Our year in photos – 2017
Pictures of the family from across the world.
All posts filed under: Best Of…
Year-end compilations and collections
Quest for the Best (Picture): The Best-Laid Plans Edition
Well, Candice and I were on a roll to get to all nine Best Picture nominees prior to Sunday night’s Academy Awards show. But then two sold-out theatres (when we tried to see Fences and Lion), trips to Tennessee (both of us) and Florida (Candice), a board meeting, and a very bad head cold (the last two are mine) intervened. So the four I ranked on February 18th are the only ones we’ll see prior to the awards show. I’m sorry we did not see the other five nominees, and especially Fences and Arrival. This was an especially rich year for Best Picture nominees. Of the four that we saw, the odds-on favorite to win the Oscar is La La Land. It is a delightful movie, but compared to the other three we saw, it is a lightweight. What most reviewers note is that the voters love nothing better than to award good films about making films. In reflecting on the other three – Hidden Figures, Manchester by the Sea, and Moonlight – I think …
Quest for the Best (Picture) – Part 3
Earlier this week Candice and I saw the fourth of this year’s Best Picture nominees. Manchester by the Sea is both a tragic story and a well-crated, artful movie. It is very much a deserving nominee for the Oscar for Best Picture of the year. The script is the first star here, in that the movie tells a story full of flashbacks and dreams that let the story unfold at a pace that is never rushed yet seems appropriately paced. Lee Chandler – played masterfully by Casey Affleck – returns to his hometown after his brother Joe dies of heart failure. He quickly learns that Joe has made him the guardian of his 16-year-old son, Patrick, played by Lucas Hedges. The relationship of Lee and Patrick could normally be seen as sharing a common grief – if from different perspectives – but as the movie unfolds it becomes clearer that Lee’s grief is much deeper and longer, and is sparked by a return to a town he had to leave in order to live. There …
Quest for the Best Picture (2016), Part 2
After this weekend, Candice and I are one-third of the way towards our annual goal of viewing all the “Best Picture” Oscar nominees. We’ve seen three very different films, but all terrific in their own way. Last weekend we saw Hidden Figures, a wonderful movie with an inspiring story just right for our times. On Friday we again walked up to AFI Silver Theater, this time to see Moonlight. This coming of age film was both difficult and yet ultimately very satisfying. I was initially uncomfortable, because I was disoriented by the context. The story of a young, gay, African American male learning about who he is through the bullying, teasing, and uncertainty was one I could understand. However, the setting – amidst the poverty, racism, and drug culture of Miami – was not familiar. Once I sorted that out in my mind, I saw the strong qualities of this movie on multiple levels. The acting is superb, beginning with Mahershala Ali as Juan, the drug dealer who befriends the main character, Chiron, and Naomie …
Quest for the Best (Picture) Returns
After skipping a year, Candice and I are back and enthusiastic about choosing this year’s Best Picture winner for the Oscars. We started this annual review of the top picture nominees from two highly unqualified movie critics around 2012, and did our last round in 2015. Sometimes in year’s past, we weren’t interested in seeing up to a third of the nominees due to violence or other graphic content (I’m looking at you Quentin Tarantino). But in reviewing the trailers for this year’s class, we’re excited about all of them. We have a month…so let’s go! Today, we walked up to AFI Silver to see Hidden Figures – a marvelous movie that we both highly recommend. A colleague at work told me she had seen it three times already! The story is compelling (especially since it is true) and the ensemble acting is superb. Octavia Spencer as Dorothy Vaughan was especially compelling, but all three female leads were terrific from my perspective. Get yourself to see this movie. Oh, and bring your hanky. Even though …
Top Posts of 2016 (The “Whatever Else Tickles My Fancy” Edition)
As promised yesterday, I’m back with the top posts on More to Come… from 2016 that don’t relate to family and friends. What I’m calling the “Whatever Else Tickles My Fancy” edition. In a year when I took my sabbatical in Rome and Maine, many of the top posts are from those trips. If my day job doesn’t work out, I may have a future as a travel writer! As was the case with yesterday’s top ten, I’ll list them in the order they appeared during the year. I left for Rome in early March, and Time Off was my post to set the stage for my sabbatical. I had a number of nice comments from friends and colleagues with well wishes. I also got to showcase my cool “What Would DJB Do?” mug! My first post from the American Academy came on March 10th, and was entitled Looking Back, Looking Forward. After that, I was posting 3-4 times per week for the remainder of the six weeks we were in Italy. Claire joined us …
Top Posts of 2016 (Family and Friends Edition)
I’m lucky to have patient readers of More to Come… as the blog (like my mind) is often all over the place. In looking back over posts from the past year, I decided to highlight the top ten (in terms of views) in a “family and friends” edition, to be followed tomorrow by a “whatever else tickles my fancy” edition, where I’ll catch the posts that don’t directly relate to family members. Unfortunately, many of the top family posts this year related to death and loss. There were so many losses this year (both family and others who felt like family) that I added a Rest In Peace category to the blog. I’m grateful for the notes and comments these musings brought, but like so many readers I still miss the people who are no longer with us. I’ll highlight the top ten family and friends posts in the order in which they showed up on More to Come… Andrew was asked to join Lady Gaga and 50 other survivors of sexual assault on the …
Our year in photos – 2016
2016 was our year for time in Italy and my last visit with Daddy.
Favorite roots music albums of 2015
I’m not going to pretend that this is a “best of” list for roots music in 2015. With so many things thrown on my plate this year, I haven’t had the time to sample as widely as I would like. (Come to think of it, the last time I felt comfortable enough to publish a “best of list” was 2013!) But I’m very comfortable with a favorites list that just says, “Hey, I like these and I hope you will too.” So with that caveat, let’s see what’s made the cut. The Steeldrivers: The Muscle Shoals Recordings – I’ve loved this Nashville-based bluegrass band for years, even as they have moved through personnel changes that included their lead singer and main songwriter. (More on that later.) The Muscle Shoals Recordings is really the first album where Gary Nichols stepped out on his own as the lead voice for The Steeldrivers – no longer in Chris Stapelton’s shadow. Singer-songwriter Peter Cooper describes it this way: “Right there, at two minutes and ten seconds into the first …
Our year in photos – 2015
2015 featured college graduations, a celebration of Daddy at 90, and a birthday run-in with an ambulance.
MORE TO COME... 