2022 :: Year In Review
Welcome to the 2022 Holiday at the Sea year in review. These are a few of my favorite things (from this year at least).
2021 Year In Review :: Favorite Movies
As you might imagine; for someone who has eight children, I don’t get to watch many movies for myself (and by that I don’t mean “by myself,” I just mean “Not Watching Movies With Kids.”). Most of the movies I have time for are somehow kid-centered.
But five movies really stuck out to me this year, and they run the gamut. 8 hours of the Beatles rehearsing and breaking up. Somehow it both normalizes and enchants the creative process. A movie about fish boy finding himself, and a great introduction to the Velvet Underground. Oh, and a super-fun Marvel movie which I thought was their best in years.
But one of the movies that stuck out above the others for me was Pig starring Nicolas Cage. It was recommended to me as a powerful meditation on grief and, as a Hospice Chaplain and Bereavement Counselor, I was hooked. It did not disappoint.
The Beatles: Get Back
Luca:
Pig:
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings:
The Velvet Underground:
Browse my favorite albums of the year
Browse my “2021 Yearly Wrap-it-Up” which is really a ramble about seeing Phish
Browse my favorite books of 2021
Browse my favorite movies of 2021
Browse my favorite television of 2021
Listen to a nearly 5-hour very low quality mix of one song from each of my favorite albums of 2021 called “Soundtrack to the Collective Meltdown”
Wanda's Vision of Grief
Disney/Marvel’s WandaVision has cast the cultural spotlight on something we all experience but don’t want to talk about. The series takes place in the Marvel universe after the events of Endgame.
Wanda Maximoff’s brother has been killed in battle. Her Love, Vision (a synthezoid made from vibranium) is also gone. Through flashbacks we learn about the bombing-death of her parents as well as the traumatic experiences of her youth.
Without giving too much away, Wanda, like most of us, never has quite the time to process her trauma and go through her grief, you know, with saving the world and all. Each unresolved loss builds on the next until the heaviness feels suffocating. And in the last episode, we learn that Wanda’s grief exploded (literally) in an unconscious attempt to protect herself. As the episode unfolds, we are privileged to a conversation between Wanda and Vision. And everyone’s been talking about “that quote” from Vision. But before we get to that, let’s set some context.
Grief is our natural reaction to any significant loss or change. Grief is an emotional process; our emotional response to that loss or change. Since it is an emotional process, not an intellectual process, we can’t talk our way out of it and there are not “logical steps” to be done. Instead, we must go through it; we must allow those emotions to run their course. And we must remember that emotions are energy.
And, when we lose someone we love, we can narrow our definition of grief even further because grief is inextricably tied to love. Grief is evidence of love. Grief is that feeling we get when we reach out for a special person when we need them the most, only to find that they’re no longer there. Grief is that love for someone special with nowhere left to go.
Or, as Vision so eloquently puts it: “what is grief, if not love persevering?”
Our relationship with our loved one doesn’t end. It just changes. Our relationship doesn’t end because our love doesn’t end. And grief is the outworking of that love with nowhere left to go; it is our emotions trying to work themselves out. Grief is us trying to make sense of what do with that love since its object is gone, and how to work through the resulting emotions.
I am thankful that a show with such a large platform is willing to openly wrestle with grief. It is something we will all go through, but it is something our culture doesn’t talk about. We don’t know what to say to someone grieving, and their outpour of emotion, so we either try to avoid them, offer empty platitudes, offer them a “fix,” or decide that it’s a good time to talk about ourselves. But if grief is the outworking of love, then certainly we can love each other enough to create safe spaces for one another to work through our grief.
WandaVision reminds us that we are not alone in our grief; and forces us each to ask what lengths we would go to had we the powers. Thankfully, WandaVision has helped bring this discussion to the light. Now it’s up to us to continue the conversation.
2020 Year In Review Wrap-Up
Thank you so much for reading this year. So much has happened this year and it’s crazy looking back on this rollercoaster of a year.
Scroll down and browse my year-end roundup.
Rebooted
You may know Daved Wilkins from the amazing project Last Call, or as the guy from that one Super Bowl Doritos commercial. Or, if you’re like me, you might be a vague Facebook acquaintance. Whatever your relationship, that’s not the point of this post except that Wilkins recently posted about a short film called Rebooted and I think you should watch it.
If you’re curious about the project, here’s what the film’s Youtube page has to say:
“It’s not easy for a movie-star to age - especially when you’re a stop motion animated skeleton monster.
Phil, once a terrifying villain of the silver-screen, struggles to find work in modern Hollywood due to being an out-of-date special effect.”
Makers and Mystics Live Podcast Recording Event
You might know my friend Stephen Roach from his band Songs of Water. Or from his work with The Breath & The Clay. Or perhaps from his podcast Makers & Mystics, “the podcast for the art-driven, spiritually adventurous seekers of truth and lovers of life.”
Stephen often incorporates live events into the podcast recordings. The fine folks over at Axiom Church are hosting a live Makers & Mystics recording Saturday, September 14, 6:00pm. The theme will be “Art as Hospitality” and I hope to share a bit about how the Habañero Collective House Show Series accomplished just that, and how we tried incorporating art into the Gathered Worship time of Church of the Cross (now Missio Dei Peoria). Browse the lineup here.
Last Call At Flix Brewhouse For National Suicide Prevention Week
You might know my friend Daved Wilkins from his amazing Dorito’s commercial. Oh, yeah, that guy! While that might live on to overshadow some careers, Daved is immensely talented and his latest project proves it.
Shot in two true single takes, filmed simultaneously in two different parts of a city, Last Call, is a real time feature presented in split screen showcasing both ends of a wrong number phone call that has the potential to save a life. The film's music was also conducted and recorded live to picture.
Phoenix area friends: the movie is screening at Flix Brewhouse in Chandler September 13 and 14 to help bring awareness and action to National Suicide Prevention Week. Daved will be there both nights for a Q&A after the showing.
Watch the official trailer:
Watch a short movie about how everything was done.
Directed by: Gavin Michael Booth
Written & Produced by: Daved Wilkins & Gavin Michael Booth
Starring: Sarah Booth & Daved Wilkins
Visit the official website.
Purchase tickets for the September 13 or 14 screening at Brewhouse
Follow the movie at Facebook.
Follow Daved Wilkins on Facebook.