entertainment

Well, I’ve looked at the list of book reviews I want to write and two are for short story collections – which will probably involve typing a table of contents – and one is for a novel. So guess which one I’m going to do? Yes, the novel. It should be easier. I first found Caitlin R. Kiernan through her blog where she talks a lot about writing. Well, mostly grouses, but sometimes says some useful things (grousy and useful are not mutually exclusive anyways). At any rate, she often refers to how frustrating it is to write stuff that no one understands, and how reviewers and readers are constantly referring to her work as difficult to follow. Don’t believe the hype. There’s nothing particularly obtuse about her style, her plot, her characters or anything else within the covers of this slim volume. Threshold even has a glossary to help you with the scientific language. I’ll admit there’s some ambiguity involved in the story but truly, it’s not hard to follow what’s happening nor whom it’s happening to, and the story requires ambiguity to succeed. It does succeed. I was entertained and pulled into the world feet first and I cared about the characters. I particularly liked the way Kiernan used heat and light as oppressive forces. Few writers can make broad daylight seem quite as terrifying as she does in this book. In terms of atmosphere, this book was superb.

I also generally liked Kiernan’s prose. There was a simplicity, exactness, and poetry to her words that I very much admire. However, she does have one writing idiosyncracy that many others have commented on but I must also point to, because it was distracting. She pulls adjectives together to create new wordlets, usually with synaesthetic overtones. In every instance that I noticed one of these compound words I stopped (and to her credit, I didn’t always, and sometimes her conjoined words fit perfectly and seamlessly) and re-read the sentence several times. While I understand the limitations of language, especially to a visual author which Kiernan clearly is, and I also understand the desire to stretch and reform language to your own voice, I usually didn’t see the need for these agglomerations. The sentences would have painted just as clear a picture if the words had been their separate entities, used in the standard way. I’m not someone who thinks there’s no room for experimentation in writing but I must admit to being continuously pulled out of the tale by the pushedtogether words. That said, it was a small thing, and didn’t deter from my enjoyment of the book overall.

I occasionally found the dialog to be a little eye-rolling and unbelievable as well, and I’ll admit I held a grudge against some of the dialog because it often chopped up bits of lovely prose with a lot of verbal equivocation and stumbling about. I would not have stopped suspending my disbelief if the characters had been just the teeniest, tiniest bit more eloquent than they were and it would have eased my anger at them for interrupting the flow of things with their pointless jabber. That’s probably a totally personal viewpoint, though, and not terribly valid as analysis of the piece.

The ending was a slight let down for me, in that it seemed almost too easy. I didn’t find it terribly confusing or as vague and open-ended as everyone else seemed to, but I did find it undercut the tenor of the book as a whole. Still, this wouldn’t be the only author I’ve read and enjoyed that didn’t know how to write an ending (Neal Stephenson, I’m looking at you) and it certainly didn’t diminish anything that came before it. I may be reading more Caitlin R. Kiernan in the future.

Continue reading

Persepolis had been on my Amazon wishlist for some time now. I was interested in it because it had been rated a good read by people who read more comics than I do, and should know, and because it was by a woman (still a rarity in the comics world, it seems to me) and because learning more about Iran during the time of the author’s childhood (coincidentally the time of my own childhood) was something I was interested in. And now for the fawning : Persepolis is probably the best comic I’ve read in the last two years, which means it bests some work by one of my personal author heroes, Neil Gaiman, whose very respectable Endless Nights hardcover collection of Sandman stories I read within the last year. Persepolis satisfied me in all respects. The artwork was interesting, compelling and direct. I particularly enjoyed the way she used traditional eastern forms like the elephant riding prince and a magic carpet ride to illustrate the fantastical nature of a child’s imagination. The story was worth telling. The characters were true people, given to the gamut of reactions and emotions that real people are given to, and portrayed unflinchingly by Satrapi’s sure hand. The situations described are Kafkaesque and yet not so alien that a reader who has never been to Iran and has never lived through a war on their territory or a dictatorship would fail to understand the horror-tinged irony. The emotional honesty of the narration took me from fear to laughter to sadness and back again. In terms of learning what really happened in Iran the book is illustrative but remains anecdotal. It remains difficult to grasp living in a land, for example, whose borders are closed, a topic Satrapi mentions only in passing, as the background necessary to understand a personal story of estrangement. Indeed, if the book suffers from anything it’s from a kind of compression that slights the subject matter. While the drawings do help to augment the words, there are entire years here that take place on a couple of pages. Red shirts abound. People make appearances for the sole purposes of being the next set of bodies, like the Baba-Levy’s, Jewish neighbors who are mentioned for the first time two pages before they are bombed out of existence. Still, taken in the context of a child’s memory, the pacing and the story work. Juxtapositions such as her first pre-teen party with the an image of the boys sent to die in war with keys to paradise around their necks are extremely effective. Childhood happens – with its excitements and disappointments – whether your land is peaceful or war-torn, authoritarian and repressive or open and democratic. This is the basic truth of the tale, and I find it a truth concordant with my own experience.

I cannot recommend Persepolis highly enough. Thank you to my Sekrit Santa, who gave it to me for Christmas this year.

Unrelated note: I’m testing a new piece of software with this post. If it goes well, I will provide more details on that later.

Continue reading

This book was given to us by the Montessori school, and was a fascinating read. It describes in detail many of the materials designed by Maria Montessori and how they are used by children in the classroom setting. After reading it, I wonder at standard schools who don’t bother to explain the philosophy behind their educational approach to parents, much less the use of their classroom materials. Is it because there is no underlying philosophy? Because they aren’t sure what the philosophy is? Because they don’t think the parents need to know? Maybe it’s because their approaches don’t make as much sense as the Montessori approach. Because that’s what blows me away about it, it makes so much sense, and seems so true to the nature of children. I want to be involved, I want to help and I feel like I couldn’t do either without understanding the basics of it. And there’s not only the fact that they encourage, even demand, that parents understand the Montessori educational philosophy, there’s a bottom line goal in the Montessori classroom that has nothing to do with teaching them to read or teaching them mathematics. It has to do with nurturing in them a love of learning and respect. They’re completely unafraid to tell you this. We will teach your kids to love learning. We will teach them to respect themselves, each other and the natural world. We can’t tell you when they’ll be reading, because only they know exactly when, but we can tell you they’ll learn it and love it. This seems like such a bold and unapologetic stance to me. I applaud them for it, and I hope they succeed with Sophia. My highest aspirations for her are that she love to learn and that she coexist peacefuly with others and the world around her. This is a very bright and encouraging day for me, and I hope it is so for Sophia.

I imagine that I will be reading and writing quite a bit about Montessori methods over the next few months. Stay tuned.

The other night on the Montessori school’s bulletin board I noticed an article about Montessori schools that had a classroom picture of several children, with a caption pointing out Anne Frank. Holy cow! Anne Frank went to a Montessori school? Cooooooool, I thought to myself. That got me wondering what other notable people might have attended Montessori schools. A little digging on the web got me to this list, taken from the Casa Di Mir Montessori School’s FAQ, which I’m pasting below.

• Katherine Graham (deceased), owner/editor of the Washington Post
• Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis (deceased), editor, former first lady (John F. Kennedy)
• Sean ‘P.Diddy’ (formerly known as Puffy) Combs, RAP mega-star
• Anne Frank, famous diarist from world war II
• Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Nobel Prize winner for Literature
• Jeff Bezos, financial analyst, founder, AMAZON.COM
• Prince William and Prince Harry, English royal family
• T. Berry Brazelton, noted pediatrician and author
• Julia Child, famous chef, star of many TV cooking shows and author of numerous cookbooks
• Elizabeth Berridge, actress (Constanze in Amadeus)
• Kami Cotler, actress (youngest child on long-running series The Waltons)
• Melissa and Sarah Gilbert, actors

• Stephen J. Cannell, TV writer-producer-director (The Rockford Files and many others)
• Patty Duke Austin, actress
• Cher Bono, singer-actress
• John Bradshaw, psychologist and author
• Yul Brynner (dec.), actor
• Marcy Carcy, TV producer
• Bill & Hillary Clinton, former president/senator, NY
• Michael Douglas, actor
• Shari Lewis (dec.), puppeteer
• Yo Yo Ma, cellist

• Alexander Graham Bell (dec.), noted inventor, and his wife Mabel founded the Montessori Education Assocation in 1913. They also provided financial support directly to Dr. Montessori and helped establish the first Montessori class in Canada and one of the first in the United States
• Mister Rogers, children’s TV personality, strong supporter of Montessori education
• Thomas Edison, noted scientist and inventor, helped found a Montessori school
• President Wilson’s daughter trained as a Montessori teacher. There was a Montessori classroom in the basement of the White House during Wilson’s presidency
• Alice Waters, restauranteur and writer, is a former Montessori teacher
• Bruno Bettelheim (dec.), noted psychologist/author, was married to a Montessori teacher.
• Erik Erikson (dec.), noted anthropologist/author, had a Montessori teaching certificate.
• Jean Piaget (dec.), noted Swiss psychologist, made his first observations of children in a Montessori school. He was also head of the Swiss Montessori Society for many years

Interesting list, isn’t it?

Continue reading

I’m not quite finished with On The Golden Porch by Tatyana Tolstaya. I’m on the twelfth of thirteen stories, though, so I think I have a good enough idea of what I’ll be getting out of this book to write a review, and so I will.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve read a book of short stories. I’d forgotten how wonderful it can be to dip into a world just for a half hour, take in the sights, and then be on my way again. It’s a special treat when the worlds are as sumptuously appointed as Tolstaya’s. I’d also forgotten how easy it is to breeze over stories you don’t like if they are mercifully brief. Not all the stories of this book are of the same high quality. Some feel lost on the page, as though they’ve forgotten why they are there or where they were going. Most, however, are charming, engaging and thought-provoking. One of the best things about this book is that it’s indelibly Russian but without requiring thousands of pages to be so. I loved Dostoevsky and Tolstoy as a teen, devouring their works, but if I had to pick them up today I just wouldn’t have the time required to plumb their depths. This book is like little slices of Dostoevsky pie with sweet, and somehow sad, Tolstoy tea. Some of her core ideas are a bit repetitive, but the use of language is so luxuriantly rich that it seems a small sin, completely forgivable. And sometimes, in the middle of a set of ideas and characters you are convinced you read about in the previous three stories, she’ll suddenly rip aside a veil and leave you gasping with surprise. That these moments come infrequently is not a fault, as it would be painful to read a constant barrage of them. No, she has clearly orchestrated these moments with care.

I don’t think this book is for everyone, but if you enjoy Russian literature and flowing language, and think that these qualities compressed and cut up into manageable portions would be like a much needed balm for a busy life, then you will get much reward from this book. My favorite stories are probably “A Clean Sheet”, “Hunting The Wooly Mammoth”, and “Sonya”.

As a final note, I have had more ideas of things to write and think about while holding this book over the past couple of weeks than in the three months prior, and I can’t think of a higher endorsement than that.

Continue reading

Several times a year, I stumble upon a song that I find I have to listen to over and over again, obsessively. These are songs that really move me in some way, whether by beat or by lyrics or by both or by something else that I can’t even begin to explain. Sometime in March, when I received a mix CD from Esthela, the song was Paulina Rubio’s “Y Yo Sigo Aqui”. I had to listen to it back to back to back and every time I heard it, it made me so happy. Usually, even if I love a song, I have no urge to hear it over and over, because I feel like I’m going to saturate myself and wear the song out. I ration my listenings carefully. Some songs overcome my reluctance for repetition though, and this was one of them.

Right now, the song that I crave hearing once an hour or more is Blue Man Group’s “Up To The Roof” which features Tracy Bonham singing. This song is so moving and powerful that it has me screaming along the lyrics every time I play it in my car. I can’t even fully explain how strongly I feel about it. It gives me goose bumps and heart pounding and an irrepressible desire to dance but that’s like the smallest part of it. It speaks to me. It moves me.

To me, this is the essential power of music: to communicate on a level so visceral that the finer points of it become unimportant. And the other fantastic thing about this unquantifiable reaction to a song is that every person will have different songs that they react to in this way. The feeling may be universal, but the path to the feeling is as varied as the human throng itself. Sure, there can be similarities, and I’m probably not the only person who thinks this song is the best song ever right now but for as many people who feel moved by it there are probably others who just feel like it’s alright, or it’s good but not really grabbing them or overwhelming them in the way it is doing to me. Long live the music that moves us, whatever it might be for each of us!

Some of the lyrics, I hope they inspire you to check this intense tune out : Tried to live the life you sold me, no matter what the cost. Tried to walk the way you told me but each time I got lost. The stairs didn’t lead me anywhere. I’m taking the fire escape up to the roof. Don’t care if it’s not the way you find the truth.

Continue reading

Kurt and I went to see The Matrix Reloaded yesterday with a crowd of people from his work. Our general impressions were : it was a good movie, worth seeing in and of itself that was nevertheless not as good as the first one. I thought they pushed too hard to try to come up with visual fight scene effects on par with the first movie and largely failed. The effects seemed contrived most of the time (though where they worked, they worked extremely well). There were some great fight scenes with some neat effects, but I did find myself tapping my foot impatiently in the middle of some of the action sequences and wondering just how long this was going to go on. Kurt thought it was too talky, and I thought it wasn’t quite talky enough (or at least, not the right kind of talky) since I apparently came away with a different (likely incorrect) interpretation of what was going on in the movie than everyone else I saw the movie with.

Spoilers in the rest of my comments, read more at your own risk.

Continue reading

Sophia’s review of the new Tangential Cold piece Star Schema was : “mam! so coool!”. That pretty much sums it up for me as well. It’s been too long since the last piece, but this is quite a reward for the wait.

Continue reading

Today we’re going to talk a little bit about music. Music has been at the fore of things for me lately. Today, my mainstay of work day music, ShasRadio has been down out of commission. Fortunately, I have brought in several CDs to work in order to listen to them more closely and rip them and such. So all day I have been listening to my newest three CDs. One was a Valentine’s present from Kurt and the other two were spendings of an Amazon Gift Certificate I hadn’t used up yet and it was a particularly delicious pleasure choosing which ones from my wishlist I would have sent to me (thanks, Ielleen!). I just don’t buy CDs as much as I used to. For one, I already own quite a lot of music that I like, I don’t have an ever increasing appetite for more. In general, I think music is mostly overpriced. Also, since I work in an Archives, I feel a little queasy about the recording industry and what irrational screaming babies they’ve become about the whole copyright thing. Not to mention the whole napster/mp3 debacle. The idea of putting money in the hands of these greasy middlemen makes me feel like I’m paying gangsters. I’m not sure what the solution might be but I’m pretty sure helping keep the system entrenched by buying truckloads of cds isn’t it. The CDs are Gift by Curve, Skindive by Skindive and Heathen by David Bowie. So far I can say that I am very pleased with all three of these albums. Maybe buying less music means I’ll be buying better music.

Rant time : does anyone know what’s going on with CD cases? Two of the aforementioned CDs came not in a standard jewel case but in a cheap cardboard package with a flap cover and a plastic inset for the disc. I’m all for less packaging, but I’m not sure I’m thrilled about this. Sophia mouthed my Curve case for all of fifteen seconds and the cardboard cover practically melted away, rendering it pretty useless. My question is, is this the standard for CDs now or is this some sort of extra cheap packaging I get for purchasing from Amazon.com? Anyone know the lowdown?

Tangentially related gripe : I was extra bored, I suppose, so I ventured into some of those Amazon.com recommendations lists that flash up on the sides of the page. I’ve previously looked at ones relating to baby toys and baby books and those tend to be very useful with lists of extra durable toys that hold a kid’s attention for a particularly long time. Not the lists from the music section. The lists from the music section are all about people telling you what are great not to be missed albums that no one else has yet discovered. The thing that gets me is this : they’re all practically the same list. I must have seen Norah Jones and John Mayer 30 times. And my question is this, why make a list if it’s just going to look like everyone else’s list? Who do you think buys stuff at Amazon and hasn’t heard of Norah Jones? She won approximately 752 Grammy’s for heaven’s sake! Even my recently arrived from a foreign country sister-in-law was asking me if I’d heard Norah Jones. She’s not secret or undiscovered! Everyone who wants her album probably already has it. Also, every one of these best 20 albums ever listmakers acts like music began 10 years ago, with the exception of the obligatory Dylan or Hendrix album, to which the comment is always something like , “If you can’t appreciate this I don’t know why you’d listen to music at all.” Only less coherent. And with more misspellings. Yes, I know, serves me right for bothering to look. Had to gripe, though.

However, back on the sunny side of the street, I am pleased to report that ShasRadio Volumes 3 and 4 have finally come to fruition. These are mix CDs I made for myself based on ShasRadio discoveries : bands or songs I had not heard before ShasRadio. I’m pretty pleased with myself about having finally finished these, and having them done well before the summer.

Continue reading