Just A Peck 0026 // 2025 - Year in Review
Happy New Year, 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.
This week’s newsletter has a different format, since it contains my 2025 highlights. We’ll return to our regularly scheduled programming next week.
JOURNAL
This week we wrapped up our final holiday celebrations. Spencer flew back to New York on January 1st, which means that he was in town long enough to celebrate New Year’s Eve with us. We got fancied up and went to the Renegade Comedy show with plans to ring in the new year at Zeitgeist like we have for several years, but things died out there super early, so we just left and counted down to the new year at home. I’ve been avoiding restarting our annual NYE Party because I didn’t want to interfere with Zeitgeist’s party, but if that’s dying out, perhaps it’s time to revisit that decision.
We tried out a couple of our new board games this week including A Place For All My Books–in which you have to recharge your social battery at home by sorting and organizing your book collection so you can venture into town (to buy more books), and Sky Team–a two player game in which you need to work together as pilot and co-pilot to land a commercial jet.
On Friday, we attended the 3rd Annual Salmela Sisters Cabaret. It’s always a joy to watch these two talented young artists perform. We’ve been watching and working with them since they were little, so seeing them as burgeoning professionals is a special treat.
What I watched this week:
- Wendy and Lucy (2008). A heartbreaking, brilliantly observed Kelly Link film about a woman trying to get to Alaska with her dog. Michelle Williams, Will Oldham, Walgreen's parking lots, and coversations about serpentine belts
- Meek's Cutoff (2010). I just can't get enough Kelly Link, apparently. A necessary rewatch, even better than I remembered. Michelle Williams, a fantastic shaggy turn by Bruce Greenwood playing the real life namesake of this ill-fated journey, Will Patton, Zoe Kazan, Paul Dano, a covered wagon careening down a steep hill, and slow-creeping dread.
- Die My Love (2025). Jennifer Lawrence, Sissy Spacek, and Nick Nolte are great in this, fantastic ending, but I think Lynne Ramsay and I are on slightly differenct wavelengths.
- Roofman (2025). Much better than I would have guessed. It feels like a certain kind of 70s film that I love. Channing Tatum, Kirsten Dunst, Ben Mendelsoh, LaKeith Stanfield, Juno Temple, Peter Dinklage, and lots of memories of Toys R Us in the 90s (where we spent more time than I would have preferred).
- Ulysse (1983). An Agnès Varda short I hadn't seen before. An exploration of a photo taken thirty years earlier of a man, a boy, and a dead goat on the sea shore. Memory, the passage of time, art, and more of Varda's bottomless well of insight and brilliance.
- Punch Drunk Love (2002). What can I say. A marvel of a film. It's a little shocking to think that this is over twenty years old already, but it is still startlingly good. Sandler, Watson, Hoffman, Guzman. I'd forgotten that Robert Smigel was in this. ("Barry, I'm a dentist.")
- Marty Supreme (2025). Even better than I'd hoped. What an absolute banger. The cast! From principles, to supporting, to background--every face is perfect. The pace is propulsive, the production design is impossibly well done, and the mix of the spot-on 50s setting with the 80s soundtrack and the contemporary Safdie construction is a powerhouse. The number of *chef's kiss* cameos is insane. I won't start to list them, because it would take too long. About the ambition and confidence that is only possible when you're young, and how what's important shifts as life humbles you.
- The Navigator (1924). A Buster Keaton feature I'd somehow missed! Remarkable underwater sequences including a battle with an octopus and a sword fight with a sword fish.
- The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964). I felt compelled to watch this on New Year's Day for reasons I don't understand. No regrets. How lucky are we to have Jacque Demy's films to wrap ourselves in?
- Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003). Another first time watch for me, and it wasn't remotely like I had imagined. A hyper-minimalist film, almost to the point of being experimental. I think this probably hit harder twenty years ago when the death of cinemas was a fresh pain, but still--a beautiful, wistful, funny meditation on movies, moviewatching, and changing cultural priorities.
- Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972). Being trapped on a raft in the jungle with Klaus Kinski is one of the scariest things I can imagine. Werner Herzog captures something insane, not just in the circumstances of the film, but also in Kinski's face. An incredible feat of filmmaking, an incredible performance. Also, having recently listened to Herzog's memoir, the backstory on the making of this film is almost as unbelievable as the events of the film itself.
What I’m reading this week:
- FINISHED: Mythago Wood. Recommended by my friend Seth. I don't read a ton of fantasy, but this was a subgenre (Mythic Fiction?) that I didn't realize existed. A novel exploring how our stories, myths, and legends both reflect who we are and shape who we are, echoing back in a feedback loop of storytelling and meaning-making generation after generation across millenia. I really enjoyed it.
- The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus
- Invisible Cities, Calvino
- We Who Are About To..., Joanna Russ
- Hollywood: The Oral History, Bassinger, Wasson
2025: Year In Review
Another year, another opportunity for reflection. In many ways, 2025 was a horror show. But at the same time, I'm overwhelmed by how much joy, laughter, family, friendship, community, kindness, rewarding struggle, magical serendipity, beauty, wonder, and love have filled these last 365 days.
This week, I'm going to share some of my highlights from the year. Next week, I'll share some of my favorite live theatrical events from 2025. The week after, I'll share some of my favorite reads of the year. The week after that, I'll share my favorite 2025 cinematic watches/rewatches. And finally (if enough screening opportunities present themselves between now and then) I'll be able to share my Favorite Movies of 2025 List.
Okay here we go. :)
We rang in the new year surrounded by friends at Zeitgeist on New Year’s Eve.
In January, I was in very fun, very exhausting production of The One-Act Play That Goes Wrong at the Duluth Playhouse. It was a fun group of people to work with–a mix of old friends and new.
I took multiple theater trips (as usual) this year. Minneapolis, Spring Green, Madison, Milwaukee, Chicago. More on those shows next week, but this week I’m reflecting on how grateful I am to have been joined by amazing friends on many of those trips.
I also visited more bookstores that I’d care to admit (including seven within five hours for Independent Bookstore Day), but Ochooch Books & Libations (& Records!) stands out as the one that gave me stories to tell.
Jody’s Drama Club celebrated its second year. I’m so proud of the amazing work she is doing.
After six years, I wrapped up my stint with the actual play podcast, Twin Portals. It was a difficult decision. I love the TP crew so much, and I have never (and will likely never again) play a character I loved as much as Lark.
I made it out for every single night of Homegrown!
Jody and I also got to see Paul Simon on tour. An artist I’ve been listening to my entire life who is still, miraculously, touring.
The summer skies were filled not only with Canadian wildfire smoke (an unfortunately common occurence in the past few years as the climate shifts are becoming more deadly), but also the smoke from multiple large wildfires very nearby.
It was a year of so many contruction projects and home repairs. Starting with our chimney, then replacing our new heat pump, cutting down a tree that hit the cottage roof during a heavy snow, then finally replacing an entire wall of the house. We also helped my parents as they attempted to build a wall of their own.
We dressed up for the Smelt Parade.
It’s crazy that, even after a decade, there are still city parks we haven’t explored yet. Jody and I visited Quarry Park for the first time this year.
We attended several No Kings rallies, and tried not to be overcome with despair that such a thing was even necessary.
I took my annual hike around Gooseberry with my friend Robert. Another good friend joined us this year.
We finally made it to a Trampled By Turtles concert in Bayfront, something we’ve failed to do every summer so far. It was better than we’d hoped.
The Tall Ships were back! We actually went out with the Vista Fleet to watch the Grand Parade from the water.
Kaylee was awesome in her first (but hopefully not last) Dances on the Lakewalk.
I discovered a new catch phrase.
We attended our neice Kelley’s wedding.
Jody had never been to the mammoth warehouse of the company I’ve worked at for many years, so we stopped by on the way to the Great River Shakespeare Festival for a quick tour.
I started this Newsletter and got off of social media!
We took a train up the St. Louis River with our friends Tom and Brandy, and then spent a lovely day paddling back.
I went to the annual Bacon Bonanza, hosted by my good friends Jeff and Lindsey.
I nearly died when a kid threw a huge rock through our car window as we passed him going highway speeds.
I rode my Peloton for 100 days in a row.
We played a ton of board games, plus I joined a monthly Wingspan league and a monthly poker game.
I directed two shows that I’m incredibly proud of.
I learned how to make clafoutis.
At work, my team gathered in person for the first time ever. About half of us went to an Escape Room together after work. I also spent a weekend working in the warehouse during holiday season, helping to keep up with customer shipments.
But most importantly, I spent so much time surrounded by family and friends, marveling every day at how lucky I am to be alive on this beautiful planet, near the shore of this incredible lake, alongside my favorite person. Grateful, grateful, grateful.
MY FAVORITE QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"When we aren't seeing or reading or hearing what we want to, we can't wait for someone else to create it for us. We can't wait for someone to approve of the stories we wish to tell, can't allow a suit to tell us there's no market for it. We have to take matters into our own hands, have to do the hard and unglamorous work, have to grin and bear it and just fucking do it.
I say this as if it's easy, as if it isn't an enormous investment of time and energy and soul that you will never get back and for which you will never be properly compensated. I say this as if it's the smart thing to do financially. It's not. It takes an artist who is a little mad, maybe even reckless, to take all this on. But if no one does it, where will we be? If we all wait for permission -wait for audience trends to align or a VP to decide there's profit to be made-what art will we be left with?"
That’s it for this week. Stay safe, friends. Thanks for reading!