2014: Year in Review

Phew. This one’s a doozy.

Some standout things from 2014: I travelled more than I ever have before – a trip to Copenhagen in the spring, Gaspé in the summer, and Paris in the fall. I also spent more time alone in my own city, and think I got better at finding the joy in that.

I saw three of my all-time favourite artists – Godspeed You! Black Emperor, The Knife, St. Vincent – and enjoyed each performance in different ways. I was reinvigorated by live music in a way I hadn’t been in years. It felt good.

As I noted earlier, I also spent far less time online. I’ve pretty much stopped talking outfit photos altogether – which may not sound like such a big deal, but this is coming from someone who used to faithfully contribute to #ootd groups, almost daily, for months. That takes dedication and diligence! It’s just not my thing anymore.

Now for the nitty gritty. If you’re a longtime reader, you know how this goes. If not, it’s pretty straightforward: scroll to see 12 pictures of my face, accompanied by a brief summary of what went on in my life that month, paired with recommended reading/listening.

If you’re new here, here’s 2013 – 2012 – 2011.

I put three stars next to the pieces I find ***Flawless.

January

• Happy to hear Cece was released from prison, watch Laverne Cox’s documentary about her.
• Tried to make the best of winter
• Carmelle came to visit

Recommended Reading

• In the name of love by Miya Tokumitsu ***
• The Internet Killed Books to Save Reading by Fiona Duncan (January 17, 2014)
• #FoodGentrification and Culinary Rebranding of Traditional Foods by Soleil Ho (January 23, 2014)
• On Turning 30 by Molly Crabapple (January 27, 2014)
• Missing Bodies: In “Love Your Body” Discourse, Where are Disabled Women? by Anna Hamilton (January 27, 2014)
• Night Shift by Kate Beaton

On repeat: Sylvan Esso – Coffee

February

• Mourned the loss of Stuart Hall, revisited some of my foundational texts/artworks
• Was pretty shaken up by the murder of Loretta Saunders
• Was pretty enraged by Woody Allen apologists

Recommended Reading

• Greetings from the Rubbish Patch by Christopher Butler (February 3, 2014)
• Help me pull the trigger by Ashley C. Ford (February 3rd, 2014)
• Dylan Farrow’s Letter Tells Us What Our Culture Needs to Learn: To Believe Survivors by Caitlin Carnody (Feb 3, 2014)
• What Do We Actually Want Social Media to Do? by Navneet Alang (February 19, 2014)
• Young Women, Old Music by Carl Wilson (February 24, 2014)
• In Honour of Loretta by Darryl Leroux (February 27, 2014)***

On repeat: Cloudbusting (Kate Bush cover) by Benoit Pioulard and The Body Electric by Hurray for the Riff Raff

March

A selfie taken in my living room, with the opening credits from Věra Chytilová’s 1966 film Sedmikrásky

• Vera Chitlova died. Rewatched her films.
• Went to meet up with best friend Morgan in Copenhagen
• Went to see Angel Olsen together ❤
• Started using Instagram
• Was pretty overwhelmed by stories of murdered and missing Indigenous women across Canada
• Loved the resistance online that took shape in the form of #sealfies

Recommended Reading

• Is Photography Over? by Trevor Paglen (March 3, 2014)
• Normcore is Bullshit by Cat Smith (March 5, 2014) which reminds us of this gem from 2013
• I am Accountable to Loretta Saunders by Sarah Hunt (March 5, 2014)
• Not Murdered Not Missing by Leanne Simpson (March 5, 2014)
• Can We Learn about Privacy from Porn Stars? by Stoya (March 8, 2014)
• Selfie Control by Jenna Brager in The New Inquiry (March 17, 2014)
• The Scientific Quest to Prove Bisexuality Exists by Benoit Denizet-Lewis (March 20, 2014) 
• On Lena, On Rihanna, On Kimye: The Very Necessary Death Of “Vogue” by Haley Mlotek (March 24, 2014)

On repeat: Perfect Pussy (also listen to this interview with the Arcade, so good!)

April

• Saw and loved Come Worry With Us!
• Was completely obsessed with Nathanael’s Sisyphus, Outdone.: Theatres of the Catastrophal like nobody’s business
• Made a short film
• Wanted the endless winter to end

Recommended Reading

• Riot Square Sanctificare by Molly Crabapple (April 1, 2014)
• Body by Eline (April 8, 2014)
• The Oldest Story: Toward a Theory of a Dead Girl Show by Alice Bolin (April 28th, 2014) ***
• Everyone is an expert on Nigeria now by Atane Ofiaja (April 30, 2014)

On Repeat: Babylon by SZA (feat. Kendrick Lamar) – We Fuckin’ Rule by By Divine Right – Real Thing by tUnE-yArDs

May

• Learned about Ana Mendieta, thanks to this book and this essay
• Became fascinated, for the 2nd time, with Vivian Maier
• Got a real kick out of Marxist Buzzfeed
• Cried like a baby when I read Meags Fitzgerald’s Photobooth: A Biography
• Read… a lot… as you can see below. Was angered by most of it

Recommended Reading

• Photo Real: On Photoshop, feminism, and truth by Molly Crabapple (May 5, 2014)
• Sex Work, Without the Sex by Linda Besner (May 5, 2014)
• Vivian Maier and the Problem of Difficult Women by Rose Lichter-Mark (May 9, 2014)
• Vivian Maier: Still Missing by Malcom Jones (May 24, 2014) ***
• Cultural Studies: Here, let me explain mansplaining (and Rebecca Solnit) to you by Haley Mlotek (May 12, 2014)
• Cultural Appropriation in Fashion: Stop Talking About It by Min-Ha T. Pham (May 15, 2014)
• The Worst Day Of My Life Is Now New York’s Hottest Tourist Attraction by Steve Kandell (May 19, 2014)
• To Know Somebody In And Out: The Honesty, Pain, And Searching Of Sharon Van Etten’s Are We There by Ryan Leas (May 21st, 2014)
• Let’s call the Isla Vista killings what they were: misogynist extremism by Laurie Penny (May 25, 2014)
• When killers target women, why do moderate men stand silent? by Denise Balkissoon (May 26, 2014)
• What a close read of the Isla Vista shooter’s horrific manifesto, “My Twisted World,” says about his values—and ours by Jeff Yang (May 27, 2014)
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle: Misogyny, Entitlement, and Nerds by Arthur Chu (May 27, 2014)
• The Ultimate Humiliation by Sarah Nicole Prickett (May 30th, 2014)***
• NOT ALL WOMEN: A REFLECTION ON BEING A MUSICIAN AND FEMALE by Allison Crutchfield (May 27, 2014)

On repeat: Sharon Van Etten – Are We There (and for most of 2014) – Sylvan Esso – S/T – Downtown Boys

June

YOU GUYS. pic.twitter.com/ffblJtxbbQ

— julia (@garconniere) June 1, 2014

• Fell back in love with my bike. Adventured.
• Celebrated summer! Swimming! Outside!

Recommended Reading

• The Case for Reparations by Ta-Nehisi Coates (June) ***
• The Racism Beat by Cord Jefferson (June 9, 2014)
• The Audacity of No Chill: Kara Walker in the Instagram Capital by Stephanye Watts (June 4, 2014)
• White People Problems: On Kara Walker and the Way White People Interact with Black Art by Kristin Iversen (June 9, 2014)
• Let Them Live: Josephine Baker, Maya Angelou and Rihanna as Erotic and Holistic  by Sesali (jun 2014)
• 5 O’Clock Somewhere by Jessica L Arrant (June 2014)
• Lyme Disease Is a Feminist Issue by Dennis J Bernstein (June 19, 2014) but if we’re gonna talk about Kathleen Hanna we have to talk about this
• Prey by Kathleen Hale (June 26, 2014)

On repeat: Habit by Ought

July

• Biked to Wendake! (which is like 50 km aka impressive for me)
• Went to see a lot of great live music – namely St. Vincent
• Wrote this.
• Thought a lot about this photograph, about violence. Read too much Sontag.

Recommended Reading

• Can Palestinian Men be Victims? Gendering Israel’s War on Gaza by Maya Mikdashi (July 23, 2014)
• These are the materials by  (July 27, 2014)
• At Front Lines, Bearing Witness in Real Time by David Carr (July 27, 2014)

On repeat: Shinedoe feat. Karin Dreijer – Discourse My New Romance

August

• Took care of myself by taking a summer vacation for the first time in 4 years. Summer! Vacation!
• My heart broke for Tina Fontaine. Then again for Michael Brown.
• Thought a lot about smashing the state. Read a lot to keep the bad feelings at bay.

Recommended Reading:

• Thérèse Casgrain and the Purging of National Memory by Veronica Strong-Boag (August 3rd, 2014)
• Il y a 325 ans, le massacre de Lachine by Jean-Francois Nadeau (August 5, 2014)
• Eight Days in Gaza: A Wartime Diary by Atef Abu Saif (August 4, 2014)***
• ‘We Been Running All Our Mothafuckin’ Lives’ by Rawiya Kameir (August 14, 2014)
• How Social Media Changed the Conversation on #Ferguson by Mykki Kendall (August 17, 2014)
• Between the World and Ferguson by Jelani Cobb (August 26, 2014)
• How Nicki Minaj and female artists are turning the colour pink into a weapon by Gabby Bess (August 22nd, 2014)

On repeat: Lauryn Hill – Black Rage

September

• Was so so overwhelming touched by Tanya Tagaq’s Polaris Prize performance and award. What a woman.

Recommended Reading

• Watching the Killing by Jill Lepore (September 4, 2014)
• Radical Strain by Sasha Geffen (Sept 8, 2014)***
• Sarah Deer wins a MacArthur Genius Grant for her work on crime against Native women (Sept 18, 2014)
• Polaris Prize 2014 Postmortem: Praying For Disintegration by Chris Randle (September 23, 2014)

On repeat: Ibeyi – River

Mirel Wagner – No Death

Tanya Tagaq – Animism

Jennifer Castle – Pink City

October

• No getting around it, October was a no-good awful month.
• Only good things I can think of include reading Men Explain Things To Me, loved it, wanted to lend it to everyone right away.
• Left the country and the dread and joined my love in Paris.

Recommended Reading

• The White Women of Empire by TNI (October 1, 2014)
• Laurie Penny’s “Unspeakable Things” by Autumn Whitefield-Madrano (October 1, 2014)
• Thesis 2: Capitalism, No More by Glen Coulthard (October 2, 2014) – also this review of Coulthard’s latest book
• Stories like Passwords by Emma Healey (Oct 6, 2014) ***
• “Everything reminded me of her…I couldn’t heal” by Justin Brake (October 7, 2014)
• Emma Watson? Jennifer Lawrence? These aren’t the feminists you’re looking for by Roxane Gay (October 10, 2014)
• How Predators Get Away With It by Saachi Khoul (Oct 30, 2014) ***
• The Vixen and the Virgin – Women, Espionage and Propaganda in WW1 (Oct 15, 2014)

On repeat: Grouper – Ruins – Ruth – Polaroid Roman Photo

November

• Found the joy in solitude
• Saw Mike Brodie’s photographs in Paris
• Thought about Retheah Parsons.
• Was infuriated by Eric Garner’s murderer going free, listened to the outrage, related to this.
• Saw Godspeed You! Black Emperor, a band I had wanted to see for over a decade.
• Felt mostly like there were so many things to be angry about.

Recommended Reading:

• I Didn’t Report Because Fuck You by Jilted Ex (November 2, 2014)
• Simone de Beauvoir Tells Studs Terkel How She Became an Intellectual and Feminist (1960) (Nov 7, 2014)
• Bonfire of the Inanities by Jacqui Shine (Nov 19, 2014)
• So You Can Fuck Us; What’s Next? Going Beyond Sex With Trans Women by Luna (Nov 19, 2014)
• The Ghomeshi Paradox by Paula Todd (Nov 19, 2014)

On repeat: The Weather Station – What Am I Going to do with Everything I Know

December

• Won small successes at work
• Relished in compliments
• Started working on some long-term projects I have high hopes for in 2015

Recommended Reading:

• Jian Ghomeshi harassed me on the job. Why did our radio station look the other way? by Kathryn Borel (December 2, 2014)
• How I sanitized the feminist outrage over the Montreal massacre by Shelley Page (Dec 6, 2014)
• Finding myself in the first person by Durga Chew-Bose (Dec 7, 2014)
• Reading the U.S. Torture Footnotes by Keguro Macharia ()
• The Year in Black Erasure by Brittany Spanos (Dec 22, 2014)
• The Year in Thickness by Anshuman Iddamsetty (Dec 23, 2014)
• “A Long Hungry Look” Forgotten Gordon Parks Photos Document Segregation by Randy Kennedy (December 24th, 2014)
• The Long Road to Angela Davis’s Library By Dawn Lundy Martin (December 26, 2014) ***
• How a revival of Inuit facial tattooing is “bringing our ancestors back” by Ashleigh Gaul (Dec 2014)

On repeat: Seasons Change (Waiting on You) – Future Islands (Badbadnotgood reinterpretation)

Michael Feuerstack – Clackity Clack

Happy New Year.