Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Milestones, 2013

Things to be thankful for:
  • Meeting Morgan & every day after
  • Alida's recovery
  • Improved heart health
  • Jeremy & Anna
  • Being part of the leadership team @ Rumble
Memorable events:
  • Paul & Erin's Wedding
  • Super Bowl XLVII w/ dad, Justin, Jeremy & Anthony in New Orleans
  • Burning Man #2
  • Ballistic @ Cabo San Lucas
  • Thanksgiving w/ Morgan & crew in Seattle
  • Egg Night 6
  • Lake Tahoe trip
  • MIT Sports Analytics Conference
  • Balloon Fiesta
  • EDC/Stag Party
  • NG prototyping w/ Josh & Adam & crew
  • Andrew & Sam's Bend wedding
  • Working w/ Adam & Art & crew
  • Napa birthday
  • Buying a new car
  • Bonfire at Ocean Beach
  • Gary's 75th birthday
  • Morgan's 3 birthdays
Performances seen:
  • Primus (left after 4 songs)
  • Jared Diamond
  • Nick Kroll
  • Pinky & the Brain (the voices of)
  • Todd Barry
  • Portlandia Q&A
  • Rob Huebel & Paul Scheer
  • Celebrity Autobiography (Janeane Garofolo, Maria Bamford, Rachel Dratch & friends)
  • Super Bowl: Beyonce, Destiny's Child, Alicia Keys, Jennifer Hudson
  • Lisa Loeb
  • The Specials
  • Bay Area High School Poetry Slam Finals
  • Sarah Chang
  • Joyce Carol Oates
  • Nicholas Carr
  • Bob Saget
  • Temple Grandin
  • Lettie Cottin Pogrebin & Gloria Steinem
  • EDC: Hardwell, Fatboy Slim, Tiesto, Markus Schultz, others
  • Allen Ginsberg memorial reading at CJM
  • David Byrne & St. Vincent
  • Justin Timberlake & Jay-Z
  • Richard Dawkins
  • Margaret Atwood
  • Hardly Strictly Bluegrass: Martha Wainwright
  • Balloon Fiesta: Darius Rucker
  • Davy Rothbart
  • Anjelica Huston
  • Frank Gehry
  • Ann Patchett
  • Alice Waters
  • Amy Tan
  • Jonathan Richman
Memorable restaurants:
  • State Bird Provisions
  • Bouchon
  • Baker and Banker
  • Le Charm
  • AQ
  • La Ciccia
  • El Gaucho
  • Andre's
  • Sage
  • The Prime Rib
  • Sadie's

Books, 2013

Books that leapt to the front of the stack:
  • Buddha Vol. 1-8
  • Ready Player One
  • Shakespeare: The World As Stage
  • Grantland Quarterly Vol. 1-6
  • Infinite City: a San Francisco Atlas
  • Wampeters, Foma, and Granfalloons
  • Are You My Mother?
Books purchased this year that are in process:
  • Inferno: the World at War
  • A Brief History of Nearly Everything*
  • Lone Surfer of Montana, Kansas
  • McSweeney's Vol. 13
Books I finished, no regrets:
  • Skellig
  • Breakfast at Tiffany's
  • Habibi
  • The Collected Works of Billy the Kid
  • Daily Rituals
  • A Feast for Crows
Books that were on the right path until they weren't:
  • The Art of Fielding
Books that I finished after getting through 2/3's many years ago:
  • The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop.
Books that I have already forgotten:
  • Raven Girl
  • New York Drawings
  • The Signal and the Noise
Books I couldn't maintain interest in:
  • Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man
  • Why We Broke Up
  • The Metaphysical Club
  • Sugar, Salt and Fat
  • A Short History of Women
  • Thinking Fast & Slow
  • Herb Caen's San Francisco: 1976-1991
Books purchased this year that I haven't started yet:
  • Great Streets
  • All Over the Map
  • A Dance with Dragons
  • Moby Dick
  • Stray Bullets Vol. 1
  • Locke & Key Vol. 1
  • Where'd You Go, Bernadette?
  • Midnight Cowboy
  • The Wizard of Earthsea
  • The Innocence of Objects
  • How Music Works
  • The Complete Calvin & Hobbes

Movies, 2013

Film I enjoyed most: 
  • Short Term 12
Films, distinct and memorable:
  • Before Midnight
  • Gravity
  • Pacific Rim
  • All is Lost
Films that inspired me to check Wikipedia immediately after viewing:
  • Rush
  • 20 Feet from Stardom
Films, with no regrets:
  • Blue Jasmine
  • Nebraska
  • Frances Ha
  • Crystal Fairy
  • 42
  • The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
  • The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug
Films where a group of underdogs stand up and clap for someone who stood up for a worthy cause, which somehow spoils the entire film:
  • Dallas Buyer's Club
Films I've forgotten about already:
  • Iron Man 3
  • Oz The Great and Powerful
  • American Hustle
  • The Wolf of Wall Street
  • The Great Gatsby
  • Ender's Game
  • This is the End
  • The Book Thief
  • Lee Daniels' The Butler
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Films I wanted to see but haven't yet: 
  • 12 Years a Slave
  • Fruitvale Station
  • Don Jon
  • Mud
  • Inside Llewyn Davis
  • Blue is the Warmest Color
  • Her
Films I probably won't see that I considered:
  • The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
  • The World's End
  • Captain Phillips
  • Philomena
  • Wadjda
  • Ginger & Rosa
  • Salinger
  • Frozen
  • Saving Mr. Banks