Rudi and I got to more movies this past year than I ever have, averaging a new film every two weeks. That’s thanks in large part to AMC’s free Stubs Insider program, which offers $5 tickets on Tuesdays. We have two AMC theaters close by and a third within the District, so that offers a lot of screens to choose from. I also try to pay attention to free screenings, but those have grown in popularity, so I feel like they’re far harder to get into than they once were.
Anyway, what this means is that we actually saw more than 10 new releases in the theater, as well as catching some of the year’s earlier films on DVD/streaming, so I can do more than just list the only ten films we saw this year. Also worth noting is that these are the films I liked best, rather than the films I thought were the best pieces of art. I can appreciate the importance of a movie without ever needing to see it again. These, on the other hand, I’d re-watch, which is probably the best compliment I can offer.
10. The Greatest Showman: This came out in December 2017, but we didn’t see it until January. Unlike Mary Poppins, this had a stellar soundtrack, which I absolutely adored and which has now spawned a tribute album that I’m eager to listen to. The acting, however, varied, as did the pacing a bit.
9. Bohemian Rhapsody: This was a highly enjoyable, well acted biopic of Freddy Mercury and his time with one of the biggest bands of the 1970s. It truly gave you a sense of how interactive their songwriting and recording processes were.
8. The Post: We didn’t catch this until the summer outdoor movie season, but it was worth it to wait, since they asked Len Downie, a former editor of The Washington Post and a consultant to the film to come and introduce it at the Farragut Square (which sits only two blocks away from the White House and a couple more blocks from the newspaper’s offices) showing. The acting was stellar and it was great to see a counterpoint/companion film to All the President’s Men.
7. Mary Poppins Returns: It was hard to know where to place this one. I liked it, but didn’t love it, in part because I love the original. There were lots of homages to the Julie Andrews version, but this probably falls as far down as it does because it’s a musical and I have a hard time recalling any of the songs, let alone singing them. The acting was solid across the board, and Lin-Manuel’s accent, which drove me nuts in the previews, didn’t bother me during the movie. Also, I loved how colorful it was.
6. On the Basis of Sex: We just saw this last night as the first part of our New Year’s Eve movie extravaganza. A biopic of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s life between her first year of law school and arguing her first court case, which established the precedent for gender bias in federal law. Well acted, the film succeeds in making you love RBG even more. I’m going to see if the library has the documentary about her life that came out earlier this year and will also check out her autobiography. Also the costumes for the 15 years of the film were great.
5. Crazy Rich Asians: I hadn’t been especially excited by the book series when it came out, but the previews made me think this might be fun. It absolutely was, in part because so many of the characters are so over the top and in part because the setting (Singapore) is allowed equal billing to the actors. It inspired me to listen to the book and I’m looking forward to reading the second installment in the book trilogy and to watching the next movie. The soundtrack to this film is very good and surprisingly varied. Also, between her roles in this and Ocean’s 8, I will now investigate every film Aquafina stars in.
4. Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse: This was the final film of last night’s movies (The third film we saw, If Beale Street Could Talk, was one of those films that I can appreciate, but that I didn’t especially like.). I had such high hopes for this film that I was really afraid it wasn’t going to be able to live up to them, but it did. The voice actors did a great job, the writing was solid, they used visuals and sound to their best effect, and they did all that without taking itself overly seriously. Really quite well done.
3. Black Panther: I haven’t hidden the fact that I really enjoyed this Marvel action film when it came out back in February. It did a great job of portraying both Black characters and female characters as strong, multidimensional characters without sexualizing any of them (which is not to say they weren’t sexy), and it featured a villain you were honestly sad to see lose, which I think puts it shoulders above most action-adventure films. I would watch films about pretty much any of the characters portrayed.
2. Christopher Robin: What happens when the human boy from the Hundred Acre Wood moves away, gets older, and grows up? And when he’s about to lose everything? Winnie the Pooh to the rescue. This was an utterly sweet and charming film with surprisingly good and lifelike special effects bringing stuffed animals to life. It absolutely never veered into sentimentality even though it would have been easy to do.
1. Won’t You Be My Neighbor?: This documentary about Mister Rogers was the exact antidote to 2018 we all needed. It showed how Fred Rogers came to be on television and a pioneer in child development and children’s programming, why he gave it up for a period of time, and why he came back to it. It also showed some of his shortcomings and how over time and through soul searching he mostly overcame them. I was already a big fan of his, but his hero status has been underscored of late by his advice to children that when there is a scary situation, they should look for the helpers because there always are some. 2018 was filled with stressful scenarios and, with a lack of national leadership, the sentiment (and its author) are well remembered.
Honorable Mentions (in no particular order):
A Wrinkle in Time (this wasn’t the movie I wanted it to be, but it’s possible that even the movie I wanted wouldn’t have been the movie I wanted)
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
Ralph Wrecks the Internet
Love, Simon
Ocean’s 8
Juliet, Naked
Paddington 2
The Best Netflix Original Movies I Saw This Year (also in no particular order)
(It didn’t seem fair to include streaming films in with big-screen and big-budget films, but also not truly fair to categorize them as television.)
Dumplin’: Based on a book I loved, this is about a plus-sized Texas teen girl, who decides to enter the teen beauty pageant her mother runs in honor of her recently deceased aunt, who, she discovers, once wanted to enter it herself. Several other unlikely contenders also enter with her and they form an unlikely sisterhood with each other and with some of her aunt’s friends.
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before: The letters a teen girl once wrote to each of the five boys she had had crushes on — including the longtime boyfriend of her older sister — somehow end up getting mailed and the main character has to come up with a plan for dealing with that. She decides her best course of action is to pretend to be dating one of them — but lines get blurred.
The Christmas Chronicles: The first holiday season after the patriarch of a Christmas-loving family dies, his preteen daughter and teenage son accidentally mess up Santa’s Christmas Eve deliveries — and end up halfway across the country to boot. This was the best of this year’s streaming and network Christmas original programming, in large part thanks to Kurt Russell’s portrayal of Santa Claus. This is destined to be a holiday classic.
The 2018 film I’m most annoyed at myself for missing was The Hate U Give. It came out when I had volleyball on Tuesdays and Rudi and I had conflicts. I’m already on the holds list for the library copy of the dvd, which I hope arrives shortly after it’s released on the 22nd of this month.
The Broke and the Bookish came out of retirement briefly to conduct their annual Secret Santa book swap earlier this month.
My package came from Lea of Lea Out West. She lives in Lake Tahoe, but her brother lives here in D.C. and surprisingly close by!
It didn’t strike me as unusual that both cats were interested in the box Lea sent. They’re big fans of boxes of any kind. But what I didn’t realize was that Lea had included presents for Jeremiah and Corey. I’d barely gotten the box open to pull things out when Corey hopped up, rooted around inside quickly, and ran off with this squirrel tail:
Jeremiah was not to be left out, but he is older and knew he should wait patiently for me to share a present with him. He got toast.
I’m not sure they shared willingly, but they did each steal the other toy to make sure they got to experience both.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that Lea was my cats’ favorite person that night. It shouldn’t surprise me, since this is the great Christmas card she sent:
But it was not just the cats who got presents. I got some as well!
I’ll be honest. Lea’s package arrived the week before Christmas, and it was kind of a crappy week for me. I was PMSing, the apartment had flooded, my Christmas preparations were not humming along in the way that it felt like they should for someone with no day job to distract them from getting stuff done, and I was in the emotional and mental place one might expect to result from that combination. So I used the package as a daily pick-me-up. Every day I opened a gift or two, and every time I did, the world felt a little bit more right.
I have four new books to read and have already started in on the Christmas-themed one. I’m saving the other three as treats to read this winter (okay, the new Lady Sherlock may only wait until New Year’s Day — I can’t wait to start it!). I have new nail polish in sparkly confetti and purples, which will be the festive manicure I give myself on New Year’s Day while watching the parade. There is a fancy tea to drink late at night when I should be sleeping (like now). There are bookmarks (already in use!), notepads, sparkly pens, stickers, and bags to tuck into purses to hold pens, pads, and knitting needles (the last of those may not have been in Lea’s plan, but they’re just the right size!).
It really is a great package, don’t you think? Thank you so much to Lea for making me a box that I (and the cats) loved and to Jamie and Jana for running the swap again. I had a lot of fun shopping for my swap partner (Megan of The Hungry Bookworm) and got so much enjoyment out of opening each present Lea sent.
As I mentioned yesterday, Riverby Books, one of D.C.’s longtime used bookshops, is closing at the end of the year.
It has long been a favorite haunt of mine when over on on Capitol Hill, and I decided that I wanted to make one final pilgrimage before it was no more.
D.C.’s used bookstores each have their own unique feel. Capitol Hill Books is literally piled high with books. (They sit on the window sills, countertops, and in the bathroom, and used to be piled on the stairs until, I assume, the fire marshal shot that down.) Second Story Books in Dupont Circle has more of a storefront feel, with wide aisles and fluorescent lights. Wall of Books up Georgia Avenue is similar, but takes it further, being a bigger space, but it also is more a bookstore of the people, rather than of the collectors, so there’s less highbrow work and a broader selection. Idle Time in Adams Morgan has more ephemera (paintings and postcards), while Riverby fits into the upscale but laid back category, with a classy main floor (lots of wood, a couple wingback chairs, and a corner where you could brew yourself a cuppa to drink while browsing) aimed at adult bibliophiles and a cozier, more casual basement filled with kids books and a few overflow grown-up sections.
For the holidays, they’d assembled book bundles — trios of books relating to a theme, such as classics or movie fodder or titles based on Shakespeare quotations. This one was my favorite:
And did I come home with anything new, you ask?
As you can see, I had some luck finding an assortment of reading material. There are three books of poetry, including a local anthology; a classic; a middle-grade caper I’ve been meaning to read; three Christmas items (two dvd collections and one novella); and two books on language, including one by Bill Bryson. And with the closing sale discount, it all came out to less than $2.50 per item. Quite a good haul, if I do say so myself.
What you see here is the start of a new shawlette. It’s a pretty blue and a soft yarn and I’m hoping the pattern works with it. I’m knitting it on larger needles than I usually work with, so I’m hoping the sections will fly by.
I finished Winter Stroll tonight, staying up after everyone else went to bed to read by the Christmas tree. It was fine, and I will definitely finish the trilogy up next Christmas, but it wasn’t anything amazing. Winning Her Holiday Love is the other Christmas book I brought up with me and I imagine it will be a quick read. I mean, we’re going home tomorrow, so it won’t be done before I leave Connecticut, but definitely by the end of the weekend. I started listening to Cornelia Funke’s When Santa Claus Fell to Earth when we were driving up and figure I’ll finish it on the drive home. It’s not a long kid’s book, so the audiobook is only a couple hours.
This is the final Wednesday of the year, so you should head over to As Kat Knits to see what everyone else is reading and crafting.
Season’s greetings, readers! We’re back for our final Wednesday before Christmas. While you probably know Dec. 6th is when Western religions celebrate St. Nicholas Day, did you know that Eastern Orthodox religions celebrate it on Dec. 19? So happy St. Nicholas Day, once again!
As I mentioned last week, my Dad (DOD) composed two Virtual Advent Tour posts for us this year. While his first post looked at some of the earliest Christmas carols, his second fast forwards to more contemporary times.
Take it away, DOD!
United Kingdom’s Christmas One Singles
Okay, so not every Christmas pop song originates in the United States and since the passing of Dick Clark and Casey Kasem, other music charts have become even more important than ours. One of the most notable is in merry old England and calls attention to the most popular single recording on Christmas Day of each year. This pop chart began in 1952, and in 1955, the first Christmas themed song to become a number one was “Christmas Alphabet” by Dickie Valentine, a British cover song of a McGuire Sisters hit the previous year in the States. Since then, there have been nine additional Christmas songs, the last of which was the most recent version of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” by Band Aid 20 in 2004.
Christmas Number Ones first gained notoriety in 1973 when British rock bands Slade and Wizzard deliberately released Christmas tunes, “Merry Christmas, Everybody” and “I Wish It Could be Christmas Everyday” respectively. Slade topped the chart on that Christmas. What makes this a contest is since 2002, the singles chart has been fair game for reality contestants, novelty acts, supergroups, retailers, and charities to vie for publicity and fame. The last of the non-professional acts to become the number one single was in 2015, when the leading pop act, Justin Bieber, asked his fans to vote for a charity instead. The winner was a choir consisting of employees from the Lewisham and Greenwich National Health Service Trust (operators of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and the University Hospital in Lewisham). The choir did a number called “A Bridge Over You.” This is a combination of Simon and Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” and Coldplay’s “Fix You.”
Pop acts almost always win the race to Number One. The Beatles are the only act to have four Christmas Number Ones. They are also the only act to have both the Number One and the Number Two Christmas songs. “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen is the only song to have reached the top spot twice (1975 & 1991). “Mary’s Boy Child” is the only song to reach Number One by different artists (Harry Belafonte and Boney M.). “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” has been Number One for three generations of Band Aid.
Here are two contending acts for this year. First, the Christmas advertisement from John Lewis and Partners called “The Boy and the Piano.”
The second is a group of firefighters from across England who banded together as The Fire Tones to raise money through their charity Christmas single benefitting The Firefighters Charity and The Band Aid Trust.
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Have a merry musical Christmas everyone.
Thanks for this post, Dad. Part of what I like about the film Love, Actually is Billy Mack’s (played brilliantly by Bill Nighy) blatant pursuit of a comeback through the Christmas Number One race.
See you all tomorrow for yet another stop on the Virtual Advent Tour!
Greetings, Virtual Advent Tourists! I hope today, the 12th day of the 12th month, finds you well.
I’m pleased to announce that today’s host is a special guest. You may recall that earlier in the month, I mentioned that my dad is a big fan of Christmas music. He is also a reader of this blog (as is my mom), commenting occasionally as DOD. He has been following this year’s Virtual Advent Tour and has written a pair of essays relating to Christmas music for our enjoyment. (This is not DOD’s first contribution to the Virtual Advent Tour; he also penned a piece in 2016.) Today, I’m pleased to publish the first one on his behalf.
Take it away, DOD!
Early Christmas Carols
If you search for the earliest of Christmas carols, you may be disappointed by what you find. The farther back you go, the less likely you will be able to sing along. Also, the actual author of a carol may be hard to pinpoint. The farther back, the harder it gets; no Wikipedia back then. While the majority of the most popular Christmas hymns will date back to the centuries 16 to 20, a few date back to times when monks seem to have held performance rights.
I’d like to call your attention to three if not oldest, then certainly among the elders of popular carols, all of which I (and probably you) have in a record (read tape, cd or digital download) collection. The first is recommended to us by Peter Tork of the Monkees. The song is “Riu Riu Chi” which the group sang on their tv show and later issued on disk. The song is a 15th century Spanish villancico, a medieval dance form. The carol was first published in 1556 in Venice. The song is a narrative sung by a kingfisher (hence the title) and describes how God protected the Virgin Mary from an evil villain (here characterized as a wolf.) Including angels and shepherds in a Christmas celebration is quite popular. The fifth verse is translated:
I saw a thousand Angels who were singing, flying around, chanting in a thousand voices, saying to the shepherds Glory in Heaven and peace on earth for Jesus is born.
Way to go kingfisher. Peter Tork has been quoted as saying it was his favorite Monkees song because it was the only one they performed a capella. It, too, is available on iTunes and Amazon Music, and is a bonus on this year’s Monkees’ Christmas Party album on some cds sold at Target (commercial not intended). Nice song and well performed by Peter and the boys.
The second is a rather upbeat carol, “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” a very popular carol of the 16th century. At a time when hymns were straitlaced and religious, this one was relatively fast and easy to dance to. I’d give it an 8 on Rate this Record. Why people are sometimes confused by this song is the change in definition of some of the language, especially the title. The first bit of clarification is the word merry. While we all think of it as meaning people in good spirits, it originally meant mighty rather than happy. To further clarify the intent of the author, you should know that the word rest originally meant make. So the call to Christians was God make you Mighty. Save us all from Satan’s power (and get out there and dance).
Finally, the third carol I call to your attention is one we all know and again refers to angels and shepherds, “Angels We Have Heard on High.” Ace Collins is the author of a number of books on the genesis of songs, especially hymns and songs sung for Christmas and Easter. He points out in Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas, that while the carol was first published in 1855, parts of it can be found in religious services a hundred and fifty years earlier. Further, the line from the chorus: “Gloria in excelsis Deo,” translates to Glory to God in the highest and dates back to church worship in 130 A.D. Collins asks, “If the words in the chorus go back so far, might the author be someone who knew Jesus personally?†Was it someone whose strong belief in the unique birth of Christ and the heralding of shepherds by angels was easily put into a poem/song easy to write and easy to sing. We don’t have to accept this message, but it is certainly an interesting one.
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Thanks for the opportunity to discuss the songs that many of us grew up singing. I hope that all of this season’s carols bring you joy. And a mighty Merry Christmas.
And thanks to you, DOD, for such a great background piece on some of the oldest carols still in rotation. I feel so much more informed after reading this piece!
See you all back here tomorrow for another mysterious door to open.
