A Few Thoughts for the New Year
Jan. 1st, 2014 06:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sdelmonte1. The year past was a pretty good if not great one for us. Not much to say other than we hope that the successes of the last year can be built on, and the failures can be learned from. Here is hoping that those of you out there in need of a fresh start find one, and those of you who did well continue to do well.
2. 2013 was the year pop culture and I went in different directions. I saw very few films, and skipped most of the big TV shows everyone was talking about. This has been going on for a while, but I feel like it intensified this year. I don't think I am missing anything I really need to see, but it's interesting how often my tastes in current things do not match the public's. What did I like? Arrow. Elementary. Doctor Who, of course. Pacific Rim. Iron Man 3. To my surprise, Sleepy Hollow. Any comic book by Charles Soule. Wolverine and the X-Men, also to my surprise. Lots of things with Batman. And lots of old things in the library and on Netflix.
3. Today, I have a Democratic mayor for the first time in 20 years. Even taking into account the factors that let Giuliani and Bloomberg get elected, it's still remarkable that a city thought of as being rather liberal didn't have Democrats in city hall. I don't have a strong opinion of our new mayor, Bill DeBlasio, and therefore don't have many expectations. All I can say is that I wish him all the luck in the world in taking on one of the hardest jobs in America.
As for Mike Bloomberg, I haven't agreed with everything he's done, by any stretch of the imagination, but I think he brought competence, maturity, and imagination to the job, and he did more a lot more right than wrong most of the time. I want to thank him for the times he got it right, the calm he projected after Sandy, the courage he showed standing up to the gun lobby. I look forward to seeing him turning to philanthropy full time as he strives to give away his fortune.
And one other political note: for the first time in my life, every elected official who represents me is a Democrat. But in fairness, I should note that the Republicans who were senator and governor when I was born, Jacob Javits and Nelson Rockefeller, would probably be quite unwanted in today's GOP, so I am not sure party labels matter entirely.
2. 2013 was the year pop culture and I went in different directions. I saw very few films, and skipped most of the big TV shows everyone was talking about. This has been going on for a while, but I feel like it intensified this year. I don't think I am missing anything I really need to see, but it's interesting how often my tastes in current things do not match the public's. What did I like? Arrow. Elementary. Doctor Who, of course. Pacific Rim. Iron Man 3. To my surprise, Sleepy Hollow. Any comic book by Charles Soule. Wolverine and the X-Men, also to my surprise. Lots of things with Batman. And lots of old things in the library and on Netflix.
3. Today, I have a Democratic mayor for the first time in 20 years. Even taking into account the factors that let Giuliani and Bloomberg get elected, it's still remarkable that a city thought of as being rather liberal didn't have Democrats in city hall. I don't have a strong opinion of our new mayor, Bill DeBlasio, and therefore don't have many expectations. All I can say is that I wish him all the luck in the world in taking on one of the hardest jobs in America.
As for Mike Bloomberg, I haven't agreed with everything he's done, by any stretch of the imagination, but I think he brought competence, maturity, and imagination to the job, and he did more a lot more right than wrong most of the time. I want to thank him for the times he got it right, the calm he projected after Sandy, the courage he showed standing up to the gun lobby. I look forward to seeing him turning to philanthropy full time as he strives to give away his fortune.
And one other political note: for the first time in my life, every elected official who represents me is a Democrat. But in fairness, I should note that the Republicans who were senator and governor when I was born, Jacob Javits and Nelson Rockefeller, would probably be quite unwanted in today's GOP, so I am not sure party labels matter entirely.
