At the end of the year, we usually reflect on the big personal moments that have occurred, what has changed in our life, or even what world events defined that year. I don’t think the media we consumed is as immediately in our thoughts, but as the saying goes, you are what you eat. Years down the line you remember fondly seeing the final Harry Potter movie with friends, playing a mind-blowing game like the “Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom”, how a novel like “The Underground Railroad” changes your perspective, or the “Punisher” record you listened to on repeat.
So, here’s my 2023. My favorite pieces of content throughout the year, how I felt about them, and I hope a nice look-back for myself in future years to who I was this year based on what content I “ate”.
Books
Tomorrow And Tomorrow And Tomorrow – Gabrielle Zevin
Video games can mean so much to people with the ability to touch, inspire, support, provide social outlets, and entertain. When I was a kid, I was recovering from being hit by a car when family, friends, and the hospital brought SNES, Sega Genesis, and GameBoy consoles to help me through my recovery which started my love for gaming. Similarly, one of the main characters was in a car accident that defined his life and met his best friend in the hospital sharing SNES games together. The whole setup was very personal for me.
Even if you aren’t a gamer, the personal story of 3 friends growing up is very relatable and beautifully told. “True collaborators in life are rare” and this is a story about partnership, finding people to connect with and build your dreams with. They found a game studio, in a throughline very similar to old tales like Carmac/Romero developing Doom, but their lives are the focus. There’s loss, relationship abuse, depression, while also great friendship, love, growth and I feel like the author must’ve shared many of these experiences to write about them in such a real manner. I think the connections, stories would be resonant for everyone, but the ties to my own personal life make this a very personally meaningful story.
The Way of Kings – Brandon Sanderson
This book is ridiculously good. The scale and ambition is incredible (book 1 of a 10-book series is 1250 pages), and wouldn’t be possible if Sanderson wasn’t such a prolific writer. The world he’s created with natural feeling races/cultures, history, mythology, philosophies, great characters, interesting conflict, gods/magic systems is a wonder.
I waited a while to start this series because of the investment, but it was worth it, and this kick-started my year when I devoured this and the 2nd book in early January. As we enter 2024, my body is ready for books 3+4.
The Ride of A lifetime – Bob Iger
How can you read this and not love Bob Iger? The business and life lessons in the book are great examples of leadership as well as an interesting look into the transformation of Disney this century. He speaks a lot about the importance of trust, honesty, and integrity in business and relationships, and that leaders need to have the courage to take risks, and a vision of what a better tomorrow can be.
I listened to this audiobook with my partner Mary (a massive Disney fan) while on one of our many road-trips which makes this a core memory. Let’s just say I liked the book enough to immediately buy Disney stock (which I sold a week later when I looked at it rationally). There were a lot of other great books and memories from this year which you can find at my goodreads below:
Movies
BarbenHeimer
I’m not saying either of these were my favorite movies of the year (they weren’t), but it was a perfect day in July to dress up for a Saturday double-feature. It was a cinema moment you’d gather your friends like seeing a new Star Wars or Lord of the Rings. Barbie feels right out of the 80s (“Mannequin”?), the cast/crew clearly had a ton of fun, and the musical moments are great. Oppenheimer, on the other hand, was an interesting exploration of the morality of war, new technology, and the political scheming for power. I think both movies had issues, but it was a great moment in time.
The Iron Claw
Wow, Zac Efron. This absolutely should’ve received some Oscar nominations, in particular for Best Actor. It’s a biopic following a family of 4 brothers who followed in their father’s footsteps as professional wrestlers in the 80s during the rapid growth of the sport. What follows is [spoilers] a brutally heartbreaking tragedy that I still find hard to believe after seeing. Zac Efron’s performance has a subtle, very human portrayal of emotions, often quiet and devastating while trying to meet his father’s lofty expectations and care for his younger brothers.
Godzilla: Minus One
I was pretty excited going in based on reviews I’d heard from people, but this was surprising. It feels like an old movie (partially due to the only $15M budget they’re working with) and is campy at times, but the message in the story is great when it gets going. After the first 1/2 hr, I was not expecting that I’d be crying by the end of the movie. Seeing the Japanese perspective of post-WW2, the trauma from the war, and then add a monster flick that’s part original Godzilla, part Jaws was great.
Video Games
Alan Wake 2
I’m still early in my play-through, but the story-telling and atmosphere are perfect so far so this is definitely my favorite game to come out of the past year. You start as an FBI agent investigating a murder by a demonic cult but the layers of the story add on quickly as you follow an author who’s writing said murder mystery while trying to escape from his own demons in an upside down version of reality. Perfectly executed, written and shot like a great film thriller, I’m excited to see where this keeps going.
Baldur’s Gate 3
I love Dungeons and Dragons, but I’ve never gotten more than a couple sessions into a campaign with anyone. Creating your character and discovering a fantasy world with your friends is a blast, and BG3 lets you do that but makes it easy. Jumping on Discord with your friend group laughing your way through a campaign is a great time and BG3 just gets every element right to enable that. I’m playing a Bard and while I’m pretty terrible when it comes to any fighting, I’ll merrily play my lute and cheer on the warriors and wizards of my party while they do the heavy lifting. Great job, guys!
Final Fantasy XVI / Spiderman 2
I’m cheating in this category because there’s too many games I want to talk about. Both of these were major action set-pieces that I spent a lot of time playing. Final Fantasy is nostalgic for the earlier games in the series I grew up with and the epic story of kingdoms at war with human stories of the oppression of groups of people had me hooked from the get-go. While Spiderman built on the great mold of the first game with more amazing characters. My favorite moments in Spiderman are when you’re just talking with friends as Peter Parker/Miles Morales, learning about real figures in black music history in NYC, or experiencing what a day in the life of a deaf character is like.
Music
Endless Summer Vacation – Miley Cyrus
Wow, this would not have been at the top of my list a year ago, but a year before this album released I hadn’t been dating my best friend and soon-to-be wife. “Flowers” is the song of the year for me and when Mary moved in in January it was the song we most listened (and danced) to for the first half of the year. A few of the songs feel weaker to be a great cohesive album, but when Miley hits, she hits. Her powerful voice, cutting lyrics, and blending of genres produces great music that’s just fun.
SOS – SZA
“Kill Bill” was one of my favorite movies growing up and is my 2nd favorite song of the year – it’s funky, moving, catchy, everything. The dream-like progression, emotional lyrics starting with the opening angelic choir, then mixing in guitar, strings, electronic music is relaxing on repeat. It’s not an easily labeled album despite winning for hip-hop/R&B; most of the music actually reminds me more of indie folk music like Phoebe Bridgers (below, and who collab’ed on one song) while blending multiple genres. Now, I’m going to listen to some more.
The Record – BoyGenius
Phoebe Bridgers’ “Punisher” was easily my most played album of 2022, and Boygenius gave me all the folk, female vocalist, rock vibes I needed. I’m a fan each of Bridgers, Julien Baker, and Lucy Dacus and I could listen to this album non-stop. While the music isn’t as hard hitting or rocky as some of Bridgers or Dacus’ best, songs like “Not Strong Enough” and “Cool About It” are a great example of each of their vocals and moving guitar riffs.
Other
Chess World Championship 2023
Magnus abdicates! When Magnus Carlsen decided not to play for the World Championship he opened the door for Ding Liren to challenge Ian Nepomniachtchi for the title. The result was an incredible match that went a brutal 14 games (each one is 3 hrs+) and then was decided in tiebreaks. Both were incredible competitors and in the end Ding Liren is the World Champion. The emotion from Ian is heartbreaking to watch when he realizes he’s lost (11:30 below). Events like this are why I love chess.
Suits
Yeah, yeah, yeah… I was watching Suits along with everyone else on Netflix this year. That and The Crown were the shows I binged the most with Mary. The buddy drama in NYC of a high-profile law firm (even if the cases are ridiculous) is a blast. There are definitely times when you want to yell at the characters for being absolute jerks to their friends for no reason, but hey, it’s a modern soap and I love the wild business negotiations.
Demon Slayer
I binged seasons 1-2 towards the end of 2022 ahead of the season 3 release this year. Probably the most beautiful combat animation I’ve seen, Demon Slayer just continues to deliver. Extremely colorful characters and the story arcs are hyper-fast (especially compared to One Piece which I’m still watching 1000+ episodes in).