A Crockhead Abroad

Book Report: Good Advice For All Children

2012-01-28T19:45:00.002-06:00

Please Look After Mom by Kyung-Sook Shin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This little book of fiction is by an acclaimed Korean author, but it is the first of her books to be translated into English. It tells the story of a poor uneducated woman in a little village who sacrifices herself for her family and, unknown to her family, to others. She is unappreciated until she disappears on a visit to Seoul. I liked the book because of the insight it gives into Korean life and culture and the plot is interesting. It is confusing at points because the point of view is constantly changing among the different family members, without identifying who is speaking other than context. Also, everything is in the second person, even when the person is speaking in the first person. I don't know if that is a translation error, or if that is how it was intended to be written. Our daughter-in-law gave this book to us, but when I asked her how true to Korean life it actually is, she confessed that she hasn't read it. All I can say is it seems to be an accurate depiction.

Book Report: A Book For All Tastes

2012-01-25T08:05:00.000-06:00

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If you think you don't like nonfiction, then you haven't read "The Devil in the White City." It's hard to imagine that a book about the World's Fair in Chicago, known as the Columbian Exposition in 1893 could be a page-turner, but this one is.

The book weaves together the story of the Exposition with that of a serial killer who killed hundreds of young women during the time of the Fair. All of it is based on original sources. Larson looked at the actual paper on which the assassin of Chicago's mayor at the time wrote a note expressing his delusions, and saw how hard were the indentations on the paper from his pencil. He uses trial transcripts, as well as other primary sources for his material.

In all fairness, Larson does some imaginative recreation of dialogue, but he does it so skillfully and seamlessly that it works. This is a book that everyone will enjoy. You got your history, you got your mystery, you got your romance, you got your heartbreak. It's even got pictures. Above all, the author knows how to tell a good tale. What more could any reader want?

Book Report: John Jeremiah Sullivan Is Not David Foster Wallace Despite Having Three Names

2012-01-15T19:00:00.001-06:00

Pulphead by John Jeremiah Sullivan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There is no doubt that Sullivan is a good writer, but he suffered from extravagant praise, in my opinion. I had to have this book of essays for Christmas after The New Yorker compared his writing to that of David Foster Wallace. He is no David Foster Wallace. Not even close.

"Upon This Rock," the author's account of attending a three-day Christian rock music festival is the strongest piece, reminiscent of Wallace's famous account of attending the Illinois State Fair in Springfield, but not matching it. Sullivan's essays about searching out old blues singers and visiting Bob Marley's mentor, Bunny Wailer, just become plain tedious if you're not a blues or reggae devotee. This is a little-above average book, but not nearly masterpiece quality.

View all my reviews

Book Report: Zug Island: Getting An Education In A Coke Plant

2011-11-19T18:21:00.001-06:00

Zug Island: A Detroit Riot Novel by Gregory A. Fournier

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book is a coming-of-age book about an 18-year-old boy who gets kicked out of college his first semester because of a misplaced sense of honor, and who spends the next 10 months working in a coke plant. The book feels autobiographical, and the author apparently spent a summer working in the labor pool in a coke oven plant on Zug Island, just like the narrator of the book.

I really wish I could rate this book higher than average. The story is interesting. It is set in Detroit in 1967, a year in which I was living just up the road in Flint, and where I spent several years in the early 1970s. It always is fun to read about a book where you have some familiarity to the places and events described.

I have reviewed the author's website and he seems like a nice guy. As someone with a master's degree and who has taught "English language arts" for 30 years, part of the time as an adjunct professor at a community college in California, one would expect him to be a very proficient writer. However, some of the writing is clumsy, particularly where there are shifts in time from the scenes being described to the future.

I think the problem with the book is that it is self-published, and therefore did not go through the editing process to which a conventionally published book would have been subjected. The book is subtitled: "A Detroit Riot Novel," which is not really accurate. The Detroit riots are not even mentioned until page 199 of a 230-page book. The riots are really incidental to the main thrust of the story. The narrator's involvement consists of driving through an area affected by the riot and having a friend beaten up by the police. The book would be more accurately subtitled: "An Education In A Coke Plant Novel."

Philosophy Report: Thomas Hobbes Hits The Nail

2011-11-13T10:40:00.001-06:00

I've been reading Leviathian by Thomas Hobbes, the 17th century philosopher. (Don't ask me why -- well, okay, Christopher Hitchens told me I should.) Most of what Hobbes says is nonsense, as I would expect from something written four hundred years ago, but sometimes he says something that leaps from the page and hits me across the forehead. Like this passage on "Belief and Faith" (modernizing the archaic spelling):

"(W)hen we believe any saying whatsoever it be, to be true, from arguments taken, not from the thing itself, or from the principles of natural reason, but from the Authority and good opinion we have of him that said it, then is the speaker, or person we believe in, or trust in, and whose word we take, the object of our faith and the honor done in believing is done to him only. And, consequently, when we believe that the Scriptures are the word of God, having no immediate revelation from God himself, our belief, faith and trust is in the church, whose word we take and acquiesce in. And they that believe that which a prophet relates to them, in the name of God, take the word of the prophet, do honor to him and in him trust and believe, touching the truth of what he relates, whether he be a true or a false prophet. And, so it is also with all other history. For if I should not believe all that is written by historians, of the glorious acts of Alexander or Caesar, I do not think the ghost of Alexander or Caesar had any just cause to be offended, or anybody else, but the historian.

"If Livy say the gods made once a cow to speak,and we believe it not, we distrust not God therein, but Livy. So that it is evidence that whatsoever we believe, upon no other reason, than what is drawn from authority of men only, and their writings; whether they be sent from God or not, is faith in men only."

I'll try to remember that the next time some preacher tries to hit me over the head with his version of what God's will or truth is. In short, my response is, "I believe in God, but I don't believe in you, so shut up."

Book Report: Is Christopher Hitchens any better than God?

2011-11-09T10:16:00.000-06:00

God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Christopher Hitchens is not so hot either. A lot of the invective he uses in the book is unnecessary to make his points. However, logically what he says is indisputable.

A Republican Speaks Out Against the Crazies

2011-08-26T14:55:00.004-05:00

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is known for speaking bluntly and forcefully. A lot of Republicans have been urging him to throw his hat in the race for president. Wisely, he has not, because he could never be nominated while the party is so dominated by the Tea Party Crazies. I'm glad he's not running, because I think he could pull enough Democratic and Independent votes to beat Barack Obama. Here, he defends in the strongest terms possible, his appointment of a Muslim-American as a judge.

40th Anniversary Report: Home Again, Home Again

2011-08-01T16:30:00.000-05:00

The 40th Anniversary Tour is over. We got into Chicago, right on schedule about 5:30 last night. Another hour to collect our luggage, pick up our car and we were headed home. We got really tired driving home. It felt like the 1:00 a.m. or so that it was back in London, and I got so sleepy, I drove through a red light back in Champaign. But our luck held up, there was no traffic and we are recuperating from jet lag today.

The JACK concert at the Wigmore was a big success (in our unbiased opinion.) Also in the unbiased opinion of Jack Clements, The Guardian critic who called JACK's Xenakis piece "an epic tour de force."

40th Anniversary Report: Waiting for the Big Show

2011-07-30T05:03:00.000-05:00

It's a beautiful morning in London today. The temperature is 61, the sun is shining, no rain is predicted for a change and the high should be 70. Reality hits tomorrow when we return to the sultry Midwest.

We picked up our tickets for the JACK Quartet concert yesterday at Wigmore Hall. The Hall is gorgeous. It holds 550; there are 149 tickets left for the concert. This morning's Guardian has a nice preview here of the concert.. Hopefully, that will sell the other 149 so we can boast of a sell-out performance.

Also, in today's Chamber Musician Today, there's a very interesting (but lengthy) article on the history of the string quartet, starting with Haydn and ending with JACK's performance of an Aaron Cassidy quartet. What's there not for a proud father to like in an article which starts out like this:

Steps to the most interesting encounter to ever happen:
1.   - Make herbal resurrection remedy
2.   -Bring Haydn back from the dead
3.   -Buy him a new coat, dust off his wig, introduce him to the idea of cars
4.   -Take him to a JACK Quartet performance
5.   -Have him listen to one of Aaron Cassidy’s string quartets
6.   -Watch what happens

On the agenda today are at least an attempt at following The route set out by Roger Ebert and Daniel Curley in The Perfect London Walk.. I promised the Curley daughters, and also Roger Ebert himself at his most recent Ebertfest that I would check out the walk. Then dinner at 6:00 at the Wigmore Restaurant and concert at 7:30.

40th Anniversary Report: If You See This Man Kick Him In The N** (Nose)

2011-07-27T15:25:00.000-05:00

This man was hitting on The Wife today!!! He even kissed her! I was just relaxing in the apartment this evening, when The Wife decided to go over to the Luxembourg Garden, a few blocks from our house to look at the flowers and try to find a sculpture she heard about today at a museum near us. When she came back, an hour or so later, she was all smiles.

She had been taking pictures of flowers when he came up and started talking to her. He could not speak a word of English, and she could speak very little French, but 60 percent of English words are french in origin, just pronounced differently, so there was some communication going on. He was telling her that she was "tres belle," and wanted her to go for coffee and to get something to eat. She declined and he pointed to her ring finger (which has been ring-less for many years) and asked her if she was married. She assured him she was, and she had to get back to her apartment to her husband, but he gallantly insisted on walking her to the gate of the garden, and then gave her the double air kiss on each cheek -- you could say he french kissed her,. And get this -- she was not angry with him; she told me she was flattered!! Harumph! Here I have been refraining from flirting with all the beautiful young french women we have encountered in deference to our 40th anniversary and she is off being air-bussed by an old french coot.

The first thing on the agenda when we get back to the states is to get our wedding rings resized. I don't want any competition from any old geezers -- particularly when I've become one myself. Before we leave, I may just go cruise the Luxembourg Garden myself to see who I can find to flirt with. It would only be fair.

40th Anniversary Report: Would You Like An Argument With That Meal?

2011-07-27T09:41:00.003-05:00

So, yesterday, while the Wife and I were wandering around the St. Germain des Pres/ St. Michel area, she happened upon this cute little restaurant on a tiny side street. It was advertising a prix fixe french meal, consisting of an entree, a main course and dessert at only 18 euros, or $27, which is pretty cheap, considering we have paid $30 for one cup of coffee and an orange juice, on the Champs Elysee. Plus, if you showed them the brochure, you got a free apertif.

We went to the restaurant at 7 o'clock, which is a little early to eat by French standards, but not unreasonable, and there was no one there except the cook, who worked in a small open area just to the left of the tables, a waiter and two women sitting at tables on the sidewalk. We weren't sure if we were at the right restaurant for the brochure, but the women and the waiter, standing at the door, assured us we were at the right place and bade us come in. We had our free apertifs and had put in our orders for our meals (an onion tart, chateaubriand with bearnaise sauce and a creme brulee, for me, and onion soup, boef bourguignon and chocolate mousse for The Wife.)

All was well until we heard some loud shouting in the street. (Of course, this being Paris, the street side of the cafe was open to the outside.) We craned our necks and there appeared to be some kind of altercation between one of the women who had been sitting outside our cafe, and a man in a tie and white shirt who appeared connected somehow with one of the restaurants on the other side of the street. They were really going at it, and at one point, the woman grabbed the man's tie and appeared to be trying to choke him with it. The waiter rushed out of our restaurant and some people came out of the restaurant across the street and they physically separated the combatants, but the yelling continued unabated.

Finally, the woman came back and sat down at the table outside our cafe, but she continued yelling at the man who kept yelling back, sometimes approaching close to her and then being dragged away by people from the other side. I expected the gendarmes to come and haul the two enemies to jail for disturbing the peace, but none showed up. The arguments continued sporadically for another half hour or so, well into and past our entrees.

I asked our waiter what it was all about and he just shook his head and looked disgusted. At one point, when the yelling had abated somewhat, I asked the woman what the problem was and she said that sometimes men think they hear something, which they didn't hear and it goes right from the ear to the head. I couldn't understand why our waiter didn't throw the woman out because she was clearly disturbing the customers (still only two) but he didn't.

When the woman and her friend finally left, midway through our entree, I asked the waiter again what the problem was and he said something about sometimes one restaurant thinks the other has too many customers. That didn't make much sense either since none of the places was exactly full, certainly not ours which had 10 tables and only ours occupied.

I had an idea that maybe the woman owned the restaurant we were in, asked the waiter and he admitted that she was the owner. Later, a cook from across the street came over and asked to borrow some butter, which the cook in our restaurant quickly gave to him, so I take it any enmity was solely between the owners and not the staff.

By the time we left the restaurant, at about 8:30, we had been the only customers. So, I guess times are hard for restaurateurs in the part of Paris; either that or the yelling proprietors have developed a reputation and driven everyone away except the occasional tourist.

Tonight, our last night in Paris, we're off to the the Pure Cafe, the little cafe featured in that wonderful movie, Before Sunset. Then tomorrow, it's off to London for a few days.

40th Anniversary Report: Don't Act Stupidly in Paris

2011-07-26T16:15:00.001-05:00

On my Facebook page yesterday, I made the comment that "You WILL be pick pocketed in Paris." That was overstating the case. The Wife has been in Paris twice and she has never been pick pocketed. And my friend, Ruth, who studied in Paris (with Nadia Boulanger, but who's dropping names?) said she has never been pick pocketed. Of course Ruth might be a special case because she claims to descend from a line of horse thieves and everyone knows there's honor among thieves. It's also noteworthy that The Wife and Ruth are women and women are less pick pocket worthy than men because they do not usually carry valuable things in their pockets. They carry them in their purses and no self-respecting pick pocket is going to stick his hand into a woman's purse and risk coming out with an extra pair of eyelashes or a dried up tube of lipstick.

No, pick pockets are naturally going to pick on someone more dependable about where they stash their valuables, and men are nothing if not dependable about putting their cash in their wallet in their left rear pocket. (I don't want any flack from women for calling them undependable. It is a virtue, not a vice, to be an undependable victim for a thief.)

I am paranoid about being pick pocketed because two of my brothers were pick pocketed in Europe, and not having any horse thieves in the family, I figured I could not rely on honor among thieves to escape their fate. So, the last time I came to Paris, about 10 years ago, I took along a fake wallet. Actually, a real wallet but with nothing in it. I would keep my money, passport, etc. elsewhere on my body, the actual location of which I won't disclose in case some Parisian pick pockets are reading my blog.

The last time I was here (and this time, for that matter) I was very careful getting in and out of subways, going up and down stairs (in the city, not in a home, for pete's sake,) being careful to note who was around me, holding back and letting others go first in and out doors, etc. The plan was perfect. It still is for that matter. The problem was, and is in remembering to follow the plan at all times.

The last time I was here, I was on my way to Montmartre, which is well known as a hangout for scam artists and pick pockets, when the announcement came over the subway speakers that there had been some problem in the system and we would all have to get out at the next stop and take a bus the rest of the way. I got out of the train with everyone else, carefully went up the stairs, stopped to assess the situation, spotted the bus that was to take us the rest of the way, saw that it was crowded and stopped, intending to wait for the next bus. But a couple of friendly guys at the rear door said, "No, come on, there's room," so like a lamb being led to the slaughter, I got on. I immediately knew I was going to be pick pocketed. The guy behind me was leaning into me and I kept my left elbow in his stomach to keep him off. The guy on the right had a newspaper over his hand, so I figured they were working together. I kept my right hand tightly around my money in my pocket, and every once in a while broadcast the location of the empty wallet by patting my left rear pocket with my left hand. Every time I checked the wallet was still there. Just before the bus stopped, a third person, a young oriental-looking man on my right, shoved a map in front of my face and began asking where we were. By the time I told him I didn't speak french and didn't know, the bus had stopped, I got off, breathed a sigh of relief, checked my left hip pocket and the flap over the pocket was unbuttoned and my wallet was gone.

Then I got very scared. I figured if they could get away with taking my wallet, when I knew they were doing it, they could take anything they wanted, including a vital organ without me stopping them. I was afraid the thieves would be very angry when they realized I had tricked them and would come after me in a dark alley and strip me clean. I was wearing a distinctive straw hat that would have made it very easy to follow me or to describe me to another confederate, so I took that off and put it in my bag. I bought another cheap wallet to put in my left pocket and was very careful not to get caught in any crowds nor to become completely isolated until I was well away from Montmartre.

So, this time in Paris, I was still paranoid. I brought the empty wallet again. On Monday, we went to Montmartre. I was very nervous about going there. I had The Wife take everything valuable out of her purse and leave it in the apartment. I took nothing but 20 euros and a bank card which I carried in a place inaccessible to anyone not very intimate with me. We got to Montmartre without any problem. We looked around, ran into a friend, Kevin (of the JACK Quartet) had lunch with him, lectured him about the dangers of pick pocketing, went to the Arc d'Triomphe, walked the length of the Champs Elysee down past the Place de le Concorde, walked through the Jardin de Tuilleries, took a ride on a giant ferris wheel, then found the metro to go back to the apartment.

By then, it was around 8 o'clock and we were very tired, having walked five or six miles, easily. No problem on the first metro (the Paris metro system really is fantastic, but I will leave raving about that to some other time.) We switched trains at Chatelet les Halles, a busy central station where a lot of subway lines connect, and which is a particularly notorious place for pick pockets. As we got to the track, the train was ready to pull out and was packed to the brim. In fact, it had trouble leaving because one passenger had a couple of wheels of a baby buggy sticking out and the doors could not close. No problem, trains on the line come every 3 to 5 minutes, we would wait for the next train.

We waited and waited and waited. By 8:30, the train still had not come, there was a large crowd waiting and it was obvious that there was going to be a mad scramble to get on the next train. I patted my empty wallet several times, just in case any thieves were sizing me up as a potential victim. When the train finally came, I was determined that we were going to be on it. I was tired and I wasn't about to let those other impolite people push on ahead of me and make me wait another half hour for another train.

We made it, just barely, but people were squashed together like the crackers that had been in the bottom of my bag all day (it's hard to think of a metaphor other than "sardines" in this situation, even though it's way overused. Try it sometime.) There was nobody around me that looked or acted particularly suspicious. I just kept my hands around my wife and her purse, so nobody could snatch them. The train was so packed that some people farther away from the door than The Wife and I could not get off when their stop came up, because people just would not move. The man announced that they were getting off at the next stop, no matter what, and did kind of a rugby scrum pushing dive with his giant suitcase that got them off at the next stop.

The next stop was ours, and as we got off, I felt for the fake wallet and it was gone. I don't know when it happened, but I imagine it was when everyone's attention was diverted by Rugby Man and his Scrum, not that I think he was a confederate.

So, the lesson, my friends is not that everyone WILL get pick pocketed in Paris. The lesson is that if you do stupid things, like carry your money in a wallet on your left hip, and insist on fighting big crowds because you want to go where you want to go when you want to go, you WILL be pick pocketed. The other lesson is that you don't mind it so much when you've scammed the scammers. (The Wife did feel a little sorry for the thwarted pick pocket. While I was gloating about how I would have liked to see the disappointment on his face when he opened that wallet, she said compassionately, "Well, maybe he got someone else's money.")

40th Anniversary Report: Tumbling Tumbleweeds

2011-07-23T15:27:00.051-05:00

So, we were in Vienna a few days last week, being shown the sights by Brother Number Four, when we visited the Leopold Museum on July 15. The Wife was particularly interested in the collection of Gustav Klimt paintings.

While wandering around the museum, I happened to notice (well, "happened" is not exactly the right word, but it will have to do for now,) a very attractive young woman, in her late 20s or early 30s, with bright red hair, wearing an elegant, long butt-hugging dress, very high heels, a black hat and veil, long black gloves and a red fur. She looked like she had stepped out of a fin-de-siecle painting and was casually strolling around to see who else was in the museum. I tried hard not to stare, but to casually look at the Klimt's, which I'm sure were wonderful, while keeping an eye on where she was. Nobody in the museum was talking with her, except for the young man accompanying her, but everyone was staring at her, while trying hard not to stare. I half-expected her at some point to climb back into a painting and resume a mysterious smile.

There was no point in pretending to The Wife that I was not admiring this young woman, everyone in the museum was watching her with great fascination (men) and envy (women.) I tried to get The Wife, and also Brother Number Four (who has an amazing way with women) to go ask her what her schtick was, but everyone, including me, was too shy.

Finally, we left the museum and outside on the steps, there were some musicians playing music and some young people slowly tumbling down the steps. Here is some video I took of that sight.

While watching that strange performance, I noticed the mysterious young lady in red at the bottom of the stairs also watching it. After trying again to get The Wife and Number Four Brother to go find out what's up, I finally decided I would do it. So, I went over and asked her why she was dressed like that. She told me that she always dresses like that; she like the decadence of the fin de siecle area. I asked her where she was from -- it turned out she was from Poland; she's a costume designer and she works

with the dance troupe that was tumbling down the stairs. They had been brought to Vienna by the Polish consulate to perform later that evening and this was kind of a preview. We continued talking about people staring at her, and whether many actually came up and talked with her (not many,) animal rights advocates and their objections to her wearing fur, our upcoming trip to Paris, etc. As I was talking, I glanced to my side and there at my right elbow (that was after the picture was taken) were Brother Number Four and The Wife, trying to listen in on the conversation, but too shy to get involved themselves.

The Wife and I were quite impressed with the whole deal -- the strangely dressed young woman and the artistes tumbling down the stairs, so the next morning at the Vienna Airport, we decided to see if we could impress anyone. As we were going down the escalator with our nifty new rolling Swiss bags, The Wife tried to adjust her bag just before she reached the bottom, whereupon it fell over, knocking her over, into me, and I and my nifty new Swiss bag went down, all in a heap at the bottom of the escalator. We were unhurt, except for our dignity, and we discovered the fun of having everyone around us staring at us.

It was so much fun that when we got to Paris a couple of hours later, we tried it again. This time, it was at the top of the escalator and The Wife had already safely escaped when my bag and I went down. Again, there were no serious injuries. I had a nasty-looking gash in the back of my head, for which The Wife wanted to take me to the socialized medicine hospital to get stitches, but I insisted on just stanching the blood and hoped for a nasty-looking scar that would gain me respect, with the stares.

As a result of our adventures, The Wife and I see the attraction in getting stared at, but I am trying to talk her into a butt-hugging dress, black hat, veil, gloves and high heels, so we can stop the stair tumbling. (Alas, no pictures of our escapades.)

40th Anniversary Report: A Sleepless Night

2011-07-21T15:30:00.000-05:00

About a year ago, I realized that The Wife and I had our 40th anniversary coming up August 14, 2011, and I didn't particularly look forward to commemorating by posting the customary before and after pictures in the newspaper,so I had to come up with a really good way to celebrate.

The Wife and I didn't go to Paris for our honeymoon, we went to Montreal (I took along $300 to finance the trip and came back with money left in the wallet.) Three years later we did hit Paris for a few days while we were doing the Grand Tour, just before I entered law school. It had never worked out for us both to return, although I took Son Number Two to Paris about 10 years ago for violin master classes. So, I got the idea that we would spend three weeks in an apartment in Paris for our 40th anniversary.

Then it turned out that Son Number Two's string quartet, JACK, was playing in concert in Reims, just 45 minutes northeast of Paris by fast rail, on July 14 - 18, and we really could not miss that, and Brother Number Four (who is now 52 years old -- that is more of a shock than my own age) has lived in Vienna for seven years without a visit from us, so we had to go see him while we were in Europe. All of those things have now been done, and The Wife and I are now happily settled into our beautiful apartment, enjoying the pleasures of Paris -- indisputably the Number One City in the World.

To catch you up on our adventures, we left Champaign on July 12, driving to O'Hare Airport where we would catch a 5:00 o'clock British Airways flight to London. Everything went fine. Traffic, no problem. Parking, no problem. Shuttle to terminal 5, no problem. Security, no problem. Getting on the plane, no problem. Seats, no problem. I had scored seats just behind the bulkhead separating the business class from the peasants, which gave us more leg room. Seat mate(s) -- problem.

We were in a three-seat section, the window seat being occupied by a young woman (23, and from Macedonia, we later found out) and her infant son, big for his age, but under two years old (or so she claimed) so he could ride for free sitting on her lap. The plane had not yet left the gate when he began to cry -- not whimper -- cry. Her response, quite sensibly enough, was to tell him to "stop that" and try to get him to drink his bottle of milk. He would take a few gulps and then start crying again. This went on continuously all the way across the Atlantic -- thankfully only an eight hour trip, not the six weeks it took my ancestors to come the other way.

I felt sorry for the mother, her child, for us and the other passengers. I have never seen a mother as ill equipped for her job. She had brought absolutely nothing to entertain or distract the baby, other than the bottle. She had brought no books, no toys, no tapes -- nothing. All night long, as he cried, she would say, "Stop that. Shut up." She said she had given him Benadryl before the trip, and gave him another dose on the plane, apparently to try to drug him to sleep. He did sleep for maybe an hour of the flight, but otherwise he was crying.

I was not angry with the mother. I think she was just ignorant about how to travel with the child. How could I be angry with the child? He was obviously miserable, upset and didn't want to be there as badly as we didn't want him there. The mother had lived in the United States for three years, she had no relatives here, other than her husband, who was also from Macedonia, but who was not making the trip. I think she never had anyone to teach her parenting skills, and although some mothers can pick up parenting naturally, some need to be taught.

Joel Stein has a funny article in last week's Time about traveling with children - his solution is to put them in their own compartment in the back, and to segregate everyone else by their own demographic. I don't like that idea. I don't relish the thought of being in a compartment with a bunch of old overweight white guys. I think the belching and the farting might be worse than hearing a baby cry all night long.

Obed is moving on up

2011-06-21T21:20:00.003-05:00

So, here's my 8-month-old grandson, Obed, figuring out how to climb stairs.

2011-05-27T21:47:00.001-05:00

Crave Radiance: New and Selected Poems 1990-2010 by Elizabeth Alexander

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a collection of poems written by Elizabeth Alexander over the last 20 years. One of Ms. Alexander's poetry books was a finalist for the Pulitzer prize. She read her poem, "Praise Song for the Day," at Barack Obama's inauguration in 2009. She has won a number of poetry awards and is chair of the African American Studies Department at Yale. So, obviously, smarter people than me think she is a great poet. It would take more chutzpah than I have, a simple, unlearned Amish boy, to criticize this book. I just know what I like. And I don't like this poetry.

I suppose the purpose of publishing a book of mostly previously-published poetry by a particular author is to show how the author has developed over the years. I will grant you that the latter poems appeal to me more than the early poems. (So, why not just leave out the early poems? Because I don't know what I'm talking about when I don't like these poems. They're great; they must be great because the experts have said so.) It's not that I hate all poetry. When I'm inaugurated as president, I want Julia Kasdorf or Rona Laban or David Wright to read one of their poems. Or, if they are busy, Billy Collins will do. Elizabeth Alexander? Meh.

2011-04-09T14:16:00.003-05:00

Lucky by Alice Sebold

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is an excellent book, a memoir that concentrates mostly on the author's rape as a college freshman at Syracuse University and the traumatic aftermath. I liked the first three-fourths of the book even more than her most famous book, "Lovely Bones," which recently came out as a movie. There is no question that as a practioner of the craft of writing, she is superb. The last fourth of the book left me a little skeptical about what she was leaving out and kept me from giving the book my top rating.

JACK live at the Greene Space in NYC on Thursday

2011-04-09T07:26:00.005-05:00

2011-04-02T16:34:00.001-05:00

A Death in the Family by James Agee

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The advantage of not having been an English major in college is that all the classics are new to me. This book, the only novel by James Agee, may be the finest novel I have ever read. It is the only one he ever wrote and it was published posthumously in 1946, two years after he died. Agee was well-known in his life-time for a work of non-fiction about depression-era tenant farmers, "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men," and for his movie reviews.

"A Death in the Family," won the Pulitzer Prize for literature. It is said to be based on Agee's own life. Not much happens in the way of plot. The father of a little boy is killed in an automobile accident. The book skillfully explores the relationship between the boy and his father and the rest of the family. It describes with sensitivity how the boy felt about his father's death, a mixture of sadness and exhilaration that he was now "half an orphan." The prelude is a description of a walk the son takes with his father downtown and back. Its descriptions are astounding. They remind me a lot of Irene Nemirovsky's descriptions in "Suite Francais," which was written around the same time, in their vividness and authenticity.

Even if you generally don't read fiction, this is one book everyone MUST read. The truths in it are far beyond any nonfiction you will ever read.

Annual Books and Movies List - 2010

2011-03-07T08:22:00.000-06:00

Every year since I started this blog, I have listed and rated the books I read and listened to and the movies I watched in theaters. I never got around to doing it for 2010 for some reason, mainly because I wasn't blogging much at all around the end of year. So, for myself as much as for anyone else, here is my list.

Just a note about methodology: The ratings are based on five stars being the highest. The books are ones I have read or listened to this year, some of them for the second or third time. I read (or listened to) 58 books this year, down from last year's record 67. Eleven were non-fiction; 56 were fiction.

Although five stars is officially my highest rating, if a book makes me say, "Wow!!" at the end, I might give it Five Plus Stars. Five Plus Stars should be rare; last year I awarded none of those. Either I read better quality books this year or I was feeling more generous as I read five books that got Five Plus Stars.

I only list 25 movies this year, down from 42 last year. The movies I listed are ones I saw in theaters because of my conviction that seeing DVDs at home on even large television screens is not experiencing the whole movie as it was intended by the directors of the movies. I can change. Having allowed The Wife and Son Number One to talk me into acquiring a large flat screen tv with a blu-ray DVD player and an on-line connection, I find that I am enjoying watching movies at home as much or more than watching them in a theater. Plus the convenience and low cost of watching Netflix, particularly their instant offerings, has meant that the vast majority of movies I am watching now are at home, so for 2011, I will list and rate those also. The movies marked Ebertfest were ones I saw at the Roger Ebert Film Festival here in April. Most of them were not in wide release and many are not even available on Netflix.

My book of the year is Generosity by Richard Powers

Five Plus Stars
Generosity Richard Powers
Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck
The Bridge of San Luis Rey Thornton Wilder
The Gravedigger's Daughter Joyce Carol Oates
The Poisonwood Bible Barbara Kingsolver

Five Stars

Bad Dirt: Wyoming Stories Annie Proulx
Bridge of Sighs Richard Russo
Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger
Country Driving Peter Hessler
Digging to America Anne Tyler
Good-Bye Columbus and Other Short Stories by Philip Roth
Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen
My Father's Tears: Short Stories John Updike
Noah's Compass Anne Tyler
Nonviolent Communication Marshall Rosenberg
The Art of Travel Alain de Bottom
The Maple Stories John Steinbeck
Zeitoun Dave Eggers

Four Stars

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius Dave Eggers
An American Type Henry Roth
Elementals A.S. Byatt
Family Meeting Miles DeMott
Following the Equator Mark Twain
How Proust Can Change Your Life Alain de Bottom
Imperfect Birds Anne Lamotte
Jaybar Crow Wendell Berry
La's Orchestra Saves The World Alexander McCall Smith
Last Night in Twisted River John Irving
Letting Go Philip Roth
Pylon William Faulkner
Revolutionary Road Richard Yates
Sanctuary William Faulkner
She Got Up Off The Couch Haven Kimmel
Solar Ian McEwan
The Facts Philip Roth
The Good Boatman: A Portrait of Gandhi by Rajmohan Gandhi
The Help Kathleen Stockett
The Women T. Coraghessan Boyle
When She Was Good Philip Roth

Three Stars

Alaska James Michener
A Tale of Two Revolts Rajmohan Gandhi
Deception Philip Roth
Diary of A Pigeon Watcher Doris Schwerin
Ella Minnow Pea Mark Dunn
Girl With Curious Hair David Foster Wallace
In Dubious Battle John Steinbeck
Musicophilia Oliver Sacks
Songs Without Words Ann Packer
The Bean Trees Barbara Kingsolver
The Breast Philip Roth
The Clinton Tapes Taylor Branch
The Flying Troutmans Miriam Toews
The Professor of Desire Philip Roth

Two Stars

I Like You Amy Sedaris
My French Whore Gene Wilder
Once On A Moonless Night Dai Sijie
South of Broad Pat Conroy
Traveling With Pomegranates Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor

Movies

Five Plus Stars

The Messenger (also my movie of the year.)

Five Stars

A Single Man
"Departures"
Song Sung Blue (Ebertfest)
The Kids Are All Right
Trucker (Ebertfest)
Vincent: A Life in Color (Ebertfest)

Four Stars

Babies
Barfly (Ebertfest)
Crazy Heart
It's Complicated
Synecdoche, New York (Ebertfest)
Up In The Air
Wall Street II
You The Living (Ebertfest)

Three Stars

Dinner For Schmucks
Extraordinary Measures
I Capture the Castle (Ebertfest)
Man With A Movie Camera (Ebertfest)
Morning Glories
Pink Floyd: The Wall (Ebertfest)
The Last Station
The New Age (Ebertfest)

Two Stars

Apocalypse Now Redux (Ebertfest)
Leading Ladies
Salt

What I Saw Under the Table Last Night

2011-03-06T06:54:00.000-06:00

Last night I attended a dinner hosted by a group that promotes discussion and understanding among the Abrahamic religions (Jewish, Christian, Muslim, all of whom claim the blessing God supposedly gave to the descendants of Abraham.) I went primarily to support my brother, the Humble Philosopher/Carpenter/Farmer who gave the initial presentation about a document called A Common Word Between Us and You, prepared by a group of Muslim scholars and religious leaders to Pope Benedict and other Christian leaders following a speech by the Pope in which he appeared to denigrade Muslims (once again.) A rabbi, the head of a local Christian seminary and a Muslim leader spoke in response to the letter. The food was good, the discussion was interesting and I really was not looking under the tables because I was bored. Honest. Nor because I have a shoe fetish.

It was purely accidental that I happened to glance under a table and saw some very sexy-looking very high heeled shoes being worn by a Muslim woman in full hijab. She had everything covered from top to bottom except her face and her shoes. She looked good. Actually, to this old man, she looked better than Britney Spears climbing out of a limousine with a very short skirt hiked up to her waist and not wearing underwear. But, then, that's probably because I grew up Amish where the most daring footwear a young woman could put on were sneakers.

Remember Me?

2011-03-05T06:23:00.001-06:00

OK, it's time to get the old blog fired up again. I doubt that I have any readers left after that long hiatus, but I need to write for myself, if no one else. I started the blog almost six years ago as The Wife and I were getting ready to go to Lucerne, Switzerland to see Son Number Two perform at the Lucerne Festival. I started it and named it partly as a take off on Mark Twain's "An Innocent Abroad," in which he recounted his adventures visiting Europe, including Lucerne. Since then it has evolved (or devolved) into a little bit of politics, some Amish arcana, some book and movie reviews and whatever else strikes my fancy.

I love Facebook, but unfortunately, it has drained some of my writing creativity. You can write a sentence or two and get immediate feedback from people you know. It's easier to post photographs and to see your friends' pictures. It has also been a very busy time for me at work, so given the time demands, I have taken the easy way out.

This week, I bought tickets for The Wife and I to go to Europe to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary in July. We'll be going to Vienna for a few days to see my brother, The Do-Gooder, and then to Paris for a couple of weeks and return via London. While we're in Paris, we'll run up to Rheims one night to hear JACK play, and on our way home, we'll hear the quartet play again in London, at the venerable Wigmore Hall, as part of that venue's 125th anniversary celebration. So, I'll have lots to write about this summer and I need to write it so when I'm an old man, I can go back and read it and remember what we did.

I have not been keeping the blog (I won't say readers because I doubt I have any left) up to date on the growth of the cutest baby in the world, Grandson Number One. We're going to go see him in Brooklyn two weeks from today. Meanwhile, here's a picture I just love of Son Number Two and Grandson Number One.

The Third Generation

Some Words Of Wisdom From A Guy With Whom I Generally Disagree

2010-12-15T08:04:00.004-06:00

I am stealing this link from my friend, Catch Her In the Wry. Ron Paul is a libertarian and has many good ideas, but, generally, I think he is a nut. But there is nothing nutty about what he says here.

All You Ever Wanted (Or Needed) To Know About Alaska

2010-11-05T21:22:00.000-05:00

Alaska by James A. Michener

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is my second Michener book after shying away from him for years and years because of his reputation. Now, I find myself enjoying the books for all the knowledge I get in very palatable form. As in the earlier book of Michener's that I read, "The Source," he starts with prehistoric times, and then mixes stories with facts to give a complete history of the place. It's not a great work of literature, some of the stories are too cheesy. But without this book, I would never have bothered to learn much about Alaska beyond what has been in the news the last two years about its flaky former governor. The book is more than 1,000 pages long, but if you take it in little bites (it took me almost four months to finish it,) it's worth the effort.

Obed Report: Grandson Number One is Here!

2010-10-22T22:50:00.000-05:00

Not all newborn babies are cute. I'm so glad that we were lucky enough to get a cute one. Obed arrived yesterday morning at 12:49 a.m., missing by 50 minutes our hope that he would be born on 10-20-2010. He is a biggie -- 9 pounds, 6 ounces and 21 inches long. He was about three weeks overdue, which I think accounts for his size and alertness. He looks like he is well aware of what is going on and is taking it all in.

Obed Report: Still Waiting

2010-10-11T20:47:00.003-05:00

So, The Wife and I are in New York this week, awaiting the arrival of Grandson Number One, Obed Henry Otto. He was due October 1, but he is following the example of several relatives (not me) who tend to be late. Yesterday, we spent most of the day at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (yes, I, too, thought it was Botanical Gardens, because that would make sense, but it's not.) The weather was perfect yesterday and today.

Today, we went to Manhattan and walked around the Union Square area. The specific errand was to go to the Farmer's Market, but an added benefit to going anywhere in New York City is to watch the people. This is a libertarian's paradise. Anything goes, from a man, clothed only in a hat, shoes, socks and a placard (in front; nothing but the cool Manhattan breeze in the back) reminding people to remember Eric Williamson to a poor ex-(we hope)prostitute, just trying to get some donations in order to stay ex-. You don't know who Eric Williamson is? I didn't either, until I googled him and found these stories,here, here, and here.

The picture of the ex-prostitute flatters her. Forgive Crockhead for being cynical, but despite the man talking to her, business could not have been booming before she decided to rehabilitate herself. She probably needs better advertising. Maybe some flyers promoting a going-out-of-business sale would attract some better heeled customers.

JACK Report: Sold Out in Germany

2010-10-01T17:36:00.000-05:00

Here, courtesy of Google translate, is a German newspaper account of a festival in Germany where JACK will be playing in two weeks. As best as I can make out, there are no more tickets available, not even for standing. Woo Hoo!

"Four wins at the Music Days 2010
Von Schwarzwälder-Bote, aktualisiert am 01.10.2010 um 22:31 From black-Bote, updated on 01.10.2010 22:31

Von Steffen Maier Steffen Maier

Donaueschingen. Donaueschingen. Viele sagen ihm jetzt "Mensch, Georg, das ist ja super", aber dem Georg, dem ist derzeit alles andere als super zumute. Many say it now "Hey, George, that's great," but the George, which is currently anything but super mood. Georg Riedmann sitzt an seinem Schreibtisch im Kulturamt, vor sich den Computer, schaut auf die vielen E-Mails, die meisten davon drehen sich um ein Thema: Die Absender wollen, möchten, brauchen unbedingt noch Karten für die Donaueschinger Musiktage, die Stadt in zwei Wochen zusammen mit der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde und dem Südwestrundfunk wieder auf die Beine stellt. Georg Riedmann sits at his desk in the Department of Culture, in front of the computer looks at the many e-mails that turn most of it is an issue: The sender will want, really need any tickets for the Donaueschingen Music Festival, the city in two weeks along with the Friends of Music Society and the South-West Radio is back on its feet. Aber es gibt keine Karten mehr. But there are no more tickets. Und das ist ja eigentliche eine gute Nachricht. And that's real good news.

Streng besehen sind schon mehr Karten weg, als Plätze in den Spielstätten vorhanden sind – im Flugzeug würde man sagen: die Musiktage sind überbucht. Strictly inspect even more cards away, as space is available in the venues - would tell you on the plane: the music days are overbooked. Nur dass in Donaueschingen kein Ersatzflieger bereit steht. Except that no replacement ready in Donaueschingen fliers. Wer zuerst kommt, darf auf Stühlen sitzen, viele müssen aber auch auf Hallenböden Platz nehmen oder während der Konzerte stehen. First come, must sit on chairs, many must also take place on indoor surfaces or stand during concerts.

Und genau das bereitet Georg Riedmann, dem Kulturamtsleiter einige Sorgen. And that's what prepares Georg Riedmann, the culture department head a few worries. Was, wenn etwas passiert? What if something happens? Aber Neue-Musik-Fans sind ja zum Glück kultivierte Menschen mit Anstand und Niveau, die Musiktage sind ja auch kein Massen-Rock-Konzert unter freiem Himmel, da wird schon alles gut gehen. But new music fans are fortunately cultured people with dignity and class, the music days are not much of a mass rock concert under the stars, as even all will be well.

Musiktage: Worüber viele Donaueschinger den Kopf schütteln, weil sie mit den Klängen der Musiker so rein gar nichts anfangen können, ist bei Liebhabern aus aller Welt beliebt und angesagt. Music Festival: Shake What many Donaueschingen head because, with the sounds of music as pure can start anything, is in its devotees from all over the world, popular and fashionable. Der Termin des seit 1921 in Donaueschingen stattfindenden und weltweit bedeutendsten Festivals für Neue Musik ist ein Muss in der Kenner-Szene. The date of 1921 in Donaueschingen taking place and the world's most important festivals for contemporary music is a must for the connoisseur scene.

Im Zentrum der diesjährigen Auflage steht das Streichquartett. In the center of this year's edition is the string quartet. Herzstück des Programms ist die Quardittiade am Samstag: Mit dem "Arditti Quartet" aus London, dem "Quatuor Diotima" aus Paris und dem "JACK Quartet" aus New York treffen Streichquartette dreier Generationen und Interpretationskulturen aufeinander. The heart of the program is to Quardittiade on Saturday: "Arditti Quartet" By from London, the "Quatuor Diotima" from Paris and the JACK Quartet from New York to meet one another string of three generations and cultures interpretation. Die Musiker haben einen Marathon vor sich: Jedes Quartett spielt sein Konzert an diesem Tag drei Mal, wechselnd im Strawinsky-Saal der Donauhallen, in der Christuskirche und in der Erich-Kästner-Halle. The musicians have a marathon itself: each quartet will perform his concert on that day three times, alternating in the Stravinsky Hall of the Danube halls, in the Christ Church and the Erich-Kästner-Hall.

Diese "Quardittiade" ist nach der "Ensembliade" 2008 und dem Schwerpunkt Sinfonieorchester 2009 der dritte und abschließende Teil des von der Ernst von Siemens-Stiftung geförderten Trilogie-Projekts zu instrumentalen Gattungen. This "Quardittiade" after the "Ensembliade" 2008 and 2009, the focus Sinfonieorchester third and final part of the instrumental from the Ernst von Siemens Foundation funded project trilogy genera. Diese Siemens-Förderung – satte 110 000 Euro in den vergangenen beiden und in diesem Jahr –ist damit erst einmal beendet. This Siemens Promotion - whopping 110 000 euros in the past two and this year is terminated for the first time. Finanziell gesichert sind die Musiktage dennoch: Weiterhin wird die Kulturstiftung des Bundes das Festival mit alljährlich 210 000 Euro unterstützen, für die Siemens-Stiftung springt ab dem nächsten Jahr das Land Baden-Württemberg ein, zusätzliche Gelder kommen vom SWR und der Stadt Donaueschingen. backed financially the music days are yet, is further support the Federal Cultural Foundation, the festival each year of 210 000 €, for the Siemens Foundation jumps in from next year, the state of Baden-Württemberg, additional funds come from the SWR and the city of Donaueschingen.

Neben den Konzerten sind in diesem Jahr auch wieder Klangkunst-Objekte Teil der Musiktage – wenn auch nur zwei, im Spiegelsaal des Museums Biedermann und bei Häring in der Josefstraße. In addition to the concerts this year again sound art objects of the music days - even if only two, in the Mirror Hall of the museum and Biedermann, Josef Haring Street. Insbesondere die Installation "Salon Q – Übungen mit Bögen, Haaren, Wangen, Wirbeln, Schnecken" von Georg Nussbaumer (Häring) soll das Schwerpunktthema Streichquartett klangkünstlerisch aufarbeiten. In particular, the installation "Salon Q - Exercises with bows, hair, cheeks, vertebrae, worm" by Georg Nussbaumer (Haring) avoid becoming the main topic string quartet sounded artistically.

Ebenso wieder Teil des Festivals sind die Donaueschinger. Similarly, again part of the festival are the Donaueschingen. War es vor zwei Jahren ein Müllwagen, hinter dem die Stadtkapelle durch die Karlstraße zog, so geben am Musiktage-Sonntag Schüler der Erich-Kästner-Schule unter der Anleitung von Christoph Hutter und Bernhard Rißmann um 15 Uhr ein Konzert in der Kästner-Halle mit selbstgebastelten Instrumenten. Was it two years ago, a garbage truck, behind which drew the chapel by the Charles street, so be on music day Sunday school of the Erich-Kästner-school under the guidance of Christoph Hutter and Bernhard Rißmann by 15 clock a concert at the Kästner-hall self-made instruments. Darauf folgt dann noch das Abschlusskonzert um 17 Uhr im Mozart-Saal der Donauhallen "Orchester, Streichquartett, Zwölftonpianos". This is followed then the final concert by 17 clock in the Mozart Hall of the Danube halls "orchestra, string quartet, Zwölftonpianos. Und dann werden die Musiktage 2010 schon wieder Geschichte sein. And then the Music Days 2010 will again be history. Und wenn alles gut gelaufen ist, dann ist auch Georg Riedmann wieder super zumute. And if everything went well, then Georg Riedmann is again felt great.

Book report" "The Castle In The Woods" by Norman Mailer

2010-09-29T21:36:00.001-05:00

The Castle in the Forest: A Novel by Norman Mailer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Norman Mailer, at the top of his game, is really good. The problem with Norman Mailer is that for too many years he was his own biggest fan. It took him 10 years to get this one written, but it was worth waiting for.

The form of the book is a study of the young and adolescent Hitler and his family, as narrated by a demon assigned by "The Maestro," to make him really evil. But the book really is a religious meditation on the nature of good and evil, the struggle between "The Maestro" (the devil) and "The Dumkopf" (God) and the extent to which our fates are determined by ourselves and forces external to ourselves.

Mailer never forgets in this book that the purpose of a novel is to tell a story, and tell a story he does, in all its unsavory details. This is not a book for persons easily offended. It is a book for persons who enjoy a well-told story.

JACK Report: You Can't Buy Better Publicity Than A Feature in the New York Times

2010-09-04T03:28:00.000-05:00

Son Number Two and fellow violinist playing with JACK

I've been eagerly checking Google for a week now, looking for the feature I knew was coming in the New York Times about JACK Quartet, the group of talented young musicians of which Son Number Two is a part. I usually go buy several of the newspapers when they run a review of JACK, which they frequently do, just for the archives. Finally, last night, the article showed up on-line. But, alas, the print version was published the day before, on Thursday, and all of those papers are off the shelves. I am tempted to go to the library and smuggle a copy out in my briefcase. Read the article here. It is very flattering and it even mentions the expected arrival of my new grandson in several weeks. The photographs are from the NYT and hopefully this acknowledgment gives me permission to post them. If not, and the Times notices, I may have to take them down.

JACK Quartet at The Stone in NYC several weeks ago

Here's A Song I Thought About A Lot Today For Some Reason

2010-08-22T21:45:00.005-05:00

Book Report: "Deception," by Philip Roth

2010-08-17T07:50:00.004-05:00

Deception by Philip Roth

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Philip Roth is a good writer, and I'm sure from a technical standpoint this is an excellent book. But as a nonacademic, the post-modernist structure of this book gets to be a bit much.

The book purports to be a series of conversations between an author, named Philip; an English woman who may or may not have been his mistress, a Czechoslovakian woman who may or may not have been a prostitute, and Philip's wife. The wife discovers the book and is convinced it describes actual affairs Philip has had, although he denies that they occurred anywhere except in his mind. After the confrontation with the wife, the conversations go back to the English woman and Philip discussing what he told the wife. The book leaves the reader to form his own opinion about whether any of the conversations actually occurred or are made up in Philip Roth's head.

I can take a little post-modernism, but by the end of this book, I was longing for just a straight forward story by an author who doesn't insert himself into the middle of it.

Insincere bigotry

2010-08-13T21:05:00.003-05:00

This is the best discussion I have seen anywhere on the gay marriage debate, and how the evidence in the recent California trial should shut up any reasonable opponent of gay marriage. The post is called Insincere bigotry and is published on a blog called slacktivist

Book Report: "Zeitoun," by Dave Eggers

2010-08-10T18:34:00.000-05:00

Zeitoun by Dave Eggers

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Don't read this book if you don't want to be upset by the U.S. government. This is a nonfiction book in which Eggers follows what happened to a Muslim family in New Orleans before, during and after the Katrina Hurricane. The husband, a building contractor, insisted on staying in New Orleans during the storm, sending his wife and children to stay with relatives in Baton Rouge. He was well-prepared and in the immediate aftermath of the storm, he was able to assist many people and animals with a canoe he owned. A week later, however, after National Guard and police from other places were sent in to maintain "order," things turned chaotic for him. He wound up getting arrested in his own home, held in a Guantanamo-style cage for several days and then put in a prison. He was not permitted to call his family nor a lawyer; he was not told the charges against him, and he was held without access to even a judge for three weeks before he was released.

Eggers is an excellent writer and this book contains no hint of the self-importance that turned me off about his first book, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. This book actually is a heartbreaking work of staggering genius and it's not about Eggers.

Book Report: "Letting Go," by Philip Roth

2010-08-09T22:28:00.002-05:00

Letting Go by Philip Roth

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is another extraordinary Roth book. He excels at showing, not telling. It is a psychological study, in the Henry James tradition (from what I've been told about Henry James, I haven't read much of him,)set in Chicago, mostly, about a trio of young people who become involved with each other while at the Iowa Writers' Workshop and then wind up teaching at the University of Chicago. As always in Roth, being Jewish, is a big part of the book. What I like about Roth is he describes situations and conversations and let's the reader figure out motivations rather than spelling them out. The book is a little short on plot, but very interesting.

And Now For A Moment of Truth

2010-07-31T12:39:00.002-05:00

A friend of mine sent me this by email. It's probably all over the internet, but it's too good not to use.

Life can be summarized in 4 bottles....

S**t!!! we're on #3!

.

Book Report: "Generosity" by Richard Powers

2010-07-17T21:24:00.002-05:00

Generosity: An Enhancement by Richard Powers

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is one of those rare books to which I award more than five stars. It is a tour de force by the smartest man I know. Powers has almost created his own genre, an in-depth exploration of neurological puzzles in a way that is very understandable and readable by a lay audience.

In Generosity, Powers explores the extent to which emotions are controlled by genes. A young woman from Algeria is in Chicago, taking a night class in writing and entrances the teacher and the class with her constantly sunny outlook on life despite hardships that would cause normal people to despair. Eventually her genome is mapped by an entrepreneurial scientist who claims to have isolated a "happiness" gene. Who this person is turns out to be way more complicated than her genes, and Powers does a great job of explaining the nature/nurture duality of all of us.

For someone not used to post-modernist literature, Powers's style might take some getting used to. He inserts himself, as the author, into the book, repeatedly reminding the reader that this is a story that Powers is making up, as he goes. Powers starts the book by sketching the writing instructor stating right up front that "I picture him in the . . . " later saying, "The blank page is patient, and meaning can wait. I watch until he solidifies." At another point, describing a lunch between the instructor and a psychologist who becomes his girlfriend, Powers comments, "Over date pudding, she tells him about negativity bias. I'm not really sure if she tells him this over date pudding, of course, or even if she tells him at this lunch at all. But she tells him at some point, early on. That much is nonfiction: no creation necessary." At another point he writes, "And, by a minor coincidence I don't know how to handle any other way, Candace Weld reads the Time article. . . ."

Although I don't usually like an author to act all authorly in his writing, I don't find Powers's playing around with the third wall as irritating as I might in a lesser writer. Or maybe I'm just prejudiced. In any event, read this book. Even if you're irritated at the tricks, you won't be bored.

Book Report: Anne Tyler Does It Again with "Noah's Compass"

2010-07-12T21:58:00.002-05:00

Noah's Compass by Anne Tyler

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a typical Anne Tyler book in that it is full of quirky characters and it is written flawlessly. The thing I like best about Tyler is her respect for the intelligence of her readers. She does not spell everything out for you, but lets you figure out what is going on and what is motivating her characters by her descriptions of what they do. She does not overdo details by dwelling on non-essentials but knows exactly what to describe to give the reader a feel for what is going on. If you like Anne Tyler, you will love this book.

Book Report: "Goodbye, Columbus," by Philip Roth

2010-07-01T20:22:00.001-05:00

Philip Roth: Novels and Stories 1959-1962: Goodbye, Columbus & Five Short Stories / Letting Go by Philip Roth

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I am a Philip Roth fan, although not an uncritical one. I don't know anyone who depicts the richness of Jewish life in America with such warmth and humor but fearlessness. I wish Amish/Mennonites had someone writing who was half as good.

This book is Roth's first one, published in 1959, and winning The National Book Award. I picked this book up at the library, thinking that Goodbye, Columbus, would probably be pretty much like the movie but not having seen the movie in many years I was ready for a repeat of the story. I won't say the book is nothing like the movie, but significant details are changed. In the book, the young man doesn't have an affair with the mother -- they never can stand each other, and he doesn't get the advice at the end to go into plastics. (Later Update: As Anonymous Wendy points out below, I confused Goodbye, Columbus with The Graduate, which has nothing to do with Philip Roth. The only similarity is that Richard Benjamin kind of looks like Dustin Hoffman.)

The other five short stories in the book are the equal of or better than Goodbye, Columbus. The Conversion of the Jews, is about a young boy who questions Jewish dogma, arguing that if God is all-powerful there could have been a virgin birth as preached by some Christians. He gets in trouble with the rabbi and winds up forcing the conversion of his entire synagogue to Christianity. Many Jewish Americans were highly offended by the story, while critics loved it.

The other stories in the book are Defender of the Faith, Epstein, You Can't Tell A Man By The Song He Sings, and Eli, The Fanatic. I won't take the time to detail all of them, but generally they follow the same themes as the first two I have mentioned.

If your only knowledge of Philip Roth is the scandal caused by Portnoy's Complaint, when it was published (it wouldn't raise many eyebrows now,) then you owe it to yourself to read some of his other works. You will feel enriched.

JACK Report: Another Review in the New York Times

2010-06-30T17:00:00.000-05:00

It's hard for me to believe what stars the JACK Quartet has become. Another review in today's New York Times, the second in three days for four young men, the oldest of whom has just turned 30. I think I'm just going to have to accept that they are a success and stop being so surprised.

JACK Report: A Big Hit At Bang On A Can

2010-06-29T08:03:00.000-05:00

The New York Times has been very kind to the JACK Quartet, and now, once again, the newspaper has published JACK's picture, this time in connection with the Times review of the annual Bang on A Can Marathon Sunday. There were 20 or so groups performing in the marathon, which ran from 12:00 noon on Sunday to 1:00 a.m. on Monday.

A number of bloggers have also posted their impressions of the performances, many of them quite favorable to JACK. Here's one who commented on another musician's reaction to JACK. Here's another, who called JACK "the big hit of the day," at least up to the point that they played. Here's another who did a live blog of the marathon and says JACK "just tore up Xenakis. Here's another with a more general description of the marathon.

Tonight, JACK plays at Le Poisson Rouge, a concert which has gotten some advance buzz, including mentions in The New Yorker and The New York Times, and a blast from a conservative cretin at the National Review. We'll see what the reviews say about that performance

Book Report: "Solar" by Ian McEwan

2010-06-21T21:56:00.001-05:00

Solar by Ian McEwan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Ian McEwan, the author of books like Atonement, Chesel Beach and Saturday; isn't known for his humor, particularly, but this book is very funny, in a peculiarly English slap-stick sort of way. It's about a scientist who wins a Nobel Prize at a young age, and then spends the rest of his life basking in his laurels and acting the cad. He is utterly immoral, ditching wives and mistresses on whims; stealing the ideas of associates, and looking for ways to make money without having to work. His life takes a turn when the wife he has been cheating on, cheats on him with a contractor and a junior associate scientist. The hero (or anti-hero), manages to kill two birds in what has become a McEwan trade-mark, the bad guy falling down. It all comes to an improbable end in the desert in New Mexico, but McEwan is such an excellent wordsmith that you put up with the schlock. This book was made for summer beach reading. It is short and fun.

JACK Report: A Nasty Cretin Gets His Comeuppance

2010-06-19T17:31:00.001-05:00

I used to like to read National Review back when William F. Buckley was the editor. Although conservative, he was intelligent, with a dry sense of humor (and, besides, I was more conservative back then when I was naive.) The people running it now don't even try to write intelligently. They have become part of the Tea Party snarling pack of wild dogs determined to rip the flesh off any liberal or imagined liberal they can find.

But, I had to smile when I became upon Jay Nordlinger's article in National Review huffing and puffing about the leftist domination of new music. His attempt to turn sounds into some kind of political statement is just stupid, but he did mention Son Number Two's JACK Quartet, and there is no thing as bad publicity in the arts world. He lumps JACK in with the whole leftist music conspiracy, which is fine by me. They could be criticized for a lot of things worse than being part of a leftist cabal.

Now another blogger, takes after Nordlinger with a vengeance. He calls Nordlinger a "nasty cretin" and "an obvious idiot and a boor." I don't know why he's holding back. I could give him some additional epithets, but Nordlinger doesn't deserve the time and space. I will make sure that the blogger gets on JACK's mailing list.

Book Report: "Songs Without Words" by Ann Packer

2010-06-13T17:48:00.000-05:00

Songs Without Words by Ann Packer

My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Don't make the mistake I did and confuse Ann Packer with Ann Patchett. Ann Patchett wrote some very good books, including Bel Canto and Truth and Beauty. That's the author I thought I was getting when I checked out Songs Without Words.

I would call this "chick lit" except that it does a disservice to all the chicks I know and like. It probably would be better labeled as "writers workshop" lit. Some time, some place, someone told Packer that lots of detail enrich a story. It does, when used with discretion. But there should be a point to the detail. It should show you things about the character or plot that help you better understand the story. Pointless detail makes you want to scream "get on with the story!!!"

The story is about how a family and its friends are impacted when their teen-age daughter tries to kill herself. To complicate matters, the mother's closest friend lost her mother by suicide when she was a teenager. The pressures that this action puts on the family are shown with great insight, knowledge that is probably only learned from first hand experience. (According to my friend, Mr. Google, Packer's father committed suicide when she was a teenager.) The weakest points are the beginning of the book when the family's life is too idyllic to be believable and the end, which is a little too much and-they-all-lived-happily-ever-after for my tastes.

I credit Packer with telling a story on a difficult subject, it's just that the book would be so much better if it had been more tightly edited.

View all my reviews >>

Book Report: "Imperfect Birds" by Anne Lamott

2010-06-08T19:56:00.000-05:00

Imperfect Birds: A Novel by Anne Lamott

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Anne Lamott is a good writer, there is no question in my mind about that. I loved her memoirs, "Traveling Mercies," and "Plan B." I was less enthralled with her novels, "Blue Shoes" and "Joe Jones." Her latest novel, "Imperfect Birds," was published in April of this year and is a follow-up story to "Rosie," which came out in 1983. The new book has the same strengths and weaknesses as the earlier ones.

"Imperfect Birds" has the feeling of fictionalized autobiography. It's about a recovering alcoholic/drug addict mother and her teen-age daughter who is also a drug addict. It depicts their conflicts and co-dependencies in what seem like very realistic ways. A number of Lamott's books touch on those themes, as she is a recovering drug addict. Lamott is good at leavening the dysfunctions with humor. Lamott is unapologetically spiritual, but doesn't use the language of conventional religion to convey her beliefs. She certainly has not led a conventional "godly" life."

The weakness of Lamott as a writer is described by herself in her description of James, a writer who is the step-father of the troubled daughter. I don't have the exact language at hand, but the gist of it is that James is very good at writing description and dialogue, which he gleans from everyday people and situations. He is not so good with plot. My wife and I were listening to the book being read as an audiobook on a recent trip and as the reader read the description of James's writing, by wife said, "She is describing her own writing."

The book is better than average because of its strengths. It doesn't rate five stars because of its weaknesses.

JACK Report: The New York Times Likes Their Performance at Merkin

2010-06-06T19:17:00.000-05:00

I was wrong in the preceding post; the New York Times has already published review of the JACK Quartet's performance last night. They liked it.

Travel Report: We Love New York

2010-06-06T19:06:00.002-05:00

New York City is always such an exciting place to be. It is buzzing with activity, at all hours of the day and night; there is such diversity of peoples, and, oh, by-the-way we have a son, daughter-in-law, and soon-to-be grandchild living there. We got here early Friday afternoon. Son Number Two was practicing with JACK and a composer for the opening performance of Tribeca New Music Festival at Merkin Concert Hall, so we tiptoed around the apartment and tried not to distract them.

While the quartet practiced, The Wife, who has never seen soil that she doesn't want to put something in, decided to do her part in beautifying Brooklyn by buying some plants at Home Depot and fixing up the tiny garden in front of the apartment building.

Friday evening, we had an excellent dinner prepared by our daughter-in-law, The Cellist, and then headed downtown on the subway with Son Number Two for a gig at The Local 269, where SNT was playing with a group he occasionally performs with called (for some unexplained reason)
the cellar and point . They describe their music as "garage-chamber" music, which actually makes sense.

Saturday morning, we worked on assembling the crib we brought from Illinois. It is hand-made by my father from a cedar tree cut down on my grandfather"s (the baby-to-be's great-great grandfather) farm and looks beautiful after stripping the old varnish and putting on oil.The crib needed two more rubbings of steel-wool and one more coat of oil, which SNT, TC and TW did on Sunday. The crib is beautiful. I just hope the baby is cute enough to deserve it.

SNT on Saturday morning also had to go to Manhattan to rehearse with another composer for the Saturday night performance. He left for the subway station about an hour and a half before he needed to be there, but about a half hour later, he was back. After waiting and waiting for the train, which is supposed to run every 24 minutes, an announcement was made that there had been a fire on the subway and the line was shut down in both directions. So, we took off in our car for Manhattan via the Manhattan bridge. The traffic was exactly what you've heard about Manhattan traffic. About 40 minutes later, we had gone less than five miles. The worst part was getting over the Manhattan bridge; we made pretty good time once we were actually in Manhattan, but SNT was still 20 minutes late for the rehearsal.

The quartet planned to practice from 11:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. and then take a three-hour break before doing a dress rehearsal at 5:00 p.m. for the 8:00 p.m. concert. TC, TW and I headed downtown by way of subway (by that time, the line was open, although running slowly) and met SNT for some late lunch at a Korean restaurant. By the time we were finished eating and had done some looking around, SNT needed to head to Merkin for the dress rehearsal. It was very hot in Manhattan, in the low to mid 90s, but TC, TW and I decided we could walk from around 32nd Street where we had lunch to 67th street where the hall is located, which is a distance of about two and a half miles. There are all kinds of interesting sights along the way.

A newly-wed Indian couple posing for pictures in Columbus Circle.

A limber street performer showing you can be limber and cool at the same time.

The concert was well received. There are some things I could say about it, but a New York Times reviewer and a photographer were there, so I will wait until the review comes out; probably Monday or Tuesday. We came home late on the subway.

Sunday morning, we slept late, ate some excellent french toast and then made shopping trips to Ikea, Trader Joe's and The Home Depot and then TW, SNT and TC futzed around in the garden and rubbed the crib with more steel wool. Tomorrow morning, we head back to the Midwest. Depending on the traffic getting out of here, we may try to make it in one day.

Travel Report: Off to the Big Apple To Deliver A Crib

2010-06-03T05:21:00.000-05:00

Anonymous Becky wonders in a comment on the posting below whether I was sending some kind of coded message when I mentioned going to New York City to deliver a crib. I apologize. I had forgotten that I neglected to mention in this forum that Son Number Two and his wife, The Cellist, are expecting a baby, around October 1st. It will be a boy and I know the name, but I'm not telling until the parents announce the name.

The Wife and I are really excited about having a grandchild, and she is excited about being a grandmother. I have not yet gotten used to the idea of being old enough to be a grandparent, but I realize it's difficult to have a grandchild without being a grandparent. So, overall, I'm excited too. At this point, I'm drawing the line against being called "grandpa," or any of its variations. I think I'm going to try to get the little tyke to call me "crockhead," but it will probably come out "CaCa" or something so I'm sure my fight against cutesy is quixotic.

We're taking a baby crib that my father built for one of my younger siblings from a cedar tree cut from my grandfather's farm. So, that will be a physical connection from the baby to its great-great-grandfather. That is really exciting to me. The crib belongs to one of my brothers, we're not sure which one and had been stored at the Amish museum in Arcola. My brother, the Humble Carpenter-Farmer-Philosopher has worked very hard restoring the finish and bringing it up to modern codes by fixing the side so it won't slide down. It is looking just like I remember it looking when it was new. I will try to post a picture after we get it assembled in New York.

Besides delivering the crib, we're also taking the table we had made for SNT and TC for their wedding and various baby things TW had saved from when SNT was a baby, including his bedraggled teddy bear, one of his first outfits and his favorite baby books.

We're also going to hear SNT play while we're there. Friday night, SNT performs with a guitarist and some other people at some venue about which I am unsure at the moment. We'll find out when we get there. Saturday night, The JACK Quartet opens The Tribeca New Music Festival at Merkin Concert Hall. Sunday, we'll relax and Monday we'll head home.

The SUV is packed to the gills and I'm heading out to start the day off right by walking 3.6 miles before I come back to sit in the car all day.

Book Report: "The Flying Troutmans" by Miriam Toews

2010-06-01T21:49:00.001-05:00

The Flying Troutmans: A Novel by Miriam Toews

My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Although a Mennonite writer, Toews has no identifiable Mennonite themes or characters in this book. It's about the troubled life of a family in which one member, the mother of two children, 16, and 11, is mentally ill. Her sister flies back from Paris because of a failed love and winds up finding meaning in her life by taking the children on a cross-country trip to find their father. They have lots of adventures, none of them particularly original, and lots of insights, none of them particularly insightful. I am very critical of the endings in most books, and the ending of this book impresses me mainly for being even lamer than usual. I gave the book three stars because the writer is a good technician.

View all my reviews >>

Son Report: Back In The New York Times With Hutchins East

2010-05-31T18:32:00.002-05:00

Son Number Two is about as self-effacing as any artist you would ever meet, but despite any efforts on his part, the New York Times keeps writing about him and publishing his picture.In today's Times, the reviewer, Steve Smith, reports on the inaugural concert of "Hutchins East," a new ensemble that SNT has organized to play on a special group of instruments based on the violin family. The concert included two of SNT's own compositions. The wife commented, "He is still wearing that shirt we gave him years ago."(Yes, he is still playing with JACK, whom we are going to hear Friday night in New York.We are going to deliver a baby crib made by my father from a cedar tree he cut down on my grandfather's farm. Is that fantastic or what?)

Book Report: Let's Hear It For The Little Black Dresses

2010-05-27T17:21:00.000-05:00

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
At last, a Mennonite who writes like a Jew. Profane, profound and wickedly funny. This is one of those juiced up autobiographies where the author admits to some exaggerations for the sake of the narrative. The book is not so much about Mennonites or black dresses as it is the author's coming to terms with the fact that the man whom she loves left her for another man named Bob whom he met on gay.com, followed by a serious car accident six days later that left her with multiple broken bones.

Rhoda Janzen grew up in California, of Russian Mennonite immigrants, who belonged to the Mennonite Brethren Church, a less severe form of Mennonitism than most of the conservative Mennonites with whom people in the Midwest and the east are familiar. She is now an English professor at Hope College in Michigan

For some reason, several of my friends who are women disliked the book immensely. It would be fun to talk about the reasons for that. They have said they didn't like the tone she took towards her family, particularly her sisters-in-law whom she skewers rather effectively; that she seemed to flaunt her education and the freedom to use words not normally heard in polite company, and that some of the factual details are wrong. I have my suspicions about why men might react differently to the book than women. It probably has to do with why men are always more charitable towards beautiful women in little black dresses.

This book has gotten a lot of attention nationally, getting rave reviews in the New York Times, Time Magazine and other national outlets. She is apparently now writing another book tentatively called "Backsliding," in which she tells about her journey back to a more spiritual outlook and her marriage to a truckdriver. I can hardly wait.

So, Floyd Landis Is Not An Amish Liar

2010-05-24T21:18:00.000-05:00

We strive for truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I have been convinced by several sources that I was wrong in calling Floyd Landis an Amish Liar. Neither he nor his parents were ever Amish. They were extremely conservative Mennonites. So, Floyd Landis is a Mennonite Liar.

And, it turns out that Spark Plug McGee, the stripper who broke up Sandra Bullock's marriage was never Amish either. She wasn't even Mennonite. She was just a sleazy publicity hound who thought she could extend her 15 minutes of fame by claiming she was Amish. But, apparently she did not lie about having sex with Sandra Bullock's husband, Jesse James. And he wasn't Amish or Mennonite either.

So there. Let it never be said that I am too proud to admit my mistakes.

Book Report: "Following the Equator" by Mark Twain

2010-05-22T07:24:00.002-05:00

Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World by Mark Twain

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I feel sorry for folks whose exposure to Mark Twain is limited to Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Although those are good books, I really love his travel writing. Following the Equator is not a book you would want to read to find out the best route to take, the best places to eat and sleep or what to see. But, it is a book to read if you enjoy sardonic humor, with Twain's wry comments about what he sees. One surprising thing to me, given Twain's causal use of racial slurs is his outrage at how the whites in South Africa were treating the blacks, which he linked to how Americans treated native Americans. But the reason to read Twain these days is that he is still so funny. Here's a passage about the clothes he saw the Boers wearing in South Africa:

A gaunt, shackly country lout six feet high, in battered gray slouched hat with wide brim and old resin-colored breeches, had on a hideous brand-new woolen coat which was imitation tiger skin-- wavy broad stripes of dazzling yellow and deep brown. I thought he ought to be hanged, and asked the stationmaster if it could be arranged. He said no; and not only that, but said it rudely; said it with a quite unnecessary show of feeling. Then he muttered something about my being a jackass, and walked away and pointed me out to people, and did everything he could to turn public sentiment against me. It is what one gets for trying to do good.

Floyd Landis: An Amish Liar

2010-05-21T08:07:00.001-05:00

Having grown up Amish, it is no big shock to me to find out that Amish(and conservative Christians generally) are not morally or ethically superior in any way to their more worldly neighbors. But Amish, in particular, have such great public relations that the world, in general, is surprised to find out their values are just like everyone else's. So, Floyd Landis, the ex-Amish bicyclist, whose parents took such care in raising him that they shielded him from such corrupting influences as television and movies, turns out to be as big a liar as the worst beer-guzzling, couch-potato, porn-movie watching atheist.

Landis, you may recall, was stripped of his title, after winning the 2006 Tour de France, because evidence of doping turned up in his post-race blood test. Landis has spent the last four years defending himself; soliciting contributions to a fund to sue the Tour de France for stripping him of his title; turning up on television (as recently as several weeks ago on Larry King Live) to proclaim his innocence.

Now, a few days ago, he admits it was all a big lie. But, he says, he was not the only one. Everyone else was doing it too, including his former teammate and best friend, Lance Armstrong. I have no idea whether everyone else was doing it too, but I sure wouldn't take Floyd Landis's word for it. He's an admitted liar. The best thing for Landis to do is to go back to Pennsylvania, and help his father clean out the barn. He has proven he is an expert at shoveling manure. And he won't need any dope to enhance his performance.

Book Report: "The Facts," by Philip Roth

2010-05-20T08:03:00.002-05:00

The Facts: A Novelist's Autobiography by Philip Roth

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The "facts" part of this book, purportedly the autobiography of Philip Roth is not that interesting. Roth focuses on five events in his life, but leaves out so much that you wonder why he bothers. But then Roth has his alter ego, Zuckerman, comment on and criticize what he has written. That is very interesting, as he considers the difference between fact and fiction and explains how fiction can be more truthful than fact. What the book comes down to is not about the facts of the life of Philip Roth, but an interesting exploration or truth and fiction. The last Zuckerman chapter brought my rating of the book up from three to four stars.

Book Report: "Once on a Moonless Night" by Dai Sijie

2010-05-16T20:43:00.000-05:00

Once on a Moonless Night by Dai Sijie

My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I really wanted to like this book. I like Sijie's "Balzac and the Chinese Seamstress." My wife likes the book and recommended it for our book club. But I just couldn't get into it. I re-read the first 20 pages about three times trying to make sense of it. Names pop up without any introduction and then when they're mentioned again, I had to go back and try to figure out who that character is. There are essentially three narrators, and the point of view keeps shifting without warning. After I finally got through the book, I went back and read again the first 100 pages and now it makes sense. But the payoff doesn't warrant the effort. I'm sorry Rosalee.

View all my reviews >>

Book Report: "Bridge of Sighs" by Richard Russo

2010-05-15T09:20:00.002-05:00

Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I am not a big Richard Russo fan. Another reviewer has called him narcissistic and that's how I felt about "Nobody's Fool." But this is very nearly a perfect book. The characters are drawn with care and the author makes you care about them. The characters change over time, but all within what is credible for that character to do. Russo is a master at revealing information slowly and at using multiple points of view to keep the story interesting. It is a long book, one that you wish would be longer. My most frequent complaint about books I read is that a perfectly good book is ruined by a hokey, unbelievable ending. The ending in this book is bittersweet; not too sentimental but overall leaves the reader feeling good. A perfect ending to a nearly perfect book.

View all my reviews >>

JACK Report: Mixed with a little Swedish

2010-04-29T19:58:00.002-05:00

JACK is hip. Somebody at the University of Oregon mixed some excerpts of JACK with Komeda, a Swedish pop/indie band. It sounds cool.

Crockhead Report: I Survived Ebertfest

2010-04-28T09:47:00.000-05:00

Some day soon, I will blog about my experiences at the 12th annual Roger Ebert Film Festival in our town last weekend. I promise. I'm still recovering from sleep deprivation. In the meantime, if you are a fan of JACK Quartet, or are wondering what they sound like,WNYC is streaming them live this afternoon at 2:30 EDT, 1:30 CDT. Unfortunately, I will be on the road and unable to listen. Let me know if you listened and what you think.

JACK Report: "Mind-Blowingly Good"

2010-04-20T22:00:00.001-05:00

I have been telling anyone who would listen that the JACK Quartet is going to blow LA's mind (minds?) when they hear the concerts they were doing last night and tonight. I was right. Here is the review from today's LA Times. I am unabashedly, unashamedly proud. These young men are going places. (The photo was taken through night vision glasses of Kevin McFarland, the cellist, by LA Times photographer Gary Friedman)

JACK Report: Darkness in LA

2010-04-20T17:15:00.000-05:00

As I have previously reported, JACK has two sold out concerts in Los Angeles last night and tonight. I've been breathlessly waiting for reviews. The first one is up now at this link. It's a very perceptive review.

Prove You're Not An Idiot, Mayor Schweighart

2010-04-17T21:50:00.001-05:00

This is a video of the mayor of my city at a Tea Party rally on Thursday. He is a retired police officer and should know better than to say something this stupid.

In today's local newspaper, the Mayor defended himself by saying that he was asked for and gave his opinion. As The Wife has pointed out, whether President Obama is a citizen is not an opinion, it's a question of fact. Mayor Schweighart can't produce his original birth certificate either, it's in the custody of the Champaign County Clerk and will stay there no matter what Mayor Schweighart does. The only thing the mayor can do is the same thing Obama did; produce a copy.

So, here's my opinion, Mayor Schweighart. You're an idiot. Until you produce the original IQ test showing you're not, you're not qualified to be mayor of my city.

Here's a tongue-in-cheek YouTube video produced by someone making essentially the same point.

You Were Right, Professor Allen

2010-04-15T08:31:00.002-05:00

The announcement this week of the retirement of John Paul Stephens from the United States Supreme Court brought to mind a Messiah concert I attended at the University of Michigan the first Sunday in December, 1974. I was brought up in a family with no knowledge, indeed, scorn, of classical music. My in-laws, however, loved classical music and had made it a family tradition to make the two and one-half hour trek every December from Bay Port to Ann Arbor to hear Handel's Messiah.

In December, 1994, I was in my first semester of law school at the University of Michigan and was taking a criminal law course under the legendary Francis A. Allen, a former dean of the law school, author of a definitive textbook on criminal law and principal author of the Illinois Criminal Code of 1961. I discovered as the concert was getting started that we were sitting directly in front of Professor Allen.

I was a shy, young student, awed by the professors and my peers at the law school, intimidated from opening my mouth in class. So, all through the first part of the Messiah, I worried about Professor Allen sitting behind me. He probably didn't even know me, I was in a large section of about 100 students and he had three sections of first year students; I had never been called upon or spoken in his class and he would probably never know the difference if I just pretended I didn't know who he was and ignored him. On the other hand, he was very bright and what if he did recognize me and would be offended if I didn't speak to him.

When intermission came and everyone stood up to stretch, I bravely turned around, offered my hand, introduced myself and told him I was in one of his first year criminal law sections. He was very gracious, didn't act like I was a stranger, but it quickly became awkward standing there facing each other with nothing really to say to each other, but unable to walk away.

Out of the blue, Professor Allen started talking about John Paul Stephens, whom Gerald Ford had just nominated for the Supreme Court. There was concern in the legal community because he would replace Justice William O. Douglas, who had established himself as the leading liberal, probably of all time, on the court. Would Ford's pick, a relatively unknown Republican, undermine all the good work the Warren court had done in the area of privacy, civil rights and criminal rights? Professor Allen had spent time in Chicago, teaching at Northwestern and the University of Chicago and knew Mr. Stephens. I don't remember exactly what was said in our conversation, but I have a distinct memory of Professor Allen saying, "He's going to be all right."

It's ironic to now hear the media regularly refer to Mr. Justice Stephens as a liberal. He is not a liberal in the mode of Justice Douglas, and he made several rulings with which I disagree. He is a common sense moderate, however, who did not allow partisanship to enter into his decisions. His denunciation of the five Republicans on the court, who stopped the Florida recount in 2000 and ordered George W. Bush installed as president, because continuing the recount would undermine his "credibility," makes him a hero, no matter how much I disagreed on other issues.

You were right, Professor Allen. Mr. Justice Stephens turned out all right.

Son Report: "A Performance For The Ages"

2010-04-13T01:51:00.000-05:00

Regular readers know I am never shy about letting you know when reviewers say nice things about Son Number Two's performances with JACK Quartet. In fact, it's probably getting a little old -- at least for Son Number Two. He never lets me know about these things; I have engaged a private investigator, Mr. Google, to relentlessly search the internet and send me an email when it finds something of interest. Last night, I could not believe my eyes at what Mr. Google sent me.

Son Number Two regularly does gigs with other musical groups besides JACK. Sunday, he played with a group called Ne(x)tworks. They did a piece by Morton Feldman, his String Quartet No. 2, which is made up of one movement running six hours long. It was done without any breaks, for musicians or audience, in a new space, Issue Project Room. The Wife and I listened to the performance, which was streamed live on the internet, and it was very listenable music. While SNT was playing, we listened, ate lunch, read the newspaper, went to the hardware store and worked in the yard. I talked with Son Number Two Sunday night after the performance. Although he had water with him, he didn't drink any until after the performance. He told me the problem for him was not getting thirsty or needing to use the bathroom but fatigue. His arms and shoulders were hurting by the time he got finished. (So, you probably think, as I did, he now has a week or two to recuperate. No, he played with a different group Monday night; is scheduled to play with another group tonight; with JACK in New York on Thursday night; then he flies with JACK to California for performances Saturday night, Monday night and Tuesday night. The Monday night performance is sold out.)

So, this is what Mr. Google sent me. A review in the New York Times by Steve Smith in which he concludes that this was "a performance for the ages." Now that is high praise for any performer, particularly for one just 26 years old. Did I say I'm proud of my son?

JACK Report: Another New York Times Review

2010-04-03T13:45:00.000-05:00

It's time for the monthly New York Times review of JACK. This is the one in today's paper on page C-3. No pictures of JACK, alas.

JACK Report: SOLD OUT

2010-04-01T17:51:00.001-05:00

Who says the public doesn't like new music? I see JACK's LA debut on April 19th is SOLD OUT! And it's not like tickets are cheap -- at least by Midwestern standards. They're $27 a pop. Don't despair, people on the West Coast. There are still tickets available for the April 20 performance.

Amish "Bombshell" Breaks Up Sandra Bullock's Marriage

2010-03-21T07:47:00.008-05:00

Okay, the world is crazy, but this is the craziest thing I've heard in a long time. If you don't follow the tabloids (I don't either, but I still found this out) you may not realize that Sandra Bullock, who just won an Oscar for The Blind Side, learned this week that her husband, Jesse James, is cheating on her with a tattoo model, Michelle "Bombshell" McGee.

Among other salacious details from Bombshell McGee is that she grew up Amish, left the church when she was 16 and her parents won't speak to her. (You don't say!) Who knows how much if her story is true, but if she really did grow up Amish, you can be sure that her real name isn't "Michelle McGee." But then who is going to pay to see a tattoo model named Amanda Yoder?

I guess if Amish can grow up to be lawyers, then why not sluts?

Obscure Fact: Dylan Wrote A Song About My Town

2010-03-11T22:03:00.006-06:00

I was skeptical at first, when a friend posted on Facebook that the great Bob Dylan co-wrote a song about Champaign in 1969 with Carl Perkins. I'm a Dylan fan and I had never heard of it. But my friend, Google, found this excerpt from a book by Clinton Heylin, which confirms it. Apparently he never recorded it, and when he was here for the first Farm Aid concert in September, 1985 (where I was present,) he didn't sing it. I particularly like the first lines:

I got a woman in Morocco
I got a woman in Spain
Woman that done stole my heart,
She lives up in Champaign

Here is a Youtube video of Carl Perkins singing the song, with some great photos taken around the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. Cool.

JACK Report: Get Your Lawyers on This!!!

2010-03-10T07:45:00.004-06:00

I'll bet you're wondering what has been happening to the JACK Quartet (actually, you're probably wondering whether I haven't been reading any good books or seeing any good movies lately. I have. Reports will come in due time. Or not.)
Last week, the New York Times had another rave review of JACK, accompanied with a four column picture. To just pick out a few random blurbs: "young, hip JACK Quartet"; "this brilliant ensemble"; "viscerally exciting"; "eclectic thoughtful program"; "riveting performance"; "a tour de force of intensity and color."

The reviewer comments that he previously heard JACK perform in black t-shirts, but the performance last week was in suits and ties and that the Quartet proved it can do both. That review has been widely reprinted, not just because it was about JACK, but because it is by the New York Times.

Now, lo and behold, some internet t-shirt purveyor in the United Kingdom is using the quartet to sell t-shirts -- not JACK t-shirts, just t-shirts in general. The ad quotes the review as saying the Quartet is comfortable in either t-shirts or suits, and then goes on to basically say, "you too can be comfortable. Buy a t-shirt from us." Take a look at the ad, it's weird.

JACK Report: The New Yorker Takes Notice

2010-02-22T06:39:00.004-06:00

If you're a subscriber to The New Yorker (and why would anyone not be?) don't miss the article on pages 78 and 79 of this week's issue by Alex Ross entitled "The Singular Iannis Xenakis." (There's no point in posting a link because you have to be a subscriber to read it.) In the course of the article Ross describes the "JACK Quartet's howlingly beautiful rendition of 'Tetras' (1983) at the Morgan Library earlier this month."

The article concludes by saying, "Xenakis once announced that he sought 'a total exaltation in which the individual mingles, losing his consciousness in a truth immediate, rare, enormous, and perfect.' If these performances didn't quite achieve that transcendent goal, they came exhilaratingly close."

As I have stated before on these pages, the importance to my son and his JACK cohorts of being noticed by media like The New Yorker goes far beyond the one million actual subscribers to the magazine and other media like The New York Times. They are cultural arbiters. When they say a group or performance is fine, other critics pick up the refrain and their opinion is amplified. Whether justified or not, that is the way the world works and it is so gratifing to see my son, the grandson of an Amishman who had never heard of The New Yorker, benefit from it.

Book Report: Pat Conroy Has Run Out of Ideas

2010-02-21T19:05:00.004-06:00

When Book-of-the-Month Club offered Pat Conroy's latest book, South of Broad, I eagerly ordered it. Conroy has written some great books: Lords of Discipline, The Great Santini, Prince of Tides, The Water Is Wide, but he has not had any new books for several years.
It didn't take too many pages to figure out that this book isn't the end of Pat Conroy's dry spell. He is just repeating the same books he has been writing, except now the overbearing father with a fanatical allegiance to an authoritarian organization, the Citadel, is an overbearing mother with a fanatical devotion to the Roman Catholic church. The good guy basketball coach is now the good guy football coach. The token black is back; the narrator is still the wise-cracking hero who goes through harrowing adventures before everything turns out all right in the end.
Conroy has always had a penchant for melodramatic plotting, but this one is so over-the-top that it is not remotely believable. Conroy never met a superlative he didn't like. Everything and everyone is the best, the most beautiful, the smartest, the most talented, the worst criminal in the history of mankind. Average people and ordinary events don't exist in Pat Conroy's world.
Conroy still knows how to turn a good phrase. But his writing talent is wasted in this book. Even if you're a Conroy fan, particularly if you're a Conroy fan, don't bother to see how the mighty have fallen by wasting your time on this book. I gave it two stars out of five.

An Excerpt of What the Parents Are Up Against Tonight

2010-02-20T07:15:00.006-06:00

Opera Cabal has a video which it calls a trailer, but is actually a seven-minute excerpt of the opera, UW, which we're going to Chicago to see. Although only a small part of the video, there is a great deal of tennis-ball-throwing-against-the-sheet action. Parents will do anything for their children.

The Parents Head Off To See "USW"; "Not Your Parents' Opera"

2010-02-20T03:48:00.003-06:00

We've been warned. As parents, we'll go anywhere; listen to anything; see anything, if our children are involved. Son, Chris, and daughter-in-law, Emily, played last night and tonight in an Opera Cabal production of USW, a multi-media opera based on the life of Rosa Luxemburg, the German socialist. The Chicagoist warns that this is "Not your parents' opera." Well, maybe it's not our parents' opera, but no opera is (my father used to refer to soprano opera singers as "sounding like two cats fighting in a bag.") But any opera in which our children are involved is "our" opera. The Chicagoist says last night's performance at Curtiss Hall was sold out. Luckily, we reserved our tickets for tonight several weeks ago.

We're not going totally unprepared. Last fall, we went to Chicago to see a workshop production. I'm hoping they've improved it since then, but never mind if they haven't. The music was fine, and the chance to see Chris and Emily was priceless. The production opened at Oberlin College last weekend and will be in New York City on Monday night.

If the weather is decent, I would love to take a Segway tour of Chicago. I've always wanted to ride one of those things. George W. Bush's falling off does not deter me.

Book Report: "The Gravedigger's Daughter" by Joyce Carol Oates

2010-02-19T20:32:00.004-06:00

I just finished listening to The Gravedigger's Daughter, by Joyce Carol Oates. I didn't like Oates's early books; there was too much graphic violence for my tastes. Either Oates has gotten more skillful in her use of violence or I have gotten more inured to it, maybe both, but I really like this book.

The book comes in at nearly 600 pages, but it is not a page too long. It takes those pages to tell the story of a young woman, born in New York harbor in 1936 when her family escapes Nazi Germany. Her family settles in upstate New York, familiar Oates territory, and suffers from the small town prejudices of the era. There is family tragedy, but, somehow, the young woman survives to make it on her own.

Despite the tragedy, the book is not depressing, even in the emotional ending when even this hard-hearted old reporter started almost thinking about getting somewhat choked up. (I didn't actually shed a tear though. Thankfully.)

I have often complained about fine books, spoiled by poorly-written endings. That is not a concern in this book. In fact, the ending, which appeared excerpted in The New Yorker several years ago, may be the strongest part of the book.

The edition to which I listened was read by Bernadette Dunne. If you have ever considered listening to a book, this is one to try. Ms. Dunne does a masterful job with using different voices with different accents to convey an addition dimension to the characters. The book is strong enough to stand on its own as a paper book, but the recorded version is even stronger, in my opinion.

This is one of those rare books that made me say "wow!" at the end. I gave it five plus stars and my rating scale only goes to five.

Roger Ebert: A Wonderful Story

2010-02-18T19:13:00.003-06:00

Regulars here know how much I admire Roger Ebert, the movie critic. I never really followed him much on television when he and Gene Siskel would give movie reviews. About 10 years ago, I started attending Ebertfest, his festival of movies that he likes, in our town, and I was soon captivated by his charm, intelligence and knowledge about movies and movie making. I started taking vacation so I could attend all of the Ebertfest movies. I got six good years of Ebert, before he lost his lower jaw and his ability to speak. One of the highlights of my life is being part of a packed audience, listening to Ebert and Werner Herzog talk, after the showing of one of Herzog's movies, until 2 o'clock in the morning. No one was leaving, despite the late hour, because we were entranced by listening as two great minds chatted about their passions. Now, Esquire Magazine has a lengthy but great profile of Ebert, which you can read here. By all means, even if you don't like movies, take the time to read the article. Ebert's face is disfigured, he can't talk and he can't eat or drink, but he can still communicate, and does he ever. Ebert still considers himself a lucky man. And then, go read Roger Ebert's Journal in which he writes about his reaction to the Esquire article. Ebertfest 2010 is coming up in about another two months, and I have my pass, purchased on the first day of sales, because they're always sold out. Roger Ebert plans to be there again this year, inspiring us with his life as well as his words. I can't wait.

JACK Report: New York Concert Last Night

2010-02-06T15:09:00.003-06:00

As anyone knows who has been reading this blog, I have been virtually obsessed with passing on praise of JACK for the last several months. The concert last night at the Morgan Library in New York City was a big deal, hyped by cultural arbiters like the New York Times and The New Yorker. At the left is a copy of the program, posted an hour or two after the program by an anonymous blogger. The first review/report was posted last night here. The author said the auditorium was nearly filled, mostly by young people, but also by traditional concert goers. He/she says this is where classical music should be.

This Is Not Bragging; It's Just Posting Some Music

2010-02-04T06:54:00.006-06:00

I stumbled upon this YouTube video this morning. I am not bragging about my offspring's violin playing. It probably isn't even that good. It might not be. It's just interesting -- to me (and it's my blog, so there.)

JACK Report: This Is Not Bragging; It's Just a Picture

2010-02-01T16:50:00.004-06:00

My friend, Catcher in the Wry, blogged yesterday that she doesn't like bloggers who brag too much about their children. I plead guilty, and I will reform. But this picture, composed by Stephen Poff, of Birmingham, AL, where JACK played this past weekend, is an interesting portrait. I'm not bragging about JACK. I'm bragging about Stephen Poff. Oh, and this is not bragging either, it's just information. Check your New Yorker this week under recitals for a description of JACK Quartet and their concert Friday at the Morgan Library in New York City. I found it to be interesting.

Movie Report: A Single Man

2010-01-30T09:38:00.002-06:00

I went to see A Single Man yesterday evening with The Wife. She liked the nude scenes. They didn't do much for me. Who knew that Tom Ford, a fashion designer who saved the house of Gucci from bankruptcy, could make a movie this good? It will undoubtedly win some awards. I especially liked the Woody Allenesque ending. I gave it five stars.

JACK Report: A Critic Reviews Looney Tunes Performance

2010-01-29T14:27:00.003-06:00

The review by the Montgomery, AL Advertiser's critic of the JACK performance last night is not entirely without criticism, but overall, he seemed to enjoy the performance.

JACK Report: Montgomery, AL Is Promoting The Heck Out of Them

2010-01-26T21:38:00.002-06:00

There are other things happening besides son, Chris, playing with the JACK Quartet, but right now exciting things are happening with the Quartet. They're in Montgomery, AL right now, getting ready for their appearances in several ClefWorks concerts. Here is an interesting promotional video put out today in Montgomery.

Here is the review in The Philadelphia Inquirer of a performance this past weekend that the lady in the video talked about.

That "kickin' JACK Quartet"

2010-01-14T16:17:00.002-06:00

Alex Ross, the New Yorker music critic has a nice shout out again today on his blog about "the kickin' JACK Quartet." They're in Sarasota, Florida this weekend and will be playing the Xenakis quartets in New York in early February.

Brother Report: Nice Article About Renovation Project

2009-12-26T21:13:00.002-06:00

There's a nice article in today's News-Gazette about the work my brother, Dannie, has done on their house. The print edition has some additional pictures.

Annual Book and Movie Ratings

2009-12-26T18:01:00.004-06:00

Although the end of the year is still a few days away, I'm going to go ahead and list my annual book and movie ratings. I don't expect to finish any more books by the end of the year and I may still see another movie or two, but I'll just include them in 2010. The ratings are based on five stars being the highest. The books are ones I have read or listened to this year, some of them for the second or third time. I read (or listened to) a record number of books this year, 67, up from last year's record of 61. Twenty-one were non-fiction; 46 were fiction.

Some of the books were short, but there were also some long ones, topped by Part II of The Man Without Qualities, by Robert Musil, which came in at 1,067 pages. (That's a book that is probably deep, but it is so deep that I don't know it's deep.) I think the reason for my increasing number of books is that I watched practically no television last year. I have to watch The Office, but that's about it, except for a few Illinois football and basketball games. My number will probably go down in 2010, as we just signed up for AT&T's UVerse package, which includes telephone, internet and 200 cable channels. With that many channels, there must be some television worth watching, although I'm not holding my breath.

My book of the year is Saturday, by Ian McEwan.

Books

Five Stars

Political Fictions, Joan Didion
Prodigal Summer, Barbara Kingsolver
Rabbit Run, John Updike
Saturday, Ian McEwan
Indignation, Philip Roth
Unaccustomed Earth, Jhumpa Lahiri
Road Dogs, Elmore Leonard
I Married A Communist, Philip Roth
Fine Just Like It Is: Short Stories, Annie Proulx
Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton
The Omnivore's Dilemna, Michael Pollan
As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner
The Age of Lincoln, Orville Vernon Burton
Fire In The Blood, Irene Nemirovsky
The Nine, Jeffrey Toobin
All The King's Men, Robert Penn Warren
Terrorist, John Updike
Homeland And Other Stories, Barbara Kingsolver
Zeitoun, Dave Eggers
The Stranger, Albert Camus
Short Stories of John Cheever, John Cheever

Four Stars

After Henry, Joan Didion
The Plague of Doves, Louise Erdrich
The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Burbery
Beloved, Toni Morrison
Descartes' Bones, Russell Shorto
Naked, David Sedaris
The Financier, Theodore Dreiser
Where The Roots Reach For Water, Jeffrey Smith
The Source, James Michener
Soldiers' Pay, William Faulkner
In The Company of Cheerful Ladies, Alexander McCall Smith
The Sound and The Fury, William Faulkner
Babylon Revisited, F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Summons, John Grisham
Oh, What A Slaughter, Larry McMurtry
Taft, Ann Patchett
The Power of Now, Eckhardt Tolle
The Space Between Us, Thrity Umrigar
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Lisa See
Too Politically Sensitive, Michale Callaghan
Tender At The Bone, Ruth Reichl
A Gate At The Stairs, Lorrie Moore
The Humbling, Philip Roth
Up In Honey's Room, Elmore Leonard

Three Stars

The Nanny Diaries, Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus
Rabbit Redux, John Updike
Where I Was From, Joan Didion
Mosquitos, William Faulkner
Flags In The Dust, William Faulkner
Mummy, Daniel Curley
The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs, Alexander McCall Smith
44 Stockholm Street, Alexander McCall Smith
His Excellency: George Washington, Joseph Ellis
Shanghai Girls, Lisa See
The Villa of Reduced Circumstances, Alexander McCall Smith
The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday, Alexander McCall Smith
Three Cups of Tea, Craig Mortensen
The Yiddish Policemen's Union, Michael Chabon
The Man Without Qualities, Robert Musil
Rhino Ranch, Larry McMurtry

Two Stars

The Noonday Demon, Andrew Solomon
Beethoven, Edmund Morris
Slowly Down The Ganges, Eric Newby
Sounding, Hank Searls
Leave Me Alone I'm Reading, Maureen Corrigan

One Star

Haven, Iodine Kimmel

Movies

I saw 42 movies year in theaters, down a few from the 44 I saw in 2008. I saw a few movies on DVD, but I don't count those because that's not the real movie experience.

Five Stars Plus

The Reader

Five Stars

Gran Torino
Doubt
My Winnipeg
Begging Naked
Frozen River
Baraka
An Education
A Serious Man

Four Stars

Milk
The Class
Sunshine Cleaning
Woodstock
The Last Command
The Fall
Sita Sings The Blue
Good Bye Solo
The Hangover
Away We Go
Julie and Julia
The Informant
Adam
The Bicycle Thief

Three Stars

Duplicity
Trouble The Water
Let The Right One In
Gomorra
The Soloist
Easy Virtue
Whatever Works
Public Enemies
The Ugly Truth
Food, Inc
Amelia
Cold Souls

Two Stars

Frost/Nixon
Che
Nothing But The Truth
Year One
Pirate Radio
Invictus

One Star

Night At The Museum II

JACK Report: LA Times Says Watch Them in 2010

2009-12-25T04:30:00.003-06:00

Not that I needed any encouragement, but I will certainly follow the advice of the LA Times which says the JACK Quartet is one of the "faces to watch in 2010." The Quartet makes its LA debut in April, playing an absolutely astounding piece in total darkness. We heard them play it, the "String Quartet No. 3, In iij Noct," by Georg Fredrich Haas, in Chicago. Even the exit light bulbs had been removed, and the audience sat in the middle, with the chairs turned higgly-piggly, every which way, in the middle of the room, with the quartet players stationed at each corner. It was almost an hallucinogenic experience. Unlike some new music, this was very listenable.

How Far She Has Come

2009-12-21T07:22:00.003-06:00

Way back in 1985 or so, little Allison Krause, then 14, beat my 8-year-old son, Jeremy, in a fiddling contest at the Champaign County Fair. With that as her springboard, has come all kinds of success -- more Grammys than any other artist of her genre; gigs playing with Yo-Yo Ma and other celebrity musicians. If Jeremy had just practiced a little more.

(A hat tip to my friend, Catch Her in the Wry, for the link.)

WTF!!!!

2009-12-04T10:41:00.004-06:00

I'm not usually a cusser. (Full disclosure: I have been known to use a common vulgarism for excrement when I hit or pinched a finger, dropped a glass or spilled my tea, but that doesn't really count as cussing.) Yesterday morning, I came in to work, looked at a fax that had come in overnight and cussed. WTF!!!! Only I didn't use the initials.

What caused me to cuss was a fax from Newt Gingrich's organization, "American Solutions for Winning the Future," addressed to "John." The first sentence was as follows: "Thanks to the help of business leaders across the country Newt has begun to get our message across that the Obama Administration is bad for America and bad for businesses like yours." What?? "OUR message?" As Tonto said to the Lone Ranger when the they were surrounded by Indians and the Lone Ranger said, "We have to do something," "What do you mean, 'WE, keemo sabe?'" The Obama Administration is bad for MY business? MY business is suing people. So what bad thing have they done for MY business?

The fax goes on to say, "I hope you don't mind but I went ahead and personally recommended you to Newt to become a member of his high level, 'Jobs and Prosperity Task Force.' This is Newt's group of top advisers from the Business community and I think you would be a terrific addition to the group!" So, you hope I don't mind that you personally recommended me to Newt. Yeah, right, dipshit. I mind and you better personally tell Newt, that Crockhead is pissed!

That wasn't even the worst part. The fax goes on to say,

"We would like to send out the attached Press Release to your local paper announcing your appointment and run a full page ad in the Wall Street Journal with your name in it endorsing our 'Jobs Here, Jobs Now, Jobs First Campaign,' which includes a complete abolishment of the 'Death Tax'."

What??? A press release announcing my appointment? Even our local Republican rag would use such a press release for toilet paper. (Well, actually they wouldn't because it would clog up the sewer, but you get the point.) Endorsing the complete abolishment of the "Death Tax?" For your information, ass wipe,the so-called "Death Tax" only applies to estates larger than 3.5 million dollars in 2009, and Congress is in the process of passing legislation to extend that exemption indefinitely. So, exactly how is it that letting people who inherit (not work for, but INHERIT) 3.5 million dollars not pay any taxes on it, help create jobs? The same way the Bush tax cuts for the rich created jobs?

My son, who is working two jobs to keep himself and his wife clothed, sheltered and fed and can't afford health insurance, has to pay taxes on what he EARNS. So, why should heirs who do nothing but exist,have their multi-million dollars be exempt from taxes? And, how exactly does that create jobs? The same way that the Bush Administration's tax cuts for the wealthy created jobs? How stupid do you think the American people are? (On second thought, don't answer that question.)

The last page in the fax was a mock-up of the full page Wall Street Journal advertisement with my name at the top of the list of "business leaders." I called the number in Washington (1-866-716-3386, if you want to personally tell Newt Gingrich what you think of him) and demanded to speak to the person who had sent me the letter. "He is busy," the telephone operator said. "Please, personally give Newt this message from his friend, John," I said (actually, I wish I had said, but everything else in this post is true:)

"Newt, you swine. You vulgar little maggot. You worthless bag of filth. As they say in Texas. I'll bet you couldn't pour piss out of a boot with instructions on the heel. You are a canker. A sore that won't go away.
You are a putrescent mass, a walking vomit. You are a spineless little worm deserving nothing but the profoundest contempt. You are a jerk, a cad, a weasel. Your life is a monument to stupidity. You are a stench, a revulsion, a big suck on a sour lemon.

"You are a bleating foal, a curdled staggering mutant dwarf smeared richly with the effluvia and offal accompanying your alleged birth into this world. An insensate, blinking calf, meaningful to nobody, abandoned by the puke-drooling, giggling beasts who sired you and then killed themselves in recognition of what they had done.

"I will never get over the embarrassment of belonging to the same species as you. You are a monster, an ogre, a malformity. I barf at the very thought of you. You have all the appeal of a paper cut. Lepers avoid you. You are vile, worthless, less than nothing. You are a weed, a fungus, the dregs of this earth. And did I mention you smell?

"You snail-skulled little rabbit. Would that a hawk pick you up, drive its beak into your brain, and upon finding it rancid set you loose to fly briefly before pattering the ocean rocks with the frothy pink shame of your ignoble blood. May you choke on the queasy, convulsing nausea of your own trite, foolish beliefs.

"You are weary, stale, flat and unprofitable. You are grimy, squalid, nasty and profane. You are foul and disgusting. You're a fool, an ignoramus. Monkeys look down on you. Even sheep won't have sex with you. You are unreservedly pathetic, starved for attention, and lost in a land that reality forgot.

"And what meaning do you expect your delusionally self-important statements of unknowing, inexperienced opinion to have with me? What fantasy do you hold that you would believe that your tiny-fisted tantrums would have more weight than that of a leprous desert rat, spinning rabidly in a circle, waiting for the bite of the snake? You are a waste of flesh. You have no rhythm. You are ridiculous and obnoxious. You are the moral equivalent of a leech. You are a living emptiness, a meaningless void. You are sour and senile. You are a disease, you puerile one-handed slack-jawed drooling meatslapper.

"On a good day you're a half-wit. You remind me of drool. You are deficient in all that lends character. You have the personality of wallpaper. You are dank and filthy. You are asinine and benighted. You are the source of all unpleasantness. You spread misery and sorrow wherever you go.

"You smarmy lagerlout git. You bloody woofter sod. Bugger off, pillock. You grotty wanking oik artless base-court apple-john. You clouted boggish foot-licking twit. You dankish clack-dish plonker. You gormless crook-pated tosser. You churlish oil-brained clotpole ponce. You cockered bum-bailey poofter. You craven dewberry pisshead cockup pratting naff. You gob-kissing gleeking flap-mouthed coxcomb. You dread-bolted fobbing beef-witted clapper-clawed flirt-gill.

"You are a fiend and a coward, and you have bad breath. You are degenerate, noxious and depraved. I feel debased just for knowing you exist. I despise everything about you, and I wish you would go away. I cannot believe how incredibly stupid you are. I mean rock-hard stupid. Dehydrated-rock-hard stupid. Stupid so stupid that it goes way beyond the stupid we know into a whole different dimension of stupid. You are trans-stupid stupid. Meta-stupid. Stupid collapsed on itself so far that even the neutrons have collapsed. Stupid gotten so dense that no intellect can escape. Singularity stupid. Blazing hot mid-day sun on Mercury stupid. You emit more stupid in one second than our entire galaxy emits in a year. Quasar stupid. Your writing has to be a troll. Nothing in our universe can really be this stupid. Perhaps this is some primordial fragment from the original big bang of stupid. Some pure essence of a stupid so uncontaminated by anything else as to be beyond the laws of physics that we know. I'm sorry. I can't go on.This is an epiphany of stupid for me. After this, you my not hear from me again for a while. I don't have enough strength left to deride your half baked comments about unimportant trivia, or any of the rest of this drivel. Duh.

"The only thing worse than your logic is your manners. Maybe later in life, after you have learned to read, write, spell, and count, you will have more success. True, these are rudimentary skills that many of us "normal" people take for granted that everyone has an easy time of mastering. But we sometimes forget that there are "challenged" persons in this world who find these things more difficult. If I had known, that this was your case then I would have never read your fax. It just couldn't have been "right". Sort of like parking in a handicap space. I wish you the best of luck in the emotional, and social struggles that seem to be placing such a demand on you.

"You are hypocritical, greedy, violent, malevolent, vengeful, cowardly, deadly, mendacious, meretricious, loathsome, despicable, belligerent,opportunistic, barratrous, contemptible, criminal, fascistic, bigoted, racist, sexist, avaricious, tasteless, idiotic, brain-damaged, imbecilic,insane, arrogant, deceitful, demented, lame, self-righteous, byzantine,conspiratorial, satanic, fraudulent, libelous, bilious, splenetic, spastic, ignorant, clueless, illegitimate, harmful, destructive, dumb, evasive, double-talking, devious, revisionist, narrow, manipulative,
paternalistic, fundamentalist, dogmatic, idolatrous, unethical, cultic, diseased, suppressive, controlling, restrictive, malignant, deceptive, dim, crazy, weird, dystopic, stifling, uncaring, plantigrade, grim, unsympathetic, jargon-spouting, censorious, secretive, aggressive, mind-numbing, arassive, poisonous, flagrant, self-destructive, abusive, socially-retarded, puerile, clueless, and generally Not Good.

"In other words, go away."

Fox News: We Exaggerate; You Decide

2009-11-11T14:37:00.001-06:00

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Sean Hannity Uses Glenn Beck's Protest Footage

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Political Humor

Health Care Crisis

Jon Stewart: An Antidote For The Craziness

2009-11-07T09:07:00.004-06:00

Jon Stewart is an absolute genius. Even if you're drinking the kool-aid being handed out these days by Republican wackos like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Baughman, Sarah Palin and the whole Fox News network, this has to make you laugh.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

The 11/3 Project

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Political Humor

Health Care Crisis

Block That Hyperbole!

2009-10-31T09:10:00.003-05:00

I really am not in a foul mood this morning. But something about a letter to the editor in this morning's local newspaper struck me as ironic, if not just plain weird. The letter writer writes that she accidently left her purse in a cart at a Wal-Mart last week. A Good Samaritan found the purse and arranged for its return with nothing missing. She goes on to say, "My faith in humanity is restored thanks to this kind person."

Really?? That's all it took? She now has faith in all of humanity, including the Cheney family, Al-Queda, Barry Manilow and Paris Hilton? For a purse and its contents? Wow! Makes me wonder what would have happened if someone had found and returned something really valuable like a diamond ring.

Sorry I'm so cynical. I'll get off my duff and go to the Farmer's Market. Maybe some fresh vegetables will restore my faith in humanity

Will The Stupidity Never End?

2009-10-31T05:59:00.001-05:00

I have long ago stopped being surprised at the latest developments in Bush/Cheney perfidy. So, why should I be outraged at the latest Cheney lie? I don't know, I just am.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Movie Report: The Informant

2009-09-25T20:25:00.004-05:00

I was interested in seeing The Informant, Steven Soderbergh's new movie with Matt Damon for several reasons. The events it depicts, the whistle-blowing scandal of Mark Whitacre at the giant food processor, Archer Daniel Midland, located in Decatur, just 30 miles west from here, were familiar to me as an avid newspaper consumer. I have a soft spot for whistle blowers, having represented several of them in the course of my work as a lawyer, and I know how difficult life can be for them.

Whistle blowers, almost by definition, are misfits, odd ducks who do not fit in to standard corporate culture. The people who fit in do not blow whistles because they are too comfortable. Whitacre was the archtypical whistle blower, a brilliant scientist, a congenital liar whose motives for blowing the whistle on ADM were so mixed with self-interest that they were impossible to sort out.

It turns out Whitacre was stealing from ADM, how much even he couldn't keep straight. In the middle of his lies, he wound up turning in ADM for price fixing and courageously wearing a wire at work to get the evidence. But, ironically, Whitacre was sentenced to more time in prison for his larceny of millions than the top ADM executives ever served for their stealing of billions from American consumers through price fixing.

Steven Soderbergh, the director of The Informant, made the iconic whistle blower movie with Erin Brokovich in 2000. In many ways, The Informant is better than Brokovich in that it paints the various protagonists in more realistic shades of gray, than the black and white of a righteous woman up against a corrupt corporation. For the same reason, the movie is less satisfying. There is less emotional release when the movie does not delineate who the good guys and the bad guys are and it is less certain that good prevailed in the end.

As good as Damon is, however, I would always rather watch Julia Roberts with her perky good looks and push up bra, so between the two Soderbergh whistle-blowing movies, I would have to rate Brokovich higher. Not to mention that the whistle-blower's lawyer comes off much better in Brokovich than the doofus from Taylorville in Informant.

I gave the movie four stars out of a possible five, meaning it is above average, but not brilliant.

Keep Him Away From My Funeral

2009-09-23T20:21:00.003-05:00

Okay, it's time to blog again. (Don't complain about the long absence, just be thankful for what you get.)

Today, I went to the funeral of an uncle by marriage. The uncle who preached the funeral sermon was another uncle, a brother-in-law of the uncle who died. He started out by saying that M. had a gift for spotting other people's faults and pointing them out to them -- in love. Sheesh. I thought a funeral was when you said good things about people.

Reminds me of a funeral of an old family friend I went to in that same church a few years ago. The minister, who was rather far from being a gifted speaker, said that you're supposed to say something good about the deceased, and he had thought and thought and thought and then came up with this idea. Old A. was known for driving very slowly down the highway on his way to the coffee shop in town, with his car half on the shoulder and half on the highway, while a big line up of traffic crawled along behind him. And that just made the minister realize that we should all take a lesson from that and slow down in life.

With love like that, who needs hate?

A Wonderful Wedding Weekend

2009-08-18T21:25:00.005-05:00

I don't think I've mentioned it on this blog before, but Son Number Two got married this past weekend on Long Island in New York. It was a wonderful wedding and we had a great time partying at a rehearsal dinner and the wedding reception. The ceremony and reception were held in the back yard of the Bride's uncle. Here are some pictures:

But Now Everything Is Fine

2009-08-07T14:38:00.008-05:00

So, I'm in Portland, Oregon, now with my friends from 45 years ago. Everything is beautiful. Here are pictures of Marv and Carlene's house and gardens. Later today we're going to take a trip to the Pacific coast.

Another Humorless Rant

2009-08-07T14:14:00.003-05:00

Anyone who thinks that the private sector is always better at running things than the government should try to take a plane trip.

Last week, Son Number Two and his fiance were going to join us in a family vacation for a few days in Pentwater, MI. I arranged for them to fly out of LaGuardia in NYC early in the morning on Thursday, get to Pentwater about noon, and then they would have two and one-half days with us before flying back to New York on Sunday morning. The plane was to leave at 6:00 a.m. and it takes them an hour to get to the airport, so they had to get up at 3:00 a.m. in order to get to the airport an hour ahead of departure, like you have to do these days. Delta had their telephone number to let them know of any last-minute changes. So, what happens, they get to the airport only to find out the flight has been canceled because of mechanical problems (the weather was fine.) Another flight was canceled too, and the passengers for both flights had to go to the same single window to get rebooked. They wound up waiting two hours to get their new flight information. Their plane finally did leave late that evening, about half an hour after the scheduled time, and they got into Grand Rapids at midnight, so the first half day of the two and one half days was gone.

Yesterday, I flew from Chicago to Portland, with a connecting flight at Salt Lake City. We were scheduled to leave at 5:20 p.m. The pilot made an announcement 10 minutes before departure time telling us that we were going to be leaving on time and that the plane was full, so people with two carry-on pieces of luggage should stow one under the seat and one in the overhead bin so there would be room for everyone's luggage. About 10 minutes after we were supposed to have left, the pilot came back on the intercom to tell us that the plane was overloaded because more people showed up than expected (remember just 20 minutes earlier he had told us the plane was full) so they needed 18 volunteers to get off in exchange for $600 in Delta money and accommodations for the night. Lights went on all over the plane as people jumped to volunteer. About 10 minutes later, they told us they had enough volunteers and as soon as the paperwork was processed, we would take off.

After another 15 minutes, we were told they were still processing the paper work, and as soon as it was done, we would be leaving. After another 15 minutes, the pilot was back to tell us they had decided that nobody needed to get off after all because they would take off in the opposite direction than usual on the runway. They hoped the extra wind speed would enable us to get off the ground. They HOPED? Let me off!!! I'll walk to Portland.

The long and short of it is that we did take off and got to Salt Lake City more than an hour late, which would have been too late for the connecting flight, had Delta not graciously decided to keep that plane on the ground until we got there. So, those people weren't too happy to see us, even though I was happy to see them.

This is no way to run a business -- any business.

Remember Me?

2009-08-06T14:52:00.002-05:00

I promised a friend I would start blogging again, so here goes. Don't ask me why I stopped writing at the end of May, I just did. It didn't seem like I had anything new, creative or interesting to post. It still doesn't. But, I need to write, so I'll just post boring stuff until my creative juices get flowing again.

Right now, I'm waiting at Midway Airport in Chicago for my flight to Portland, Oregon, by way of Salt Lake City. They have rocking chairs in the concourse C waiting area. Fantastic!

Last week, we were in Pentwater, MI with The Wife's family. We had a good time. The sunsets and weather were spectacular as usual.

Next week, Sun Number Two gets married on Long Island, NY. That will be exciting. I will get back from Portland on Sunday night, work two days and then head off to NYC on Wednesday, back the following Monday. The Wife's school starts the day after we get back, so she's skipping the trip to Portland.

Okay, I kept my promise; I posted. I'll try to make it interesting next time.

Jimmy Johns Thinks I'm Too Serious

2009-05-30T06:45:00.002-05:00

Two posts below, on May 15, I went on a mini-rant about the Jimmy Johns commercial depicting hostages calling for Jimmy Johns sandwiches, while cowering under furniture in what turns out to be a bank, not a school, and vowed to eat no more Jimmy Johns. Now, some anonymous commenter from Los Angeles, who was involved in making the commercial, takes me to task for taking myself too seriously, saying the commercial is meant to be funny. Here's the comment:

"This was in fact a bank robbery situation, and I know first hand as I was involved in the making of this commercial. It is meant to be humorous, and I believe it achieved that. Now you can either laugh at this commercial and make your day much better, or you can choose to take yourself way too seriously and add years of stress on to your life for worrying about things like this.

7:13 PM, May 29, 2009"

I'll leave it up to regular readers to decide whether I take myself too seriously or not. What I'm interested in is whether people think the intention to make something humorous and the author's subjective belief that it, indeed, is funny, is sufficient to label any critics sour pusses who add years of stress to their lives (another interesting question: which is better to add years of stress to your life or live a shorter life? I think the Anonymous commenter meant that I will shorten my life because of the stress, not add to it, but precision in communication is not Mr. Anonymous's strong point, as you will see if you watch the commercial.) I guess Mr. Anonymous's point is that everything is fair game, as long as the author intends it to be funny. So, what commercials is Mr. Anonymous working on next? Starving children in Africa finding a cell phone in the sand and using it to call for a Jimmy Johns delivery? Airplane hijackers diverting their crash into the World Trade Center at the last minute because they want to finish their Jimmy Johns sandwiches before going to Paradise?

I'm sorry, I don't believe my only choice is to laugh at the commercial and make my day better or lengthen (actually shorten) my life by taking myself too seriously. Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to continue not taking myself too seriously and laughing at myself. I'm also going to continue to be outraged at stupid commercials that are not funny, no matter what the inarticulate authors of it intended. And, I'm still not going to eat Jimmy Johns sandwiches. Ever. Again.

JACK Report: Playing This Weekend in Chicago and New York

2009-05-21T20:48:00.002-05:00

If you're in the Chicago area, you can catch the JACK Quartet Saturday night at The Music Institute of Chicago. The Wife and I are going up, hoping to catch a glimpse and a word or two, maybe even a meal with Son Number Two. Sunday night, the Quartet is back in New York City, playing at (Le) Poisson Rouge, opening for The Respect Sextet.

No More Jimmy Johns

2009-05-15T07:49:00.004-05:00

I don't watch much television, so I am probably naive about what is considered acceptable these days. Last night, the commercial for Jimmy Johns sandwiches shown on our local NBC station during The Office shocked me as I haven't been shocked for a long time. It depicts a Columbine school massacre with masked terrorists shooting up a school as children and teachers scream and try to hide. While cowering under a desk, a teacher pulls out a cell phone and calls for a sandwich delivery from Jimmy Johns. The delivery boy shows up, and the terrorist rips off his ski mask and says, "Who ordered Jimmy Johns?"

Is nothing over the limit these days? What's next, an ad for shampoo that keeps hair looking gorgeous through a 9/11 disaster? A spot remover that can take the blood and brains off Jackie Kennedy's jacket?

Since the Supreme Court's ridiculous decision giving First Amendment free speech rights to corporations, such despicable advertising is legal and cannot be made illegal. But there is no law that says I have to eat Jimmy Johns sandwiches, ever again. And I won't. Here's the ad, if you have a strong stomach:

JACK Report: The DVD is Out

2009-05-06T15:56:00.004-05:00

Mode Records on Monday released JACK Quartet's first album. I haven't heard it yet because I have been promised a free copy by Son Number Two. You can buy directly from the record company for $14.99 for the CD; $19.99 for the DVD. You can get it from Amazon for as low as $16.74 plus $3.00 shipping. Or, you can order it from Netflix. I have to warn you though, that this is not easy listening music.