101 Things I Enjoyed in 2025
One thing I enjoyed after another
Here we go again: the 101 things return for 2025, but all of them are different this time. Reader feedback was none too pleased with how Mets-positive last year’s edition turned out to be, and I can assure you this one will be an easier read for our Eastern PA residents. Down there you’ll find a loose assembly of my stream-of-consciousness year-end-list-y thoughts, with no overarching ranking (but a few particularly ranked sections). Thanks for coming; I’ll let the numbers take it away from here.
Dad’s Dog and Burger opening in Bloomfield (and going there nearly 10 times this year)
Seeing Wilco play for 3 hours at Heinz Hall with my dad, his first time
Specifically seeing Wilco play like six Sky Blue Sky songs I may never see them play again (“Walken” especially was on another level)
Within one week, flying to Seattle to see Nine Inch Nails at the Even Better 2k25 summit
On that flight, being introduced to the Alaska Air Top 10 Favorites, a baffling collection of movies prominently featured on their in-flight streaming service (I’ll write more about this soon)
Making pretty much everyone I saw over the next month try to figure out these movies in an elaborate guessing game
Completing the pilgrimage to Scarecrow Video with Elliott, spending 2 hours there to take it all in, and being lightly reprimanded by a Letterboxd power user while browsing
Properly dipping my toes into Hong Kong cinema, just before the dam burst for dozens of these movies to become available to own and stream in high quality, with some favorites being:
Once Upon a Time in China
The Killer
Pedicab Driver
Royal Warriors
Drug War
Tovember (watching like 7 of Johnnie To’s in a single month, another special shoutout to Breaking News and its bananas opening tracking shot)
One Battle After Another blowing past all expectations (that I had before the early raves poured in at least) in just about every conceivable way (70mm at AFI Silver)
The One Battle marketing campaign (me handling my non-football-related plans tonight)
Watching The Black Cat (1934) for the first time, which was quoted in the epigraph for Thomas Pynchon’s Shadow Ticket (haven’t read)
Other favorite first-watches of the year include: The Crowd
Boudu Saved From Drowning
Love Affair
Lots of Josef von Sternberg (Morocco, The Docks of New York, The Devil Is a Woman at the top of the heap)
Seeing Jodie Mack perform Dusty Stacks of Mom: The Poster Project live and on 16mm for Pittsburgh Sound + Image, among the more special cinematic outings of this year or any other
Jane Remover — Revengeseekerz // ♡
Dijon — Baby
Geese — Getting Killed
CMAT — Euro-Country: little VH1 You Oughta Know-y (neutral), lotta (very well-produced) sharp country-pop, little rafters-aiming rock (on one of the best songs of the year), little When the Pawn Hits… Fiona Apple. All in all, a total breakthrough
This Is Lorelei — Holo Boy: I was a pretty big skeptic of the last one and its rapturous praise, then eventually ate a little crow by year’s end and came to enjoy it a bit. Now I’ve swallowed that crow whole. Love this new/old batch
PinkPantheress — Fancy That
Real Lies — We Will Annihilate Our Enemies
Sharp Pins — Balloon Balloon Balloon
Ninajirachi — I Love My Computer
Golden Apples — Shooting Star
Aya — hexed!
Wednesday — Bleeds + the essay of the year
Panda Bear — Sinister Grift
Maria Somerville — Luster
Jay Som — Belong: I’m choosing to believe in Jimmy Eat World once again
Great Grandpa — Patience, Moonbeam
(That’s my top 15ish records of the year in rough order)
Green Book hype moments and aura videos (you 🫨think 🫨 you 🫨 can 🫨buy 🫨 me)
Avatar hype moments and aura videos including Varang and sexy Jake Sully fancams
Avatar: Fire and Ash not quite rising to top 10 of the year status, but probably making enough bank to secure 4+5 (and firmly putting the cultural impact question to bed)
Caught by the Tides
The Shrouds
The Mastermind
Watching Den of Thieves for the first time ahead of Pantera (which I think got a raw deal, is nearly its equal, and among the year’s best)
And a critical raw deal if there ever was one: Ms. Ella McCay, who overcame a hostile fictional press and smug derision from real-life culture writers (derogatory) who think the James L. Brooksian magic dried up after Broadcast News or As Good As It Gets (wrong)
The Phoenician Scheme
Several new lexicon moments from The Naked Gun: “begging for brown,” “the only things that were electric were eels, chairs, and Catherine Zeta-Jones in Chicago,” the Black Eyed Peas volley
Beyond fresh oysters at a wedding by the bay in St. Michaels
Fet-Fisk’s Rainbow Trout Filet (Like five years ago I’d have recoiled at the thought of eating seafood more than once in a year but here we are)
Chappell Roan’s “The Subway” (just showed up on the TV, easily her best post-album single in my eyes. A-list dream pop could be fun)
The Mets’ season ending without requiring more than 162 games
Byo ribs to a PNC Park rain delay game (9-2 Mets loss, part of the most lopsided 3-game series loss in franchise history)
Getting my grumpy face on TV via the Pirates’ local affiliate, witnessed only because my friend’s parents in CA had switched over to the broadcast when the Phillies were in a rain delay of their own
Unfortunately having to hand it to the Dodgers for providing the greatest game / Game 7 I’ve ever seen
Pounders / Dock Ellis baseball
Snowy hot tub for Hannah’s 30th bday
Wearing bald cap in hot tub and also trying to catch it with my head when dropped from the top of a loft
Berkeley Springs, WV bath house where George Washington once bathed (tiny bath he had)
Returning to hometown sandwich chain Isaac’s for the first time in a decade+ and being kind of blown away by how well it and the complimentary pickles held up
Going to the hometown Texas Roadhouse for my own bday (to a point, until it was too distressing to continue eating)
Going to Texas Roadhouse for a special mister’s bachelor party day and witnessing superhuman feats of eating (and more bodily distress). 65.5: went a third time within the calendar year on Jan. 2, which was incredibly satisfying and less distressing (get the Bone-In Ribeye and no appetizers besides rolls)
Coal Tubin’ in Johnstown, PA
Seeing 2 best friends get married
Not at this same wedding, but one with oysters mentioned above: “Green Light” reaching transcendent heights on the dance floor
Lorde opening with “Hammer” at her local Pgh show: you can’t deny the rush of a big pop arena entrance, and this one really was spontaneous and moving. That song also sounds like Delorean
For stretches of the year, consuming the big pop records in the car via Hannah’s phone (the highs of Mayhem and Man’s Best Friend sticking the most)
Lady Gaga “Abracadabra” music video debut at the Grammys brought to you by MasterCard
South Haven, MI sunsets and seeing Lake Michigan for the first time (I get it with lakes now)
Seeing a Weakest Link rerun where this guy kept trying to guess Eminem as an incorrect answer. First, for an Oscar-winning Martin Scorsese movie (he said 8 Mile instead of The Departed), then was asked to name the first billionaire rapper, muttered “not again,” and guessed Eminem (it was Jay-Z).
Swallow Falls State Park in MD
Sang Run State Park in MD (far less trafficked, nearly as picturesque and appealing as a hike, despite the million ticks Sesame and my parents’ dog picked up)
Getting a little crazy-fixated on an arcade Pac Man game in a way that can only happen in a vacation home
The Floor (more here)
Screaming at the sight of Bo Bice on The Floor, back with his classic mane (first time I’d seen him since he produced this headline, with much shorter hair: “’American Idol’ Finalist Bo Bice in Tears as He Claims ‘Racial Prejudice’ After Being Called ‘White Boy’ at Popeyes (People))
The Pitt: by far the best Pittsburgh-set or -filmed cultural product I can recall since living here. Hard to believe how good it is
The Rehearsal
The Traitors
The Traitors Ireland
Robby Hoffman: Wake Up
Joyce Manor and Golden Apples together at Mr. Smalls (dream bill)
Hovvdy live x2
Being pretty casual about Superchunk for most of the past decade, but feeling totally won over by their Thunderbird show. Mac defies age and time
Addison Rae “Headphones On”
Though it came out mid-2024, Fine’s “Losing Tennessee” was my most played song of the last 365
The older records I came to love and induct into the personal canon: Big Star’s Third/Sister Lovers
The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society
Stevie Wonder’s Music of My Mind
Feels and Strawberry Jam (cheating more with these as I check in every few years, but only now do they threaten my all-timers)
Riding on a boat along our local rivers for the very first time with Three Rivers Waterkeeper for a work thing
Miscellaneous uncs shoot poison on stage — it’s rare, but much like with One Battle, sometimes the most acclaimed thing really is the best of its year
Along these lines, Conan and Will Arnett blaming Jason Bateman for his parents’ deaths
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 remasters
Keeping a library copy of Balatro on the TV stand for most of the year, putting it in the console for an agonizing week until I finally beat 1-2 runs, then ejecting it from my house
