I know a lot of bloggers do retrospectives at the end of the year. But I would like to close the door on 2009 without looking back.
Yes, I realize that it’s possible that 2010 could be worse. Much worse. But I’ll face that if it actually happens. For now, I’m ready to put 2009 behind and have a fresh start.
So, goodbye 2009 and good riddance.
I went to see the new Jason Reitman film, Up in the Air, last weekend. And I liked it, even though the story is a bit of a downer in this economy. After all, watching Ryan Bingham, George Clooney’s character, fly around the country firing people isn’t very uplifting when people all around me have been fired in real life. But it wasn’t as hard to watch as I expected. And, after all, if you are going to be fired, you might as well be fired by someone who looks like George Clooney and who has as nice a manner as the Ryan Bingham character.
It’s a very timely story, not only because of the current economic times. It also explores the use of technology. Breaking up by texting. Quitting a job by e-mail. Firing someone on a teleconference. Technology is good, but some blows need to be softened by delivering the message in person. On the other hand, unexpected blows are still unexpected blows even if you receive them in person.
And there is really great male-female role reversal in this film.
I wasn’t familiar with the novel, written by Walter Kirn. According to Kirn it got good reviews and was selling well for a brief time and then … 9/11 happened. Nobody wanted to read a novel about flying. Kirn says he never expected a movie of the novel to get made. But it did. And it’s good.
But, let’s face it. I wanted to see George Clooney and I was hoping it was a decent story but I was really there to watch locations. And to see if I recognized any extras. The movie was filmed here in St. Louis for a couple of months last spring. We don’t get that many movies filming here so we aren’t jaded enough to complain about the inconvenience. We were excited. But we are also midwestern and polite. So we didn’t let our excitement interfere with any of the filming. That would have been rude.
There were George Clooney sightings reported all over town. I never saw him. But my sister AB did and so did my cousin MM. In fact, AB and MM saw George at the same location, outside the little church in Maplewood where the wedding scene was filmed. Each of them was so excited to see George in person that they didn’t even notice that the other one was there too, standing only a few feet away, until they compared notes later. My cousin MM actually shook George’s hand. Sometimes, if we are really nice, she’ll let us touch that hand.
We all wondered why they chose that church as a location. St. Louis has a lot of churches and many of them are quite lovely. That one isn’t. It’s boxy and plain and drab colored. The day they filmed was a sunny spring day and it was pretty warm. But there was fake snow everywhere and all the actors had to look cold.
When AB and I went to see the movie, we realized that in the film the church was supposed to be in northern Wisconsin and AB, who lived in Wisconsin for a while, said it all now made sense. Because it did look like the kind of church you would find in northern Wisconsin.
My friend MZ was actually an extra in the movie, in the wedding scene filmed inside the church. The casting company was looking for an organist and called a mutual friend who is one of the best organists in the country. He was pretty excited that they called until it turned out they wanted a woman organist and only wanted him to recommend someone. So he recommended MZ.
MZ had some pretty good stories. The movie people asked her what she usually wore to play the organ and she said she usually wore something black (to fit in with the choir). Oh no, they said. No black. What else would you wear, they asked? Well, she said. Sometimes I wear white. No. No white either, they said. We want something floral. MZ didn’t own anything floral but she went out shopping and found a dress. On the day of shooting she actually played the organ. In the movie you see her playing. Well, actually they only show her hands but WE knew it was her. And the thing is, you have no idea what she’s wearing.
MZ told us that for the wedding scene the casting people wanted to pick extras who in real life actually DID the things that they would be doing in the movie. They chose a woman who is actually a wedding planner and had her run around organizing things. She was the wedding planner one of my colleagues recently used to help with her daughter’s wedding. I’ve never met her and, truthfully, I forgot to look for anyone doing “wedding planner” things. Maybe I’ll have to go back and see it again with someone who knows her.
My best friend, H, works in an office building downtown and she called me one day to tell me that they were shooting in the plaza outside her building and there had been “George” sightings. She never actually saw him. But I recognized the building in the movie.
We were told that one reason they chose St. Louis is because they wanted a city that could be “every” city. And we really do have diverse architecture. So when George was supposed to be in Chicago he was really knocking on the door of a house in Lafayette Square here. And let’s face it, nondescript office buildings are … nondescript. They can be anywhere. We have a lot of those.
We were also told that they chose St. Louis because there were going to be lots of scenes in airports and after American Airlines moved its hub out of here … well, let’s just say we have a lot of empty airport to rent out. It was actually a little annoying to see how nice they were to American Airlines in the movie. Loyalty. meh.
After the movie was over AB and I talked about how a lot of the scenes in the aiport weren’t in the empty concourses but were in the main parts of the airport. They used all four security checkpoints – to make it look like they were in different airports. I think they used all the entrances too.
We watched the credits all the way through to the end. After all, we the taxpayers of Missouri gave them a lot of incentives to come film here, we might as well see our “thank you”. There were a lot of thank you’s. Most you would expect – the State, the City, the Airport Authority. And the St. Louis Blues hockey team. The Blues? Neither of us could remember seeing any hockey in the movie. I wonder what they did?
The 2009 winter solstice occurs on Monday, December 21 at 12:47 p.m. (EST). After that the days begin to get longer. Thank you whoever is in charge up there. I need more daylight.
Winter solstice is the traditional time of midwinter festivals and the Vikings celebrated it a “yule”. Being fairhaired Irish I’m probably descended from the Vikings. At least, I like to think so. And my English ancestors came over with William the Conqueror from Normandy. And William and his followers were descended from Vikings. It’s true – you can look it up.
So I’m going with Yule being a tradition in my family going waaaaaaay back.
The winter solstice is always observed at Woodhenge (across the river in Cahokia) at sunrise on the nearest Sunday to the actual date, which was this morning. I’m not really sure why people think spiritual events always have to happen at the ungodly hour of sunrise. Can’t a person be spiritual at sunset? I know I’m much nicer at sunset than at sunrise and being nicer seems essential to spirituality. I feel certain that Vikings weren’t very nice in the morning either.
In any event, I didn’t attend the solstice activities. I never do. But my halls are decked and my gay apparel is standing by.
I’m ready to troll.
I haven’t been much in the spirit this year. Truthfully, 2009 has sucked and I can’t wait for it to be over. So I’m much more interested in getting past New Year’s this year than the Christmas holidays.
I never put up a tree in 2008 because I wasn’t much in the mood last year either, what with the total meltdown of the economy and everyone wondering if they were going to have a job in 2009 and all. This year I went back and forth on the whole tree thing. I wasn’t planning on having any holiday parties and my “big” tree is, well, pretty big. It takes a long time to put up (and take down). It seemed like a lot of work for just me to see.
I almost ditched the whole idea but it has been such a downer of a year that I thought I ought to do something rather than nothing. So I got out the little tree that I used to use before I moved into my current house and put it up in my study /tv room where I spend most of my time anyway.
I found my holiday playlist and realized that most of my holiday music didn’t even get played in 2008. So I’m playing some of it this year. But it all sounds pretty much like this to me:
It’s supposed to snow tonight. Maybe that will get me in the mood.
Update: More fun from Andif:
Booking Through Thursday asks:
What do you think of speed-reading? Is it a good way to get through a lot of books, or does the speed-reader miss depth and nuance? Do you speed-read? Is some material better suited to speed-reading than others?
I don’t have an issue with the concept of speed reading non-fiction. I don’t speed read myself but I can read very fast when I want to and part of the reason is that I naturally do some of the things that they teach you in speed reading. I skim through taking in key words.
But I don’t think that works for fiction. I can read fast, and I’ll skim parts of fiction, but I’m looking for the point where I can slow down again. I agree with Evan Maloney who recently wrote in the Guardian:
Did the world's great novelists really spend years agonising over the pitch and rhythm of their sentences so some time-efficient post-modern reader could skim over the text like a political spin doctor searching for soundbites in the transcript of a ministerial speech? I don't think so. Speed reading might be an effective tool for office documents, textbooks, and letters of unrequited love, but the prose of great literature should be savoured, should it not? Part of the joy of reading comes from "hearing" our psychic palates pronouncing the words in the mind's ear; the imagined speech, "richly flavoured like a nut or an apple".
When I’m in the middle of a novel I’m loving, I want to slow down, not speed up.
But let’s go back to the BTT question. I really do think that some people want to get through a lot of books and the question I have is, why? It’s a real question, not snark. I really don’t understand the concept of getting through a lot of books as a goal in and of itself UNLESS it is for a class and is assigned reading. I certainly wish I had more time to read. And when I do (when I’m on vacation) I can go through a book a day easily. But I don’t do it as a competition, I do it as a joy that I have time to read a pile of books I’ve been wanting to read. And there is no way I could keep up that pace in non-vacation times, my life is too full of other things.
Whereas, I sometimes suspect that there are readers who view reading in a competitive vein; who really want to be able to say that they’ve finished a lot of books. Or, sometimes when I read book blogs I sense that there is a certain amount of peer pressure (which may be perceived and not real); a feeling that one needs to keep up with everyone else. Not that it is a competition but that a person can’t be taken seriously if she doesn’t get through a number of books on a regular basis.
I question whether a reader really wins by pointing to the quantity of her reading rather than the quality.
In any event, not much reading (speed or otherwise) going on these days in my life. Too busy with other things. But after the holidays …
Have you been following the story of the huge iceberg that is headed toward Australia? It’s really big. Big as in 144 sq. kilometers big (that would be 54 square miles big).
If you’re not sure how big that is, then think on this: Manhattan is 88 sq km. It would fit comfortably inside that iceberg.
Wow.
And the worst thing about it? I now have that Celine Dion song from Titanic in my head and it won’t go away.
I’ve never done the “Teaser Tuesday” meme before. Here’s how it works:
Grab your current read.
Let the book fall open to a random page.
Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
This is from the page I’m on:
Simultaneously the thought came to her that should her parents know of this it might not be possible for her to continue this relationship in any form, let alone to develop it or to enjoy it in the future. Yet regardless of this thought now, which arrested and stilled her for a moment, she continued to yearn toward him.
from: An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser, p. 380 (Signet Classic).
I've been enjoying this novel but haven't had much time to read so I'm not even half way through it yet.