Holiday Post 2021: What the heck happened?

Welcome to the last of my holiday posts series for 2021. This is the one where I take a look back at what the heck happened last year. I almost considered not writing this post given that 2021 was not exactly any improvement over 2020, but tradition dictated I did it anyhow, so here we are. Besides, I already found some good things in my RSS feed to include, so it would be a waste not to share them. In addition, yesterday was Three Kings Day back home in Puerto Rico (and in Latin America), so we are still in festive mood around here, plus if we add las octavitas the party keeps going a bit longer. 

News and what happened

 

  

First, let's see what actually happened in 2021. These are the broad overviews:

 

• From UN News, the United Nations looks at "2021 in Review."  Naturally, the big deal in 2021, same as in 2020, was the coronavirus pandemic. There is a popular saying that states "what does not kill you, makes you stronger." I've actually modified that and adopted the following: "what does not kill you, mutates and keeps trying (to kill you)." By now we have moved from the initial alpha variant to the delta variant to the omicron variant, and as I am typing this a new variant has been identified in France just this week. The longer COVIDIOTS keeps refusing to vaccinate and the longer nations overall take to get the "Global South" vaccinated, the more variant mutations we are going to see. The virus is not going anywhere. Meanwhile, all I can do is be vaccinated, get my boosters, keep wearing that mask, and staying away from as many people as possible. 
• UPI presents their top stories of 2021. Highlights, beside the virus, include: 
• That coup attempt on January 6th. 
• The 2021 Summer Olympics took place. 
• A variety of very bad natural disasters. 
• The Guardian looks at their 2021 coverage, which also happens to be their 200th year.  
• In politics: 
• Al Jazeera looks U.S. foreign policy in 2021. 
• Congress.gov has their 2021 Top 10 and year in review. This includes a list of the top bills in Congress people viewed the most on the site. 
• In the environment, turns out there was a lot going on in 2021.
• The Guardian has "2021: a Year of Climate Crisis in Review."  
• VICE offers "15 Bleak Photos from 2021 that Sum Up the World's Climate Crisis." Highlights here include wildfires, droughts, toxic foams, and hurricanes.
  
• Public News Service has "Extreme Weather Events in 2021 Highlight Climate Change's Effect."  Article mainly focuses on Idaho and Northwest to highlight.
  
• BBC News offers "Wildlife's Winners and Losers of 2021." This one is more UK focused. 
• At least Al Jazeera has some good news environmental stories to reassure us not all has gone to hell yet. 
• In technology:  
• Electronic Frontier Foundation has their year in review 2021.
  

 

News summaries from around the world. 

• Nanjala Nyabola, writing for Al Jazeera, argues that 2021 was a year of failed political leadership. 
• Meanwhile, military coups return to the stage in Africa, via Al Jazeera. This is the kind of news that people in the United States mostly ignore if they are even aware news like this happens at all.
• The BBC has a nice compilation of photos from the African continent in 2021.  
• The Moscow Times offers "Russia 2021: the Year in Photos." 
  
• Al Jazeera has a compilation of photos from around the world. 
• From Global Voices: 
• "2021 in Retrospective." Looking at authoritarian threats to journalists and to freedom of the press in South Asia.
• "2021 in Review, from a Caribbean Point of View."
  

 

Film and Television

 

 

Film and television these days are not areas I keep up with very much. I do read about them in articles like these so I can be aware and have a sense of what the pop culture conversations are. However, I do not really have much interest in most current film and television (there may be an exception or two), so I tend to favor binge watching older things I either missed the first time or that I enjoyed in days past. That, and I read books (chance here to remind you to come back and check my annual end of year reading report later this month). So to remind myself what is going on in film and television as well as for reference, here are some lists from the past year.

 Film: 

• Via Rolling Stone: 
• "20 Best Movies of 2021." Dune got a new reboot/remake, but this year was just part one. I think I will wait til the whole movie series is done then watch it in a binge session. Meanwhile, I am thinking it may be a good time to reread the novel. The Green Knight is a retelling/re-envisioning of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." Given that I did not care much for the original poem when I read it as an English major, I am likely to skip the movie. From the list Summer of Soul is the one film that looks intriguing enough for me to go find.
  
• "The 10 Best Horror Movies of 2021."  Candyman was remade/rebooted/whatever they call it these days. To be honest, when I saw the original, I did not think it was the big deal so many people make it out to be, so the remake is not a priority for me to see. A detail I found interesting from the film was learning it is based on a Clive Barker short story. Also it seems there was yet another entry in the Purge movie franchise. Meh.
  
• Via The Root: 
• "Best Black Female Performances of 2021." 
  
• "Best Black Male Performances of 2021." Why they put the females in a nice article you can read down and the males in a damn slideshow I will never know. 

Television. I will note a lot of these hip things are things from streaming services like Netflix or Disney+, which are things we do not subscribe nor have any interest to subscribe. These are things that, if I am interested in any, I just wait for the DVD compilation and borrow from my local public library (and/or buy the set after previewing it if it is worth it): 

•  Via Rolling Stone: 
• "The Best TV Shows of 2021." 
• "The Best TV Episodes of 2021." A bit more specific here. 
• The Root has a "2021 Catch-Up" of 10 TV shows they argue you should binge and catch up on. I apologize for sharing a second slideshow (I really try to avoid doing that). 
• Via Reality Blurred, which looks at reality TV. That is a genre I pretty much do not give a fuck about (except for one or two documentary series and a cookery show or two), but Reality Blurred is a great resource to get coverage of the genre. 
• "Best Reality TV of 2021." He also highlights the scripted TV he enjoyed (kind of a digression in the post). 
• Favorite reality TV stories from 2021. These are news related to reality television.
  

 

Books and Reading

 

This is mainly items I saw after I posted the holiday post about books and reading. 

 

•  Kotaku offers a list of "11 Best Manga of 2021." I need to look up some of these and catch up on my manga reading.
  

 

Music

 

Another area I really do not keep up with is modern music. So to keep aware, here are some lists from the year.  

• Via Rolling Stone: 
• "20 Best Hip Hop Albums." 
• "10 Best Metal Albums of 2021."  I do like some metal, so I may need to look at this.
  
• "Best Spanish-Language and Bilingual Albums of 2021." This is a category I should catch up on a bit. 
• The Guardian has a list of "10 Best Global Albums of 2021."  
• BBC lists their 21 best albums and songs of the year.
• On something that may be relevant to the Hard Times we are living in, Cosmopolitan offers a list of the "15 Best Sad Songs of 2021."
  

 

 

Adult/Risque  

 

  

News and trivia in adult entertainment and other risque topics. Some may be NSFW.

• Pornhub has published their 2021 Year in Review which looks at things like most searched terms in their site and other Internet and website insights. Whether you are into porn or not (I do enjoy a bit of porn), if you find trivia and statistics interesting, this is an interesting report to look over. A hat tip to XBiz News, which had a bit of commentary on it.
• Not as risque but very important, Electronic Frontier Foundation's 2021 Year in Review: Sex Online. This report looks at "a tiring and non-exhaustive list of the ways Internet platforms have taken it upon themselves to undermine free expression in this way in 2021." If you are concerned about your First Amendment rights (in the U.S.) and your freedom of expression online overall, this is worth a look. 

Miscellaneous Trivia 

 

 

 

 

This is everything else that does not fit in any of the above, plus some curious and odd things.  

• Merriam-Webster, the dictionary people, have announced that "vaccine" is their 2021 Word of the Year. 
• Google offers their 2021 Year in Search report. See what people have been searching the most on Google. You can watch it as a video or click and explore the trends. 
• Abbie Richards's Conspiracy Chart has been updated for 2021, via Boing Boing.
• From the world of libraries: 
• The Law Library of the Library of Congress presents their most viewed posts in their blog.
• Publishers Weekly features their top 10 library stories of 2021. The massive and very organized effort by conservatives and right wingers to censor any books that basically hurt their feelings (also known as teaching accurate and true history) is their top story, and I would say it is a top story in our field as well. 
• Time magazine, in one of their not so bright moments, named Elon Musk as their Person of the Year for 2021. Yes, I am aware the designation is not an award or such, but still, there were others who were a lot more worthy than him. Belen Fernandez argues the designation sums up what is wrong with 2021, via Al Jazeera.
• Time magazine may have done goofed in their 2021 selection of Person of the Year. However, they sort of redeem themselves by naming Simone Biles as their 2021 Athlete of the Year. Since Time may be paywalled, you can read about it here via The Root.
• From the business world, Harvard Business School's blog Working Knowledge has their list of 10 most popular articles of the year. 
• In higher education, Steven Mintz at Inside Higher Ed gives us 10 takeaways from the fall 2021 semester.
• In investigative reporting.
• Type Investigations has their must-read investigations of 2021. There are some interesting, serious, and important stories here you may have missed if you only read or watch the mainstream media. 
• Fairness and Accuracy in Media (FAIR) features the best stories from their CounterSpin program in 2021. Highlights here include conversations on gun violence, deficient media coverage of COVID, and climate change.
• In a different track, Nieman Lab provides their 2022 predictions for journalism.
• Via NPR, some big archeological finds from 2021. 
• Leafly features the weirdest weed news stories of 2021. Highlights here are their Doobius Achievement Awards. Heck, President Biden was runner up for one of the awards, and he does deserve it. 
  
• Meanwhile, turns out 2021 was a weird year in space too. Gizmodo offers this list of space stories to remind us of things from leaky toilets in space to William Shatner going up on one of those expensive space tourist flights. 
• In video game news, Kotaku lists the most broken games of 2021. Apparently, this was not a good year for video games. Kotaku decided to look at Metacritic to find the five worst reviewed games of 2021.
• Some happy moments. Yes, miraculously we had some of those in 2021.
• Via Rolling Stone, moments that made us smile in 2021. For cat lovers, the highlight is the saga of Jorts the Cat. 
• Yes! magazine presents 10 of their stories that gave readers hope.
• Native News Online presents their favorite and most uplifting stories of 2021.
• 2021 also and certainly was a Year of Stupid. 
• VICE looks at the stars of a very stupid year. Remember Bean Dad? How about the I Am Not A Cat Lawyer?
• David Corn, at Mother Jones, bids farewell to 2021, a very stupid year. 
• Salon calls out the saddest sacks (idiots) of 2021.
• And because what is a year of stupid without some penis injuries, have a laugh or two at this list of stories of penis injuries from ERs in 2021 via Cosmopolitan. 
• Other entertainment and pop culture.
• Here are UPI's top images in entertainment for 2021.
• Naturally, any end of year retrospective has to look at those we lost in 2021. The gut punch at the end of 2021 was certainly the passing of beloved actress and comedian Betty White, at the age of 99. In addition, we lost many other great ones last year. 
• The Reprobate has a pretty good list. Here is the A-L part of the list and the M-Z part of the list.
• In a more specific list, Animation Magazine looks at those we lost in the fields of animation and VFX. In case you wonder, some of these folks, like Jack Angel, did voice work for many of the cartoons and comics we grew up with. Jack Angel, for example, did voice acting for The Smurfs, Super Friends, Voltron: Defender of the Universe, and Monsters, Inc. movie among others. In addition, some folks who did work outside this field (or you may know them better for works outside of animation), such as Ed Asner and Ned Beatty made the list for their roles in animated works. 
• To wrap up here, some notes from the Rude Pundit, a favorite blogger and writer that I also look up to. 
• He looks at the year that was 2021 in "The Year of Unmagical Thinking."
• He also has a tradition at end of year that is a favorite of mine, and that is his haiku's end of year reviews, where readers send in their haikus, he compiles them, and we get a pretty good summary of the year that was. He starts it off here, then follows up here and here. 

Great Debates of Our Time

Today's debate, via The Washingtonian: Was 2021 worse than 2020? Read their take on it, then feel free to comment and tell me if you are Team 2020, Team 2021, or neither. Feel free to keep the debate going.