As in years previous, I’d like to give a rundown of the top things in culture for me in 2024. As in those previous years, this is not a list of things that were released in 2024, but things that I encountered, or finally got around to in 2024.
2024, however, was not a normal year. The entirety of the year there has been an ongoing genocide being live-streamed. I, like many of you, have watched as Israel has targeted Palestinian children, women, journalists, doctors and nurses as part of their attempt to finally push the Palestinian people off what remains of their land. I have watched as the countries of the Global North, including my country of Canada, have turned a blind-eye to the crime-of-crimes, while doing everything in their power to crack down on any voices that object. To say this cast a pall on the year would be an understatement.
Arms Embargo Now! Sanction Israel! Saoirse don Phalaistín!
Now, if you’re still reading, these are the cultural things that brought be some joy, or helped me cope in this bleak year.
Sonic Ranch by The Sloppy Boys
This year the comedy-party-rock trio The Sloppy Boys released their fourth album. In something of a twist, they eschewed their normal path of self-producing and instead, took a trip out to storied recording studio in San Antonio—the titular Sonic Ranch—and had their album produced by Money Mark.
The result is fantastic! It’s no surprise that the Boys brought the funny to every song, and the funny is amplified by the fact that their silly jokes are set to music of the highest production value.
Best enjoyed alongside the making-of film Blood Sweat and Beers directed by Robert Holguin.
Station Eleven
(book by Emily St John Mandel/miniseries by Patrick Somerville)
File this one under “finally got around to it.” The book and the miniseries begin with two simultaneous events—the sudden on-stage death of world-famous actor, and the onset of a flu pandemic that will wipe out a large portion of humanity. It then follows the post-disaster fortunes of three characters who are connected through the dead actor, while giving flashbacks to their pre-disaster lives. There’s plenty to say about these works but what struck me the most about both, but especially the novel, was their portrayals of pre-disaster (i.e., our present) reality. Without banging the reader/viewer over the head, the author/director show deeply sad, frustrated and alienated our their lives are were.
At the risk of sounding like a snob, the novel is better though. I can’t wait to read more from St John Mandel!
The Third Revolution by Murray Bookchin
Originally published in the 90s as a two-volume history of the centuries of revolution that ranged from the late middle ages into the end of the 19th century, The Third Revolution tells the stories of the great revolutions with a particular focus on popular, rather than liberal, forces. So rather than pitting Cromwell against Charles I, Washington against George II, Robespierre against Louis XVI, Bookchin highlights the Levellers, Thomas Paine, and Jean Varlet.
He later followed up his two volumes with a third—which I’m currently reading—covering the Russian Revolutions and a fourth covering the German and Spanish revolutions.
The Past Is Still Alive by Hurray For The Riff Raff
Another stellar album from Alynda Segarra, the non-binary Nuyorican singer-songwriter behind Hurray For the Riff Raff. In it they reflect on their past—old friends and lovers, hitchhiking, etc.—in maybe their most bittersweet record yet.
Kneecap (dir: Rich Peppiatt)
It’s like Twenty Four Hour Party People but its about a very current group, and the group members play themselves, and they’re pretty damn good actors. Oh, and it’s about half in Irish, and has a strong political message, and much more drugs, and Michael Fassbender’s in it. Seriously there’s no good way to describe the film Kneecap without making it sound pretty bonkers, which it is, but it works.
Whatever you do though, don’t let Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap, DJ Próvaí fool you, they may be drug-dealing ‘low-life scum’ (their words) but they have a well-defined language revitalization framework.
Anora (dir: Sean Baker)
In Notes From The Underground Dostoevsky demolishes what was a common trope of his time—the romantic hero redeeming a sex worker. Anora pulls that trope inside out. Vanya (Mark Eidelstein), a spoiled son of Russian oligarchs compulsively marries Ani (Mikey Madison), a brash Brighton Beach sex-worker. In response, Vanya’s parents send some bumbling goons after them to get an annulment. It’s funny, sexy, genuinely moving. It’s clear that Baker loves his characters even Vanya the spoiled brat is lovable in his self-awareness. Mikey Madison is a revelation, but don’t sleep on the goons.
Honourable Mentions
War and Peace (1966-67; dir: Sergei Bondarchuk)
I worked my way through the Soviet five-part 7+hr adaptation of Tolstoy’s greatest work this year. It definitely comes the closest to capturing the blend of mystical romanticism and realism that characterizes the book. Someone once remarked that, though they were subject to greater explicit political censorship, Soviet film-makers, in many ways, enjoyed greater artistic freedom than their Hollywood counterparts. This film demonstrates that.
Blood in The Machine by Brian Merchant
A history of the Luddite uprisings, with some literary analysis of English romantic/gothic literature thrown in for good measure. A perfect parable for our present tech-landscape
Paradise Built in Hell by Rebecca Solnit (2009)
Another history, this time of post-disaster communities. Solnit covers the aftermaths 1906 San Francisco earthquake,the 1917 Halifax explosion, the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, 9/11, and Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. She shows that, contrary to common image of riots, violence, and looting, the aftermaths of disasters usually involve survivors spontaneously organizing to help each other, that is until the police or military show up and start violent riots to restore order. I don’t know if I read this before or after Station Eleven but the two definitely resonate with each other
Fucked Up’s live show
This was my first time seeing them live and what a show! I didn’t expect a hardcore show to include a brief acoustic set in the middle and an extended jam session at the end, but if anyone can do it it’s them.