Recently Read

Recommend? yeah; interesting story lines, writing done really well

My Biggest Interest: Although the content of the book is pretty contraversial (stem cells and such), I think my biggest draw to the book was its format. I love LOVE the idea of switching narrators; it keeps it more fresh, and it feels more like real life than a story, ya know? but I especially have always liked it when authors write about the exact same conversation or event from multiple characters' perspectives. so ya know, that happened a little bit, which was pretty exciting for me.

Recommend? yep; a lot of suspense actually

My Biggest Interest: Great book to use with middle schoolers. The chapters are short, and the plot is really interesting. Plus, I think this is one of the few "pop" junior high books that boys would not only find interesting, but actually like -- a task that often proves challenging.

Recommend? (giggle) uh huh (giggle)

My Biggest Interest: Like his other book, Me Talk Pretty One Day, it's a series of short stories about his family that are ... well, they're funny ... some inappropriate (lot of blushing), but funny.

"Let it Snow" -- really great.

"Six to Eight Black Men" -- freakin' hilarious

(click on the book cover to get more info on each one)

sauntering across July 20th

scribbles of thoughts from today ...

stumbling over the sky

pureJoy
soul-deepJoy

it is good.
it is satisfying.

it's smooth
flowing down the throat
settling inside
Beauty that warms
your skin from the inside out
thaws the numbness of
of just life
of existing
of responsibility

Joy

"get it" Lyrics

Okay, so recently I've been a lot more in-tune with my brooding-but-inspired-bi-polar-creative-artist side, which consequently means being more in-tune with things like colors, asymmetry, and basic human habits. In effect, more inspired with good story-telling of the human condition.

Ah ha! Lyrics. Here are some of the songs (in no order) that have showed up frequently on my "Now Playing" list for the past few weeks -- and a spoonful of the writing from each song that just ... "get it," on some level.

1. Over the Rhine
   Born
   I was born to laugh
   I learned to laugh through my tears
   I was born to love
   I'm gonna learn to love without fear

1. KT Tunstall
   Through the Dark
   As I walk away
   I look over my shoulder
   To see what I'm leaving behind
   Pieces of puzzles
   And wishes on eyelashes fail
   Oh, how do I show
   All the love inside my heart?
   For this is all new
   And I'm feeling my way through the dark

1. Nickel Creek
   Sabra Girl
   rosy the lines that you wrote with your hand
   reading between them to misunderstand
   I made the mistake you said not to make...

1. KT Tunstall
   False Alarm
   I'm trying to put this thing to bed
   I've drugged it in its sleep
   There isn't many memories
   I'm comfortable to keep
   This ball keeps rolling on
   It's heading for the streets

1. Over the Rhine
   BPD
   You're makin' a mess
   Somethin' you can't hide
   A slow suicide
   Just one bite at a time
   I should love you less
   But I can't I guess
   Only God can save us now

1. Gomez
   See the World
   Empty handed, surrounded by a senseless scene
   With nothing of significance
   Besides a shadow of a dream
   You sound like an old joke
   You're worn out, a bit broke
   An' askin me time and time again
   But the answer's still the same
   See the world
   Find an old fashioned girl
   And when all's been said and done
   It's the things that are given, not won
   Are the things that you earned

1. Regina Spektor
   Fidelity
   I hear in my mind
   All of these voices
   I hear in my mind
   All these words
   I hear in my mind
   All of this music
   And it breaks my heart

1. The Weepies
   World Spins Madly On
   I let the day go by
   I always say goodbye
   I watch the stars from my window sill
   The whole world is moving
   and I'm standing still

1. Holly Brook
   Saturdays
   As I sink one more drink
   I am running out of ink
   Feeling void paranoid
   about every little thing
   And I wonder if I try
   to get up and say goodbye
   if I'll have the strength to leave
   Cuz I don't have much time anymore

1. Snow Patrol
   Chasing Cars
   Let's waste time
   Chasing cars
   Around our heads
   I need your grace
   To remind me
   To find my own

After a recent recommendation by the lovely Liz Fay (my new music scout and teaching inspiration), I've spent a handful of hours at Borders over the weekend happily turning through the pages of David Sedaris' Me Talk Pretty One Day.

Not only do I share his distaste for blatant tourists, computers, and the ridiculousness of "gourmet" foods, but I also appreciate his ponderings on numbers ...

‘Do you have any idea how many grains of sand there are in the world?’ he asked. It was a question that had never occurred to me. Unlike guessing the number of pickled eggs in a jar or the amount of human brains it might take it equal the weight of a portable television set, this equation was bound to involve the hateful word googolplex, a term I’d heard him use once or twice before. It was the idea of a number and was, therefore of no use whatsoever.

I’d heard once in school that if a single bird were to transport all the sand, grain by grain, from the eastern seaboard to the west coast of Africa, it would take --- I didn’t catch the number of years, preferring to concentrate on the single bird chosen to perform this thankless task. It hardly seemed fair, because, unlike a horse or a Seeing Eye dog, the whole glory of being a bird is that nobody would ever put you to work. Birds search for grubs and build their nests, but their leisure time is theirs to spend as they see fit. I pictured this bird looking down from the branches to say, ‘You want me to do what?’ before flying off, laughing at the foolish story he now had to tell his friends. How many grains of sand are there in the world? A lot. Case closed (36-37).

My favorite stories in the book include: Jesus Shaves; Today's Special; Make that a Double; and The Nutcracker.com

My aspiration for tomorrow -- Find and secure a copy of Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, and begin giggling to myself immediately.

You can listen to some of the stories David has told on NPR.

looking through some fun old shots ...