Top 5s
As a way of ensuring I update this website at least once a year, I'm planning on using this page to list a series of 5 things I like (mainly related to media consumption) each calendar year. None of these lists are ranked. If you find yourself on this page and think there's something I should listen to/read/watch, let me know via the email listed on the home page.
2024 top 5s
Albums
Cindy Lee- Diamond Jubilee
Los Campesinos!- All Hell
Laura Marling- Patterns in Repeat
Mdou Moctar- Funeral for Justice
Trust Fund- Has it Been a While?
Gigs
Los Campesinos! at the Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, 16 February
Mitski at the Hammersmith Apollo, London, 11 May
Marked Men at the Lexington Arms, London, 31 October
John Francis Flynn at the Junction, Cambridge, 26 October
Mdou Moctar at Electric Brixton, London, 3 July
Books I read for work
Agnes Smedley- Battle Hymn of China (1943)
Tara Zahra- Against the World: Anti-Globalism and Mass Politics Between the World Wars (2023)
Sam Lebovic- State of Silence: The Espionage Act and the Rise of America's Secrecy Regime (2023)
Andrew Bacevich- America’s War for the Greater Middle East (2016)
Felicity Barnes- Selling Britishness: Commodity Culture, the Dominions, and Empire (2022)
Books I read not for work
Shirley Collins- America Over the Water (2004)
Georgi Gospodinov- Time Shelter (2020)
Herman Melville- Moby Dick (1851)
Robert Danton- the Revolutionary Temper: Paris, 1748-1789 (2023)
Mark O’Connell- A Thread of Violence (2023)
Pubs I went to for the first time (one per city)
Whistler on the Green in Glasgow
Quinns in Kentish Town, London
Highbury Vaults in Bristol
Osteria Il Vicoletto in Taormina
The Belgian Monk in Norwich
Memorable things I did:
I got engaged!
I was best man at my brother's wedding!
I saw England beat the Netherlands in the Euro 2024 semi final in Dortmund
I got to see my fiancée get better at a sport she loves (roller derby)
I started a postdoc and was able to spend much more time doing research
NB: I didn't watch many films or TV shows this year. I may decide to cheat and watch some 2024 big hitters in January and update here.
2023 Top 5s
Albums
Lankum- False Lankum
Home Front- Games of Power
Ratboys- The Window
John Francis Flynn- Look Over the Wall, See the Sky
Joanna Sternbeg- I've Got Me
Gigs
Lankum at the Barbican, London 4 May
Pavement at the Big Top, Galway, 24 July
Wednesday at the Black Cat, Washington DC, 18 June
HellCity, The Six Six, Cambridge, 13 August
Mitski, Union Chapel, London, 11 October
Films
Return to Seoul (Chou)
Reality (Satter)
Bottoms (Seligman)
How to Have Sex (Walker)
Killers of the Flower Moon (Scorcese)
Books I read for work
Greg Mitman, Empire of Rubber: Firestone's Scramble for Land and Power in Liberia (2021)
Brooke Blower, Americans in a World at War: Intimate Histories from the Crash of Pan Am's Yankee Clipper (2023)
Tamson Pietsch, The Floating University: Experience, Empire, and the Politics of Knowledge (2023)
Lisa Lindsay, Atlantic Bonds: A Nineteenth-Century Odyssey from America to Africa (2016)
Michael Denning, Noise Uprising: The Audiopolitics of a World Music Revolution (2015)
Books I read not for work
Irene Solà, When I Sing, Mountains Dance (2022)
Dan Charnas, Dilla Time (2020)
C Pam Zhang, How Much of These Hills are Gold (2020)
Seamas O'Reilly, Did ye Hear Mammy Died (2020)
Amia Srinivasan, The Right to Sex (2021)
Pubs I went to for the first time (one per city)
Cafe de Bonte Koe, Leiden
Locus Publicus, Delft
Lamb & Flag, Oxford
Salisbury Arms, Cambridge
Hi B, Cork
Bonus answer: Managed to get to Robert's Western World for a drink and a dance during a four hour layover in Nashville
Memorable things I did:
Designed and taught my first Master's course
Stroked a Capybara
Had my heart broken by Millwall (missed out on playoffs on last day of the season) and Bohs (lost the cup final) again
Returned to the podcast I started and once hosted, this time as a guest!
Took a train into the Pyrenees mountains
2022 Top 5s
Albums:
CMAT- If My Wife New I’d be Dead
Little Simz- NO THANK YOU
MJ Lenderman- Boat Songs
Billy Woods- Aethiopes
Ye Vagabonds- Nine Waves
Gigs:
The Scratch at The Underworld, London, 17 March
Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram at Cambridge Folk Fest, 31 July
The Mary Wallopers at The Portland Arms, Cambridge, 2 November
Martha at The Exchange, Bristol, 26 November
Paul Heaton and band (Jacqui Abbott was ill) at Sheffield Arena, 9 December
bonus answer: Chain Whip, Home Front and High Vis at New Cross Inn, London, 8 September (all three bands were great, significance of occasion intensified by events beyond the control of the performers)
Films:
Jackass Forever (Tremaine)
Licorice Pizza (Anderson)
North Circular (McManus)
Parallel Mothers (Almóldovar)
RRR (Rajamouli)
TV Shows:
Barry
Big Boys
The Rehearsal
Top Boy
Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty
Books I read for work:
Terence Dooley, Burning the Big House: The Story of the Irish Country House in a Time of War and Revolution
Leigh Gardner, Sovereignty Without Power: Liberia in the Age of Empires, 1822-1980
Gary Gerstle, The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order
Kojo Koram, Uncommon Wealth: Britain and the Aftermath of Empire
Sam Lebovic, A Righteous Smokescreen: Postwar America and the Politics of Cultural Globalization
bonus answer: Katherine Moran, the Imperial Church: Catholic Founding Fathers and United States Empire (this was published in 2020 but I only became aware of it this year, and wanted to give it a shout-out here because it's fantastic!)
Books I read not for work (I didn't read many books from 2022, I need to do better next year!):
Elizabeth Boyle, Fierce Appetites (2022)
Eamon Dunphy, Only a Game? (1976)
Marlon James, A Brief History of Seven Killings (2014)
James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916)
Olga Ravn, the Employees (2020)
Pubs I went to for the first time (one per city)
Six Bells, Cambridge
Walsh’s, Stoneybatter, Dublin
Brothers III Lounge, New Orleans
Tig Cóilí, Galway
Crowleys, Kenmare
Memorable things I did:
Finished my first academic year of full time university teaching (loved it!)
Saw Bohemian and Millwall play home and away multiple times (overall win ratio for games I went to this year: 25%)
Visited the landing site of the first transatlantic telegraph cable in Valentia, Co Kerry
Revisited the Isle of Wight sand museum for the first time since I was 4
Graduated from my PhD
bonus answer: got zoom bombed while giving a paper.