Best of 2020

Above is a picture of maybe my favorite moment of 2020 or at least it’s top five. It’s a picture of Ezra holding his new baby brother Ewan. It happened just over an hour or so ago and it made me so happy I cried.

I’ve cried a lot this past week, mostly for good things. I cried when I saw Stacy being so brave in the delivery room. I cried when we heard Ewan’s voice break out as the doctor’s pulled him free minutes later. I cried a week or so ago at the thought of not seeing my dad or sister for Christmas. I cried that same night when Ezra asked me what my mom was like on Christmas mornings when I was a kid. I cried when I read a good news text from a friend a couple days ago. Then I cried talking to some friends on Marco Polo about the things we’ve been dealing with in our separate lives.

Really, when I think about it, I’m pretty sure I’ve cried more this year than I have in any year since I’ve been an adult. Yeah, most the time it was for good things, but some of the times it wasn’t.

It’s obviously been a strange, hard year, which I guess is why I’m noticing and holding onto the truly beautiful, love-filled life moments when I get them. I think it’s a good thing to do if you can.

I hope you’ve had some moments like that this past year and I hope you have plenty more ahead of you in the next.

The following is my annual list of favorite music, movies, books, etc of 2020. Thank you for reading.

Favorite Albums of 2020

1- Phoebe Bridgers- Punisher

2-Jeff Rosenstock- No Dream

3- The Mountain Goats- Getting Into Knives

4- Matt Berninger- Serpentine Prison

5- Run the Jewels- 4

6- Lo Tom 2

7- Bright Eyes- Down in the Weeds Where the World Once Was

8- Frances Quinlan- Likewise

9- Waxahatchee - Saint Cloud

10- The Mountain Goats- Songs for Pierre Chavin

11- Into It Over It- Figure

12- Fiona Apple- Fetch The Bolt Cutters

13- Slaughter Beach, Dog- At the Moonbase

14- The Front Bottoms- In Sickness & In Flames

15- Jason Isbell- Reunions

16- Bartees Strange- Live Forever

17- Touché Amore- Lament

18- My Morning Jacket- The Waterfall II

19- EL OBO- Reach Into the Dark and Pull It Closer

20-Dogleg- Melee

Favorite Single: “Simmer” by Hayley Williams

Best reissue: Arts&Sciences Mid by Midwest

Favorite Local EP: Cold Realm

Favorite Movies of 2020

1- I’m Thinking of Ending Things

2- Dick Johnson Is Dead

3- Soul

4- Mank

5- Invisible Man

6- Palm Springs

7- The Trial of the Chicago 7

8- Borat 2

9- The Vast of Night

10- Onward

2020 Johns Family Movie Power Rankings

1- We Bare Bears The Movie

2- Sonic

3- Scoob

4- Artemis Fowl (only ranked here because of Colin Farrell)

5- something called The Willoughbys that we apparently watched

6- Trolls World Tour

7- The Diary of a Wimpy Kid movies except when they changed the cast for whatever reason

Top Ten Movies Not From 2020 That I Saw For the First Time This Year:

1- Hearts Beat Loud (2018)

2- Little Women (2019)

3- Jaws (1978)

4- Annabelle Comes Home (2019)

5- JoJo Rabbit (2019)

6- Contagion (2011)

7- Parasite (2019)

8- Strange Negotiations (2019)

9- Back to the Future (1985)

10- Monster University (2014)

Top TV Shows of 2020

1- Better Call Saul

2- How to With John Wilson

3- The Mandalorian

4- What We Do in the Shadows

5- I May Destroy You

6- The Good Place

7- Industry

8- Queen’s Gambit

9- The Outsider

10- Never Have I Ever

Honorable Mention- Love, Victor

Non-2020 TV Shows I Watched for the First Time This Year

1- a little show called The Sopranos (s1, s2)

2- 90’s X-Men cartoon (s1, rewatch but it’s been ~25 years)

3- Watchmen (s1, just from 2019 but it’s great)

4- The West Wing (s3, s4, s5)

5- Survivor (s28, s34)

Honorable Mentions: Schitt’s Creek (s1), EVIL (s1, also just from last year, but it’s silly and fun), Star Wars Rebels (s1, s2)

Johns Family 2020 Cartoon Power Ranking

1- Bluey

2- Doug

3- StoryBots

4- Recess

5- Fast & the Furious Spy Racers

TV Shows I started but didn’t finish:

Looking For Alaska

Upload

Lovecraft Country

Normal People

Best Documentary Series:

The Last Dance

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark

The Vow

A little under the radar show called the Tiger King (Netflix)

Unsolved Mysteries (Netflix)

Murder in Middle Beach (HBO Max)

Silliest Yet Best Reality Show:

Love Is Blind

Favorite Books I Read in 2020

1- Saga Compendium Vol 1 by Brian K Vaughan and Fiona Staples

2- Permanent Record by Mary HK Choi (2019)

3- Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel (2013)

4- How to Write One Song by Jeff Tweedy (2020)

5- Don’t Read the Comments by Eric Smith (2020)

6- Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang (2002)

7- This Isn’t Happening by Steven Hyden (2020)

8- The Institute by Stephen King (2019)

9- Wanderers by Chuck Wendig (2019)

10- The Bear by Andrew Krivak (2020)

11- Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi (2018)

12- Survivor Song by Paul Tremblay (2020)

13- Basketball A Love Story by Jackie McMullen, Dan Klores, and Rafe Bartholomew (2018)

14- If It Bleeds by Stephen King (2020)

15- Memoirs & Misinformation by Jim Carrey & Dana Vachon (2020)

16- The Mamba Mentality- How I Play by Kobe Bryant (2018)

17- We Could Be Heroes by Margaret Finnegan (2020)

Longest Title Award: Boom Town: The Fantastical Saga of Oklahoma City, Its Chaotic Founding, Its Apocalyptic Weather, Its Purloined Basketball Team, And Its Dream of Becoming A World Class Metropolis by Sam Anderson (2019)

Shorts:

1- The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip (2000)

2- Love Letter by George Saunders (New Yorker—March 30, 2020)

Rereadables:

1- Tenth of December by George Saunders (2011)

2- Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders (2017)

Graphic Novels:

Scott Pilgrim vol 1-6

SAGA

House of X/Powers of X by Jonathan Hickman

Runaways Vol 5 Cannon Fodder by Rainbow Rowell

Top 3 Covid Inspired Anxiety Dreams

1- stuck in a CVS without a mask and I can’t find the exits

2- meeting someone new and they offer their hand for me to shake and I’m stuck between being a jerk or getting germs

3- trapped in a crowd at the WF country club, everyone is maskless and singing the National anthem. I try pushing through them but I can’t.

A Definitive List of the Daddest Things I’ve Done This Year

1- listened to a Pearl Jam album while mowing my yard

2- switched from a Keurig to a regular $10 coffee pot

3- tried really hard to get into Bruce Springsteen (again)

4- found myself constantly saying phrases like “hey settle down fellas” when the fellas needed some settling down

5- made my kids watch Star Wars on Father’s Day

6- said the phrase, “man, I’ve always liked Wilco, but now I’m, like, really getting into them, you know?”

7- said that phrase above to Stacy while driving our 2013 Dodge Caravan

8- started wearing a robe around the house (a robe I got for Christmas no less!)

9- took an extra trip around the block so I could finish singing along to “Bloodbuzz, Ohio”

10- had another kid

Quick Mentionable Moments/Things:

Going to Memphis with Major in January, drinking at that haunted bar, haha I made a bucket list after seeing Sonic the Hedgehog, Sopranos in the back yard with Kevin, fireworks going off every night all summer long (actually didn’t love that), summer of snake luck, James Harden blocking Lu Dort (shhh don’t talk to me about the next series), going to a concert with Caraway and Jake in January back before I knew I wouldn’t be going to any concerts for a long time, marrying two of my favorite people in the world (wait that sounds weird), going through my fourth Radiohead phase, Night’s Shield getting funding for a new Homeless Youth program, the time a nazi dude almost fought me in the park, jogging more than ever, all the videos of people celebrating on that glorious Saturday in November, racking up more rejections but not giving up, recording music in my basement, got a tattoo, wrote a novel, started a new project, procrastinated a lot, played a lot of video games, switching to past tense then back to present, Hyrule Warriors with Eli, fishing with Ezra, meeting Ewan, being so proud of Stacy that it makes me cry just thinking of it, enjoying the time at home despite everything