life's simple pleasures
a non-exhaustive list of things i loved in 2025
The end of the year signals a period of reflection, a chance to look back and understand how the last eleven months fit into the larger narrative of our lives.
What were the moments and media that have informed how we will remember this year? Who were the people - both in our community and in the larger culture - that meant something to us? It’s an exercise that can result in a deeper appreciation of time and how we navigate it - although, as with most things these days, this type of personal introspection is now outsourced to generic, algorithmically generated templates.
Everything is now “Unwrapped.” Several other brands have created their own annual look back, ripping a page from Spotify’s incredibly popular music recap. You can even relive the one LinkedIn post you made while trying to look busy at work earlier this year. But as much as these retrospectives attempt to capture something, at the end of the day, there’s no whimsy, just code.
I think a lot about the ways in which people all around the world, in different cultures throughout time, have tried to figure out their position on earth: What happens once you’re born? Where are you? What are you? What are you doing? These are basic questions that have been faced for eons, even just in terms of imagining forms of survival.
- Renée Green
Instead of showing a couple of screenshots of what I listened to this year, I thought I’d instead spend this final stretch of the year briefly sharing how some of the media and culture I consumed informed my 2025 experience and what I’m taking into 2026. While I enjoyed some of this year’s new releases, I also couldn’t help but feel underwhelmed and hungry, searching for something deeper, richer, fuller during a time that otherwise seems so empty.
Contemporary media is defined by this sense of hopelessness, a collective agreement to accept our growing detachment from ourselves and the world around us. Even projects that I love, like “Severance,” heavily rely on this type of dystopian surrealism. Recent shows from Tim Robinson and Nathan Fielder also capture something that so closely resembles our own world - but for a glaringly obvious problem that no one but the protagonist seems to see.
The mockumentary style format of “The Rehearsal,” where some individuals are actors while others appear genuine but could also be actors, leaves you questioning other forms of media, such as reality television. Fielder initially examined the limits of one sub-genre, the business makeover show, through “Nathan For You.” He continues to pull on that thread in the show’s latest season about pilot safety that aired earlier this year.
How much of what you’re seeing is real? Does it even matter if it makes for great entertainment?
Robinson’s more explicitly fictional depiction of modern disorientation, “The Chair Company,” is another window into 2025. Here is a world in which people can’t get straight answers to seemingly simple problems. Instead, they have to swim through what feels like never-ending waves of nothing. The way Robinson’s character appears to lose whole hours while scrolling through poorly written website copy, hoping to find an answer, is both heightened for the comedic effect, but could just as easily have been someone’s living experience. There’s even a term for it: “sludge – torturous administrative demands, endless wait times, and excessive procedural fuss.”
In a cultural landscape that increasingly feels defined by sludge - content that feels overly burdensome with little payoff - this year I went deeper into the back catalogues of both contemporary and older artists. Many of those observations were shared through essays, whether it was my newfound admiration for Lorraine Hansberry or marking the last MetroCard.
These were some of the other rhythms, words, and movements that helped define my 2025.
MUSIC
Innervisions: Stevie Wonder (1973)
Smooth jams with an explicit political message that still resonates over fifty years later.
The very first album I ever downloaded back in 2005 was a Stevie Wonder compilation. Stevie is simply one of those artists who has floated in and out of my life. Every track flows so seamlessly, from the commentary found in “Living for the City” to the sweet romance of “Golden Lady” and into an absolute banger that is “Higher Ground” - but don’t miss out on the rest of the tracks that bookend the album’s core. “Visions” is a mournful plea - questioning whether a place “where hate’s a dream and love forever stands” could really exist - that feels especially timely.
recommended tracks: Golden Lady; Higher Ground; Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing
Adventures in Paradise: Minnie Riperton (1975)
Sweet honey delivered straight to your ears.
recommended tracks: Love And Its Glory; Inside My Love; Don’t Let Anyone Bring You Down
Reading, Writing and Arithmetic: The Sundays (1990)
Dreamy, breathy British tunes perfect for pretending like you’re the main character in a 1990s rom-com.
While I admittedly first found out about the Sundays through a TikTok sound using “Here’s Where The Story Ends,” I quickly fell in love with their entire discography. Their debut has earned a special place in my musical rotation. Earlier this year, the album was the perfect background music while driving through the suburbs of Atlanta with my little brother, David, and my mom after my grandfather passed away. Unbeknownst to me, David also ended up falling in love with the Sundays, a nice reminder that even though we’re now both adults, my influence as the oldest sibling still lives on.
recommended tracks: A Certain Someone; I Won; My Finest Hour
Congratulations: MGMT (2010)
Groovy psych-rock beats to dance to, bliss out on, and ponder - or maybe all three
recommended tracks: Siberian Breaks; Flash Delirium; Congratulations
Titanic Rising: Weyes Blood (2019)
A cinematic submersion highlighting the triumphant highs and devastating lows of contemporary life.
recommended tracks: Something to Believe; A Lot’s Gonna Change; Wild Time
BOOKS
Rattlebone: Maxine Clair
Brief snapshots of an observant black girl, her parents, and friends in 1950s Kansas City.
Looking for Lorraine: Lorraine Hansberry
A collection of journal entries, play excerpts, correspondence, and sketches published posthumously after the writer’s death.
Immediacy, or the Style of Too-Late Capitalism: Anna Kornbluh
A look at how modern technology prioritizes speed and volume over depth and quality.
The Stories of John Cheever
Stories from white, midcentury America that are both so specific yet easily recognizable in 2025. Favorites include “Christmas Is a Sad Season for the Poor,” the “Sorrows of Gin,” and “A Miscellany of Characters That Will Not Appear.”
Interpreter of Maladies: Jhumpa Lahiri
Short stories exploring American culture at the turn of the twenty-first century, told through the lens of Indian immigrants. Favorites include “Mrs. Sen’s” and “Temporary Matter.”
Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man: James Weldon Johnson
One man’s journey through early twentieth-century New York as he confronts the joys and limitations society places on him as a Black man.
ART
Harmony and Dissonance: Orphism in Paris, 1910-1930 (Guggenheim)
Selected pieces from a group of artists that would influence modern European art.
All Day All Night (Whitney Museum): Christine Sun Kim
A survey of Kim’s work, playing with form, body, and audio/visual techniques in ASL and written English.
The Equator Has Moved (Dia Beacon): Renée Green
A collection of the Cleveland-born artist Renee Green’s work over the last four decades. This show is still on view at Dia Beacon through August 2026.
Really Free (California African American Museum): Nellie Mae Rowe
A woman realizes her dream of becoming an artist in her mid-sixties.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
The Sopranos
Worth the wait - can definitely see how the show’s approach to character development and writing would go on to influence Matthew Weiner’s “Mad Men,” which is perhaps my favorite piece of modern television, just ahead of “Succession.” My favorite episode was Test Dream (S4E11) because of how it builds on the show’s visual language and story. The arc with Pie-Oh-My is perhaps the wildest detour in the show that I absolutely loved. It’s such a twist, something that was both building up to its climax for seasons but would also have unforeseen repercussions throughout the rest of the show.
Practice (Playwrights Horizon): Nazareth Hassan
An experimental theater troupe gets ready for an overseas tour - it was so unlike anything I’ve ever seen live before that I saw it twice during its run. The play comments on cults, modern reality television, and how trauma from marginalized creators is harvested for white, wealthy audiences. Very meta; you either love it or hate it.
rip maxwell
A beloved local brick-and-mortar said goodbye this October. This place truly felt like the Room of Requirement - they always had exactly what I needed each time I stopped by. Here are some of my favorite brands I discovered there that I plan to keep supporting:
Song in D Minor perfume - it’s like a spicy, floral summer garden
54 Celsius tarot candles designed by Sophy Hollington
Bath salts from 6 pm candle co
Next week, I’ll share some thoughts as we make our final preparations for the new year.
Beautifully written.