Ending and beginning and taking off on 1/1/11

And one more time another year lifts off and leaves us remembering.

The process of remembering needs to be broken down into segments.

I want to say right now that I know there's a large section of the population who don't have time to remember what happened in 2010 because they are making 2011 a new happening.

I'd like to think I fall into that category but here I am wasting time bringing up the past just to write my year end article......I'm such a whore.

Anyway...back to the jazz at hand.

The segments of remembrance are personal, family, politics, entertainment, science and sports.

I'll focus on personal and family and a little bit on entertainment. Politics takes up enough time on a daily basis. Science is elusive and sports are just live entertainment. (True Reality TV)

Births, deaths and weddings are usually the strongest memories when it comes to personal and family.

Celebrity deaths is a separate division because, other than what they have done with their lives, that can be recorded, we generally don't know them.....but we become sad when they go.

I admit to shedding no tears when celebrities change levels. I did cry three times while watching Temple Grandin the other night on HBO..... so I think I'm emotionally ok.

The celebrities that I responded to with a sense of sadness, at their passing, were J.D.Salinger, Dennis Hopper, John Wooden, Merlin Olson, Bud Greenspan and Paul Conrad.

FAMILY MEMORIES

In my immediate blood related family we had no level changes......which makes 2010 a very good year for the McAlevey's from Southern California.

We had a wonderful wedding in Seattle and welcomed a new gentleman into our lives. Hopefully my niece will hurry up and make my brother and my sister-in-law.....GRANDPARENTS.

Vanessa and Nick will make wonderful parents and the world can always use more of those.

That Greek wedding will always make 2010 a very special year.

The fact that my brother and I were able to play golf every Tuesday with our father makes 2010 a great memory.

PERSONAL MEMORIES

2010 will be a year that I remember as very productive with my own creativity. My artwork went into another stage of it's life and I'm extremely excited to see how it progresses. I'm feeling much better about the acceptance level within the art community but then again I've always been optimistic regarding my work. I have people who truly believe in what I do. The next step is to increase the number of people and within that increase....perhaps include a museum or two or three or.........

My Neo-Illumination project is now 10 years old and I realize that it has a life of it's own. I wish it would grow up a little bit and start playing with other kids. But it's hard raising a project. It's growing and I'm feeding and watering it on a regular basis. Look for some new presentations during the coming year. Small cards, etc.

I continue to make copies of my scripts and pass them around town. I'm doing rewrites on two of them and that's odd because I thought they were totally finished.

The truth is.....rewrites always improve anything....except maybe Beatles songs.

I just finished my ELF Project 2010 and that will have a public presentation sometime during 2011.

My favorite movies of the year were GET LOW, CITY ISLAND, INSIDE JOB, EXIT FROM THE GIFT SHOP, THE SOCIAL NETWORK and Burlesque (only musical of year)

Christian Bale gave the best performance in The Fighter. It was short but Barry Pepper in True Grit was also impressive. (I haven't seen Colin Firth in The King's Speech)

AC/DC ranked second in most money generated by a tour....177 mil. ROCK ON!

I'm very excited about 2011. I've set the wheels in motion and with perseverance and focused dedication to my art and my true nature....I will achieve some major life goals.

I'm also hoping that the NCAA restores normalcy to the USC campus and to the millions of her supporters by lifting the second year of the bowl suspension. Fight on!

Welcome 2011 and goodbye 2010

Michael Timothy McAlevey