Year of the Depend Adult Under Plemons

Hello You.

I had every intention of writing this email to you towards the end of December in the weird Liminal space between Christmas and New Year. Unfortunately I was lucky enough to get every one of the four viruses hanging around the arse end of 2024, starting with the Norovirus and concluding with a hideous unrelenting cough. This then fed directly to my current state where you find me recovering from fairly extensive nasal surgery which I had done on New Year’s Eve Eve. It’s put a bit of a dampener on my output as I’ve been suffering from extreme congestion, pain, and dehumanising leakage. But you find me now on the road to recovery, slowly growing my beard back which was shorn off the the convenience of the anaesthesiologist, and only intermittently jettisoning horrors from beyond the comprehension of man from the void in the middle of my face.

As I haven’t left the house much since the beginning of the year, and December was mostly about worrying about Christmas, prepping for surgery, and being concerned about the future of my employment I’ve not really been up to much. I’ve been doing a lot of academic writing for my PhD which I can’t really share here yet, so my first post of 2025 will be a retrospective of the previous year.

I was a tweet recently about “end of year best of lists” that summarised them not as definitive lists and more as “thing that I enjoyed in a certain time frame lists”. We aren’t all Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who is claimed to have read everything published by man between the beginning of history and his death. Also that claim is bollocks as more than 30,000 pieces of Incunabula were published before 1500 so it implies the notorious STC read more than 30k books in his 61 years on Earth. But the point I’m trying to make is there are only a certain number of hours in a day and to consume every piece of art provided to you would be a wild and impossible feat. So I offer to you a guide to my favourite things I enjoyed in 2024, with the given caveat that it’s things I can remember that I enjoyed as well because lots of things will have fallen out of my head like clods of mud flicked from a tractors tyres onto a country road.

Books are tricky things because the majority of things I read in 2024 were not only not published in 2024, they weren’t published in my life time. I opened the year reading John Waters’ pair of autobiographies Shock Value (1981) and Mr Know-It-All (2019) which were perfect conversationally toned anecdote collections about a thoroughly fascinating person who has lived a thoroughly fascinating life. Whether you’re familiar with the life of schlock film director John Waters or not, I’d recommend these books as being hugely entertaining explorations of poor taste. I also read Every Man For Himself and God Against All (2023) which was Werner Herzogs autobiography and whilst John and Werner are friends they couldn’t have lived more different lives. Herzogs book is one of endless wonder, beauty, and suffering in the natural world. I polished off the year reading Space Ships Over Glasgow (2022) the autobiography of Mogwai’s lead guitarist Stuart Braithwaite which was another ridiculous tale of circumstance and coincidence that shows just how hard it is to make it big in music, how drinking is a terrible hobby, and what music was like in the 90s.

I did read two books actually published in 2024 which were excellent. The first was Pink Slime by Fernanda Traís, which is an emotionally powerful and crushingly sad book about the way outside forces define womanhood. After a blooming algae causes a spore filled fog to descend on the coastal town in which she lives, a woman who is paid to look after a wealthy woman’s son has to balance her own survival and the survival of her loved ones during a deadly pandemic. It’s about memory, experience, love, and ultimately about how femininity is defined by what people expect of women. It was chilling and brutally sad, but so emotionally rich and poetic that it really stuck with me.

The second book was Q&A by Adrian Tomine. Tomine is a famed comic book creator and illustrator who has put out some of my favourite books. I’m referencing his 2020 publication Lonliness of a Long Distance Cartoonist in my thesis and I think his collection Killing and Dying (2015) was one of the more influential books I’ve read when it comes to articulating what I want to do as a comic creator. But Q&A is not a comic, instead it’s a book of answers he gives to questions posed by fans, ranging from how do you pronounce Tomine, what sort of artistic equipment do you use, and how do I get a job at the New Yorker? I think that since the days of his Optic Nerve zine Tomine’s voice has always been one of his strong suits. Tomine is an obvious student of Daniel Clowes’ school of observational comic writing, but I’ve always found his works less obscure, less abstract, and in many ways more relatable in terms of his characters humanity than his forefather. This translates well into his Autobiographical and personal writing and if you’re interested in the process of comic making, and the life of a cartoonist, this is a great book for you.

So this book started in late 2023, but finished in 2024 and had its collected edition printed in 2024, and I asked Jared from OK Comics if it counted as a 2024 book and he said yes. My comic book of 2024 was Rare Flavours by Ram V and Filipe Andrade.

At its heart Rare Flavours is a road movie. The main characters are Rubin, an imposingly figured gourmet who longs to tell the personal stories of food, and Mo, the young film maker he has employed to make a documentary about his journey through food. The only spanner in the works here is that Rubin is a demon from Indian Folklore who is being hunted by two monster Slayers.

It’s a wonderful delicate book with absurdly beautiful artwork that reflects the humanity at the heart of this story about a demon. A narrative device that I absolutely adored was that each episode focuses on different dish and tells the story of its creation as well as the recipe of how to make it. Ram V is a superb writer and from the vampires of These Savage Shores (2019) to the gothic threads of his Detective Comics (I don’t know, 2021?) run he understands that if you’re talking about the supernatural you’re really using it as a mirror to talk about humanity. This is a book about humanity and the way we consume the stories of those around us, touching on tradition, on memory, on self identification, and on cultural appropriation. It’s great, I loved it, and I have a whole piece prepped somewhere inside me on using non-violent means as narrative resolution with this book at its core.

Stars are back here at Gonzo Towers and 2024 was probably the year I went to the cinema most since Orange Wednesdays was a thing. Whilst it came out in 2023 the most powerful and arguably best film I saw in 2024 was The Zone Of Interest. From the beginning of the opening drone to the very final moments of the credits Johnathan Glazers holocaust movie had me pinned in place like a butterfly speared on a pin. The shockingly bloodless film about the mechanisms of evil uses sound as a blanket to saddle you in the reality of cruelty and made me feel so overwhelmed and uncomfortable I went for a three mile walk at 10pm at night to get over it. 2024 was also the year I saw Dune: Part 2 (2024) at the IMAX which was a superb experience but because of it being the continuation of Dune (2021) and not even a sequel I’m not going to talk about how much I loved it, despite the fact I did. The final caveat is Nosferatu (2024) which was an excellently crafted movie of gothic terror, but one I watched in January 2025. So I won’t talk about it on this list, and will probably fart on about it in a future blog post. Instead here are the three films I would say are “the best”.

I have a strained relationship with Will Ferrell. He’s a funny guy and I love so much of his stuff, but whilst he does stuff like make weird experimental comedy with Tim and Eric and have one of the best Cameos on 30 Rock (in a show that highlights NBCs problem with its treatment of women called ‘Bitch Hunter’) he also makes bullshit bro comedies like The Other Guys (2010) and Daddy’s Home (2015). He is representative of frat boy sense of humour that I find reductive and damaging. I’m not going to yuck someone’s yum for liking these films, it’s just personally they make me feel uneasy. So it’s interesting to watch Will and Harper knowing that some of Ferrells own back catalogue has contributed to the current climate where for many it’s funny to laugh at and be repelled by our trans comrades. The movie is a wonderful portrait of evolving friendships as Will Ferrell goes on a journey with their friend Harper Steele who has newly come out as a woman to their friends and family, and they renegotiate their friendship on the move undertaking a long road trip, something Harper no longer feels comfortable doing as a woman. There were plenty of opportunity for this to suck, whether by making Harper a device for Ferrells education, or making it overly schmaltzy, but it’s delivered straight, is genuinely funny, and moments of true emotion comes from the situations the two find themselves in and how the world interacts with them. There are some really strange double take moments, such as when they meet a republican senator who is extremely warm and friendly to Harper whilst also being the legislator of some incredibly transphobic policies.

Yorgos Lanthimos has a bit of a banner year with the popularity of Poor Things (2023) and the release of Kinds of Kindness (2024) a film that seemed to be geared towards me and all of my Interests at once. A series of three short films brought together in an anthology format showcasing similar themes and an identical cast. Hong Chau, who has been a favourite actor of mine since her hilarious comedy spin in Inherent Vice (2014) really stands out as well here which is a tough thing to do when you’re acting next to Willem Dafoe, a man with so much charisma I think he might be dangerous to stand next to for too long. Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons are chameleonic as they move from scenario to scenario, really showing their range as performers and the director really leans into the absurdity and surrealism crafted in the stories. The less you know about what actually takes place the better, but each one plays out like a fable, only with a contemporary spin. One stylistic flourish I thought was fascinating was that during some conversations between characters the camera drifts to focus on parts of them you wouldn’t usually focus on. As someone delivers bad news we see only the hands of the communicators as they gesture. This particular shot was a kick up the backside for me as a comic creator which made me think about the things we choose to put in the frame. Additionally there were moments of absolutely wild line delivery that felt like they’d brought in people off the street and fed them the dialogue via earpiece, which just added to this very purposeful, very alienating, and hugely entertaining triptych.

Mired by some weirdly centrist rhetoric in its publicity interviews and the use of some baffling AI art in its advertising Civil War (2024) is never the less an astonishing film and one I have rarely stopped thinking about since its release. Rather than settling on the who is right who is wrong finger pointing exercise I sort of hoped it would be (but now realise would have been a righteous self congratulatory telling off serving no one) it honed in on the utterly pointless bloodshed of conflict. Using the war photographers as the navigators of the story is slowly unpicked how little intent and principals matter once conflict begins and becomes co-opted en masse by the people on the ground. It was harrowing, it was upsetting, it was beautiful to look at and had a strong score from Ben Salisbury and the Postishead Bristolian Geof Barrow. I have heard that this is to be Alex Garlands last movie as director which is slightly disappointing as this and Ex Machina (2014) are almost note perfect films and whilst some of his movies (cough Annihilation (2018)) didn’t achieve all they set out to, they always had merit and a fresh stylistic approach.

Welcome the to music corner. Oh ho ho ho! There is no escape! It’s been a bumper year for music as far as I am concerned and I make great joy in talking about it in this section of the newsletter. But it also feels like we have covered a lot of it in the newsletter already so I will keep this briefer than I could do. First off, people who know me will know that the releases by Osees and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard got played ad nauseum in my household. SORCS 80 and Flight b741 respectively were great continuations of the cannons for the wildly prolific psyche rock bands, but if I’m being truly honest offered little in way of development or new material for either bands. I love them both and think they’re great albums but if you’re looking for a departure from their other works you’re not going to get it. Just two more cracking records of solidly made exciting music. The Last Dinner Party however fired out an album of sensual baroque indie music in the form of Prelude to Ecstacy which was cruelly denied the Mercury Prize this year. It’s a wonderfully crafted and confident album that’s up there for me. Leeds’ own English Teacher put out This Could Be Texas, an album I did not like at first and was upset when they won the Mercury Music Prize, but I have come to embrace its spoken word lyrical focus over the top of quality music. Australian punks Amyl and the Sniffers released Cartoon Darkness which has so many catchy, rebellious and poor taste ear worms that it’s hard to put down. Jerkin’ is the lead single and it’s got a great X-certificate music video and a chorus you want to shout out of a car window at someone you don’t like, but my favourite song is U Should Not Be Doing That which covers the topic of people telling you what you should not be doing. Idles did a great job with Tangk, Everything Everything delivered another brilliant album with Mountain Head, and Arab Strap released a great album of outrage at contemporary life without slipping into “old man shouts at cloud” territory. That album also wins points for being called I am totally fine with it 👍I don’t give a fuck anymore 👍 which you just have to celebrate. We also saw the release of No Obligation by The Linda Lindas a band that I am realising as I write this that I have never introduced my partner to despite her love of calling people Linda… but yeah, do you remember The Linda Lindas? They were the punk band of criminally talented and ethnically diverse middle school girls who played songs about how fucked up it is to live in modern society that got memed a bit because the band had an average age of about 14. Their big hit was Racist Sexist Boy which rocked hard in the same vein as the Adolescents whilst also proffering the eternal question of Why are men shit? Anyway they’re back and have worked on a fucking excellent second album that builds on what they did before whilst also growing and developing their musical talents. It’s more varied, takes more chances, but stays with their punk roots by being 12 tracks long and only 35 minutes.

However since its release there has been only one option as to what my favourite album of the year could have been.

Godspeed You Black Emperor’s latest album NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 28,340 DEAD is the album that I have listened to the most this year and therefore is probably the one most deserving of “best”. A stunning, haunting album of great cacophonous sound and delicate subtlety that I have held in my heart since first listen. Tracks like BABYS IN THE THUNDERCLOUD and RAINDROPS CAST IN LEAD have moments of extreme power and moments of soft beauty to them that really showcase why Godspeed are the masters of the Post-Rock genre. Their album closer and lead single GREY RUBBLE - GREEN SHOOTS is a tour through their powers, from the opening guitars hum to the gentlest cascading final bars. My favourite album by far I would say. If you have ever been interested in Post-Rock as a genre but have been over faced by how the fans are pretentious milk-sops like me, well your time is now! Give this a listen, it’s all there.

shout outs to Mmm…Food by MF Doom and Desperate Youth and Blood Thirsty Babes by TV On the Radio that got anniversary rereleases this year which made me feel incredibly old, but also got super remastering on thick ass vinyl Captain America could yeet at a Nazi.

It would be remiss of me not to mention that my favourite film maker/artist/musician David Lynch passed away this week.

I am still processing this, because whilst I didn’t know him and always saw him as an old man in many ways, it’s still upsetting to concretely know there will never be any more art produced by him. It was fun to see the outpouring of love for him and to see all the people crediting him as an inspiration. He really was for me, and probably not since David Bowie has a “celebrity death” hit me this hard. I imagine I will write more about this later but right now, let’s all watch our copies of Inland Empire (2006) and remember that time he rented a cow to try and get Laura Dern an Oscar.

I hope this signal finds you Earthling.

As always, yours faithfully.

Nick Gonzo.

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