the upside of being sick

yes there is an upside. i'm too tired to do anything so i read and i've read five books in as many days. this is what i love best! i think that's what i did when i was a child, more than anything else. always reading.

i didn't read anything earth-shatteringly good, but lots of fun stuff and books that are helpful for me. i know that my novel that is ALMOST perfect would BE perfect if i can just adjust the plot problems. reading these books has helped me rethink the novel and i am thinking that one chapter that comes in the middle of the book needs to be moved closer to the end. that one change (plus rewriting other things to catch the fallout) might be the thing that makes the book right.

now if only i had two more weeks of winter break, healthy and willing and able to spend time writing - that would be heaven!

the haze of a flu

damn i'm sick. i haven't had a flu this bad in a long time - full on headache and body ache and cough and all that goes with it. so it puts me in this hazy dreamy state that would be GREAT for writing if only i had the energy to write.

last night, as i did not sleep, i created. if only i could have created on a computer instead of inside my head. i had been reading a biography of C.S. Lewis (creator of the Narnia stories) and i thought about writing a novel about a man who is all manly-man, a regular guy, but who at the privacy of his computer creates a fantasy world starring a little girl. i imagine scenes such as him playing pick-up basketball with friends, then getting an inspiration about his story and, in doing so, missing a crucial shot. but he can't tell the guys because he has told no one about this story. and there it sits. i would like to do something with it rather than have it be the result of a fever dream, and left to wither away....

outside of my head, LA is really cold (for LA - this would be wonderfully comfortable and welcome weather to our relatives in Chicago!). i love that trees are changing color and there are some streets we can drive that feel like New England (as i imagine it might be) with all these golden and red and orange trees and leaves all over the street. beautiful especially with the blue sky and crisp, cold sunlight.

we are driving some of these streets because we are teaching rylan to drive. except there is not much teaching involved. as is usual for him, he studied us and other people intently for the last six months. he got his permit a week ago, and we began letting him drive and he is very cautious but does very well. he's aware of things around him and he's confident without getting cocky. of course, this is on quiet streets. eventually he will have to get on busier streets and deal with traffic.

okay, so there is some hazy babbling! i should have music on and i don't even have the energy to do that! if i did have the energy i would play the new John Legend cd that ry gave me for christmas. maybe tomorrow.

the sisters

my big goal: to smoosh three partly or fully written novels together into one. to make the five women in the three novels either sisters (3) or cousins (2). to create more tension with the interwoven narratives. to kill off one of the characters even though that is too too painful to contemplate. but it must be done.

started. and wow is it hard to take separate work and put it together as one. however, it is also a great deal of fun and challenge and takes wonderful creative energy which, after all, is the best part of being a writer.

on itunes repeat while i work: my mixtape of "heartbreaking songs."

Victory! and the let-down

Yaay we won!! Obama is our next president!

bittersweet victory however, since Prop 8 passed in california and now there will have to be all kinds of legal challenges to allow gays to marry. so all happiness for Obama is tempered with sadness and annoyance at Prop 8.

And now - what do i do with my time? no more obsessive poll tracking. No more trying to second guess what will happen. i am interested in Obama's cabinet choices, but not as much as i was in the election overall. and if i never hear another word about Sarah it would be too soon.

so.....back to writing. got several ideas for stories and i need to channel my obsessive internet reading into word-processing fiction writing. really.

high anxiety

it's saturday. the election is tuesday. i can't stop reading blogs: huffington post, the daily kos, talking points memo, politico and a new one to my list, filled with incomprehensible statistics, called fivethirtyeight.

so this is too much information and i keep trying to read the future in them like they are tea leaves, or the guts of some sacrificed animal. and of course i can't read the future, so i find myself agitated and worried.

there should be a name for this.

democrat-anxiety-syndrome.

pre-election traumatic disorder.

obsessive-polltracker disorder.

or not

okay, no serialized story for me. i tried to start one, but the pressure was immediately too much. the only way i can do a serial story is to just write the whole thing, then break it into pieces and post it. only after it's all done. so, okay, i chickened out.

it's beautiful and cold (for LA) today with clear skies and winds and lots of sun. this is when i feel lucky to live in LA.

and on itunes right now, Birdland by Weather Report because Rylan is getting into some jazz with his music lessons and so i am geting a lesson in jazz from him. i like it. just wish it had words.......

retreating to fantasy

okay, i give up. i have had enough of political blogs that go over (and over and over) the things McCain says about Obama, the poll numbers, and the miserable state of the economy.

time for some Tolkien or Pullman - perhaps i will re-read the Dark Materials books. or perhaps i should be writing and go back to my days of writing fantasy with elves and demons and magic. isn't that what you do when times are bad? escape into fantasy? isn't that why The Wizard of Oz movie was such a big hit at the end of the 30's?

my students were assigned to write a story using lines from Richard Hugo's triggering town essay. so i am now assigning myself the same task. maybe i will post it here - serialize it, a little bit every day.....

okay now i really have some work to do!

racism in america

wow, that title might be too strong for me. but it's what i've been thinking about all week. Sarah Palin is making veiled racist attacks on Obama, playing to the fears of voters who don't want a black man for president. Voters in some southern states are saying that if Obama is elected, the blacks will get "uppity." I hope (really really hard) that Obama is elected and then i hope we have four years of discussion about race and racism. it's time to move forward.

we left overt racism behind with the civil rights movement and have devolved into a subversive racism that is secret and silent and pervasive, but is never spoken about. yeah, i'm a white middle class woman, but i worked for years in South Central with young black men and women who had dropped out of high school and wanted that diploma - after time in gangs and in jails. does this qualify me to be an expert on race? no. but it means i have spoken to young people who feel so far removed from mainstream society that they operate in a different world and can't even imagine that they could be a part of the mainstream, that they can contribute.

Obama can go a long way to healing that without being too "scary" for most white folks. a dialogue on race, with lots of talking on all sides of the issue, can be painful and brutal and ultimately helpful and even, perhaps, uplifting. and it is so, so necessary.

songs with names

yeah, names. as in the name of an individual person. a student of mine, Giulia, had never heard the Beatles song, Julia. So I played it for her and she was pleased that it was such a beautiful song.

what do i get? Amy - "Amy, what you gonna do. I wish I could stay with you for a while, maybe longer if i do." band was the Pure Prairie League, a country-rock band in the 70's. it was corny and i hated it. still do.

i have better luck with my middle name. it's Lola. So I get "whatever Lola wants, Lola gets," from the Damn Yankees. And from the Kinks, "L-O-L-A, Lola, lo-lo-lo-lo-lola." you know, "she walks like a woman but talks like a man, oh my Lola."

i like those. those are good. now if only someone would write a better Amy song.

new addictions

damn. i just discovered facebook. so many of my students are on it, and i thought they would like to be on without teachers looking over their shoulders. but then i saw that a number of my colleagues are on it as well. so i had to join the party. and now i am checking it obsessively (like email) to see if anyone has written anything on my "wall." i will have to pace myself.

and now to sarah palin. my addiction is to read everything i can about her, to confirm that she is a horrible person. there isn't much because she just hasn't done that much which points to her lack of experience. is that a faulty argument? if she had more experience she would have done more evil things. actually, i think it's true. the longer she stays in office as governor, or heaven forbid becomes vice president, the more damage she will do. she is clearly vindictive. she clearly does NOT know how to compromise and work in cooperation with people who have different ideas from her. that's where McCain, Biden and Obama all have experience by having worked in the senate. she just bulldozes people who don't do what she wants. that's an autocrat, not the leader of a democracy.

i read about her in the Guardian and i cringe. What do people in the UK make of us that such a person could become the next vice-president? let's see: wants to teach creationism in schools, but not birth control, against all abortions, doesn't believe global warming is man-made, against gay marriage, and is for drilling in the Alaskan wilderness.

i want a bumper sticker that reads "another mother for Obama"

sigh. i have to stop reading about her. it's making me ill.

must end on a happy note. let's see . . . i will go get a bowl of ice cream. that will help.

flotsam

school has started and i think i'm going to be okay. the new ninth grade class is perky and sweet. the monster as metaphor class is small (and rylan is in it) and the discussions look like they will be interesting. The postmodern lit class is wonderful, filled (really filled) with lots of smart kids and a couple of divergent thinkers who always give thought-provoking opinions.

then there is creative writing. a large class, but sincere. what i like most about this class is that i have to be creative with them!

i am still on radiohead time. whatever that is. i keep playing "in rainbows" when no one is in the classroom and i have my computer background screen set with photos from the concert.

here is a line from our illustrious president, captured by one of my students: "His arm is broken but not his honor."

huh???

another day i will tackle the sarah palin thing but i can't stand thinking about her right now.

end of summer

my brain is full of radiohead and i can't believe i have to start teaching on tuesday. i have had the laziest summer ever - at least since i was a kid and had no responsibilities. really, all i want to do is go see radiohead play once each week.

but school starts and i have to admit that i'm a little bit excited to teach my "monsters as metaphor" class, in which i will have students read Doctor Faustus and Frankenstein and Heart of Darkness. All elderly books from another era which means i will have to sing and dance to get the students to like them. then a more current book - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - narrated by a 9 year old boy whose father died in the Twin Towers. haven't read it? please do. it isn't at all what you might expect (although of course i have no idea what you might expect). it is written by Jonathan Safran Foer who also wrote Everything is Illuminated.

so, yeah, sort of excited. but really, laying around and playing on the computer and going to see radiohead . . . can't beat that.

omg radiohead

i don't even think i can write about it. the concert was breathtaking. the light show was incredible and played out the music in fabulous visual ways. the music, wow. every band member is so good and the songs were tight and expansive at the same time - deviations from the recorded versions but everything worked and was beautiful.

highlights:

Thom and Jonny singing Neil Young's "Tell Me Why" with acoustic guitars.

The first notes of "Talk Show Host" made the crowd go wild.

These three songs back to back: Jigsaw Falling Into Place, The Bend and National Anthem - more rockin' out than any rock concert i've ever been to. then followed by - take a deep breath and slow down - Nude.

Planet Telex and Fake Plastic Trees from The Bends album

Thom forgetting how to play Cymbal Rush

and the grand finale - Idioteque with an amazing light show and an outpouring of energy from the stage and back to the stage from the audience.

i wanted it to never ever end.......

TOMORROW IS RADIOHEAD

yes. today is sunday. they are playing at the hollywood bowl today, but i have tickets for tomorrow and i am SO excited!

a report will be typed in on tuesday.

The Shack Up Inn part 2

some other shots - interior and exterior

The Shack Up Inn

this one (above) is the "shack" that we stayed in. Called Legends, it had memorabilia of famous people (Marilyn Monroe, Jan and Dean, etc).




these people took old sharecroppers cabins, moved them onto this site, and upgraded them (inside) to become an inn.

Other Clarksdale photos

this is Ground Zero Blues Club - music down below and a hotel (of sorts) above. Partly owned by Morgan Freeman who also owns the high-class restaurant up the street, Madidi's.


And this is Puddin' Hatchett. We met him at breakfast at the Delta Amusement Cafe. He sat at our table and showed us his three-card monte and his dice tricks. Then he got his photo album and showed us pictures of himself with various people (including Morgan Freeman) and his daughter and grandchildren.

Clarksdale, the main drag

this is Delta Street, Clarksdale's main street. it felt as if we traveled back in time....


notice the town's movie theater, showing "Batman" and Hancoc" - because, evidently, they don't have enough letters for "The Dark Knight" nor the 'k' for "Hancock."

welcome to clarksdale, mississippi

my favorite things

i am trying to distill our vacation down to a list of my favorite things . . . but first of all, this is a silly exercise that reduces an all-over great vacation down to a few points. and second of all, i can't seem to narrow my list down very much.

but i will anyway. these are a few of my favorite things from the Great Music Road Trip of 2008:

* the Gibson guitar factory tour
* seeing Robert Plant
* the town of Clarksdale, MS
* meeting Puddin' Hatchett in Clarksdale
* the friendly people in Memphis, including Memphis Jones
* the swamp tour
* Charlie Daniels Band singing "Devil Went Down to Georgia"
* standing at the point where the US ended and the Chickasaw nation began
* driving past all the honky tonks with a band in each one, playing loud and all that music coming into our car
* the entire drive up Highway 61

Tip for the next road trip: stay off the interstates and drive more highways like 61 - the ones that go through towns and not around them.

Clarksdale - I can't let go of it yet

After our exciting evening, we spent the night in the ultra-cool "Legends" shack at Shack Up Inn (check it out at shackupinn.com).

In the morning, reluctant to leave, we talked to Guy, the owner of the Inn. He took us to a huge barn which he is turning into a recording studio/performing space. it looks completely barn-like and run down, but he has the entire thing insulated and adjusted for sound quality. it will be be called the Juke Joint Church when he is done (he ran a recording studio in Memphis before moving out of town). When I told him we saw Robert Plant the night before, he drawled, "Yep. He'll be out here later today. Always stops by when he comes to town."

Well, yeah, but we couldn't stay, so we missed an opportunity to meet him up close and personal. But who knows what "later today" means? Could be at 9 p.m.

We drove into Clarksdale for breakfast and had another cool Clarksdale experience. Ate at the Delta Amusement Cafe which is just a tiny diner with a dog that greets you at the door and romps around your table while you eat. But the highlight here is Puddin' Hatchett. This man is 78 years old, black, no teeth and friendly as the dog was! As soon as we sat down, he pulled a chair up to our table and started talking to us. Started playing tricks: dice tricks and card tricks. He kept repeating, "I'm a baaad man," and he would chuckle. We liked him, let him keep showing us tricks. Then he wanted to show us his photo album and we said yes. He went out to his truck, brought it back and showed up photos of himself, his daughter and his grandkids through the years. Told us how he died back in 1991 when a semi hit him. But "the good lord saved me" and he is alive to tell about it all. However, he can't play the harmonica any longer because it causes a headache, something in the pressure of the harmonica against his teeth and skull.

His photos are also at the Delta Blues Museum - one of him with Morgan Freeman, and one alone, holding up his tricky cards.

While we sat at the table with him, a woman who was in the museum last night and who recommended Madidi to me came in to get coffee. She stopped to say hi to me and ask how we liked the restaurant. After her, five old white men came in for their morning coffee (they all sat at their own table in the back) and each one said "morning, y'all" as they walked past.

You'd think that was enough of the south and southern hospitality but we had one more encounter before we left Clarksdale. At the Cathead gift and music store, the white woman behind the counter was involved in a lengthy conversation with a tall black man. He was dressed in a off-white suit that may have been double-breasted (now i can't remember) and his hair was big, perfect and wavy. Like James Brown at the height of his poufy-hair phase. He was amazing to look at.

Reluctantly we left Clarksdale and drove north. Things were boring after all that. So we drove for hours and hours until we got to Springfield, Illinois so that the next day's drive to Chicago wouldn't be so long. Spent the night at a Baymont Inn and ate mediocre food at a local grill. All we did was just bask in the glow of the previous two days!

three great dinners

First, if you haven't read the post below, read it - it's about our best day ever!


1. Commander's Palace in New Orleans. One of the best dinners ever. The service is excellent - three people manage each table and they don't just refill your water glass, they give you a new, fresh glass of water three or four times during the meal. but the food! everything was exceptional: we had turtle soup, Richard had striped bass, I had shrimp in a seasoned broth, Rylan had the most perfect filet mignon of his life. Dessert was creme brulee (spelling?) and a five-way chocolate cake.

2. The Palace Cafe in New Orleans (somehow related to Commanders). long wait to get in, long wait to have our order taken, not very good service. but the food was, once again, excellent. Rylan and I had peach-stuffed pork chops that were heavenly. Richard had a fish (I don't remember what kind) that was seasoned very well.

3. Madidi's in Clarksdale. This is the place that is co-owned by Morgan Freeman. The chef is fantastic. as appetizers, richard had a pierogi with leeks that he said were the best pierogi he's ever had (and he's had millions), while rylan had bbq shrimp on top of cheddar grits and both were very tasty. Ry and I both ordered filet mignon and Richard had fish. Everything here, down to the vegetables, was cooked perfectly and tasted wonderful.

a day late entry - but what an entry!

Oh. My. God. We could not have even planned this.

An all-day drive from New Orleans with lots of stops (to be explained below). We get in at our “hotel” – the Shack Up Inn (more below) – and the young guy who checks us in says, “Hey, you might want to go over to the Delta Blues Museum. They are having an opening tonight and Robert Plant is supposed to be there.”

Robert Plant? As in the lead singer of Led Zepplin?

We threw our luggage into our room and drove to the Museum. Hung around about ten minutes, and then ----- there he was! Robert Plant! Amazing. We didn’t approach him; too many other people from the museum had him cornered. So we just watched him. He only stayed ten minutes then he took off. But so what? We saw him! Stood a few feet away! One of the most important rock singers ever in the history of the universe!

The entire day was interesting, but that can’t be topped.

Regardless, here is the day. We left New Orleans early and headed to Baton Rouge, picked up Highway 61 there. 61 was a good drive. It went back and forth between being a two lane and a four lane road. Either way there was very little traffic. The road took us through small (very small) towns. We saw a very large tin rooster, a store that sold aluminum animals – life size aluminum animals. We drove through Natchez which has an old and beautifully restored downtown area; stopped here for lunch and ate excellent pulled pork at “The Pig Out Inn.” Walked from there to a park that overlooked the Mississippi River.

From there to Vicksburg – site of a major Civil War battle. Here the restored downtown was just exquisite. We only drove through, did not take the time to walk around. But we drove through twice. Then we drove to the Vicksburg Military Battlefield. After watching a film that explained the battle (land and sea, or rather river), we drove the 16 mile loop through battlefields.

Back on the road, heading for Clarksdale. The place we are staying in Clarksdale (or a few miles outside of Clarksdale) is the best place ever, that we have ever ever stayed in. The Shack Up Inn is made up of about 8 sharecroppers cabins. They look old and rundown on the outside, and they are funky yet fixed up on the inside. Lots and lots of stuff inside. Ours has posters of famous blues musicians, old license plates, an ancient refrigerator, funky rugs and quilts and more and more. Ry has photos. The entire complex is interesting. It all looks incredibly run-down and trailer-trashy, but it’s very cleverly put together. Y’all will have to see Ry’s photos when he gets them going on the net.

So then, after we saw ROBERT PLANT, we went to a restaurant in Clarksdale that was recommended by a woman at the museum. It as called Madidi and it is owned by Morgan Freeman. An excellent meal! I mean, really, considering that Clarksdale looks like a movie set for an abandoned 50’s town, this restaurant was top of the line.

And that’s it for one day! Yikes . . . Robert Plant.

swamp things!

i always wanted to see a bayou and i'm so happy we took the time to go on a swamp tour. the place was about 45 minutes out of New Orleans. there were 24 of us tourists on a pontoon boat. the tourists were from everywhere: australia, france and holland, besides a bunch of US people.

so we get on this boat and go upriver a little way, then turn into this narrower channel and immediately the water is covered in this green floaty plant, and the cypress trees are dripping with spanish moss. hey, it's like disneyland except it's real! it was very pretty and peaceful. the first wildlife we saw was a heron or an ibis - can't remember which but we did see a lot of both birds. then we came alongside a 5 foot alligator. the tour guide tossed out some marshmallows - turns out gators like marshmallows - and we watched it chomp. we moved on and were lucky to see the grandaddy alligator of the swamp. his name was Guapo and he was 14 feet long! he came right over to the boat and the tour guide put hot dogs on the end of a stick and he would eat them right off the stick. huge mouth! and it's really RIGHT THERE off the side of the boat.

a little further on and there was a young gator. our tour guide knew each one we saw, could tell from the markings who they were. he said, "this one likes to jump," and so he put a hot dog on the end of the stick, and held it out about 4 feet above the gator. the gator looked up, and then jumped, straight up out of the water! it was amazing. rylan got photos of it and we'll get those photos on the internet eventually. he did this 3 times so we got a good look at a leaping gator.

we went on, up and down the river and into other bayous. didn't see any more gators. saw lots of turtles, large and small. saw fish that jump out of the water and flop down against the surface (to rid themselves of parasites). saw Katrina damaged river homes. it was hot and humid, but not as bad on the water. oh, and it rained at one point as well, which felt good.

as we drove the freeway there and back we could see a lot of Katrina damaged homes. it's sad that there is so much devastation. it's been three years. we saw houses in fine shape right next to completely abandoned, dilapidated houses. lots of them. and this was just from the freeway. we could have, but didn't go into the Lower 9th Ward - it was too dangerous (there were 5 murders in the 9th ward just in the weekend we were here). but if we did go there, that's where the devastation is the worst.

the French Quarter, however, looks great and we are staying in it and not exploring outside of it too much. we did take a drive down St. Charles street which is lined with trees and incredibly beautiful southern mansions. also saw Tulane University ("Yes," says rylan as we pass, "I know that I could go there.").

dinner tonight and then we hit the road, heading up the Blues Highway, highway 61 towards Clarksdale Mississippi, home of the delta blues and the famous crossroads, where Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil. a little more music history.

humidity and the respite of museums

Okay, so it's in the 90s and it's humid. We tried to bravely go forward into the French Quarter anyway but we suffered for it.

After a mediocre breakfast, we walked and looked in store windows, wilting more and more. So we did two museums (because museums are not only interesting, they are air-conditioned). The first had a huge exhibit about Mardi Gras so it was very colorful and wild! I liked the sketches of costumes, like fashion drawings gone crazy.

The second museum had to do with the Louisiana Purchase - we walked through the room where it was signed - and then a special exhibit about the aftermath of Katrina. This was all photos and, needless to say, depressing.

(A tangent - it was REALLY weird when we drove into New Orleans the other day because we came past the Superdome; Rylan commented that it was an unhappy icon and we all felt sad to see it.)

We walked from there to the Mississippi River bank where we saw the port and lots of huge ships looking too big to go upriver, but they did. Walked around a little more and the humidity finally beat us down - we returned to the hotel. Later, Richard and I went on our own to two more museums. An 1850s house which was just what it sounds like. And the former US Mint, which had an extensive exhibit about Napoleon Bonaparte. Didn't think I was much interested in Napoleon, but it was educational (and air-conditioned).

Our hotel room is the perfect temperature, the local TNT station runs movies constantly so Ry can relax at the tv, and we hide out here until it is time to go do the next thing . . . out there in the heat.

Tonight is dinner at the Commanders Palace, supposedly the best restaurant in New Orleans, or the South or maybe even the United States! whatever. it will be good, it will be air-conditioned.

Tomorrow - a swamp tour!

a boring day

the drive from Memphis to New Orleans on highway 55 was immensely boring. Very tall green trees lining the road on either side - for miles and miles and miles. Whatever cute or odd or ugly buildings, towns, houses might have been out there, well, we never saw them. Just trees.

After about 5 hours of this (really!) we neared New Orleans and all of a sudden we were looking at swampland, or bayou. This was cool! This was interesting! The roadway was raised - really a bridge for about 35 miles - with water, swamp, trees, and an occasional house (how?) on either side of the road. Rylan and I looked for alligators but they are not easy to see when you are zooming past at 70 mph.

Made it into the French Quarter and man, it's more than I expected. The streets are narrower than I thought - really one car wide with a lane of parking down one side. All streets are one way - this is a good thing, since two cars could never get past each other. The wrought-iron railings are everywhere and the buildings feel like they lean in on the street. It's Saturday and the streets are packed with tourists. Bourbon Street was wild - I thought Nashville's Broadway with the honky-tonks was wild, then I thought Memphis' Beale Street was wild but clearly I didn't know what wild is! and this is at 5 p.m. - just wait until night time!

And it's really really humid. Really. Supposed to rain tomorrow, too.

rock and roll history lesson

okay, so there's this old-fashion public bus, and we get on and take a seat. and there is this guy sitting in the front facing us with a guitar. and he hands out tambourines and shakers and bongos. do you think richard and rylan were thrilled with this? nothing like a participatory tour bus! with only 6 customers on board, the guitar player/tour guide and the bus driver took us on a 2 hour tour of the music history of memphis.

yes, he sang and played guitar. a lot of the time - and we were expected to play tambourines along with him. we did! he was excellent - he played old blues, elvis songs, johnny cash songs, a lot of early soul songs. all in keeping with where we were at any point in memphis.

what did we see? well, there was the Sun Recording Studio where we went in and stood in the studio where Elvis recorded his first ever song, as did Johnny Cash (and many others). we drove past the apartment Elvis lived in when he was 13, and right down the street was the apartment BB King lived in when he was 19 - at the same time as Elvis . . . just a few years later they became friends down on Beale Street.

we drove past the apartment that Johnny Cash lived in when he first came to Memphis. we drove past Stax Records studio. We drove past (and sort of slowed down) the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King was killed. (we came back later in our own car, parked and got out to take photos. it is really EERIE to stand at the motel parking lot and look up at the walkway where he was shot.)

It was a great tour. the guide was really knowledgeable about Memphis and music history and i learned a lot. i don't know anyone who might be going to Memphis, but if you are - I highly recommend this tour! even if you have to play a tambourine while you ride in the bus.

Later, we visited the Memphis Rock and Soul Museum, which was more of the same. Not to say it wasn't interesting! We learned even more about Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash, plus people we have never heard of but who were influential in the music world.

all to say that Memphis played a huge role in modern music. The blues, soul music, and rock & roll all grew out of here, from gospel, country, jazz and the songs of sharecroppers.

thursday - a music day

we started by going to the Gibson Guitar store, just two blocks from our hotel and one block from Beale Street. here we admired guitars and then took a half-hour factory tour. this was much more casual than the Corvette tour, we kinda wandered around and were allowed to take photos. we saw the guitars all the way from flat pieces of wood, shaped, assembled, holes carved, necks added, paint and lacquer and then electronics. the tour guide told us that to work in the electronics section, you had to be a guitarist. while we were there, a couple of the technicians tested their guitars by playing some incredible blues riffs! rylan wants that job.

then we did what you have to do in Memphis: we went to Graceland. it was not at all what i thought. I thought it would be really crowded, i thought it would be a huge house, and garish and tacky to boot. it was kinda over the top in terms of decoration (animal fur couches and giant ceramic monkeys) but it also felt like someone really did live there. the highlight, i guess you can call it, was Elvis's grave. I'm not a big Elvis fan so I didn't get overwhelmed by it, but it was interesting to hear the people around us. one woman sat down and called a friend on her cell phone. "Wendy," she said, "I am sitting at Elvis's grave." Her voice lowered and she said, "Yes, I know. I know." and she shook her head and put it in her hand.

tonight we will possibly go hear more music - the blues at BB King's nightclub, or else just sit in the park and listen to the free concert that is going on all night.

the eatin' is good

to make your mouth water . . . here are some highlights of what we've had to eat so far:

chicago: morton's steak house: ahi tuna with ginger-miso sauce
also chicago, adobo grill: huachinango (red snapper) that richard said was the best he had ever had. i had pork medallions with a deep black mole sauce that was strong, intense and really good.

nashville, at Bricktop's (recommended by Taylor Swift and Kellie Pickler!): bbq chicken flatbread that was so good, the three of us sucked it up in seconds. i had a filet that was mouthwatering tender and the guys had sea bass with a ginger sauce.
nashville at Boundry: this was a tapas place, but we didn't go crazy. we did, however, have delicious shrimp and grits (holly! they were calling out to you!), and delicious pecan crusted trout.

memphis: rendezvous bbq place: bbq pork ribs with a dry rub, then add your own bbq sauce in hot or hotter.
memphis for lunch - a tacky little place with great fried catfish (not at all greasy) and hush puppies.

chickasaw, shiloh and beale street blues

We left Nashville on the Natchez Trace parkway, a highway built along a Chickasaw trail from Nashville to Natchez, Mississippi. A pretty drive with lots of green trees and a few turkeys, but no other wildlife (we kept looking!) and we stopped at a house built in 1805 on the border of the US and the Chickasaw nation.

then we went on to Shiloh military park - where a major Civil War battle was fought. over the course of two days the rebels pushed the union army back to the Tennessee river, then the next day, the union army pushed back and defeated the rebels. it was a really big park that we drove through and stopped at markers to show which general was standing where, and which direction the cannons were pointed. pretty cool for the first 8 stops, a little repetitive for the next 8. still, it brought the idea of the civil war alive for rylan.

next, into memphis. great hotel right off Beale Street and we immediately went to have bbq at a famous place in town. excellent bbq! we walked down to Beale street where it was closed off and lined on both sides of the street with Harleys. I don't know if it's always like that, or if this was a special night - we will find out tomorrow. anyway, I thought the honky-tonk-lined street in Nashville was crazy - this is crazier! MORE bars, MORE bands, plus bands who set up between buildings and play for free. These guys are all playing the blues and rock (lots of Jimi Hendrix imitators) and they are, to a person, incredible players. Real virtuosos on guitar. very crowded streets, guys yelling out to get you into their bars, the musicians, the harleys. a wild night!

tomorrow the Gibson guitar factory and Elvis's Graceland.

oh - and i was disappointed not to hear much in the way of southern accents while in Nashville, but now that we are in Memphis, i'm hearing plenty!

corvettes and country music

what an odd day! first we overslept, just kept sleeping and sleeping this morning. then we drove around Nashville to find a restaurant for breakfast but just couldn't, so we hit the road. the plan today was to drive BACK to Bowling Green (about 60 miles) and visit the Corvette museum. I have to explain why: Richard's brother-in-law, Bill, has a 1981 Corvette in perfect condition that he doesn't want any more - he's kept it for years - and he wants to give it to Rylan. Yikes! we have to think about it - where to store it, how much it will be to insure when we take it out of storage. not to mention how fast it goes! but it was a serious offer and we have to think about it seriously. anyway, that's why the museum became of interest. but BETTER than the museum was the factory! turns out that Corvettes are assembled in Bowling Green and they give tours of the factory. It was fascinating, we walked right through the assembly line, watched steering wheels being put on, welding done on the frame, seats put in, the body placed onto the chassis. all kinds of things. it's just so cool.

however, all this took longer than we thought. we got back to Nashville in time to change our clothes, get an early dinner and then head to the Grand Ole Opry. I have to say that all three of us went into the Opry with trepidation. none of us like country music. i wouldn't say we came out loving country music, but we came out with a huge appreciation for their musical talent. And there were some incredibly great performances. Jewel (remember her? used to do pop music?) Now she's country and she's great to listen to. Plus she sang an old folk song that had yodeling in it - and that girl can yodel! it wasn't silly or weird, just quite incredible. We also especially liked a bluegrass group called Cherryholmes - a family of two teens, two in their twenties, and the two parents. Best of all was the Charlie Daniels Band. i thought they would be tacky and dumb. they were the best thing! lots of energy (Charlie must be in his 70s) and amazing guitar and fiddle-playing. plus he played a song i actually love: "the devil went down to georgia."

yes, so that was our day - from corvettes to country music, plus one bad meal (Wendy's) and one good one (a tapas bar).

chicago to nashville

impressions after a seven hour drive:

Indiana has a big big sky, lots of cornfields, many semi-trucks on the highway, fluffy clouds, straight roads, not a single mountain - no, not a single hill in sight. it is VERY flat.

kentucky has rolling hills, more trees, just as many semis, curvier roads. we skirted around Louisville and saw it only from the freeway. at Bowling Green we pulled into the National Corvette Museum 15 minutes before they closed. we may go back tomorrow because it is 1 hour from Nashville, and there is an assembly plant there that we can tour.

Nashville: excellent restaurant - Bricktops - which i read about in Blender magazine and all the country music stars swear by it and they were right. great, great food. then we went to the old downtown which is all honky-tonk bars and a live band in every bar. these are right next door to each other. we couldn't go in with rylan (21 and older) but we could stand in the street and listen, and even watch. we heard a lot of good bands (well, good in a country, western or bluegrass kinda way). i thought it was really cool, and would like to have picked a bar, gone in and listened for a while. but ry couldn't go in, and didn't want to stand on the street, so we just walked around and listened until his teenage moaning outdid the music. so we are back at the hotel. s'okay. it's almost 11 p.m.

end of chicago

well, we walked Michigan Avenue, went out to the end of Navy Pier to look at the lake, toured Frank Lloyd Wright's home and studio, ate some really incredibly good Mexican food, shopped at my favorite designer outlet store and visited relatives. We also drove past Wrigley Field while a Cubs game was being played. Wrigley Field is SOOO cool, because it's a tiny ballpark, and it's semi-open on two sides. The buildings that face the Field set up bleachers on the roof and people sit up there to watch the games. Even just driving past, you can see the fans in the lower stands inside the Field. You could go to Wrigley Field while there is a game, you could not buy tickets, not go in, and yet still feel like you are part of the experience. It's really quite wonderful.

Tomorrow we are driving to Nashville and will enter country music territory. it's kinda scary!

la to chicago

okay a flight really isn't worth talking about. except that, for us beginning this "music trip" - well, there was a band on the plane! not anyone hugely famous, but it was a band called Sweet. They are famous for one song people might know: Ballroom Blitz. if you know this song, it will now be stuck in your head. i can say with certainty that the one band member who sat near us was blitzed - he had quite an array of tiny bottles of whisky on his table.

we also snuck into O'Hare through some very bumpy clouds and landed and retrieved our luggage . . . and then, just as we got outside to find the rental car bus, the skies opened up, it started pouring rain, and we watched the most magnificent lightning storm! rylan had never seen a midwestern display of lightning and this was really incredible. because the terrain is so flat, the sky is huge and the lightning bolts race across the sky from one side to the other. and, yes, we were glad our plane touched down just before all this happened!

dinner was our one extravagance - we ate at Morton's steakhouse, right next to our hotel (the Hard Rock Hotel, in keeping with the music theme of the trip). we had salmon, steak, ahi tuna - but the very best thing was this giant round pouf of bread they bring to the table at first. I could only sample a bite, but richard and rylan ate the entire thing. it was soft and fluffy and hot, with onion bits sprinkled on top. the best thing ever!

today - friday - we walk, shop and take photos while it's sunny. saturday is supposed to rain so that will be an indoor day, with the Frank Lloyd Wright house and possibly a museum or two.

on the road again

tomorrow is our summer holiday!

we fly to chicago, we rent a car, we drive to nashville, to memphis, to tupelo (honey), to new orleans and then back up highway 61 (revisited) to the crossroads at clarksdale and the follow the blues highway back to chicago.

i will attempt updates here, along with having to do my online writing class homework and keeping up with my favorite blogs.

According to the Dogs

According to the dogs, Aunt Isabel could do no wrong. She would lie on the floor and let them lick her hands and feet, nibble at her ears, spread themselves across her belly and take naps. Sometimes we’d come into the living room and there they would be, all of them asleep: Aunt Isabel and the three mutts. The sun would be slanting in through the window and they would all have their eyes slammed shut, smiles on all their faces, and slow regular breathing filling the space around them. When Aunt Isabel woke up, the dogs woke up too and they all stretched. Aunt Isabel would stand up and we would say, Aunt Isabel, you are covered in dog hair. She just laughed.

According to our great-aunt Sassy, Aunt Isabel has always been “muy loco” which may be a compliment because we are never sure with great-aunt Sassy. What we do know is that Sassy is entirely white and doesn’t speak any Spanish except for, we guess, muy loco. Sassy raised Aunt Isabel when her mother – Sassy’s sister – walked away. This was right after she injected the Mexican strain into the family by having relations with a very nice Mexican boy in the back of his car down at the end of the block where the vacant lot awaits all kinds of illicit activities. The Mexican boy was sent home to Mexico and Aunt Isabel’s mother gave birth and walked away. We are convinced she walked to Mexico, but we don’t know anything for sure.

According to our great-uncle Howard, Sassy and her sister were the ones that were muy loco. He adores Aunt Isabel and ever since she was a little girl he taught her everything he knows. Great-uncle Howard doesn’t know very much, being brain-damaged from something that happened in Vietnam, but still he taught her bird songs, folk songs, five chords on the guitar, whittling, composting, vegetable-garden growing, and sitting in a rocking chair to study the world. That’s what he did best and he told us that even as a little girl, Aunt Isabel could sit and watch the world as good as any man he knew. He told us this whenever we tried it, mainly to chastise us since we couldn’t sit still for any length of time. “How you gonna see the world change,” he would snort, “if you don’t sit still and watch for it?”

According to Aunt Isabel, the best way to be in this world is to dive in like it’s one big swimming pool and feel the sensations – warm or cold or salty. Aunt Isabel likes to dive into the neighborhood trash cans and come home with her treasures that we find meaningless, but she will cut the sleeves off a sweater and sew lace doilies on the shoulders and wear it proudly. She will return with several pieces of a rocking chair and reassemble it into a low-slung lounge chair that sort of rocks if you balance on it just right. Which she does, leaning back on it while she sits next to great-uncle Howard on the porch.

According to the police, Aunt Isabel is diving into things that are not trash cans, has taken to diving through kitchen windows or cellar doors that are not locked and roaming through houses to find more interesting treasure. According to the judge, Aunt Isabel will have to spend some time in a jail cell watching a limited part of the world go by and deprived of any treasures to refurbish. According to the guard that meets us during visiting hours, Aunt Isabel sits in her cell whistling bird songs and refusing to meet with us. Refusing to eat jail food because it is not freshly grown. According to the county’s lawyer, Aunt Isabel will have to be placed in a jail hospital bed and fed via tubes to keep her alive. We all know that no one can make Aunt Isabel do a single thing she doesn’t want to do, because she is muy loco. Great-uncle Howard shakes his head and says, “You can always see death in a man’s eyes just before the bullet hits him.” According to the county coroner, Aunt Isabel did not die of starvation or a heart attack. She just stopped living, he told us.

We lie down on the living room floor and let the dogs drape their furry bodies over ours so they can feel what it is we know and although it makes them sad, at least the dogs understand why Aunt Isabel won’t be coming home.

oh, no.

moar funny pictures

man, the caption does't fit.

second line -- "we are woofz"

one line poems

Nightfall

Foxes wait for sound beneath dark blue fire.



Rain

For a long time, raising skyward.






on itunes: violet hill - the new coldplay single. followed by pork and beans, the new weezer single.

selling your soul

i am reading Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe. i've never read any Marlowe and i have to say that i'm really enjoying this - his sense of humor and the intensity of Faustus in his big mistake.

Faustus asks Mephisophilis how is it that he (M) is out of hell. M replies, "Why this is hell, nor am I out of it."

so hell isn't a place to go to (and from) but if you are in hell, hell is where you are. a portable hell.

this reminds me of the gospel of Thomas, who reported that Jesus said something along the lines of "the kingdom of heaven is right here, but men do not see it."

so both heaven and hell are not elsewhere. they are here and now and it just depends on you to ascertain which one you exist in.

not that i believe any of this! whoa. no. but i find it all so fascinating and wouldn't have minded taking religious studies classes in college. from the philosophical perspective. yes. anyway, i have to get back to the play to see what happens of Faustus. last i read, he had just about destroyed the Pope.

on itunes right now: wickhead, an alt-rock group from south africa trying to make it here in LA/USA.

music, creativity and ticket sales

radiohead tickets! AARGH. okay, so i couldn't get tickets on the WASTE presale. I can try again on the KROQ presale and try again on the ticketmaster sale. but i'm supposed to get VIP tickets, although i was told they aren't confirmed until the week before the show. The week before? how can you be sure you will get to go?? now i have to buy tix and just hope the vip tix come through (better tix) and one way or another go to the show. jeez.

songs in my head. i have songs that i think about, my own melodies and random words, nothing that would stand up in the light of day, but it's an interesting creative endeavor, different from writing stories. i love the feeling of these original (i hope) melodies circling my head. it's such an ethereal art (music is) compared to the hard-copy of fiction, the words on the page. i wish i could really write music. i think it must be the very best thing in the world.

on itunes: well, it's crap, but "before he cheats" by carrie underwood. gotta nice hook.

bad title, good movie

"snow cake." if i had not seen a clip from this movie on tv, i never would have rented it. alan rickman is seeking redemption. sigourney weaver is a functional autistic woman who inadvertently provides that redemption. the music is mostly by broken social scene, although weaver dances in happiness to a 70's japanese song from a comedy show and it's like the best scene in the movie! i found the song through some difficult google work, and can now dance to it myself.

intrigued? it's called "notteru ondo" -- go for it in google!

however, on itunes right now: gram parsons (i'm re-living a musical genre i ignored at the time)

kids and blogging

tim footman just wrote about kids and blogs and literacy on the guardian website. read it - well, blogspot won't let me do a hyperlink today. so access his article via his own blog - go to my cool links on the right, click on "cultural snow" and access the article through tim's blog.

this is connected here, because i just started a blog for my students. because, oh, how i try to get them involved!

as we read slaughterhouse five, i assign a chapter to each student. that student is responsible for getting on the blog that i created and writing a critique/summary. all the other students in the class are then responsible for reading that entry and posting a comment about it and/or the book itself. we have just started, but the comments and entries are starting to come in, and i am - as always with these waverly students - impressed with their sincerity and their intelligent discussions of literature.

wanna read the blog? leave a comment here and i will separately send you the blog address - the students are worried about "strangers" getting on their blog and commenting. oddly, they don't mind this on their other internet activities.

on itunes: how embarrassing, a song from the current season of american idol. yes, i really like david cook's version of chris cornell's version of michael jackson's "billie jean." so i bought it. and i'm playing it. so what?

over-housed

like that title makes sense.

we have been plowing through the first three seasons of House and i have discovered a "house syndrome." that is, after we turn it off and get in bed, i lay in bed and catalog all the weird pains and odd feelings i have in my body, and start to worry that i have some rare disease or syndrome, one that will kill me if i don't find a doctor like House to diagnose me. really. going through this nightly ritual for weeks is wearing me down. so i WILL have an actual syndrome and it will strictly be a result of watching House too much!

i have been reading blogs all over the internet. my favorite new ones are complete time-wasters (like the others aren't?): The Sartorialist - a guy who takes pictures of well-dressed people; and Go Fug Yourself - two women who put up pictures of celebrities dressed in especially ugly outfits. sort of the yin and yang of fashion.

listening to Elliot Smith and feeling pretty proud of myself for just having donated over 200 books to the local library.

oh, the chinese character is, i am told, the character for happiness. i trust this is accurate.

American idyll?

okay, it seems that i have to say something about american idol. why? because they did not one, but two nights of beatles songs. butchered most of them, too. how can kristy lee, who looks like the honest truth of every blonde joke, have selected "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" based on the title? then she paid no attention whatsoever to the words and chirped along like it was happy time at the debutante's ball.

my ideal american idol show? all rockers. people who know what they are singing and don't sound like cruise ship entertainers doing it . . . although you know, one of Sting's early gigs was on a cruise ship! how completely weird is that?

then there is the fave game we play: what if -insert famous name here- sang on american idol? Bob Dylan? Simon's head would explode, while Paula would tell him he was unique. Thom Yorke? Randy would say, "pitchy, dawg." Paul McCartney would make it through but John Lennon would be dismissed in seconds. what a dumb game, really, but this points to the pervasiveness of american idol that i have such conversations with quite intelligent people. people otherwise not susceptible to pop culture.

me, i aspire to be salman rushdie who is infinitely smart AND completely dialed into pop culture.

on itunes right now: everybody's got something to hide except me and my monkey.

alice in what?

wonderland? i dreamed that alice had grown up and lives in our world, but a man comes to her door and abruptly takes her back to wonderland which is not doing too well without her. a very vivid dream with quite a lot of funny elements in it, so fortunately i was able to remember it and i ran to my computer and started typing. i am just beginning, but i have lots of ideas and i'm going to keep going. oh happy dream!

on itunes: maggie's farm, by bob dylan, sung by stephen malkmus

the dizzying effects of the stomach flu, or how jane austen became my role model

first day of the flu - in bed, barely coherent.

second day of the flu - on the couch, watching tv. "Becoming Jane" was available for viewing so i viewed it. and while i am not a huge fan of Austen's novels (i don't hate them, just don't love them), i -- in my post-fever stupor -- thought she herself was a wonderful role model. although i was heartbroken that she didn't end up with James McAvoy (or "Tom"), i liked to see how dedicated she was to her writing, sitting at her desk early in the morning and scribbling and cutting and scribbling some more. so when i have a bit of energy back, i too will sit and scribble. or rather, tap away at the keyboard.

but i wish she had gotten together with James McAvoy.

loving books

a wishy-washy title for this blog, but oh well. i just returned from the book store where i bought nearly $200 worth of books. These are all books that i have used in my teaching, and i am donating them to the school's silent auction. Titled "Required Reading" I am hoping some parent thinks they MUST have all these books! Here's the funny thing: I have read them all, most of them more than once, some innumerable times, and yet as I bought them, I was excited. I wanted to get them all home and read them again.

i will also add, however, that the store was filled (duh) with LOTS of books I have not read and it was very hard not to succumb to the purchase of those intriguing titles. (I did succumb a little - i bought two books for me to read).

for the curious....Required Reading includes: Number 9 Dream, Beowulf, Grendel, East of Eden, Howard's End, The House of Mirth, Love Medicine, Kafka on the Shore, Going After Cacciato, and Midnight's Children. there might be a few others, i can't remember at the moment.

hope someone bids on it and goes home happy.

impatience of the sky

i am reading julius caesar with my students and while it is not my favorite shakespeare play, there are some beautiful lines in it, including the phrase i used as the title of this blog. and which will become the title of a short story.

speaking of short stories - in my pathetic attempt at a segue - i had "rhinos" rejected by the New Yorker, no surprise there, and by Glimmertrain WITH a nice note of regret. will try other places. i have a story out to Zoetrope, and need to get back to sending others. i found/unearthed a whole passel of stories and three of them, with some revision, could be viable. another task. why can't stories just spring from my brain onto the page without the intermediate step of typing them? ah, then we could all be great!

regarding the world outside my own head: i am thrilled beyond measure that so many young people in Oxnard have honored the 15 year old boy shot for being gay, with memorials and flowers and in all kinds of ways. that's a huge outpouring of compassion. and the best part is, the kids are doing all this on their own, without adults creating the circumstances for them.

Man of La Mancha

the school's drama class did man of la mancha today and it was quite fabulous. i have never seen this musical and didn't realize what a great story it is. i like the frame story - Cervantes in prison telling the story to the prisoners. soooo, i need to work on my own novel that is a frame story - a music journalist writing about a rock group, but it's really the story of the group and not about the journalist....

i am rooting for obama, and i can make an easy connection between him and don quixote. not that he is tilting at windmills but that he sees the world for what it can be.

this is a weak post! perhaps because the superbowl is on and i'm half watching and not really writing. so i'll post this anyway and watch the superbowl and write something better another night. maybe i'll wait and see what happens on election night.

The Pixies

how could i have missed this band? what happened to me way back then that i didn't hear them? they are so cool. i only decided to listen to them because so many new bands cite them as an influence. somehow, i thought they were the same as that other jam band (not gateful dead, the more current one.....the one whose name i can't remember right now). but they aren't - i can see their influence on Weezer, Nirvana, Radiohead, Arcade Fire, and many more.

jeez... what else did i miss?

Death and the new year

(photo: cemetary in Kyoto, Japan. August 2007)

this is how to start the new year - thinking about death. i am working on a novel about six people, all of whom had a loved one die in some way that was distressing (more so than a normal death). what a fun time i have writing this! jeez. i keep Radiohead's song, Videotape, in mind. listen to it. a sweet, sorrowful love song about one's own death. in typical radiohead fashion, it is both depressing and redemptive at the same time.

on itunes right now: Juliet Turner - an Irish folksinger - singing the britney spears hit, Toxic.