We wish you a belated happy new year. At least the message is going out within a week of Groundhog Day!
Our sabbatical year was spent partly in the City of Culver City and partly in the City of Iowa City.* Culver City has more jacaranda trees, strip malls, and tsunami evacuation routes, while Iowa City has more bald eagles, cheese curds, and tornado warnings. And we have come to appreciate the breathable air, water that regularly just falls from the sky, and manageable traffic.
* Iowa City is located in the state of Iowa. For those less familiar with geography, click HERE for a quick reference guide to the location of US states.
Here are some cultural products that we enjoyed during this last year that you can track down too! Let us know what we missed.
Aaron Caplan & Leah Lee
Infinite alternate realities are as close as your local laundromat -- and in some of them, you are living your best life. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Sounds like Shakespeare, looks like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
Documentary (not the fictionalization) about an underground network of women who helped others get abortions before they were legal in Illinois. It's hard to watch history repeat itself, but good to know you can still call Jane.
Spaghetti Western with a thumpin’ modern soundtrack, thanks to Shawn Carter. You had Leah at "Idris Elba" and Aaron at "Regina King."
Wild-eyed Welshman Michael Sheen and uptight Scotsman David Tennant (or is it MacDonald?) get irritable at home and over Zoom when they, like the rest of us, were cooped up during the pandemic.
It's hard enough being posessed by an ancient Egyptian god, but when you've got unresolved psychiatric issues it gets even dicier.
Be careful when you use a virtual reality headset from someone you don't know.
Mean Girls meets Lord of the Flies as suburbanites have to keep quiet how they might have had to resort to a little cannibalism when they were teenagers.
Copshop (2021)
The Duke (2021)
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022)
Inside Man (Netflix 2022){"You have to suspend a lot of disbelief" - A}
Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey (2022)
LOTR: The Rings of Power (2022)
Minari (2020)
Nightmare Alley (2021){"It Sucked" - L}
Nope (2022)
Permanent Midnight (1998)
Smash His Camera (2010)
West Side Story (Spielberg 2021)
White Noise (2022)
You never know who you'll see performing at the Iowa City Pride Festival. Here's a video filmed at the Surf Ballroom, the site of Buddy Holly's very last gig.
These charming YouTubers with fascinating speaking voices make Chinese (or at least Chinese-adjacent) food.
From Hong Kong to Vancouver, with a silky, soothing Canadian voice. A Zen master! Leah wants to eat his food every week.
From Hong Kong to New York.
A Berliner who loves his Swabian cuisine. We can't claim to have tried this recipe, but the video did convince us to get a spaetzle maker!
Aaron's transformation to an artificial entity continued in 2022 with his first crown. If you must know, it's on Tooth #19.
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We're spending the sabbatical in a part of town with tons of black walnut trees. This gizmo, which you can push around like a Fisher-Price lawnmower, gobbles them up. It fascinates passersby who will tell you how they had to scoop up the walnuts on their hands and knees when they were kids. The gathering is the first step in the involved process of getting the things hulled, dried, and cured. And don't get us started on the gear you need to crack them.
Honorable Mention: The electric lawn mower.
Say hello to our yellow labrador Angus B. Rothwell! The "B" stands for Beefy.
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| Adoption Day | Snub-nosed Angus at two months. |
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| Three-and-a-half months | Long and lean at five months |
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| The cats prefer to keep their distance, but still find safety in numbers. | You can find a lot of frozen food and exotic people at the Fareway. |
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| A visit to Knott's Berry Farm... | ... and to the land of Pictish stones. |
