Things to Love About 2008

Before it's good and gone a few things to note, and be thankful for, about 2008:


* Book Club! It was one of the first groups I joined as an adult and I loved it. A great group of smart, funny women drinking, eating and talking (mostly) about books. One of the things I miss most about living in the Mitten. Hello ladies!

* WeeBug. (Or as my dad calls her The WeeBug.) I've never really been car proud before but how that changed when I got her in April. I still smile when I see her pregnant rollerskate self. And I still wave when I see other Yaris drivers. Sometimes they wave back.

* Live Music! James McMurtry again. Drive-By Truckers twice! Making an ass out of myself in front of Justin Townes Earle. Laughing at Hayes Carll. They were all great shows that reminded me how much I love music and how lucky I, and the rest of their fan families, are that these artists do what they do.

* The Jones Wedding My favorite party of the year. It was a pure pleasure to hear those vows and to bear witness to that ceromony.

* Election Fun It sure was a rollercoaster, wasn't it? I was glued to the TV, watching it all unfold. And at the end I, like a lot of people, was left speechless by the history unfolding, by the change wave rolling all the way from Jim Crow and cresting in the Oval Office.

* Moving Home I wanted it. And I made it happen. I don't have all the answers yet but when I feel lost or have second thoughts I take comfort in geography. I think of my grandmother buried across the street. My high school less than a mile away. There's no doubt this is my place and it's damn good to be here.

*WFPK Louisville's listener supported radio and perhaps the best radio station ever. I listen every day. From World Cafe to Kentucky Front Porch to Wild and Wooly Video Update I like it all. (And I was happy to become a member for Christmas since I was feeling guilty I listen so much and hadn't given them a dime!)

*New Boys! From the 'what was that exactly?' (Andrew) to the fleeting (Nate) to the 'what's less than fleeting?' (Wayne) it's for sure I haven't figured this one out yet. But I'm working on it. I'm putting on my best game face and working on it. Not a hopeless romantic, rather, a hopeful one.

*Birthday Fun Of all of 2008, the birthday surprise, with all its contributors (famous and not) was the best. One of the most intense, singular experiences of my life. I still take comfort from the memory of it and from the suitcase full of letters that say just how much I am loved and thought of. Thanks again all. Again and again.

Happy New Year All

Here's to the promise of 2009...may it be your best one yet!

Thomas Merton, Music Critic?

So I'm reading The Seven Storey Mountain finally, for the first time. Yeah, I know how can you call yourself a reader and let that one get by..there's lots of those, sadly. Or maybe that's a hopeful thing. Anyway, I like it not the least of which because it seems like old Tom might have been more than a wee bit of an asshole, which, in a famous religious person, is something I can appreciate. Forget feet, an entire body of clay is the kind I seek for a role model.

Merton is forthright and not afraid to own up to his sins (and I haven't even gotten to the illigitimate kid bit) but what I like best are some of the dead on observations that seemingly come from nowhere. Like:

"The devil is no fool. He can get people feeling about heaven the way they ought to feel about hell."

Is that a blues song waiting to happen or what? Or this:

"I used to go to Levy's, on the top floor of one of those big buildings in the crescent of Regent Street, because they imported all the latest Victors and Brunswicks and Okehs from America, and I would lock myself up in one of those little glass-doored booths, and play all the Duke Ellingtons and Louis Armstrongs and the old King Olivers and all the other things I have forgotten. Basin Street Blues, Beale Street Blues, Saint James Infirmary, and all the other places that had blues written about them: all these I suddenly began to know much of by indirection and woeful hearsay, and I guess I lived vicariously in all the slums in all the cities of the South: Memphis and New Orleans and Birmingham, places which I have never yet seen. I don't know where those streets were, but I certainly knew something true about them, which I found out on that top floor on Regent Street."

I don't think any music critic could have said it any better.

Okay, That's Weird

So I left a postcard on the bench where we always meet for the one who has turned things upside down for me (in the best possible way). On the card I quoted Rhett Miller's gloriously chipper "Help Me Suzanne" because it speaks best for my heart today:

"you gave me the reason

for feeling like I do

you gave me the reason

I'd like to thank you"

Then, after I came back after delivery, what comes on the radio? The jangly opening notes of "Help Me Suzanne".

That's so weird. And so cool.

Best of 2008-Movies

I didn't see many movies in the theaters this year so the field was slight. The envelope please...


"Wall*E"- Without a doubt, hands down, the best of year. I'd put it up for Best Picture if I could. Funny, meaningful, heartwarming-it's great for kids of all ages. It also uses the technology in service of the story instead of the other way around. A fantastic acheivement that likely won't get it's due because of the perception of it as a kiddie movie. As I said previously, a movie that makes you happy to be a person is, by defination, a good movie. (A special nod to Alec Kazam, the magician's rabbit star of the short before the movie. I'm happy to say a Alec feature is forthcoming, one I will be looking forward to greatly.)


Other notable films:

Also in from the 'good propaganda for humanity' category "Be Kind Rewind" also warmed my heart in 2008. Hopefully, that one, with it's gentle simple story, will find even more fans on DVD.

Though it was not as good as the book-as a true blue fan my expectations were super high-"Appaloosa" was a fine and respectful adaptation. The interplay between Viggo Mortensen and Ed Harris was spot on and should rank among the best of the cowboy buddy portrayals. Unfortunately, not enough people saw this one for it to make much of a splash come award time.

The same could be said for "Frozen River" which featured the criminally underused Melissa Leo (somebody get her another show already!). It's not easy or fun but well worth the time and attention.

Somebody who will be celebrated at award time, and justly so in my book, is Heath Ledger. His Joker went so far above and beyond the normal superhero criminal mastermind as to raise the bar permanently. He will and should be nominated and recognized for such work.

"Man on Wire" was my favorite documentary of 2008. I still think about images from that movie months later.

And last, but certainly not least, "4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days" blistering portrayal of friendship and the lengths people will go to in its name is forever burned on my brain. I wonder still what I would have done in that situation and if I would have been found wanting. People on both sides of the divide that is the debate on abortion should check it out.

What Christmas Should Look Like

This Christmas More Than Ever

"But Ma asked if they were sure the stockings were empty. Then they put their hands down inside them just to be sure.

And in the toe of each stocking was a shining bright new penny!

They had never even thought of such a thing as having a penny. Think of having a whole penny for your very own. Think of having a cup and a cake and a stick of candy and a penny.

There had never been such a Christmas."


-Laura Ingalls Wilder

Random Holiday Thought #53

What does Frank Sinatra know from one horse open sleighs anyway?

Dude was from Hoboken.

It's a Classic Retail Joke

Good News: You have 2 days off in a row!

Bad News: They're Monday and Tuesday!