The Year Past, 2010

Howdy Folks (that is, those of you still out there)!


It has been a year of of ups and downs, but that is usually the case for everyone. This year started with the loss of my close friend and mentor at Yavapai College, John Haynes. He was only 75 years old and pretty vibrant until stricken with the big "C" in November of the previous year. I mark this as the low point for the year. May he be remembered by all he touched, especially those myriad of students he influenced for all those years that he taught. I will miss him everyday of what I have left of life.



The rest of the year went pretty well for those in my my circle of life. Daughter Natasha and her husband Jason, after some pretty trying financial times at the beginning of their married life, rebounded wonderfully to become more financially stable with a government job for Jason in Okinawa. He, and they are doing well there and that makes me happy. My sister Norma, after several years of less than bliss, got married to Scott, a good man, and are very happy. I had two great trips this past summer up to Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. On both trips I got to visit with family and friends. Even got to sneak in a performance at the Utah Shakepeare Festival of "Much Ado About Nothing," one of my favorites.


My trip to Colorado and then on to Wyoming in June was nice as I had not visited Colorado in several years since my youngest daughter Natasha and I made our way camping throughout the state. I visited The Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and Crested Butte, both places I had wanted to go for several years. A highlight of the trip was staying over in Littleton, CO with niece Kimby, her husband Dennis, and my great niece and nephew Melissa and Kyle. A bonus was that my sister Norma flew in and we all went to Melissa's dance recital. From there I went up to Wyoming and visited my friends Ron and Brooke in Lander and then on to visit my former ranger colleagues and friends in Grand Teton National Park.


Later in the summer I returned to Wyoming and Montana to rekindle my annual trip to Glacier National Park with my good friend Ranger Bob Hoyle. A bonus on that trip was that my other good friends Bob and Cindy Henry were in Yellowstone and I was able to "hook-up" with them, albeit, for only a couple of hours. So, the summer went well.


I have just returned from my Christmas trip to San Diego County where for most of the time the area was under a deluge of rain and flooding. But I was able to spend time with family and that is what the holiday is about. In addition, my eldest grandson, Zac, turned 14 on December 30th. It seems like just yesterday when he was born.
And so it goes . . .


As promised, I am giving you my list of best films and actors for 2010. My rule is that I have to have seen them in a theater myself.

Top Films of 2010 (out of 62 seen):

1. The King's Speech
2. True Grit
3. Social Network
4. Inception
5. Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (Swedish version)
6. The Town
7. The Kids are All Right
8. The Fighter
9. Get Low
10. Ghost Writer
11. Nowhere Boy
12. City Island
13. Fair Game


Best Actor: Colin Firth, "King's Speech" Best Actress: Annette Benning, "Kids are All Right"
Supporting Actor: Geoffrey Rush, "The King's Speech," Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo, "The Fighter"

Other notable performances: Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, and Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit, Natalie Portman, The Black Swan, Christian Bale, Mark Wahlberg, and Amy Adams, The Fighter, Julienne Moore and Mark Ruffalo, The Kids are All Right, Jeremy Renner, The Town, Robert Duval, Get Low, Andy Garcia and Julianne Margollies, City Island, Ann Hathaway, Love and Other Drugs, and last but not least, Noomi Repast (sp), for Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (all three Swedish films that I had to make special trips to Scottsdale to see, books were good too!).



As you can see the last movies I saw during the year tended to be better, as is usually the case. I saw 6 films since my last blog. The best are the ones at the top of my list at numbers 1 and 2. The Fighter and The Black Swan were the next best, although I felt very uncomfortable watching the latter but Natalie Portman gives a great performance. The last two I viewed over this period were entertaining but not great. They were; How Do You Know, kind of funny but too long, and Tron: Legacy, which I consider the lowest on my rating but again, entertaining and I took my grandsons to see it.


So I guess this is it for the year 2010. I wish you all a Happy New Year.

December . . . Cold But No Snow!

Good Morning Folks,

As you can see by the accompanying picture, I must be in the holiday spirit or . . . On my good friends, the Henrys, trip to Flagstaff after Thanksgiving we did some "larking about." At any rate, one of the major highlights of the last couple of weeks was my friends visit. I last saw Bob and Cindy for a couple of hours in Yellowstone Park last summer where they were camping.

Bob works as a Ranger in Alaska now and Cindy lives in Goodyear, AZ. Bob makes it down on a furlough or leave every few months. This was their first visit to Flagstaff since I bought my condo. The funny thing is, they came on "day trip" because Cindy, or MooseLee as we call her (from her love of Moose and days in Jackson Hole), was worried about the forecast we had for snow for the next day. I assured her that we would get next to nothing so they stayed the night. Alas, we all awoke to about 4 inches of the white stuff the next morn. She was not happy about that! But it allowed me to have more time with them and they did not leave until mid-day.

I put up a small Christmas tree this year to get myself into the spirit of the season. It is not quite as small as my Dad's pitiful little one. I seem to be following in his footsteps though. He too was a solitary man after the divorce from my mother until his death. But he seemed to love Christmas. He spent a lot of the year gathering presents for the kids. Granted, my sister Norma finally had to tell him that they were no longer little children to

ensure their presents were age appropriate. But, he always had that little tree. So, in keeping with that "tradition," I have my little tree.

The other thing I enjoy doing over these holidays is watching the "smultzy" Christmas movies that they show on the Hallmark Channel. It seems to be what some might call a "guilty pleasure." However, even though I love James Stewart as an actor, I am really sick of It's A Wonderful Life. I do like the early 1950s version of A Christmas Carol with Alaster Sim as Scrooge (best ever) and the Maureen O'Hara/Natalie Wood version of Miracle on 34th St.

The funny thing about all of this is that I do not consider myself a Christian, or in fact, a believer in any supernatural mythology. I do not believe in the innate "goodness" of human beings either. All one has to do is look around the world and see man's inhumanity to man, especially if they belong to a different culture or have differing religious views. These religious views are most often the cause of this violence. What is even worse is that children and woman around the world seem to beneficiaries of most of this violence. Be that as it may, I cling to these good feelings engendered by the spirit of this season. Probably it is why I love to watch these films that continue to give me the illusion of harmony and peace on earth.

Speaking of films . . . yesterday I viewed the much anticipated Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp newest international thriller, The Tourist. I have to say that although this is one of my favorite genres this film lacked something. I think it was an OK movie but not great. The best parts seem to be the scenery of Venice, Italy. Last weekend I went down to Prescott to see my friends the Hammonds (Marc and Carol). While there I caught Fair Game, featuring Naomi Watts and Sean Penn in the story about the female CIA agent who was "outed" by Vice President Cheney's people during the run=up to the Irag war. This was a much better film and very thought provoking. The day before Thanksgiving I went to see Love and Other Drugs. It is a bittersweet love story with Jake Gillyanhal (sp) and Anne Hathaway. I liked the film, especially Hathaway in her role.

I am eagerly anticipating more of the holiday fare for some good films. The new Cohen brother's version of True Grit and the British offering with Colin Firth, The Kings Speech are the highest on my priority for viewing list. Look for my top ten movies of the year (those I viewed in theaters) and best actor rankings in my next blog.

Happy Holidays everyone!