Tag: Flannery O’Connor

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The Best and Worst of 2010

By Jim Spiegel

It’s been another exciting year, and we want to thank you all for reading and, if applicable, posting comments on our blog.  Once again, we would like to close out the year with some summary remarks about good and bad stuff related to film, music, books, politics, and family.

Best Film Experiences:

  • Jim:  Shutter Island and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  Though these are films in different genres, they are both superbly directed, well-acted, and have compelling stories.  And both films successfully transport the viewer into an alternate reality (or two).  But while Shutter Island leaves you questioning your perception of the world, Dawn Treader inspires you with the hope of transcending it.  Oh, and Toy Story 3 was brilliant, too—transporting the viewer in still another way.
  • Amy:  No Man of Her Own, Emma, and Tangled. In reviewing my viewing choices this year, I must acknowledge that my standards have lowered a bit this year.  These films are a bit more movie than film but great nonetheless.  No Man is a fab film noir starring Barbara Stanwyck.  While there are enough adaptations of Jane Austen’s Emma to sink the Titanic, this one is excellently done and it’s two discs long!  I just took our two youngsters to Tangled a few days ago as an act of love and ended up laughing (and crying) along with them.

Worst Film Experiences:

  • Jim:  This is an easy call: Greenberg.  What a colossal waste of time.  Yet, this reviewer at A.V. Club recommended it, while admitting that this film, like all of director Noah Baumbach’s comedies, is “plotless, self-consciously literary, and populated by characters who flat-out suck from the time they roll out of the bed until they angrily switch out the lights at night.”  He’s right about that much.  But he also finds the film to be “hilarious” and “a pleasure to look at.”  I wonder if we watched the same film.
  • Amy:  Inception.  Maybe this film doesn’t deserve to be called the worst I watched, but it was such a disappointment that I am placing it in the worst experience category.  I anticipated a smart and mind-bending experience.  What I got was an action movie with a side-serving of love story.  I actually fast-forwarded several sections of shoot-me-up.  A close second is The Last Air Bender.  I only make it second because I couldn’t actually make myself watch this much anticipated live action version of our most beloved Nickelodeon show.  I had heard it was awful and made the kids watch it.  Even they hated it.  M. Knight Shyamalan, you’re killing me!

Best and Worst Musical Experiences of the Year:

  • Jim:  Josh Ritter’s So Runs the World Away and Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs.  I actually purchased both of these CDs on the same day, so I spent the next month in musical bliss, bathing in the musical beauty.  For the most part, I avoided stinkers, due mainly to my careful research before purchasing new music.  But what I could not avoid was hearing the Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling” everywhere I went.  Blecch!
  • Amy:  I am starting to sense a pattern of shallowness in my aesthetic sense this year.  I am sensing a New Year’s resolution coming on. Anyhoo, my musical selections were mostly limited to good workout music (“Stuck to You” by Nikka Costa, “Strip Me” by Natasha Bedingfield and “The Way I Are” by Timbaland).  I have just purchased albums by Rosanne Cash and Emmylou Harris, which I hope to enjoy in the New Year.

Jim’s Favorite Sports Moment of the Year: Two of my three favorite NFL teams playing in the Super Bowl.  Well, the run-up to the Super Bowl was actually more satisfying than the game itself, which at times felt like watching my kids fight.  I was sad for my Colts but thrilled for my Saints, with whom I have suffered as a fan since the early 1980s.  Who Dat!!!

Jim’s Most Disappointing Sports Moment of the Year: All of the LeBron James summer free agency hype, culminating in an hour-long ESPN James announcement TV special.  LeTacky and LeShameless.  My interest in the NBA and respect for ESPN have declined faster than the U.S. economy.

Amy’s Best Eating Experience of the Year: While attending a conference with Jim in Atlanta, we “attempted” to visit the Atlanta Art Museum.  We sighed with regret as we took an afternoon siesta and mumbled something about going to the Art Museum.  We didn’t make it to the museum, but we did make it to the restaurant adjacent to the Museum.  I had rabbit with pumpkin ravioli.  That’s right—rabbit and let me tell you, Bugs Bunny was tasty!

Amy’s Worst Eating Experience of the Year: If we are talking overall experience, it would have to be an ill-fated family trip to Cracker Barrel.  The bad side was the service, which was horrible and slow; also, the food was cold and the manager snapped at me when I pointed this out.  The up side was that, in the end, our dinner was on the house.  I also hosted a dinner party at which I unfortunately served grey soup; not a shining moment in my culinary career.

Satisfying Reads of the Year:

  • Jim:  Howard Storm’s My Descent into Death was the most engrossing and inspiring book I’ve read in years (see my May 30 post).  Keaton, the classic Buster Keaton biography by Rudi Blesh, was also excellent (see my August 8 post).  I also enjoyed numerous short stories by Flannery O’Connor.
  • Amy:  The Help by Kathryn Stockett and The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley were both great book club selections this year.  I spent a good part of the year reading books with Bailey and Maggie so for tween boys I recommend the Gregor the Overlander series or Mr. Popper’s Penguins and The Moffats.

Political High Point of the Year: Kicking (a lot of) the bums out of Congress in November.  We’ll see how many of these newly elected folks turn out to be bums as well.

Political Low Points of the Year: Amy’s low point was the day after the November elections when she had the sinking feeling that all the newly elected Senators and Representatives would prove to be just as disappointing as the bums that we threw out.  Jim’s low point was the passing of Obamacare in March.  Already two U.S. District Court judges have struck down part of the health care law as unconstitutional (portending much bigger legal wrangling to come).  What a mess.

Good 2010 Memories of Our Kids:

  • Bailey learning to play guitar and his ability to imitate us with frightening accuracy.
  • Watching Sam finish first in the Fairmount James Dean race for his age group
  • Maggie having her first spend-the-night at a friend’s house.  Coincidentally, this was also the quietest night of the year at the Spiegels.
  • Andrew declaring himself the “King of Potato Wedges,” among other things.  He also is now fully potty trained—a major family milestone, to be sure.

Favorite Backyard Adventures of the Year:

  • Jim:  Installing a zip-line and watching the kids’ creative uses of it (not including Sam’s inadvertent back flip and landing on his shoulders)
  • Amy:  The raised bed in which we planted cucumbers, carrots, and onions.  The cucumbers dominated impressively.

Most Satisfying Shared Experiences of the Year:

  • Jim:  Eating at the 1280 Restaurant in Atlanta—the $18 scallops were worth every bite (which is saying a lot, as they averaged out to over $3.00 per bite).
  • Amy:  Any of our several family bike rides—the back of my bike is finally toddler free!  A close second was the camping trip the kids and I took to Indiana Dunes State Park.  I was so proud of myself for going, proud of the kids for being such troupers and amazed at the beauty of Lake Michigan.

New Year’s Resolutions:

  • Jim:  To read ten books in New Testament and historical Jesus studies; also to stop biting my nails (without having to forego following sports).
  • Amy:  To run a 10K race and read at least six books by C.S. Lewis (and not just his fiction).

Happy 2011 everyone!

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My Summer Reading

By Jim Spiegel

This summer I spent most of my free time doing home improvement projects and spending time with the family, but I did manage to read a few books.  Here is a quick review of the ones I read.

My Descent into Death: A Second Chance at Life by Howard Storm (Doubleday) — I have an abiding interest in the pervasive phenomenon of near death experiences (NDEs), both from a scholarly standpoint and, perhaps because my own eventual death appears to be inevitable, from a personal standpoint.  Storm’s story is especially interesting because his experience occurred while he was a firmly convinced atheist.  (Today Storm pastors a church in Ohio.)  This book poignantly recounts his NDE, including a detailed conversation with Jesus and some angelic beings.  Fascinating and inspiring stuff.

Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near Death Experience by Pim van Lommel (HarperOne) —  Where Storm’s NDE account is deeply personal, this study by the renowned Dutch cardiologist is a dispassionate assessment of the evidence for the validity of NDEs.  Building upon the research of previous NDE scholars (e.g., Kenneth Ring, P.M.H. Atwater, Melvin Morse, etc.), Van Lommel shares data gathered from his own research and considers it all in light of the latest insights in brain physiology.  Along the way, Van Lommel repudiates all of the naturalistic accounts of NDEs, such as appeals to the effects of medication, hallucination, or oxygen deprivation.  Those looking for a thorough and rigorous scientific assessment NDEs should start here.

Keaton by Rudi Blesh (Macmillan) — I am very selective when it comes to the biographies I read.  The subjects must be either great artists or paragons of virtue (interestingly, these tend to be mutually exclusive categories), and the authors must be strong stylists or superb scholars (or both).  This first bio of Buster Keaton met these criteria and was a delight to read.  My respect for Keaton the artist grew immensely, as did my pathos for Keaton the man.  (See my August 8, 2010 post for a more extensive discussion of the “Great Stone Face.”)

The Loser Letters: A Comic Tale of Life, Death, and Atheism by Mary Eberstadt (Ignatius) — If you thought that the new atheism was a hopelessly humorless topic, its time to think again.  This cheeky satire is absolutely hysterical.  Eberstadt manages to poke fun at the new atheists while revealing many of the serious problems with their perspective, not to mention some disturbing demographics (e.g., that atheists are far more likely to be men than women—so if atheism is about intellectual enlightenment, what does this imply about women?  Hmm….sexism anyone?).  For someone who is primarily a cultural commentator, Eberstadt displays tremendous insight into religious psychology and philosophy of religion.

Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations by Alex and Brett Harris (Multnomah) — American culture is indulgent in many ways, and one of the most damaging forms this takes is the way we coddle our teenagers.  We don’t expect them to be morally serious and do significant work, so we don’t challenge them to do so.  Then when they confirm our low expectations we conclude that they’re not capable of anything more.  Alex and Brett Harris have had enough, and this rousing manifesto has brought throngs of young people, and their parents, to attention.  Way to go, guys.

Why is God Ignoring Me? by Gary Habermas (Tyndale) — Most people of faith have experienced the “dark night of the soul” when it seems that God is absent when we need him most.  In this book, Gary Habermas expounds on the critical resources that believers have to persevere through such times.  The author’s own personal trials inform this study, which is refreshingly realistic about suffering and the biblical perspective on the subject.  I also appreciate Habermas’s emphasis on the spiritual disciplines and other proactive ways of dealing with the problem of divine hiddenness.

The Complete Stories by Flannery O’Connor (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux ) — O’Connor’s fiction is often characterized as dark and grotesque, full of freaks and the bizarre.  Yet when I read her stories I find them to be both hopeful and, in a strange way, realistic (a response which prompts me, at turns, to question her readers’ interpretive sense and my own state of mental health).  In any case, O’Connor’s genius for providing insights into human nature and grace, among other things, is profound.  Her stories are consistently set in the “Christ-haunted South,” but the themes are universal.  And to my mind she succeeds where few other twentieth century fiction writers do—at inspiring virtue and a deeper devotion to the Golden Rule.