Mine for yours: My favorite fiction, poetry, non-fiction, film, art, and internet of 2017

23 Comments

1. 

   _Black_Acrylic

   December 12, 2017 at 12:33 pm

   I had an idea for relaunching Yuck ‘n Yum as a business – like maybe hiving off the business part and renaming it as YNY similar to a fashion diffusion line, with a new domain name but keeping its list of artist contacts and distinctive aesthetic. I dunno, this would need to be negotiated with other group members and have Fleet Collective input but it strikes me as having potential. Something to think about for the new year methinks.

   Anyway here’s my best of 2017!

   Film:

   In keeping with the list of Cahiers du Cinema, I’ll go for Twin Peaks: The Return which I think is the best of anything this year. The DVD’s been requested from Santa so I can watch it all again in a few weeks’ time.

   Fiction:

   David Keenan – This Is Memorial Device
   Jen George – The Babysitter At Rest
   Meghan Lamb -Silk Flowers

   Nonfiction:

   Cosey Fanni Tutti – Art Sex Music

   Music:

   F Ingers – Awkwardly Blissing Out
   Dopplereffekt – Cellular Automata
   Nina Kraviz – fabric 91

   Art:

   Anthea Hamilton – Kettles Yard (Hepworth Wakefield)

   Internet: I really like a Twitter feed called Clickbait Robot that’s kept me supplied with retweet fodder over the course of the year.

   Reply
2. 

   David Ehrenstein

   December 12, 2017 at 2:32 pm

   MY but you get to see and hear a lot, Dennis! Thanks for the plug!

   Don’t know that new movie by Ken and Flo at all, but love their son Azazel’s The Lovers with Debra Winger and Tracy Letts. My
   favorite movie this year is BPM *Beats Per Minute_ but I also love ,Purge This Land, Blade Runner 2049, Call Me By Your Name, Kedi, Ladybird, In the Fade, A Quiet Passion, The Post, Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool, Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992,Visages Villages, Obit, Norman, Frantz, Four Days in France, After Louie, Happy End,, Tom of Finland, Handsome Devil and Wonderstruck.

   I don’t listen to much new music. Nothing worth noting. No poetry or fiction either but non-fiction: The Ballad of John Latouche

   Here’s a new NYROB piece on Goethe

   Reply
3. 

   Steve Erickson

   December 12, 2017 at 3:40 pm

   My deadline for my Gay City News top 10 films list is Thursday, and I consider that to be the “official” one, but I will only be seeing one new film between now and then, something from the large pile of screeners and video links I received (I haven’t decided what.) But I turned in a top 10 list to RogerEbert.com yesterday. I can’t swear this won’t change, but here goes:

   1. GET OUT (Jordan Peele)
   2. NOCTURAMA (Bertrand Bonello)
   3. WORMWOOD (Errol Morris)
   4. PERSONAL SHOPPER (Olivier Assayas)
   5. STARLESS DREAMS (Mehrdad Oskouei()
   6. RAW (Julia Ducournau)
   7. I hate myself :.) (Joanna Arnow)
   8. THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE (Aki Kaurismaki)
   9. THE SHAPE OF WATER (Guillermo del Toro)
   10. MARJORIE PRIME (Michael Almereyeda)

   The GCN list will include my runners-up, favorite undistributed films, and least favorite films of the year.

   I have a tentative music top 10 list now, but I am not making it public right now. There are some releases I still want to hear, and I have about 21 contenders for 10 slots. When it’s done (probably early next week), I plan to do another extensive set of runners-up, with singles, EPS and reissues on my blog and post the link on social media.

   Reply
4. 

   Tosh Berman

   December 12, 2017 at 5:18 pm

   Love your list! For me, it’s a great reference or shopping list. I just finished reading the Richard Lloyd book and did a “Tosh Talks” on it, as well as a piece on my blog. Of course, I love the new Sparks’ album. For me, it has been a rich year of listening and reading delights. I even went out to see some flicks in a real movie theater! “The Other Side of Hope” & “Personal Shopper” is fantastic, and I LOVE “Dawson City.” Also, I saw the two John Wick films. I like the first better than the second, but still pretty great. And thank you for the honor of being on your list with respect to my blog/site!

   Reply
5. 

   Toniok

   December 12, 2017 at 5:43 pm

   Hello Dennis!!

   Your lists! Awesome. Mine:

   Books
   ‘The Boats of the Glen Carrig’ – William Hope Hodgson
   ‘Norstrilia’ – Cordwainer Smith
   ‘Le Voyage des morts’ – François Augiéras
   ‘The Third Generation’ – Chester Himes
   ‘Two Serious Ladies & Plain Pleasures’ – Jane Bowles
   ‘The Cool World’ – Warren Miller
   ‘Allan Stein’ – Matthew Stadler

   Music
   ‘El alma dormida’ – Lapido
   ‘Death Song’ – The Black Angels
   ‘Is This the Life We Really Want?’ – Roger Waters
   ‘Dadá estuvo aquí’ – Chencho Fernández
   ‘Beat Kamerlanden’ Vulk

   Movies & Tv
   ‘Twin Peaks’
   ‘Like Cattle Towards Glow’
   ‘Channel Zero’
   ‘Your Name’
   ‘American Gods’
   ‘Get Out’
   ‘Logan’

   DC’s
   Pop-Up Books Day
   Spotlight on … Matthew Stadler ‘Allan Stein’
   ‘Dunce Codex (Yellow)’ (for Zac)
   Spotlight on … Julio Cortázar ‘Blow Up and other Stories’ (1968)
   Sypha presents … Voyager en Soi-Même: a Tribute to J.K. Huysmans’ Là-Bas
   Hirokazu Kore-eda Day
   James Nulick presents … 14 Beginnings

   Reply
6. 

   Bill

   December 12, 2017 at 6:04 pm

   Ah, it’s that time of the year again! Look forward to spending quality time with all the unfamiliar items on your list, Dennis.

   As usual, some 2016 items will slip in…

   Favorite books (a dark list for the most part, for a dark year):

   Mariana Enriquez, Things We Lost in the Fire
   Eugene Lim, Dear Cyborgs
   New Juche, Mountainhead
   M. Kitchell, Hour of the Wolf (redesign)
   Daniel Kehlmann, You Should Have Left
   Samantha Schweblin, Fever Dream
   Nat Baldwin, The Red Barn
   Gwendolyn Kiste, And Her Smile will Untether the Universe
   Jonathan Hickman, The Black Monday Murders Vol. 1
   Dan Nicoletta, LGBT: San Francisco
   N.J. Campbell, Found Audio
   Tim Rutherford-Johnson, Music after the Fall
   Percival Everett, So Much Blue
   Emily Cataneo, Speaking to Skull Kings
   Leonora Carrington, Complete Stories
   Dodie Bellamy and Kevin Killian, Writers who Love too much
   Herve Guibert, Crazy for Vincent
   Aimee Parkison, Refrigerated Music for a Gleaming Woman

   Favorite movies:

   Beach Rats
   BPM (guilty pleasure category)
   Killing of a Sacred Deer
   Raw
   T2 (more guilty pleasure)
   Marjorie Prime
   The Untamed
   Endless Poetry
   Get Out
   My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea
   Personal Shopper

   [Music list later…]

   Bill

   Reply
   • 

     Steve Erickson

     December 12, 2017 at 10:04 pm

     Why is BPM a guilty pleasure? It’s a fine film.

     Reply
     • 

       Bill

       December 13, 2017 at 7:23 am

       I’m such a target market for BPM. It’s not possible for me to be objective about it.

       Bill

       Reply
7. 

   Jeff J

   December 12, 2017 at 6:49 pm

   hey Dennis –
   I always look forward to these lists — yours and everyone else’s. Glad to see the tradition continue.

   More than usual, I feel like I’m playing catchup with culture this year. I was surprised to see the new Pere Ubu on your list. It’s gotten so little press that I’d forgotten it was released. It’s one of their best efforts in a while? I’d only skimmed the Alex G album, so I’ll give that one a closer spin. (Love the Destroyer and Gas albums – need to explore many of the others)

   I’d been meaning to ask you if you’d seen ‘Song to Song’! I also really liked it. To me, it felt like a bit of a retrenchment – trying to foreground narrative more without abandoning the editing style he’s achieved. What were your thoughts on it?

   Some favorites *not* already on your lists —

   Books:
   – ‘Absolutely Golden’ by D. Foy
   Surprised this has flown below the radar of all the yearend lists so far. I loved it, thought it was a real departure, a deeply odd swirling comedic fantasia. Have you read it?
   – ‘Atlantic Island’ by Tony Duvert
   You preferred the other Duvert book released this year? Need to read that.
   – ‘These Possible Lives’ by Fleur Jaeggy
   – ‘Lay Ghost’ by Nathaniel Mackey
   – ‘Ghost of Birds’ by Eliot Weinberger
   – ‘Evening at the Talkhouse’ by Wallace Shawn

   Music:
   – Jason Moran ‘Bangs’
   – Protomartyr ‘Relatives in Descent’
   – Burial ‘ Beachfires/Subtemple’
   – Midori Takada ‘ Through the Looking Glass’
   – Slowdive ‘Slowdive’
   partly for the sublime live show

   Movies:
   – Twin Peaks: The Return
   – Nocturama
   – Personal Shopper
   – Faces Places
   – Certain Women
   – Baby Driver
   – I Called Him Morgan
   So many new films I still need to see…

   Reply
8. 

   Steve Erickson

   December 12, 2017 at 10:03 pm

   My doctor said I have a muscle spasm. He can’t predict how long it will take to heal. He says I should take long hot showers. He also prescribed a painkiller and a muscle relaxant. The latter may make me very tired. If that happens, I should only take it in the late evening. He gave me the names of both drugs, but I’d never heard of them. I will pick up the prescriptions around 5:30. I am pretty sure they are not opioids, because he said “Keep taking them till the pain ends.” I am supposed to leave for my parents’ house in 11 days, but I doubt the muscle will heal by then, so I am gonna call Amtrak Thursday to try and get a refund on my tickets.

   Reply
9. 

   Amphibiouspeter

   December 12, 2017 at 10:06 pm

   Hey DC,

   You’ve mentioned New Juche a bunch of times on here and so I think I really really need to pick that up. Not sure I’ve seen a whole load of things this year, or at least not stuff that came out this year, but I did really enjoy Death of Stalin – love anything by Armando Iannucci. I went to see MIA this summer and that was amazing.

   Wow, that is a pretty cool skill to have. Bleary is a good word as well. I think there’s definitely a trend in performance and venues in the UK where there’s a total lack of complexity atm. That’s not that there aren’t artists who make complex work, but there’s this thing of clear and simple messages, and I think venues see that as much safer to programme. But I would have thought that with documentation of a finished work and a touring record and things that you would be able to get some traction. But yeah, despite a great community, it can feel pretty dead here sometimes.

   Thanks for the advice and taking the time to offer it. If you are interested and eventually get a centimetre of headroom I’ve got it up on a blog here – it could probably do with an edit: https://amphibiouspeter.svbtle.com/shftd-3

   As always, thanks for the post and have a good day!

   Reply
10. 

    MyNeighbourJohnTurturro

    December 12, 2017 at 10:41 pm

    Hi Dennis, my list had been prepared for a couple of weeks. It’s sonly similar to yours it looks like I’m taking the piss. Anyway, these things kept my head above water in 2017.

    Music
    1. Chino Amobi – Paradiso
    2. Oxbow – The Thin Black Duke
    3. Impossible Nothing – Phonemenomicon
    4. Emptyset – Borders
    5. William Basinski – A Shadow in Time
    6. Pharmakon – Contact
    7. Alex G – Rocket
    8. Sendai – Ground and Figure
    9. Blanck Mass – World Eaters
    10. Skullflower – The Black Iron That Has…
    11. Abu Lahab – Amhdaar
    12. Dopplereffekt- Cellular Automata
    13. GAS -Narkopop
    14 . Stormzy – Gang Signs and Prayer
    15. Wire – SILVER / LEAD
    16. Oh Sees – Orc
    17. UUUU – UUUU
    18. Irreversible Entanglements – Irreversible Entanglements
    19. JLin – Black Origami
    20. Arca – Arca

    Film
    1. Twin Peaks: The Return – David Lynch
    2. Malgre la Nuit – Phillipe Grandieux
    4. Zama – Lucretia Martel
    5. Raw – Julia Ducournau
    6. Thelma – Joachim Trier
    7. Get Out – Jordan Peele
    8. Nelyubov – Andrey Zvyagintsev
    9. Song To Song – Terrence Malick
    10. Sleep Has Her House – Scott Barley
    12. OKJA – Bong Joon- Ho
    13. Kuso – Flying Lotus
    14. The Killing of A Sacred Deer – Yorgos Lanthimos
    15. The Ornithologist – Joao Pedro Rodriguez
    16. It Comes At Night – Trey Edward Shultz
    17. Moonlight – Barry Jenkins
    18. Lady Macbeth – William Oldroyd

    Reply
11. 

    Mark Gluth

    December 12, 2017 at 10:46 pm

    Hey Dennis, How goes it? Man I always look forward to your EOY lists, and this year’s as great as any. I need to catch up on new books and your list will help more towards that goal quite well. What’s up? Mancy and I collaborated on a book of short fiction (me) and images (he) which should be coming out on Permanent Sleep, sometime in 18. Also, I’m writing a book I think has a home with Monsieur Salerno, and this other book which is homeless or yet to be homed. Aside from Twin Peaks, Lady Bird, and the Meyorowitz Stories(New and Selected) my list is all music.
    Take Care!
    Mark

    Orchetre National De France, conducted by Riccardo Muti: Tchaikovski, Symphonie No 6 ‘Pathetic Synmphony’

    William Basinski: A Shadow In Time
    Max Richter: Three Worlds
    Tobin Sprout: The Universe And Me
    Denis Kozhukhin: Brahms, Ballads and fantasies
    Visible Cloaks: Reassemblage
    Bing & Ruth: No Home Of The Mind
    Sarah Davachi: All My Circles Run
    Jacasek: KWIATY
    Lea Bertucci: All That Is Solid Melts Into Air
    Mount Eerie: A Crow Looked At Me
    Craig Finn: We All Want The Same Things
    Various Artists: Mono No Aware
    Daniel Brandt: Eternal Something
    Clark: Death Peak, Rellik EP
    Valgeir Sigurosson: Dissonance
    Jlin: Black Origami
    Slowdive: Slowdive
    Burial: Subtemple/Beachfires, Rodent, Pre dawn/Indoors
    Chuck Johnson: Balsalms
    Ellen Arkbro: For Organ And Brass
    Patricia: Several Shades Of The Same Color
    Jana Rush: Pariah
    Sparks: Hippopotamus
    Protomartyr: Relatives In Descent
    Laraaji: Sun Gong
    Dmitry Evgrafov: Comprehension Of Light
    Alessandro Cortini:Avanti
    Tyshawn Sorey: Verisimilitude

    Reply
12. 

    MyNeighbourJohnTurturro

    December 12, 2017 at 11:03 pm

    It’s worth pointing out that the epic new Prurient release is kind of magnificent, but it’s too early to put on the list.

    Reply
13. 

    h

    December 13, 2017 at 3:32 am

    Hi Dennis, thank you for the great list! And others’ lists are very interesting too. I think I have a few book, film, exhibition things I loved, but I really can’t type much now. So wanting to read Douglas Crase’s new poetry book up there. Hm, I don’t see A place in the sun — maybe I just missed it? I think Leonora Carrington’s Complete Stories and that book are my favorite books this year. Filmwise, Ornithologist is still my favorite. And there’s a short experimental film called “See a dog, hear a dog.” And I enjoyed Peter Gidal show in one of nyu’s galleries here, and Carol Rama one in New Museum. Oh, Alvin Lucier show was really impressive. Till soon!! Sorry for being messy and quick.

    Reply
14. 

    Misanthrope

    December 13, 2017 at 4:22 am

    Dennis! Have you wondered where I’ve been? No wondering anymore: I’ve been nowhere and I’m going nowhere.

    I tell you, my man, one night of fucked up sleep just fucking wrecks me anymore. I’ve barely been on the interwebs since Wednesday night. Kept falling out so early Thursday through Sunday, and I completely mismanaged my time last night. Ugh. It’s not weariness or fatigue or underlying illness. The day just makes me really tired. Or did on Thursday when I barely slept the night before, and then it just continued on and on until the break of dawn.

    No, I don’t have my tonsils. If you remember, I had terrible middle ear problems growing up (as well as allergies). They took my adenoids out when I was 2 and decided to swipe my tonsils at the same time, the fuckers.

    Man, nothing new here for me re: this day and giving back.

    I like this new show The Orville. It’s the only one I regularly watch, along with Curb Your Enthusiasm and Tosh.0.

    I’m getting into this band called J. Roddy Walston and the Business. You’d hate them. Too trad and rock and Americana and folky and country sounding. But I like them.

    I’m currently reading Will Self’s Shark, which is pretty damned good, in my not so humble opinion.

    Otherwise, nothing really new for me Art-wise. Well, except for stuff you daily introduce me to.

    I’m seeing Call Me by Your Name on Saturday night in Bethesda, MD, and then seeing the new Star Wars in Alexandria, VA on Sunday in the afternoon. My weekend is booked. 😀

    Reply
15. 

    Sypha

    December 13, 2017 at 6:50 am

    Dennis, sorry I’ve been missing in action as well. It’s just, as you know, as a retail worker, this time of year is my busy time… though of course, with so many people shopping online now, it’s not as hectic as it used to be.

    It’s still too soon for me to do my EOY list, but I’ll probably have the results come the very end of the year (still a few more 2017 books I want to sneak in these last few weeks). I will say that I’ve read (and enjoyed) some of the books you mention today, chiefly “The Disintegrations,” “Captagon,” the Leonora Carrington book, and Kevin Killian’s “Tony Greene Era.”

    I hope to see the new Star Wars film this weekend, but I don’t think it’ll beat out IT as my favorite film of the year… not that I’ve seen many new films this year!

    Reply
16. 

    Bill

    December 13, 2017 at 7:33 am

    Favorite art (skimpy list, I know):

    Bruce Conner at SFMOMA, San Francisco
    Jonas Burgert at Blain Southern, Berlin
    Lynn Hershman at Yerba Buena, San Francisco
    [I haven’t seen the Isaac Julien video installations at Fort Mason; would probably be on this list]

    Favorite live music:

    Radian at the Lab, SF
    Urbanski conducts SF Symphony, Shostakovich 10th Symphony
    Dax Pierson, Kaoru Suzuki and Puce Mary at SF Electronic Music Festival
    Michael Tan (piano) plays Messiaen, Boulez, Finnissy, Sciarrino at Center for New Music
    Chris Heenan/Emilio Gordoa/Casey Moir at Sowieso, Berlin
    Chris Heenan/Emilio Gordoa/Boris Baltschun/Michael Vorfeld at Chris’ house, Berlin
    Paul Clipson etc at SFMOMA
    Antoine Schmitt/Franck Vigroux audiovisual concert at Gray Area, SF
    SF Contemporary Music Players plays L’histoire du soldat, w. Peter Evans/Bruckmann/Winant

    [Favorite recordings in a day or two…]

    Bill

    Reply
17. 

    Nik

    December 13, 2017 at 7:38 am

    Hey Dennis!

    How’ve you been? What’ve you been up to lately? I’ve been totally swamped this semester with directing and obligatory homework, so I’m just now getting a chance to catch up on the blog. Fortunately, I’m just in time for mine for yours! Fantastic list, I’ll be check out a lot of these tomorrow. I totally fell in love with the new Twin Peaks like everyone else, and really loved the new Padgett and Juche. Also, that collection of Kiddiepunk zines was a total blast. Otherwise, I watched and read a lot of older movies and books. The only thing I actively keep up with is music, so here’s the albums I think are the best from this year (the first two being major favorites):

    Pile – A Hairshirt of Purpose
    Spirit of the Beehive – Pleasure Suck
    Foxygen – Hang
    Blue Smiley – return
    Peasent – Richard Dawson
    Ariel Pink – Dedicated to Bobby Jameson
    John Maus – Screen Memories
    Gas – Narkopop
    Pharmakon – Contact
    Deaf Kids – Configuração do Lamento
    (SANDY) Alex G – Rocket
    Xiu Xiu – Forget
    Buy Muy Drugs – Buy Muy Drugs
    Alex Cameron – Forced Witness
    Giant Claw – Soft Channel
    A Giant Dog – Toy
    Jefre Cantu-Ledesma – Echoing Green
    Brandon Can’t Dance – Graveyard of Good Times
    Christian Fitness – Slap Bass Hunks

    Reply
18. 

    Schlix

    December 13, 2017 at 9:13 am

    Books:
    Thomas Bernhard – Breath + In The Cold + …
    Peter Sloterdijk – Derrida, An Egypt
    Nathalie Sarraute – Tropisms
    Hans-Ulrich Treichel – The Lost
    Italo Calcino – If on a winters night a traveler
    Juliet Escoria – Black Cloud
    Gilles Deleuze – Nietzsche
    Ludwig Wittgenstein – Philosophical investigations
    Didier Eribon – Retour a Reims
    Marguerite Duras – Emily L. / Ten-Thirty on a summers night

    Live:
    Alvin Lucier – I am sitting in a room / Vespers (The long now festival, Berlin)
    Morton Feldman – Patterns in a chromatic field (The long now, Berlin)
    Catherine Crister Hennix – Zinc and Copper (The long now, Berlin)
    Japandroids (Zoom, Frankfurt)
    Boris (Das Bett, Frankfurt)
    Iancu Dumitrescu (Atonal, Berlin)
    Puce Mary (Atonal, Berlin)
    Belong (Atonal, Berlin)
    Pan Daijing (Atonal, Berlin)
    Swans (Berghain, Berlin)
    Crowd (Maillon, Strasbourg)

    Albums:
    Sarah Louise – Solo Acoustic
    Marisa Anderson – Into the light
    The Necks – Unfold
    Stephen O`Malley – End ground
    Caterina Barbieri – Patterns of Consciousness
    Destroyer – Ken
    The Mountain Goats – Goths
    Wire – Silver/Lead
    William Basinski – A Shadow of Time
    Boris – Dear
    Elodie – Traces Ephemeres
    Valerio Tricoli – Clonic Earth

    Reply
19. 

    Schlix

    December 13, 2017 at 9:21 am

    Dennis,
    above are my lists written in a hurry, I am late, hopefully not too late.
    I wanted to write you earlier especially to give you a long feedback and praise for Crowd in Strasbourg. But when we came back I got sick really bad and when I gained some strenght again – then I got sick again even worse.
    See you tomorrow for re:Crowd and Re:endoftheyearlists.

    Reply
20. 

    Andrew Gallix

    December 16, 2017 at 5:42 pm

    What a lovely surprise! Thanks so much.

    Reply
21. 

    1

    December 16, 2017 at 10:20 pm

    post your mubi/goodreads/spotify links if you got ’em D! you might like cymbal.fm too!

    Reply