Best of...

It was a family, friends, snow, ice, rain, warm, choc chip cookie, movie kind of Christmas and now it is over, and New Year's Eve looms.  We ate perhaps too well - with food from Whole Foods (ran into Don Sleeman), Plum's Market, and a new restaurant in Ann Arbor named Cubana.  We passed by some old fave's:  Bandito's, Seva, Red Hawk.  Ann Arbor remains a primo town.  Our past parades before our eyes.  We saw two movies "Slumdog Millionaire" and "Milk."  Both were spectacular in very different ways.  SM was quite the spectacle, complete with splashes of color, an amazing end-sequence of Bollywood dancing as well as incredible violence.  I'd recommend the film, but be aware of the brutal treatment of children.  I liked "Milk" so much I went and saw it twice, the second time with Sally, Mark and Bern at Upstate Films in Rhinebeck.  What a performance by Sean Penn!  And Josh Brolin, who, Barbara tells me, is married to Diane Lane, looked more amazing the 2nd time.  

We saw it first at the Michigan Theater with Midge and Jay.  The theater had a list of 'must-see' movies playing the week b/t Xmas and New Year's, which included some of my favorite films:  "Wall-E," "The Visitor," "Frozen River," "Man On Wire," and "Rachel Getting Married."  As I think of that list, Wall-E," "Frozen River" and "Man on Wire" stand out as seriously entertaining and, maybe more valuable,  interesting.  

I heard from and saw friends from all over my life this season:  Michelle Young, John Campbell, Cathy Arcure, Jean Nelson, Mary Kahl, Maria Callas, Dennis and Yvonne, Marilyn Knepp, Kathleen Stadtfeld, Linda Blakey, Sarah Boulton (who is a senior in college), Candace Vancko, Celia Soden, Janet Billek.  

Steve gave me Curtis Sittenfeld's American Wife, and I was riveted to it all during the break.  I read on the plane.  I read in the car going between Ann Arbor and Grand Haven.  I read in the airport.  I read at Ray and Veda's.  I read at Midge's.  I finished the book just as the plane landed in Albany.  I passed along the book to Shelly W and look forward to talking about it with her.  I'm not too sure it is well written and am not too sure how faithful it is to Laura Bush's life, but I am sure it kept me entertained.  

Happy New Year!  2009 will be wonderful (and terrible), and I plan to enjoy every minute.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanza, Happy winter holidays!

To all the lovely readers of this blog - Ken and I wish you the very best as you look back on 2008 and forward into 2009.  Travel safely.  Stay warm.    

A political note

I am a committed, life long Democrat and have been ecstatic about the election of Barack Obama.  So let me publicly state my disappointment in the selection of Rick Warren to be on the podium at the inauguration.  Christopher Hitchens in Slate  (http://www.slate.com/id/2207148/) is eloquent in a story that leaves me bleak.  

I would hate for us (the Dems) to be just like them and insist on only consorting with people with whom we agree, but surely there are others with whom we disagree who are more honorable than this guy.  

Rats.

It is winter for sure now...

My sweet New Paltz was blanketed with maybe 8" of snow yesterday, turning the first undergraduate commencement (2nd one this morning and Graduate School this afternoon) of the season into a sparsely attended but raucous affair.  It was short - less than an hour - and moving as only graduations can be.  Our DBA, Carol, who lives an hour away across the river, spent the night.  Working the Friday ceremony, and then the Saturday morning ceremony leaves little time for long, snow clogged commutes.  I don't know if I am just noticing it more, but the large contingent of staff volunteers at graduation ceremonies is remarkable at SUNY New Paltz.

Among the many changes at my college is a construction/renovation project at the Student Union Building (SUB).  It will involve a relocation of Jazzman's, one of three Starbuck's-ish coffee shops, to a farther away location.  As the SUB is just steps away from the offices of the Haggerty Administration Building, many of us are at Jazzman's multiple times a day.  Student life folks use it as conference space.  So the women who work at Jazzman's are much a part of our lives.  Mary Beth, dean of advising and a member of the Provost's Office, had a great idea yesterday morning which resulted in perhaps 20 serenading the Jazzman's crew with "Jingle Bell Rock."  It was a tiny moment of greatness:  spontaneous, fun, warm, good hearted.  

I am grateful for the lively, smart and hard working colleagues I have acquired by virtue of coming to New Paltz.  While a list of names is always a risk (someone gets left out; names are misspelled, etc.), it is a pleasure for me.  Here it is:  Shelly, Marda, Mary Beth, Sally, Steve, Carole, Jerry, Jon, all the David's, my name-mate Jackie, Shelly H, Laurel (of course), Vika, Carlos, Mert, Linda, Gae, Mary.  I am surrounded by a fabulous staff.  To see us all, go to http://www.newpaltz.edu/oir/staff.html

It's also Christmas card season and a time to hear from friends from all over.  I'm sobered, a little intimidated and a bit self-conscious by those who have said they are reading our blog.  Of course, I want people to read, but jeez, people are reading.  

Snow in New Paltz

There is snow on the ground this morning - the first time this season.  I guess on December 17 one must not complain.  Ken is home; always a good thing.  We're off to the NCS holiday party tomorrow in Long Island.  The weather should be OK for the 2-3 hour trip.  Graduations are this weekend:  Friday night, two ceremonies Saturday.  I love graduation.  So much happiness.  

Have a good Wednesday.

Road Show

We saw Road Show at The Public yesterday.  The music was reminiscent of Assassins and Sunday in the Park with George and Stephen Sondheim's past efforts in general.   It lasted 100 minutes and was in a small theater, which is one of the assets of The Public (and off-Broadway).  You can see their faces.  But they were still mic-ed, and did a fabulous job of articulating the words.  The show grew on me, and I liked it more as it went along.  It was about the Mizner brothers, hustlers and entrepreuners from the late 19th/early 20th century.  As is often the case with Sondheim, it was about the tension between ethics and profit, about 'selling out'.  Michael Cerveris and Alexander Gemignani were fabulous, as was the whole cast.  The cast, by the way, was made up of real-looking human beings and not the  impossibly-beautiful and thin people you often see on stage.  

Yours...

Early December

December 7, “A Date Which Will Live in Infamy.”   And yet here we are, in another war - a slo-mo war, where the dead accumulate slowly, but just as surely.  We should all be screaming for its end.  The Army/Navy football game was yesterday - and as in this century, Navy won - but those players, those fans, those cheerleaders, those band members - many of them will go off to this war, to come back wounded psychologically or physically, or to not come back at all.  I curse Bush and his people who did this to us.

As for us, we have another lovely Sunday ahead.  We are so lucky.  Most Americans are so lucky.  (In some ways, this recession is about the end of our phenomenal luck.  American exceptionalism and all that.  This recession just shows us that we are in the muck with everyone else after all.  No free passes.)  We are headed to the City to take advantage of what it has to offer.  I will go to Carnegie Hall to see AINADAMAR, an opera about the last days of Frederica Garcia Lorca and Ken will go to the Minetta Lane Theater to see Garden of Earthly Delights, which as close as I can tell consists of naked bodies flying around.  We have the means and the inclination for experimentation.  My choice is centered around Blood Wedding, a play at my college in which I have become involved and which is written by Lorca.  In an amazing coincidence, in an earlier life, Midge was also involved in this play.  

We had a New Paltz Saturday.  Ken put in electrical outlet on the outside of the house and we rigged a wreath on the window with lights.  He also put a motion light by the garage which actually worked!  Talk about amazing.  We went over to Poughkeepsie and saw Cadillac Records, which was really good.  Both of us liked it, so it truly does have something for everyone.  Then over to the Vassar College neighborhood to Zorona's, a very fine Middle Eastern restaurant.  Yum yum.

Thanksgiving weekend, which seems so long ago now, was delightful.  Randy and Jen are wonderful and their kids - Lauren and Emily - are great.  I could go on with superlatives about them.  They remind us of another great pair of sisters in our lives - Kate and Sarah.  

All the best, dear readers.