to be sorted later #17
in which I'm still considering some lists, & the moon — it's a year-end holiday edition!
It’s the holiday season, and as such my ambition is waxing and waning, much like my energy and the moon.
You know about this recent full moon, of course?
From what I gather, it’s a doozy. This final full moon of 2024 — the Cold Moon — began on Sunday, rising in Gemini and reaching peak fullness around 4 a.m., right around the time my cat Peaches was beginning his usual early-morning reign of fuckery. It’s waning by now, much like I assume your interest in this blog post.
“Disclaimer: Astrology is not based in science. These posts are not intended to act as a directive”
So anyway: the moon is aligning with Jupiter and squaring off with Neptune and doing something with Mercury’s retrograde in Sagittarius! I have no idea what any of this means, really, except I can’t seem to get over this cold and I felt deeply overwhelmed as I sat down to build a PowerPoint presentation for work this morning.
I finished my PowerPoint slides with a terrific feeling of unwarranted accomplishment, followed by the familiar realization that it was not yet noon and I still had more work to do and meetings to join.
I’m still thinking about my year-end lists and to-dos, of course. I’ve got albums to rank! Movies to consider! We’ve made it to part two of the War & Peace epilogue, but I haven't started A Christmas Carol yet!
Am I the Grinch, or am I this goat? (Both things can be true!)
What I’m Sorting Through, Currently …
Never not thinking about Somebody Somewhere
Somebody Somewhere is a perfect television show — have you seen it? HBO canceled it, for reasons unknown and surely inexplicable, so the third season finale earlier this month was it. Please, I beg of you, watch this show. It’s hilarious and also sad and just very real and features one of my favorite fictional friendships maybe ever.
Vulture published a great profile on Bridget Everett that also gives you some backstory, if you weren’t already watching perfect TV for some reason:
Somebody Somewhere is often emotionally wrenching as it follows Sam, who moves back to her hometown of Manhattan, Kansas, grieving and feeling directionless, depressed, and unloveable. There she finds family, both the chosen, community-based kind and her own semi-estranged and complicated biological one, but Everett never wants to “force emotional gravitas. I just want everything to feel like real life, and simple, and try to avoid indicating too much.”
Exactly. As I texted my friend Beth as she was catching up on season 2:
I also shout-texted her at one point: “SHOULD WE GO TO MANHATTAN KANSAS?”
Beth doesn’t know it, yet, but she texted me something unrelated right as I was screenshotting the above exchange, and it startled me so much I nearly threw my laptop across the room.
The point is, watch Somebody Somewhere! I have no problem admitting that I rewatched in its entirety last week after watching the series finale. It was time well spent.
Revisiting a Christmas Memory, Again
A year later, this remains one of my most-popular posts (!), and as I’m only days away from heading home for Christmas and gearing up to start my annual read of Dickens, I thought I’d share it again:
“I get it. You’re taking me back in time … and I’m supposed to get all goosey and blubbery. Well forget it, pal, you’ve got the wrong guy!”
— Frank Cross, Scrooged
On Repeat
If you, too, have a long drive (or flight) ahead of you soon this holiday season, I recommend putting on “TRANSA,” a 46-song collective album that’s intended as a “spiritual journey celebrating trans people.” (Clocking in at 3 hours and 50 minutes long means a full listen will nearly get me from Logan Square to the Wilkinson-Knightstown exit!)
The many highlights include a new Sade song (!), Moses Sumney and ANOHNI covering “Is It Cold In The Water?”, and Bartees Strange covering TV on the Radio among 40-something others, but the one that really grabbed me is Sharon Van Etten and Ezra Furman covering Sinead O’Connor.
And of course, you should listen to the original while you’re at it:
Alternatively, I suppose you could listen to … Christmas music?
Happy holidays!
related:
to be sorted later #16
“I confess I’m sometimes testy, but for the most part I credit myself with an easygoing disposition, tempered (perhaps) by an exaggerated desire for independence … I pay my bills on time, obey most laws, and I feel that other people should do likewise, out of courtesy, if nothing else. I’m a purist when it comes to justice, but I’ll lie at the drop of a…
📚 My 2024 Reads
One thing I love about December: the year-end lists! Music, movies, books, TV shows! I love all the lists.
I'm a former co-worker of Jay's (knew him as a grad student, then husband, father, and esteemed colleague) and he referred me to your essay after I was searching for books and music for comfort after the election. Since then I have enjoyed your subsequent ones. In fact, I'm in the midst of thoroughly enjoying "Somebody Somewhere." I always look forward to reading your thoughts.