Recommendations

Fully blatantly stolen, as a concept, from Som-Mai Nguyen, a list which I co-sign (and is probably better than this one.)

Items are not in any strict order! And these are not necessarily "favorites" lists, though there is certainly an overlap between a favorite and a thing I would recommend! Though to immediately contradict myself, generally speaking the first one or two of any list are probably my favorites of the recommendations!

Books

• Dead Girls (Alice Bolin)
• Trust Exercise (Susan Choi)
• Anna Karenina (Leo Tolstoy)
• Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro)
• The Haunting Of Hill House (Shirley Jackson)
• Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi)
• Normal People (Sally Rooney)
• How To Do Nothing (Jenny Odell)
• Galactic North (particular the stories "Weather" and "Nightingale") (Alastair Reynolds)
• Carrie (Stephen King)
• Grief Is The Thing With Feathers (Max Porter) (like I said, co-signed)

Movies

• Ocean's Eleven (2001, Steven Soderbergh)
• Little Women (2019, Greta Gerwig)
• Carol (2015, Todd Haynes)
• The Edge Of Seventeen (2016, Kelly Fremon Craig)
• Midsommar (2019, Ari Aster)
• Waitress (2007, Adrienne Shelly)
• The Handmaiden (2016, Park Chan-wook)
• Thoroughbreds (2017, Cory Finley)
• Arrival (2016, Denis Villeneuve)
• Dead Pigs (2018, Cathy Yan)
• Right Now, Wrong Then (2015, Hong Sang-soo)
• In The Mood For Love (2000, Wong Kar-wai)
• The Nice Guys (2016, Shane Black)
• Much Ado About Nothing (1993, Kenneth Branagh)
• 20th Century Women (2016, Mike Mills)
• Portrait Of A Lady On Fire (2019, Céline Sciamma)
• Support The Girls (2018, Andrew Bujalski)
• La La Land (2016, Damien Chazelle)
• Pretend That You Love Me (2020, Joel Haver)
• Get Out (2017, Jordan Peele)
• Princess Mononoke (1997, Hayao Miyazaki)
• Columbus (2017, Kogonada)

(I also said this list isn't favorites, but for the record my top 5 is, in order, Scream, Ocean's Eleven, Spirited Away, Thoroughbreds, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World)

Movies: Dumb and/or trashy and/or gnarly and/or silly and/or bad and/or about Blackpink but I love a lot, though maybe take them as ~recommendations~ with a grain of salt

• Ready Or Not (2019, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett)
• Ginger Snaps (2000, John Fawcett)
• Cruella (2021, Craig Gillespie)
• Blackpink: Light Up The Sky (2020, Caroline Suh)
• All The Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006, Jonathan Levine)
• Bumblebee (2018, Travis Knight)
• The Neon Demon (2016, Nicholas Winding Refn)
• I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997, Jim Gillespie)
• The Phantom Of The Opera (2004, Joel Schumacher)
• Ice Princess (2005, Tim Fywell)

Albums

• E•MO•TION (Carly Rae Jepsen)
• Melodrama (Lorde)
• Guppy (Charly Bliss)
• The Bones Of What You Believe (CHVRCHES)
• Air Stereo (The Damnwells)
• Welcome Interstate Managers (Fountains Of Wayne)
• Talon Of The Hawk (The Front Bottoms)
• The '59 Sound/Handwritten (The Gaslight Anthem) ((bonus, Elsie (The Horrible Crowes)))
• Art Angels (Grimes)
• Miami Garden Club (Kitty)
• Hands (Little Boots)
• Dark Comedy/Anime, Trauma and Divorce (Open Mike Eagle)
• Under The Surface (Marit Larsen)
• Celebrasion (Sleeper Agent)
• Future Me Hates Me (The Beths)
• Electra Heart (Marina)
• Pets Hounds (Pet Symmetry)
• Sawayama (Rina Sawayama)
• Ignorance (The Weather Station)
• Stranger In The Alps (Pheobe Bridgers)
• My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (Kanye West)
• Aims (Vienna Teng)

Albums: Taylor Swift, ranked

1. Red (2012)
2. evermore (2020)
3. 1989 (2014)
4. reputation (2017)
5. folklore (2020)
6. Fearless (2008)
7. Speak Now (2010)
8. Self-titled (2006)
9. Lover (2019)

Essays and such

• "My 14-Hour Search for the End of TGI Friday's Endless Appetizers" (Caity Weaver, Gawker)
• "Doordash and Pizza Arbitrage" (Ranjan Roy, Margins)
• "I Am A Transwoman. I Am In The Closet. I Am Not Coming Out." (Jennifer Coates, Medium)
• "Carly Rae Jepsen - Curiosity" (Luisa Lopez, One Week One Band)
• "Her Nebraska (1982)" / "Five Taylor Swift Photos From Magazine Spreads Which Make Me Feel Unmoored In Space And Time" / "Shouldn't Gay Taylor Swift Fans Be Given Access To The Original Homobphobic Version Of Picture To Burn? And Other Post-Evermore Reflection Questions" (Tess McGeer, One Week One Band)
• "Uber’s Path Of Destruction" (Hubert Horan, American Affairs Journal)
• "East Of Palo Alto’s Eden: Race And The Formation Of Silicon Valley" (Kim-Mai Cutler, Techcrunch)
• "The Dan Humphrey Of Beers" (threelisabeth, Mixology)
• "Trash Talk: On Translating Garbage" (Lina Mounzer, The Paris Review)
• "The Comment Moderator Is The Most Important Job In The World Right Now" (Ryan Broderick, Buzzfeed) (Bonus, but paywalled, Ryan Broderick interview: "Meet Lochlan O'Neil, the creator of DashCon")
• "Canon Is An Abyss" (Mike Rugnetta, Patreon)
• "In a Mass Knife Fight to the Death Between Every American President, Who Would Win and Why?" (Geoff Micks, Face In The Blue)
• "‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’ director Martin McDonagh wasn’t made for these times" (Jeremy D. Larson, The Outline)
• "In the Shadow of Lincoln Yards" (Martha Bayne, The Baffler)
• "The Tourist--Special Pandemic/Uprising/Sabbatical Edition" (Philip Christman, The Tourist)
• "The Alt-Right’s Meltdown Is Just Like Any Other Message Board Drama" (Katie Notopoulos, Buzzfeed)
• "I Can Tolerate Anything Except The Outgroup" (Scott Alexander, Slate Star Codex)
• "Being On Vacation Is Nice" (Ritam Mehta, Low Lift Ask)
• "The Web Is A Customer Service Medium" (Paul Ford, ftrain.com)

(Bonus, not because it doesn't make the list, but because lol you'll probably be mad I included it: "A Personal Canon" (Som-Mai Nguyen))

((Bonus bonus, every essay in the above-mentioned Dead Girls, such as the titular essay.))

Podcasts

• Blank Check
• Holy Swift
• Election Profit Makers
• Song Exploder
• Reconcilable Differences
• Don't Get My Started (which has sadly ended)
• The Relentless Picnic (especially the recent "Cabin" season)
• Doughboys
• Fighting In The War Room
• You Must Remember This (especially the "Charles Manson's Hollywood" season)
• The Adventure Zone (especially (slash....maybe only?) the "Balance" arc)

Videos, mostly comedic

• "Chris Gethard and Company Discuss "The Chris Gethard Show" | AOL BUILD"
• "Molly Makes Scallops with Corn and Chorizo | From the Test Kitchen | Bon Appétit"
• "Demi Adejuyigbe, "Guide to Makin’ and Livin’ Jazz" - XOXO Festival (2018)"
• "Inside Dakota Johnson's Serene Hollywood Home | Open Door | Architectural Digest"
• "Monster Factory: Fallout 4" parts one, two, and three

Newsletters

• Garbage Day (Ryan Broderick)
• Margins (Ranjan Roy, Can Duruk)
• Low Lift Ask (Ritam Mehta, Nabeel Chollampat)
• Stratechery (Ben Thompson)
• Musings On Mouse (Julia Alexander)
• From The Desk Of Alicia Kennedy (Alicia Kennedy)
• Money Stuff (Matt Levine)
• Miranda Reinert
• J'adore le plonk (Rachel Hendry)

Plays

• The Pillowman (Martin McDonagh)
• The Unfortunates (Jon Beavers, Ramiz Monsef, Ian Merrigan, Casey Hurt, Kristoffer Diaz)
• The Wolves (Sarah DeLappe)
• Stop/Kiss (Diana Son)
• Arcadia (Tom Stoppard)
• Hadestown (Anais Mitchell)
• Picasso At The Lapin Agile (Steve Martin)
• Six (Lucy Moss, Toby Marlow)
• Equivocation (Bill Cain)
• My Fair Lady (Frederick Lowe, Alan Lerner)
• All The Way/The Great Society (Robert Schenkkan)
• Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play (Anne Washburn)
• Topdog/Underdog (Suzan-Lori Parks)
• The Flick (Annie Baker)
• Metamorphoses (Mary Zimmerman)

Plays: Shakespeare

• Macbeth
• Much Ado About Nothing
• Twelfth Night
• King Lear
• Henry V

Plays: Shakespeare: that are a little more off the beaten path, probably, potentially (but some of which I actually like more than some of the ones above)

• As You Like It
• The Winter's Tale
• Richard II
• Troilus & Cressida
• Measure For Measure