Friday, July 25, 2008

Kobedas rule

April K. was a good friend of mine, we met at the University of Maryland, College Park. She was odd, with a thick Pittsburgh accent and I didn't know what to make of her at first. We were introduced by Luke, the punk guy in our dorm that I had made friends with, and the three of us were tight that year. In different ways- Luke and I took photos in a adjacent-to-campus stream of me brandishing a chainsaw, and hosted the "Morrisey Must Die" radio show, Thursdays, 3 a.m. to 6a.m. on the campus radio. April and I listened to Black Sabbath in her dorm room, and I participated in her "art shows", always clothed. I chucked College Park, but not her, and we kept in touch via correspondence, for years. Me in Richmond, her in PA, WA, me in Baltimore, etc., we were young and not fixed to any geographical point, mostly. Her letters had an effect on me, and our visits too. Except the visit to me in Baltimore that had a lot of roaches, sorry to April for that. Anyway, she introduced me to a lot of cool stuff, i.e. Pappilion, The Oblivians, Miss Secret, Boxcar Bertha, the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. Hope she's not dead.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Possesive plural of "author"?

Hi! Diana Wynne Jones's new book is out and called "House of Many Ways", and it's my current read. I love all of her books, they're so full of humor, imagination and magic. This one is billed as a sequel to "Howl's Moving Castle", but she already wrote one, called "Castle in the Sky", which was excellent, with a flying carpet, Calcifer in a clever twist role, etc. I don't have a real problem here with the sequel blurb, they couldn't call it the sequel to the sequel, and the "Howl's" recognition among fans of Hiyao Miyazaki's animated film "interpretation" of the original book might catch interest. It worked on me. Already a fan of Miyazaki, I dove into the work of Ms. Wynne Jones with a passion. I read most of her books in the space of a year, carefully not glutting myself, by alternating her books with other authors', and periodicals, comic books, etc. Plus, some of them were a bit hard to find, but I managed, especially with Alibris.com, and the local crime/fantasy bookshop, Creatures and Crooks(located in Carytown, in Richmond, Virginia). Unsolicited plugs aside, it was worth it. Check out Diana Wynne Jones, and I'm a bit surprised she's not a Dame, she deserves the honor, though I think it would make her chuckle.

I am especially fond of Jones' "The Spellcoats", part of her "Dalemark Quartet". It's one of a handful of books I've felt the urge to read twice. Beverley Cleary's "Otis Spoffard" and "Beezus and Ramona" are two, as were a few classic chidren's fantasy novels, I'm not sure what that says about me. The subject seems to creep me out after seeing the documentary on Henry Darger. It's a great film, but clearly he had sex fantasies, set in fantasyland that were of inappropriate nature. I just like stories about griffins, dragons, and books with imaginary cartography, that kind of stuff.
Vote Obama!

First Excuse

Oops! "Disappearances". Yes, I am an oaf, but I do own a dctionary.

Columna Lucis

Hi. I have chosen a name for this blog in poor taste, in honor of one of my favorite writers, James Thurber. He's deceased, and even if he wasn't, he'd be unable to read it anyway. Look him up in your local library, if you like to laugh. He was a very funny bastard, and cartoonist for the New Yorker. He was a lifelong friend of E.B. White, and had an honored seat at the Algonquin Round Table. Don't look that up on wikipedia, though. Try a local library instead, it's good exercise, and you should be thankful if you have one in the first place.

Two things I like are reading and riding my bike. Bicycles are an excellent way to not be paying for gasoline, which seems like a good idea nowadays. Most of the people I work with work two jobs, one to live on, one to pay for gas, which seems like a vicious cycle. I don't think they get enough sleep, or quality time with friends and family, and a double commute would seem rather demoralizing. I live close enough to work to ride a bike or walk, so I'm usually well-rested and only work this one job. I like to read during lunchbreaks, but lately we've been having "blackout lunches", as most of my co-workers have a siesta and prefer it dark. Which makes it hard to read, of course. I suppose I'll have to get one of those little personal book lights. Some of these people read, too, but mostly just the daily paper. And I doubt they have much time for libraries, which isn't to say I disparage or pity them, I like them a whole bunch, and if I didn't, I wouldn't have worked with them for these past eight and a half years.

We work at Brass Beds of Virginia, located in Richmond Virginia. I'll attach a link to the company website hopefully soon. Our boss and owner rides his bike to work every day. I'm going to sign out, and leave you with a couplet I thought up on the can this morning:
Appearances can be deceiving
Dissapearences can be relieving