First half today, next half in a week's time.
Top ten podcasts
1. More Or Less: Behind the Statistics
2. Football Ramble
3. Book Fight
4. The GM Shuffle
5. The Bill Simmons Podcast
6. EconTalk
7. Men In Blazers
8. Dan Carlin's Hardcore History
9. Higher Learning (with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay)
10. Middle Theory
Notes
I never thought More Or Less would move to #1, but it's reflective of the reality in 2020 - its emphasis on untangling the messy statistics presented by the media throughout the pandemic proved invaluable for my health (not physical, but mental)... Football Ramble and Book Fight represent interesting milestones - I support both on Patreon, which helps creators run subscription services... Lombardi on The GM Shuffle, Mr. Murphy, is too good to drop any lower, Mr. Murphy, even as my interest in helmet football wanes, Mr. Murphy... I've become more selective with the next three podcasts, choosing only episodes that capture my immediate interest, though I would love to go back and catch up on EconTalk... Hardcore History comes out twice a year, but I won't complain because increased frequency might dilute the product... Higher Learning at its best alone would rank near the top of this list, but its pop culture focus means it will stray beyond my interest areas from time to time... Middle Theory has proven an exceptional replacement for longtime TOA podcast rankings mainstay Common Sense; it mentioned the latter as an inspiration on a recent episode... Song Exploder would be in the top-five if it consistently covered songs I knew (or liked)... I brought Reply All back into my rotation but I don't think it has a future, or a present, in my top ten.
Top ten subscription emails
1. Tim Harford
2. Mr. Money Mustache
3. WBUR
4. Brain Pickings
5. The Daily Coach
6. The Week In Patriarchy
7. This Is Anfield
8. Altra Footwear
9. The Boston Calendar
10. TOA
Notes
Harford's emails are a good supplement to what he covers on More Or Less, though I suppose if I was in a hurry I could just hunt the articles down as they are published (the emails regularly repost one of his columns)... MMM used to be a treasure trove of personal finance insight but some of his recent posts have me wary of him potentially vacating his fundamentals; it's possible he drops off the list next year... WBUR's daily update is a best-case scenario for a news website's newsletter, partly because their main page often feels like a waste of time due to infrequent updates... Brain Pickings remains a consistent source of potential books, though I only read its posts if the featured book appears worthy of my consideration (I have a massive "to-read" list at the moment)... The Daily Coach is like TOA, except twice as good (and half the length) - it offers a daily lesson on the arts of coaching, self-development, and building culture... The Week In Patriarchy is a Saturday afternoon update from The Guardian, accurately described as follows: "Arwa Mahdawi tracks what’s happening in the world of feminism and sexism"... TIA is my daily Liverpool update, and it would rank much higher except during the pandemic I started checking it multiple times per day, diminishing the value of the morning email... Altra's running newsletter offers interesting stories and features as an occasional respite from its advertising... The Boston Calendar was more useful when doing things in Boston wasn't a mortal risk... yup, I subscribe to my own site, sue me, in my defense it's a useful way to confirm the post went up as intended.
Top ten bands / artists
1. U2
2. Of Monsters and Men
3. Muse
This seems like a good place to transition from ranked lists to groups of ten for no other reason than my own indifference to ranking everything - and if I don't care, why would you?
Second Tier
Chvrches
Lake Street Dive
Third Tier
Courtney Barnett
Middle Kids
Norah Jones
Rubblebucket
Vulfpeck
Notes
It finally happened, yes folks I admit U2 is #1, all it took was a pandemic forcing me to sit at home by myself for nine-plus months, giving me plenty of time to work through their back catalogue and dig through YouTube for concert footage from as far back as the 1980s... OMAM separated itself from the pack with some new footage during lockdown, including acoustic renditions that I considered major improvements on 2019's Fever Dream... Muse is rock-solid at #3, it's hard to imagine them falling into the second tier given their musicianship and excellent live performances... the difference between the top three and the second tier is that I have some faith in the former's ability to improve every song during a live performance... my favorite songs from the the third tier don't reach the same heights as their equivalents in the second tier.
Ten Liverpool goals I (re)watched during lockdown
Gerrard vs. West Ham, FA Cup 2006
Gerrard vs. Real Madrid, CL 2008
Gerrard vs. Everton, FA Cup 2009
Can vs. Hoffenheim, CL 2017
Coutinho vs. Everton, Prem 2017
Mane vs. Man City, Prem 2018
Origi vs. Barcelona, CL 2019
Salah vs. Man City, Prem 2019
Notes
The goals (or their contexts) speak for themselves, so not much to add from me... I was in the bar when Salah scored against Southampton, and I consider it the best reaction I've witnessed in that setting - it's always fun to watch a big game from a packed audience, but I prefer dropping in for the games against slightly lesser opposition, where the viewers would be comprised only of the hardcore fans... Goals from the 2013-14 season are perhaps conspicuously absent but in my defense not only were there an awful lot of options, it's hard to forget that the best "goal" wasn't even scored (which I suppose is an appropriate summary for the season)... I'm pleased that in my research for this section I came across this thoughtful piece.
Ten comments on last year's "10 for 10"
Top ten eating places - the pandemic narrowed this list to four possibilities, which meant I had to put this item on pause for the 2020 edition. I get most of my takeout from The Upper Crust, so I suppose it's the theoretical #1.
Top ten drinking places - the stupidest thing I missed during the pandemic was going to the bar to watch Liverpool games, so I guess in hindsight the Phoenix Landing at #10 was far too low.
Top ten bands - Arctic Monkeys at #4 feels almost like a typo, but that's reflective of how it goes with music rankings - it might make sense at the time, but most of what we enjoy in the moment doesn't make much sense in retrospect.
Top ten podcasts - I'm noticing that variety is becoming more important over time. Even as recently as last year, it seems like I was open to the idea of hearing multiple programs on similar topics, but today a show like Men In Blazers, which I consider a strong podcast in its own right, doesn't take on much importance because I'm already listening to Football Ramble.
Top ten podcasts, #2 - I didn't comment on missing Common Sense last year, so it's worth pointing out here: what a huge loss, and such bad timing. I would trade a week of access to the news for a new episode of this podcast.
Ten songs - "Beneath the Bed" and "New Born" are holding up, but the others have slipped down my list. I may need another try at "She", as I became a bigger fan this year of Norah Jones, mostly thanks to her consistent YouTube mini-concerts. More to come in next week's update of this list.
Ten ideas - if time travel became a reliable and widespread technology, you'd think #2 would happen as soon as it overcame any technical obstacles. At the very least, someone would travel back in time and try to catch a jumper, right? The fact that these bodies are regularly recovered suggests to me that there is no chance time travel will ever be invented.
Ten reminders - "Be who you needed when you were younger" made a lot of sense to me at this time last year, but in the ensuing twelve months I've started to think "be who you'll need when you're older". It may be evidence that I aged much more than a year in 2020, or perhaps I simply wised up.
Ten band names - it turned out that Population: Carousel, Hunnnnus, and Replica Krakatoa lingered in my mind through 2020; my expectation is that Rooks Diagonal and Origami Bender have some untapped potential.
Ten posts - I suppose this is more of a preview item for next week, where I'll dig out ten posts I reread from 2020. Although I did not do an exact equivalent last year, I feel the concept is similar in spirit to the post that marked my fourth, or first, TOA birthday.
Thanks for reading, see you tomorrow.
