by James Brush
Coyote Mercury Posts
In June of ’01, we found ourselves driving from Maine to Montreal. We needed a break and so stopped at the Ben & Jerry’s factory in Waterbury, Vermont. I paid my respects to the dead in the flavor graveyard behind the factory.
And, it’s actually done on Friday…
- “K.C. Blues” – Charlie Parker – Bird: The Original Recordings of Charlie Parker
- “Fame Throwa” – Pavement* – Slanted & Enchanted
- “Ready OK” – Spent – Songs of Drinking and Rebellion
- “Blue Chaise” – The American Analog Set* – From Our Living Room to Yours
- “Gooseneck Problem” – Yo La Tengo* – Genius + Love = Yo La Tengo
- “Send a Picture of Mother” – Johnny Cash – At Folsom Prison
- “My Weakness” – Moby* – Play
- “Smile” – Elastica – Elastica
- “Suggestion” – Fugazi* – 13 Songs
- “Standing in the Shower… Thinking” – Jane’s Addiction – Nothing’s Shocking
*’s by the ones I’ve seen live.
While wandering around Brushy Creek Lake Park in Cedar Park, I caught this northern mockingbird doing its display routine from the top of a tree.
They like to jump up and immediately dive back to the perch in between songs. They seem to do it repeatedly, which is convenient if you’re trying to photograph the whole thing.
If there is one book that all my students want to read or reread it’s Ellen Hopkins’s Crank.
It is 537 pages of scattered free verse poetry from the point of view of Kristina, a teenage crank addict (that’s methamphetamine to those of us who still have all our teeth). Kristina starts out as the perfect kid with a lot going for her. Then she goes to visit her ex-junkie dad who isn’t as ex- as they thought and she meets a boy who introdues her to crank, aka ‘the monster.’
Naturally, 500 pages of deadly downward spiral ensue. Kristina begins to change and starts calling herself Bree in a sort of Sméagol vs Gollum battle for her soul.
It’s fairly straightforward good-girl-in-trouble and speed-kills fare, but the writing is vivid and lively. Hopkins’s poetry is often spaced and arranged in ways that allow certain pieces to be read two different ways, which nicely reflects the Kristina/Bree split. For example, “Flirtin’ with the Monster”:
Life was good
before I
met
the monsterAfter,
Life
was greatAt
least
for a little while.
I found myself interested in these kinds of splits that occured occasionally, nicely reminding us that Kristina was still in there somewhere or that Bree was waiting right around the corner.
The book doesn’t pull many punches and even manages to drop a few f-bombs, unusual in young adult fiction, but then within the context of the subject matter highly appropriate.
Considering that many of my students have lived through and are living through similar circumstances and quite a few of them have had personal encounters with ‘the monster,’ I give the book props for ringing true, and it should. It’s based on Hopkins’s own experiences with her daughter.
And, it’s not even out in the back of beyond. It’s right there in Cedar Park, Texas.
Back in February, I had the opportunity to purchase a ton of books for my classroom. Well, okay, not a ton, but it did take two Old Navy shopping carts to get out of Barnes & Noble and I’m not just talking any old navy shopping carts, I’m talking the kind that could withstand a barrage of cannon.
I got a lot of books is all I’m saying.
I tried to pick ones that my kids would want to read so I got an eclectic mix of young adult, genre, poetry, and classics many of which I had never read, especially the YA and some of the genre stuff. The books were a hit and silent reading days suddenly became quite popular. Often the kids would want to talk about what they read, but I was too often clueless and so this summer I took home a large bucket full of the books that were especially popular.
My wife and I are blazing through that bucket and finding the joys of young adult fiction. My wife was even able to brag that she read five books on Saturday. Five whole books, I swear to God, five books. Since I’m also writing a book, I’m moving a bit slower on the reading, but I did just finish my first book from the Summer Bucket: Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express.
I’ve never read any other of Christie’s novels (or any detective novel for that matter other than Isaac Asimov’s Caves of Steel), but it was fun. It’s about Hercule Poirot, apparently Chritie’s recurring detective who finds himself snowbound on the Orient Express with a murder to solve. It’s a clever story with a surprising ending. It’s an easy quick read also, which is why, I think, several of the kids found it so appealing.
I’ll probably read a few more Agatha Christie novels (including Evil Under the Sun, which is on my Lost list) simply to see if this was typical or a particularly unique work. Either way, Murder on the Orient Express had me turning the pages and looking forward to spending a little time each day on that fabled luxury train of the mid-30’s, trying and failing to stay one step ahead on Monsieur Poirot.
Sunday was a nice day for backyard birding. The Carolina chickadees (above) came back with a vengeance. I hadn’t seen any since March, but since Sunday, they’ve been everywhere. I assume a bunch of babies must have just fledged nearby.
In addition to the chickadees, blue jays and grackles took turns on the hanging seed block. A house finch seemed to enjoy the safflower block that the squirrels find distasteful, and house sparrows dotted the ground looking for the small seeds that fall off the feeders.
Of course, we also had the usual flock of white-winged doves as well as one mourning dove that hangs with his white-winged allies.
Ignoring the food, a Carolina wren brought bits of fluff, twigs and even some Phoebe fur up to the nest box on the porch. The previous couple moved out after their babies left the nest so it’s nice to see someone moving in. As of today, there are two eggs in the nest.
Earlier in the day, I spotted a tufted titmouse, which was exciting because prior to him, I had only ever seen black-crested titmice in the yard. Incidentally, I hadn’t seen any titmice of any kind since March. I suppose they’re in cahoots with the chickadees.
And finally, just before we went in, a cardinal came by. I rarely see them in the yard, and when they do come around they always fly away just as I notice them. This guy actually stood still long enough for me to take his picture.
Each day around feeding time, the trees fill up with white-winged doves.
They’re harmless, of course, and easily frightened, but there’s still something eerie about being watched by wild animals…
There’s something deliciously perverse about reading JRR Tolkien’s Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth. Perhaps it’s the secret glimpses into a writer’s process, or maybe it’s because I now know more about the royalty of Númenor than I do about the royalty of England (although the relevance is about the same). Either way, it’s an odd read.
There are really only three unfinished tales here: “Tuor and His Coming to Gondolin,” “Narn I Hîn Húrin,” and “Aldarion and Erendis: The Mariner’s Wife.” All three stories take place thousands of years prior to Lord of the Rings, and all three are imminently enjoyable despite their unfinished state. Of course, “Narn I Hîn Húrin” aka The Children of Húrin (see my post on The Children of Húrin) was recently published as a stand alone novel after the discovery of the rest of the manuscript.
Most of the rest of the book reads more like history than fiction, and there are two kinds of history at work here. The first is the history of Númenor and Middle-earth, and the second is a history of Tolkiens’s process. Regarding the former, it’s fascinating to learn more about Middle-earth even if it is in essays about the Istari (wizards), palantíri (seeing stones), the founding of Rohan, and the geography of Númenor (the Atlantis-like island from whose ancient kings Aragorn is descended). It’s all interesting stuff for those of us who can’t get enough of Middle-earth.
For fans of Tolkien’s better known works, there are some interesting pieces here. “The Disaster of the Gladden Fields” tells how Isildur lost the One Ring (this tale was part of the prelude to Peter Jackson’s Fellowship of the Ring) as well as two sections narrated by Gandalf. In “The Quest of Erebor,” Gandalf explains his reasoning behind sending Bilbo on the journey with the Dwarves recounted in The Hobbit. “The Hunt for the Ring” has Gandalf telling of what transpired between Aragorn, Gollum, Gandalf and Saruman in the years between The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring.
Equally interesting are editor and compiler Christopher Tolkien’s notes and commentary on the texts. It is here that we see the depth of JRR Tolkien’s creation. Here we learn that everything in Middle-earth has a history. Every word in the languages, the names of all the rivers and mountains. It wasn’t enough for Tolkien to just stick some syllables together to make up a word for something or slap a name on his map. All those places, all those words the characters speak, all their names had to mean something. They all have linguistic history and lore associated with them, and Tolkien spent much time working all of that out.
I don’t know if he intended for all of these notes and histories, essays, and explanations to be published, but they are fascinating nonetheless and they provide insight into the discovery of – for it does seem as if Tolkien was discovering rather than inventing – the most fully realized imaginary world ever created.
Inititially, I expected to enjoy the Lord of the Rings related sections the most, but it was the older tales that really hooked me. Perhaps beacuse they were new stories that added yet more depth to a world I have already come to know and love.