2012 is the year I find a home. Sooo... there's this meme going around about reflecting on 2011 and determining your theme for 2012. And that's my theme: 2012 is the year I find a home.
In 2011, I wrote out a list of intentions I called "Learn-Go-Do." I didn't get to all of them, but I did get a great start on them - I went to Spain, visited three American cities I to which I'd never been, finished the first Rosetta Stone module to improve my Spanish, learned how to knit lace and how to needle felt ... I was busy. And I'm resolved to keep the list going as a living document of intention.
On the bottom of the list, however, was a one-word item.
It said: "Move"
As in, move into a new house. For the first five months of 2011, I was pretty sure I was going to pick up and move from Houston to Seattle during the summer. But then a whole bunch of stuff happened that turned everything upside down. So I waited. And waited. And the waiting became a holding pattern.
Now, I don't know where I want to move. I have a heart divided.
Here's what my heart wants:
The Pacific Northwest. Trees! Family! Huckleberries and coffee stands! Lakes!
Texas: Sun! Friends that have become family! An economy that has stayed relatively stable!! Did I mention - sun!?
HOW COULD ANYONE DECIDE?
A holding pattern is no good. I'm not into that. I need to get serious about this decision, and so: 2012 is the year I find a home.
In the place where I work, when a big change needs to happen, we establish a vision, and then we determine the steps to getting there. So I'm going to outline the vision here, and then the steps will come in other posts (as I think of them...).
THE VISION
A year or so ago, I took a course called Mondo Beyondo: An Online Course in Dreaming Big. In the course, you create a list of the big dreams you have for your life. In my list, I wrote this:
I live in a house in the woods. It's near water. There's a garden for vegetables. Maybe it's a cabin. No dogs, but 1-2 cats. Chickens. There's a porch with a swing and room for nieces and nephews to come visit. They can stay all summer. In the morning, drinking coffee on the porch every day (it NEVER gets cold in this place). Friends live nearby (or on the property). We have a little community.
I think my vision today is similar. Here's what my heart desires in a home:
Family and/or friends are nearby
I can gradually increase the amount of food that I will produce on my own (just gardening and chickens in the beginning, but maybe moving up to goats -- my mom calls this dream "the farm")
My house is small and so I have a minimal footprint
I can work from home comfortably
Although I'm in the country, I am near enough to a city that I can enjoy the cultural events that I like
I realize this is a big dream.
But I took a course. I'm certified in dreaming big.
And so... we come to the end of the list of 31 things I liked in 2011. Even though I put these in no particular order, I find that many of my absolute favorites are ending up on this last segment, which seems fitting.
This weekend, you can expect my post about New Year's intentions for 2012. Maybe I should resolve to be more timely with my posts in 2012!
As always, if there's stuff you liked in 2011, leave a comment!
George R.R. Martin (Game of Thrones, Dance with Dragons)
Geeks, rejoice! Geekery went mainstream this year, as Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series made headlines as an HBO series (of course, many geeks don't rejoice when their hidden gems become mainstream, but this geek is OK with it, because popularity begets the longevity that most of my geek favorites never receive). The TV series --beautifully acted, bloody; and of course, nakeddy, being on HBO -- inspired many, including me, to pick up the books that it is based on. All just in time for the arrival of the fifth book in the series, Dance with Dragons, which left readers with impossible cliffhangers. Here's hoping that Martin doesn't take six years to write book six, as he did with Dance.
Supernatural Saturday: BBCA
To continue with the geekery ... nothing is geekier than Doctor Who. Let's just face up to it, Whovians. Yes, that's what we call ourselves, we who love the Doctor. It was a great year for the Doctor, with a twisty-turny ongoing plot about a stolen baby, melting doppelgangers, and headless (literally) monks. When the Doctor wasn't visiting Earth, BBC America ran its other sci-fi/fantasy offerings on Saturday nights; my favorite was Primeval. Best episodes: "A Good Man Goes to War" (Doctor Who); "Episode Three" (Primeval) -- which was about spring-heeled Jack!
Katy Perry and Floria Sigismondi
I'm sure that you know who Katy Perry is. You know, that busty gal with candy-apple-red lips? You may not know Sigismondi's name, but she's the director responsible for two of Perry's gorgeous videos: "E.T." and "The One That Got Away." I love these lush, story-telling videos because they hark back to the days when music videos seemed deeply profound, or at least deeply crazy (see: Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer, A-Ha's "Take on Me"). I find the video for "E.T." to be especially beautiful. Props to Perry for allowing herself to go weird in this one. (But no props to Kanye West for phoning in his "feat." role. Really, Yeezy? "Imma disrobe you/ Then Imma probe you"? A dirty-minded twelve-year-old could have written that).
Neville!!! (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2)
Cardigan. Clumsiness. Heck... his name is Neville. But the alternate "boy who lived" kicked it in the final installment of Harry Potter, proving to be the most loyal, most effective member of Dubledore's Army.
The Magician King, by Lev Grossman
Grossman continued his meditation on children's fantasy novels (like Harry Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia) with The Magician King. Like in his previous novel, The Magicians, Grossman went beyond simple satire to give us a portrait of what it might look like if the guy down the street ended up in a fantasy world. The results are devastating. And ever since I read it, I can't think about foxes without cringing (actually, Grossman seems to have a thing about fox sex ... shudder)
Melanie Moore(So You Think You Can Dance)
This summer I went to a wedding, and a good friend brought his girlfriend, who's a dancer. The two of us discovered that we were both fans of SYTYCD and proceeded to annoy the other passengers in our car with our rhapsodizing about Melanie Moore, the eventual winner of Dance's 2011 season. My new friend said, "she has such energy, even in her stillness." And that is exactly right. To any of you who have taken a dance or a yoga class, you know that stillness and small, slow movements are incredibly difficult. Moore made every moment a joy, whether standing still or launching herself fearlessly into the air.
Justified (FX)
As a child of rural America, sometimes when I'm watching Justified, I get really depressed. It's so spot-on in its depiction of the edge of American society that I can't help but get a little chill. There but for the grace... and all that. In 2011, Justified took its portrait of backwoods America to new heights with the introduction of Margo Martindale as a villain who was truly a match for the super-cool Raylan, played by Timothy Olyphant. Even as I cringes, I couldn't look away. To me, it's a portrait of law and disorder that hits closer than the much-lauded Breaking Bad... but that might be the difference between growing up scared of bears and growing up scared of Volvos. HitRecord Hits Publish (hitrecord.org)
HitRecord is the brainchild (such a weird term) of Joseph Gordon-Levitt (yes, that kid from Third Rock from the Sun, but if that's your picture of him, I recommend you watch Brick, Mysterious Skin, or The Lookout). HitRecord is an online collaborative art space, where artists post media and freely allow others to take their work and remix it. This year, HitRecord released two "mainstream" collections of work: Recollection, Vol. 1and The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories, Vol. 1. Make no mistake. HitRecord is the future of art: a collaborative, royalty-free zone of equality. With really cute illustrations.
The Deschanel sisters (Bones, The New Girl)
Zooey and Emily. Wow. What a pair. In The New Girl, Zooey took her cute quirkiness to a new high. And should anyone say her quirk is unrealistic ... well, you obviously haven't met my sister and me. On Bones, Emily Deschanel navigated a tricky high-wire act as she played out the results of her show's lengthy "will-they-won't-they" dance. They did. And Emily remained true to her character, even as the character went through life-changing events.
Homeland (Showtime)
Full disclosure: I watched the entire first season of Homeland in two days. And I really don't know what to say. Watch it. Just watch it. Homeland is about the way that war ravages us; in a world where we're taught to believe that war bestows glory upon us, no one comes out clean. Claire Danes, Damian Lewis, and Mandy Patinkin (squee! says my Broadway fangirl) are the standouts in this meditation on honor, duty, religion, and madness. Did I mention that you should watch it?
The second annual
Light Green pop culture round-up! If you liked stuff too, share in the
comments!
Bromances: Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows, Crazy
Stupid Love, A Dangerous Method
I actually hate the term bromance, but it does evoke what I
mean: complicated, loving friendships between men. In the past year, it’s as if
Hollywood finally realized that men’s friendships can be as deep and rich as
women’s; and are not only forged through war, sports, or when a black cop and a
white cop are paired together. In the second Sherlock Holmes film, Robert
Downey, Jr. and Jude Law re-kindled the crazy chemistry they displayed in the
first one. Crazy Stupid Love was a
little lame when it came to boy-girl stuff, but the friendship between Ryan
Gosling and Steve Carrell was the heart of the film. And in A Dangerous Method’s advertising
campaign, they featured Keira Knightley, but the movie was really a love story about Freud and
Jung.
“Civilian”, by
Wye Oak
I haven’t fallen this hard for a song since I was a teenager
and songs meant everything. “Holy Holy” from the same album is pretty damn
great as well.
Rooney Mara and
Daniel Craig, in The Girl With the
Dragon Tattoo
Let me just be honest, I think Stieg Larsson wrote
awkwardly, and plotted clunkily. I got so bored reading The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest that I just quit reading it. But
he did create one of the greatest modern literary characters in Lisbeth
Salander. Rooney Mara, playing Salander in the American film based on the book,
is a revelation, completely inhabiting the hunch-shouldered hacker punk. And
with Daniel Craig playing Mikael Blomkvist, the character finally seems like he’s
a match for Lisbeth. The two duet perfectly, giving performances that are
marvels of interiority. As an added bonus, the movie’s soundtrack kicks ass.
Camp, by Childish Gambino
For a while, hip-hop has felt a little stale to me. I mean,
I don’t get all of the end-of-the-year praise for Jay-Z and Kanye’s Watch the Throne, when it seemed like
folks weren’t too blown away by it when it first came out. And Drake, c’mon…
speed it up a little bit, friend. Then along came Camp, by Childish Gambino (the alter ego of comedian and actor
Donald Glover). And suddenly, rap felt fresh again. The rhymes are clever and
reward close listening; Glover’s flow is smooth as needed and pleasantly chunky
at other times; the music is awesome. The
subject matter of Camp feels new too.
It’s about insecurity, forming your identity, and coping by turning to
performance. Best tracks: The first
five songs are great, and I particularly like the fifth, “Heartbeat.”
The Night Circus, by
Erin Morgenstern
I can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t want a magic circus to
suddenly appear in his or her town. A circus with labyrinths and ice gardens,
wishing trees and glass bottles holding scents that tell stories. A circus
where magicians duel and fall in love. Where kittens do tricks, and the air
smells of caramel. The night circus isn’t coming to your town, so you’ll have
to sink into the world of Morgenstern’s lovely book. I’m sure it will be made
into a movie, but I’m just as sure that when committed to the screen, the
circus will lose some of the magic it has in our imaginations.
Charlize Theron and
Patton Oswalt, Young Adult
I’m not gonna lie, I have a huge crush on Patton Oswalt, so
I was pretty excited to see him in Young
Adult. I knew he was going to be good. What surprised me, however, was how
good Charlize Theron was opposite him. I know she’s a good actress, but her
taste in projects doesn’t seem to ever line up with my taste in movie-going. Playing
a high school mean girl who never moved past the binge drinking or the
entitlement of senior year, Theron goes all in to create a character who isn’t
saved and doesn’t learn lessons. She and Oswalt are pure, cringe-inducing
pleasure every time they’re on screen together.
Drive
If Ryan Gosling’s character, Driver, ever met Lisbeth
Salander, we’d probably have an incredibly violent silent film on our hands. Driver
takes taciturnity to a new high. He’s a stunt driver for the movies who
moonlights as a getaway driver. Drive is
super-cool, hearkening back to those L.A.
movies where the city’s pavement plays a supporting role. Other cool things about the movie: Albert
Brooks, playing a pure badass; Gosling’s satin scorpion jacket; the movie’s
soundtrack. Warning, however: this is not a film for the squeamish.
Moves Like Jagger, by
Maroon 5
Granted, if there weren’t actual moves by Jagger in this video, it would just be Adam Levine
without a shirt (again… seriously, Adam, there are children in the Philippines who
are trying to feed their families. Buy some shirts, man). But there are moves
by Jagger.
Bad Lip-Reading, the internet
Because those Republican candidates deserve it. Special
bonus points for the bad lip-reading of Michael Buble’s song, “Haven’t Met You
Yet”, transforming it into the hilarious “Russian Unicorn.”
Vampire Diaries, the
CW
You know how most shows save their big plot twists for
sweeps months? Well, the producers and writers of The Vampire Diaries have totally thrown out that playbook. Instead,
they have the confidence to give us major plot developments every week –
sometimes two or three per episode (they usually have a big reveal around
minute 48, and you’re sure the episode will end, then they give you 5 or 6 more
minutes). Sure, this strategy is risky. You could jump the shark. But so far,
there’s no sign of water skis in sight, as the excellent cast races right along
with the breathless plotting.
Seeing Stars: Visionary Drawing from the Collection, The Menil
Collection, Houston, TX
I got to see my first, real Henry Darger drawing. I think my heart might have stopped. Collecting
works by folk, naïve, and outsider artists, this exhibit is both one of the
loveliest and one of the saddest things I have ever seen.
Another year is coming to a close, and it’s time for the second annual 20+… Things I Liked, a year-end pop culture round-up.
I’m no critic, I’m just a pop culture fan. I like network television and young adult novels. There are lots of well-reviewed movies of 2011 that I have yet to see. I don’t watch Louie, for no other reason than that I have no idea what channel it’s on. But I like stuff. And here are some of the things I liked in 2011.
If you have favorites from 2011, feel free to share them in the comments!
Optimism:sitcoms, various channels
The economy sucks. The environment is in trouble. A bunch of douchebags are running for president. But goldarnnit, we’re Americans and Americans try to look on the bright side. That’s probably why there are so many sitcoms these days about people who find joy wherever they can: in a cobbled-together family (Community) or a real one (Modern Family); in local government (Parks & Recreation); in suburbia (Suburgatory), or in small towns (Raising Hope). The half-hour comedy has come back in a big way, shaking off the overly-ironic P.O.V. that dogged humor during the early aughties, and turning to holy fools who are just trying to do the best they can. (See also: How I Met Your Mother, The Middle, Up All Night, The New Girl)
Lonely Boy: song by the Black Keys
Yeah. My dad dances like this guy.
Let England Shake, by PJ Harvey
Back in the days when Sassy was still a magazine, any self-respecting riotgrrrl had PJ Harvey in the tape deck of her beat-up Hyundai (that was my sister. I was not cool). Polly Jeanis still cranking out throaty primal yells and haunted melodies. This year, Let England Shake shook up “Best of” lists and iPods with its musical meditations on war and peace. I read one review that claimed the album was like “homework.” I don’t know what school that guy went to; if I’d gone there I might not have felt the need to repeatedly ask my teachers: “Why are we learning this again?” In a year of revolt, PJ schooled us in the need to keep the consequences of our government’s actions at the forefront of our minds. Best tracks: “On Battlefield Hill”, “In the Dark Places.”
Speaking of tape decks and riotgrrls…
Women Who Rock (and rap),various artists
In the same decade that my sis was rocking out to PJ Harvey, we were also sitting in the grass at the Columbia Gorge Ampitheatre, “rocking” out to the Indigo Girls and Natalie Merchant at Lilith Fair. The attempted resurrection of Lilith Fair this summer might have been a bust, but you can create your own substitute on your iPod, because women have put out some of the best music of the year (and some of the most profitable). While Adele’s 21 and Florence + the Machine’s Ceremonials racked up the radio play, 2011 also saw major new music from St. Vincent, Feist, Lykke Li, Nicki Minaj, and female-fronted outfits like Cults and Wye Oak. I’m sure that my friend Andy is glad to receive a reprieve from the annual drubbing he gets when his year-end compilation CD doesn’t contain any female artists. I’m betting he’s not the only one whose “Best of” list will be looking a little friendlier toward the XX chromosome combo.
Michael Fassbender
Any one of the five people who saw Michael Fassbender in last year’s Fish Tank knew that he was about to tear up the movies. When Jane Eyre came out earlier this year, a comment of, “Michael Fassbender is great,” would have received blank stares, and in X-Men: First Class, he was the less famous guy in a lead role. It wasn’t long though, before Fassbender began to get the acclaim he should have gotten for earlier roles, and there’s even talk of Oscar for his role in Shame (which I haven’t seen yet, because: bummer). Fassbender brings an adult gravity and masculinity to his roles that many American actors just don’t seem to have; plus, you know, he’s easy on the eyes.
English Country Houses (Jane Eyre, Downtown Abbey, The Hours)
Michael Fassbender might have been stomping around one of the most famous fictional English Country houses when he encountered Jane Eyre in the corridors of Thornfield Hall, but 2011 was a big year for other drawing rooms as well. On PBS, Downtown Abbey brought new vigor to the upstairs-downstairs drama, while on BBCA’s The Hours, a key episode made great use of the immature frivolity that accompanies the “weekend at the country house” plotline. Why are these once-musty tropes being spruced up? Maybe it’s because in our sour economy, open acknowledgement of class in these dramas seems refreshing. Or maybe we just love a good waltz. (Or the Grizzly Bear… you DA fans know where I’m comin’ from, yo!)
The Beginning and the End (The Tree of Life and Melancholia)
Serious spiritual concerns are often absent from the movies, but this year two major directors turned their lenses on the metaphysical, illustrating the beginning of our world and its end. Terrence Malick showed us the evolution of life on earth, connecting the macro to the micro as he linked the life of a Texas family to the motions of the universe. Malick’s movies always explore our inner conversations with God, and the Tree of Life had the same whispered monologues that are a hallmark of his work (despite all the praise for this movie, I still don’t like it as much as Malick’s The New World, which is probably my favorite movie). Lars von Trier, in Melancholia, ventured into another territory: the terrible silence of God in our modern world, and the ferocious pull of depression, which can be as inexorable as gravity. Both films, however, gave us transcendental cosmic images that had the massive scale of the best action movies but the moral heft of two of cinema’s deepest thinkers.
This Party Just Took a Turn For the Douche,Garfunkel & Oates
You know who else gets metaphysical? Effin’ John Donne, as the adorable Kate Micucci points out in this hilarious, allusion-filled video. You probably recognize Micucci and her partner in comedy, Riki Lindhome, from their many TV roles, but if you don’t know their comedic song stylings, however, get thee to YouTube immediately!
Bridesmaids
Yeah, yeah. Cute girls, like Garfunkel & Oates, can be funny. Pretty women can be funny too. Big women and little women. Old and young. All can be funny. The press seemed to be totally surprised by this fact, as evidenced by the rapturous essays that were produced in reaction to the movie Bridesmaids, heralding a transformation in America’s taste in funny. But seriously,what is there to be awestruck about? People like good movies with funny people in them. They like stories about people, rather than stock characters. The pundits should just shut up and laugh along with the rest of us.
Robyn’s Body Talk Tour, Houston Warehouse, February 19, 2011
I don’t think I’ve ever danced so much in my life. But none of the dancing from the energetic audience could compare with the hyperkinetic moves of the Swedish chanteuse herself.
