Giving Thanks in 2020

 

Photo Credit: Jill Wellington at Pixabay

Five years ago I wrote a post giving thanks for the better things that the year 2015 delivered. I didn’t feel the need to write similar posts in the years since, but given how utterly shitty 2020 has been, I thought maybe it was time to do it once more. Focus on the positive, right? As always, I’m most grateful for the health and happiness of my family and friends. With COVID-19 running rampant still, that’s more of a blessing than ever. However I doubt many of you came here to read about me being sappy. You came to read what I thought was worthy of praise this year in world media so that you can either nod your head in agreement or scoff at my complete lack of taste. I take both reactions as a compliment since it means you took the time to read this post! Without further ado...

 

It wasn’t long ago that I bad-mouthed television as a lower form of entertainment, a medium I felt couldn’t hold a candle to film. Times change. Even before the pandemic wiped out theatres this year, TV was delivering fantastic stuff like Westworld, Watchmen, Stranger Things, Narcos: Mexico, Rick and Morty, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Ozark, The Expanse, The Mandalorian, Killing Eve, and Cobra Kai. Now with almost all theatrical releases on hold, television in 2020 was the undisputed champ. My favorite new shows were The Outsider and Lovecraft Country on HBO but three other new shows on my Must Watch list - ZeroZeroZero on Amazon Prime, Raised by Wolves on HBO Max, and Penny Dreadful: City of Angels on Showtime, prove great shows aren’t limited to just one or two networks.

Theatrical releases were minimal of course, but I did find a few worth watching. Family films in the first quarter included Onward, Sonic the Hedgehog, and The Call of the Wild, all of which were entertaining. My favorite film of the year so far was actually released on Netflix rather than the big screen. The Old Guard delivered one the coolest female bad asses ever in Charlize Theron’s Andromache and you can read more about her and the film here. I haven’t gotten a chance to see what I think might wind up being my ultimate favorite film of the year, director Christopher Nolan’s Tenet. The idea of wearing a mask for 2.5 hours in order to see it at the theater just doesn’t appeal to me but it’s slated to hit Redbox as a rental in mid-December and I’ll be one of the first in line to snag it.

As always, I’m behind on my reading. In fact the best book I’ve read so far this year was published in 1939. Not exactly a new release! I’ve been catching up on classic noir and absolutely loved The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. The books published in 2020 that I’m most excited about include the novella collection If It Bleeds by Stephen King, Agency by William Gibson, the continuation of the Avery Cates series in The Burning City by Jeff Somers, and a horror anthology entitled Places We Fear to Tread. The anthology includes stories by Gwendolyn Kiste, Sara Tantlinger, and several more up-and-coming authors who grace my Twitter feed.

And finally my musical tastes still run toward classic rock and 80s pop so the newly released 1973 outtakes “Criss Cross”, “Scarlet”, and “All The Rage” by The Rolling Stones were my favorite surprises, but my kids did help me branch out a bit too. New songs that force me to tap my feet whether I want to or not include “Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd, “Say So” by Doja Cat, and “Physical” by Dua Lipa.

Here’s to hoping 2021 is a better year for all of us, filled with many more great films, shows, books, and music. Salud!

Reasons to be Thankful in 2015

Image Credit: Matt Handle

With Thanksgiving almost upon us, I thought I ought to write an upbeat post to set the proper holiday mood. Anyone that reads my work knows I tend to gravitate toward the darker side of things, but I promise I’ll do my best avoid that habit this go-around. After all, I’m trying to finish writing my first middle grade novel (that’s a novel geared toward kids age 8 and up) so I’d better get used to lightening up a bit.

Yes, we should all be thankful for our families, our health, and our friends. But you could just pick up a card at Hallmark if you wanted to read that sort of stuff. No, instead this Thanksgiving post is about all the good stuff the mass media gave us in 2015. After all, if you didn’t achieve fame and fabulous riches this year, the least the world can do is keep you entertained.

Doesn’t everyone love movies? 2015 offered up several good ones. I’m normally not a big fan of sequels, but this year I’m giving thanks for Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Spectre, Jurassic World, and Mad Max: Fury Road. Tom Cruise has still got it. James Bond remains the coolest spy ever. Dinosaurs may be extinct, but they’re still awesome. And while Mel Gibson will always be Max Rockatansky, Tom Hardy is a pretty solid fill-in.

There weren’t as many great original films in 2015 as some years prior, but we did get two new family classics in Inside Out and Paddington. Crimson Peak was probably my favorite of the more adult fare, but I’ve yet to see The Martian or Ex Machina, both of which sound right up my alley.

Like most aging music lovers, I find myself regularly decrying the death of rock and roll, but 2015 did deliver new music from old favorites Keith Richards, Duran Duran, and Marilyn Manson. “Trouble”, Keith’s single from Crosseyed Heart is fantastic. As I wrote in a September post, Paper Gods doesn’t measure up to the best of Duran Duran’s work, but it’s definitely worth a spin. And The Pale Emperor is some of Manson’s best stuff in years. I especially like “Killing Strangers” which was featured in one of my favorite films from 2014, John Wick. And just to prove Rock and Roll still has some life left in it, newer group Alabama Shakes released Sound & Color, an album that includes the stellar song, “Don’t Wanna Fight”.

Yes, TV remains the vast wasteland it’s always been, but there are always a few oases in the desert. 2015 gave us another highly entertaining season of Game of Thrones, one the best seasons (so far) of South Park in years, and the 31st (?!) season of Survivor, the one and only reality show I enjoy.

Of course I can’t fail to thank my favorite authors for their 2015 contributions. The Prolific One, Stephen King, delivered not one, but two new books this year. Adam Sternbergh dropped a second Spademan novel on us. And whiskey-soaked wordsmith Jeff Somers churned out some new Avery Cates eBooks to whet our appetite for his next full-length adventure.

Finally, I give thanks to the self-publishing platforms Amazon and Smashwords which have allowed me, like so many other indie authors, to share my work with a broader audience. This year’s Cell Block Z didn’t catch on as well as I hoped it would, but that lack of buzz has inspired me to give a new genre a try as well as to seek out an agent and a traditional publisher in 2016. You can bank on some related New Year’s resolutions in a couple of months!