As longtime readers of this blog know, I stubbornly insist on waiting until Oscar night to write about my favorite films of the Movie Year (as I call it) since I haven’t had an opportunity to see critically-acclaimed titles like The Zone of Interest and The Taste of Things that haven’t opened in Ithaca yet, but will before March 10. I am, however, happy to announce the track listing for my 2023: The Mixtape, Vol. 2 Spotify playlist:
- Wilco – Pittsburgh
- Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, and Shahzad Ismaily – To Remain/To Return
- Aesop Rock – Mindful Solutionism
- Park Doing – You Know What to Do
- The Armed – Everything’s Glitter
- Homeboy Sandman – Crazy
- Diners – Your Eyes Look Like Christmas
- Soccer Mommy – Losing My Religion
- Jaimie Branch – borealis dancing
- Jeff Rosenstock – LIKED U BETTER
- Tyler Childers – Rustin’ In The Rain
- Ryan Gosling – Push
- Jess Williamson – God in Everything
- Lankum – Lord Abore and Mary Flynn
- The Beatles – Now and Then
- Sofia Kourtesis – Madres
- Robbie Robertson – Still Standing
You know it has been a good six months in music when a new Mountain Goats album comes out and nothing from it makes the cut! I’m not sure I have a ton else to say about this batch of songs, though, except that I like them. I attended college in Pittsburgh from 2000-2004 and have memories of listening to Yourself or Someone Like You on overnight bus trips over the holidays, so it’s maybe a bit more backwards-looking than usual? The “Losing My Religion” cover and presence of a Beatles song would support this reading as well, but there’s also plenty pushing against it–Lankum and Sofia Kourtesis are both new discoveries for me from this past year, for instance, and Park Doing is an Ithaca-based musician. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this mix as much as I do! Links to previous bi-annual mixes can be found here.
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In other news, the publication of my January Drink & a Movie post saw that series reach its halfway point. As I have mentioned previously, I’m thinking of this project as gradually constructing a year-long weekly film series: my idea is that once I’ve written about 53 movies, I can self-publish a book with an introduction that people can use to make themselves a seasonally-appropriate cocktail and settle in with a good film every Friday night. At the risk of sounding immodest (and maybe delusional if you disagree), I’m pretty happy with how they’ve been turning out lately! More importantly, I’m learning a lot about what exactly I value in movies and enjoying collaborating with my loving wife (who has been killing it on the photography front all year) on a creative endeavor. A full list of the 27 entries we’ve completed so far can be found here. I’m still behind schedule because of the holidays, so it might be awhile before things start going up on the first of the month again, but I’ve got a “bonus” post planned for February 2.
Cheers!
The Prodigal Cinephile 