esprit de l'escalier

Books not from my youth

I decided, when I graduated six months ago, that I was going to read books that I should have read when I was younger, but some how missed them in my frequent visits to the library. (Fun fact, I grew up five houses down from a magnificent suburban public library. It was huge and I spent many, many hours there reading and goofing off.) This was originally inspired by Lance Mannion and his endless prattlings about Terry Pratchett's Discworld. (I kid, Lance, I kid.) I decided that once I had some free time, I would see what the fuss was about. But I don't actually have much to say about Discworld at this juncture, except that I want to explore more of it. I've decided to read storylines in order, and I've started with Rincewind, the somewhat lovable loser and failed wizard who reminds me a bit of Arthur Dent. I've only read two books so far, but there is much to explore.

This endeavor was also somewhat inspired by my reading Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones when I was about 24. I stayed up all night and read it in one go. Right, 24 was quite some time ago, but it resonated with me. You see, I have a deep and abiding love for young adult fantasy books that started when I was in elementary school. They are my ultimate escape. I do not keep up with the genre, but will turn to them from time to time. Hence this little foray.

When I started in on the Discworld books, I also started in on one of Jones's series, the Chrestomanci series. And because those six books handily come in three volumes, I've read them faster. In fact, I've just finished the last book last night. (There are some short stories I have yet to read, but the novels are now done.) I really, really liked this series. Chrestomanci is a title for the most powerful enchanter in this universe, where there are multiple worlds and multiple variations of those worlds. (There are nine sets of worlds, with nine worlds in a set.) The Chrestomanci has nine lives, which is unique, and can be summoned, not unlike Beetlejuice, by calling his name three times. He is the magical arbiter and tries to keep magic users from abusing their powers.

What I really liked about this series is that Jones doesn't want you to read them in internal order. I like that she jumps around time and gives us only glimpses into this world. It gives me the feeling of a world teeming of possibilities. Instead of the plotlines directly relying on what came before: first A lead to B that lead to C, it gives us a variation that must free her up to noodle about anywhere in the timeline. The characters are strong and well-written and I like this approach. It reminds me a little of why I like Doctor Who so much. Yes, the seasons for that show have connections between each episodes, but there is the possibility for so much that we don't see. There is life to those characters when we're not watching, and adventures had. I love that. I love the feeling that there is more than what we see. It makes the possibilities feel truly endless.

If you are interested in YA fantasy books and want a bit of an escape, I encourage you to dive into either Pratchett or Jones's worlds. They are rich and worthy of your discovery. I've slowly been giving my 11 year old cousin (who happens to share the same taste in books I had at her age) some of my favorites in this genre. It's so much fun to discuss them with her.

The woodpecker

The Woodpecker, by Elizabeth Roberts

The woodpecker pecked out a little round hole
And made him a house in a telephone pole.
One day when I watched he poked out his head,
And he had on a hood and a collar of red.

When the streams of rain pour out of the sky,
And the sparkles of lightning go flashing by,
And the big, big sheels of thunder roll,
He can snuggle back in the telephone pole.

Happy birthday to Robbie Burns

We celebrated the Scottish bard's birthday traditionally on Saturday, with our annual Burns Night Supper party. The house was packed as usual, but luckily this year there was not six inches of snow on the ground as there was last year. I had several friends in from Chicago, including my godson, who has been dubbed an "emissary" baby, because he goes easily anywhere, smiling and cooing at all he meets.

The night included haggis (from a can), lots of imbibing, our regular bartender (who always dresses in a kilt), poetry, music, and more. After most of the crowd left, we had a second round of poetry. My friend George topped himself from his last visit by leading us (with gusto) in some very dirty drinking songs. The night ended with music played by friends and singing. Every year our party plays out a little differently, but it's always a success.

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This just in: the US is planning to relax its law against the import of haggis. Burns would be proud! (Hat tip to Natasha.) Oh, and please watch this.

More breaking news: I have long said that there needs to be a racy biopic of the bard, because he was a renown chaser of women. Via my friends Julie and Ebony, it appears that is in the cards. Unfortunately (for me because I can't stand him), Gerard Butler is set to star.

PFR: Shapiro's Deli

On the way back from Chicago, from our quickie road trip from the beginning of the month, it was getting to be dinner time. We were nearing Indianapolis when I had an idea. I gave my friend Sharon a quick call, to get the location and directions to her favorite place to eat in Indiana, Shapiro's Deli. (If she is within 100 miles of this place, she makes a detour to stop.)

Shapiro's has been around since 1905. The location we went to, at 808 S. Meridian, is a large space, with plate glass windows all around, a cafeteria-style line to go through, and lots of tables to sit in. We were there around 5pm on a Sunday, and there was a decent sized crowd for an early dinner. When I saw the desserts, I knew we had to do an impromptu Pie Field Research expedition.

My fellow PFR investigator this time was my friend Tina. She is a bit of an old hat when it comes to PFRs, as she's done a couple with me, and her birthday is Pi Day. Even though we decided to split the very large and very wonderful corned beef sandwich (see below), we both managed to over order. We decided on two slices: rhubarb for her, and cherry for me.

Tina chose the rhubarb because she loves it and "that pink that rhubarb gets." I decided on cherry, because I couldn't decide and chose to stick with the classics. Tina later informed me that cherry is just not her type of pie, but I enjoyed my slice. We found both slices to have a nice tartness. She thought the crust was okay and I think I had more positive thoughts on the crust. We both gave our pies 4.5 stars. (As you can see, the nonexistent metric by which the oh-so-scientific research being done gets vaguer the longer I go between PFRs.)

The real star of the show was the corned beef sandwich. Oh dear lord. For about $10 we got a lot of meat piled high on delicious homemade rye. Oh that rye. It had a wonderfully (but not overly) chewy crust. Why didn't I buy a loaf? The sandwich needs to be shared. Sharon had suggested some sort of lemon bread or muffin, which I forgot, but will get at my next stop at Shapiro's. It's hard to pass up their sweets.

Genre has its limits

Do you remember when my friends and I went to see WPA and I had a slightly embarrassing moment talking to the band? Well, there's a great interview with them over at Fuel/Friends about making music, genre, the music industry, etc. I especially liked the part where Glen and Sean discussed the disparate sounds in their music. Glen was a bit more articulate than I was here, and I love that I keep finding people that are discussing this. He said, "Genre has a certain reach, but I think it’s a limited one." And I liked his dubbing of the "iPod generation." See below for part of the exchange, and read the whole thing here.

Glen: ...So, I occasionally have heard criticisms of the band, “Oh, it’ll be interesting to hear what happens when you guys find your sound,” but we sound like we do because we like that variety. I hate the idea that we would someday show up and you would be able to predict what the tone of the next song would sound like because the last three songs all sounded exactly the same. That would just bore all of us to tears.

Sean: It doesn’t matter what genre it is, it just matters if the songs are good.

Glen: And I think people are becoming more accepting of that. I mean, it is the iPod generation, so many people are proud to have broad tastes, but I think people still have a hard time swallowing musicians from the iPod generation who don’t have a defined sound. I feel this pressure like, “Well, you’ve got to find out what your sound is and then stick to that, so people will know what to expect from you.”

Birds in the snow

Some music for January

On our drive back from Chicago, night had fallen somewhere between Indy and the border with Ohio. Julie drove and I sat next to her, and we listened to a mix that I made in the spring in 2006. I hadn't listened to it in a while, and laughed at myself back then. Not because the music wasn't good, but that it was so me. I explained to her that this was a classic Claire mix - it started off up tempo and gradually became slow, mellow, sad songs. It ended up tempo, but the meat was not. For some reason sad and mellow music is a comforter to me. It's why I'm terrible at coming up with music for parties.

Yesterday was cold with snow swirling about for much of the day. I sat and did various tasks, and in between I cobbled together a mix for January. I have been wanting to try my hand at 8tracks since I first saw Brian's mixes. It's mellow and several of the songs are about the cold. The songs are both new and old to me. I hope you like it.

Oh, and a song on it is by Dan Mangan. My dear friend Stacey sent me a notice about his album, Nice, Nice, Very Nice with the note, "This album will change your life." You can't really ignore notes like that, especially when it comes from a friend with exceptionally similar musical tastes. I downloaded it and am really enjoying it. I had a hard time choosing a song for this mix. Check him out.

New year road trip

I rang in the new year with a quick road trip to Chicago with these two ladies. We visited with my friends, soaked in some football, felt the Chicago cold, saw Jens Lekman play the Empty Bottle, crammed ourselves and our winter gear in a photobooth for the photo above, went to sleep, braved the Chicago cold again, had brunch, and returned again. Lots of laughing and fun involved - even some pie. Here's to a splendid 2010!