Media Highlights 2021
Published 28 December 2021
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I’ve enjoyed others’ roundups of the media they’ve recently enjoyed (example). I’ve discovered some amazing books, music, and films this way (for the same reason recommendations from friends tend to beat aggregated reviews).
I thought I would look through my own highlights from 2021 in case it helps someone else find something they end up enjoying.
The Robin Hanson homunculus sitting on my shoulder is reminding me that my real motivation must surely involve no small amount of signaling, i.e. trying make people think I’m cultured. I accept that is very likely the case!
Ordering is totally arbitrary.
Books
I keep track of what I read on Goodreads.
- (sidenote: Here is a really lovely quotation attributed to Ramsey (which you may have come across): “I don’t feel the least humble before the vastness of the heavens. The stars may be large, but they cannot think or love; and these are qualities which impress me far more than size does. My picture of the world is drawn in perspective, and not like a model to scale. The foreground is occupied by human beings and the stars are all as small as threepenny bits.”)
- Benjamin Labatut - When We Cease to Understand the World
- James Joyce - Dubliners
- Toby Ord - The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity
- Jane Jacobs - The Death and Life of Great American Cities
- Carl Sagan - Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space
- Joseph Henrich - The Secret of Our Success and especially The WEIRDest People in the World
- Mitchell M. Waldrop - The Dream Machine
- J. Storrs Hall - Where Is My Flying Car?
- Fyodor Dostoevsky - The Brothers Karamazov
- Andy Greenberg - Sandworm
- David Foster Wallace - Infinite Jest and Oblivion: Stories
- Robin Hanson - The Age of Em: Work, Love and Life When Robots Rule the Earth
- Ananyo Bhattacharya - The Man from the Future: The Visionary Life of John von Neumann
Music
Relistens indicated by †. I log most things on rateyourmusic.com.
- DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ - Charmed (2020) and The Makin’ Magick II Album (2021)
- Lucio Battisti - Anima latina (1974)
- Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra - Promises (2021)
- Brian Eno - Thursday Afternoon (1985)
- Feu! Chatterton - Palais d’argile (2021)
- LCD Soundsystem - The Long Goodbye: LCD Soundsystem Live at Madison Square Garden (2014) †
- Mississippi John Hurt - Rediscovered (1998)
- Brian Eno - Here Come the Warm Jets (1974)
- Car Seat Headrest - Commit Yourself Completely (2019)
- Angelo Badalamenti - Twin Peaks: Limited Event Series Soundtrack (2017)
- Boards of Canada - Geogaddi (2002)
- Staff Benda Bilili - Très très fort (sidenote: From Wikipedia: The core of the band consists of four senior singers/guitarists, who are paraplegic (they had poliomyelitis when they were young) and move around in spectacularly customized tricycles. They are backed by a younger rhythm section consisting of abandoned street children who were taken under the protection of the older members of the band. The soloist is an 18-year-old boy (2009) who plays guitar-like solos on an electrified one-stringed lute he designed and built himself out of a tin can (!))
- MF DOOM - Mm… Food (2004)
- Casino Versus Japan - Hitori + Kaiso 1998-2001 (2004)
- Mdou Moctar - Afrique Victime (2021)
- Jackson C. Frank - Jackson C. Frank (1965)
- Big Thief - Capacity (2017) †
- Alice Coltrane featuring Pharoah Sanders - Journey in Satchidananda (1971)
- Eddie Palmieri - Unfinished Masterpiece (1975)
- Leonard Cohen - Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967) †
- Stan Getz & Luiz Bonfá - Jazz Samba (1962) and Jazz Samba Encore! (1963)
- Milton Nascimento & Lô Borges - Clube da Esquina (1972)
- William Onyeabor - Who Is William Onyeabor? (2013)
- Bill Evans Trio - Sunday at the Village Vanguard (1961)
- The Millennium - Begin (sidenote: Only recently learned about this album, it’s a revelation. Comparable to Rubber Soul or Revolver and no worse.)
- Duke Ellington - Ellington at Newport 1956 (Complete) (1956)
- John Coltrane - Live at the Village Vanguard: The Master Takes (1962)
- Vijay Iyer / Linda May Han Oh / Tyshawn Sorey - Uneasy (2021)
- The Beatles - [The Beatles White Album] (1968) †
- Jon Hassell & Brian Eno - Fourth World Vol. 1: Possible Musics (1980)
- Jai Paul - Leak 04-13 (Bait Ones) (2019)
- Talk Talk - Laughing Stock (1991)
- Avey Tare and Panda Bear - Spirit They’re Gone Spirit They’ve Vanished (sidenote: Alvin Row is maybe my favourite song ever.)
- Erik Hall - Music for 18 Musicians (2020)
- The National - Alligator (2005)
- Philip Glass - Glassworks (1982)
- Toumani Diabaté with Ballaké Sissoko - New Ancient Strings (1999)
- Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - A Night in Tunisia (1961)
- Bill Evans Trio - Waltz for Debby (1962)
- Stan Getz - Getz for Lovers (2002)
- Various Artists - Native North America (Vol. 1): Aboriginal Folk, Rock, and Country 1966–1985 (2014)
- Jon Hopkins - Music for Psychedelic Therapy (2021)
- Joe Henderson & Alice Coltrane - The Elements (1974)
- John Eliot Gardiner - Cantatas Vol. 25: Dresden / Sherborne (2008)
- Ween - Quebec (2003)
- Nala Sinephro - Space 1.8 (2021)
- NEU! - NEU! '75 (1975)
- Steve Roach - Dreamtime Return (1988)
- Paul Simon - The Rhythm of the Saints (1990)
- 4TLR - Live at Hultsfred Festival, 18th June 2004 (2018)
- The Beatles - [Let It Be Super Deluxe] (1970)
- Nikolaj Hess - Spacelab & Strings (2021)
- James Brandon Lewis - Chad Taylor - Radiant Imprints (2018)
- Penguin Cafe Orchestra - When in Rome: Recorded Live at the Royal Festival Hall (sidenote: Joyous. ‘From the Colonies’ is a highlight.)
Podcasts
- Having a successful career with depression, anxiety and imposter syndrome (80K podcast)
- David Wallace on many worlds (80K) and the arrow of time (Sean Carroll)
- (sidenote: Overall a failure to reach even clear disagreement. Uncomfortable listening, but revealing.)
- (sidenote: Similar to above.)
- Vitalik Buterin on Intellectual honesty, cryptocurrency, & more (Rationally Speaking)
- Dwayne Betts on Reading, Prison, and the Million Book Project (EconTalk)
- David Deutsch on Multiple Worlds and Our Place in Them (Conversations with Tyler)
- The secrets of effective learning (with Andy Matuschak) (Spencer Greenberg)
Films, TV & Videos
I sometimes log films on Letterboxd.
- (sidenote: Roger Ebert: “[O]ne of the great moviegoing experiences of my lifetime.”)
- Apollo 11 (2019)
- Boogie Nights (1997) and Punch Drunk Love (2002)
- (sidenote: Here I go. Diggin’ in again…)
- Stop Making Sense (1984)
- The Third Man (1949)
- Pretend that you Love Me (2020)
- Memories of Murder (2003)
- Dominion (2018)
- How To With John Wilson (2020 / 2021)
- 3Blue1Brown on Newton’s Fractal, Hamming codes, and a puzzle about a chessboard
- CodeParade - Analog Fractals with 1930’s Technology
- Doug Englebart presents ‘The Mother of All Demos’ (1968)
- Sebastian Lague - Complex Behaviour from Simple Rules: 3 Simulations
- Alex Jones - Justin Bieber Rant
- Two Minute Papers
- Norm Macdonald Tells The Greatest Joke Ever Told
- The National - Live at Sydney Opera House
Shorter Writing
Papers, articles, a short story.
- Anders Sandberg, Eric Drexler, and Toby Ord - Dissolving the Fermi Paradox; also Andrew Snyder-Beattie, Anders Sandberg, Eric Drexler, and Michael B. Bonsall - The Timing of Evolutionary Transitions Suggests Intelligent Life is Rare
- Thomas Moynihan - Creatures of the dawn: How radioactivity unlocked deep time
- Some writing about modernism — Scott Alexander - Whither Tartaria?, Tyler Cowen - Nice Neighborhood, Except for the Houses, and Scott Sumner - Some thoughts on modernism
- Logan Graham - Institutions I Would Fund
- John Cheever - The Swimmer (1964)
- Figuring Figuring - A Push for More Age of Em Style Futurism
- Joe Carlsmith - On future people, looking back at 21st century longtermism
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