Summing Up 2024

1. What did you do in 2024 that you'd never done before? 

I learned to shuck oysters. I edited my first journal articles—a taste of editing that will continue into 2025. Won Lord of the Rings bar trivia on a first date with a guy.

As I look back on this year, I'm feeling like I spent most of it focused on work. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean I have to answer this question by saying I didn't have a lot of experiences that were brand new to me.

2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year? 

My new years resolutions for 2024 were to cook more vegetarian food. I succeeded at this. I also had high hopes that I would work less (failed at this one) and that I would stay current with all seasons of Drag Race (succeeded at this one). I also had a goal of reading more books than usual (I hit my usual GoodReads goal of 125 but didn't do better than that) and reading my friends books in particular (I did do better at this in 2024, but I will do even better in 2025). 

Next year, I really really want to make a deal with myself that I will do less work for my employer, that I will work out more regularly, and that I will spend more time traveling and visiting friends.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? 

My friends Daniel and Alex had a son named Adrian.

4. Did anyone close to you die? 

No one close to me died this year. My mom passed in 2023, and her absence in my life is still something I feel pretty acutely. As a matter of fact, today I went to the store to shop for groceries for Xmas dinner and this would almost always have been something mom and I did together. We did this together for years—more than a decade—and it felt very strange not to have her here with me. I think about her a lot.

5. What countries did you visit? 

None. 

6. What would you like to have in 2025 that you lacked in 2024? 

I have so much! This is a difficult question.

Bigger muscles. 😁

7. What dates from 2024 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? 

Manuscript deadlines: July 31 and December 15 were my most important deadlines this year. But also some really crazy shit went down on the first day of classes of Fall 2024. I won't soon forget that day (maybe I'll say more about that down below, or maybe you'll just have to get the tea from me in person).

Perhaps most importantly I was promoted to associate professor and granted tenure on August 8. They draw this out for a very long time: I heard last December that my file would be forwarded to the president of the university. Then I got notified in February or March that I would be granted tenure once my fall contract started. So people would congratulate me on tenure and I would always reply that I didn't actually have tenure yet. I became mildly obsessed with the delay related to this, worried constantly that Florida's neo-fascist politics would somehow disrupt things. In any case, August 8 came and went, and now I'm an associate professor.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
A book contract for my dissertation book, The Violate Man. It has been such a long time coming for this manuscript. I've been working on it (on and off) for maybe 15 years now, and I think the manuscript is in great shape. It has an editor who loves it. And it is filled with important and interesting case studies.

It was also an enormous achievement to publish my special section in the Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism on "Drag vs. the Law". This is an area of research in which I've become very invested, and it was exciting to be able to publish my colleagues' writing about drag and how it has interacted with and intersected with the law.

I was also really pleased to have an article in Shakespeare Bulletin this year: "'Against Interpretation': Actor-Driven Shakespeare and a Love for Scholarship". It's a fun piece, I think, and it allowed me to do some very interesting research on the American Shakespeare Center, a theatre company in Central Virginia of which I am very fond.

9. What was your biggest failure?

Sometimes I'm really not a very good friend. My introversion takes over and I need time to myself to reboot and recharge, and this can lead me to be antisocial, to neglect my best long-distance friendships, and to hurt other people's feelings in the process. I hate when this happens, and I'm always very sorry, but I think perhaps this trait is getting worse as I get older.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

I really didn't. I seem to be doing alright!

11. What was the best thing you bought?

A new 14-cup Cuisinart food processor. It's so cool. I got it on sale on Black Friday at a reasonable price, but I think it's probably worth the full price.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

My friend Michelle Carriger won the Barnard Hewitt award this year for her book Theatricality of the Closet! I was also so excited to see Andrew Rincón's play I Wanna Fuck like Romeo and Juliet nominated for a Lambda award. (Actually, shout out to the judges for the theatre portion of the Lambda Literary Awards—the plays are bad almost every year, but this year they were almost uniformly excellent!)

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

Florida voters, American voters, Republicans in congress, Democrats in congress, genocide apologists. It has been an appalling, depressing year, honestly. 

14. Which charitable organizations did you give to?

The Wikimedia foundation.

The Tallahassee Bail Fund.

I also donated money to help some students in need and some former students making their first independent films.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? 

Dune: Part Two

Vacationing on St. George Island with Meredith and Jason in May.

Visiting Caleb and Diana in North Carolina a little later in May.

The American Society for Theatre Research conference in Seattle in November.

16. What song will always remind you of 2024? 

This isn't a 2024 song, but after Gavin Creel passed away this year, I listened to him sing "What Can You Lose" on a loop for days. I have always loved the way he sang that song, and I've always loved the song.

"No One Else", "Dust and Ashes", and other songs from Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812, which FSU did as our Spring musical in 2024. I worked as the show's dramaturge and saw it dozens of times, and our students—really our whole School—did an amazing job with this show. (Here's the dramaturgical material I produced for the students.)

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: 

a) happier or sadder? Happier.

b) thinner or fatter? Fatter.

c) richer or poorer? Richer. 

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?

Reading Early Modern drama with Michelle, Joe, Donovan, and Walter.

 

19. What do you wish you'd done less of? 

Teaching classes to graduate students who either hadn't done the reading or simply decided not to show up to class.

20. How did you spend the Winter holidays? 

I am in California for a little over a week, seeing family and friends and trying to get in a little rest, as well. I've already gone on a hike in Griffith Park with my friend John, baked three different batches of cookies, eaten dumplings like five times, and taken a little pilgrimage to my childhood home (which looks completely different!). Also, I need you all to know that even the cheap Mexican food in any small suburb of Los Angeles is exponentially better than the Mexican food where I live in Florida or anywhere else I've lived. I know "nobody walks in LA" but when I'm in Los Angeles I also like to walk, especially in some of these beautiful California parks. 

21. Did you fall in love in 2024? 

I did not.

22. How many one-night stands? 

Only a few. I really need to get better at this. I wonder what is wrong with me. Maybe I secretly believe I am unattractive and unlovable. This is probably it.

23. What was your favorite TV program? 

I watched way more TV than usual this year. For research purposes, I watched Baby Reindeer and I May Destroy You. For fun I watched season two of The Lord of the Rings: the Rings of Power, which was... not good. But I am not really sure if it's objectively not good or if I just don't like TV. I find television so annoying. It all just takes so long. Everything is so unnecessarily drawn out. I tried to watch The Decameron because I love Amar Chadha-Patel and because I thought Karan Gill was so handsome in I May Destroy You, and also because I just love the actual Decameron, but I couldn't get into it.

And then I kept my New Year's resolution to stay current with all seasons of Drag Race. This also meant catching up with earlier seasons so I would have all the background I needed and know all the returning queens on the All Stars seasons. So... 

I watched Drag Race México season 1, Drag Race España season 3, Drag Race España All Stars, Drag Race France season 2, Drag Race Belgique season 2, RuPaul's Drag Race: UK vs the World season 2 (with the most absurd upset), RuPaul's Drag Race season 16 (with the best upset), Drag Race Brasil season 1, Drag Race Germany season 1, RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under season 3, Drag Race France season 3, Canada's Drag Race season 4, RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars season 9 (big no to this winner), Canada's Drag Race: Canada vs. the World season 2 (these vs. the world seasons are the fuckin' worst), Drag Race México, season 2, RuPaul's Drag Race UK season 5, Drag Race Philippines season 3, RuPaul's Drag Race Global All Stars (probably one of the worst seasons ever), RuPaul's Drag Race UK season 6, Drag Race España season 4, Drag Race Thailand season 3, and Drag Race Down Under season 4 (why does this still exist?). Overall I would say this was too much drag race, but it won't happen again. Even if I stay current again, I wont have to watch past seasons to catch up. And anyway, I really wanted to catch up on the past seasons, and now there are only three past seasons I haven't seen (and does The Switch even count?).

OK wait. One more TV thing. I also watched My Secret Agent Husband on the DramaBox app. It is an absolutely ridiculous show that was filmed to be watched in the aspect ratio of an iPhone. It was gay and very stupid, and I had a great time. I can't recommend it, of course, but... I kind of want to watch it again.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? 

No. I don't think so.

25. What was the best book you read? 

Giuseppe di Lampedusa's The Leopard. This is a classic, of course, and it's a classic for a reason. It's wonderful. I also adored Henry James's The Wings of the Dove.

For nonfiction, I really fell in love with Avgi Saketopoulou's Sexuality Beyond Consent: Risk, Race, Traumatophilia, Kareem Khubchandani's Decolonize Drag, La Paperon's A Third University Is Possible, and Tina Post's Deadpan: the Aesthetics of Black Inexpression.

I also loved a whole bunch of plays that were new to me: Emma Wipperman's Joan of Arkansas, Rajiv Joseph's Describe the Night, Jaclyn Backhaus's You on the Moors Now, Sabrina Mahfouz's A History of Water in the Middle East, Harrison David Rivers' The Bandaged Place, and Nazareth Hassan's Untitled. (1-5).

I usually post about what I'm reading on GoodReads.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery? 

I started seriously listening to Ryuichi Sakamoto in 2024—not just his film music. I love his stuff.

27. What was the best piece of theatre you saw? 

I drove down to Tampa in August to see Dan Caffrey's play The Amphibians at Think Tank Theatre. I had a great time at this play. I also really loved our production of Great Comet and I'm very proud of that.

28. What did you want and get? 

Tenure, a publishing agreement for The Violate Man, nudes in my DMs, and so much tinned fish (I've become completely obsessed with tinned fish and I now buy regularly from four different companies). 

29. What did you want and not get?

A crop of limes from my lime trees. I really need to work on my gardening and cultivation this year. I started trying in 2024 but kind of failed. Maybe in 2025!

30. What was your favorite film of this year? 

So far it's Andrea Arnold's Bird.

However, I have around sixty-five movies on my unseen-movies list for 2024. I'll probably see thirty-five of those at least, so my top ten will definitely change.

Right now, though, my favorite films of the year are:

Bird

Challengers

Close Your Eyes

The Seed of the Sacred Fig

A Real Pain

Flow

20,000 Species of Bees

Dune: Part Two

The movies I'm most excited for as of this writing are Babygirl, The Brutalist, Hard Truths, How to Make Millions before Grandma Dies, I'm Still Here, A Traveler's Needs, and Vermiglio

You can follow my movie-watching on Letterboxd. I kind of love Letterboxd. It's fun to see what others are watching and thinking about movies.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? 

I turned 43. It was the usual night for my movie club, so we watched that week's movie—a deeply fucked up Tsui Hark movie called Dangerous Encounters of the First Kind—and then the folks from the club had a cocktail with me at a local bar that's open late. It was low key and nice.

32. What new recipes did you make this year?

I've been making a lot of hummus and other bean dip situations. I have two hummus recipes I make all the time now, one of which involves infused oil with cinnamon and ginger and cilantro and chiles, and the other of which involves fried spiced lamb neck-meat. I also started posting these more frequently as reels on Instagram.

33. What were your cocktail obsessions? 

I'm still drinking a lot of Old Barrels and Manhattans. But I made a lot of Puka Punches this year when my friend Chari was staying with me over the summer. 

34. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? 

Different election results. I cannot believe we have to live through another four years of this. 

35. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2024? 

Shorts, white socks, white sneakers.

Dress shirt, dress pants, tie, boots.

36. What kept you sane?

Working out. Happy hour at Savour, 1903, or Charlie Park. Hanging out with Meredith and Jason. Phone calls with Jason Tate.

37. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Amar Chadha-Patel

38. What political issue stirred you the most?

Ongoing genocide in Palestine. The ongoing refugee crisis in the Mediterranean. The resurgence of fascism in the United States.

39. Whom did you miss?

Justin and Elizabeth and Ashley and Danny and Wahima.

Tate, Matt, Walter and Jeanne, Katie, Jude and Steph, Chris.

Catie (although we sure did FaceTime after Maggie Smith passed so we could cry together).

Yasser, Katie, Jonathan, and Viktor.

Honestly, lots of folks. I have so many people I love spread out all over.

40. Who was the best new person you met?

This is cheating because I met her in 2023, but I started hanging out with Jen Gillette this year and she's just so great. My new colleagues Jasmine and Madeleine are also amazing.

41. Tell us a valuable life-lesson you learned in 2024:

I feel like the thing I'm learning the most about this year is forgiveness. You have to be able to forgive if you want to preserve relationships with people, because people do stupid, terrible, ridiculous things, but people are not perfect. People are careless and foolish and they actually need forgiveness. This is a lesson for a teacher, of course, because it's important that I try to treat students generously and forgive them for their occasional frequent foolishness. But I've been thinking about it more and more in personal relationships too. And the thing is, people don't deserve forgiveness. That's sort of the point. It's a gift: a way to move on from the past and try to put faith in a person's future behavior—and a future together.

42. Share an important quotation from 2024:

In this year's 53rd State Occasional, edited by Lucas Baisch and Emma Horwitz, they asked their contributors to talk about what they're obsessed with. Kate Kremer wrote something that I can't stop thinking about:

"A friend wants me to protect myself from my daughter's incursions. She wants to protect my daughter from my overweening (under-weaning) indulgence. She's afraid I might not give her the proper training-by-example in matters of bodily autonomy. My feelings are complex: I want my daughter to attend to my feelings, but I don't want her to stop attending to her own particular pleasures. Complicity comes from the late Latin complex, "allied", from the Latin complicare, "fold together", and I guess I am obsessed with my own complicity. I'm disturbed by the misalignment between how I feel—which is fine, durably fine—and the violence done each day in my name."

This hit me not only because of what she is thinking about—how our own day-to-day feelings are completely at odds with the ways we are complicit in genocide, torture, incarceration, and other state violence—but also because I have been working on editing something about consent and its limits for the journal, and so I've been thinking so much about autonomy, consent, and the ways we are interconnected with one another and vulnerable and open to one another. The possibilities of our own vulnerability and openness might have something to teach us about complicity... I'm going to keep thinking about this.