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Top 10 Songs of the Decade (so far)

Some of you (let's be honest, probably none of you) may have noticed that my annual 'Top 10 Songs of the Year' posts have been absent. The last one I did was for 2021 . The lack of a yearly reflection on my favorite songs has been down to a couple of factors: 1) last year was... distracting for me, for a variety of reasons, and it was difficult to concentrate enough to think about making a list, and 2) honestly, I haven't been all that jazzed about recent music -- at least, not enough to warrant a Top 10 list for each  year. But, I still love music, and listen to it. A lot. So, the thought occurred that I could definitely comprise a list of ten favorite songs of the decade... so far, at least. We are in the fifth year of the 2020s, so there's definitely been enough time for several songs to tickle my fancy. In fact, it was a bit difficult to whittle things down to just ten tracks. Here, then, are my Top 10 Favorite Songs of the 2020s, so far....
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The 2024 Matt Awards (Nominations)

Those of you who like cinema and follow awards season were probably pretty excited this week, because you knew that the most important movie nominations were about to drop. And, no, I'm not talking about the Oscars . Of course I'm referring to The Matt Awards! For the uninitiated: I've always enjoyed movies and, during the 1990s, I was a huge fan of Leonardo DiCaprio. Titanic was released in December 1997, and I saw it 5 times at the theater. In early 1998, the Oscar nominations were announced, and Leo was nowhere to be found. Salty at the perceived snub of my crush favorite actor, I decided I could do better than the Oscars, and so the first Matt Awards were born. DiCaprio was nominated for Titanic and, of course, he won. Over the years, the Matt Awards have allowed me to recognize (if only for myself) the best in cinema of the preceding year. Quite often -- though not always -- my nominations will bear some similarity to the Oscar nominees, though less seldom have my w

Attack from Mars (a Christmas Love Story)

          Several nights ago, I had a very evocative dream. It was, as most dreams are, strange and a bit reality-bending. It was late in my sleep cycle, and actually felt like it occurring immediately prior to waking up that morning. The very last part (referred to here as the "three options" -- you'll understand later) is what impacted me the most. I knew that I had to write it down as a story, but some thought had to be given to how. Dreams are often meandering, and so some structure had to be added to the story. There was magical stuff in the dream that I decided to jettison. It's mostly been replaced by some more sci-fi elements. Ideally it'll make sense once you've read it. This is kind of a long short story -- at least for a blog -- so be prepared. I've also included a minor Christmas theme, given the time of year. It's all a bit bonkers, as you'll see if you take the time out of your busy day to read it. I wasn't sure what to call this

Health class and Baseball

Lou Skizas died on November 17th. I just read his obituary in Sunday's paper, and a lot about his life is contained therein. I knew him as "Mr. Skizas" -- he was one of my teachers, so we weren't on a first name basis. It's true that, in adulthood, I've come to know many of my teachers of yore much better. Some of them have becomes friends. Such was not the case with Mr. Skizas, though our paths did cross over the years.

Ghosts of the Past

         Yesterday was the closing night of the 32nd St. Louis International Film Festival, and there I watched the new film, All of Us Strangers . It was written and directed by Andrew Haigh, who adapted it from the Japanese novel Strangers , by Taichi Yamada. I've seen two of Haigh's previous movies -- Lean on Pete , and Weekend -- the latter a good, solid film, and the former being my favorite movie of 2018 (when it was widely released here in the United States).     

The Mind Has Mountains

Well over twenty years ago, I made a mistake. It wasn't my first, and it certainly wasn't my last. This one, like so many others, was well-intentioned. It also resides completely within my own heart and mind. It is something which has been part of my psyche since the late-nineties, but today it envelopes my thoughts to a fairly large degree. Allow me to explain. My dad died twenty-six years ago today. He knew he was sick for almost the last year of his life. During that time, I would visit with him, in an attempt to finally connect with him on a deeper level. It didn't really happen, and there was a lot of anger and resentment on my part about it for a long time, but now I'm glad to have at least made the effort.

Home Again

My childhood home went on the market last week (already under contract, apparently), and episodes 9 and 10 of Star Trek: Picard season 3 aired last month. Neither one of the aforementioned things at first appear as though they would have anything in common. And they don't, at least not to most people. For yours truly, however, they both represent a fondness for a certain era of the past.