2022 list from angelina capodanno

Top ten parks I visited in 2022. 

10. Central Park, Manhattan. 
I pretty much only come here now to run races or see concerts, which is a shame, because it is such a gem. Whatever you might want to do, it is here. I ran the last 10 miles of the NYC marathon a week before I ran the marathon, and the energy inside the park and at the finish line area was like no other I have ever felt. It gave me a sense of belonging in a city of millions. 

9. Grant Park, Chicago. 
Seriously Chicago, how lucky are you to have this incredible park right smack in the middle of the Loop. The Bean, Buckingham Fountain, and Millennium Park all inside…I’m sure that is just scratching the surface. 

8. Al Buehler Cross Country Trail, Durham, NC. 
I don’t know if this is technically a park, but it’s Duke University’s cross country course loop around a golf course and it’s my favorite place to run in Durham. The trail is shaded and in certain months you are running on pine needles. Lots of bird watching and great mushroom viewing. A word of warning, watch out below, snakes have been spotted. 

Photo: Angelina Capodanno

7. Madison Square Park, Manhattan. 
My office is right next to this park, for which I am thankful. The flowers are incredible all year round. I love to eat lunch on a bench and people watch and just catch my breath there on the way to or from work. 

6. Palace Park, Oslo. 
Lovely park surrounding the Royal Palace in Oslo. There is a Sculpture Park within, with sculptures made by Norwegian children, for children, and specially chosen by the princess. They show the sketches the children made next to the finished sculptures, it’s wild. 

5. Volkspark, Friedrichshain, Berlin. 
Magical little park near Mitte in Berlin with lots of sculptures + paths.

Photo: Angelina Capodanno

4. Camel’s Back Park + Reserve, Boise. 
The landscape is so different out west. These hills and trails were quite steep and dramatic. Great views of the town of Boise below. 

Photo: Angelina Capodanno

3. Stadtpark, Hamburg. 
Urban Park with huge lake in the middle, lovely bridges, great running paths. Bonus points for lots of water fountains and public bathrooms. 

Photo: Angelina Capodanno

2. Frognerparken, Oslo. 
Drop dead gorgeous park that within it resides, Vigeland Sculpture Park. Vigeland has more than 200 sculptures by Norwegian artist Gustav Vigeland. Some are grand in scale. 

Photo: Angelina Capodanno

1. Prospect Park, Brooklyn. 
My backyard park. It’s not a stretch to say I spend hundreds of hours here a year: running, walking, seeing concerts, bird watching, eating + drinking, just cutting through. You can get lost there, but it’s manageable size. I’ve lived here so long now, that pretty much every time I go to “the park”, I’ll run into someone I know. It keeps me sane.

Photo: Angelina Capodanno

Favorite shows I saw in 2022

Spoon, Baby’s All Right Brooklyn 8/23/22

MJ Lenderman @ the Pour House Raleigh, NC 9/9/22

Destroyer, Greenspan, Hamburg Germany 9/22/22

Weird Nightmare, Baby’s All Right, Brooklyn July 28, 2022

Kiwi Jr. @ Molotow, Hamburg 9/23/22

Quasi @ Korah Shrine, Boise Idaho 3/27/22

Hand Habits, Brooklyn Made, 5/24/22

Sadurn, Baby’s All Right, 6/3/22

Cate Le Bon, Bowery Ballroom, 2/8/22

Pavement, King’s Theater 9/30/22

Stereolab, Brooklyn Steel 10/11/22

the best of 2021

Daniel Handler: Best breakfasts I had in 2021

Huevos Rancheros, Pork Store, San Francisco CA

Cream-cheese icing cake, unknown shop, Oxford UK

Kimchee fried rice, Robert’s house, Boonville CA

Leftover flank steak, fried eggs, homemade tortillas, Air BnB, Napa CA

5-minute egg, rye toast, off-season strawberries, home in SF

Peanut butter toast, my sister’s car after various ocean swims*

*most frequent

Clare Wadd’s Books I Read in 2021: the ones I loved and the ones that will stay with me
1. Dreamland, Rosa Rankin-Gee
2. I Belong Here: A Journey Along the Backbone of Britain, Anita Sethi
3. Small Pleasures, Clare Chambers
4. The Doll Factory, Elizabeth Macneal
5. My Rock ’n’ Roll Friend, Tracey Thorn
6. Skint Estate: A Memoir of Poverty, Motherhood and Survival, Cash Carraway
7. Fake Accounts, Lauren Oyler
8. The Pursuit of Love, Nancy Mitford
9. Mort Sur La Lande (Vera), Ann Cleaves/Claire Breton
10. Pirenesi, Susanna Clarke
With apologies to the boys as none of them made the cut

Photo courtesy of Beth

Beth Arzy’s Top 13 Records
The Shop Window, The State of Being Human
Lancashire Bombers, Into the Sun
Wild Billy Childish & CTMF, Where the Wild Purple Iris Grows
The Umbrellas, The Umbrellas
Massage, Still Life
Hadda Be, Another Life
Reds, Pinks and Purples, Uncommon Weather
Swansea Sound, Live at the Rum Puncheon
The Jazz Butcher, The Highest in the Land
The Catenary Wires, Birling Gap
Durand Jones & the Indications, Private Space
Chime School, Chime School
Shoestrings, Expectations
Beth plays in The Luxembourg Signal, Jetstream Pony, Lightning in a Twilight Hour 

Michael Azerrad’s Ten Best Vegetables and Fruits of 2021 
1. Snap peas 
2. Peaches 
3. Ramps 
4. Borlotti beans 
5. Corn 
6. Small russet potatoes* 
7. Heirloom tomatoes 
8. Golden Russet apples 
9. Lion’s mane mushrooms** 
10. Red Boston lettuce 
* Higher skin-to-flesh ratio 
** Yes, I know they’re technically not a vegetable or fruit.

Photo courtesy of Gilmore

Gilmore Tamny’s Chronicle of Things of Note 2021 List.
1. I started talking to myself more, drinking my coffee black, painting in earnest, eating lots of wavy potato chips, wearing eye makeup (per resolution 2021), and getting up at 5:30 a.m.
2. Turns out, I like ambient/ASMR video. There are a lot of crackling fireplaces and candles. Are the auteurs morally obligated to show responsible fire safety? I found this question more central to ethical code than I would have thought. 
3. I drank coffee and made a to-do list at about 6:00 a.m. while watching a pre-recorded video of myself drinking coffee and making a to-do list about 6:00 a.m. on youtube as part of the Non-Event TV 24-Hour Fundraiser
4. I decided I wanted to grow my hair long at least once before I croak, whether it is flattering or not. 
5. I enjoyed hearing Mero (of Desus and Mero) describe watching the Jan. 6 insurrection.  
6. My tomato plant grew and grew and grew and finally produced one single chestnut-sized tomato. 
7. Cottagecore? Hmmm.
8. I need a soap dish and discovered in resulting search I have a fairly narrow and inflexible idea of the soap dish I want. 
9. Was on the receiving end of possibly the dirtiest look someone’s ever given me. No threat, –just weary disgust. 
10. After watching and reading about secret societies in history, I tried to figure out a way to talk about secret societies without sounding credulous. Harder than I might have thought. 
11. I found a good gingerbread recipe. Works very well with substitutes to make it vegan. 
12. I discovered a friend was named after the Hawthorne story “The Old Stone Face.”
13. Learned: always close the door – car door, outside door to your building, your own apt./condo door – and lock it behind you (watch enough true crime—you’ll take my point). Stalin was involved in a bank robbery. My cat doesn’t just want me to throw any toy—but a specific toy—bouncy ball not wool ball, rattle mousekins not stuffed mousekins, etc. Hull isn’t where I thought it was. Lenin and Trotsky were Freemasons. 
14. Sciatica.
15. While practicing genuine gratitude for having a roof overhead, union job, good human friends, and cat friend, I stopped smothering my distress to death with gratitude. 
16. Miriam Toews’ book Fight Night is great. 
Gilmore Tamny lives and works and frets in Boston, MA.

Mike Slumberland: The list nobody wants… my top new jazz/jazz-adjacent records of 2021
1. Nat Birchall – Ancient Africa (Ancient Archive of Sound)
2. Tara Clerkin Trio – In Spring (World of Echo)
3. Emanative & Liz Elensky – The Volume Of The Light (Home Planet)
4. Sam Gendel – Fresh Bread (Leaving)
5. Makaya McCraven – Deciphering The Message (Blue Note)
6. Natural Information Society – Descension (Eremite)
7. Sons of Kemet – Black To The Future (Impulse!)
8. Emma-Jean Thackray – Yellow (Movementt)
9. Rosie Turton – Expansions and Transformations: Part I & II (no label)
10. Wildflower – Better Times (Tropic of Love)

Photo courtesy of Angelina

Angelina Capodanno’s 2021 lists 
(Team CF, also Sony Music / Legacy Creative +  Packaging, Brooklynite, Destroyer’s #1 fan)

My favorite 2021 albums: 
1. Hand Habits – Fun House 
2. Bachelor – Dooming Sun 
3. Cory Hanson – Pale Horse Rider 
4. Wednesday – Twin Plagues 
5. Colleen – The Tunnel and the Clearing 
6. The Mountain Movers – World What World 
7. ANIKA  – Change 
8. Dry Cleaning – New Long Leg 
9. Dummy – Mandatory Enjoyment 
10. Painted Shrines – Heaven & Holy 

Plus 13 more albums I liked a lot:
Nightshift – Zoe
The Goon Sax – Mirror II
Pip Blom – Welcome Break
Lewsberg – In Your Hands
Kiwi Jr – Cooler Returns 
Mdou Moctar – Afrique Victime
Jane Weaver – Flock
John Andrews and the Yawns – Cookbook
Caleb Landry Jones – Gadzooks Vol 1
Snapped Ankles – Forest of Your Problems
Weak Signal – Bianca
Goat Girl – On All Fours
Circuit does Yeux –io

Favorite Concerts
Yo La Tengo Hanukkah + Low + Fred Armisen @Bowery Ballroom
Yo La Tengo Hanukkah + 11th Dream Day + Joe Pera @Bowery Ballroom
Young Guv @ Cat’s Cradle Back Room
Sweeping Promises @ Cat’s Cradle Back Room
Wet Leg @ Baby’s All Right
Mdou Moctar @Motorco Music Hall

Favorite things I watched:
PEN15 
The Velvet Underground 
The Wire 
The White Lotus
Syracuse’s surprise Sweet 16 run in the 2021 NCAA tourney 
The Card Counter
Insecure
Curb Your Enthusiasm 
Breaking Bad

Favorite things I read:
But You Seemed So Happy – Kimberly Harrington
Love and Trouble – Claire Dederer
Empty: A Memoir – Susan Burton
Blow Your House Down – Gina Frangello
Somebody’s Daughter – Ashley C Ford
Sleepovers – Ashleigh Bryant Phillips
Detransition, Baby – Torrey Peters

Favorite Podcasts
The Experiment
Let’s Talk to Lucy
The Devil’s Candy: The Plot Thickens
Radiolab – Mixtape
Ali on The Run
Running Rouge 
Shattered