2021 status board: year in review
hey, you.
i miss writing here and so i'm going to try to send, oh, something more than once a year going forward. i figured the best way to set that intention is to wrap up 2021 with a year in review, since there's been both a lot and a lot of nothing happening. looking at previous status boards and annual summaries feel like a portal to another time: did i ever do so much? will that kind of forward momentum ever return? do i want it to? regardless, 2021 sucked. i mean, my vegetable garden was stunning. but shit has just been continually hard. truly my saving grace in 2021 was culture consumption: the movies, music, playlists, books, and articles i passed the time with. so, this is a newsletter mostly dedicated to that.
but first, a selfie a month 2021:
SOUND + VISION
1. Film
have you heard the good word about letterboxd, or do you not live with me? maybe one day i'll write about how this app feels like the future of online community and social media, but until then, i'll just say it's a nifty way to track your movie watching. for me, though? i'm really into stats and lists, so i spent so many late nights in 2021 rating every movie that i'd ever seen; once i caught up, then i made lists of my own. it's been so nice to play in a little virtual film-lovers space. and i watched so much good shit this year: movies from all over that give me honest-to-god hope in the future of creatives and storytelling. (will fully chat your ear off about every five-star title below.)
2. Music
i made this year's Best Songs of 2021 (previous years' BestOf playlists here: 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020), has my favorite tracks released in 2021, though i didn't overthink 2021 tracks as much as i have for previous years. this is in part because i listened to a lot less new music; most of my music consumption was during writing time or trying hard to relax/sleep. a few standout faves (both new and old) otherwise: lucy dacus, ludovico einaudi, hurray for the riff raff, and the perfect chaotic and sad beauty of neil young's on the beach LP.
still, i love Spotify Wrapped stats for the, uh, uncool realism:
(well. if you haven't heard ^^ this banger, please immediately listen, because i'm banned from playing it for at least the month of january).
3. Words
books i read in 2021
The Yellow House - Sarah M Broom*
Solutions and Other Problems - Allie Broush
Circe - Madeline Miller
Cantoras - Carolina De Robertis
Specimen Days - Michael Cunningham
Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative - Jane Alison
Jazz - Toni Morrison (reread)*
Consider The Oyster - M.F.K Fisher*
The Immortalists - Chloe Benjamin
The Hours - Michael Cunningham (reread)
Katrina: A History - Andy Horowitz*
A Coney Island of the Mind - Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Conflict Is Not Abuse - Sarah Schulman
The Thing About Florida - Tyler Gillespie
Some of the Times - Gina Meyers
Member of the Wedding - Carson McCullers
California Crazy & Beyond Roadside Vernacular Architecture - Jim Heimann
Peter Max - L.D Black
A Thousand Acres - Jane Smiley
Cave Dweller - Dorothy Allison
Misfits - Michaela Coel
The Recent East - Thomas Grattan
Craft in the Real World - Matthew Salesses
Flesh & Blood - Michael Cunningham (reread)*
Home At the End of the World - Michael Cunningham*
Tinderbox - Robert Fieseler (reread)
Housekeeping - Marilynne Robinson* (reread)
Maus - Art Spiegelman
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma - Bessel Van Der Kolk
The Complete Persepolis - Marjane Satrapi
A Lesson Before Dying - Ernest J. Gaines
Ask Me About My Uterus: A Quest to Make Doctors Believe in Women's Pain - Abby Norman
* = faves
Literary Magazines / Anthologies / Serials
Gulf Coast Issues 33.2, 33.1, 32.2
McSweeneys Issues 55, 56, 62
Hobart Issues 9, 15
The Nib: Animals, Power, Secrets, Be Gay Do Comics
Bright Wall/Dark Room (online)
Newsletters I Love
Alicia Kennedy - From The Desk of Alicia Kennedy
Anne Helen Peterson - Culture Study
2021 in numbers
# of dogs fostered: 1
# of houseplants: ~41 (but 3 are on life support)
# of doctor's appointments: 49
# pieces of writing published: 31
# freelance clients: 4
# of books read: 43
# of movies watched: 329
# hours spent watching them: 591
# of minutes spent streaming music: 93,921
# nights spent in Portland: 306
# nights spent in Palm Springs: 34
# nights spent elsewhere: 24
my MVPs of 2021
zephyr, c., vaccines, roller skating, shakshuka, heating pads, DreamWidth, movie theaters, the sou'wester, Ranch pizza, overalls, velour, tea, westerns, baths, Submittable, chewing gum, Peloton, you're wrong about, indoor plants, egg cups, meal prep, California, opening and closing the curtains.
Personal Update
my health has been at the forefront of my mind, and not just because we're all continually trying to stay alive during a plague. this year my dentist told me that, since i've gone this many decades without a cavity, that i'll likely never have one, and that--and i quote--my spit will continue to harden and protect my teeth until the end of time. so, cool? and while the bones in my face are doing great and so are my boring 20/20 eyeballs, the rest of my body has other plans. i spent more than half of 2021 in chronic pain and i do not recommend it. while this year in review list is full of content consumption, and yes a lot of that was indeed joyous, it's impossible to separate out my hundreds of hours on streaming services or reading books in bed from the physical realities of my body giving me no choice in the matter.
anyway. not to bury the lede, but i'm having surgery in a couple weeks and will be on bedrest for a while both before and after. if you're up for it, i'm soliciting correspondence via snail mail or SMS or good energy vibes, basically anytime after the 17th. regardless, i'll see y'all on the flipside with a less chronically ill body and zero embarrassing stories about harassing surgeons and/or anesthesiologists...at least, fingers crossed. i guess we'll have to wait and see.
here's to 2022. i hope much prosperity, health, and is en route to you.
in with the new,
xo
rhienna