One good thing of 2025

Ah fuck there's an overhead drone shot of the road twisting through the tall pines that leads to my remote vacation home. Probably nothing.

Did you read the best music of 2025 post from the other day?

A friend asked me to send a voicenote for their podcast about what my prediction for 2026 is and this is what I said.

It is going to happen this year. You know what I mean. God’s will. Naturally of course. No need to come knocking on my door. I’m chilling at home and I’ll be chilling at home when it happens. Before I go running out into the streets that is. Shaking the mailman’s hand. Kissing nurses and shit. All of a sudden there’s a drumline and a mariachi band and breakdancers and fuckin… David Guetta is DJing on a rooftop if David Guetta is still alive. Maybe we’ll even get to watch it live on TV. The first flicker that something is really wrong. Slowing it down and rewinding it after like when Lisa broke Ralph’s heart. The realization in his eyes. The first single moment of self awareness in 80 years. Like a flailing panicked deer you’ve crashed your car into on the side of a snowy mountain pass. The eyes fluttering back and forth. Surely this can’t have been it. Perhaps a brief bargaining with God. God saying he’s going to pass on the deal. I do not agree with your terms sir. It’s gonna be like the Will Smith Summertime video out there. Everywhere. We’re all going to get fired from our jobs for posting. 100% unemployment. One good day.

Do me a favor and read the book will ya? It's not about the money I just need to sell enough that they keep let me making the damn things. Which is pretty much the only thing I enjoy doing.

Also I am petrified of dying without leaving any sort of impact on the world.

Today Zack Budryk is back writing about the new Knives Out movie Wake Up Dead Man and how it feels becoming more religious while moving even further to the left as he gets older. He writes:

An age like this, when the world can feel more chaotic, incoherent and unresponsive to any moral order, seems like a time to either start believing more strongly or to recede into nihilism. Staying put doesn’t feel like an option. This may be why I’m significantly more religious than I was growing up, which probably sounds at odds with the fact that I’m also far to the left of where I was back then. But ultimately, I’ve found the two are part of the same trajectory, despair with the cruelties of empire and capitalism, and a conviction, strong and growing stronger, that either spiritual or secular redemption is possible.

Budryk has been on a heater lately. He recently wrote for Hell World about what it means to be a man, the impulse to take action during times like these, vigilante justice, One Battle After Another, and being someone that can be trusted.

What Does A Man Do?

Welcome to Hell WorldLuke O’Neil

And also about what it was like being diagnosed with autism in the brief period where things seemed to be getting better culturally, and how much worse Robert Kennedy and the Trump administration making it for people like him going forward.

I will not give up that which I have tasted

Promotion of the myth

Welcome to Hell WorldLuke O’Neil

It’s easy to feel completely disheartened by the words and actions of the Kennedy regime. This was never a society that fully affirmed our dignity and self-determination even at its high point, but as is often the case with social progress, it felt, albeit briefly, like there was nowhere to go but up back when we were in the middle of it. The institutional and spiritual damage Kennedy has done will echo beyond his time in office. A kid who is now where I was at the time of my diagnosis, lost and confused and struggling for an identity to guide them through all of that, will live out their life in the shadow of Kennedy’s hateful rhetoric and policies regardless of what happens next. It’s a sin to inflict that on someone now and it feels like a separate sin to allow it to continue to happen to a future generation. It is the worst kind of failure and disgrace to steal, from people like myself, a world where we can find meaning and love and participation in a human community after we were given the chance to comfortably grasp it. 

You'll need to be a paid subscriber to read Budryk's piece in full here or down below. Thanks for your support.

We’ve all got works to do

Today Zack Budryk is back writing about the new Knives Out movie Wake Up Dead Man and how it feels becoming more religious and moving even further to the left as he gets older. He writes: An age like this, when the world can feel more chaotic, incoherent and unresponsive

Welcome to Hell WorldLuke O’Neil

But wait there's a lot more for everyone else. A while back I asked readers to write in with an example of One Good Thing that happened this year. Could be personal, could be a movie or book, could be something political. I've got a bunch of great responses to share.

First some posts to read!

Yet another reason why "A.I." fucking sucks my ass hole.

Coming across anything fun online now comes with a necessary pause for a call up to the booth for review. Like waiting to find out if it was a catch or not in the NFL. Inspecting the movement of the blades of grass. We are robbed of spontaneous delight.

I appreciated Chomsky's work to be clear I just had this post in my brain and had to purge it.

Oh man this is so fun and funny.

It's like a little boy playing but the little boy is God. There's a bus and a tow truck and a police car and another bus and a construction man and a plow and a...

They're saying there's too much shit in this one. They're saying it's overstuffed.

One Good Thing of 2025

JC:
As a fan and reader, I have One Good Thing to share re: politics and One Good Thing re: art (so Two Good Things I suppose)

1. Ordinary private citizens making hell for ICE in various cities across the country (LA, San Diego, Chicago, now Minneapolis) who are inspirational heroes and have far more cojones than any public official or class elite.

2. The reconstruction of Ruth Asawa’s studio/living room as the final gallery of her retrospective at San Francisco MOMA. Just a perfect presentation of her monumental work.

LK:

One Good Thing: After four years of increasingly lengthy daily peritoneal dialysis, my husband got a kidney transplant. It’s amazing. You don’t know how much your kidneys do until they quit on you. (Glomerular disease sucks.)

KK:

I did 80 hours of volunteer work in my community this year. I always meant to do more of it like we all tell ourselves we should, but I had much more time on my hands after my divorce back in January. Lucky me!

Regardless of who I volunteered with— food banks, Special Olympics, environmental groups, etc.— everyone was genuinely thankful for the help, and they’re all unsurprisingly run by the kindest people you’ll meet. You’re not just helping underprivileged people in your community, but you’re helping kind people doing kind things.

And as a bonus, you simply can’t spend time with people in such unfortunate situations and not leave with a heightened sense of empathy, which then inevitably extends to the people in your personal life.

So yeah, go out and volunteer a little. It was exactly what I needed during a really difficult year, and I know it’ll do the same for you.

CC:

Hello sir! I'm the guy from New York who wore an Avail shirt to the reading and was too much of a cool guy to tell you how much your work has meant to me over the last year or two in particular. Every time I feel like I'm screaming into the void about whatever horrible thing that happened, there's a Hell World to let me know I'm not the only one this pissed, this horrified. So, seriously, thank you. Just know that Hell World really is one of the small good things to come from this year, even if it would go against all of the Catholicism deep inside you (don't worry, I'm in that boat too) to acknowledge that. 

But, in the non-ass kissing department, for me, as dumb as it is, one good thing was Tottenham winning the Europa League. I was able to lose myself in the tournament as everything fell apart in the world. I was at a bar packed with Spurs supporters and when the whistle blew the place exploded, tears were shed. It was a beautiful thing to witness alongside a community that did a lot to help me keep things together. Sports are very silly in the grand scheme of things, but the way they can bring people together always astonishes me. And as a Red Sox fan, it brought back all the '04 feelings at a time I desperately needed them. Any time I think about it, I smile. And having a little something I can recall on demand from my brain that makes me smile is a very powerful tool these days

V:

The green sea turtle is no longer considered endangered. According to the IUCN, the global population of the green sea turtle has increased by 28% since 1978, causing them to be moved from “endangered” to “species of least concern” on the conservation index. This is thanks to decades of conservation efforts and the hard work of many people who still continue to keep turtles safe today. 

CW:

The great Oasis revival of 2025 was, at least for me, an antidote to the daily horror and negativity of living in America. Seeing them live and hearing Noel sing "we need each other, we believe in one another" would have been great any time, but it put me in a hopeful place when little else did.

JR: 

One Good Thing: Tapers' delight

At Ryley Walker's January 2025 show at the Empty Bottle, I noticed someone standing exceptionally still, even by the deferential standard of fans of improvised music, and brandishing a furry black orb that looked like a half-finished Muppet. I chatted with prolific taper Richard Hayes between acts, and I was thrilled to see his recording up on Walker's bandcamp page just a few days later, crystal clear thanks to his semi-pro microphone. I had assumed that the practice of taping - recording an entire show from the audience - was confined to the cultish fans of jam bands, a vestigial tail from the Dead's heyday, but concert tapes and bootlegs became a huge part of my music listening this year.

I made a pilgrimage to Indiana to see Bob Dylan and his band in a gorgeous South Bend theatre and was able to relive the sturm and drang thanks to a tape found on a pointedly web 1.0 fansite. I couldn't afford to see buzz band Geese when they came to town for two nights, but each night of their fall Getting Killed tour was taped for posterity. You can see a full Wednesday show recorded on the kind of archaic digital video camera a protagonist in a Wednesday song might find in a thrift shop. You can be front row to a Pixel Grip or YHWH Nailgun performance. 

I'm lucky to live in a city with an incredible live music scene, so the recordings aren't substitutes for going to shows but rather for all the other short-form hot-take crap jockeying for my attention. Concert recordings are a reminder of the collaborative nature of music, a testament to what people can create by listening to each other, coughs, crackles, missed notes and all. "AI" can generate audio but it sure can't put on a show. I lack the discipline to sacrifice my own dancing and singing along for the sake of future listeners (lapsed Catholic), so I salute all you tapers out there for your service.

JK:

One Good Thing from 2025 for me was getting to know the niece I never knew I had. 

When my younger brother died in 2019 (fuck fentanyl!) we had not been close in a long time. This year I got a subscription to Ancestry dot com when they were doing a sale so I could keep pulling at some very old threads. When I entered my brother’s info I saw other profiles that had him in their family trees. There were several different women with kids I knew about (he got around while he was here) and then one woman with a daughter I had never heard of. 

I got in touch with this woman and it turned out she and my brother had only been together a brief time before he ended up marrying a different woman who was even more of a mess than he was. They had one girl, MG, who’s 15 now. He met up with MG very briefly a month or two before he died and that was all the contact with my family that she has had all this time.

I learned all this while I was across the country visiting my dad. I asked MG’s mom if she wanted to meet up while I was in the area but she was too anxious about it on short notice. I told her that was no problem, we’d take it at her speed. The day before I flew back west she started texting me and barely a day goes by now that we aren’t in touch.  

She’s funny and smart and she loves basketball and music and photography just like I did at that age. I feel fortunate that she wants me to be part of her life and it’s probably the one thing about 2025 I will hold onto long term. 

BK:

Been a reader/follower for a few years, always appreciate your insights and your music taste.  For me, the One Good Thing this year was our school district passed a bond measure to support public schools in Des Moines, IA. Doesn’t sound too exciting or maybe even all that good but two months before the vote, our former superintendent was arrested by ICE for being in the country illegally. It also turned out he hadn’t finished his dissertation/doctorate and had apparently been untruthful about his immigration status with multiple school districts. And again, maybe this isn’t so crazy or whatever but he was the first black person to lead our public schools in Des Moines. In a district with 22% being English Language Learners (ELLs), 76% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch, and a large range of student backgrounds (26% Hispanic/Latino; 20% African-American; 38% white in a state that is 89% white, 5% African-American, 8% Hispanic/Latino). This was a big deal - the feeling for the first week for a lot of students was “If they can get the superintendent, what about me?” He was an active supertintendent, visiting schools and evens often.  So for him to just disappear was unnerving and scary for folks.  

And it was happening in the middle of the campaign for a bond measure for public schools.  And I don’t need to tell anyone how much people love to hate on public schools. Folks said this would fail, no one trusts the district, mismanaged, blah blah blah. But the folks who lead the bond measure and ran the campaign for its approval deserve all the praise and accolades. They didn’t get sad and pout, they got out the door and got to work. Our family helped call folks and write postcards asking for their support. They handed out yard signs and did a great job of communicating what the measure would mean and how it would be impactful. It was pretty awe-inspiring to see. And it passed. It needed 60% of the vote and it got nearly 74%. I think I cried the morning after. 

My kids will benefit from this, which is great. And their friends at school will benefit, again, also great. And probably most importantly, the kids we don’t even know yet will benefit down the road and I just think that’s something to be proud of. 

The elections in Iowa the last few cycles have been awful (unless you like pig shit, ethanol, and hating on trans kids) so to have a winning election in support of our kids was my One Good Thing.  

AD:

One good thing from 2025 is I met someone after a years-long drought and it's the first time it's been a relationship with equal feelings on both sides. Who knows if it'll last, but it's nice to have someone, here at (what feels like) the end of all things.

I also went to Ireland for the first time this year, and it was lovely. Met some second cousins and they were both kind and pro-Palestine.

RF:

One good thing from 2025: Petey USA “The Yips.”

We have to get over the fact that even really talented authentic people use TikTok and YouTube to help them extend their reach and “subsidize” their art. Case in point, Petey USA, who has been making mellower-Tim Robinson-esque short form video comedy sketches since Covid, but is also an incredibly talented songwriter and performer. The title track of his 2025 LP is a “hell yeah” blend of LCD Soundsystem, The Hold Steady, Talking Heads and Warren Zevon with whatever magic is coming from this new indie movement that Gen Z is leading.

U:

Responding to your prompt since it feels cathartic to actually put pen to paper regarding something enjoyable: I got really into Neil Young during the depths of Covid, and my best bud and I made a pact to see him together the next time he came to our home town of Chicago. He was supposed to play in 2023 but cancelled last minute and then rescheduled for August 2024. It was at an outdoor venue right on the lake on just a perfect late summer night. The show fucking ripped of course and it was just this perfect culmination of anticipation, place, people, and music.

CP:

A good thing that happened this year: Supernova Ska Festival is this incredibly DIY festival in Virginia. They try to bring in artists from the entire 60-75 year history of the genre, from ancient Jamaican guys who worked with Bob Marley through to '90s bands like Less Than Jake and current acts like The Doomstompers. 

The bands mostly run their own merch tables and are hanging out and being super accessible. The same people come every year to hang out. It’s like summer camp for a weekend. I got to check a couple of bands off my “must see” list and discovered some new ones to check out. 

The organizers got turbo-fucked by changes to the visa process which meant that like a third of the acts that were advertised couldn’t get approved in time, which is par for the course in this shitty, hateful, moment, but other bands stepped up and filled in and the show went on and a good time was had by all. 

I don’t give a fuck what people say about ska being lame or corny or whatever - SKA NOW MORE THAN EVER. 

JC:

A bit on the nose, but The One Good Thing from 2025 for me was discovering Senseless Optimism. Incredible creativity and talent. Plus she's from Lowell, MA, so you know she's good people.

It was a much-needed bookend in the wake of losing a man who was, by all accounts, the love of the second half of my life. I wish I were a better writer so I could honor him properly. Instead, I continue to grieve through music. What cannot be said will get wept, or, I guess, turned into a Spotify playlist. 

You do excellent work and I'm grateful for you, Luke. I hope 2026 sucks way less.

CT:

Luke, one good thing about 2025 is another HBO Max show: Haha, You Clowns. I didn’t see the YouTube shorts it was based on but it’s the best thing I’ve seen this year. The animation is (I’m guessing) intentionally off putting, with every character given angles that we’d delete immediately. Babies look like disgusting prunes and even ostensibly good looking people are hideous H. Bosch type creatures. But then you watch each episode where the trio of meathead brothers get into incredibly low stakes capers (losing a jacket, learning how to hold a baby, etc.). The subversive part about it is that the brothers (Preston, Tristan, Duncan - good luck remembering which is which as they look and sound identical other than hair color) are actually incredibly sweet, good natured, sophisticated, and intelligent despite being absolute meat heads. 

And all of that is eclipsed how much they sincerely love their dad, a recent widower, and each other, the core of each episode/the entire show. The writing isn’t set up punchline yet I laugh my ass off every episode because of the vocal performance from creator Joe Cappa who does all the Campbell boys voices. Simultaneously off putting yet incredibly, legitimately heartwarming it’s been my favorite show of the year. Take care buddy merry Christmas, etc. 

B:

The people on the ground telling ICE to go fuck themselves are Good

EN:

My favorite movie from 2025 was Freaky Tales, runner up Heart Eyes. Mystical coolness Pulp Fiction worship with a bunch of dead fascists, and a horror romcom that was both a great horror movie and a great romcom. 

SS:

Dunno if I'll be disqualified for sharing more than one good thing, but amidst all the shit I have had a good amount of good:

I went to several fun concerts, seeing Mannequin Pussy in the city I live in, where we rarely get any cool music, was my favorite of them. Having a cop come in and break up the tamest pit I've ever been in was a nice little cosmic aside that this was indeed a fluke, sorry for allowing any cool music in this city, it won't happen again. Then the cop left and we got it going again.

Got to visit my friend on the west coast for the first time. Stood in the ocean for the first time during that trip. Saw Blues Brothers on the big screen. Appreciated it much more than when I saw it back in high school. Saw a lot of good movies this year. Things released this year and not. Among them, Sinners, Life of Chuck, Dinner in America, and Angel's Egg. Started work on a creative project that I am actually continuing to work on beyond the initial exciting part.

BR:

My daughter went to college and acclimated quickly and is happy there. She referred to it as "home" yesterday and that made me happy.

OD:

I drove over 1,000 miles to see my best friend get married to a woman who loves him for everything that makes him the man he is, shares in those things, and wants to spend the rest of her life with him. He feels the same about her, and I am thrilled this has happened for them.

DD:

Summer 2025 was so mild I didn't need to lug my AC unit up three flights of stairs to wrestle it into the only window that accommodates it. Cool nights and deft window-and-fan management beat the few mid-90s stretches without breaking a literal sweat. Winds kept wildfire smoke away, which would have otherwise required the AC even as the smoke's grainy shroud imposed an eerie, unbreathable cool. 

Also, I did not have another stroke. I did enjoy ice cream. 

PR:

My One Good Thing for 2025 is Jesse Welles.

Runner-up is this Wet Leg performance on KEXP

RM:

Late last year, I thought I spotted an old friend, who I had a bad falling out with seven years ago. There was a guy who looked just like him at this store I visit regularly. After a week of crying and writing an apology and listening to The National, I saw the lookalike at the store again and realized it was not my friend.

I decided to reach out to the friend anyways after like three months of wondering if it was a weird thing to do.

And now we are friends again.

CA:

A good thing of 2025: I did not see it coming at all, but a bunch of yahoos in Chicago got together to throw an unsanctioned bike race/party/shindig in the greatest park in the city on an old slag heap complete with prog rock, house music, death metal, and lots of candy, to let everyone know that anyone is welcome to ride their bikes in circles around in the grass, despite the fact the USA Cycling federation thinks queer and trans folks should fuck off. It was actually pretty great and it turns out my heart grew back four sizes that day.

We've all got works to do

by Zack Budryk

Religious faith is something I think about far more often than I write about. Part of this is because I know there are people who will immediately tune out, often for understandable reasons. Notwithstanding personal belief, or lack thereof, right-wing Christianity of all denominations has been a malign force in American politics going back decades.

Its impact abroad has had even deadlier consequences, with America enabling decades of Israeli atrocities, to name one example among many, based not only on our cynical interests in the region but also on American evangelicals’ conviction that our allyship is vital to bring around the End of Days. This year, that culminated in the appointment of affable millenarian lunatic Mike Huckabee as our ambassador to Jerusalem. 

For a lot of leftist Christians like myself, our first reaction is often to disclaim all of this ugliness. We emphasize what Christ taught about things like forgiveness, charity, love, and community with those the world at large despises, and denounce people like the above as pretender Christians. (My grandfather claimed to have coined the maxim “The Christian right is neither,” but I’m pretty sure he didn’t.)