Parchment Hands to Paper Wings

A week later!

2007-12-10T17:05:00.000-08:00

Work landed with both feet, bringing me an early Christmas present: income security for a few months. It also means I've got zero time for anything else. Bah.

I finished Nano month with some interested starts on a couple of things. Can't wait to get time to turn them into more than that.

Will be yet more time until I can update this properly -- family situations, the holidays coming up, and visitors all add up to a pretty packed December.

If I don't get back here before the 25th have a Merry Christmas, everyone.

Back to work

2007-12-01T10:53:00.001-08:00

I'm working again and this weekend is full of last minute stuff I need to complete. I have given some thought to the next couple of Reasons to Read entries, including "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf". What a sad play.

Anyway, other than the usual work things, there's not a lot going on - I am hoping to get out and 'blow the stink off me' as my dad used to say.

Reason to Read: Prometheus Bound

2007-11-27T14:07:00.000-08:00

I've learned a lot about Ancient Greece these last months. For instance, I did not fully appreciate how they outlined some of the more progressive governments of the world. I wonder how many people truly understand that the Greeks 'invented' Democracy, the Republic, even the underpinnings of Socialism?

Anyway, I read Prometheus Bound. Essentially, it's the story of a Titan (one of the old order of Greek Gods displaced by Zeus in his bid to rule Mount Olympus) who was responsible for creating mankind out of clay, giving them fire, and through it access to arts and technological advances. Mythology draws him as a very wily character who outwits others, specifically Zeus, to save his family and grant boons to mankind.

Despite supporting Zeus in his heavenly war, Prometheus is to be punished for his gifts to mankind. Zeus, apparently, having no great love for creatures of clay and angry that a power of the gods was given to us. Kratos and Bia (their names are synonymous with power and violence) along with the Hephaestus (the god of smithy) are ordered to chain Prometheus to the Caucasus mountains where he will remain for 10,000 years.

An interesting thing about Prometheus is that he has the gift of foresight and so realizes ahead of time what will happen to him. He also knows who will free him, in time: a descendant of one of his visitors, the beleaguered Io. Now, Io is interesting herself. It seems that Zeus lusts after her. That Zeus, he got around. Anyway, a god turned Io into a cow, and Hera (the long-suffering but very bitchy wife of Zeus) tortured her with a stinging beast. What a mess! Prometheus tells Io that she's to wander a long time, ever tortured (gee, thanks for the memories) until she reaches Egypt where she'll have a son, Epaphus. From them, some 13 generations hence, will be Heracles, the rescuer of our Hero.

Coming close on the heels of The Cherry Orchard, I noticed that this early play from Aeschylus shares one thing in common - both use indirect methods to deliver the tale. Now, in the time of Aeschylus most plays were a series of dialogues. It's interesting that Chekhov used a similar method - leaving all his actions offstage and communicating the story through the characters.

Anyway, the theme of this play is the confrontation of tyranny, and the limits of reason in the face of unrelenting force. Zeus is an unreasonable tyrant, Io is set upon by both Zeus and Hera, Oceanus, Hermes, Kratos and Bia all do Zeus' bidding - some with greater pleasure in the task than others.

The Greeks were afraid of losing their freedoms to the rule of a tyrant and many plays touch on this theme. (Think of Creon from Sophocles' Antigone.) Again, not so unreasonable a topic for today, when our government chips away at our freedoms in the name of fear and power.

It's a short read, and an extremely rich, layered tale. Each character has something more to say than you might think. For instance, the character Bia says nothing. Bia is Violence, he has no words, only harsh, willful, destructive action - contrast this with Prometheus' silence in the face of his oppressors. Even a few lines will bake your noodle for a good while. Enjoy!

Reason to Read: The Cherry Orchard

2007-11-26T05:11:00.000-08:00

What is the use of freedom without responsibility? This is a central theme to The Cherry Orchard. When considering any literature, it helps to know some environmental factors during its authorship. With this play, as with any important Russian literature of the time, the societal changes in Russia play a key role.

Following on the construction of the Russian railroads, the nation gained international standing, and so confronted the need to generate population and competition to broaden its commercial place in the international markets. This, in part, lead to the Russian Emancipation in the 1860's where all serfs (people bound to a particular piece of land and owned by the feudal lord) were freed.

I hadn't read much Chekhov before this play. Some of Chekhov's defining features, as a writer, are his ability to deliver sophisticated humor and ideas in plain language. Throughout The Cherry Orchard, Chekhov uses his light touch to highlight the flaws of his country's ill-supported emancipation by showcasing cross-caste characters.

From the lowly Firs, an old and faithful former serf who cannot adjust to the changing circumstances, to Madame Renevsky, the aristocratic head of her household who suffers similarly. The house is also populated by idealists, hangers-on, and enigmas, each with their own agendas and flaws.

No character is completely without sympathy - there are no 'bad guys' in this play. While the play has tragic elements, it is not wholly a tragedy. The story is carried along by rich characterization (all the action takes place off stage) and nearly all the characters are ridiculous.

What I found really delightful was the deft use of irony. Mme. Renevsky is a woman given to excess. Throughout the play, even while she worries and complains about money, gives it away and spends it carelessly. This highlights Chekhov's point that the aristocracy is ill-fitted to a sudden change in lifestyle where wealth was guaranteed and required little planning. Irony is evident in the setting of the play, as well. The opening and closing scene is set in the nursery. The characters are suffering, each in their own way, from the birth of social change. In the end Firs, the loyal servant, is forgotten and is left to die in the same place, another victim of change.

In contrast to Mme. is Lopakhin - a former serf who has risen to the class of 'nouveau riche'. In the end, he owns the cherry orchard and thus fulfills yet another ironic twist: for the basic story has Mme. Renevsky in financial trouble and on the point of losing her ancestral home to auction. Lopakhin is an enigmatic character as written, but he does try to save the property for the family several times before winning it in the auction.

Most of the philosphical discussion in the play comes through the idealistic tutor, Trophimof. He once taught Mme. Renevsky's son (who died young, shortly after her husband.) His analysis of other characters and his friendship with Anya is cool and logical. Once again, Chekhov is playing with the theme - of chances missed and unsupported changes. Trophimof is smart and logical, but still misses his opportunity for greater fulfillment because all of his decisions are based on head alone.

I enjoyed this piece. Chekhov's ability to make you laugh (and Gayef, in particular, cracked me up) while he examines the consequences of change, of freedom, without heart and forethought makes for a play both entertaining and thought-provoking.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2007-11-22T13:59:00.001-08:00

Hello folks,

Being Canadian, I started feeling the need to eat turkey in October, but since I'm living in the US I'm lucky enough to get the holiday twice.

So Happy Thanksgiving to you!

Up next: Why I love Anton Chekhov

2007-11-21T07:09:00.000-08:00

Working today, but hopefully tonight I'll get into some of the great work I've read by Anton Chekhov. The Cherry Orchard is fun, but of itself, it wouldn't leave me dancing in the trees. I found a collection of his short stories, and that made all the difference.

I seem to have a thing for Russian authors. There's innate music in their expression -- at least for me. I like Tolstoy and Dostoevsky , Nabokov and Akhmatova...it can't be a coincidence!

Anyway, more on Chekhov later.

Reason to Read: Ketchup

2007-11-21T06:33:00.000-08:00

Okay, not really. I mean 'catch up' and we'll start with Tom Stoppard's Arcadia.

Basically, the play is told in two timelines - the 1800's and present day. The stories told in these two times intersect to cover art, religion, and scientific questions. The author plays well with his very large cast, often addressing a question in one timeline only to have it picked up with a perspective shift in another. Amazingly, most of the threads are very neatly wound to closure.

The dialogue *is* witty, but self-consciously so. Once you fight your way into the spirit, though, the subject matter is engrossing. The author plays with two conflicting historical movements - romanticism and enlightenment. (Enlightenment directly conflicted with the ideals of the Romantic movement.)

He plays with the meaning of life against a second central theme: the second law of thermodynamics. A common fighting ground between the scientifically minded and its misunderstood application by the religious set with regards to evolution.

Thomasina, from the 1800's, has a crush on her tutor and also happens to be quite brilliant. She figures out this idea of entropy. The play explores this idea -- that the center does not hold. (Sorry, Yeats!)

One of my favorite moments is near the end, when two characters discuss entropy. One goes on about everything breaking down. Even heat is lost and the result of the whole cycle is nothingness. Hannah counters with a philosophy I have sympathy for: that it is not the result, but the journey that is important.

I think I had a difficult time with this play because I couldn't lose myself in it. The characters, the settings themselves, are artful but sterile. Emotions are farcical, and only occasionally dip into the deft touch that would elevate this very intelligent play to genius.

At the end of the day, it is something well worth the time to read. The light-hearted presentation of such sophisticated ideas is both educational and entertaining. I imagine that seeing fractal maths delivered with a punchline in a live presentation would be pretty damn cool!

The best reason I can give someone to read this play: it leaves you asking yourself philosophical questions -- and I am a huge fan of people using their brains to decide about difficult subjects for themselves.

Codex was blah

2007-11-19T18:28:00.000-08:00

Well, I finished Codex by Lev Grossman. The idea was superior. The execution left something to be desired. The denouement felt rushed and fell flat.

In short: a disappointment.

Oh and before I forget!

2007-11-19T03:39:00.000-08:00

I decorated for Halloween. I found these nifty 'bat lights' and had to have them.

October came and went...

2007-11-19T00:33:00.000-08:00

and here's me letting time go by without mentioning anything of it. Let's see:

I need to update my reading list. Now, book lovers everywhere will tell you not to read in the bathtub. I agree, but that's where I find my time to read these days! So I've ruined two perfectly good books in the last month.

Some Reason to Read things on Anton Chekhov and Tom Stoppard (he got better once I got into it a bit more.) will be posted over the next couple of days. They're stuck on my laptop tonight and I'm too lazy to worry about that right now. Suffice to say, excellent reads with lots going on where you think you can't see it.

My sister's family visited, as scheduled. So hectic and so much fun. One day. we hit a kid's museum where every station was interactive. The adults enjoy it as much as the children do, I guarantee it.

Got my kitchen painted, too. Looks pretty awesome if I do say so myself. Nothing like bathing in rich, warm colors. I just need to find the time to hit the living & bed rooms before my mom comes to visit for Christmas!

Still working hard, but not at so crazy a pace - and I spend a lot of time in caregiving. In between I'm participating in Nanowrimo which makes for shooting star days.

Now though, the bumps are evening out and time is a little friendlier. I can't wait to get back to a regular writing schedule.

Currently on my bathtub surround: T.S. Eliot is taking me to The Waste Land, and Lev Grossman is showing me the Codex. I'll keep y'all posted.

It's October, do you know where your September went?

2007-10-03T05:23:00.000-07:00

Another exciting week. I've decided to paint my kitchen. It'll be Boston Fern green. When this time of year hits, I get hungry for COLOR . We'll see if I can work in time to get it done before my sister arrives later this month.

If nothing else, I had some relaxation playing with the Color Smart application. You get to choose paint colors and spritz them around on pictures to see what they might look like. Here, for you frustrated interior designers: http://www.behr.com/behrx/index.jsp

Other than that, things continue busy, but now the pace is a little more reasonable. I'm knee deep in catch-up territory. I've skipped with Stoppard, romped with Chekhov, and I think I'm a bit crazy because I decided to dip into Kafka and Ward 9.

After I finish a few things up for Desert Moon (finalizing a journal and updating the newsletter which is now a MONTH LATE!!! OW!!) I will post my delinquent book reviews here. Who knows, I may even find time to draw this weekend!

Happy Autumn, everyone.

Well, another week is gone...

2007-09-20T22:09:00.001-07:00

and I am EXHAUSTED. Thankfully, my clients HAVE to be done by this coming Monday. I may just flop on the ground and hit 'coma' about 10 minutes after delivering my work.

I just got my mitts on The Cherry Orchard by Anton Checkhov and a book of essays by Nietzsche which I hope I will find time to read one day. *grin*

Meanwhile, my sister & her family is coming to visit me - yay! The bad thing about going through a 2 month busy period is looking around at all the neglected things I have to catch up on. It's time to sell everything and head to Borneo. I'm sure of it.

9/11

2007-09-13T03:08:00.000-07:00

I didn't blog about it. I wrote a couple of things.

Teaching Monkeys

If I could wear God’s face, I would
sit with screamers and saints.
We’d share a snack of blood and bread.
On the floor, we’d stretch out the skins
of fallen holy men. Virgins - boys and girls - would serve
the refreshments and wait on our stories.

With a hand, I’d invite my guests to gorge
on their rewards. Incense would burn
the air while wine filled and emptied cups
and those pretty bodies fell to good use.

Revelry over, I’d wipe drunken excess
from their eyes. Sick, with red eyes
and desecrated, ripe flesh before them
I’d hand out apples and crown each guest with horns
of plenty. Tell them the Truth
is a lot like monkeys uncaged - a carnal zoo
hung on ancient family trees.

Don’t bruise your knees or palms for me,
my bloody, lost heroes. Your prayers are heard
and echo

echo.

But Bob Dylan said it better:

Oh, what'll you do now, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, what'll you do now, my darling young one?
I'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin',
I'll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest,
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty,
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters,
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison,
Where the executioner's face is always well hidden,
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten,
Where black is the color, where none is the number,
And I'll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it,
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it,
Then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin',
But I'll know my song well before I start singin',
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

While I'm on a roll...

2007-09-13T02:03:00.001-07:00

I mentioned Stuart Ross earlier this week. Let me share this teaser with you:

This little gem came out in 1988 bunnybaby: the child with magnificent ears

It's a short chapbook put out by the author's small press Proper Tales Press. To learn more about Mr. Ross' efforts for small print labels, visit his site www.hunkamooga.com.

The poem from which the chapbook gets it's title is 5 pages long and tells the story of Bobby Boyd's mother, father, and doctor's apologia about his conception and birth (defects?) Bobby speaks only at the last. Here's a few lines from the culmination of the title poem:

My ears are twin towers of Babel.
My whiskers are numbered
and each contains a sin.
The twitching of my pink nostrils
is the history of the earth.
My two front teeth
are my parents, Adam and Eve.
I am Bunnybaby. I am Bugs
and I am Brer. I am Peter Cottontail.
I am every rabbit shot and wounded,
twitching bloody in a field,
waiting for the kiss of God.

(it continues. I hope you'll do what I did...log into Abebooks.com and do a search for the title above. Or contact Stuart Ross through his blog and find out how you can get a copy! You won't regret it.)

Adventures in Reading

2007-09-13T01:31:00.000-07:00

I have read Arcadia by Tom Stoppard(I got into it ...some. I thought it was deft and funny. More on that this weekend.) I also read Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. I can't really say that I'm a Tennessee Williams fan. I mean, I can tell that the play is good - well written, but all the subtext isn't really subtext. The whole play is so shrill. I'm going to read at least two other plays before I make up my mind completely about TW. I hope I like them better.

I'm also about a 3rd of the way through Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss. I'm not feeling it, either. It's a beautiful book, don't get me wrong. The author paints some very wonderful characters but the style of the writing is so disjointed - it never lets me sink.

There's been some chatter around the blogsphere about folks skimming the classics. When I told a friend about my Reason to Read posts, his response was, "You realize that you've probably already read more than most lit grads." I thought he was being cynical. Now I'm not so sure.

I can understand it. Reading is a personal endeavor. Some of the things that I'm reading aren't pleasurable. They're not to my taste, or in my comfort zone. I can't get into Jane Austen and I've tried, a lot. I want to like Pride and Prejudice as much as I appreciate its craft. I can't help it though. After 7 pages of a greeting at the door and some delicate preening in the mirror - well, we'll leave it at tedious.

I read Crime and Punishment when I was a teenager and all of Raskolnikov's fever and anguish still gives me chills. I LOVED that book. Now, of course, I'm older and know more about Dostoevsky: what comes across as emo to a teenager is that certain Russian melancholy and innate lyricism that permeates the language. The central character, and indeed the characters in the books that follow all benefit from the author's traffic with the very types he makes us friends with though his stories. We don't like Raskolnikov but we understand him. I appreciate the book more now, but I can't say I like it any better for all my deeper understanding.

I guess what I'm learning most through reading all of these classics and prize winners is that it's really still about pleasure. I won't like all this stuff. I don't think I'm supposed to, either. No one who's read War and Peace can say that 4 chapters of Church description really thrills them to the core. But if you skim that, then you miss Tolstoy's philosophy. Reading for pleasure means you don't really take it apart and analyze as you go - you're inside it. Reading to learn, that's like taking your vitamins. I like the benefits too much to stop.

Unbelievable!

2007-09-13T01:17:00.000-07:00

August was just loaded with time for me to blog away like crazy. Let me tell you what happened. See, my company gets subcontracted by a company in California (Relate - great training developers if you're ever in the market for the full package - video, CBT, WBT, etc) The owner/operators of Relate have been friends for almost 10 years!

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago we started a smallish project. No problem. Then we got upscoped - one project morphed into two and considerably longer. Then we broke it into three. Now we're about to upscope again. The good news is, we finished one piece completely. Two more are headed for the finish line tomorrow (if I go full-throttle through to the end of the day.) Friday morning is our new project scoping.

All of which would keep me pretty busy by itself, then we talked some more and I'm taking over another little job for file management, basically. In itself, no big deal - it's just training to take over that while working the other things lead to some long hours. So now it's 2 weeks into September and I haven't blogged much at all.

So, there you have my crazy few weeks. More about my Reason to Read shortly, and other literary endeavors. Salut!

Drawing for today

2007-09-10T11:29:00.000-07:00

Still don't have a lot of time for leisurely pursuits this week. Hopefully, Thursday or Friday will see the decks clear a bit.

In the meantime, I've got this new drawing - this time I'm playing with perspective and it boy, do I suck at it! *grin*

It's Saturday!

2007-09-08T21:33:00.000-07:00

And I napped and napped. Then I napped some more. It has been a crazy, crazy week. I'm so glad it's done. Although there's still a lot of work to be done on many fronts, at least there's breathing room.

Every so often I appreciate this kind of hectic schedule. I consider myself to be one of the fortunate few - my entire life has basically flowed the way I quazi-planned it. School, travel, where I live and how, all that good stuff. When responsibilities close in and I stare at the ceiling for those few minutes each morning before hauling my butt to the shower I don't think about how tired or frustrated I am...I am thankful for the usual days, the cruise.

I get angry and stressed (as anyone who knows me can attest) but you know, I would have to be completely arrogant and oblivious not to recognize that I've got it pretty damn good. I kinda wish that the worst of anyone's troubles equalled my own. If that were true, we'd have a whole lot of happy (but mostly lazy!!!) people.

Sound and fury

2007-09-05T12:22:00.001-07:00

Days are filled by work,
telephone shrieks, doctor's offices,
prescriptions, meals,
conversations, errands,
groans, grunts, and coughs.

Families are tough rope
bound with telephone cords,
front doors swung open on their frames,
sturdy shoulders for unsteady feet,
pressed-lip annoyance, and windows
in the car, open to cool hot words.

Every day tests the will to push
for the peace we're convinced
Someday never has.

I'm in the Times Online!

2007-09-02T20:54:00.000-07:00

Along with a number of other poets with 'train' themed pieces. I know it's not a great poem, and mostly they're posting what they're sent, but it's still pretty cool to see your work and name put up by people who don't know you *grin*

Heading into the weekend...

2007-08-31T20:27:00.000-07:00

Have a bit of a cycling thing to do, and I'm going to be doing assorted website things so not much time for the big blog this weekend. On Monday I hope to have my quick Reason to Read for Arcadia. So far, I can understand why it's good, but I'll be honest, I don't feel a deeper connection to the story yet. We'll see how it develops. Perhaps a bit too much Apollo and not enough Dionysus. Have a great weekend!

Last thought for today...

2007-08-30T19:31:00.001-07:00

Arcadia on a hot tin roof

2007-08-30T18:29:00.000-07:00

Yep, I'm reading again. Arcadia is going well, and I've picked up some Tennessee Williams. Also reading some obscure Canadian poets. Stuart Ross is rather striking. More after this weekend. I'm up to my eyeballs in online journal layout.

So I read Pretty Little Things

2007-08-29T04:52:00.000-07:00

and read it about 100 more times. It's a cute little book. Each 'story' takes about 5 pages to tell the unfolding journey of 'your' life. I wouldn't recommend buying it, though. Go to a bookstore, try the gimmick, then go grab The Alchemist by Paul Coelho (which is the book I put down to buy Pretty Little Things.)

I bought it because I was/am a huge fan of Steve Jackson gaming books. They were great. In each one, the story had a solid beginning, before you affected the course of events. There were a few dozen outcomes, only one of which was a 'win', but winning didn't matter. What mattered was that you effectively told the story, and you could tell it 10 different ways.

So why do I like Steve Jackson's book and find Heather McElhatton's so disappointing? Here's a few reasons:

1) it's written from a woman's viewpoint.
2) the stories are so short and unfold too quickly
3) they're filled with overblown events

This could have been interesting. I wouldn't mind seeing another attempt, this time with stronger storytelling and more than just a feminine viewpoint.

It wasn't all bad, though. I mean, there's a certain amount of fun in living a 6 page life that has an abusive boyfriend, 4 lovers, a rape, and dying in an airplane crash.

What is culture?

2007-08-27T21:55:00.000-07:00

I've been doing a lot of reading about culture lately. There's the so-called "high culture" as defined by Fine Arts programs everywhere - where we learn that culture is the province of antiquity, largely defined by white men.

Then there's cultural identity, which comes from a long history of layering the lives and practices of a geographically centric people.

Then there's 'pop culture', so-called for its contemporary and transitory adherence to popular trends.

Venture around in the current canon and what you find is singularly disturbing: the 'defenders' of culture proclaim its imminent collapse in westernized society. Diversity is nihilism, we don't read enough, poetry is dead, newspapers won't print book pages, Stanford and Duke are sacrificing critical literature groundwork for politically correct studies because they modified the curriculum to remove some of the old, white men and replaced them with Asian, Persian, Afro-centric or fem-centric ideologues, or because they include more post-modern poetry while teaching less of Chaucer-to-Eliot.

If you believe all this, then you have to also believe that culture is created, always, by the ultra-educated, high literate few. I have to do some research. I can't state anything with certainty without some facts, but here's my sense of the issue: In the western world, higher education is available to more of the people. More than any time in history, schooling is for everyone, and a larger percentage of the population attends high school and institutions for higher learning.

We aren't part of a culture where academia is reserved for the very privileged few. McLuhan referred to the Global Village: ‘As electrically contracted, the globe is no more than a village. Electric speed at bringing all social and political functions together in a sudden implosion has heightened human awareness of responsibility to an intense degree’

We are more subject to each other. Now, although we may be misguided and politically manipulated, the problems of our neighbors are reported in our living rooms and offices. I can buy books from a store that uses the profits to send a girl in New Delhi to college, or fund literacy rooms in Cambodia.

Diversity is being attacked as the death of cultures; my problem with this statement is that it is arrogant. If culture is the layering of influences and events on the societal structure and behaviors of a people, then aren't we adding layers?

In the natural course of events, people assimilate ideas and influences from each other. It's a long, long process and usually involves a great deal of violence, but that is how cultures modify and build, or become lost. Given this, isn't it natural that, with enough time and space, a homogeneous society would develop?

Has any culture defined itself in the present tense? If they have, were they correct? Plutarch attacked Pericles' expenditures on artistic and philosophical pursuits. Yet, what do we revere today of the Greek culture?

Perhaps it is an illusion, but today we are closer than ever to McLuhan's vision - exposed more to each other's cultures and ideas. We are better educated, more informed, and whether right or wrong, coached into an ideology of acceptance. We are blurring the lines of separatism and growing towards a worldwide culture.

There are fault lines, and earthquakes ahead. There will be wars, dark ages and new ages. The pendulum will swing. Culture is not defined by climbing short ladders to plateaus of 'ideal education'. We don't get to choose what the people of Earth 500 years from now will remember.

Culture is happening. It changes. It is the vine, not the trellis. It is alive and there's plenty of evidence throughout history that it is the one thing that will only die when the time of man comes to an end.

Reason to Read: Flowers for Algernon

2007-08-26T13:16:00.001-07:00

What can I say? This book definitely deserved its awards.

Charlie Gordon is fascinating character. His story is told through a series of autobiographical 'reports' for scientists who select him for a radical surgery. Charlie was born with an IQ of 70, and the study offered by a team of doctors is designed to raise the intellect. Their animal tests on a mouse named Algernon show enough promise to merit a human study. This is a dream come true for him - to be smart.

Charlie's journey is a difficult one. Thanks to a dysfunctional family, he believes in his simple way that being 'smart' will allow him what he truly desires: acceptance and human contact. He quickly learns that knowledge is a painful master.

As his intelligence soars, Charlie finds himself more and more isolated. His holy grail has turned on him, and strangely, he finds he has 'switched places' with the people around him - his own mental prowess leaves others feeling inadequate.

Suddenly, Algernon begins to fail. This is the death knell for the mouse, and for Charlie's hopes. Once the object of the study, he now becomes its master and proves that he is destined to regress and likely to be more incapacitated than before. The story closes with Charlie as he was when we met him.

It is wonderfully written and engaging. Charlie's struggles are rendered with a deft touch and when I turned the final page, I was left asking myself the right questions. I highly recommend the read if you haven't treated yourself yet.

Busy weekend, more books

2007-08-26T00:46:00.000-07:00

Well, I didn't post yesterday because I was busy with work and reading. I'm like a woman who's just found her first true love and I'm making *myself* sick with how I go on. Laugh along, I don't mind. Somehow there's a special comfort in knowing that a little of Charlie Gordon lives in me.

I'll make a separate Reason to Read post about Keyes' Flowers for Algernon. I just finished it. My one nit: I should have read it years ago.

New drawing

2007-08-24T22:25:00.000-07:00

Arcadia hasn't arrived yet, so I'm writing a few 'pomes' and had this great short story start happening. I hope to get that tied up in a rough draft soonish. Meanwhile, my pencil has been calling, so I have this new drawing!

Next up: Arcadia by tom Stoppard

2007-08-23T22:34:00.000-07:00

I've decided that I won't be going into near as much detail for my annotated reading list. I'll probably end up posting a brief paragraph or two for each work.

Not that I won't be doing the back-up reading and research. If the only time you've done that kind of background work is for school - high school or university English or what-have-you, then you really don't know what you're missing.

I won't write 12 page essays and 4 long blog entries for everything I read, but I've got hold of the magic beans now. I learned so much more than just the content of that play. The coming months are going to be exciting, filled with discoveries and disappointments.

Reason to Read: Antigone - Essay

2007-08-23T12:05:00.000-07:00

I've written an extensive essay on the subject, but only after completing the 12 page paper did I remember the point of this little exercise. What appears below is an extremely simplified version of the original essay, which I may post elsewhere.

Antigone, written by Sophocles in 442 BCE, is as relevant today as it was when written more than 2,500 years ago.

It is important to read this work not only for its relevance to our modern issues, but also because it is an example of the progress of written arts in Hellenic society, the benefits of which we have enjoyed in the two millenia since; Shakespearean plays like King Lear, character-driven novels, movies and plays, even to modern films such as Little Shop of Horrors, or animated film Flushed Away with its very cute Chorus!

Imbued in its short tale are overreaching lessons in the nature of governance, limitations of power in its many guises, and the harsh retribution that pride may visit on the unwary.

Sophocles
Born in Colonus as a son of wealth and nobility, Sophocles was sent to Athens for his education. He studied under one of the greatest Greek playwrights, Aeschylus. He was a contemporary of Socrates and Protagoras and the influence of both is felt in Sophocles’ work.

Sophocles’ creative career spanned the time of Pericles’ rule and is considered by many to be the best poet/dramatist of the Periclean age. As Evelyn Abbott notes, this is not an insignifcant achievement in a time Plutarch criticizes as one where too much was spent on amusements:

If we were to calculate the cost of various plays, we shall find that the Athenians laid out more on...Oedipuses and Antigones, on the woes of Medea and Electra, than was spent on the wars which they waged on the Barbarians for empire and freedom. (Abbott, 289-290)

He was a favorite at the Great Dionysia festivals in Athens, where he entered

at least twenty…times, capturing the first prize more often than any other dramatist, and never receiving less than the third prize (L. Campbell, 288).

Pericles and the Golden Age of Athens
Aristotle, in Politics, discusses Pericles’ detrimental effect on the polis. (Hansen, 14). Through constant warring and imprudent use wealth, he greatly reduced the fortunes of his beloved Athens. However, as given in the Thucydidean funeral oration, Pericles eloquently outlined his principles of isonomy, later to solidify into Democracy, the principles of which so swayed John Locke, David Hume and Voltaire. Consequently, this lead to the founding ideals of the American Republic through the persons of Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, Washington, et al. (Carmody, and Carmody 88)

It was during the reign of Pericles that Athens flourished artistically, spending vast amounts of the state’s treasury on the pursuit of beauties and amusements, perhaps to comfort the people ravaged by war. While the changing fortunes of Greece’s military might are remembered, it is Greece’s artistic and philosophical contributions which are still impacting our world today.

The golden intersection of Periclean ideals, Sophocles’ incisive interpretation of Attic tragedy, and Athens victory over the Persians was a watershed for philosophical and artistic creation.

The Play
Antigone is an entertaining story first and foremost. Sophocles used tools of his own invention to breathe more life into his characters. What Aeschylus began, Sophocles improved to excellent effect. The evolution of dramatic storytelling would grow throughout the ages, keeping their roots firmly in place. When you sit to watch your favorite character-driven drama on television, you’re paying homage to a tradition begun 2,500 years ago.

The themes of the play, which include the role of women in society, the role of Natural Law vs. the laws of the State or the role of God in society, and the detrimental effects of excess hubris, could be taken out of today’s headlines.

In America, we wrestle daily with the role religion should play in our government. The Natural versus concrete law arguments affect the curriculum offered in our schools, the types of sciences we pursue, and the judges we select to sit for the Supreme Court.

Don’t take my word for it. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas mentioned natural law and natural rights in his speeches. When Chairman Biden of the Senate Judiciary Committee suggested this was odd, Judge Thomas explained that he thought natural law contributed to the principles underlying our constitution (as the framers stated) although he realized his obligation is to follow the positive law – the actual Constitution – whether it springs from natural law or not. (Van den Haag, 35+)

As for the role of women in society, you would have to have been sealed in a cave for the last 100 years not see these debates play themselves out across headlines and history books!

Conclusion
Reading classical literature, such as the plays of Sophocles, gives a proper foundation for the critical reader. Contained within are the underpinnings of modern civilzation. Attic Tragedies and the philosophies of ancient Greece were the nurseries which bore our modern ideals of government.

Antigone is an entertaining piece of literature, whose ideas and themes are as relevant today as the day the piece was written.

Bibliography

SOPHOCLES. "Antigone". 442 BCE, translated by R.C. Jebb, The Internet Classics, MIT.edu, unknown. http://classics.mit.edu/Sophocles/antigone.html, August 14 2007.

SOPHOCLES. “Antigone” translated by E. H. Plumptre. Vol. VIII, Part 6. The Harvard Classics. New York: P.F. Collier & Son, 1909–14; Bartleby.com, 2001. www.bartleby.com/8/6/. August 15, 2007.

JEBB, R. C. “The Growth and Influence of Classical Greek Poetry: Lectures Delivered in 1892 on the Percy Turnbull Memorial Foundation in the Johns Hopkins University.” London: Houghton Mifflin and Company, 1893.

KAMERBEEK, J. “The Plays of Sophocles; Commentaries.” Leiden, E.J. Brill -: Leiden, 1984.

ABBOTT, Evelyn, “Pericles and the Golden Age of Athens”. G. P. Putnam's Sons. New York. 1891

VAN DEN HAAG, Ernest. "Not above the Law." National Review 7 Oct. 1991: 35+

O'BRIEN, Joan V. “Guide to Sophocles' Antigone: A Student Edition with Commentary, Grammatical Notes, & Vocabulary.” Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois UP, 1978.

EHRENBERG, Victor. “Sophocles and Pericles”. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1954.

LINES, Patricia M. "Antigone's Flaw." Humanitas 12.1 (1999): 4.

MOULAKIS, ATHANASIOS, ed. “Order and History: The World of the Polis”. Columbia, MO: Missouri UP, 2000.

CARMODY, D. L., and CARMODY, J. T. “The Republic of Many Mansions: Foundations of American Religious Thought”. 1st ed. New York: Paragon Press, 1990.

HANSEN, Mogens. “Kleisthenes and the Icons of Democracy”. History Today. Vol 44. Iss. 1 January 1994. 14+.

Still busy...

2007-08-23T00:13:00.000-07:00

The essay's just about done, but Wednesday was a very busy day. I should have a reprieve today, but nothing more for now. I'm off!

My head is stuffed

2007-08-21T08:23:00.000-07:00

with all manner of Greek things. It's the reason for no posts yesterday, I was too busy reading a silly amount of material to support the essay I'm writing on Antigone. That little project is well underway and I should get it posted sometime today if work doesn't intrude too much.

I can understand completely why reading lists are just that! If the other works have as much depth and breadth to them, then I could be at this project for a year and still only get about a quarter way through the AP recommended texts. I will probably scale back on future projects, but have to admit that I've thoroughly enjoyed this one.

Well, back to my essay!

Drawing for today

2007-08-19T01:30:00.001-07:00

I'm all over the map these days (and not just physically!) The Reason to Read stuff is fantastically fun so I'm knee deep in reading material on Sophocles and Antigone. I'll have to remember to mention that really understanding what you read takes patience and a library. *grin*

Also, I can only draw when the mood strikes, which is weird but true. Can't sketch a line when that nagging itch isn't there. But it is, so I am! It seems that hair is my latest thing - I want to draw more photo realistically so I'm trying to learn how to draw hair: hence this sketch.

I labor under the delusion that you can't write or draw worth spit, much less develop a style of your own that's worthy of notice, unless you can learn to do it the right way first. For instance, I will never believe that my poems have an ounce of worth until I can create a proper sonnet and know why it is proper. Notice I didn't say good. I fully believe that I can write crap sonnets yet still write a good poem in my own style eventually.

Reason to Read: Antigone - Themes

2007-08-19T00:15:00.001-07:00

The main themes I could see at first pass in Antigone:

Death
Fatalism
How power is divided between the Gods and man
Role of women

Death & Fatalism

Death is prevalent throughout the play. I think that it is important to note that every death portrayed is chosen. Sophocles, like many of his time, believed in fatalism, so why is it so important that every character chooses their time and method to die?

The play opens with the tidings that both the sons of Oedipus have died. This fulfills a curse laid upon them by their father. Oedipus himself killed his own father, also foretold, but by a prophet. The family line is cursed, as a whole, for the sins of Oedipus, as the Chorus of Elders and Antigone discuss when she is led away to her punishment. Even Haemon tells Creon that his actions will result in another death, and Teiresias foretells the same.

All of the deaths are fated to happen. So why do the players here choose to die? Was Sophocles edging into determinism*? Fatalism is a common theme in Sophocles' work.

*Determinism is the belief that events are inevitable based on previous conditions, and that man, even though he makes choices, is the expression of his heredity and his past environment.

Power of God and Man

Sophocles has Creon and Antigone speak at length about their beliefs; what should be controlled by the Gods or by the state. Antigone believes that Creon has overstated his powers and infringes on the realm of Olympus. Creon believes that the State should be run with the protection of its government in mind first, and all other considerations second.

In fact, Creon knows he is sacreligious, putting his throne and government ahead of everything else in the play; this is his fatal flaw. His son, his sister's children (Creon is the brother of Jacosta), even the Gods come after his stubborn position.

The imagery Sophocles used for the voices of Antigone and Creon highlight their positions. Antigone's imagery is nature-based, while Creon's images tie to the skills of man and civilization.

Role of women

The role of women is clearly a theme, but the play itself does not speak much about its purpose. All of the rhetoric comes from Ismene and Creon: Ismene being fearful and timid only parrots the view of the state. Creon ridicules women and emphasized often their role as subservient and marginal.

Yet, this play features a heroine. It is Antigone who is willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for what is right. She is unequivocal and fearless. She calls her king, the father of her fiance, a fool.
Antigone is the antithesis of the roles attributed by the state. She is a protest of the common view in and of herself.

-- to be continued

Reason to Read: Antigone - Analysis

2007-08-18T23:52:00.000-07:00

For me, the first step in reading critically is to break down the contents of the material. We take a look at the multi-layered story and try to extract the main themes, the sub-plots, and even historical perspectives.

A short reason to read Antigone: it is entertaining and well written.

You cannot discount the importance in any creative endeavor to appeal to the audience, no matter your art. Perhaps, once your audience knows the nature of your work, you're freer to be obscure and difficult, but the best work appeals on every level. Antigone does this.

There are more reasons to read this play, of course. Not the least of which is that some of the themes are in powerful play across our headlines everyday and all over the world. We'll discuss that at some length.

I'll confess that I didn't read only the R. Jebb version, but the translation by E.H. Plumptre from Charles Eliot's Harvard Classic series. (When I'm through with this discussion, I'll provide a complete bibliography.) The main difference that I can see between the two is that Plumptre's version is a more lyrical version presented in verse.

Discovering Themes
You have to train yourself to analyze an art. The danger, of course, is in seeing more than what's there, or conversely, not seeing enough. So, for this play, I tried to go through the play after I had given it a first read and figure out what parts seemed to be emphasized, or what lines or words seemed to come out of nowhere, in short, to ask 'what this weirdness here is all about?!' As I read, I highlighted passages to look at again later and what things to fill out with a little research.

to be continued...

Reason to Read: Antigone

2007-08-17T21:40:00.000-07:00

Antigone is a play, written in 442 B.C.E. by Sophocles. This review is based on the R.C. Jebb translation.

Since this is the first of such reviews, I'll explain a bit as I go along. Knowing the author of an original work is key. If you're going to understand more about the content, then finding out what you can about the person who wrote it can lend more meaning to the words. Spending even 10 minutes reading a brief biography about them can give you insights you might not otherwise gain.

Likewise, if you're dealing with a translation, it helps to know something of the translator. They lend some of their own voice to the words, perhaps invest a slant that wasn't in the original. Translation is an interpretation. You can also determine for yourself whether their qualifications for the translation invest some merit. So:

More about Sophocles here. Basically, he was a Greek tragedian. His particular influence was to introduce more 'players' (3) to the stage, and narrow the influence of the chorus (a set of dramaticians who would sing, speak or act out to exaggerate lines, all together, to make sure the audience got the point or reacted appropriately to the action in the play.)

This is important to Antigone, the play, because several of Sophocles' main traits as an author are exhibited here. His characters drive the story, play out the plot more fully, and invest more life into the characters. He used female players and invested them with importance, reduced the chorus content, and explored fatalism as a theme. The story is a tragedy which, by definition, says the main player must suffer a reverse of fortune due to some mistake or flaw.

R.C. Jebb was a very well respected Classical scholar. His translations of Greek works gave new birth to them. You can read his book about the seven plays of Sophocles online through Google books. (The seven plays refers to those plays which survived in their entirety to present day.) His insight into the birth of the Oedipus story line is very interesting.

Antigone Synopsis

Characters:
The daughters of Oedipus, Antigone and Ismene.
Creon, the King of Thebes
Eurydice, his wife
Haemon, his son
Teirisias, the prophet
A guard
Messenger 1 and 2
and a chorus of elders

The play opens with Antigone bringing her sister the news that Creon, new King of Thebes, has forbid the burying of their brother, Polynices. She is very angry at the unjust treatment between her two brothers, for Eteocles was given proper ceremony.

She asks her sister to help her bury Polynices, but Ismene won't go against the King's edict and begs her sister to be careful, for the punishment is death by stoning. Antigone is rash and says that she will take care of her own in the proper fashion even if it means her death. She's impatient with Ismene's timidity.

Ismene reminds her sister of their father's fate - he was greatly punished for heedless mistakes in killing his father and marrying his mother. She reminds Antigone that their mother hanged herself, and that their father died in exile and disgrace, leaving the throne to two brothers who killed one another. That in defying the new King the last of their family will fall. She cautions that they are women and should follow the men in harder edicts than this.

Antigone persists. She will do what is right, and threatens to cast off her sister for trying to convince her otherwise. Again, Ismene begs for caution and silence to go about her plan. She promises to keep the secret, as well. Antigone won't have it a secret and, much agitated, leaves.

The chorus enters, details the fall of the two brothers, and introduces Creon.

Creon explains his edict to the chorus. Eteocles is given proper ceremony for fighting with his homeland, and Polynices is doomed to waste uncovered for fighting against it.

A guard enters and tells the king that someone has buried Polynices. The chorus inserts that this might be the will of divine, but Creon won't listen to advice. Creon sends the guard away under dire threat to find the culprit. Soon the guard returns with Antigone who came out of hiding to finish the job.

Creon asks if she knew what she was doing. Antigone is unrepentant, telling Creon that he had no right to break the laws of the Gods. She says:

...And should I seem to thee
To have done a foolish deed, ’tis simply this,—
I bear the charge of folly from a fool.

Ismene is brought in, and says she shares her sister's responsibility. Creon charges them both but Antigone tells him (and Ismene) that she had no part in what was done. Ismene should live. It is not a kindness, for Antigone will not share her martyrdom with a sister she felt was false. Ismene asks the king if he would kill his own son's fiance, for Antigone was to marry Haemon.

Creon imputes his son for caring for such a woman, and goes on to say that she is dead, there is nothing that Ismene can say to change it. Further, he says:

No more delay,
Ye slaves. Our women henceforth must be kept
As women—suffered not to roam abroad;

Haemon enters and speaks to his father. Creon tells him that Antigone is to die, and that she is unworthy of live because she seeks rebellion against the state. Haemon warns him that, though his words seem wise, he might listen to other counsel; the people do not like his decisions.

Creon insults and ridicules his son, saying that he is ruled by a woman. Haemon tries to explain that it is not Antigone he fights for, but reason. That in killing her, Creon will draw another death. Creon accuses his son of threatening him. Haemon tells his father that he is not wise and leaves, much upset.

Creon decided to spare Ismene, and sentences Antigone to a death by starvation in a cave outside of the city. On her way to her fate, the chorus and Antigone discourse on her choices. Antigone speaks of her love for the state. The chorus deems that she was fated to die as she has, because of Oedipus. Antigone agrees.

After Antigone is sealed away, Teiresias comes to see the king. The prophet tells him that the gods are angry with him, for the carrion-eaters who feast on Polynices are the self same animals that will be sacrificed to them.

Creon ridicules the prophet and Teiresias tells him that his foolishness will cause him sorrow - a death of one of his own. Once the prophet leaves, the Chorus reminds Creon that Teiresias is never wrong. The king, unwilling to face a death in his own house, remands his orders. He bids his guards to help him free Antigone and bury Polynices.

A messenger arrives shortly to tell the chorus that there is bad news. Antigone hanged herself, and Haemon, seeing this, threatened his father, then killed himself. Eurydice, unable to bear her son's death, kills herself. A second messenger delivers this news to Creon as he carries his son's body.

The play closes with Creon lamenting losses he cannot bear, and the Chorus expounds:

Man’s highest blessedness
In wisdom chiefly stands;
And in the things that touch upon the Gods,
’Tis best in word of deed
To shun unholy pride;
Great words of boasting bring great punishments;
And so to gray-haired age
Comes wisdom at the last.

--- that's the synopsis. Tomorrow, the review!

Reason to Read

2007-08-17T21:09:00.000-07:00

To begin what I hope will be a regular feature of my blog, I chose Antigone by Sophocles. Why? Because it appears first on the AP English Course list (alphabetical listing) and I hadn't yet read it.

A while back I was looking to enrich my experience of reading poetry (or books, or plays!) Teaching yourself is a haphazard process. I read reams of poetry, and a small library of books (no great hardship there, I love books.) Still, I just couldn't find those germs of wisdom; quotes wouldn't nest and bear their own fruit. I was still alone in a forest of words.

I felt the myopia but no one could prescribe a decent pair of glasses. What was I missing? Is there a way to train yourself to see critically? That was the challenge.

Critical reading - like active listening - is a very different process than simply reading for pleasure. I will never give up the pure pleasure of cutting into a book, but to wend my way through the trees and name the inhabitants I would have to change how I read.

It's a struggle. Most reading lists are just that, lists. No hint of why this work is more or less important than another. What you should be looking for, or how to find it.

So I decided to use this blog to create what I couldn't find: a critical reader's guide. It'll be flawed and slow growing. I know that going in. I hope to find my errors corrected, additional ideas shared, hints about what was missed, or tips to lend meat to the bones.

So, my feet are on the first trail with a familiar maple not too far ahead. Antigone is her name, and Sophocles is telling the story. Why don't we walk a bit and I'll tell you what I heard.

Archive - 3 things for August 16th

2007-08-17T21:08:00.000-07:00

Three words I think are funny:

1. Barnacles

2. Weasel

3. Kazoo

Mind changes

2007-08-16T16:57:00.000-07:00

I love having my mind changed. It's so delightful! There you are with all your headspace and assumptions in tact, then some new thing comes along and smashes you clear out of orbit.

It's happened for me a few times, once when I was learning how to write a poem. Oh, not the basics, but really trying to learn to write. I read an essay on poem structure by Kim Addonizio at The Alsop Review. It was so clear and so persuasive. It showed how a line could mean far more than the words it contained by adding a space, a comma, or a break. Every poem I've written since has had very careful attention paid to the line breaks. Most of my poetry is still crap, but more than one critic has noted that I've got a way with line breaks!

It happened today, thanks to a blog entry at http://awolcivilization.com/?p=23. Not the content of the entry itself - only some of which I agree with - but a link from a comment to a YouTube video about the hysteria surrounding Global Warming. Move over IPCC, the pendulum will swing.

Aside from shifting my leftist-bent on CO2 (a position I now see has been carefully crafted for me) it reminded me, once again, that you have to be willing to find answers for yourself. If something catches your attention in the media, then do a little research. Don't accept, question. It's a precept of science I adore. I'll be looking into the assertions given in the video and worrying far less about CO2.

Oh, and today's my birthday. I think this perspective shift is the best gift I could have received!

I hate rhinos

2007-08-15T16:31:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, it happens.

You're cruising along, feeling like you've got the world by the tail. Making progress and cliches left, right, and center. Then you hit the rhinoceros in the road.

It's a big bastard, and he's slow and mean. He's carrying all the hiccoughs that invade every pathway around him, too.

So the work you put in for weeks with a will seems to vanish in a puff. Getting up early and energized, for instance, or the paperwork you've done is dwarfed by what's waiting, and every project in your portfolio lands on top of you along with 50 pound potato sacks filled with phone calls, drafts, revisions and corrections. You get that phonecall - you know, the acid one.

Good intentions don't carry you forward. It takes all your willpower to push past the big gray beast built from your own sense of futility. These are enemy days. When you have something real to cope with, there's support out there. When it's you, you get hummingbird hand gestures and lemon looks.

All by way of saying that I hate rhinoceroses, especially when they're me.

Long day

2007-08-14T21:20:00.001-07:00

no candy. So nyeh.

I'm a Monkey...

2007-08-13T01:48:00.000-07:00

and I just got a cool new keyboard.

Okay, I knew I was a monkey. That's my Chinese astrological animal. I LOVE being a monkey - let's face it, we're cute 'lil buggers. Besides, we're lucky. Monkeys are great except for when you wear them. Would I make a hair suit if you wore me? Scratch that last thought. It's evil and wrong. Anyway, monkeys are fun and like sex, too...so you know, what's not to like?

Tonight while I was out monkeying around the lure of Best Buy got the better of my pocketbook. Now my computer is the proud new owner of a Saitek keyboard (NOT CORDLESS) that can glow underneath the keys in blue, red or purple. I plugged it in and did a happy dance.

What's up with keyboards? I will not use a wireless board. I won't. Batteries? Conflicts? Annoying jumpiness? NO NO NO. I dare you to try and find a wired board, though (short of buying a new computer to get one.) They don't sell 'em. The one I ended up with has features designed for gamers and almost all the gamer boards are USB - I dunno why. They cost over 50 bucks!

So I love my wired red-lit keys but I don't like the fact that you can't get a regular old everyday simple keyboard that plugs in. I'm turning into my mom. "What's up with all this newfangled monkey business?!"

Sundays!

2007-08-12T12:32:00.000-07:00

Can you think of any other day of the week that has so many good things associated with it? I know Friday has your whole "end of the work week" mystique, and Saturday has all that "let's stay up late because we can sleep in tomorrow" stuff.

But Sunday - holidays, rest & relaxation, ice cream, (Okay, that's sundae but I don't care, they belong here.) last day off before the start of another work week, for you churchgoers it's community day...see what I mean?

None of which I'm getting to experience today as I ramp up on a couple of projects, make a dash for the grocery store and some kind of Mart to finish all the errands on my list, squeeze in dinner at a friend's, and...

Maybe next Sunday I'll get some ice cream.

Archive - 3 things for August 11th

2007-08-12T12:31:00.000-07:00

These things help you get ahead:

1. Someone else's hands.

2. Catching up on your filing.

3. Knowing you have company coming.

Drawing for today

2007-08-11T17:28:00.000-07:00

Not a new one, though. I like the movement -- it's inspired by a photograph from a book I'm using to improve my drawing called Anatomy for the Artist.

There are a million subjects throughout the book and a lot of my TV time is spent with charcoal in hand learning the curves and colors of human beings.

The clothes are my addition - not because I'm a prude (the human body is really quite lovely) but because I'm trying to learn how to draw how cloth drapes.

Archive - 3 things for August 10th

2007-08-11T15:28:00.001-07:00

These things make you realize how blessed you are in the ways that matter:

1. A phone call from a friend in England.

2. Chatting with a friend online.

3. A phone call from your sister.

It's been a very full day

2007-08-10T22:50:00.000-07:00

I spent it learning lots and lots of code-y things which didn't leave much room for bloggy bits. I will point you to an interesting article I read about climate data that may just change our notions about how quickly the earth is really warming.

I'm a fan of science, and I do think we (as in the planet full of people) are affecting global climate. As a fan, though, I like a measured, non-hysterical approach if we can do such a thing at all. Mainstream media is about entertainment and bang for the buck so they tell us what will draw our attention. Not necessarily what is true.

Archive - 3 things for August 9th

2007-08-10T13:23:00.001-07:00

These things make your day:

1. A phone call from your best friend.

2. Learning something new (and if it's tech-y...whoa!)

3. Finding 10 bucks you didn't know you had.

The lessons of housework

2007-08-09T13:26:00.000-07:00

A job left for later is guaranteed to gross you out 10 times as much.
'Weeds' - another word for 'grass' after 1 month without lawn care.
Dirty clothes multiply faster than rabbits.
All dishes should be made of bio-degradable plastic.
Dust is a valid design choice.
Vacuum cleaners don't get carpets clean if you leave them standing in the corner.
Knees were not designed for the art of bathtub scrubbing.
In Zen and Media Library Maintenance it does NOT say, "Become one with your collection by allowing it to spread throughout the home on every available flat space." No matter how many times your partner insists that it's true.
You can make a good case for animal cruelty to birds by cleaning your windows to an absolutely perfect shine. New slogan: "Save a beak, leave a streak!"
After putting everything in order, your world is a happier place. Unfortunately, you're too tired to enjoy it.

Archive - 3 things for August 8th

2007-08-09T13:22:00.001-07:00

These things make getting up early especially heinous:

1. No milk for my tea.

2. Cutting short a really, really sexy dream.

3. It's early. Way early.

writing with my new graphics tablet!

2007-08-08T23:35:00.000-07:00

it would be fun to show you my actual scribbles, but Vista will only insert "smart text"so, here I am, actually writing in longhand on my computer!

Fun stuff to play with. I bought this ages ago, but my pen never worked. Now, some 2 years later and armed with a new pen, I'm hoping to turn my paper and pencil sketching into Photoshop art. Hmm...I'll probably need a course or two!

My hand is tired - oh woe, that bodes ill for the art of penmanship, doesn't it?

Treat time - a drawing for today

2007-08-08T16:17:00.000-07:00

Thanks to recent discussion on a couple of blogs, I was thinking of Plato, Aristotle and So-crates. I ended up picking an old wizarding type to draw.

He looks serious about life and spellcasting, don't you think?

It's Wednesday, have you seen my conference call?

2007-08-08T05:58:00.000-07:00

Hola bloggies!

All the slogging through work for the past 5 days comes to a head today. I'll be in conference calls half the day going over most of it. Part of me is glad -- I did a good job. The other part just wants a really long nap. With Brad Pitt. (Okay, not really, I don't have a thing for him.)

Archive - 3 things for August 7th

2007-08-08T05:55:00.000-07:00

These things are annoying:

1. Waking up to a basketload of unfolded clothes.

2. Getting a pimple anytime past the age of 21.

3. Running out of coffee.

Busy is good,

2007-08-07T11:01:00.000-07:00

right?

I'll keep telling myself that as I hit a dead scramble today. I have bunches to say, but no time to say it here. Fortunately, you can't hear me cuss.

Archive - 3 things for August 6th

2007-08-07T10:58:00.000-07:00

Things to help you love Mondays:

1. It's in the beginning. That's always good.

2. You had a rest just yesterday.

3. They are a good excuse to drink cappuccinos.

Cool resource for creative writers

2007-08-06T21:53:00.000-07:00

who are shopping their work around. Nod to Shawn Nacona Stroud for the tip.

http://www.duotrope.com/index.aspx

From the website intro:

Welcome to Duotrope's Digest, a database of over 1900 current markets for short fiction, poetry, and novels/collections. Use this page to search for markets that may make a fine home for the piece you just polished. Use the menus at the top and right to explore the rest of the free services we offer writers and editors, including a free online submissions tracker for registered users. If you are new to Duotrope's Digest, please acquaint yourself with our terms & definitions before running your first search.

We update about once a day, and we check all the listings at least once a week to ensure the most up-to-date database possible.

Back on a music kick

2007-08-06T14:53:00.001-07:00

Found a new band, Sick Puppies, through a YouTube video. I really like My World and All The Same - and those are the only songs of theirs I've heard yet! Buying the album next week, so I'll keep you posted.

Also on the current playlist is Dave Matthews. Gravedigger, Oh and Angel.

http://www.seeqpod.com/ for my current playlist.

I'm feeling lazy

2007-08-06T14:11:00.000-07:00

which is a bad thing when you're self-employed. Help! help! I've lost my motivation!

Archive - 3 things for August 5th

2007-08-06T13:35:00.000-07:00

Things I want to remember:

1. The sweetness of my Aunt Rose.

2. Why birthdays are fun.

3. How it felt to immediate and immortal (or 17 and stupid)

When you can't be bothered

2007-08-05T21:22:00.000-07:00

to journal.

Time for Alanis fun

2007-08-05T21:13:00.000-07:00

This is old, but great! Here's mine:

"Why"

Words, critics, lines
Why God, Why?
Critics, breaks, poetry
Why God, Why?

What have I done to deserve this purple horror?
Surrounded on all sides with the Hell of poetry
Like a Cohen character, I'm wordy and alone
Why God, Why?

Or!

"Will to Live"

I feel miserable
Words make me ill
I feel miserable
Critics tear at my foundations
I feel miserable
Lines are dragging me down to the depths of misery
I want to die

Is it because of poetry that I feel this way?
With the purple rays of misery pounding on my brain?
Or am I lost in tale of Cohen, adrift far from home
I don't think so, I don't think so.

Chris Broke My Will to Live
Chris Broke My Will to Live
Chris Broke My Will to Live
I was getting better but then
Chris Broke My Will to Live

I feel miserable
Breaks rot the flesh from my bones
I feel miserable
Poets defeat my purpose
I feel miserable
Idiots are doing their best to impale my soul
I want to die

Is it because of poetry that I feel this way?
With the purple rays of misery pounding on my brain?
Am I lost in tale of Cohen, adrift far from home
I don't think so, I don't think so.

Chris Broke My Will to Live
Chris Broke My Will to Live
Oh God, Chris Broke My Will to Live
I was getting better but then
Chris Broke My Will to Live

Chris Broke My Will to Live

Have eyes, will travel

2007-08-05T18:45:00.000-07:00

I'm seeking inspiration. Lots of collections of poetry, good and bad, are perched on my office shelves. Hosts of books that I just plain old like. That's the groundwork. Plugging away through a good selection of 'classic' literature helped some, too. Then there were all the books on craft: how to read, how to write.

A funny thing, though, was how hard it was to find a good list somewhere. A primer for the autodidact, if you will. I used this site as a starter. Sometime after August I'll actually get into Library Thing and plug in all the wonderful books I added to my own list. That may just be my project with Parchment Hands emerging. Not only the list, but the why and the how.

Maybe that's what I'm missing. We're told to read Leaves of Grass but not what it is we're looking for inside it much less how to find it. Sure, there are courses for it but I can't afford, nor do I have the time for college right now.

Besides, I think there's room for bubblegum, too. I like Nora Roberts' work and I don't apologize for it.

Anyway, I'm looking for something to read. Do you have a map?

Now, I nod to Yoly

2007-08-05T18:22:00.000-07:00

'cause I didn't win alone. Yoly's work is so rich and colorful. (Just an excerpt now, it's not mine!)

Summer of 77

Adolescence furnished my body two years
before it found my brain. Chicago was a can
of carbonated heat. I had a crush on
everything risky, above all, a brown-eyed
skinny boy. I know for whom my curiosity

churned the moment I spotted him
discovering me in a polka-dot sundress.

and I think y'all should read the rest of this and the many excellent entries we were treated to here. (If you're not a member, you'll have to get a username, I think.)

I won! I won!

2007-08-04T23:20:00.000-07:00

Well, color me happy. I won a little poetry challenge at Desert Moon Review. The poem is going to be in the newsletter we're sending out on Monday and I get a CD. Yay me!

The poem:

...he let me listen
to the wind, the wildgeese,
the soft dialect of sheep,
while his own silence taught me
every secret thing he knew.

- from 'Soaking Up Sun' by Tom Hennen

I Never Knew My Grandfathers

who kept secrets curved along their spines.
Generations of words worked into cracks
on their faces, lighter mirror of mine,
with gilt heads and silvered eyes.

In swatches of summer I meet them,
sometimes. On a rooftop, a weathered shingle
amongst his kind or,
parcelled in a sweater, knuckles of rock
fisted around playing cards.

Both are gone, now, but remain
in the bent of my father's back
and the secrets summer whispers
through my silvern hair.

The CD: Jack the Musical: The Ripper Pursued, as performed in Charlotte, North Carolina last summer. http://cdbaby.com/cd/asu3

Archive - 3 things for August 4th

2007-08-04T23:16:00.000-07:00

These things keep me busy on Saturdays:

1. Weeds in the backyard and bird nests in the Gazebo

2. Eating - at least the shopping for groceries part of it.

3. Tending to other gardens. Family, home, and friends.

I dream in stories

2007-08-04T13:36:00.001-07:00

It is a lucky trick to have a brain that turns my dreams into feature films. Last night, a poet went on a worldwide pilgrimage to find a reason for words. He wrote a treatise on the obsolescence of stars and made his way to three oceans.

In all of them he found evidence of God, and made a companion of Him explaining why he didn't believe in deities. God had had a sense of humor about it. He told him that it was okay. It was enough that He believed in the poet.

He explored the elements and turned to me with wonder on his face; that I was witness to all of his thoughts. He implored me to learn more about the cradle of Wind. To never forget each hand he held was the jigsaw puzzle completed. To tell myself, when I woke, that the beauties of everyday are hidden in its garbage. Don't forget the dead bird when you write about the garden. Don't wash the dirt from your hands when you write or draw. The smudges on the pencil are more important than the marks you make.

...more important than the marks you make.

Thanks for my dreams. Thanks for the smudges and the dead birds. Thanks for the remainder of everyday playing when I sleep.

Archive - 3 things for August 3rd

2007-08-04T13:09:00.001-07:00

These things are predictable:

1. getting up at 7 for the workmen who don't show up at 8.

2. when internet surfing, your morning tea will become cold and vile. ugh!

3. when sneaking out in yesterday's clothes to grab the mail, the neighbor you've never met will be there, too.

More Seeqpod!

2007-08-03T13:30:00.001-07:00

Stranger Than Fiction

2007-08-03T07:49:00.001-07:00

with Emma Thompson and Will Farrel is a very good movie. It's quirky and fun, with a serious undercurrent that captures you completely. I highly recommend seeing it.

Archive - 3 things for August 2nd

2007-08-03T07:44:00.001-07:00

These things are funny:

1. Zorgogging (don't ask)

2. Tripping trying to get your pants on when someone rings the doorbell.

3. Snorting when you laugh...on a business call.

Arresting lines

2007-08-02T22:13:00.000-07:00

from songs I listen to:

the paper holds their folded faces
to the floor, and everyday the paperboy
brings more
- Brain Damage, Pink Floyd

Gravedigger, when you dig my grave,
could you make it shallow
so that I can feel the rain?
- Gravedigger, Dave Matthews Band

and when he knew for certain only drowning men could see him
He said, "All men will be sailors, then, until the seas shall free them"
but He himself was broken, long before the sky would open
forsaken, almost human
He sank beneath your wisdom like a stone
- Suzanne, Leonard Cohen

there's a dream he dreams where the High School is dead and stark
it's a museum and we're all locked up in it, after dark
the walls are lined, all yellow-grey and sinister
hung with pictures of our parents' Prime-Ministers.
- Wheat Kings, The Tragically Hip

And if I die before I learn to speak, will money pay
for all the days I lived awake but half-asleep?
- Standing outside a broken phone booth with money in my hand,
The Verve Pipe

Out of the blue and into the black
They give you this, but you pay for that
And once you're gone, you can never come back
- My my hey hey, Neil Young

I don't want to be your food or the light
from the fridge in your face at midnight, hey
what are you hungry for?
- Not The Doctor, Alanis Morrisette

COOL!

2007-08-02T20:27:00.000-07:00

Someone pointed out this site, and I gotta say, it is VERY cool. Found some new music already.

Seeqpod - here's some stuff I listen to:

http://www.seeqpod.com/music/?plid=90b09330c4

Okay - they got me.

2007-08-02T14:29:00.000-07:00

I'm in a conference call with a client, so it's not like I can blather on with my team. Well, I needed to ask one of them to do something and thought "hey! text message!" and whipped out the old cell phone.

me: m e-ml me 2 docs on mon. k?

Get the reply: k. u doin *****?

My txt back: y. got it. gt PD to give u the scoop. Why the hell dont they talk abt this stuff when we send drafts?! (as you can see, I was a bit angsty over the length of this call)

Get the reply: C, cuz we txt when we shud b readin. who's PD?

Yep, folks, I txt'ed the client. I'm a moron.

Drawing for today

2007-08-02T11:55:00.000-07:00

I'm a fantasy art fan, and that's what I tend to draw. The inspiration for (okay, I copied) this drawing came from a book by Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell called Fantasy Workshop.

Archive - 3 things for August 1st

2007-08-02T11:22:00.000-07:00

These things are frustrating:

1. when your online email service goes down.

2. getting stuck on a 2 hour conference call

3. having no pants to wear because you forgot to dry that load of laundry last night.

I feel good

2007-08-01T16:08:00.000-07:00

'cause I watched this.

Reminds me of something my friends and I did in high school.

I have a thing for William

2007-08-01T14:29:00.001-07:00

William of Ockham (or Occam) was a courageous and interesting man. Most famous for 'Occam's Razor' (all things being equal, the simplest answer is usually the right one.)

I'm reading parts of his Dialogus here. Facinating stuff. The more I know about philosophy the less I understand about the world. It's a great trade-off.

A new (old) poem

2007-08-01T14:17:00.000-07:00

You wouldn't think such a little creature would keep me up half the night, would you? Damn thing is STILL missing S2. Somewhere between begin and old there's a middle ground I can't pin down.

Travels

I had a map in younger days, filled
with points and plots. To begin, I’d put in pins
to chart out all my stops.

My railpass has expired. Short courses
are too steep. I try to buy the tickets
but now they don’t come cheap.

Pinpricks line my claims. The map’s got old
with rot. I don’t have time to go again,
to fill in all the dots.

Poem revisions

2007-08-01T13:12:00.000-07:00

Writing is supposed to be cathartic, right? I guess in all the angst and hair-pulling there is some release. When my head gets filled with silly bits and pieces I usually open a text editor and spew them out. It works for awhile.

Then I start reading something and the next thing I know...a poem leaks out. Now, the truth is, we can't help but be a little impressed with ourselves. I like what I write; at least for a while. Then I try to take that poor, innocent jot of something and turn it into things that other people will like. As Shakespeare noted, "aye, there's the rub!" That's when I start to beat it with sticks. I call it names.

I think I'd be better off if I just poked these foundlings into a folder on my hard drive. I wouldn't hate them so much, and I'm damn sure they wouldn't keep torturing ME this way!

Archive - 3 things for July 31st

2007-08-01T13:11:00.000-07:00

These things are beautiful:

1. A dad brought his son to work.

2. Fuzz on the tv screen when the cable went out. I was saved from reality programming.

3. Freshly dried towels. Rich sienna and gold all tumbled and warm.

Today's drawing

2007-07-31T13:23:00.001-07:00

Checking out some sites on the Sistine Chapel. I had the good fortune to see it in person once.

ahhh features!

2007-07-31T13:16:00.000-07:00

I'm going to continue the 'three things' tradition. Today it's three things that are beautiful. Also, since drawing is my latest obsession, I may inflict some of my scribbles. As always, I'll update the Intertainment section with stuff I find around the Web that keeps me busy!

2007-07-31T12:41:00.000-07:00

I'll be updating a lot today. If we haven't met (although I think we have, right? There are no strangers here) then leave something behind. I'd like to call you back for an excuse to talk.

New and not necessarily better...

2007-07-31T12:32:00.000-07:00

Welcome, again. I hope my old friends follow me here. I decided to put my own stamp on the face of things since I'm not one for templates. During the transformation (as usually happens with any metamorphosis) just about everything old was lost. Only the bones remain.

Hopefully we construct ourselves better over time, but I have my doubts. The person who wakes each morning is the one who walked you through yesterday. I wonder if time and pressure make that much difference to who we are in the long run?