With The Fourth Wall coming to an “end”* in 2019, I needed to look for the next big thing to conquer. I dropped some things that weren’t working anymore, and took on some new things. I wrote—by my own estimation—191,810 words this year, a new record, even if some of those words aren’t ever intended for public consumption. You’ll be reading some of them soon. Honestly, there’s a better than even chance that The Once and Future Orson Welles might even see the light of day in 2021.
I lost 66 pounds, and am therefore, always hungry. It’s helped that for some reason, I haven’t been able to go to a movie theater and lose myself in a bucket of popcorn since February.
I’ve also found that next big thing. Shortly before the end of the year I applied for Grad School. Real talk, despite all the things I’ve done here on the site over the last several years, there have been far too many times I’ve felt like I’ve been hiding out in a day job that has always been the occupational equivalent of a blind date that has now lasted for over a decade. Time to end all of that.
Is it possible 2020 has been the best, most productive year of my life? :checks notes: That can’t be right...
Started a new podcast with Lora and friends Eris and Z. We’re rewatching all of the various Star Treks from the very beginning. There are plenty of good reasons to not podcast, and only a few good reasons to podcast. Among the latter, the fact that it’s been a lot of fun is one of the better reasons. That being said, leave it to me to start a Star Trek rewatch podcast in the year we get the most new Star Trek since the 1990s. Don’t tell my fellow podcasters, but The Holodeck is Broken is actually further away from the end of Star Trek than we were when we recorded our first episode about a year ago. Something about this year had the feeling of being on a treadmill, although I can’t quite put my finger on why...
On that note, my only political thought for the year (that I’m going to share) is this: I’m thinking I’m going to have to join the Republican Party indefinitely. Many of us are wondering/promising what we can do to prevent all of :gestures wildly: this never happens again. I’ll still vote the way I like in general elections, but I’ve always been able to live with whoever the Democratic Party nominates, and the Republican Party has long since showed us that it can’t make decisions for itself anymore. So, welcome me, Republicans. You’re going to love me. Hope you like typewriters, pinball, and an unhealthy fixation on the films of Michael Keaton. We’re going to get along great.
And so we all head to 2021. I have no predictions for the year, as those who reign from Olympus have made it very clear how they feel about our collective hubris.
Why? What else happened this year?
P.S. Here is my reading list for the year. I went a little light on myself this year, and decided to count graphic novels in the count. It definitely helped me reach my goal of 66 books this year, and I only managed to feel a little bit guilty about it, as I definitely had a more thorough literary experience with From Hell than I did with “real” books like the novelizations of Batman Forever or Ghostbusters II, which I read this summer for reasons which have since become murky to me. I probably read more Star Trek books than I should/would have normally, but something about this year needed a little more escapism than most. More than my usual load of screenplays, too... But I finally found time (again, no idea why) to get through that Aaron Sorkin masterclass I bought a lifetime ago, and the workbook associated with it recommended a lot screenplay reading. Graphic novels are denoted with a (c), while, as usual, audiobooks are noted with an (a).
1. Doctor Strange Masterworks, Volume 1 (c)
2. Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays
3. Benjamin Franklin (a)
4. Darth Vader, Vol. 1 (c)
5. DC New Frontier, Vol. 1 (c)
6. Star Trek Picard - Countdown (c)
7. The Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols (a)
8. DC New Frontier, Vol. 2 (c)
9. Khan: Ruling In Hell (c)
10. Millennium Falcon (a)
11. The Last Best Hope (a)
12. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
13. Zen In the Art of Writing (a)
14. Batgirl: Year One (c)
15. Loyalties
16. Nobody Does It Better (a)
17. The Office (a)
18. The Fifty Year Mission: The First Twenty-Five Years (a)
19. The Sky's The Limit
20. Cruel Shoes
21. Worf's First Adventure
22. Process (a)
23. Doc Savage: Man of Bronze
24. Pure Drivel
25. Doomsday Clock Vol. 1 (c)
26. The Q Conflict (c)
27. The Big Goodbye (a)
28. Get Thee Back to the Future
29. Catalyst of Sorrows
30. Batman Forever
31. Casino Royale
32. The Tower of the Elephant
33. The Fifty Year Mission: The Next Twenty-Five Years (a)
34. Galaxy Quest - The Journey Continues (c)
35. Batman: Knightfall: Knightquest (c)
36. Forever and a Day (a)
37. The Rocketeer - The Complete Adventures (c)
38. From Hell (c)
39. Watching the Clock
40. Rogues in the House
41. Masks (c)
42. Fletch and the Widow Bradley
43. The Fall of Terok Nor
44. iWoz (a)
45. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vol. 1 (c)
46. Darth Vader, Vol. 3: The Shu-Torun War (c)
47. Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life
48. Shadows in the Moonlight
49. Ghostbusters II
50. The Martian Chronicles (a)
51. Zero Sum Game
52. Dead Endless (a)
53. The Royal Tenenbaums - Screenplay
54. Cast No Shadow
55. Poetics
56. Black Colossus
57. The Dark Knight Trilogy Scriptbook
58. Fletch's Moxie
59. Walter Ralegh: Architect of Empire (a)
60. Wet Hot American Summer Annotated Screenplay
61. Batman: Dark Victory (c)
62. My Dinner With André - Screenplay
63. Die Standing (a)
64. Rodham
65. Queen of the Black Coast
66. The War of the Prophets
67. So We Read On (a)
68. Bossypants (a)
69. The Witches
70. The Bassoon King (a)
71. A Magnificent Catastrophe
72. Becoming Superman (a)
73. Slayers and Vampires (a)
74. The Rocketeer at War (c)
75. City on the Edge of Forever
76. City on the Edge of Forever (c)
77. Seize the Fire
78. A Promised Land (a)
*No, I’m not going to explain the quotes there, but I might one day.