This week, jumbled notes and research become chapter two….we’ll see how it progresses. I’d like to reach Wordstock (early Oct) with several chapters of version 2 drafted.
Browsing Posts in Uncat
Symphony #8, with Von Karajan conducting a big rich performance from the Berlin Philharmonic, would move a deaf man. After 20 years, it still lifts the fog from my head and my heart to my throat.
That is all, and plenty.
Followup: The tune serendipitously and, for me, appropriately queued to follow #8 was Joan Osborne singing Hallelujah, her own song (not the great Leonard Cohen epic that gives listeners an emotional hard-on as they envision their own funeral). Joan eased me back to the modern world.
We have a fairly large and abundant side yard that’s been begging for a shed since we bought our house 8 years ago. The center of our yard is cut into a miniature baseball diamond and filled with thick clover (home to the buzzing bees); edged with dwarf fruit trees (plum, apple, fig), blueberry bushes, grapes (soon), and clumps of rosemary; and bordered by a little urban creek (seasonal camp to a tribe of those thumbnail-sized, cannon-voiced burrowing frogs). I could show you that yard, but for all that, without a shed, this article on sheds–especially the shed on slide 1–is much more interesting.
Author Neil Gaiman also has a shed to envy documented here. Philip Pullman did his best work to date in a shed (I saw a photo of the inside once, but can’t find the URL.) The number of creators who’ve leveraged sheds is long, and most are unsung. The shed is and always has been the urban man’s (or woman’s) quick getaway–whether it’s a “writing hut” or studio or just a place to putter. As kids, we start with the playhouse or a hideout, even the hollow core of a hedge or cleverly camouflaged lean-to of tree trunks, sticks, and branches–someplace private and even defensible that blended into the natural world. As an adult, I don’t want to hide my shed: I want to be seen in it and to stand back and admire it. The shed is a symbol of my success, house of creativity, and a statement of privacy–there works a private person surely creating or puttering up something grand!
What’s keeping me from building a shed? Cost of materials. My brother’s a fine carpenter who would be more than willing to help, but we have too many things to fix or replace first around our late-70′s home; features or structures that–in traditional suburban development style–were never meant to last quite as long as they have.
However, I have hope. In a previous post, I mentioned that my wife Deborah (there was a typo where I wrote “my life” that I should have left in), plans like the ancient Mandarins. She’ll be sympathetic to my shed–it’ll give her more free space in the house–and will help me put a long term financial plan in place to gain it.
I ran across this young busker with his accordion at lunch time today, on NW 9th between Couch and Davis, just inside the bay door of West End Auto Body. He played well, making the sidewalk tables at the old Fuller’s diner across the street feel like an outdoor French cafe. He looks about the same age as my youngest son, Noah (who is 11).
Photo taken (with my crappy phone camera) and used with permission of the boy and, via nod, one of the shop mechanics. Note his foot planted firmly on his money hat.
Sozzled by constant lawn care responsibilities? No more scissors for your grass, Judy! Modern lawnsters use the Brin Pulsating Lawn Shaver®, with Touch-n-Go® technology to shave more blades with every stroke. Neighbor ladies will give your man the approving nod when they see his perfect grass, so keep him on a leash! The programmable Pulsonic Edge Guard® accessory keeps your sod a sharp one mm off walks and drives, and creates an invisible fence against pesky intruders. It’s a lawn so perfect it’ll confound a cat!
Reprinted from spring 2008, in recognition of Lawn Care Season.
Dear Broccoli,
Yes, it’s phat to eat a good breakfast, and recent studies show that breakfast should be the fattest meal of the day (healthy fats!), skinnying down to dinner. My son Noah, 11, would agree. He’s up most mornings by 7, disagreeably cheerful, hugging his mother and I and telling us we’re the best parents in the world before he heads downstairs to whip up some eggs (and recently, egg beaters) and cereal and the occasional toaster waffle (yes, we can live with that).
Sophie, 5, wants nothing to do with breakfast most mornings and, if we’re not attentive, is a basket case by 11 AM, when her mom is able to boost her blood sugar with a little yogurt or peanut butter toast to interest her in lunch. Sophie used to eat a banana for breakfast but now only wants to draw faces on them with markers and use them as puppets (she mimics Banana perfectly). Thanks for that.
We’ll take any advice you might offer, especially with a kid-friendly back beat. I hear the 4 minute timer chiming–time to press the coffee and wrangle my daughter.
Thanks,
Voice of Dad
This was a “Voice of Dad” blog entry written for broccoliandbanana.com. We’re rethinking some of the site’s features, so I’m reposting some of my entries here.
I really like the simplicity of Comet and its particular style, but it lacks certain basic features like UI for browsing to next and previous entries (even though there is the widget for “Latest Posts”). And the ability to reply to a comment instead of add another comment. Time to find a replacement.
Followup: the new version of (previous) template, Comet, has added previous and next post buttons and at least knows when I logged in and doesn’t ask me to supply info for comment responses. Good, I have things I’d rather do than seek about and apply a new template right now.
Stalking the followup: Found a new template named “Arjuna,” compact, easier to read, mo better options, and just a little shiny (for its namesake). Applicado!
Hormonal zombie spies in India during the Napoleonic era. (How the hell do you think the East India Co was so successful?) More anon.
(The problem: to write more on this or a more important topic would consume time I can’t spend right now. But zombies are, ironically(?), keeping more than one genre of publishing alive, so I thought (while considering scenarios for a background project), I could splash them here, too.
Back to creating and undoing Celtic knots of data–my day job. If any zombies approach, I’ll be able to keep them tied up for several software releases, at least.
Followup: Hmm, looks like zombie spies in general are nothing new. However, googling “zombie spies of the Punjab” yielded no direct hits (although plenty of hits for spies in the Punjab, including the expected references to Kipling’s Kim). Also, no results for zombie spies of the Kalahari (not even in HD), zombie spies of Minneapolis (Garrison Keilor is safe–for now), and zombie spies in Basque Country.
Bonus: Everyone on my blog roll is a certified zombie spy. Unfortunately, the identity of the certification board is a closely held secret that I cannot reveal here except under pressure of currency.
Have not abandoned the blog, just very very busy. (I have a wife, you know.)
In the meantime, be kind to your smart mouth broccoli and don’t ignore the gentle simple banana–yellow with a natural smiley shape, it’s just the thing to perk up your day.
Watch their careers take shape on YouTube and befriend them on Facebook.
More later.
I’ve started a minor paid blogging gig (really, just rolled it into my day job), supporting a skunkworks project that promotes health and wellness for kids via in-house videos of talking produce (filmed by our Creative Director, also a standup comic). The blog entries will be responses to the videos, mixing in vignettes from life (real and imagined), my voice mixed with a handful of other in-house bloggers representing different voices and demographics. Following a spoof entry I wrote as Abraham Lincoln as a gypsy fortune teller (robbing the Gettysburg address) that I sent round via email, I’ve also been encouraged to try writing as different characters. We’ll see how that works or if it just turns out to be self-gratification.
I’m also providing web site support, for now.
More later when the project goes live. So far, it’s been a lot of fun, when we’ve had time to work on it.
