Dreamtime

Sorry I can NOT keep my eyes open.

It's been a long week and though I was a lot less active now thuhat the packing is done and the trip is over I spent six hours visiting with my Mom this afternoon and evening and conversation tends to exhaust me at the best of times.

And I've got only eight hours til I need to be awake so I'm off to ZZZland

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Sunday Serenity #238

art print for sale at art.com
photo by Linda Johnson

The Packing is done and now its time to start unpacking. But not tonight. Tonight I sleep. I need to be well rested when my sister-in-law brings Mom home as my sister leaves town. At that point I go on duty for a full week,

So this Sunday I've set my heart to gladness and joy for the blessing that I'm able to bestow blessing on my family; to give my sister a much needed break; to give of my time and abbilities such as they are to contribute ao my loved ones serenity and joy.

Here's an image to take with you as you imagine my week: A woman in her fifties and a woman in her seventies walking about a suburban two story with bells on their toes.

So OK if you didn't laugh you at least smiled at that comical scene.

Funny it may be but if it fulfills its intended purpose the payoff for the mild humiliation of feeling like a clown for a week will be: zero broken dishes or bones, zero bruises caused by collisions between the two of us. It won't protect me form colliding with a table, chair or wall though for that I'm on my own and the best hope lies in my learning to live at a slower pace for the next week, to walk not scurry about, to pay attention to what I'm doing and where I'm going, to make no sudden moves. But to accomplish that I need to be well rested.

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I'm all packed except for the last minute stuff and the car is half packed. I was supposed to be getting a good sleep tonight but it is not looking promising for more than a nap of two or three hours. Still a few things to wrap up. Have a wet head for one. Also left the dishes from dinner for after I got the bed cleared for Ed who will be the one driving at 6:30am.

Merlin, my kitty, has been a big help. Not!

His helping consisted of walking across or sitting in or laying down on whatever I needed at that moment.

Silly cat. But I miss him already.

Well I guess I should stop babbling and get on with it.

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Friday Forays in Fiction: The Character of My Storyworld

photo thanks to oedipusphinx

This is what it feels like to think about my FOS storyworld. It's tangled threads flickering with colored lights floating in flowing fluid. It's chaotic and I've always fought that trying to force order upon it--my unrealistic sense of order. The sense of order seen in a graveyard or mausoleum, everything in ordered columns and rows; everything staying put in the place it was assigned; everything labeled...

But there is now story in that. Or if there were it was over once something was put in it's place to stay. Living things don't stay put. Stories don't stay ordered like account books.

Maybe I should have been an accountant.

*shudder*

I've been doing a lot of thinking about my fiction WIP all week as my hands have been busy sorting and packing for my trip Sunday. I'v set my mind to set my mind upon writing my stories again as soon as I've unpacked after I get home August 7th. I haven't touched my fiction files for months and haven't written any new narrative or dialog since NaNoWriMo ended November 30.

So until then I need to meditate and muse upon this insight: Let my stories breathe! Let them teem and stream. Let them mix and mingle and tumble and jumble. Let them live.

Between now and the end of August I will allow myself to impose some order on the messes I've made of my fiction files during the last 7 NaNos for the purpose mainly to refamiliarize myself with what is there, to add some of the thoughts I've had in the last nine months that haven't been recorded anywhere--those I still remember anyway, and to get reacquainted with the characters.

In the last several weeks I've written a book review, two movie reviews and a poem. My writing mojo which had run off has returned and it is time to sic it on the stories.

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Crochet Thread Woes and Wins

Woe

I have four bookmarks on the hook right now. Two of them having three colors in common so I keep them in the same project bag with the rainbow tote which includes all six plus 12 tho I am done with 16 of those now and the remaining two are not used in the bookmarks but I gotten used to having all three projects in the one bag.

So yesterday two bookmarks which I'd been keeping inside the tube of the ball currently in use feel to the bottom of the bag and several loops of thread came off two of the balls and the three threads still connected got snarled.

Win

I've been trying to cram as much thread into the space I've allocated to myself for thread to take with me on my three week trip to my Mom's. One way was to take the thread off the huge cardboard tubes if the ball was at least half gone. It takes 20 to 30 minutes each but its worth it to take them down from softball to golf ball size.

I even found it rather soothing the winding of the thread by hand and am tempted to start in on the fuller to full balls. But not until I'm done packing. For improvised cores I used: cotton out of a vitamin bottle; packing peanuts; crushed tubes from the smaller bamboo thread emptied by the baby afghan project; and I'm about to put one on a cat toy ball that's lost its bell.

Here's the third of the four bookmarks. The first one made with the interlocking circlets. I'm using the same concept for the rainbow tote's shoulder strap.

This one turned out longer than I planned. I aimed for 6 to 7 inches and what I'm getting is close to 9.5




This is the top drawer of the chest that I've been keeping my thread in. I decided to use it to transport my crochet and other fiber arts limiting myself to two drawers for the thread and the third for misc. tools and supplies and small fine needle WIP.

The chest currently sets beside the bed it's top serving as a desk top and the drawers holding the thread and a few small crochet projects I can work on without moving the thread out of the drawer. Visible here is the circlet bookmark in a baggie in the lefthand corner and another bookmark hanging by its thread.

Here's a close up:

This is a second zig szg or chevron pattern bookmark. I just learned the stitch this week and now picture about a zillion color combos. For this one I'm using Purple, Parakeet and Pink.

I know I said a couple weeks ago that I was planning to leave the bulk of my thread behind this trip. I wimped out. But I am leaving close to 50%. Before I consolidated them All three 20X16X8 inch drawers were stuffed with thread as well as 2 large, 3 medium and 4 small project bags containing between 1 and 16 balls.

The bottom drawer had contained mostly duplicates, scraps of the ends of balls, and various odd balls that don't play well with others for which I have no current plans. So it was fairly easy to empty that drawer into a medium sized box and bag to be left behind with a few getting moved upstairs.

My reasons for wimping?

~~My mind has been swarming with new ideas for crochet projects especially bookmarks which are quick (30 min to 4 hrs) and I wanted my whole pallet available.

~~I wanted to be able to custom make bookmarks for friends and family while there with their choice of pattern and colors.

But mostly I must admit it was about the building anxiety as the day approached about leaving it behind. In my defense I am leaving behind over 60% of the bulk of the sewing and craft materials I have been taking north with me each year; over 80% of books and notebooks and writing/office paraphernalia; at least 50% of the HABA (health and beauty aids); over 60% of clothes and shoes. So I have improved.

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Writing Is...

i haz a write  2 B hurd

Yesterday I was browsing blogs I've neglected to visit for a long time and saw mention of a meme on West of Mars in which one is to fill in the blank: Writing is like ______

Well that stuck with me over the next several hours as I worked at the sorting and packing of my crochet projects for Sunday's trip. Several possible answers came to me as I mulled and mused. I was drawn to listing them and soon I was writing a poem. The first one in ages. I can't even remember the last one.

Apparently in the space between reading the blog post and starting to write I had lost the word 'like'. After returning to Susan Helene's blog for the link I noticed that and went back to my poem to insert 'like' before each verb int he first line of each verse but it changed too much in several cases--the rhythm, the meaning, the immediacy. So I left it as I wrote it.

Writing Is

Writing is dreaming,

taking you away to other

where, giving glimpses into

that expanding vastness that

is your spirit.

Writing is grieving

for the lost ones, the lost dreams

giving substance to memories,

recovering that sense of

your life's meaning

Writing is weaving

words of golden wisdom from

all your pain and joy to find

hope, like a nova, in the

palm of your hand

Writing is dancing

on fluffy dandelions

spreading their seeds among weeds

whose proliferate leaves ooze

a healing balm

Writing is pitting

your own self against your self

daring to face the challenge

of giving all that you are

without reserve

Writing is looking

deep within the beating heart

of your dankest self loathing,

dissipating its fog with

reason's bright light

Writing is seeking

a knowing of the other

and a quest to be known

by someone acknowledging

you as worthy

Writing is exalting

in the heat of creative

passion that brings forth out of

nothing but thought and yearning

a new being

Writing is journeying

far from the familiar

greeting yourself in the eye

of the raging storm that is

your own desire

Writing is questing

with the heart of a hero

for the prize in the depths of

the pulsing shadows guarded

by fierce dragons

Writing is yearning

for a world of wonders

of mystery, of power, of awe,

which is not to be had lest

we dare chase it

Writing is streaming

the mind of the universe

bringing the brilliant spinning

galaxies circling in a

baroque gavotte

________________________

Now back to the packing. Though not for long as I've had two hours of sleep since Tuesday afternoon. I'm determined to avoid leaving her Sunday morning having already been awake over 24 hours as is my habit. I can't afford to as my sister is leaving town on Monday morning which puts me on duty with Mom only twelve or so hours after I arrive.

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So You're Overwhelmed?

Why oh why did I send for 40+ library items (books, dvd, audio books)in the last two weeks when I knew I was leaving on Sunday for three weeks????!

Why did I start four new bookmarks using 11 of the colors I claimed I would be leaving behind? Which means either finish them by Sunday or take them with me or leave them behind.

Why am I just now unpacking and sorting stuff that I took with me to Mom's last summer in order to find the things I,* urm* need *cough* to take with me this time? Isn't it a pretty good sign that if I haven't needed it in a year I probably won't need it on this three week visit out of state?

Well, one way to look at it is that packing for this trip has forced me to sort out half a dozen boxes, three bags and 4 drawers.

I'm determined not to leave a mess behind me this time so unpacking won't be as overwhelming as packing.

Um, where have I heard that before?

5 days to get packed!

Ai! I'm gonna go stick my head the duffle bag and breathe....

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It's Monday! What Are You Reading #33

Share what you (are, have been, are about to, hope to be) reading or reviewing this week. Sign Mr Linky at Book Journey and visit other Monday reading roundups.

Still similar to two weeks ago as was last week's IMWAYR. There are, as always, many more books I'll be dipping into, referencing, reading a chapter or two (NF) and so forth but I'm featuring here only the ones I am most focused on this week.


The Civilized World: A Novel in Stories by Susi Wyss

This is a review copy.

Still taking my time with this one as I would with the entree of an award winning chef as Wyss uses metaphor, image and language as would a master chef use herbs and spices and since it is not a library book and thus can go with me when I leave Sunday I confess I've backed off a bit.

I'll be putting up a review eventually, hopefully while I'm up in Longview but if not by the end of August. Meanwhile read more about it and Susi Wyss on her web site.

Chocolat by Joanne Harris

I am sooooo close to finished now but I was too slow about it to get to its sequel before it had to go back to the library:

The Girl With No Shadow by Joanee Harris

I thot to go pull it off the shelf again after a few days but then discovered they had the audio which I could listen to as I crochet and pack and...

I got the audio today and it has the same gorgeous cover so i used the same image.

The DVD of the movie Chocolat was among my library haul today. So excited. It's a rewatch but its been a decade or more and I really want to watch it while the novel is still fresh. I'm becoming more and more convinced that I never actually read the book as I thought and am now glad that I sent for it after discovering the sequel on the shelf a little over two months ago.

If You Want to Write by Brenda Ueland.

Graywolf pbk. ed.
Pub/Date St. Paul Graywolf Press, c1987.
xii, 179 p. 21 cm.

I really need to get my own copy of this again. It is going to be hard to send it back to the library this weekend after only two weeks to browse in it. As I mentioned in last week's Library Loot, I once had a copy and read some passages so often I nearly memorized them but that was over eleven years ago. It is time for a refresh.

Summary: In her 93 remarkable years, veteran freelance writer, memoirist, and writing teacher Brenda Ueland published some six million words. She once said there were two simple rules that she followed absolutely: to tell the truth, and not do anything she didn't want to do. Such integrity both distinguishes and defines If You Want to Write, her bestselling classic that first appeared in the late 1930s and has inspired thousands to find their own creative center. As Carl Sandburg once remarked, Ueland's primer is "the best book ever written on how to write."

The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown.

Large print ed.

Publisher/Date: Waterville, Me. Thorndike/Windsor/Paragon, 2011.

Description: 527 p. 22 cm.

Summary: Unwillingly brought together to care for their ailing mother, three sisters who were named after famous Shakespearean characters discover that everything they have been avoiding may prove more worthwhile than expected.

What the summary I copy/pasted from the catalog doesn't say is that this family is a bookish family. The father is a prof of literature and of Shakespeare in particular and does most of his communicating in Shakespeare quotes and occasionally the ladies of the family do as well.

The chances of getting to this before I leave now are looking grim. If I don'g finish Chocolate very soon I might as well not start this and it will be hard to get it back again for months.

It crossed my mind this evening that if I can get mostly packed, that is all but the very last minutes stuff, and have finished Chocolate by Friday I could dedicate Friday night through Sunday morning to reading this and possibly extend that to the three hour drive to meet my sister in Rice Hill. But the risk is that I will end up having to send it back with Ed to be returned to the library having not finished. I swore I would not let that happen again as it has on nearly every trip to Longview since we started doing this relay ride, meeting my sister half way instead of me alone on the bus, in 2006.

Blogging for Dummies

I just got this back today for the first time since February. The system's two copies have been in high demand. I seriously need my own copy of this.

It came so late I'm not going to get to spend much time with it before I leave but I hope to get some info I can use while I'm gone.

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Sunday Serenity #237

This may not look or sound serene but this is an example of the serenity that holds hands with joy.

Pun unintended. Maybe.

This vid plucked at least a dozen of my heart strings. It had me first tapping into the longing already bursting my heart at the seams then hoping then feeling the power then weeping with joy and gasping with wonder.

Oh Oh Oh!

____________Firework

Do you ever feel like a plastic bag
Drifting through the wind
Wanting to start again

Do you ever feel, feel so paper thin
Like a house of cards
One blow from caving in

Do you ever feel already buried deep
Six feet under scream
But no one seems to hear a thing

Do you know that there's still a chance for you
Cause there's a spark in you

You just gotta ignite the light
And let it shine
Just own the night
Like the Fourth of July

Cause baby you're a firework
Come on show 'em what you're worth
Make 'em go "Oh, oh, oh!"
As you shoot across the sky-y-y

Baby you're a firework
Come on let your colors burst
Make 'em go "Oh, oh, oh!"
You're gunna leave 'em fallin' down-own-own

You don't have to feel like a waste of space
You're original, cannot be replaced
If you only knew what the future holds
After a hurricane comes a rainbow

Maybe the reason why all the doors are closed
So you could open one that leads you to the perfect road

Like a lightning bolt, your heart will blow
And when it's time, you'll know

You just gotta ignite the light
And let it shine
Just own the night
Like the Fourth of July

Cause baby you're a firework
Come on show 'em what you're worth
Make 'em go "Oh, oh, oh!"
As you shoot across the sky-y-y

Baby you're a firework
Come on let your colors burst
Make 'em go "Oh, oh, oh!"
You're gonna leave 'em all in awe-awe-awe

Boom, boom, boom
Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon
It's always been inside of you, you, you
And now it's time to let it through

Cause baby you're a firework
Come on show 'em what your worth
Make 'em go "Oh, oh, oh!"
As you shoot across the sky-y-y

Baby you're a firework
Come on let your colors burst
Make 'em go "Oh, oh, oh!"
You're gonna leave 'em all in awe-awe-awe

Boom, boom, boom
Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon
Boom, boom, boom
Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon

Songwriters: ERIKSEN, MIKKEL / HERMANSEN, TOR / PERRY, KATY / DEAN, ESTER

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Knottywares--Sometimes You Wear Them

Introducing Knottywares a web biz for fiber artists. This business was created by a friend, Summer Clemenson, and her friend who live in the Longview WA area where I grew up. I am probably going to be testing the waters for selling my crocheted bookmarks via her site. She studied how to promote online business and organizations in college so I'll be talking to her about it while I'm in Longview this month and maybe getting her advice on how to set up a proper 'for sale' page right here on Joystory too.

If you are into fiber arts in any way check out Knottywares and if you have fiber art items for sale she is looking for more artist to display their efforts there. It's a good way to promote your blog or other fiber art related business you might have and maybe make a little money to buy thread and other stuff you need to support your knotty habits.

Oh and here's Knottywares fb page

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Friday Forays in Fiction: Film Review--Powder Blue

Powder Blue

written and directed by Timothy Linh Bui

May 8, 2009

106 minutes

It's not for Pollyanna's or prudes, pedandicts or puffed up peacocks who are so tone deaf they compare all music to their own mating call and find it wanting.

Those who have been cradled from birth in the suburbs, college campuses and high rise cubicles and thus have never tasted of the poverty of choice created by the poverty of means or spirit that pummels hope to a putrid pulp and convinces one it was only ever an illusion will find it hard to connect with this story.

And those who have never sipped of the cup of despair or experienced that profound loniness that paints life with the patina of a nightmare or have never when in such a place made poor or even depraved choices they find impossible to live with may find it impossile to connect with the characters.

And those who look upon such people with contempt rooted in self-righteiousness or misguided piety and judge them unworthy of care or redemption (as did the elitist Priest and Levite of Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan their fellow Hebrew lying unconscious, robbed, bludgened, naked and bloody by the wayside and who passed by with their noses high thanking God they were not such sinners as that, leaving his rescue to the despised Samaritan) will see only the contemptable in this story.

And those who believe that even looking upon such 'loosers' let alone offering help, kindness or compassion is tantamount to approval of their choices and permission to continue 'living in sin' and fearing contamination will likely turn away from the screen, walk out of the theater or press stop on the DVD remote inside of five minutes.

If you are any of the above you will likely find this film depressing, hysterical, over the top, clueless, disgusting, manipulative, unbelievable, overacted, poorly written and directed and of little to no entertainment, cultural or artictic value.

It's too bad that 90% of the reviews and comments on this film I could find online were all written by those with one or more of such characteristics because they are the clueless ones unable to comprehend the meaning of this very profound, heart-wrenching, dark story, a modern parable that delves into despair and finds its way back to hope.

Most by their very own confession had made up their mind in the first five minutes to hate it whether out of confusion, disgust or disdain. Many even inadvertantly admitted the source of their confusion was lazy viewing when their complaint, what ever it might have been, could easily have been proved spacious by a three second clip five to fifty minutes before the 'offending' moment. What, were they fumbling after straying popcorn or simply impatient for the Jessica Biel exotic dance/striptease scenes finding everything else irrelevant?

Nearly all of the professional critics hated it and the audience review ratings run only 44 % positive. I sm still a newbie at critiquing film and still feeling insecure about writing reviews so I was at first mysitfied and chagrined upon reading all those pans immediately after giving Power Blue five stars on Netflix after streaming it in the wee hours of this morning.

At first I lost confidence in my favorable opinion, wondering why the stark difference. Do I not recognize crap when i see it? Or am I seeing something real that everybody else missed and if so what makes me special?

I considered turning away from my intent to post a review but found myself so worked up about it my head was spinning with all I wanted to say and that eventually overrode the reticence and motivated me to keep working on my review.

I still feel incompetant to say much more than 'I liked/disliked, it worked/didn't work for me about the aspects of a film related to it's making (screenplay, cinematography, acting, directing, editing, soundtrack, casting) but I know story so I will keep my comments to that level for now.

The story is about four (actually I see six) individuals in severe life crisis whose paths intersect over the four days before Christmas Eve in the seedy and seamy sections of LA. 'Dream Town America' for these four is a nightmare of lonliness, desperation, grief and despair.

Jack Doheny played by Ray Liotta is fresh out of prison after serving a 25 year sentence and has just learned that the love of his life has recently died and that he has gastric cancer and only weeks or less to live. In an attempt to make some ammends for the mess he'd created of his life and the harm that had done to the lives that touched his, he went looking for the daughter he'd left behind as a toddler and who believed he'd died before she was born.

His daughter, Rose John aka Johnny aka Scarlet, played by Jessica Biel, is an exotic dancer at a sleazy strip club to support her son who lies comatose in a hospital. Her boss, Velvet Larry played by Patrick Swayze is dispicable and depraved, a user of people, a taker who won't give and a scrooge who insists this mother of a dying child must work on Christmas eve.

Forest Whitaker plays Charlie grieving over the loss of his wife in a car acident (on their wedding day?) for whom he'd thrown over his vocation as a priest and thus now was unable to find solice in the faith he once depended on and blaming himself (he was driviing) believed himself unworthy of happiness or love. He spent the bulk of the movie attempting to give his life savings ($50,000) in exchange for the trigger finger that would put a bullet through his heart as he was unable to overcome his Catholic compunctions to do it himself.

One of those he propositioned for this was a young mortician, Qwerty Doolittle played by Eddie Redmayne who was so painfully shy he was more comfortable with corpses than living, breathing people. He's awkward and clumsy in social situations and when they involved women they would often trigger his asthma. But he had a good heart, spending much of his free time in charitable activities and often not demanding payment for his services from those truely unable to pay. Which last had helped to bring him to the brink of bankruptsy and the certain foreclosure on the business which had been his late father's by the end of the month.

Qwerty and Rose John crossed paths after Qwerty had hit her runaway dog with his hearse and taken him home to nurse back to health and upon seeing the Lost Dog/Reward posters then contacted Johnny to reunite them and found himself smitten by her.

Those are the four whose stories are recognized as the primary ones while other characters are considered supporting. But I would add Sally the waitress played by Lisa Kudrow who was in the midst of a divorce and Lexus played by Alejandro Romero, a transvestite pining for love and obsessed with having the sex change surgery which he imagines would make him loveable. Both of these characters intersected with Charlie. Lexus was the first one Charlie offered the money to and Sally was the waitress in the dinner he hung out in who was profoundly affected by his obvious sadness and lonely herself, reached out to him only to be repeatedly rebuffed.

These stories played out on the screen very fast paced, surrealistic, and dark in mood and palette. Some scenes seemed to flicker in the way of a dream. There were touches of what might be magic realisim but one of those might be more real than magical:

The powder blue snowfall on Christmas eve representing the miracle of hope returning to their hearts and the love blooming there opening it up to the possibilities of life. Some considered this silly and unbelievable. Snow in LA? And what's with the blue? Who's ever seen blue snow? But I wonder how far fetched it really is in a place known for its heavily chemical laden smog and the dumping of the toilets by landing jets that creates blue ice chunks that have done damage to people and property on the ground. I was made aware of this recently by a Six Feet Under episode in which the opening sceen death was caused by such a blue ice chunk. So blue snow does not seem that far fetched to me.

Powder Blue has been compared to Crash and The Air I Breathe for this interwoven stories form but mostly found unsatisfactorly executed, confusing, trite, contrived, gimmicky and just a wannabe in a genre already so last year.

Maybe I don't know enough yet about the making of a movie to be able to contradict them but I can say that it all worked for me. I did not get confused nor find myself feeling manipulated. Nor did I find it melodramatic. The suggestion that these stories featuring the intersecting lives of strangers who impact each other's future in ways unimaginable to either beforehand are passe because they'd already been done and done better dismays me for I discovered this story form in novels and short story collections over 25 years ago and have sought them out ever since whether film or novel and in fact knowing this about a story will convince me to try it even if nothing else I'm told about it had appealed to me.

I believe that far from being overdone or having had its day, this form is still in its infancy and still struggling to find its foothold in the culture as the novel and film forms had themselves to do in their beginnigs.

I see this story form as literary as opposed to mainstream or genre pop culture forms and believe it is reflecting our society's slow awaking to the fact of our inter-relatedness and utter dependence on each other; and the realization that isolation and lonliness, the bane our bootstrap philosophy has inflicted, are a cancer of the soul and that only in relationship do we feel whole; and the dawning understanding that our every action has an infinite ripple effect across our world spreading faster than a plague and piling up faster than snow in a blizzard.

The hero/quest, and the single protagonis/point of view stories have dominated our culture for over a century and many believe they are the only legitimate fiction format now and therefore are disturbed by the still developing forms like this.

I would like to go point by point to contend all of the negative criticisms I found to be more indicative of the critics own lack of insight than of any faults in Powder Blue (not that I'm claiming it has no faults) but time constraints and difficulty in making my case without giving spoilers prohibits it.




Some of what I looked at while preparing this:

Blog Critics This was the only review that came close to seeing much of what I saw and not only approved but predicts that someday it will be recognized the the work of art it is.

IMDb

Rotten Tomatoes

Wikkipedia

Huffington Post

Meta Critic

Film Critic

Variety

Movie Review Intelligence

Fandango

Big Hollywood

DVD Talk

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But I'd Share Mine With You

I'v got the rainbow panel of my crochet tote finished now and have crocheted the two ends together to make a tube of it. Am not working the bobble rims tho barely begun the first one. Once I have the bobble rims on I can crochet the bowl to the bottom and crochet the upper panel for the drawstring. I still have half a dozen of the smaller circlets to crochet and then I'll be free of the sixteen colors and will only need to take with me to Longview next weekend the Mexican variegated for making the bobbles, the drawstring and the circlets the join the solid circlet in the shoulder strap and the navy to attach the bowl to the bottom and I hope to also make the upper panel tho I'm afraid there isn't enough and since both of my nearly gone navy balls are significantly different shades when side by side I fear I won't be able to match it in a new ball. So I am considering making the top panel in a different color, possibly another shade of blue, blue green or the golden yellow. Which would mean toting another ball for that project.

I've been working for weeks now at resisting the strong need to take my whole thread stash and bookmark wardrobe with me again and am pretty sure I won't surrender. The same for books, clothes and etc. The last several times I've been to Lonview my stuff filled the back seat and the trunk. But those visits were two to six months long and this one is to be only 3 weeks.

I'm planning to set limits in some way. Such as take only the black and white thread in all sizes and work projects in one or both of them. Like snowflakes or zebra striped bookmarks. Or take only the small balls like the pearl, the Lizbeth Egyptian cotton Cordonet, the tatting thread, and the Cebelia of which I have two--black and white. Essentially the whole stash of thread smaller than size 10. It's about time I enlarged the stash of bookmarks in the thread sizes 20, 30, 50 and 100. Many of them are white and would make excellent snowflakes. Or alternatively take only all the bamboo thread. All in the first list would be smaller in volume than then all of the bamboo tho.

Another option would be to choose a few of the many unfinished projects and take only the materials needed to finish them and maybe add to that the black and white threads for doing small quick and very portable projects like bookmarks and snowflakes.

Ah! Choices! I'm paralyzed by them!

And I haven't even begun to talk books.

My solution there was to load up my netbook with ebooks and audio books and links to text online and then be extremely frugal in the number of tree books I take. I haven't settled on a number but it has to fit on one hand of fingers. After all I'm going to be checking out at the Longview and Vancouver libraries on my sister's card again. Mostly some of the same books I didn't finish the last three times I was there.

I will be taking my printer as I still have a couple of boxes of family photos left to scan.

One of the frustrating things right now is that there is no room in this room to keep bags or boxes to collect the things that I need or want to take with me so I have to do this all in my head and then put it all together next Saturday. Maybe I can start on Friday and get away with keeping the packed stuff in the living room overnight and on Ed's side of the bed when he's not using it.

Are you picking up yet on how much travel discombobulates me?

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Library Loot: July 6 – 12

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

Marg has Mr Linky this week

Most of these are from this past week but a few are from the week before. They barely scratch the surface on what I have checked out (40) and what I have arriving (at least 15) in the next week on mine and my husband's cards. Everything has to go back at the end of next week even if there are still renewals allowed as I'm leaving for my Mom's in Longview WA on the 17th not to return until August 7th. I could hang onto the books with two renewals left and unlikely to be requested but I probably won't. I would have to remember to renew while up there with everything going on. And if something didn't renew I'd have to call Ed and have him hunt for it and return it. Besides I'd just as soon have a fresh start with an empty card.

I do hope to watch all the DVD before I leave though (I've listed less than half of what I have at home and more are on the way) but I've probably overestimated the available time what with everything I have to get done in the next 10 days. Especially if I continue spending 4+ hours on my posts each day!

I've been checking out a lot of books in the last month with full awareness of this. Many of them are intended for reading at this time. From a few I need some info. For a few I hope to finally write the book review I never finished at the time I read the book. For many though I just had to send for them and browse the pages after reading something about them online.

The first two take center stage in my heart this week:


If You Want to Write by Brenda Ueland.
Graywolf pbk. ed.
Pub/Date St. Paul Graywolf Press, c1987.
xii, 179 p. 21 cm.

I use to own a copy and read some of the passages so many times I had nearly memorized them. When this popped up in catalog search for something else I decided it was time to reread it. It has been at least 11 years.

Summary: In her 93 remarkable years, veteran freelance writer, memoirist, and writing teacher Brenda Ueland published some six million words. She once said there were two simple rules that she followed absolutely: to tell the truth, and not do anything she didn't want to do. Such integrity both distinguishes and defines If You Want to Write, her bestselling classic that first appeared in the late 1930s and has inspired thousands to find their own creative center. As Carl Sandburg once remarked, Ueland's primer is "the best book ever written on how to write."

The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown.
Large print ed.
Publisher/Date: Waterville, Me. Thorndike/Windsor/Paragon, 2011.
Description: 527 p. 22 cm.

Summary: Unwillingly brought together to care for their ailing mother, three sisters who were named after famous Shakespearean characters discover that everything they have been avoiding may prove more worthwhile than expected.

I learned of this in a copy of Book Note I picked up in the library a few weeks ago and immediately got in queue and I mean before I left the library. The regular print copy already had over fifty in queue but the large print only 2.

What the summary I copy/pasted from the catalog doesn't say is that this family is a bookish family. The father is a prof of literature and of Shakespeare in particular and does most of his communicating in Shakespeare quotes and occasionally the ladies of the family do as well.

I hope I get to this before I leave town. I may even put the reading of the sequel to Chocolat on hold until I get back. I'm currently reading Chocolate and had hoped to be finished in time to read both its sequel, The Girl With No Shadow and The Weird Sisters before leaving.

The Gormenghast Novels by Mervyn Laurence Peake 1911-1968

introductory essays by Anthony Burgess and Quentin Crisp
Woodstock, N.Y. Overlook Press, c1995.:

1172 p. -- illustrated -- 21 cm.

There have been two attempts to translate this series to the screen. One in the 70s did a series of 8 episodes that included all three novels. One in the late 90s for PBS was a 4 hour miniseries that did not include the third. That is the one I have high on my Netflix cue. It mystifies me why the library does not have it. For a long time they were sans one of the novels entirely--either the first or the last--as well.

The recent acquisition of this book is a good sign that they are going to give this series the respect it has earned.

I first read the trilogy in the early 80s when I was in my early 20s and remember loving it. But I've gone through such significant changes since then that a new reading would likely garner me many new insights.

I discovered this in the catalog while it was still in technical services and got in queue so I'm the first or second to have a crack at it. I sent for it primarily for the essays by Burgess and Crisp and the Critical notes in the last section as the print is so small I think I'd rather have it read to me and am in luck that our system has all three audio books.

Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake.
Pub/Date: Ashland, OR Blackstone Audiobooks, p2000.
15 compact discs
Read by Robert Whitfield.
Unabridged.

The covers on these CD audios are the same as the covers on the paperback editions I read over 30 years ago.

Note the publisher Blackstone of Ashland OR. That's just ten minutes drive south of where I sit.

I've got the first at home now and the other two have been shipped. I doubt I'll get to all of them before I leave.. If not I may actually risk taking one or both of the two on their way with me on the trip hoping that no holds get put on so that they will renew for me three weeks from the day I check them out.

The Triplets of Belleville DVD

An animated for adults tho rated PG13 and would likely be enjoyed by children much younger even if more than half of it goes over their heads.

I'll just add this: It has the ambiance of a Dickens novel. If you want more you can read the review I posted last night after watching it yesterday.

It was my first ever movie review so I would appreciate some feedback. If you have never seen it, would you be more or less likely to watch it after reading it? If you have seen it, did I do it justice? Did I cover enough bases, give enough info or too few, too little?

Aquamarine DVD
Publisher/Date Beverly Hills, CA 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, c2006.
1 videodisc 103 min.
Based on the novel by Alice Hoffman.

Summary: Two twelve year old girls are in love with a dilapidated beach club near their home. After a huge storm they check to see how the club held up and discover Aquamarine, a mermaid, in the pool of the club. Aquamarine falls in love with the cute, young boy who runs the food bar and begs the girls to help her set up a date with him. Aquamarine offers to grant them a wish in exchange for help in finding the man of her dreams.

I discovered that while searching for Hoffman's novel Here on Earth to read before I watch the DVD which I have high in my Netflix queue. I'm assuming the movie was based on this book anyway. I'd hoped to get to both before I left but it is looking unlikely. I had thought the novel was a reread but everything but the cover seems quite unfamiliar. I think I had it checked out when it was newly published while I was still living in Longview in the late 90s. I've also had it checked out from this system but never got around to reading it. I have it at home again. So reloot.

The Woman Who Lives in the Earth : a novel / Swain Wolfe.
Pub/Date New York HarperCollins, 1996.
170 p. 20 cm.


This is a reloot also. I sent for it to have as reference as I prepare the review I started at that time. It is an enchanting fable I think intended for adults though young adults would get much out of it as well.

From Jesus to Christianity: How Four Generations of Visionaries & Storytellers Created the New Testament and Christian Faith by L. Michael White

I have sent for this book again but it hasn't arrived yet. I'm substituting this image for one of the DVD as I'm too lazy to go after it. :) The book will be a reloot once it arrives. The DVD is currently at home.

The DVD is of the Frontline documentary based on White's book. It originally aired as a mini-series and is 4 hours long


More reloots:

Teaching Yourself Visually Crocheting

I've had this at home so much in the last four months it is starting to feel at home here. I sent for it for some quick referencing before my trip.

Odd gods : new religions & the cult controversy edited by James R. Lewis

The family : the secret fundamentalism at the heart of American power / Jeff Sharlet.

Still havn't finished this after having checked out a number of times from both this library system and from the Longview library during both my last two visits there. Had passed the halfway point the last time I had it out. The print is small so my eyes refuse to read for long sessions.

Anatomy of the spirit: the seven stages of power and healing by Caroline Myss.

1st pbk ed.
Publisher/Date: New York Three Rivers Press, 1996.
xiv, 302 p.

Summary: Anatomy of the Spiritis the boldest presentation to date of energy medicine by one of its premier practitioners, internationally acclaimed medical intuitive Caroline Myss, one of the "hottest new voices in the alternative health/spirituality scene" (Publishers Weekly). Based on fifteen years of research into energy medicine, Dr. Myss's work shows how every illness corresponds to a pattern of emotional and psychological stresses, beliefs, and attitudes that have influenced corresponding areas of the human body. Anatomy of the Spiritalso presents Dr. Myss's breakthrough model of the body's seven centers of spiritual and physical power, in which she synthesizes the ancient wisdom of three spiritual traditions-the Hindu chakras, the Christian sacraments, and the Kabbalah's Tree of Life-to demonstrate the seven stages through which everyone must pass in the search for higher consciousness and spiritual maturity. With this model, Dr. Myss shows how you can develop your own latent powers of intuition as you simultaneously cultivate your personal power and spiritual growth. By teaching you to see your body and spirit in a new way,Anatomy of the Spiritprovides you with the tools for spiritual maturity and physical wholeness that will change your life.

Have had these two our more than once this year and not gotten to them. Maybe this time.



Yet more DVD:



Goya's Ghosts

Summary: Told through the eyes of celebrated Spanish painter Francisco Goya. Set against political turmoil at the end of the Spanish Inquisition and start of the invasion of Spain by Napoleon's army. Captures the essence and beauty of Goya's work which is best known for both the colorful depictions of the royal court and its people, and his grim depictions of the brutality of war and life in 18th century Spain. When Goya's beautiful muse is accused of being a heretic, the renowned painter must convince his old friend Lorenzo, a power-hungry monk and leader of the Spanish Inquisition, to spare her life.

Boston Legal season 3 all 7 discs!

I can't get enough of this show. I only watched parts of seasons 1 and 2 at the time the aired and was loving it but then I missed a few and what with also having missed so many of the two seasons I decided to wait for the DVD or the availability of streaming online. I had them in my Netflix queue but then our library acquired them. So I started from the beginning a couple months ago. I'll probably have to wait until I get back in August to send for the rest of the series.

I've been a fan of William Shatner since I was 11 when I discovered classic Star Trek. Throughout my early teens I had a massive crush on Captain James T. Kirk. :)

Boston Legal introduced me to James Spader and I've begun to send for the movies he's been in. Because of that I finally watched Pretty in Pink recently. I currently have The Pentagon Papers in my Netflix queue but probably won't send for it before my trip north.


Kate & Leopold

I've been on a Meg Ryan binge this spring and winter.

Summary: Kate and her actor brother live in 21st century New York. Her ex-boyfriend, Stuart, has found a spot near the Brooklyn Bridge where there is a gap in time-- one can return to the 19th century. Stuart goes back to the 1870s and takes pictures, then is followed back to New York by Leopold. Leopold gets help with fitting into the 21st century from Kate's brother Charlie, and meets Kate herself. Kate is climbing the corporate ladder in advertising, but her growing feelings for Leopold cause her to reevaluate her priorities in life.

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The Triplets of Belleville

And don't miss this music video inspired by the theme song Rendezvous

This is my first attempt at a review of a film so bear with me.

In this mostly traditional animation (light on computer generated graphics) by Sylvain Chomeet not only the music is jazzy but the visual and emotional aspects as well. The dialog is sparse with the story being carried by the music and images and action sometimes verging on mime. So this Sony Classics French film can be completely comprehended without subtitles for those of us who are not French endowed.

It is an hallucination with the ambiance of a Dickens novel featuring grotesquely elongated or bulbous figures fumbling and bumbling their way a la Keystone Cops in a sepia and grey watercolor setting. It is humorous and horrifying by turns. The humor often dark and dismaying even as it solicits giggles, grins and guffaws.

Belleville is a jazzy and surrealistic collage of post WWII Paris, Montreal and New York. The Triplets are somewhat addled elderly 1930s era cabaret singers who now perform musical improve with found instruments such as a newspaper, a fridge, and a canister vacuum cleaner. Their diet consists of frogs harvested from a swamp with dynamite. But these quirky sisters are just supporting cast who collude with the grandmother of a Tour de France cyclist who was kidnapped by mobsters during the race.

It took me quite some time to realize that it was stumpy little club-footed, spectacled, granny who was the protagonist and not Champion, the grandson whom she took in when he was orphaned as a small tot. He was persistently morose and she indefatigable in her attempts to lure him back to a joie de vive. The gift of a puppy brought her momentary satisfaction when it garnered a brief smile that reached his eyes but it wasn't long before he returned to his brooding though now with his furry companion and co-brooder, Bruno, at his side. In fact, even Bruno has more depth and personality than the grandson which is endearingly displayed as he plays sidekick to Grandma on the search for Champion.

What finally reached Champion was cycling. She discovered his interest after finding a scrapbook full of clippings of bicycles and cyclists and races under his mattress. So she got him a tricycle and once he graduated to a bicycle she became his coach, relentless in her efforts to prepare him for professional racing.

After discovering his abandoned bike on the Tour's roadside she solicited the help of Bruno who tracked him to the dock from which a huge steamer was pulling away. Grandma and Bruno follow in a pedal boat all the way to the fantastical city of Belleville somewhere in North America. It was about the time she arrived in Belleville that I finally realized that she was the protagonists in this story.

As she settles in with Bruno by her campfire that first night ashore she begins tapping out a tune on the spokes of a bicycle wheel and this lures the triplets to her side. After a song and dance routine the three weird sisters take in the stodgy grandma.

And that's as far as I can go in relating the plot without giving unforgivable spoilers for anyone who's not seen this phantasmagorical cartoon for grown-ups. That was probably less than the first third of the 80 some minutes of this eye-popping carnival ride of a film. The rest is all about the developing relationship between grandma and the triplets and the search for Champion.

There is a lot of silly slapstick stuff going on at the margins of the scenes or off stage as far as Grandma's story is concerned. Visual puns abound as does social commentary--most prominently the gluttonous consumerism of the North Americans. There is so much visual information in every scene that it was impossible to take it all in with a single viewing so I'm hoping to have a chance to watch it again before I send it back to the library. (Though the fact that I have several movies and documentaries and a full season of Boston Legal out of the library make that a challenge.)

The rich and the powerful and the stylish are always portrayed as having rusty consciences and thus undeserving of respect though they obviously believe that respect is one of their inalienable rights. In contrast the rustic, the dorky, the eccentric, the downtrodden have the moral integrity, the gumption, the perseverance, the wit and wisdom. And with any concern about respect completely off their radar, replaced by compassion they have nurtured within themselves a sense of connection with others and life itself that is the source of the content.

Let me close by saying that I did not even consider picking up my crochet while watching this as it was impossible to tear my eyes from the screen even for the split seconds I need to position the hook for the next stitch.

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It's Monday! What Are You Reading #32

Share what you (are, have been, are about to, hope to be) reading or reviewing this week. Sign Mr Linky at Book Journey and visit other Monday reading roundups.

My reading agenda hasn't changed much from last week.

Lift by Kelly Corrigan

I finished this mommy memoir/letter to her young girls and posted a review last Wednesday--my first review since last fall.

This book practically forced its way onto my pile at the library after I'd casually picked it up and then found myself laughing out loud upon reading the little cautionary tale which, she reminds the girls, they are constantly begging her to retell. It is about the time she, the mother now, as a grade schooler had gone after a bug on the windshield of the family car by stomping on it--from the wrong side of the glass until it cracked.

The Civilized World: A Novel in Stories by Susi Wyss

I'm still working my way through the nine inter-woven stories that make up this novel. I am taking my time because these stories have depth and the word and image and metaphor usage is akin to poetry. Most every line needs to be savored.

This is a review copy

Chocolat by Joanne Harris

I reported starting this one last week. I'm well past the halfway point now and could possibly finish in 4 or 5 hours worth of reading. And I must set my mind to step up the pace as its sequel which I checked out several weeks before this one is coming due on the 12th and is much longer. And even if I could wheedle the librarian into giving me a 3rd renewal I would still have to finish by the 17th, the day I'm leaving for Longview, WA, as it would come due again before my return in mid August.

I've also got the movie of Chocolat waiting for me on the hold shelf!! It will be a rewatch as I belief the novel is a reread but I've been hard pressed to remember anything that doesn't resemble a memory of the movie rather than the book.

The Girl With No Shadow by Joanee Harris

I'm super eager to get to the sequel.

It is going to take something just short of a miracle to finish before I leave town though as there is so many other tasks and projects I need to tend to before I leave.

Isn't the cover gorgeous?

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Sunday Serenity #236

This one just overflows with awwwwww. The better to evoke serenity and joy.

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LOLing it Up

I captioned 3 LOLcats today so might as well share them here and call it a day. I have some pages to turn and some DVD to watch and some stitches to stitch.

Tthree more rows finishes the rainbow panel for the tote. Still a few circlets to make but then I can start putting the pieces together. Hope to finish with the 16 solid colors before I leave for Longview in two weeks. Probably can't hope to actually finish the tote now as there is so much else needing done before I leave: library books and DVD to finish; bday, belated Mother's .Day, bridal and wedding presents to finish or at least start; packing; and still the daily posts.





This is a pun. To get it you need to figure out the title of the book in the foreground.

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Friday Forays in Fiction: Quote

<-- La Lectrice Soumise by Rene Magritte
print for sale @ art.com

“Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures."

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

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