my favorite movies of 2013

Every year I try to follow in my father's footsteps and create a family Christmas newsletter that not only details the events of our lives from the previous year, but also preaches a little, gets gushy about books and pop culture, and makes cute jokes only insiders get.  We do it less for our friends' benefit and more for our own, believing (hoping) that ten and twenty years from now, we'll read back over these newsletters with warm nostalgia for things we'd nearly forgotten.

And hopefully this year I'll get to that.

But first.

All I really want to do is make an annotated list of movies, books, tv shows, and albums that I really loved this year.  I guess I've caught the end-of-year-list-making bug that all the magazines and websites have. As if the woefully uneducated and non-professional opinion of a mother of two preschoolers who rarely gets to go to the movies is worth your time.

Truth be told, though, I love reading these kinds of posts on my friends blogs.  So maybe you'll like mine.  And leave your favorites from the year in the comments, ok?

My favorite movies of 2013, best first:

1. Before Midnight (and the entire Before trilogy)
Over the summer, Jack and I re-watched Before Sunrise and Before Sunset with a couple of our best pals who are a full decade younger than we are, and had never seen them.  Then in July the four of us got to see the third installment, Before Midnight, in theaters.  These movies, told in almost real time and comprised mostly of walking and talking conversations between Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy), are about a relationship, but they're also about what it meant to come of age in Gen X, and what it means to love, and what it means to grow up.  They're gorgeous and even better the second time around. (Jack and I co-reviewed this film for Christ and Pop Culture, too.)

2. Catching Fire
I'm a big fan of the Hunger Games trilogy of books, and this second film adaptation was even better than the first.  Watching Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) struggle to subvert empire truly inspired me to make decisions counter to a culture that values power, fame, luxury, and ease at the expense of the people on the margins.

3. Mud
Real talk: I wanted to see this movie because it was set in south Arkansas and it had Matthew McConaughey in it.  He is more than a pretty face, y'all, and this movie is perfect: a mythic coming of age story, in every way a boy's story, yet I loved it. (Runner up on this note: Kings of Summer. Another gorgeous movie about what it means to be on the cusp of adulthood in summer. All those feelings.)

4. Frozen
After reading sparkling reviews from Christians and feminists and six year old boys on the web, I was set on taking Rosie to see this one.  We had a mommy-daughter date on Saturday, and though halfway through she worried that it was too scary, I couldn't leave (don't worry- by the end she was glad she had stayed).  And I would like to go see it again, please. (P.S. - this guys says it's the best theology rich movie in years.)

5. Safety Not Guaranteed
Jack and I watched this cute indie comedy when it came out on DVD at the beginning of this year. It was surprising and sincere, and Aubrey Plaza was wonderful as always.  (I wrote a bit more about it in this post.)


Runner Up: The Great Gatsby

Have you seen any of these?  What can you recommend I add to my Netflix queue?

(Later this week I'll post books, tv shows, and albums.)

the New Sincerity

Last weekend, Jack and I curled up on the sofa to watch “Safety Not Guaranteed,” an indie comedy about three magazine employees who travel from Seattle to the Washington coast to investigate a classified ad.

“Wanted: Someone to go back in time with me. This is not a joke,” the ad begins. Jake Johnson plays cynical journalist Jeff, Karan Soni is the detached Indian intern Arnau, and Aubrey Plaza excels as the depressed, lonely intern Darius.  Darius, outwardly hostile and standoffish, secretly wishes time travel were real so that she could go back to the time before her mother died.

I’m pretty much going to {spoiler} the whole movie for you here, so skip this paragraph if you want to, but something kind of magical happens when they get to Ocean Shores, Washington: it’s as if they’ve fallen into a wonderland of sincerity, worlds away from the cynicism of Seattle intelligentsia.  Jeff reconnects with an old flame who bakes pies and rubs his shoulders, and he un-ironically falls for her.  Arnau leaves his books long enough to make a friend.  And Darius grows close to Kenneth (Mark Duplass), the writer of the classified ad.  Even after her trust in him is shaken, she chooses to believe in him rather than to embrace her old cynicism, and it seems that the very strength of their sincere connection is what powers his time travel machine (yep, the time machine works - that's the power of sincerity).

The movie is a perfect example of what Jonathan Fitzgerald writes about in his new book Not Your Mother’s Morals (full disclosure: I received a free review copy from Jon, and it's only 99 cents on Amazon right now!).  Fitzgerald, managing editor of PatrolMag.com, Huffington Post blogger, and columnist at Patheos, argues that in pop culture today, “detached irony and cynicism have ceded ground to an emphasis on sincerity and authenticity.  The ‘too cool to care’ attitude that typifies Generation X has become ‘cool to care’ for Millennials. This New Sincerity has become the vehicle for a resurgence in moral storytelling in popular culture.”



In the short book, which is part memoir, part cultural analysis, and part graduate-thesis, Fitzgerald writes winsomely about his upbringing in a slightly charismatic evangelical culture, its suspicion of everything on the television, and the alternatives created by “Christian pop culture”.  His stories are familiar to any of us who weren’t allowed to watch the Smurfs because of the magic, or who rocked out to Amy Grant, you know, until she went “secular” with “Heart in Motion”.

Putting that critical perspective of pop culture he grew up with to good use, Fitzgerald examines how the moral messages about God, Family, and Country in pop culture have changed over the last sixty years or so.  While some evangelical Christians argue that pop culture today is a moral wasteland in comparison to the squeaky-clean offerings of the 1950s, Fitzgerald disagrees. Offering examples from film, tv, music, and books, he shows that a growing emphasis on being sincere has opened up possibilities for honest discussion of morality within our culture, and that that’s a good thing. If sincerity is "in," our sincere Christian faith can't be as easily dismissed.

The kind of morality ushered in by the New Sincerity isn’t a strict code, he argues, but a moral posture, one that acknowledges that what is “right” looks different in different circumstances. Is he arguing in favor of “situational ethics”? my old evangelical self gasps.  Yes, of course he is.  How can morality exist without a situation?  The best stories are the truest ones, and the truest ones show the complexity of our lives, the complexity of our moral decisions. The New Sincerity lets us tell those stories and offer real, moral conclusions without being mocked.

The book is short, and Fitzgerald’s argument needs further fleshing out to be truly compelling.  There are plenty of examples from pop culture that don’t fit his cynical/sincere dichotomy, and some of the examples he uses don’t hold up under deeper examination.  The tv show Glee, for example, demonstrates the power of sincerity, as he notes; but it also demonstrates the weakness of art turned didactic. In addition, Fitzgerald neglects to address the role that changing media has had in fostering the New Sincerity; Lady GaGa connects to her fans in a way that Madonna didn’t in large part because of new media like Twitter, which demands a level of transparency.

In his conclusion, Fitzgerald contends that the New Sincerity is something to embrace, because it offers the best kind of place to dialogue about faith.  Let’s try, he urges, to “stave off” the (inevitable?) descent back into cynicism.  

Maybe I appreciate Fitzgerald's book, and the film "Safety Not Guaranteed," so much because when I was leaving Seattle, almost three years ago, I wrote that it was time in my life “to move out of cynicism and towards sincerity”. Growing in my faith has meant embracing the discipline of earnestness. For those of us who identify with Generation X, sincerity can be a difficult posture in which to reside, but I think I'm with Fitzgerald here. Let's do something that requires sincerity, and the possibility of failure: let's try, and while we may not manage to build a time machine, maybe we'll find that something a little magical - some deeper, truer, human connections - can exist.

a few things in January

Late December to early January is one of my best chances in the year to read.  (I love working on an academic calendar!) Here are a few things I’ve been enjoying:

The Stages by Thom Satterlee - Thom is a friend, poet and writer in residence at Taylor, and fellow member of Gethsemane Episcopal. It's always nerve-wracking to begin a book written by someone you know, because what if it's awful. This book, though, was truly excellent. Here's the review I left at goodreads: "An intelligently written literary mystery, The Stages tells the story of Dan Peters, an American translator (and Aspie) living in Copenhagen. When his colleague and best friend dies mysteriously and a Kierkegaard manuscript goes missing, Peters seeks to clear his own name in the murder investigation.
With a strong setting, well-developed characters, surprising plot twists, and a solid grounding in philosophy, theology, and language, this book is heads and shoulders above most murder mysteries. Highly recommended. (Currently only available on kindle- and a steal at 2.99!)"

Torn by Justin Lee I basically want to recommend this to every Christian I know. Whether or not I agree with every conclusion Lee comes to, his poignant, vulnerable story is one that Christians - especially those who have never had a gay friend - need to hear. This book is not primarily an argument for gay rights or gay marriage, although Lee does take a little time to explain how his mind changed on those topics. It is primarily a story, one that you need to read with an open heart, ready to learn from it without simply jumping to find things you agree or disagree with.

Not Your Mother’s Morals by Jonathan Fitzgerald ebook available here - full review coming soon.

A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton Porter I read this because it's free on Kindle, and because I rememberd my mom recommending it to me like 10 years ago.  I absolutely loved it.  Set in Indiana (!) in the early 1900s, it's a beautiful coming of age story that demonstrates so many American cultural values - self-reliance, pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps, the value of hard work and education. It also has a unique naturalist perspective, and it made me think a lot about humanity, the natural world, and technology. 

As for movies, we really liked Safety Not Guaranteed. Josh Radnor's newest offering, Liberal Arts, was ok, a bit predictable, and really! he's playing the same Ted Mosby role again and again! Jack and I both sobbed through Les Miserables in the theater (and it totally changed his mind about Anne Hathaway - from contempt to admiration), and on Amazon Prime we're watching Foyle's War, which his parents recommended. It's a classic British detective show set in the south coast of England during World War II.

noodles to slurp

There is no movie that makes me want to eat more than Wong Kar Wai's "In the Mood for Love," (2000) which is a beautiful movie and features beautiful people slurping up wonton noodle soup from street stalls in Hong Kong in the 1960s.

Just thinking about this movie always makes us want noodles. And yes, we gave up tv for Lent and haven't watched the film in years, since we were dating, but we have been thinking about it. And so we gave wonton noodle soup a try, and here's what we came up with. It was pretty satisfying, and Rosie-approved.

In the Mood for Wonton Soup (4 servings)

For the wontons:
1/2 pound ground pork
1/2 pound shrimp, deveined, tails off, and finely chopped
1/2 Tbs oyster sauce
1 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoons rice vinegar
1 teaspoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
sprinkling of salt and pepper
40 wonton wrappers, at room temperature
1 tablespoon cornstarch + 1/4 cup cool water

In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients up to the wonton wrappers.
Mix well.
Put a teaspoon of filling in the middle of a wonton wrapper, and brush the cornstarch/water mixture on all edges.
Fold over to form a triangle, press to secure edges, encasing the filling.
Bring two corners together and press to secure.
Place on a dry plate in one layer and cover loosely with plastic wrap to prevent drying.
Store in fridge if not using immediately.

For the broth:
2 quarts chicken broth
1-2 Tbs fish sauce
3 carrots, sliced on the bias
2 cups washed and roughly chopped bok choy
8 oz fresh chinese style noodles (check the fresh produce section where you find mushrooms and tofu...)

Bring the chicken stock and fish sauce to a boil. Add the carrots and wontons. Cook for 3-4 minutes, or until wontons float to the surface. Add the noodles and cook for two minutes. Add the bok choy and cook for one minute more.

Spoon into bowls and slurp!

23 of 52

We went to New York for my birthday, and I'll post about that as soon as I can decide which photos and videos are my favorites. It might take a while. It was a wonderful trip, although for two nights I couldn't fall asleep because (of the three hour time difference and because) I was thinking of Lisbeth Salander. I just love this trilogy, and I love that I got to finish this book on my birthday. It was a satisfying end. And then Katie and I couldn't stop thinking about the best people to cast in the movie version if Hollywood decides to remake it (it looks like the Swedes already made it pretty perfectly).

Babies

April 16, 2010. I can't wait to see this movie.

books and movies

We Walker and Peterson and Lepine sibs went to the movies on Christmas day (was that Christmas day?). We compromised (as some wanted "Up in the Air" and others wanted "Avatar") with Sherlock Holmes, but when we arrived it was already sold out and our only option left was Avatar.

Gene Edward Veith says exactly what Jack and I said about the movie, after seeing it:

"But this {anti-war} political theme, along with the radical environmentalism and pantheistic religiosity, is not what makes this a bad movie. It is possible to portray liberalism, environmentalism, and pantheism with subtlety, complexity, and creativity. Avatar, on the contrary, is stereotyped, cliched, predictable, preachy, sappy, and (ironically) one-dimensional. The characters are superficial, the dialogue is laughable, and there is absolutely no irony, wit, or self-awareness.

Visually, though, the movie is fun to watch. The cinematography, the computer effects, the editing, and the visual spectacle are impressive."

Just how cliched was it? This cliched.

Jack and I did, later, see "Up in the Air". It was a good movie. I wouldn't say it's "everything Hollywood has forgotten how to do," but I enjoyed it, and the acting was stellar.

My sister and her husband have resolved to do 52 in 52 this year. It seems like a good idea. But I laughed when she suggested it, because I can easily read 52 books in a year, many of them slightly embarrassing for an English teacher to admit to. Ah well. My first, read in the car from Georgia to Arkansas on January 1, was Agatha Christie's "At Bertram's Hotel," and it was a satisfying little mystery.


I do hereby resolve that not all my 52 will be mystery novels and parenting books. But a lot of them just might be :-)

spring

Seattle's been sunny for five days in a row now, and today we'll hit 51 degrees. Outside the air smells like dirt and honeysuckle, and wild crocuses are blooming in our front yard. Meanwhile, New York gets hit with a winter storm and Little Rock suffers freezing rain.

Don't believe what they tell you about the rain in Seattle. It's a myth, a natural defense mechanism to protect the city from too many intruders. Seattle is blue sky, tall rows of evergreens, mist rising off a lake, and snow-topped mountains in the not-too-distant distance.

Miss Nancy's new book is out, and I'm going to be using it with some girls at school starting this Friday. If you work with teenage girls, or if you are a teenage girl, you should check it out. I don't usually like these kinds of books. I like this one.

I'm thinking about resolving to only wear second hand or handmade clothes for the rest of my life (underwear excluded). Better for the environment, and cheaper, and more fun. I've recently revamped three articles of used clothing using my own little sowing machine. Another way to make all things new.

And all things are being made new. I have a new job, one that doesn't require me to sell my soul. Jack's going back to grad school; and he has a new song up, "Phylactery Blues". Katie is engaged. The writers are off their strike and we are about to have new tv shows. Obama will be our next president (he's no Ron Paul, true, but he's no GWB either).


Books:
The Omnivore's Dilemma - Michael Pollen
You may think that what you're eating is food, but it's not. It's mostly genetically modified corn.

Julie and Julia - Julie Powell
Julie places her faith in Julia Child and finds her life changed. By her cooking and her blog. Don't worry, I'm not holding out any hope here for life-change through my blog.

The Maytrees - Annie Dillard
Jack always wants to call this book "The Matrices", as in, plural of Matrix. It's lovely and spare, but I'm having a hard time caring for the characters.

Next on dock: The Patron Saint of Liars by Ann Patchett and Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name by Vendela Veda.

Movies:
Please, please, let this be the year for an upset. Let Juno win Best Picture. And let "falling slowly" win best song.

Last week I fell asleep in the theatre during Persepolis. Read the book or see the movie. Don't try both.

Decalogue.

Forgive me, but I liked "The Jane Austen Book Club" and I didn't really like "Becoming Jane".

Music:

We're trying emusic.com. Their selection is not as wide as it could be, but so far it's working out ok. This month's albums, for us, are the Innocence Mission's "We Walked in Song" and the Mountain Goat's "Heretic Pride".

Baking:
Double Chocolate Layer Cake
Dulce de Leche Cheesecake Squares
Buttermilk Cinnamon Bread

I had the week off. Can you tell?

Jack and Joy wrote a song last night about Casey the Rabbit.

what does auld lang syne mean again?

If you got our Christmas letter, then you saw our list of some favorite things from 2007:

movies
bridge to terebithia
nancy drew
danielson: a family movie
i'm not there
once

cds
okkervil river - the stage names
rosie thomas - these friends of mine
panda bear - person pitch
of montreal - hissing fauna

tv shows
friday night lights
30 rock
northern exposure

books
Persepolis - Marjane Satrapi
The Solace of Leaving Early - Haven Kimmel
Maisie Dobbs - Jacqueline Winspear
Broken for You - Stephanie Kallos
Divine Conspiracy - WIllard


places
Enchanted Rock,TX
Santa Fe, NM
Holly Lake, Grand Tetons
Montana Coffee Traders
Ha Long Bay, Vietnam
Semiahmoo Resort, WA

One of my favorite things of 2008 is the website that plays Jack's songs: www.myspace.com/gladysrocksongs. You should listen and let me know what you think.

To celebrate the new year, Jack and I retreated to a cozy cabin in the shadow of Mt. Ranier. To the Wildbird suite at Jasmer's actually. We went snowshoeing for the first time, and we enjoyed the snowy view from our place in the outdoor hot tub.

Tomorrow our Linda is going home to Indonesia. We will miss her!

winter thoughts

The prayer of confession at church this morning was modern yet convicting:

Father, we confess that we are satiated and bored;
Creation has bored us.
Work has bored us.
Family has bored us.
Friends have bored us.
Out homes bore us.
Television bores us.
Redemption has bored us.
Truth has bored us.
You have bored us.
No generation in history has ever had so much to entertain it.
We are jaded and cynical.

We think the world is our servant, so we are not thankful when things go well for us, and we are not patient when they do not.

We believe every desire should be satisfied, so we are not delighted when they are, and we are not humbled when they are not.

We laugh, but we do not know joy.
We are captivated, but are never really awed.
We celebrate, but we do not worship.
Have mercy on us, and forgive us.

Amaze us with grace - blood stained, incarnate, Messianic grace - the glory of God in Christ.

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Last week we saw Rosie Thomas at the Triple Door. Hands down the best music venue I've ever experienced, and Rosie's stand-up comedy was as stellar as her songs were.

Juno is a great movie for adults. Written and acted flawlessly, it portrays the most sentimental moments without becoming sentimental. The soundtrack is a bit too precious, but apart from that I have no complaints. We were left with plenty to discuss about its portray of teens, sex, men, women, commitment, life, abortion, and adulthood.

Tonight we accompanied our housemate Eriko to her boyfriend's church Christmas service. Her boyfriend, Dien, is Vietnamese, and tonight five Vietnamese churches from Seattle gathered together to celebrate Christmas and share the Christmas story with their friends and relatives. The whole experience was beautiful, and felt more truly Vietnamese than most of our summer activities in Hanoi felt!

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I'm reading "River Town" by Peter Hessler, a Princeton and Oxford grad who spent 1996-1997 teaching English in China with the PeaceCorps. It's a book that's been recommended to me since 2003, when I went to Vietnam, but in those days I was studiously avoiding "China" tales in favor of books like "Catfish and Mandala" - Vietnamese stories.

What has amazed me about the first few chapters of River Town is how exactly his accounts mirror my experience in Vietnam. Reading it is emotional - remembering the honor and humiliation of being a foreigner, the delights of introducing literature to students unfamiliar with it, the loneliness, the absolute cultural lostness. Check it out and just read chapters one and two, about school officials and banquets and student essays and shakespeare performances. All of it is absolutely true.

I'm reading it now, in part, because there's a chance we will be going to China this summer. A friend of ours here, Peng, a Fulbright Scholar from Wuhan, wants us to lead a team of 4-5 teachers in putting on a two week English Language and American Culture program for a highschool in Wuhan. We are investigating the options.