We’re still here! It’s time to celebrate another year without a global nuclear war initiated on Twitter.
Kicking off 2017 in Quito
January
On the first day of 2017 I woke up in Ecuador, and rode a gondola up the Pichincha volcano to admire the megacity of Quito below. These were the final few days of our South America trip, and an amazing way to start the year. Back home in Chicago the highlight was playing games of Secret Hitler in which Chloe was basically always Hitler. Randi and I also saw the surreal Psychonaut Librarians and thumbed nervously through pocket constitutions. I also took my first work trip to Palo Alto and hung out with Jamie, Paul and Lori.
February
We saw Hamilton in February! And it was Non-Stop for the rest of the month too, during which I finally got My Shot to introduce Todd to the Doctor (the original, you might say) and – although I should have been Satisfied to watch the first three Indiana Jones movies, because people told me That Would Be Enough – we also saw Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Indeed, Toggolyn’s living room really was The Room Where It Happens in February, throwing its doors open for another salon on The Godfather. What Comes Next? Second City with Villy and her mum, a trip to Starved Rock State Park with Randi and her mum, a game night with Robert and Emilie where we finally introduced them to (Wait For It) Carcassonne, a lovely Valentine’s Day at La Scarola and a play about the mathematician Ramanujan, A Disappearing Number, which threatened to Blow Us All Away with its crazy divergent infinite series. (So keen were some people to Say No To This that Katie had to intervene in the ensuing Hurricane.)
March
In sunny Florida I basked in high school sports and free sun cream (seriously, can’t get enough of that sun cream) but also seriously confused suburbanites by walking on human legs. Later, in Colorado, those same human legs took me hiking in Boulder with Jason and roaming around downtown Denver. When not gallivanting around the country we welcomed Francisco to Chicago for the first time, Grace for a brief return visit, and reunited with the wonderful Billy and Taylor for one glorious night. We also gloated over the first of oh-so-many failed Obamacare repeal attempts (the novelty wore off eventually), met Bassem Youssef at a showing of Tickling Giants and watched Spotlight and Gladiator. I’m not writing Randi’s Big Review of 2017, but if I was, I’d imagine that last one was probably the highlight of the year.
Giant Meeple
April
If you want your religious ceremony to endure into the secular age, you could do worse than throwing in a scavenger hunt element. I spent a painfully long time hunting the Afikoman at Passover, and in return I hid a gazillion Easter eggs in the garden for Randi, Jason and Carrie to uncover. Meanwhile, Randi’s dad came to town and cursed the Cubs, strangers at the Adler Planetarium awkwardly ensnared us into their foody board game, Todd followed up on his word by screening The Godfather Part II and we finally went to Kingston Mines. We also saw the satanic Scapegoat, cheered Bill’s arrival into Doctor Who at a big-screen viewing (WE LOVE YOU BILL) and visited Toronto with my parents! (Canada: home of Niagara Falls, ice wine and vegetarian hot dog stands on every corner.) But most significantly of all, Catherine and AJ surprised us with giant meeples. Giant meeples. If you want your religious ceremony to really thrive in the secular age, giant meeples are the way to go.
New Mexico: one of my favourite trips this year
May
One running theme of 2017 was just how smoothly Brexit negotiations went. Barely a day went by without European governments falling over themselves to grant special favours to the UK, and to celebrate this spirit of togetherness we ramped up our Eurovision celebrations with two mini semi-final parties and then a special final watching party in Lake Geneva. I went back to Palo Alto (actually staying in Palo Alto this time), enjoyed Howl’s Moving Castle, ruined Randi’s birthday by ordering the same main course as her (not really) and kicked off a three-month Improv Shakespeare run with Ellen, Emilie and The Mariner’s Mistake. Randi and I also travelled to my 25th state, New Mexico, taking in Albuquerque and Santa Fe and with an especially great stop to clamber up and down a bunch of ladders at the Bandelier National Monument.
June
“Come watch a British election!” I said. “It’ll be a boring, predictable and depressing result”, I said, “but at least you’ll see a parliamentary system deliver strong government”. With these bald-faced lies I lured James into joining yet another David Dimbleby marathon in June, a month in which we also got locked out of a car in Michigan, saw The 39th at a film festival, went to war with the ants in our flat and sold Chicago to Rhi with Kingston Mines and Like It, Love It, You’ve Gotta Have It. I also tucked into hearty Polish comfort food with Karol, watched Wonder Woman with Toggolyn and visited Philadelphia with Randi and Mike – a trip which included a wonderful lunch with the Youmans, an underwhelming return to the Liberty Bell and some unexpected blessings. Also, for my 28th birthday, Katie unleashed Dominion on our apartment, and things have never been the same since.
Photos from Dominion could illustrate many months
July
We spent an intensely relaxing 4th July in Yorba Linda with Randi’s family. (Brief relaxation exceptions: whizzing down the pool slide, holding my breath in the Doctor Who finale and that moment when Randi’s dad almost punched a sleazy guy at an Angels game.) I also caught up with beloved Glamily members Jackie and Jeff in LA. Elsewhere in the country – Indiana, to be precise – we spent a day on the dunes, but didn’t bring our handguns, and also took a failed trip to the Whoa Zone. I also brushed up on my ‘thoughtful films’ repertoire with Following and A Most Wanted Man, saw Pilgrims and The School for Lies in the theatre, completed my Improv Shakespeare trilogy (The Licentious Wink) and kayaked down the Chicago River at night.
August
My extended family is loud. I guess that’s not so unusual. But what I remember most vividly from August, when I flew home for my Grandpa’s final few days – and then his funeral – were the nights around his hospital bed, talking more softly than usual and losing track of time. I recognise that everyone else had been there for weeks already, and were exhausted. I’m just glad I made it. And, of course, London was as brilliant and beautiful as ever. I drank with Josh, breakfasted with Sophie, lunched with Christa and Amy, reunited with Monty for tea in posh Hampstead and slept on the sofa of actual-real-life-homeowners Cat and Matt. I also saw the whole Cooper clan in Norfolk, accidentally introduced Randi to her new love (fish pasanda) and – very excitingly – reunited Team Adipose for the time-strapped Time Run sequel. And if all that wasn’t enough, August in Chicago involved the world’s absolute funniest silly string surprise at Carolyn’s belated birthday party, Memento, a glass blowing workshop, my first American football game and a solar eclipse! (OK, the solar eclipse was completely obscured by clouds. You can’t have everything.)
September
If I had to list my top three achievements in September they would be, in ascending order: helping to get James assassinated twice during Secret Hitler, redesigning this blog, and finding some fish pasanda for Randi in Chicago. We also celebrated Amanda’s birthday, saw The Audience, went to the Museum of Science and Industry’s ‘After Hours’ event, hung out on McKenna’s rooftop and dined at fancy, colourful Carnivale. Also this month, Cat and Matt received their very own mystery box, I received a custom rap track about dominicself.co.uk and Randi received the ultimate gift of getting to watch Oklahoma! for the very first time.
It’s apple picking time!
October
Cat visited in October! Together we went apple picking, corn mazing, Jack-o’-lantern viewing and ate a lot of diner food. This month I also had some surprisingly fun business presentation training in Palo Alto, saw Blade Runner 2049 with James and did not die of dysentery playing the Oregon Trail. We also saw one of my favourite plays of the year, 1980 (Or Why I’m Voting for John Anderson), met Bernard Edward (dispensing wise parenting advice with a copy of Not Now, Bernard) and saw MisterWives in concert.
November
I firmly believe that the season of mulled wine should be officially inaugurated on Bonfire Night, and we made this happen on 5th November along with a Cat-inspired mountain of potato, sausages and beans. James left for Berlin in a blaze of karaoke, Katie and Brandon popped by Chicago, Ellen’s Master of Peppers left us (as usual) full-to-bursting with chilli, we briefly lived an alternate grown-up life in Robert and Julie’s house with Willow (it was weird: the wine and nice furniture inspired me to put some soft classical music on) and celebrated Thanksgiving in California with gingerbread turkeys and mulled wine batch #2. And on returning home, mulled wine batch #3 at a screening of Voyeur plus the beginnings of Christmas decorations…
Christmas in London
December
We wrapped up the year in Chicago with a couple of films: The Room plus The Disaster Artist, Star Wars: The Last Jedi and, in preparation for Vienna, The Third Man. And then, after popping off to Palo Alto once last time (three cheers for the Impossible Burger!) we set off for our Christmas holidays: Vienna, Bratislava, London and the Peak District. Indeed, I am finishing off this review from a warm pub in the snowy village of Hope. Highlights of the trip so far have included Oslo (an enlightening play about the Middle East peace process), Carolyn’s Christmas dinner, getting through hosting the Christmas Quiz, a Boxing Day family walk on the Heath and our hike to Mam Tor. And I am looking forward to New Year’s Eve!
Wishing everyone a happy new year and a rewarding 2018!
From Vienna we took a holiday-within-a-holiday and spent a night in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, as Randi’s parents had enjoyed their visit earlier this year and it looked easy enough to get to. I didn’t really appreciate how easy it would be… the train from Vienna leaves every hour, takes an hour, and costs a mere €10.10 each way. Tickets can be purchased at any time from a mobile app, and of course there are no security queues or passport checks at any point. It does not surprise me to learn that commuting from Bratislava to Vienna is quite common. (I know that this is the normal train experience across Europe. It’s just so great.)
The train!
The centre of town was pedestrianised and lovely
You can’t visit any city (except Toledo, Ohio) without taking a walking tour, so we wrapped up warm for a chilly three-hour history of the Communist era with our guide and two guys from Singapore. (“What is the weather like in Singapore?” “It’s always nice.” “What about in winter?” “There is no winter.”) Despite the cold it was a really interesting walk, including the views of Austria and Hungary from Bratislava Castle. It does seem that every postwar government was prone to inappropriate road-building schemes, whatever their ideology. At least Bratislava got a UFO-shaped restaurant perched on top of a bridge in return, although the authorities had to put up blinds on one side to block out the views of capitalist Austria during the Cold War.
Be wary of the trams sneaking up on you
The castle!
At night we enjoyed the spectacular Christmas market in the centre of town, which was even better (and less crowded) than Vienna’s. The most common food was lokša (known via Catherine as lefse) of which I particularly enjoyed the blue cheese and chocolate options. Meanwhile, Randi was thrilled to discover that the ‘meat and cabbage soup’ meal handed down through her family existed here as kapustnica.
I highly recommend a visit to Bratislava!
Christmas market in Bratislava
Market food
With this cheerful fellow
Randi and I spent the week before Christmas in Vienna, which neither of us had been to before and seemed like a suitably Christmassy place. Since there is an awful lot to do in the city we decided to buy a 6-day Vienna Pass at the outset, which lets you into almost anything and makes it feel acceptable to swan into the Belvedere or Schönbrunn Zoo for half an hour. And with that, we were away!
Christmas in Vienna
Randi discovers lángos
On our first night we headed straight for the biggest Christmas market where Randi discovered the goodness of lángos (deep fried dough with garlic butter) and I was delighted to find a stall where I could load up a kartoffel with mais and schinken. (Why has America never embraced the jacket potato as a fast food option? It’s inexplicable.) And on the topic of food innovation, it is worth highlighting how Austrians make hot dogs. Rather than sliding it into the side of a bun, they take a baguette and impale it on a heafty spike before entombing the sausage neatly within and adding sauces. It is such a superior hot dogging system that I have opened my eyes to the inferiority of the English-speaking world on this point.
At the Christmas market with City Hall in the background
St. Stephen’s Cathedral
Vienna has museums for everything. We visited Mozart’s house – with a strikingly sad reminder that even a rich and successful man could lose four of his six children in infancy – and Freud’s home and office before he was forced to emigrate to London by the Nazis. (This is a much more sympathetic angle to view Freud from rather than as the father of psychoanalysis.)
We also saw one of the two Jewish museums, toured the famous Royal Opera House and watched the white Lipizzan horses of the Spanish Riding School do their morning exercises. To be honest, their morning exercises are not especially athletic, although they do seem to involve some diagonal trotting. The Schönbrunn Palace is amazing and well worth a visit, although by that point we were tired of audio guides and just wandered through the rooms making up their likely purposes.
We’re in the Opera House!
Schnitzel! I ate so much schnitzel…
Everyone we met was very friendly and (of course) could switch seamlessly into English mid-sentence after seeing our gormless faces. And I don’t just mean waiters in restaurants, I mean ‘the woman in the lift at our AirBnB apartment block’ or ‘random teenagers on the train’. However, I do also want to salute a few amusing moments of customer service, which is what you expect from a German-speaking country which doesn’t withhold people’s income in expectation of tips. For example, the guy at tourist information at the airport was full of disdain when I asked for a 6-day Vienna card rather than a 6-day Vienna pass. “There is no 6-day Vienna card!” he said, as if I had failed a test.
Props also to the guy who suddenly stepped out and took my photo on the way up to the Donauturm without thinking to let me know what was about to happen. I didn’t buy it, so unfortunately you will have to imagine my surprised expression.
Drinks in the Imperial Hotel
Trying to recreate the scene from The Third Man on the Riesenrad without being able to remember what it looked like
Public transport is obviously fantastic
In the beautiful State Hall at the National Library
One highlight of the trip was seeing a concert at the Musikverein. We saw the Artis-Quartet perform pieces by Mozart, Einem and Bruckner, during which everyone in the audience mysteriously knew when each piece was actually over (and it was OK to clap) and when they were just taking a little break (when it was clearly not OK to clap). The venue also nearly defeated us with its seating plan before the concert had even started, as they divide each row into ‘left’ and ‘right’ sections, meaning that two ‘number 11’ chairs sit side-by-side in the middle of every aisle. If you don’t know this in advance, it can lead to some awkward interactions when you find people in ‘your’ seats. (Turns out we were in the wrong hall anyway. You can tell we were tourists.)
Christmas trees all over town
Roll your eyes all you want, however, because one of my favourite outings was our tour of the Austrian parliament. Parliament Building is a grand and impressive place, though we discovered it’s also a place which is closed for three years for refurbishment and fire safety upgrades. But never mind about the building, because Austrian politics itself is at a moment of tension right now. Our walking tour on Monday was re-routed to avoid the protests against the swearing-in of their unpleasant new government: a coalition of the right and far-right which does not bode well for the general European trend. (We actually only saw a dozen people ‘protesting’ by riding their bikes slowly through the city centre and playing some music, but were assured that others were around.) With all of this in mind, it was cool not just to be able to see the temporary parliament but even sit in the chairs in the National Assembly. They never let you do this at Westminster.
I made sure I was sitting in the Social Democrat side
Thanks to Amanda for her suggestions for things to do in the city, including eating Sachertorte in Café Sperl, which we did after working up an appetite by wandering through Stadtpark and Naschmarkt. I was also planning to include our side-quest to Bratislava in this post, but seeing at the length already I will save that for another post. To be continued…
Schönbrunn Palace Gardens
I read a record 40 books in 2017! In an exciting innovation this year, one of these books – The Stars Move Still – was written by my uncle. It’s a fictionalised portrayal of a forgotten American tragedy, and you can buy it now. Let’s take a look at some of the others…
Fiction
As is apparently traditional, I kicked off the year with a gift from Todd: Fates & Furies, two very different perspectives on one marriage which really does make you flip back and re-read sections again in a new light. I was also excited to read Zadie Smith’s new novel, Swing Time, although I found myself much more interested in the central relationship between the narrator and her childhood friend Tracey than the subplot with popstar Aimee.
Early on in the year I also ploughed through The Idiot – it’s only taken me a decade since Mr. Drummond first told me to read it during A-Level history class – and my main takeaway is that Lizaveta Prokofyevna is amazing. I absolutely love her outbursts, and she is very welcome at my literary dinner party. The book is also noteworthy for its discussion on criminality and liberalism, which could easily be written today. It was equally striking to find the actual terms ‘feminism’ and ‘human rights’ in Howards End (from 1910) although the plot and characters were not hugely compelling.
This year I continued my quest through Asimov’s interconnected series, starting with Susan Calvin origin stories in The Complete Robot (along with other memorable robot tales) and continuing through his Galactic Empire books. They are always enjoyable! I also read another two instalments in the Peter Grant series, Broken Homes (a big twist of an ending!) and Foxglove Summer (a detour into the countryside). It’s been a much longer gap since I last read anything from the His Dark Materials universe, but La Belle Sauvage – the first in a new trilogy – was a joy. The story is small in scope, but a confident return to the world of dæmons and Dust.
Abbi’s sci-fi recommendation, The Gone-Away World, was a post-apocalyptic wild ride with definite shades of Vonnegut. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, which had sat forebodingly on my to-read list for a while, is a giant tome but with an incredible premise and story. Susanna Clarke crafts a compelling alternative history of England divided between Northern and Southern kings, with a lot of folklore, huge attention to historical detail and magic which is beautifully integrated into the world.
However, my favourite piece of speculative fiction this year was Hominids – a story about a Neanderthal man who accidentally crosses over from a parallel universe in which Neanderthals survived rather than humans. I feel a little guilty naming this as my favourite because as a work of literature it is definitely not the best. There’s a definite ‘genre sci-fi’ feel where interesting ideas and discussions take precedence over plots or characters, not to mention a clumsy rape scene which is not handled well. Despite all of this, I just really really wanted the whole thing to be true so that I could talk to a Neanderthal. The impact of small biological differences between the two species, such as a stronger Neanderthal sense of smell, are fascinating when the author imagines how their civilisation would differ as a result. And it left me feeling a bit bad about being a homo sapien. I will never use ‘neanderthal’ as an insult again.
I am pathetically bad at predicting where a plot is going to go, so it was exciting to be able to read The Girl on the Train and work out the killer for myself, albeit taking 70% of the book to get there. Eric Ambler’s Journey Into Fear was another straightforward thriller, and super enjoyable. Before The Fall was also a compulsive read, piecing together the mystery behind a plane crash, although the ending was a little anti-climactic as various open plot threads and red herrings were left hanging open.
I confess that I only made a note to read Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas after Trump memorably said he was doing an ‘amazing job’, but everyone should take the time to read this searing first-hand account of American slavery. To continue the theme of reading good books for bad reasons: I was spurred into reading Maya Angelou’s I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by a 1-star Goodreads review in which the mother of a 15-year old boy objects to the ‘sordid details’ he is ‘forced’ to read about for school. She finally compromises by telling him ‘which chapters to skip’. I guess I owe this woman something, because I deeply appreciated reading and learning more about Angelou’s amazing life, which I hadn’t realised the book was so closely based on.
Growing up in the UK I was never ‘forced’ to read American classic The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but I did so under my own free will this year and enjoyed it once the action picked up. The Passion of New Eve was a blast of Angela Carter: violent and sexual and liable to fuel the flames depending on how you see it. My mum suggested The Post-Office Girl, full of vivid descriptions of places and characters, and by the end I was quite keen to see whether the heroes would be able to pull off their crime or not. Exit West is a (somewhat obvious) metaphor for the era of global migration we are living through, but I actually found the birth and death of a relationship to be the most moving part. Finally, All The Light We Cannot See was a beautifully written and fast-paced intertwined story of a blind French girl and a German boy during World War Two. It made me sad about Brexit all over again.
Non-Fiction
The only American history I ever studied was all post-Civil War, and so I found American Nations to be incredibly helpful in understanding how the United States was first put together. I had no idea that the slave system of the Deep South migrated from Barbados, for example, or the sharp distinctions between the New England Puritans and the Virginian gentry which can be traced back to the English Civil War. Meanwhile, it is easy to forget the Spanish settlements in Florida and New Mexico which get lost in all of the ‘East to West’ narrative. I am sure you can quibble with exactly how Woodard carves up the country, but overall I have a much better grasp of its distinct cultures and histories.
Jumping forward in time to Lincoln, Team of Rivals – which took me a month to get through – is a very detailed account of his rise to the Presidency together with his leading competitors. It was well worth reading although I was expecting a little more historiography along with the narrative, and I still have some unanswered questions. For example, was Lincoln actually any good as a war leader? The Civil War certainly reads like a series of military disasters in the beginning, although perhaps the whole government would have disintegrated under anyone else.
Rounding out the American history, I also read The End of Inequality, a click-bait title for what is actually a fairly dry piece of academia on the (genuinely fascinating) 1962 Baker vs. Carr decision. Save yourself some time and listen to the More Perfect episode instead. I am also down on this book because in the last few pages they become fabulously stupid and wrong about international solutions to gerrymandering.
If you want a chillingly relevant insight into the ‘anti-politics’ mood, They Thought They Were Free is based on interviews with ten ordinary Nazis from a quiet, non-industrial German town conducted right after the Second World War. Similarly, not because they are Nazis but for a a comparable bottom-up perspective of the modern American right, I highly recommend Strangers In Their Own Land. Arlie Hochschild, a sociologist from Berkeley, does an excellent job talking to conservative voters from rural Louisiana, and smartly uses the issue of local environmental damage (from which these people suffer a great deal) to probe the question of why they continue to oppose any government protection or regulation.
Finally, if you want to panic about a different social nightmare, read The Gene by Siddhartha Mukherjee. As with his previous book on cancer, The Emperor Of All Maladies, this is a fascinating and informative exploration of the history and science of genetics. But I came away with a terrible sinking feeling about where genetic engineering is going to lead us. Alternative, there’s always the equally dark world of Plato’s The Laws, in which Plato (a) sneakily tries to make his own book compulsory reading material, (b) bans discounting (thanks, dude) and (c) limits his city’s population to 5040 citizens exactly. Good luck with that.
Catherine is showing off her nice iPhone X photos
The holidays are here, and as usual I’m stressing out to get all of my end-of-year blog content written before we leave on our Christmas trip and generate yet more content to blog about. I also managed to secure the contract to run this year’s family Christmas Quiz, which I don’t think I’ve been allowed to do since I was about five years old and asked questions like “name the the first book on the shelf in my bedroom”. So the pressure is on not to blow it this time.
Latkes!
These Christmassy and/or Hanukkahy photos (the ones with the nice focus) come from Catherine and AJ’s holiday celebratory gathering, during which Randi cooked latkes, we all made gingerbread cookies of varying degrees of crispness and whatever college football [sic] game was on in the background became infinitely more interesting when the pitch (do they call it a pitch?) started to fall apart. Play then stopped so that a harried operations dude could ‘fix it’ (by scattering coal dust?) and the TV commentators, lacking anything else to talk about, began to commentate earnestly on this repair job instead. “This guy’s doing amazingly. Look at that concentration under pressure. Oh… oh… we have his name!”
And once that was all over we watched The Room (worst film ever made) in preparation for seeing The Disaster Artist (retelling of how the worst film ever made was made) this week, which was amazing and very funny. It’s probably still funny without seeing The Room first, I guess, but I’m not sure why anyone would let that opportunity go by.
The incredibly meat-like Impossible Burger
In the last few weeks Randi and I also saw Voyeur (a documentary about journalist Gay Talese and a motel owner who spied on his guests for decades: it’s honestly a bit of a toss-up about which one has bigger problems) at a Dinner & Docs event. I also made a quick two-day trip to Palo Alto during which I was excited to try the Impossible Burger. It is a really impressive attempt to re-create a meat burger from genetically engineered plants, and it was totally delicious.
I do fear it moves us a step closer to the nightmare future where the next generation, able to enjoy all of the pleasures of eating meat without any of the downsides, smugly update their morality and then charge their parents and grandparents with meat-related crimes over bitter family dinners. I can see it all now. You hear that, next generation? I preempted your outrage.
At the 2017 Groupon Holiday Party
Last weekend we also partied at the Groupon holiday party at which T-Pain did not appear (I was indifferent about that, but the party was nice), played satisfying games of Dixit with Jason and Carrie (i.e. games I happened to do well in) and watched The Third Man in preparation for our trip to Vienna. This film taught me that everything in Vienna happens at a jaunty angle, and that if you want to go home again the British army is happy to buy you a plane ticket and drive you to the airport (#travelhacking). Finally, tonight we saw Star Wars: The Last Jedi with Toggolyn before we leave tomorrow. It seemed a bit long to me, but maybe that’s because my mind is already drifting to our travels, which start tomorrow. Tomorrow!
Merry Chrismukkah!
Todd on 2024: My Year In Books: “I know what Glass Hotel is about. It’s about a bunch of loosely connected, barely developed characters, with their timelines…” Jan 4, 17:17
