We lost so many shining stars, and in their place we got a steaming pile of orange 💩.
But there were good things. They made me smile. Maybe they’ve made you smile too, or maybe they’re new to you and will make you smile in 2017.
Music
Beyoncé Lemonade
My favorite album of the year. Lemonade is song after song of cathartic release, a story of hard love that may not be mine or yours, but is easily burrowed into.
Childish Gambino “Awaken, My Love!”
Solange A Seat at the Table
These records both have retro sounds that maybe could have come from my 70s childhood, except they could only truly exist in 2016. Solange is calming yet fierce, Childish Gambino sexy and smooth but rough around all the edges.
David Bowie Blackstar
It took me almost the entire year to give Bowie’s final record a full listen. I knew it was great, it had to be, but the hesitation paid off. Now I hear its voice maybe a bit more clearly, with some distance from Bowie’s death.
I have to include the bitter-sweet Seriously, written by Sara Bareilles and sung by Leslie Odom Jr. for This American Life. The imagined thoughts of our 44th president, on the eve of the election, now even more poignant and painful, this still deserves a place here.
TV
Curiously, of all the great TV this year, the one that I can’t get out of my brain is a show that I consider, well, meh 🤷🏻. I almost didn’t watch HBO’s Westworld, but in the interest of marital shared interests, I gave it a go. So maybe because it became a source of in-jokes and funny conversations about the insanity of it all, it’s included here.
Shows that I truly loved in 2016? Better Things. The Americans. Atlanta. Veep. Last Week with John Oliver. Bojack Horseman. The People Vs. OJ Simpson. The Good Place. You’re the Worst. Full Frontal with Samantha Bee. Insecure. Horace & Pete. And yeah, SNL.
These are the Twitter accounts that made me feel good this year. It’s easy to forget they exist among the trolls and president-elect. Click the links. Push their follows. (Add me too, if you like, I try to be generally positive 🤗.)
@dog_rates
@darth
@AstroKatie
@jonnysun
@maureenjohnson
@tinycarebot
@pattonoswalt
@lesdoggg
@NWSPodunk
@corybooker
@Lin_Manuel
We don’t know what the next year, the next 4 years, the next 8 or 20 years (oh hell I’ll be 73 in twenty years… ) will do to or for us. I’m escaping to Disney World in the new year. It’s a silly place and just what I need to reboot, revert, relax, and come back strong.
Find your escape. Be vigilant, resist, but don’t let the joy fall away.
Happy new year.