Movies
The pandemic and my subsequent unemployment made it a big year for sitting in front of screens. Saw lots more things than last year.
This year I watched 71 films, up from 27 last year.
14 of them were from 2020 and 17 from 2019.
Best things I saw:
Best Documentaries I saw:
- Crip Camp (it’s such a beautiful thing when a community finds each other)
- AlphaGo
- No Direction Home: Bob Dylan
Click on this link to see the all the movies I saw in Movie Poster Format:
https://boxd.it/aIaCy
TV Faves
Comedy:
- Schitt’s Creek (all 6 seasons)
- 30 Rock (all 7 seasons)
- What We Do In The Shadows (both seasons)
- How To With John Wilson (only one so far)
- BoJack Horseman (first 3 seasons)
- Big Mouth (season 4)
- Archer (seasons 8-10)
Drama:
- Ozark (all 3 seasons)
- Succession (both seasons)
- The Expanse (first 3 seasons)
- Raised By Wolves
Late-night-weirdness:
- The Mighty Boosh (all 3 seasons)
- The Brak Show
- Space Ghost Coast To Coast
- Love, Death & Robots
- The Midnight Gospel
- Solar Opposites
Reality:
many HGTV home makeover shows, especially
New Favorite Guilty Pleasure:
Ed had his gall bladder removed in December. While he recovered in the hospital, I spent daylight hours with him and came home at night to sleep. When I would get home from the hospital, my brain was fried and I wanted to unwind with some unchallenging television. It was a Sunday night and I turned on MeTV and there it was.
Why do I love it:
- Peter Falk is delightful.
- The nostalgia of the 70’s decor, lots of green, brown, yellow, and orange.
- It’s slow TV. If he’s gotta make a call, you will see him dialing a phone, waiting, having the conversation, walking away. Today that shot would have lasted 3 seconds and had 5 edits in it.
Television used to have all the time in the world. pic.twitter.com/lmftZPlCmU
— John Levenstein (@johnlevenstein) January 2, 2021
And I found I wasn’t alone in succumbing to its charms.
The Quarantine Stream: I Just Want to Take a Year Off From Everything and Watch ‘Columbo’
How Columbo Became an Unlikely Quarantine Hit
Favorite Stand-Up Comedy
- Maria Bamford - Weakness Is the Brand
- Patton Oswalt - I Love Everything
- Eric Andre - Legalize Everything
- Hannibal Buress - Miami Nights
- Sam Jay - 3 in the Morning
- Tim Heidecker - An Evening With Tim Heidecker
My Music Obsessions of 2020
I had one and only one music deep-dive in 2020: Genesis.
When the pandemic hit, the band put up a bunch of concerts on YouTube. I watched them all and it sparked a deep-dive.
I already knew and loved the band’s 80’s post-Peter Gabriel output, and decided to plunge into the prog-rock 70’s years. Found myself loving it! Keyboardist Tony Banks is the engine that powers the group.
I went crazy and added 12 live albums (official and bootleg) to my Genesis collection.
Also did a full listening to all Peter Gabriel albums, and all Phil Collins albums. (Sorry, Mike + the Mechanics, you didn’t make the cut.)
Here’s the “Duke Suite” performed live at the Lyceum Theatre in London in May 1980.
Books read:
- Not Dead Yet by Phil Collins
- The Living Years by Mike Rutherford
- I Want My MTV by Marks & Tannenbaum
- The Beautiful Ones by Prince
- Comedy Sex God by Pete Holmes
See all my year-end wraps here:
https://www.joeljambon.com/tagged/yearendwrap
Thanks for stopping by!
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