2017 in Review, Part 1: Our consumer highlights

A list of the things our team has enjoyed the most in 2017.

Published in

Dennis

Do by Friday
I’m a big Merlin Mann fan and have missed a podcast that’s more about… nothing, really. With lots of jokes. The premise is that every week Merlin, Alexandra Cox and Max Temkin (both from Cards Against Humanity) do a challenge and talk about it. It’s been everything between “Do Christmas” and “Cry”.

The Adventure Zone
I have been loving the idea of DnD podcasts ever since I got hooked on The Incomparable’s Total Party Kill. But it took until this year for me to finally give The Adventure Zone a chance. It’s the brothers from My Brother, My Brother and Me fame and their dad playing and there’s a bunch to listen to if, like me, you haven’t gone through it before.

The Kingkiller Chronicle
Patrick Rothfuss’s fantasy series about Kvothe. It’s brilliant and I fell in love with the world that he builds after just a few pages. The story is told in an interesting way and there are tons of details everywhere to pick up. Now I just need to wait for the third book—but I know it’s worth the wait.

Filippos

If This Is a Man
Book, by Primo Levi
A very interesting book that describes the limits of human behaviour/nature.

Land of Mine
Movie, by Martin Zandvliet (Danish: Under sandet)
A film showing some WW2 events from the other side.

Lore
Movie, by Cate Shortland
Yet another interesting WW2 showing events unfold from a rare perspective.

Los informantes
Book (2004), by Juan Gabriel Vásquez (English: The Informers)
Describing some events before/during/after WW2 again from a rare perspective. Very interesting book for anyone who has moved away from his/her homeland as well. (another great book by the same author is The Sound of Things Falling)

The Circle
Book, by Dave Eggers
Interesting perspective of how things could turn out — although the author probably exaggerated a bit.

The Rules Of Attraction
Book, by Bret Easton Ellis
I didn’t get it and eventually I didn’t like it, I guess Ellis’ kind of writing isn’t my type.

Per

Internetting with Amanda Hess
Enjoyed the packaging of these small chunks of journalism.

#ensakidag
Podcast, by Joakim Jardenberg (Swedish)
A short daily video show (though I mostly binge watch them during the weekend) produced by Swedish Internet/digital wise elder Joakim Jardenberg. Each episode is focused on something interesting, but not necessarily new, from the tech world.

To Be A Machine
Novel, by Mark O’Connell
Also, the only one I read. I’ve been using Blinkist a lot though…

TV Shows

Eduardo

The Square
Movie, by Ruben Östlund
By the time I finally got to see The Square, I had been eagerly awaiting its release for so long that I had built up unfairly high expectations. It still totally blew my mind.

The Nothing Factory
Movie, by Pedro Pinho
An insane movie, for all the right reasons. Not everyone will find it easy to watch (at the screening I was at, over half the audience left before the end) but it’s definitely a masterpiece, and immensely rewarding for anyone who makes it through all 3h of it.

Perfume Genius - No Shape
Even though I’ve been a mild fan of Perfume Genius for a while now, this album is on a league of its own. Definitely the best thing I’ve heard all year.

LCD Soundsystem - American Dream
After their somewhat cynical move of faux-retiring in 2015, I wanted really hard to hate LCD Soundsystem’s new album. Sadly, it has a lot of brilliant moments, so I guess I’ll just have to live with it.

Dirty Projectors - Dirty Projectors
I’ll admit this is a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine, that I hardly ever listen to in front of anyone else. My wife still doesn’t understand how I like this thing, but truth is: it has some damn fine songwriting and production.

Medium.com
I can’t remember what exactly made me get a Medium membership in the first place, but I’m honestly really glad I did. I don’t know whether it works, in practice, for publishers and content creators, but for users it’s a really interesting experiment in funding that I hope to see evolve over the next few years.

iPhone X
It wasn’t a great year for Apple overall, and their latest flagship phone does have its flaws. But it’s still by far the best smartphone I’ve ever laid hands on.