Monday, January 2, 2017

Pouty about 2017? We have lots to look forward to.




     Well look at this! A shiny New Year — 2017 apparently, though that's almost hard to believe. The numerals look strange. Were it suddenly 2077 or 20A6 it would hardly seem stranger.
     And that's before we factor in the news.
     Still, a new year, whatever we call it, with much to look forward to. Much to mark on your new calendars — I just unwrapped my Brownline 2017 Daily Planner, well aware that using a physical journal in this era of iPhones is like carrying a walking stick. "They sell the things," I say, huffily, meaning: "It isn't just me, yet."
     A year of exciting occurrences, starting with Friday, Jan. 20. Yes, a lot of garment-rending, but I'll be honest: I'm anticipating the 20th with undiluted enthusiasm and not a trace of ambivalence, as a chance to experience something truly wonderful and inspiring.
     I'm referring, of course, to the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, whose opening night is Jan. 20 at the Biograph Theater. It includes Chicago's Michael Montenegro's "Kick the Klown Presents a Konkatention of Kafka," which might be redundant after Donald Trump's inauguration address earlier in the day.
     Let's not think about that yet, first we need a collective Limbo Party of Lowering Expectations. Right now I'm trying to convince myself that the Ku Klux Klan won't be....

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10 comments:

  1. It certainly just isn't you using a paper calendar. Quoting the NYTimes this morning, "The sales of appointment books and planners grew 10 percent from 2014-15 to 2015-16 to $342.7 million, and decorative and other calendars increased by 8 percent to $65 million in that time, according to figures from the NPD Group, a consumer research firm."

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  2. Love my paper app't book and calendar.

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  3. I can appreciate the aesthetics of a paper calendar/journal, but I love the email reminders available with an online calendar. And I almost always have my phone nearby, something that definitely wasn't true when I kept appointments on paper. Of course, it does make the useful stall of "I'll have to check my calendar" less plausible.

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  4. Love the sentence about the solar eclipse in August. If my amazement meter hasn't gone off track by then, I think I'll head South to watch the moon eat the sun and pray for its resurrection.

    john

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  5. Add me to the list of paper appointment book fans.

    I wonder if any Star Wars fanboyz will show up here to curse you. Never understood why or how something that started as an enjoyably silly space western morphed into a goddamned religion.

    Bitter Scribe

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    1. That religion would be commercialism, worship of almighty profit.

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    2. Or Diana devotees and maybe latter day Debbieites.

      john

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    3. The way some people react to celebrity deaths, is ridiculous.

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  6. Certainly agree with you about Star Wars, Scribe.

    As to the paper calendars, I have a millennial aged offspring who likes the paper daily memos as well as the newspaper. Rare in that age group.

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