Now Playing: January 2025

Our January 2025 edition of Now Playing features music that changes the way we think and write, shows to sink into, and great winter reads, all from our contributors!

Sasha Brown

I've been listening to Daniel Bachman's apocalyptic banjo drone music while I write. It was the soundtrack to Catching Babies. The album is perfect to write to: instrumental, spooky, uncomfortable. Bachman made some of the instruments on it himself. When he's not doing whatever this is, he tracks down old folk musicians and records them, which is a beautiful thing to do with one's time.

Zoe Flavin

I recently watched Babygirl and loved it. It felt very connected to the story I have in Split Lip this month, as it explores healing wounds in the sexual realm. I’ve been watching a lot of interviews with the filmmaker, Halina Reijn. She’s hilarious and I love the way she talks about her work. I’ve also been listening to Rebecca by Daphne Maurier on audiobook. I got the recommendation from the author Alyssa Songsiridej when I interviewed her for an upcoming issue of the Washington Square Review. She said the book influenced the way she writes about desire, which was an interesting framing going into the book. The production of it—the accents, the music— are all amazing. It’s perfect for forcing yourself out on a winter walk.

Daisuke Takakura

At the end of 2024, I happened to watch a documentary on TV late at night, ""Last Days: Ryuichi Sakamoto's Final Days" Following that, invited by a friend, I attended Ryuichi Sakamoto's exhibition, "Seeing Sound, Hearing Time" (running until the end of March 2025), currently held at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art The exhibition featured not only sound but also numerous video installations, leading me to ponder the similarities between sound and light. The exhibition culminated in an installation featuring a holographic projection of Ryuichi Sakamoto playing the piano. After watching the documentary and then experiencing the exhibition, I intuitively felt how Sakamoto's waves of music continue to reach us unchanged, even after his physical form is gone. It filled me with a sense of happiness.This scene was a perfect embodiment of light conveying sound, or in other words, seeing sound.

Jill Kitchen

I recently finished watching the second season of Bad Sisters and might have to rewatch it all again. I was hooked by the writing, the brilliant acting, the music, the humor, the gorgeous Irish landscape, the surprising unpredictability, as well as the deep connection (and honest conflict) between the sisters and how they continue to protect each other.

I have been reading Good Dress by Brittany Rogers and have fallen hard for the poems, “Throwback Night, Midway Skating Rink” and “The Year They Left Everyone to Die.”

I have always loved Nina Simone, and for some reason every winter lately, I find myself listening to her song, “Who Knows Where the Time Goes”.