Just A Peck 0025 // Birthday, Christmas, "Make Or Do"
Happy holidays, friends! Welcome to the latest issue of Just A Peck. I’m glad you’re here! New issues come out most Sundays. Unsubscribe at any time.
WHAT I'M EXCITED ABOUT THIS WEEK
QUICK LINKS
- Feliz Navidad
- Salvador Dali Christmas Cards
- Terry Gilliam's animated short, The Christmas Card (1968)
- Jingle Bells (Batman Smells): an incomplete festive folk-rhyme taxonomy
- Underneath a Breaching Humpback Whale
- The Best Video Essays of 2025
- The Illuminated Sketchbook of Stephan Schriber (1494)
- 12 Days of 12 Games
- The Great Craft of 2025
JOURNAL
We had an awesome family weekend. The kids were all home and my parents joined us for several days as well. We celebrated my birthday. Jody got me a crepe maker and we did a crepe bar breakfast with savory and sweet options.
One of the highlights of Christmas for me every year is the kids presenting each other with their “Make or Do” gifts. This year’s included more Penguin ornament gags (a long-running family joke) which included replica penguin ornaments and a sock puppet play about the origin of the original penguin ornament. There was a game that involved shooting dog kibble at each other at near-deadly velocities, a mug with icons for all the shows I’ve directed, a set of new board game selection documents, a stage manager kit for Kaylee, a custom “Peck Edition” of Guess Who, homemade caramels, ridiculous custom socks, a personalized safety vest, a personalized Studio Ghibli song, rolled paper art, drink coasters made from rocks taken from our shoreline, card game lessons, and lots of laughter.
The best thing about the holidays, though, is just copious family time. We made lots of food–a big Christmas dinner plus lots of family favorites. We visited Bentleyville and the Exhibition Drive Light Show. We sang Christmas Carols, decorated our family Christmas tree, played board games, watched movies, told stories, laughed, hugged, and just generally soaked up each other’s company.
Also, we recreated a Christmas card photo from 2003. Here’s a sneak peek.
What I watched:
- One Battle After Another (2025). Still the best movie of the last several years. It's such a rare joy to watch a new release and think, "This is an all timer".
- Eephus (2024). An eephus is a type of baseball pitch that seems to hang suspended until it flies by you, which is a metaphor for both baseball and life. The days are long, but the years are short. A lovely little indie comedy about a group of rec-league ball players playing one last game on their community ball field before it gets razed for a new development. "Did that guy just wander out of the woods?"
- A House of Dynamite (2025). A Kathryn Bigelow movie that depicts the final minutes between the detection of a nuclear warhead headed toward Chicago and its arrival. The same twelve minutes are replayed from multiple viewpoints. Rebecca Ferguson is great. Tracy Letts, Idris Elba, Jared Harris, and a missing ending that's even more disturbing when faced with the horrifying awareness of the people who will make those final decisions in the current administration.
- Die Hard (1988). Spencer and I joined an enthusiastic crowd at the Zinema for this Holiday classic on the big screen. Still great.
- Duel (1971). My birthday movie this year was Spielberg's feature debut. It's wild to see his brilliance with the camera even at this point. (He was something like 21 years old when he made this.) Consisting almost entirely of a murderous semi truck chasing Dennis Weaver's Plymouth Valiant. "You can't beat me on the grade!"
- Isle of Dogs (2018). The new Criterion 4k transfer of this looks great. I don't think I've seen it since it came out, and I still love it. "Cherry blossom fall", "Don't ask me to fetch that stick", "He's a 12 year old boy. Dogs love those."
- Pandora's Box (1929). Louise Brooks goes from a rising star to an iconic part of history after walking out on her Paramount contract to work with G.W. Pabst in Weimar Berlin. Includes what is considered cinema's first lesbian character, stunning cinematography, Londoners who speak in German, and--of course--Lulu.
What I’m reading:
- The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus
- Mythago Wood, Holdstock
- Invisible Cities, Calvino
MEMORIES
Five Years Ago:
In the dark days of lockdown, my awesome friend Dan and I launched a site (Send Some Love) that enabled people to send scheduled “love” messages to loved ones. The messages were original love-themed paintings by local artists.
Also five years ago, our kitchen sink stopped working while we were hosting everyone for the holidays. Cooking and cleaning when your sink won’t drain is tricky, so I tried to fix the plumbing and definitely made it worse.
MY FAVORITE QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"I say: 'Making makes the maker.' If you write something, you're also rewriting your own code. You're working on yourself. You're developing as a writer. There's no wasting time in writing, because it's like being a woodworker. Every time you pick up the sandpaper, the plane, or the chisel, you're learning something about the material you work with, about where to place your hands, about how to work with the grain of the wood, about where you could improve your craft... One of the big mistakes people make is they say, 'I want to be a writer.' What they should say is, 'I want to write.'"
-- Ray Nayler
That’s it for this week. Stay safe, friends. Thanks for reading!