One Last Visit from Janus, and Three Quickie Movie Reviews

Remember my reference to the ancient Roman god Janus last week? Well, I thought that we would pay one last visit with him before we get too deep into the month of January, if we haven't already.

BOOKS

In 2024, I read thirty books.  I'm not going to do a Top Ten list for those books, but here are three of them that I would highly recommend that you read, if you have not already done so:

• "The Big Time, How the 1970's Transformed Sports in America" by Michael MacCambridge
• "When Harry Met Pablo" by Matthew Algeo
• "The Demon of Unrest" by Erik Larson
• "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote
• "Charlotte's Web" by E.B. White

The first four of these books are non-fiction.  "In Cold Blood" was  published in 1965, and I first read it when I was in high school.  My friend Matthew Algeo, whose name you see above, told me that he re-reads this every three or four years just to appreciate the terrific narrative writing of Truman Capote.

"Charlotte's Web" is a children's book that I read when I was in third or fourth grade.  Chance's are, you read it, too, when you were that age.  Read it again as an adult.  You will get an entirely new appreciation for it.

I have linked all of my original posts on these books to the titles above.

I wish that I would have read more in 2024, but thirty is a nice round number, and that is the number for which I will aim in '25.

Rounds of Golf

I played 17 rounds of golf in 2024, well short of the twenty-five rounds that I had hoped to play.  Some unexpected surgery last spring curtailed my play for several weeks, and some bad weather on Tuesdays also played a role.  I am going to aim for twenty-five rounds once again, but some elective surgery scheduled for June and some travel plans I'm May and September may cause me to come up short once again.  

I am just thankful that at age 73 I am still physically able to consider twenty-five rounds a year to be a reasonable number!

Pirates Games

Last year I set the goal of seeing twelve Pirates games for the season.  I ended up seeing ten, wherein the Bucs went 5-5.  I am going to shoot for twelve once again.  Why do I want to subject myself to Bob Nutting's torture chamber like this?  Chalk it up to a propensity for self-flagellation.

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Okay, I promised three quickie Movie reviews.

This movie about two cousins on a road trip to Poland to visit the birthplace of their late grandmother has been getting some Oscar buzz.  Jesse Eisenberg directed, wrote, and stars in it, and Kieran Culkan won a golden Globe for his performance in it.  It was a good movie, not a great one.  The scene where the tourists visit a concentration camp was quite jarring and good.  Culkin's character was kind of irritating.

Two Stars from The Grandstander.

You may already know that Kieran Culkin is McCauley Culkin's younger brother, but did you know that he played Kevin's cousin Fuller in "Home Alone"?  He was the kid who always wet the bed.

This is a documentary produced and directed by actor Andrew McCarthy wherein he tracks down his fellow actors who were branded as "The Brat Pack" back in the mid-1980's when they were all in their early twenties and starring in teenage coming-of-age movies such as "St. Elmo's Fire" and "The Breakfast Club".  McCarthy got Emilio Estavez, Ally Sheedy, Demi Moore, Mare Winningham, and Rob Lowe to speak with him.  Molly Ringwald and Judd Nelson took a pass.

It was mainly a 1 hour and 40 minute self-therapy session for McCarthy.

One Star from The Grandstander.

I admit that it was the Bob Dylan biopic, "A Complete Unknown", that spurred me into checking out this 2023 documentary about Joan Baez.  I liked it.  You get to hear Joan Baez sing, see vintage clips of her with Dylan, and see how remarkably well that she has aged (she was 79 years old when this film was made).   I loved her one line when she said that she was never good with one-on-one relationships, but she was great with one-on-six thousand relationships.

For those of you under age fifty or so who have no idea who Joan Baez is, you could do a lot worse that watching this and learning about a remarkable women who was a symbol and an icon of an era.

Two and One-Half Stars from The Grandstander.

Looking Back, Looking Ahead

The depiction at the right is of Janus, the ancient Roman god with two faces, one to look forward and one to look backward.  So appropriate that the month of January is named for him.  This post was to be my first post of 2023, but the football gods of America delivered unto us such a monumental weekend of games that, this look back/forward got bumped.

So, how was 2022 for The Grandstander?  On the whole it was a very good year.  On the downside, I found myself still dealing with the 2021 loss of Marilyn to cancer.  I found myself missing her in ways both profound and simple.  The memories of our life together serve to both make me smile with gratitude and happiness, but they also, sometimes, bring with them emotions of loss and sadness.  Over the last thirteen years, I have learned much about the nature of grief, and I know that it never goes away, and that it can strike you at the least expected moments and over the most seemingly trivial things, like paper napkins and how you operate a vacuum cleaner.  I know that these feelings are normal, and that the wonderful memories that we made will be with me forever, and that I will always miss her.

On the upside was the relationship that developed with our fellow Caring Place volunteer and friend Linda Mulzet (as first documented HERE) that grew into something special, and we were married on December 3.  I didn't know if I would ever find someone so special again, didn't know if I would ever get married again, and never expected it to happen as quickly as it did.  I am so glad that it did, however.   I have learned much over the past six years through therapy and other support systems, learned that there are no rules as to how life plays out, and that when the opportunity to begin anew and start new chapters arise, that you need to take them. If other people don't understand or have issues with what you do - and there have been plenty of such folks - then that is THEIR problem, and not mine, and that maybe, just maybe, such people were never your friends to begin with.

So, what was good about 2022:

• I got to travel to Hilton Head Island with Linda
• Spent am amazing 48 hours in New York City with Linda where we saw two Broadway shows, "The Music Man" and "Plaza Suite".  We also go engaged when we were there!!!
• Had an amazing eleven day tour of the breathtakingly beautiful Canadian Rockies via train and bus with a seventeen person tour group arranged by Greater Pittsburgh Travel
• Went to Washington DC with Linda to see a Penguins-Capitals game, saw an NBA game there the next night, and did some touristy stuff in DC.  All in the space of 48 hours
• Saw Billy Joel and Elton John in concert, both at PNC Park
• Saw "Hamilton" performed three times in Pittsburgh
• Experienced a wonderful event: the marriage of Linda's daughter, Sarah, and her fiancé Nick
• Attended my first Steelers game in person since 2003
• Became enamored of pooch named Zelda Fitzgerald
• Established a scholarship in Marilyn's name at Robert Morris University
• Staying in touch with my family and Marilyn's family
• Getting to know a whole new family, Linda's: her Mom, her daughter, her step-sons, her brother and sister, their spouses, and two generations worth of her nieces and nephews.
• Returned to working with groups at the Caring Place
• And I got married again.  Oh, I already mentioned that, didn't I?

What was not so good about 2022:

• Two trips to the emergency room
• One positive COVID test
• Health issues within the extended family.  Keep all prayers coming, folks.
• I only read 13 books this year, and all-time low for me in my retirement years.
• I only played 13 rounds of golf this year, another all time low in the retirement era
• I only made 85 posts in The Grandstander in 2022. In thirteen years of blogging, this was the lowest annual output for me.  I am hopeful that reduced quantity has led to improved quality.  I hope.

What are my goals (I won't call them resolutions) for 2023:

• Read more books.  At least two dozen in 2023.
• Play more golf.  Twenty-five rounds will be a nice number to shoot for.
• Spend less time on Facebook, which will allow me to read more books, I am sure.
• I weighed 220 pounds when I weighed myself yesterday morning, New Year's Day.  My lowest weight in years.  It would be great to get that down to 210 by December 31, 2023, but I'll happily settle for 215.
• See more movies.
• More books + More movies = More Grandstander posts
• Drink more water
• Go to at least eight Pirates games.  Yeah, yeah, I'm crazy, I know it.
• Try to be nice to all people at all times.

Oh, and to all Grandstander Readers....the obituaries, the Absent Friends posts, will continue to be a mainstay of the blog.

Here is to a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2023 for us all.

Peace.