Best Stuff of 2022
As always, I’m writing about the material and media things I most enjoyed during the year. Let me know yours in the comments!
Random Stuff
MidJourney
In early December with the release of version 4, I finally saw the A.I. image generation tool get results I was interested in, so I tried it while all my friends were using it for cool profile pics. But this app is much more than the latest fad for profile pics.
I have a vivid imagination I’ve spent my life trying to learn to express to others.
I also have:
- Coding skills
- Experience writing detailed queries for search engines and other tools
- PhotoShop chops
- A Bachelor of Arts that includes formal training in art history, life drawing, anatomy, light and camera work, visual media theory, 3D modeling, texturing, environmental design, etc.
What I don’t have:
- Painting skills
- Physical dexterity or endurance for using my hands for long periods of time
- Money to hire professionals to do this stuff for me
So this tool is a godsend for me. I’m looking at it as a new tool in my arsenal for design. I’m going to hone my skills with it the same way I do for Adobe software, 3D Studio MAX, AutoCAD, or any other software tool I’ve used. I’m excited to use some of what I create here on my website once I’m done playing with photos of my friends and I to practice.
Here’s some of my practice work after my first weekend with it: https://www.midjourney.com/app/collections/DzBCbewbTqupwijfDEDSlg/
Controversy About A.I. Tools
Like I said, I consider MidJourney a design tool. I give the people who complain about this taking work away from artists the same credence I gave the people who argued PhotoShop and Quark would kill professional graphic design. (very little)
I spent over $2000 of mid-2000’s fresh college graduate during a recession money getting three images made for my Animosity game design I was pitching to investors. I later put them on my blog in my Animosity fiction series when I ran out of time and money to keep investing in trying to get the project funded. If I had MidJourney back then, I could’ve generated the basic starter concept art for my game much more easily, perhaps gotten funded and had the cash to hire those artists full time to start making actual usable 2D and 3D art for my game.
Point: We still need professional artists. I still want to pay them for their true worth. I still do when I can. But huge projects like the game design I spent a decade of my life obsessing about just hit a dead end without funding if we can’t get over the proof-of-concept hump. If I can do some of it myself using computer readable versions of the same prompts I was giving my concept artists prompts like “Draw/paint it sort of like Sam Kieth’s The Maxx but with cleaner structure and a more cell-shaded color expression.” All art uses reference from existing art. No one creates in a vacuum.
One solution to trying to regulate the work being created in these tools is disallowing proper names in prompts, but that alone isn’t enough. Eventually we get into thought-crime territory and enforceability is always questionable for intent.
The real issues with A.I. tools are based in privacy (as always) and embedding human biases (stereotypes, lack of representation, cultural erasure) into the A.I.’s core code. Those are real concerns, and I believe we need to work to ensure we fix them and remain vigilant and mindful as we create to not perpetuate harmful content.
This is probably a whole post at some point. Personally, I hope these discussions help us reform IP laws in general. I believe the idea of an organization owning an idea and not letting anyone else use it over a long term does more harm for humanity than good.
Clothes!
Trying out this new category this year, since I don’t buy a lot of clothing and when I do I keep it for a long time. Let me know if you like this bit and maybe I’ll do it again next year!
Cherry Picks Overalls
I bought 4 different overalls from Cherry Picks and love them all. They’re comfy, cute, and they’ve held up well in machine washes so far. I’ve been trying to find cute lightweight (not the heavy duty ones for workers who wear tool belts) overalls that fit me for a couple years. These are just right!
ANRABESS Long Sleeveless Split Maxi Dress with Pockets
This basic sleeveless maxi dress is super comfy, cool in hot weather, and comes in like 30 different styles. I wore it several times over the Summer this year and felt cute each time. (Amazon)
Fuck Putin Magnetic Pin from Midnight Studio SF
Midnight Studio SF has tons of great accessories. She even made me a custom everything bagel necklace for my Everything Everywhere All At Once Halloween costume! Check out her site regularly because she’s always creating new cool stuff and each item feels unique and special! Most of her products donate portions of their cost toward great causes.
More to Come!
I wish I could buy more clothing this year. My bookmarks list is overflowing as I wait for my finances to recover from some surprise expenses this year. But when I get them, I’ll share my favorites again next year!
Magic: The Gathering Stuff
Magic: The Gathering Secret Lair – Kelogsloops
I buy so too many Magic cards every year, but this year my favorite purchase was this artist collaboration with Kelogsloops, an artist I’ve been following for a few years now. I think these cards are among the most beautiful ones ever printed, and they’re my favorite new Magic purchase this year.
- Kelogsloops on Instagram
- Kelogsloops on DeviantArt
- Kelogsloops on YouTube
- Kelogsloops on Tumblr
- The Kelogsloops Secret Lair on TCGplayer
- The MTG Secret Lair Info Page (ordering no longer available)
Jolyne Kujo Custom Alter by Sumomo Cards
I’ve been loving the Stone Ocean chapter of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, and Jolyne is my freaking hero! So when Magic printed an interesting and fairly appropriately themed commander in Jolene, the Plunder Queen I was compelled to commission this alter.
Sumomo Cards (aka Flávia Helena) is professional and talented. Her work is clean and consistent. She’s especially great with manga style illustrations. When I received my alter in the mail, it even came with a couple extras from other up and coming artists for no additional fee! I recommend her highly.
MPCfill
I hesitate to share all the tools I use to create proxies — because Wizards of the Coast wants to spend more time and effort on litigation than on making sure everyone can play their game — but MPCfill is an excellent one I’ve been using for many of mine. You can enter the name of any Magic card (including some which’ve never been attainable by regular people) and it will serve you a variety of options. Some mimic the official cards, but also many from fan artists to use as a sort of custom skin for play pieces.
Proxying has made it possible for me to create clearly written playable game pieces. I feel more comfortable carrying my Commander decks around the city, traveling with them through TSA checkpoints, lending them out to friends, or simply playing with them without the fear of wear & tear. I can leave my expensive cards at home and still play my casual decks with them in the list. I can own one copy of Gaea’s Cradle (currently a $915 card) and still have it in three of my Commander decks without re-sleeving it constantly.
I am militantly pro-proxy, and I’ll keep banging this drum in other articles and Magic content, so I’ll leave the topic here for now. MPCfill is a great tool for proxying, which makes it great for accessible casual Magic.
InfiniTokens
I got tired of carrying around a huge box of all the tokens my growing collection of Commander decks use, and I needed a solution for keeping track of all the ridiculous different types of counters I was using for my Janky Perrie deck. I took the endorsements of The Professor and several others and got InfiniTokens!
They’ve been awesome. They provide a fun way to clearly indicate what’s happening on the table while also providing some fun opportunities for expression. Sometimes we’ve even had our friends who were spectating our games do the drawings for us and they get to be part of the game. I recommend grabbing both the tokens and counters packs as well as the color variety marker pack and an eraser.
Movies
Everything Everywhere All At Once (Prime Video)
I’ve watched EEAAO in theaters four times, and watched it at home three in less than a year. It’s so fun, heartbreakingly real, and dense with content and detail. I’m simply in love with this movie. It hits me on so many levels, and each person I talk to about it has their own unique takes and the many themes of the film support them! It’s mind-blowingly universal while simultaneously being so weird.
Sometimes I worry my enthusiasm makes me hype my favorite movies up too much and people going in to watch it for the first time may be underwhelmed because they’re not seeing it the way I did — expecting nothing. I’m not guarded about Everything Everywhere All At Once. There is no chance anyone I talk with about movies will be disappointed or underwhelmed by this one.
Wakanda Forever (Disney+)
No Marvel movie arrives without a cynical eyeroll from me. It’s become the routine spectacle of theater-going. Diluted messages made palatable for a calculated combination of mass appeal and appeasement of authoritarian regimes in global markets. There’s nothing inherently wrong with mass appeal, but it certainly sets expectations pretty low for a movie to take me to unexpected or truly emotionally intense places.
While I empathize with fans and believe Chadwick Boseman was a pretty great person from as much as I can tell without meeting him, I don’t generally get attached to celebrities the way I’ve seen others do with him. But I didn’t have to for Wakanda Forever to reach me. It’s a beautiful love letter simultaneously about the man and the character he played; written, performed, and produced by people who did know him and I felt it in each moment of this movie.
They introduced a cool new interpretation of Namor. It touches on topics I never expected a Disney production to want to get near: colonization, the history of white European genocide, and how the colonized react when they have the power. How hard do they fight each other about their own competing interests while a common foe looms ready to take advantage of any opportunity their fighting provides? How do well-intentioned beneficiaries of colonization act ethically from within? How does any leader keep their people safe without succumbing to thirst for justice/revenge and perpetuating cycles of death and destruction?
Wakanda Forever doesn’t finish answering these questions, but it sets the stage for some truly interesting possibilities in the coming Marvel movies. I haven’t been this excited to see what happens next in the MCU since Captain America: Civil War.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (Netflix)
Rian Johnson’s methods work for me. His timing, tone, style, and subversion of expectations continues to crank on all cylinders for Glass Onion. I always know Johnson is toying with me before I even hit play, but I still found myself surprised multiple times, which is massively refreshing for a jaded movie-goer.
And I don’t know how they timed this release so perfectly with the fiasco of Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover, but holy crap did they hit an excellent theme at the perfect time.
Ali Wong: Don Wong (Netflix)
This is easily the best new stand-up comedy special of the year. Ali Wong is possibly the funniest comedian working today. (Honorable Mention for Hasan Minaj: The King’s Jester)
Drive My Car (Streaming Now)
Drive My Car released near the end of 2021, but I didn’t get a chance to watch it until this year. It’s based on a book by a favorite author of mine, Haruki Murakami.
If you’re familiar with Murakami, you know his style is strangely dreamy. Time can flow out of sequence. Subjective experiences of his characters are often described without concern for objective reality. Dreams, hallucinations, and fantasies blur with “real” occurrences, and the reader is often not sure when it’s happening. It can evoke the feeling of safely accompanying a protagonist while they’re on a mushroom trip.
Drive My Car does an amazing job of carrying Murakami’s style to film. It uses minimalism and negative space incredibly. The runtime is long, but its pacing isn’t wasted. It’s a heartbreaking discomforting tale with varying degrees of bittersweetness throughout. There is no pure despair or ecstasy here. Everything is blended with contextual nuance, and every character drags their past behind them like knees scraping asphalt. It’s stuck with me all year.
Bullet Train 🍿 (Netflix)
Finally, I’ll share my “popcorn movie of the year” where I simply want to be along for a fun ride. Bullet Train is an unapologetically absurd action movie that appropriates several cultures inaccurately for a joyous circus of brightly colored violence. The trailer pretty much says it all, so if you’re up for the ride it’s on Netflix now.
Movie Theme of 2022: Service Workers Are Fed Up
Near the end of the year, several movies I watched shared this theme. Service workers are treated as disposable tools and toys for the wealthy to use and throw away as they wish. They’re forced to wear fake smiles and perform theatrical acts for their customers. Those customers can do or say the most ridiculous or awful things imaginable and workers are expected to improvise and accommodate them regardless of the cost.
The Menu is a thrilling and dark comedy that tells the story of the relationships a chef has with their staff, their customers, and their own craft. Anyone who’s worked in a fancy restaurant or dined in a few of them will see familiar scenarios here, portrayed to maximum schadenfreude.
Triangle of Sadness is an absolutely insane story of a luxury cruise for some of the richest oligarchs on earth. The stage is set almost literally as the staff all prepare each other for the bullshit they’re going to have to deal with. It all goes horribly wrong because everyone on board who knows how to do anything useful is disempowered, ignored, or just completely checked out after many years on these kinds of jobs.
I found these movies cathartic as hell. As a former server/retail worker, I know how the staff in these movies feel all too well. As an underappreciated worker at the highest level of “actually building things” in my career today, I relate strongly to the captain of the cruise ship (and fear sharing his fate regularly).
Each of us is stuck, not far from where we started. Many feel they must claw their way up and over their brethren to try to reach the next tier up the pile. And each step up correlates greater uselessness with greater income. These concepts are portrayed beautifully in both of these films and to a lesser degree in many other movies I saw this year.
TV Shows
I don’t know what to call episodic video content anymore.
- “TV” is a weird thing to call it, since I’m streaming most of this stuff
- The term “series” is too generic
- The term “show” can mean other stuff, like concerts or live theater
So fuck it. “TV Shows” it’ll stay.
New TV Shows
Severance (Apple TV)
A well-produced show with brutal symbolism and meticulous detail in every shot. A treat for anyone who appreciates subtlety, petty human tendencies, and unmatched small scale world building. Especially for those who’ve worked in an office.
It alone is well worth the Apple TV subscription fee (even if you cancel right after binging this and Ted Lasso) and I’m anxiously awaiting season 2, which will apparently take a while because of how challenging it is to produce. They can take all the time they need.
Andor (Disney+)
Andor might be the best Star Wars show ever. While Star Wars content rarely spares any expense for their visuals, this show is one of the best-looking combinations of practical and CG effects I have ever seen anywhere. The costumes, makeup, and set designs are phenomenal. It feels like it fits in the galaxy at the ephemeral time when the rebellion was building up for the events we saw in the original trilogy. If you love Rogue One like I do (my favorite Star Wars movie since the original trilogy), this show is for you.
It’s a beautifully written, extremely well-developed character drama paced masterfully for anticipation, suspense, and keeping us wondering what happens next. If you watched the first episode or two and felt “meh” about it, give it a chance. The early episodes are all about world and character building. Conflict and action come. Loose ends get tied up. You will be rewarded.
Sandman (Netflix)
Easily the most beautiful show to release this year, Neil Gaiman’s Sandman is spectacular. I was excited about this from the moment Gaiman announced he was staying closely involved the entire time. I loved the interesting TV adaptations of American Gods and Good Omens, and Sandman possibly even exceeds them.
Our Flag Means Death (HBO)
A heartwarming and silly tale of pirates, privilege, brutality, and — of course — trauma. Our Flag Means Death is the most fun depiction I’ve seen of the ways society pushes us to take on roles that don’t suit us. Echoing a theatrical style, the characters are delightfully love/hate-able. I absolutely adore it.
Peacemaker (HBO)
I am generally not a fan of DC movies (I really like some of the comics). They tend to feed into fascistic power-worshipping story arcs that look at the average human being (like me) as a formless perpetually-frightened mob in need of heavy-handed herding to avoid slaughter. This is what happens when executives who don’t go down on their wives let a lazy formulaic hack steer their brand.
Very few DC stories portray small scale life. Nothing like some of my favorite Marvel works: Jessica Jones, Daredevil, or Luke Cage. Even Spiderman tends to hang out just within the confines of New York City when he isn’t supporting an Avengers film. There’s very little humanity in their cinematic universe because of this. The Batman was pretty good, but not remarkable enough to make this list, but I digress!
Peacemaker snapped me to attention from the first episode. It made me see DC can have some actual breadth to it when it wants to hire and empower creatives like James Gunn. It’s packed with style, satire, and hilarious/realistic dialogue. It’s not just silly and violent, though those are strengths. The critiques of patriotism, white supremacy, violence, competency, trust in authority, and how the methods we take to “do the right thing” can quickly change it to the wrong thing.
With Dwayne Johnson cashing every check lately, John Cena has become my favorite ex-WWE actor, and I find myself wanting to watch everything he does.
It also has the most catchy opener for any show I’ve seen recently, which I will not spoil. It truly needs to be seen in context, in its full glory.
Seriously, even if you don’t think you’ll like it, give it an episode.
Old Enough! (Netflix)
There are few things I find more hopeful and uplifting than seeing kids given freedom and encouragement by caring parents to become confident and independent. This show is the best kind of reality TV. The parents are terrified and relieved. The kids are scared and encounter challenges but usually succeed. It’s beautiful.
Tokyo Vice (HBO)
I don’t know if this show would be as enjoyable for others as it is for me, but it hits me on so many cross-sections of interests. I’m a Japanophile who loves mafia movies and media about investigative reporting based on real events. I love humanizing stories about the underground parts of urban societies and moral grey areas. I love seeing corrupt officials punished. If you’re similarly interested, maybe give this a shot!
F-Boy Island (HBO)
This reality show is awful and brilliant at the same time. Everyone on the show (except Nikki Glaser) are the most vapid, empty, oblivious human beings on earth. “Having a good time” to these people looks mind-numbingly boring. They lay around in the sun day-drinking and obsessing about every tiny snippet of made-up drama the other people there get up to. They do nothing but work out, drink, lie, and try to catch the others in their lies.
The great part is what it reveals about modern dating culture, and how the social dynamics we’ve instilled in generations of kids have armed them in opposition to each other. I’ve never seen a clearer sample of:
- How the “us versus them” mentality everyone on the show carries into their relationships will likely make anything they attempt unsuccessful.
- Categorizations of “good guy” and “Fboy” are self-assigned and the show portrays how little difference there is between the two when seeing their actions.
- How the men work together to gaslight the women, justify it with “the bro code”, and how they socially isolate and punish men among them who try to be honest or blow the whistle.
- The women admit repeatedly in their private moments together without the men around how they don’t actually want a nice guy. They sometimes actively speak of nice guys as a turn-off, and then turn around within an episode and cry about how they always end up with bad guys.
- Any given person’s attractiveness is irrelevant on an island where everyone has focused all their personal development on the same shallow goals.
- The only reason every player in the game doesn’t pursue every other person is because of how it would play socially within monogamous culture, despite the entire show basically making monogamous commitment a joke.
The main theme the show seems to illustrate across both seasons is how little actually changes when the power dynamic shifts from patriarchal to matriarchal. Everyone who can afford to take a month off work or other obligations to be on this show is privileged to begin with, and everyone is dependent on the status quo to maintain their own survival as the useless leeches they are. The women on the show uphold misogynistic ideas and structures just as much as the men do. They all just play along with this brief role shift knowing it will revert to the comfortable status quo once filming ends.
I’d recommend this show to anyone who has a hard time detecting red flags from people they’re attracted to, and possibly to young people of dating age. It provides a window into parts of our culture we rarely get to see without editors clipping out the messy parts.
Nikki Glaser is also generally hilarious and seems to have a blast making fun of everyone as the host, so if you enjoy her comedy there’s another reason to watch. The general feeling of superiority and schadenfreude one derives from reality TV is always a baseline, of course.
TV Shows With New Seasons
Better Call Saul – Season 6 (Netflix, Prime Video, AMC)
I wouldn’t call Better Call Saul’s final season its best, but it is a fitting conclusion to one of the best TV series ever created. Considering how good every season leading us to this point has been, this is a huge achievement.
Undone – Season 2 (Prime Video)
Probably the most underrated show I’ve watched in the last few years, Undone deals with complex and traumatic family stories and the lengths we go to in attempts to fix things. It unravels wonderful illuminating spiritual and scientific mysteries. Once harnessed, their power becomes blessing and curse.
The second season is even better than the first. It offers a conclusion I hope is the end of the story because of how beautiful it is. But if they do decide to make more, I wouldn’t hate it either.
This Is Us – Season 6 (NBC, Hulu)
This Is Us is about as remarkable of a network family drama can be. I rewatched the entire show from beginning to end because I introduced it to Bethany to show her Randall’s story as an adoptee. It was wonderful to learn about her story and her take on how the show portrayed Randall’s in relation.
It’s far from perfect, especially when it comes to calling out some of the privilege the family perspective bases itself in and the unfathomable economics of how they can afford their homes and lifestyles throughout the story. The naïve “just believe we can do it and we will” magical thinking persists throughout.
But the human relationships are beautiful in writing, direction, and especially performance. We cried nearly every episode for various reasons. Well worth the time.
We’re Here (HBO)
Speaking of crying nearly every episode, We’re Here thankfully returned this year. The show takes us deep into the hopelessness of the most backwards hate-filled towns in our country only to shine a beacon of hope for those most afraid to be themselves and love who they love openly.
The drag shows they put on bring together communities who previously thought they were alone and show them the allies they couldn’t find on their own. I hope since they’ve found each other, they’ve all gained strength in their numbers. If nothing else, I sincerely love feeling represented by the real non-binary and other queer people on the show.
Fair warning: Episode 1 of Season 3 is terrifying and triggering, especially because it aired not long after the shooting in Colorado Springs.
Killing Eve – Season 4 (BBC, Hulu)
In case this is your first time reading one of my lists, I’m a sucker for killers with style. Killing Eve has some of the absolute best. If you get a few episodes into the first season, you probably won’t want to stop. Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer are captivating, and it’s hard not to spoil anything as I rave so just watch it!
Older TV Shows I Just Finally Watched
Tales of the City (Netflix)
This is a beautiful show I recommend for anyone who’d like to see some of the reasons why I love the San Francisco Bay Area and have continuously made big sacrifices to stay here. I can’t believe I never knew it existed before we just happened to look up Bethany’s dog’s name (Maupin).
Music
I spent most of the year trying to exist without Spotify, but my 11 months using other apps resulted in me simply listening to music much less, which isn’t what I want. So, despite Spotify’s problematic uses of their budget, I’m back on their immensely superior app. The others, especially YouTube Music, just suck so hard.
Best Album: If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power by Halsey
https://open.spotify.com/album/0yMLTRxwcDN5XHjP5w8jAH?si=8A6m3uRvQsG7qXKDM04RQA
As anyone who gets my music shares well knows, I’ve had this album on repeat this year. It’s excellent all the way through.
My Best of 2022 Playlist
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0DdslQ3sj0NVS0ZmMAWJ0G?si=87c9273879454d05
As always, this list will grow in the future.
Some previous best-of-the-year playlists:
- Best of 2020-21
The Peak Pandemic Years were best combined, I felt - Best of 2019
- Best of 2018
Request any other playlists you’d like linked in comments.
Games
I wish I had the time, energy, and patience to play more games this year. I might still play Elden Ring when/if it goes on sale, and I’ve enjoyed watching Let’s Plays for Stray, The Quarry, and Shredder’s Revenge. For my final week of the year I’m aiming to finally start Persona 5.
I’ve also been playing League of Legends and Cyberpunk 2077 (whenever it gets patches), and I still enjoy them.
But I want to focus on the new stuff I actually played through firsthand this year. Here are my favorites I’ve found to be well worth the price and the time I spent playing:
Vampire Survivors (Steam)
This cheap and fun game is the most efficient ratio of money spent to fun had I’ve had in… perhaps my entire life. It’s mindless yet deep. Repetitive yet no run ever feels truly the same as another. If you’re reading this and on Steam, let me know you want to try it and I’ll buy it for you.
And as I’m writing this post, they just announced a new DLC update!
Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster (Multi-Platform)
My favorite Final Fantasy finally got a well-deserved re-release, beautifully restored and enhanced. The remaster of the original Final Fantasy is also excellent.
Nobody Saves The World (Steam)
A silly easy-going adventure game with lots of exploring, collectibles, and achievements. This is the kind of game I love to play after a long day to unwind and switch my brain off.
Blossom Tales 2: The Minotaur Prince (Steam, Switch)
This game is perfect for relaxation and nostalgia. It involves a grandfather improvising a story he tells to his two grandchildren about fantasy characters modeled after the kids themselves. They argue and gasp as you play and it’s absolutely adorable. The game plays like one of my favorite games of all time, Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. I recommend it highly.
Say No! More (Steam, Nintendo Switch)
This game is awesome and hilarious. Anyone fed up with their bullshit job should play for catharsis and empowerment. Or at least watch the Game Grumps play it.
Other Media
Podcast: The Kimberly Elayyne Show
Kim is a friend I met through Bethany last year and she has a great podcast. She’s still building her brand and audience, but the intensely vulnerable topics and content are excellent. She discusses depression, chronic illness, relationships, and much more. Many of her episodes are interviews with others about similar topics. If you like Death, Sex, and Money and media that expresses real things most mass media shies away from, check out this podcast.
She even interviewed me for an episode: #IamTheFaceOf Corry Frydlewicz ( podcast episode on Apple | Spotify )
Stuff I Haven’t Gotten To Yet, But Intend To
- Interview With the Vampire (new TV series)
- Final Fantasy 7 Remake (PC port came out this year)
- Empire of Light (movie)
- Spy x Family (anime series)
- Amsterdam (movie)
Let me know what your favorite stuff was this year!