Best of 2023
Best of 2023
It’s time to look back on the year with wonder and a few chuckles.
Best Reality TV
(I debated putting this in Best Comedy.)
The United States House of Representatives floor has been the stage for this year’s best reality TV. For days that seemed never to end, a kind of cringe comedy played out with Kevin McCarthy pursuing the Speakership at all costs. The price did eventually catch up with him in the sequel, “Kevin Dethroned.” He’s just announced his retirement and says he’s discovered a new way to serve America.
“Now, it is time to pursue my passion in a new arena. While I'll be departing the House at the end of this year, I will never ever give up fighting for this country that I love so much” . . . doing standup on all the best stages.
Best New Music Album
Call me old fashioned—I still buy music albums. Occasionally. Hey, we must respect the modern musician who has to compete with her peers and every musician who has ever recorded and got plunked on YouTube. My album of the year goes to Manfred Honek and the Pittsburg Symphony Orchestra’s marvelous new recording of the Tchaikovsky Fifth Symphony.
There are traditionally two ways of doing Tchaikovsky, especially the Fifth. First, one can do it the way that conductors of Brahms like to do it: intellectually elevated and focused on balance and rhythms that connect and make sense. Or one can go for wild mayhem. This recording goes for the mayhem.
It’s bursting with confidence. And sonically, and it’s a knockout. Who knew? Do I have any other albums from the Pittsburgh Symphony in my library of hundreds of CDs?
The first movement rouses the adrenaline, always moving forward. And yes, the second theme slows pleadingly, but it gets back to a vital pulse. Tchaikovsky marks the second movement andante cantabile, con alcuna licenza, which means moving at a walking pace with some freedom. Do we hear freedom? Honek and the orchestra make music that flows like a river. The horn solo is gorgeous, and the movement rises to an orgasmic climax that grabs you by the throat. The waltz of the third movement is elegant and shows off Honek’s Austrian roots. The finale is exciting as hell, with organic attention to detail.
I’ve seen several interviews with Honek talking about music in his life. Does my love of this album come partly from knowing what a decent guy he is?
Best Wine of the Year
I’m on a Nebbiolo kick that won’t let me go. The best wine I had this year was the Gaja Barbaresco. Encountered on a Bacchanalian evening under the stars in early fall, I was taken aback by its beautiful delicacy, dancing acidity, and silky texture in the mouth. This wine would please the gods.
Life has its moments.
I recently ran into the friend who brought this to the party that fall night and told him of my great fondness for his donation. He informed me it wasn’t cheap. Looking it up now, I see that it goes for around $300. A wine website has the following tasting notes:
“The complexity achieved with this classic Barbaresco is the result of the combination of high-quality Nebbiolo from the 14 different Gaja vineyards around the parish of Barbaresco. The wine has a typical Barbaresco nose of wild berries, plums, licorice, and coffee. Despite its strength and intensity, Angelo Gaja’s Barbaresco is known for its elegance and multi-layered finish with fine, silky tannins.”
Interestingly, 2014 was a rainy year in Europe, which can be harsh on wine. Winemakers depend on rain when it comes at the right time and in the right amount to keep their vines healthy. But too much, combined with warm temperatures and plenty of humidity, can be a disaster, leading to mildew, fungus, and rot. Yields can be diminished, and without the utmost care, the quality of the wines can go down. Yet, to the surprise of many people who follow vintage reports as if they were the gospel, the wines from some areas where gloom was deepest have turned out surprisingly well. It’s a good year for Brunellos as well.
Best Comedy
Is it just me, or has stand-up comedy taken a nosedive lately? I attribute it to Netflix and Amazon’s easy money that has destroyed almost all of television.
Having said that, one still clicks the next show and gives the next comic a chance to distract us from our woes. I randomly happened on to Nate Bargatze's new show on Prime, Hello World.
This is refreshingly simple, folksy, somewhat nostalgic, and totally clean comedy. The show took me back to the first time I saw Ellen with her 80s telephone cord. Nate is from Tennessee. Does this show single-handedly reverse the modern notion that American masculinity is in crisis? I’ll leave it to you to decide.
With his light Southern drawl, Nate rather embraces the stereotype of the emasculated middle-American male.
“For Mother’s Day, we’re like, we’re gonna build it for you. And so we got all the stuff and got shovels. And we started digging a hole for it. And . . . I don’t know if you’ve ever dug a hole, but it may be the hardest thing you’ll do in your life. You see it on TV and movies, and it's like, I’ll just dig this hole real fast. And then you do it in real life, and it’s like, well, I guess it’s all CGI because it’s impossible.”
Best Television
Is it too early to enjoy TV about the pandemic? Some reviewers of the new series on Amazon Prime (with a Britbox subscription) called This England, featuring Kenneth Branagh doing a bang-up job of Boris Johnson, say it’s too soon to relive the drama. Not for me. (Don’t read the English reviewers.) Perhaps it is more interesting to see it unfold daily in another country. The opening sequences of Boris’ entry into No. 10, alongside scenes of dead bats in the open-air market of Wuhan, is a tour de force. This is a satire by means of editing that imitates Brannagh’s Boris as a man who can never relax despite all the knowledge of Shakespeare.
One might say the series is a bit soft on Boris, being already in post-production when “partygate” happened. However, I’m not sure any more time or headlines could make Boris a bigger buffoon.
Best Moment in the Presidential Election
“Every time I hear you, I feel a little dumber.” Nikki Haley to Vivek.
Best New Recipe
I couldn’t decide. Isn’t food orgasmic?!
Best Book
Norman Lebrecht’s "Why Beethoven?” is not your typical stuffy book on classical music. Lebrecht is too much fun for that. Speaking of buying music albums, the author takes us back to a time when we collected recordings when you not only had Mahler Four, but you had to have so-and-so’s Mahler Four. For me, it was Mengelberg with Concertgebouw from 1935. Any major city used to have a used CD and LP shop where you could meet fellow travelers.
Lebrecht structures the book around recordings of 100 of Beethoven’s works. Each chapter begins with some anecdotes from the composer’s life and ends with a brief review of the best and worst recordings. It’s a coffee table book in the best sense.
Greatest Scientific Discovery
A week ago, astronomers found a disc around a young star in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a galaxy neighboring ours. It's the first time such a disc, identical to those forming planets in our own Milky Way, has ever been found.
Best Animal Story
Humans are no longer the only species on Zoom. Parrots have taken up video chat.
“Who’s a pretty bird?”