WOODRUFF's Favorite Things 2023

Plus, a 30% discount on a 2024 check-in session for prior clients.

Dec 28, 2023

You’re reading WOODRUFF. I cover the convergence of pop culture, psychology, and astrology with a bit of the Tarot and dream work tossed into the fray. Join my entourage of subscribers—the party won’t start until you arrive.

JUPITER IS IN VIRGO in my chart. I equate that with manic list-making done large and compulsively. In school, as a kid, I would Xerox copies of my ‘best of’ list—at the end of the year—and hand it out to friends. Weird!

As the year burns out, lists far and wide ignite. In keeping with the firestorm of opinion-pushing, here are some of mine. Please share some of yours in the comments.

Some of my favorite TV series or shows

The Curse: My sense of humor leans hard into the dark, so this was my favorite show despite the leads’ maniacally self-involved (and clueless) delusions. Emma Stone won me over hard in what is the equivalent of a ‘woke’ disaster epic.

Also, Fellow Travelers, Perry Mason, White Lotus, The Other Two, Welcome to Chippendales, Somebody Somewhere, The Last of Us, Heartstopper, The Crown, Yellowjackets (but I lost interest towards the end), The Gilded Age (I balked initially but started jonesing heavily in the new season—it’s been fascinating to watch Meryl Streep’s daughter learn how to act right before your eyes), Beckham, and The Super Models (I know, but it was bad-good!—I felt like I was in my 30s again.)

Some of my favorite movies

I dislike a lot of modern cinema and loathe anything FX- CGI-loaded—(it disorients my brain’s connection to my spine). And I especially dislike cartoon animation stuff. Although I’ll watch anything by Hayao Miyazaki, and I’m eager for his latest, The Boy and the Heron. But anything Disneyesque explodes my pancreas.

So I watch a lot of classic films all the time—my go-to streamer is The Criterion Channel. Netflix and Amazon Prime are deserts lately. I just canceled my Prime subscription yesterday after receiving an email from Bezos alerting me that advertisements (unless I pay more each month) will start running during all Prime offerings. Fuck that.

So, I went on a Hitchcock bender in the summer. And I rewatched The Red Shoes three times, Persona twice, Woody Allen’s Interiors for the 78th time, and The Philadelphia Story, for, shit, I’ve lost count.

Here are some of the late-22 and 2023-released films that I loved: Tar, Emily, the Criminal, Triangle of Sadness, The Killer, Afire, and Of An Age.

Oppenheimer felt like a required high school course—I watched it in 20-minute increments but was never won over. Barbie, the bits I saw were horrifying.

And here are the Most Excruciatingly Awful Films of the Year: Both are homo-oriented: Red, White, and Royal Blue, and the hideously cringe Bros.

Some of my favorite books.

I’ve nothing in me that jibes with most modern fiction. I mean, when books like The Brood (“…a woman finds solace in a charming, albeit hapless, flock of chickens”) top the bestseller list, I know I’ve fallen out of alignment with what the New York publishing world’s intelligentsia deem praiseworthy.

But then, I’m not much of a fiction reader anyway. When I do read fiction, I’m sleuthing out how other writers are doing what they're doing.

In writing my romance novel on Jeffrey Dahmer, I realized I’d been influenced after reading George Saunders’s Lincoln in the Bardo, not by Saunder’s style but by the audacity of his approach. It’s really out of this world. I revealed more about my Dahmer book in my interview with Edward Rothke—the book is due out this spring. I documented the complex process in writing the book here.

And, surprising myself, I found Sally Rooney’s rather muted, streamlined syntax oddly engaging this summer.

But again, like cinema—I gravitate to classics. I reread Yukio Mishima’s Forbidden Colors and once again wondered why Merchant and Ivory never turned it into a film. Speaking of which, rereading E.M. Forster’s Maurice is always a swoon. I deep-dived the book and film here.

And I started Moby Dick for the first time late in the year, and, wow, it really is gay in spots. Sections of Melville’s prose borders on hallucinogenic delirium, and it’s fucking amazing.

I jumped in and out of Lolita and was surprised to find that what used to dazzle me now felt overwrought and exhausting—too many of Nabokov’s attempts to wow the reader.

And I’ve been loving, throughout the year, my friend John Calendo’s serialization of his Movieland novel over on his Substack—a beguiling mix of the occult, old Hollywood, ancient mythology, and Hitchcockian themes.

But more consistently, I returned to non-fiction. Especially my collection of books from James Hillman’s outrageously fantastic Uniform Editions, his Alchemical Psychology being my favorite (during this go-round).

In my post, The Spooky Art, I listed my frequently revisited books for writers who are attempting to write. Books like John Gardner’s The Art of Fiction: The Notes on Craft for Young Writers and Consider This by Chuck Palahniuk.

And, of course, I’m always darting in and out of my go-to astrology books, ten of which I detailed for you here.

Some of my favorite music

Again, I’m often listening to old favorites (you must think I’m writing this from my bed in hospice) while also being omnivorous with what I listen to that’s current. As usual, I covered the waterfront with various genres and became charmed by country music from the 40s, 50s, and 60s—and went kookoo for Buck Owens.

Rather than list specific albums, you can stream my favorites over on my 2023 Spotify playlist. For maximum impact, I suggest setting the stream to ‘shuffle.’

Some of my favorite Substacks and Websites

Tarot scholar extraordinaire Cynthia Giles’ Tarot: An Exploration Project, Matt Cardin’s The Living Dark, Cintra Wilson’s Cintra Wilson Feels Your Pain, J. Starsinger’s Starsinger Astrology (she’s funny and smart), Jessica Murray’s Mother Sky (this is high-grade astrology for people who think for themselves), and my colleagues—for our Rage of Aquarius: The Outsider Astrology Podcast—Andrei Burke and Rachel Capurso’s Aeolian Heart Astrology.

For all things smart and snarky related to all things internet and social media (ugh), tech gadfly Ryan Broderick’s Garbage Day.

Whenever a newsletter update arrives from artist and designer John Feuilleton, I know I’m about to discover something that will blow my mind.

I’m in a recovery group to try and quell my shopping habit with designer Dan Snyder’s Corridor NY, menswear line. Dan’s designs combine surprise and simplicity with comfort and durability. Each piece is sort of magical and talismanic. Writing my astrology column for Dan’s journal each year has been a pleasure. And good news! Dan’s running a 30% sitewide sale as I’m typing this.

And finally, the worst astrology of the year (residing on the interwebs): Anything broadcast by imbecilic influencers on TikTok. (As mentioned in my most popular post on WOODRUFF this year, Bad Astrology is Everywhere.)

Some of my favorite people

For my clients who have previously worked with me, I’m offering a 30% discount (*with a small processing fee) on 2024 check-in sessions.

Although I do have one small requirement, if possible, come to the session with at least one cogent dream under your belt. Preferably recent. We’ll then dovetail that dream imagery into a look at your transits for the new year.