rambling West

In precious few hours, I'm off to Colorado for a week of family camp in the mountains with Katie, Jav, Lucy, and Jav's parents. Our motley crew of mostly Fischers are bound for Rainbow Trail Lutheran Camp in a rented minivan. Yes, that's right, I've volunteered to accompany a 15-month-old child on her first 16-hour car trip. Besides that excitement, there are many mountains to be climbed and much relaxing to look forward to. I hope.

Maybe I'd better pack now. Yes, excellent idea...

'Til July 9, grace and peace!

from the far corners to my wall

As I looked at my newly assembled Wall o' Music, it occurred to me how many parts of my life are represented on it. One of the vertical instruments (the zhalika- spelling uncertain) was a gift from a college friend who traveled to Russia; the other from a friend who traveled...somewhere far and/or wide. I forget where now. The pan-style flute and the qena in the red case I bargained for in Peru after grad school; the book is the Pocket Book of Great Operas, gleaned from rejected donations to the St. Olaf music library when I worked there. I thought it might be of use in my opera class. It wasn't, but it's still a nice decorative item. The LP's are from an estate sale in Olympia.
Hopefully, the WoM will eventually be dominated by a modest but decent little piano. For now, there's a music stand and my oboe case.

As I was unpacking and decorating the place, I made a conscious effort to include no meaningless clutter. Any objects sitting on shelves would either be consumable (candles, etc.), functional (speakers, metronome), or have personal significance. It turns out that these guidelines still left plenty of stuff to fill up my shelves. In the interest of reminiscence and possession justification, I'm going to begin a blog mini-series called "Objects of My Affection". Hopefully it will be interesting to people beyond myself, and hopefully some of you will see a few familiar faces. In the faceless, inanimate sense of the word. If there is such a sense.

don't judge an author by his covers

This is me (behind the paper), my co-worker Ginger (left), and author Richard Peck. Why do I so often look slightly sedated in photos? I don't know. But that's beside the point. Richard Peck is a pretty big-time author; he's won a couple of Newbery Awards, and his books get consistently good reviews. Because they're good. He writes mostly American historical fiction for the 4-8th grade set, which is not my favorite genre, but the writing is so good that I read and enjoy them anyway. Earlier this week, he visited my library and a few others in HCL. He's an engaging speaker, and I'm glad I got the chance to meet him.

He touched on a few topics, like writing, the subjects of his books, etc., but there was a refrain that ran throughout his talk. Mr. Peck's mission is to bad-mouth his publisher's art department up one side of the country and down the other.

See that look on his face? That's the way he feels about at least 9 out of 10 of his covers. It was pretty funny, if a bit obsessive. The man never gets the covers he asks for, and the books are less appealing as a result. Which is probably true. They're not bad covers, just very sedate. By his telling, the art department ladies have it in for him and give him the exact covers he asks them not to do. For The Teacher's Funeral, for example, he asked for a fist fight, and they gave him a photo of a one-room schoolhouse.

The international examples got truly bizarre. His most famous character is Grandma Dowdel in A Long Way from Chicago, a cantankerous and independent woman living on a farm in Illinois. Yes, she has a shotgun, and yes, she is extremely wary of unexpected visitors who may be salesmen, but it's all very funny. In Japan, the cover for the book looks more like a deleted scene from Deliverance. I couldn't find a close-up graphic, but squint sideways at the above photo and you might get the idea.

Once you leave out the cover ranting, there were only about 20 minutes left of presentation, but it was good. He's a big supporter of libraries and all the research you can do there. One of his most memorable statements for me was (and I paraphrase): people say you should write what you know; forget that. No one wants to hear about what you know. Write about what you can find out.
I like that. I can find out quite a bit.

what do they teach in Sunday School these days?

For those of you who work with children, you know that one of the most challenging and entertaining aspects is that when you're fishing for response A or B, they often throw you C. In storytime I've learned the hard way to NEVER ASK QUESTIONS ABOUT PETS. Also, try to avoid saying things that could lead to talking about pets. Or recent scars. Or pets. If you do, you'll never get a chance to do anything else until you first exert a lot of energy talking them down. Allow me to illustrate:

LIBRARIAN: There once was a squirrel named Sammy.
CHILD 1: My dog likes to chase squirrels!
CHILD 2: I have a dog named Buster!
CHILD 3-25 concurrently: I have a _____ named ______; I have [number] pets; I had a ____ but it got run over by a ______; etc.
CHILD 26: Look at my scab! I skinned my knee on the playground and it was bleeding and we went to Wendy's.

In my storytimes at least, nearly all roads lead to pets and recent scars; they are the choice C to most A's and B's. But sometimes things diverge in less predictable ways. While Sunday School at my church is on a break for the summer, the assistant pastor gives a little children's message before the main sermon. A few weeks ago was Pentecost, celebrated by Christians as the day when God sent the Holy Spirit to empower and counsel His church after Christ's resurrection. In theological terms it's a very big deal, but not much of a commercial holiday. To illustrate this, the pastor asked the kids, "what are some holidays we celebrate here at church?", thinking they would come up with Christmas, Easter, etc. One little boy piped right up: "PASSOVER!" Had he been reading stories about Moses and the Exodus with his family? Did he actually remember that we hosted a Passover seder a few months back to look at how many of the elements foreshadowed Christ's work on the cross? Who knows. For whatever reason, the first holiday that occurred to a little blonde Lutheran boy was Passover. And that tickles me.

As a side note, the most recent kids' message involved an apple, and one kid was much more concerned with which kinds of animals like to eat apples than with how said fruit illustrates the Trinity. So there you are: it's all about pets.

please pass the bug spray and smoked salmon

Have you ever had hors d'oeuvres in a canoe? Try it! Nothing says class like rye, cajun salmon and cream cheese, delicately assembled with a Leatherman.

I recommend finding still waters.

will it ever get old?

I recently discovered Will It Blend? And a beautiful thing it is, too. The perfect example of a cheesy retro ad campaign that really found a following and a life of its own. It's the same thing every time: same format, same deadpan delivery, same silly lines, same blender. The one variable is the contents. I guess that's what makes it a valid and respectable scientific experiment. That, and Tom Dickson's safety glasses. That really clinches it for me.



Like with many YouTube videos, there always seems to be one more. And I always end up watching one more. Objective hard science and an economics lesson in supply and demand. Blend that!

great Caesar's ghost, that's bad

I know he's a boy scout. I know some people think he lacks that certain superhero noir that's so popular nowadays. But Superman has always been, and always will be, my favorite superhero, tightie reds and all.

Thanks to my local public library, I got a hold of The Adventures of Superboy, Season 1, featuring a college-age Clark Kent and friends, ca. 1988.



First, the good: I think they meant well. It's kind of sweet sometimes, and they do try to be faithful to the comics, mostly. Other than that, it's a combination of bad young actors and guest star veterans like My Favorite Martian's Ray Walston, bad scripts, bad special effects, and a soundtrack straight out of 80's TV. Camp at its least intentional. Why did 80's TV take itself so seriously? Was it the looming threat of nuclear holocaust, U.S. Cold War self-righteousness, what? And why is Clark/Superboy's lip always slightly curled, like he's either smelling something vaguely foul or channeling Elvis?









The world may never know.

how geeks show they care

An enterprising student at the U of M used Google Earth to find the alphabet as rendered by buildings seen from space, then made a greeting-sharing website called GeoGreeting.com. Click here for my sample greeting to you. Cool, eh?

Buffy-oke!

When I was in grad school, a dear friend hosted a series of Buffythons. This was before they were released on DVD; he just had them all on tape. I had never watched the show, seeing as how it was called "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." He kindly showed me and a fortunate group of others what we'd been missing for four years. I didn't think anything would ever match those Buffythons as a communal Buffy bonding experience. I was wrong.

I just got back from a Buffy Singalong, a.k.a. Buffy-oke. It's part karaoke, part Rocky Horror Picture Show, all Buffy. You fans of the show are well-acquainted with the sixth season highlight, an episode called "Once More, With Feeling," during which, in the immortal words of Milhouse, the cast goes crazy Broadway-style. Music, lyrics, writing and directing by Joss Whedon, may he ever prosper. And now a couple of guys from New York have taken an interactive version on the road. The fun began at midnight. There was a little audience play-acting, a few video montages, trivia, and most importantly, a subtitled sing-along extravaganza, complete with props:

I won't go into it, but they each had their place.

It may be coming to a theater near you. Here in Minneapolis, it played at the Riverview, one of the last of the old neighborhood theaters. There was a solid crowd of at least 400-500, and a great crowd it was. If the show is coming to your town and you can stay up that late, it was fantastic fun. My next trip to Riverview: midnight Serenity viewing in three weeks. Yes!!!