There was almost no week of 2020 that didn’t present podcast creators with a series of challenges both technical and emotional, and every series was forced to solve for an onslaught of unknowns. Chatter shows of all stripes had to ask, “Am I contributing to the discourse in a meaningful way?” a question that they might never have had to confront before. When the nation is marching in protest of police brutality, do you stick a disclaimer on your prerecorded TV recap podcast, or do you power through with the assumption that your audience comes to your series to escape? When a global pandemic forces recording studio closures, how do you account for the distance between hosts? In spite of seemingly insurmountable obstacles, our favorite podcasts, just like the listeners who downloaded them, somehow made it through 2020. Here, we call out some of the series that offered comfort, catharsis, and enlightenment in this most unusual year.
Home for Christmas
With Christmas coming up on Friday this week, I hesitated to post these videos in a
Sunday Morning Coming Down post yesterday so far in advance of the holiday. On second thought, the time has come today. I want to revisit a few of the secular pop songs that seize on Christmas in one way or another for their own artistic purposes. I’ve added one new selection to last year’s lineup. Here they are in chronological order of release along with my notes on them.
In the video below Johnny and Edgar Winter perform the Charles Brown number “Please Come Home For Christmas” (1966). It was originally issued as a single b/w “Santa Don’t Pass Me By” by Jimmy Donley on the Meaux Sound Memories label (the Donley recording is also accessible on YouTube, but pass it by). As I access it on Napster, the Winter brothers’ recording is included on Johnny’s album
Face the Music: Maine musicians muster up holiday cheer to bring these new songs
Despite their own struggles, a few local artists are marking the season by releasing new music.
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In the face of what has arguably been the most challenging year for them, a handful of Maine musicians have released new holiday songs. I raise a cup of spiked eggnog extra high in their honor because they’ve done this despite having had to endure a year without doing what most of them love best: playing before a live audience. They’ve done this despite having the rug pulled out from beneath them and despite not knowing when they’ll be able to safely take to the stages of Maine’s venues and play before capacity crowds.
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Best of The Sunday Read 2020: From Female Rage to Michelangeloâs David
A few of our favorite and most popular episodes of the narrated article series from âThe Daily.â
A crew working on a reproduction of Michelangeloâs David in Carrara, Italy.Credit.Photo illustration by Maurizio Cattelan for The New York Times.
Dec. 20, 2020
For the past few months, The Sunday Read has been a fixture of the weekend feed on âThe Daily,â featuring narrated renditions of The New York Timesâs journalism.
Started in the early days of the pandemic, the series has shed light on our current moment with stories of isolation and meditations on race in America. But it has also provided moments of escapism: from long walks into forest worlds to journeys to exoplanets.
Your Best-Albums Lists Are Trash
If a local musician falls in the forest, does Jon Pareles hear them?
Image courtesy Spotify
We all know this, but it’s worth repeating. Stop buying new music only from year-end lists. Unless it’s local. Then buy
all of it.
Fair warning: You’ll be reading our year-end list of Fort Worth favorites in a week or so. Until then, please do what you can with your fat/phat
$1,200 Trump check from 200 years ago that I’m sure you’re still stretching and save it for local music. There is a ton of quality stuff here in our backyard which is just as good if not better than what you’ll find between the pages of