Tag: Eddington

My Viewing and Reading Picks for 2025

Another year of complex viewing and reading

Another year comes to an end. A new one gets ready to begin. 2025 felt less complex than 2024. Lines weren’t as blurry with one exception that I’ll get to later. In a year when the rush to redefine and compete for the lowest common denominator felt like a three-legged sack race over broken glass, complexity again drew my attention and stuck with me. There’s a great leveling happening, whether intentional or not. But as long as we can advertise against whatever the content is, it seems to matter less and less what the content is or how it’s made.

When it comes to viewing entertainment it was a year when the quality line between movies and streaming TV blurred even more as excellent series work competing with the big screen for some of my favorite viewing. The Pitt and Adolescence were two of the finest things I watched this year.

There are a number of titles in these lists that would qualify for what is being called Resistance Cinema. Each one is deserving of inclusion in that list for immediacy. Any lasting impact will only be determined with the passage of time and all of what we’re currently resisting either cements or cracks.

I don’t believe in “best of” lists. There’s good stuff being created amidst all of the mediocrity and my judgement on what’s good is probably not yours. I pick what attracts and holds my attention. I also don’t see or read everything and the holiday release schedule geared to coming in under the wire for awards recognition is a silly game for insiders and not for me. There also may be a title or two that I didn’t catch until 2025 even though it was released in previous years. Goodness knows there are books waiting to be read.

If there’s a link with a title, I took the time to write about it. I should have done that more. So here’s a list in no particular ranking order of what I found most intriguing throughout the year.

Movies
Streaming TV
Books
  • 1929 by Andrew Ross Sorkin
  • The Mission by Time Weiner
  • Apple In China by Patrick McGee
  • The Director by Daniel Kehlmann

Have a Happy New Year!

You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.

Sunday Morning Reading

With aging comes awareness. Or at least it should.

We’re on Lake Time this weekend, but there’s still time to share some Sunday Morning Reading. 

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Two weeks ago I shared a piece from youngster David Todd McCarty titled When I Was Old. I’m resharing it this week since I celebrated a birthday on Friday, getting one year closer to marking seven decades on this rock. Also sharing another great piece from David, called I Was Told There’d Be More.

“Scented memories.” I like those two words put together by NatashaMH in her piece, The Fragile Geometry of Becoming. 

I’ve been an Elmore Leonard fan for as long as I can remember. Anthony Lane’s Elmore Leonard’s Perfect Pitch may not be perfect, but it is damned close enough.

David Struett delivers a terrific ode to Chicago bike messengers, their culture and their jobs in Meet Chicago’s Last Bike Messengers. Here’s How They Survive.

You might notice a touch of sentimentality and reminiscing in the pieces above. Comes with the thoughts during a birthday weekend. Fair warning though that most of the links shared below are a bit darker, and yes, more political than those above. With aging comes awareness. Or at least it should.

Mathew Ingram wonders What Do We Do When The Facts Don’t Matter? I think we’re not liking what we’re finding out.

Mike Masnick’s piece Facism for First Time Founders offers the next generation a clue or two, assuming the current generation doesn’t crash it all before they get a chance to discover them.

I’ve written about the concept of enshittification in tech quite a bit. Mostly as regards the Internet. Henry Farrell and Abraham L. Newman take a look at The Enshittifcation of American Power. 

Another big contributor to enshittification is the media who increasingly seem more and more clueless and devoid of any self awareness. Charlotte Kim takes a look Inside The Media’s Traffic Apocalypse.

Speaking of things toxic and shitty, Adam Aleksic explores How Incel Language Infected The Mainstream Internet — and Brought It’s Toxicity With It. I’ve spent almost 70 years on this planet. I have no idea why guys turned into such misanthropic, self-loathing idiots.

In a world seemingly more and more intent on criminality, there are very few surprises, but there are legacies. Jessica Winter’s What I Inherited From My Criminal Great-Grandparents. Great story.

To conclude this week I’m sharing a film review by Sonny Bunch. This one of the new film Eddington. I haven’t seen the film. I plan to. Rarely does a review encourage or discourage me from seeing a film. If it’s anything like Bunch describes one way or the other I’m sure it will be worth it as it sounds like a fun, yet conflicted, summary of lots of things we’ve all been living through since 2020, and continue to do so. I’ll leave it with this quote:

The feed never stops, the algorithm never tires. There’s always more. It never ends. Just a few more videos. You can sleep later. You can never sleep, if that’s what you’d prefer. Who knows what you’ll miss when you’re asleep?

And we wonder why everyone has gone a little nuts.

If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here. If you’d like more click on the Sunday Morning Reading link in the category column to check out what’s been shared on Sunday’s past. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.