The Last Friday Link Roundup of 2024...

Including Cliff Chenfeld's "Oldster Top 10" (except there are 12!) selected from readers' favorite songs of 2024. PLUS a special playlist with all 47 reader song recommendations.

I don’t like winter, but I do miss walking through Central Park on a snowy night. pawel.gaul/Getty Images

I tend to read, watch, and listen to a lot of Oldster-adjacent content. Every other Friday (or so!) I’ll pass some of it along to you in a link roundup like this one.

While I have you…The advertiser-funded and venture-capital-funded approaches to media have failed and led to the demise of most legacy outlets. Fortunately, the reader-supported approach is working. Support with your dollars the publications you’d like to see survive. Your paid subscriptions help me to keep publishing Oldster Magazine, and to pay contributors. They are greatly appreciated! And between now and 12/31/24, you can save 20% forever. Thank you!

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• “The Lives They Lived” - The New York Times Magazine’s annual excellent and poignant feature on notables who passed away in the past year:

nytmag

A post shared by @nytmag

• “At 87, Jane Fonda Is Getting Back Into the Fitness Game” - Claire Valentine at W Magazine. Happy 87th birthday to Jane Fonda!

• And happy birthday to actor/musician/artist John Lurie, who turned 72 earlier this month. Here’s a portrait of him by the late Jean-Michel Basquiat, shared on Instagram by music historian and Walk on the Wild Side NYC Tour Guide Jesse Rifkin.

  walkonthewildsidenyc

  

  A post shared by @walkonthewildsidenyc

• “Baryshnikov arrived at a very specific time — between the period when people like Leonard Bernstein or Maria Callas could be household names and novelists were regular guests on the country’s biggest talk shows and the era when the nation became obsessed with very new kinds of celebrity.” - I really enjoyed this profile of 76-year-old dancer/actor Mikhail Baryshnikov, by my friend

  Jason Diamond
  in The New York Times Magazine.
  nytmag

  

  A post shared by @nytmag

• We binged—and loved—the first eight episodes of CBS/Paramount+’s new Matlock reboot with Kathy Bates. She plays a 75-year-old lawyer who uses her “invisibility” as a “harmless old lady” to her clients’ advantage. The last two episodes don’t drop until late January and early February, and we can’t wait.

• The Kathy Bates Matlock reboot reminds me of this essay by novelist Deanna Raybourn, published in Oldster in September, 2022:

  When Invisibility is the Perfect Cloak

• “I’m a woman in my 40s. Why do I feel terrible every time I have a drink?” - this piece by Deborah Netburn in The Los Angeles Times really resonated, and reminded me of this open thread I posted here two years ago—and there still has been no research on the effects of aging and menopause on alcohol tolerance:

  How Dry I Am...

• Did you read this week’s essay, by

  Ellen Goldberg
  about making a Bûche de Nöel for her (Jewish) mother? Well, this week Ellen made it, and her mom loved it. Here’s a photo of Goldberg, her smiling mom, and her mom’s aides:

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🚨And now it’s time to put some new music into old ears—this time with your help. 👂

Here’s the end-of-year Oldster Top 10 12 by Modern Sounds radio host Cliff Chenfeld, which he curated from your recommendations in the comments on this post from November 29th.

Check out Cliff Chenfeld’s show on WLIW/All Arts

It’s been a wonderful year for new music and the Oldster community has weighed in on their favorite songs of the year. Based on your submissions and with the help of Oldster contributor

Cliff Chenfeld

, we have compiled the Oldster Top 12 songs of the year. The list includes the artist, the song, and in parentheses, the name of the Oldster subscriber who recommended the song. You can find these songs at Chenfeld’s Modern Sounds playlist on Spotify along with another 150 of his favorite songs of the year. Enjoy!

1. Waxahatchee – Right Back To It – (Ben Wood)

2. MJ Lenderman – She’s Leaving You – (Equilibrist)

3. Mavis Staples – Worthy – (Valerie Cassity)

4. Marcus King – Delilah – (Long Live The ABB)

5. Iron and Wine/Fiona Apple – All in Good Time – (Tracy Owens)

6. Cassandra Jenkins – Aurora, IL – (Trust Dust)

7. Sturgill Simpson – Jupiter's Faerie – (BBM)

8. The Moss – The Place That Makes Me Happy – (Jco)

9. Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds – Frogs – (Ginger Clark)

10. Ruthie Foster – Mileage – (Christine Attoun)

11. Maggie Rogers – In The Living Room – (Christine Fitts)

12. Samantha Crain – Riding Out The Storm – (Becky Karush)

And here‘s a special playlist of all 47 reader song recommendations (including a favorite of mine that I slipped in there):

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That’s all I’ve got for now. More next week! And I’ve got new installments of “On the Path to 60” and “Ask the East Village Yenta” in the works. Stay tuned…

Thanks as always for reading, for commenting thoughtfully, and for all your support. 🙏 💝 Wishing a happy holiday time to all of you!

-Sari