the 2024 year-end wrap
Hello there friends! Hope your holidays are going great! Ours are relatively chill—we have stayed put mostly, and are enjoying all the travel our friends are making this season vicariously hehe. Wishing you all the blessings of the season and a gentle year-end. -K
Earlier this month, my teammates and I went on an educational trip to the National Archives of the Philippines. While we were there to learn more about the best practices in terms of archiving and record-keeping, my primary take-away was this: That every good archiver knows what items to dispose of and when.
As a chronic collector and hoarder of anything and everything—from memorabilia both physical and digital, to memories and experiences that I feel I need to commit to writing and remember—this really struck me as an insight.
The archiver’s first task is to assess what is worth keeping and what isn’t. And to do that, one must be at peace with the fact that not everything is worth saving.
It’s funny, getting this epiphany in the middle of an archiving lecture. Back when I worked in Research, we saved everything. Or at least close to everything. When you’re in news, that’s the thing—the fact that something made it to the news made it somewhat… special. And while I’m pretty sure there are guidelines as to what must be thrown out (clippings that are x years old, faded fax copies, etc etc), sometimes our fear of regret (‘Why had we not kept that!’) won over all instinct to curate instead of merely collecting.
These days, I’ve been thinking about how I’m not even half the archiver I was a few years ago—for one, I haven’t been that diligent in coming here every month to document this life. It’s something I only half-regret; I like to think I’m merely living out there a bit much haha hence I haven’t been spending as much time in my head as I used to.
But, still—for 2025 (and, fine, my forty-something years—god, who turns forty, right??1) I’d like a bit of my inner life back. And by inner life, I mean a life documentation that isn’t for public consumption. These days, it’s so easy, to make content out of a life—everyone’s just so… nosy. Me included. I like looking into windows, too, you know. Reading screenshots2 (haha), that sort.
But what I actually crave is not the raw, screenshots-powered, clout-chasing confessional of today; what I miss is the the anonymous, non-monetized navel-gazing internet—the internet that will never be again, the internet where people knew you by your URL and not necessarily your actual person, the internet which afforded people some degree of plausible deniability.
Also: Long-ass essays. Longform thoughts. Strung together in the heat of the moment or around the third bottle of beer, and not, for f’s sake, inside the window of a chatbot. The sincerity of it all—kids today will call it cringe, but I’d take the cringey sincerity over this algorithm pandering, anytime.
Anyway.
To achieve some semblance of a 2024 yearender, here’s a list of things from this year that I enjoyed:
2024 playlist: songs that will remind me of this year
This year was a good one for music. TWICE had like, three group comebacks (With You-TH in February, DIVE in July, Strategy in December), two solos (Nayeon’s 2nd EP in June, Tzuyu’s debut in September) and one sub-unit album (MISAMO 2nd EP in November)—making for an absolutely bat-shit schedule, both for them and our wallets lol. So this playlist is a mix of songs from these albums + other notable songs from the last twelve months. Non-k-pop standouts include Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter—because I’m predictable like that.
Best live stages 2024
This year, we had a little more variety in terms of concerts/live music events attended: I count six major ones—Taylor Swift in Singapore in March, IU in Singapore in April, TWICE x Oishi and Biniverse in June, TWICE in Nissan Stadium in July and TWICE 9th anniversary fanmeet in Seoul in October.
My favorite stages:
Taylor Swift - Long Live, Clean [notes]
IU - Love Wins All [notes]
BINI - Huwag Muna Tayong Umuwi [notes]
TWICE (Ready to Be Special in Japan) - Perfect World, Jeongyeon’s ‘Wherever You Are’ cover stage, Hare Hare finale (with fireworks!) [notes]
TWICE (9th anniv) - One in a Million [notes]
2024 in movies/shows
Challengers [briefly noted here, disappointed I don’t have more thoughts??? we saw very few films on the cinemas this year, and when we saw this movie’s trailer we were like, ok we’re watching that when it comes out and it was very good. obsessed with the OST, too]
Wicked [THIS WAS SO GOOD I WATCHED IT TWICE ARIANA WAS MARVELOUS, CYNTHIA WAS PHENOMENAL, I CRIED WHEN IDINA AND KRISTIN3—]
And so it begins (the Leni Robredo campaign documentary—which was as depressing as you’d think it would be. also briefly noted: candybong count.)
Deadpool & Wolverine (which was a work-related showing)
House of the Dragon S1 and S2
BONUS: Year-long Sabaw round-up
The one where my smartwatch fails me
What I mean when I say, ‘ok, pause’
I can’t explain it: MISAMO x Teysi ng Tahanan-core
Anyway. To a completely ordinary, run-of-the-mill 2025 then—and an absolutely extraordinary experience, regardless.
XO,
K
Drive by note for this year’s birthday, which I celebrated with family at Dylan’s on Jupiter, with cake and a birthday song to boot. Nice.
I mean, it’s entertaining to a degree albeit questionable, data privacy-wise—what do you mean telcos actually need court orders to release customer records but yall just hand over screenshots of your conversations to social media platforms??!?! FOR FREE?? But this is another conversation, isn’t it.
ok so this happened in late November—my sister and her boyfriend had spare tickets to this block screening and C and I were like, hell yes, so that’s how we found ourselves in that screening. the listing said the movie was nearly three hours but NOT ONCE did I feel the need to check my phone for the time, it was that GOOD. I watched it again with my siblings and it was AS GOOD AS THE FIRST TIME we all cried at the right junctures haha.