hungry plant

Pippi Longstocking

2009-09-12T13:11:00.000-07:00

I remembered reading this when I was a kid, so I read this one to the girls and they loved it. Quirky Swedish girl with stick out ponytails and superhuman strength takes on fun and adventure with her neighbors, her monkey and her horse...

The Worst Hard Time - Timothy Egan

2009-09-12T08:44:00.000-07:00

I never knew very much about the dust bowl beyond what I learned by reading the Grapes of Wrath in High School (still have to loop back and read that) and a bit more in A.P. US History. So this book was a real eye opener for me. I never understood just how much humankind was at fault, and how quickly it all happened.

Egan has a great map in the front of the book showing the extent of the dust bowl, involving the states of Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado and Kansas. He walks you through the history of this area from the times before the dirty thirties. For thousands of years, a stable grassland ecosystem had thrived in this dry region, with buffalo and antelope thriving on an ocean of plant matter. With the arrival of horses in the late 1600s, the Comanches ruled this plain, thriving on an ocean of buffalo. Then in the mid 1800s, white buffalo hunters came and decimated the buffalo herds and sent the natives to reservations. But white cattle ranchers soon filled the void, replacing the mighty wild herbivores with their domesticated cousins, and the ecosystem at least could function in a similar manner as before. Then came WWI and a huge boom in beef prices, followed by an inevitable crash, leaving behind many financially ruined ranches.

The next void-fillers were farmers. They came from all over the U.S. as well as Europe lured by cheap land (via the Homestead Act) and promises of a better life. While the area was known to be very dry, shaky science (e.g. "water follows the plow") and unscrupulous marketing by various land speculators helped confuse the issue for potential farmers. The combination of a few unusually wet years, Russian wheat with low water needs, and new technology such as the use of windmills to pump water from deep wells that tapped the massive Ogallala Aquifer meant that there actually was enough water to produce great crops. City folk ("suitcase farmers") would come in, buy land, plant it, leave town and come back to harvest, the potential for profit was so great... for a brief time.

Ranchers were dismayed to see so much grassland being plowed under and warned that problems would follow. Then came a drought and a lull in prices. Much of the plowed land was left in dirt. That dirt, which had been held down by grasses since the ice age, was now exposed to the wind. And thus was born the dust bowl.

Most of Egan's book is devoted to the stories of those who lived through the dustbowl, and the horrible conditions they were forced to endure. It is a very personal sort of history, filled with hopes, dreams and love, and despair, sickness, and death. He also chronicles how our government tried to mitigate this catastrophe, and what has happened to the land and the inhabitants of the dust bowl.

This book is a must read.

The Red Pony - John Steinbeck

2009-07-18T10:00:00.001-07:00

This book is really four seperate short stories about Jody, a young boy growing up in the Monterey Valley early in the 20th century. He lives on a small ranch with his father, mother, and a ranch hand, Billy Buck. In the first story, Jody is given a red pony by his stern father, Carl Tifflin. Sadly, the pony dies. The rest of the stories explore other themes of family and rural life, and growing up.

It is a beautiful little book which I would highly recommend.

A People's History of the United States of America by Howard Zinn

2009-07-08T20:47:00.000-07:00

This is the most comprehensive history book I have ever read, of any kind. Weighing in at almost 700 pages, this book takes you from the landing of Columbus all the way through the War on Terror. But this is American history from a different perspective than usually provided. It is history from the point of view (or at least with a point of concern) of natives, slaves, feminists, workers, soldiers, revolutionaries and malcontents, the poor, sick and huddled masses. It is a history that questions great men, great corporations and great wars instead of exalting them.

Howard Zinn is obviously a true scholar with a deep knowledge of our nation's history. He has an amazing ability to dig up relevant facts and documents and synthesize a cohesive view. This book is incredibly well referenced, with citations, quotations and excerpts from other sources throughout.

However, along with all the facts comes an incredibly strong set of opinions. Almost every achievement of social progress or any other action that our government has made is viewed cynically. In Zinn's view, every good thing that has happened in our history was allowed by the powerful simply to reduce the frustration of the people below a boiling point, or to divide us against ourselves. Desegregated schools are seen simply as ways to continue pitting white against black. Environmental, safety and other public-health regulations are simply a way to lull the public into a feeling of safety and let capitalism take its toll and reap its benefits. The Revolutionary War was simply a way for the upper class of the American colonies to keep more of the natural wealth of this country for themselves. Our involvement in World War II is seen as a way of extending and solidifying a global empire rather than saving the world from fanatical evil. He is most skeptical of Democratic presidents of the 20th century, seeing almost every progressive thing they did as a facade.

He puts up a powerful set of evidence to support this sort of view of history. However, I believe that almost every good action by any person is motivated by a complex network of reasons, some of them cynical and selfish, some of them pure and sincere. I doubt there could be any progress in America or anywhere without compromise and ulterior motives. Zinn seems willing to disregard anything good that America has done unless it was done with the purest of pure intents. Unfortunately, I don't see this being something we can expect out of any government run by human beings.

Still, even with it's loaded point of view, this book should be read by everyone who wants to understand American history more fully. It will definitely teach you facts you don't yet know, and expose you to opinions you have never fully considered.

The Hobbit; Rikki Tikki Tavi

2009-06-17T17:57:00.001-07:00

I read the Hobbit to the girls over the last month or two. They really enjoyed it, but one thing I noticed is that towards the end (when they reach lake town) the style of language gets more advanced, more like what you find in the Lord of the Rings. And the battle sequence at the end was not very interesting to my girls... so overall thier attention waned towards the end. But I still loved it through and through.

Then we picked up Rikki Tikki Tavi and read that over a few nights. That is a delightful little story. I love the mongoose family motto "Run and find out!".

The War

2009-06-10T20:55:00.000-07:00

I listened to this excellent Ken Burns / Geoffrey Ward documentary on World War II in the car over the last few weeks. It does an excellent job of giving big picture and overarching plot, and diving into personal details and specific stories as well. The narrator has a very solumn and respectful voice but also brings the tension and excitement this story deserves. I am so amazed by the American heroes of WWII.

One of the most amazing anecdotes in this documentary happens during the Battle of the Bulge. A soldier's company's medic dies, and he himself gets shot, and digs the bullet out himself. His captain says "who fixed you up soldier?" and when he says he did it himself, his captain makes him the company medic. Later, this soldier is working on a prisoner, and the prisoner turns around in perfect English and asks him where he is from. The soldier says "the Northeast US", and the prisoner says "where in the northeast?". The soldier says the name of the state, and the prisoner asks what the name of the town is. The soldier names the town and the prisoner asks "is that between (such and so) rivers?". Which was an extremely specific location. The soldier says "how did you know that?". The prisoner explains that he had been training for the administration of the Americas. So, Hitler was so bold that he had his long term eyes on a US takeover! I had never heard that before. It also shows how desperate the Germans were by this time to send such a highly trained person into battle...

Anyway, highly recommended.

Star Trek

2009-05-17T17:08:00.001-07:00

I watched this last night. I don't have much time to write about it, but I thought it was fantastic. I watched all the original Star Treks when I was 7 and 8 years old, and many times after that. I think they did a decent job honoring the original concepts and characters (McCoy was spot on) while giving it a fresh spin. They managed to give Kirk's Earth a very near-future feel, not too far out except the space ships and aliens. Though I really wanted to know why Uhura ordered so many drinks (do they come in mini shot glasses in the future?). The Romulan ship was so awesome and the Enterprise got a good update while still being pretty much the same ship.

I was, with everyone, annoyed at the "Siberius" vs. "Tiberius" business, however, perhaps they can fudge this by saying it was the alternate timeline that made the difference. Although "Siberius" is not a real name, and "Tiberius" is... Oh well.

I think they also did a great job engineering an alternate plot line for future movies. Although for all the time traveling in previous shows and movies they always manage to avoid altering their present timeframe, so to have them end up in an alternate future is a change of tradition. I can't wait for the next one in this line, I wonder what they'll call it? I also loved how the end looped back to the series with the original theme music and Spock doing the intro.

Twilight - the Movie

2009-04-12T07:57:00.000-07:00

Well, my wife and I had to watch this, being Forks natives. It was about what I expected. First of all, it is a high-school movie, which for the most part I can't stand as a genre (with a few exceptions such as Saved and Mean Girls -- both of which actually have the same plot if you break it down). Second, the town of Forks is fairly poorly represented.

The high school isn't that nice
The parking lot is not full of Mercedes and Volvos (try Fords and Toyotas, lots of pickups)
There are no sleek modern mansions like the Cullen's
Our proms are not that fancy
Going surfing is not a general pastime. A few do it, mostly tourists, but the ocean is wicked cold there
It is a flat city
There are no bridges in the middle of town
There isn't as much racial diversity
Oh yeah, and there are NO VAMPIRES! (Or werewolves)

However, it has brought a lot of tourism to my hometown, so I shouldn't complain!

The Call of the Wild - Jack London

2009-04-04T15:30:00.000-07:00

This is a fantastic book. For whatever reason, I never read it in Junior or High School when it is apparently customary for people to read Jack London. But I've always wanted to.

I love the way London illuminates Buck's (the protagonist in the story -- a Saint Bernard/Shepard mix) feelings and thoughts. It is actually impressive the degree to which his descriptions of the dog's state of mind and motivations matches modern concepts of how dogs think (at least, based on my understanding from reading various Puppy training and Dog books).

I retold the story to my 6 and 8 year old over a few nights, and they thoroughly enjoyed it. I hope to read it to them in a few years.

There are also a few short stories at the end of the Audio Book version I listened too. "To Build A Fire" is an amazingly done story of a man who freezes to death in the Yukon.

Bedtime Stories; Prince Caspian; Burn After Reading

2009-01-03T13:14:00.001-08:00

Bedtime Stories is very good if you watch it with kids. My girls were smiling the entire time and we got quite a few laughs out of it.

Prince Caspian was pretty well done. I read these books when I was about twelve so it is hard for me to remember what is different. Still, the storytelling, acting and action was excellent, and the special effects are great.

Burn After Reading was hilarious and surprising.

Loved all three.

The Greatest Generation - Tom Brokaw

2008-12-20T14:55:00.001-08:00

This book was not what I expected but still it was pretty good. I really do agree with his thesis that these are the greatest generation of Americans. To pull themselves out of the depression and build an enormous fleet of ships and planes, and train a giant number of men and women, and then take on two fanatic forces bent on taking over the world-- pretty amazing stuff. And then they went on to build the American infrastructure we still are working with today. We owe them so much.

I have to say the writing was not the best, and I would have liked more time spent covering the war years. Still, this is a must read.

Foundations of Western Civilization - Thomas F.X. Noble

2008-11-26T12:53:00.000-08:00

I have been listening to this lecture series on CD in the car for the past year or so, as I come across them at the library. It is a 48 lecture series from the Teaching Company divided into 4 bundles of 6 CD's each. The lecturer is Thomas Noble, a professor from Notre Dame. He covers 4,600 years of the history of 'the west' from the Sumerians all the way to the age of European exploration. And he does so in a very engaging way. He has a very good technique of zooming in and out from important individuals and mundane details of life, all the way out to the grand trajectories of history. A mind boggling mastery of the material is evident, and I feel like he could teach a 480 lecture series on this topic and still have plenty left to talk about. Still, he knows just what details to pull out and which to gloss over.

The biggest impression this series has left me with is that there is nothing new under the sun. Even as we've gone from primitive agrarian days with tribal cultures, all the way through empire and monarchy to present day democracy and technology, people have behaved in very consistent ways. So many of the sequences of history have a spooky familiar feeling to them, echoing circumstances today.

I really wish I could hear a version of this lecture series created 400 years from now, focusing on the current time period.

http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/coursedesclong2.aspx?cid=370

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell

2008-11-11T17:47:00.001-08:00

Nineteen Eighty-Four, written in 1949, is set in the fictional future nation of Oceana (composed of Britain, the US, and Africa). Oceana is brutally controlled by a very heavy handed government, led by a mythical figure 'Big Brother'. Constant surveillance and propaganda through the 'telescreen' allows the government to monitor not just actions but even emotions.

The novel follows Winston, a worker at the 'Ministry of Truth', where he works on falsifying records. He begins to question the principles of 'Ingsoc' ('English Socialism', the guiding principal of Oceana) and eventually meets a fellow discontent, Julia. They have a secret affair (sexuality is all but forbidden), and things begin to get very tricky from there...

This completes my reading of what I have gathered are the three great dystopian novels (in English at least), 'Nineteen Eighty-Four', 'Fahrenheit 451', and 'Brave New World'. They all have similar themes of a dictatorial, socialistic government dismantling what it means to be human. In all three, the concepts of sexuality and family are distorted. In all three, pervasive surveillance and/or propaganda media enforce the expectations of the government and change the nature of the human mind. In all three, learning and thought are discouraged or prohibited.

There are some significant differences between them, but I am a bit disappointed not to have seen more diversity between them. They all come from a time when democracy was being pitted against various degrees of totalitarianism, in the forms of communism and fascism. They show great concern about the power of government, and rightly so. Still, I think I should read some cyberpunk dystopias now, which tend to focus on the opposite end of the spectrum, where government has little role and things are run under corporate anarchy. Some strange mixture of the two extremes seems to be what we find here in the actual future...

A Short History of Myth by Karen Armstrong

2008-11-01T10:40:00.001-07:00

In this book, Karen Armstrong examines the role of myth thinking in human culture from prehistoric days until the present. She argues that myth plays a crucial role in human life and that modern societies discard myth at their own peril.

This book seems to re-hash many ideas from other books by Karen Armstrong, but in a less compelling or interesting way. I would recommend any other of her books, but not this one.

Google OCRs scanned PDFs, makes them searchable on the web. Here's my idea...

2008-10-30T18:48:00.001-07:00

This is cool: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/picture-of-thousand-words.html

Here's what I want out of technology like this:

We all get tons of paper through the mail, at work, and from other
transactions. A lot of it heads straight to the recycle bin or
shredder. Some of it needs to be filed away for later use. But some
of it is in a gray category-- do I need it or not? Inevitably such
documents end up in stacks or in a drawer or cabinet somewhere, and
might be impossible to locate if it ever was needed. What a waste.

So, I want a machine that is a combination scanner, search-appliance
and shredder. Then, when I received some document I am not sure if I
need or not, I could:

1) Stick it in this appliance
2) The document is scanned and OCR'd, and the text therein is indexed
3) The original is shredded
4) Now I can search all my previously scanned and shredded documents
from my computer

Wouldn't that be great?

At least until people stop insisting on providing paper documents for
everything.

P.S. A funny story is that we have signed up for all electronic
banking with one of our financial institutions. So, we periodically
get email statements. We also get a piece of mail from them every
month notifying us that we are in the "all-electronic" program and
therefore should get our statements online. We have called several
times to try to get them to quit sending mail altogether, but so far
that hasn't helped...

A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah

2008-10-13T05:54:00.001-07:00

This autobiography tells of the author's life in war torn Sierra Leone. When Ishmael Beah was just ten years old, civil war swept his country. When it reached his village, he and his brother fled, and were forced to survive in the wilderness with other children fleeing both the rebels and the army. At age 13, he was forced to join the army, and for several years he lived a life of terrible violence. Eventually he does find peace.

I don't have enough time to explain how important it is to read this book. For anyone interested in the rights of children, in Africa, or in a story of hope, this exciting, well written book is a must read.

Thinking Points by George Lakpoff & the RockRidge Institute

2008-10-04T16:34:00.001-07:00

This book's subtitle is "Communicating our American Values and Vision". It is aimed at progressives. It discuses how conservatives have co-opted many words in our language (freedom, responsibility, etc) and changed their usage to quickly activate conservative points of view. It also discuses how we progressives can reclaim those words and use them in ways that help promote our point of view. There is much more to this book, and any progressive that finds themselves struggling to be really understood should give it a read.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

2008-09-15T05:26:00.001-07:00

Written by a young Ray Bradbury in the early 1950s, this book is about Guy Montag, a 'fireman' in a dystopian future where firemen start fires instead of putting them out. Specifically, they burn down houses where people have books. But when a woman chooses to stay in her house with her books as Montag and his cohorts burn it too the ground, he begins to wonder what could be so great about books. His world begins to turn upside down from there.

I love Ray Bradbury's writing (Dandelion Wine is a treasure). Many of his paragraphs are more like poems than prose. I will have to read more.

All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Remarque

2008-08-05T21:04:00.001-07:00

This World War One novel exposes the brutality of that war. You follow young German soldier Paul Braumer as he endures the hardships and terror of the battlefront. It is extremely detailed and gruesome. I found the use of present tense a bit distracting but in the end it might bring the action closer to the reader. All in all, I can absolutely understand why this has become a worldwide classic. Anyone interested in understanding war should read this great novel.

The Happening

2008-06-28T16:25:00.001-07:00

Salina and I went to watch this last night. We actually had not chosen a movie until we got to theatre and then essentially chose one of about four candidates at random. But I think we made a good pick.

In this movie a science teacher (played by Mark Wahlberg) finds himself in a nightmare scenario as everyone in the northeastern part of the US suddenly begins killing themselves due to a mysterious toxin. He becomes the leader of an ever diminishing band of survivors who are trying to escape the carnage. The cause is unclear for much of the movie and in fact the teacher's idea of the cause is never fully ratified by the script. But still, driving home through some wooded areas, I felt a bit creeped out. This movie lacks the (now cliche) M. Night Shyamalan twist, but I think it is just find without it.

The Good Earth by Pearl S Buck

2008-06-28T16:19:00.001-07:00

Pearl Buck grew up a missionary's daughter in China. So when she grew up and became a writer, she naturally wrote about China.

The Good Earth follows Wang Lung, the simple son of a farmer, who goes from rags to riches. The storyline alternates between acquisition of land (and wealth) and his growing family and all their drama. Some of the events involve the Xinhai Revolution, but much of the story seems as if it could have happened any time for the last millennium.

I wrote about the old movie version http://hungryplant.blogspot.com/2007/03/good-earth.html which was good. But the book is even better. I love the writing style. It is almost like scripture in it's rhythm and tone.

One thing I did like about the movie was that it cropped the story to end after O-lan's (the first wife) death. For me this created a parallel between O-lan and the land. In the book O-lan is very important for the first 2/3rds, and then she dies, and is remembered very little. For some reason this feels asymmetrical to me.

No-left-turns saves UPS $ -- Could Google save the planet this way?

2008-06-25T09:33:00.001-07:00

I am clocking out of work to write this up. First this article from Wired:

No-Left-Turn Software Saves UPS a Bundle[by avoiding left hand turns] Lovell reports that UPS lopped off some 28.5 million miles from its delivery routes last year thanks to the software, saving 3 million gallons of fuel and cutting carbon dioxide emissions by close to 69 million pounds.

Could Google (and all the other map/directions providers) reduce gas use significantly by making their directions algorithms work a bit harder to avoid left hand turns? Similarly, avoiding hills is probably helpful. And a back road might be longer distance and even longer time, but if it keeps you driving steadily (instead of idling in traffic jams) and not going faster than 55 (when efficiency drops off), then it could be helpful.

Is fuel use even part of thier optimization for routing I wonder? I know that business class routing packages are very careful to minimize fuel costs (usually that is thier main purpose). Google Maps gives you a checkbox on directions to avoid highways. Could they give you a checkbox "save gas"?

I am linking to this post: Getting in the driver's seat which is tangentially related to gas prices in hopes of getting some kind of attention from Google. If not, oh well.

(Of course, I don't really believe anything like this could 'save the planet', but every little bit helps, and it made a good title)

Fleetwood Mac by Fleetwood Mac & Ocean Rain by Echo and the Bunnymen

2008-05-31T15:27:00.000-07:00

Fleedwood Mac has some great songs on it. Rhiannon of course rocks, even if it seems cliche at this point. Landslide is a great song, long before the Dixie Chicks got ahold of it-- I think the Smashing Pumpkins introduced me to this song, but the Mac version is much better.

I liked Ocean Rain even better. I would not know about Echo and the Bunnymen except for the fact that KEXP sprinkles them into the mix a few times a week. The sound is very fresh sounding, and a lot of bands today seem to be ripping elements of this mid 80's style.

Travels with Charlie by John Steinbeck

2008-05-31T15:24:00.001-07:00

In this nonfiction novel, John Steinbeck writes about his journey around the USA in the mid 60's. He had settled into live in New York and had not seen his beloved country for many years, and felt it was time to get reaquainted.

Along the way he encounters many good Americans and learns about how life has changed. He goes into great detail about the advent of the Mobile Home and wonders if it will become a common way of living. He is bewildered by the transformation of cities he once new well, with superhighways and sprawling suburbs. He wonders at the sterlization of our lives, with restaurants serving plastic wrapped food no human has ever touched.

The America he describes is very similar to today. Many of the things that concern him seem equally concerning today-- and yet, have not had the kind of impact Steinbeck worries of.

But even through his worries, you can tell Steinbeck loves this land of ours. He finds good people all along the way. One of his greatest surprises is finding how unified America had become, with regional differences and allegiences fading significantly since last he travelled around the country. And this, I think, he found to be a good thing.

All in all, though this did not really 'get' me like other works of Steinbeck's, I am very glad I read it. It is a very detailed look at America of the 1960's-- and really, just of America.

'Harry and the Hendersons' & 'ET'

2008-05-31T15:15:00.001-07:00

Last night we watched E.T. with the kids, which I must say is one of the most well made movies ever. There are so many subtle touches, and a great Spielbergian mix of action, compelling storyline and feelings. A few weeks ago we watched Harry and the Hendersons, which is also pretty good. Both these movies are special to me.

When I was a kid for a few years we lived about 20 miles outside the already isolated town of Forks, Washington. We lived in a old trailer with a bunch of additions built on, in the middle of miles of wilderness. For the first summer we did not even have a working toilet or electricity; that fall we put in a septic system and a generator. It was very rustic, but pretty wonderful for children. My siblings and I spent every nice weekend or afternoon building forts, swimming in the nearby river, and making trails.

When it was raining (which was often), we were trapped inside. This led to a love of reading. But we also had about 10 good movies on VHS. We watched these in steady rotation. E.T. and Harry and the Hendersons were our favorites, and I wouldn't be surprised if we watched them 25 times each. I still remember every word.

Sasquatch 2008

2008-05-27T18:05:00.001-07:00

Salina and I got to meet up with some friends at the the Sasquatch music festival this year. We only stayed Saturday and Sunday-- though we are bummed to have missed the Flaming Lips and so many other awesome bands that played Monday.

Some random notes:

REM still rocks big time, completely full of energy even in the pouring rain. Michael Stipe was a livewire.

I am a bigger fan of the Cure than I knew, and even though they are ancient (Smith looked like a fat old woman), they still sound exactly like the Cure, and they played a 2.5+ hour set!

Michael Franti rocks

MIA RAWKS-- she brought about 100 audience members on stage for about two songs, it was insane and probably dangerous-- but awesome. Her visuals on the jumbotrons were fantastic. And the bass and the jumping crowd, ridiculous.

Death Cab was also really great.

Anyway, this video shows off about 2/3rds of the bands we saw (for instance, Dave Bazan was great, not many people can pull off an entire site with an electric guitar and vocal and that's all, but no video of that) -- the old camera I brought was not always cooperative and I forgot to swap in more memory.

Notes to self for next time-- bring more water, more clothes and more cash!

Random Food Offerings

2008-05-08T17:21:00.001-07:00

Around Christmas we came home one day to find a store bought box of cookies, with half of them gone, on our front porch.

A few months later Salina found some chocolates on our front porch.

Last Thursday I came home to a Fred Meyer bag containing a box of ice cream bars and a plastic bag with four ears of corn.

Today it was a tupperware container, dated and labelled "Spaghetti", with a packet of ketchup, a napkin and plastic fork.

There has never been a note or any notion of who would have left these. Of course we've thrown them all away.

What the heck!?

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

2008-04-29T18:40:00.001-07:00

Yes, I am on a Steinbeck kick. This is an excellent work as I remembered and expected. Apparently Steinbeck wrote this as a "Play Novel" to be performed on the stage. You can definitely feel the settings are put together to be scenes, how costumes and stage design are accounted for, and even blocking is embedded in the storyline. Beyond that, the characters are as finely drawn as always in a Steinbeck work. The story is one of loneliness. The loneliness of George and Lenny keep them together. The loneliness of the men on the farm puts them in an odd position of seeking companionship and erecting walls of protection. The loneliness of Curly's wife gets her killed in the end. It is a beautiful and sad story.

joke idea: Lettr or Charactr

2008-04-28T11:27:00.001-07:00

Twitter and micro-blogging in general have been getting so much hype lately I need to learn more about it. But this April first I ought to have started a website "Lettr" or "Charactr" to let you post a single letter to a micro blog via text message or whatever. Just as a joke... if you don't get it, don't worry.

Theodore Roosevelt: Champion of the American Spirit by Betsy Harvey Kraft

2008-04-26T14:04:00.001-07:00

I have added several books about U.S. Presidents to my reading list,
but many of the better books on T.R. are very long. I decided to pick
up this short book, which is classified as "juvenile".

This book covers T.R.'s entire life from his childhood through his
multiple careers to his death. He went from head of NYC police to NY
state Assemblyman to rancher to Secretary of the Navy to soldier to
Governor of NY to U.S. President to explorer to presidential
candidate. All that time he was a writer, a hunter, a
conservationist, a reformer, and a father of six-- among other things.

One of the most interesting anecdotes about his life occurred when he
was running for president in the Progressive party. He was set to
give a campaign speech, but was shot. The only thing that kept him
from dying was his thick, folded up speech and metal glasses case in
his shirt pocket. But he was still badly injured and bleeding. In
spite of this, he went on to give an hour and a half speech before a
stunned crowd who could see his injured state.

Having read a bit about T.R., I will now have to pick up a longer book
some day to get some more detail. He is a fascinating character and
did a lot of great things for his country. This book does a good job
of summarizing the events of his life, as well as his amazing
character and boundless energy.

scene idea: the boss

2008-04-24T05:47:00.000-07:00

an executive type gets off the phone, disgusted, says "if you want
something done right, you gotta do it yourself". dials his assistant
"get those orders in pronto!"

My Feed Slideshow Gadget

2008-04-18T17:29:00.000-07:00

I wrote this iGoogle gadget last weekend. It displays all photos from up to four RSS feeds:

add it to your own iGoogle by clicking here:

phrase idea:"like a man drowning in the desert"

2008-04-18T08:09:00.001-07:00

(yes, this is sort of random, but I need a place to keep these random ideas)

Video: Shift Happens

2008-04-17T19:01:00.000-07:00

In some ways this is a bit corny, and not much in here I didn't know, but put all together it has an effect:

My brother got published in the Christian Science Monitor

2008-04-16T12:39:00.001-07:00

My brother Luke (1st Lt USMC, two tours to Iraq) wrote an article in memoriam of a buddy of his that fell in the line of duty, and it was just published in Christian Science Monitor*. http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0416/p09s01-coop.html

*If you are not familiar with it, Christian Science Monitor is a world news publication, and is read by thousands of people around the world. It has nothing much to do with Christian Science. It was founded by the founder of Christian Science but only because she felt the media around at that time was very biased and had not given her a fair shake. So it is explicitly meant to be unbiased, and it has achieved that fairly well. It is as highly respected as New York Times or the Economist or Wall Street Journal, quoted on NPR, AP news, and so on all the time.

character idea: "Colonel"

2008-04-15T19:36:00.001-07:00

I am reading a biography of Teddy Roosevelt, which mentions that in his later life he liked being called "Colonel" from his days in the Rough Riders. A character in my novel (when I write it someday) could be a retired soldier who wants people to call him Colonel-- but actually only ever made it to Lieutenant Colonel. The shame of the dishonesty of this is in tension with his anger that civilians wouldn't know the difference.

story idea: person get's lost in a future full of nav devices

2008-04-15T19:32:00.001-07:00

the Economist has a great special report on pervasive mobile connectivity and it's effect on society. One article ( Location, Location, Location ) mentioned a future where "the idea of being lost will be unheard of". A great sci fi story could be written about someone in such a future (a not to distant future), who somehow does find themselves lost. In a forest, or an off-the-grid city or whatever. I would write it myself if I had time.

blogger email posting

2008-04-15T19:09:00.001-07:00

When I decided to start blogging again and back post some of my reviews I've done on a private website, I knew I wanted an easier way to get it done. So I have been making great use of the Blogger feature that lets you email a post. The only thing I don't like is that emails sent in plain text include line breaks, and I generally keep my gmail in plain text mode, this has resulted in some jagged looking posts. But that's my own dang fault. Oh well, since nobody reads my blog, it doesn't really matter...

The Economist

2008-04-15T19:06:00.001-07:00

Several months ago my wife bought me a subscription to this excellent
publication. I have picked it up now and then through the years and
been impressed, but I have to say reading it weekly really enhances
your understanding of world events. It is a more libertarian on
economic issues than I am, and some articles betray an elitist
perspective (and I don't mean imagined "can't bowl" elitist, but real
"doesn't understand what it's like to go without" elitist). But other
than that, generally presents things factually and with little bias.
And I never have had a problem reading opinion I disagree with, it is
usually healthy.

The articles are very readable, but never shallow, and usually short
enough to fit in the random windows of time I find to read. However,
it runs around a hundred pages, about 75% non-ad, so there is no way I
can actually read the entire thing in just a week-- and still have
time to read anything else. In fact, I am sure it's the Economist
that has slowed my reading down lately (that, and going back to
college). But it's worth it.

There Will be Blood

2008-04-15T18:19:00.001-07:00

Based on Upton Sinclair's novel "Oil", the movie "There Will Be Blood"
was twisted and fantastic. This story of a driven, self-serving Oil
Man is set in the American Southwest at the the turn of the century
(the _last_ century) . Everything about this movie was well done.
The score for the movie was written by John Greenwood, guitarist for
Radiohead, and it was amazing...

The Matrix

2008-04-15T18:16:00.001-07:00

Salina had to watch this movie for her "Utopia in Performance" class
at UW Bothell. It had been several years since we've seen it. The
special effects, the story, the philosophy and even some of the acting
are very good, and it is very entertaining (I hope the futurology is
wrong but I wonder...). The story thread where the Agent explains
that the original Matrix was Utopian, but that people kept trying to
"wake up" because a perfect life did not seem "right" is fascinating.

I have a hard time getting past the silliness of the idea that the
whole reason this Matrix exists is because the machines want to use
humans as batteries. It makes zero sense to try to use an animal as a
battery, and if it somehow did make sense, then why not use a stupider
animal-- one that would not require an elaborate artificial world?

Metropolis

2008-04-13T12:21:00.001-07:00

This is a very old silent movie (1925) which Salina (my wife) had to
watch for a class she is taking at UW Bothell. It was very slow and
we both kept falling asleep.

In the movie, Metropolis is a utopian city managed by one man, the
Master. The workers in the city are very oppressed and revolt. Given
that this movie was made in Germany, and what was going on there at
the time, this is a fascinating snapshot of thinking at the time. How
should society be organized?

Funplex by the B52's

2008-04-13T12:16:00.002-07:00

I was disappointed in this album. Not a single song stands out,
unlike every other B52 album I've ever bought.

Writer's Block by Peter, Bjorn and John

2008-04-13T12:16:00.001-07:00

I had heard most of the songs on this album on KEXP over the last year
or so, but I bought it for our Arizona trip. Every song is singable
and fun. I highly recommend it.

Arizona

2008-04-13T12:07:00.001-07:00

Last Wednesday I woke up at 4am so as to have the family on our
shuttle bus at 4:45. Except that, once I was done with my shower I
realized somehow my alarm clock was 20 minutes late, and my cell phone
alarm (set for redundancy) had not gone off due to the confusing
requirement that you not only set the alarm time but also 'enable' the
alarm. So everyone else got up and had about 10 minutes to be ready.
Fortunately, the shuttle was also a bit late, and we had packed
completely the night before. So, before we knew it, we were riding to
the airport. Our driver, Julio, was a nice old New Yorker who gave us
a rundown of Seattle history, when he wasn't answering endless
questions from our (surprisingly for 5am) talkative kids.

Our flight was uneventful and Luke came to pick us up at the airport.
We picked up some sandwiches at Casella's, a local sub shop that
Kristen's family frequents, that even has a picture of Kristen (all
right-- Kristen plus her whole graduating class and every other
class-- but still). Then we went to Kristen's Grandpa Carl's house to
eat lunch with Jen and pick up Kristen. Unfortunately Grandpa was not
there.

We drove out to Sedona, the girls in the Pathfinder and Luke and I in
the Jeep. As we drove out of the Scottsdale area Luke pointed out the
huge site where he will soon be working and, by all accounts, running
the show. Luke and I were having some great conversation as we drove
north, until we came around the bend and I saw the astounding,
enormous, rust colored sandstone formations growing out of the red and
green valley below. Since my jaw was on the floor it was difficult to
keep on talking. I don't know how long it would take to get over the
majestic Sedona landscape, but it has to be measured in years.

We checked into the timeshare which Grandpa Carl owns, and which is
nearly as beautiful as the landscape around it. Everything in our
two-bedroom suite looked brand new and stylish. Both bedrooms and the
living room had a big flatscreen. I can't say enough about it beyond
the fact it is the nicest place I've ever stayed. Luke, Emma, Avery
and myself swam while Kristen and Salina bought some groceries and
cooked dinner in the full kitchen. Except that poor pregnant Kristen
could not stomach the smell of onions cooking and had to go out to the
balcony.

Thursday morning Avery stayed with Kristen while Luke took the rest of
us out in his Jeep. Out and up. Up Schnebly Hill Road. Teddy Schnebly
was Sedona's first postmaster, and named the city after his wife. She
must have been beautiful. We stopped several times to take pictures,
look for fossils, and hike around. We saw a deer along the road but
did not get any good pictures. Luke had intended to take us all the
way up but we finally came to a gate, locked for the winter. So we
just hung out at that spot for a long time, and took in the sites.
Emma collected 30 red rocks for her class. On the way down, we stopped
at a trickling creek to look around, and Salina found some big cat paw
prints.

We came back into Sedona and had lunch, and then we all went to Oak
Canyon Creek near Bev and Rowland's timeshare. We saw lots of lizards
and Salina jumped into the freezing cold glacial creek. Emma was
fearless crossing the stream. That night we had dinner at another of
Kristen's family's favorites, Shugrues, where I can personally
recommend the Torrington steak. Then Luke and Kristen headed out of
town so that Luke could fly out Friday morning to Blue's memorial
service. They left us with the Pathfinder and their Garmin (a
navigation device).

Friday morning we packed up and went into Sedona proper to check out
the tourist trap Tlaquepaque, which is a fancy set of artsy shops in a
beautiful Mexican styled villa. Except that the best coffee we could
find was pretty awful.

We drove north from there heading for Williams. We stopped at a creek
and explored, and there was someone's driveway that went straight
through the creek. As we continued north we were rising in elevation,
and though we were leaving the beautiful red-rock country, the
landscape continued to provoke awe. I saw a coyote on the way. We even
began to encounter piles of snow.

We arrived in Williams that evening. Williams is a small town on
historic Route 66, about an hour south of the Grand Canyon. It was
very cold, and the Travelodge we checked into was the polar opposite
of the luxury of the Sedona timeshare. But we walked all the way up
and down the strip and were very charmed by this little town. We had
dinner at a fun Route 66 themed restaurant named Cruisers Cafe. Every
shop has a wealth of Route 66 or old west paraphernalia and decor. The
people are very nice and all willing to chat.

One fella behind the counter in a Western shop had a bola tie, a big
black hat and a dark and wrinkled tan, looking the part of a real
Southwest cowboy. But when he opened his mouth out came a New England
accent. He had come over from the east coast years ago and fell in
love with the little town. I can see how. It reminded me a lot of
Forks. Somewhat depressed as far as the local economy, but still
pridefully striving along.

The next morning we had breakfast at the Route 66 Diner across the
street and coffee a bit later at the Java Cycle cafe, both of which I
heartily recommend. We took some extra time at the cafe to let Emma
catch up on her journal, in which she wrote a paragraph about our trip
every day. Then stopped by Safeway and put together a picnic lunch,
and headed up to the Grand Canyon.

There are many places and sites which get a lot of hype and do not
live up to it. The Grand Canyon is not one of them. We parked and
hiked a little bit to the edge of the canyon and once again, jaws
dropped. It is so immensely huge, it is hard to understand just what
you are looking at. The sun was high in the sky so there were barely
any shadows, which increased the difficulty of comprehension. The
landscape is so varied and detailed, each ancient layer created slowly
in a different epoch of prehistory, then carved away by water in just
the last few million years. The age of the place was tangible. We
hiked maybe a half mile along the trail, taking numerous pictures.
Emma and Salina were both very brave, venturing very close to the
edge.

We got back to the car and drove to a different spot and had our
picnic. There were huge crows badgering us for our scraps, one of them
cawing in a very precise rhythm the entire time. Avery was very
curious about the cemetery nearby, a burial site for those who worked
at the Canyon, so we took a walk through it. Then we went down to the
Canyon rim again and hiked another mile or so. Avery got very whiny
towards the end so we headed back (although now she says the Grand
Canyon is one of her favorite parts of our vacation). I think Emma
would have happily hiked across the entire thing.

We drove back to Williams, had dinner at a fun 50's themed cafe called
Twisters, and then Salina and I watched the Matrix. Salina's classes
actually started Wednesday, so she had homework to do. Believe it or
not, watching the Matrix was one assignment.

Sunday morning we drove down to Scottsdale area and checked into our
resort in a nearby town called Carefree. The houses in Carefree all
look like the style of adobe home you'd expect in an Indian village on
a mesa-- square cornered and earth colored. Our resort was also very
nice. We went swimming immediately, since we had returned to proper
Arizona weather.

Then we drove into Scottsdale to have a barbecue at Bev and Rowland's
house. Luke grilled and Kristen and Jen assembled the salads and other
trappings, leaving us the pleasure of visiting with Bev, Rowland and
Grandpa Carl. Actually, I am sure Bev and Rowland did a lot too, but
if so, they made it seem effortless. The back yard was as beautiful as
when we all came down for the wedding. The girls and Dylan picked
oranges and rode Dylan's toy jeep.

The next morning we drove the girls out to Spur Cross Stables and
bought them a few minute horse ride. We walked around the ranch a
while and visited with the friendly workers. There were lots of horses
and some other animals, including a huge and perfectly cylindrical
potbellied pig. Then we had lunch at a nice outdoor Mexican restaurant
with a big pond full of turtles, ducks and fish. We sat right next to
the pond and the girls watched the turtles sunning. On the way back to
the resort, we saw a large wild cat that looked like a lynx, walking
right into the resort area, frightening some ladies. We also saw
numerous quail on the site.

That afternoon I drove into Scottsdale and picked up Luke, and we went
to the Diamondback's opening day at Chase field. Bev and Rowland gave
us their tickets for this day, which was amazingly generous of them.
Chase field is a lot like Safeco field. It has a retractable roof. It
also has-- brand new this year-- the largest flat screen display on
Earth, about 50 x 140 feet, called the Supertron. I did not know this,
and before the game they had the display divided up so it looked like
several small displays plus a traditional scoreboard. Then, an
announcer on a small "screen" said "this is too small" and broke out
of his screen into the bigger display. Then the entire screen showed a
zoom in of the audience, and there's two white guys sitting there, one
of whom is wearing a white UW hat with a purple W on it-- and I
realize that it's me! After the star spangled banner, four Air Force
jets flew over the stadium, and later the pilot's were at the game. It
was a great game, which the Diamondbacks won (against the L.A.
Dodgers), and featured many good plays and a few home runs.

While Luke and I were at the game, Kristen, Jen and Dylan went out to
the resort to be with my girls. Apparently, they had a lot of trouble
with the Jeep, a story I will leave them to tell.

Tuesday morning Luke picked us up and we dropped by the Scottsdale
office of Salina's company, Apex Wine Cellars. Then we all hiked
halfway up Camelback mountain, which sits between Scottsdale and
Phoenix. It was very fun and beautiful. From the highest point, we
could see miles and miles over Scottsdale and Phoenix. Once again,
Emma would have been happy to climb to the top, and Avery was ready to
go back about two minutes into the trek. Then we went in and got
Casella's again and brought that into Grandpa Carl's for lunch. We had
a great visit with him. Then we headed back to the resort for a swim.
That evening we met Luke, Kristen, Grandpa Carl, Barb and Jen at a
TGIFriday's midway between Carefree and Scottsdale. Then, back at the
resort, we put the kids to bed and packed.

The next morning we drove in to Bev and Rowland's and said goodbye to
everyone. Luke and Kristen were headed off to a prenatal checkup, so
Bev offered to drive us to the Airport. Finally, we flew home-- though
we all ended up sitting in different rows! The thought of sitting next
to strangers made Avery very nervous, until her neighbor let her watch
"Pirate's of the Caribbean" on her laptop. I was surprised Avery would
watch it. But she said it was funny.

We feel bad for the people Salina met at the resort, who were doing
the same trip (Carefree, Sedona, Canyon) in reverse, because the
weather reports show rain up north now. It seems we got the best of
everything...

America and Americans and Selected Nonfiction by John Steinbeck

2008-04-13T11:48:00.001-07:00

This collection of nonfiction confirmed my love for Steinbeck's
writing. This volume is named after the essay's named "America and
Americans" where Steinbeck examines various aspects of the collective
character of Americans. The other articles, essays and other writings
collected here similarly delve into the character of individuals he
knew and the nation he loved. Although these writings were all
written prior to 1970, I was surprised at how much the issues he
discusses, and the character traits he identifies, are still in play
and relavent today. I would definitely recommend reading this
charming book.

HuckleBerry Finn - Mark Twain

2008-02-28T12:22:00.000-08:00

I have never read Tom Sawyer or this book and I have always wanted
too. When I saw this on CD at the library I just had to pick it up.

It is _easily_ in my top twenty book list. I enjoyed every second of
it, crazy grin on my face most of the time I was listening too it, and
belly laughs every other minute. There are so many crazy twists and
surprises, and hilarious lines and situations, and the southern style
of speaking used in Huck's narration is just priceless. The
adventurousness of the thing and the wildness of the American South in
those days is also very fun stuff. I really identified with the
subplot of Huck always suggesting the straightforward way of doing
something, and Tom always wanting to do things complicated and "with
style", and winning out-- I work with a lot of people like that!

The underlying story of Jim's (the runaway slave) struggle to get
freedom, especially while tangled up with the frivolous schemes of
Tom, is very bittersweet. Huck's own internal struggle of his
upbringing of believing slavery is good and freeing a slave is theft,
versus his love for Jim and willingness to help him get to freedom, is
also very compelling and interesting.

This is a must read piece of American literature and deserves its
place as an American classic. Do yourself a favor and read it!

Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond

2008-02-11T12:25:00.000-08:00

Jared Diamond was a biologist studying birds in New Guinea when his
native guide asked him "Why do white people have more cargo than us
New Guineans?" (cargo being the local term for technology).

In this book, Jared Diamond tries to answer this question. How did
the people of Eurasia come to dominate the world? His answer to this
is by their guns, their germs, and their steel. Then he goes on to
explore why they had the guns, the germs, and the steel to begin with.

The answer is not that Europeans are smarter (in fact, he argues we
may be on average a tad dumber due to millenea of sheltered
agricultural life). It's not that our culture, government, religions
and philosophy encourages innovation (actually, it had a role, but it
was a _symptom_ of our circumstances, not the root cause).

It boils down to accidents of geography, amplified over time.
Diamond systematically analyses factors from metals to animals and
plants distribution, to the arrangement of the continents (Eurasia has
a major east west axis meaning that there are huge bands of similar
climate along which domesticated plants can spread and be experimented
with. Americas and Africa are far more filled with isolated pockets
of different climates due to being oriented north-south and being
narrow east to west).

The fertile crescent had most of the worlds candidate grain species
(grasses with large seed heads). Southern Eurasia had most of the
worlds domesticatable large mammals (he goes into great detail about
what makes an animal domesticatable). He shows that when humans
arrived in Australia and the Americas, they were already very skilled
hunters and so took out most of the large mammals that could have been
domesticated, whereas in Africa and Eurasia animals had plenty of time
to become wary of human hunters. In Africa the story is a bit
different-- most of the mammals were simply not candidates for
domestication due to various disqualifiers, too ornery or too jumpy,
etc. (and white folks have not succeeded in domesticating any African
animals either), with the exception of cattle which may have been
domesticated independently there.

I am most amazed by the role disease had in our conquests. The
Americas had 10 million inhabitants before Columbus, and within a
hundred years that had been cut to 1 million, far in advance of
conquistadors. There was an advanced civilization in the southeast
US that we never hear about-- because they were wiped out before
Europeans got to that area. We had the advantage because we'd been
living in close quarters with animals in big cities for 10 thousand
years, sharing and incubating diseases with them and other people, and
becoming immune.

Anyway, it is an amazing book in its scope, bringing a scientific
vigour to human history. Every chapter is full of surprising facts
and mind changing concepts. It should be required reading.

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

2008-01-27T12:26:00.000-08:00

I caught this one on CD at the library. It is a great work and
should be required reading in high school. If you haven't read it,
here's my synopsis:

Aldous Huxley wrote this book in 1932. It set mostly in London about
500 years from now. In this future, the world state keeps everyone
under control through pervasive hedonism (pleasure as an end goal).
The drug Soma keeps most people in a bliss. Monogomy and chastity are
perverse, promescuity is virtuous ("everybody belongs to everybody
else"). Babies are grown in bottles in massive government
"hatcherys". A strict caste system is build in at every level, even
via chemicals in the artificial wombs. Chidren are taught by
hypnosis during thier sleep. Society is like a worldwide factory,
churning out blissful consumers. In fact, it is all founded on the
assembly line and other philosophies from Henry Ford (Fordism was
actually a big deal for the soviets and others
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fordism). People say "oh ford", instead
of "oh lord", make the sign of the T (model T) instead of the cross...

The main characters from London, Bernard and Lenina are misfits
(Bernard does not want to be perpetually blissful, Lenina seems bent
towards monogomy) and end up visiting a "Savage Reservation" (walled
off area for non-civilized areas). There they meet John, who they
bring back to London and show off as the "Savage". From there things
go pear shaped...

I loved this book and will definately read it again. I think
Huxley's insight is astounding. Many of his predictions have come
true in some fashion, though in twisted ways. We don't have Soma,
but people _are_ conditioned to think if they are unhappy, that that
is unnatural and to always aim for satiation, chemical or otherwise.
Society _does_ grow consumers, but instead of a world state enforcing
it, we have pervasive advertising.

Now I am planning on catching "1984" and "Fahrenheit 451", the other
two "great" dystopian novels.

Sarah, didn't you read Brave New World recently?

The Great Transformation - Karen Armstrong

2007-10-31T12:27:00.000-07:00

Finished this book last week, it was a history of religion book that
followed parallel development of Chinese philosophy/religion
(Confucius, Taoism, etc), Greek rationalism, Judaism (and then
Christianity and Islam), and Hinduism (and its offshoots Buddhism,
Jainism and a few others, Hinduism has way more variation than
Christianity for example), from deep history (like 5,000 BC but mostly
after 1,000 BC) and up to about 100 A.D. Most people on earth today
believe in something that came out of these four traditions. But
this period, 1000-0 BC, was an "Axial Age" in which the beliefs really
came into themselves.

Some insights:

- Most of the time, these people thought that your actions (from
rituals on down through variations on the golden rule) were much more
important than your belief in precise doctrine.

- There are lots of parallels between these faiths but not in the
superficial way people usually think (like "don't murder"). Instead,
they all aim at connecting people with something beyond themselves,
and at different times had very similar ideas about how to get there.

- They all change over time adapting to current circumstances, and
continually throw out stuff that doesn't work, and invent new things
that do work (or reinvent previously discarded ideas), all the while
usually pretending that they are practicing the original, most
fundamental version of the faith.

I think it really made me appreciate that people's beliefs, no matter
how odd they may seem to me or you, usually serve a purpose for them
or their community, and tell a story about the circumstances in which
those beliefs arose.

Freakonomics by Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt

2007-10-09T12:28:00.000-07:00

I listened to this in the car last week. This book made a lot of
waves when it came out a few years back with a few of its
controversial conclusions, but is already a classic introduction to
economics, easily digestible by a non-economist. Steven Levitt is a
rogue economist who is more interested in applying the analytic tools
of economics to social phenomena like crime, school testing, etc, than
he is to markets and money.. his talent is asking interesting
questions. For instance, he looks into how baby names change in
popularity over time, the differences between black and white baby
naming trends and the effects of such naming. He looks into cheating
in Sumo wrestling and compares it to cheating in high stakes US school
testing. He looks into the economics of dealing crack. It is
fascinating stuff. There is stuff in here to offend most people, but
Levitt says that if morality is how the world should work, then
economics is how it does work. So he is simply laying out the facts
as he has discovered them, judgement free in most cases. Anyway,
good stuff, recommended.

Earnest Hemmingway - The Snows of Kilimanjaro and The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber

2007-08-04T12:30:00.000-07:00

I got this disc from the library. Each story is one disc so it was very quick.

The Snows of Kilimanjaro is about a rich couple on safari and the guy
gets gangrene in his leg and they are stuck waiting to be picked up
and he dies. The point of the story seems to be that rich people are
boring snobs, and so, it is a bit boring.

The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber is about another rich couple,
Francis and his trophy wife, on safari. This time they have a white
hunter as a guide. The crux of the story is that Francis shows his
cowardice when they hunt a lion, shoot it, go into the push and find
it, and he runs away screaming like a girl when the lion charges.
His wife thinks he's a coward and ends up sleeping with the white
hunter, and things get really awkward. Next day they go hunting
buffalo and Francis finds his courage... and his wife shoots him
"accidentally". It was a lot more interesting

Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse Five

2007-05-20T16:53:00.000-07:00

I was only vaguely familiar with Vonnegut. Then, when he passed last month, I read a lot about him and heard a good segment on NPR. So when I saw this book on CD at the library, I decided to give it a whirl.

The book follows Billy Pilgrim, a private in the American Army, who becomes a prisoner of war on the German front. There is plenty of gruesome realism as his co-prisoners die for various reasons.

There is also a plenitude of surreal and ridiculous situations. The book blends science fiction with the detailed portrayal of war. Billy is, in the future, abducted by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore, who mess with his conception of time such that he periodically jumps in time through different parts of his life. So the narrative jumps from World War II, to his time on Tralfamadore, to his early years with his wife, to later periods of his life (set in some post-USA scenario) when he is trying to tell the world about Tralfamadore and the true nature of time.

I was really puzzled by the blending in of science fiction. However, after thinking about it, I think the point is that war itself is as strange a scenario as the Tralfamadoreans. The time-jumping also allowed for the revelation of character traits and other issues in a very unique way. I think it really worked for this storyline.

The climax of the book comes when the POWs are stuck in Dresden, in a bunker deep underground, and the Allied forces destroy Dresden. They come out and find a wasteland. It was pretty odd for me because I somehow thought that there were six CDs. So when I came to the end of the fifth, I thought there was more coming. Since the narrative jumped all over there wasn't the natural flow I expected.

This is the first book on CD I have ever listened too, and I think I will make it a regular thing. I have enough commute time (unfortunately) that I chewed through this 5 disc set in a week and a half. The narrator was Ethan Hawk, someone who I ordinarily am not a big fan of. Part of the reason I don't like him is his whispery, serious voice, he seems a bit of a sissy boy. But in this book it played quite well.

The Man From Laramie

2007-05-20T16:25:00.000-07:00

This old western (1955) stars James Stewart as Will Lockhart, a wagoneer who is out for revenge. His brother, a cavalryman, was killed when Apache's ambushed and killed his regement, using guns of unknown origin. So, Lockhart's mystery is, where did the guns came from? His search brings him to Coronado, a Wyoming town ruled by an aging rancher. When Lockhart's wagon and mules are destroyed by the son of the ranch-lord, the plot begins to get complicated.

This was a fun movie to watch. I am not very familiar with the western genre. But I can see how the mythology of the old west was appealing in the middle of the 20th century, when so many things were changing. It must have seemed like the wild wild west. And the theme of ilicit arms deals still resonates today.

Aubrey Daniels - Bringing Out the Best in People

2007-05-20T16:10:00.000-07:00

The basic theme of this book is that rational (that is, predictable) feedback provided quickly can change people's behavior. This is something that you learn about in books about children and baby's and dogs. It is something we may not directly think of for adults. We assume adults are rational and will do what makes sense. Or that, if they are not doing what they should be, that it is because they are lazy or deviant.

But in fact, this book shows that such basic psychology applies to adults as well. You cannot expect them to do the right things if feedback is unreliable and delivered long after the behavior. You also can't expect to squelch negative behavior if you don't give people quick and relevant negative feedback. So, if you want to change people's behavior, you must identify the behaviors you want and quickly give feedback, and also quickly address negative behaviors.

I found this book almost as helpful in managing myself as in interacting with anyone else. It also helped me see many problems in society at large where slow or nonexistent feedback makes it unlikely that people will change their ways. I would very much recommend reading this book to anyone, even if you are not charged with managing other people.

Loretta Lynn - The Definitive Collection

2007-05-17T17:20:00.000-07:00

I was introduced to Loretta by KEXP, specifically when she put out the album Van Lear Rose, produced by Jack White of the White Stripes. That album rocks. Around the same time I saw a movie, Coal Miner's Daughter, about her life. So I have a real respect for her as an authentic country legend.

This is a great collection also. I am impressed by her as a performer and a songwriter. Especially given that she completely bootstrapped her career. I think my favorite on the album is "Coal Miner's Daughter" because I can relate to growing up in a blue collar, less-than-rich family (we didn't have it that bad though). I also like "The Pill" and the fact some other songs dropped in stuff about how the pill has changed the face of womanhood.

The Dusty Springfield Anthology

2007-05-12T15:36:00.000-07:00

There are some real gems on here like "Am I the Same Girl?" and "You've Really Got a Hold On Me". I am only a passing fan of Dusty, so you can take this as you will, but this three disc anthology could easily have been a one disc anthology. Such a big collection makes it all sound the same. Maybe a really devoted fan will get more out of this long set of songs. Still, I really enjoy listening to this old pop.

Little House on the Prairie - Laura Ingalls Wilder

2007-05-01T05:56:00.000-07:00

No surprise, but this book is excellent. As with Little House In the Big Woods, I am just amazed by what people could do with thier bare hands and a little wit in those days. Pa building a house almost single handedly has got to be the most amazing feat.

Also as with Big Woods, there is a lot more going on in this book than I ever picked up when I read these at age 7. The relationship the family has with the Natives is very interesting. Ma and some of the neighbors view them as beneath respect. But Pa has a deep respect for them, while at the same time feeling the need to protect his family.

I also thought a lot this time about how lonely it must have been to be in the middle of the wide flat prairie, your nearest neighbor miles away. But also how close this would have made you be to your family. I grew up at times in locations far from town, and it is a very healthy, but often lonesome, experience.

Finally, Pa and Ma moved to the Prairie because the Big Woods were getting crowded. I wonder what they would have thought of the development I live in, with houses 10 feet apart?

Save non-commercial Internet radio!

2007-04-20T04:43:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I missed this, but came across this at blog.kexp.org

...the Copyright Royalty Board is demanding online radio stations pay increased royalty rates of 300 to 1200 percent, due retroactively to the beginning of the year. On Monday, the CRB denied all appeals, and so unless Congress intervenes, the non-commercial radio world will be hushed. And the dead horse being whipped? The idea that radio is a direct means of revenue rather than promotion. Advertisers pay radio stations, and radio stations pay royalties. Unless a radio station has advertisers, it can’t pay increased royalties. All the while, the exposure an artist receives is ignored. If this bothers you, join the shout out to Congress.

There are tons of radio stations online that play music nobody else will play, and most of them play without advertisements. This means they probably have no revenue. But I'm willing to bet that the artists and record labels whose music are played get more than the royalties missed back in the form of exposure. I have bought many an album because I heard it on a non-commercial radio station.

So, if you care about artists other than the current top 40 being given exposure, go here SaveNetRadio.org.

The B-52's - The B-52's

2007-04-17T17:01:00.000-07:00

This album just rocks. Avery loves it, I love it, Emma loves it. In fact I completely lost my voice this week in no small part because of shouting "Rock Lobster!" and singing "Planet Claire" (our hands down favorites). "Planet Claire" is especially connecting for Avery because they are doing an astronomy unit at preschool. Avery laughs out loud at the lines "Planet Claire has pink air" and "no one has a head!" and repeats them to people who have no idea who the B-52's are.

This album came out in 1979. 12 years later when I really discovered music, in the form of "alternative" music, I thought it was so cutting edge and radical. But most of the "innovative" ideas and sounds I was hearing are already there in this album from a decade before. Of course, many of the alternative stars of the early 90's were quick to credit new wave as having inspired to them.

I really love Fred Schneider's spoken vocals behind Pierson powerhouse female voice and Wilson's new wave harmonies. I first became familiar with this style (shouting dude, crooning chick) via the Sugarcubes, but of course the B-52's own this sound. I would love to hear a new band pick up this method and figure out a way to pull it off without ripping it off.

Anyway, definitely a keeper.

Children of Men

2007-04-16T16:27:00.000-07:00

The last child was born in 2009. In 2027, most societies have disintegrated and the last bastion of civilization is Britain. A man named Theo finds himself charged with guarding a west African refugee, who has the only baby on Earth, to the coast so she can link up with "the human project", a mysterious group who will apparently help her. Unfortunately, Theo must weave his way through a web of lies and deceit among secretive groups, corrupt police, and a British government intent on expelling every foreigner, known as "fugees" (refugees).

This movie is based on a novel by P.D. James, and is one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. It is such a detailed and tragic vision of the future, and so convincingly portrayed, that you find yourself inside that world as you watch the movie.

To me the most compelling scene in the movie is when Theo rescues Kee and her child from a building in the refugee ghetto. As they leave the building, hundreds gaze at the baby with holy amazement, and then the British soldiers on the bottom floors and outside the building (who are laying siege to the building) stop their shooting and bombing to gaze on the baby as well. If only every child in the world today could have the same effect on violence... But the calm lasts only briefly, another shot comes from the building and the mayhem resumes.

I hope the odds of this specific dystopian scenario (100% infertility) are low. Still, with all the possible things that could go wrong with our world civilization, this story manages to deal with a lot of possible side effects that could arise such as xenophobia, totalitarian government, clanism, reactionary religion... And it does so in a lot more authentic way and with deeper portrayal of human behavior compared to other recent apocalyptic films like the Day After Tomorrow or Revenge of the Sith. Good scifi (and good comedy) is not really about the bizarre circumstances but about how people act in very odd circumstances, kind of imaginative anthropology. This film (and the book I expect, I will try to read it) definitely fits that bill.

Has Been - William Shatner

2007-04-11T20:06:00.000-07:00

I haven't actually heard this whole album. I just heard Shatner's cover of "Common People" on KEXP (my favorite radio station). This guy is brilliant! 76 years old and still going strong. I am not very familiar with his recent acting work besides the Priceline commercials, where he's basically made a new career of making fun of himself. This album (made with Ben Folds plus tons of celeb cameos) is basically an extension of that from what I've read. I will have to hear more of it. For a taste, go read the lyrics of "I can't get behind that" which features Henry Rollins.

Kenny Rogers - The Gambler

2007-04-05T05:56:00.000-07:00

Bror, my best friend in elementary school, had this album on tape. We played it and Michael Jackson's Thriller nonstop for at least two years, as we built lego spaceships, and played GI Joes, Masters of the Universe, Star Wars... Still, besides The Gambler itself (a song that was around before Kenny covered it, apparently there is a Johnny Cash version that I'll have to get my hands on) and She Believes in Me, I can't say I remembered much of this album.

So I grabbed it from the library the other day. I can see why it was popular and why it had crossover appeal. I am not very familiar with what Country music was doing in 1978. But besides the Gambler itself (which honestly doesn't even sound Country other than the storyline), almost nothing in here strikes me as Country. There is a lot more Rock and Funk type of sound going on. In fact, I would not have said this was a country album unless I knew that Kenny was a "country superstar".

There is a very interesting array of songs in here, such as "Morgana Jones" which as near as I can tell is about the narrator's experiences with an ugly hooker, and "Little More Like Me", which I was thinking is about Jesus, but I am not sure (is there a pattern here?). I was hoping to validate some of my assumptions about the lyrics. But apparently Kenny Co. has mounted a systematic campaign to remove all his lyrics from the internet, because every lyrics site I could find the titles on have the lyrics removed.

Here is a funny site: men who look like kenny rogers.

Kenny, on the other hand, doesn't look much like himself now.

Bassdrive (online Radio)

2007-04-04T07:29:00.000-07:00

Although I usually listen to KEXP at work (when I am listening at all), whenever I need to really focus and get in a zone I will hop over to BassDrive.

BassDrive is a 24/7 drum and bass radio station featuring live shows with guest DJs, as well as broadcasts from venues all over the world representing the best of drum and bass & jungle music. BassDrive is also a new record label promoting US drum and bass. BassDrive internet radio offers superior sound quality in comparison to other online drum n bass and techno radio stations. Please tune in by clicking one of the tune-in buttons in the top right corner. Please refer to our help section if you experience problems listening to our online radio.

The DJs are located in spots all over the world, and can run their shows remotely from wherever they are. This gives you flavors from many different drum and bass scenes across the world. I am no expert on drum and bass but I know I like it. Much better than some of the more popular electronic music styles. I really like the liquid styles, and I also like anytime they incorporate latin and/or jazz elements. The only thing I don't like are a few DJs that feel the need to rap over the top of the tracks. And usually not well...

But anyway, especially when I am hunkering down to write software for a few hour stretch, this music really helps me focus.

Woodie Guthrie - Columbia River Collection

2007-03-31T14:46:00.000-07:00

Avery and I have been rocking this CD for a week or two now. It is an obscure disc created by Rounder Records by rescuing some tracks created to publicize the big federal Columbia River dam projects in 1941.

Wikipedia Guthrie was commissioned by the Department of the Interior and its Bonneville Power Administration to write songs about the Columbia River and the building of the federal dams; the best known of these are "Roll On Columbia" and "Grand Coulee Dam." Around the same time, he joined Pete Seeger in the legendary folk-protest group Almanac Singers, with whom he toured the country, and moved into the cooperative Almanac House in Greenwich Village.

It is fun because the songs reference Oregon and Washington landmarks, rivers, etc. It is also a pretty amazing thing because most of the songs are fairly good songs and all 17 are about the same subject, the Columbia River dams. The songs are also all about the common farmer of the time, with lots of stories of the hardships and trivial details of rural life. It seems bizarre today to have the government commission a set of recordings. But then, the music recording industry was pretty young, and still trying to figure out what worked and what didn't.

The Columbia River dams were put up during the term of FDR, as part of his massive public works programs. They still provide power for the Pacific Northwest today. Although today we question the environmental impact of dams (which makes me wonder if Woodie, who leaned to the left politically, might sing against the dam were he alive today), at the time, electricity represented a huge opportunity to improve quality of life and grow the economy. Electricity was one of the tools FDR used to squelch the great depression.

Anyway, as with the Pete Seeger CD, this CD's liner notes has lots of history about the songs, which is very fun to read.

(Echo) Using genes to plot the Mammalian Family Tree

2007-03-30T06:57:00.000-07:00

Don't blame the dinosaurs

Scientists can compare the DNA of different creatures to get an idea of how long ago they had a common ancestor. This article explains how some scientists have compared the genes of mammalian species to figure out that mammals were already very deverse long before the dinosaurs went extinct. This is fascinating stuff-- a fascinating discovery and a fascinating way to have discovered it. People are pretty smart!

Stoplights

2007-03-29T18:41:00.000-07:00

I was out early this morning and sat at 5 different stoplights for 2 or 3 minutes each, while nobody crossed the intersection. Yesterday when I was trying to get my daughter to the doctor on time I waited for a left turn light for 3 cycles, during each cycle it only let about 2 cars through.

Can't somebody sort this out? I know that the early morning, with almost no cars on the road, is probably not a big priority for traffic engineers, but even crazier stoplight innefficiencies crop up when more cars are on the road. I bet that we could save a lot of fuel and pollution just by improving the way stoplights work, not to mention frustration.

It seems like some bright engineers could figure out a cheep way to do this. Some simple rules (that assume some kind of camera system that can recognize it):

Don't switch the light if no cars are coming the other way

Deeper queues get more green

Manage systems of lights so that blocks of cars can drive through several green lights

Still, I appreciate that sometimes such things are a lot more difficult than they seem.

Some interesting links on the subject:

Smart Stoplights

Why is traffic flow out of sync? Stoplight timing, think tank's writers say

College Dropout - Kanye West

2007-03-27T21:01:00.000-07:00

Kanye West. I have always thought I should check him out, although I have been familiar with his work as a producer and of course heard his rap work on the radio. I've also heard some of the outspoken/outlandish things he's said over time. Hey, if musicians can't be ridiculous, who can?

Anyway, I grabbed his debut rap album from 2004 when I saw it at the library. It is definitely not one to listen to with Avery. There is a lot of brilliant stuff in here, some solid gold lines like "Single black female addicted to retail". The song "Jesus Walks" is probably the standout in terms of having a complete theme and a real message of some kind:

...
I want to talk to God but I'm afraid because we ain't spoke in so long
To the hustlas, killers, murderers, drug dealers even the strippers
(Jesus walks with them)
To the victims of Welfare for we living in hell here hell yeah
(Jesus walks with them)
...
We rappers are role models we rap we don't think
I ain't here to argue about his facial features
Or here to convert atheists into believers
I'm just trying to say the way school need teachers
The way Kathie Lee needed Regis that's the way yall need Jesus

Still, as with the MC Hammer album where the song that says "that's why we pray" is followed by "Soft and Wet" (yes I owned it, hey I was 14), it is humorous juxtaposition with the rest of the CD has some pretty dirty stuff.

The production is really great with some very good sounds, beats, and sample usage. There is stuff to dance to, to chill to, and to think to. There is also a great set of camios from people like Jay-Z and Talib Kweli.

But in the end, I am stuck with the feeling that poor Kanye feels sorry for himself. Read a bit of his bio, you find out he grew up middle class and pretty found success in music without the years and years of struggle many artists have. So all the bitching and moaning just doesn't cut it.

Also I am surprised to find such an anti-intellectual thread running through the album. The official thesis of the album is that college is a waste of time. For showing some real depth in some areas, Kanye, I am surprised you don't see the value of education.

So, as far as this album, take it or leave it.

The Howling Octopus

2007-03-27T20:26:00.000-07:00

Sometime in the last few years, my girls and I invented a creature known as "the howling octopus". Any stories we make up involving the ocean, in any way, must include this invention.

"It is theorized that the howling octopus is related to the North Sea Kraken"

Now, my girls do not know it is made up. In fact, a few weeks ago, my youngest said "Dad, I know the howling octopus is not real". I probed a bit and found out her buddies at preschool had spilled the beans. So I asked if she believed everything they said, and anyway eventually I convinced her (without outright lying, a skill i build at Christmas and other holidays) there still was such a thing.

Here is my daughters' current understanding of the beast (straight from their mouths):

It is an octopus
It howls
It is very large
It is omnivorous
It is the second largest underwater animal (not as big as the blue whale)
Its a humongous animal
Its an underwater animal
It lives in sea
It lives way at the bottom
They live alone
If they feel lonely, they howl.

The Good Earth

2007-03-25T14:46:00.000-07:00

I remember watching this movie a long time ago when I was a preteen. So the other day when I saw it at the library, I had to grab it. It is the story of a farmer, Wang Lung, and his wife O-lan, in China near the time of the Xinhai Revolution.

The farmer starts out with just a small piece of land inherited from his father. His father secures him a wife from a great house nearby, a kitchen-slave-woman. She is extremely meek and almost never talks. The farmer though shows her much more respect than she expects. The film follows the growth of their relationship and the farmer's career. The farmer purchases more and more land, though for a while they must go south in the face of famine. While they are in a city in the south, the revolution begins, and while participating in a massive looting the wife finds some jewels. She brings them back to the farmer and they return north to their land. They become very wealthy. So much so that the farmer gets a second wife (!). But in the end, that new wife cheats on him (with his son!) and he sends her away. Finally Wang Lung respects and loves his O-lan again.

It is a very nice story, told slowly as in most movies of this age, but sweetly. One interesting thing is that the main stars (Luise Rainer and Paul Muni) of the film are very obviously not Chinese or even Asian. They have some poor eye makeup that may have fooled folks in 1937. But now it was almost humorous and slightly embarrassing that there was a time we didn't feel we could cast an ethnic actor in a starring role.

Also read "What's So Bad About the Good Earth?"

Velvet Worm

2007-03-25T14:33:00.000-07:00

OK, I promised I wouldn't just post reviews-- though this in a way is a review of biological handiwork in a way. Here is a little critter I ran into in a big fat Animal book my daughter Emma and I checked out. There are only 110 species of them in the world, and they are very strange creatures if you try to classify them. Though they look kind of like a millipede or a caterpillar, they are not arthopods at all. Arthopods (arachnids like spiders, crustaceans, insects and centipedes/millipedes) have segmented bodies and a chitenous exoskeleton. The velvet worms do not. From Wikipedia:

Onychophores are thought to be closely related to the arthropods. The structure of their brains is similar to spiders, raising the possibility that they are most closely related to arachnids, though molecular analysis contradicts this.

...

The similarity of these creatures to caterpillars is not purely coincidental; as with most creatures, the larval stage of moths and butterflies are thought to represent, however inconsistently, previous evolutionary stages. Arthropods are thought to have evolved from a multi-segmented animal not entirely unlike both onychophores and caterpillars. In fact, the characteristics of larval insects are part of the evidence cited to support models of insect ancestors, for example in justifying how many segments and legs such creatures were thought to have, many of which evolved into other parts on modern insects, like antennae and mouthparts.

Anyway, fascinating little creatures.

Hold on - What's Hungry Plant?

2007-03-24T22:43:00.000-07:00

I read and listen to as much as I can, and I think waaay to much. As such, I've got a lot to say. So this evening I am by myself, our dinner party cancelled because poor Salina is sick, and I thought, since I am a geek, what better way to spend the evening than to set up a blog?

I've just posted a bunch of reviews I've done in a private forum. This is not going to be primarily a review blog, though if you like what I've done there, let me know. Otherwise, expect a bit more eclectic set in the future.

When I take notes in meetings, phonecalls, classes, or whatever, I tend to doodle a lot. A doodle I've been doing a lot lately is this man eating plant. Since this blog is a bit like taking notes, I thought it was appropriate.

As far as me, I am interested in my daughters, my wife, my dog, the rest of my family, my work as a software programmer, website design and applications, songwriting, music, history, politics, and recently, working out, though in the trying-not-to-get-fat not the i-can-bench-300 way.

Flags of our Fathers

2007-03-24T22:27:00.000-07:00

Salina and I watched this last weekend. We were both pretty tired and honestly I don't think I got as much out of it as I could have. I didn't get emotionally tuned into the story. I can't imagine the pressure of having the fundraising fate of the war on your shoulders. Still, something was missing in the storytelling.

But there are some amazing depictions of the fleet of naval ships sent to Japan. Hundreds of ships spread for miles through the Pacific. Now, i've previously kind of balked at labelling any generation "the greatest generation", but after some thought, it is a totally amazing thing that these guys did. These Americans pulled themselves out of a great depression and in the course of four years trained millions of soldiers, built huge amounts of military equipment and infrastructure, and defeated two massive imperial forces that had home field advantage and a motivation that was akin to fanatical religion. It is a completely mind boggling achievement. It is too bad that WAR is the only thing that has brought this level of effort out of us. But it is inspiring, and it makes me believe it is really possible for us to do some amazing things, like for instance, change course away from global warming catastrophe.

So, flat on the personal story. But the effects are so well done, and the feats depected by those effects so amazing, that it still had a personal effect on me-- reminding me that we've done great things and hopefully still can.

Bruce Springsteen - We Shall Overcome - The Seeger Sessions

2007-03-22T22:19:00.000-07:00

Along with the Pete Seeger CD, we also grabbed this gem, in which the Boss covers a bunch of songs that Pete Seeger performed, in a really awesome way. He has a really great way of making these songs all feel fresh and new, but also honoring them as roots songs. You've got fiddles and banjos and honky tonk pianos and gospel backing vocals-- it really rocks.

My favorite by far is "Oh Mary Don't You Weep". I am not sure I've heard it sung this way. For instance, the version Pete Seeger sings is in a major key and fairly upbeat. Bruce's version is bluesy and in a minor key, and it simply rocks. I have been playing this song every time I pick up my guitar, and have had repeat disease with the track in my car. Emma and Avery are singing it too-- Avery's version is "arrows army got drownded, ooh mary don't you eat?" But that's folk music for you, its allowed to change.

Pete Seeger - American Favorite Ballads #1

2007-03-22T20:45:00.000-07:00

My familiarity with Pete Seeger comes mostly from our friend Julia, who makes CD’s for the kids every birthday party, and always has at least one or two Seeger numbers on it. But he is much bigger than that in terms of influencing American music. He was one of the key players in the folk revival in the middle of the last century, and recorded hundreds of songs people had been singing for a century, before they vanished beneath a wave of newfangled radio one hit wonders. He was a political figure as well, way left of mainstream and with communist ties, which he later regretted and renounced. But none of that cancels out his love for America, its people, its history, and true concern for his fellow man.

Anyway, my daughter Avery and I have been listening to “American Favorite Ballads #1? (there’s five in all, I hope to get my hands on the others!) which has all kinds of old folk and campfire and cowboy and union and gospel songs on it, some of which were popular before the civil war. You’ve got patriotic favorites like “Yankee Doodle”, folk hymns like “John Brown’s Body” and “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”, songs of the working man like “John Henry”, westerns like “Home on the Range”.

I don’t know if Avery (4 years old) will ever hear some of these songs any other way, and it is a good springboard to talk about history and so on. I also really appreciate the liner notes, which has a few paragraphs of history about each song. I love learning history this way, through the lens of something specific.

Hank, Buck, and Marty

2007-03-15T20:44:00.000-07:00

Avery loooooves Johny Cash (so do I!), so we wore him out on our drives home from preschool. So, I grabbed a few other old country/cowboy guys from the library. It’s kind of a fun connection for us.

Buck Owens - Greatest Hits
This was my least favorite of the bunch, though it wasn’t bad. The sound was a bit too polished, too cliche– definitely citified music, not country in much but name and style. Still, “Act Naturally” is kind of clever and catchy. “Made In Japan” is funny, about liking Japanese girls.

Marty Robbins - Gunfighter Balads & Trail Songs
“Big Iron” is one of my favorite songs already. “El Paso” is another great clasic. I gotta say though, the rest is pretty repetitive. Plus when you look at the CD inlay it shows a bunch of pictures of him, clean cut and in a suit. I know that’s how musicians did it then, but it kind of takes the steam out of the “gunfighter” bit. Its funny too that these guys got so much mileage singing about cowboys and the old west, a world that had mostly disappeared 50 years before these songs were written.

Hank williams - The best of Hank Williams
This CD is by far the best of the bunch and Avery’s standout favorite. The first three songs are awesome and classics, and you’d recognize them if you heard them. “hey good lookin, what you got `ookin?”… “son of a gun, we’ll have big fun on the bayou”… “move it on over… move over little dog cause the big dogs movin in”. Track 4, Lonesome Blue, is my favorite, it features some awesome yodelling style vocals, something you just don’t hear these days. Hank’s music strikes me as far more authentically countrythan the other two, and really even than Johny cash. My only disappointment is two songs with a chorus that is essentially the words “Honky tonkin”/”Honky tonk”. Either song is good on its own but together they seem repetitive.

Anyway, good stuff.

Little House in the Big Woods - Laura Ingalls Wilder

2007-03-05T20:43:00.000-08:00

I read this to my daughters Emma and Avery for our nightly reading. I’d recommend reading this book even as an adult. It was very easy reading, you could finish it in two sittings I bet. There is a lot going on there that is going to go over the kids heads, in terms of the history: cultural things like sexual politics of the time; finding out that there was pop culture even back then in the back woods (Pa busting out his fiddle to play the hits of the day); and that Pa has a spirit of conservation even as he is a hunter and farmer; thinking about how it must have been to live so isolated, but with everything you need at your disposal if you work hard enough– thinking about how America is such a land of bounty with so many great natural resources.

The pioneers (and the Native Americans before them) must have felt like they’d stumbled on the garden of Eden (although of course there was plenty of hardship). So much game and fertile soil and timber and open land. I think Americaowes as much of its greatness to this awesome tract of land we started on as it does to its ideals and visionary system of government. But also Pa and Ma worked their asses off which is also a great American value.

Audacity of Hope - Barack Obama

2007-03-05T20:42:00.000-08:00

I finally finished this. I really like everything he had to say, and would absolutely support him in a presidential race. In fact, this book might not be as interesting to me as it is to other people, because I found almost everything agreeable (I find it more interesting to be challenged : ). I think his balanced language is more genuine than some others, that he genuinely can see the other side even where he must take a stand, and that meanwhile he is a lot more interested in what we can commonly agree on and work towards. But my favorite part was the end of the book when he talked about his family, such ordinary concerns and challenges and joys of family life and love. I think policy is way more important than personality, but this guys got both.

The Lifeboat - Alfred Hitchcock

2007-01-14T20:40:00.000-08:00

We checked this movie out from the library. It is directed by Alfred Hitchcock and the story is by John Steinbeck (two huge pluses to me), and came out in 1944. Its about a group of people who were on a ship crossing the Atlantic during WWII and who’s boat was sunk by a German uboat (that also was sunk). They end up on a lifeboat together– and one of the castaways is a German Nazi. Throughout the story the rest of the survivors can’t decide whether to trust the Nazi or not. I thought it was pretty good, definitely worth watching. Salina says not so much. Definitely an interesting concept. I love Steinbeck and you can totally tell the characters are his inventions.