My Best of 2015

Top ten lists abound this time of year, and I have taken to recounting my favorite things, in no particular order and with no number cap. Herein I will tell you about my favorite things of 2015. In the case of entertainment/media, they may be things that debuted in 2015 or things I simply discovered in 2015. Without further ado, this year I start with the brand new…

Better Call Saul

My Best of 2013

I used to love doing top ten movie lists at the end of the year, but I would be lucky to cobble together a list of ten films I even tolerated over the past three years. So last year I decided just to call out my favorite things of the year, whether they were products of the year or not. That was fun so I’m doing it again. Just think of me like Oprah, except substantially less famous and influential.

Breaking Bad, The Final 8 Episodes

Oh yeah, you knew this would be first up. This was a stellar ending to a stellar show. The sixth of the final eight episodes, entitled “Ozymandias” was the best hour of television, ever. SPOILER ALERT – This episode, which sees the murder of Hank by Neo-Nazis, is such an incredibly painful gut punch. We the audience know that even though Hank and Walt are on opposite sides of the law, Walt has been firm in his stance that Hank is family, and family is off-limits to baddies. However, by the beginning of this episode, everyone assumes he’s gonna die, because at the end of the last episode, he’s severely outgunned by the Neo-Nazis. But Walt pleads for his life, offers the thugs 80 million dollars to spare his brother-in-law. Hope! And then – gut punch. And the episode only gets better from there as Walt’s Empire, like that of Ozymandias, crumbles around him. Television doesn’t get any better than this. It can’t. It doesn’t have to. Oh how empty 2014 will be without you, Breaking Bad!

Mad Men Season 6

Mad Men is always good, always. From Peggy stabbing boyfriend Abe, to Grandma Ida’s late night robbery of Don’s apartment while his kids are there alone, to Sally catching Don in a compromising position, there was plenty of outstanding writing this year. There were, alas, a few frustrations when it seemed like Don’s story lines were being rehashed, but it turned out to be a slow-play setup for some major growth on our main character’s part. I for one am anticipating greatness out of the final season.

The Wire 

I started watching The Wire in October in an attempt to fill the void left by Breaking Bad. It’s an HBO show that began in 2003, and is often mentioned in the same breath as Breaking Bad as the best show ever. I have to say it’s good but it’s no Breaking Bad. It’s like comparing apples and oranges. Yes, they’re both fruit, or in this case shows about drugs, but the similarities end there. If I were still in school, I’d find a way to turn the similarities and differences between these two shows into a term paper. (And I’d get an A on it too.) I am currently two episodes in to season 4 (there are 6 seasons total) and I can already tell this is the best season (yet.) Season 4 seems to be a sweet spot in long-running series. You’re in deep enough to really care about what’s going on, and the writers haven’t run out of ideas yet.

The Public Library

This was the year I reconnected with my local library, taking Sonja to as many story times as I could swing. She absolutely loved dancing to the music and playing with – or at least in the vicinity of -the other children. I also utilized the e-book loans for the first time (awesomeness), and it is from said local library that I have been borrowing the aforementioned The Wire. Shaun and I gave up on the disc portion of Netflix a while back because any time I would receive a movie from my ever-dwindling list , I’d sit on it for weeks before finally “forcing” myself to watch. I could be using Netflix to watch The Wire, but then I’d have to wait three days between every stinkin’ disc. With the library, I get all episodes at once and three weeks to watch them, and that’s more than enough time to binge out and put the next season on hold. This wouldn’t work quite as well with a current, in-demand show, but my parents have watched all of “Homeland” this way. They just have to wait for months behind hundreds of others who have it on hold. 

Where’d You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple

I am shocked I got less reading done this year than last year, but at least I made time for this gem from Seattle-based Maria Semple, a former Arrested Development writer. Like most fiction I wind up reading, this is supposedly being made into a movie. I hope they don’t screw it up. I certainly hope they don’t move the central location from Seattle. Semple’s description of the abundant and moronic five-way intersections alone had me tearing up with laughter.

The Great Gatsby (book and 2013 movie)

The Great Gatsby has been my favorite book since I read it as a senior in high school, and I try to re-read it every few years. This year I reread it in preparation for the 2013 movie adaptation starring Tobey Maguire, Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan. I liked the movie and I know I’m somewhat alone in this feeling, but I’m probably a bigger fan than those others so therefore I am right. Actually, I think like Gatsby himself, most people just wanted too much. If you want the book, read the book, but if you want to see a good film that can stand on its own merits, watch this.

Home by Jack Johnson
Changing All Those Changes by Madeleine Peyroux
New by Paul McCartney
Please Don’t Scream by Nataly Dawn

I group these three songs together in the new music category. I don’t care much for new  music, so this is a pretty good list for a single year for me.

Tea and the Mr. Coffee Iced Tea Maker

Tea wasn’t new to me in 2013 but it was definitely a year for perfecting the art of Iced Tea. The Mr. Tea maker, as I like to call it, helped a lot, by making it easier to make a whole pitcher (8 cups) of tea at once. Plus I blended jasmine green and oolong for my favorite combination yet, and found that Cost Plus World Market is an excellent place to buy tea.

Here’s to good tea, good entertainment and good stuff in 2014. Happy New Year!

My 2013 Year-in-Review

I take time out of my sometimes-busy, sometimes-not-so-busy schedule, all year ’round, to write this blog, specifically so that I can look back and reminisce many years from now. An end-of-year piece should be nothing but fluffy retread, and mostly it is. Somehow though, there’s always something I miss. And c’mon, who doesn’t love an end-of-year retrospective? So here, in words and pictures, is my 2013.

January

My Moments of Zen

We’ve had some taxing home troubles recently, with a refrigerator flood that ruined our floor and an oven – just 15 years young – that up and died on us. Just to add insult to injury, my deodorant has been discontinued. So with my shoulders up to my ears, I started to think about the things in my life that are truly calming. Unfortunately I didn’t come up with a very big list.

Ordinarily I love television as a way to unwind, but I feel like most of what I watch these days is shrouded in violence. There are exceptions, like Mad Men and Parenthood, and if you add up what I watch, the non-violent probably outweighs the violent, but someone getting a bullet in their head is the kind of thing that sticks to your ribs a little longer than the latest self-effacing joke Jon Stewart made. Having just come off of three seasons of Boardwalk Empire and now headlong into The Sopranos, I wonder if I will ever get a real breather.

So, unless we’re talking about Mad Men, TV isn’t the great zen master. How about music? I love listening to music. Of course, I’m not commuting anymore, so there goes my largest chunk of listening time. And with a few exceptions, Sonja isn’t all that interested in rocking out to my music. That leaves children’s music as my main audio consumption. It’s not all horrible and I steer her towards the fun stuff, like Caspar Babypants, but still, those kids songs are relentless earworms. I’m still hearing them when I’d prefer to be hearing crickets.

I’m not a big gamer, but I enjoy the occasional casual game. I thought Where’s My Perry was the casual game of the decade, but it only took me a couple of weeks to get through the levels, and even though Disney has released more, they are not available on Surface yet. That leaves Candy Crush Saga on Facebook, a maddening game designed to get you to spend money, leaving those who refuse stuck on a particular level for days or weeks. I hate it. It’s taking up too much time. I want to stop playing it. But I can’t.

I’d like to say writing is calming but I can’t. It can be fun, but even when it’s going well, it’s not unstressful.

So what does that leave? Well, for starters, lunch. I’ve always structured my lunch around Sonja’s nap schedule, which now conveniently falls in the noon hour. This way, I can sit and enjoy a sandwich in peace. That’s all anybody really wants anyway. At least according to Tina Fey. I sometimes read during lunch, which, if I’m reading something good, is also very zen.

I’ve found folding baby clothes to be very zen. I don’t know why. Though I wouldn’t define any chore as a “favorite,” I find laundry to be the most pleasant, and something about folding those little onesies in half and tucking the sleeves behind the back just brings me to a peaceful place.

The truest moment of zen is at night, when all is quiet, and I hear Sonja take a deep breath on the baby monitor. She’s sleeping, all is well, and I can close my eyes and get some rest.

And while I sleep, I grind my pearly whites into sand for having only three destressors, one of which is a chore. A lot of the stress is habit stress, I think, leftover from more stressful days when Sonja was smaller. A malfunctioning kitchen doesn’t help, but on my better days I try to remember that life is not without its challenges, and the challenges involved in being a homeowner are pretty good challenges to have. But that’s another topic for another day.

Until then, here it is, your moment of zen.

My Second Mother’s Day

Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day are your two biggest Hallmark holidays, made up to drive sales of greeting cards and other things one generally doesn’t need. Do I sound cynical? Perhaps. But I’m a lot less cynical about Mother’s Day now that I am a mom.

My Mad Men Return

I’ve been thinking all week about the season 6 premier of Mad Men on AMC, excited for the return of my favorite show. I’ve also been thinking all week about this blog installment, wondering what I could add to the conversation about this most-talked-about show. A straight recap will not do. Like showing a picture of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in the ad campaign, anybody can do that. (Although if you want it done well, head on over to Slate Magazine.) I could describe how much I love this show, but I’m sure I would be chastised by Don for devaluing the word. Plus, if I simply listed everything I loved about it, I’d risk being chastised by Peggy for not knowing the difference between ideas and the execution of ideas. That doesn’t leave me much, but here are a few thoughts I came up with in a crisis…

My Boring Winter

January and February here in the northwest have been ridiculously boring. No snowmageddons or snowpocalypses or other storms of the century. (And here I was, so excited to try out the new all-wheel drive wheels in inclement weather.) The weather has been dark, dank, dreary, depressing, rainy and cold. Visions of vacations to warmer climes dance in my mind, but Sonja and I have remained cooped up inside.

As is my modus operandi, I’ve started and abandoned a few topics for this blog, and felt guilty that I haven’t kept the post count up as was my New Year’s resolution. So I decided I’d better confess to my boring winter ways, lest I have nothing to say at all until spring arrives.

In the waking hours when Sonja is asleep, I’ve been entertaining myself with entertainment. I’ve watched the first two seasons of Boardwalk Empire. Despite the show’s tendency towards the overly/graphically violent, I recommend it for the sharp dialogue and the unique and fascinating characters they create. (Nelson Van Alden is bizarre and, for lack of a better term, whack-a-doodle; Richard Harrow is intriguing and tragic.)

I also watched the recently-released fourth season of Nurse Jackie. There’s a lot I like about Jackie, especially Merritt Wever in the role of Zoey. She is a comedic revelation. And the show is certainly a cut above your standard half-hour sitcom, but I take issue with the occasionally sloppy writing. Some of the characters, especially Dr. Cooper (played by noted vampire Peter Facinelli), do not seem to be fully realized. While seasons don’t need to pick up where they left off (see Mad Men), this show tends to drop plot lines you were hoping might have some resolution.

Out of desperation I also succumbed to watching a few movies, including Argo and Flight, which I liked and The Master which I didn’t.

Mall Fun

Also out of desperation, I went to a Mom’s meetup I found online. The plan was to walk the kids around the mall in the strollers for a while, then let them play in the play area. I doubted my child’s willingness to be in the stroller for any length of time at all, but thought I’d give it a whirl. There was one other 17-month old there who sat quietly for the whole walk. Meanwhile Sonja and I were bringing up the rear as she toddled along, straying in to stores with loud music playing so she could dance, all the while refusing to hold my hand or let me carry her for more than a few steps. When we finally reached the play area, which she hadn’t been to before, she walked right up to the entrance and started chanting, “opah, opah, opah,” (open) but alas, the area was closed for the day.

In between those few minutes of excitement have been long, long stretches of sheer boredom. Sonja is at the age now where she loves to go outside and play, and luckily our neighbor’s have a giant yard with lots of slides and swings and kid-friendly toys. When it’s not raining and not completely freezing, walking over there takes away another few minutes of boredom. It makes me realize that we are going to have to get our messy yard in shape this year so that Sonja isn’t swallowed up by the mass of weeds and moss we call a lawn. We’re looking in to hiring a gardener because it’s too much for yardwork-haters like us. This might actually be a great topic for a blog, especially if we get some great before and after pictures. For this and many other reasons, I cannot wait for spring to arrive. I really hope it’s less boring than winter has been.

Whee!

My Best of 2012

This is the time of year I’d normally be compiling my top ten list for the year in movies  But I haven’t seen ten movies I liked this year, I probably haven’t even seen ten movies. Movies and I aren’t on speaking terms these days, and I won’t be in a forgiving mood until somebody makes something good. So, since I can’t do a countdown of movies but had an itch to make a list, I’ve decided to do a plain ‘best of 2012.’ This is just stuff I liked in 2012. It may not even be stuff that came out in 2012, just stuff I experienced in 2012. In no particular order…

Mad Men Season 5

Mad Men is always the highlight of entertainment for the year and season 5 was no exception. Season 4 still stands as my favorite but 5 packed a wallop. Viewers were asked to cope with a lot of changes, like Megan as Mrs. Draper #3, not to mention the exits of Peggy and Lane (though in very different manners.) I don’t think any viewer wants to imagine a Mad Men without Peggy Olson, but I think in life people find new jobs and they move on, and it’s a lot more realistic than manufacturing ways to keep people stagnant.

Breaking Bad Seasons 1-5

This was the year of Breaking Bad, for me anyway. I hadn’t watched it before and spent time catching up on Netflix Watch Instantly earlier this spring, inhaling all I could while Sonja napped. Breaking Bad turns you upside down and shakes you ’til you want to puke, then you find yourself saying, “do it again!” Since I’m living in purgatory waiting for the conclusion of season 5, I’ve decided I’m glad I came to it later and didn’t have to wait all that time between previous seasons. I also think the episodes are better when watched closely together, because it’s easier to remember the details. It’s a plot-heavy show so details are important. If you’ve yet to see it, wait until season 5 part 2 comes out, then watch it all at once. Seriously. Do it or I’ll send Walter White after you. Actually, it’s kind of weird now to see Bryan Cranston pop up in pre-BB comedic roles. You expect he’s just pretending to be goofy and any minute he’s going to let loose and murder all the people around him. I think that’s the price actors pay for legendary roles.

Everyone’s Reading Bastard 

A short story by Nick Hornby. I love everything Nick Hornby does, so any time he writes something new I run to read it. This was in the form of a handy kindle single so if you have a kindle pony up the dough (the best $1.99 you’ll ever spend) and get reading. The only thing that bothered me about this story is I was not ready for it to end. I thought it had all the makings of an excellent novel.

The Mindy Project / Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

Mindy Kaling is probably best known as Kelly from The Office. Back when I watched that show I thought she was great in it, and upon hearing that, as a staff writer, she was responsible for most of the Jim & Pam story lines, I realized what a talent she must be. She has proven herself to me in her hilarious book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? which I read earlier this year. I laughed at least as much at this book as I did at Tina Fey’s, and possibly – dare I say it – more. Mindy’s new TV show on Fox, The Mindy Project, is also superb and displays her signature wit.  I don’t think anyone in their right mind would hire Mindy (the character) as an OB/GYN, though mine was definitely wacky so who knows what she was up to in her spare time.

2012 Subaru Impreza

And this was finally the year of the new car. I still wonder/suspect they’ll fix a few of the minor complaints I have (takes ridiculously long for the car to shift between reverse and drive) in the 2013 version, but I’m quite happy to have a new vehicle. What’s that you say? There’s snow in the forecast? Bring it on!

My Thoughts “On Writing”

I originally titled this entry My Long-Awaited Post on Writing, complete with clarifying asterisk that it was long-awaited by me and no one else. But I had to change that after my original concept transformed and mutated into a book review. Also, just so you know, the current title should read: My Thoughts On Writing, minus the clunky quotations, but I guess you can’t italicize titles in WordPress.

All that information I just gave you, the reader, is in the eyes of every writing teacher ’round the globe a mortal sin. “Never talk about writing in your writing.” It’s probably the second rule of writing, right after “never tell when you can show,” and it’s the one rule I fight with every single time I sit down to write.

Mad Men Recap – Episode 408: The Summer Man

When I’m watchin’ my TV
and a man comes on to tell me
how white my shirts can be.
Well he can’t be a man ’cause he doesn’t smoke
the same cigarettes as me.

I had never before listened to the lyrics of the Rolling Stones’ I Can’t Get No Satisfaction, other than the all-too-familiar refrain. But what a perfect verse to play near the top of last night’s stellar installment of Mad Men.

Last night’s episode was a mixed bag, part major contemplation by Don, part minor breakdown by Betty and some killer office politics. Let’s start with Don, as did the episode. Our hero has taken up swimming and writing in a journal as a way to get his life back on track. I was worried last week that Don’s blackout didn’t alarm him as much as it should have, but there was a real sense of relief last night watching Don tell Mrs. Blankenship to take away the four bottles of alcohol she lugged in from the liquor store.

I mentioned last week my dislike of the Anna apparition, as it seemed out of place. Last night’s voiceover by Don, which corresponded to his journal entries, while unusual for the series, really worked for me. This is, after all, Don’s story. I think we’re unlikely to see many more flashbacks of his childhood, now that his Dad is dead, so this was a different kind of insight into the man behind the ad. “I’ve never written more than 250 words, not even in high school. 5 paragraphs, 50 words a piece. God I was so lazy.”

It’s Don’s night on the town with the young Bethany that sets Betty off when she and Henry run into the couple at a restaurant. As she later tells Francine, she “misbehaved” by getting drunk and ruining the evening. Nobody can understand why she lets Don bother her so, and she can’t understand why nobody understands. All Betty wanted was to be the center of Don’s attention, and she’s still pissed that she’s not, even with the doting Henry by her side.

I find Bethany to be pointless. So off the mark for Don. She’s too young and insecure for him, and when she becomes aggressively needy, I think he starts to get that. He’s not that into her anyway, but he keeps calling her because he knows nothing will really come of it. When he asks out Dr. Faye, properly this time, while sober, and she accepts, we know progress has been made. Faye is a working girl and that’s the kind Don likes. Strong, independent and smart. This relationship could actually go somewhere and I’m all right with that.

Back in the office, Joan is fighting with the resident Neanderthals in an attempt to get them to behave. Joey is “particularly disrespectful” and tapes a pornographic drawing to her window. Already upset that her husband is leaving for basic training, she tells the gang in a vicious and retaliatory speech that she can’t wait until they’re in Vietnam next year.

Peggy takes the drawing to Don, who tells her to take command of the situation, and reprimand or fire Joey herself. The news that she can fire someone is exciting to Peggy and, when Joey tells her he doesn’t like working with women because they don’t have a sense of humor, she does fire him. She’s pretty proud of herself and thinks Joan will be too, but boy is she in for a surprise. Joan lets her know the act was selfish and self-aggrandizing, and made Joan look like a meaningless secretary and Peggy like another humorless bitch. Ouch.

But Joan is right. No matter how much power the women have, the men can just make another drawing. (Say what you will, I’m not convinced office politics have changed that much in the last 50 years, particularly in places where people must be creative.) Peggy knows that Joan is smart but Peggy forgets that Joan doesn’t want to be her and isn’t proud of her. I think Joan is annoyed that Peggy commands more respect than her at the office, but Joan is more manager than creative and she prefers it that way. Peggy’s firing of Joey will likely have repercussions. Though taunted by the men she works with, Peggy did command some sort of respect from them and that may now be in jeopardy.

There were a few funny lines in a mostly serious episode last night. In the midst of the vending machine destruction, Pete comes out in the hallway and says, “When did we get a vending machine?” When Mrs. Blankenship mistakenly thinks it’s Bobby’s birthday and Don tells her it’s Gene’s birthday, she says, “Would you like me to get him or her a present?” And Francine tells an upset Betty, “You have terrible luck with entertaining.” True dat.

But the line I want to end with is one from the voiceover near the end which must speak for itself, despite what accolades I could heap upon it.

“We’re flawed because we want so much more. We’re ruined because we get these things and wish for what we had.”