School’s out for summer and I couldn’t be happier! We’re celebrating tonight with a pizza party, homemade vanilla ice cream sundaes and we’re watching “Dazed and Confused”, which is our last day of school tradition.
Hello, Summer! We are more than ready for YOU!
{Deena Martin as ‘Shavonne’, Christine Harnos as ‘Kaye’, and Michelle Burke as ‘Jodi’ in a publicity still from Dazed & Confused, 1993 found HERE}
Hello, July! We’re ready for you to bring warmer weather our way and keep the rain at bay for just a little bit. We’re ready for early morning coffee on the beach when the world is quiet and we can go swimming and have the water all to ourselves. We’re ready for homemade ice cream after dinner and dancing around the kitchen to the ‘60s music groove we’re in at the moment.
We’re ready for school to come to a close for the year and the chance to stay up late watching old movies on the projector and eating popcorn and making ice cream floats. We’re ready for our annual Christmas in July party and this year it might last more than a day, it might be an entire weekend of Christmas music playing and Christmas movie watching and Christmas feasting and just general Christmas happiness.
We’re ready to devour more books while sitting on the beach and then lazily strolling up to the house to make cheeseburgers that have thick slices of heirloom tomatoes sitting on top of the melting cheese and fresh corn on the cob smothered in butter.
We’re ready for all that you bring and we hope it is filled with love and laughter and light.
{Slim Aarons / Getty Images: Mrs. Charles Rogers sits on a submerged bar stool in the Villa Vera Spa & Racquet Club pool, Acapulco, Mexico, January 1961 // Pinned HERE}
Hello, June! We’re ready for the closing of the day to take longer to come. We’re ready for breakfast on the beach with hot coffee and croissants and then diving into the water with the cool rush of the waves beating against our skin.
We’re ready for date nights with the windows open and dusk falling as we watch a double feature projected on our old screen while we share a bowl of popcorn. We’re ready for BLTs stuffed with the first heirloom tomatoes of the season that are pouring into the green grocer’s stand with crunchy salty potato chips and sweet iced tea.
We’re ready for evening strolls and quiet star filled nights and making dinner together while 1960s beach music fills the air and we dance and laugh and live.
{Slim Aarons, “Oberon’s Lunch”, Acapulco, 1966 // Pinned HERE}
Hello, May! We’re ready for you to bring us more sunshine and usher in a few warmer days here and there. We’re ready for sun kissed blueberries to start arriving on the farm stand so we can gobble them up by the handfuls while we read our books.
We’re ready to be greeted by the beginning of the heirloom tomato season at the green grocers so we can feast on our first delicious BLTs of the year on homemade bread while the juice runs down our chins.
We’re ready for evening to draw in a little slower so we can keep the windows open longer. We’re ready for hot cups of coffee on the beach in the early hours when the world belongs just to us, as we watch the waves roll in.
{Strawberry Bouquet, Becca Stadtlander // Pinned HERE}
Hello, April! We’re ready for the Easter Bunny to visit us and see what is tucked into our basket come Easter morn. We’re ready for the sunlight to change hue and the days to deepen. We’re ready for the golden shadows that welcome in evening when the world starts to quiet again.
We’re ready for the warmer days you will bring and the bulbs and branches in blooms, dotting the landscape around us in menagerie of colour, like a painter’s palette.
We’re ready for the chance to picnic on the beach and leave the windows open longer before the evening chill sets in. We’re ready for strolls at dusk along the water and up through the gardens. We’re ready for spring to continue to be ushered forth, we’re ready for this next season to continue to bloom and grow. And we’re ready to see where you take us next.
I am fully aware that we are no longer in the season of Christmas; in fact we are just about to flip the calendar over to April. This is a post I had been working on in the weeks leading up to December, but as with many things these past few months, some pots have to move to the back burner and this was a pot that got moved and turned to low. However, we are currently in the season of Lent and as “fish” is still playing a prominent role and my love for Christmas doesn’t begin and end in December, I’ve rationally reasoned that I can just slip this in under the wire and so I’m running with that.
More than a year ago now, back in late October of 2019, I was scanning through YouTube in search of a clip for a piece I was writing. A movie trailer popped up in the suggested list and I was amused by the title, so I clicked on it. Before the trailer even finished, I knew this was a film that I had to see. I showed it to Mr. Michie that evening and he was in complete agreement. So, one Friday night, curled up on the couch with a bowl of popcorn between us we watched it. We laughed, we cried, we recognised these characters in front of us and then we watched it again and after that we watched it again and after that… well you get the drift.
We discerned after our first screening, but that thought became more solidified with each successive viewing, that we would be making our family watch this over the Christmas holidays when we were all together (*This was Pre-Covid when we could move freely). One side of my family is loud, crazy and Italian. All of our events revolve around food, but doesn’t everyone’s? This movie resonated with me, it spoke to my soul. I know these people, I know this town, I understood Tony’s reservations about letting someone else peer into the idiosyncrasies of his family. Every family has their own dynamic and letting someone else have entry into that world is a very personal thing, it’s a baring of your soul.
One evening, after Christmas day, by the twinkle of the lights on the tree, we sat everyone down and pressed PLAY. The rest, as they say, is history. Like us, they were hooked. It has truly become one of my parent’s favourite movies of the past year. So much so, that they have bought it, watched it repeatedly and told everyone else about it. This movie isn’t a secret that you keep to yourself. Personally, I’ve watched this movie in parts here or there, or fast forwarded to a favourite scene at some point almost every day of 2020, that’s still happening in 2021. It has been one of the many things that has gotten us through this current period with humour.
Feast of the Seven Fishes, is a charming, comically and tenderly crafted story with a lot of heart and soul. I feel that I know each of the characters. The clothes, the cars and the sets are perfect, down to the tiniest detail. The grandparent’s house is inviting and cozy, you believe this family truly lives there, it’s like being at your actual Nonni’s house. The Christmas tablecloth draped over the small dinette set in the kitchen, the angel card stuck on the avocado hued fridge and the ceramic tree with it’s jewelled toned lights glowing on the counter are all the little touches that seamlessly work to enhance and flesh out each scene alongside an outstanding ensemble of actors. Like a real family, their expressions say more at times than their words do.
Robert Tinnell has written a story about life, home, family, relationships, love, good food and the people you meet along your journey. I don’t care if you come from a crazy Catholic Italian family or not, this movie will speak to you. At its heart, it is simply about family and everyone can relate to that.
Do yourself a favour and go watch this movie!
Boun Natale!
The following are two conversations I found interesting, you might too:
Conversations with the cast and director of Feast of the Seven Fishes
The FEAST Podcast: A conversation with director Robert Tinnell
