Tag: The Black Keys

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The Best and Worst of 2019

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, sports, food, and family.

 

Film Experiences

Jim:  Most of the new films I saw this year were good. The biggest loser of the year was Joker. Yes, Joaquin Phoenix’s acting is superb, but the script is poor, the violence is gratuitously graphic, and the plot has more holes than a cheese grater. Ugh. But a big thumbs up for the film Us, which is freaky scary but somehow fun at the same time. From here on out, I’ll be seeing every Jordan Peele film as a matter of principle. I enjoyed Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and consider it an appropriate finish to the nine-part saga that took four decades to complete. But the best film I saw this year was Rian Johnson’s Knives Out, a superbly written who-dunnit which isn’t impeded by its star-studded cast. A close runner-up was Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Who can build a comical, poignant, and redemptive story around a despondent fading Hollywood star and the Manson murders in the ill-fated summer of 1969? Quentin Tarantino, that’s who.

Amy:  Several of my best movie experiences were with Jim this year so we have quite a bit of overlap with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, though I wasn’t as keen on it as Jim, Knives Out, which I thought was great, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. I did have some small screen experiences that were quite good: Unbelievable, Great British Baking Show, The Good Place, and Monk were a few of the shows I enjoyed this year.

 

Food and Music

Amy’s Best Food Experiences of the Year:  Like most exceptionally delightful food experiences, the one that tops my list this year was a combination of delicious food, wonderful company, and conversation enjoyed in an ideal setting. Jim, some of the kids, and I were invited to join a graduating student and his family for dinner at Bluebeard in downtown Indianapolis. The food was simple but quirky in its creativity (roasted cauliflower and mint!) but one of my favorite parts of the evening was that rather than ordering individual meals, we got a few bites of everything. It was a night we won’t soon forget shared with people dear to our hearts. A close second was a breakfast shared with Sam while visiting him in Bolivia. A good croissant with homemade jam is hard to beat but throw in a son you haven’t seen in months who can’t wait to share with you all of his adventures and it’s a meal to remember.

Jim’s Best Musical Experiences of the Year:  This was an exciting year for new album releases by many of my favorite artists, including the Black Keys’ solid but not ground-breaking Let’s Rock, the Avett Brothers’ sometimes preachy Closer Than Together, and Taylor Swift’s Lover, which I reviewed on this blog a few months back. My favorite album of the year was Vampire Weekend’s Father of the Bride. It is a rich, thoughtful, and memorable record—perhaps the band’s best, which is saying a lot. But the highlight of the year for me was seeing Bob Dylan in concert at Ball State’s Emens Auditorium in November. This is the sixth time I’ve seen Dylan in concert, and I continue to be amazed at his endless rearrangements and reinventions of his songs. Incredible.

 

Sports

Jim’s Favorite Sports Moments of the Year:  I loved watching Drew Brees break two NFL records in the same game two weeks ago, as he eclipsed the all-time career touchdown passing mark and had the all-time highest completion percentage for a single game (29 for 30!) in the New Orleans Saints’ defeat of the Indianapolis Colts on Monday Night Football. Incredible.

Amy’s Favorite Sports Moments of the Year:  I watched Andrew play a lot of basketball this past winter which is always a treat, especially when there is fresh popcorn involved. He also treated me to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the NFL playoffs which was a pleasure.

Jim’s Most Disappointing Sports Moments of the Year:  The New Orleans Saints were robbed of an NFC championship and Super Bowl appearance due to a blown pass interference call against the Los Angeles Rams last January (which did result in a league rule change, which I guess counts for something). This makes for the second consecutive year in which the Saints have finished their season in heartbreak fashion, as the 2017-18 season ended with the “Minneapolis Miracle.” Ugh. The retirement of Colts quarterback Andrew Luck was another disappointment, but hope was renewed by the emergence of Jacoby Brissett as a solid starting quarterback, only to be dashed by a rash of injuries to several Colts offensive players. Oh well.

Amy’s Most Painful Sports Moment of the Year: Seeing Joe Maddon dismissed as the Cubs manager was a knife to the heart. Andrew Luck’s retirement has seen my interest in the Colts fall to zero, having grandfathered him after Peyton.

 

Good Reads

Jim:  As usual, most of my reading this year pertained either to classes I was teaching or publication projects I was working on. Regarding the latter, I read dozens of journal articles and book chapters on divine and human agency, in preparation for a book chapter I’ve nearly finished on George Berkeley’s view on the subject. As for new reads for classes, I enjoyed Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Ethics, a work that is especially intriguing because it was written during the final years of Bonhoeffer’s life when he was wrestling with one of the most excruciating of moral issues, namely how to respond to a tyrannical national leader. Knowing that Bonhoeffer ultimately took part in a plot to kill the Nazi Führer casts a fascinating light on his discussion of the legitimacy of civil disobedience. My favorite book among those I read this year was James Waller’s Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing—a work that is as insightful as it is disturbing regarding human nature.

Amy:  My reading this year is clearly delineated into two eras: pre-working and post. In the first category are some of my favorite reads in quite some time: The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis,  Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain, The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce and Rules of Civility by Amor Towles and several by P. D. Wodehouse. The post-working era is dominated by books on sales and business which I would never have predicted enjoying but which have taught me a great deal, both professionally and personally. A few favorites have been: Sell or Be Sold and Be Obsessed or Be Average by Grant Cardone, The Entitlement Cure by John Townsend, and The Top Ten Mistakes Leaders Make by Hans Finzel. I also listened to the entire Harry Potter series while driving for work and loved every magic filled minute of it despite the fact that J. K. Rowling uses the word “sniggered” entirely too often.

 

Best 2019 Family Memories

Jim:  Like his older brother, Bailey, did a few years ago, our son Sam spent the Spring semester living in La Paz, Bolivia attending Highlands International School. It was fun to witness his personal development through this experience and especially thrilling to hear him speak Spanish fluently upon his return in June. Then this past Fall semester we hosted a friend that Sam made during his time in Bolivia. It was fun knowing that the experience here in the U.S. for Sam’s friend would be as life-changing as was Sam’s experience in Bolivia.

Amy: I got to visit Sam in Bolivia this spring which was a thrill. Being gone so much for work this fall has honestly made any time with the kids feel like a gift, except when I’m tired and they are being annoying—ha ha. Our Christmas felt special with Bailey home from college and watching the kids connect with one another more as adults than kids; their shared humor, conflicting opinions, and overall weather-beaten affection is something to behold.

 

Best Kids’ Quotes of the Year

As usual, most of the best quotes of the year come from Maggie:

  • Maggie: “What’s the difference between a Presbyterian and a normal person?”
  • Bailey: “I could spice up cardboard and make it taste better than anything you’ve ever eaten.”
  • Maggie: “If you don’t do anything wrong, then you won’t get caught doing it.”
  • Maggie (Regarding my giving her some spending money): “Dad, you’re like a young male grandma.”
  • Maggie (after my sugar-holic daughter hypocritically lectured me about the sugar content in a food product I was buying): “I don’t obey the rules, but I know the rules.”

 

New Year’s Resolutions

Amy:  To continue to introduce more discipline into my time management. To figure out how to keep up my love of reading and cooking despite working full-time. To be ambitious in my Bible reading plan for this year.

Jim:  To pray more, to fast more, and to remember that this world and our time in it is, as Kanye West puts it, a “God dream.”

 

Happy 2020 everyone!

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The Best and Worst of 2014

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, sports, and family.

Best and Worst Film Experiences:

  • Jim:  This was a down year for me in terms of watching films. I viewed a lot of “tweeners” that wouldn’t fall anywhere near the “best” or “worst” categories—e.g., Interstellar, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.  Probably the best film I watched all year was the Israeli drama Fill the Void, a powerful story of a young Haredic Jewish woman who is pressured by her family to marry the widower of her older sister, who died in childbirth. On a lighter note, but just as memorable, is the endearing Jon Favreau comedy Chef. As for my worst film experience of the year, the choice is easy: Gone Girl, which Amy and I reviewed here and here.
  • Amy:  While Jim was in California, I pretty much anesthetized myself with any television series I could get my Netflixed hands on. While there was a great deal of loving or listing it, hunting for houses and cousins with kitchen, I did watch some quality shows, most of them dark and mysterious. I think the new paradigm of shows created directly for streaming and released in their entirety has real potential. Here are a few to which I became hopelessly addicted, with the usual disclaimer that since they are mostly British, they tend to be a wee smutty and anti-religious, but well-written and well-acted: Hinterlands, The Killing, Happy Valley, The Fall. My best experience, however, was watching Mockingjay: Part One with my older boys. I know it isn’t saying much to say it is the best in the series so far, but it was. There was popcorn and bonding, so take that and stuff it in your high culture hat.

Jim’s Best and Worst Musical Experiences of the Year:  The highlights for me were Morrissey’s World Peace is None of Your Business (despite the Moz’s increasingly sardonic perspective on life) the Black Keys’ Turn Blue (my review of which is here), and U2’s Songs of Innocence (despite the popular trend of hating this album just because it was simultaneously gifted to millions of people). The low point, as it probably could be most years, was catching “highlights” of the MTV awards. Blecch.

Amy’s Best and Worst Eating Experiences of the Year: Best: Finally got to experience (free range) pork belly and it did not disappoint. Like pork chops wrapped in bacon. Thank you, Barn Brassiere in Muncie, Indiana.  Worst: The hundredth Subway tuna sandwich on flat bread I ate with the kids while traveling back from California. Every woman has her fast food sub-sandwich limit and I reached mine somewhere in Kansas.

Jim’s Favorite Sports Moments of the Year:  It was a thrill to see both the Ole Miss and Mississippi State football teams in the top five, with the latter enjoying the #1 position for several consecutive weeks of the season.  I also enjoyed the Kansas City Royals’ exciting run to the World Series.  And as I write this I’m enjoying the Detroit Lions season culminating in a playoff appearance, though I expect the end of their run will make my “most disappointing sports moments” for 2015.

Amy’ Favorite Sports Moments of the Year:  Watching all my kids play soccer this fall. I had to step up my spectator skills in order to do play-by-play for Jim while he was in California. I saw Bailey score his first goal in a high school game, Sam play keeper (a position he and his high threshold of stimulation were born for), Maggie deceive many an opponent with her flighty demeanor, and Andrew take charge of his defense. So fun to watch them all, though the rides home were admittedly a little stinky (but only literally).

Jim’s Most Disappointing Sports Moments of the Year:  Although I’m not a Kansas City Royals fan, I got caught up enough in their improbable playoff run to be really deflated by their falling just short in game 7 of the World Series.  If Salvador Perez swings just half an inch higher on that final pitch, the Royals win the championship on a walk-off two-run homer rather than losing on a feeble pop-out. It’s a game of inches… And speaking of disappointments related to teams I don’t normally root for, it was also painful to watch Peyton Manning’s Broncos so thoroughly dismantled by the Seahawks in the Super Bowl.

Amy’s Most Painful Sports Moment of the Year: Having to tell Jim, who was suffering from amnesia at the time, that Peyton Manning didn’t play for the Colts anymore. He looked so devastatingly baffled. At least he forgot about it five minutes after I told him.

Satisfying Reads of the Year:

  • Jim:  I was delighted to have the time to finally read Melville’s Moby Dick, my reflections on which you can see here.  I also enjoyed Marilynne Robinson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Gilead—an achievement that is as subtle as it is profound.  The best work in philosophy I read this year was Jason Baehr’s The Inquiring Mind, a rich and insightful work on virtue epistemology.  Also, I greatly enjoyed—and was happy to do a back-cover endorsement for—the book Rethinking Hell, a compendium of important articles and essays defending the doctrine of hell known as conditional immortalism (the view that the damned are eventually annihilated, as opposed to suffering eternally).
  • Amy:  I read so many good books this year. From contemporary fiction to 19th century memoirs, this was a great reading year for me. Here are just a few of my recommendations: The Warden by Anthony Trollope, People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (though I hated Brooks’ March), Where’d you go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple, a couple by P. G. Wodehouse, 12 Years a Slave by Solomon Northup, Half-Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls, The Year 1000 by Robert Lacey, Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner, Extraordinary, Ordinary People by Condoleezza Rice and The Life of Charlotte Bronte by Elizabeth Gaskell.

Best 2014 Memories of Our Kids:

Amy:  Our trip out west was the big one. Sitting on the beach with Jim at Big Sur watching the kids playing in the water and looking for creatures was a near perfect moment. Looking at their happy and surprised faces when Jim told them we were getting a dog was priceless. Not being found first every time during Christmas bedtime hide and seek was pretty sweet too.

Jim:  Traveling through Arizona and California with my family in October, experiencing together such sites as the Grand Canyon, Sequoia National Park, Yosemite National Park, the Pacific coastal highway, and Alcatraz. Our kids have always been good travelers, but they blew us away with their endurance on this extended sojourn.

Best Maggie Quotes of the Year:

In the past we’ve reserved this spot for memorable quotes from all of our kids, but this was such a great year for quotes from our daughter Maggie (who is ten years old), we decided to simply list some of her more memorable ones:

  • “When I grow up, I’m gonna make an exact copy of the earth, then cut it in half with a big knife to see if the center of the earth is really so hot.”
  • “Sometimes being hungry can be satisfying. Unsatisfaction can be satisfying.”
  • “I never talk to myself when I’m alone in my room. I just talk to the Beatles and my stuffed animals.”

Most Satisfying Shared Experiences of the Year: 

  • Amy:  There were quite a few this year: Kayaking through the beautiful mangrove forest and onto the open ocean while in the Bahamas. Seeing so many beautiful places on our trip out west. The night Jim surprised me for my 40th birthday by driving me around to collect lovely, encouraging notes from my friends. However, number one has to be picking him up from the airport in December, knowing he was home to stay.
  • Jim:  Dittos on all of that.

New Year’s Resolutions:

  • Amy:  Somehow managing to maintain the new perspective Jim’s being gone gave me. Appreciate him more, worry about the little things less. Enjoy and encourage my kids more, criticize and hide from them less. Accomplish the fitness goals I set but didn’t quite reach for 2014. Watch more quality films with Jim. Put more time and energy into plans for my professional future and of course, read lots and lots of books.
  • Jim:  To read half as much as my wife did this year, which would mean reading twenty-six books next year. Good luck to me on that.

Happy 2015 everyone!

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The Best and Worst of 2012

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:  This year I was blown away by two films whose plots involved the silent film era:  Hugo and The Artist.  The former, directed by Martin Scorsese, is a powerfully redemptive story that is a visual and emotional delight.  Even given his impressive filmography, I regard Hugo as one of Scorsese’s best.  And The Artist is a true original at a time when Hollywood needed a breath of fresh air.
  • Amy: What have I watched this year? Obviously nothing that great or I would be able to remember. I did love the experience of watching Lincoln, but I told Jim afterward, I don’t know if I loved it because it was a great movie or because it was such an amazing performance by Daniel Day Lewis.  He is so good, it’s hard to evaluate the film as a whole.  From a pure experience standpoint, gasping in shock surprise with several girlfriends and a theater full of shocked fellow watchers in Twilight: Breaking Dawn was a highlight.

Worst Film Experiences:

  • Jim:  I didn’t see any really bad films this year, but Hunger Games was a definite disappointment.  I read the book, and then watched the film, and they were equally disappointing.  The problem: none of the characters made any reference to God, prayer, the afterlife, etc.  Given that death and physical trauma figure into the story so prominently, this is highly unrealistic and a significant flaw in the narrative.
  • Amy: This year has seen a lot of disappointments for me, more in the shows that I watch than in films.  Frankly I expect most movies to be bad but several favorites on the small screen turned into just another agenda driven lecture punctuated by commercialist drivel. I guess one of the worst would be Snow White and the Huntsman but was I really expecting that one to be good or did I just want to get out of the house?  Hmm.

Best and Worst Musical Experiences of the Year:

  • Jim:  The new Dylan album, Tempest, was the highlight of the year for me.  These days, every new Dylan album, especially given the fact that the man is so well along in years, is a treat.  And the fact that his music is as good as ever is really astounding.  Unprecedented, in fact.  What other popular artist is still writing and recording great songs into his/her 70s?  Another highlight was the Black Keys concert in Cincy that I attended last March.  Those guys are finally getting the recognition they deserve.  But will their popularity undermine their creativity from here forward?  Time will tell.
  • Amy:  I don’t really do musical experiences.  Concerts give me vertigo and my iPod is mostly full of stuff for the kids.  But I did enjoy discovering The Tallest Man on Earth, The Temper Trap, Grace Potter and The Nocturnals, and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.

Jim’s Favorite Sports Moments of the Year:  Seeing the Detroit Tigers win the American League Championship was definitely a thrill.  But like 2006, they swept their way there (defeating those darn Yankees 4-0), while the Giants had to go the distance to defeat the Cardinals in the NLCS.  So, just like 2006, the Tigers were hurt by the long layoff and got swept in the World Series.  Hopefully, next year, the Tigers can win the ALCS in a more protracted series so they’ll be well-tuned for the World Series.

Jim’s Most Disappointing Sports Moments of the Year:  Watching the Giants sweep the Tigers hurt, but the whole “Bounty-gate” debacle concerning the New Orleans Saints hurt even worse.  Ugh.

Amy’s Best Eating Experience of the Year:  Eating curried goat with my hubby in the Bahamas.  I seriously would have licked the plate had no one been watching.

Amy’s Worst Eating Experience of the Year: I made the mistake of purchasing heavily scented yet temptingly discounted dishwasher detergent a few months back and paid dearly for my frugality when it “tainted” all of our dishes.  No matter what we ate, all I tasted was synthetic lavender.  Yuck.

Satisfying Reads of the Year:

  • Jim:  In the scholarly category, it’s Plantinga’s Where the Conflict Really Lies.  As is typical for Plantinga, it is lucid and well-argued—the best treatment of science and religion I’ve ever read.  Also, this year I resolved to read three classics every year, and this year they were Virgil’s Aeneid, George Eliot’s Silas Marner, and Eusebius’s History of the Church (which I am still reading).  Three very different books, but each rich with insight and deserving of the moniker “classic.”  I also greatly enjoyed reading another superb apologetics book by Paul Copan—When God Goes to Starbucks.  He tackles some really challenging questions, such as regarding homosexuality and the Old Testament “holy wars,” and his responses are consistently insightful and sensitive.
  • Amy:  This has been a good book reading year for me. If I am going for mind-expanding, worldview-challenging it would be The Fountainhead.  I realize she would think I am a mindless religious zombie but I still love Ayn Rand.  I read a lot of history this year, my favorite being Destiny of the Republic about the assassination of James Garfield.  For sheer pleasure, Roald Dahl’s Boy and Going Solo were pure delight.

Political High Point of the Year:  Jim:  Still waiting for one.  Amy:  Ditto.

Political Low Point of the Year:  The presidential election.  Nuff said.

Best 2011 Memories of Our Kids:

  • Bailey: “There is no better feeling than picking up a heavy whipped cream can.”
  • Sam: Through tears and cries of pain over a splinter “You promise it’s just a thin layer of tissue?”
  • Maggie: “Mom, do you have a town inside your head where you go when you are bored?”
  • Andrew as he hands us his front tooth after riding the bummer cars: “That was the most awkward time I ever lost a tooth.”  And another good one from Andrew, when explaining that he would rather listen to Rascal Flats than my gospel choice: “I don’t like this one, no offense to God.”

Most Satisfying Shared Experiences of the Year:

  • Jim:  Our time in the Bahamas last January with the Taylor softball team.
  • Amy:  Redoing our upstairs bathroom.

New Year’s Resolutions:

  • Jim:  To take my wife out on even more dates and to avoid sugary carbonated soft drinks.
  • Amy: To limit the number of times I begin sentences with the phrase “I am so sick and tired…” and to take time every day to remember what an awesome guy I married.

Happy 2013 everyone!

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The Black Keys’ Brothers: A Review

By Jim Spiegel

My latest musical obsession is the Black Keys.  Consisting of just two remarkably talented guys, Patrick Carney and Dan Auerbach, they have pumped out six albums over the last eight years which have earned them increasing critical acclaim.  Their style is usually categorized as blues rock, but I would call it classic rock with an R&B soul.  Actually, Carney’s drumming often creates a groove that has a distinct hip hop feel, such as on “Tighten Up,” the first single from their latest album, Brothers.  The album is an addictive collection of tunes that showcase Auerbach’s soulful guitar hooks, reminiscent of some of Jimmy Page’s best work with Led Zeppelin.  Though Auerbach’s renown as guitarist is well-deserved, it unfortunately overshadows his brilliance as a singer.  I find it difficult to think of another male vocalist today who has a voice with so much emotional color and depth.  So the guy is a rare double-threat, perhaps the best since Jimi Hendrix.

The lyrical themes on Brothers are consistent with the band’s blues core.  The songs are mainly lovesick meditations and like the best of the blues they tend to transcend the sorrows of relationships and touch on deeper issues regarding the human condition.  But the transitions are always seamless and authentic.  On the one hand (demonstrating he’s as natural a blues writer as he is a blues guitarist and singer), Auerbach effortlessly tosses off lines like these:

“There’s nothing worse in this world than payback from a jealous girl.  The laws of man, they don’t apply when blood gets in a woman’s eye.” (“Ten Cent Pistol”)

Or these lines from “The Go Getter”:

“Palm trees, the flat broke disease and L.A. has got me on my knees.  I am the bluest of blues.  Every day a different way to lose.”

But then the bigger spiritual struggle emerges in several songs on Brothers, perhaps prompted by all of the sorrow and loneliness.  This comes through powerfully on “Sinister Kid”:

“A sinister kid is a kid who runs to meet his maker, a drop dead sprint from the day he’s born straight into his maker’s arms.  And that’s me, the boy with the broken halo.  That’s me…  The devil won’t let me be.”

And on the album’s pleading closer, “These Days”:

“Watch what you say.  The devil is listening.  He’s got ears that you wouldn’t believe.  And brother once you go to him, it’s your soul you can never, never retrieve.”

Indeed.  On Brothers the blues themes of the Black Keys seem to be traveling a similar path as that traveled by Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, among others.  The pain brings world-weariness, to be sure, but not bitterness.  Rather, a certain humility that is willing to consider how all of our striving on earth amounts to much more than merely earthly striving.  It is also a humility that is willing to entertain heavenly hope, as is evident on “Unknown Brother,” a poignant message to Auerbach’s brother-in-law who died young:

“For you, unknown brother, my baby’s mother is pained.  ‘Cause your soul is in heaven, but your memory remains.  Unknown, unknown brother, I’ll meet you some day.  We’ll walk through fields where children play.”

Amen.