2020: My Favourite Stuff
It’s Coltrane this morning—A Love Supreme. It fits the bright and blue skies outside my window, the shining sun and the thin expanse of white stretching beyond our backyard. But it’s a tease, all that snow: there’s a warm front headed our way and Christmas will likely be green and brown this year. Yup, this is still 2020; right up to the end.
But enough of that: it’s a gorgeous day, and we made it. Tired, possibly anxious and…did I mention tired? But life goes on. We’re shapeshifters in the end, we transform as needed.
Anyhoo... Today is December 23rd, I’m writing the last post of the-worst-year-ever, and I thought it would be fitting to end with something that would be 1) light, and 2) entirely different.
So in the spirit of the almighty Ghost of Oprah 1, I give you: My Favourite Stuff of 2020!… in no specific order.
BTW: I’m not getting any kickbacks from any of these links. This is just stuff I like.
1 CRAFT
This one came in late but man, what an entrance. Craft is a note-taking app, but it’s the sort of app that immediately made me want to find reasons to use it. And I did: within a day of discovering this, I’d transformed my entire newsletter workflow to something not only more productive, but beautiful. And that’s what sets this app apart from so many others: it’s not only powerful, it also makes content look stunning. This may seem superficial to some, but I understand most tasks better in a compelling environment—writing, research, processing images... I become way more productive when whatever space I’m using feels inspiring. I’ve since moved most of what I do to this platform and even used it extensively on the latest project—which included sharing and collaboration.
Craft is a native app on both iOS and MacOS which makes it a first-class citizen on every device I use. And in the relatively short time I’ve had with it, the feature set has expanded without ever adding complexity.
I’m downright smitten.
2 Arturia V Collection 8
Two weeks ago this would’ve been about V Collection 7: but the company just released version 8, and I was on board almost immediately. Arturia’s V Collections bundle every one of their classic software synths in a single package and for me, it’s basically a dream come true.
When I was fourteen years-old, I attended an event for Sequential Circuit’s Prophet-5 at a Montreal music store. This was no small adventure: we lived in the suburbs and getting there meant quite a few hours of bus rides and subways. I remember standing way out in the back of that store as the presenter navigated the sound banks, at some point replicating the helicopter drones from Apocalypse Now. Ooohhh. I came home with a bunch of synth brochures and lost myself in those pages for months on end—a world out of reach.
The V Collection gives me almost every synth or keyboard I ever dreamed of, including the Prophet-5. These are not samples but virtual emulations, all the way down to the circuitry of the original instruments. It’s insane. And every time I open an ARP 2600, or a Mellotron or a Mini MOOG, I feel giddy and smile a very wide, toothy smile. I’m right back in my bedroom with those old brochures.
V8 just added the Roland Juno 6, a Vocoder and the Oberheim OBXa among others. Wow.
3 Nespresso Pixie
Wait, what? Ok...this is out there but here’s the deal: I love coffee. We had a basic espresso machine and it was fine but...I was never going to become a barista. This machine went on sale, 2020 sucked and I just thought fuck it: sometimes you need a bit of sunshine.
I’m sure purists will probably disagree but this thing makes my mornings better. It’s fast and it never misses and the coffee is fantastic. The capsules are now recyclable in our area too—I would’ve passed otherwise.
4 Tascam DX-05X
For years now I’ve been using my iPhone to record bits of ambient audio on the fly. It does a very decent job and will continue to do so: it’s always with me after all. But I needed a better option for more serious recording, namely during filming, and this device has been a very pleasant surprise, especially for the price. It includes a tripod mount, so I bought a cold shoe adapter that allows me to use it on any camera—it’s small enough for this. Added a deadcat as well.
The device acts as a field recorder, a USB mic/audio interface or an SD card reader. This is the base model but I’ve been delighted so far.
5 Final Cut Pro X
When Fujifilm gave me a mandate for the GF 30mm promo project, I knew I’d need an actual editing app. For years, I’d been doing every video project in Motion 5, but these had always been short, experimental pieces, mostly centred on animating stills.
Given this background, FCPX became the obvious choice... But man...this was quite the learning experience. I cut my editing teeth on tape machines, then on AVID systems—back when AVID were barely getting started with online (online as opposed to offline, nothing Internet-related). I’d also used the original Final Cut Pro, before the dreaded switch that sent so many editors running back to either AVID or Premiere.
After many hours spent in the user manual, I’ve come to like FCPX a lot. Ok...not quite smile every time I use it kinda like, but enough to make the list ;)
5 Logic Pro X 10.6
Obviously staying in-context AND showing my age again: I started using Logic at version 4, back when it was owned by a German company called Emagic. When the software was purchased by Apple, even as a self-professed “fanboy”, it scared the hell out of me. But it’s been almost twenty years since the acquisition and the company has never let this app down.
A few months ago Apple introduced version 10.5 as yet another free update and reviews have raved ever since: this could easily have been released as a paid version 11 upgrade. New samplers, a new drum sequencer, grid editing with iPad integration...seriously impressive. This felt like an early Christmas present.
6 Smith-Corona Electra 120
I won’t rehash how enamoured I’ve been with my new/old typewriter. And I won’t shoot another 20 pictures of it either ;)
But it’s a given for this list. If you missed the story behind it, you can check it out here.
7 Two Books
Yes, two—which means I’m cheating. But Stephen Shore’s Survey and Diane Arbus’ Revelations almost bookend the year for me: the former came at the very beginning of the pandemic, while the latter was a recent gift. And it’s interesting considering the subject: Shore’s work felt like an acknowledgment of the lockdown at the time, with eyes focused on small, immediate surroundings; Arbus’ photography, on the other hand, is an outreach, touching others, invading an intimacy that’s currently unattainable to most of us. Her work is like a signal in a way, lighting the way again to the outside world.
We’ll get there.
8 iPad Pro Magic Keyboard
Expensive but downright essential if you’re a writer on iPad. I’m still not crazy about the material Apple chose for this—months later it holds up but still doesn’t look the asking price. But I can’t fault the keyboard itself. That said, I still don’t reach to the trackpad for cursor use very often. Gestures mostly. Interesting.
9 RAMS
Dieter Rams changed everything. His influence can be seen everywhere around us, in electronic devices, furniture and decor. I caught this documentary as a free stream when it was made available during the first major lockdown. It features Rams himself and explores his years at Braun, as well as an exhibition of his work. Brian Eno scored it too—'nuff said.
10 X-Pro3
Let’s end the list with this year’s most faithful companion: the Fujifilm X-Pro3. All my other Fujifilm cameras are still with me and I’m still just as enamoured with the GFX 50S as I was on the very first day. But the X-Pro3 was definitely the camera of 2020, the one I reached for time and time again, without fail.
And I still find it awfully pretty.
...
I hope you’re well, I hope your family is well and safe. The months ahead won’t be easy but let’s at least take this time to breathe a little, wherever we find ourselves. I wish you all the very best of Holidays. See you in 2021 :)
P.S The top image isn’t part of my favourite stuff of the year. But…a staple?
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Although I’ve never actually watched Oprah...really. Ok, maybe snippets…;) ↩︎
