We made it through 2024!
Essays from the year gone by and a special mix: the songs that kept me going
Hey everyone!
What were your favorite essays that came out in this newsletter over the past year? It’s a year in review, with a fun poll so I can get some feedback.
Next I want to share my own personal mix for the year: the songs that showed up for me at a crucial moment, that developed some special meaning for me, or that just helped me get down and dirty when I needed to – on a long powerwashing shift at a stressful job, dancing when I had something to celebrate or remembered how important it was to rediscover my body in the long process of chemo and then recovery from chemo, or—you know—just moving through really hard feelings.
Thanks so much to everyone who reads, shares, comments on, and subscribes to this newsletter. Remember that it’s completely free, you don’t get any additional access with a paid subscription. But since I’m a not-so-young writer with a slow-moving but deadly and currently incurable brain cancer, chronic health problems, no college degree, and rent to pay, if you want to buy a subscription as a way to send me a gift, I won’t say no!
So: which were your favorite newsletters this year? Leave a comment if anything you really liked doesn’t show up in this Top 10 I curated.
The first batch:
And the second batch:
I got two books published this year!
They Will Beat the Memory Out of Us, on the loss of collective memory, the lack of continuity between generations in struggle, how this keeps us at the mercy of capitalism, and how we can overcome it. Then, the English translation of a text I wrote in Catalan two years ago, on many of the same themes, with an extra focus on our lack of community, and on strategic questions of organization: Organization, Continuity, Community.
I guess the three main articles I published this year were with CrimethInc and Freedom, about why the strategies that mainstream environmental movements are currently employing to halt industrially-produced climate change are failing—and what we could be doing instead; one with In These Times about how an increase in green energy under capitalism also causes an increase in fossil fuel production; and a two-parter with Undisciplined Environments, about different approaches to forestry and food production in Catalunya and their relationships to forest fires, fascism, local autonomy, and anarchist guerrillas. “Dams, Forest Fires, and the Hidden Commons” and “These Mountains Fight Back: Between Anarchist Commons and Fascist Environmentalism”
I’m working with SubMedia about a video series on the ecological crisis, “It’s Revolution or Death!” “Part I: Short Term Investments” is already out, and Parts II and III will be coming out soon! If there’s anyone you know who needs convincing that we need a different approach to climate change, this is the video for them.
I’m really grateful to a few podcasts that hosted me. “Memory, Community, Organization, and Struggle” on The Final Straw. “Beyond the Ballot Box” with Vicky Osterweil, on the Pluto Podcast.
I’ll also be coming out soon on Last Born in the Wilderness, The Beautiful Idea, and Poor Prole’s Almanac.
Sorry if I forgot anyone! I have a hole in my brain…
Now here’s my mix for 2024! Not a playlist, no fuckin AI or lack of intention in any of it: a mix. Hope you enjoy it! And blessed are those who remember boomboxes with double tape decks. (Below the link I’ve got a list of all the songs in there, in case you don’t have Spotify)
Band of Horses, “The Funeral”
Nerina Pallot, “Love Will Tear Us Apart”
Loukeman, “Ride”
Bobby Darin, “Dream Lover”
Raury, “Devil’s Whisper”
ZOO, “El Cap Per Avall”
Desire, “Under Your Spell”
Fugazi, “I’m So Tired”
Built to Spill, “Car”
Modest Mouse, “Trailer Trash”
Yazoo, “Only You”
The National, “I Need My Girl”
Xiu Xiu, “I Luv the Valley OH!”
The Mars Volta, “Inertiatic Esp”
múm, “We Have A Map Of The Piano”
Mogwai, “Hungry Face”
Lorde, “Team”
Lil Nas X, Jack Harlow, “Industry Baby”
De La Soul, “Say No Go”
OHYUNG, STEFA*, “Huele a Fraude”
Charli xcx, “365”
Angel Olson, “Unfucktheworld”
Sigur Rós, “Starálfur”
Beach House, “Lemon Glow”
Billie Eilish, “when the party’s over”
RY X, “Berlin”
Ani DiFranco, “Both Hands”
Lana Del Rey, “Young And Beautiful”
Lower Dens, “I Get Nervous”
Bonnie Tyler, “Total Eclipse of the Heart”
Death Cab for Cutie, “I Will Follow You into the Dark”
Christine and the Queens, “Saint Claude”
Puccini, Pavarotti, John Alldis Choir, “Turandot, Act III: Nessun dorma!”
Harry Connick Jr., “Find Me Falling”
Christine and the Queens, “Tilted”
The Cranberries, “Dreams”
Francis and the Lights, “See Her Out (Thats Just Life)”
Love, “Everybody’s Gotta Live”
Philip Glass, “Mishima (Bob’s Burgers Arrangement)”
And, an extra little gift for those who made it to the end, but here we go: I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I just find this video with Kim Kardashian and Macaulay Culkin (directed by Nadia Lee Cohen and Charlie Denis) to be pure art.
Happy New Year!
Someone asked me about TV shows and movies I'm recommending, here's a short list:
Ripley, Bad Sisters, Day of the Jackal, Slow Horses, The English Teacher, A Man on the Inside...
Find Me Falling, Problemista, Aftersun, The Big Bend, Driveaway Dolls, My Old Ass, Kneecap, Complete Unknown, Babygirl
I'm also really looking forward to the next season of Silo
If you have a way to receive a subscription $ gift direct, happy to do so so fewer platform intermediaries take a cut 🤲