Loose Ends 2021

Time once again for a wrap-up of various things in 2021 that were part of my life that I chose not to blog about.

Jennifer got a new birding app for her iPhone.  You simply record whatever bird sounds you hear and the app will identify each bird with a thumbnail photo and brief description.  The app was fun to use as it allowed us to guess what birds we were hearing and then either confirm or not whether we were correct.  Most birds we already knew but there were some surprises.  Through the use of this app I learned about several new birds on our property, primarily the blue-gray gnatcatcher and the hermit thrush.  This fun app added a new dimension to my walks.

Speaking of which, six deer (one fawn) took up residence in my woods this year.  I never tried to take a photo of them.  Kudo has become so sweet and manageable on our walks.  I have taught her to freeze and not approach the deer.  After we make eye contact we both freeze.  I usually whisper something to Kudo, reassuring her that it is right to freeze.  The deer sometimes shuffle about but they don't run away any more like they did back in the spring.  They are accustomed to us and usually allow us to continue walking right past them, maybe 25 feet away, with everybody watching each other.  Then Kudo and I continue on our way while the deer stay in place.

Once, while walking the end of Forest Trail where it becomes Lothlorien, I saw four or five deer standing very near the trail.  Kudo and I approached cautiously, moving uphill toward them.  When we reached the top of the rise, suddenly, they all shifted in the woods.  When they did so I saw that there were about a dozen deer before us, many I had not noticed until they shifted.  It was a simple little magical moment; pure elation of being so close to a dozen deer and none of them were freaking out.  We walked on after they shifted.  I was smiling.

Elsewhere in local nature, I saw more rabbits this year than I have in several years.  I was considering burning my woodpile in the lower field this fall but there are rabbits nested in it for the winter.  I see them moving around the pile regularly.  Likewise, over at my mom and dad's and other places, I have seen rabbits everywhere, sometimes, unfortunately, flattened in the road.  Most of the rest seem fat and happy which is a good sign, I think, for the local ecosystem.

I watched a few movies this year that I didn't bother to blog about.  I watched for the first time  Tolkien (2019), Arrival (2016), Dune (2021), and The Matrix: Resurrections (2021).  It was really strange but convenient to have the latter two films available opening day at home on HBO Max.  I know the special effects in Dune, particularly, would have looked way cool in IMAX 3-D.  But, I've sort of been BIG and done that.  Nothing's going to top Avatar in IMAX 3-D anyway.  I can project how Dune would look in IMAX and that works fine for me.
 

Dune was a common novel to read during my college years.  I managed to get through it once and never read any of the follow-up books.  I found it difficult to read and I never connected with any of the characters.  Why did these people have interstellar travel but no advanced weaponry like pulse guns or even regular guns?  To me, it seemed like a ridiculous world.  The film brings the grandeur of the novel to life, which is worthy.  But I am still not invested emotionally into any of it no matter how clever and stunningly visual the film might be.  
 

Tolkien and Arrival (also from the director of Dune, pure coincidence - see also Blade Runner 2049), are both good movies.  The first film is a generally accurate telling, with a lot of embellishment, of J.R.R. Tolkien's early life up to (but not including) the writing of The Hobbit.  Tolkien's life story is a fascinating one, from the trenches of World War One to his brilliant gift for languages.  It also sheds some insight into his relationship with his wife and early family.  Worth watching for anyone interested in The Lord of the Rings.
 

Arrival was an exercise in new ideas for an old genre.  Mostly in succeeds.  An advanced alien race makes contact with Earth.  The twist is that they are from the future, as it turns out, and they need our help if they are to survive.  There are some interesting philosophical aspects to the film.  Oddly enough, both Tolkien and Arrival are, at their core, about linguistics, an unusual topic in film.

I had grave doubts that The Matrix: Resurrections would be worth the “reboot” effort but I was pleasantly surprised.  The plot fits in believably with the original films, pays homage to those films, makes fun of those films and offers enough new stuff to justify Lana Wachowski's  efforts to revisit the topic.  The special effects are decent but they don't have the same “wow factor” as they did back in 1999.  "Bullet time" has become a common aspect of the visual landscape.  

The “cool factor” is definitely still there, however.  Everything about the film is so damn cool.  And the deeper philosophical considerations are in full force.  What's new is how wonderfully humorous this Matrix film is.  I had short bursts of laughter throughout the whole film at some great one-liners and at the way it parodies itself.  I'll watch this one again soon and will definitely add it to my collection of the trilogy when it becomes available.  It is a solid action film but there's nothing particularly brilliant about it.

I give all these films the same rating on my ten-point scale.  They are all 7's.  This means they are solid, entertaining films.  6's have good qualities but are flawed in some way.  5's suck.  8's show a bit more splendor somehow.  9's are influential and/or distinctive films. 10's are, of course, the elite films, not very many of those.  Maybe fifty.  (I'll have to pick them some time.)  So, giving these fine new films a 7 is no slap in the face.  It is the proper rating for any worthy but not outstanding film.

In the early part of the year, for no apparent reason, I decided to give The Crown a try on Netflix.  I did not particularly plan to watch all of the first four seasons (the fifth season will be available in America in late 2022) but I ended up binge watching the 40 episodes.  Frankly, some of them were difficult for me to make it through.  They were little more than a high-class soap opera.  But most of the series makes for interesting dramatic history, is cleverly presented and, above all, features extraordinary acting.

Each season represents roughly a decade in the history of British Royalty beginning with Elizabeth's father (and her infamous uncle who abdicated the throne) and proceeding on through her coronation, various fascinating aspects of her reign, and up to the troubled relationship of Charles and Diane.  One of the many aspects that make this series distinctive is that, since it portrays the lives of aging characters, the main actors are recast every two seasons.  This means that while Elizabeth and Philip are brilliantly portrayed in their youth by two fine performers in seasons one and two, the next two seasons feature different, older performers.  This seems a bit strange at first.  But after a couple of episodes you can appreciate the nuanced performances of the new, older actors.  

Beyond this, The Crown features some brilliant acting by other accomplished performers in supporting roles.  John Lithgow is fabulous as Winston Churchill.  Michael C. Hall, of Dexter fame, plays President John Kennedy in one episode.  The Crown is a show that allows actors to really explore their craft, portraying a historical figure.  Last season, Gillian Anderson played Margaret Thatcher with astonishing subtlety and power.  She literally became Thatcher on the screen.  Her performance won her an Emmy award, one of 7 the show received in 2021, more than any other series including Outstanding Drama Series.

The show has only the briefest of action sequences, no explosions or overt sex, and few gunshots (like her father, the Queen enjoys hunting).  Instead, it offers superb acting which is, along with its general historical accuracy, more than enough reason to capture my attention.  I look forward to the recasting for seasons five and six, which are planned to be the final ones for the series, taking it into the 21st century historically.

Jennifer's brother visited us in June and we managed to get all the Cumberland Island Armadillos together for a party at our home.  It felt both strange and comfortable seeing these friends I had only interacted with on Zoom a few times over the previous 18 months or so.  We are not as wild as we used to be but we are all still as zany.  It was a fun time and a lot of laughs.  Unfortunately, it was raining fairly heavily during the party so we didn't get to walk out around the property but I am still glad so many people made the trip up from Atlanta to Twin Oaks.

In the fine-tuning department, I bought a three-CD set of the complete keyboard suites by George Fredric Handel as performed on piano.  It is important to remember that the piano as we know it did not exist when Handel composed these suites.  His keyboard pieces were intended for harpsichord.  But the modern piano allows for the emotive subtly of Handel's work to shine more vividly.  Though this music is about 300 years old, it still can touch you.  

Of particular interest is the splendid HWV 427 suite which unusually features two adagios, the first of which is simply exquisite to hear.  A surprise came when I listened to fourth movement of HWV 437, which Stanley Kubrick chose in orchestrated form as the main theme for Barry Lyndon.   All these years I knew the piece was by Handel but did not realize it was actually a keyboard suite.  Marvelous stuff.  I listened to this music more than any other throughout the course of 2021.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the renowned psychologist and author of Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, died this year.  This book is one of the most influential that I've read in my life.  I can recall reading it (several times) in the early 1990's when I was living in the Atlanta area.  I was impressed with the simplicity of the idea and yet the extensive documentation Csikszentmihalyi provided from a psychological perspective.  I had experienced Flow all my life but never particularly considered it in rational terms.  His work made me understand its connection with creativity and with living life to its fullest.  After 30 years, Flow remains a cornerstone of my personal life practice.

For my birthday, my daughter gave me the best gift anyone has ever given to me.  She gifted me a debit card to be used for a year of ad-free viewing on YouTube.  Now, I'm completely spoiled.  I feel liberated!  I'll never be able to go back to those annoying ad interruptions again – which is what YouTube wants anyway.  I have expressed my gratitude to her several times during the course of the year.  

I have since learned about the Nebula and Curiosity Stream video platforms, which are subscriber supported and give you a whole year of ad-free viewing for less than one-tenth the price of YouTube.  One of my New Year resolutions is to support these services with a subscription.  Bypassing YouTube's ads and seemingly arbitrary content restrictions seems to be a better way to go.  

I finished another year of Flipboard with a few new magazines (I'm up to 52 now) and over 71,000 followers.  My early morning ritual of dark Sumatran coffee and this app in the predawn hours is allegedly not the best way to begin a day, staring into a device.  I should be doing yoga or tai chi or something instead.  Supposedly.  But, I like alerting my mind to all the subjects that interest me in this fascinating world.  I follow-up my hour and a half session by walking Kudo through my woods and then going for a three-mile run as the sun comes up.

Several supplements were added to my well-being arsenal in 2021.  I started taking turmeric/curcumin for general wellness and I added collagen powder to my morning protein drink to help strengthen my bones.  I don't know if either work but they don't seem to have killed me either.  The biggest breakthrough for me in supplementation health was the discovery of Alpha GPC.  I learned about it from a Stanford neurobiologist who was featured on a podcast that Avery messaged to me about mid-year.

She and I had been discussing my ideas about neuroplasticity and how that may be the greatest human virtue in the our Brave New World of constant becoming.  By coincidence, one of the podcasts she listens to regularly featured an episode on the topic that next week.  In listening to it I heard the professor and researcher praise recent studies on the effectiveness of Alpha GPC on the brain.

Generally and theoretically, it heightens focus by increasing the level of acetylcholine in your brain.  After taking it for a couple of weeks I noticed a variety of subtle changes.  I was able to recall what a conversation was about when it drifted off topic.  We've all had those “what were we talking about?” moments.  I don't have them as frequently these days.  Moreover, for the first time in decades – and I do mean decades - I am able to recall the act of dreaming and parts of my dreams.  Nothing spectacularly vivid but I used to tell everyone I never recall my dreams.  No more!  

In the same vein, I occasionally have the sensation of knowing I am still asleep and then gradually following my consciousness as it arises out of my sleep state.  It is a weird experience for me.  I've never had this before.  But, I take it to be a good sign.  It seems like such a small thing but this awareness of the slow process of myself waking-up has impacted me in a way I cannot articulate.  

Even more, these past few months I've been remembering glimpses of my childhood that I had basically forgotten.  The breadth of my memory has improved both waking and sleeping.  One special memory is of the first time I stayed up after midnight as a child.  I was playing monopoly with my grandmother and her best friend.  I was maybe 7 or 8, a little boy seeing his first midnight.  We all got goofy because it was so late and spent more time laughing than playing.  I have no idea who, if anyone, won that game.  Alpha GPC is certainly one of the best new things in terms of my health this year.

New Year's resolutions include, as I mentioned, subscribing to Curiosity Stream and Nebula.  Also on my plate is a rereading of The Brothers Karamozov, which I have already started.  It has been in the back of mind to revisit this masterpiece of world literature for awhile now.  Look for a blog on this work sometime in the coming year.

Here's a champagne toast.  Happy 2022!