Year: 2021

Movies of comfort and joy

A look at the funner films of 2021

The best movie of 2021 is Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar.

Is it really? Who knows. But the urge to elevate the delightful over the seriously artistic is particularly strong this year. And I think backed up by experience: Several of the Serious Fil-uhm year-end movies (Being the Ricardos and Nightmare Alley or even legitimately good The Power of the Dog for example) have left me feeling sorta “shrug” while I fairly regularly rewatch the Barb and Star scene with Jamie Dornan powerballading to some seagulls because it’s never not joy-inducing.

I am as much of an awards-season completist as the next Oscar nerd, so while I haven’t seen The Card Counter, Spencer, The Green Knight, Respect, Licorice Pizza, Annette and The Lost Daughter they are definitely on my list to see soon (though I did say that last year about This Had Oscar Buzz candidate Ammonite and never got around to it). But I did see plenty to cheer about — from the high art to the “this movie will pair perfectly with popcorn, booze and a couch.” Here are some good, great and goofily entertaining movies I saw in 2021 — and where (as of late December at least) to find them. (Many will also be available for rent or purchase.)

• Let’s call these the “2020” movies: Every year I spend a good part of the first quarter watching some of the better movies that technically (and for Oscar purposes) have the previous year as their release date. That phenomenon was even weirder this year since some movies that actually did get an early 2021 release were in the extended Oscar qualifying window. I talked about a lot of these during Oscar season but these are worth searching for if you haven’t seen them yet. Sylvie’s Love (Amazon Prime) is a really swoony love story starring Tessa Thompson. Promising Young Woman (HBOMax) is a really angry grief story with a solid performance by Carey Mulligan. One Night in Miami (Amazon Prime) is a fascinating bit of historical fiction directed by Regina King. Judas and the Black Messiah (HBOMax) won Daniel Kaluuya his Oscar. Nomadland (Hulu) won director Chloé Zhao and lead actress Frances McDormand Oscars and is truly beautiful. Minari (Showtime) features a great Steven Yuen performance and a highly relatable family story. Sound of Metal (Amazon Prime) is a real showcase for actor Riz Ahmed. I won’t pretend that The Father (Starz) is a birthday party of a movie — it’s full of sadness and loss — but it also features one of Anthony Hopkins’ best performances.

• Good enough? Of course, most movies I saw this year are probably not Oscar-bound. Quite a few, however, fit the “decent entertainment from your sofa” bill. Thunder Force (Netflix) with Melissa McCarthy and Octavia Spencer as sudden, middle-aged superheros was not as good as I wanted but it had its moments. Netflix’s zombie movie and its prequel, Army of the Deadand Army of Thieves, are good lazy-day-on-the-couch fun. I probably liked the second even more than the first. The Ice Road(Netflix) contains exactly what it says on the label: Liam Neeson driving a big truck on an ice road. Red Notice (Netflix) is a very dumb movie that does not live up to the promise of Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds but I still laughed many times. VacationFriends (Hulu) is another dumb but fun outing with good comedic reluctant-buddy chemistry between Jon Cena and Lil Rel Howery. I know that Camila Cabello’s Cinderella (Amazon Prime) wasn’t, you know, “good,” but it was fun and her life’s ambition was more plucky than just “marry a prince.” Also on Amazon Prime, The Tomorrow War is a totally fine Chris Pratt-led action movie.

The winner of the “I’m not gonna say good but it’s worth a watch” prize this year might be an actual Oscar contender, House of Gucci, which is still in theaters and which the internet says will be on Paramount+ at some point in January. Come for the tacky-glam 1980s everything, stay for the “givin’ her all she’s got, Captain” Lady Gaga performance.

• Supermen & wonder women: For me, Zack Snyder’s Justice League (HBOMax), the longer, slower director’s cut of the 2017 movie, is probably more accurately in the previous category — not great but worth a watch. I felt very “oh now I see what’s supposed to be happening” and while it’s still not fun, it’s sort of an interesting historical document.

Things were much better over in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Eternals (in theaters and headed to Disney+ on Jan. 12, according to Wikipedia) offered an interesting new group of characters — probably too many to allow us to really focus on the characters with the most potential (Kumail Nanjiani) but I’m willing to ride this branching-out-the-MCU ride. Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (Disney+) has a compelling lead in Simu Liu, an even better supporting character in Awkwafina and an excellent villain (sorta) in Tony Leung. Yes, I know Black Widow’s (Disney+) whole deal is setting up other Marvel stuff, but I still enjoyed this stand-alone about Scarlett Johansson’s character (and I’m always excited to see Florence Pugh, “Russian” accent and all). The Marvel standout was probably the recently released Spider-Man: No Way Home (in theaters), which gives a nice completion to the three-movie MCU-Spider-Man arc and gave me a new appreciation for the previous Spider-Man series.

My favorite action franchise outing this year, though, might be No Time To Die(rent or purchase), the send off for Daniel Craig’s iteration of James Bond. I feel like he had more fun than he has in a while and the movie had some fun with the character.

• Family movie night:There was a particularly good crop of kids movies, specifically kids animated movies, this year. Raya and the Last Dragon(Disney+) is a fun adventure tale featuring a talking dragon but also beautiful animation and a lovely score. The Mitchells Versus the Machines(Netflix) is a fun family-on-a-quest tale and it makes fun of Big Tech and it looks great. Lin-Manuel Miranda had songs in two animated movies this year: Encanto (Disney+) and Vivo (Netflix), where he also voices a kinkajou. Both were a delight. Beautiful and soulful, Luca (Disney+) centers on the friendship between two mer-boys who want to check out life on land in Italy. After you watch it, check out the excellent short Ciao, Alberto (Disney+). And while you’re watching shorts on Disney+, check out Olaf Presents…, which features Josh Gad’s snowman doing his recaps on Disney movies and cracks my kids up every time. I know people have all sorts of opinions about James Corden but I really enjoyed this year’s live-action/CG mix Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway (Netflix), more even than the first movie.

• Christmas movies! I support this weird Christmas movie arms race happening across TV and streaming. Sure, there’s a lot of blah, but there’s also a lot of solid seasonal fare. This year, I enjoyed Shaun the Sheep: The Flight Before Christmas (Netflix), another all-ages friendly, sweet-hearted entry in the Shaun the Sheep Aardman Animation canon. A Boy Called Christmas (Netflix) is darker but does some good work looking at kids and grief. 8-Bit Christmas (HBOMax) stars Neil Patrick Harris offering us the A Christmas Story-riff I didn’t know I wanted about life way back in the 1980s. Single All the Way (Netflix) is an absolute charmer of a Christmas rom-com.

• How do you do, fellow kids? These teen movies were not made for me but they delighted me all the same. The Map of Tiny Perfect Things (Amazon Prime) used a Groundhog Day concept to examine a teen romance and teen grief. He’s All That(Netflix) was a fun riff on the 1990s teen makeover movie. Moxie (Netflix), with its zines and its riot grrrl music, seemed at least as aimed at X-ers like me as the teenager it portrayed. Netflix also offered some solid teen horror movies — There’s Someone Inside Your House and the trilogy Fear Street Part One: 1994, Fear Street Part Two: 1978 and Fear Street Part Three: 1666. Everybody’s Talking about Jamie (Amazon Prime) gives you a coming of age story (a teen developing his drag persona) and a joy-filled musical.

• “Above average” is not faint praise: With Monster Hunter (Starz), you get the very Resident-Evil-style Milla Jovovich punching monsters, like what else do you need? Dream Horse (Hulu) is the big-hearted a-town-pulls-together underdog story that feels like cozy socks in movie form. Worth (Netflix) is a bummer about the aftermath of Sept. 11 but features a great performance by Michael Keaton. In my review, I described No Sudden Move as “ a very Soderberghian cool crisp cocktail of capering and doublecross with just a dash of dry humor.” Nobody (rent or purchase) from the John Wick writer is basically John Wick as a suburban dad — and is fun in the same way. I liked Idris Elba’s performance in Concrete Cowboy (Netflix).

• The 2021 standouts: Comedy (or maybe dramedy?) Shiva Baby (HBO Max) is an entertainingly claustrophobic look at early adulthood. Plan B (Hulu) is another hilarious movie about teen-girl female friendship and the unnecessary difficulties of obtaining health care. Belfast (theaters and for rent or purchase) is Kenneth Branagh’s warm-hearted, semi-autobiographical look at life in Belfast in the late 1960s. That movie is in black and white and so is Passing(Amazon Prime), though it gives you race in America in the 1920s shades of gray along with a tense psychological, er, thriller? However you’d label it, it sticks with you. The Harder They Fall (Netflix) is a top-notch Western full of excellent performances (Regina King, Idris Elba, Delroy Lindo, LaKeith Stanfield, Zazie Beetz). If you like Wes Anderson and his little model train worlds, you’ll enjoy the short stories collected in The French Dispatch(available for rent). Madres (Amazon Prime) is a horror movie that packs a real (real world) gut punch. Pig(Hulu) is the excellent Nicolas Cage performance you didn’t know you were waiting for.

But my favorite of this group may be CODA (Apple TV+), featuring a truly great performance by Emilia Jones as the only hearing member of an otherwise deaf family. Her love of singing and her urge for independence have her parents (equally excellent Marlee Matlin and Troy Kotsur) afraid of losing her to a world they can’t access.

• Great docs: Val (Amazon Prime) is a fascinating memoir from Val Kilmer. Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It (Netflix) will remind you why the actress is so beloved. Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street (HBO Max) is a fun look at a revolutionary show. And speaking of revolution, Summer of Soul (…Or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (Hulu) is part documentary and part concert film, and according to iTunes, an accompanying album is slated for Jan. 28.

• Speaking of song:We got more music-filled movies this year. As someone who does not live in New York, I support any opportunities to bring Broadway to my living room. Thusly, I was charmed with Come From Away(Apple TV+). Of course, I can’t help loving West Side Story(still in theaters) and I even like the slight tweaks. And, yes, as mentioned up top, from culottes to Andy Garcia as Tommy Bahama, I love Barb and Star Go To Vista Del Mar(Hulu) and all of its music (“Edgar’s Prayer” but also everything from the hotel lounge singer).

• Most joyful:But OK, at the end of the day, I guess I won’t give those midwestern besties the absolute top spot. I guess that one goes to In the Heights (HBO Max), another Lin-Manuel Miranda musical, this one adapted for the big screen (versus Hamilton’s filmed stage production). This movie was bright and beautiful and absolutely joyous.

2022?

Look, who knows what the movie schedule will look like in January, much less the rest of 2022. But for now, here are a few things on the calendar that I’m excited to see:

• Scream (Jan. 14 in theaters) Yes, Scream, like the original, with Courtney Cox, Neve Campbell and David Arquette. I guess I am a sucker for some kinds of nostalgia.

• The Tragedy of Macbeth (Jan. 14 on Apple TV+) In theaters now (including Red River Theatres in Concord starting Friday, Dec. 31), this Joel Coen-directed version of Shakespeare’s play starring Denzel Washington will stream right into your home, for the convenience of current and former lit majors.

• Cyrano (late January) This movie starring Peter Dinklage has appeared on some year-end lists but won’t really get a release until January.

• Downton Abbey: A New Era (March 18, Peacock 45 days later, according to Wikipedia) I don’t know how I feel about this but I will still watch with some polite excitement this latest chapter.

• The Batman (March 4) Robert Pattinson dons the cowl.

• Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness (May 6) Our next Marvel Cinematic Universe movie.

Featured photo: Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar.

These Precious Days, by Ann Patchett

These Precious Days, by Ann Patchett (Harper, 320 pages)

The Ann Patchett craze somehow eluded me, although I know people who wait breathlessly for her next book. She is not as famous as Stephen King nor as prolific as Jodi Picoult, having “just” eight novels and two children’s books to her name, but she enjoys those writers’ commercial success, and has developed an auxiliary fame as co-owner of a Nashville bookstore and as an advocate for independent booksellers.

As such, there’s been breathless anticipation all year for Patchett’s fourth book of nonfiction, These Precious Days, which is a pandemic book — not a book about a pandemic, but a book set in the pandemic. In fact, some of what occurs in the essays here pre-dates Covid-19 and has been published before, in The New Yorker and elsewhere. That, it turns out, matters not one whit.

The essays are finely strung, like a strand of Mikimoto pearls, and are so well-crafted as to have sprung fully formed from Zeus’s head. Patchett identifies as a novelist but says she’s always writing essays to fill in the gaps, to remind her that she’s still a writer when she’s not consumed by a work of fiction. Amusingly, she says that when working on a novel, she’s stalked by the idea of death, thinking that she could die at any time and the undertaker would bury all her beloved characters with her. The pandemic made that worse. “What was the point of starting [a novel] if I wasn’t going to be around to finish? This didn’t necessarily mean I believed I was going to die of the coronavirus, any more than I believed I was going to drown in the Atlantic or be eaten by a bear, but all those scenarios were possible. The year 2020 didn’t seem like a great time to start a family, or a business, or a novel.” And so she spent the time working on essays, which Patchett says death didn’t seem all that interested in.

The collection starts with a remembrance published in The New Yorker on Patchett’s “three fathers,” her biological dad and two stepfathers. (“Marriage has always proved irresistible to my family. We try and fail and try again, somehow maintaining our belief in an institution that has made fools of us all.”) The next essay, “The First Thanksgiving,” is a pithier reflection on Patchett’s experience as a freshman at Sarah Lawrence College in New York, when she couldn’t go home for the holiday and instead decided to cook a traditional dinner in her dorm for other stranded friends. Having never cooked a turkey or any other Thanksgiving dish before. “I made yeast rolls, for heaven’s sake! I cooked down fresh cranberries into sauce!”

Only having enough quarters to call her mother from the pay phone when she was finished (we’re talking about a woman who is now 60), she used recipes from The Joy of Cooking and writes that “even now, when someone claims they don’t know how to cook, I find myself snapping, ‘Do you know how to read?’”

Not to take away from Patchett’s talents, but part of the appeal of her essays is simply that she lives such an interesting life. Take, for example, the beginning of her essay, “Flight Plan,” in which she writes: “Three of us were in a 1947 de Havilland Beaver, floating in the middle of a crater lake in the southwest quadrant of Alaska.”

What?

It is a declarative statement, simply crafted, but dares the reader not to read on to learn more. It turns out that the essay is not about this particular excursion that Patchett took with her physician husband, Karl, but about his lifelong obsession with aviation (and by extension, every other amateur pilot), and her coming to grips with it, with reactions that range from bewilderment to fear.

We learn much from this essay about aviation culture, such as that a certain model of small plane is known as a doctor killer. (“Doctors have enough money to buy them,” Karl said, “but they aren’t good enough pilots to fly them.”) But we also go deep inside Patchett’s marriage, her terror about the possibility of Karl dying in a plane crash, her struggle to understand why dangerous pastimes were so important to him. “I understood he wasn’t interested in baking bread, that there would be no Scrabble or yoga in our future as a couple, but couldn’t there be a hobby in which death was not a likely outcome?”

But death is, of course, a likely outcome for us all, and despite Patchett’s insistence that death had no interest in essays, it enshrouds the titular essay, which is about her relationship with a woman named Sooki, who was the actor Tom Hanks’ personal assistant for nearly 20 years.

Patchett had come to know Hanks after writing a jacket blurb for his book of short stories, Uncommon Type, and came to know Sooki when Hanks later agreed to narrate the audio book of her novel The Dutch House. Through increasingly intimate emails, the women evolved from “affectionate strangers” to housemates while Sooki was in an experimental treatment for pancreatic cancer.

No spoilers here, but it is a deeply moving story about friendship, and utterly riveting. As is the collection in its entirety. A

Book Notes

As the end of 2021 mercifully approaches, here’s a look back at the books that made our A list. Some won critical acclaim nationwide; others, not much more than here, but they’re worth your attention if you haven’t read them already.

Bewilderment, by Richard Powers (W.W. Norton, 278 pages), novel: A widowed dad struggles with raising his neurologically untypical son while pondering possible other worlds beyond our universe.

The Anthropocene Reviewed, John Green(Dutton, 274 pages), nonfiction, essays: The author of The Fault in Our Stars gives 1- to 5-star reviews of everything from Canada geese to Diet Dr Pepper to the “wintry mix.”

Love Like That, by Emma Duffy-Comparone(Henry Holt and Co., 211 pages), short stories: Nine stories about love, both brittle and vibrant, all set in New England, two on the Granite State coast.

The Audacity of Sara Grayson, by Joani Elliott (Post Hill Press, 400 pages), novel: Part of the genre often dismissed as “chick lit,” this is a fun, original and New Englandish story of a daughter tasked with writing the ending to a best-selling series after the author, her mother, dies.

The Five Wounds, by Kirstin Valdez Quade (W.W. Norton, 416 pages), novel: A troubled Catholic family in New Mexico grapples with an unwed pregnancy, poverty and illness in this moving portrait of real life, the kind that doesn’t show up on Twitter.

The Blizzard Party, by Jack Livings (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 400 pages), novel: Engrossing fiction set during the very real blizzard of 1978.

Klara and the Sun, by Kazuo Ishiguro (Knopf, 303 pages), novel: This Booker Prize-winning story of a young girl and her “artificial friend” asks us to think seriously about the costs of companion robots, both to us and to them.

Chasing Eden, A Book of Seekersby Howard Mansfield (Bauhan Publishing, 216 pages), nonfiction: An intelligent and contemplative book by a New Hampshire author about an unusual cast of Americans who bid the founders’ call to pursue happiness in their own unique ways.

Book Events

Author events

• JAMES ROLLINS Author presents The Starless Crown, in conversation with Terry Brooks. Virtual event hosted by Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord. Mon., Jan. 10, 7 p.m. Via Zoom. Registration required. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com or call 224-0562.

• CHAD ORZEL Author presents A Brief History of Timekeeping. Virtual event hosted by Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord. Thurs., Jan. 27, 7 p.m. Via Zoom. Registration required. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com or call 224-0562.

• ISABEL ALLENDE Author presents Violeta. Virtual event hosted by Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord. Sat., Jan. 29, 7 p.m. Via Zoom. Registration and tickets required, to include the purchase of the book. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com or call 224-0562.

• JOHN NICHOLS Author presents Coronavirus Criminals and Pandemic Profiters. Virtual event hosted by Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord. Tues., Feb. 1, 7 p.m. Via Zoom. Registration required. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com or call 224-0562.

• GARY SAMPSON AND INEZ MCDERMOTT Photographer Sampson and art historian McDermott discuss New Hampshire Now: A Photographic Diary of Life in the Granite State. Sat., Feb. 19, 9:45 to 11:45 a.m. Peterborough Town Library, 2 Concord St., Peterborough. Visit monadnockwriters.org.

• TIMOTHY BOUDREAU Author presents on the craft of writing short stories. Sat., Jan. 15, 9:45 to 11:45 a.m. Peterborough Town Library, 2 Concord St., Peterborough. Visit monadnockwriters.org.

Poetry

• CAROL WESTBURG AND SUE BURTON Virtual poetry reading hosted by Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord. Thurs., Jan. 20, 7 p.m. Via Zoom. Registration required. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com or call 224-0562.

• DOWN CELLAR POETRY SALON Poetry event series presented by the Poetry Society of New Hampshire. Monthly. First Sunday. Visit poetrysocietynh.wordpress.com.

Book Clubs

• BOOKERY Online. Monthly. Third Thursday, 6 p.m. Bookstore based in Manchester. Visit bookerymht.com/online-book-club or call 836-6600.

• GIBSON’S BOOKSTORE Online, via Zoom. Monthly. First Monday, 5:30 p.m. Bookstore based in Concord. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com/gibsons-book-club-2020-2021 or call 224-0562.

• TO SHARE BREWING CO. 720 Union St., Manchester. Monthly. Second Thursday, 6 p.m. RSVP required. Visit tosharebrewing.com or call 836-6947.

• GOFFSTOWN PUBLIC LIBRARY 2 High St., Goffstown. Monthly. Third Wednesday, 1:30 p.m. Call 497-2102, email [email protected] or visit goffstownlibrary.com

• BELKNAP MILL Online. Monthly. Last Wednesday, 6 p.m. Based in Laconia. Email [email protected].

• NASHUA PUBLIC LIBRARY Online. Monthly. Second Friday, 3 p.m. Call 589-4611, email [email protected] or visit nashualibrary.org.

Language

• FRENCH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE CLASSES

Offered remotely by the Franco-American Centre. Six-week session with classes held Thursdays from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. $225. Visit facnh.com/education or call 623-1093.

Album Reviews 21/12/30

Reptaliens, Multiverse (self-released)

The first album from this Portland, Oregon-based husband-and-wife synthpop duo was 2017’s FM-2030, named after the famous transhumanist (a barmy, pseudoscientific discipline that focuses on artificial intelligence, longevity by becoming part-robot or whatnot, etc.). So by now, if you’re normal, you’ve got warning bells going off all over the place, as you’ve seen words like “transhumanism” and “Portland,” so you know there’s plenty of kooky nonsense going on here, and you should probably avoid it, and you’d be right, at least in my book. Anyway, that first LP was dreamy but not dream-pop, more like Au Revoir Simone-meets-Postal Service-style rubbish that didn’t make it onto an episode of Portlandia. Cut to now, when Covid has prevented Mr. and Mrs. from jamming with their wine-gulping band, so it’s just the two of them, with less synth in their synthpop, just guitars and boring drums, still sporting the New Order fetish they had before. These harmless, ’60s-radio-tinged little tunes aren’t really bad, but, as on their first two albums, the muse begins to tire of them, as does the listener, and by the time album-closer “Jump” rolls around, you’re like “Wow, that’s 40-odd minutes I’ll never get back.” Don’t get me wrong, a couple of tracks would fit well on your wombat-indie mixtape, be my guest. B

Engelbert Humperdinck, Regards (OK Good Records)

I really don’t remember if we’ve gone over this former 1960s/1970s megastar before, but this five-song EP does present an excuse to remind everyone within eye-shot that this British India-born tenor was the Pepsi to Tom Jones’ Coke during the Nixon years. He was, um, I mean is, a crooner who never had the unhinged bombast (or the hips) of Jones, but he definitely was the second banana. A bonus here is that I also get to touch on a holiday tune, a super-long-overdue version of Elvis’s “Blue Christmas” in fact, not that there’s any time left for your grandmother to enjoy it unless she’s hip to the Downloadin’ Stuff scene. It’s all covers, of course; market-made spectacles like this guy probably wouldn’t know the first thing about writing a song, but it’s all good. “What a Wonderful World” is here in all its chintzy glory, and of course a tearjerker, “Smile” this time, packing a full orchestra to deliver its hilariously maudlin message. Nothing unexpected. (What else am I supposed to say? “It’s dumb”?).

PLAYLIST

• Happy New Year, folks. My favorite “2022 is coming” internet meme so far right now is the one with a picture of two tidal waves, representing 2020 and 2021, and a Godzilla standing behind them that’s supposed to represent 2022. What sheer lunacy is left to happen in 2022? I suppose we’ll find out soon enough, but we have one final week of awful albums to cover for 2021, some of which are actually being released on New Year’s Eve, which is dumb, because who buys albums when they’re drunk? But whatever, who cares, some metal band called Oathean is releasing their new album, cheerfully titled The Endless Pain and Darkness, on Dec. 30, a Thursday! Or at least that’s what the Album Of The Year webzine is saying; some other sources are saying it was released on Nov, 30, which is even stupider, since it’s a Tuesday, but at this point I need rock ’n’ roll albums to write about, because otherwise I’m going to talk about politics or something, because it’s that time of year when no band in their right mind is releasing an album, except for Oathean, whoever they are. So anyway, let’s see what this Oathean band even is, shall we? Ha ha, they use that funny font in their band logo, the type all the “extreme-metal” bands use so that their fans don’t really know which album they’re buying, they just know that the devil is involved somehow, and what else should someone care about? I’ll bet you it sounds like Deafheaven, I’ll just bet you. Huh, look at that, they’re from Korea. I thought they were from Finland or whatever, that’s weird. The whole album is up on YouTube right now. It starts out with some “symphonic metal” elements (in other words it sounds kind of snobby, like Evanescence but with no singing) and then, ah, there we are, they want to sound like Bathory/Deafheaven. That singing cracks me up so bad, like the guy sounds like a giant rat who’s demanding your cheese right this minute or he’ll — why, he’ll — he’ll screech like a giant rat at you, that’s what! Beware the wrath of the King Of The Cheese Rats, fam, that’s my only warning!

• And that brings us to the music albums that are literally being released on New Year’s Eve, the day before New Year’s Day, which is easily the worst holiday of the year. Why, you ask? Come on, you know why. All the good holidays are gone, and you know you have to go back to work or school or your court-directed community service thingie in a day or two, and from there it’s the usual wintertime activities: trying to keep from getting frostbite on your feet or going completely insane from sun deprivation while reading tweets about the Kardashians vacationing in Maui, or however you usually torture yourself. Again, there’s nothing to talk about here other than metal bands, so come on, get out the barf bags and let’s try to find something from Vanda’s new Covenant of Death album! They’re from Sweden, and they look kind of normal, like regular Judas Priest stans. Nothing on YouTube at all, but their Facebook has a snippet from some tune that’s pretty basic thrash from 1989. Yours in metal, guys!

• We’ll wrap up this rotten year with something that isn’t metal, a compilation album called Stars Rock Kill, composed of cover tunes from indie bands on the Kill Rock Stars record label, including Chateau Chateau, Amber Sweeney and Lucy Lowis, whose cover of Elliot Smith’s “Say Yes” is folk-grungy manna for ironic, badly dressed 40-somethings. Fifty-two songs here, which is pretty generous, man!

If you’re in a local band, now’s a great time to let me know about your EP, your single, whatever’s on your mind. Let me know how you’re holding yourself together without being able to play shows or jam with your homies. Send a recipe for keema matar. Message me on Twitter (@esaeger) or Facebook (eric.saeger.9).

Shaking things up

Take the beer less tasted

When someone asks me what kind of beer I like, I usually say something along the lines of, “I drink everything but I primarily gravitate to stouts and IPAs.”

That’s more or less accurate. I love stouts and IPAs and at the same time I’m happy with Pilsners and brown ales and sours and so on and so forth.

Still, it’s easy for me to get stuck on stouts and IPAs — now more than ever — as there has never been a greater variety and quantity of both styles available to us from craft brewers. Plus, they taste really, really good.

But one of my goals for the new year is to find more opportunities to step outside my comfort zone to explore not only a wider variety of styles, but beers that are especially unique.

There’s so much great beer easily accessible and I don’t want to close myself off to anything. I feel like we’re in this together.We might need to hold each other’s feet to the fire. Sure, we’re not going to like everything we try, and that’s OK, but you must be at least somewhat bored with trying yet another variation on the IPA featuring the newest, most exciting hop strain? Don’t worry, IPAs aren’t going anywhere.

Let’s keep an open mind and let’s dive in. Here are five unique New Hampshire brews I’m looking to seek out in 2022.

Razzmatazz Raspberry Wheat Ale by Throwback Brewery (North Hampton)

The description says “spicy and fruity,” and it features “aromas of raspberry sugar cookies,” and honestly, it scares me a little. But I like that it’s got a little zip with an ABV of 7.4 percent and that the brewer notes flavors of “bitter berry, currants and sweet caramel malt.” You start mulling this over, and how is this not an intriguing brew? (The brewery has a Raspberry IPA that fascinates me as well.)

Cranberry Wit by Great North Aleworks (Manchester)

The brewery says this slightly tart Belgian-style witbier is brewed with orange, coriander and cranberry. This sounds refreshing, exciting, not at all over-the-top and perfectly seasonally appropriate.

Spit Fire Joy Juice: Maple Smoked Peach Sour Collaboration by 603 Brewery (Londonderry) and Able Ebenezer Brewing Co. (Merrimack)

What a fascinating beer! This is just so interesting bringing together sweet maple smokiness and the tang of peaches. I feel like the smoke would add some balance and provide some depth to what sounds like a very sweet brew. This screams complex.

Bubblewrap by Loaded Question Brewing (Portsmouth)

This Belgian “singel” is brewed with “bitter orange peel,” Willamette hops and Belgian ale yeast. What I’m expecting is a light, refreshing Pilsner-like brew featuring some acidity and some fruitiness from the orange peel. I can’t wait to try this.

Monadbock by Granite Roots Brewing (Troy)

OK, this isn’t a brew that I would classify as especially unique or innovative. Based on the description, it sounds like this is about as traditional as it gets. Beyond looking for unique beers, I also want to revisit more traditional styles. The brewery says this amber bock “boasts rich malty caramel and fresh baked bread,” and honestly, how could that not be good? Sometimes, we get so excited about all the experimenting brewers are doing these days, that we, or at least I, forget what made us enjoy beer in the first place. I’m thinking this brew might be a good, delicious reminder.

What’s in My Fridge

On the Gogh by Breakaway Beerworks (Manchester) Yes, I’m trying to step away from IPAs, but before I do, I enjoyed this unfiltered, dry-hopped IPA that boasts big tropical fruit flavor and a little spiciness. This was quite nice and one I would recommend tracking down. Don’t let the spice scare you; it’s not overpowering and instead helps balance out the bold citrus flavors. Cheers!

Featured photo: Razzmatazz Raspberry Wheat Ale by Throwback Brewery in North Hampton. Courtesy photo.

New Year’s Eve for grown-ups

For a variety of complicated, therapy-inducing reasons, we spent Christmas in 1974 with my mother’s twin sister and her family in southern California. I was 10 years old and my cousins were all teenagers, so everything that they did filled me with wonder and awe.

Like, when my cousin’s boyfriend showed me how to use my new magenta gas-powered airplane — not a remote-controlled one, but one of the ones that was controlled by nylon strings connected to the fuselage. He got the engine started and I watched in wide-eyed amazement as he got it airborne, circled it around us twice, then plowed it, nose first, into a parking lot. Clearly, the guy knew what he was doing, so I dutifully packed up all the pieces, brought them back home with me, and checked in on them dutifully every month or so for years.

Or when another cousin elbowed me firmly in the stomach and I found that I couldn’t breathe.

“It’s OK,” he said to me, “you’ve just got the wind knocked out of you.” His use of the passive voice terrified me, because it implied that this was something that just happened randomly – that you could be walking around, living your life, and suddenly discovering that you couldn’t breathe. My uncle confirmed that yes, I had indeed just had the wind knocked out of me, and that I’d be fine. After 25 minutes or so (OK, it was probably more like 15 seconds) I discovered that I could take tiny breaths, then slightly bigger ones, and could finally look a little less like a blobfish in a Shaun Cassidy haircut, gasping on a pier.

But for me, the best memory of the holidays that year was New Year’s Eve.

The adults all dressed up and went out to some unimaginably sophisticated grown-up party, leaving me in the care of the teenagers. My youngest cousin, who must have been around 16, watched old movies on TV with me all night; then, at midnight, we went outside and honked the car horn to ring in the new year. Afterward we came in and ate buttered noodles.

It was far and away the best New Year’s Eve of my life.

Grown-up New Year’s Eves have been less magical.

Take Champagne, for example. I realize that I have the taste buds of a rhinoceros, but cheap and moderately priced Champagne can best be summed up in a quote from Fozzie Bear in 1981’s The Great Muppet Caper: “You know, if you put enough sugar in this stuff, it tastes just like ginger ale!”

So, here’s the thing: I get it. New Year’s is largely an adult holiday, where adults gather with other adults and celebrate how adult they are, talking about adult things — dental plans and conspiracy theories, mostly — and drink the most adulty drink they can think of, Champagne. But unless you are a supermodel or a guy with a yacht, most of us never really develop a taste for the stuff.

Is there an alternative?

Yes. Yes, there is.

The Manhattan

Ingredients

  • 1½ ounces rye or bourbon. This week I’m using Bulleit Rye. (I’ve recently discovered that I like rye. Who knew?)
  • 1½ ounces sweet vermouth — the red kind
  • 10 drops cardamom bitters
  • 10 drops orange bitters
  • 1 cocktail cherry, the fanciest you can find. I like Luxardo.

Add all ingredients to ice in a mixing glass. Stir gently. This is one of those martini-like situations, where you probably wouldn’t like the result if you shook it in a cocktail shaker. This will have a cleaner, more vibrant flavor if it isn’t aerated.

Pour into a rocks glass. Sip gently. A Manhattan is not a drink that lends itself to drinking quickly. You’ll want to — actually, who am I to say what you want? You will probably be happier with your Manhattan experience if you drink it a little at a time, trying to identify the different elements that you can taste.

Grown-up/shmown-up; the best part is finishing this drink and eating the cherry. Don’t let anyone try to tell you different.

So, are there drinks out there that are more adult? Probably. At this moment, there’s almost certainly some guy working his way through a bottle of scotch, while the bar owner says, “Hey Mr. A-Bailey, why you so a-sad? Go a-home to you wife, huh?” Or maybe that’s It’s a Wonderful Life; at this time of year it’s hard to tell the difference between melodrama and real life.

Anyway, there are probably other drinks as adult as a properly constructed Manhattan, but very few that are as enjoyable. It is sweet, but not too sweet — that’s what the bitters are there for — and boozy enough to let you know it means business. There is a mixture of flavors that will distract from any boring adult conversation you find yourself in.

Keep your chin up; we’ve got this.

Featured photo: The Manhattan. Photo by John Fladd

Chocolate peanut butter crunchies

We are nearing the very end of the holiday season. After New Year’s Eve, there may be thoughts (and actions) of healthier eating to compensate for the seasonal indulgence. However, before we tiptoe into the land of less sugar, fat, carbs, etc., I want to share one simple and delicious treat: chocolate peanut butter crunchies.

I don’t know if there is a recipe that is more aptly named. These crunchies are made of three ingredients, two of which are announced in its name. As simple as they are, they also provide a great amount of flavor, texture and balance. They are creamy yet crunchy, as well as sweet with a hint of saltiness.

When you look at the recipe, you might note that it only makes 12 crunchies, which may seem small when you compare it to a cookie recipe. However, these crunchies are fairly dense. You won’t be eating three or four of them. Of course, you also could easily double this recipe, especially since chocolate chips usually are sold in two-cup packages.

There are two key notes for this recipe. First, on the ingredient front, you want to use regular creamy peanut butter, not the all-natural, need-to-stir-it variety. You could use crunchy peanut butter, but you may need an extra tablespoon or two to get the correct consistency. Second, these are messy treats. Be sure to keep a napkin handy while enjoying them.

Whether you use this recipe now for a New Year’s gathering or store it in a file for some time in 2022, it is the perfect last-minute dessert recipe. From gathering the ingredients to popping one into your mouth, this recipe can be ready in 20 or so minutes.

Chocolate peanut butter crunchies
Makes 12

1 cup milk chocolate chips
½ cup creamy peanut butter
2½ cups corn flakes

Line a rimmed baking tray with parchment paper.
Combine chocolate chips and peanut butter in a large microwave-safe bowl.
Heat in 30-second increments, stirring after each. (It should take 2 or 3 rounds to melt completely.)
Add corn flakes to chocolate mixture; stir well.
Using a serving spoon, scoop approximately 1/4-cup portions of the mixture onto the prepared tray.
Repeat until all mixture has been scooped into individual portions.
Refrigerate for 10 to 15 minutes or until firm.
Store in a sealed container.

Michele Pesula Kuegler has been thinking about food her entire life. Since 2007, the New Hampshire native has been sharing these food thoughts and recipes at her blog, Think Tasty. Visit thinktasty.com to find more of her recipes.

Photo: Chocolate peanut butter crunchies. Photo by Michele Pesula Kuegler

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