Things that quickened the heart (in a positive way) in 2020…
Moving Pictures
Small Axe (2020), dir. Steve McQueen—the whole series of films, really, but especially:
Mangrove
Lovers Rock
Red, White & Blue
Time (2020), dir. Garrett Bradley
King: A Filmed Record…Montgomery to Memphis (1970), dir. Ely Landau
The Murder of Fred Hampton (1971), dir. Howard Alk
American Revolution 2 (1969), dir. Howard Alk, Mike Gray & Film Group
City Hall (2020), dir. Frederick Wiseman
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019), dir. Céline Sciamma
Dark Waters (2020), dir. Todd Haynes
A Hidden Life (2020), dir. Terence Malick
Babylon Berlin (2017- ), created by Henk Handloegten, Tom Tykwer, and Achim von Borries
Aswang (2019), dir. Alyx Ayn G. Arumpac
Sister Rosetta Tharpe, “Didn’t It Rain,” Blues and Gospel Train (1964), dir. Philip Casson
The Last Dance (2020), dir. Jason Hehir
Dick Johnson is Dead (2020), dir. Kirsten Johnson
Holiday (1938), dir. George Cukor
Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin (2019), dir. Werner Herzog
Salt Fat Acid Heat (2018), dir. Caroline Suh
The Battered Bastards of Baseball (2014), dir. Chapman & Maclain Way
Idiot Prayer: Nick Cave Alone at Alexandra Palace (2020), dir. Nick Cave
Stella Cooper, Evan Hill, Dmitriy Khavin, Arielle Ray and Drew Jordan, “‘I Am On Your Side’: How the Police Gave Armed Groups a Pass in 2020,” The New York Times, November 2, 2020
Sounds
Super Mama Djombo, Festival (Kindred Spirits)
sample track: “Festival”
Various Artists, Let’s Go Riding (Origin)
sample track: Mr Freddie, “Let’s Go Riding”
The Revolutionaries, “Kunta Kinte Version One”
Toots & the Maytals, “54-46 (That’s My Number)”
Various Artists, Really! The Country Blues, 1927-1933 (Origin)
Various Artists, Excavated Shellac (Dust-to-Digital)
sample track: Miyagi Michio, Yoshida Kyoto, and Miyagi Sayoko, “Sakura Variations, pt. 2”
Khruangbin, Mordechai (Dead Oceans)
Khruangbin & Leon Bridges, “Texas Sun”
Tidiane Thiam, Siftorde (Sahel Sounds)
sample track: “Dannibe”
Destroyer, Have We Met (Merge)
sample track: “It Just Doesn’t Happen”
Destroyer w/ Nap Eyes, The Opera House, Toronto, ON, March 4, 2020
Ranil, Ranil y su Conjunto Tropical (Analog Africa)
sample track: “Muévete Mi Amor”
Blind Blake, 1926-1930: ‘Bootleg Rum Dum Blues’ (Biograph)
Blind Blake, 1926-1932 (Volume Two): ‘Search Warrant Blues’ (Biograph)
Blind Blake, 1926-1929 (Volume Three): No Dough Blues (Biograph)
sample track: “Too Tight”
Mary Lattimore, Silver Ladders (Ghostly International)
sample track: “Silver Ladders”
Orchestre Super Borgou de Parakou, The Bariba Sound, 1970-1976 (Analog Africa)
Various Artists, Masters of the Blues: 1928-1940 (Historical Records)
Captain Beefheart, “Her Eyes Are a Blue Million Miles”
Endless Boogie, Basement Jam Ritual
Voz di Sanicolau, Fundo de Marê Palinha (Analog Africa)
sample track: “Fundo de Marê Palinha”
Sahara, Pure Glass (Hand Drawn Dracula)
Helena Deland, “Truth Nugget”
Bert Jansch, s/t (Superior Viaduct)
sample track: “Veronica”
Roísín Murphy, “Something More”
Fleetwood Mac, The Alternate Rumours (Warner Records)
sample track: “The Chain” (Demo)
Andy Shauf, The Neon Skyline (Arts & Crafts)
P.J. Harvey, To Bring You My Love — Demos (Island)
Aretha Franklin, Amazing Grace (Atlantic)
Adrianne Lenker, Songs (4AD)
Sister Rosetta Tharpe, “Didn’t It Rain,” Blues and Gospel Train (1964), dir. Philip Casson [see “Moving Pictures”]
Food & Drink
Elena, Montreal, QC
Canteen Creemee Company, Waitsfield, VT
Dedalus, Burlington & Stowe, VT
Hatch Chile Store, Hatch, NM, the Big Jims they shipped to us, and the Green Chile Madness that ensued
Hatch’s Fish Market, Wellfleet, MA
Oyster Blood, Montreal, QC
Taco Gordo, Burlington, VT
Heyday Farm, Cabot, VT
Flywheel Farm, Woodbury, VT
West Worcester Woodfired, Worcester, VT
mushroom season, 2020
Buffalo Mountain Co-op, Hardwick, VT
Hunger Mountain Co-op, Montpelier, VT
Plainfield Co-op, Plainfield, VT
Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant online, Berkeley, CA
Sakai Bar, Toronto, ON
Honey Road, Burlington, VT
plums!
DIY gravlax
Michelle’s Simply Beautiful Plum Cake
dish of the year: Michelle’s braised napa cabbage with Sansho pepper
James Baldwin, “Letter From a Region in My Mind,” The New Yorker, November 10, 1962
James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time
Dan Barry and Annie Correal, “The Epicenter: As winter turned to spring, the coronavirus hit a corner of Queens harder than almost anywhere else in the United States,” The New York Times, December 3, 2020
Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement (Penguin Press)
Gillian Thomas, Because of Sex: One Law, Ten Cases, and Fifty Years That Changed American Women's Lives at Work (Picador)
Jim Robbins, “The Ecology of Disease,” The New York Times, July 14, 2012
Abrahm Lustgarten, “How Climate Migration Will Reshape America: Millions Will Be Displaced. Where Will They Go?,” The New York Times Magazine, September 15, 2020 (with photographs by Meridith Kohut)
Jill Lepore, “The History of the ‘Riot’ Report: How government commissions became alibis for inaction,” The New Yorker, June 15, 2020
Toluse Olorunnipa and Griff Witte, “Born With Two Strikes: How systemic racism shaped
Floyd’s life and hobbled his ambition,” from the series “George Floyd’s America,” The Washington Post, October 8, 2020
Bruce Chatwin, In Patagonia
Thomas Mann, Death in Venice
Alec MacGillis, “The True Cost of Dollar Stores,” The New Yorker, July 6 & 13, 2020
Jeffrey Eugenides, The Virgin Suicides
Russ Buettner, Susanne Craig, and Mike McIntire, “The President’s Taxes” series, The New York Times, September 27, 2020
Isaac Chotiner, “Noam Chomsky Believes Trump Is ‘the Worst Criminal in Human History,’” The New Yorker, October 30, 2020
Toni Morrison, Beloved
George Orwell, 1984
Samin Nosrat, Salt Fat Acid Heat
Sonoko Sakai, Japanese Home Cooking: Simple Meals, Authentic Flavors (Roost Books)
Bobby Stuckey, Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson, and Meredith Erickson, Friuli Food & Wine: Frasca Cooking From Northern Italy’s Mountains, Vineyards, and Seaside (Penguin Random House)
Michelle Polzine, Baking at the 20th Century Cafe (Artisan Books)
Roseanne Cash, “The Godmother of Soul,” Oxford American, November 10, 2020
Adam Skolnick, “The Biggest Wave Surfed This Year,” The New York Times, September 22, 2020
Miscellany
Comet NEOWISE
“1619” podcast (The New York Times)
The Daily (The New York Times)
On Point w/ Meghna Chakrabarti
“This is Not An Interview: A Conversation With Yung Chang About ‘This is Not a Movie’ (2019)”
“Rabbit Hole” podcast (The New York Times)
“Wind of Change” podcast (Crooked Media)
Izzy & Ozzy
R.I.P.
George Floyd
Breonna Taylor
Ahmaud Arbery
Rayshard Brooks
John Lewis
Robert Fisk
Toots Hibbert
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
David Cornwell, a.k.a. John le Carré
Max Von Sydow
Lulu Peyraud
and too many others, an unimaginable loss