Happy 2020!
I hope the new year is off to a great start for you. Even though we’re only a few weeks into 2020, I already feel overwhelmed with some of the things I’m working off that I’ll share one day!
Thank you for taking the time to check out my “Random Friday Thoughts”. If you want to comment, feel free. If you disagree, do it diplomatically!
MOVE ALONG, YOU’VE PROVED YOUR POINT!
We’re now just a few weeks away from the beginning of the voting process for the Democratic nominee for president in 2020.
After a few more suspended campaigns, we’re down to twelve “active major” candidates, which is still several too many! (It’s a stretch that Bennet, Delaney, Gabbard, and Patrick are still in the race!)
I’m sure the Iowa caucus (February 3), the New Hampshire primary (February 11), the Nevada caucus (February 22), and the South Carolina primary (February 29) will weed out several more of those running.
However, it’ll likely be Super Tuesday on March 3, 2020, that will narrow the field to just the front runners. Fourteen states have their primaries on that day.
So, Hillary Clinton, it’s time to jump into the race!
Say what you want — diplomatically!
WE CAN CHANGE THE FACE OF INAUGURATION DAY 2020!
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
EERIE, SAD COINCIDENCE
Melanie Panayiotou, the sister of pop legend George Michael, died on Christmas Day. She was in her 50s!
What’s eerie is that Michael also died on Christmas Day in 2016! He was 53.
They are survived by their father and an older sister.
MILLIONAIRE “LOVER”
My favorite CD of 2019 was also the ONLY album to sell more than a million copies last year!
It’s astounding that the music landscape has changed so much with streaming, downloading singles, etc.!
Taylor Swift’s “Lover” sold 1.085 million copies. Of that, 699,000 were physical units (including mine) and the other 386,000 were digital copies.
Now I’m getting excited to see what the fourth single will be from the album. I hope it’s either “I Forgot That You Existed” or “The Man”.
I would have added “Cornelia Street”, too, but it’s a ballad and her last single, “Lover”, was a ballad!
“FAST FOOD NATION: THE DARK SIDE OF THE ALL-AMERICAN MEAL”
This incredible, eye-opening, and mind-boggling book by Eric Schlosser came out in 2001.
While I know there have been improvements and advancements in raising animals for human consumption and in food processing and distribution, something tells me there are still so many horror stories today that threaten our health and our lives.
Even before reading this book, I was already considering giving up eating meat. The first step will be to stop buying it for home (except when I’m hosting) and only eating meat when I’m out.
I’m sure I can do it since I gave up beef more than a decade ago!
While I know the research in the book is reliable, if only a fraction was true and our lives weren’t dictated by huge corporations and shady politicians, we Americans would change our eating habits.
Not just because it’d be healthier, but the production of meat, from raising livestock to slaughtering them for food, is so cruel and unsanitary!
A very compelling documentary to watch from 2009 is called “Food, Inc.”, which was nominated for Oscar!
In 2012, I wrote a very interesting blog called “Our Eating Habits Are Killing Us.”
Here’s the link if you want to read it and see some of the monstrosities we serve in our restaurants, including this:
https://anthonypeoples.wordpress.com/2012/03/03/our-eating-habits-are-killing-us/
“UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS: A STORY OF LOSS AND AGAIN”
I can’t believe that it took me so long to read Portia De Rossi’s 2010 heartbreaking book about her fight with food addiction and the obsession with weight loss!
I also didn’t expect that reading it would trigger me to fall off the food addiction wagon!
For a recovering bulimic or anorexic, eating is a nightmare.
Once you fall, it’s hard to get back on track. The scale entices you with weight loss that you can’t do easily just by eating right and exercising.
Every pound that disappears is not just one step closer to a goal. Sadly, it’s only more encouragement for the physically destructive behavior to continue!
After nine years as a practicing bulimic (1986-1995), I spent the next two decades “on the wagon”. A separation (and ultimate divorce) caused a relapse for a few months, in 2017, but I overcame it.
And, I know I’ll overcome this recent relapse, too. I just hope it’s sooner rather than later!
SKIP THIS BOOK!
“Call Me By Your Name” was my favorite movie I saw in 2018. Afterwards, I read the book by Andre Aciman.
I was so excited when it was announced in 2019 that a sequel, “Find Me”, was on the way.
I was thoroughly disappointed!
I was so excited that I’d see where Elio and Oliver were in life and if they ended up together! However, most of the book (the first part) was about Elio’s father!
When we finally caught up Elio and in a fleeting moment, Oliver, it was too little, too late.
As for “Find Me”, don’t even look for it!
Pretend that this sequel doesn’t exist and just enjoy the beauty of “Call Me By Your Name” again!
It’s peachy! 🍑🍑🍑
MORE BOOKS I READ LATELY
“Dispatches From The Edge: A Memoir of War, Disasters, and Survival” by Anderson Cooper (2006)
What a riveting book about what Cooper saw in 2005 from the aftermath of the Indonesian tsunami, various wars, and Hurricane Katrina.
Anderson also talked quite a bit about his brother’s suicide.
I sure hope that he sought therapy after 2005 because he sounded very depressed and down.
Or, like me, writing is therapy and maybe authoring the book was therapeutic for him!
“Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of The American Presidency” (2006) by Lou Dubose and Jake Bernstein
I knew from living through the George W. Bush presidency that Dick Cheney was a despicable man. However, I didn’t know that his wife, Lynne, was also a mean, snake of a woman, too.
But, then again, why should that shock me???
“Christmas in the Old West” (2003) by Sam Travers
A very informative and fun look at Christmases when the West was truly wild. How people survived back then (1800s and early 1900s) still amazes me!
“The Words Lincoln Lived By: 52 Timeless Principles To Light Your Path” (1997) by Gene Griessman
A great quote from the book, which is perfect for the new year!
Lincoln (1858): “By all means, don’t say ‘if I can’; say ‘I will'”.
“THE FAREWELL”
“The Farewell” was my favorite movie of 2019!
Its star was also in my #5 movie of 2018, “Crazy Rich Asians”, in a much different role.
In “Asians”, Awkwafina was comedic relief and in “The Farewell”, she shows off her dramatic acting chops.
She also won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture — Comedy or Musical this month, but was snubbed and didn’t get an Oscar nomination!
It’s a the story of a Chinese family going back to their homeland from the U.S. to visit a loved one who’s dying of cancer. However, the family chooses not to let her know!
GRADE: A
“JUDY”
What an incredible movie!
If you’re a Judy Garland fan, you’re already familiar with what is covered in the movie.
If you just know Garland as Dorothy from “The Wizard of Oz” and maybe as Liza Minnelli’s mother, then definitely check out this movie. It’s on DVD!
Renee Zellweger won the Golden Globe Award earlier this month in the Best Actress in a Motion Picture — Drama category and will be the one to beat when the Academy Awards are handed out.
“Judy” was my #5 movie of 2019!
GRADE: A
“BOMBSHELL”
Even after seeing “The Loudest Voice” on Showtime last year, watching “Bombshell” was a different viewing experience about the toxic environment at Fox News. (Oh, and about the toxic, creepy, nasty Roger Ailes!)
While John Lithgow was incredible as Ailes, it was definitely the women who made the movie — Charlize Theron (as Megyn Kelly), Nicole Kidman (as Gretchen Carlson), Margot Robbie (as a composite character created from many of the women that Ailes victimized), and Kate McKinnon (a co-worker, Jess Carr).
I expected Oscar nominations for Theron the Best Actress category and for Robbie in Best Supporting Actress category and they got them!
“Bombshell” ended up being my #13 movie I saw in 2019.
GRADE: B
A WARM YOU UP THIS WINTER FLASHBACK!
Since we’re into the “dead of winter”, here’s something to warm you up!
It still astounds me that Kim Wilde only scored two Top 40 hits in the United States on the Billboard Hot 100.
“Kids in America” reached #25 in 1981 and “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” topped the chart in 1987.
She came close to scoring two more hits with “You Came” in 1988 (#41) and this one, “Say You Really Want Me” (#44), in 1987.
This video is so sexy and hot, but it was deemed “raunchy” in the U.K.!
SUPERBOWL TEASE
And, ahead of her Super Bowl halftime performance, a 2020 megamix of the sexiest woman alive — Jennifer Lopez!
THAT’S IT
With all the craziness in the world, make it the best in your little part of it!
Anthony
What's Peeps Thinking About Now? It's Probably Random! 