11 Temmuz 2012 Çarşamba
10 Temmuz 2012 Salı
9 Temmuz 2012 Pazartesi
Reading life review: May
Number of books read in May: 10
Number of books read in 2012: 53Complete list here.
■ The Night Bookmobile (Audrey Niffenegger) Graphic novel. Related entry here.
■ First Love (Ivan Turgenev) Fiction. Related entry here.
■ Are You My Mother? (Alison Bechdel) Graphic memoir. Related entry here.
■ When You Were Mine (Rebecca Serle) YA fiction. You know? I really wanted to loathe this retelling of Romeo and Juliet, particularly the "central casting" aspect of Serle's characterizations. But... it was actually rather sweet and old-fashioned.
■ The Wave (Todd Strasser) YA fiction. You may remember the ABC Afterschool Special better; both were based on the same classroom experiment.
■ Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading (Lizzie Skurnik) Non-fiction. A reread for me. Why? Related entry here.
■ Bringing Up Bebe: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting (Pamela Druckerman) Non-fiction. This book takes itself quite seriously when, in fact, it's nothing more than commonsense parenting packaged as an exotic discovery. I realize that the circles in which Druckerman runs may eschew "The Look" (i.e., "Big Eyes") or early and ceaseless coaching in excellent manners as too authoritative and/or too robotic, but some parents (Alas! Too few, too few!) have quietly gone about the business of raising their children sans any reminders about who makes the decisions and why.
■ Bossypants (Tina Fey) Non-fiction. Listened to this one on the Kindle. Smart, funny, entertaining.
■ The Fault in Our Stars (John Green) YA fiction. Others have already amply praised this beautiful novel: NPR, Washington Post, TIME, and NYT.
■ The Devil All the Time (Donald Ray Pollock) Fiction. Relentlessly grim but perfectly paced and neatly woven, this was the "it" book a couple of seasons ago. What seemed to capture many imaginations, though, was Pollock's personal history: He published his first book, Knockemstiff, in 2008 after working as a laborer in a paper mill for more than thirty years. While that is interesting, I think his work would have been compelling even without the backstory. The jacket copy notes similarities to Natural Born Killers and the stories of Flannery O'Connor, but I was reminded of that underappreciated 2001 film Frailty. Pollock's novel explores some of the same psychological landscape -- the twisted pursuits, the underlying faith, the inevitability of it all.
Piano competition
The pianists were sorted into five divisions based on age and years of instruction, and the Misses were -- as they were two years ago -- placed in the same division, which this time comprised the oldest students (fourteen to seventeen).
They both played beautifully, but the afternoon belonged to Miss M-mv(ii), whose execution and expression were spot on, earning her a spot as one of three finalists.
By the numbers
13
The number of miles we rode this morning.
Out before 7:30 a.m. to beat the heat, humidity, and weekend warriors.
5
The number of days I rode last week.
48
The number of miles I rode last week.
2
The number of days I walked last week.
6
The number of miles I walked last week.
Many
The number of books this unapologetically promiscuous reader has going.
91
The temperature when we headed to lunch yesterday. Bleah.
83
The temperature right this second. Bleah, again.
2
The number of "Veronica Mars," Season 1 episodes remaining for us to watch.
Many
The number of times I've said, "Not Logan. Please, not Logan. Argh! Logan? Really?! You're too smart for him!"
1
The number of daughters who agree with me. The other thinks he is smart enough for our heroine. Piffle.
4
The number of minutes until the oatmeal is ready.
Read. Think. Learn.And have a wonderful Sunday!
The Shelf Discovery Project: Tiger Eyes
Judy Blume looms large in the imaginations of many forty-something women, doesn't she? Four of her titles are featured in Chapter 2: "She’s at That Age: Girls on the Verge": Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret, Blubber, Tiger Eyes, and Then Again, Maybe I Won’t. The only book of Blume's I didn't recall having read when I was "at that age" was Tiger Eyes (and for good reason: It was published in 1981, when I was no longer "on the verge" but rather "on my way to college soon"). This slim novel immediately absorbed me -- for all of the reasons Blume always did: a compelling protagonist, "true" narrative tone, and a situation to which I could relate, in this case, the recent and sudden death of an immediate family member.
But.
Revisiting childhood via favorite books or, as in this case, favorite authors sometimes feels like a Thomas Wolfe moment -- You Can't Go Home Again -- doesn't it? As thoroughly invested in Davey's story as I was, I couldn't help but feel that the plot skimmed along the surface of a deeper, more difficult story like a stone inexpertly skipped from shore. Perhaps like other participants in the Project, I find myself regularly reminding my inner reader that the nearly fifty-year-old me is not Blume's intended audience, but you know what? I am not the intended audience of, say, John Green's The Fault in Our Stars, either, yet there's a YA book about which I have no such complaints; it most decidedly delves into the difficult story, expertly.
In my last semester of grad school, I had to choose which projects would get most of my time and talent. My son was two, my parttime gigs as a teacher in a correctional facility and a grad assistant were demanding, and I was carrying a fulltime course load. Something had to give, and so the seminar on Joyce landed at the bottom of the list. I submitted a competent and well phrased final paper, but it met the minimum length requirement only barely, a ten-page essay in a towering pile of amply footnoted tomes. On returning the only "not A" I received on the road to my MA, Marty said, "It was just a little... thin." So was Tiger Eyes. For so large and complex a subject, it was just a little... thin. A little inadequate to the task, no matter what one's age when she reads it.
Next up is I Am the Cheese. And, yes, I skipped Chapter 1, but I will come back to Dahl's wonderful Danny the Champion of the World. No worries.
"Ohhh...Alright..."
On Sunday, we rose early and headed downtown. The Art Institute opens its doors thirty minutes early on Saturdays and Sundays for members interested in seeing Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective. What a terrific exhibit! Admittedly, we knew little about the artist prior to the much-publicized exhibit's arrival, but Roy Lichtenstein, 1923-1997 (Janis Hendrickson, a Taschen title) provided a perfect introduction to the artist, his vision, and his work. The Art Institute's audio tour proved helpful, too.
Forgive the poor image quality, by the way. I left my camera in the car, and it hardly seemed worthwhile to walk all the way back to the parking garage, so Mr. M-mv snapped a quick pic on his phone.
After lunch, Mr. M-mv took the Misses to the Museum of Science and Industry where they enjoyed a new-to-them Omnimax film presentation, Born to Be Wild, as well as the popular "Mythbusters" and "Science Storms" exhibits, among other adventures.
And I? I headed to the Goodman Theatre to meet Aunt M-mv for the closing performance of The Iceman Cometh. (Related entries here and here.) Our seats were spectacular, as were the play and players. How fortunate we were to be able to see this bit of theater history. (Have you seen the speculation about a NYC run? "History is set for 'Iceman Cometh,' even as its future still is unsure.")
8 Temmuz 2012 Pazar
All's Fair at the Fair
Hopefully this video will allow for a visual connection to the topics we discussed in class.
Today in class we talked about the world's fairs and what they showed and how people perceived them. This cartoon made in 1938, a year before the 1939 world's fair in New york, which was one of the first world's fair that looked to the future instead of the past.
 |
| The poster advertising the 1939 world fair was looking towards the future and the possibilities rather than past inventions. |
The 1939 fair was meant to celebrate the end of The Great Depression, so the cartoon shows all of these wondering thins being made with no regard to expense. For example, the furniture literally being push punched from the wood log and another wood log being made into a single clothes pin. But at the end of the cartoon, the old couple we first saw turn become a young and modern couple, abandoning their old ways, which was exactly what the 1939 world'd fair was meant to do.
unit two [reverberations] 140 statements
week 05 : eyes dance across surface, music enfolds, light washes from above. worship spaces stand as tangible expressions of faith in glass and stone.
week 06 : the first millennium ends, the modern world map unfolds: we see more enlightened places + people than previous notions of the “dark ages.”
week 07 : making rules to break with gothic ideas and re-link to the ancients of the western world : observing continuities with the past in the east.
week 08 : as western rules made + written, designers work across genre + scale to bend + break them; eastern designers maintain a continuous approach.
week 09 : colonial expansion brings ideas + people around the world. in these encounters, emulation and maintaining difference both become important.
week 10 : architecture and design obscure significant political, social, and cultural change brought by revolution and invention throughout the world.
The Shelf Discovery Project: Chapter 3
Girl Detective's "The Shelf Discovery Project" continues.
For the record, I Am the Cheese (Robert Cormier) succeeds as as a quality psychological thriller / mystery novel for readers of any age; I pressed it on Miss M-mv(ii) as soon as I finished. As for Daughters of Eve (Lois Duncan), it turns out that I may well have read this; it seemed so familiar, even though my edition had been "modernized" (e.g., awkward references to backpacks and cell phones amid the quaintly dated meditations on male chauvinism). Still, it was certainly a compelling and quick read, and that ending! Wow.
The Car Thief
In May, I received an ebook galley of The Car Thief (disclosure statement here) and have been making my way through it in fits and starts. Dispatched in succinct prose that successfully draws the reader into the numbing, dead-end cycle that is Alex's life, the novel demands that I set it down periodically to catch my breath.
From the book description at Astor+Blue:
Described as “one of the best coming of age novels of the Twentieth Century,” Theodore Weesner’s modern American classic is now re-launched for a new generation of readers to discover.
It’s 1959. Sixteen year-old Alex Housman has just stolen his fourteenth car and frankly doesn’t know why. His divorced, working class father grinds out the night shift at the local Chevy Plant in Detroit, looking forward to the flask in his glove compartment, and the open bottles of booze in his Flint, Michigan home. Abandoned and alone, father and son struggle to express a deep love for each other, even as Alex fills his day juggling cheap thrills and a crushing depression. And then there’s Irene Shaeffer, the pretty girl in school whose admiration Alex needs like a drug in order to get by.
Broke and fighting to survive, Alex and his father face the realities of estrangement, incarceration, and even violence as their lives unfold toward the climactic episode that a New York Times reviewer called “one of the most profoundly powerful in American fiction.”
In this rich, beautifully crafted story, Weesner accomplishes a rare feat: He’s written a transcendent piece of literature in deceptively simple language, painting a powerful portrait of a father and a son, otherwise invisible among the mundane, everyday details of life in blue collar America. A true and enduring American classic.
Chapbook entry
p. 13
We took him too much for granted. Perhaps we all take each other too much for granted. The routines of life distract us; our own pursuits make us oblivious; our anxieties and sorrows, unmindful. The beauties of the familiar go unremarked. We do not treasure each other enough.
He was a gift to us for twenty-five years. When the gift was finally snatched away, I realized how great it was. Then I could not tell him. An outpouring of letters arrived, many expressing appreciation for Eric. They all made me weep again: each word of praise a stab of loss.
How can I be thankful, in his gone-ness, for what he was? I find I am. But the pain of the no more outweighs the gratitude of the once was. Will it always be so?
I didn't know how much I loved him until he was gone.
Is love like that?
7 Temmuz 2012 Cumartesi
Reading life review: June
Number of books read in June: 13
Number of books read in 2012: 66Complete list here.
■ The Iceman Cometh (Eugene O'Neill) Play. Related entries here and here.
■ Tiger Eyes (Judy Blume) YA fiction. My Chapter 2 choice for Girl Detective's "Summer of Shelf Discovery" reading project. Related entry here.
■ Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury) Fiction. With the Misses. Recent chapbook entry here. From the archives: here, here, here.
■ Neptune Noir: Unauthorized Investigations into Veronica Mars (Rob Thomas, editor) Non-fiction. Edited by the the series creator, this somewhat uneven collection of essays served as a lightweight diversion while we awaited Season 2 from the library.
■ Roy Lichtenstein, 1923-1997 (Janis Hendrickson) Non-fiction. Related entry here.
■ Gone Girl (Gillian Flynn) Fiction. Folks have raved about this: here, here, here. I thought it was competent -- entertaining and well written -- but overpraised, which can irritate me. You know, earlier this year, I loved Sister (Rosamund Lupton), which is, for all intents and purposes, in the same genre. Sometimes, it's all about how you arrive at a book.
■ I Am the Cheese (Robert Cormier) YA fiction. One of two Chapter 3 assignments for the "Summer of Shelf Discovery." Related entry here.
■ Treasure Island (Robert Louis Stevenson) Fiction. With the Misses. How did we miss this when they were little? What a lot of fun. Admittedly, it's just a straightforward adventure story -- one improbability heaped against another, with a beguiling narrator, a cunning pirate, and quaint prose. But... we liked it. More, Treasure Island may well prove to have been just the reading respite we needed since we now turn our attention to the demanding Othello, .
■ Daughters of Eve (Lois Duncan) YA fiction. The second Chapter 3 assignment. See link above.
■ The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains (Nicholas Carr) Non-fiction. Finally! Chapbook entry with related links here.
■ Lament for a Son (Nicholas Wolterstorff) Non-fiction. Chapbook entry here.
■ Are You in the House Alone? (Richard Peck) YA fiction. A Chapter 5 selection for the "Summer of Shelf Discovery" reading project.
■ Othello (William Shakespeare) Play. With the Misses, in anticipation of this year's trip to the Illinois Shakespeare Festival. Chapbook entry here. I recently wrote to Aunt M-mv:
Of all of the plays, it is the least complex, structurally. It is a linear plot with neither comedic respite nor subplot to leaven its inevitability, and it's so easy to communicate its ideas to teen audiences -- the ease with which we can be worked up into sexual jealously, the ridiculous nature of Iago's grief against Othello, the sense that this is just a romantic comedy gone murderously wrong, etc. But most schools won't touch it with a pole of any size, which is too, too bad. This is likely the one that would hook even the most reluctant student.Next up are the Saccio lectures on this tragedy, then the trip to the Festival.
blog post for 26 march 2012
All's Fair at the Fair
Hopefully this video will allow for a visual connection to the topics we discussed in class.
Today in class we talked about the world's fairs and what they showed and how people perceived them. This cartoon made in 1938, a year before the 1939 world's fair in New york, which was one of the first world's fair that looked to the future instead of the past.
|
| The poster advertising the 1939 world fair was looking towards the future and the possibilities rather than past inventions. |
The 1939 fair was meant to celebrate the end of The Great Depression, so the cartoon shows all of these wondering thins being made with no regard to expense. For example, the furniture literally being push punched from the wood log and another wood log being made into a single clothes pin. But at the end of the cartoon, the old couple we first saw turn become a young and modern couple, abandoning their old ways, which was exactly what the 1939 world'd fair was meant to do.
final blog post (for 27 apr 12)
iar221 in 140 for unit three : explorations
week 11 : the world’sfairs serve as a microcosm of stylistic explorations: anything goes inarchitecture + design…conversations of style + substance.
week 12 : in the continued search for contemporary design, “gooddesign for all” stands as a major mantra for twentieth-century designers +architects.
week 13 : multiple modernisms take shape throughout theglobe; the world can be seen increasingly moving from individual to globaleconomies + scales.
week 14 : reactions to modernism take multiple forms; we endwhere we began, thinking about the meanings, makers, and users in the practiceof design.
5 Temmuz 2012 Perşembe
It's a Nano World Exhibit Opens at the Corvette Museum
January 14 the National Corvette Museum welcomes a special traveling exhibition from the Ithaca, New York Sciencenter entitled “It’s a Nano World.” The exhibit introduces children and their families to the biological wonders of the nano world and inspires curiosity, creating a context for future learning about nanobiotechnology.
The hands-on exhibit’s focus is on the “adventures” of very tiny things and demonstrates the tools scientists use to see them. At the ‘Magnification Station’ visitors can use microscopes of different strengths to look at items such as shells, paper, sand and hair. Children can become larger than life at the ‘Giant Magnifying Glass’ and can learn about the effects of small things in the air while playing ‘germ, dust and pollen pinball.’ There is also a ‘Giant Blood Drop’ represented by a large pit filled with over one thousand red balls (red blood cells) and the challenge is to hunt for the few fluffy white balls (white blood cells).
“This will be the third year in a row that we’ve brought in a special exhibit during this time period,” said Katie Frassinelli, Marketing and Communications Manager. “Your ticket into the Museum gives you access to both Corvettes and this hands-on children’s science exhibit… it’s like two in one!”
The exhibit will officially kick off on Saturday, January 21 with Family Fun day, offering free activities in the Museum’s Conference Center from noon-3pm.
The exhibit is funded in part by a sponsorship from PNC Bank. “PNC has developed a program called ‘Grow Up Great’ which helps prepare children for success in school and life, especially underserved children,” said Katie. “This will be our second exhibit to work with PNC on, and this year we are bringing in all of the Bowling Green Headstart children as part of their sponsorship to give them the opportunity to enjoy the exhibit.” Through Grow Up Great, PNC supports families, educators and community partners to provide innovative opportunities that enhance learning and development in a child’s early years. Research shows that children who participate in high-quality preschool programs are far more likely to experience greater educational achievements, strive toward higher vocational aspirations and contribute to society later in life. Their website, http://www.pncgrowupgreat.com/ offers a number of great Sesame Street themed activities, downloads and information.
"We’re excited to bring this hands-on exhibit to Bowling Green,” said Kevin Carrico, PNC Regional Manager. “PNC’s Grow Up Great program offers educational opportunities to children everywhere, and It's a Nano World has activities families not only from south central Kentucky can enjoy, but also the many visitors who pass through our wonderful community.”
In addition to PNC’s commitment the Museum is seeking businesses and individuals to sponsor classrooms and schools that might not otherwise get the opportunity to take a field trip. The “Fund-A-Fieldtrip” program has the potential to increase the number of visitors to the Museum while providing kids with a fun, educational learning opportunity outside the classroom walls. Classroom sponsorships are $300 and include a number of recognition benefits. Contact Katie at 270-467-8846 or katie@corvettemuseum.org to find out how you can sponsor a classroom.
Admission to the Museum and Exhibit(Regular admission price includes the exhibit)
$10 for adults
$5 for kids age 6-16
$8 for seniors
$25 family admission (everyone in a household)
$4 student groups age 6-16
$3 student groups age 3-5
(1 free teacher/leader with every 10 students, bus drivers free)
Discount tickets to the exhibit are available at Bowling Green and Smiths Grove branches of PNC Bank, and PNC Bank customers may simply show a bank card to purchase discount tickets at the Museum.
Hours & LocationOpen seven days a week, 8am-5pm CT
350 Corvette Drive, just off I-65 exit 28.
The exhibit is open January 14 - April 15, 2012
Learn more about this and other educational programs offered by the Museum online at www.corvettemuseum.org/exhibits/nanoworld.shtml.
For more information on the National Corvette Museum, visit our website at: http://www.corvettemuseum.org/ or call (800) 53-VETTE (83883).
Family Fun DaySaturday, January 21 - 12-3pm
The exhibit will officially kick off on Saturday, January 21 with Family Fun day, offering free activities in the Museum’s Conference Center from noon-3pm. Activities include an indoor inflatable, face painting, arts and crafts activities, games, vendor booths and more. The first 50 kids to attend will receive FREE admission to the Museum and Nano World exhibit!
Character BreakfastSaturday, January 21 - 8-11amKid Stuff Around Town, a local nonprofit organization who matches youth volunteers with opportunities, is hosting a "Character Breakfast" in conjunction with Family Fun Day. The breakfast will give families the opportunity to dine with various "characters" including Big Red, Yogi Bear and Boo Boo, Cinderella, Iggy, Licky, Axel the Hot Rods Bear and many others. Tickets are $12 each and can be purchased online at:http://www.kidstuffaroundtown.com/.
Corvette Museum Lifetime Member Establishes Education Endowment
Eugene Nagowski never had any children of his own, but a few minutes around him is enough to confirm that he is something of a big kid himself. He loves life and likes to have fun in his 2010 Chevrolet Corvette, but his real joy comes from spreading happiness to others.
“I’ve been very fortunate,” the Texas resident says. “I was married for 44 years to the perfect person and with her, every day was special. How many people can say that?”
Since his wife Patricia passed away in 2009, Eugene has set out to honor her memory by being good to others. He’s donated money to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital to help with medical care and the expenses of families staying there for treatment. “There really is no feeling like the one you get when you hear from a child who has been given some joy in the middle of all that suffering.” Eugene said.
“I’m an out-of-the-box kind of thinker,” Eugene added, “so it occurred to me that the Corvette Museum could give a lot of joy to underprivileged kids, too. Kids need fun in their lives and a reason to get excited. What’s more exciting than Corvettes? If a kid could come to the Museum, enjoy a day there and get away from it all, that could make a big difference in their life.”
Toward that end, Eugene has made a donation to establish an endowment and made a commitment to add to the endowment by July 2012. He hopes that his generosity will inspire other Corvette owners to band together and grow this endowment to help others.
“If every Corvette owner would just give a dollar, there would be enough seed money to where the interest alone could fund all kinds of good work. For those able to do more, they should do more to help this happen.” Eugene hopes that the fund can do other great things, like bring in kids from families who couldn’t otherwise afford it to enjoy a day of fun at the Museum and even pay for wheelchairs for use in the Museum by special needs children. He wants everyone to know that the Corvette community cares.
For more information on the National Corvette Museum’s Education Endowment and programs offered for children, visit www.corvettemuseum.org/kids.
New Powder Puff Mechanics Course Offered Saturday
Taking your vehicle in for repairs or maintenance can be an intimidating thing, especially when you might not have much experience in knowing what your car may or may not need done to it. The National Corvette Museum has developed a course to help consumers become more educated when buying parts and services for their vehicle.Women especially can feel overwhelmed when they bring their vehicle in for servicing. “A car is a major, significant expense in the lives of most people and it’s just as important for women to know how to have their car serviced properly as it is for men,” said Roc Linkov, a Senior High Performance Driving Instructor for the Museum. Roc is also an instructor for the new Powder Puff Mechanics course and adds that it teaches women to be knowledgeable about their vehicle and provides them with information to help them keep their cars in running condition.
A shortened version of the course was offered at many of the Museum’s Corvette events, and was so popular it was decided to further expand the content and open it up to the public. The course will be held on Saturday, February 11 from 10am-2pm. The sessions cover topics including “under the hood” (air filters, how to check and fill fluids), controls and warning lights, owner’s manual review, tires (how to change a flat, check tire pressure, add air, read tire codes, identify wear patterns) and much more.
In addition to instructional and hands-on seminars covering care of cars, the course will also give attendees a chance to learn and practice what to do in emergency situations like tire blow out, using the NCM’s two state-of-the-art driving simulators. “Our simulators give people the chance to practice what to do in various scenarios on the road, ones you can’t safely practice in real life,” said NCM Education Coordinator Jackie Utzler. “We have launched the new NCM Drivers’ Safety Academy, offering a number of courses for both teens and older drivers to help make our roads and drivers safer. Powder Puff Mechanics will give people a taste of what the simulators have to offer.”
Registration for the course is only $10 for students (including college) and $12 for adults and includes the seminars, lunch and Museum admission. Participants are asked to pre-register online by Friday, February 10 at www.corvettemuseum.org/simulators. Girl Scouts can earn a patch for attending when they register through the local Girl Scout office at 270-842-6137.
For more information about Powder Puff Mechanics and the NCM Drivers’ Safety Academy, call 270-467-8852 or visit www.corvettemuseum.org/simulators.