Tom and George 2025

A Grand Gala in Stockholm and Exploring Norway

When our friends Fred and Jay told us last year that they were planning a grand milestone birthday party for Jay to be held at the Royal Swedish Opera house, we knew that was not to be missed. And so we made our way to Stockholm in late April for what turned out to be a truly memorable celebration. Since many friends had traveled from the US and from other countries all over the world, they thoughtfully planned a few events before the big Sunday night gala, including a Friday night cocktail reception, a Saturday brunch, and a visit to Millesgården, a lovely sculpture garden. By Sunday, we'd already got to know some of their Swedish friends. The big night was amazing, set in the gorgeous neo-Classical opera house, starting with a champagne reception in the lobby, and then going up the grand staircase to an elegant four-course sit-down dinner in the magnificent golden foyer. The leisurely dinner included an interval to enjoy the grand balcony before sunset. The entertainment included a soprano singing opera arias, and a famous Swedish pop singer. Truly unforgettable!

During our days in Stockholm, we enjoyed discovering the charming cosmopolitan city with a rich history. We toured the Royal Palace and got to see the changing of the guard ceremony (including an equestrian drum and bugle corps) and the royal treasury. We wandered Gamla Stan, the island with the oldest part of the city, and we shopped the grand stores on Hamngatan. We marveled at the Vasa, a well-preserved wooden ship of war meant to be the flagship of King Gustav Adolphus' fleet, which sank on its maiden voyage in 1628 and was only recovered in 1961.

From Stockholm, we flew the short hop to Oslo, the cosmopolitan capital of Norway. Oslo is a fascinating city, and you can read some of its history in its architecture, with plenty of Art Nouveau and Art Deco from earlier periods of prosperity, complimented by a breakout of very modern architecture reflecting its new oil wealth from the 1980s. The very modern opera house, looking like a marble-and-glass glacier sliding into the fjord, and the nearby MUNCH Museum (housing a large collection of Edvard Munch, including the famous Scream) sit not far from the 13th century Akershus castle and fortress, and the Functionalist-style Rådhus (city hall) with Art Deco details. Interesting museums include a fascinating one dedicated to the Norwegian Resistance during World War II, and one all about the Nobel Peace Prize and its winners (Oslo is the home of the Nobel committee, and where the prize is presented). We also enjoyed the expansive and exuberant Vigeland sculpture park (not to be missed!) and a Michelin-star dinner in a 17th-Century wealthy merchant's house Statholdergården

Another short flight took us to the west coast of Norway, and the charming town of Ålesund, a showcase of Jugendstil architecture (the Norwegian branch of Art Nouveau). From there we picked up an electric car (Norway is the most EV-forward country in the world) and drove into fjord country, along small but well-maintained roads through stunningly beautiful scenery, and often mediated by ferry rides across or through the fjords. Some of the mountain pass roads are a joy and a thrill to drive. The (in)famous Trollstigen was closed for repairs, but the Gaularfjellet road was every bit as amazing. We visited tiny but charming towns like Geiranger, Balestrand with its fairy-tale church and grand hotel, and Undredal, home to more goats than people. Along the way, we saw a couple of the few remaining stave churches (wooden construction as old as 1200 A.D.), rode the Flåmsbana (the steepest standard gauge railway in Europe, climbing 2800 feet in 12.5 miles), sampled lots of cider from the many apple orchards we passed, and saw many thunderous waterfalls.

We ended our trip with a few days in Bergen, a charming historic seaport and Norway's second-largest city. We took the funicular up to the top of Mount Fløyen for a great view of the whole city and to meet the resident goats. We met for dinner with Tom's old colleague Peter from Vertel days (1990s). We drove out to see Troldhaugen (the home-turned-museum where composer Edvard Grieg lived), Gaumlehaugen (the western royal residence), and Damsgård (the country manor house where our friend Leif's grandmother lived). We wandered the lovely city center with its museums, park, and public spaces. We learned about the history of the Hanseatic merchants that thrived here as we walked through the Bryggen (UNESCO World Heritage site of merchant homes and shops). We enjoyed the interesting fortress and beautiful churches.

(If you're interested to see more, you can see a highlights album or the whole collection of photo albums, or check out our detailed itinerary.)

Tom Goes to the Middle of Nowhere for Two Weeks

In March, Tom was asked by his employer to take a 2-week business trip to do some software installation and testing at a military base in the middle of the Australian outback. It was mostly long work hours with Tom staying in quarters on the base, so not any good opportunity to bring George along. He did get a weekend in the middle to go see Uluru (famous rock formation in the middle of nowhere), and to cuddle some baby roos at a kangaroo sanctuary. Overnight stopovers in Sydney each way allowed him to meet up with our friend Emma whom we hadn't seen in 20 years or so. It was the longest Tom and George had been apart, but we figured out how to bridge the 17-and-a-half hour time difference: if Tom phoned home just before lunch, he could catch George just before dinner the night before.

Visiting in New York and Delaware

Before the pandemic, we used to get out to the east coast to see our family and friends there almost every year, but we'd lost our groove on that. It had been four years since we were last in New York. At the start of November, we made this overdue trip. On one day, we went out to Long Island to spend some time with our Shaffet cousins. Betty and Mike no longer live in the city, and are back to their Roslyn Heights home where they used to welcome Tom for Thanksgiving when he was in college. We had a nice catch-up with Susan on the drive from the city. On another day, we visited with Casey and Michael, who now live in DUMBO (one of those New York acronym neighborhoods, it's the part of Brooklyn "Directly Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass"). We haven't really explored Brooklyn, but this neighborhood is charming with a lot of redevelopment energy and great views across the river to Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty. They have a cool (and very spacious!) apartment in a converted brick-walled factory building, and we're excited for the baby they're expecting in January. One evening we met up with our friend Pranav for a fun Halloween bar crawl in Hell's Kitchen, and another evening we met up with Tom's classmate Alan and his husband Joey for dinner and dessert.

Of course it wouldn't be a New York trip without a couple of Broadway shows. We were delighted with Maybe Happy Ending (this year's Best Musical Tony winner), an unexpectedly charming story set in a not-too-distant future in a retirement home for outdated personal assistant androids. And we laughed non-stop at the hilariously irreverent Oh, Mary! featuring Jane Krakowski and Cheyenne Jackson. We hung out at the stage door to meet some of the cast. And we bumped into our LA friends Fred and Jay who coincidentally were at the same show. We also had a bit of time for sightseeing. We'd seen The Vessel — a giant bowl-shaped construct of Esher-like stairways — as it was being constructed, and another time when it was closed, but this was our first time to go in it. And we'd never been on Little Island, constructed a few years ago on remnants of Pier 54, a nice park atop a couple hundred concrete "tulips" (or they look more like the back halves of high heel shoes). In between, we enjoyed a beautiful crisp autumn afternoon walking the High Line. George had feared we might be too late for the fall foliage, but there was still plenty on show. We also visited some favorite spots in Central Park, and walked down Fifth Avenue to Rockefeller Center, where the ice rink was already set up. (Memories of Tom's Mom everywhere.)

Since we know two couples who independently retired to the small beachside town of Lewes, and have other friends in Wilmington, we figured we needed to add Delaware to our visit. So we picked up a rental car and headed down the foliage-lined New Jersey Turnpike. Cheryl (who was Tom's housemate and co-founder of an Internet startup in San Francisco the same year he started dating George) and her husband Kevin have mostly retired from the dot-com business and have taken up renovating old houses. Their latest project is Mauchline, a grand mansion built by a DuPont executive in 1916, turned to a convent in the 1970s, and abandoned since 2000 until they bought it a couple years ago. The structure was sound, but there's been a ton of work to painstakingly restore details like ornate plaster ceilings and carved wood, and re-establish functional plumbing. They've been able to find some of the original fixtures and hardware, and clean up the crystal chandeliers. It's a fantastic project with much accomplished and much still ahead. We hadn't seen them in person in over 10 years, and it was great to catch up.

We backtracked a bit to Philadelphia to take our cousin Jacob out to dinner. Jacob is in his first year of medical school at Penn. We then headed out to Lewes, to spend a couple of days with Catherine and Rich, who have recently landed there as the latest stop in their peripatetic retirement. Lewes, the "first town in the first state", was settled in 1631 by the Dutch, at the point where Delaware Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean. We enjoyed the cute little town with its historic homes and a recreated historic area (we took some grog in the colonial tavern served by a barman in period costume), and walked on the beach at Cape Henlopen (where a German U-boat surrendered at the end of WWII). One evening, our friends Bruce and Susan invited us all to dinner at their home, where they've also retired to Lewes, and we had a wonderful time visiting and catching up. Bruce, Catherine, and I all worked together in the 1980s, and Bruce and Catherine hadn't seen each other since then.

Year Begins with Apocalyptic Fires

We can't reflect on this year and not acknowledge the horror with which it began. We've lived in California our whole lives, and we've seen many wildfires before, but never had we seen anything like this. On the evening of January 7, driven by extraordinary winds, fires were starting literally all over the city. Several were getting out of control and new ones kept popping up. Though they never got within a few miles of us, on the evening of January 8, we could see flames burning in the Hollywood Hills, and from our backyard we could see the glow from the Eaton fire. We watched in horror as new fires kept getting reported — Altadena, Palisades, Hollywood, West Hills, Granada Hills(!), Malibu. We watched and waited for days before the firefighters could get it all under control. And then over the next few weeks, we learned the extent of the destruction (30 dead and over 16,000 structures destroyed), and just how many people we knew personally had been affected. We learned of a half-dozen families whose homes had burned completely to the ground, and several more whose homes survived but had to move out for months while the smoke-damaged contents were removed by hazmat crews and repaired and replaced. We took friends shopping who were overwhelmed at where to begin when you literally have nothing but the clothes on your back, and we offered meals for friends who were in the shock of displacement. Our hearts go out to all who suffered loss, and we hope our city never sees the likes of that apocalypse again.

Everyday Life

In between travels, our everyday life continues much the same. We still enjoy living in Echo Park (24 years now). Tom is still going into the office 4 days a week (he has Fridays off). He expects to retire in a couple years or so (the exact date has got a bit soft as we wait to see how the economy fares), but he's still enjoying his work and his colleagues so doesn't mind continuing. George is enjoying retirement, taking long walks on the trails in Elysian Park each morning, meeting neighbors, and keeping up the house and yard. Though we mix it up sometimes, we like having a steady rhythm to our weeks, with Friday neighborhood date nights, Saturday morning church, Saturday night movie and dinner (in that order), Sunday farmer's market shopping, and Sunday night family dinner. We continue to be grateful for all the friends and family in our life, for our good health, and for all the rich cultural and natural offerings of the city we call home.

	Watch This Space For Year-End Updates Coming soon: 2025 in review in food, movies, books, stage, art, politics, and technology.
	2025 In Food 2024 was another great year for food. Our travels took us to many delicious as well as fascinating places. In India, we learned that Rajasthani cuisine features a number of traditionally gluten-free breads, like missi roti (spiced chickpea flour flatbread) or bajra ki roti (millet flatbread), and south Indian favorites like dosa (a savory rice-chickpea flour crepe) and uttapam (a thicker dosa with toppings) are also gluten-free friendly. In Austin, we enjoyed Tex-Mex and a great restaurant scene there (shout out to Canje and Suerte), and got to try the legendary Franklin Barbecue. In San Miguel de Allende, we found another great foodie town in the mountains of central Mexico, and we were there at just the right season to enjoy chiles en nogada (stuffed chiles in walnut sauce with pomegranate arils). In Japan, we got to enjoy many traditional Japanese foods such as kaiseki (a multi-course dinner highlighting seasonal foods) including a Michelin star take, ryokan fare (hearty multi-course country inn meals), tempura, teppanyaki, yakiniku (self-grilling), yakitori (bar food, mostly on skewers), ramen, okonomiyaki (a hearty cabbage-and-meat grilled pancake), karaage (Japanese fried chicken), and Japanese curry (which is a distinct flavor, spicy but more brown gravy-like), as well as sampling the food stalls at the famous Tsukiji market. Back home in Los Angeles, we devoured the unending feast on offer here. Our own neighborhood saw some exciting new restaurants open including Hummingbird Ceviche House (Peruvian fish-forward small bites from Chef Ricardo Zarate), Azizam (a fresh Persian cafe with not-the-same-old Persian food, like a kofteh tabrizi meat-and-rice ball stuffed with dried fruit and walnuts), Dada (a food speak-easy with a hidden entrance and a hidden menu), Tacolina (farm-fresh Baja style cuisine), and A Ti (a pop-up doing "elevated Mexican bar food" that we hope will stick around). Around the city, we found some new-ish and new-to-us eateries including Cassia (critically acclaimed southeast Asian brasserie in Santa Monica), Cabra (modern Peruvian from Chef Stephanie Izzard of Girl & Goat fame, in a fun space on The Hoxton Hotel rooftop on Broadway in DTLA), Mother Tongue (Hollywood rooftop with globally inspired cuisine), and Mirate (modern Mexican in Los Feliz). We discovered some ethnic gems like La Diosa de los Moles in Bell (who knew there were dozens of kinds of moles, the Mexican pesto of spices, seeds, and nuts) and Big Boi in Sawtelle, serving up Filipino comfort food with vegan options. At the Hollywood Farmers Market, Tom discovered Kirari West Bakery, who brings some great gluten-free Japanese-style sandwich bread. We visited the bakery down in Redondo Beach, where they have a cafe with a quite decent gluten-free Reuben sandwich. For pre-theatre dinners, we enjoyed Abernethy's on the Music Center plaza, where Chef John Cleveland of Post & Beam was being featured this season, as well as Asterid (Chef Ray Garcia) and Agua Viva (Chef José Andres). Over at the Pasadena Playhouse, our go-to choice has become the creative food stylings at Bar Chelou. For family dinners, as Tom's father's dog has become too anxious to be left alone, we've learned where the "dog friendly" restaurants are, like The Raymond in Pasadena, Manuela in DTLA, and a new fave Solidarity, a Polish restaurant in Santa Monica where we also celebrated Thanksgiving. We were sad to dine for the last time at restaurants that closed this past year, including Jewel (a creative modern Asian vegan spot in Virgil Village) and de Buena Planta, a really good vegan Mexican in Silver Lake with a great patio which we only discovered the week that they were closing. Our hearts were completely broken by the loss of one of our longtime favorites, Brera Ristorante, a modern Tuscan in a cool high-vaulted factory conversion in DTLA Arts District. We missed the off-menu farinata (a Tuscan chickpea crepe) that they stopped doing during the pandemic, but they would always make George his favorite mushroom risotto, even if it wasn't on the regularly changing menu. On the upside, we began the year with news that our beloved Pazzo Gelato in Silver Lake came to terms with the landlord and was able to renew their lease so they remain open. When we're not eating out, Tom still cooks at home four nights a week based on what he's found at the Hollywood Farmers Market on Sunday morning. Occasionally, he'll try to get home early and take on something special, like stuffed grape leaves in May when our vines have tender leaves on them, or handmade gnocchi al pesto in the summer when basil leaves are prime. This year he tried his hand at Ethiopian food, including homemade injera (the large sour crepes), which turned out quite well.
	2025 On Screen In 2025 we continued in the dwindling number of people who see movies regularly on the big screen. We began the year catching up on the 2024 Oscar contenders that were spilling into January. Flow (best animated feature) was a beautiful fantasy about a cat whose home is destroyed by a massive flood, and befriends several other animals to survive. Nickel Boys (best pic nominee) was a powerful story of a promising young man who gets derailed by a Jim Crow era reform institution, made even more potent with its unusual first person camera POV. I'm Still Here (best international feature), based on the real life struggles of a Brazilian politician's wife who struggles to support her family and find the truth when her husband is "disappeared" by the military dictatorship in Brazil, was ominous to watch with its unavoidable comparisons to the present. Spring turned to lighter fare, with The Penguin Lessons, as an embittered English widower (Steve Coogan) takes a teaching assignment in Argentina and adopts an unlikely pet with heartwarming results. In A Nice Indian Boy, we happily watched as a cute Indian doctor tells his traditional Indian parents he's finally found someone he wants to marry, and then brings home Jonathan Groff. As Memorial weekend lined up blockbuster franchise films like the new Mission Impossible or Final Destinations, our speed was more to see Jane Austen Wrecked My Life, the first of a new trend of "anti-rom-coms", in which a romantically and artistically frustrated writer working in a Paris bookstore wins a writer's retreat to the estate of Jane Austen. We also enjoyed the latest Wes Anderson film The Phoenician Scheme, which will satisfy Wes Anderson fans but leave most others scratching their heads. Summer movies kicked off with high-gear anti-rom-com The Materialists with Dakota Johnson as an ultra-high-end dating service success star, the film skewers modern American dating expectations as she attempts to navigate them personally and professionally. We enjoyed a 20th anniversary screening of the sultry Wong Kar Wai classic In The Mood For Love. We laughed non-stop as Liam Neeson hilariously picked up the mantle of Leslie Nielsen in The Naked Gun, a Raymond Chandleresque detective story in the vein of Airplane! We continued laughing with the most anti-rom-com so far, Splitsville, in which a nice guy blindsided by his wife's divorce request seeks support from his two best friends and ends up testing their marriage. Just when we thought anti-rom-com couldn't get more anti, along comes The Roses, in which a seemingly perfect couple (Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Coleman) explodes spectacularly. Fall films took a very different tonal turn, starting with Twinless, a surprising and provocative story about an unlikely friendship that begins in a support group for those who have lost their twin siblings. In Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, Julian Fellowes puts a delicate but finally final bow on the beloved franchise which will delight its fans. The History of Sound tells a brief intense relationship between two young music professors (Josh O'Connor and Paul Mescal) during World War I, and is an elegy to traditional American folk music. The closest to an October horror film that we got was Adulthood, a horrifyingly dark comedy(?) in which a brother (Josh Gad) and his sister make a series of increasingly bad choices when they discover a decades-old dead body in their mother's basement. Plainclothes intensely expressed the pressure of the closet as a young police officer from a traditional Irish-American family is assigned to go undercover in public restrooms to entrap gay men and finds himself romantically entrapped with one of his targets. One Battle After Another is Paul Thomas Anderson's take on a Thomas Pynchon novel, about a revolutionary on the run in a fictional dystopian America that feels somehow both of the 1970s but also contemporary, and uncomfortably close to the real present. Good Fortune is both funny and endearing as a guardian-angel-in-training (Keanu Reeves) tries to give an "It's a Wonderful Life" lesson to a near-broke gig worker (Aziz Ansari) by having him swap places with a billionaire tech bro (Seth Rogan) that doesn't work out as planned. Our flights to New York provided opportunity to catch a few films that we'd missed earlier in the year. Freakier Friday was by the numbers but still funny and fun if you just go with it (Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan obviously had fun making it and the fun is contagious). Sorry Baby was a thoughtful portrait of a woman living with the scars of a bad experience and how she learns to move on. Widow Cliquot was an illuminating biopic of the young widow in Napoleonic France who transformed the business of champagne. On Swift Horses was an atmospheric window into 1950s lesbian and gay discovery featuring a Kerouac-like Jacob Elordi playing a card-sharp drifter and Daisy Edgar-Jones as his sister-in-law, who are drawn to one another but also in even more forbidden directions. In November, the high-stakes end-of-year movie season began with Bugonia, an unpredictably intense psychological drama where a biotech CEO (Emma Stone) is kidnapped by a conspiracy-obsessed Amazon drone (Jesse Plemons) who is convinced that she not only ruined his mother's health but that she is an alien intent on the destruction of the earth. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande came back for the second installment of the blockbuster musical in Wicked: For Good, which leaned in to the tone of its strongest number to make the story even better than the dark and awkward arc of the stage version. Hamnet offered a moving and powerful speculation on how the loss of their young son to the plague may have affected Agnes (aka Anne) Hathaway and her husband one William Shakespeare. In Rental Family, an American actor living in Tokyo and needing work (Brendan Fraser) stumbles into the uniquely Japanese business of being a family member or friend for hire, and has a touching impact on a few lives. On the small screen, we were entertained, but nothing particularly defined the year. We binged several serials, all of them continuations of old favorites. Bridgerton was back to form with Austenesque romantic intrigue in Regency England, with season 3 focused on Colin and Penelope: will they or won't they marry? will Lady Whistledown finally be unmasked? Good writing and strong plot are certainly married here to opulent visuals — costumes, stately homes and gardens, themed balls, and appealing bodies. Heartstopper's third season continued the endearing high school romance of Nick (Kit Connor) and Charlie (Joe Locke), developed other relationships among their gang of friends, and faced various challenges including an eating disorder, an unaccepting parent, and looming choices about going to college next year. We continued to be charmed by Emily In Paris, in her fourth season, as Emily (Lily Collins) puts Alfie and chef Gabriel behind her (or does she?), all while juggling office drama, wearing fabulous outfits, and showcasing the romantic scenery of Paris (and now maybe Rome?). In the third and final season of Young Royals, Prince Wilhelm (Edvin Ryding) and Simon (Omar Rudberg) play out their tempestuous relationship in their final year at the private school which may or may not be closing in scandal. (George may have lost patience with Wille and Simon, and may not have finished the season.) One new show that Tom enjoyed was The Boyfriend, which he binged on the flight to Japan. It's a 10-episode Japanese reality show, where 9 gay or bisexual men live in a big house and work a coffee truck, and discuss their search for a relationship. It was a fascinating window on the state of gay acceptance in present-day Japan, and for me, a window just on Japanese society in general. One television event that did hold more interest for us than we expected was the 2024 Paris Olympics. Our interest was kickstarted by actually knowing one of the athletes (one of our friend's cousins whom we met last year in Croatia competed in the kite-sailing event). That strange-but-spectacular opening ceremony hooked us in. We watched traditional favorites like diving and gymnastics, and marveled at unfamiliar sports like kite-sailing and speed climbing (so crazy to watch!). There were moments of great achievement, like the Lithuanian discus thrower who broke an Olympic record set by his own father, a record that had stood for 20 years. Alas, his new record was broken only moments later. There were moments of great sportmanship, winners comforting their losing rivals. There was the triumph of the US women's gymnastics team lead by Simon Biles, and the confusion over the bronze medal that Jordan Chiles may or may not have won. And there were just unforgettable moments like the French pole vaulter who was foiled by being too well endowed.
	2025 On Stage We continued to support LA theatre with a full subscription to the Center Theatre Group, with the big news in the fall that the Mark Taper Theatre is once again open. We began the year with Matthew Bourne's Romeo & Juliet. Matthew Bourne's choreography never fails to be breathtaking, and when combined with a creative reimagining of Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet set to Prokofiev's dramatic score, the result is riveting. In April, we enjoyed the powerhouse performance of Katerina McCrimmon as Fanny Brice in the revival of Funny Girl. In June, we were treated to the 2022 Tony Award Best Musical A Strange Loop, which is a strange loop indeed. This meta-musical is a play about a fat gay black writer trying to write a play about a fat gay black writer trying to write a play about ... well, you get the idea. Before A Strange Loop, one could scarcely imagine how many internalized phobias, how much baggage a fat gay black theatre-geek wannabe writer might be carrying around. But now you don't have to, because this play shows you all the baggage in explicit (sometimes painfully explicit) vivid detail, leavened by energetic music and clever funny lyrics. August brought us a delightful comedy murder mystery in Clue. Based on the well-known board game, all of the characters like Colonel Mustard and Professor Plum are lured to a mysterious mansion, where they are trapped and have to figure out who is slowly killing them all off. The farce is strong in this one. In October, we were thrilled to return to the Mark Taper Forum to see Green Day's American Idiot, a vivid staging of this electric rock musical. At the LA Opera, we were delighted to see their sumptuous production of Turandot. The magnificent cast was lead by house-shaking soprano Angela Meade, the honey-rich tenor Russell Thomas as Karaf, and vibrant soprano Guanqun Yu who moved us to tears as Liu. (We had enjoyed seeing both Russell Thomas and Guanqun Yu a few years ago here in Mozart's The Clemency of Titus.) An expanded chorus voiced the hopes and fears of the people of Peking sensationally (of course we're partial since we know so many choristers). The sets, designed by David Hockney, were fantastic. The Pasadena Playhouse continued to have some great offerings too. We really enjoyed One of the Good Ones, a "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" for our times. When a young adult Latina daughter brings home her boyfriend to meet her parents, everyone is in for one surprise or another, in this very thoughtful and very funny dissection of racial and ethnic identity, layered on good old fashioned family dynamics. And we also enjoyed their production of La Cage Aux Folles, with Cheyenne Jackson as nightclub owner Georges. We also had experienced a small theatre gem in May, The Rhythm of Mourning at the Bethesda Repertory Theatre. On a bare stage with minimal props, a strong cast, with some subtle but effective lighting, costume, and choreography, tells a powerful story about loss and grief.
	2025 In Art After enjoying the Frieze LA art show so much last year, we went back again this year, even though we had to pay our own way (it's not inexpensive) unlike last year when we had an invite. It's totally worth it though. All of the big name galleries are there, with an eye-popping ensemble of artwork on display. Some of the most captivating this year were portraits. Miami-based artist Hernan Bas had a series of young men drinking absinthe. Nigerian artist Collins Obijiaku had some striking portraits of Nigerian women. And a take on the last supper by the late Trinidadian artist Geoffrey Holder was fascinating. But there were all sorts of sculpture and abstracts and other genres too. And as before, the people-watching is as good as the art on display. You see striking fashions. And that woman in the black-and-white plaid coat and hat doing a classic Diane Keaton look? That was Diane Keaton. What a delightful experience to see Luna Luna this spring. We were just grinning the whole time. If you haven't heard about it, it was an art carnival staged in 1987 featuring a panoply of artists from Salvador Dali, David Hockney, and Roy Liechtenstein to Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, and many others. It was meant to tour, but never did, and was lost for 35 years and only recently rediscovered and restored. The whole carnival was set up in a big warehouse in the DTLA Arts District. While you couldn't actually ride the rides, it was delightful just to see them. The event included a carnival wedding booth, so George and I got married again.
	2025 In Books One book that we both read this year was The Old Gays Guide to the Good Life: Lessons Learned About Love and Death, Sex and Sin, and Saving the Best for Last. In the last few years, our friend Jessay Martin had stumbled into becoming a YouTube/TikTok star, along with several of his Palm Springs neighbors who became The Old Gays. This book is part autobiography and part life philosophy from each of the five "old gays", and together it provides an interesting window on the evolution of gay culture and gay life through the decades when these men were coming out and living out. While we're not quite as old as they are, we're old enough to relate to a lot of their experiences and appreciate them. Aside from that, this year was pretty sparse in books for Tom, who after learning Hindi, had to shift gears and learn Japanese, so most of his "reading time" was taken up with Pimsleur language courses. George, on the other hand, has discovered audiobooks this year, and often "reads" on his long walks through Elysian Park. He started looking for gay romantic fiction, found the author Anthony McDonald, and has gone no further. This year, he has devoured a good dozen of his novels!
	2025 In Politics Globally, Israel and Gaza dominated headlines, as Israel's military reaction to the Oct 7 Hamas massacre of last year extended into its second year and is still ongoing, with 62 remaining hostages believed to be alive and 34 reported dead but not recovered. Israel cleared northern Gaza, urging 1 million Palestineans to relocate to southern Gaza, then directed all of them to relocate into Rafah as the last "safe" place, and then ultimately bombed Rafah (against US objections). An additional 23,000 Palestineans have been killed this year, bringing the total death toll to 45,000, the majority of which are reported to be women and children. At this point, practically the entire population has been forcibly displaced, living in dire conditions, with starvation and exposure threatening to kill those who have so far evaded being killed by bombing or shelling. Between Israeli restrictions and lack of security, it has been impossible for aid organizations to deliver sufficient food and medical supplies. In April, a World Central Kitchen convoy bringing aid was destroyed by Israeli drones. Despite US efforts in conjunction with Yemen and Egypt to get Israel and Hamas to agree to a cease-fire, that goal was ultimately elusive. Military action expanded across the Middle East, as Israel responded to Iranian-backed Hezbollah attacks by targeting the Israeli consulate in Damascus, Hezbollah's leadership in Lebanon, and Hamas political leader Ismael Haniyeh, who was killed by drone strike in Tehran. Iran responded on two occasions with large-scale missile barrage against Israel, which was largely repelled by Israeli and American defense systems. The significant diminishment of Hezbollah and Iranian proxies in Syria (as well as Iran itself), combined with Russia's distraction in Ukraine, created an opening for Turkish-backed rebels in northern Syria to launch an offensive that lead to the surprising collapse of the Assad regime, which had been in power since 1963. This is the one possible glimmer of hope from the Middle East. The overthrow of a brutal autocrat is reason for celebration, and the group that captured Damascus, though formally declared a terrorist organization, appears so far to be acting very responsibly and aiming to set up a proper government with broad participation and religious freedom. Elsewhere, Ukraine slogged into the third year of its war with Russia, making some incursions into Russian territory, while losing ground in its own eastern front, with high casualties on both sides, and no end in sight. Sweden formally joined NATO this year, following Finland last year. Anti-incumbent sentiment swept elections worldwide, with German and French governments both seeing votes of no confidence after far-right party gains, while England fired its Conservative government and put Labor back in power. Japan and South Africa both saw parties that had been in control for decades lose their majorities. Venezuela held an election in which autocrat Nicolas Maduro declared himself the winner despite substantial proof that he actually lost the election by a substantial margin. Sadly, Maduro remains in control while the real winner has sought asylum in Spain to avoid arrest. Domestically, the big story was the US presidential election. On the GOP side, several contenders including Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, and Vivek Ramaswamy formally challenged Donald Trump, but Ron DeSantis dropped out after Trump ran away with the Iowa caucus in January, and Nikki Haley dropped out after "super Tuesday" in March when it became clear that Republicans wanted the twice-impeached and multiply-indicted former president to run again. For the Democrats, incumbent president Joe Biden insisted he would run again, and faced no significant challenge in the primaries. That seemed like a good idea in March, when an energetic Joe Biden gave a feisty State of the Union speech, including strong impromptu responses to hecklers. Unfortunately, it wasn't until late June at the first presidential debate that we learned that the 81-year old president has good days and bad days, and the bad days can be pretty bad. The Joe Biden who showed up to that debate was feeble and disoriented, immediately raising questions about his fitness for another term and whether (and how) he should be replaced on the ticket, given that most primaries had already taken place, and the convention was less than 8 weeks away. In the meantime, Trump had been convicted of 34 felony counts related to his hush money payments to Stormy Daniels, was grazed by a bullet in an attempted assassination at a rally, and was officially proclaimed the Republican candidate a few days later at the GOP convention. After an agonizing several weeks, Biden was finally persuaded to step down, giving his support to Vice-President Kamala Harris. Democrats felt a surge of energy, as it felt like a page was being turned. Despite questions about process, Harris worked to secure the delegate votes, and the Democratic convention in August felt like a triumphal affair. At the September debate (the first and only between Harris and Trump), Harris came on strong and was generally declared the better performer, while Trump doubled down on the crazy talk (e.g., Haitian immigrants eating other people's pets) and was live fact-checked multiple times. Nonetheless Harris ultimately failed to connect with and motivate enough voters. Trump won with ample electoral margin (312-226), and with more votes than Harris although less than an outright majority due to third party candidates. The Republicans regained their majority in the Senate, and though losing seats in the House, barely retained their majority there. Since the election, Trump has been floating cabinet nominations, some of which are plausible, though several of which may be difficult even for fellow Republicans to swallow. Matt Gaetz, disgraced Florida representative, was pre-nominated for Attorney General but has already withdrawn in the wake of a damning House Ethics Committee report. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., notable for his quackish views on vaccines, has been nominated for Secretary of Health and Human Services. Tulsi Gabbard, notable for a questionable visit to Syria showing support for the Assad regime while stating she could see no difference between any of the various rebel factions there, has been nominated as Director of National Intelligence. And Kash Patel, who has a published "deep state enemies list", has been nominated to lead the FBI, presumably in pursuing retribution against Trump's enemies. We've also been treated to a preview of the return to chaos that we can expect in a second Trump term: when the House attempted to pass an 11th hour continuing resolution in order to avoid a government shutdown, based on a bipartisan compromise, "first buddy" Elon Musk and Trump started a tweet-storm that nearly derailed the whole thing. After Trump issued a new demand that the bill would also eliminate the debt ceiling, Speaker Johnson dutifully brought it, but that bill failed. They finally passed a third bill that was substantially the same as the first bill, while Musk and Trump inexplicably declared a victory. Since then, Trump has been calling for taking back the Panama Canal, annexing Canada, and buying Greenland — all items that literally nobody had on their agenda but he's seen fit to devote his time (or at least his virtual hot air) to. We're quite apprehensive about what 2025 will bring in terms of our nation and the world, but will hope for the best.
	2025 In Technology We are generally late to the party for new tech, and one not-so-new thing that we finally caught up with this year is using our iPhones for payment. We'd done it once in a rare while before, but it was accelerated by our trip to Japan. When traveling Japan, one of the most useful things to have is something called an e-SUICA card on your iPhone, which can be used to electronically pay your fare on trains and subways all over. Just tap your iPhone at the turnstile and you're on your way. Moreover, a fair number of convenience shops, food stalls, and the like will accept e-SUICA as payment. In order to set it up, you need to have a credit card set up in your Apple wallet. I had one set up already, but it had foreign transaction fees, so I decided to get the Apple Card, a virtual MasterCard that has no annual fees, no foreign transaction fees, and gives 2% cash back on Apple Pay purchases. It's a good deal and I've been using it regularly since we got back from Japan. Our phones were also immensely useful when it came to translation, as Japan does not spoil English-speakers the way that many other places do, not to mention the utterly foreign writing. Fortunately, the state of art of online translation available on our devices is quite amazing. Not only can you type in phrases and have them translated into Japanese text, you can speak phrases and your phone will speak it back in Japanese. The apps are oriented to conversation, so that you can pass it back and forth, and it will translate their response back to English. In many tourist-welcoming shops, the staff will have their devices with Google Translate at the ready. It also has a visual mode where you can open up your camera through the translation app, and it will replace any Japanese text in its view with English text. It is truly amazing how far this has come. The Babel fish is practically here!