Best of 2024
I know I’m not alone in feeling like 2024 was an impossibly wild ride. Between starting a new job at the Times, dealing with illnesses within my family, taking on too much freelance stuff, trying not to neglect my own creative work, and simply not losing my mind due to the presidential race, the entirety of 2024 feels like one long sustained anxiety attack. Still, as I sit here and think about it, I feel remarkably blessed when thinking back on all the great things that happened this year. I made new friends, spent time with people I love, Josh and I got to travel, and I turned 50 while soaking in a hot spring next to a volcano in Costa Rica. Here’s to a happy, healthy 2025, no matter what the world has in store.
And here are a few things that I loved in 2024…
MUSIC
Waxahatchee - Tigers Blood
Floating points - Cascade
Kim Deal - Nobody Loves You More
Charlie xcx - Brat
Kacey Musgraves - Deeper Well
Belong - Realistic IX
The Cure - Songs of a Lost World
Kim Gordon - The Collective
Gossip - Real Power
Jessica Pratt - Here in the Pitch
MJ Lenderman - Manning Fireworks
Helado Negro - Phasor
Charly Bliss - Forever
Real Estate - Daniel
Cindy Lee - Diamond Jubilee
Alan Sparhawk - White Roses, My God
MOVIES
Anora
Here
I Saw the TV Glow
Furiosa
Challengers
Thelma
Infested
Late Night with the Devil
Goodbye Horses: The Many Lives of Q. Lazzarus
BOOKS
Havoc - Christopher Bollen
Stand in My Window - LaTonya Yvette
Scattered Snows, To The North (poems) - Carl Phillips
Creation Lake - Rachel Kushner
A Film in Which I Play Everyone (Poems) - Mary Jo Bang
The God of the Woods - Liz Moore
I Was The Girl: Art by Vicky West
Bluff (poems) - Danez Smith
NUL (art, music, words) - Matteah Baim
A Year of Last Things (poems) - Michael Ondaatje
You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World - edited by Ada Limon
Health and Safety - Emily Witt
Soon and Wholly (Poems) - Idra Novey
SHOWS
ELO at Madison Square Garden
Slowdive at Brooklyn Paramount
Madonna at Madison Square Garden
Justin Vivian Bond at Joe’s Pub
Cat Power at Carnegie Hall
Sarah McLachlan at Radio City
Cats: The Jellicle Ball at Perelman Performing Arts Center
Rolling Stones at NRG Stadium, Houston
Sandra Bernhard at Joe’s Pub (a New Year’s Eve tradition)
THINGS
Turning 50 in Costa Rica, surrounded by birds and sloths
Celebrating 14 years together with Josh (two of them as a married couple)
Settling into my Editorial Director role at TBrand at The New York Times
Continuing to collaborate on Dossier – and seeing a print version come to life
Reconnecting with old friends, disconnecting from others
Having two nieces to shower with weird gifts, seeing my sister be a great mom
Doing a Q&A with Beth Ditto in front of a live audience for the Grammy Museum
Traveling to Jamaica, Mexico, and Costa Rica
Devoting an entire closet in our apartment to the hoarding of expensive candles
The signature Santal candles for sale at all Arlo Hotels
Staycations in the city
Stress knitting and yarn buying
Hue lighting in every room of the apartment
Horror movie recommendations on Letterbox
The abundance of new Target stores across Manhattan
Writing letters and sending cards (and receiving them)
Expensive Japanese ink pens from the stationary section of McNally Jackson