I’ve told a lot of people this in person, and in emails, but the book Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson is a must read. One of the benefits of working in a school is getting amazing book recommendations from my colleagues. I also had the great opportunity to see Mr. Stevenson speak at the NAIS conference a couple of years ago. He is the director of the Equal Justice Initiative which defends people who are on death row. It will challenge you and ask you to take notice of the broken system of criminal justice in this country.
Must See
In the same vein, as part of our Administrative SEED group at school, we watched the documentary 13th, available on Netflix. It refers to the clause in 13th amendment banning slavery except in the case of criminals. The movie dissects the prison-industrial complex with precision. Highly recommended.
Due to a lack of time in general for contemplating and reflecting on artistically relevant music, I’m blowing the doors off my annual best of post and including a whole slate of new categories. I hope you don’t mind.
8 great albums (in alphabetical order):
Bj̦rk РBiophilia
Bon Iver – Bon Iver
Mason Jennings – Minnesota
M83 – Hurry Up We’re Dreaming
Radiohead – King of Limbs
Ryan Adams – Ashes & Fire
Washed Out – Within and Without
Wilco – The Whole Love
Zola Jesus – Conatus
The best hamburger I’ve ever eaten:
Village Whiskey – Philadelphia
Favorite New Restaurant:
Bachelor Farmer – Minneapolis
Favorite Pet Grooming Shop:
Royal Pet Beauty Shop – Minneapolis
Best Train Ride of the Year:
Shanghai Maglev
2nd Best Train Ride of the Year:
Acela Express from NYC to Philadelphia
The Only Movie I Saw In The Theater All Year (And it was good – though I realize it was released in December 2010)
True Grit
Favorite Travel (Wasn’t exactly a vacation)
China – big thanks to Breck for having me as a chaperone for the school trip. Amazing time.
Well, 2010, it was nice to know you. Here’s some of my favorite books, movies, and music from the past year:
Music
It was an all time low for me this year in terms of listening to new music. I think the combination of a lack of money and more important things keeping me busy (see: Sonja and Emilia, house) made for a slow year. That doesn’t mean that I haven’t enjoyed some great albums. In no particular order:
Ditto reasons above for not seeing many movies. I think we saw maybe two movies in the theater this year? Lots watched on Netflix, so this list is just some of the favorites that we watched in the past year:
Inception
Man On Wire
District 9
Books
As an exception, I did read quite a few more books this year than normal. I’m proud of that, as it was one of my goals from last year.
Favorite non-fiction: Hamlet’s BlackBerry by William Powers. Basically a call to action for people to lead deeper, richer lives in an age of ever-shallower interactions with digital devices and media. Humans have, throughout recorded history, endured sweeping technological change that caused philosophers of the day to reconcile the positives and negatives of those changes. Mr. Powers draws parallels between the past and the present, arguing in some ways thatt we’ve seen this before and we have the tools to use technology positively. This is the great paradox of my career as well, encouraging people to use technology thoughtfully, to encourage deeper thinking and reflection.
Favorite fiction: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie was actually a “required” summer reading for work, but I enjoyed it immensely. Very funny and serious at the same time. I also enjoyed “Juliet, Naked” by Nick Hornby, though I pretty much like everything of his that I’ve read.
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