movies seen in 2010

For posterity, here is the list of movies I saw in 2010, starting with Song of the Thin Man on New Year’s Day. My favorites are in bold; avoid-at-all-costs are in italics.

Song of the Thin Man (the sequels are weak, but Nick and Nora rule)

Elf (love all things Will Ferrell)

Darjeeling Express (though not my favorite of his, I will see anything by Wes Anderson)

Avatar (action was the saving grace for predictable story and overwrought CGI)

Away We Go (original screenplay by Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida)

Sherlock Holmes (great cast, nice treatment)

Percy Jackson and the Last Olympians (entertaining)

Weeds (5^th season)

September Issue (great documentary about egomania, fashion, and the creative process)

Paperback Dreams (sad struggle of two independent bookstores in northern California)

Ghost Writer (atmospheric thriller; perhaps predictable but very lovely none the less)

Diary of a Wimp (funny)

How to Train a Dragon (charming)

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (violent and dark but wanted to see Swedish originals)

The Hangover (funny)

Pirate Radio (wanted so much more from the P.S. Hoffman vehicle about indie British radio)

Fantastic Mr. Fox (Wes Anderson’s all-star cast but animated)

Mad Men (seasons 1-3)

Iron Man 2 (ack)

Metropolitan (re-watch; still a classic; I wish Whit Stillman would make another movie)

Sex and the City 2 (predictable and slightly lame but I love the girls and the eye candy)

Sketches of Frank Gehry (watched twice; will watch again; love Gehry and Sidney Pollack)

Leap Day (in-flight movie)

Valentine’s Day (in-flight movie)

When in Rome (in-flight movie)

Knight and Day (matinee with John)

Prince of Persia (Disney)

Avatar: The Last Airbender (long)

Sex and the City 2 (will watch yet again while I wait for SatC3)

Sorcerer’s Apprentice (how did this movie get made?)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (preparing for HP7: Part 1)

Greenberg (wanted more from this Noah Baumbach and Ben Stiller indie pic)

Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason (did not have high hopes for this movie; was not disappointed)

Despicable Me (funny and entertaining)

Low Impact Man (dude was hardcore in his low-impact footprint; interesting to see what is possible)

An Education (nicely filmed, atmospheric, artsy, lovely movie)

Mystery Men (such a fantastic cast, but I thought it was much funnier in 1999)

Hot Tub Time Machine (funny, but pathetic, too)

Whip It (exceeded expectations; heartwarming, funny

The Runaways (did not meet expectations; didn’t like any of the characters or how they were portrayed)

Salt (predictable but delicious thriller)

Cold Comfort Farm (loved the movie nearly as much as the book)

Rachel Getting Married (one of my favorite movies of the 00s)

Karate Kid (enjoyable)

Eat, Pray, Love (sets were lovely and exotic; faithful to book right down to the wise nuggets)

Jaws (scary movie)

Date Night (funniest movie of the year)

The Proposal (called Sandra Bullock’s worst movie of the year, I found it better than expected)

Blind Side (all that)

September Issue (watched 4 or 5 times in a loop whilst working on a project)

Riding Giants (exceptional surfing documentary with really big waves)

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (didn’t really get into it)

Killers (not the best movie but entertaining; better than Knight and Day)

Skyline (worst movie of the year, if not the decade)

Harry Potter 7: Part 1 (loved it; need to see again; can’t wait for July)

Endless Summer (fantastic  1960s documentary; surfing)

Endless Summer 2 (not as good as the first)

Freaks and Geeks (complete series; excellent; would love to find the soundtrack)

The Other Guys (don’t even remember what this was)

Twilight (watched with Simon; entertaining; will see follow-ups)

Julie and Julia (a re-watch; as touching the second time)

Voyage of the Dawn Treader (will see it again)

whidbey island

A week ago, I was basking in the temperature, wet glow of the Pacific Northwest. My friend Krista, whom I've known since 1993, when I was a publisher's rep for St. Martin's Press (now a part of the very large Macmillan USA), invited me to visit her on Whidbey Island, in the Puget Sound, about 30 miles northwest of Seattle. I jumped at the opportunity to see my friend (it had been three years since I'd last seen her) as well as to experience a climate different from my own, which is currently very snowy and very cold.

Krista met me at the airport, and we headed for the Mukilteo-Clinton ferry. Krista lives in Langley, which is a charming small town on the water. In many ways, Langley reminded me of Stillwater, MN, and Stockholm, WI, those charming towns that derive their livelihood from the quiet tourism of antiques stores, indie retail shops (clothing, wine, kitchen wares, books, and so on), coffee houses, and at least one solid high-end restaurant. 

Most of my time there was spent reading (Mary Roach's delightful Packing for Mars), listening to music (Budos Band III and Afrocubism), chatting, but also touring the island. We took a lot of long walks with Krista's spectacular cairn terrier, Orzo, and, in this manner, I got to see a lot of the island. Tip to tip, in fact.

Here, Orzo explores a monstrous piece of driftwood--an entire trunk, in fact--that appeared to be holding up the clay hill.

 Here are some of the highlights in photos:

Penn Cove mussels that, most likely, had been alive that morning.

Cool, enormous tree trunk.

Moss

Lichen, which, as you can see, is quite different from moss.

Deception Pass at the northernmost tip of Whidbey. Stunning contrast of sky, water, trees, mountains.

new year resolution 01: clutter bust

I am so glad to usher in a new year. I am ready for change and fresh starts and all that. “Do you make resolutions?” was a popular question at the New Year’s Eve party I attended. The answer is Why, yes. Yes I do. All the time. Every list I make is a resolution to get stuff done.

One list item that seems to be rather perennial, though, is to declutter. The entire house. We have piles of stuff everywhere. In fact, there isn’t a surface free from things that we aren’t using or have used and don’t know what to do with them next. Because, heaven forbid, we throw away anything from which we might derive satisfaction again. I wouldn’t say that we’re pack rats or, worse, horders. Rather, we just don’t deal with our stuff.

But no more. I can’t live like this any longer. The mess is affecting my sanity, especially when everyone expects me to find missing items. Well, guess what, guys? It is getting hard to find things because there’s so much stuff to sort through.

I’ve tried decluttering in the past. I have bought countless books about getting organized. I have purchased countless containers to store items with which I cannot part. Many of those containers are empty. Recently I stumbled upon this blog by a St. Paul mom whose children go to school with mine (though, I hasten to add, we've never met; we do, however, have mutual friends). She was wrapping up a year-long challenge to rid her house of 500 pounds of stuff. Her “before” photos of target areas resembled my home so much, I suddenly didn’t feel so alone in this struggle. Her “after” photos were inspiring.

This decluttering I am about to do may be brutal. Mostly, it may force me to toss things I’m fond of or think I may use/refer to again. I refuse to sort a pile only to create a new pile. So far, the only goal I have made for myself is to deal with some corner of the house every day of winter break and see where that gets me. At some point, I need to get buy-in with my little family. Honestly, we all contribute to the mess, and by that token, we each need to be part of the solution. Any ideas here?!

 I am hopeful.