‘I like the way you kiss me’

Reading, watching, listening: what did our writers do for entertainment this year?

JEAN CHRISTOU:

Without meaning to sound ungrateful, almost two years after ‘kind of leaving’ the rat race, I’m still waiting for that idyllic retirement to materialise: the one where you maybe read in the morning, listen to music with your feet up in the afternoon, and watch a good movie or TV show at night. Oh, and maybe do some gardening or be a ‘lady who lunches’ in between the entertainment.

Yeah, still waiting for that day to arrive – but I did manage to squeeze in a few books during the year that I didn’t get to in 2023.

READING: I started with a rather harrowing book by child psychiatrist Dr Bruce D. Perry The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog, where he relates several cases of unbelievable childhood trauma. Perry explains what happens to children’s brains when they are exposed to extreme stress and neglected in their formative years. It’s a book I wish I’d been given before becoming a parent. Highly recommend.  

A couple of times during the year, I needed a distraction for personal reasons so turned to Stephen King to tune out the world. I read Fairy Tale in two days. It transports you to another world located under a garden shed, with giants and ogres and all sorts. Distraction accomplished.

WATCHING: TV in our house is an after 7pm activity and, with an adult offspring whose tastes differ wildly, we have to take turns in choosing.

She subjected me to all the Resident Evil films, the Chucky movies, the Halloween collection, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre series and a new one on me, Terrifier, which is more gruesomely imaginative than all the others put together to the point where you have to admire him for the number of different ways he can think of to kill people. Someone on the script-writing team probably needs looking into.

When left to my own devices, I’d indulge in re-runs of my personal favourites, mainly the Star Treks and Stargates of the 90s, crime series, comedies and some dramas. Monk was one of my ‘go back to’ detective shows in 2024.

LISTENING: As for music, I make no apologies for mostly sticking to my own era, 1970-1985, for the sheer nostalgia. Generally, they get played when I’m cleaning the house – since discos are long dead and the living room is the only substitute for reliving Saturday Night Fever, mop as microphone.  

There is one piece of music I listened to every day in 2024. ‘Weightless’ by Marconi Union was composed by neuroscientists and has been scientifically proven to relax you six per cent more than an actual massage by provably reducing heart rate, anxiety and stress levels. Just what every busy almost-retiree needs.

ANTIGONI PITTA

READING: I’ve always had a morbid fascination with finding out what people I admire were doing at my age, so the last year of my 20s obviously had to feature a really good biography. I found it in Marianne Faithfull’s autobiography, Faithfull.

It found me at a moment of creative inertia, and it was exactly what I needed to remind me that life is not a straight line. Unlike other rockstar biographies, hers is not a paean to the glory days, it’s a raw account of the life of someone who flew too close to the sun, fell, and rose again like a phoenix.

By the time Marianne made her triumphant comeback with Broken English, she had already survived being a teen popstar, two marriages, a four-year relationship with Mick Jagger, a suicide attempt and a heroin addiction. And she was only 33. So, turning 30 didn’t seem too daunting after reading that!

WATCHING: My favourite new film I watched this year was La Chimera, and my favourite older film was Nashville. The wildest was The Lair of the White Worm.

After resisting for four seasons, I finally caved and started watching Yellowstone. A hybrid between Dallas, The Sopranos and Succession, it proved to be strangely addictive.

Who would have thought that Kevin Costner running a Montana ranch like it’s the Cosa Nostra would be a good premise for a show? Not me. But here I am, rationing the last of the episodes I have left.

LISTENING: I tend to reject anything that’s really trendy when it comes to music, but this summer I couldn’t stop playing Charli xcx’s Brat. It was a huge shock to me and my friends, but it’s hard to resist the pull of a genuinely good pop record, and the joy and abandon of great dance music. Seeing Charli do a DJ set at Glastonbury was the cherry on top – she’s the real deal.

At Glastonbury I also had my mind utterly blown by a South London band called Fat Dog. On paper, their sound – a mix of techno and punk – shouldn’t work. But it really does, and their lives are electric. I liked them so much I went to see them twice!

Another top discovery of this year was the utterly captivating Immaterial Possession. They’re a band from Atlanta, Georgia that might as well be a time-travelling troupe of mediaeval troubadours, with a mythical Siren for a singer.

MARKO LJUBICIC

READING: I started 2024 with a modest, achievable resolution – read 12 books this year, cover to cover. I’ve read one. Lucky for me, it’s a 21^st-century banger: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hardcastle.

Stuart Turton’s debut novel is a masterful blend of mystery, science fiction and psychological thriller that would captivate – I think – even Agatha Christie with its originality and complexity. It tells the story of Aiden Bishop, who must solve the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle by reliving the same day through the perspectives of different characters. A fresh take on the classic whodunit, basically.

I hear Turton’s second novel, The Devil and the Dark Water is likewise a captivating read – ask me again in 2025, though.

WATCHING: This year I watched a dozen or so movies, a handful of documentaries and several shows. Most were banal, some were entertaining, and a select few were poignant.

On the other hand – and I don’t know if this is an indictment of my viewing habits or the entertainment industry at large – this year I spent at least a total of 1,600 hours (that’s 67 days!) watching video game tournaments online.

Specifically Counter-Strike – a team-based first-person shooter game known for its intense, strategic gameplay where players join either the Terrorists or Counter-Terrorists to complete objectives. The game is a blend of raw skill, tactical brilliance and split-second decision-making that kept me on the edge of my seat.

As someone who grew up before the internet, when the idea of playing video games professionally was pure fantasy, there’s something magical about seeing teams of salaried pros treating this game with the seriousness of any traditional sport.

LISTENING: Just before this write-up, and just to get an idea of what I missed, I went and loaded up the ‘Best Rock & Alt Songs of 2024’, a 75-song playlist on Spotify. After listening through the 75 songs, three things stood out to me.

(a) It’s slightly disconcerting just how many ‘old-school’ bands are present on the list.

(b) Band/artist names have become absolutely ridiculous (beabadoobee, illuminati hotties…)

(c) There’s still hope for rock’n roll.

I think Grandpa Abe Simpson said it best: “I used to be with ‘it’, but then they changed what ‘it’ was. Now what I’m with isn’t ‘it’ anymore, and what’s ‘it’ seems weird and scary”. It’ll happen to you!

ELENI PHILIPPOU

READING: Escapism is my guilty pleasure. When I clock off, I want to dream of faraway worlds, get inspired by other people’s creativity and let books, films and songs accompany me throughout the day. This year, I loved getting lost in Evie Wood’s The Lost Bookshop, a charming story with magical realism and historical fiction. Although it is rather light-hearted it touches on domestic violence and societal misogyny, which made my insides burn at times. All in all, though, this is a book for those who love books.

WATCHING: When it comes to films and shows, I’m usually late to the game. About 24 years after it aired in the US, I let Netflix convince me to watch Gilmore Girls. At first, I was annoyed by Lorelai’s childish manners and Emily’s controlling ways, and wanted Rory to let loose. I complained about it – yet couldn’t stop watching it. Eventually, I ended up loving it, its autumnal vibes and small-town shenanigans. Melissa McCarthy was a reason I kept coming back – I just love her! I also devoured Killing Eve and thought it was clever. Both Jodie Comer and Sandra Oh were excellent in it.

At the cinema, I laughed and cried with Inside Out 2 as new character emotions were introduced: I resonated deeply with Anxiety and let out belly laughs with Ennui (Boredom). Next, I’m excited to watch Moana 2. Yes, I love Disney films and no, they are not just for children.

LISTENING: This was an easy section to write. I listen to music all day long, with every task. I was glad to discover Laufey, an Icelandic-Chinese singer-songwriter who creates heartfelt songs. Her one-hour ‘Live at Museum Barberini’ video played endlessly on my YouTube, and it’s a treat for both the ears and eyes.

I also listened to Raye’s ‘Oscar Winning Tears’ on repeat. Her ‘Live at the Royal Albert Hall’ video with The Heritage Orchestra is a masterpiece. In a more jazzy, soulful mood, Olivia Dean accompanied my winter days and morning walks this year. All three women are in their mid-20s, and I loved discovering independent fierce artists.

One playlist was at the top of my Spotify however, and that is ‘Light Academia’. Instrumental classical music I listen to when I write (which is always), so that lyrics don’t get mixed up with the words I am trying to write!

THEO PANAYIDES

READING: “I’ve been cordially invited to join the visceral realists. I accepted, of course. There was no initiation ceremony. It was better that way.” I’ve had The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano on my shelf for years, not daring to open it (too long, too highbrow, too… South American) – but I finally took the plunge and it’s actually delightful, I’m already a quarter of the way in.

There was time for fiction in 2024, in between doom-scrolling dire predictions of nuclear war on social media, wading through articles and Substack posts – and especially time for comic fiction, from Evelyn Waugh’s classic Scoop to Anthony Burgess’ hilariously pungent Inside Mr. Enderby from 1963, the tale of an erudite (but flatulent) poet.

I also read How Not to Die by Michael Greger, MD – sounds like a useful book – but lost interest when I realised that Dr Greger’s answer to everything is to go on a plant-based (i.e. vegan) diet. Not that I disagree, exactly.

WATCHING: So much out there – and I don’t even do TV shows, or video games, or TikTok. Great new films included The Human Surge 3, Red Rooms, No Other Land (a documentary on Palestine that’s about 10 times less emotional than expected, yet still breaks your heart), The Beast, About Thirty… Great oldies seen for the first time ranged from complicated zombies in Day of the Dead (1985) to unflappable flapper Louise Brooks in Beauty Prize (1930) – though the big news on the old-movies front was undoubtedly Styx Film Encounters, a film club with a difference. Long may it flourish. 

LISTENING: I’m fully aware that ‘Booksmart Hunny’ [sic] by Milo Korbenski is not a good song; it literally just repeats the same verse/chorus three times. Still, if you added up the times I joyfully hummed “I’ve got a booksmart honey, she makes me feel dumb” to myself, it would constitute a pretty hefty chunk of 2024.

Also loved the meaty riff that opens Amyl and the Sniffers’ ‘Big Dreams’ – the kind of riff that makes you play air guitar while gazing at the floor and nodding solemnly at nothing in particular – and this bit from ‘Capricorn’ by Vampire Weekend: “Capricorn / The year that you were born / Finished fast, and the next one wasn’t yours”. An oblique expression of a very relatable feeling, that sense of having lost something without quite being able to define what it is. (Note: I am not a Capricorn.)

Oh, and props to quasi-local boy Artemas (né Artemas Diamandis) for ‘I Like the Way You Kiss Me’: one of THE pop anthems of 2024.