Love Actually - a Christmas staple

I'm on the bus listening to my music on shuffle and a great song, Songbird by Eva Cassidy, comes on and reminds me of one of my favorite soundtracks in one of my favorite films, Love Actually.  How can you get through the Christmas season without watching this movie at least once?  Many movies have tried to copy its intertwined multi-story format but haven't been successful in eliciting as strong emotions.

A big reason why Love Actually works so well year after year is the brilliant writing of Richard Curtis.  (By the way, he also wrote one of my favorite Doctor Who episodes, Vincent and the Doctor.)  Although we only get short vignettes of every storyline - in some cases literally just a beginning, middle, and end - the characters are so well-developed we instantly become attached to them.  He also manages to navigate a range of emotions in short succession.  The movement between funny, poignant, cute, heartbreaking, solemn, and romantic is seamless.

It also helps that the cast is full of talent.  Liam Neeson expertly plays the tortured father, but his "special set of skills" in this movie is less violent.  Emma Thompson makes us all cry when she tries not to cry.  Bill Nighy brings out his wild side, delivering a strong performance as we'd expect from him.  Colin Firth and Hugh Grant each bumble in their own way, as they know how to do so well.  Laura Linney is just stellar.  This film also happens to be the first time I saw Joanna Page, Martin Freeman, and Nina Sosanya - all of whom are some of my favorite actors now.  And that's just a partial list of the cast.

In addition to the writing and the acting, what really makes the film work is the music.  I can't talk about the music without mentioning the amazing voice of the then 10-year-old Olivia Olson.  I prefer her "All I Want for Christmas" over Mariah Carey's.  That song and almost every song from the movie are on my commuting playlist.  The soundtrack is one great song after another, and the way they're used in the background makes each scene have more impact.  Richard Curtis mentions in the commentary that he always has music playing when he's writing, and the songs picked in the final edit really fit what he's written.

So whether you kick back and watch Love Actually or take part in another tradition, I hope you have a relaxing and wonderful Christmas.

Sweet tea - my southern comfort

I spent two years living in the South, and I enjoyed it even more than I expected.  A key part of my time there was spent eating the great food and BBQ.  For all the good and bad, I became obsessed with sweet tea.

Sweet tea is a traditional drink prevalent in all areas of the South.  It's not just iced tea with sugar added.  (I actually prefer that type of iced tea unsweetened.)  It's made differently and tastes much better.  The good of my obsession is how delicious sweet tea can be and how comforted it makes me feel.  The bad, of course, is the sugar content, but even worse, in my mind, is how difficult it is to get a good glass of it now that I'm living in the north again.

While I was down south, my favorite place to get this sweet nectar was a fast food chicken and biscuits chain called Bojangles.  They also had scrumptious biscuits and gravy, but the sweet tea was always my favorite.  Before leaving town to move back north, my last stop was Bojangles to buy 6 half gallon jugs of sweet tea to take with me.  Whenever I go back to visit, it's my first stop.

I've been told it's not that difficult to make sweet tea, but I've also never bothered to look up a recipe. I recently found a cookbook published by Southern Living that includes a recipe for sweet tea along with a bunch of other southern goodies.  Maybe I'll take a look and start making my own - create a little bit of the South in my northern kitchen.