the list of now

Oh hi, middle of January. It was time to do this 3 weeks ago. Alas, I had some priority issues over the past month – this blog being one of the things that had to go hang out on the back burner for a while.

So here’s my list of highlights from 2011:

Books

Music
Some of these are albums and tunes I revisited this year, some are ones I discovered this year.  Most were not new releases from 2011.  Click albums to launch on spotify, the individual songs I listened to are all playable in that handy widget guy.

Albums

Songs

(in totally random order)

Movies
I didn’t see as many movies as I would have liked to this year. And I didn’t keep track of the older ones I watched (there were a lot of dvds from the library, netflix and hulu streaming this year).  Here is a handful of movies from this year that I really enjoyed. I will do better keeping track in 2012.

loving right now:

-chai
- music by Ólafur Arnalds
- scavenging people’s “best of ” lists for 2011 for great music, movies, and books that I missed.
- the books The Wave by Susan Casey, Graceling by Kristin Cashore
- watching American Pickers with Darcy and scheming to go roadtripping/antiquing/flea market scrounging sometime
- the kindle fire (an unexpected holiday gift this year)
- brussel sprouts, soup, risotto and all citrus fruits
- David Fincher’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Rooney Mara’s interpretation of Lisbeth.
- still having christmas lights up in our house
- new (paper) journal and sketchbooks.
- a positive resolution for our lemon car nightmare. it’s almost over.
- ginger spice, my ukulele.
- dying my hair nearly-black. I think I’m going to go with this for a while. I like it.

on the horizon:
- A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Marting. And maybe I’ll get around to watching the Game of Thrones tv series
- reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close before I can go see the movie
- still want to see The Artist, The Descendents, the new Muppet movie, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Shame, Pina and a bunch of arthouse stuff that takes a long time to get to Rhode Island.
- wondering if I have time to make Valentine’s Cards for the shop? am I too late?
- Skins 6 is starting soon
- finding a good (safe, reasonably cheap and in decent condition) used car so that our schedule can go back to normal instead of being a mess of ride-sharing and long car trips back a forth to get both of us to work.
- learning to knit socks before the winter is over.

My Sorrow, when she’s here with me,
Thinks these dark days of autumn rain
Are beautiful as days can be;
She loves the bare, the withered tree;
She walked the sodden pasture lane.
- Robert Frost, My November Guest

I’m continuing my love affair with Fall and all things cozy that come from chillier weather.  Even the quiet, melancholic moments. November is good company for that.

- Still reading A Clash of Kings. Was hoping to finish the whole series by Christmas, I doubt it’s going to happen. I’ve been really busy and I feel like I can only take so much epic epicness at a time, so I keep taking breaks.

- On deck: The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern, The Family Fang – Kevin Wilson, The Name of the Star – Maureen Johnson

- Lots and lots of knitting.

- Saw The Ides of March. (Excellent. Ryan Gosling rocks pretty much everything.) Wanting to see Martha Marcy May Marlene, My Week With Marilyn, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Like Crazy, Young Adult, Sherlock Holmes: Book of Shadows, and also Drive and about 800 other great-looking movies that I feel like I’ve missed in the last couple months! I need to catch up.

-  I’m also super-excited for Fincher’s Girl With the Dragon Tattoo which looks like it might end up being a better adaptation than the swedish films, even though I adore Noomi Rapace. (Yeah. I said it.)

- Went on a little roadtrip with Darcy and our good friend Kate last weekend to Provincetown, MA. My first visit to the Cape (even though I live really close to it). It was wonderful. I couldn’t get over how adorable the town was. We found a great little tattoo shop where Kate got her second tattoo (on her ribs, what a badass!) and I’m thinking it will be where I get my next work done. We also stayed in the most perfect little Inn. I wanted to move in for a while.

- Drawing up designs for some holiday cards. I think I’m going to do some with ink and paint and some with papercuts.

- Planning a really lovely Brooklyn Thanksgiving with my brother and other lovely friends I don’t get to see often enough.

- Missing my days of playing guitar, which I haven’t done regularly for years now. Might be time to pick it back up.

- Avoiding the GOP debates. I watched one and my head nearly exploded. I think this upcoming election year might just kill me.

- I’ve been listening to the album Down the Way by Angus and Julia Stone a lot lately.  The songs “Draw Your Swords”, “For You” and “Devil’s Tears” seem really appropriate for the chill in the air and the long starry nights.

- I also can’t wait to get the Christmas records out. I love love love holiday music. Yes even Bob Dylan’s. (Maybe even especially.)

- I always pull out Nick Drake again every time November comes around.  I decided his perfect cover of Jackson Frank’s “Milk and Honey” just feels like the approach of Winter to me.

- I decided October is my favorite month. (Don’t tell June.)

- Craving oatmeal for breakfast and soup for all other meals.

- Fall is the best time for beachwalking, so that’s where I want to be every evening.

- Although we went up to Vermont two weeks ago, and I’m more than a little smitten with the lovely mountains and Burlington.

- Reading A Clash of Kings

- Working on several art projects at once.

- Catching up on Doctor Who, I’m finally on the current season, but not caught up completely yet.

- Checking out some new Fall tv shows. So far Revenge is the one that has me hooked. And sadly Ringer wasn’t worth watching past episode one, even for my love of SMG.

- I’m already starting to plan for the holiday season. (makes me feel all glowy) Planning crafts, cooking, time with family, gifts and making time for traditions. I can’t wait to get to watch the holiday comfort movies!

- Feeling really inspired by my beautiful friends who all seem to be making and planning big steps in life.

• My brother Dan was in town. I haven’t seen him in a long time since he lives on the other side of the country. It was great.
• For this occasion, a bunch of people came over my house to hang out.
• I made my popular spinach artichoke dip (came out well) and tried to make cheesy stuffed mushrooms (not so much).
• we made and drank Dark and Stormies
• we played Apples to Apples, which I have never done and greatly enjoy.
• I watched Flight 666 a concert tour documentary about Iron Maiden. It was excellent.
• We rented Kevin Smith’s “Red State” (available as a pre-theatrical release Video on Demand). It was also excellent. I hope to write and post a review later.
• We made the mistake of watching the end of the GOP debate this week and my heart basically broke into a million pieces when the crowd cheered the question that stated the absurdly large number of people that have been executed under Rick Perry’s time as Governor. Flashbacks to Bush’s execution stats and then the 8 long years of his presidency. The approaching election scares me. A lot.
• And also… last weekend I threw my back out. It was a flare-up of a lower back injury from a decade ago that still bothers me from time to time. It’s not a crisis, but it’s been hurting and ruining my life for 4 consecutive days now, which royally sucks
• Because of this, I haven’t worked on any of the things I’m wanting to be working on.  It hurts to sit and to bend. So that pretty much knocks out any writing projects and art projects that I would like to be doing.
• Therefore, I’ve gotten incredibly whiny and emo and frustrated with my body and it’s limitations.
• Hoping to be in a better place soon. And renewing my commitment to doing yoga everyday again, in hopes of preventing this sort of thing from happening often.