I do this little review every year, so I have a record of how things were for me. I don't have much to write this year, because it felt like a holding pattern, just waiting around for the shitshow of 2020 to settle down, but with no particular new highs or lows to report.

I'm once again thankful for the position I'm in—despite the pandemic continuing, I remain healthy, have a roof over my head, a job that I can do under said roof, and a personality conducive to long stretches of staying inside and hanging out with my girlfriend and dog. I did do a few things outside of these walls, though: lots of hikes in forests, bike rides, even a few trips within Ontario and visits to restaurants when things briefly opened up and felt safe. None of my friends or family died, though there were close calls. All considered, it was a fine year, and there's room to go up from here.

Here's my summary of the media I consumed this year, which is a potentially problematic but effective way of jogging memories about what 2021 was like, how it felt.

Music

As usual, this is just an uncurated list of the albums I listened to most, courtesy of Last.FM.

First, some honourable mentions for albums that came out late in the year or didn’t make it on the list for whatever reason:

Honourable mentions:

Ides - CrawlerThe Pretty Reckless - Death by Rock and RollBlack Honey - Written and DirectedLil Nas X - MONTEROOlivia Rodrigo - SOURSteven Wilson - The Future BitesKacey Musgraves - Star-CrossedModest Mouse - The Golden CasketLimp Bizkit - Still SucksThe Offspring - Let the Bad Times RollThrice - Horizons / East
And here’s my top 10 most listened-to albums:

10. Duran Duran - FUTURE PAST

9. Rob Zombie - The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy

8. Gojira - Fortitude

7. Foo Fighters - Medicine at Midnight

6. Brad Sucks - A New Low in Hi-Fi

5. Lorde - Solar Power

4. Kaleo - Surface Sounds

3. Evanescence - The Bitter Truth

2. Garbage - No Gods No Masters

1. Greta Van Fleet - The Battle at Garden’s Gate

I also got Meg a turntable for Christmas, so that opens up a whole new world of possibilities for defining my personality through music like a hipster piece of crap. It also goes with this year's theme of mostly listening to artists from when I was young and stuff seemed better. Is this that old man tendency to romanticize the past? Am I there already?

TelevisionI liked these shows:
Brand New Cherry FlavorCurb Your EnthusiasmDexter: New BloodExplainedFoundationHawkeye, Loki, WandavisionI Think You Should LeaveThe Last Drive-InLove on the SpectrumThe MandalorianMare of EasttownMidnight MassMythic QuestSquid GameSuccessionSuperstoreTed LassoTiger KingThe Walking Dead
MoviesThese are the best movies I saw in 2021. They may not have come out in 2021, shut up. I'm just listing recent-ish movies I rated 4+ stars on Letterboxd, so go there for full reviews.An Evening With Beverly Luff LinnAnother RoundAntebellumArmy of the DeadBad TripBarb & Star Go to Vista Del MarBeckyBingo HellBlack WidowDaniel Isn't RealDon’t Look UpThe FatherFingersFree GuyFried BarryGreener GrassLove and MonstersMalignantMinariNomadlandParanormal Activity: Next of KinPigPossessorPromising Young WomanThe RentalShang-ChiSilent NightSound of MetalThe StarlingThe Suicide SquadSynchronicThe TripThe Truffle HuntersWilly's Wonderland
Games / AppsI didn’t have much time for video games this year. I don’t know if it’s the games industry or me, but I just couldn’t get deeply into any one game. I’ll grab something from Games Pass, play it for a few hours, then forget it existed until I need to clear space for another one.
Anyway, here are the games I did play and liked. Add me on Xbox Live or Nintendo or Oculus to play with me.
Xbox:Assassin’s Creed Odyssey - It’s become a bit of a Christmas tradition to use my time off to play a bit of a very long Assassin’s Creed game. For some reason I’m going through them backwards.Assassin's Creed Syndicate and Unity - Finished these ones up too.ControlDying LightLawn Mowing SimulatorOutridersTwelve MinutesUnpacking
Nintendo Switch:Nintendo sent me one of those annual wrapped summaries, and apparently I spent like 2 hours playing my Switch this year. Oops.
Oculus Quest, Mac, Other:Demeo - Like a board game, but in virtual reality. Pretty cool.Supernatural - A VR workout app that doesn’t feel like a workout. They got bought out by Meta (formerly Facebook) this year, so hopefully it doesn’t go to shit.Strava - A good way of keeping track of how much I get out on my bike.Peloton - Meg got one of these ridiculously expensive indoor bikes, and it really is pretty motivating.
That's two thousand and twenty one! Hopefully next year is more normal, for realsies this time.