In my life, I've had three interviews that did not render me the job for which I interviewed- the first at Burger King, the summer before my first year at Wooster. I think I didn't get the job because I wore shorts to the interview (in my defense, it was a hot summer day, and they were nice shorts). Realistically, it was probably also because I was leaving for school a couple of months later. Similarly, the following summer, before landing a horrific job at Wal*Mart, I interviewed at Arbys and was summarily turned down because "college is great and all, it's good to go after what you think your dreams are, but we're looking for people who won't be going away." I didn't hold it against them. It was still my favorite fast food joint in Ottawa for the remainder of my time in Ottawa (which, after that summer, was spotty at best, to say the least). A few years later, I interviewed at Meijer in Lima, while fundraising. They turned me down because my chance of someday leaving in the future just wasn't worth the risk. Their loss. Ironically, I ended up working a very much seasonal position at the Meijer in Findlay later that year and, were that not the case, may not have ever met Alexandra.
Oh how the cogs, they turn.
Otherwise, I've received a job offer from every single interview I've ever had. My most recent alighting upon me this afternoon.
Last December (the 21st), I frantically went from department store to department store to find a suit, because I had an interview at, quite literally, the best possible clerkship in Cleveland, at least as I see things.
Sherwin Williams, the world's leading paint manufacturer and retailer, and one of Cleveland's flagship corporations was hiring a litigation clerk in their corporate offices. It's a well-paid position that extends through next school year- paid law-related positions for people just out of their first year are white buffalo. Few exist, so the competition is stiff and the deadlines harsh.
But Wooster came through again for me. Sherwin Williams liked my IT background (and didn't care about my I.S.; sorry, Grant), and got me in for an interview before the deadline for applications even passed.
One of my "to do before school starts" items was purchasing the aforementioned professional suit, for the spring interview season. If you've never bought a man's professional suit, give yourself some time- they have to hem the pants (at least) before its even wearable.
To make matters worse, I only have brown dress shoes (Size 16-17 doesn't afford many options, and I like brown, so that's what I have). On a night's notice, getting new shoes was literally impossible.
If you're following, I was out, wherever I could be that might sell professional clothing, looking for a suit that went with my oddball shoes, less than 24 hours before an interview for my dream 1L summer position.
I went to Dillards- far too expensive generally, and definitely not readily selling suits off-the-rack ready to wear.
But, by an act of God, they had a suit that fit in every single way, save for the unhemmed pants. I hope whomever helped me (she had her own law school dreams early in life apparently, though her name now escapes) got paid commission- because she was resourceful and helpful. One of her coworker's mothers just so happens to run an alteration shop. The shop was closed, but she got him to pull some strings with his mom, gave me the address, and sent me on the way. My interview was at 10:30. At 9:00 a.m., I was waiting outside of their shop for the door to open, so I could retrieve my suit, hurry downtown (park too, at Tower City no less, then walk), and do the interview.
But I made it. It was the most laid-back interview I've ever had.
But I guess it worked.
Save for those three times, I'm still running a pretty good average on the interview/job offer ratio.
So I don't have to worry about getting a job this summer anymore- I've got one. Most of my classmates (or all, as far as I know) haven't interviewed anywhere yet. Indeed, few have applied.
But that stressful part is over.
It feels like I've reached the top of the mountain today. Of course I haven't. This is just the beginning of my legal career (all of the orientation "your legal career starts now" speeches, that started as soon as winter visit day last year, before some of us had ever taken the LSAT notwithstanding)- but it is a good beginning. Indeed, it's as good a beginning as I'd ever wish.
This summer and next school year, I'll be in the same building where the "We are all Witnesses" poster once hung (and was consequently fire-bombed by drunk Cavs fans in June 2010). Even now, when I step back and think about it, I can't help but laugh- the ghost of LeBron haunts me still, in some menial, neutered way.
It's a major step on the path, to be sure. And as I think about it (LeBron included), it's obvious that a light's been leading me along the whole way. I could take the side most law students, personality-wise would, and claim credit for the early and great job-search success. But how dishonest would that be? Were I not rejected by the Meijer in Lima in 2009, and accepted by the one in Findlay, I'd never have met Alexandra, I wouldn't be in law school, and I wouldn't have a remarkable summer job to celebrate right now. The fact is I'm not in control of my life anymore than I'm allowed to be, by our Father in heaven- and though hindsight is so characteristically 20/20, I can't help but realize He's been behind it all- the ups and the downs, all the way through, to today, this summer, and beyond. I could take the evangelistic tactic here and say it's because I've had "such great faith" that He's intervened for me. But I won't do that either- I've had the measure of faith He's allowed me, and trust me, I've screwed the pooch on that one countless times. But he's deigned to bless me in so many ways, so many times, even when I don't count it as such. This is just one more of those. I will, however, be the stereotypical liberal activist with it, and quote spiderman- with great power comes great responsibility- and I've got to do my part now, from this/these blessings I've been given, and do something for God, His Kingdom, and the city of Cleveland.
-Zack
"I can, with one eye squinted, take it all as a blessing"
-Flannery O'Connor
Friday, January 25, 2013
Friday, January 18, 2013
Week 2: With the Tide
Yesterday morning, our civil procedure professor told us about a class, a few years back, with a horrifying reputation that persists to this day. Their 1L year, when they were still divided into sections, the competition boiled over. People were hiding library books, lying to each other, and doing anything necessary to get an edge on the ever important curve. Apparently, to this day, she denies writing letters of recommendation for members of this particular class.
They tell us, at every juncture: your classmates will be your colleagues for your entire career.
They tell us all sorts of things at every juncture: Lawyers become alcoholics, network, get experience your first semester, don't worry about grades but grades determine the rest of your life, legal writing is important (though it's worth the least amount of credits), etc, etc, etc, all down the line.
This week though, I've internalized that first one. My classmates will be my colleagues during my legal career in Cleveland.
Most of the sage wisdom imparted by the administration has something of an ominous tone, and that particular piece is no exception. But the tone of delivery does the fact a disservice. Knowing that I'll be working in a community made up of people I'm in class with right now, for the most part, is one of the best pieces of news I've heard about the legal world.
I like the people I'm in class with right now. They are good, brilliant, wonderful people who, even when class gets long and the workload unbearable (though we always find a way to bear it), make every day a little brighter and easier to get through. It's like we're all fighting together, like it's us against the complex material. Thankfully, we are winning.
Law school is a competitive environment, just like the job market and the adversarial judicial system. But that does not mean we have to be enemies. I think a few people might be obsessed with that idea. Maybe, at some point, I was too.
But I'm past it. We're all in this together. I'll keep trying my best, with regards to grades now, job interviews, and work later. But my classmates now and future colleagues, even those who get on my nerves from time to time, well, they're in this with me too.
Last semester, I don't think I quite got it. I know upperclassmen who still haven't.
But we've been thrust into a fire and as I see us, as a group, growing and learning together in apparent ways. At least our section is a community and I think, for the most part, we actually care about each other like a community should.
I'd imagine there will be a cutthroat side to everything, when business starts getting in the way in a few years. That's to be expected. But when it happens, it will be the communal experiences we're sharing now that inform how we treat each other then.
I can't speak for the law school experience others might have, but, at least for me, and at least for nearly everyone in our section, it seems to be that we're interested in solving problems, not creating them.
Though we're only two weeks in on this new semester, next year, we won't have a section. Everything will get closer and closer to the "real world."
And that's why it's so important now, while we're all just 1L's, learning what it means to "learn law and live Justice," that we learn how to share this life, to some off the wall degree.
The situation always turns a bit neurotic, when you throw a bunch of law students together. But at least, I hope, in ten years, professors are telling stories about the section who felt more like a family than a team of rivals.
-Zack
"The mood it changes like the wind, hard to control where it begins"
-The Naked and Famous
They tell us, at every juncture: your classmates will be your colleagues for your entire career.
They tell us all sorts of things at every juncture: Lawyers become alcoholics, network, get experience your first semester, don't worry about grades but grades determine the rest of your life, legal writing is important (though it's worth the least amount of credits), etc, etc, etc, all down the line.
This week though, I've internalized that first one. My classmates will be my colleagues during my legal career in Cleveland.
Most of the sage wisdom imparted by the administration has something of an ominous tone, and that particular piece is no exception. But the tone of delivery does the fact a disservice. Knowing that I'll be working in a community made up of people I'm in class with right now, for the most part, is one of the best pieces of news I've heard about the legal world.
I like the people I'm in class with right now. They are good, brilliant, wonderful people who, even when class gets long and the workload unbearable (though we always find a way to bear it), make every day a little brighter and easier to get through. It's like we're all fighting together, like it's us against the complex material. Thankfully, we are winning.
Law school is a competitive environment, just like the job market and the adversarial judicial system. But that does not mean we have to be enemies. I think a few people might be obsessed with that idea. Maybe, at some point, I was too.
But I'm past it. We're all in this together. I'll keep trying my best, with regards to grades now, job interviews, and work later. But my classmates now and future colleagues, even those who get on my nerves from time to time, well, they're in this with me too.
Last semester, I don't think I quite got it. I know upperclassmen who still haven't.
But we've been thrust into a fire and as I see us, as a group, growing and learning together in apparent ways. At least our section is a community and I think, for the most part, we actually care about each other like a community should.
I'd imagine there will be a cutthroat side to everything, when business starts getting in the way in a few years. That's to be expected. But when it happens, it will be the communal experiences we're sharing now that inform how we treat each other then.
I can't speak for the law school experience others might have, but, at least for me, and at least for nearly everyone in our section, it seems to be that we're interested in solving problems, not creating them.
Though we're only two weeks in on this new semester, next year, we won't have a section. Everything will get closer and closer to the "real world."
And that's why it's so important now, while we're all just 1L's, learning what it means to "learn law and live Justice," that we learn how to share this life, to some off the wall degree.
The situation always turns a bit neurotic, when you throw a bunch of law students together. But at least, I hope, in ten years, professors are telling stories about the section who felt more like a family than a team of rivals.
-Zack
"The mood it changes like the wind, hard to control where it begins"
-The Naked and Famous
Friday, January 11, 2013
Week 1: A Whole New World
The first week of Law School's second semester is in the books.
Some things are the same: Legal Writing, section 2, same egos, same law school.
But some things are very different: Upper classmen. In our classes. It feels like they're moving in on our turf. It also feels like they're going to get all of the A's and leave the 1L's to fight for the B's on down on the curve.
Section 2, split in two, for Criminal law.
Up to this point, we'd had class together. Every class. Every day (save for the smaller grouped Legal Writing). But our section drew the short stick. We've been lopped in two and applied to the other two sections for Criminal Law.
Criminal law is a great class so far- but 60 people is a bigger class than I've ever been in, anywhere.
I'm biased, but it does seem that our section is excelling, at least in our criminal law class.
Jobs jobs jobs!
We can finally apply and interview for summer interships, externships, and associate positions. It's a wonderful opportunity.-- a wonderful opportunity that feels far too easy to sweep aside while the other homework piles on.
All of my professors are women this semester. I've had that happen at Wooster- the English department is mostly women (by maybe one or two, or at least it was), but in law school, where there are 3-4 men for every woman in the student body, it's a refreshing change.
But they are stricter. You can be absent for not being prepared. All of our midterms are graded.
On the other hand, we watched a movie for the first two classes in Property- Amistad. It was a better use of my time than I'd have come up with for myself, had I not been in class. If you never have, you should watch Amistad.
Grades have been handed out too. The world is starting to stratify based on performance. I did alright- not all As, but close enough that I'm able to apply to any job.
I forget a lot though, and I shouldn't, that the majority of the educated world (so, not even taking into account those who don't live where education is possible), the people who have any college degree, though growing, is small. Those with bachelors degrees smaller. And those who, from that number, who can get into law school is smaller still. Taking the curve into account, performing well in class is an accomplishment- passing a class at all is nothing at which to sneer.
But Law School is a lot of work. It is a lot of worthwhile work, indeed. But it is work. Some things never change.
-Zack
"You know where to find me, when you're on your way out"
-Imogen Heap
Some things are the same: Legal Writing, section 2, same egos, same law school.
But some things are very different: Upper classmen. In our classes. It feels like they're moving in on our turf. It also feels like they're going to get all of the A's and leave the 1L's to fight for the B's on down on the curve.
Section 2, split in two, for Criminal law.
Up to this point, we'd had class together. Every class. Every day (save for the smaller grouped Legal Writing). But our section drew the short stick. We've been lopped in two and applied to the other two sections for Criminal Law.
Criminal law is a great class so far- but 60 people is a bigger class than I've ever been in, anywhere.
I'm biased, but it does seem that our section is excelling, at least in our criminal law class.
Jobs jobs jobs!
We can finally apply and interview for summer interships, externships, and associate positions. It's a wonderful opportunity.-- a wonderful opportunity that feels far too easy to sweep aside while the other homework piles on.
All of my professors are women this semester. I've had that happen at Wooster- the English department is mostly women (by maybe one or two, or at least it was), but in law school, where there are 3-4 men for every woman in the student body, it's a refreshing change.
But they are stricter. You can be absent for not being prepared. All of our midterms are graded.
On the other hand, we watched a movie for the first two classes in Property- Amistad. It was a better use of my time than I'd have come up with for myself, had I not been in class. If you never have, you should watch Amistad.
Grades have been handed out too. The world is starting to stratify based on performance. I did alright- not all As, but close enough that I'm able to apply to any job.
I forget a lot though, and I shouldn't, that the majority of the educated world (so, not even taking into account those who don't live where education is possible), the people who have any college degree, though growing, is small. Those with bachelors degrees smaller. And those who, from that number, who can get into law school is smaller still. Taking the curve into account, performing well in class is an accomplishment- passing a class at all is nothing at which to sneer.
But Law School is a lot of work. It is a lot of worthwhile work, indeed. But it is work. Some things never change.
-Zack
"You know where to find me, when you're on your way out"
-Imogen Heap
Thursday, January 3, 2013
2012 was a Year
In some ways, it feels like I was just writing about the end of 2011 a few weeks ago. So much happened in 2012 that that's obviously impossible, but it was easily the fastest year in recent memory. I don't exactly know how to quantify the quickness of a year. I just know I've never felt like a year didn't really pass, when one actually did, until I met January 1st, 2013.
So much did happen.
I now know what it's like to be married for a whole year. It's hard, but wonderful. Everything everyone says is actually mostly true. Besides all of the stuff about hating it you here in pop-culture from time to time. I couldn't love being married more. The secret to that is simple: I couldn't love my wife anymore than I do, but then, somehow, each day, I wake up, and realize that I do, much more than the day before.
I learned that much of my 2011 strife over my employment with InteVarsity and pull toward law school was part of a master plan which gave me an immediate landing spot, once InterVarsity diverged from the ranks of an organization for which I can ideologically work.
We've now officially lived in Cleveland for 1 year. It's everything I thought it would be and more. I love living in Cleveland and, unless I somehow manage to retire to Savannah Georgia, I can't imagine calling anywhere else home.
As different as it is from Cleveland, I happened to fall in love with Savannah this year too, when we visited it in August. Perhaps it was the adventure, driving across five states and all that, then ending up in a historic, semi-tropical-paradise city without a care in the world for a week, but, like Cleveland, Savannah has its interesting, historic, alluring dark spots. There's nothing like it in the world. Supposedly, its the most haunted city in the country- and why wouldn't it be? Historically, it was the end of the civil war, a pirate port, and an antebellum wonderland. In some ways, it was built on evil- but in others, it is something of a pure pearl, untouched by too much jarring modernity.
And of course, I started law school this year. It was like the heavens opened up and showed me a path I'd been searching for, for so long. I can't wait to see where it leads, but for now, I'm overjoyed at being on it. Still waiting for first semester grades, and that makes me a little nervous, but no matter what they are, as long as I don't fail out, I'll still be happy to be there and be engaging with the body of law.
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For those of you who have been reading this for any number of years, you may know what's coming next. Each year, I go through the rolls of my memory and determine my favorite things from the past year in each of several categories- movies, music, etc.
2012 was a good year on that front, but law school made it quite a bit thinner than in years past. I did not crack 40 books or 55 movies for the first time in 3 years (at least- I haven't been keeping track for longer). The mere fact that I'm okay with that fact means I think law school is worth it, but that's another story for another day. For now, I'll address the categories as I have been, for at least six years, spanning www.xanga.com/dulacian and this blog. Past entries can be found, somewhere around the beginning of the year, by searching either place. Last year's is just 13 back of this one. It was a thin year in blogging. It might go without saying, but this list is compiled from things I first read, watched, or listened to in 2011- much of it is much older.
Without further adieu, I give you the best of my year, in terms of entertainment and ephemera:
Literature:
Book of the year: This is always the hardest choice for me to make, though at least I have less to choose from this year. I only made it to a paltry 34 books in 2012, after posting 52 in 2011. I have a good excuse, but I still wish I could have made more progress. Even so, I greatly enjoyed what I did read. In many ways, it was the year of Proust and Stephen King. In total, that only means 4 books- but more than 2500 pages therein. Proust is the greatest technical writer whoever lived, for my money. He took a fairly normal life and made it into a wonderful dance through revelry, ribaldry, grace, and candor. His sentences are powerful yet elegant, graceful yet frank. King, on the other hand, is a great story teller and a good enough writer. He gets the job done, and that job captures imaginations better than most American writers can dream to do. But it's actually none of them that take the proverbial cake this year. It's actually a children's book. The Amber Spyglass, by Philip Pullman, to which I give my honor this year. It's also the first book I finished in 2012. Pullman tugs at the heart, writes for children like they are growing into adulthood instead of as children, and tells a story few could read and ever forget. It's quite possibly the best children's book ever written, and most certainly the best I've ever read. It's more perfect than the rest, and that's why it wins 2012 for me.
Runner Up: Guermantes Way, Marcel Proust
Author of the year: Marcel Proust. See above for why. Words in his hands are more powerful than 1000 armies.
Runner Up: Stephen King
(You may notice that that's just an inversion of last year's winners. I'm pretty sure that's the first time that's happened to me. It's a testament to how law school prevents me from branching out in my reading adventures)
Motion Pictures
Film of the Year: 2012 marked the first time that as many as 1/3 of the films I saw were in theaters. I started going to movies by myself, when I had the time, and it was a good decision. Watching movies is probably my favorite personal past time, and college got me in the habit of doing it alone. I do like going to movies with people too- but I don't let lack of a group hold me back from seeing something I want to see. So, seeing movies is what I did. A lot. Right after I got fired by InterVarsity, I went to see a movie. Almost every free day this winter break, I've seen a movie. I'm glad it's become fun again, and not academic, as it had been, for so long. So that means this decision is a hard one. Two of my favorite directors released movies last year (Moonrise Kingdom and Django Unchained being those) and both were brilliant. Some other favorites included Cloud Atlas and Life of Pi. On top of that, I saw plenty of great films apart from the theater too: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Roshamon, Intolerance. Life of Pi is probably the best film of last year, for Oscar considerations (though Lincoln will probably win, even though I haven't seen it, I'm calling it). But Moonrise Kingdom was my favorite. And so I'm picking it.
Runner Up: Roshamon
Television show of the year: It probably shouldn't be too surprising that I didn't watch much TV last year. In fact, it's hard to even think of a single show that I just "had to watch-" I'm months behind even on The Office and Parks and Rec. Thankfully, Downton Abbey exists, and though there aren't many episodes and I've never watched it on broadcast, it's literally the only show I wanted to watch more than doing something else, all year. It's a little, sudsy, I believe, according to a mutual friend (and she wasn't wrong), but it's well acted, better shot than the Les Miserables musical-movie atrocity (of course, so was Goatman 2, but that's another post..., to pull an Alton Brown on early Good Eats), and relentlessly compelling. I don't think I should resolve to watch more t.v. anytime soon, but unless something changes, there's a good chance this entry will look similar in 2013's edition of this very post.
Runner Up: Phineas and Ferb
Music
Song of the year: It's next to impossible for me to actually pick a single song to represent my 2012. A lot of great stuff came out, and a lot of stuff that already existed managed to enamor me, in one way or another. However, for some oddly fortuitous lyrics with the way I exited InterVarsity, and because it's an awesome song, I'm actually picking Heartlines, by Florence and the Machine this year: http://youtu.be/WouoSftCIz8 To this day, everytime it happens upon my randomized music while driving or working out, it brings me back to the central narrative that defined my 2012.
Runner Up: Joy to the World, Sufjan Stevens (from Silver and Gold) http://youtu.be/QhTCh7smrR4
Though I don't typically comment on "runner up" winners, I'll make an exception. The reason I picked this, a Christmas song no less, is twofold: when I first heard this song, it was roughly the end of exams for my first semester. The mood, the tone, they just fit. It also made me love Joy to the World, usually one of my least favorite Christmas songs. The tune is a variation on "Impossible Soul," one of the greatest 9 minute songs in history (off of his Age of Adz album, the closing track), and incorporates the most ending refrain from that piece. It (JttW) also closes with a line from the best modern Christmas classic, turning not just to the finality that JttW typically is, closing Christmas Eve services the world over (unless you're of the sort that does the candle lit, hand-holdey silent night. Were I a pastor, I'd either abolish that or let it be the beginning), by turning to the hope and expectation Christmas represents. It's the best arrangement of a Christmas song I've ever heard, if sentimentalism isn't your bag (at least not christmastime sentimentalism), and, in terms of significance and greatness, my second favorite song of 2012
Artist of the Year: It's always difficult to determine the most definitive artist of my past year in music listening. Much like LeBron could always win the MVP because he's the best player in the league, I could always just pick Kanye, because he's the best artist in the game. He even did some great things in 2012 (what GOOD Music Cruel Summer represents in terms of communal artistry is groundbreaking, if mostly ignored commercially). But I don't think it's actually that easy. Certainly, the day I rode to school listening to it for the first time was sufficiently mind-blowing. Likewise, I could just pick Sufjan because he's Sufjan and I will listen to him til the world ends or I'm drawn from it. It's quite honestly a coin flip between those two. I feel unoriginal to say it, but everything else isn't as consistent. Just look at last years. All I'm doing different is disallowing a runner up, when there just isn't one. http://youtu.be/1nCmeSGVpyU
http://youtu.be/Zr5Q5UJ0udw
Album of the Year: Though you might not know it from all of the musing above, my favorite album was actually Mumford and Sons' Babel this year. It's graceful, forceful, powerful, and charming. There's everything about the human experience and more, all right there. http://youtu.be/urYjkkitfvc
Runner-Up: Kanye West Presents Good Music: Cruel Summer
Sports:
Personal Favorite Team of the Year: 2012 was rough for my rooting interests. Ohio State was suspended from bowls, The Packers lost their first playoff game, the Indians, Browns, and Cavs are/were all pretty abysmal. Thankfully, the OG Titan Football team went undefeated and lost a close game to the eventual state champs. That's remarkable for a program that won all of 3 games my freshman year (now, of course, 11 years back....)
Runner Up: The ever disappointing come post-season, Cincinatti Reds.
So that's that. I'm going to do my best to update once a week this semester/year, probably/hopefully on Thursdays. I can't be held to that, if last year was any indication. But we'll see. Thanks for reading.
-Zack
"There's fantasy, there's fallacy, there's tumbling stone, echoes of a city that's long overgrown"
-Florence and the Machine
So much did happen.
I now know what it's like to be married for a whole year. It's hard, but wonderful. Everything everyone says is actually mostly true. Besides all of the stuff about hating it you here in pop-culture from time to time. I couldn't love being married more. The secret to that is simple: I couldn't love my wife anymore than I do, but then, somehow, each day, I wake up, and realize that I do, much more than the day before.
I learned that much of my 2011 strife over my employment with InteVarsity and pull toward law school was part of a master plan which gave me an immediate landing spot, once InterVarsity diverged from the ranks of an organization for which I can ideologically work.
We've now officially lived in Cleveland for 1 year. It's everything I thought it would be and more. I love living in Cleveland and, unless I somehow manage to retire to Savannah Georgia, I can't imagine calling anywhere else home.
As different as it is from Cleveland, I happened to fall in love with Savannah this year too, when we visited it in August. Perhaps it was the adventure, driving across five states and all that, then ending up in a historic, semi-tropical-paradise city without a care in the world for a week, but, like Cleveland, Savannah has its interesting, historic, alluring dark spots. There's nothing like it in the world. Supposedly, its the most haunted city in the country- and why wouldn't it be? Historically, it was the end of the civil war, a pirate port, and an antebellum wonderland. In some ways, it was built on evil- but in others, it is something of a pure pearl, untouched by too much jarring modernity.
And of course, I started law school this year. It was like the heavens opened up and showed me a path I'd been searching for, for so long. I can't wait to see where it leads, but for now, I'm overjoyed at being on it. Still waiting for first semester grades, and that makes me a little nervous, but no matter what they are, as long as I don't fail out, I'll still be happy to be there and be engaging with the body of law.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
For those of you who have been reading this for any number of years, you may know what's coming next. Each year, I go through the rolls of my memory and determine my favorite things from the past year in each of several categories- movies, music, etc.
2012 was a good year on that front, but law school made it quite a bit thinner than in years past. I did not crack 40 books or 55 movies for the first time in 3 years (at least- I haven't been keeping track for longer). The mere fact that I'm okay with that fact means I think law school is worth it, but that's another story for another day. For now, I'll address the categories as I have been, for at least six years, spanning www.xanga.com/dulacian and this blog. Past entries can be found, somewhere around the beginning of the year, by searching either place. Last year's is just 13 back of this one. It was a thin year in blogging. It might go without saying, but this list is compiled from things I first read, watched, or listened to in 2011- much of it is much older.
Without further adieu, I give you the best of my year, in terms of entertainment and ephemera:
Literature:
Book of the year: This is always the hardest choice for me to make, though at least I have less to choose from this year. I only made it to a paltry 34 books in 2012, after posting 52 in 2011. I have a good excuse, but I still wish I could have made more progress. Even so, I greatly enjoyed what I did read. In many ways, it was the year of Proust and Stephen King. In total, that only means 4 books- but more than 2500 pages therein. Proust is the greatest technical writer whoever lived, for my money. He took a fairly normal life and made it into a wonderful dance through revelry, ribaldry, grace, and candor. His sentences are powerful yet elegant, graceful yet frank. King, on the other hand, is a great story teller and a good enough writer. He gets the job done, and that job captures imaginations better than most American writers can dream to do. But it's actually none of them that take the proverbial cake this year. It's actually a children's book. The Amber Spyglass, by Philip Pullman, to which I give my honor this year. It's also the first book I finished in 2012. Pullman tugs at the heart, writes for children like they are growing into adulthood instead of as children, and tells a story few could read and ever forget. It's quite possibly the best children's book ever written, and most certainly the best I've ever read. It's more perfect than the rest, and that's why it wins 2012 for me.
Runner Up: Guermantes Way, Marcel Proust
Author of the year: Marcel Proust. See above for why. Words in his hands are more powerful than 1000 armies.
Runner Up: Stephen King
(You may notice that that's just an inversion of last year's winners. I'm pretty sure that's the first time that's happened to me. It's a testament to how law school prevents me from branching out in my reading adventures)
Motion Pictures
Film of the Year: 2012 marked the first time that as many as 1/3 of the films I saw were in theaters. I started going to movies by myself, when I had the time, and it was a good decision. Watching movies is probably my favorite personal past time, and college got me in the habit of doing it alone. I do like going to movies with people too- but I don't let lack of a group hold me back from seeing something I want to see. So, seeing movies is what I did. A lot. Right after I got fired by InterVarsity, I went to see a movie. Almost every free day this winter break, I've seen a movie. I'm glad it's become fun again, and not academic, as it had been, for so long. So that means this decision is a hard one. Two of my favorite directors released movies last year (Moonrise Kingdom and Django Unchained being those) and both were brilliant. Some other favorites included Cloud Atlas and Life of Pi. On top of that, I saw plenty of great films apart from the theater too: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Roshamon, Intolerance. Life of Pi is probably the best film of last year, for Oscar considerations (though Lincoln will probably win, even though I haven't seen it, I'm calling it). But Moonrise Kingdom was my favorite. And so I'm picking it.
Runner Up: Roshamon
Television show of the year: It probably shouldn't be too surprising that I didn't watch much TV last year. In fact, it's hard to even think of a single show that I just "had to watch-" I'm months behind even on The Office and Parks and Rec. Thankfully, Downton Abbey exists, and though there aren't many episodes and I've never watched it on broadcast, it's literally the only show I wanted to watch more than doing something else, all year. It's a little, sudsy, I believe, according to a mutual friend (and she wasn't wrong), but it's well acted, better shot than the Les Miserables musical-movie atrocity (of course, so was Goatman 2, but that's another post..., to pull an Alton Brown on early Good Eats), and relentlessly compelling. I don't think I should resolve to watch more t.v. anytime soon, but unless something changes, there's a good chance this entry will look similar in 2013's edition of this very post.
Runner Up: Phineas and Ferb
Music
Song of the year: It's next to impossible for me to actually pick a single song to represent my 2012. A lot of great stuff came out, and a lot of stuff that already existed managed to enamor me, in one way or another. However, for some oddly fortuitous lyrics with the way I exited InterVarsity, and because it's an awesome song, I'm actually picking Heartlines, by Florence and the Machine this year: http://youtu.be/WouoSftCIz8 To this day, everytime it happens upon my randomized music while driving or working out, it brings me back to the central narrative that defined my 2012.
Runner Up: Joy to the World, Sufjan Stevens (from Silver and Gold) http://youtu.be/QhTCh7smrR4
Though I don't typically comment on "runner up" winners, I'll make an exception. The reason I picked this, a Christmas song no less, is twofold: when I first heard this song, it was roughly the end of exams for my first semester. The mood, the tone, they just fit. It also made me love Joy to the World, usually one of my least favorite Christmas songs. The tune is a variation on "Impossible Soul," one of the greatest 9 minute songs in history (off of his Age of Adz album, the closing track), and incorporates the most ending refrain from that piece. It (JttW) also closes with a line from the best modern Christmas classic, turning not just to the finality that JttW typically is, closing Christmas Eve services the world over (unless you're of the sort that does the candle lit, hand-holdey silent night. Were I a pastor, I'd either abolish that or let it be the beginning), by turning to the hope and expectation Christmas represents. It's the best arrangement of a Christmas song I've ever heard, if sentimentalism isn't your bag (at least not christmastime sentimentalism), and, in terms of significance and greatness, my second favorite song of 2012
Artist of the Year: It's always difficult to determine the most definitive artist of my past year in music listening. Much like LeBron could always win the MVP because he's the best player in the league, I could always just pick Kanye, because he's the best artist in the game. He even did some great things in 2012 (what GOOD Music Cruel Summer represents in terms of communal artistry is groundbreaking, if mostly ignored commercially). But I don't think it's actually that easy. Certainly, the day I rode to school listening to it for the first time was sufficiently mind-blowing. Likewise, I could just pick Sufjan because he's Sufjan and I will listen to him til the world ends or I'm drawn from it. It's quite honestly a coin flip between those two. I feel unoriginal to say it, but everything else isn't as consistent. Just look at last years. All I'm doing different is disallowing a runner up, when there just isn't one. http://youtu.be/1nCmeSGVpyU
http://youtu.be/Zr5Q5UJ0udw
Album of the Year: Though you might not know it from all of the musing above, my favorite album was actually Mumford and Sons' Babel this year. It's graceful, forceful, powerful, and charming. There's everything about the human experience and more, all right there. http://youtu.be/urYjkkitfvc
Runner-Up: Kanye West Presents Good Music: Cruel Summer
Sports:
Personal Favorite Team of the Year: 2012 was rough for my rooting interests. Ohio State was suspended from bowls, The Packers lost their first playoff game, the Indians, Browns, and Cavs are/were all pretty abysmal. Thankfully, the OG Titan Football team went undefeated and lost a close game to the eventual state champs. That's remarkable for a program that won all of 3 games my freshman year (now, of course, 11 years back....)
Runner Up: The ever disappointing come post-season, Cincinatti Reds.
So that's that. I'm going to do my best to update once a week this semester/year, probably/hopefully on Thursdays. I can't be held to that, if last year was any indication. But we'll see. Thanks for reading.
-Zack
"There's fantasy, there's fallacy, there's tumbling stone, echoes of a city that's long overgrown"
-Florence and the Machine
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