As I reflected in last year’s roundup,

like a suburban Sisyphus doing and undoing a jigsaw, having gone to great lengths to mix up the daily sequence of my diverse topics in a stimulating fashion, it’s that time of year when I try and reassemble them into some kind of thematic order.

In order for this exercise to be worthwhile, you’ll have to click on the links! Ideally, spread the word by reposting on one of those “Social Media” Thingies They Have Nowadays… Even if you only read a dozen of these posts, then my labours will not have been in vain!

I’m going to adopt Stella Gibbons’ drôle device in Cold Comfort Farm, drawing attention with *** to passages (mostly posts, in this case—indeed, the book’s protagonist is Flora Poste) Not To Be Missed. And this list isn’t even exhaustive—the committed masochist can consult the monthly archive in the sidebar, scrolling waaay down.

I’ll begin with Nicolas Robertson, who alas joined the Heavenly Choir in November (see my tribute). His extraordinary anagram tales (introduced and listed here***), a kind of fantasy Esperanto fiction, are among the highlights of this blog, and in further tribute to his brilliant mind I have recently added two more:

• Alceste***
• Salzburg***

So here are listings under some main themes (many, of course, belong under several themes, which is the point of giving them categories and tags, listed in the sidebar):

China (culture and ritual, Maoism and politics):

• China’s hidden century***
• Sparks***—Ian Johnson on China’s underground historians
• Gansu: connecting social trauma and expressive culture***
• Gansu: a sequel
• Bards of Henan (sequel to Spirit mediums in Henan)
• The Li family Daoists in Germany (roundup of posts on the Li family here)
• Some precious Chinese sources
• China: human rights, and soundscape
• Xu Tong: subaltern lives***
• Daoist ritual studies: a new tribute to John Lagerwey
• Water and ritual
• Satirising Chinese war movies through divine intervention
• Rock it, Mom
• So long, my son
• Rooney and Ferrante in China
• “China’s first orchestra”

• Another Tang poem
• A Tang couplet
• The acme of Daoist kitsch
• Song of suffering
• Another great Chinese stammerer
• Lives of Chinese women
• Vermeer’s hat—not just China, but global!

East Asia, other:

• Shamans in the two Koreas (one of my most widely-read posts—mystifyingly, since it’s largely a matter of speculation)
• Zen and haiku: R.H. Blyth (roundup of posts on Japanese culture here)

This year’s additions to my education in Tibetan and Uyghur cultures:

• Paths for the reluctant guru
• The complicity of heritage
• “Strange culture”: whose heritage?

Turkey and West/Central Asia (see roundup):

• Sawdust in Tophane***
• Kuzguncuk 1955
• Arabesk: Dilber Ay
• Anatolia: a rural woman singer
• New sounds from Anatolia
• Anatolian bards rock
• Love, Deutschmarks, and death***
• Holiday!
• Snacking with a rapper in Istanbul
• Futbol in Turkey, then and now
• Aleppo: music and trauma
• Iran: Women, Life, Freedom in film

Modern Europe:

• Siblings: life in the GDR
• Nadine Hwang
• Resisting fakelore***
• The Black Wave
• Ukraine: Holocaust Ground Zero (Ukraine series here)

Ethnomusicology and world music:

• Is Western Art Music superior?***
• The art of sarangi
• The honky-tonk nun
• Healing with violin in the heel of Italy
• More muzak: ice-cream vans and garbage trucks
• The politics of ethno-trad
• Sentimentality in music
• New Orleans brass bands
• Waterson–Carthy, and Shirley Colins
• Flamenco at Jamboree! (part of flamenco series***)
• Kurdish culture in London

Jazz (see roundup***):

• Crazy*** (Billie Holiday!)
• Herbie Hancock
• In memory of Wayne Shorter
• Bill Evans
• Ray Charles
• Another sax legend (David Murray)
• Gilad Atzmon
• The lost women of British jazz
• Summertime (Billie, Miles, Mahalia Jackson, Andrea Motis)
• LJF: a tribute to Tomasz Stańko

Pop:

• Aretha
• A whiter shade of pale
• Walk on by
• Mr Sandman*** (just as entrancing as Dream a little dream***!)
• Tomorrow
• Black rainbows (Corinne Bailey Rae)

Western Art Music:

• Debussy: flute, viola, and harp***
• Grimaud graces London again!***—including Beethoven’s Op.109 sonata!
• Bach at the Proms!
• Holding Don Giovanni accountable
• Mahler 9 at the Proms!!!*** (Mahler roundup here***)
• Two fine concerts directed by Barbara Hannigan:

• • Mahler and Messiaen!!!
  • Bach, Haydn, Berg, Vivier

• Messiaen Nativité live!
• Making music again
• Maestros behaving badly

Sport (see roundup):

• How to waste time
• Wimbledon: protest and suffragism
• The beauty of frisbee
• Rugby in Paris!

Film/TV:

• Sara Gómez films the revolution
• Chloé Zhao
• Neither wolf nor dog
• It’s what it is
• Endeavour: recreation
• The big sleep
• Bosch
• Gathering sheep in the Lake District

Arising from the transformation of my home:

• Decluttering
• Upper Lending
• A streamlined Chinese studio

Other:

• Black and white*** (still seeking people who actually know about this topic—do spread the word!)
• A Hollywood roundtable
• The Full English
• Man in hat sits on chair
• You couldn’t make it up (see also Roundup: Tory iniquity)
• Some rare recordings (WAM and jazz)
• My impertinent editor
• The art of emoji
• Splåtergørd

For roundups of previous years’ musings, see 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022. And here’s a roundup of roundups! The homepage is always useful for navigation.

And it’s always worth reminding you to watch my portrait film***
on the Li family Daoists, raison-d-être of this whole blog!