2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022
Stories & SNippets : 2017
…and observations, journals, & musings on music, film, books, art, and pretty things. and life in general.
January 2017
January 06
Reading Neal Stephenson’s techno thriller Reamde (1999). Caught up in its sprawling, hacker-scenario-ed, MMORPG, hunter-hunted-the-hunted, country-hopping tale covering all kinds of geographic and thematic ground.
February 2017
February 18
Watching Moana.
February 25 - A Playlist : “A jolly good Friday afternoon blast" (x5)
Wind In Our Sail - Weezer
Silly Me - Yeasayer
Police Encounters - FFS
You Are Killing Me - the Dandy Warhols
The Orange Monkey - PJ Harvey
March 2017
April 2017
May 2017
May 23 “...on the right side of history."
Don't get to change your mind after the Ark doors close and the hammer drops.
Choose now, Congresspeople, Senators, and all public figures looking down the road and wondering how your names will someday appear in the history books. Think hard, dig deep into your conscience and your consciousness, and you will know that despite all the gray in the world, there are times in life where you are presented with a path that is alluring and intoxicating and…wicked, and you can follow the Pied Piper in all his warm-haired glory, or you can fight for a better way and a better course and know that you did something. At some point, there will be a reckoning. Make no mistake. You can equivocate and explain, deny and defend, obfuscate and rationalize. But you know. You know. And someday history will hold you accountable, at the very least for enabling.
June 2017
July 2017
July 07
A 9 years, 363-month old girl buys a copy of Flora & Ulysses at Barnes and Noble. I still miss Borders Books and Music. And Tower Records. But…also grateful for kids who love to read and for the many great hours I had inside the hallowed halls of Borders and Tower.
July 14
Drooling over outdoor sheds at Costco while a 7-month old in bare feet and camo pants cheerfully accompanies me, strapped in his car seat and resting in the cart. His older siblings and cousins kick balls into nets in the hot sun all morning long at a camp for kickers of balls into nets. Their quartet is quite the foursome; I do not necessarily envision any of the four choosing to embark on a professional career as a soccer person, or as a kicker of balls into nets, but at their age I don’t think they should need to either embrace that or reject that as a career option. I am proud of them for giving it their best and kicking hard. To celebrate their final day, we head to Chuck’s for complimentary ice cream cones. “Complimentary” is a multisyllabic way of saying “free.” I love Chuck’s.
Later, some of us over the age of 21 went see Joe Arthur sing his heart out at the Doug Fir Lounge.
July 26
Listening to the 1967 classic Beatles album Magical Mystery Tour
August 2017
August 23
Listening to the Beatles’ Revolver (1966) on repeat.
August 26
Listening to Dylan’s John Wesley Harding (1967).
September 2017
September 20
Listening to the Beatles’ 1965 masterpiece Rubber Soul. To be clear…they released not only this, but Help! in the same year. The prolific nature of their output over that decade at the level of innovation and quality they did gets more mind-blowing every year.
September 21
Listening to Blonde Redhead Silently, along with the Beatles’ Rubber Soul.
September 27
Listening to the Beatles - Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967).
October 2017
October 03 : a Tuesday
Trump’s response to Puerto Rico: be glad it’s not a real disaster like Hurricane Katrina.
Watching All the Way, an HBO film on President Lyndon Johnson and civil rights.
Is there such a thing as listening to too much Dylan and Cohen?
October 05
Listening to the Beatles - Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
October 06 - a Friday
Clogged toilet. Macbook not starting up. A nine-month old determined to touch a space heater. Disgruntled children. Two websites far over due to be finished. A pair of rooms in construction zone mode. Property taxes looming. A year of accounting to triple-check and catch up on. A deck, windows, and door falling apart. Water and plumbing issues. Thank you God, for my health, my family and their health, and coffee.
I love our 7-year old’s love of the Bible currently. Specifically, the Old Testament / Daniel / Psalms. He was reading it aloud a few days ago. “Isn’t it so cool, it’s like poetry, and how people spoke back then!” And…his grandma bought him a ram’s horn. He has been practicing. On the front porch.
October 10
Watching All the Way, an HBO film on President Lyndon Johnson and civil rights. Also: Is there such a thing as listening to too much Dylan and Cohen?
October 17
Listening: a trifecta of Beatles from 1963: Please Please Me, Love Me Do , Misery
October 26 a Wednesday
Boo Bash. We got me in my Seuss hat, a sober little yellow lion, Anne of GG, and a Hebrew Warrior-Scholar.
November 2017
November 18
When children figure out how to add their own music to your Spotify playlists: yes, now I have a song by Charles Ritchie called Our God Is Able: Daniel 3:17 as a public playlist on my profile. Added, I’m quite certain, by a certain 7-year old caught up in all things having to do with Judaism, the Torah, and the book of Daniel.
December 2017
Essential Films of 2017
Favorites
Baby Driver
Beauty and the Beast
Blade Runner 2049
Call Me by Your Name
Dunkirk
Get Out
The Greatest Showman
Lady Bird
Logan
Logan Lucky
The Shape of Water
Shimmer Lake
Thor: Ragnorak
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Wonder Woman
Honorable mention
First Reformed
Molly’s Game
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
What Happened to Monday?
All ages-ish
Beauty and the Beast
Cars 3
Coco
The Greatest Showman
Paddington 2
Guilty pleasures
Happy Death Day
Holiday
The Man Who Invented Christmas
Want to see
Brad’s Status
Columbus (John Cho, architecture, small towns)
EX LIBRIS: The New York Public Library (documentary)
Faces Places (Agnès Varda muralist documentary)
The Florida Project
Girls Trip
Loving Vincent
mother!
Phantom Thread
The Post
The Wizard of Lies
Wonder Wheel
Not worth the time
The Bookshop (actually lovely for most of the film…just didn’t have an ending)
Justice League (didn’t actually finish)
——
Back to Film Index by Year
ESSENTIAL MUSIC OF 2017
Albums
alt-J - RELAXER
Bleachers - Gone Now
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - The Tourist
Miley Cyrus - Younger Now
The Dears - Times Infinity Volume Two
LCD Soundsystem - american dream
Moby & The Void Pacific Choir - More Fast Songs About the Apocalypse
The War on Drugs - A Deeper Understanding
Wolf Alice - Visions Of A Life
Honorable mention
Arcade Fire - Everything Now
Cage the Elephant - Unpeeled
Elf Power - Twitching in Time
Foster the People - Sacred Hearts Club
Grandaddy - Last Place
The Greatest Showman - Soundtrack
the Killers - Wonderful Wonderful
London Grammar - Truth Is a Beautiful Thing
Nelly Furtado - The Ride
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - The Punishment of Luxury
The Shins - Heartworms
Sparks - Hippopotamus
The 44 greatest songs of 2017
1998 - the Dears
3WW - alt-J
A Place in Your Heart - Ray Davies
House of the Rising Sun - alt-J
I Wish You Were Fun - Sparks
In Cold Blood - alt-J
Fog Lake - Inference
Life With the Macbeths - Sparks
Never Enough - Loren Allred (from The Greatest Showman)
Rewrite the Stars - Zac Efron & Zendaya (Greatest Showman)
So Tell Me Mrs. Lincoln Aside from That How Was the Play? - Sparks
Tyson vs. Douglas - the Killers
What About Us - Pink
2017 Playlists by Month
January
1998 - the Dears
House of the Rising Sun - alt-J
A Little Bit Like Fun - Sparks
February
A Place in Your Heart - Ray Davies
What About Us - Pink
Never Enough - Loren Allred
Some Kind of Love - the Killers
March
April
In Cold Blood - alt-J
Holding On - The War on Drugs
I Wish You Were Fun - Sparks
May
Rewrite the Stars - Zac Efron & Zendaya
June
Missionary Position - Sparks
July
So Tell Me Mrs. Lincoln Aside from That How Was the Play? - Sparks
August
The Amazing Mr. Repeat - Sparks
September
Tyson vs. Douglas - the Killers
October
3WW - alt-J
Beautiful People Beautiful Problems - Lana del Rey & Stevie Nicks
Fog Lake - Inference
Life With the Macbeths - Sparks
November
Money On Straight - the Killers
Have All The Songs Been Written? - the Killers