A look back at 2007. It's a list!
My favorite movie theater experience of 2007
I think this has to be Once. I had heard a bit about this modern musical before I saw it, and was totally enchanted as I sat in the theater and watched this compelling, charming, and complex story about music, love, and life unfold. It just completely surprised me. I loved, loved, loved it. There were a lot of great movies out this year and some of them I haven't seen yet, but as far as a movie-going experience, this one is the most
memorable for me.
Runners up: Juno, Waitress, Children of Men, Stardust (at Comic Con, with a Q&A by Neil Gaiman and Jane Goldman afterwards), Ratatouille
My favorite movie DVD rental of 2007
Night Watch was probably the one I talked up to other people the most. Another movie that I hadn't heard much about, this Russian fantasy was surprising and fresh, and only a little bit nonsensical.
Runners up: Slither, Idiocracy, Knocked Up
My favorite TV show on DVD of 2007
There were so, so many (thanks, Netflix!). I would have to say the one thing I rented that I've devoured more quickly than anything else was Dexter. To say that this show is dark would probably be an understatement, and yet there's something I adore about being able to root for a serial killer. The acting is perfect, the humor is bold, and while very disturbing the show also manages to be really likable.
Runners up: Big Love, Rome, Deadwood, and Weeds
My favorite album of 2007
Like pretty much every other list in America, I loved The Arcade Fire's Neon Bible. I had never really paid much attention to them, but that album made me stand up and cheer. Or, you know, rock out to a giant pipe organ.
Runners up: Ted Leo and the Pharmacists Living with the Living, Modest Mouse We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, Au Revoir Simone The Bird of Music
My favorite meal of 2007
One night we went to dinner at Spread, my favorite vegetarian/vegan restaurant, and I had one of the best salads of my life so far.
Runners up: Salad Style (the Vegan, oh it is good), Lalo's Tacos, Amarin Thai for the lunch special, roasted beets (who knew that I liked beets?) that I made myself
My favorite book of 2007
This is a tough one, because I did a lot of reading. I was in a class where I read probably close to 100 young adult books, and then ever since graduation I've been reading for myself again. I think I should split this into two parts. Also, these were not necessarily published in 2007.
Favorite young adult book: A Brief Chapter in my Impossible Life by Dana Reinhardt. It's a great first novel that deals with religion, adoption, family and love. I enjoyed it a lot. Runners up: Life as We Knew it by Susan Beth Pfeffer, Sunshine by Robin McKinley
Favorite adult book: Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. A fairy tale, told well, combining African myth and a sort of modern madcap mysticism. I read it twice. Runners up: Stardust by Neil Gaiman, Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, On Writing by Stephen King.
My favorite knitting project of 2007
I'd have to say my first sweater. I had never made a garment like this, knit in the round with shaping and you know, for myself to wear in public, and it turned out pretty darn well. Not without mistakes, of course, but I learned a lot and it cured me of my sweater fear.
Other favorite memories of 2007 include seeing a monkey riding a deer at the zoo, meeting up with librarian friends at Comic Con and listening to Neil Gaiman speak, reading the very last Harry Potter book out loud to my husband, becoming an aunt, finishing my Master's and getting scammed into attending a market research seminar. It was a good year, in a lot of ways.
Happy New Year, everyone. I hope 2008 brings you all joy, fun, and riches both tangible and invisible.
Monday, December 31, 2007
finally!
Now that Christmas is over, I can post pictures of the knitting projects I made for the holidays.
First off, a very simple shawl for Joe's grandmother:
It was basically a knit 3, purl 3 alternating stitch all the way to create a big rectangle based upon a simple Prayer Shawl pattern. Then I made two smaller rectangles and sewed them on both ends to lengthen the shawl. Simple, fat yarn, fatter needles, and cozy. Machine washable is nice too.
Next, my first real lace pattern, a pair of Broadripple socks for my mother in law.
The yarn is Trekking XXL, and those are her favorite colors.
And finally, some very basic ribbed boot socks for my father in law:
These were ribbed in order to fit a variety of sizes since I wasn't entirely sure how big his feet are. The are made of very expensive Colinette Jitterbug yarn, and I ended up needing 2 skeins to finish them.
And how about the works in progress?
On my needles right now I have a raglan sweater for my husband that will be grey and black stripes (and probably not done until next winter) and the Clementine Shawlette, which is my very fist attempt at reading a knitting chart. So far, it looks kind of awful but I'm hoping it's just that it needs blocking. I can wait to use my new blocking wires on it!
the Clementine Shawlette, not at all clementine colored, and in need of blocking, is seen here in its early days
First off, a very simple shawl for Joe's grandmother:
It was basically a knit 3, purl 3 alternating stitch all the way to create a big rectangle based upon a simple Prayer Shawl pattern. Then I made two smaller rectangles and sewed them on both ends to lengthen the shawl. Simple, fat yarn, fatter needles, and cozy. Machine washable is nice too.
Next, my first real lace pattern, a pair of Broadripple socks for my mother in law.
The yarn is Trekking XXL, and those are her favorite colors.
And finally, some very basic ribbed boot socks for my father in law:
These were ribbed in order to fit a variety of sizes since I wasn't entirely sure how big his feet are. The are made of very expensive Colinette Jitterbug yarn, and I ended up needing 2 skeins to finish them.
And how about the works in progress?
On my needles right now I have a raglan sweater for my husband that will be grey and black stripes (and probably not done until next winter) and the Clementine Shawlette, which is my very fist attempt at reading a knitting chart. So far, it looks kind of awful but I'm hoping it's just that it needs blocking. I can wait to use my new blocking wires on it!
the Clementine Shawlette, not at all clementine colored, and in need of blocking, is seen here in its early days
Thursday, December 06, 2007
a letter
Dear 1996,
It's been a long time, right? Almost 12 whole years. The new millennium has started. I'm old, 1996. I really miss you. Remember how we used to bleach our hair out blond and wear babydoll dresses with purple fishnets and doc marten boots and carry our cello all over campus and smoke cloves? We cut class to go to Target. We were sort of chubby and never worried about working out. We ate cheese-covered french fries and milk shakes daily. We played pool at the student union and often drank forties. Remember how we almost failed music theory? Yeah. Of course you do.
Remember how we saw the Madonna version of Evita in the theater and it made us cry? Oh, and the Leonardo DiCaprio version of Romeo + Juliet? Remember how we much we wanted to sleep with Leonardo DiCaprio? Remember how much we wanted a winged costume like Claire Danes and also to look ethereal and glamorous and get married secretly and then poison ourselves to death for love? Remember how we used to tape The X-Files every week and make all our roommates watch it, even though they kind of hated it? Remember video tapes? And how funny the Space Ghost Coast to Coast was? We went to Independence Day in the theater, 1996. You were there. You saw it. Will Smith ruled in that movie.
Oh, 1996. It was a gentler, simpler time. Buffy the Vampire Slayer hadn't yet become a TV show. We didn't know what a fandom was. We were years away from being shippers. The DVR hadn't been invented yet. For frick's sake, the iPod hadn't been invented yet. We still carried a walkman around with us. It played cassette tapes. We thought email was sort of amazing. We were pretty sure we were going to be musicians and that our parents' pleas to take computer classes meant they didn't understand our artistic natures. If someone had suggested that one day we would have a master's degree we probably would have laughed at them.
If only we could have seen into the future, 1996. Seen how irrelevant it would all soon become. Would we have worried so much about taping the X-Files if we'd known that in just one short decade the entire series would be available on DVD? Would we have drank so many forties if we'd known that in a few years we'd be desperately trying to lose weight before a 12 mile hike in the back country? Would we have eaten so many cheese fries? Yes. Yes on the cheese fries.
Sometimes I want us to go back to that place, 1996. When lung cancer and physical fitness were of no concern. When we could still get away with a miniskirt. When we still ate dairy. But could we have kept up that lifestyle for much longer? We were drunk an awful lot, 1996. We smoked a pack a day. Our hair would have eventually fallen out from all the bleach. And would we really want to stay in a pre-Buffy world? I don't think so. Not at all. But maybe sometime you and I can get together. You know, catch up, drink a beer. I'll wear a babydoll dress. You bring the VHS copy of Romeo+Juliet. I'll bust out my tapes of the X-Files, season 4 complete with mid-nineties television commercials. Let's remember the good times, 1996. We'll always have cheese fries.
Love always,
jessie
It's been a long time, right? Almost 12 whole years. The new millennium has started. I'm old, 1996. I really miss you. Remember how we used to bleach our hair out blond and wear babydoll dresses with purple fishnets and doc marten boots and carry our cello all over campus and smoke cloves? We cut class to go to Target. We were sort of chubby and never worried about working out. We ate cheese-covered french fries and milk shakes daily. We played pool at the student union and often drank forties. Remember how we almost failed music theory? Yeah. Of course you do.
Remember how we saw the Madonna version of Evita in the theater and it made us cry? Oh, and the Leonardo DiCaprio version of Romeo + Juliet? Remember how we much we wanted to sleep with Leonardo DiCaprio? Remember how much we wanted a winged costume like Claire Danes and also to look ethereal and glamorous and get married secretly and then poison ourselves to death for love? Remember how we used to tape The X-Files every week and make all our roommates watch it, even though they kind of hated it? Remember video tapes? And how funny the Space Ghost Coast to Coast was? We went to Independence Day in the theater, 1996. You were there. You saw it. Will Smith ruled in that movie.
Oh, 1996. It was a gentler, simpler time. Buffy the Vampire Slayer hadn't yet become a TV show. We didn't know what a fandom was. We were years away from being shippers. The DVR hadn't been invented yet. For frick's sake, the iPod hadn't been invented yet. We still carried a walkman around with us. It played cassette tapes. We thought email was sort of amazing. We were pretty sure we were going to be musicians and that our parents' pleas to take computer classes meant they didn't understand our artistic natures. If someone had suggested that one day we would have a master's degree we probably would have laughed at them.
If only we could have seen into the future, 1996. Seen how irrelevant it would all soon become. Would we have worried so much about taping the X-Files if we'd known that in just one short decade the entire series would be available on DVD? Would we have drank so many forties if we'd known that in a few years we'd be desperately trying to lose weight before a 12 mile hike in the back country? Would we have eaten so many cheese fries? Yes. Yes on the cheese fries.
Sometimes I want us to go back to that place, 1996. When lung cancer and physical fitness were of no concern. When we could still get away with a miniskirt. When we still ate dairy. But could we have kept up that lifestyle for much longer? We were drunk an awful lot, 1996. We smoked a pack a day. Our hair would have eventually fallen out from all the bleach. And would we really want to stay in a pre-Buffy world? I don't think so. Not at all. But maybe sometime you and I can get together. You know, catch up, drink a beer. I'll wear a babydoll dress. You bring the VHS copy of Romeo+Juliet. I'll bust out my tapes of the X-Files, season 4 complete with mid-nineties television commercials. Let's remember the good times, 1996. We'll always have cheese fries.
Love always,
jessie
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
neglectful
I've really neglected this blog as of late. Thanksgiving was fine and quiet and reflective. I've been doing a lot of knitting but it's all for holiday projects and I'm terrified that the wrong person will get wind of this blog and accidentally see their present. So all my finished objects will have to wait until the new year for the Internet debut. Oh, except for this one which I knit a year ago and just now felted:
It's pretty horrible. I think I'll put fruit in it or something.
I can offer you some treats to make up for my absence.
Here's one:
And how about this?
My poor cats. They have no dignity left.
I can't believe it's almost Christmas. Time is no longer even meaningful. I can't wait until this month is over, even though I do like the holidays. Mostly it's the fact that I'm job hunting and have interviews this month, combined with the mania of trying to get every present done, bought and shipped. In January I might finally be able to relax a bit.
It's pretty horrible. I think I'll put fruit in it or something.
I can offer you some treats to make up for my absence.
Here's one:
And how about this?
My poor cats. They have no dignity left.
I can't believe it's almost Christmas. Time is no longer even meaningful. I can't wait until this month is over, even though I do like the holidays. Mostly it's the fact that I'm job hunting and have interviews this month, combined with the mania of trying to get every present done, bought and shipped. In January I might finally be able to relax a bit.
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