Monday, March 25, 2013

It's Bunny Time!


Here's hopping your Easter will be a joyous as this little guy's is going to be.

Monday, March 18, 2013

A Few Surprises Today

After some good natured ribbing from a group of friends about not watching "The Bible" on The History Channel, I decided it was time to get back to this book that has been sitting around with a bookmark on page 103 for months.  Don't go thinking I've had some sort of spiritual epiphany, not that that would be a bad thing.  I am simply interested in all the stories I missed between the Garden of Eden and the New Testament.  I keep tripping over Biblical references in novels, on TV and even in the news, and thought it would be a good idea to raise my cultural literacy a bit.  Hence, The Book of God: - The Bible as a Novel.

Wagerin recreates the high drama, low drama, gentle humor and lost of scadelous behavior of the Bible.  He shows the human sides of individuals as they faced physical and spiritual challenges.  He covers so much territory here, and I confess to finding  all the begets, begots  tiresome and to being confused by all those darn Tribes of Israel.  His writing is  clunky and disjointed, and I'm sure that's what tempted me to turn away in the first place. 

Happily, I discovered that "The Bible" is stacked up on Xfinity, and after watching part of the first installment, that may be a better way to go for me.  My needling friends told me about another History Channel series called "Viking" - also stacked on Xfinity.  Now, that one has me hooked. 

Funny...while surfing Xinfity which is proof that I have no life, I ran across a silly mockumentary, "Welcome to Myrtle Manor."  I'm hoping it's a mockumentary anyway...in the style of "Best In Show" and "Simply Ballroom" .  I am hoping I haven't been duped into watchin a reality show with sophisticated production values.  Horrors.  "Myrtle Manor" highlights the lives of people living an a trailer park run by a woman who hopes to give her park a 5-star resort ambiance.  The golf cart, above ground pool, and 90 year old skinny dipper don't help her cause. 

Thanks for stopping by

Monday, March 11, 2013

After years of being dormant, the jasmine plant in my dining room decided to bloom, delivering a delicate and sweet scent.  It's the way I imagine the tropics must smell.  The fragrance made it's way over the room divider, past the piano and found me settled in for the afternoon reading Memoir of a Sunday Brunch.

This book left me happy that I don't work in the food service industry, wishing I had at least on sibling, and trying to figure out why so many people are so very taken with this book.  I didn't dislike the book, it's just that I have enjoyed other memoirs rooted in family tales more.  Life with Father, Eight is Enough, and Cheaper by the Dozen all fall into that  category.
Like Julia Pandl, Ruth Reichl combined culinary adventures and family frenzies, but with stronger results. What I like about Reichl's books, beginning with Tender at the Bone, is that she lets the stories evolve slowly, unforced, and with no pretense of expecting laughter.  Sure I laughed at many of Pandl's stories, but the big picture felt unframed.  

 Pandl writes with total sincerity, sharing stories of nine siblings working in a Milwaukee area based family restaurant.    What was meaningful to her, she tries to make meaningful to readers.  I had a hard time warming up to her central player, her father - a man I found mostly unlikeable.  Mom understandably got lost in the shuffle as the family survived relocations, illnesses, and a fair amount of dangerous activity on the part of the siblings.  And, she does mention Albanese's, an unpretentious - OK- a downright scary - pizza joint in Milwaukee that I discovered man years ago.  Great pizza, though.

While I'm on a negative roll here, I have to say something about her style.  Pandl's skill shone in parts of the second half, but I was confused by the formulaic, quasi-poetic snippets. 

Enough.  If you liked the simple charm of Terry Ryan's The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio, you will like this book. 

Just for kicks and giggles....my animal decided her head needed a good rolling, and roll she did, resulting in some fine static.  Of course, by the time I got the camera out, her ear wings had calmed down considerably.

Early this morning, while surfing, I stumbled across the 1940 version of "Pride and Prejudice" starring Greer Garson as Elizabeth and nearly too handsome for words Laurence Olivier as Mr. Darcy.  This is hardly a faithful to the book rendition, but the Mrs. Bennett character makes it worth watching.  Mr. B's a hoot as well. 

Heart-A-Rama
Public Ticket Sale
Monday, March 18
6:30-7:30
Lincoln Park Fieldhouse
   $15.00/ticket
            For more info go to www.heartarama.blogspot.com




Thanks for stopping by.  Maybe I won't be so crabby next week!

Monday, March 4, 2013

On Walter Mosley by guest blogger Steven Head

Today is my lucky day.  Fretting about what to write...worrying about sounding less cerebral than usual...then...BAZINGA! What do I discover, but this unpublished essay from Steve.  Life is good.




I was a fan of Walter Mosley even before I knew his name. The movie Devil in the Blue Dress with Easy Rawlins, a young black man living in 1950's LA, grabbed my attention from the opening scene and had me guessing the entire time. The part of Easy was played by Denzel Washington, before he became a super star. Jennifer Beals, as Daphne Monet, and Don Cheadle, as Mouse, helped fill the leading roles.

It was only later that I learned the movie was based upon a book of the same title by Walter Mosley. I managed to read a few of Mosley's books after that and then forgot about him. Days before my recent visit to Manitowoc I happened upon a book on CD by Mosley titled Fear of the Dark. This one is told by Paris Minton although it is part of the Fearless Jones series, or so I have learned. The same great storytelling with memorable characters and the same 1950's LA. And a look inside the black experience of that time as it relates to the law, racial relations, and so much more.

The experience was so satisfying I was moved to find another Mosley book and just finished Gone Fishin', another Easy Rawlins book. Once again, a great story with Easy as the narrator but Mouse as the driving force of the tale. This time the setting is pre-WWII Texas, before Easy had moved to LA and become a detective. Before he had gone to war. And before he could effectively read. We see a young Easy in the bumpy process of becoming a man in a violent situation with his most violent close friend, Mouse.

One of the things I truly appreciate about Mosley, whether reading or being read to, is his sense of poetry. His characters speak in both an educated voice as well as a neighborhood dialect filled with contractions and slight alterations to common words. There is a rhythm and sometimes a rhyme that pulls you into the story. And there is a steady integration of culture, observations about the decisions people make, and changes people experience.

You will probably find Mosley books in the mystery section, but he writes much broader and deeper than the conventions of this genre. You will be captured by the intrigue of his stories, but it is the development of his characters that sets him apart. Like so many other writers I have suggested, Mosley's books get down into the blood and violence, passion and lust, beauty and cruelty, of life. If this is not your brand of reading then leave Mr. Mosley on the shelf. But if you pick him up, be prepared for more than just another interesting plot.

*****What am I reading?  Memoir of a Sunday Brunch.  So far, I have not been captured by the book as so many others have.  I will keep trying.

*****Stay safe, please.  The snowpiles are wicked hard to see around.  Please, take your time.  Creep into intersections slowly and cautiously, and give the other guy the right of way, even if it's your turn.  This morning, a woman on a cell phone, cigarette dangling, flew through the very intersection on Huron where lives were lost last weekend.  Clearly, in her mind, she is the center of the universe.  I am so happy that the people in my life are thoughtful, patient, and realistic about the responsibilities we have to those around us.