#bea-sim

was tagged by my beloved @andybvb to do a little year in review, so! a lot of the media wasn’t released this year please forgive me for always being late to the party!

top five movies:

1. ‘portrait of a lady on fire’

2. ‘god’s own country’

3. ‘the body remembers when the world broke open’

4. ‘monsoon’

5. ‘the lighthouse’

top five tv shows:

i don’t watch enough tv to do a proper top five so here are my general favourites?

1. ‘letterkenny’

2. ‘bob’s burgers’

3. ‘shetland’

4. oh in my one moment of contemporary watching ‘the queen’s gambit’ was quite entertaining

5. ‘derry girls’

top five songs:

i’m just gonna give you my top five from my spotify wrapped lol what an embarrassing chronicle of hyperfixations

1. ‘jesus shot me in the head’ - hiss golden messenger

2. ‘california’ - robert ellis

3. ‘o little light’ - hiss golden messenger

4. ‘i wanna be yours’ - arctic monkeys

5. ‘oh sarah’ - sturgill simpson

top five books:

1. ‘horizon’ by the very recently late and inimitable barry lopez. his loss is devastating. this book is the body of a life’s work. it is tremendous.

2. ‘sharks in the time of saviours’ by kawai strong washburn

3. ‘a little life’ by hanya yanigihara i don’t want to talk about it.

4. ‘a month in siena’ by hisham matar

5. ‘there there’ by tommy orange

top five positive things that happened:

1. my immediate family has blessedly remained safe this year, through the multiple disasters we’ve experienced on this continent

2. visited some of my cousins in hawai’i before lockdown and border closures and had a wonderful time with my family and also hiking by myself in the makiki valley

3. got into my masters! hey it’s been terrible online but i got in.

4. went to albury when the victoria/new south wales border opened up and visited one of my dear friends. we went walking around some beautiful creeks and waterfalls near the border towns!

5. sending letters to my friends has been particularly special this year. i’ve loved receiving fragments of my dearest companions carefully enclosed in heavily-stamped envelopes and having travelled long distances through many hands. how wondrous.

@andybvb tagged me in a post to share my spotify ‘on repeat’ and anyway yeah i’m going Through It and have been all year but i also have incredible taste so 🤠

tagged by @nickandros & @beholdingslut to do my top 7 albums and yes i know i have exquisite taste in music 🤠

ilysm my academic wife ❣️

24. Best book you’ve had to read for a course?

best full assigned book was maybe ‘The Sixth Extinction’ by Elizabeth Kolbert — it and the class it was for ultimately guided me into my field. for other classes i’ve been assigned a portion of John Berger’s ‘Ways of Seeing’ and JB Jackson’s ‘Discovering The Vernacular Landscape’ both of which i’ve pursued reading beyond the subject.

33. The best advice anyone has ever given you about university?

an essay is a moment in time, it does not define your capacities or abilities or worth. an essay at its point of submission for class does not need to represent the most perfect, final version of the pursuit. an essay can continue to exist and improve beyond the point of its assessment for a subject.

48. What things do you think you did right in your first year?