Left to my own devices

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....

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...

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.

         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).     

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.

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.

"What do you want to be when you grow up?" That was something kids seemed to be asked a lot when I was growing up (which is becoming increasingly further back in time as the years go by). I'm not sure if that is a question commonly put to children today, but it was, for me, a pretty exciting query. At least during my single-digit years. It conjured up an open landscape of possibilities. I don't know.. perhaps I'd be an astronaut? An artist? Mayor? When I entered my teenage years, and began high school, the question -- no longer posed as much by adults, but more to myself -- generated anxiety more than anything. It was crunch time. Crap - what do I want to be?