I think I consumed more content this year (with the sole exception of books; I’m embarrassed by how far from my goal I am closing out the year) than I have in a very long time. I figured instead of doing just books or just albums, which is what I’ve done in the few years I’ve done a year-end recommendation, I’d do the top five albums, books, and TV shows of this year. The albums all came out in 2024, the TV shows all had one season come out in 2024, and the books have all come out before 2024 but I read them all in 2024 and I make the rules so it counts.

One Direction was hands down the most influential musical act of the early 2010s, and I will quite literally fight anyone who says otherwise. I actually wrote a review of the band and why they were so influential, not only in general but specifically for the queer community and a whole generation of lesbians and queer women. With such a short stint of hardly six years, I fear they will, if they haven’t already, become one of those brief fads that you just had to be there for. SO, in order to pay homage to the greatest musical group of the 21st century, without further ado, I present to you an objectively factual ranking of One Direction’s discography.

To the amusement of many people in my life, U2 has become one of my all time favorite bands over the course of the last two years. Before I listened to The Joshua Tree, I just thought they were the cheesy band who made everyone download their album and unable to delete it in 2014—a topic I’ve been pitching to online venues and hope to explore in an essay in the coming months. Before that, however, I wanted to rank the U2 studio albums from the perspective of a fan who was not alive during their peak.

This was a great year for music in terms of my personal taste. I spent a lot less time listening to my favorites (Pink Floyd, Third Eye Blind, U2, Quinn XCII, Snail Mail, etc.) and a lot more time listening to some new discoveries. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely still devoted my fair share of listening time to those I already knew I loved, but I divided my time pretty evenly between old and new as far as my music repertoire goes.

I was thinking about how I could continue to make use of my domain in ways other than just to promote my published writing. My dad utilizes his domain for a number of things as well, one of which being a column entitled ‘Doug’s Music Snobbery.’ I figured I would start up with something similar, combining my love of writing and music, and lists. So while I don’t have a fun name for it like he does, I am going to start devoting this page to various lists pertaining to music! So without further ado, I am very excited to present the first installation in this new little series of mine: a ranking of blink-182’s discography!

Originally published in Defunct Magazine (2021)

A wise man once said “treat people with kindness”. That wise man was Harry Styles, and that is not exactly an original quote of his, but he did name a song, and launch a line of clothing surrounding this sentiment, so the fanatic directioner in me will give him credit. I would, however, like to amend his statement: “treat people with kindness and respect”. Respect seems to be a hot button word, being essentially the golden rule from the time we start schooling at just five years old. Respect looks different, though, in different contexts.

Recently, for whatever reasons that I truly cannot discern, I’ve been seeing more and more anti-semitic tropes, themes, discourse—just simply more antisemitism than what I’m used to, which isn’t much, and I’ve liked it that way. It’s a shame that that personal norm has come to such a seemingly abrupt pause. It has almost never been overt; I’m lucky in that I have not experienced blatant, directed antisemitism, but there are unfortunately many people who can’t say the same.

I just typed out this entire blog post, was ready to post it, and somehow lost the entire thing. I guess that’s pretty ironic considering the content of this post. So as I try to push through my extreme frustration and rewrite it all, I want to take this moment to stress that this year has tested our patience and strength in ways I don’t think any of us would have expected. When I left school on March 16th, I packed enough clothes to last me two weeks, which was how long I planned on staying home before returning to campus. Obviously I was mistaken.

It’s been a long semester, and, needless to say, a long year. Not that I would have chosen the state of our world right now by any means, at all, whatsoever—there was some good to come out of this year. What comes to mind instantly, is the amount of reading I’ve been able to do over the course of this pandemic.

Last night, as I sat in my living room, lighting Shabbat and Rosh Hashanah candles alongside my roommates (not one of whom being Jewish), I received the most jarring message I’ve received in quite awhile. The message came from a friend who I was planning on studying with later that night: “I rescind my offer to do homework tonight. RBG died and I am unwell”.

Recently, I decided to speak out about an experience that I thought would stay within the confines of my own existence, frankly for the rest of my life. Never in this lifetime, nor in the next thousand lifetimes, did I ever think I would have the courage to speak openly about my experience getting outed. My seventh grade year has always been an immense source of shame for me; I haven’t felt ashamed of my sexuality since voluntarily coming out nearly four years ago, but I have ALWAYS felt ashamed of the time that somebody else took that moment away from me.

As I’ve been taking some professional strides, and thinking more about what my plans are for the coming years, I’ve been thinking a lot about mentorship. I recently read a book called “How ‘Bout That For a Crack Baby” by Shawn Blanchard, in which he outlines both his own story as a mentee, as well as his story as a mentor. One of the key take aways I got from his book was the importance of a strong mentor at a young age. I’m lucky, in that I have no shortage of positive role models or mentors in my life, dating all the way back to eighth grade (and who would I be if I didn’t credit some of those mentors at this perfectly opportune moment: Mark Honeyman, Katie Fried, Jeremy Chamberlin, and many others). As I saw in Shawn’s book, not everyone is that lucky.

Obviously the darkness outweighs the light in the situation we have all found ourselves in. I wake up each morning and wrestle with the question “how did we get here?” One day I’m on top of the world, planning my summer in New York City, saving up for my trip to Las Vegas this fall, counting down the days to my 21st birthday, constantly surrounded by my best friends who all lived just steps away.

As a white person, I recognize my privilege and responsibility to advocate for racial equality. In 2020, one and a half millennia after the emancipation proclamation came about and four decades after the “end” of segregation, the fact that there are still hate crimes being committed, police brutality targeted entirely towards races that are not white, and simply massive amounts of racial injustice within government and society is truly sickening. As a white individual, as a Jewish white individual, I know that it is my job to advocate for these causes, to use my white privilege to do everything and anything I can to combat this revolting injustice. Unfortunately, not many white people share that knowledge of their responsibility, and are the perpetrators of this outdated racist ideology that results in far too much pain.

It seems as though the world as we know it has come to a collective stand still. Each day I wake up confused, and no longer eager for what the day may bring; I know what the day is going to bring. Yet again, I will experience a 24-hour period in which I won’t see my friends, I won’t have a place to go outside of my bed or my couch, and I will spend the hours in which I am not asleep either reading or mindlessly scrolling. This uncertainty is maddening, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t desperately longing to go back in time about 6 weeks.

I think it goes without saying that in recent years, people have been overly hostile towards others with differing opinions and beliefs from their own, the most obvious example of this being politics. I definitely think that this is more common amongst younger generations, especially because it is easier to attack someone for their beliefs when you’re hiding behind the safety of a screen.

I recently had a pretty bad falling out with a friend. She was actually a big part of the inspiration for my last blog post; it had become an extremely toxic, one-sided relationship that I felt was no longer enriching in terms of my wellbeing, so I decided to cut it off. I was met with a great deal of hostility: I was told that I don’t understand mental health, that I forget other people struggle mentally, and, the one that I was taken aback by the most, that I am a bully. Each of these comments took me by surprise; there is hardly anything that I am more passionate about than mental health, the only thing I could think of is maybe music, maybe. I try to be there for my friends in any capacity that I can when they are struggling with their mental health, even people who I may not be very close with, I try to act in any way that I can to help.

I am in a class this semester, Wellness in Learning, Coaching, Teaching, and Leadership, which focuses, you guessed it, on wellness. The class focuses on four basic spheres of wellness: mental/psychological wellness, physical wellness, professional/academic wellness, and spiritual wellness. Each sector of wellness focuses on how one can reach their fullest potential in that aspect of life, and that definition of wellness is what builds the content of the course.

This year, I picked up a regular babysitting job for a family who lives near campus. A few months ago, I was driving the girls home from dance class. Typically when we’re driving I’ll play my music at a regular volume and they’ll hum or sing along in the backseat if they know the song, or sometimes even if they don’t. This time, however, I was playing the music quieter than usual, not for any particular reason, but I was hesitant to turn it up because of what the girls were talking about in the back seat.