K Sawyer Paul

I’ve been keeping better track of the things I consume this year. I couldn’t have done it without Notion and this blog. Here’s my top lists for every category. If I remember to, I’ll expand each section with reasons for each. If I don’t, assume each one of things gave me some joy and got me through some of this year.

Note: I definitely consumed more media than this in 2020, but I tried to keep it to things that were released this year.

Favourite Movies

• Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) – It was the last movie everyone saw in theatres and is therefore the only one qualified to win Best Picture at the Oscars. It’s their rules, man.
• Palm Springs – My answer for “how are you doing?” to everyone has been “yeah, I’m stuck in one of those infinite time loop things” so I’d say this movie hit the general vibe.
• Class Action Park – It’s the “oh, hi, thanks for checking in. I’m 🎶 still a piece of garbage🎶” of documentaries, and I adore it.

Favourite Albums

• Run the Jewels – RTJ4 – The first singles released just as lockdown happened in March, and the rest dropped in June, alongside the Black Lives Matter protests.
• The Mountain Goats – Getting into Knives – My wife calls this my “white guy music” and this is more of the good white guy music.
• Helen Love – Power On – Stage 1 is denial and this is the soundtrack for that.
• Charli XCX – How I’m Feeling Now
• Georgia – Seeking Thrills – My favourite dance album in a year of no legal dancing.
• Andy Shauf – The Neon Skyline – if Spotify was actually counting correctly, they’d know I played this two hundred times in a row when it dropped.
• Bright Eyes – Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was – Stage 5 is acceptance and this is the soundtrack to that.
• Avalanches – We Will Always Love You – I actually feel like we didn’t deserve this album this year.

Favourite Live-action TV Shows

• Lovecraft Country – It’s very good and a bit sloppy but so much fun and fast it doesn’t matter. Just a goddamn blast from beginning to end.
• Perry Mason – I don’t care at all about Perry Mason but I will follow Matthew Rhys into oblivion. I wonder if this had been made in the 2000s it would have just been a 150 minute feature and forgotten by awards season.
• Fargo – Fargo season 5 is the only TV show this year that should actually be required viewing.
• Avenue 5 – This show seemed stupid in January but then super smart by March.
• What We Do In the Shadows – This show is delight medicine. I hope it gets the Sunny contract and runs until the end of time.

Favourite Anime

• Dorohedoro – Lightning in a bottle creativity. I want the backgrounds of this show as art on my walls. Having said that, it’s very, very niche and might not appeal to, uh, anyone but me?
• Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken – A celebration of the creative process, animation, and that period of your life where nobody’s really paying attention to you and you can get away with the thing.
• Somali and the Forest Spirit – Hey, you wanna good cry? Here you go.

Favourite Articles

• How to Actually Prepare for Coronavirus if You’re Kind of Freaking Out
• Life-Hacks of the Poor and Aimless
• Can We Admit Some Things Are Better Now?
• A Text Renaissance
• The thing about blogging is
• The New Normal For Life Under a New Plague
• Working from Home from Here
• How coronavirus could change your office space and remote work from home
• Why Do We Even Listen to New Music?
• Never Go Back to the Office
• Oh Great, The Fog Is Here: It Is Now Very Foggy On Top Of Everything Else
• The Apartment and How to Escape Toxic Masculinity
• How AA Prepared Me for Indefinite Lockdown
• 15 rules for blogging, and my current streak
• Leading-Trim: The Future of Digital Typesetting
• Love in coronavirus times is complicated. Try having a quarantine crush.
• “A Word on Statistics” by Wisława Szymborska
• You’re Not The Fucked Up One
• What ‘A Face in the Crowd’ Tells Us About Ourselves
• There’s nothing good on TV
• A little advice
• How Dragon Quest’s Creator Invented JRPGs: An Hour With Yuji Horii
• What happens when you reach your limit online

Favourite Video Games

• Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Don’t listen to anyone who says this isn’t the game of 2020. There are no other games.
• Hades – Don’t listen to anyone who says this isn’t the game of 2020. There are no other games.

Favourite Podcasts

• Pessimists Archive
• The Insert Credit Show
• Friendshipping!
• California King
• All Consuming
• The Watch
• Triple Click

Favourite Wrestling Matches

• Kazuchika Okada vs. Kota Ibushi – Jan 4, 2020, WRESTLE KINGDOM 14
• Kazuchika Okada vs. Tetsuya Naito – Jan 5, 2020, WRESTLE KINGDOM 14
• Arisa Hoshiki vs Utami Hayashishita – Jan 19, 2020, Stardom 9th Anniversary
• Kagetsu vs Stardom – Feb 15, 2020, New Years Stars 2020
• Keith Lee vs Dominik Dijakovic – Feb 16, 2020, TakeOver: Portland
• Adam Page & Kenny Omega vs. Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson – Feb 29, 2020, AEW Revolution 2020
• The Fiend Bray Wyatt vs John Cena – Mar 29, 2020, Wrestlemania 36, Night 2
• Stadium Stampede – The Elite vs The Inner Circle – May 23, 2020, Double Or Nothing 2020
• Cody vs Mr Brodie Lee – Aug 22, 2020, Dynamite 46 – Saturday Night Dynamite
• Saya Kamitani vs Tam Nakano – Sep 12, 2020, Stardom 5STAR Grand Prix 2020 – Tag 5 (Afternoon Show)
• Tam Nakano vs Giulia – Sep 13, 2020, Stardom 5STAR Grand Prix 2020 – Tag 6
• Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Tetsuya Naito – Sep 20, 2020, G1 Climax 2020
• Tomohiro Ishii vs. Jeff Cobb – Oct 10, 2020, G1 Climax 2020
• Kota Ibushi vs. Taichi – Oct 16, 2020, G1 Climax 2020
• Sasha Banks vs Bayley – Oct 25, 2020, Hell in a Cell 2020

Favourite Youtube Videos

• Africa by Toto but it’s a bunch of Animal Crossing villagers trying their best
• it’s time to get good at darts
• Lockdown Productivity: Spaceship You
• I Am NOT My Body!
• I Joined the Turner Classic Movies Wine Club
• MEXICAN COKE IS A LIE
• Honest Trailers | Cowboy Bebop
• How to deal with uncertainty
• Getting Over It: Humanising Game Design
• Coronavirus And America’s Death Cult
• Explaining the Pandemic to my Past Self
• Romulan Ale from Star Trek
• Action Button Reviews Doom