Working Girl: On Selling Art and Selling Sex - Sophia Giovannitti
Sula - Toni Morrison
Best podcasts
Normal Gossip
The Worms Podcast
Heavyweight
Search Engine
Havana Syndrome
Gigs
The Magic Lantern, St Mary’s
Lana Del Ray, BST
Blondshell, Lafayette
Okay Kaya, Lafayette
Harry Styles, Wembley Stadium
Aldous Harding, Barbican
Vegyn, EartH
Work (indulge me!)
Getting to moderate a talk at IMS Ibiza this year
Publishing my first bits of fiction in Worms 7
Most of what I’ve written here tbh, if you want to look back over past articles
Exploring TikTok’s guidance on social cues, eye contact and friendship for Polyester Zine
TV
Weirdly did not watch that much telly this year beyond the. obvious Succession final season, I was very much in my film era this year which I’m taking as a win for my dwindling attention span.
TTFN! See you back here in the new year for more brain farts and parsing out weird thoughts. In the meantime, have a wonderful break and happy holidays to you n yours.
That meat platter was... 🥵