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matt brehmer
Data visualization design + user experience research. PhD candidate in the #InfoVis research group at @UBC_CS.

Hi Matt of 2025,

This list contains some of the stuff (books, music, films,…) that you were into 10 years ago. I hope all these links still work in the future. Enjoy!

Books that I read in 2015

NON-FICTION

FICTION

  • My Struggle books 3–4 (Boyhood Island, Dancing in the Dark) by Karl Ove Knausgård (2009–2011, translated by Don Bartlett): the series of autobiographical novels continues. The 3rd book was told from perspective of the author as a child, and while convincing, I didn’t enjoy as much as books 1 or 2. The 4th book involves more of the adult author inserting his views into the narrative, which takes place following the author’s completion of high school.
  • A Song of Ice and Fire books 1–3 (A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords) by George R. R. Martin (1996–2000): I have finally read these books and I find them to be highly engrossing and enjoyable…and no, I have not yet watched the TV series.
  • My Cousin, My Gastroentorologist by Mark Leyner (1990): absurdist experimental fiction critiqued by DFW in one of his better essays. Some hilarious sentences, with impressive wordplay, but not cohesive at anything longer than the paragraph level (which I think was the point), found at Powell’s City of Books in Portland.
  • Scissors Cut Paper Wrap Stone by Ian McDonald (1994): hard-to-find, stylish cyberpunk lyrical poem about a bicycle pilgrimage in a post-industrial Japan. One of my advisor’s favourite books, found at Powell’s City of Books in Portland.
  • The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin (1974): utopian (dystopian?) classic that I finally got around to reading, prompted by an epigraph in David Graeber’s Debt: free your mind of the idea of deserving, of the idea of earning, and you will begin to be able to think. Found at a used book shop near UW in Seattle.
  • Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami (2002): because I was in Japan at the time, and it’s one of Nakata’s favourites. Not recommended for cat lovers.
  • Rule Bound: Rookies and Rogues by Michael Brehmer (2014): my father’s debut novel, a fictionalized memoir of sorts about investigating money laundering and the drug trade crossing the Canada/US border.
  • Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson (1992): re-read this cyberpunk classic 10+ years after first reading it. Still relevant, and many of its predictions have since come to pass.
  • Step Aside, Pops by Kate Beaton (2015): delightful satirical comics poking fun at history and popular culture.

TO READ IN 2016

Music that I listened to in 2015

NEW RECORDS THAT I ADDED TO MY COLLECTION

  • Never Were the Way She Was by Colin Stetson and Sarah Neufeld (2015): layered saxophone and strings with wordless singing, apparently with no loops or samples, found at Neptoon Records in Vancouver in May.
  • Escape from Evil by Lower Dens (2015): third record from American rock band, found at Jive Time Records in Seattle in August after seeing them at the Capitol Hill Block Party and loving the track Ondine.
  • Deep in the Iris by Braids (2015): 3rd album by Canadian electronic pop band. I have enjoyed all of their singles from their three albums (especially Miniskirt on this one), but their records still don’t work for me as cohesive albums, found at Audiopile in Vancouver in July.
  • Chambers by Chilly Gonzales feat. the Kaiser Quartett (2015): you would think that adding a string quartet to Chilly’s piano would work, but I didn’t find this record to be as interesting or enjoyable as his two solo piano records, found at Audiopile in Vancouver in April.

OTHER NEW RECORDS THAT I LIKED

  • Elaenia by Floating Points (2015): contemporary jazz meets electronic, apparently inspired by late-period Talk Talk (Spirit of Eden (1988) and Laughing Stock (1991) are two of my all-time favourites).
  • Depression Cherry by Beach House (2015): I’m sorry for ignoring this shoegaze band for so long, this record is great.
  • Platform by Holly Herndon (2015): Chorus, released in 2014, was one of my favourite tracks (and music videos) of that year. The Stanford University computer music PhD candidate released a fascinating new album this year, integrating sousveillance and musique concrète.
  • LateNightTales (mix by Nils Frahm) (2015): as the title of this mix series suggests, eclectic music ideal for sitting quietly in a dark room.

REISSUES THAT I ADDED TO MY COLLECTION

OTHER MUSIC THAT I ADDED TO MY COLLECTION

  • Immunity by Jon Hopkins (2013): ambient electronic 2xLP.
  • Desire by Tuxedomoon (1981): avant-garde jazz/new-wave record referenced by Karl Ove Knausgård in My Struggle book 4, found at Audiopile in Vancouver in July.

FAVOURITE TRACKS OF 2015

  • REALiTi by Grimes: I understand why someone made a 10 hour loop of this song, the catchiest track I heard in 2015 (I prefer the unmastered demo version to the album version).
  • The Rest of Us by Colin Stetson & Sarah Neufeld: ominous sax, strings, wordless vocals.
  • Ondine by Lower Dens: I was totally hooked by the accompanying guitar and the sad refrain “I will treat you better…“, co-produced by the popular and prolific Ariel Rechtshaid.
  • Miniskirt by Braids: this track has three movements. Once that synth kicked in after the quiet piano part in the middle, I was hooked.
  • XT by µ-Ziq: a playful instrumental electronic track that reminds me of cartoon themes from the early 90s.
  • The Less I Know The Better by Tame Impala: my favourite track from TI’s new album, also a hilarious music video.
  • Can’t Feel My Face by The Weeknd: catchy song evoking MJ.
  • Run Away With Me by Carly Rae Jepsen: my guilty pleasure pop track with an epic sax riff.
  • Them by Nils Frahm: solo piano piece that reminds me that I still need to see Victoria, the film that Frahm scored.
  • Feel You by Julia Holter: because every list needs a harpsichord number.
  • Cold Stares by Nosaj Thing (feat. Chance the Rapper): heard this track recently on the Strombo Show on CBC, rhymes include “Silent and solemn… Smeagol to Gollum… Evil done got him”.

CONCERTS THAT I ATTENDED

  • Sufjan Stevens (Paramount Theatre, Seattle, June 2015, w/ Helado Negro).
  • Capitol Hill Block Party (Seattle, July 2015) featuring Jamie xx, TV on the Radio, Ratatat, Father John Misty, DIIV, Lower Dens, Badbadnotgood, The Kite String Tangle, Broods, Shabazz Palaces, …
  • Maroon 5 at Gasworks Park (Seattle, July): a surprise private concert for Microsoft interns.

What I watched in 2015

FILMS THAT I LIKED

  • Inherent Vice (2014): terrific PT Anderson adaptation of the psychadelic mystery novel by Pynchon, which I read in 2014.
  • The Lobster (2015): highly enjoyable absurdist comedy about a world in which single people are brought to a remote hotel and told to find a mate in 40 days or less, or else they are turned into an animal of their choosing. Seen at the Vancouver Intl’ Film Festival.
  • Experimenter (2015): saw this biopic about social psychologist Stanley Milgrim at the Vancouver Intl’ Film Festival, interesting style, albeit anti-climactic (not as “shocking” as one would expect…).
  • Birdman, or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014): watched this fantastic quirky film on the plane returning from New Orleans. Made to seem as though it is a single continuous shot.
  • Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015): I liked it! It’s a remake of A New Hope, right?
  • The Gentlemen Hecklers present Dune (1984): a live riffing in the style of MST3K at the Rio Theatre, the only way to watch this incoherent Lynch creation.
  • Jodorowsky’s Dune (2013): watched this on Netflix, very interesting and entertaining documentary about the film that almost was. Funnier if you imagine the film as a mockumentary and Jodorowosky himself as an invented character.
  • Snowpiercer (2013): Korean adaptation of dystopian French graphic novel in which geoengineering has rendered Earth’s surface frozen and uninhabitable. All of humanity rides a 1000-car train circling the globe. Class struggles and hatchet brawls ensue.
  • A Most Wanted Man (2014): terrific Corbijn adaptaion of the de Carré novel, Seymour Hoffman’s final film. Quite relevant given the current migrant situation in Germany.
  • The Imitation Game (2014): biopic about the troubled father of modern computing, Alan Turing.
  • Under the Skin (2013): slow, creepy Jonathan Glazer film about an alien abductress played by ScarJo, with a chilling soundtrack by Mica Levi.

TELEVISION

  • Breaking Bad (seasons 1–5, 2008–2013, Netflix): finally got around to watching this, and yes it is as brilliant as everyone told me that it would be.
  • Rectify (season 3, 2015, Netflix): slow-moving drama about death row inmate freed after 20 years.
  • Hannibal (season 3, 2015, NBC): great cinematography, enigmatic dialogue in which the characters don’t actually speak to each other and only recite riddles, set in a world without security cameras.
  • W/ Bob and David (4 episodes, 2015, Netflix): because of Bob Odenkirk.
  • Mr. Show with Bob and David (seasons 2–3, 1996–1997, Youtube): because of W/ Bob and David.

Projects that I worked on in 2015

Projects that I’ve enjoyed in 2015

  • Dear Data by Georgia Lupi and Stefanie Posavec: hand-drawn data pen-pals get to know each other by quantifying a different aspect of their lives each week for one year (soon to be published as a book!).
  • The Fallen of WWII by Neil Halloran: astounding interactive narrative unit visualization about casualties during and since WWII.
  • The Speculative W@nderverse by Uta Hinrichs, Stefania Forlini, and Bridget Moynihan: an interactive visualization for exploring a large corpus of archived speculative / science fiction stories dating from the mid 19th century. Read the research paper here.
  • Poemage by Nina McCurdy, Julie Gonnering Lein, Katharine Coles, and Miriah Meyer: a visualization system for exploring the sonic topology of a poem.
  • Keshif by M. Adil Yalçın: a faceted visual browser and an amazing dataset library.
  • …and of course, I can’t forget about The Magnificent Bears of the Glorious Nation of Finland by Annukka Mäkijärvi: bear density in Finland, visually encoded as bears.

Places that I traveled to this year