The Years Bestest

So I think I am ready for my years bests. I was holding off on movie until I saw Frost/Nixon

So ok here goes, it was a rough year full of ups and downs. I know for everyone. But there was great stuff too!

Best Weekend: Spent in Shakespeare Santa Cruz in July, which I happily found out will have another season this summer. The entire weekend was stellar-even staying at motel 6 in Campbell worked great and I saved enough money to enjoy other things like a great meal at the cafe next to book store. Also nice surprise of loving Romeo and Juliet there, I am not a huge R and J fan as a play actually.

Best Play production: Uncle Vanya. I was looking forward to it for months and it didn't let me down. Funny and intelligent. Bravo. Only two things I didn't like, but like a native american rug where they put in flaws to keep it imperfect so I forgive , was the opening sequence where they all go on stage and act nervous and the raked stage Honorable Mention: Curse of Starving Class at ACT> I love that play too and they did it great. I was lucky this year, several of my very fav plays were done, Burn This also at Santa Cruz.

Best Movie: Surprisingly...WallE. What a surprise! Beautiful gutsy and creative. Where they could have easily made a film that would be a more commercial success, instead Pixar made one that brilliantly made fun of consumerism and human disconnect and it's lovely to see too. Runner up: Frost/Nixon

Best Meal: Thanksgiving at Kincaids. It rocked. Better than Ches Pannise which I go to every year with work.

Best Moment: Not telling -but second best was getting into my car after yoga at 7:30ish on election night and hearing "now that Ohio has flipped" and i knew it was over! Third was the moment when the theater night I did at work was over and things went well, I even did a "happy dance" in the cross walk with people looking at me funny.

Best newly acquired skill or knowledge: I held two "high teas" and learned about tea in the process, what i like and don't like. The difference between India and China teas etc. now I am a big tea drinker.

Best sunset Tues Dec 9th, deep orange and pink. Best rainbow Monday Dec 22, while driving over the Richmond Bridge. Hadn't seen one in years (I remember this stuff)

Ok shall see what 09 brings.

And so that was Nixon...

On opening credits of Frost/Nixon they play some of the WH tapes and at one point Nixon says one of his famous "Sons of bitches" and I just thought gosh I miss that guy...

Of course not really. But one can't help but feel drawn into the man's...dare I say it...everyman struggles with self doubt, deep insecurities and rage. That's is what this really stellar movie does, and predictably draws you into seeing the parallels with David Frost's own demons. Frost troubles are more charming...but none the less there. At one point Nixon says to Frost, when pondering how odd it is a Man such as he, Nixon get into a field that requires people liking you, "Maybe you should have been the politician and me the hard hitting news man" one does wonder. Anyways, well you really should see it. I am partial since it was a stage play too. On screen scripts normally aren't this witty and don't have long monologues with the characters inner thoughts spilling out (brilliantly done at one point as a drunken phone call to Frost from Nixon where he really let's it out...and we see this lonely man feeling a connection to Frost) Anyways, bravo! Actors were great, Michael Sheen is so convincing as Frost and the actor playing Nixon, I can't remember his name now is stellar. Kevin Bacon plays the proverbial Nixon loyalist so great.

And so this is Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you are spending it in a way that makes you happy.
Tonight my mind goes to my Mother. Right about now, we would be having a light supper and getting ready for the candle light services at the Unity Church in Oakland. I continued to still attend the service after she passed but at some point stopped... Upon return we would crack open a bottle of white Zinfandel and sit by the tree.

One of my favorite stories about my Mom was one year when I was away at college, I came home and Mom hadn't put up a tree. No one else in my family was that into Christmas so she lost the incentive. I was upset and went to bed giving up the notion of having a tree. When I woke up I came out to see a funny look on my Mom's face, well she had been up for a long time purchasing and decorating a tree before I got up! she wanted to see the look on my face. Well it was great.

Tomorrow I do one of my new traditions and I will see a movie with Deborah and Nena. Frost/Nixon this year, as it's very festive ;-) New traditions are good too.

Oh and I agreed to direct a short play for the Marin Fringe this spring. It's called "Trippin with Arthur Miller". I find it oddly liberating that I will be involved with the fringe but working on someone elses play. I get to work with people I like, Flora Lynn Isaason will be my assistant and she is one of my favorite people of all time (did you know she was one of the students that got tear gassed when Reagan ordered the national Guard on the UC Berkeley campus?) and the playwright is a much older woman, and I hope when I am her age I will still be doing fringe festivals so I like supporting her endeavor.

Soon I will post my yearly "bests". I always do a round of yearly events, arts, memorable things etc.