Shakespeare's The Life and Death of King John
A few weeks ago, I read Shakespeare's The Life and Death of King John, which presents an unfamiliar King John. Shakespeare’s John is a king in the fullness of his power. This isn't a greedy John or an effeminate John in the way he appears in the popular versions of the Robin Hood stories. This is just a John who isn't a good king.
What I Read in 2023
What I Listened To In 2023
2023 was pretty definitively my year of classical music. This year, I have learned about sonatas, concertos, symphonies, piano miniatures, and vespers. I have listened from Mahler’s First to Mahler’s Sixth. I know that some people are inexplicably very mad at Yuja Wang and Igor Levit. I have attended concerts by both my local orchestra (shout-out to the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra!) and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. I’ve had a great time with all of it. I didn’t just stick to classical, of course. I listened to other music, too. Classical music was, however, the defining musical force in my year, the music that kept me rolling through when things got tough. In the list below, I present to you the classical albums I most enjoyed this year. They’re not all (or even mostly!) from 2023. They’re just the records that captured my attention as I tried to learn about music I haven’t spent much time with in the past.
What I Read in November 2023
The end of the year is list season, which I love. I don’t need to know what’s best, I don’t think any of us do, but I do love learning about new things. That’s something that happens across the year, of course, but it’s something that’s easier to do at the end of the year when everything gets compiled into list after list after list. I love book and music lists in particular. I’m not choosy about where they come from, though I stand by the Stereogum albums of the year and the NPR “Books We Love” tool. (I also take recommendations!) A good list is a place to wander and wonder and see what’s out there. It isn’t about ranking things, it’s about learning. I know my book lists are in a rough order, but I’m not here to say that’s right — it’s just what works for me at the moment. A ranking isn’t what I want during list season. I just want to discover a few wonderful things.
A Heavy Metal Roundup
For a good while this year, I wasn’t feeling especially jazzed about new heavy metal. This is not to say that good metal hasn’t been released. It definitely has! I come not to criticize, but instead to say that sometimes I just want to listen to something big, ridiculous, and cheesy. I’ve had my somber fun for this year — the new Insomnium and Tomb Mold records are both great — but as a fan of ‘80s trad metal, I like a good time with classic metal sounds, too.