I guess we can close the door on this year. Of course, 2020 is just a number on a calendar; the movements and crises and events that are making this year awful are not ending when the clock strikes midnight, and we're going to be dealing with them and whatever new horrors await us for some time. It might get worse before it gets better. No, it's probably going to get worse before it gets better. As I type this there's an unmasked evangelical superspreader event happening near my neighborhood in Los Angeles, endangering an unhoused encampment and the housed population around Echo Park. It's pretty bleak. You'd think after nine months of this people would maybe take this seriously. Maybe people would wear masks that cover their noses too. I guess not.
Sorry for being a downer.
I'm also sorry for how long it's been since the last post on Let's Do the Panic Again. I've been on the job hunt, and have also been working on some freelance pieces that took up much of my time. This newsletter was supposed to be more regular, and I promise in 2021 it will be. I have several pieces in the works for the next few weeks, from film writing to some reporting on what's been going on around Los Angeles this past month.
So what the hell has happened? We nearly had World War III while Australia, Siberia and California burned. There was a primary that got people hopeful, a victory by the “adults in the room,” and then the defeat of a neofascist campaign that refuses to admit defeat. All while a pandemic has killed hundreds of thousands in this country, leave many more with long term effects, and we are still not close to being done with the ravages of it. Personally, it's been a weird year. I was working as the co-editor of a newspaper. Then the second the pandemic hit, the entire editorial staff was axed. The paper limps on doing press releases but I've been out of work since March. I've been doing more freelance work in this year than any past year. I fell in love with the most amazing woman. I grew a beard. I got more personal training clients. Got depressed, got over it, read the news, got depressed again. It has been the worst year in so many ways, for so many people. I realize I'm lucky, all things considered.
Thank you all for reading this newsletter. I wanted to share some work I'm most proud of from this year, and some of my favorite media from this time.
What's Next for Those Staying in Hotels During the Pandemic?
I expanded my freelance writing this year, including at Shelterforce. For my debut I wrote about how cities and states were using vacant hotel and motel rooms to house homeless individuals during the pandemic, how those efforts were falling short, and how activists still see this as a long-term solution. This is a pretty dense piece and I'm glad how it turned out.
The Eerie Prescience of Hackers
Oh, like I wasn't going to include something from this newsletter? I love Hackers and I had to write about it for its 25th anniversary. Hack the planet!
Protests Leave Unhoused Caught in Crackdowns, Left in the Dark Over Curfew
This spring and summer I wrote a number of pieces for Invisible People, looking at how the city's unhoused population was at risk during the pandemic and during the police's response to protests. This is one of several pieces I wrote, but I really liked this one.
Various Coverage of the March Election in Downtown LA
I spent January-March writing about the race for the 14th City Council race in Los Angeles. That included covering candidate forums to late-night, filing from a Little Tokyo Starbucks reports on election night. My colleague Sean P. Thomas and I turned out packages on the race and did serious reporting, despite being just the two of us. Go us.
Lock, Stock and Unexpected Class Politics
I wasn’t able to see many movies this year, but I did see Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen and finally got to write my deep dive into how Ritchie is somehow one of the best filmmakers when it comes to exploring class dynamics. Seriously.
Top Albums of 2020
Victories at Sea “Everybody's Lost and All I Want Is To Leave”
My favorite band's second full length album is moody and haunting and euphoric. Victories at Sea has a sound driven by modern urban loneliness and they went out to the country to write and record Everybody's Lost and All I Want Is To Leave and the city echoes meet the vastness of nature in this one in a truly amazing way. There are synths and soaring vocals and amazing beats but it feels like a walk outside at night. Tracks like “Follow You” and “Quiet House” hit hard, but the gems are some of the more haunting elements, like my favorite song of the year, “Late.”
Ondara “Folk 'n' Roll Vol. 1: Tales of Isolation”
Ondara is probably the best folk musician in the game now and probably one of the smartest lyricists period. I was lucky to see him at a show in Downtown L.A. In early 2019 and was blown away by how good he is. The man's vocals are on another level. When the pandemic hit and we all went into quarantine, he turned out this fantastic album all themed around it. Every odd part of this year, from the awkwardness of trying to make rent, being romantic when stuck at home, the crushing boredom, he sang about it. And beautifully.
Run the Jewels “RTJ4”
Writers far better than me have broken down the nuance and importance of Run the Jewels' incredible fourth record, but I'm going to try. El-P and Killer Mike delivered an urgent call to action, a scathing look at police brutality, systemic abuses and injustice. At the same time they put out some of the most vulnerable and heartfelt music of the year. It wasn't written predicting this summer's uprisings or the election but it tapped into the ills and movements of our time. “A Few Words for the Firing Squad” is seared into my mind.
Jarv Is “Beyond the Pale”
It's pretty obvious that I'm a fan of Pulp and Jarvis Cocker. Hell, I try to emulate Cocker's style time and again. But I love Cocker's social focus, his disdain for power and hypocrisy and inequality. With his backing band as Jarv Is, the guy who made “Running the World” and “Cocaine Socialism” was back with some much needed new music. Cocker still has his finger on the pulse and his mind in dirty places. Written and recorded before the pandemic, the lyrics dive into societal isolation before we had to self-isolate, and they hit hard. “House Music All Night Long” is a catchy and disturbingly on point.
Top Books of 2020
I regret being far, far behind on my reading list this year. After the spring it became truly hard to focus, from the fear of missing out on any news, the anxiety of being stuck at home in a weird situation, to the stress of the pandemic. But I cannot recommend Malcolm Harris' Shit Is Fucked Up and Bullshit enough. It’s a brilliant look at modern work, activism, and the struggles of the millennial generation. It’s urgent and on point and doesn’t hold back from arraying what forces are against us.
Top Films
Unfortunately I missed quite a lot of movies this year, with so many big spring releases such as First Cow and Green Knight pushed back. Promising Young Woman? Still need to see. I haven't even seen Tenet or Bill and Ted Face the Music, despite my deep affinity for the people who made them. I did see a few new releases but mostly spent the year catching up on films I missed in year’s past. Rebecca was mostly good but never quite came together. Mosul was so-so overall but seeing a film about that story, in Arabic, with an Iraqi cast, that was good. I technically saw it first in late 2019, but Portrait of a Lady on Fire was the last film I saw I theaters before the pandemic, and it remains the best film I saw this year.
I hope you all are ending 2020 in good health and are doing okay. I sincerely mean that. And good luck in the new year. We're not out of the woods yet, but I want things to get better.