Monday Morning Hello 2018!

Resolutions.

I haven’t done yet a list of resolutions/intentions/challenges/goals/wishes, call them how you like: I like to do it! Picking general directions for the year to come, where do I want to go, figuratively. I find it interesting to reflect on myself. I write everything in my agenda, and I sometimes read the resolutions during the year. Another thing I do, is writing at the end of each month what I have achieved, it doesn’t have to be big, it’s all the things professional and not profesh, the mini-successes. It helps me see the weeks that go by differently, with a better perspective. I’ll try to find a better way of doing it for 2018: I listened to the latest episode of Call your girlfriend and Sabrina Hersi Issa, a super cool person working in tech+medias+human rights gave some advice on how she keeps up with herself and what she wants to do. Once a month, she “makes an appointment” with herself to stay in check with what she wants to achieve. Listen to the episode, it’s super interesting.

Reads.

• I read super quickly the novel of Min Jin Lee, Pachinko: it’s the story of a Korean family in exile in Japan, from the 1930’s to the 90’s. It’s a compelling saga of a part of history I wasn’t aware of, the occupation of Korea and the place of the exiled Korean in Japan. We follow the story of the men and women of a family through wars and the ups and downs of life.
• In a very different genre, I read also Evicted, by Matthew Desmond, which has been in my bookshelf for a while. Obama said it was one of his favorite read of 2017, I pushed myself to finally read it. I really liked it, even though it’s a tough read: we follow the life of 8 groups of people, single, couple, families, black and white people, they live all in extreme poverty and don’t have a permanent home, facing eviction all the time, for various reasons, but the general one being: the lack of money. It’s set in Milwaukee but the author says it could have been anywhere else in the United States. An important read!
• For those of you who asked me about Nanowrimo, I haven’t read my novel written last November yet, but on Saturday I want to a conference at the Boston Public Library, about “What to do with your first draft?” I need to go back to work: starting first of all, by reading my novel!

Movies

• I saw on Saturday night the movie I, Tonya about the figure skater Tonya Harding, I vaguely remembered her name from the 90s but didn’t know much about her. The movie is filmed like a faux-documentary based on interviews. Everything leads to talk about the “incident”: when Nancy Kerrigan, her rivale, had her knee broken by a hit man paid by Tonya’s ex-husband. Huge scandal in the 90s – before being out shined by the OJ Simpson scandal, which we have a glimpse through the TV of one of the protagonist.
  We see in a cute opening scene a very little girl skating, and already talented, at 3 years old only. Our mother is awful, and nobody wants Tonya on an ice rink: she’s too “poor white trash”, as it’s said, not the ideal doll that people picture for a figure ice skater. Despite all odds, she’s so good that she wins everything, and she’s the first American skater able to do a triple-Axel. The movie doesn’t speak of her, but it reminded me of a famous French skater at the same time, Surya Bonaly, who was also judged too athletic, not feminine enough, plus she suffered the biais of being black. The movie is fun even though it touches deep topic: the presence of the media, domestic violence, classism. I left the theater feeling empathic to Tonya, wonderfully portrayed by the actress  Margot Robbie.
• I’m thrilled to see that Netflix released the second season of Planet Earth II, made by the BBC, it’s been out for a while, but I didn’t notice them though I loved the first season 10 years ago, about the Oceans. The first episode about the Islands is crazy, specially a scene where iguanas are being hunted by snakes. I’m taking my time to enjoy the 8 episodes. It’s a true gem of nature documentary.