Top Fives of 2025

Look, no matter what's going on in the world, I wouldn't be a proper blogger hack if I didn't publish my favourite media of the year at the end of December. So here you go, the top fives of 2025...

 

Books  

(That I read in 2025, not necessarily new books in 2025)

The Resurrectionist by A Rae Dunlap

The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer

Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting by Lisa Genova

Actress of a Certain Age: My Twenty-Year Trail to Overnight Success by Jeff Hiller

The Cat's Meow: How Cats Evolved from the Savanna to Your Sofa by Jonathan B Losos

 

Music 

(new albums from this year) 

Brandi Carlile - Returning to Myself 

Jann Arden - Mixtape 

Sam Bettens - Coming Home

Willie Nelson - Workin' Man: Willie Sings Merle

Stereophonics - Make ‘em Laugh, Make ‘em Cry, Make ‘em Wait

 

Television

Long Way Home (Latest in the Long Way motorcycle trip series. I love Ewan and Charley, and I love travel, and I will watch these two go anywhere. And then rewatch it again. And again. And again. And again. I hope they keep making these series until they’re adventuring to the high street for some shopping on their mobility scooters, because I’ll still be tuning in)

Acapulco (Final season this year, but worth going back to the beginning) 

Man on the Inside (2nd season this year - I love me a Mike Schur sitcom!) 

Clean Slate (Cute, sweet, very Norman Lear -- one of his last shows -- and with a great cast led by Laverne Cox) 

Mid-Century Modern (It's basically the classic doofy sitcom of the 70s and 80s... except super gay. Mostly just silly fun, and Matt Bomer playing the dumb hot friend is a DELIGHT)

 

Podcasts

The Joy Reid Show

The Left Hook with Wajahat Ali (Not really a podcast, but he's always posting great discussions that I watch / listen to like a podcast, so I'm counting it)

Vibe Check

How We Made Your Mother

American Fever Dream (Sadly ended this year) 

 

Movies... Well, Movie... That I Didn't Love...

No top 5, because I never see new movies anymore, even on streaming. I don't think they make movies for me anymore. My queendom for a 90 minute light comedy with absolutely no stakes!! 

The one movie I saw that came out this year was Better Man, the Robbie Williams biopic. But as much as I love Rob, I didn't enjoy it. There were a few moments that I really did like, mostly little details and special fan Easter eggs, but overall... meh. 

First off, it's a musical, and it's well over 2 hours long, which are two of my most hated qualities in films. Secondly, the chimp thing was weird. Everyone else says they took almost no time for it to make perfect sense, but not me... I couldn't get past it. Especially since they used Rob's actual eyes and facial expressions on the CGI ape, and the combination just weirded me out. Finally, as a fan who was there and watching during a lot of what's in the movie, the timeline being all jumbled and the songs happening at the wrong point in his career were really distracting. As were all the scenes of him driving... he doesn't drive, never has! So maybe it's a movie for a musical lover who knows nothing about Rob, or the kind of Robbie super fan who loves anything he does unconditionally, but it's not for me. Oh well, maybe I'll like the next one...

Brandi Carlile Album Playback & Acoustic Show

On Saturday night, I and 2800 of my fellow Bramily* members had the joy of attending a one of a kind Brandi Carlile Band show here in Seattle, to get a sneaky preview of her new album, Returning to Myself.

The show was an album playback and acoustic performance, so the only folks on stage were Brandi, the Hanseroth Twins, and Sista Strings, all seated in comfy couches and chairs. It started with playing the album, all the way through. Not performing it, literally playing the record, with Brandi telling stories and talking about the songs in between. We all promised not to share any video or audio from the album that isn't out already (no spoilers!), so I won't talk too much about the songs either, but WOW. I'd never pretend to be some kind of critic who can put a value judgement on art, because it's so subjective, but I loved it. The band is very much firing on all cylinders on this one; it's very personal, and just feels like the most Brandi Carlile Brandi Carlile album to date. It's full of great songs, but I will venture that Human is an instant classic, and Church & State is going to be an ANTHEM.

After we heard the record and related commentary, Brandi took a few questions from the audience, and then the band played an acoustic set, starting with live versions of about half of the new album songs we'd just heard, and proceeding to a few requests from the crowd. All told, we spent a little under 3 hours together, singing, laughing, dancing, and just being filled with joy and excitement, at the end of No Kings day.

 

 

I've been to a couple smaller, fan-only shows like this, and it's always a very different vibe from a regular tour stop, in a great way. I have to assume it's because the artist knows the crowd is going to be completely and totally on their side, so they can let their guard down -- not put any less into the performance, just feel free to relax and have fun on stage. Last night was the same, a unique kind of experience and energy in the room. 

Although (tangent alert!), there was one song that felt very familiar, taking me back to the beginning. Early in my BC fandom, 2003-2004, Brandi didn't yet have a record deal, but she and the Twins had already been hustling in Seattle for years. They had a couple of demo CDs and played regularly around town, so people knew the music, and at that time, the 'hit' was Turpentine. Sure, there were lots of us at the gigs who kept the CDs on repeat and knew all the songs, but Turpentine was the one even the more casual fans could join in on. So when they played it last night, with every person in the room singing along, it was a moment of deja vu. Even though back then the song was faster, harder, more electric guitar forward, and not the melodic, 3 part harmony oh-oh-oh version they do now. Even though back then "it's 6am and I'm all messed up" was only the clean version for the recording, and neither the crowd nor the band were singing 'messed up' in the live version. Even with the clear differences that the years have brought to that familiar song, I felt like I was back standing in a crowded bar, belting it out with the strangers around me, more than 2 decades ago. 

And I couldn't be happier to still be here singing along, or prouder of Brandi and the Twins for what they've accomplished since those early days being the hardest working band in Seattle. 

Buy this album, y'all. I promise you're gonna LOVE it. 

 

*Insofar as fan clubs still exist for grown-ass adults in 2025, you could say the Bramily are Brandi's fan club 

London Calling

Stopped by London for a couple days on the way back from Dublin, because if I'm not there at least twice a year, I don't know what I'm doing with my life.

Maybe a dozen years ago, someone asked me how many times I’d been to London, and I had no idea. It was only a handful of visits back then, but it was still enough that I had lost count. It’s probably my favourite city in the world, so I stop by whenever I’m in the area… or whenever I have an excuse to go for an event… or whenever I’m flying BA and have to change planes at Heathrow anyway… 

Basically, anytime I can find an excuse to be in London, I’m in London.

 

But that usually means I’m just popping by for a day or two in between things, with no time to do anything but meander through the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A), eat a kebab, and sleep. So I’m pretty much confined to my usual ‘hood or whatever’s a short ride on the Tube. 

 

And the same was true this time, which included stops at the Moco, the Design & Disability exhibition at the V&A, a little shopping, and lots of walking.

 

London, like all major cities, is a collection of distinct neighbourhoods that all have their own personality. My London ‘hood is South Kensington, completely by accident. Many years ago, I got a great deal on a brand new boutique hotel there, when it was a part of the city I’d never been to before, and not only did I love the hotel, I loved the area. So even after the hotel got established and I couldn’t always afford to stay there – or when the ownership changed, making me no longer like the place -- I still find a spot to stay in South Kensington every visit. The big draw is the nearness of the V&A and Hyde Park, but I also can’t underestimate the benefit of knowing this area better than the rest of London. I’ve got certain stores I always shop in and a regular kebab shop, and I even know which lines run through the local Underground stations and where I can or can't go on them, without having to look at the map.

 

I don’t know if I'd recommend South Kensington to everyone – neighbourhoods have a personality just like people do, and everyone has to figure out for themselves what they're compatible with – but I highly recommend finding your ‘hood when you visit London. Especially if you're like me and not out doing a whole bunch of social things with friends all the time, having a place that feels quite homely* makes it as if you’re wandering around holding hands with the city itself.

 

I can't say what it is that makes a human feel like they belong in a particular place, but I have a few cities that I’ve never really lived in, that feel like home to me anyway. London’s very close to the top of that list. 

 

 

*I'm using the British meaning here, which is 'like home', not the old USian way of saying it's not very attractive.

Britpop in Dublin

So... what did you do last weekend? Oh, nothing much? Watched some TV? Well, I just took a quick little jaunt over to Dublin...

No, really, I went all the way to Ireland for less than 2 days. By the time I got settled into the hotel after my halfway-round-the-world journey Friday night, it was 8pm, and only about 38 hours until I had to catch my lift back to the airport Sunday morning. So that didn't leave me much time to do anything but go to the Robbie Williams Britpop tour stop that had brought me to town. 

I wasn't too worried about missing stuff, though; I visited Dublin back in 2016 with my ex-Scotsman, and we did all the touristy things then. We saw Dublin Castle, walked along the River Liffey and crossed a couple of its bridges (but not the famous Liffey Bridge, which we did walk past, but it was either closed or too busy... or not where we needed to cross... I don't remember), and (obviously) visited the Dublinia Viking and Medieval Museum. 

On that trip, I even dragged the man with no interest in anything more artistic than a football jersey on a trek across town to the Irish Museum of Modern Art. But once we got inside the grounds, we started noticing that most of the doors to exhibit rooms were closed and locked, and no one else was around except a few guys with tools and ladders... and it dawned on us that maybe it was not open that day, and we had just slipped in with the renovation crew. But sadly we weren't equipped to use our accidental sneak entry to pull off the world's greatest Irish art heist, so we just found our way to an exit and went on with our turismo. 

So since I already took in (pretty much) all the things I wanted to see last time, I wasn't particularly motivated to go out for anything other than food on the drizzly, muggy afternoon before the main event. 

Because as it should be, Saturday night was Robbie Williams night in Dublin. CAN YOU IMAGINE THE CRAIC?!*

I overheard a local on our walk to the gig saying that to her friend, and I had to steal it.

WHAT A SHOW!!! Croke Park was completely sold out -- 80,000 people -- with an amazing crowd. People always tell me that Irish audiences are the best, but I had to see it for myself. I've been to around 20 Robbie shows in various locations and never heard such loud singing along, to whole songs, not just the choruses that everyone knows. Rob said near the end that it was the best crowd he'd ever had (sincerely, not just working the audience), and I believe it. 

I have to say that the view was a bit jarring for me at first, because I got a seat this time, after being in the front standing section for the last few shows. Rob's truly the most amazing entertainer, and it doesn't matter if you're pressed up against the stage or in the very back of the stadium, you'll have a great time and feel like he's singing directly to you. But even sitting just a couple rows away from the field, I was pretty far from the stage, and it took a minute to adjust to him looking 3 inches tall, after having gotten used to watching an actual sized Robert. On the plus side, since I couldn't take that many good photos with my limited zoom anyway, it gave me a reason to keep my phone in my pocket and enjoy the moment for once.

The set list was pretty much the same as the London Britpop shows (catchup post coming on that later!), with a couple small changes. This tour's tradition of 2 surprise guests continued -- one to duet on Relight my Fire, and one with their own song -- but they were both Irish folks I didn't know anything about. I did catch that the one who got a gigantic roar of welcome from those in attendance was Garron Noone, who led a rousing singalong version of Take Me Home, Country Roads. Never thought I'd hear a John Denver song at a Robbie Williams gig, but those peanut butter cup ads are on to something: putting two things I love together made me love them both even more!

All in all, it was an incredible night, and I was totally in it, singing, dancing, and grinning, even during my I'm-so-beyond-sick-of-this-stupid-cover-please-never-play-it-again song (I won't say which one that is, but it rhymes with Bees the Fun), and had a spring in my step on the long walk back to my hotel afterward.

So I'd say the quick visit to Dublin was a success. The show was one of a kind, and we really did have the craic... far beyond anything I could have imagined.

 

*If you don't know what the craic is, look it up your own self! Kidding. It's basically Irish for super fun-ness, pronounced like crack.

Welcome Back (Globe)Trotter

 We're back, baby!

I never did get around to starting a Substack, and I'm glad I didn't, but I didn't really start posting again here either... which I'm not so glad about. 

So I'm back now (with an option to get this as a newsletter if that's your bag), picking up where I left off. And committing to keep it updated going forward.

Look, the world is ROUGH right now. Personally, socially, politically, globally, this is very much The Darkest Timeline. And while I pretty much spend all my time, and energy, and thought every day trying to make that better, sometimes I need a break. We all do. We need to take time to do something we love, to laugh, to celebrate life's small adventures. So here I am, trying to do a little of that now and then.

For the next little while, I'll be going back through a bunch of unpublished posts from the last 2 years, and sharing them until I'm all caught up.

But don't worry, there aren't that many catch-up posts out there, I'm skipping a few trips. Like both of my annual pre-Christmas visits to London and Edinburgh, the time I holed up in Stockholm with a terrible cold, and the several days I sat around Palm Springs doing nothing but reading. 

But you will get fun travel stories like this: I was all queued up to catch my flight to Edinburgh (Heathrow loves lining people up early!), when they announced a technical issue. Not boarding, no timeline. But it's the UK, so everyone just stayed in the lineup. A few minutes later, when the gate agent guy came over to give an update, he came and spoke directly to me, about 3/4 of the way back in the queue, too quietly for others to hear, and walked away... Like I was somehow the only one who needed to know. The boss of the line, I guess.

Stay Tuned...

Catching Up: Britpop in London

I know, it seems like I only ever go to London. But that's kind of been true for the last couple of years... I still love to go new places, but I'm 100% OVER the actual mechanisms of travel. So most of my plans end up cancelled when even the tiniest hint of a hassle comes up -- flight time change, weather, me waking up with a sniffle -- and the ones I keep are ones where I don't want to miss the event. So mostly when Robbie Williams is involved.

My summer 2025 trip to London was exactly that. Rob's tour for his upcoming Britpop album included two London stadium shows on successive nights, so I got tickets for both.

The trip was just a quick one, arriving at Heathrow on Wednesday afternoon, seeing the popstar Friday and Saturday night, and back home Sunday, so I didn't have time to do much else. I was also hindered by having sprained my knee just one week earlier. By being a klutz walking down the street.

I was on my way home with bags of groceries in each hand, about a block from home, walking super fast like I always do, when I tripped on uneven pavement and became a cartoon character flailing wildly, trying to catch my balance against the weight of the bags and forward momentum. But I failed, and fell flat on my face in the middle of the sidewalk, with my left knee taking most of the impact. After picking myself up and limping home, I took an ibuprofen, put an ice pack on my bruised and swollen kneecap, and went about my day... albeit seated. Once the pain and swelling subsided on the bashed up part of my knee, I noticed that the LCL side was showing all the signs of a sprain. I was a dancer until age 20, and have been clumsy my entire life, so trust me, I know from joint sprains. This one seemed pretty minor, so I dug out a knee brace from one of my previous injuries, went about the same home treatment I've done a dozen times before, and assumed it'd be fine in time to travel. 

Another quick side story here, since I'm already off topic anyway... The first single of the new Robbie album, Rocket, was released about a week before I gracefully injured myself, a couple weeks before I left town. As part of that promotion, Karl Brazil (Rob's drummer, musical director, and frequent collaborator) posted a photo of its four songwriters -- Robbie, Karl, Tony Iommi, and Tom Longworth -- looking super rock and roll, but also, ya know, not 25 years old, saying something like "name this band." I replied with Dad Sabbath, which I found hilarious, but which got no response on Instagram at all. So imagine my surprise when, on my way to London a short time later, I heard Karl Brazil on the Robbie Williams Rewind podcast making a joke about his band Dad Sabbath, and getting a good laugh. He did give credit to it being an IG comment, but still... between that and Robbie Williams himself repeating a joke I'd told him to all his Insta live viewers (a much longer story that happened during the pandemic lockdown), I think I've earned the right to put Comedy Writer for the Robbie Williams Band on my resume. 

But back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Despite the many hours of travel that limited my ability to put my leg up the way I really needed to, my knee wasn't in too bad shape when I arrived in London, but I wouldn't say it was in great form either, with only a week of healing done. Not the best way to find myself in a city where I normally walk several miles every day, where you can't get far without having to climb up or down stairs, and where I had standing tickets to two (at least) 2-hour concerts. 

Nevertheless, I persisted. 

For both nights of the Britpop show, I timed my travel to get to the stadium about 45 minutes before Rob was set to hit the stage, because I didn't want to stand any longer than I had to on my bad knee, especially since the trip there and back included lots of walking. Luckily my ticket was especially for the front of stage section, so even arriving that late, I had a pretty good view for both.

This tour's set is much more cabaret style than some of the previous ones, with interludes of stories and videos, Robbie making his case that he deserves the title King of Entertainment, and lots of guests. It was a mix of originals and covers that he has done in a lot of shows before. I think Old Before I Die was maybe the only old original I hadn't heard live before, and the show opened with the first single off the new album, Rocket, along with Rob taking a (wired) nosedive off a giant rocket on stage. The covers with guests were the most unique part of each night. 

Both shows featured Lulu joining Rob to 'reclaim' Relight My Fire, her duet with Take That, for which Rob was originally supposed to do the lead vocals, but during recording they gave it to Gary Barlow instead. They sounded great and it was super fun to see them together. Friday night also featured a song by 90s British boy band Five, which Rob started, and Five finished -- the group's first performance on stage together in 25 years. Having not grown up in the UK, I didn't know the song, and only knew a little about the band, but the crowd went wild and I could appreciate the moment nonetheless. On Saturday night, instead of Five we got three grime artists doing their grime thing with Rob. I didn't know who they were (not well versed in the genre), and the internet's feelings on the guys were mixed when I went to find out, so.. shrug emoji, I guess.

The only other thing that was different at the Saturday show was getting drenched. It was cold and grey all evening, but right as the band came on stage, it started bucketing down, and continued to soak us for the first 2 or 3 songs. It then switched to more of a drizzle for a couple songs before it quit for the rest of the night, but it was still enough that I hadn't fully dried by the time I got back to the hotel nearly 3 hours later.

But even soaked with a sore knee, I had a smile a mile wide. And that's why these are the trips that never get cancelled.

Catching Up: Last Thanksgiving in London

For the last ten to fifteen years, I've typically spent Thanksgiving either out of the country, or on a long haul flight home, eating airplane food for my holiday dinner. I'm too much of a history buff to buy into the mythology or 'celebrate' the American Thanksgiving holiday, and don't care about missing a day of overeating with friends and/or family, so I prefer to spend the day anywhere but here. 

This year, against all odds, I'm not travelling, but last year I was... and I had a lovely holiday to myself in London.

I started my day at the London Moco Museum, where Robbie Williams had recently had several pieces added to their permanent collection, so obviously I had to go take a look at that. As usual, I loved Rob's stuff, but I think I actually spent more time admiring and photographing their Basquiat and Keith Haring sections. Such a modern art nerd!

Once again, I spent far too much money getting cool art stuff at the gift shop. But I was forced to show some some restraint, because I had limited space in my luggage, and lots more on my (early Christmas) shopping list, which I spent the rest of the afternoon getting as I walked down Oxford Street, away from the museum. 

As usual, I was an excellent shopper and could barely close my suitcase at the end of the day. Luckily this was pre- tariff era, and I didn't have to wonder whether I'd still have a generous personal import allowance when I landed at home, or not...

After dropping all my purchases back at the hotel, I wandered back out for my Thanskgiving dinner: a takeout falafel platter from a Lebanese restaurant, which I greatly enjoyed with a French rosé. No pie for dessert, but mini Christmas puddings were already on sale for the year, which worked well enough for me.

Much better way to spend the day than watching parades or gorging on turkey, if you ask me...