40 by 40

40 by 40 Update: #30 Finish Organizing My Recipe Files

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(Back in May of 2007 I noticed that a bunch of people in the blogosphere had created lists of 101 things to do in 1001 days. I was intrigued by the notion but felt I needed to change the parameters. So I created my 40 by 40 list. 40 things I wanted to do before I turned 40. Well on August 17th I turn 40, and I need to give $10 to charity for every uncompleted item. So it is time to see how I did.)

30. Finish Organizing My Recipe Files – COMPLETED
Running Tally: $130.00 to charity.

I have a file system with recipes organized by ingredient (e.g., fish, beef, vegetables, potatoes, etc.) but also some that say more about type of cooking (e.g., quick meals, holiday baking, etc.). No doubt I will want to make further improvements to this system. But for right now it is as good as it is going to get.

40 by 40 Update: #29 Go Back to Ithaca for a Long Weekend

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(Back in May of 2007 I noticed that a bunch of people in the blogosphere had created lists of 101 things to do in 1001 days. I was intrigued by the notion but felt I needed to change the parameters. So I created my 40 by 40 list. 40 things I wanted to do before I turned 40. Well on August 17th I turn 40, and I need to give $10 to charity for every uncompleted item. So it is time to see how I did.)

29. Go Back to Ithaca for a Long Weekend – COMPLETED
Running Tally: $130.00 to charity.

I loved living in Ithaca for two years while I was a grad student at Cornell. It awakened a latent (and unknown) desire in me to live in a small town. Of course Ithaca isn’t your typical small town. Set in the Finger Lakes region at the bottom tip of Cayuga Lake, Ithaca is about a four and a half hour drive from Manhattan and about the same distance to Toronto. And with Cornell University and Ithaca College in town, there is an intellectual and artistic community that most small towns could only dream of. There are some town and gown issues, and it can get a little too crunchy granola sometimes (the home of the famous Moosewood Restaurant of the cookbook fame), but over all a really nice place. The views from Cornell’s campus are breathtaking and Ithaca has one of the best farmer’s markets anywhere.
Last August on our roadtrip we got to spend a long weekend there visiting our friends Joe and Leslie.

40 by 40 Update: #28 Go to the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum

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(Back in May of 2007 I noticed that a bunch of people in the blogosphere had created lists of 101 things to do in 1001 days. I was intrigued by the notion but felt I needed to change the parameters. So I created my 40 by 40 list. 40 things I wanted to do before I turned 40. Well on August 17th I turn 40, and I need to give $10 to charity for every uncompleted item. So it is time to see how I did.)

28. Go the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum – COMPLETED
Running Tally: $130.00 to charity.

The Air and Space Museum on the National Mall in Washington, DC is the most popular of the Smithsonian museums. Unfortunately, it is in real need of an update from all the use. Both the building and the exhibits are in really sad shape. The Udva-Hazy Air and Space Museum on the other hand is an enormous hangar-like branch out in Virginia right next to Dulles Aiport. It is a great place to go see the space shuttle, Concorde, the Enola Gay (dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima), the Blackbird (spy plane and fastest jet ever) and tons of other big pieces of machinery. They also have an IMAX theater and an observation deck where you can watch air traffic in and out of Dulles. It’s fun to watch a jumbo jet come in practically at eye level.

40 by 40 Update: #27 See Every Best Picture Oscar Nominee

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(Back in May of 2007 I noticed that a bunch of people in the blogosphere had created lists of 101 things to do in 1001 days. I was intrigued by the notion but felt I needed to change the parameters. So I created my 40 by 40 list. 40 things I wanted to do before I turned 40. Well on August 17th I turn 40, and I need to give $10 to charity for every uncompleted item. So it is time to see how I did.)

27. See Every Best Picture Oscar Nominee – COMPLETED
Running Tally: $130.o0 to charity.

The nice thing about this goal was that we went to see films we might otherwise have skipped. The idea was to see all five of the best picture nominees before the Oscar telecast. The good thing is that most of the nominees were worth seeing. Over two years there was one of that I hated (There Will Be Blood), one that just wasn’t my kind of movie–too Hollywood (Benjamin Button), and two that I liked but didn’t seem Oscar-worthy (Juno and Milk).

The Academy announced recently that they were going to have 10 nominees for Best Picture, not just 5. I am glad I no longer have to meet this goal, because with 10 nominees there are bound to be lots more crappy blockbusters that I reall don’t want to waste my time on.

In 2008 the nomines were:

  • Atonement
  • Juno
  • Michael Clayton
  • No Country for Old Men – Winner
  • There Will Be Blood

This is what I said about the films back in February 2008:

1. No Country For Old Men.Violent and gruesome, not usually my thing, but an excellent film. Scary, chilling, well-paced, fascinating. All of the actors in this movie are fantastic. Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, and Josh Brolin all deserve high praise, but so do bit actors like Gene Jones in the role of the gas station owner and Kelly MacDonald as Carla Jean Moss.

2. Atonement. A literary costume drama, right up my alley. A fabulous movie. I found it captivating and clever, with some twists I didn’t expect. I also appreciated that it didn’t go for cheap emotion. Loved every minute of this film.

3. (Tie) Michael Clayton and Juno.Both are very good films but don’t necessarily seem Oscar-worthy. Of course if you compare them to that piece of crap As Good as it Gets discussed above, they are absolutely marvels of cinematic greatness. George Clooney seems incapable of making bad movies. I really enjoyed this film. I thought it was gripping and I thought Tilda Swinton was amazing. If she is up for an award she deserves to win for not over playing this character. Juno was leagues better than your average comedy but that bar is set so low these days that I think this one gets an Oscar nod because it reminded everyone that not every comedy has to dripping in treacle or be some cartoonish spoof of some 1970’s stereotype.

5. If I could, I would place There Will be Blood in 87th place.Perhaps there is some artistic merit to this yawner of a movie, but I wasn’t able to identify what it would be. Man, I hated this movie. It was glacial in pace about two hours too long, and totally uncompelling in any way. The characters didn’t inspire any kind of emotional reaction whatsoever. Not love, hate, compassion, pity…nothing. And it is no fault of the actors, although I do think that Daniel Day-Lewis sounded like he was pretending to be a
newscaster or something, I never never quite got used to his voice and accent. If you haven’t seen this one skip it. Or rent it as a cure for insomnia.

In 2009 the nominees were:

  • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
  • Frost/Nixon
  • Milk
  • The Reader
  • Slumdog Millionaire – Winner

This is what I said about the films back in February 2009:

I liked The Reader much more than I thought I would and I disagree with those who think that the movie did too much to exonerate Winslet’s character. I don’t think the film let anyone off the hook. Not Hanna, not the German people, not Ralph Fiennes character, no one comes out smelling like roses. It did an effective job portraying a situation that can have no happy ending or even meaningful resolution.

I thought Slumdog Millionaire probably placed second. I sobbed like a baby at the end. Not because the hero gets his true love, but because of the intense depictions of conditions in the slums of India. To think that people live in such dire circumstance all around the world and even to a certain degree in the U.S. is truly overwhelming.

Milk and Frost/Nixon were both excellent movies and were well executed, but as bio-pics I have a hard time thinking they are Oscar-worthy as films. Sean Penn definitely deserved his Best Actor win for the role of Harvey Milk and Frank Langella certainly deserved one for his portrayal as Nixon.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Eh. I enjoyed much more than I thought I would, but then again I was dreading having to go see it. The more I think about it the less I like the film. It had some redeeming qualities but overall it was a little too Forest Gumpy for my tastes.

40 by 40 Update: #26 Go a Month Without TV

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(Back in May of 2007 I noticed that a bunch of people in the blogosphere had created lists of 101 things to do in 1001 days. I was intrigued by the notion but felt I needed to change the parameters. So I created my 40 by 40 list. 40 things I wanted to do before I turned 40. Well on August 17th I turn 40, and I need to give $10 to charity for every uncompleted item. So it is time to see how I did.)

26. Go a Month Without TV – NOT COMPLETED
Running Tally: $130.00 to charity.

I came close on this one. I stopped about 6 days short of a month. I have gone long periods in my life without TV but in those cases I actually didn’t have a TV in the house. That makes a big difference. I also decided to forgo other time wasters like news and politics websites, Facebook, and Freecell. All of this might have been okay, but then John was gone for a week and I just got way too bored.

I still love the idea of having a media free month. But I think I will have to be tucked up in a secluded house/cabin/cottage somewhere with nothing but books and board games (and John). Trying to do it with everything swirling around you is a little tough.

40 by 40 Update: #24 Go Back to the House in Italy for 2 Weeks

ThomasLeave a comment

(Back in May of 2007 I noticed that a bunch of people in the blogosphere had created lists of 101 things to do in 1001 days. I was intrigued by the notion but felt I needed to change the parameters. So I created my 40 by 40 list. 40 things I wanted to do before I turned 40. Well on August 17th I turn 40, and I need to give $10 to charity for every uncompleted item. So it is time to see how I did.)

24. Go Back to the House in Italy for 2 Weeks – NOT COMPLETED
Running Tally: $120.00 to charity.

(The picture doesn’t do it justice.) This one was supposed to have been my 40th birthday present. We have been lucky in the past to spend a couple of weeks at a time at a wonderful house in Tuscany. The place is absolutely amazing. Not being millionaires, however, the way to rent this seven bedroom house for two weeks at a pop is to find friends and family who are interested in renting a room. Well, the house was reserved, the plans taking shape, but then the economy started to make several participants jittery so we ended up having to cancel it. Oh well. As a consolation prize we are taking trip to France and Switzerland instead of renting the house. Should be a lot of fun, but it won’t be the same thing as the house in Italy.

40 by 40 Update: #23 Finish the Rest of the Modern Library’s Top 100

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(Back in May of 2007 I noticed that a bunch of people in the blogosphere had created lists of 101 things to do in 1001 days. I was intrigued by the notion but felt I needed to change the parameters. So I created my 40 by 40 list. 40 things I wanted to do before I turned 40. Well on August 17th I turn 40, and I need to give $10 to charity for every uncompleted item. So it is time to see how I did.)

23. Finish the rest of the Modern Library’s list of 100 top novels of the 20th Century (except for Faulkner and Joyce-I just can’t do it) – NOT COMPLETED
Running Tally: $110.00 to charity.

Back in the late 1990s, the Modern Library compiled a highly controversial list of the top 100 novels of the 20th century (in English). My goal was to read the whole list (except for Faulkner and Joyce who I think are too excruciatingly difficult and boring to read). The good news is that I have read about 65 of them since the list came out, but the bad news is I don’t have too much interest in finishing the rest. I will definitely finish more of them over time. And then others I won’t. Some may be brilliant books, I am just not interested in them. I had this to say back in November of 2007 about this goal:

I may even abandon another goal (#23) on the 40 by 40 list. What is my problem you ask? Why am I such a loser that I can’t achieve these simple goals? Life, I tell you, life. Not in the sense that life is overwhelming me and I can’t possibly achieve these goals. But LIFE, as in I am loving every minute of it. As in, life is too short to not enjoy every minute of it. As in, Philip Roth’s American Pastoral, as award-winning as it may be, is just too damn boring for me to care about even though I am 2/3 finished. The irony is that the big things on my list (quitting my old job and
starting my new one) have given me a fabulous new lease on life that makes caring about the little things on my list (reading a book I find boring just to make myself a better person) far too tedious. I still have a book in my hands every free chance I get, and I am still going to check out and enjoy the giants of the literary world. But I no longer feel the need to impress myself or anyone else by finishing “important” but ultimately unfulfilling books. The same goes for my life. I will still take a stab at the important goals and even those that aren’t fun, but I won’t force myself to finish something just for the sake of crossing it off of a list.

40 by 40 Update: #22 Read the First Volume of Proust’s In Search of Lost Time

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(Back in May of 2007 I noticed that a bunch of people in the blogosphere had created lists of 101 things to do in 1001 days. I was intrigued by the notion but felt I needed to change the parameters. So I created my 40 by 40 list. 40 things I wanted to do before I turned 40. Well on August 17th I turn 40, and I need to give $10 to charity for every uncompleted item. So it is time to see how I did.)

22. Read the First Volume of Proust’s In Search of Lost Time – NOT COMPLETED
Running Tally: $100.00 to charity.

Kudos to Proust for helping me reach $100 in my charitable giving. I am about 80 pages into Swann’s Way, the first volume of one of the seminal works of literature in the 20th century. I actually kind of like it, but I just know I am not going to finish it by Monday. It is low on plot and high on atmosphere, which I generally don’t mind. But it is the kind of book that you need to savor to truly enjoy. Reading it on deadline is making me dread it. Of course if I had started a year ago, instead of a month ago, everything would be groovy. I probably will continue this or pick it up in the future. But for now, it is a no go.

40 by 40 Update: #21 Hear Mahler’s 8th Symphony Again

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(Back in May of 2007 I noticed that a bunch of people in the blogosphere had created lists of 101 things to do in 1001 days. I was intrigued by the notion but felt I needed to change the parameters. So I created my 40 by 40 list. 40 things I wanted to do before I turned 40. Well on August 17th I turn 40, and I need to give $10 to charity for every uncompleted item. So it is time to see how I did.)

21. Hear Mahler’s 8th Symphony Again – COMPLETED
Running Tally: $90.00 to charity.

I had a few Mahler Eights I could have chosen from in the U.S. I ended up choosing the New York Philharmonic’s version at Avery Fisher Hall in June 2009. Mahler’s Eighth Symphony is also known as the Symphony of a Thousand because of the huge forces required to give it a proper airing. Larger than usual orchestra, organ, antiphonal brass, double chorus, children’s chorus, 8 soloists. The first part of the symphony is based on the hymn Veni Creator Spiritus and the second part is based on the end of Goethe’s Faust. It is a real barn burner. The first time I heard it was when I sang in the giant chorus with the Minnesota Orchestra and the Gothenberg Symphony under Neeme Jarvi.

Since then I have heard it performed again in Minnesota and by the National Symphony Orchestra here in DC. The second Minnesota performance, back in the 90s was the best one by far. The NSO’s was darn good, and well, New York’s this past June was really disappointing. Conductor Lorin Maazel took the first half too slow. The chorus was not up to snuff. The hall itself has terrible acoustics. And the electronic organ sounded ridiculous. Overall it was murky and lacked the punch it should have had. The New York Phil played well in most places, but not well enough to make up for all of the other deficiencies.

40 by 40 Update: #20 Make Pudding From Scratch

ThomasLeave a comment

(Back in May of 2007 I noticed that a bunch of people in the blogosphere had created lists of 101 things to do in 1001 days. I was intrigued by the notion but felt I needed to change the parameters. So I created my 40 by 40 list. 40 things I wanted to do before I turned 40. Well on August 17th I turn 40, and I need to give $10 to charity for every uncompleted item. So it is time to see how I did.)
20. Make Pudding From Scratch – COMPLETED
Running Tally: $90.00 to charity.

This one was easy, fun, and delicious. It was an American pudding not to be confused with the British use of the word. I made Brown Sugar Pudding and it was out of this world.