Reading is my primary mode of entertainment, and there’s a whole separate article for that. This is the article where I combine all other forms of entertainment and look back at what I consumed in the past year.
Video Games
It’s funny, I self-identify as a “gamer” and spent most of my childhood pining for the games and consoles I couldn’t afford, but I actually played objectively few video games this year. The only game I fully completed was Final Fantasy XVI, but I played the bulk of it in 2023, only putting the finishing touches on it in 2024. I haven’t touched the DLC, yet, but I plan to. Continuing the Final Fantasy theme, the game that consumed the majority of my playing time this year was Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth. It’s a marvel of a game, truly. The original Final Fantasy VII is my favorite game of all time, searing itself deep into my childhood and teenage subconscious. Somehow, they’ve created a game that has honored that hyper-nostalgia without just making a frame by frame remake. I’m enjoying it. Haven’t finished it yet, but hopefully in the first half of 2025.
As far as additional console gaming goes, I played some Helldivers 2, Hollow Knight, and Inscryption. Playing games with strangers stresses me out, so Helldivers 2 ended up on the shelf pretty quickly. I started scratching the surface of the beauty and stellar reputation of Hollow Knight, but hit a couple of spots that demoralized me so completely I put it down to take a break, and then several months had elapsed. I only started playing Inscryption in October, and I’ve liked it quite a bit.
Outside my PlayStation, I’ve dabbled in Finity, Vampire Survivors, and Balatro on my iPhone, with Balatro taking the majority of my attention there.
Music
Music is almost always a productivity tool. I turn it on when I need to focus, which means I listen to almost exclusively instrumental tunes. I also rarely listen to albums, choosing to stick to playlists like Apple’s Chill, Focus, Lo-Fi Japan, Living in the Library and other downtempo/electronic playlists. Tycho is the epitome of the music I’m looking for when working, and there was actually a new Tycho album, Infinite Health, this year that I found myself listening to on repeat for a while.
Other than music-as-focus-tool, my big discovery this year was Petey. I got obsessed. In a true sign of the times, I first became aware of Petey because of his absurd sketches on Instagram. I then heard his music referenced by the triathlon podcast I listen to, so I decided to give him a try. Oh man, it scratches the same itch that Manchester Orchestra and Say Anything and Modest Mouse do for me. Plus, he has connections to Michigan (gotta appreciate any time someone wears a Detroit Vipers jersey). It’s rare when I find a new artist (to me) and they almost immediately pop into my top five favorite artists list, but Petey did it.
Honorable mentions have to go out to everyone’s favorite German partycore band, Electric Callboy, who I continue to adore and their collaboration with Babymetalthis year is a delight. I started to dabble into some seriously heavy stuff like Lorna Shore thanks to my strange obsession with watching drummer YouTube videos as a non-drummer (shout out to Drumeo, for that). Sometimes you just wanna listen to some insanely talented musicians shred and growl like demons, you know?
Oh, and my favorite band of all time, Coheed and Cambria, has been releasing some new singles (and a whole album of covers), so you know that has me looking excitedly toward 2025.
Movies
Boy, I certainly don’t watch many movies, eh? I watched a grand total of 7 this year. Godzilla Minus One, Perfect Days, Gettysburg, and Dune: Part Two fwere great. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga was okay. Napoleon and The Creator were bad.
TV
I watch only slightly more TV than I do movies, but the overall hit rate on what I watched this year was much higher than past years. The entire run of Detroiters (S1 & S2), Shoresy (S1-3), The Last of Us (S1) and Slow Horses (S1-S3) were incredible. Fallout, 3 Body Problem, Faceoff: Inside the NHL, and Planet Earth III were pretty okay. Not a fan of The Mandalorian and don’t think I’ll be moving beyond the first season.
I’ve also come to enjoy Dropout TV, particularly the show Very Important People. Two comedians sit down for an improvised interview after one of them receives an elaborate makeover and has to make up a character to go along with it. Some episodes are whiffs, but the ones that hit, hit hard.
There are a few YouTube channels where I generally watch every new video: the boat building-turned-boat-sailing channel, the long-haul hiker who posts daily recaps, the aesthetic triathlon channel and the unhinged but motivating triathlon channel, and a couple of hockey recap and analysis channels.
Podcasts
The champion of 2024 was, by far, The Rest Is History. After hearing people praise it, I finally went face down in it this year. It’s incredible and maybe my new favorite podcast.
I’m not a huge 99% Invisible fan, but their yearlong read along of Robert Caro’s The Power Broker with Elliot Kalan from The Flop House was great. They had some great guests, including what felt like out of nowhere, Brennan Lee Mulligan from Dropout.
The current full roster as of December 31st, 2024 is: The Rest is History, Accidental Tech Podcast, Philosophize This!, 32 Thoughts, Upgrade, Reconcilable Differences, Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History, Dithering, Sharp Tech, Sharp China, In Our Time, Coretex, Navel Gazing, Robot or Not?, Roderick on the Line, The Talk Show with John Gruber, That Triathlon Life Podcast, Under the Radar, The Vergecast.
And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the podcast I co-host, At Work with The Ready, even though I have trouble listening to it since I put so much time and attention into making it.
Other Entertainment
2024 was a weirdly sporty year for me. I got into F1 thanks to finally cratering to peer pressure (many years later) on Drive to Survive. I picked up the F1 season about halfway through the summer and watched every race from there until the end of the season, developing the appropriately strong opinions about things I barely understand along the way.
Early in 2024 the extremely mediocre Detroit Red Wings, my favorite team of my favorite sport, went on a bit of a run at the end of the season and almost made the playoffs for the first time in the better part of a decade. Alas, they did not. But it was exciting for a while. Don’t talk to me about this season, though.
Similarly, the Detroit Tigers went on a perhaps even more improbable run at the end of last season, did make the playoffs, and got closer to making the World Series than anybody expected.
And just to round out my sporty year, the Detroit Lions are finally good and after years of heartbreak and then mostly ignoring them, I’ve tried to watch the vast majority of their games this season.