2018: Well, That's Over

2018 will go down as...another year. There were extreme highs and severe lows, much like any other
and time marches on like an endless parade with rapidly deflating balloons and floats that have seen better days than this one. But since we have to leave some kind of mark on the world, I'll give you a few of the better things that I experienced this year, pop culture-wise, my field of expertise that needs some serious weeding. You want the bad stuff? Look elsewhere. Try Facebook. You'll have a field day.

As always, keep in mind that these are my favorites things that I encountered in 2018, not necessarily that were released this year. 

FILM

SHAPE OF WATER 

Guillermo del Toro's Oscar winning film won my heart over as no other did, a perfect birthday present to myself.  See blog post

DUNKIRK

Christopher Nolan's masterful WW II epic confirmed him as one of the finest filmmakers of this generation.

ISLE OF DOGS

Do I have any "Best..." of lists that don't include Wes Anderson? Uh-uh.

THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS

The same can be said of the Coen Bros. And it is. 

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND

Orson Welles' final film, finished by other hands, finally arrived after a 40 year wait, filled to the brim with brilliance and pretension, at times infuriatingly annoying, often jaw-droppingly fabulous. After another viewing, which some might consider an endurance test, I'll have more to say, but for now, I can only bow in respect. Catch the companion documentary THEY'LL LOVE ME WHEN I'M DEAD on Netflix as well.

TV

THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE, BABYLON BERLIN and TABULA RASA

Three on Netflix top my list of faves. HILL HOUSE is probably the best ghost story ever committed to the small screen (well done, Mike Flanagan). BERLIN is a brilliant German series set in the days between the World Wars while RASA is another one of them ferrin' shows, this time from Belgium that I fell head over heels in love with. See blog post 

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THE AMERICANS

Ending on such a terrific note, a case study on how to wrap up a series

TRUST

This Getty kidnapping saga on FX featured a career defining performance by Donald Sutherland

THE TERROR and LODGE 49

Two swell AMC shows, one a 19th century thriller set in search of the Northwest Passage and the other, almost a prequel to THE BIG LEBOWSKI

MUSIC 

Grant Lee Phillips's WIDDERSHINS has to be my favorite album of the year, particularly the song "The Wilderness" while the best tune of the year had to be Nathaniel Ratecliff's haunting melancholic

"You Worry Me" moved me like none other.

BOOKS

FICTION

THE BARTENDER'S TALE by Ivan Doig

An author I had been unaware of until recently won me over with this coming of age tale set in Montana

THE TWELVE LIVES OF SAMUEL HAWLEY By Hannah Tinti

Many books I read this year dealt with parental issues for some reason, this one standing out from all the rest

NON-FICTION

THE AVIATORS by Winston Groom

From the author of FORREST GUMP, of all books, comes this superb telling of Charles Lindbergh, Jimmy Doolittle and Eddie Rickenbacker

ROBIN by Dave Itzkoff

I finished this soon after the death of Anthony Bourdain, a suicide that hit me as close to home as Robin Williams' did as few years before. Maybe that has something to do with my admiration of this book, but mostly because Itzkoff found a way to tell Robin's tale with all the warts exposed and with the respect he deserved.

So that's the good stuff I exposed myself to (careful...) while there was many others moments to cherish in 2018. First and foremost, the birth of my little warrior granddaughter Athena came into the world to claim it as her own. While I only had two of my plays produced this year, they landed on the same weekend, something else I toasted in celebration. I began work in earnest on a long-gestating novel of which I'm still putting together.

I lost a good lifelong friend in Glen Chin, a man whose heart and spirit were as huge as his talent and damn near lost another, giving me that feeling of mortality that keeps rearing its head as the clock continues to tick, tick, tick. Has this given a new perspective on the world? No. But if stop being selfish enough to realize that there's more to life outside of my narrow vision, I might just get out of this, certainly not alive, but with enough hope left behind for those I truly care about. Their numbers rise and lower with the tides...and so do I.

Cryptic comments for the end of 2018. Bring on the last year of new century teens.

NEXT!

See Ya, '17!

(sung to the tune of I Saw Her Standing There)

In Twenty Seventeen
The world turned really mean
And it seemed to me
It was way beyond repair

Oh I'll never look back and wonder
Cuz I really just don't care

Okay. I'm not a lyricist. Sue me. No, don't. In this day and age, you probably will. Plus I do care. Probably too much.

Without a full year-end review because you can find that anywhere else, I will only say that, at its worst, 2017 seemed like a sneak preview of the post-Apocalypse. Can anyone say Dystopia Now? At its best, we're still here. Get used to it. We human beings are a pretty resilient bunch, that's for sure. And we'll persevere. Because, as Ma Joad once said, "We're the people."

Instead of moaning and groaning about the past, present and future, I choose to celebrate 2017 because, guess what, it wasn't all bad. Here are some of the better things-17 in fact- that happened to me this year-personally, professionally and culturally.

PERSONALLY

Celebrated 20 year anniversary with my beautiful wife, Laurie

Turning grandpahood into an art-form, watching my grandson Sebastian graduate from high school with honors and enter college, then traveling to Denver to witness my spectacular granddaughter Aefa on stage for her theater camp performance of Hair Salon Disaster. Finally, wrapping up the year in the prettiest of bows when I discovered I am becoming a grandpa AGAIN. Yes!

PROFESSIONALLY

In 2017, I had five stage productions of my plays, a new personal best. MURDER: THE FINAL FRONTIER was performed with three separate theater companies. SONG OF THE CANYON KID finally made it onto the stage of the Mantorville Theatre Co. in Minnesota after four years of me bugging the hell out of them. They even filmed one of their shows, available on the YouTube. Take a look-see for yourself.

While I haven't completed anything new for 2017, I did combine two of my melodramas, LEGEND OF THE ROGUE and ROXANNE OF THE ISLANDS into one volume I oh-so cleverly call A DOUBLE SHOT OF HA-HA, a companion piece for the two murder mysteries called A DOUBLE SHOT OF MURDER. Next year, a third in the series called  A DOUBLE SHOT OF NO NEW IDEAS.

CULTURALLY

My birthday movie this year was LA LA LAND that I took in at a sweet little neighborhood cinema in Portland called the Moreland. I enjoyed the film (with reservations) but it was more about the experience, a treat I gave myself. Recently I took in THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MO., another fine film with which I have some issues, although it was an afternoon well worth spending playing with the reclining seats.

Way too much good TV (it's getting to be a dangerous obsession) with my very favorite being TABOO with my fave rave Tom Hardy. I'll also include the hoot known as FEUD, BETTER THINGS with my girlfriend Pamela Adlon, THE LEFTOVERS with my other gal pal Ann Dowd, MINDHUNTERS, GODLESS w/Jeff Daniels and oh so many more that I'll have to enter them below.

The best all around season in recent memory for DOCTOR WHO was a fitting send-off for both Dr. 13 Peter Capaldi and show-runner Steven Moffat. Whiny geeks have been bitching about Moffat for eons. Now they can complain about everything else. And they will. Trust me. Moffat was my entry drug into this show and I will be eternally grateful.

Peter Morgan's writing on THE CROWN gives me a reason to live.

Another Morgan, Jeffrey Dean to be exact, is the finest villain in recent memory as THE WALKING DEAD's Negan. Whatever shortcoming the show has lately, JDM is crushing it each and every time he appears. And I tire of the death knell the former fans are ringing for this show. Shut up. Move on. Get another show. Hate watching is for morons.

After a terrible personal tragedy, Patton Oswalt rebounded with his hilarious and moving Netflix stand-up special, ANNIHILATION.

With a year that included both Paul Auster's 4321 and Michael Chabon's MOONGLOW, the finest fiction I read this year had to be Francine Prose's MISTER MONKEY, a multi-character comic tale revolving around a children's theater performance. It warmed my heart like no other.

Non-fiction wise, the hands down winner was Kliph Nesroff's superb history of stand up comedy THE COMEDIANS.

Some nice tunes this year with local favorite Portugal the Man's catchy ditty I FEEL IT STILL a good listen as well as Awol Nation's WOMAN WOMAN. If I have to be honest, I have to go with The Revivalists' WISH I KNEW YOU as my pick o' the year. It had a good beat and I could dance to it. Plus the nostalgic paigns of new love in an older life hits me in the sweet spot.

A monumental day at the Denver Art Museum for their incredible exhibition ONCE UPON A TIME...THE WESTERN: A NEW FRONTIER IN ART AND FILM. I was in hog heaven. (I just rejoined the the Portland Art Museum, so expect see some kudos going that-away next year)

Nothing compares to the restaurant experience-food, service, ambience- at the New Orleans' style bistro ACADIA in Portland. I'm still salivating over that meal.

I have been searching for a perfect every day beer for years now and I found it this year. Silver Moon Brewery of Bend, Oregon gave the world-and me, in particular-this fine beverage. Chapter 2 Casual Ale. it is what I will consume come midnight on New Year's.

Finally, my good friend and benefactor Melanie Roady, formerly of Mel O' Drama Theater, gifted me with the original latex head of Francois Fibian from the original production of THE PERILS OF FRANCOIS (now known as DEAD TUESDAY) Created by master mask maker David Knezz, he is true work of art and I'm proud to own him for more reasons than one. Francois sits above my front door, reminding of me who I am and what I can do. Now all I have to do...is do it.

That's what 2018 is all about. Let's do it, people. Otherwise, we have to blame no one but ourselves. Time's a-wastin' and waits for no man, woman or child. The only thing you have to lose is yourself-and that's the whole ballgame.

Happy New Year, I mean it. Let's reboot and start 2018 on, if not a positive, at least a willing note. It's time we took back our lives. We either surrendered or cowered in fear when the Empire struck back and snatched it away. We have to fight back. Our very survival-physically, mentally, morally- depends on it.

Bring on the 2018.
Full steam ahead.
Fire in the hole, kids.

Bon jour, 2018! Laissez les bon temps rouler!