Four days a year and now anything is possible. You have an idea of how things will go—what you're looking forward to, what's going to be difficult—but you're working from archival material. Memory and experience, educated guesses. “2025 is going to be very difficult for me,” a friend said matter-of-factly before listing all the things he had to do this year: take his business to a new level, take a step. To me, these things sounded exciting, interesting – the fascinating content of someone else's life.
We are all sitting here, now we have the same days of the year, the same calendar. What activities and events will we fill it with? How will we meet today's material? What do we mean by that?
I recently saw Christian Marklay's installation The Clock at MoMA. It's a 24-hour montage of thousands of clips from movies and shows, each containing an hour, hour, line of dialogue, or other hour. The film is synchronized with actual time, so each scene depicts the moment you're watching it, making The Clock a ticking clock in itself. You're watching a movie, but you're also watching the clock, for hours.
On December 21, the museum remained open for a special solstice screening of “The Clock” for 24 hours, from 7:00 p.m. on Saturday to 7:00 p.m. on Sunday. On my way there on Saturday night, I found myself in a hurry: It was 8pm, I was late! But then I stopped. It didn't matter when I arrived. People would come and go throughout the night and into the next day. It was an invitation to rethink how I think about time. “Clock”, like real time, is not a spectacle with a beginning and an end. It happens whether you are there or not. You either appear or you don't. Are you paying attention or not? You can't do it wrong.
Three, four, five hours passed, and for some reason it did not escape my attention, I reconsidered this proposal. Maybe you could be wrong. Should I focus on the plot, characters, and dialogue of each clip, or should I focus on hours? 11:22, 11:23, I missed the clock showing 11:24 on the screen because I was trying to figure out what movie the last scene was from? (I would later discover that it was in its entirety A wiki dedicated to Saat with each clip's provenance identified — 11:24 includes scenes from Shanghai Knights, Wonderland, and Se7en.) Can you go wrong with either too much focus on the transition or not enough time?
The Clock forces you to meditate on time, the way we compulsively turn the successive scenes of our lives into stories, project cause and effect into everything that happens, assume that everything has meaning, and decide whether that meaning is positive or negative. We are the artists and architects of our lives, surveying the day or year ahead and trying to figure out what story to tell. Will this be a good year? Will it be difficult? Who decides?
I stayed on “The Hour” until Sunday morning when I started dozing off and falling asleep. Marclay supports falling asleep during the film: “That's what you have to do – let it go and take it in and feel like you're a part of it,” says my colleague Marc Tracy. If I had remembered that, I might have stayed longer. Instead, I went to Midtown Manhattan on the morning of the first day of winter.
That was two weeks ago. Since then, the sun has risen and set 13 times, one year ended and another began. I tried to pay attention to time, but not too closely, to notice that it passed without much closure. This year is spread before us, many pencils have been written, but nothing definite. It may be as difficult as my friend predicted for himself. And the words of a Morning reader who wrote the proposal best advice – for me, the question mark is what makes this good advice, as if the idea that things aren't terrible is a revelation – “Could it be great?”
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CULTURE WEEK
Film and television
CULTURE CALENDAR
🏆 Golden Globes (Sunday): The Globes, once the glamorous, sleazy cousin of the tougher Oscars, are on life support after a series of ethics, financial and diversity scandals. The show has a new owner (the Hollywood Foreign Press Association no longer exists), a more diverse cast, and a new network. But there will be changes – and a slate A-list candidates – is it enough to attract viewers? The ceremony will air tomorrow night on CBS and Paramount+.
RECIPE OF THE WEEK
Split pea soup
Suddenly, the holidays are over and the vibrant glow of December is replaced by the comfortable, quiet days of January. That means it's time to get out your biggest pot and boil up a batch of Ali Slagle. split pea soup. Her hearty, flavorful recipe is packed with three different alliums (leek, onion, and garlic), as well as carrots and thyme, all of which enhance the thick broth, adding sweetness and depth. Many split pea soups call for ham or pork, and you can use it in Ali's flexible version, or leave out the meat altogether and sprinkle with smoked paprika. Either way, don't forget to add a squeeze of lemon at the end to brighten things up.
REAL ESTATE
Hunting: In Harlem, two friends team up to buy a row house. Which one did they choose? Play our game.
What you get for $1.3 million: Queen Anne House in Denver; Top floor in a 1916 condominium building in Chicago; or 2020 ranch style home in Austin, Texas.
Valuable imports: Harvesting saffron is difficult. But mostly small farmers and home gardeners in the US they grow spices for profit or just for fun.
Platonic romances and AI clones: Experts share their thoughts predictions for the future of dating.
Not just leggings: Some women become active wear looser and more comfortable.
Fancy some Scotch?: They are luxury brands consumption of drinks and sweet foods to keep customers engaged.
ADVICE FROM THE WIRECUTTER
How to (easily) clean your fridge
Since November, there's a good chance your fridge has been full of Tetris-style, oozing leftovers. To cleanse evil, follow this advice: Mentally break your fridge down into small manageable five-minute chunks – keeping the door open any longer is not ideal. Then, set a timer and clean each section one at a time, giving your refrigerator at least 20 minutes to come back to temperature in between. You can knock it all out in one day if you want, but for me the real appeal of this approach is that it turns a difficult task into something that can easily be done in a few days. – Rachel Wharton
New York Rangers vs. Washington Capitals, NHL: As we approach the halfway point of the NHL season, the Capitals are a team to watch. They are atop the Eastern Conference standings and are ranked No. 1 in The Athletic's latest power rankings. And Alex Ovechkin has a chance in his 20th season in Washington Passed Wayne Gretzky's all-time scoring record. Today at 12pm Eastern on ABC.