January Favorites

Life: This is another movie that I wish I had been able to catch the one week it was actually in cinemas, but unfortunately, I had to catch it on my iPad instead. Life features excellent performances from both Dane DeHaan and, a bit surprisingly, Robert Pattinson, offering a fascinating portrait of two men at very different points in their lives, who as a result have different views on responsibility. The film is beautifully shot, and tackles the concepts of fame and art in oblique ways, with the result being that it doesn't cram philosophical ideas down the viewer's throat, but instead allows those ideas to be explored and absorbed naturally.

Girls Who Travel, Nicole Trilivas: My best friend gave me this book for Hanukkah, in part because he had gone on a trip to the Czech Republic with Nicole when they were in high school. A bit ironically, I read the bulk of this book while at an airport and on a flight. It's a very cute (albeit predictable) Romcom love-triangle story with shades of Bridget Jones -- especially since the bulk of the story is set in London.  Kika, Trilivas's heroine, is likable, and I found it easy to root for her, even when she made some bad decisions. I certainly wouldn't mind if a sequel came along because Kika and her winning suitor both have plenty more to offer as characters.

"Comfort Zone", BASECAMP: This is the perfect January song: it wraps you in a cocoon of velvety smoothness -- the very comfort zone from which the singer begs to be pulled. Jamie Lidell's touch as a producer is evident throughout, from the beguiling lushness that infuses the track with richness and warmth to the drum machine stutter that adds a slightly disconcerting, yet exciting, aural texture to the track.

Save Me, San Francisco, Train: I had been into Train a little bit back in the day when "Meet Virginia" was such a big hit, but then I sort of lost interest as they became highly commercialized at a time when I thought stuff like that mattered. My mother, however, has kept Train's flame burning, and over the holidays I kind of fell back in love with them, thanks to heavy rotation of their album Christmas in Tahoe. Since I loved that album so much, I promptly ordered some other Train albums, and Save Me, San Francisco quickly rose to the top as my favorite. It's an extremely soothing and relaxing album to listen to; the songs flow into each other so nicely (I'm always a sucker for a well sequenced album!). Meanwhile, I can't believe "Hey, Soul Sister" came out way back in 2009! At the moment, my second favorite album is My Private Nation, because it's also pretty mellow, and some of the song lyrics are quite exceptional. One of my favorite things about Train is how well written their songs are -- and the fact that the lyrics can easily be understood within the songs themselves.

Nightwoods, Charles Frazier: This is a very good, very tight little novel pulsing with terse prose that still manages to be highly atmospheric. I really liked how well the writing style fit with the main characters and their sylvan surroundings; a simple style to match ives that are uncomplicated -- at least on the surface. Luce, the protagonist, is such a wonderfully and richly drawn character, and her complicated yet quiet relationships with the other main players are what drive the story forward. For such a slim volume, Nightwoods contains a lot of layers.

The Man Who Fell to Earth: I suppose I had been vaguely aware of this movie for quite some time, but of course with David Bowie's death it got plenty of media mentions and rose to the top of my radar, especially since I had decided in early December that I better get a ticket to the much buzzed about Lazarus. I'm not really sure why, but I've never been deeply into David Bowie's music (I only own a double CD "Best of" collection of his hits). However, I have always admired him as an artist and musician, and have long revered his sense of style. Bowie's death was as much of a shock as that of Joan Rivers, and it made me realize how important he was/is in my pop culture pantheon. It really feels like the world isn't going to be quite as good without David Bowie in it. With his loss fresh in my mind, and seeing Lazarus just around the corner, I decided that I should watch The Man Who Fell to Earth so I'd have some context for the play I was about to see. This movie was so much better than I expected it to be, and also a lot sadder and more depressing than I expected. I suppose I figured that the film would be a 2001-esque nonsensical SciFi meditation, but instead it's an extremely touching account of a man whose vision cannot be understood by others and is perpetually lost and disconnected. Bowie's performance is the heart and soul of this film. He doesn't really have many lines, but his mannerisms and eyes convey gentleness and sadness that is heartbreaking and depressing due to the futility that comes to surround him. Something compelled me to purchase rather than rent this film on iTunes, and I'm glad I did because despite the underlying despair, it's a film I definitely want to watch again.

Turn Around Bright Eyes, Rob Sheffield: I've loved Rob Sheffield's other two books, and he's made it a hat-trick with Turn Around Bright Eyes. This book is perfect for anyone who loves New York City, is a music nerd, is passionate about karaoke, or any combination of the above. Sheffield is a wonderful humorist, despite the tragedy that, in many ways, has been the basis for all three of his books. I laughed out loud so many times while reading this book and copied no less than seven excerpts into my 'memorable quotes' notebook (which lives in Evernote these days). As I was reading this book, I kept thinking how perfect it would be for three different colleagues of mine, which is a testament to the wonderfully personal-yet-universal style of Sheffield's writing, which echoes the power of the music that drives each one of his stories.

Lazarus: This play is not perfect, but it is pretty damn special, and it would still be special if David Bowie were still alive. Watching The Man Who Fell to Earth the night before I saw this play may have put Michael C. Hall at a disadvantage in my eyes because he did not bring the same tenderness to Thomas Jerome Newton that Bowie did. Hall's Newton seemed wooden and detached, and lacked the emotional depth that I would expect from the character based on Bowie's performance in the film. However, Hall's singing voice, along with the voices of the rest of the cast (especially Sophia Anne Caruso), did Bowie's songs proud. The live band, slightly jazzy arrangements for many of the songs, female voices, and the context in which they were deployed in the play brought new depth to songs I've heard countless times before. Perhaps because I had just watched Man Who Fell to Earth, I did not find Lazarus's story overly confusing. Sure, there were some elements of the story which are left to interpretation, but I found this play to be much more coherent and satisfying than other plays I've seen recently, such as Old Times, Fool for Love, or even Marjorie Prime. I haven't been super into SciFi since I went on a jag in 2012, but Lazarus inspired me to pick up the Philip K. Dick book that's been in my pile for the past few months, and, as I've noted before, my favorite pieces of art and culture are those that spark further cultural and artistic explorations.

Clinque Sweet Pots: Being in Minneapolis for a couple of weeks this month really dried out my skin -- especially my lips. Even though I was using a night treatment balm, my lips we close to cracking, so I picked up one of these nifty little lip pots that I had read about. One side has sugar scrub and the other side has moisturizing gloss. One application of scrub (you're only supposed to use the scrub three times a week) and a few days of gloss got my lips feeling soft once again. I'm usually not into lip gloss, but this one is sheer and not sticky. It's rare that beauty products exceed my expectations, but I was so pleased with the Sweet Rose color, that I also ordered the colorless Citron Blue version for those times that I want to go even more low key.

Blackstar, David Bowie: I did not mean for this to be the all David Bowie all the time favorite list, but it's rather hard to avoid this month, the times being what they are and all. It took me a while to get around to listening to Blackstar because I wanted to find the perfect chill time at home when I could really listen to the whole album. On my second listen, I realized that various tracks reminded me of artists as diverse as Elbow and Bryan Ferry -- yet, this album is unmistakably Bowie, and it is indeed best experienced as a whole album. The whole thing flows together so well, creating a exquisitely haunting sonic landscape populated with enigmatic, highly intelligent lyrics. Bowie has certainly left us with a beautiful way to remember him and his limitless talent.