It's off to a goodbad start. Good things: Waking up and being able to move. Recovery party with games of Guillotine and Carcassone. Winning GuillotineBackrubs. Seeing lots of people. Laura is very cute. Tea and yummy food. Bad: Having to wake up. Almost winning Carcassone, then having Andrew steal my field in the final plays. Lack of real food. Horrendously out of tune piano. Coming down with some evil cough that kept me up much of the night, and Chloe until I went to sleep downstairs. Please be 24 hour bug thing?
12/31/05- ****
Happy end of 2005! It was a good year. I spent today baking a lot and visiting with Nora and Chloe and Jenny. I made a cookie dough pie for tonight, banana chocolate chip bread (pumpkin went bad) for tomorrow, and Chloe made curry for tonight's dinner party. It was attended by Andrew, Cameron and Molly, Rachel, and the aforementioned people. Yummy and fun. Then, dressing, and off to Hogmanay, which rocked. My talk throughs went rather well, despite chaos on the floor during them (I can adapt). And I got to dance all the dances, and with most of the people I wanted to dance with. The music rocked also- lively and inventive. Highlights were: grand march with Chloe, Blue Bonnets with Catherine, Sugar Candie with Anna, Mrs. Stewart's Jig with my old candidate class partner Sandy, Gypsy Weaver with BDan (encored after we lost one person, then two, then gained the original person again...which didn't work so well, except it was fun and chaotic), funny setting in Jubilee Jig with Rachel, J.B. Milne (possibly my favorite dance on the program), slowly devolving Ellie's Jig with Cameron and a 3 coupl slip knot and poutsette, Saltire Society Reel with a tired Joanna Pernick, Wild Geese with a tired Eric (and me), MacDonald of the Isles with a flirty Melissa, Reel of the Royal Scots with Nora, but the best of all was The Duchess of Atholl's Slipper. Not because te dance is great, but because of the set- me and Leslie, Chloe, Melissa, Scott, Joanna, Seth and Sarah. We just kept following each other on the reels, getting in each others way, inventing figures, and finishing with a 4 couple allemande. We got lots of befuddled looks from everyone else, but truly it was the greatest moment of controlled chaos in some time. Oh so so tired and sore at the end. Happy start of 2006!
12/30/05- ***
I caught up on sleep, and Chloe got off early, so I met her after work, and we went to see Brokeback Mountain (****). Breathtakingly powerful film, a love story full of raw emotion against a gritty realism. Ang Lee's film explores the accidental love of two ranchhands one summer, undeniably strong, with lasting consequences on each. Each drifts away, marries, but helplessly drifts back, unsure of diretion. Jake Gyllenhaal is Jack, a talkative, emotive, and wanting of more. His wife(Anne Hathaway) is a cold and calculating office manager, whose father is at odds with Jack. Heath Ledger, who gives the best performance I've seen this year, is Ennis, a tight-lipped man who cannot break with realism or pessimism to choose Jake over his wife and children. His wife (Michelle Williams, who is excellent as well) knows more than she will let on at first. Is Jack's idealism disillusionment? These answers are tough to come by here, but watching this romance begin, fall apart, delay, and become inevitably strong and equally impossible is immensely satisfying. Its lack of melodrama or pretension gives it an honest feeling, which allows the stirring ending to shine with the necessary emotion through the quiet reserve of Ledger's remarkable performance. Then pizza, failed attempt at a milkshake, Trader Joes, and Chloe went home, and I to Inverarity. Much fun to see people, and dance a lot of old favorites (Flowers, Dalkeith's, The Gentleman, Sleepy Maggie, Joie, Luckenbooth Broach, Australian Ladies, Asilomar Romantic, Highlanman).
12/29/05- **1/2
Tired. 1 car, 3 airports, 2 planes, 2 buses, 2 subways, 1 phone call, 10 blocks, and 11 hours after leaving home, I arrived at Chloe/Jenny's house, slightly wet, and hungry. I then went off to Joanna's Latke party where there were *tons* of people, about 30, filling one room, spilling out here and there. Tasty latkes and salad and stuff, and seeing all these great people I haven't seen since August, and then coming home to hang out with Chloe and her friend Katie.
12/28/05- ***
Last day in Kansas City was a mad rush of driving everywhere, calling people to say goodbye if I wasn't seeing them, and packing, which was quick. Drove to have breakfast with by maternal grandparents (enjoyable conversation and equally so french toast), then off to have lunch with dad (barbecue, necessary to eat it here where I can), drove to pick up a calendar from my grandparents, drove to meet Melissa and her boyfriend and John and Zach for Syriana. Melissa did not arrive by 7:45 for a 7:40 show, so we went in, and watched the movie. Syriana (****) is a stunning, complexly woven tale of politics, power, and people. Like another excellent film this year, The Constant Gardener, it seamlessy weaves the personal and the global into a riveting tale. It is hard to follow, and even now I'm not sure I get it all, but like Altman films, or Traffic, it is compelling, and enough is understood to remain interested, and enough is hidden to remain glued to the action. In one plot, George Clooney is a governmental agent who is sent on covert operations, betrayed, and then forced to fend for himself. In another, Matt Damon is a man who must weigh family against his prestigious advisory position to a prince. A third involves a lawyer brought into a investigated merger between oil companies. In the middle of these stories is the middle east, with political turmoil, social unrest, oil, money, government, and not always visible lines between right and wrong. For a film full of such weighty issues, it is remarkably nimble in its movement, never preachy or predictable, and certainly never boring. After the movie, I went to meet up with Anne, and after lots of miscommunications, she, Manola, Zach, Chris and Nick (recently returned from Texas), and I went to IHOP, where we enjoyed lots of jokes, conversations, picture taking, and the world's worst waitress, who specifically asked us what we'd ordered a second time, then just brought us a bill for 5 milkshakes, when there were 3, a juice, a pop, chili, and fried cheese sticks. I suggested we just pay it, so that I could be in bed by 2. Well, 2:15.
12/27/05- **
Dinner with Erin and the grandparents tonight. At my favorite restaurant, The Bristol, which has excellent seafood. I had lobster bisque and scallops, which came with risotto and asparagus. And then, creme brulee. They also have the best biscuits I've ever had. Conversation was mostly light and a-political, but I love debating with my grandparents, because we actually manage to understand each other by the end. Today's topic was the patriot act, and we both agreed that the question is not whether civil liberties are important or safety, but where you draw the line. You have to excuse some liberty for government to work, but you don't want to give it all. A very nice evening, and of course Erin is always fun to talk to. Then I went to John's and left again shortly thereafter, because his sister had an emergency. I did laundry instead.
12/26/05- **1/2
Post Christmas recovery was spent largely at home, and then going over to John's to do a crossword puzzle and drink tea. Shopping rushes are best avoided, I think.
12/25/05- ***
Christmas day, as expected, begins early and goes late. It's not the excitement of Santa's visit, but rather the obligations of family visits. I saw lots of family, had yummy pancakes from Grandpa's house, a tasty lunch out, and an enjoyable dinner with my mom's family. Too much food. I also netted some nice items: a very warm shirt, a nice pen (for when I give out autographs as a famous musicologist, or movie extra, whichever becomes more lucrative), tea, and a large chess set, a problem because it's too big and heavy to really pack and cart around, also I hate chess. Good try though. Of note was my mom's family complaining about the ACLU, to which I offered my countering opinion, and was told "not to start something." I guess bringing it up isn't starting something, it's the active disagreement with those that know everything. Sigh. Also on today's agenda was the original 1933 King Kong and the remake. The original is great entertainment. The new King Kong (*1/2) is a terrific film for Christmas, because it's essentially nothing but excessiveness, and slightly headache-inducing. Jackson's update shows a love, I think, for the original one, but like Kong, has no way to voice that love terribly effectively. The biggest success is the cleverness Jackson uses the original, its sequels, and Heart of Darkness. Storywise, there's not much changed from the original, except making it bigger and longer and making the beast more humanized. The latter of these seems to be a positive step, except the film wildly veers from action movie to schmaltz and back again. Some of the scenes between the ape and Naomi Watts are painfully sickening; if Kong were replaced by John Cusack, you'd probably just leave the theatre. Other moments are slapsticky, and still more try to intone significance through the use of slow motion, which only succeeds in abruptly halting the motion and making it even longer. The sprawling and unwieldy remake is a mess of ideas, some successful, some not, and many half-thought out. Jackson tries to evoke 1930's, but keeps adding references and styles which make it contemporary. The action sequences can be clever and thrilling, like the shipwreck, or the running of the apatosuars as the humans dodge them, or (like in Return of the King) they can be full of action, most of which seems to happen in the editing room, and not in the movie itself. There's probably an excellent, swift, smart movie buried under the wreckage of this film, but why bother extracting it when it already exists in the 1933 version?
3:11 PM
