Your 2024 Best Of's
What would you recommend to get stuck in to from the past year?
In a normal year, I’d have plenty of artistic and cultural experiences to look back on, share thoughts on, and recommend.
However, as most of you know, this year has been a little different with the arrival of my son, and whilst I’m pleased that I’ve still managed to see and go to a few things, I’d love to hear some recommendations from you lovely folks, that I can try to catch up on in the coming weeks and months.
I’m thinking films especially, but I’d love to hear your music, reading, theatre, exhibition, TV and podcast recommendations from the year just gone. And, of course, if there are any other Substack pages you’d recommend, please include those too.
Shortly before our son was born, we managed to catch Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days at the cinema. I’m a sucker for slow cinema, especially foreign-language films, but this was right up there as one of my favourites. Heartwarming, unhurried, and poignant, with a brilliant performance by Kōji Yakusho. Perfect.
March also saw the release of Opus - a final performance from the late, great pianist & composer Ryuichi Sakamoto. Filmed just weeks before his passing, it’s a profound, captivating, simple gift to the world.
Please do leave a comment with your recommendations of things you loved during 2024.
Happy New Year!
I've got into Jacob Collier this year (via my son), and some of his interviews on his creative process in Logic, and his views on harmony and performance. This video is for one of his songs called little blue:
https://youtu.be/M-Ii2_GgdRs?si=5AeJFqdlWxAYUYL0
I found the description of his process the most interesting..
I went to see him in Manchester and it was a unique and very enjoyable experience.
I've been reading about trying to get better habits, and many people recommended the Atomic habits book, which I'm about 1/2 way through. https://amzn.eu/d/5hqZJs6
I've also been refining my task management system which I need to help me keep organised. It's based on Getting Things Done, the book by David Allen which I do recommend if you've not read it. I use some iOS software called Omnifocus to implement my system, which just about keeps my head above water.
In terms of listening, I've been enjoying re-listening to some classic Miles Davis as i'm working through a piano book on Jazz improv, and focusing on really listening and practicing some drone improvs. I suspect your tastes are much broader than mine!
I'm trying to get into some more classical piano, but I've not really found anything that I can really get lost in, but that I can play yet, so if you've got any ideas on that front then let me know?
I've also been on a bit of a battle with social media, having found Facebook a bit invasive, Instagram a bit annoying and Twitter / X impossible. So, I make a rediscovery of Reddit which I believe is growing. I subscribed to the r/piano sub and a few other things, and I'm finding that it's not annoying me as much as I thought, and I've started to venture a few opinions rather than just reading, so perhaps worth a look there.
I love Loma’s album, How Will I Live Without A Body (sadly they didn’t tour it); Arooj Aftab’s Night Reign (performance at Project House was awesome - she did one piece on Jools’ Later: https://youtu.be/xC-32-Q720k)… also really like Dawes’ album, Oh Brother. GoGo Penguin continue to delight, and they also put in a fabulous show at Project House; Julian Lage at the Brudenell was awesome. His solo guitar show was a real highlight (his final piece was uploaded on to YouTube shortly after: https://youtu.be/OxkIjyhkUHY ).