After touring pretty relentlessly the previous two years, 2018 was a year of interesting and challenging singular musical happenings for me. It was a year of (joyfully) biting off more than I could chew and scaring myself on some big stages. I got to put on my own musical revue at Newport Folk Fest, be apart of the life-affirming PEOPLE Festival in Berlin, and sit in and sing with tons of inspiring friends. Also, I made a new record and I signed to flippin' MERGE! So now I get to tell you my favorite stuff from 2018.

Oh, and none of these are ranked, and I'm almost definitely egregiously missing things that I will subsequently kick myself over once this is printed.

STUFF
-- David Bote's game-winning walk off grand slam with two outs and two strikes in the bottom of the ninth https://www.mlb.com/news/david-bote-hits-walk-off-grand-slam-for-cubs/c-290076716
-- Jerry Garcia Band live bootlegs from various eras that went up on Spotify
-- "Oh Hello" on Broadway (I didn't see it on Broadway, just Netflix)
-- Satiyajit Ray, David Lean, Les Blank, and so many more fun marathons on Filmstruck (R.I.P.)
-- Treasure trove of rad 80s nature sound effects tapes I found at an antique store by my mom's in rural Minnesota. Also hanging out with my nephews in a rainstorm on that same trip.
-- my euphorbia and cactus garden, also got a lime tree going this year
-- micheladas
-- my dog Pinto
-- Beet sandwich at Dune in Atwater Village, chile relleno at El Compadre (the one on Sunset), tacos at San Marcos in Van Nuys, bemoaning the lack of good buffalo wings in LA, but mostly eating at home in front of the TV like a latchkey child

RECORDS
-- "The Hex" - Richard Swift
-- "Ghost Forests" - Meg Baird and Mary Lattimore
-- "Cloud Corner" - Marisa Anderson
-- "Freedom" - Amen Dunes
-- "Long Wave" - Bonny Doon
-- "Plainly Mistaken" - Nathan Bowles
-- "Arrive Without Leaving" - Laraaji, Arji OceAnanda, Dallas Acid 

MOVIES** / TV
Eighth Grade
Won't You Be My Neighbor?
Elvis Presley: The Searcher
Tales from The Tour Bus
Glow
Barry
Better Call Saul
Big Mouth
** I'm woefully behind on my 2018 movie watching. There are at least 10 movies I'm pretty stoked about that are waiting to be viewed. "Eight Grade" and the Mr Rogers doc both blew my mind though and I'm having a hard time imagining what could be more affecting than that those.

LIVE SHOWS
Mariam Wallentin - Funkhaus Berlin
Bedouine -  Newport Folk Fest
Electric Light Orchestra - The LA Forum

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Fruit Bats released "Getting in a Van Again" and a short film on November 8, 2018