Best Writing By Me of 2023
19 pieces from last year for you to read before I start writing this year.
I typically write somewhere north of 300 articles a year; close to one a day at least. It’s difficult to remember them all, much less figure out which I liked best! But I’ve picked out twenty or so of those that I thought were most substantive, or that might have ongoing interest. They’re not in any particular order.
1. There Isn’t a Crisis of Masculinity: Masculinity is the Crisis (EIH)
Maybe my favorite thing I wrote this year; I try to explain why all those “oh no young men are struggling” articles are confused and harmful.
2. No, Gay and Lesbian Children Are Not Being “Transed” (The Present Age)
A reported piece in which I talked to parents, trans youth, and medical professionals about this absurd reactionary talking point.
3. Illinois Organizers Push to Abolish Cash Bail. (Prism)
I wrote a number of articles about the successful Illinois push to abolish cash bail. It’s finally done; a real victory for progressives in the state.
4. Biden Is Presiding Over a Labor Renaissance (Public Notice)
Making the case for the success of Biden’s pro labor policies.
5. On Stop Making Sense as an Antifascist Party Film (CNN)
Talking Heads fight the power.
6. Dreaming of a Jewish Christmas (The Revealer)
On the power, liberatory and otherwise, of Jews writing your Christmas songs.
7. Do You Have to Hate Jews to Be a Nazi? (The Revealer)
On Webern’s support for Hitler.
8. What James Baldwin Got Wrong About Black Antisemitism (Sojourners)
Kanye West challenges Baldwin’s argument.
9. Yes, The Republicans Are Fascists (EIH)
Claudia Koonz’s book The Nazi Conscience reminds us that Hitler’s regime had to build to genocide.
10. Spitting on Kissinger’s Corpse As Conceptual Art (EIH)
The response to Kissinger’s death was art.
11. Don’t Worry, Barbie (EIH)
Barbie is leery of female desire; Don’t Worry, Darling is less so.
12. Femme Fatale and the Joy of Castration (EIH)
Brian DePalma plays with the male gaze.
13. Stormy Weather And Cabin In The Sky: Pioneering Black Musicals At 80 (Quietus)
Two wonderful films show how much Hollywood’s racism cost us.
14. X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes vs. First Man (Chicago Reader)
A series of films examines art and science.
15. Zone of Interest and the Humanity of Evil (American Purpose)
On what most Holocaust films get wrong.
16. Find Editors Who Like You (Lit Mag News)
Some advice for desperate poets.
17. What My Queer Family Has Taught Me (Business Insider)
Having a trans daughter is great.
18. Send $19.99 for Supplements and Freedom (above/ground)
I published a poetry chapbook! According to Winning Writers:
This satirical chapbook of found-poetry and hybrid texts includes a pantoum based on Joe Rogan's right-wing talk radio rants, absurd diagrams and multiple-choice questions mashing up the Graduate Record Exam with The Artist's Way, and a Swinburne double sestina featuring Jordan Peterson's pronouncements about masculinity and lobsters. It's like scrolling social media while dropping acid.
If you want a copy let me know! It’s $6 including postage; cheap!
19. No Devotions (LJMcD Communications)
Another chapbook! This one is made up of Mary Oliver erasures, more or less. You can download it…right here!
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If I missed something I wrote that was one of your favorites, feel free to add it in the comments. And/or, share what you wrote this year that you’re proud of!
One of my favorite pieces this year was your article about Jason Aldean: https://www.everythingishorrible.net/p/it-doesnt-matter-if-jason-aldean
Particularly the discussion of "authenticity" arriving at:
"But it's important to recognize that the main problem is not the hypocrisy or the posturing. The main problem is the racism. There's nothing wrong with being from a city. There's not even anything wrong with being from a city and singing about the experiences of rural people, a la Cincinnati-born Roy Rogers.
Aldean's song attempts to locate virtue in identity; he claims he is a good person with the right to use violence because he's standing in, or near, a small town. Isbell and Clymer attempt to steal that virtue from him by contesting the identity; they concede, implicitly, that small town identity is virtuous, but deny that that identity belongs to Aldean."
A lot of great essays and reviews this year. Can't pick a favorite, although your fuck laden fascism rant the other week was excellent.