Similar to last year’s top 23 of 2023, below are my top 24 of 2024. They’re gathered into groups, but are otherwise not in a particular order or ranked and, frankly, it’s just all the stuff that came to the top of my head. Just some cultural and personal stuff that stuck with me, I guess!

Things I Did Personally

1. David and Jonathan

I’m proud of this piece – the story, the images, the way you traverse both – and it’s still available to check out. If there’s one thing I made this year that I’d love you to look at, it’s David and Jonathan. I think it’s something really special.

2. Working with Breaking the Binary

In May I was invited to Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company to collaborate with a team of trans theatre practitioners as a part of Breaking the Binary’s BTB Across America. We developed my play, The Great Impresario Boris Lermontov Would Like To Invite You To Dinner and I’m so grateful for how generous the team was. Breaking the Binary also worked with me to prioritize various COVID mitigation measures, which allowed for multiple high risk and COVID cautious practitioners to participate. It can be done!

3. I changed my government name

I mean this is pretty straightforward (though the process was anything but). Feels good! If you’re looking to do the same in DC, feel free to hit me up with questions.

4. I got a 600 OneStep Polaroid camera

I cannot understate how working with a finicky camera like this 1990s Polaroid one teaches you to pay attention to framing, and think carefully about what you’re seeing in your head and how to actually translate that to the film. It’s been a great exercise this year and has helped me be patient (this film’s expensive!) and more present.

Food

5. Palak tofu recipe

Found a damn good palak tofu recipe (if you double the spices). It’s becoming a regular rotation at my apartment and we haven’t tired of it yet. If you want the recipe, reply and I’ll send it your way! (It’s naturally vegan and gluten free if that’s important to you.)

6. Savor by Suzie Roasted garlic and herb pretzels

One of my DnD friends brought Savor by Suzie’s Roasted Garlic and Herb Pretzels and I inhaled half a bag. They are incredible, they are celiac safe, I lthink about them every day.

Art

7. Revolutions at the Hirshhorn Museum

Got to see some great art this year, and these were two pieces from Revolutions: Art from the Hirshhorn Collection that jumped to mind for me.

Mis Cuatro Gracias (Brendan, Camilo, Carlos, Jorge), 2018 by Aliza Nisenbaum

Lipstick, Lip Gloss, Hickeys Too, 2022 by Flora Yukhnovich

Books (new to me this year)

8. The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez 

The book I will wholeheartedly recommend to everyone, even the people I’m not sure will like it. The last few pages meant the world to me. The Spear Cuts Through Water doesn’t shy away from the violence of its world, but it also deeply celebrates love. We have done terrible things and we can care for each other regardless.

9. The Minotaur at Calle Lanze by Zito Madu

During the 2020 lockdown, Zito meanders through the streets of Venice and his memories. Just an incredible way to write a memoir. 

10. Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

I don’t just leave spiders alone now, I actively try to find them good homes in my apartment.

11. Hell Is A World Without You by Jason Kirk

This book hit for me largely because I also was a ~ 90s kid who grew up in a conservative church that bullied me into having still lingering, god-tinged intrusive thoughts… but I honestly think it’d hit for people without that specific experience. Another celebration of who we can be in spite of and because of where we came from.

Film (new to me this year)

12. Perfect Days (2024)

I want to be more present in my daily life.

13. Dahomey (2024)

Dahomey features the voice of an artifact who, along with 25 others, is being returned from France to its home country of Benin. Students debate the significance of this act in light of the original thievery, artifacts that have yet to be returned, and their daily concerns. An excellent documentary and I’ll watch anything Mati Diop makes.

14. I Saw The TV Glow (2024)

Is anyone surprised? Plenty of people have elegantly written about the narrative of this film, but I also find myself constantly thinking of the way Schoenbrun transforms everyday settings and objects (upside down tables in a school cafeteria at night, a billowing tent and projector, an arcade bathroom) into alien landscapes. Places we’ve seen all our lives, but don’t fully belong in.

15. Monster (2023)

A movie that’s hard to talk about without revealing too much. Monster uncovers fuller truths as each act progresses through the perspectives of a mother, a teacher, and a young boy. Simply beautiful, both narratively and directorially, with skillful performances.

16. Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985)

This is also theatre, you should watch it, maybe my favorite of the Paul Schrader films I’ve seen thus far (though ask me again after I rewatch First Reformed). Mishima believed art without action can’t change anything and I’m frankly inclined to believe him, even if our values diverge drastically. In the film Schrader plays with Mishima’s life and his work, stitching them together masterfully. Also it’s scored by Philip Glass.

17. My Cousin Vinny (1992)

I’m embarrassed to admit I didn’t see this until 2024, but it of course immediately became a top movie for me. 

18. RestFest Film Festival

I’m always pleased when a film festival is still offering online options, and I was happy to discover the RestFest Film Festival this year. I’ll be keeping a look out for more work from Kym McDaniel, Sunniva Innstrand, Madison Shaw, Sop, ann haeyoung, and Jamila Prowse.

Honorable mention: look, please watch Baby Assassins and Baby Assassins 2. Just trust me.

Theatre

19. Riot: The Beat of Freddie Gray, written and performed by Ty’Ree Hope Davis

I feel so lucky that my work at Young Playwrights’ Theater means I get to support and see new work by young artists like Ty’Ree. Riot was an interactive solo show told from the perspective of Freddie Gray and a young student from Baltimore. Ty’Ree’s writing and performance were engaging, and the audience was fully invested. It was incredible to watch.

20. Lab Rats

CirqueSaw has been creating interactive digital performances since 2020, and Lab Rats clearly continues to build on that experience from the last four years. Lab Rats is the first interactive show that I felt I had full autonomy in, despite playing a rat in a cage. As my fellow rats and I worked together to escape the lab, the scientist/our all-powerful parental figure (Nicole Orabona) begged us to return to the cage with promises of treats and threats of zappies. By the end of the piece I genuinely felt SO combative - I can’t remember the last time a theatre piece pulled such a specific, unfettered response and emotion out of me. 

TV(ish)

21. All the TV everyone liked

Like most years, there was TV this year. Along with most everyone else, I enjoyed quite a bit of it including (in no particular order) Shōgun, Slow Horses, GBBO, My Adventures with Superman, 3 Body Problem, Outer Range, What We Do In The Shadows, Taskmaster, Hacks, Game Changer, House of the Dragon, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Girsl5Eva, Delicious in Dungeon, and Arcane. (This is not cheating because I made this newsletter so I can get to decide how it works.)

22. The Stromae song in Arcane Season 2

It’s a bop, I’m listening to it on repeat.

23. There’s a person on TikTok who does live recreations of old Muppet Show episodes with Legos

One of the less weird TikTok lives I’ve come across and I watch it for a while every time.

24. Stick Nation

Cool sticks! I Just Think They’re Neat.

And when it comes to this newsletter itself y’all most liked the following two posts. Great opp to forward them to your friends if you think someone else would like to read silly stuff like these!

Thanks for hanging with me, see y’all in 2025!