List of Books I Thought Looked Interesting Several Months Ago...

This morning while cleaning off our desk I found a list of books/authors/illustrators I'd written down while browsing some bookstores at the coast. The list is below - I'm throwing the paper away right now. I remember very little about any of these, so if anyone has any input on their worthiness, do tell...

Suite Francaise
The Meaning of Night
Saturday (Ian McEwan)
Home From the Vinyl Cafe
Delectable Mountains (Michael Malone)
The Box of Delights (Christmas, Children's)
The Invention of Hugo Cabret (1/2 graphic novel)
Lisbeth Zwerger - illustrator - lots of books
Trees as a Theme (doubletrouble-ent.com)
To Say Nothing of the Dog (Carrie Willis)
On Angel Wings (Quentin Blake)
"Stylising Pattern"
Sashiko

San Francisco Notes: Navigating My Imagination*

* The title of the Joseph Cornell exhibit at SF MOMA which was the impetus for my trip was “Navigating the Imagination.” So, yes, this blog post title is almost 100% stolen.

It’s been over a month since my fairytale trip to San Francisco (getting to see the major Cornell exhibit, traveling with someone who actually wanted to go to thrift stores, seeing an art show about book covers, etc. etc. etc.) and I have yet to go back and find the books, websites and artists I made notes about. Here - do it with me (and enjoy some stories on the way):

• Reading the New York Times (Friday, 10/26) all the way through while waiting for my flight out of PDX. Things from various articles I wrote down:
- www.carstennicolai.de
- L.A. artists Amir Zaki, James Welling, Catherine Opie, Matt Mullican
- David Lynch to his actors: “You are solid.”
- Sleepwalkers video by Doug Aiken projected on the side of NYC MOMA
- Ghiberti’s “Gates of Paradise” will be at the Seattle Art Museum in the next year- and won’t leave Italy again after
- Mary Cassatt drypoint/aquatint print “Gathering Fruit”
- “Staring Back” photos at Peter Blum Chelsea gallery by Chris Marker. Films of his?

• From AIGA 50 Books/50 Covers exhibit at Chronicle Books HQ:
- Robert Polidori: After the Flood

• At the AIGA event, running into a woman in a red hat and cape we had chatted with earlier that day during an incredibly crowded, rowdy bus ride. Turns out she’s the co-founder of the San Francisco Center for the Book.

• The Ferry Building in general as a wonderful wonderland of incredible food. Especially Brianna’s Corner’s Custard Bomboloni and just about anything from Boulette’s Larder.

• Seeing a guy at the crowded farmer’s market and thinking - I think that’s Rena’s husband. But no, I’m sure it’s not - I’ve only seen, like, two pictures of him on flickr. Then asking Rena later in the day if Derek had been in the market that morning, to which she replied, “Yeah, did you see him?” to which I replied, “Yeah, I totally did.”

• Also at Rare Device, running into Susan Stars, a fellow Portlander and national craft celebrity. I’d brought a few of my necklaces along on the trip with the thought of giving one or more away to people if the occasion presented itself. There it was. That was neat.

• The engulfing, spectacular, and magical rooms at SF MOMA where I saw more things by Joseph Cornell all in one place than I’ll probably ever see again in my life. And the accompanying ginormous book has the most beautiful reproductions of his work I’ve ever seen. Yes, I bought it.

• From one of the curator’s placards in the Joseph Cornell exhibit:

“European royalty and affluent professionals from the 1500s to the 1700s gathered works of art, illustrated texts and maps, coins, scientific devices, seashells, and other natural specimens from around the world to create "cabinets of curiosities." Dense arrangements in drawers, chests, and glass-fronted cases in private chambers suggested a collector's highly personal view of the cosmos in miniature. Like his European counterparts, Cornell assembled elements in a matrix of metaphors designed to incite wonder, curiosity, and contemplation about the physical and spiritual interrelationship of man and nature.

Cornell also absorbed his family's Victorian sensibility of gathering and recycling things as talismans of ‘what else were scattered and lost.’ Well-furnished Victorian homes featured ‘art corners’ with assorted natural and cultural souvenirs displayed on shelves or in curio cabinets. For the first time in Western culture, children were encouraged to collect as an educational activity, and their containers of personal treasures were dubbed ‘schoolboys’ museums.” In combining the traditions of two eras, Cornell expressed his appreciation of curiosity as an ongoing and intimate pursuit of knowledge and experience.”

Read more text from the exhibit here.

• Books mentioned in the exhibit as being influential for Cornell at some time in his life that seem worth finding out more about:
- The Riddle of Emily Dickinson
- Ann of Oxford Street

• My own note: “Love of birds: willingness to accept on a deep level the otherness of animals.”

• On a crowded elevator, listening to an SF MOMA tour guide recount a story about the first group she ever led, which was comprised of senior citizens: “'I think we can fit everyone on the elevator - I don’t want to lose anyone.' To which a voice in the back corner of the elevator replied, ‘There are a few people I wouldn’t mind losing.’”

• Books at the SF MOMA store:
- Tico and the Golden Wings
- Stones, Bones & Stitches
- The Art Book for Children
- Pre-Zolo
- Reading Women
- The New Earth From Above
- Living Artfully
- Punk House
- The Plentitude, Rich Gold
- Wabi Sabi
- Foolsgold
- Atlas Schmatles
- Picturing & Poeting
- The Age of Feminine Drawing
• Notes from the SF Museum of Art & Craft
- Book: Celebrating Modern Art: The Anderson Collection
- Book: The Arts & Crafts Movement in California
- Artist: Squeak Carnwath
- Web: hirokokurihana.com
- Artist: Marcie McGoldrick - ceramics

• Made note of the name “Marie Watts” ?

• A Coloring Book For the Lazy by Harriet Russell - seen at Rare Device in “Play Pen” a book featuring children’s illustrators.

• In the Castro District, trying to get to Tartine Bakery and having major navigational challenges. Forced to get breakfast at the nearest location or face fainting/escalation of crankiness. Ending up at Little Orphan Andy’s, the hangout of pretty much exclusively gay men. One of the waiters was wearing a utilikilt, S&M suspenders, and a black leather belt with the word NUDIST spelled out in silver studs. Despite being outsiders, we were treated with extreme kindness by our waiter, who referred to his customers as “my darlings,” “my pumpkins,” etc. We were referred to as “gentlewomen.” I’ll take it. Laurie took a picture of the menu.

• Seeing the Darjeeling Limited at the Sundance Kabuki Theater in Japantown.

• Looking hard for a particular store that held the promise of being like walking though a Jospeh Cornell box , being disappointed with the reality of it then stumbling on Yone Beads (thanks to Laurie's keen eye), without a doubt the most magical and amazing bead store I've even been in. Yone Beads was like being in Joseph Cornell's basement workshop - special trinkets and colors and history everywhere.

Truly amazing trip. Good thing I scheduled in all that serendipity.

Book List For Baby Expecters, Recent Baby-Havers and Baby Shower Gift Buyers

For a while I've e-mailed around a list of books I found to be particularly helpful during the time just before, and for the year after I had a baby. And for a long while I've thought hey, wouldn't it be convenient if I could just send people to a link on Amazon wherein each of these books could be looked at easily? So here it is: Taking Care of You and Your Baby: Humor, Spirit and Good Information. (The Listmania! creation interface on Amazon has been greatly improved since the last time I tried to do this. So there's nothing stopping you from doing your own, you know.) Turns out I have great taste: each of the books on the list received at least four stars from reviewers. So you don't have to just take my word that it's good stuff.

So anyone expecting a baby, or just having just had a baby, or anyone having to think of something good to buy someone expecting a baby or having just had a baby is invited to go take a look.

That's a lot of times to type baby.

Why I Love The Internet

Sometimes Music..., originally uploaded by Poundstone.

From: Stephen Lamb
To: jpoundstone
Date: Apr 6, 2007 6:21 PM
Subject: Jeffrey Overstreet / Bill Frisell

Jessica,

I found your website after reading Jeffrey Overstreet's book where he
quotes you about music healing "a million little broken things you didn't even know needed attention." I wanted to tell you that I love that quote and agree with it 100%.

I work in the music industry in Nashville, and this week I got to do some work for a concert Bill Frisell played with the Nashville Chamber Orchestra's String Quartet. After the concert last night, I told him about your quote, and he loved it. He said he wanted to see the quote and drawing, so I just sent him the link to it on Flickr.

Here's my blog post where I wrote about it after reading that chapter in Jeffrey's book: http://www.jslweb.com/blog/?p=112.

Thanks,
Stephen Lamb
www.jslweb.com

Judging A Book By Its Statistically Improbable Phrases

Trying to find the URL for a blog a friend of mine just started, and which she calls "The Story Girl," (I eventually did find it; it's here) I ran across a mention of the novel of the same name by L.M. Montgomery of Anne of Green Gables fame. Curious about the book, I popped over to Amazon, where I noticed something I'd never seen before. Along with other book information, there was a list of "Statistically Improbable Phrases" (SIP) found within the book. Now that's what I call good times! (Yep, nearly 100% nerd.)

Here is the list of SIP for "The Story Girl": "cherry vase, timothy roots, bad berries, proud princess, blue chest, magic seed, awkward man, hired boy, bitter apples, spruce wood, magic lantern show, liver pills, family ghost."

With a list like that, imagine the possibilities of this service for blog names, band names, poem titles, short story subjects....etc. etc. etc.!

You can also click on any one of these phrases to see where they appear in other books. (Book bunny trails!) "Magic lantern show" appears in a book titled "Wonder Shows: Performing Science, Magic, And Religion In America," by Fred Nadis; "blue chest" is also referenced in "Blue's Checkup" by Sarah Albee - a book about the dog from the children's television show "Blue's Clues," and "cherry vase" appears in a book called "Spindle Turning" by Fine Woodworking Editors.

It proved a bit difficult to find other listings that included the SIP. (Looks like SIPs are only available for those books that include the "Search Inside" icon in their listing, which makes sense. But a "search inside" notation did not necessarily mean SIP had been noted.) I did find a few, though. For Don Delillo's "White Noise": "airborne toxic event, stadium steps, radiator cover, toxic cloud, feathery plume." For Michael Chabon's "Kavalier and Clay: "comic book business, luna moth, blue tuxedo, secret circle, magic shop." And for a book titled "Perspectives On Richard Ford" by Huey Guagliardo: "southern novel, marginal people and ultimate good luck."

Forget about judging books by their covers, I'm going to start judging them by their statistically improbable phrases. And with its "family ghost," "awkward man," and "timothy roots," "The Story Girl" by L.M. Montgomery is now on my to-read list.

Wonder Collecting

Shadow Sophie
Originally uploaded by Poundstone.

I’m a little bit freaked out about the upcoming year in Sophie’s life. I waited to read about developmental stuff until after she turned one, and it seems perhaps I should have read it earlier so as to prep myself for what may lie ahead. In a nutshell, lots of willfulness, so-called “negativism,” and a desire to do everything by herself, whether she can or not, whether it’s safe or not, etc.

I recently ran across I book I bought but hadn’t picked up for a while, “Mothering as a Spiritual Journey.” Flipping through it, I saw the chapter heading “Ages One-Four: The Crisis of Trust/The Marvels of Understanding and Readiness” and dug in. This book is a bit of a mixed bag – some of it is too mystical for my practical brain to absorb. But there were some wonderful insights, truths, and just plain lovely things in there. Here are those from this chapter that seem like they’ll be important to me:

Discussing our view of toddlers, and how we often view them as “bad” because they threaten our adult sense (illusion) of control, Linthorst reminds, “The toddler is not a “will machine” but an expression/discovery machine…All that is going on in them, physiologically and mentally, is urging expression, the exploration of both their physical capacities and of the separate-self sense.” (63)

On the need to remember that children (and adults) are spiritual beings: “Spiritual seeing transforms human identity into spiritual identity in both the seer and the seen.” (67)

“The belief that our role is to be managers (of our children’s behavior) puts us on the defensive, against our children, and this creates the crisis of trust. We know we cannot trust them, and we are afraid we cannot trust ourselves. This crisis can be resolved only by understanding. Trust cannot be forced. We cannot make ourselves trust something we do not understand. And it is very difficult for us to understand when we think our task is to be managers of behavior.” (68)

Linthorst goes on to explain, “Understanding is defined as ‘the clear perception of the meaning of something.’ The first level of trust is to trust that something understandable is going on, even if we don’t know yet what it is. That trust leads us to take the time to consider what is happening and gives us a beginning sense of dominion that helps us to be open to solving the problem through intelligence rather than force.” (68)

A reminder to “invite inspiration” into our lives about how to care for and understand our children (page 68) and that “love and understanding are inseparable.” (73)

Under the subhead “The Marvel of Readiness”: “Readiness refers to the sense of an inner timetable, which we noticed in the first year. It suggests that when children are ready to move on to the next stage, be it physical, mental, emotional or behavioral, they will do so. It says, in essence, that nothing needs to be forced. Just knowing that is an enormous liberation to parents.” (76)

A further explanation: “Readiness is the principle that reveals to us that no positive step needs to be forced. Parents cooperate with readiness by providing opportunities for their children to experience and express what they are ready for.” (77)

“At no other age are children as ready, willing, and able to look at things with wonder as they are in their toddler and preschool years…The daily activities become a kind of wonder-collecting, because so many small details are new and interesting to the young child’s expanding awareness.” (80)

“Our children provide us with so many opportunities to notice that the ultimate, priceless goods of Life are ‘just at hand.’” (81) “I am the God who is near, says the Lord God, and not a God afar off.” (Jer. 23:23)

Linthorst’s child ran his first race, in which he came in last, and looked pretty silly during it. She was embarrassed for him, and was ready to console him when he came over to her after the race. Trying to think of what to say, she was instead greeted by a wall of chatter from her son excitedly bragging about having run his first real race with a real starting gun and blocks and everything. Linthorst writes: “The innocence of his response stunned me. The discrepancy between his sweet enthusiasm and my self-centered parental concerns with how he and I looked in other people’s eyes made me ashamed…I felt myself to be the unworthy recipient of a very great gift.” (82)

“We ‘live and move and have our being’ in Something far bigger and better than we are usually aware of.” (85) Children can help us remember this if we let them.

Hearing Richard Ford Read

Night Driving 19
Originally uploaded by Poundstone.

Every time I hear Richard Ford read it’s a memorable and enriching experience. His last reading at Powell’s downtown was no exception. Here are some of his words and thoughts. Oh, and his wardrobe is always exciting too. Last time he was wearing crazy socks. This time, the collar of a royal purple shirt peeked out over the round neck of his Kelly green cotton sweater.

“At 62 I thought I was going to get all the way to death without glasses.”

Start of a thought on the presidential election of 2000, the time period in which his new book Lay of the Land is set: “In 2000, which eventuated into the shitmess we have now…”

About the novel as a concept: “In its plodding, persistent way, it can make magic.”

On why to read: “[Through literature] we renew our sensuous and emotional life, and learn a new awareness”

How he keeps writing: “There’s a ruthlessness. No, I’m going to do this, and not do this.”

Advice for writers: “Take it seriously. Be lucky. Tell yourself, ‘I’m doing what Chekov did. I’m doing what Flaubert did.’ Write about the most important thing you know.”

Most memorable and helpful criticism, from Walter Clemens, book critic for Newsweek: “You have a great sense of humor. This book partakes of none of it.” The lesson he took from it, and passed along to other writers: “Invent books that draw more on your character.”

Knowing his writing methodology could be useful for others, so they know “how one person did one thing.”

His methodology: Spend a year collecting material; put everything in a notebook (usually around 250-300 pages typed). The notebook is divided into sections for characters, places, etc. For his new book, there was a section on Frank, Ann, New Jersey, real estate, etc. Once all the pages are organized, read through the notebook and try to find the book. Some passes are all about finding the theme. He may go back to the notebook two or three times a day and re-read every word.

Conversation Today

Held by adults Ben and Patrick about Sophie, who is 11 months old, and her book-related habits:

Ben: Sophie loves books, but she's not much interested in reading them. She'd rather just look through them.

Patrick: Yeah...me too.

A Jewelry Project Of Mine In A Real Live Book...

A Jewelry Project Of Mine In A Real Live Book...
Originally uploaded by Poundstone.

Thorugh a series of fortuitous connections, I was invited to contribute a project to the book Craftivity. Based on the sample pages I've seen, it's a really beautiful production. I guess that's what you get when the editor is also a designer : ) More information is here. Hope you get to see a copy, and like what you see!

Overwhelming Beauty All Around

Succulent Planters
Originally uploaded by Poundstone.

• Trees beginning to turn colors - marking one year in the place we live and Sophie's first Fall

• Werner Herzog's film "The White Diamond" - the music, the long looks at unexpected details in amazing landscapes, the way the people who live in Guyana see the beauty they're surrounded by...that Werner Herzog is using his considerable powers to make a film like *this* makes my heart surge with joy. Is that enough of a recommendation?

• Finding dozens of shiny, mahogany chestnuts in the street a block away from my house (any tips on what to do with these little jewels?)

• More films: Little Miss Sunshine, The Chorus, Tony Takitani, Mass Games

• These succulents (above) ready for their photo opportunity on our neighbors' porch

• After months of not doing it, finally cutting roses and hydrangeas from our plants and bringing them inside

• Finishing Carol Drinkwater's "The Olive Farm." I loved her in the role of James Herriot's wife on "All Creatures Great and Small. I looked her up recently to find that she's written three books about renovating a dilapidated olive farm in the south of France with her husband; "The Olive Farm" is the first in the series. The book should have had some serious editing help, but the storyline is mostly there, and it's easy to get carried away by her rapture for the place: the olive, flowering almond and orange trees; the ever-changing view of the "Med," happy dogs and geckos and foxes running around; a crystal clear pool to dip into; whitewashed walls of a writing room; blue shutters and red geraniums outside the front door....etc.

• Amazing light here the last few days - warm, bright, promising...

Nose In Book

Nose In Book
Originally uploaded by Poundstone.

Another one from the vault. Powells was having an essay contest back in July of 2004, the topic of which was to be "the most memorable books you’ve read in the last 10 years." I never entered, but I did write these bits and pieces and came up with the title "Books I’ve Kept With Me"

* * *
The most memorable books I’ve read in the last ten years were the ones I quite literally couldn’t put down. First of all, I didn’t want them to end. I inflicted serious self-torture, reading only a few pages a day once I reached the final chapters, wanting to stay in the world of the book just a few more days, weeks. Then, once I’d finished the books, I wanted to keep them near me, on my person. I carried them around in knapsacks, purses; kept them in my car, on my desk at work. To glance at their covers was to revel for a few delicious moments back under their spell.

* * *
Grapes of Wrath was the first "classic" I read without anyone telling me to. I think I was a sophomore in high school. I expected it to be boring; instead I was enthralled. It was the first time I realized I could learn about history by reading novels. It also prompted this exchange in the bleachers of a gym, waiting for my high school team to hit the court and compete for a state championship. A kid behind me leaned over my shoulder: "What are you doing?"
"Reading a book"
"Why?"
"For fun."
"I never read a whole book in my life," he proclaimed, beaming at his friends.
"I’m not sure I’d be so proud of that," I demurely replied and went back to my world of dust and endless highways.

* * *
Salinger’s Nine Stories was a revelation. I’d read Catcher in the Rye in high school because I wasn’t supposed to, but its lack of shocking material was disappointing, and it didn’t make an impression. But as soon as I started reading Nine Stories, many years later, I was engulfed. If I got a tattoo, it might be of the cover of this book. Or of a bananafish.

Tranquility

Tranquility
Originally uploaded by Poundstone.

This picture shows how I would like to be feeling, how I will focus on trying to feel. When I tell people everything that's going on in my life (baby due in November, moving in two weeks from a house to an apartment, working full time, running the jewelry business on the side, Ben's quest to find a full-time teaching job next year, etc.) they look at me like I should be a basket case. But I'm not. At least not all the time. Not yet anyway. At some point, when you realize you truly have no control over the majority of the circumstances in your life (and when you trust that the Big Guy Upstairs does) it's just hanging on to that trust, that reassurance that's the trick.

Yesterday morning I was reading part of a Henri Nouwen (professor at Harvard, Yale, and Notre Dame, author, lecturer, priest) book called Bread for the Journey. He talked about the fact that our emotional lives are rollercoaster rides, subjecting us to huge ups and downs. This is part of being human. But our faith - and a right view of the world and our own lives - comes from our willingness to return again and again to the well of prayer and reading the word. The truth we can find in these simple acts has does not depend in any way on how we feel. I'm finding myself really latching onto this idea, and finding it to be immeasurably comforting.

Fogged View

Fogged View
Originally uploaded by Poundstone.

I’ve recently realized that I habitually visualize doing things before I do them. (Not everything, but certain things, like running errands, starting projects, work-related stuff, etc.) So, for instance, in order to decide whether or not I will go grocery shopping, I try to envision myself making the list, driving to the store, pushing a cart down the aisle, driving home and putting the groceries away. This all happens in a flash, but there are actual images in my mind. If I can imagine myself completing all these steps, then I’ll go. If I can’t, I’ll put it off until I can see myself doing the thing.

Strangely, if the vision is not crystal clear, the trip/project/errand is probably not going to happen. Like the other day, when I was having a hard time imagining myself actually grocery shopping after a long day at work, I came home to find that Ben had already done it.

On the rare occasions when I force myself to do something despite being unable to imagine myself doing it, things don’t turn out well. Little things start going wrong, things take longer than they should, I start getting supercranky, etc.

I don’t know if this visualization thing has something to do with intuition, or what. I can’t even pinpoint when I started doing it. What I do know is that it requires a certain kind of energy. And if I’m exhausted, mentally or physically, I can’t envision myself doing anything. Even things that I really, really should be doing. And that’s where I’ve been for the last few weeks. So instead of continuing to be freaked out by it, I’m realizing I might want to take it as a sign that I should find ways to kick back for a while, and try getting a deeper kind of rest for mind and soul.

* * * * * * * * * *

This realization may have been directly caused by a book I recently skimmed: "Seven Kinds of Smart." Visualizing things is related to being "picture smart." Other kinds of smart included in the book are things like "word smart," "music smart," "logic smart," and "people smart."

I don’t know much about multiple intelligence theories, but this book was fascinating. You suspect that your mind, the little world you build in your head and live in, isn’t exactly like everyone else’s mind, but this book really shines a light on other people’s mind-worlds. For instance, one of the questions for determining whether you are "music smart," is "do you often have a tune in your head?" Well, of course! Doesn’t everyone? No? Really? To determine whether you are "word smart": "do you say words in your head while reading or writing?" Uh, yeah! Not everyone does that? Seriously?

Now, you don’t have only one kind of intelligence. But it becomes pretty clear pretty quick which ones you have. Reading the chapter about "logic smart" was like visiting a foreign land. But one of the best parts of the book is that it doesn’t leave you in despair: it offers ideas and activities to help you develop intelligences you are less gifted with. Though, admittedly, the options for developing logic and number intelligences are not terribly appealing to someone who is mostly good with words. I’m not sure I’m ready to trade in my crosswords for logic puzzles just yet. But at least I know there’s potential for improvement and how I might go about it.

Return Of Spring Collaborative Coloring Book Is Here!

Return Of Spring Collaborative Coloring Book Is Here!
Originally uploaded by Poundstone.

It's here!! The "Return of Spring" Collaborative Coloring Book has arrived, and it is *so* fun! Another huge thanks to everyone who sent in pictures. Now for fun round 2: anyone who's intrested in receiving a copy of the coloring book just send me a note and I'll send it to you (it's a PDF file). In exchange, color one of the pictures, post the colored version on your site, and add a link in the comments section of this entry. Fun awaits...

Collaborative Coloring Book Call for Submissions - One More Week!

Collaborative Coloring Book: Call for Submissions!
Originally uploaded by Poundstone.

Here's the info on the "Return of Spring" Collaborative Coloring Book project. I've gotten a lot of fun entries so far and there's plenty of room for more. What I don't have yet are any *activities* - connect the dots, mazes, etc. So if you're so inclined....

1) Send me your jpeg file (around 400 x 400 pixels, no larger than 2,000 kb) of a black-and-white picture at jpoundstone-at-gmail-dot-com. Make the subject line Coloring Book Contribution. Just one each for now please! Your submission can be a drawing,or it can be a connect-the-dots, a maze, or a puzzle - you decide! Not being able to draw is *not* a good excuse not to participate!

2) Last day for sending stuff will be Monday, February 28

3) I'll compile images, and then send an electronic copy of the book (as a PDF) to everyone who submitted a picture. I may reduce or enlarge your work to fit pages, but will not change it in any other way. I'll also give you credit (of course!!) and include your URL if you'd lke.

4) Since by the time everyone gets a virtual copy of the coloring book it will be March, let's have the theme be The Return of Spring.

5) Once everyone has their copy of the coloring book in March, everyone will be coloring pages...let's plan to put up at least one colored-in picture on each of our sites during the month of March.

Their Laughter Filled The Air

Their Laughter Filled The Air
Originally uploaded by Poundstone.

Part of the wonderfulness of the Internet is interacting with -- not just reading or looking at the work of -- other artists. This is a picture I made for a swap with Cynthia Korzekwa - an enhanced version of it now lives in Rome!

In the spirit of interacting - and given the many amazing art-based collaborations going on on the Web - I've decided to throw my hat in the ring and spearhead a project of my own: a Collaborative Coloring Book. Details are over at my site on Get Crafty. Take a look, and definitely be in touch if you want to participate.

I can't tell if you would have to like Bob Dylan or not to enjoy his book. (Personally, I adore the guy.) But what I can tell you is that I'm only about 60 pages in, and I've already got about 12 little passages I've fallen in love with. Including: "I began cramming my brain with all kinds of deep poems. It seemed like I'd been pulling an empty wagon for a long time and now I was beginning to fill it up and would have to pull harder."

Stuff I’m Thankful For

Yep, the requisite list of thankfulness, only two days late.

* Going to France soon
* Mr. Horvat wrote me back
* Learned a lot about my graphics program
* Started making jewelry that I really, really like (if I do say so myself)
* Love my church
* Dogs are healthy and happy (as far as I can tell)
* English Breakfast tea with lots of milk and sugar (okay fake sugar, but still)
* French movies
* Our computer was not completely killed and I did not lose all my files
* Making copies of my files on disk
* Drawing
* Sakura travel watercolor set
* Sketchbooks
* So many colors out there
* Fotolog
* Books: Wishcraft & Teenage Liberation Handbook
* Strange coincidences and mysterious ways
* All things about Ben (the guy I’m married to) – especially the fact that he makes me laugh *every single day.*
* That two of my close friends moved back to town and that we still like each other
* Movie: Coffee & Cigarettes
* Illustrators' Web sites
* Singer Laura Veirs -- especially her new one Carbon Glacier: crikey, it is so so wonderful, and the artwork is just crazy good
* Live music in general, and the Wilco show at the Roseland Theater here in Portland in particular

So much other stuff too. It’s been a really, really cool year.

I met a girl, Sarah, at a party; she told me about the thesis she was working on. A few days later, I came across a newly-published book of photography that dealt with the same rather obscure subject. I tried a number of ways to find Sarah's e-mail address online to write to her about the book. Not finding it, I figured I’d get in touch with the host of the party to get her address.

The very next day I decided to go to a coffee shop near my office, one I hadn’t been to in years. I took a window seat. And from my seat, I saw Sarah walk by. I was too stunned to say anything through the open window in front of me. I thought, well, on the astronomically low chance that she walks back by, I’ll say her name. And, wouldn’t you know it, half an hour later, she did walk back by, and I did say her name, and she came inside and I told her about the book.

To add the final implausibility to the story – the one that your fiction-writing teacher would say you couldn’t put in there even if it was real because it was just too cute – she mentioned that, in addition to her thesis, she was also working on a documentary. “On what?” I asked. “Chance meetings,” she replied.

1) If I hadn’t talked to Sarah at the party, I would not have noticed the book that related to her thesis. 2) If I hadn’t agreed to try help a photographer get featured in a national magazine, I never would have seen the magazine that the book was featured in. 3) If I hadn’t decided to go to that particular café at that particular time of day, and if I hadn’t chosen a window seat, I never would have seen her. 4) If she hadn’t taken the exact same path to get back to her car, I would never have seen her the second time. 5) If she had never found out about the book…well who knows? Maybe it will turn out to be crucial to her work, maybe not.

It’s exciting to think of encounters with people as scattering seeds. You can’t know what people do with information you give them; you can’t know what you’ll do with information they give you. It’s strange and wonderful to think that one (seemingly) random encounter with a person can change – maybe not everything – but a lot. For both of you. And slight changes in direction can eventually get a person on a whole new path.

I’ve been reading Nabokov’s Lolita. In a way, I’m sorry to like it as much as I do. Nabokov has a poet’s laser beam on reality; a way of illuminating words and ideas that I’m used to seeing in poetry, not prose. The problem is that I’m diappointed Nabokov would use his considerable talents to plumb the depths of this particular kind of depraved mind and then, when asked why he chose the subject (by a BBC reporter in 1962), to reply:

“It was an interesting thing to do. Why did I write any of my books, after all? For the sake of the pleasure, for the sake of the difficulty. I have no social purpose, no moral message; I've no general ideas to exploit, I just like composing riddles with elegant solutions.”

He also said of the book, “Lolita is a special favorite of mine. It was my most difficult book—the book that treated of a theme which was so distant, so remote, from my own emotional life that it gave me a special pleasure to use my combinational talent to make it real.”

I don’t know Nabokov well. That is to say I haven’t read a lot about him, or more interviews than this one.

Perhaps he was being flippant, or was just tired of talking about the book. But I don’t think anyone wants to feel that they’re in the hands of a novelist who is merely out to play a game with his readers.

Perhaps more later. But I'll leave you with this amazing line from the book to show you how conflicted I am: "In the meantime, most of the dandelions had changed from suns to moons..."