The annual awards series is one of TOA’s finest traditions. Over the years, I’ve shared my favorites in music, books, podcasts, and whatever else I paid attention to in the prior twelve months. It’s always been good fun for me to work out these retrospectives and I hope to continue doing so for a long time.
However – in what I expect my (long suffering) readers will consider great news – I’ve decided to chop it down a little bit this time. Last year, there were more than a couple of moments when I admitted the lengthy breakdowns were starting to bore me. So, for this year and beyond, I will borrow a gimmick from ESPN’s longtime fantasy football analyst Matthew Berry and present my awards using his ‘ten lists of ten’ structure.
I’ll follow up as needed with any leftover thoughts and (without question) the book award will get a similar level of coverage as in the past. But for the rest of it, these lists are it – so enjoy, and thanks for reading.
Top ten favorite places I go to eat (local)
1. Sapporo Ramen (Porter Square)
2. Punjabi Dhaba (Inman Square)
3. El Oriental De Cuba (Jamaica Plain)
4. Lucy’s Ethiopian (Prudential)
5. Gene’s Chinese Flatbread Cafe (Downtown Crossing)
6. CIAO! Pizza and Pasta (Chelsea)
7. My Thai Vegan Cafe (Chinatown)
8. Yamato II (Copley Square)
9. Brookline Lunch (Central Square)
10. Veggie Crust - Somerville (Union Square)
BONUS - my favorite dish of the year was the Coconut Chili Shrimp at Tiger Mama (Fenway).
Top ten favorite places I go to drink (local)
1. The Field (Central Square)
2. Somerville Brewing Company - Slumbrew (Union Square)
3. Sligo Pub (Davis Square)
4. Turtle Swamp Brewing (Jamaica Plain)
5. The Hill Tavern (Beacon Hill)
6. The Tam (Chinatown)
7. Ittoku (Porter Square)
8. Penguin Pizza (Mission Hill)
9. Biddy Early’s (Downtown / Financial District)
10. Phoenix Landing (Central Square)
BONUS - Slumbrew has a contender for my favorite drink – #ThanksObama, a sweet milk stout – and it also serves far superior food than The Field. The Field also has a long history of ridding itself of the other contenders for Favorite Drink - Sapporo and Old Chubb immediately come to mind. Alas, The Field remains #1, proving that nothing will ever beat The Field.
Note, I'm never in the Phoenix Landing after 3PM or so, and I recommend the same philosophy for you, reader - enjoy the soccer games, and go home for a nap!
Places to drink - honorable mentions
100. Phoenix Landing (after 3PM)
1,000. Tavern in the Square (any of them, but especially the big one in Brighton)
10,000. The Pourhouse (Boylston Street / Seventh Circle of Hell)
100,000. A puddle, pick any puddle...
1,000,000. The Lincoln (South Boston)
Top ten bands / artists
1. Muse
2. U2
3. Of Monsters and Men
4. Arctic Monkeys
5. Rubblebucket
6. Chvrches
7. Celtic Social Club
8. Lake Street Dive
9. Courtney Barnett
10. Slow Club
This list should be considered the equivalent to my past ‘Band of the Year’ posts. Please see the footnotes for a running tally of past winners (‘winners’) and some extended notes (1) (2).
Top ten podcasts
1. The Football Ramble (soccer, four idiots from the UK)
2. The GM Shuffle (helmet football)
3. More Or Less (statistics in the news)
4. The Bill Simmons Podcast (sports, occasionally pop culture)
5. Men In Blazers (soccer, two idiots from the UK)
Damn, rankings are tough! These last five I didn’t bother to put in any ranked order:
EconTalk (economics)
The Tim Ferris Show (business podcast?)
Book Fight! (books)
Middle Theory (politics)
Dan Carlin's Hardcore History (history)
I'm giving up – the rest of these lists are not ‘top ten’ lists, just a list of ten for reach category.
Ten (not new) songs I (think I) started enjoying this year
'Beneath the Bed' - Of Monsters and Men
'New Born' - Muse
'Fluorescent Adolescent' - Arctic Monkeys
'Make It Right' - Celtic Social Club (OK, this one is new!)
'Surrender' - U2
'Elevator Operator' - Courtney Barnett
'Cigarettes and Alcohol' - Oasis
'She' - Norah Jones (Graham Parsons cover)
'Beacon Hill' - The Head and The Heart (Damian Jurado cover)
'Royals' - Bruce Springsteen (Lorde cover)
Ten books I liked from 2019 that just missed the TOA Book Award shortlist
The Art of Seeing by Aldous Huxley
Draft No. 4 by John McPhee
Simone Weil: An Anthology by Simone Weil
If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
Working by Robert Caro
Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport
Managing My Life by Alex Ferguson
Call Them By Their True Names by Rebecca Solnit
A Burst of Light by Audre Lorde
To Bless the Space Between Us by John O'Donohue
Ten ideas I've written down that I have no idea what to do with
What if heaven is full...?
Time travelers could rescue suicides!
Does asking for chopsticks to eat lasagna create inclusive dining?
Why doesn't minor league baseball have practice?
The whitest thing since sliced bread.
Wisdom means knowing when your experience is relevant.
Making comparisons means you are talking to yourself!
If you don't acknowledge reality then you can't change the future.
Style means overcoming lack of talent.
Unusual things happen everyday - it's your response that makes you unusual.
Do the next right thing
Lean forward, choppy strides
Need an hour, get an hour
No one cares - coach your team
Be who you needed when you were younger
Am I really trying my best?
Underestimate affinity at your own risk
Be the better one
It fails because of you
Work regular hours
Population: Carousel
Hunnnnus
Detoxic
The Adjective Noun
The So-Called Vosotros
Origami Bender
Visible the Sound
Albany in Arabic
Albany in Arabic
Six Card 21
The Fourth Favorite
The Fourth Favorite
OK, fine... ten more band names
Acute, Obtuse, and Righteous
Replica KrakatoaAmerica the Titans
Zamboni Turnpike
Jenny Jenga and The Junior Johnnies
My Ditto, Your Pikachu
Rooks Diagonal
The War Against EncoresThe Pending Americans
3D Musketeers
Footnotes / encore?
1. List of past ‘BOY’
1987 - 2006: Eminem (Nelly, Nirvana)
2007 - 2009: U2 (Counting Crows, Passion Pit)
2010: The Killers
2011: Muse (Arcade Fire)
2012: 'Podcasts' (sorry)... (Oasis, Foster The People)
2013: Yeah Yeah Yeahs (T.I., P!nk)
2014: The Head and The Heart (Sara Bareilles, Yeah Yeah Yeahs)
2015: Lake Street Dive (Of Monsters and Men, U2)
2016: Slow Club (Courtney Barnett, Lake Street Dive)
2017: Rubblebucket (Celtic Social Club, U2)
2018: Chvrches (U2, Lake Street Dive)
2019: Muse (U2, Of Monsters and Men)
2. Music notes
Congratulations to Muse, they were driven forward by a concert I went to in April, some deep dives into their older work, and perhaps my discovering this video.
The biggest gap above is between #8 and #9 – Courtney Barnett is a lot of fun but just doesn't capture the same feeling as Lake Street Dive.
It’s possible that Celtic Social Club is two spots too high but a strong new album and the lingering memory of their concert a few years ago convinced me to bump them to #7.
2a. Honorable mention – new music
I don't listen to enough new music in a year to do a top ten but in hindsight I’m glad I listened to more of these three artists:
1. Middle Kids
2. Kurt Vile
3. Norah Jones
Middle Kids is a promising but young Australian group that will need to put out a few more good songs before I elevate them into my top ten list – I think they only have one album out. Kurt Vile and Norah Jones had similar stories for me in 2019, I did my best with each artist but I can see that they just haven’t put out enough songs I like for them to really settle in as permanent features in my music rotation. Norah Jones has a great feel for covers which makes it more likely for her to move up my list in the coming years.
