101 Things I Enjoyed in 2024

Shawn dusts off an old series, right as year-end list season heats up

#46

For each of the past two years, I’ve posted a list of the 101 things I enjoyed over that window of eligibility on my personal site. While you could say most subjects we write about for Even Better qualify as “one for us,” this one really qualifies, since I consider it a way of cataloging where my taste and life were in a given year. But my hope is you find something to try, consider, nod your head along (or shake your head in disbelief) with on this list. Better late than never, I suppose, so let’s look back on some ancient history.

1. The 2024 New York Mets

2. Francisco Lindor’s go-ahead HR in the insane, see-saw game 161 against the Braves to clinch a playoff berth

3. Pete’s go-ahead HR to take the Brewers series

4. This celebration

5. Lindor vanquishing the Phillies via grand slam

6. Sean Manaea becoming a new franchise hero and one of my guys

7. Juan Soto signing

8. “OMG”

9. A minor game in the larger picture, but witnessing a midseason comeback against the Pirates (Chapman implosion/watching him and Diaz warm up next to each other) from behind the bullpen. One of the few Mets wins I’ve ever seen in person, and the best

10. Hovvdy — Hovvdy

11. Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World

12. The Beast

13. Cassandra Jenkins — My Light, My Destroyer

14. U2 @ the Sphere

15. Starting this very website, which debuted by covering that event

16. Listening to every U2 record pretty much exclusively in the month of January

17. Branching out to more Iris DeMent albums

18. Revis “Caught in the Rain”

19. Costco guys having the Chappell Roan arc (light 2023 exposure, 2024 overexposure)

20. Costco guys BTS video

21. Costco guys showing up on Hasan’s stream (was not watching live, don’t worry about it) I can’t explain why, but this little moment seemed more revealing (and endeared me more to this family) than anything else I’ve seen. People seem to be almost wishcasting a dark chapter for them, but I don’t know. We’ll see! Enough with the songs though.

22. Hawk Tuah (phrase divorced from context and referring to a person as Hawk Tuah only)

23. THAT’s what Hawk Tuah means? Why, getting an idea for a movie? Club Random

24. Anywho I’m gonna go to bed

25. ELO at the big arena

26. Magdalena Bay kind of making music like ELO

27. Porter Robinson at the small arena

28. “Knock Yourself Out XD”

29. Watching most of Veep

30. The Traitors US and Australia

31. Phaedra’s star ascent

32. Phaedra pronouncing Parvati’s name like poverty

33. Evil Does Not Exist

34. Juror #2 in theaters after much strife

35. Bowling the highest score of my life with the name Juror #2

36. Watching more Clint, including the remarkable 15:17 to Paris

37. Resolve 2023 resolution to hit a ball over the fence

38. Hitting upwards of 1000+ balls during most people’s workdays

39. Pounders baseball

40. Scratching the surface of GBV

41. Scratching the surface of XTC

42. 9-1-1: Lone Star harmonica incident

43. Eating at La Mona Rosa in Vegas, months before the Secret Lives of Mormon Wives would do the same

44. Seeing Floating Weeds on 16mm

45. Park Place Pub introduces smashburger

46. Watching Inland Empire about 3 feet away from my TV

47. Rohmer month (My Night and Maud’s and Pauline at the Beach reigning supreme)

48. Taking it up a notch with Fred Wiseman

49. The second annual De PalMay

50. Realizing Carlito’s Way is up there with the best

51. Realizing Redacted is up there with the best

52. Watching a lot of critically maligned classics (Spanglish and Dr. T and the Women among them)

53. LCJ continuing to do his thing (and build out the LCJ Collection)

54. I like my sootcase

55. Seeing Spoon win be back over after a shakier live show in 2022

56. Joyce Manor at 123 Pleasant Street in WV

57. George Clanton at Spirit

58. Creed playing what they claim is their best-attended headlining show ever in Hershey

59. Feeling the room almost collectively gasp at Sidney Gish’s star power

60. Mark Wahlberg taking an ice bath in front of a poster for The 400 Blows

61. This reaction image of Stephen A Smith on Hannity (wasn’t a great omen, so it goes)

62. “Diet Pepsi”

63. Realizing that, obviously, soda can make it easier to stay awake in movies

64. Assorted Alec Baldwin moments

65. Trap head dunk challenge/press tour

66. Seeing M. Night Shyamalan boost his normie moviegoer credibility (with a pretty divisive movie)

67. 100%ing his movies from Sixth Sense and beyond

68. Local Legends

69. Calling Matt Farley on his publicly available phone number after the movie

70. What do I do to stay healthy?

71. That’s a ball ump

72. Gary Cohen commencement speech

73. Playing that card game Coup a couple times

74. Finishing more books than the year prior (not an accomplishment)

75. Making one of them Bill Clinton and James Patterson’s The President Is Missing

76. Getting much of the eclipse experience without needing to drive

77. Baby nephew

78. 2-3 months of the year when it wasn’t necessary to always be applying to jobs

79. Walking 7 miles per day while working at a national grocery chain

80. Getting discounts to two companies I otherwise would have no business shopping at with no money in This Economy

81. Announcing to a room of not-online co-workers that O.J. Simpson was dead

82. Person, Place or Thing with no sound/captions-on at the gym

83. Keeping the tab open on my phone to apply to Person, Place or Thing all year (but never doing it :/)

84. Wild Pink

85. Oso Oso

86. Father John Misty

87. The Cure

88. …all returning to approach or match past career heights

89. Eating some of the worst pizza on earth at the beach in Delaware, and then finding a Google review for the place that opened with “I guess the worst meal of your life has to be somewhere”

90. Monitoring the Google reviews of a new central PA bagel place, with 2013-era Instagram decor, that totally melts down in the replies of any negative review

91. Kennywood corn dogs (and feeling so ill I had to leave the line for a ride after eating one)

92. Watching a jet pack performance by the Nerveless Nocks at Kennywood

93. Trying more seafood (oysters)

94. Limited edition Ritz fudge covered crackers

95. Doing cartwheels and crawling like lizards in pool

96. Being one year away from Avatar: Fire and Ash

97. Buying into the hype of Challengers

98. Not buying into the hype of pretty much any other major 2024 release

99. Easing off the pressure to catch up on things you don’t care about (culture writer brain disease)

100. Making loose plans to publicly screen movies in 2025, and putting it in writing here to hold myself to it

101. This photo of my dog, which aligns her ear with every time ending in 7 when set to your background: