Poems, Prayers and Promises

Elizabeth wandered over to my personal blog, and I couldn't figure a quicker way than this to respond to her question. Hey, E! 'Sup? I wrote a review (of sorts) of The Meat and Spirit Plan for Rivet Magazine's blog. I had high expectations for it because I've loved every novel I've read from that press, but it disappointed me. I was so ready to like it and got lost in the dreamy nihilistic worldview. I'll give her first a try some time.

And, to y'all, I've been working on what I was trying to get to in the nostalgia discussion. I fell in haste to the shorthand of media (just the most malleable metaphor for me), but it is a lot more, bringing in discussion of dogmatic religion and big T Truth, even perhaps getting a bit New Agey with habits of mind. But, anyway, I'm working on it between beeing driven insane by my kid and promoting stuff like this.

Hope y'all are doing well. Oh, good suggestion for holiday downtime cozy read - The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan. Gardener and journalist walks through a natural history/ethnobotany of four plants - apples, tulips, marijuana and potatoes. Excellent. I'm left forever with the image of hydro pot growing operations as a field of sexually-frustrated and ever-enlarging green clitorises.

And how could that not be a good holiday read?

[The title is as to what holiday show I'll soon be seeing in Seattle, and you should, too.]

Andrew's Early December 513 Haiku

I'm a week early, but I found this while looking for something else, and it was too good of a find to keep to myself:

Alphabutterflies
Wings wafting over paper
what wind do I blow

and the ever-wonderful limerick:

A graduate student named Morgan
Wrote a paper like a chimeric gorgon
and when mom and dad read
they said, "The boy's lost his head!"
but the Prof said, "No. He's protecting his organ."

you may now return to your life, already in progress. :)

Who spelled Foucault wrong?

The Road to Whatever: Middle-Class Culture and the Crisis of Adolescence

Have any of you read this book? I saw it in the UW bookstore recently, but didn't want to shell out the $26 to own it. It seems intriguing and after a couple of years with a teenager in my home I'm really curious to see if this guy's argument is compelling...anyone? anyone? If it is a worthy read, it seems like it would be a worthy read for teachers too...is there hope that you can reach the disengaged kid in the corner with the hood of his/her hoody up?

Musicophilia; Tales of Music and The Brain

As we cupped our cold fingers around 20 oz containers of decaf and wished we'd thought to bring hats, I strained to see Rose and John in the ever growing line of people waiting over an hour in the wind and rain to hear Oliver Sacks read from his new book at the Seattle Central Library. He read to a greater-than-capacity crowd. He is as charming as you've imagined (if you've imagined what he'd be like in person).

You must all put his latest book on your reading lists. It's a nice mental shift (for me at least) to consider a passion from a neurological perspective. It's also fascinating to see the spectrum of just how far wrong our brains can go when it comes to something as intrigal to the human experience as music.

I'm only on page 66, but so far the book is typical Sacks: charming, kind, gracious and unendingly interesting. I'd offer to send you my copy when I finish, but my mom has already called "dibs". :)

The Inheritance of Loss- recommended by Kyle

Kyle, thanks for recommending The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai. I very much enjoyed it. The language was luscious, and I found the politics of the place interesting. I read much of it during my commute and today. I spent most of my Saturday reading--it was wonderful!
Speaking of politics, there's an essay by Mark Danner in the 2007 best essays called Iraq: The War of the Imagination which outlines the steps that led us into Iraq. It doesn't offer a solution or a suggest a solution (which was a disappointment), but I thought it was the most useful piece I've read on a what has been a confusing issue for me.
My next book in line is The Zoo Keeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman. I plan to read it on my plane ride to Denver. I have a work thing there this week. I am SO much looking forward to seeing Anne and my sister while I am there. And I very much like Denver.

And sadly, I missed Oliver Sacks visit to Seattle on Friday (I had a work event) and I missed Ann Patchett too b/c she read during the day, and I was at work then too. But I am anxious to get my hands on a copy of her new book, Run. I have seen Lynda, Jessica, Don, and Jim all quite recently- so count me the luckiest one of all! Aren't some of the rest of you overdue for a Seattle trip. It's raining....

Greetings from the new home of Cryptococcus gattii, the deadly tropical fungus just in from BC

I'm sure you'll all be jealous to know, I've just gone to (and procured 10 pounds of honeycrisp apples from) the Bellingham Farmer's Market. This time of year it's a little more scant than summer's fare, but still worth the walk for fresh vegetables and good bread (and a balloon animal from the weird clown dude, if you're into that kind of thing). I'm certain I saw more dreadlocks today than most of you have seen in months.

But, to be brief, I wanted to let you all know of a few places online my work has featured...

This week the new Front Porch Journal is out at www.frontporchjournal.com - I'm under Fiction, but it's all good stuff (regrettably, I'm the only one featured on the website that currently does not have a book, but I'm hoping to change this soon). Oh, and C and I submitted and were accepted entirely without the other's knowledge (or FPJ's knowledge of our coupledom). This, our first time in print together. Hoorah. Hopefully not the last.

Also, check me out at www.juked.com - I'm under September's selections, but it's probably still on the main page as well. And on 3:AM Magazine online. I think that was in September too: www.3ammagazine.com.

If I mention the print stuff you probably won't go out and buy it anyway, so...