Hi, hello!
I wanted to share my end-of-year thoughts and recap a bit sooner than February, but whatever — January was a real slog, like finding a slug in your shoe.
🔮 Scroll to the end for 2023 predictions
Or keep reading to get the juicy bits from 2022, and then get the predications.
🍕 Fam and work
My daughter turned one year old just 18 days after my 40th birthday. As I continue to explore feelings and issues I have around aging (ughhhh), I also feel just damn privileged to watch this baby grow to be a toddler — first foods, first steps, first words, first birthday. It’s been incredible. In 2022, I fell in love with my daughter.
And I would be completely lost without my wife, the love of my life, and the mother of our child — thank you, baby. I love you.
It’s been wild living in our little box in Brooklyn and raising this child. I wouldn’t change anything. And as we step and trip on each other, I gotta say I’m real happy I could carve out a little office in the back storage room.
On the topic of work, I’m now beginning my third year at Blend as a Copywriter and Content Marketer. It’s been a bumpy ride this year, including layoffs. I’m optimistic and excited for what 2023 will bring our way.
Also, I published a few freelance articles last year, namely, a showcase of Brooklyn artists and an interview with an old friend, now ex-pat about “How Can Virtual Spaces Make Art More Accessible?” for my alma mater alumni magazine, Prattfolio.
Then, in November I went out to San Francisco for a Blend’s marketing team on-site at the company offices, which was absolutely the most corporate thing I’ve ever done. But I liked it?
🌯 Also, who doesn’t love San Francisco?
City Lights, de Young Museum, Castro, Chinatown — next time you’re there: HOT JOHNNIES for the best pastrami I’ve ever had in my entire life, and Palm City for hoagies and organic wine. Ya know, if you’re into that sort of thing.
In 2022, the fam and I also visited upstate New York with my parents, now grandparents, which was lovely — DIA Beacon, Great Barrington, Bash Bish Falls… We were lucky to then visit my folks out in Seattle in August, which is always beautiful. Also last summer, on the other coast, in Martha’s Vineyard, Jenna and I and our friend Lara jumped off the “Jaws Bridge”, cycled to farm stands, and enjoyed outdoor showers every morning.
But my big trip of the year was also a trip of a lifetime. For as long as I can remember I’ve wanted to visit the Pyramids of Giza. And this year I made it happen. My friend Evan and I took two weeks and visited Morocco and Egypt. The inexplicable nature of the pyramids is truly awesome and something to behold, if you can ignore the touts and tourists. Also, Cairo is a city of 20 million and just as loud and chaotic and surreal as you’d expect.
Not to mention Marrakesh, the Red City, where we ate camel burgers in the Kasbah, explored the ruins of El Badi Palace, and wrestled with snake charmers in Jemaa el-Fnaa (pic #8)… AMA if you wanna hear more but I will say that I benefited from working hard to connect with friends of friends of friends for local recommendations and introductions, which is how we found our guide to Giza. Hi, Sahal!
🥯 Some art and a couple books
I tried to read a few books on Egypt and Morocco before the trip — Modern Egypt : What Everyone Needs to Know and Cairo by André Raymond — but unfortunately, I don’t think I actually finished a book in 2022? Maybe Atomic Habits but I think that was 2021. (rimshot) I started and stopped a few books that I genuinely liked though!
And tbh I don’t remember making it to see a lot of art this year. :( I already mentioned the DIA Beacon, which was wonderful — Michael Heizer’s North, East, South, West (1967/2002) is worth the visit.
I did see The Whitney Biennial. And I liked a lot of what I saw. But also so much of it was super sad, like really sad. :( :( :( Refugees. COVID deaths. The for-profit U.S. prison system. What I did really enjoy was the work by Rose Salane, 64,000 Attempts at Circulation — a meticulously cataloged collection of 64,000 coins or “slugs,” tokens that mimic the shape and weight of legal tender used by commuters to pay for bus fare.
Oh! I took Marigold, a mere babe in arms, to see No gods only flowers by Poncili Creación — “a visual poem enacted by larger-than-life puppets suspended from aerial lifts high above the Courtyard, with live musical accompaniment” — in a crowd of artistic-minded folks in a gravel courtyard with my baby daughter who is wide eyed and tracking every movement of the puppets — she was scared, but brave.
And I really enjoyed the video art in the elevators at The Standard in Chelsea, at the High Line. Afterwards I learned it’s a work called “Civilization,” by the artist Marco Brambilla and inspired by Dante’s Inferno. As the elevator ascends/descends, the video travels up or down this psychedelic Hollywood tableau collage of Mount Purgatory. I fucking loved it.
🍫 Mdou Moctar at the Music Hall of Williamsburg
In full transparency, Mdou Moctar played the MOHW back in September of 2021 but I don’t care that show was special — an acoustic set kicked things off and when the band returned to the stage for their electric set the crowd was well-primed and ready to go. Some shows have a palpable energy, right? Everyone is tuned in, the band is super synced up, and it’s all just one collective vibe. So good.
Also Phish, man. Hopefully you were braced for the Phish section in this newsletter — I saw a lot of Phish last year. Three nights on the beach in Atlantic City was a big highlight and I saw my first show at Bethel Woods, a beautiful and spacious grassy lawn infused and ingrained with the vibrations still resonating from a little concert held nearby and long ago on a dairy farm owned by Max Yasgur. It was magical, man.
This year is the 25th anniversary of my first show (thanks, moms!) and I still love everything about this band so damn much it’s kinda dumb. Also moms would be bummed if I didn’t plug my book: 100 Things Phish Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die. Just email if you want a copy. Makes a great gift!
🌶️ Top 10 albums of 2022
Idk I keep changing it — this is today’s list:
Wet Leg — Wet Leg
Toro y Moi — MAHAL
Say She She — PRISM
The Smile — A Light for Attracting Attention
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard — Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms And Lava
Sault — Untitled (God)
Ibibio Sound Machine — Electricity
Mdou Moctar — Afrique Victime
Beach House — Once Twice Melody
Animal Collective — Time Skiffs
🍿 Best movies?
The best movie I saw last year and the best I’ve seen since 2019’s Parasite was Jordan Peele’s Nope. To put it bluntly, this film is a masterpiece and a brilliantly crafted snapshot of our time. The magic of the film lies in that thin line Peele treads between reality and allegory, comedy and parable. I could go on.
Of course, I loved Everything Everywhere All At Once. Everyone loved Everything Everywhere All At Once. Une pièce de résistance. If I had an Amazon wish list or whatever I’d add the hotdog gloves from A24 — wink wink.
What else? I really liked “Winning Time” with all its fourth wall breakdowns and direct to camera dialogue. “Stranger Things” was awesome. Woodstock ‘99 terrified me but wow, what a moment so well-captured in a short documentary. And the latest “Rick and Morty” is smart and hilarious, as always.
Lastly, I’m not ashamed to share my love for Yellowstone, what has been jokingly called “The MAGA Sopranos.” And be that as it may, I love that goddamn show.
🍇 2023 2023 2023 2023 2023
And now here are Andy’s five whacky predictions for 2023 aka the intersection of vibes I’m picking up and vibes I’m putting down. No promises!
Sleepovers
Platonic, all-night hang sesh with games and stories
Everyone sleeps in the same room on couches and in sleeping bags
Chocolate bars. Like, establishments.
Everyone’s sober, open up some chocolate bars
Tasting plates, pairings, whatever
Virtual cooking parties
Cook with your friends while at home
Recipe sharing, accountability, like a book club
Salons
Parties with a higher purpose
Like, PechaKucha? Invite me pls
Trains
Flying sucks, take a train
If you can go slow, go slow
🥪 Thank you for reading
I really appreciate you. And I’m always open to feedback.
Or just reach out to say hi. You can reply to this email.
I’d love to hear from you.
Andy