chickfactor 2023 lists, round three

image courtesy of Kim Baxter

Kim Baxter’s (All Girl Summer Fun Band) 
Top 10 Favorite Things About Reuniting with AGSFB in 2023


  1. The amazing feeling that occurred when the 3 of us got together and started playing music again. It was like no time had passed at all. I didn’t realize just how much I had missed playing with Jen & Kathy.
  2. Having friends come to our shows that we hadn’t seen in ages!
  3. Encountering the nicest and most helpful sound people that we have ever worked with.
  4. Jen’s contagious excitement for playing shows & recording music again, her awesome playlists & podcast selections, and her ability to drive for hours on end.
  5. Figuring out that if we rent an AirBnB with a garage, we don’t have to unload our gear each night. Our favorite new tour hack!
  6. Getting to play shows with so many awesome bands & people-Tony Molina, Mo Troper, The Softies, Growing Pains, Who Is She?, Love in Hell, Tony Jay, Kids on a Crime Spree, Rose Melberg, Lunchbox, Wifey, Field Drums.
  7. Catching up, cracking up, and built-in therapy + pep talks with Jen & Kathy at band practices and on the road.
  8. Hitting all of the health food co-ops on tour (Kathy is an expert at finding them) and being instantly transported back to the 90’s by the smell of nutritional yeast and nag champa.
  9. Sitting around in our PJs after shows and watching back-to-back episodes of Selling Sunset together (so bad, yet so good).
  10. Making plans for future shows and writing & recording new music!
Out Jan. 19!

Corin Tucker (Sleater-Kinney, Filthy Friends) 2023!!

Best Portland Thai Food – Rukdiew Cafe

Best Live Album – And the wind… MJ Lenderman

Favorite Live Show – The Cure at Corona Capital

Best sport trend – Pickle Ball

Favorite Youth Slang – LFG! (In a text, it means Let’s Fucking Go)

Great albums – Black Rainbows by Corinne Bailey Rae; The Water, The Sky by Black Belt Eagle Scout

Favorite Books – My Murder by Katie Williams and The Fraud by Zadie Smith

James McNew’s Favorite songs 2023:
Staple Singers, “The Gardener” (1970)
The Cyclones with Count Ossie, “Meditation” (1973)
Thin Lizzy, “The Friendly Ranger at Clontorf Castle” (1971)
Jimmy Flemion, “Oh Babe, What Would You Say” (2022)
Little Obsessions, “Can’t See What’s Mine” (2023)
Rob Sonic, “Mink” (2023)
Dave Edmunds, “Where Or When” (1977)
Flo and Eddie, “Keep It Warm” (1976)
Ceremony, “Your Life In France” (2015)
Yozoh, “Tommy” (2022)
The Notwist, “Sans Soleil” (2021)

Evelyn Hurley (Cotton Candy): Top fave shows of 2023

I watched a lot of good television shows this year, so in no real order, here’s a list of a few or my favorite tv shows for 2023:

Slow Horses – this TV show is on a lot of peoples “Best Of” lists and there’s a good reason for that, it’s really good! The acting and stories are super suspenseful, and it’s really funny. Highly recommend!

Rain Dogs – this is a British TV show which was really touching, even though the protagonists are somewhat unlikeable and flawed. The lead actress/writer/creator, Daisy May Cooper, is super talented, and she has another show on my list, which is called…

Am I Being Unreasonable? – this is the other Daisy May Cooper show on my list, and it’s completely different from Rain Dogs. The story is so compelling and the twist at the end had me literally screaming. Definitely watch this if you can, you will not forget it.

Schmigadoon – the second season of this show was based on the musical Chicago rather than Brigadoon, and songs are catchy, the story is clever, and the singing and acting is so good. It’s a great series, watch it if you get the chance, especially if you’re old an old theater kid like me.

Afterparty – this is also the second season of this show, and it’s really so well done with clever, jokes and great acting by everyone. I did not predict the ending at all!

Physical – this was the third and final season of the show and in my opinion it’s really one of the best TV shows I’ve seen in years. Rose Byrne is so excellent, which is saying a lot because every single actor in the show is fantastic. I can see why some people are uncomfortable with this show because it might trigger some trauma people have had with an eating disorder, but the way she portrays a working business woman in the 80’s, with all the references to exercise trends, clothing, foods, is really well done without being preachy or grating. Also, big shout out to Zooey Deschanel, whose portrayal of a zany character was so great.

Big Door Prize – the show was kind of a sleeper but I thought it was really good. Chris O’Dowd is really hilarious in an understated way, and Josh Segarra was so great as the almost-successful hockey player-has been. I still can’t really figure out what is going with the plot, show but it’s a good show!

Hijack – this Idris Elba show was so good, but it’s really suspenseful, so don’t watch it if you don’t like being stressed out.

Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields – this is an amazing documentary about Brooke Shields and how she grew up in the public eye in the 70’s & 80’s. I grew up the same time as Brooke, so all the footage of her childhood was a trip down memory lane for me, only this time I realized how incredibly exploited she was by almost everyone in her life. She handled every single man, woman, TV star, movie star, interviewer, journalist, etc… with such grace and respect, even though they were all usually acting like massive creeps. (Looking at you, Bob Hope.)It’s incredible how she turned out so well adjusted, because she seems like a really cool person.

WHAM! documentary – I’m a big George Michael & Wham! fan, and this documentary  was really well done and very sweet. It showed how incredibly talented and driven George Michael and Andrew Ridgely were. I especially loved how tormented George Michael was when he knew that his song “Last Christmas” wasn’t going to be the number one Christmas song because Band Aid would knock it off of its 1st place space, even though he was also on that song. But I especially loved the sweet friendship they had, and it makes me sad that Yog died way too young.

Sukhdev Sandhu (Photo: Gail O’Hara)

Sukhdev Sandhu (English professor, critic, event creator, and CF contributor/MC)

* Chiara Ambrosio is one of the most teeming, tireless people I know. She lives in London, is a writer and an artist and a filmmaker and a puppeteer and a publisher, and champions that which deserves championing. In this year alone: a linocut response to Yannis Ritsos’s MonochordsThe Book of Raft – a companion to an upcoming film championing cultural hubs/ holdouts in London; a wonderful event at The Horse Hospital in Bloomsbury – which featured broom-dancing children, Kurdish singing and mulled wine-enhanced wassailing deep into the December night.

* I’m not sure if Mike Rubin ever sleeps. Almost every night he ranges across New York, shows in places both lofty and busted, often attending more than one event – jazz, hip hop, soul and post-soul, mangled electronica, beats from all across the world. He documents these fastidiously, making sure musicians and performers are properly credited, and flagging them up on his crucial Instagram page. It’s a wonderful resource and, in the words of the Caught by the River magazine, ”an antidote to indifference”.

* Archive Books. These days, every bookshop, big or small, cussedly individual or corporate, deserves at least two cheers. And then there’s Archive Books in Marylebone, London. It’s hard enough to get inside, far less glide down its aisles. There’s no space – except to wonder. Its shelves tower and teeter. Edwardiana for a couple of quid. Cricketing autobiographies, collected journalism of long-forgotten Fleet Strack hacks, self-published cookery books, an Aladdin’s cave of a basement crammed with music scores. Impossible to leave, most likely hours later, without a couple of bags of unknown pleasures in hand.

* There are more famous names in food journalism, but Sheila Dillon is in a league of her own. Since the late 1980s, she’s been reporting for – and later presenting – BBC Radio 4’s The Food Programme. Week after week, with clarity and dry wit, she has kept listeners in the now about topics such as the baneful power of the big supermarket chains, the BSE scandal, the fall of Communism’s impact on Russian food systems. Never talking down, pretending to be our pal, or following critical fashions, she is a truly great broadcaster.

* I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue. If England still exists, it’s here in this BBC Radio 4 panel show that’s been running since 1972. Its first host was jazzbo Humphrey Lyttelton, about whom Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood said, “Without his direction, we’d never have recorded/ released ‘Life in a Glasshouse.” One of the programme’s quizzes – Mornington Crescent – is as recondite as any Fall lyric. Another – ‘Uxbridge English Dictionary’ – requires contestants to supply new definitions for existing terms; among those proposed in the Christmas 2024 edition were “aspic: disgusting habit”; “jacuzzi: French for ‘I blame myself'”, and “criteria: cafe for sad people”.

* Radio – live, now, happenstance – is still a thrill. My favourites are Andres Lokko on Sveriges Radio – 2pm every Sunday. Kevin Pearce-style Modernism forever! And Jack Rollo, half of Time Is Away, helming The Early Bird Show on Fridays from 7-9am. Aching folk, glassy ambient techno, worlds of echo, a hush and a huddle for everyone who’s just about made it through another week.

* Back in March, I was lucky enough to be allowed to stage a screening, the first in North America, of Being Mavis Nicholson. How I adored the Welsh TV interviewer when I was younger. So curious, warm, intelligent. She called herself “a natural gasser”. The documentary’s director Carolynn Hitt was closer to the truth: “When a conversation is good, you’re so engrossed in it, it’s like a blanket going round you both…”

* Art galleries: take them away. Too many pious shows, lumpy wall-text, the visitors samey-same. I’ve been going, more and more, to museums. More history, sense of place, modesty. More ‘there’ there. Among my favourites this year the Stadsmuseet in Stockholm, the Franziskaner Museum in Villingen (particularly the spectacularly alarming masks and colourful costumes associated with the annual Fastnacht festivities in southern Germany), and the KattenKabinet in Amsterdam Bob Meijer founded in 1990 to celebrate feline portraiture. There are sleepy cats in some of the townhouse rooms and in the garden. Everything about the place is purr-worthy.

* Monica Zetterlund and Sivuca performing together. That scarf!

* East Broadway, New York City. When you want to get away, when you want to stay, when you want to feel like you’re somewhere: East Broadway – in the autumn, Thursday afternoons, breezes and leaf-carpeted sidewalk. Stay outside, go inside – it doesn’t matter. Carol’s Bun, Ritualarium, The House of Sages. Walk your blues, walk into blue, walk off your blues.

As always: The Style Council, ‘It’s A Very Deep Sea’; Woo, ‘This Love Affair’; Kevin Ayers, ‘May I?’; Nico Fidenco, ‘Ligados’. But also: Erlend Øye & La Comitiva, ‘Mornings and Afternoons’; The Embassy, ‘Escape’; Guy Cabay, ‘Pôve Tièsse’; Romy, ‘She’s On My Mind’.

Gail O’Hara / CF editor/photographer’s ten songs stuck in my head:

The Zombies, “This Will Be Our Year”

Gene Wilder, “Pure Imagination”

“I’ve Got a Golden Ticket”

Little River Band, “Reminiscing” (because…karaoke)

Bee Gees, “How Deep Is Your Love”

Cynthia Erivo, “Alfie”

“Fairytale of New York” (because … karaoke and RIP, Shane, my old neighbor)

She and Him, “I Thought I Saw Your Face Today”

The Clientele, “Lady Gray”

All year: Connie Lovatt with Bill Callahan, “Kid”

Things I’m looking forward to: New Softies and Umbrellas albums, Heavenly and 69LS shows

Pete Paphides (Photo: Gail O)

Pete Paphides (author, critic, Needle Mythology records)

Condiment/seasoning of 2023: Vegan Smoky Bacon Nooch by Notorious Nooch Co.

Protein shake of 2023: Milk (semi-skimmed or oat), peanut butter, whey powder, one frozen banana, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, almonds. Blend. Drink. Oh my god.

Sandwich of 2023: The simple tomato sandwich. Trust me. Nothing else. Just some buttered bread and a sliced room-temperature tomato with a dash of salt.

Various artists anthology of 2023: Disco Discharge presents Box Of Sin. A four LP soundtrack to the gay clubbing experience of the 80s.

Single artist anthology of 2023: The Teardrop Explodes: The Teardrop Explodes: Culture Bunker 1978-1982

Music memoir of of 2023: Paul Simpson: Revolutionary Spirit – A Post-Punk Exorcism

Memoir of 2023: John Niven: O Brother

Most heroic, articulate and humane corrective to toxic masculinity of 2023: Caitlin Moran: What About Men?

Late to the party TV experience of 2023 (i): Better Call Saul

Late to the party TV experience of 2023 (ii): Season one of Fargo, especially Billy Bob Thornton as Lorne Malvo

Cereal of 2023: Robert Forster’s Spring Grain muesli

Football (soccer) hero of 2023: Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou in the interview after losing to Chelsea with two men sent off and refusing, on point of principle, to adjust to a defensive formation in order to avoid being pummelled by their eleven man opponents: “It’s just who we are, mate. As long as I’m here, that’s what we’re going to do. ‘Even with five men, we’ll have a go.’”

Carb replacement of 2023: Edamame spaghetti.

Gig of 2023, not including gigs by humans I had a hand in making: The Northern Soul Proms at The Royal Albert Hall; The Soup Dragons at Electric Ballroom; The Bluebells at Glasgow St Lukes

Gig of 2023, including gigs by humans I had a hand in making: Eaves Wilder’s last-minute set on the second stage at Glastonbury (replacing the also-brilliant Japanese Breakfast, who were/was stuck in transit).

Song of 2023, not including songs by humans I had a hand in making or artists whose album was released on my label: Nadine Shah: Topless Mother

Song of 2023, including songs by humans I had a hand in making: Eaves Wilder: Freefall. Literally my most played song of the year

Song of 2023, including songs by artists whose album was released on my label: Iraina Mancini: Cannonball. Or maybe this was my most played song. It’s close.

Album of 2023, including albums released on my label: Iraina Mancini: Undo The Blue.

Album of 2023, not including albums released on my label: Grian Chatten: Chaos For The Fly; Beatowls: Marma; Mitski: The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We

Exhibition of 2023: Women In Revolt!, Tate Britain

Parental pride moments of 2023: Seeing the results of Dora Paphides’ astonishing work for The Last Dinner Party’s My Lady Of Mercy, Fred Roberts’ Say and Chinchilla’s Cut You Off; Running along Brighton seafront to a Eaves Wilder’s just-released Hookey EP and thinking my heart was about burst (in an utterly wonderful way).

Inspired musical collision of 2023: John Douglas from Trashcan Sinatras on my Soho Radio show, creating a brand new acoustic accompaniment to the vocal of Stormzy’s Firebabe.

Lazarus-style return of 2023: The Bathers: Sirenesque

Label of 2023: Last Night From Glasgow

Drink of 2023: Sainsbury’s own brand peach iced tea. And you can have as much as you want because zero calories

Meet your heroes pinch-me moment of 2023: Interviewing Chrissie Hynde for Record Collector. I was told one hour. Three hours later, I left and somehow my car hadn’t been clamped or ticketed.

Best album recommended to me by one of my heroes: When I got to Chrissie Hynde’s apartment, she played me Spooky Two by Spooky Tooth. The first thing I had to do after I left was locate a copy.

Chocolate of 2023: Snacksy Raw Chocolate with Ginger

Cake of the year: McVities Jamaica Ginger Cake with Madagascan Vanilla Custard. In a teacup or mug, eaten with a teaspoon. Whilst watching Great British Bake-Off on the sofa.

Belated realisation of 2023: Boiled eggs make great hand warmers + once you’ve warmed your hands on them, you can eat them.

Record I Didn’t Realise I Most Needed In 2023: dEUS: How To Replace It

Most perplexingly ignored album of 2023: Keaton Henson: House Party

Best Instruction Given By An Artist When Telling Their Band How To Play Their Songs During The Recording Of An Album: “Just try and channel the soundtrack of Ten Things I Hate About You” – Keaton Henson

Big-hearted, perfectly judged, very very very funny movie of 2023: No Hard Feelings. Jennifer Lawrence and Andrew Barth Feldman both just utterly perfect in it.

Andrew Bulhak (music writer, DJ) Top Songs of 2023 (not necessarily in this order):
Emma Anderson – Clusters
the bv’s – warp
Hot Coppers – Hot Coppers
Jimmy Whispers – Ice Cream Truck
Lael Neale – I Am The River
Leah Senior – The Music That I Make
Pickle Darling – Kinds of Love
Slowdive – Kisses
Spearmint – tell me about my sister
Spunsugar – Metals
Strawberry Runners – Circle Circle
yeule – dazies

Borrowed from https://www.instagram.com/macsuperchunk/
Mac McCaughan (Superchunk, Merge Records): Fave Reissue / Archival Releases of 2023
Pharoah Sanders – Pharoah (Luaka Bop)
Reissue of an album by the jazz giant we lost last year that you pretty much just had to listen to on YouTube until now unless you had hundreds of dollars for an original copy. The music (incl a bonus LP of unrelease live performances) is amazing and the package includes a booklet, photographs, flyer reproductions and other ephemera.
Chin Chin – Cry In Vain (Sealed Records)
My fault for not knowing about this incredible all-girl Swiss punk group from the 80s. Amazing songs which remind me of a slightly more aggro Look Blue Go Purple. Can’t stop listening!
Milford Graves / Arthur Doyle / Hugh Glover – Children of the Forest (The Black Editions)
The Black Editions label has uncorked a flow of powerful free jazz archival releases over the last few years and this previously unreleased home-recorded by Graves performance from 1976 is essential. The world will be catching up with Milford Graves forever i think.
Masayuki Takayanagi – Mass Hysterism In Another Situation (The Black Editions)
Electric guitar destruction from ’83 and a two-guitar & drums trio led by Takayanagi. Massive.
Milford Graves / Don Pullen – The Complete Yale Concert 1966 (Corbett Vs Dempsey)
Speaking of Milford Graves, i keep trying to imagine what the audience expected / what they got when they attended this intense performance in 1966… Long out of print and lovingly put back together by the fine people at Corbett Vs Dempsey.
Arthur Russell – Picture of Bunny Rabbit (Rough Trade)
The Arthur Russell archive may be bottomless but if it’s all as listenable as what’s been excavated so far I hope they keep it coming.
Hiroshi Yoshimura – Surround (Light In The Attic)
“Environmental music” commissioned by a home builder to play in their living spaces or something like that… recorded the same year as one my favorite ambient records ever, Yoshimura’s Green LP and never reissued before, Surround is as liquid and beautiful as the sleeve suggests.
 
John Coltrane – Evenings At The Village Gate: John Coltrane with Eric Dolphy (Impulse)
 
Minor Threat – Out of Step Outtakes 7″ (Dischord)
The titles of these two releases tell you all you need to know!

our 2022 lists: round two

Mark with Evelyn in Cotton Candy (Image via Teen-Beat)

Mark Robinson (Teen-Beat Records, Cotton Candy) 

1. Rochester, New York’s abandoned subway tunnels
2. Versus / Jawbox live performance at Le Poisson Rouge, July 21 — New York, NY 
3. Katherine Small Gallery book shop — Somerville, Massachusetts
4. Death Records
5. Mickie’s Dairy Bar — Madison, Wisconsin
6. Garbage Plate at Schaller’s Drive-In — Rochester, New York
7. Gerard Unger — Life in Letters (book)
8. Folke Rabe — What?? (LP)
9. Theodore Shapiro — Severance (soundtrack album)
10. Severance (television program)

Stephin Merritt

Ten Delightful Books of 2022 (or late 2021): 
Re-Sisters, Cosey Fanny Tutti 
Shy, Mary Rodgers 
This Time Tomorrow, Emma Straub 
Lookin’ for Lawrence, Lawrence 
The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, David Graeber and David Wengrow 
Instant: The Story of Polaroid, Christopher Bonanos 
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, George Saunders 
Essays Two, Lydia Davis 
Henry ‘Chips’ Channon: The Diaries 1918–1938 and 1938–1943 

Cate Le Bon photo by Dawn Sutter Madell

Dawn Sutter Madell

Top 17 live shows I saw in ’22

Cate Le Bon Bowery Ballroom 2/9
Kim Gordon Webster Hall 3/18/22
L’Rain BAM 3/30/22
Waxahatchee George’s Majestic Lounge 4/19/22
Linda Lindas Mercury Lounge 5/1/22
Sharon Van Etten Union Pool 5/7/22
Circuit Des Yeux Greenwood Cemetery 6/7/22
Phoebe Bridgers Prospect Park 6/15
Bikini Kill Pier 17 7/9/22
Soul Glo Knockdown Center 7/10/22
Wild Hearts tour Berkeley GreekTheatre 7/31/22
Porridge Radio Bowery Ballroom 9/24/22
Broken Social Scene (esp w Tracey Ullman and Meryl Streep) Webster Hall 10/17/22
Girl Scout Handbook/Dump/Jim Ruiz/Aluminum Group Chickfactor 30 Frying Pan 10/6/22
Nnamdi Baby’s Alright 10/30/22
Wet Leg Music Hall Of Williamsburg 12/17/22
Horsegirl/Yo La Tengo Bowery Ballroom 12/22/22

Nancy at Suomenlinna

Nancy Novotny:
Top Ten Reasons I Adored My Trip To Finland (Sept. 16-Oct. 2, 2022)

1. Seeing Richard Dawson & Circle perform (most of) their collaborative LP, Henki, live at a Psych Fest in Tampere.
2. Seeing Lau Nau perform live at an intimate venue in Helsinki. Also finally working up the courage to chat with her after the show.
3. Charity Shops & Flea Markets in Helsinki, Tampere, Rovaniemi & various small towns in Northern Finland. Holy crap, they’re great!
4. The Moomin Museum in Tampere.
5. My day trip to Tallinn, especially shopping for gorgeous/weird Soviet-era books and other treasures. And the Puppet Museum!
6. The beautiful, colorful autumn leaves.
7. Long drink! (Usually grapefruit soda & gin, sold in supermarkets & at bars. Helsinki Long Drink by the Helsinki Distilling Company was my clear favorite.)
8. Seeing reindeer along the road in Northern Finland. Also NOT seeing any reindeer roadkill.
9. Vintage shops in Helsinki. Special shouts out to Mekkomania (for vintage dresses by Marimekko, Vuokko, Pia & Paula, etc.), Lanterna Magica (for vintage photographs, ephemera & books), and Caratia (for vintage Finnish jewelry, especially mid-century silver and bronze design pieces).
10. Being able to watch Moomin cartoons on TV every night. Also seeing Moomin merch for sale literally everywhere.

Nancy is a musician, a karaoke queen, a DJ who does a show called Turtles Have Short Legs on XRAY FM, Portland, OR, and a CF contributor.

Birdie (Paul Kelly on the right)

Paul Kelly (Heavenly Films, Birdie, East Village) 

Nothing to do with 2022 I’m afraid…
Top Ten Beatles Songs

1. Yes It Is
2. We Can Work It Out
3. Paperback Writer
4. Every Little Thing
5. Strawberry Fields Forever
6. Ticket To Ride
7. If I Needed Someone
8. There’s A Place
9. Fool On The Hill
10. Can’t Buy Me Love

Gail O’Hara (chickfactor / Enchanté Records)

Phone Voice, Cradle Tape
Reds, Pinks & Purples, Summer at Land’s End & They Only Wanted Your Soul
Horsegirl, Versions of Modern Performance
Marisa Anderson, Still, Here
Alvvays, Blue Rev
Flinch, Enough Is Enough
Aoife Nessa Frances, Protector
Say Sue Me, The Last Thing Left
Nina Nastasia, Riderless Horse
Sinaïve, Super 45 t.
Lande Hekt, House Without a View
Jeanines, Don’t Wait for a Sign
Artsick, Fingers Crossed
Bill Callahan, YTI​⅃​A​Ǝ​Я
Dot Dash, Madman in the Rain
The Jazz Butcher (RIP), The Highest in the Land
Seablite, “Breadcrumbs”
The Umbrellas, “Write it in the Sky” 

Old and fresh: 
Mimi Roman, First of the Brooklyn Cowgirls
Joyce with Mauricio Maestro, Natureza
Tia Blake & Her Folk Group, Folk Songs & Ballads
Dotti Holmberg, Sometimes Happy Times
Norma Tanega, I​’​m the Sky: Studio and Demo Recordings, 1964​–​1971

from @instagram/house_of_edgertor

Sukhdev Sandhu (writer, professor, CF contributor!)

House of Edgertor. Every week a lifetime ago, when she was writing reviews for the Other Music newsletter, Robin Edgerton introduced me to treasure after treasure (Pauline Oliveros, Pascal Comelade, Tricatel and Millle Plateaux labels). Still a brilliant researcher and writer, these days she discovers glorious, distinctive apparel, sleuths its backstories, sometimes fixes minor blemishes. Then she offers it to the world. Really she’s a philanthropist.

Monorail Music. It’s 20 years old! Starting things – a club, a shop. a magazine – is easy. Plunging in, all hands together, the thrill of the news, our gang forever. Keeping things going is a lot harder. Holding on, moving forward, unchanging and changing at the same time. Glasgow’s Monorail does it – and how. As Stephen Pastel writes in a lovely ‘2022 Staff Favourites’ Risograph booklet, “Twenty down, twenty to come.”

Norwegian Seamen’s Church. It’s been there, on East 52nd Street in Manhattan, for years. Still, it feels like a secret. Spare, light-suffused, a place that feels like a retreat from the world. It offers free waffles with lingonberry jam. Free coffee too. The basement has an art gallery. Everyone who works there has an open face, the gift of easy friendship.

Kommuna Lux. My favourite music venue – KuBa (short for Kulturbahnhof) in Donaueschingen – is a cafe/ bar located on a railway platform in Germany’s Black Forest. Performances are often punctuated by the sound of incoming trains. This July, Kommuna Lux came to town to play what they called Klezmer, Odessa and Gangsta Folk. Think The Men They Couldn’t Hang. The all-age crowd, many of whom hadn’t been to a show in the last couple of years, didn’t – couldn’t – forget the terrible news headlines in the Ukraine. But they also whooped, jigged, knocked back Fürstenberg beer. That felt like its own kind of connection.

CARA. Its full name is the Center for Art, Research and Alliances; it’s on West 13th Street in Manhattan; it opened this summer. It has ceilings high enough to let you dream, light enough to think you may be floating, and Emmy Catedral who curates its public programs and is responsible for its dizzying bookshop, is a genius.

The Economist Christmas double issue. Page for page, it’s probably the best value magazine in the world. This year’s had articles on the myth of the holy cow, cricket’s increasing ascendancy over baseball, the future for the Baduy peoples in Kanekes (they’re a bit like the Amish of Indonesia), how the nitrogen cycle has shaped the world, a brilliant article on whether Tang poetry can survive translation. All that and a beautiful obituary of Daniel Brush, the private, almost hermet-like goldsmith in New York.

Sue Nixon, Homophone Dictionary. What a delightful book. Before she died at the age of 96 about three years ago, Sue Nixon, a former schoolteacher, decided to compile a book of homophones. She’d loved them all her life and had used them in class to teach her young pupils. They read like poems, lullabies, Molly Drake songs. According to her granddaughter Sarah, “Luckily the book was printed before she died: she was lying in bed, with her eyes closed but was able to hold a physical copy and commented on how thick and heavy it was.”

Air-India’s Maharaja: Advertising Gone Rogue. Air India had a mascot called ‘The Rogue’. He had a babu belly, a twangy moustache, and was endearing on the eye. He featured on any number of posters from 1946 through to the early 1970s – swapping turban for a beret and selling ‘naughty’ pictures of himself in Paris, dressed down as a Playgirl bunny in New York, donning monks’ garb in Rome. Poster House’s show devoted to Umesh Rao’s none-more charming creation was my favourite show of the year.

Paddington Railway Club. London’s black cab drivers deny it exists. But it does – and how.

Dovas, Cafe Giffi, Ronnells Antikvariat, Folkets Kebab, Herr Judit, Runstenen Wooden Horse Museum, Teater Tribunalen, Vintage Violence, Bacchus Antik, Cafe Tranan, Kurt Svensson Konsthandel, Kvarnen, Konstnarsbaren: Stockholm is such a lovely lovely city.

As always: Constantin Veis, ‘Memory-La’; Musette, ‘Datum’; Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band, ‘Dr. Buzzard’s Original “Savannah” Band’; Swing Out Sister, ‘Breakout’.  But also: Wechsel Garland & World Service, ‘The Isle’; F.S. Blumm, ‘Summer Kling’; Plantar, ‘Forest, Sea, Harmony’; Penguins & Martingales, ‘What Might Have Been’.

Photo: Gail O’Hara

Thomas Andrew – a certain smile/My Vinyl Underground

Top 10 things I wish were (still) in Philly now that I’m back:

1. the Snow Fairies (Neal come home)

2. Lil baby’s ice cream (vegan strawberry pink peppercorn was my whole damn heart, they are very sorely missed)

3. Red Square Records (i mean they left pretty much months after I first arrived in 2001, but still)

4. Spaceboy records (I owe John and Chris from that shop so much for the person I am today)

5. All my new friends from Portland! (This is why visits exist)

6. Brian from Pizza Brain, the shop still exists but Brian was the heart. (He does make Washington state that much cooler now though.)

7. A Popfest (who knows what may come though)

8. The Hollywood Theater/Movie Madness (one of the hardest things to leave behind in Portland, I’m hopeful to find something similar out here)

9. More damn pinball (I was spoiled for Pinball in Portland. Nowhere can compare)

10. Lilys (I mean there are enough former members in town to fill a small neighborhood, but to have Kurt here playing music on the reg would make my damn heart/brain explode with joy)

Cotton Candy

Evelyn Hurley (Cotton Candy)

This past year, I watched and rewatched some movies from the ’80s, here are my highlights!

Room With a View
This movie came out when I was a freshman in high school, but I don’t think I actually saw it until it came out on video a few years later. I have to say, I really loved it then, and I really loved it again on this revisit! As a 14 year old, I think I imagined myself in the Helena Bonham Carter character role, but on this recent viewing I found myself absolutely smitten with the Judi Dench and Maggie Smith characters, who are absolute delights to watch! The movie is romance in action, and the scenery, plot, costumes, and acting are pure magic.
Grade: A+++

Witness
Another blockbuster from 1985, Witness was a movie I might have actually seen in the theater, and since Harrison Ford was such a huge movie star, I’m sure the theater must have been absolutely packed. On my rewatch, I was amazed at how really good the film is; the plot is thrilling, and the acting is top notch, especially the beautiful Kelly McGillis. The city elements of the story are scary, dark, and thrilling, which is in stark contrast with the Amish elements in this film, which are bright and clean. The noir twist in the film is riveting, but my favorite surprise are the quick scenes with Patti LuPone who plays Harrison Ford’s sister, she’s so great.
Grade: A+

Broadcast News
I never saw this movie when it came out in 1987, but I remember everyone loving it. The tv commercials for it were constantly showing, and I liked the scene where Joan Cusack nearly runs into the pulled out file drawer but ducks under just in time. Unfortunately, the movie is nothing like this clip, and in my opinion and in the opinion everyone who was watching it with me, it’s a terrible, terrible, movie. Holly Hunter and Albert Brooks epitomize the annoying characteristics of yuppies from the ’80s; self indulgent, self absorbed, and conceited. William Hurt is supposed to be a dummy who gets ahead in the broadcast world solely based on his looks, but in all honestly, he’s the only likable person in the movie, and seems pretty good at his job. I can’t tell you how it ended because we turned it off and absolutely wished we had never seen any of it. 
Grade: F-

Body Heat
This 1981 film also stars William Hurt, but I actually finished this movie. It’s also another neo-noir film, staring Hurt and the amazing Kathleen Turner, and while it was very good it wasn’t as good as Witness.
Grade: B

Here’s to 2023, and all the movies that we watch!

Photo courtesy of Rachel

Rachel Blumberg (Arch Cape)

Top Ten Favorite Shows I Played in 2022 in no particular order:

1. Agnes Varda Forever live film score collaboration with Kathy Foster – Holocene, PDX
2. Field Drums with Lunchbox – The Golden Bull, Oakland, CA
3. Arch Cape at the Arts Week Residency, Sou’Wester, Seaview, WA
4. Califone with BCMC, Judson and Moore Distillery, Chicago, IL
5. Encouragement Friendship Band w/Anis Mogiani & Laura Gibson – Mississippi Studios, PDX
6. Tara Jane O’Neil at Family Reunion Summer Fest – Kelley Point Park, PDX
6. Califone with Little Mazarn – Mississippi Studios 
7. Old Unconscious with Fronjentress – The Fixin’ To, PDX
8. Linsday Clark with Michael Hurley and Luke Wyland – The Old Church, PDX
9. Field Drums with Party Witch and Desir – Mississippi Studio, PDX
10. Califone – Vickers Theater, Three Oaks, Michigan

Top Ten Favorite Native Plants in 2022

1. Thimbleberry
2. Douglas Spirea
3. Douglas Aster
4.Huckleberry
5. Sword Fern
6. Piggyback Plant
7. Wild Ginger
8. Osoberry
9. Vine Maple
10. Snowberry

The late great Stella Bean (photo: Gail O)

Top Ten Dogs I Petted in 2022

1. Stella Bean, my sweetest heart, rest in peace.
2. Bella, my sister’s dog
3. Sal, Sam Farrel’s dog
4. Caramel and Ace,  Rob and Melissa Jones’s dogs
5. Rankin, Vanessa Renwick’s dog
6. Dylan, Sheri Hood’s dog
7. Gladys, Scotty McCaughey and Mary Winzig’s dog
8. Sparky and Zoey, my dad and Phillipa’s (his lady friend) dog
9. Dizzy, Janet Weiss’s dog, and Rooster, the dog she is fostering
10. Sugar, our neighbor’s dog

Top Ten Shows I saw in 2022, in no particular order, and I doubt I am remembering them all…

1. Belle and Sebastian, Roseland
2. Slumberland Showcase, The Doug Fir
3. Cate Le Bon, The Wonder Ballroom
4. Yo La Tengo, The Wonder Ballroom
5. Quasi, Pdx Pop Now Fest
6. Ural Thomas and The Pain, The Good Foot
7. Lonnie Holley, Hollywood Theater
8. Magnetic Fields, Aladdin Theater
9. Horsegirl, Polaris Hall
10. Pavement, Edgefield