2024 roundup.
year's end best-of list...where does the time go!
what a year! moved to hollywood… and how!
i was going between movie theaters like a pinball machine this year. and boy, it sure is something to come out of a theater, stunned in the way only a movie can make you, and see people making a movie right outside the building. i sure do love this city.
whole lotta german new cinema, ethiopian jazz, and travel literature.
started down a lot of avenues this year that i can’t wait to explore more fully. “there are so many good things” — wings of desire, 1987
TOP FILMS:
listen i was so sad to leave my spot close to the aero but hilariously, i moved within walking distance of the los feliz theater and the egyptian. american cinematheque, you and i are in this for life it seems. i got to see elliott gould in person and my heart burst. also, as you can see below, i fell in love with wim wenders. ich liebe ihn or whatever
killers of the flower moon (2023)
the holdovers (2023)
clifford (1994)
crumb (1994)
the american friend (1977)
targets (1968)
the endless summer (1966)
rififi (1955)
high and low (1963)
black legion (1937)
paris, texas (1984)
down by law (1986)
lightning over water (1980)
tokyo-ga (1985)
TOP BOOKS:
dear friends and enemies, we had a very good literary year. scattershot overall but hit the bullseye more than i had any right to. my thanks to the los feliz library and leonardo dicaprio’s generous patronage. i learned so much about los angeles and its gruesome, sun-soaked history. i became a christopher isherwood devotee. why, i became even more enchanted with american noir. highlight of the year, undoubtedly, was going to salinas and checking out my man steinbeck’s digs.
american on purpose by craig ferguson (quite moving, actually. love him)
the way to the spring: life and death in palestine by ben ehrenreich
to walk alone in the crowd by antonio munoz molina (the most poetic prose)
slow days, fast company by eve babitz (defintive la writer. she’s got it)
eternity street: violence and justice in frontier los angeles by john mack faragher (now i know how we got our street names and boy it ain’t pretty)
playback by raymond chandler (i hadn’t read any chandler in a while and his writing sparkled and twinkled like light on the ocean waves and i was so delighted to find him again. the greatest)
the road by cormac mccarthy (“and they were each other’s entire”)
kon-tiki by thor heyerdahl (“it’s only a matter of going”)
california: a slave state by jean pfaelzer
night & fear by cornell woolrich
how to talk dirty and influence people by lenny bruce
things fall apart by chinua achebe
rabbit foot bill by helen humphreys (this was incredible and i think about it every day)
catch me if you can by frank w. abagnale jr. (this guy terrifies me. where do you get the confidence)
what makes sammy run? by budd schulberg
aftermath: life in the fallout of the third reich 1945-1955 by harald jahner
berlin stories + a single man by christopher isherwood (!!!)
idiot wind by peter kaldheim
the five wounds by kirstin valdez quade
red harvest by dashiell hammett
TOP MUSIC:
after careful consideration (a single viewing of paris, texas) i got more into country & western. saw tim hill live and felt those sounds in my soul. had thoughts of “summer in the city best song ever?” and “mulatu astatke angel” …. also am in the beginning stages of nick cave listening so buckle up boys.
hums of the lovin’ spoonful by the lovin’ spoonful
new york - addis - london: the story of ethio jazz by mulatu astatke
payador by tim hill
elementary doctor watson by merle and doc watson
music by ry cooder by ry cooder
another self portrait by bob dylan and the band
holland by the beach boys
bo diddley by bo diddley