Happy New Year, 2025

Happy new year! I’m working on new year’s cards right now, so if you want a card and I don’t have your mailing address, email me your address and I will send you one.
Looking back
Music: Unlike in other recent years, I didn’t listen to a lot of new music in 2024. I listened to the new ones by Clairo and Laufey, and I think my favorite new albums were Tiger’s Blood by Waxahatchee and The Past is Still Alive by Hurray for the Riff Raff. My most-listened-to artist was Jeff Rosenstock, who I streamed incessantly after seeing him in concert this summer. Non rock/pop favorites from 2024 included Nala Sinephro’s new one, Endlessness, and Eiko Ishibashi’s music for the film Evil Does Not Exist.
Lately I have been listening to a lot of 1970s UK punk, but I have a whole other post on that coming up.
Film and TV: Looking at my Letterboxd diary, I think I saw exactly three new films this year: the new Dune, the new Mad Max, and the new Nosferatu. Liked ‘em all. Favorites old films I watched this year for the first time were Design for Living, Stroszek, and the 2020 Uncle Vanya with Toby Jones.
Soccer: Liverpool won the Carabao Cup (it’s a real thing, I swear) last season, and St. Pauli won their league, getting promoted to the Bundesliga this season. And so far in the 2024-25 season, Liverpool is top of the English Premier League, top of the European Champions League, and contending in both English cups. So it’s been a good soccer year.
Photography: I’m happy with the work I did this year, but I am irritated with myself that I have let it all slide the past few months with very little new work done, and several rolls of film I still need to develop. I didn’t win anything in the Holga Week competition I mentioned in a previous post but I did get what amounts to an honorable mention in a Holga “advent calendar” on Instagram, so that’s cool.
Looking ahead
Photography: I have two photo zines I want to create. The first I mostly just need to write the essay, lay out the photos I have chosen, and print the darn thing. The second will take some more work, probably shooting more photos and doing more research and writing.
My overall goal for 2025 is to shoot 50 rolls of black and white film, and develop, scan, and share the images. I want to use my two main cameras and really get to feel like an expert with them, rather than experimenting a lot with other cameras. I want to learn how to use a flash properly. Besides film and chemistry, I plan to buy no new gear in 2025!
As for subject matter, I want to get a lot better at taking photos of people, both as posed portraits and candid street photography. Then I want to expand my photographs around Colorado Springs to incorporate more of the built environment.

Community: In my last bummer of a post I mentioned Kelly Hays and Mariame Kaba’s book, Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care. I have formed a small reading group with some friends at work, and we plan to read the book together and look for opportunities for actions that will help people in our community. In addition to Hays & Kaba’s book, I’m keeping this post by Spencer Sunshine in mind: 6 Things to Do to Get Politically Involved Right Now (If You’ve Never Been an Activist).
German: I have claimed before that I was going to learn German, and I’m not afraid to claim it again! I am looking at using the open educational resources course, Deustch im Blick from the University of Texas.
Tarot: I have long been interested in the art, symbolism, iconography, and community around the tarot. By the end of this year, I will have a good understanding of all the cards, and a good start on creating interpretations for readings of multiple cards.
This newsletter: As always, I would hope to post a little more often and stay in touch with y’all a bit better. I’m also likely to move away from Substack soon. I have known for quite a while that Substack Has a Nazi Problem, and I should have probably jumped ship a year ago. I put it in the back of my mind, but recently Substack promoted its partnership with right-wing media outlet The Free Press and I think I’m done (read about it here: Substack is at it again). So I might move to another newsletter site, or perhaps it’s time to party like it’s 2005 and move this all to a blog. Regardless, I want to stay in touch with all of you and will try and make any move seamless for you & keep you posted as it happens.
Love, hope and courage for 2025!