Narrative Bio
I’ve been writing and creating across time and space between Maine and Washington for the last two decades. I live on Duwamish and Coast Salish land, and work at Lake Washington Institute of Technology in Kirkland.
Category: Biography
Music of 2021
As has been tradition since 2016, the following is a post documenting the music I’ve listened to in 2021. These are quite literally all of the albums (1,025 in total!) I’ve listened to since 1/1/21. I’ve created three sections: 1) the top albums that resonated with me, 2) the rest of the new listens for 2021, and 3) the albums I revisited after marking them as “top” last year. These are not, of course, only
Questions with Rob McLennan
Today I’m very grateful to ongoing collaborator Rob McLennan, who invited me (back in January) to respond to his question prompts, “12 or 20.” I don’t often share much about my creative process apart from a few close friends, and Rob’s questions allowed me to dive in. You can read the questions (and see a fun image of me from the Olympic Peninsula) here.
Movies and Games of 2020
Consumption and immersion. The pandemic upped the ante on the screen experiences. Add on a new VR kit and there were many new worlds in my life this year. Here are the best. I’ve included the 8s, 9s, and 10s in both category (movies and games), and it does seem like my interests continue to both expand and refine each year.
Music of 2020
I listened to 1,098 albums this year. I know this because I obsessively track all the music I listen to, and I mostly focus on listening to full albums. This is something I’ve been doing for years now, and it’s clear the music train just isn’t going to quit. What I find profound in one year I intentionally listen to a second time the following year. “Profound” is pretty arbitrary, much like a five star
Books of 2020
I read a lot this year. 130 books to be exact. Many of them were amazing. Most were informative and educational. They’ve set me off on many new paths as a reader–arguably more new paths than any other time in my adult life. Could the pandemic be to thank for this surge? Perhaps. I also think there’s been some major shifts in my life recently that have inspired me to go further and understand more
The Start of 2020 in Media
How to begin the year 2020 in my consumption patterns? With a footnote that says, this is how I begin: Games The Outer Worlds, Plague Tale: Innocence, Life is Strange 2, and Call of Duty (this last one is for a very special project that will hopefully send the new decade into a more critically-thinking space). Music Roxy Music, Taylor Swift, Swans, Stereolab, Sonic Youth, Ritchie Valens, Ricky Martin, Prince, Prefab Sprout, Jimi Hendrix, Jim
My Favorite Albums from 2019
I listened to 215 albums in 2019. Incredible, really, now that I’ve been able to track the albums I listen to and find appropriate ways of listening to them. They weren’t all released in 2019, of course, but many were. Below you’ll find my favorite albums that came out last year. This is a new type of post for me, so feels a bit basic, but I have the data, so why not share it?
Games Played in 2019
Though I haven’t been posting the games I’ve been playing over the last few years (the last time was in 2016), I have been keeping track each year (obsessively, even). Here is a list of all the games I’ve played this past year, with some statements on the in-game representation/diversity in each of them (something I’ve started tracking as of 2019). Bolded titles are my highlights. Note: I couldn’t think of a proper way to
2019 in Books
It feels like just yesterday I posted about the 2018 books I read. The year most certainly did not fly by, and perhaps that’s because I was caught up in so much excellent reading over the past 12 months. As per last year, what follows is a list of every title I read, with bolding for my “picks” or personal favorites. Note that some of these books made it into reviews, so they weren’t merely
2018 Books Read List
A list of the 119 books I read this past year. Bolded are my favorites.
On Harm and Abuse: A Reflection on My Past
This post is meant to serve as a personal reflection and a relatively-public expression/acknowledgment of my violence, harm, and the abuse I committed between 2014 and 2016. It is only a partial exploration, one that has had precursors and will continue indefinitely as long as I am still alive and thinking. Please email gregbem @ gmail.com if you are inclined to communicate about this.
Ten Years Ago
“I was in a band.”
“Profile of an Anarcho-Leftist, Poet/Librarian, Gentrifier” by Paul Nelson
Friend and nearly-neighbor Paul Nelson recently interviewed me about all sorts of things, as part of a series for the South Seattle Emerald. I wholeheartedly approve of the piece, which is found here. Additionally, visit this page on Paul’s site for the audio recording of the interview, and other fun additions. Many thanks to Paul for taking the time to think I was a good person to profile!