Favorite Movies and Music of 2007

It's time for me to do that year-end list of highlights... not "best of" though. That's too definitive and I have no claim to make as an arbiter of stuff like that. So let's just jump into what I enjoyed the most in the public domain of culture since last January 1...

Favorite Movies: Across the Universe - The Beatles theme, fresh takes on the music and Julie Taymor's suitably trippy visuals made a winning combo for me.

The Darjeeling Limited - This is actually the first Wes Anderson film I got to see in the theaters and I've seen it twice. He appears to have moved a bit beyond some of the "twee" tendencies that characterized his earlier productions, which is good even though that tweeness was part of what made "The Royal Tenenbaums" and "Rushmore" in particular so enjoyable. I think going to India relieved him of some of the pressure of having to physically construct each scene before lensing it in his customary symmetrical format. The story is fairly slight, which is also fine - basically, a road movie about three brothers in an exotic locale dealing with some unsettled family business. Wes and his troupe all appear to have grown up a bit so the whimsy is bit less obvious but still there enough to produce many subtly humorous and a few laugh out loud funny moments. I will get the Criterion DVD upon release...

Hot Fuzz - Crazy English action spoof had me laughing throughout but be ready for the grim, bloody humor (and I mean real bloody, not "bloody" like the Brits use it.) There were several other films that I didn't get to see that might have made this list. "Into the Wild" comes to mind - I'm waiting for it to show up at the discount theater, very soon I hope.

Favorite New Music: Chemical Brothers "We Are The Night" - Any new ChemBros music is big news to me, I'm a huge fan of everything they've done and was thoroughly pleased with this release. They continue to take electronic dance music in new directions and their production is simply stunning. I liked the CD enough to download pre-release bootlegs of each track, buy the CD and purchase it from iTunes to get the bonus tracks. Plus the CD singles - I even named my fantasy football team "We Are The Night" (though it didn't seem to help any.) I'm a fan, without apologies.

Justice "Cross" and Digitalism "Idealism" represented a kind of techno revival last summer, at least to my ears. They're both European based duos who put out some fresh new synthetic sounds that got my attention and I look forward to hearing more from them if they choose to stay in the music game.

The Go! Team "Proof Of Youth" - This is, I think, mainly one guy's musical vision, but it's quite entertaining - he somehow melds 70's TV car chase themes with cheerleader chants and a funky electronica big beat hip-hop feel to produce very hooky tunes about topics that don't really seem to register much with me for content but I enjoy listening to it anyway. I recommend them highly if you are feeling adventurous and experimental, assuming that the above description appeals to you in some way.

The Arcade Fire "Neon Bible" - This is my nod to something resembling "contemporary classic rock" that I think I will look back on to remind myself that rock isn't really dead after all. I will put "Icky Thump" by the White Stripes in that same category, though I do wish they had come up with a better title for the project.

Polyphonic Spree "Fragile Army" - The Spree are another group I've been following for a few years, since their first CD came out. I like the retro-seventies "Up With People" peace love and sunshine orchestral pop music they produce. This CD darkened up the mood just a bit but they have found a unique niche. Listening to just a couple of their songs produces a quick uplift effect for me so I like having them around.

M.I.A. "Kala" - M.I.A. is a young woman from Sri Lanka who came to England some years ago and presents an intense and engaging mix of techno, hip hop, world music sounds infused with a political stance that settles somewhere between militant and trendy. Certainly a finalist for the most garish multi-colored packaging of the year. I love the heart and soul that comes through the crunchy, heavily processed rhythms and textures.

Favorite Music Re-Issues: Love Is The Song We Sing - the fourth offering in the "Nuggets" series of box sets, this 4-disc collection focuses on the S.F. Bay Area in the mid-60's, before during and after the Summer of Love. Features all the big groups - Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, Quicksilver, Country Joe, etc. as well as numerous obscure and nearly forgotten bands. Lovingly packaged in a coffee-table quality book. A most awesome and delightful relic of a bygone era!

Bob Dylan "Dylan" - I went ahead and splurged for the deluxe edition box set, which features little black CDs that look like vinyl albums, a set of postcards but most importantly a very succinct overview of the biggest songs from the full span of Dylan's illustrious career. No rarities or outtakes to be found here, which bothered some of his hardcore fans, but this is simply an amazing collection of music and deserves appreciation simply as a document of what the man has accomplished. A great introduction for younger fans who may be curious to know what all the adulation directed at the old guy is all about anyway.

Favorite DVD Releases: The Third Man - Orson Welles as the enigmatic black-marketeer running for his life through the sewers of Vienna. Two-Lane Blacktop - James Taylor and Dennis Wilson race Warren Oates across early 70's America, for no particular purpose other than it's something to do. Ace In The Hole - I didn't know that cynicism to this degree could come out of a Hollywood studio in the 1950's, but glad that it's been preserved for our enjoyment, awaiting an era when it's sardonic take on the media could be fully appreciated by the mass audience.

That's it for now... I may get around to books and/or events of the year later. Or maybe not!

Christmas 2007

In bed shortly after midnite after making a forgettable joke about scaring away Santa and the reindeer. Christmas Eve spent as tradition has it with my mom, sister & brother-in-law, our first Christmas without Grandma B who passed away in February, new additions this year being Ashley (Curt's girlfriend) and LeeAnn (Brandon's girlfriend) who arrived a bit late but it was fun to have them along I wasn't expecting it. Fell asleep quickly but awake again at 5 a.m. due to irritated stomach which makes sense given all the ridiculously rich and flavorful food I'd eaten the night before. Too awake to go right back to sleep after munching a couple of Tums, I went to my computer since I couldn't sit on the sofa and read, it being occupied by Curt (Brandon on the loveseat, absurdly poking legs over the armrest) since both the boys beds had been moved to their apartment in October, marking another development in our family history and a change from Christmases past. Checked out a couple of emails, looked at the fantasy football websites which were still in some kind of odd statistical limbo where the final results hadn't been correctly tallied yet (but when I looked at them later in the day everything looked the way it was supposed to.) Nothing much to really hold my attention, plus I didn't feel like actually getting up and staying up that early so I crawled back into bed about 15 minutes later, stomach ache easily subsided and resumed sleeping, remaining there until around 9 a.m. Upon waking realized that we didn't have to worry about delivering morning papers which marks yet another significant bit of progress and a differentiating detail from the last seven Christmases. So we meandered about for awhile, Josh Groban's Christmas CD playing in the kitchen while we jammed in the living room to Guitar Hero III on the XBox borrowed from B&C's roommate, then for traditions sake got together to make our customary waffle breakfast even though we weren't all that hungry and a bowl of cereal would have sufficed for meeting our hunger and nutritional needs. Spent some time trying to finagle a timed group photo but the first one didn't turn out so well and the subsequent attempts suffered from battery failure so we just postponed that and figured we'd do one around the tree later which is a better shot than us sitting around the table, we did that for Thanksgiving just a month ago anyway so what's the difference really? And none of us were dressed up all that nicely anyway.

After breakfast we quickly clean up the dishes and make the kitchen/dining area somewhat manageable again, before heading to the living room for our gift exchange. Brandon was Santa this year and everyone got nice things even though our gift giving is pretty low budget and modest compared to many other families I suppose, that's how we want it to be. So here's the quick rundown: Gas cards, gift cards, magazine subscriptions, memberships to local organizations, concert tickets, DVDs, CDs, board games, video games, a shelf for the downstairs bathroom (to set CD player), clothes, books. I think that about covers it.

Post-gift opening we hang out for awhile, trying out some of the new Wii and DS games, watching a couple Looney Tunes cartoons (I got Golden Collection Vol. 5 which has an awesome disc dedicated to Bob Clampett - alone worth the cost!), picked up some of the mess, talked and relaxed. Then the twins had to move on to other things, specifically going over to their girlfriends' holiday events so we had to kind of hustle lunch along sooner than ideal but that's how Christmas might have to be as our family disperses itself a bit, another traditional "big meal," this time with ham, baked potatoes, sweet potatoes and steamed asparagus tips, all very tasty but wow who really needs to eat so much in such a short period of time? But we did and it was delicious and there's plenty of leftover ham and sweet potatoes for us to enjoy for the next couple days.

Another last round or two of Guitar Hero and then it's time for the boys to leave but oh yeah, gotta take that family Christmas pic around the tree so I do, but first gotta put the new batteries in - though that doesn't really seem to help because the power dies before I can finish setting up the self-timer prompting the thought that it may be time to put a new digital camera on one of next year's gift lists. After wrestling around with it and trying a few little adjustments and tricks I've learned about this particular piece of equipment I finally get it to work, but just the one, because I didn't want to keep anyone hung up for the sake of a snapshot, so here it is.

And with that, and hugs, B&C are off to do their thing and the other four of us resume our hanging out and taking it easy. Rest of the afternoon passes in a hazy blur, reading, chatting, keeping busy with little pastimes. We play the new Cities and Knights of Catan expansion set that Derek got, a lot more complicated bunch of rules, new strategies, stuff to buy and nerdish calculations to make that add some intrigue to the game but kind of mess up the elegant simplicity of the original but Derek likes it (Julie not so much, though she's a good sport about it) and we'll have to see which version we turn to when it's family game time in the weeks and months to come. Then it's dark out and cold and the evening winds down to snuggling up and watching the Narnia movie that Julie got for Christmas last year but had not even yet taken out of its shrinkwrap! (I never leave the shrinkwrap on my DVDs even if it takes me weeks before I get around to watching them!) And despite basically doing not much else besides sit around all day we were tired enough to turn in and sleep before the next midnight rolled around.

open time

I'm going to be away from work for the next week or so... at least, I'm not going to be in my office doing my regular job until Dec. 31, though I will be carrying our "crisis team pager" next weekend so who knows, I may be called in to assist somewhere during that span of time. But I'm pleased to see a bloc of open-ended, unstructured time sitting in front of me, even though "holiday events" will take up a portion of it over the next couple of days.

I want to use this partly as a time to reflect on what I'd like to achieve in the coming year and to re-evaluate my priorities in a number of areas - job, family, social action, spiritual development... I haven't been blogging much lately (been pretty busy with managing some conflicts on my email list but I'm not going to go into that story here - it's best kept either there or to myself...)

The only real purpose to this post is to make a public statement to that effect that may provide the stimulus that I think I need to refine my thoughts and stay ready to move into the new year feeling more invigorated, creative and focused than I have in recent weeks. I'm thinking it would do me some good to put my energies into something with a longer shelf life than blog posts, emails or the kind of writing I do at work. My concern is to avoid dissipation. I've been taking in a lot of media and ideas and I like that but I also want to produce, not simply consume.

It's Movie Watching Time

The coldness of winter has set in, presumably to stay, for the next four months or more. We're close to entering into what I call my "sports free" time of year... of course that doesn't mean that sports aren't happening, it's more that I'm not as involved with tracking my fantasy sports rosters, at least until mid-to-late March when it becomes necessary to prepare for the baseball season. So given the combination of long nights, cold weather and the pleasures associated with huddling up together on the sofa, what better way to spend that time than watching great movies.

And when I say great movies, I mean truly classic and provocative cinematic works. I'm talking about... the Criterion Collection.

Yes, that's where my movie-viewing tastes are running these days. I enjoy going to see the occasional Hollywood blockbuster popcorn muncher, and I'll do what I can to stay current on the films most likely to make a serious run at the Oscars. But if I was stuck on a desert island with a choice of only one theater, I would without a doubt make it an art house indie-movie cinematheque.

I hope you are already aware, to some extent, of the Criterion Collection. If not, visit their website and you should soon get the idea. I'm not going to recap the history of the "movement" or even go into great detail on how my own interests have built up over the years. But suffice it to say that I'm looking forward to getting some additions to my library at Christmas time, and for birthdays, Fathers Days and other special occasions for years to come.

Last night, after we got back from moving Lys out of her dorm at GVSU and back home with, Julie, Lys and I watched Jean Renoir's The River. It's a nicely done Technicolor epic shot in India in 1950-51, just a few years after the nation had secured its independence from Great Britain. The film is a coming of age story, based on novelized reminiscences of Rumer Godden, who wrote "Black Narcissus" (another great Criterion DVD that I watched earlier in the week while Julie was working on wedding flowers.) I'm glad that my wife and daughter watched it with me because it's something of an art-house chick flick than a "guy film." I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much if I watched it with only my sons. But some wonderful little moments came out in the portrayal of three young women each coming of age, each facing their own unique dilemmas in the late stages of the colonial era in India - little tidbits of philosophical wisdom and timeless beauty, even in the constraints of a slightly hackneyed 50's style of acting and screenwriting. And I really love watching Technicolor productions! This film took tremendous advantage of the bright colors and (to western viewers) exotic locale, the Ganges river and surrounding countryside, even though most of the action takes place on a colonial estate where the British family lives (echoing the author's own personal history.) Well, enough for that mini-review. That wasn't the purpose of this blog entry.

My aim is to watch a fair number of Criterion films this winter - some for the second or third time from my own collection of DVDs, others from the library, which cuts down considerably on the costs, especially for titles I'm not sure I want to own. I already have Bicycle Thieves, Overlord and The Importance of Being Earnest checked out, with more titles soon to be on hold. Andrei Rublev (from my personal collection, is on the tube right now in the room next to where I'm typing, kind of a visual wallpaper thing to create atmosphere and keep its images fresh in my mind without necessitating the commitment of sitting down to watch the three-hour epic at close attention.

Any other Criterion aficionados out there with personal favorites to recommend?

The Steroids Thing...

I was asked in a comment below about the latest baseball controversy stemming from the Mitchell Report (or as Sportsline.com put it yesterday, "Mitch-slapped.") This email I composed just a short while ago this morning will get the conversation started. The comments marked by the > signs represent quotes. Let me just say that though it may read like I'm upbraiding my correspondent, he's a brilliant writer and thinker. I really like this guy and only dish it out the way I do based on the context of our long-standing email acquaintance... (he is quite capable of doing the same himself...)

> Will baseball fans accept baseball statistics tainted with the
> corrupted practices of players and team directors and ignore the
> skewed results they now seem to display?

So you join the haters weighing in with their lofty and pious sermonettes
denouncing major league baseball... I take this opportunity to
disagree with the fundamental presumptions behind these comments.

If we refused to accept everything in our world and society that was
tainted by corrupt practices, I don't think there would be very much
to enjoy in life besides wild flowers growing in the meadow and the
occasional gorgeous sunset.

And other natural phenomena that humans have basically nothing to do with.

> If they do, which will probably accord as the case. what will that
> mean first for science at the academic and research levels? And
> second, how will that influence the political and social life and
> culture of the U.S.?

I think this story is the most overhyped mass contagion of the vapors
that I've seen in a long time. I don't advocate steroid use but I'm
not aghast that it's been happening. It's been fairly obvious that
illegal and semi-legal suppliements have been a factor in the game for
years now. I think any reasonably informed adult follower of the sport
should have processed this by now, and figured out a long time ago
that the use was not limited only to big time sluggers who hit the
long ball. But I suppose it takes orchestrated PR campaigns like this
to dispel the illusions and sentimentalities that many continue
(naively, imo) to invest in baseball, the great American pastime.

> Said in different terms, how will a society portray itself or believe
> about itself when a dead horse remains in the middle of their living
> environment, permanently, stinking the whole place up? How can a
> society deal with that kind of situation, day in and day out?

You suggest that baseball is that proverbial dead horse? Wow, I think
that baseball is more reflective of our culture, not generative as a
source of moral leadership, guidance or inspiration. I suppose that
some have tried to sell baseball off as this paragon of virtue, this
noble expression of "what makes America great" but a clear-eyed
assessment of the history of the game quickly complicates the picture.
I think baseball was much more corrupt and degrading when segregation
was enforced, but that's the so-called "golden age" in the eyes of the
mythologizers.

Baseball has a problem in which the players, owners, commissioner's
office, agents, the unions, management and the supporting-services
industry surrounding the game share complicity in and now must
address. This action is way overdue. They've been trying to maneuver
their way out of this with as little jeopardy to the corporate edifice
as possible. Nobody wants to fall on the sword for the greater good
here.

> I feel curious about how children will feel about their country when
> the national pastime includes the perception that statistically
> speaking, all those statistics accord as unreliable.

The events happened. The statistics reflect that. How do they not
accord as reliable? Each of those events is probably stored on
videotape somewhere. Statistics are not capable of reflecting the
moral and ethical decisions that went into producing the events they
record.

> What a country, no?
>
> What kind of a country will the U.S. represent in the future?
>
> Will honesty matter in this country, even on bit of it, to anyone?

These are all fine questions, and the answers are troubling to
consider, but I hardly see baseball as the harbinger of the crisis.
It's a business, highly competitive, and conditions led many players
to pursue advantages that presented other risks to themselves further
on down the road. People do this kind of thing in many professions
everyday. Doesn't make it right, but I just see all this carrying on
about baseball as an excessive reaction to the actualities of the
situation.

> Suppose for example that you read in a history book or an
> archaeological account that a certain political entity, say the Romans
> or the Spartans, or for that matter, the Mayans, who played the
> original game of baseball, instead of playing honestly with each
> other, regularly tainted their games with dishonest practices. What or
> how would you feel about them and what type of understanding would
> that bring to you?

That they were human. I've heard that the Mayans played games that
involved kicking a small ball around a large court with the objective
of getting it through a stone ring some twenty feet or so above the
ground. There was only one goal scored in the game. Members of the
losing team were sacrificed to the gods. (Or so I've heard. I was
actually on one of these playing fields down at Chichen Itza, I think
it was, back in 1982.) Now that's a game with some serious corruption
issues!

College Graduation Weekend

Alyssa was recognized with a "Creative Achievement Award" at the Honors College reception on Friday night, for having two books published, another one due out any day now, and contracts for at least eight more that will be in print sometime in 2009.

















Around 950 Masters and Bachelors Degree recipients stream into Van Andel Arena...

















...and there they go now that we've all performed the graduation ceremony rituals.

















Speaking of rituals, that night we decorated our Christmas tree. We always begin with a ceremonial clinking of egg nog glasses.
















And here's the tree getting the finishing touches, at least for the night. Julie laid a string of pearls on it tonight. There's probably more to come even though we're trying to keep the tree tastefully simple this year...

I Never Saw Another Butterfly

Last Friday (yes, I know, nearly a week ago...) Derek and I went to see the Wyoming Park High School production of "I Never Saw Another Butterfly," a one-act play concerning the experiences of children forced to live in the Nazi concentration camps of World War II. Not exactly your typical light-hearted, overly-familiar, amateur-level high school play! But as usual, it was very well done and quite effective at drawing the audience in to the story, the emotions and the atmosphere that the playwright, director and cast sought to convey.

The director, Jeremy Schnotala, continues to impress me with the diversity and controlled risk-taking of his annual selections. Over the years, his crew has covered the gamut from serious fare like "Animal Farm" and "Lord of the Flies" to breezy entertainments like "The Egg and I" (which featured my twin sons in a bit role) and very ambitious undertakings like last years full-costume extravaganza, "Cats." By doing so, I think he's greatly expanded the theatrical vocabulary of his audience, mainly family and friends of the students living here in Wyoming, many of whom I dare say would not be so likely to see plays like these if they didn't feature kids they knew. And of course, he's provided a memorable experience for the students themselves as they get to dig into some seriously illuminating and challenging literature over the course of the production.

Having said that, it was a bit unsettling for me (and I suppose a few others) to see so many of the energetic, cheerful kids we know at the Park adopting the demeanor of heavily-burdened, oppressed, starving and chronically neglected refugee children! The opening scene featured a line-up of downcast youth, having their names called one by one, along with the date they perished in the extermination camps. After each name was read, they would silently shuffle over and place their shoes in a pile at the feet of a swastika-wearing Nazi guard. Sheesh, what an opening number!

And that somber tone, though it did relent somewhat from time to time, pretty much carried the evening. This clearly isn't the play to show off student talents for slapstick, wordplay or comic timing. But it was very moving and I have special words of praise for the acting talent of Leah Ruark, a freshman who really had to carry a tremendous load of responsibility as the central character, a young girl named Raja who actually survived the Holocaust and supplied the narrative continuity as a series of vignettes unfolded on stage. I have to say that she gave one of the most memorable individual performances I've ever seen in my years of going to high school plays. And it wasn't until afterward that I learned she was only in 9th grade. That happened because I happened to run into her uncle Peter as we were exiting the theater. Peter is an old friend of mine who lives in Lansing now and whom I haven't seen in years. We went out together afterward to catch up on things and that was a fantastic coincidental benefit of going to the play!

I will also give props to Henry Marcusse who did a solid job as the Rabbi (and allowed himself to be aged quite dramatically with his beard and make-up) and the set designers who created a very professional looking replica of the sinister guard towers and roughshod barracks where the children of Terezin were forced to live. Another job excellently done, folks! Even though this is the last year that I'll have a child at WPHS, you can count on me to regularly attend. I'm already curious to see what they have in store for us next year!