Bloggin' On: Things I'm Looking Forward to in 2020 (Besides the Election, Of Course)

© 2020 W.W. Norton & Company

Hello and welcome to another edition of A Certain View.  It's Tuesday, November 12, 2019, and it's a lovely fall morning in my little corner of Florida. Right now the temperature outside is 68℉ (20℃) under partly sunny skies. Apparently, the Big Chill that is affecting most of the country has made its way to the Sunshine State as well, although it's not as cold here as it is further north. If I don't get sucked into my routine of sitting at my desk all day, I might venture out to the veranda and read in the fresh air and sunlight after I have some breakfast.

If you are a Constant Reader of this blog (and I thank you if you are!), you've probably noticed that until recently I was writing at least one post a day. My goal for 2019 was to have at least 365 blog entries written and posted; as of today, my tally will be 389 once I finish this post and hit the "Publish" button, which will put me 24 posts over my original target. And because I still have over half of November and all of December left, I can assure you that by the time 2020 rolls around, I'm bound to reach the 400-posts mark and then some.

Still, I am cutting back on my blogging a bit for several reasons. First and foremost, I couldn't keep up the one-post-a-day pace anymore; writing is what I do best, but it's hard to come up with ideas for a post every single day. I did it for most of 2019 because I was answering a lot of questions on Quora in many categories, including politics, movies, books, and other topics I am interested in. But I closed my account early in October out of frustration with how Trump supporters have swamped Quora with troll-like questions, answers, and comments.

In addition, I was advised that if I ever hope to get paid by Google from AdSense, I would either have to close my Quora account or delete all of my blog posts that were mined from it. Since I was already disillusioned with Quora, I opted to delete my account there altogether.

So, yeah...that's going to affect my output here a bit.

As for today's topic...

Well, with the holiday season nearing faster than a speeding bullet, I'd like to talk about some of the fun things I'm looking forward to in 2020 besides the upcoming Presidential election and/or the impeachment (or resignation) of Donald Trump.

Ian W. Toll's Pacific War Trilogy will be complete: After almost five years of waiting for the publication of Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945, I finally got the notification that W.W. Norton & Company will publish the hardcover edition on July 21, 2020. It was originally slated for a 2019 release, but Norton's original estimate was overly optimistic and we're getting it next summer. Per the publisher's blurb:


The final volume of the magisterial Pacific War Trilogy from acclaimed historian Ian W. Toll, “one of the great storytellers of war” (Evan Thomas).

Twilight of the Gods is a riveting account of the harrowing last year of World War II in the Pacific, when the U.S. Navy won the largest naval battle in history; Douglas MacArthur made good his pledge to return to the Philippines; waves of kamikazes attacked the Allied fleets; the Japanese fought to the last man on one island after another; B-29 bombers burned down Japanese cities; and Hiroshima and Nagasaki were vaporized in atomic blasts.

Ian W. Toll’s narratives of combat in the air, at sea, and on the beaches are as gripping as ever, but he also takes the reader into the halls of power in Washington and Tokyo, where the great questions of strategy and diplomacy were decided. Lionel Barber of the Financial Times chose the second volume of the series (The Conquering Tide) as the preeminent book of 2016, calling it “military history at its best.” Readers who have been waiting for the conclusion of Toll’s masterpiece will be thrilled by this final volume.

Needless to say, I have this on pre-order at Amazon.

Spielberg's West Side Story:

I have the 1961 film adaptation of Jerome Robbins' West Side Story on DVD; I originally bought it for my mom several years before she died in 2015, but I decided to keep it rather than pass it on to my estranged older half-sister. So I've seen this movie quite a few times over the past few years.

Even so, I'm looking forward to seeing Steven Spielberg's remake, which boasts a screenplay by Tony Kushner (Angels in America, Munich) and is reportedly going to be more faithful to the original 1957 Broadway stage production than the Jerome Robbins/Robert Wise film.

Walt Disney's 20th Century Fox division will release West Side Story on December 18, 2020. That's 13 months away, but it's definitely something worth waiting for.

The Blu-ray release of Star Wars - Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker

The last installment in the Skywalker Saga is still a month away from its theatrical release (December 20, in case you're wondering). Of course, I'm going to see it at least once (hopefully on Opening Day), but you also know I'll be getting the home media release as well.

If the past is any indication of the future, Buena Vista Home Entertainment will release Star Wars - Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker on Blu-ray either in late March or early April of 2020. The Force Awakens was dropped on home media in April of 2016. it was the last Amazon purchase I received at my house in East Wind Lake Village; The Last Jedi came out on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital download in late March of 2018, a few weeks after the movie ended its theatrical run.

I also hope to be getting the Blu-ray releases of It: Chapter Two and Midway early next year, even though I would only give the latter film three of five stars.

As for books and music, I plan on getting The Rise of Skywalker novelization and its Art of Star Wars volume, as well as the expected Ian Doescher William Shakespeare's Star Wars adaptation. Of course, I will also get the last John Williams Star Wars score on CD.