Hey friends,
I feel neglectful. It’s been over six months since I’ve pressed publish on a new post for this newsletter I started nearly 2 years ago. 139 subscribers accrued who thought I had something useful to say. I’ve been thinking about you, but I’ve had neither the time nor discipline to sit down and translate my thoughts into words. That’s not to say I’ve been silent, because 2022 was a seismic year. Rather, my time was focused on conversations and education that tend to be more intimate, one-to-one, and protracted. The kinds of things that can’t easily be wrapped up in a Tweet thread, translated into a LinkedIn post, or shared in a newsletter because you’re losing critical nuance… and often breaking NDAs.
My work took a similar turn this year, stepping away from consistent, direct execution into a role that demanded planning, strategy, and longer-term thinking. I had less dirt under the nails but ironically that just meant I bit them more. Without that digital paper trail of “six things I learned from launching a video game”-type posts, my 2022 in Review feels a little underwhelming in an industry reliant on personal branding. Launching creative campaigns for multi-million dollar franchises with multi-millionaire creators sounds a hell of a lot more glamorous to the aspirational than boasting about multi-year organisational planning and internal-facing strategy. Trust me, it is damn interesting though! Why? Because we’re all still trying to make sense of the Creator Economy, and building a way for people to have the freedom to be collaboratively creative and successful is exciting. That’s a roundabout way of my saying that 2023 is going to be incredibly exciting!
I’m getting ahead of myself, however. Let’s dial it back to the year that just passed.
With the waxing lyrical-esque introduction out of the way, will you first indulge me while I fill you in on a few things I did that made me happy:
Embraced full-time remote work and moved to Spain to live with my partner
Returned home to Australia for Christmas to spend time with family and friends I hadn’t seen in over three years
Earned a promotion to Creative Lead, and begun steps to broaden my creative responsibilities at EA
Did a bunch of behind-the-scenes work to improve how creators integrate into EA’s larger marketing creative
Travelled to TwitchCon to finally meet industry colleagues and friends I’d only known digitally
Restarted therapy
Restarted running (only to get a stress fracture a few months in)
Second, I wanted to spend most of my time writing about things that other people did that I enjoyed. I’d felt an awkward combination of desire to write with an indecisiveness of what to write about. So rather that write about industry shenanigans (which I’ll get back to eventually, I chose to write about what sparked joy throughout the year as a way to kickstart these atrophied writing muscles. The following collection is a series of things that I found mentally nourishing, inspiring, or just great escapism. These aren’t necessarily things that came out in 2022, but things I discovered in the year either thanks to recommendations from others, or through the blessings of a reasonable algorithm. We have so much ‘stuff’ to choose from that the pressure to constantly consume can itself consume you. I’m thankful to find these gems, some of which got the recognition they deserved, others sadly didn’t. So have at it! Hopefully you can enjoy them too.
TV
Andor
Andor was the largest surprise of 2022, mainly because I did not expect Disney to greenlight such a surprising take on Star Wars. I started Andor expecting a nostalgia-driven happy-go-lucky adventure and instead found a story about how individuals is radicalised, the underhanded tactics of colonialism, when fascism festers within bureaucracy, and what ultimately drives a group of people to say, “no more.” Very relevant viewing in 2022/3, and arguably my favourite piece of Star Wars media to-date.
Severance
What a delightful mindfuck! Beautifully shot and excellently acted, this show gripped my partner and I from beginning to end. Severance does a fantastic job of inch-by-inch ratcheting up the suspense, exposing the viewer and characters to the mundane yet horrifying intricacies of life as an innie at Lumon Industries. I can’t wait for season two, especially as it had one hell of a cliffhanger!
YouTube
Not Just Bikes
In 2022 I developed a fascination with…uh…urban planning of all things. Having lived in a variety of cities across two continents, I’ve always been interested in what ‘good’ city planning looks like and how its infrastructure contributes to the quality of life for its citizens. I found Not Just Bikes through a Discord recommendation and kinda plowed through a bunch of their videos. It can get a little preachy with the repetitious “Amsterdam is the best city in the world”, however don’t let it dissuade you from some fascinating dissections of the intricacies that make some cities ‘feel’ right.
F.D. Signifier
To no one’s surprise I come from an incredibly privileged background and benefit immensely from being a cis white dude. So, a lot of my work to being the best ally I can be for the underrepresented comes from my own education. YouTube has been a great tool to explore nuanced topics and one of my favourites is F.D. Signifier. He looks at issues impacting Black communities, going deep on specific topics from the Manosphere, the fetishisation of Black men, and the role (and clashing) of Black culture with the existing hegemony. The videos are dense and can go up to 3hrs, but I highly recommend viewing especially if you’re non-Black, like me, and looking for an intersectional perspective on current societal issues.
Special Shout-Out: Video Essays
I just wanna say that I’m glad video essays have not died and seem to be thriving at the moment. To have accessible high-quality, well-researched LONG-form content available alongside the ubiquitous shorter video is a welcome relief. It’s relieving to see YouTube move past the “This video must be 10:01 or no discovery for you” phase. While we may not see Gary Vee: The Youth Pastor of Capitalism hit Mr Beast Squid Game-level viewership, there’s a willing enough community to drive these babies upwards to six-figure viewership. So yay for content diversity.
Anime/Manga:
Spy x Family
I adore both the Spy x Family manga and anime, but I didn’t expect how differently the anime would emotionally affect me. The manga is a delightful chaotic adventure of a makeshift family bumbling their way through espionage, assassination and school. From its optimistic intro sequences to the gradual transition from manufactured affection to genuine love, the anime’s representation of a family who must adapt to each others’ eccentricities and the inevitable bonds that develop made me want to shed tears of joy and pride at the end of most episodes. I feel unadulterated happiness watching this anime, and I cannot wait for season 2.
Chainsaw Man
I read an article that some ‘hardcore’ CSM fans wanted MAPPA booted off the anime because they failed to capture the identity of the manga and laughed because, in my head, they missed the entire fucking point of that first arc. MAPPA has done an incredible job with season one of Chainsaw Man, and in my opinion is one of the most artistically progressive anime out there. It’s fantastic to see something subvert the tropes that maintain a stranglehold on its medium so successfully, and I’m hyped to see how they interpret and present some of the crazier shit that’s coming up in season 2.
Cowboy Bebop
My partner and I rewatched Cowboy Bebop (reiterating that we’re talking about the anime and not the live-action version) this Summer and I’m still in awe of how fucking great it is. Cowboy Bebop was one of the first anime I watched so this may be some nostalgia-laced commentary, but the styyyle and soundtrack remain top-notch. Some of the episodes don’t, uh, hold up so well in 2022 (See: racist tropes in Ep 17, and some clunky language around Gren), but it remains a a sexy ooze through space, that’ll forever be stapled to my mood boards. Play Space Lion at my funeral, please.
Video Games
Vampire Survivors
I received my Steam Deck a couple of months ago and aside from showing a few games off to friends, this thing has exclusively become my Vampire Survivors console. This is a stupidly addicting top-down time survival game, without a lot to do input-wise because of its auto-fire. Instead, the strategy and focus is on how you manage enemy waves and what weapons you focus on upgrading and combining in order to survive until Death itself comes to finish the job. It’s like $5 on PC/console and free on phones, so just buy it and give it a whirl. You won’t regret it.
Merge Mansion
I fucking hate how much I played this game. Merge Mansion simple match-game centered around one woman unravelling the mysteries of our family estate. I skip through the narrative and couldn’t even name a character correctly (aside from Kathy Bates who plays the grandmother in its Ads), but fuck does its simplistic mechanics have a stranglehold on my serotonin-starved brain. If I’m gonna have a productive 2023 I need to uninstall this. But that’s a 2024 problem.
Fashion
Karu Research
Not to be confused with dear friend and creator economy icon, Caru, Karu Research is a luxury Indian fashion label with an intense focus on partnerships that preserve Indian handicraft. I first came across Karu in Madrid, and fell in love with the beautiful embroidery and textiles created by artisans across multiple regions within India. Finding labels such as Karu bring me immense joy as I become more acutely aware of the role that fashion plays in climate change. It’s awesome to be able to purchase durable garments that are ethically-produced and help sustain traditional manufacturing techniques. I wish Kartik, its founder, all the success he deserves.
District Vision
I enthusiastically got back into running during the second half of 2022, so much so that I managed to get a stress fracture in my foot after an ill-advised 25km run. Being a walking Throwing Fits meme, I sought to find myself a fun running brand to overspend on. In walks - or ran I suppose - District Vision, an LA-based label that centres their philosophy around ‘mindful’ running. Needless to say, I spent a lot of money on singlets, shorts, eyewear, and even a collaborative shoe (that fucking rules) so that when I am running trails through Casa de Campo, I can look like a true wanker.
Music (genres not bands):
K-Indie/Rap
2021 kickstarted my foray into K-pop (aside from briefly falling in love with Hyuna after watching the Bubble Pop MV in a KBBQ restaurant in 2013), and 2022 led me to the K-Indie scene. I started gravitating towards alternate sounds, spending more of my time finding artists that differ from the commonplace Big Group performers that the Korean music scene is best known for. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still a Wenee at heart, and Junji’s hair… just ooooooof, but I had so much fun discovering the likes of ADOY, Wave to Earth, The Black Skirts, 1300, Aseul, Dasutt, and Jannabi. Maybe it’s still because of my amateur understanding of the depths of the Korean music industry, but I think it still gets shoehorned into a certain kind of genre by The West. Throw on an artist like SUMIN and you dispel this notion, highlighting the talent and depth of its artists. P.S. PLEASE GIVE ME AN XG EP NOW!
Hyperpop
One of my most vivid music memories from 2022 was chilling on a balcony in the heart of Malasaña listening to Charli XCX and Sky Ferreira, and I’d known I’d fallen down a rabbit hole. While it eventually landed (like most things) back in dreampop paradise feat. Cocteau Twins and My Bloody Valentine, the months I spent drowning in effervescent vocals and melodies were deliciously optimistic. Charli wound up my most-played artist of the year on Spotify… I’m not surprised at all. Crash fucking ruled.
Other assorted things:
Like I wrote at the beginning of the year, intentional and thoughtful consumption is so important in order to prevent yourself from drowning in the deluge of content. Particularly as AI proliferates and democratises creation in 2023, the speed at which things appear online will only increase. A lot of these things won’t be good, but you’ll get served them nonetheless due to fuckery with SEO and algorithm-hacking. We’re working through a period of creation that emphasises monetisation and commodification of media. I think it’s while I’ve developed a much more viscerally-positive response to things I find enjoyable. To be able to separate and celebrate something that you can tell people have poured their soul and ambition into is a wonderful experience, and a sensation I’ve come to crave. Not everything needs to be high art, but it’s nice to see a glimpse of the human embedded within the work.
Wishing you all a fantastic 2023. I look forward to reconnecting with you via this newsletter as the year goes on and thank you for sticking around while I figure my shit out ❤️
JDodd
For all the fancy legal reasons, this work is my own and not representative of EA ✌🏼
Thank you to Christie for playing the role of editor, and the true curator of cool things.
Cute bit of gratitude practice 🫶
Finally!! Glad to see you back, hope that fracture is on the mend!
Awesome to hear you had a good Christmas break Dood!
2022 was a bit of whirlwind for me, lots of up n downs and flew past way too quick, but 23 is shaping up well so far, hoping to be joining the EA Gang soon™ myself too! :D
Also.. what's your thoughts on Scones? XD