Tag: nanopoblano

Do you see what I see?

On By StevenIn Miscellany1 Comment

I stopped today for a sandwich at a local shop today. I’ve been there countless times, and I’ve ordered food from this man often, but this is the first time he ever said anything to me other than the transaction at hand.

The gentleman behind the counter, whose name I should really know given how often I get lunch there, asks, “Didn’t they go out of business?”

It took me a moment to realize he was referring to my t-shirt – I always forget what shirt I’m wearing, and so I’m always momentarily confused when it sparks a conversation. Today, I was wearing a shirt with the logo of the 9:30 Club, a venerable DC concert venue that has concerts nearly every night.

“Didn’t they go out of business?” I was briefly baffled- Since I moved to the DMV five years ago, I’ve seen more than fifty shows there. It’s a fundamental anchor point for me in this city. I couldn’t in my wildest dreams have ever imagined that someone who lives around here wouldn’t know the 9:30 Club was there.

He continued, “I haven’t seen any commercials for it in a while.” I tried to explain about the giant billboard ads that show up in the Metro with upcoming shows, but maybe he just doesn’t take the Metro into the District very often.

I guess it still confuses me when someone has a reality so different than mine. I have a tendency to think that stuff that I know is just common knowledge to everyone, and I’m frequently completely poleaxed when I find this not to be true.

I suppose this applies to me as well, though. A dear friend of mine likes to say, when I’m cursing at an awful, terrible, very bad, no good driver in gnarly traffic that perhaps the reason they’re driving like that is because they have terrible diarrhea and they’re just trying to get home to a toilet really fast. Basically, it’s just like the old saying, “you never know what someone else is going through,” only with more poop.

My point, I guess, is that as often as I’m surprised when someone doesn’t know things that I know, I really shouldn’t be surprised at my own lack of knowing what other people know.

Or something. The original thread for this post has kind of gotten lost in the weeds, and I don’t remember quite where I was going with this one.

You know?

# For Nanopoblano 2025.

On blogging, the passage of time, and why opera is dull as toast points.

On By StevenIn Life At Home6 Comments

The last time that I saw my dear friend Ra, she was in town for a poetry event in which she was a featured artist and speaker. She asked why I hadn’t written in my blog for a while, and I expressed tiny, empty words about how my inertia was blocking me. I talked about how I’d wanted to come back and write more a bunch of times, but that I could never quite get myself past the blank white page.

Ra was cheerfully optimistic, and seemed certain that I would start writing again. I’ve thought about that conversation often, and time got away from me again.

That was one year, three months, and seventeen days ago.

Oof.

Each year in November, the blogging community where I first met Ra gathers to do thirty days of posts in November – an event called Nablopomo, national blog posting month. The name is a play on Nanowrimo, the national novel writing month, but for blogging by a community that has dubbed themselves cheer peppers. They even jokingly call Nablopomo “nanopoblano.” It’s a whole thing.

I haven’t taken part in a while, but one of the cheer peppers, Dinah, tagged me to ask if I was participating this year and it got me thinking again that this month might be a good kick in the pants to get started again. Not every post needs to be an epic tome, as long as I’m writing something.

I came back to see where I left things off on my last post, and it was a general update that started with an apology about how long it had been since the PREVIOUS last post.

That was four years, six months, and fifteen days ago.

Oof.

In the last four and a half years, I haven’t changed very much – I’m living in the same building, albeit in a different apartment. My employment with Mr Company has shifted a bit because our scrappy little start-up was purchased by a much larger company, but at its core, the job is essentially the same as before. I’ve made more friends in this town, and I still spend most of my free time going to shows because Music Is Life.

While I love music with a ferocity that is difficult to verbalize, I’ve long maintained that opera bores me to tears. I’ve always found that to be a little silly, given how much I love Broadway style musicals, but it is true all the same. That being said, I hadn’t actually been to an opera in a very long time. There are quite a few things that I’ve re-tried in the last few years to see if I still felt the same way about them- some of my nopes were sustained, but one or two surprised me. With that in mind, I thought that maybe I should give the opera another try.

That’s how last week, on the Thursday before Halloween, I wound up at the Washington National Opera’s production of Aida. While I was sitting in the balcony watching the production, I had a lot of time to think about this.

For one thing, I thought Verdi’s score was incredible. But then I already knew I love the symphony and classical music in general. For another, I thought it was damned impressive that they could get roughly eighty people on stage at once (I counted) all singing more or less about the same thing.

But I was still bored. It’s the pacing, you see. I don’t really enjoy a seven minute aria to explore what amounts to roughly three lines of dialogue. And I really don’t love fully operatic singing. So: the verdict is upheld, I still don’t dig opera.

Out of curiosity, I checked to see the last time I attended one. It was thirty years, seven months, and twenty-seven days ago.

Oof.

I really need to do better about the passage of time.

Prowling on little cat feet, December is upon us.

On By StevenIn Miscellany, Pop Culture33 Comments

While I have been writing a post for every day of November to be a part of NanoPoblano, I have also been reading the posts of the other Peppers. Their lives and their writings are amazing, and I am reminded of something Ray Bradbury said:

“We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.”

– from “Zen in the Art of Writing,” by Ray Bradbury

It’s been lovely to watch each of my NanoPoblano compatriots tipping themselves over each day. I wanted to also say thank you to those of you who spent time reading along and commenting during this NanoPoblano month- having comments to read and interact with made it a far more entertaining venture than simply writing into the void.

I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do for the last post of November- I considered a recap of the month, but considering how much I dislike clip shows on tv, that seemed ill advised.

I considered a few brief thoughts on some random links and articles that I’ve been collecting all month, like geese and egg creams and weird winter relationship rituals, but I don’t think I want to do that right now. Maybe I’ll come back to that in December.

I thought for a while that perhaps I’d talk about all the things that I want to do when the pandemic is over, or the things I’m looking forward to coming up. I don’t want to do that now, though, because looking forward when there’s still so much Covid to endure just seems like a special new form of torture. We’re not there yet.

I considered wrapping up with a post I’ve had stewing for a while about St. Elmo’s Fire, growing up, and suffering through limerence… but that post isn’t cooked all the way through yet, and if I serve it too early, it will give my friends food poisoning.

I thought about posting some photographs of food, because good lord I sure do take a lot of photos of food, but this isn’t Instagram and I’m not a food blogger, although I sometimes pretend to play one on TV.

I thought I would have trouble coming up with something to write about every day this month, but I never really wanted for ideas, even if sometimes those ideas were a little cheesy, and even if sometimes I had trouble finding the time and concentration to make them real.

I am delighted by the fact that I can make a blog post out of all the things I’m not making into a blog post. I like the weird symmetry of that.

One last thing, before I turn my attention to an unrelated but very important piece of bloggery… I cannot believe that not a single one of you commented on my “Chairman Meow” joke during the Hong Kong posts!

And now for something completely different:

As we roll into December, I begin the annual challenge of Whamageddon. The rules are very simple:

  1. The objective is to go as long as possible without hearing Wham!’s Christmas classic; “Last Christmas”.
  2. The game starts on December 1st, and ends at midnight on December 24th. (I use my local time zone, but not everyone follows the rules in an identical way.)
  3. You’re out as soon as you recognize the song.
  4. Only the original version applies. Remixes and covers do not send you to the fields of Whamhalla, although they might raise your pulse a bit.
  5. If you like, post on social media with the #whamageddon hashtag when you get hit.
  6. The intention is that this is a survival game, and not a battle royale. In other words, don’t be a dick and don’t play Last Christmas to your friends. No Whammied Rick-Rolls, please.

I play Whamageddon every year, because it’s a really silly bit of fluffery and I enjoy pretending to anguish over my fallen brethren as they ascend to Whamhalla. Two years ago, I was taken out by a Wham-grenade planted by someone I trusted, foolishly. Last year I survived despite some perilous journeys to places where piped in Christmas music is the norm.

This year will be strange. On the one hand, I work from home and live alone, so my media control is pretty straightforward. On the other hand, I sometimes take the metro and go into places where I have no control over what I might hear. Even a walk across the street to get a sandwich might expose me to The Song.

Will you join me on the battlefield? Will you play Whamageddon with me? C’mon, it’ll be fun!

How was your NanoPoblano month? And will you play Whamageddon starting tomorrow?

51/52 (and 30 of 30, y’all! ::dusts off keyboard::)

Five Stars.

On By StevenIn Pop Culture24 Comments

I am stingy with my five-star ratings.

I’ve been tracking the books I read on Goodreads.com for about ten years now. 257 of them are in my “read” category, and of those 257, I gave ten books five stars.

When you’re rating a book and you mouse over the stars, here’s what the mouseover text says:

★ - did not like it
★★ - it was ok
★★★ - liked it
★★★★ - really liked it
★★★★★ - it was amazing

Well obviously these are very, very high standards and are not to be taken lightly. Most really great books don’t top a four-star rating for me. The vast majority don’t even break three stars, to be honest. And for me to call a book amazing, it has to blow my socks off in a particularly memorable way.

When DiAnne talked about books all the way back on day 9 of NanoPoblano, I considered a top ten list… but top ten lists shift and shimmy based on mood and the passage of time. My five-star books, on the other hand, remain five stars.

With that in mind, I’d like to share six of the books that I rated five stars on Goodreads.com. These are all fiction, although not all of my top-rated books are.

The Girl Who Drank The Moon – Kelly Barnhill

This book is the newest one on the list by a wide margin, and was also the 2017 Newbery Medal winner. The story is full of magic and moonlight and witches and one Perfectly Tiny Dragon, and I don’t want to say more because it would just spoil the story- you only get a first time reading book this magical once. This is technically written for young readers, but I enjoyed it perfectly well as an adult. The story definitely did not go where I expected it to go, and I’m in love with half the characters, especially the aforementioned Perfectly Tiny Dragon. Really now, who doesn’t want their own Perfectly Tiny Dragon companion?

The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy (series) – Douglas Adams

The link above is to the “Ultimate” edition, which really just means “five of the novels and a short story.” I love this entire series, end to end, and I have for most of my life. I started reading this series when I was about nine years old, and I remember being absolutely delighted when new books in the series kept coming out over the following years- my first exposure with the habit of great genre titles to make you wait for the next installment.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide series has been books, radio shows, an LP, a television miniseries, still more radio shows, comic books, trading cards, and so much more. When I went to Edinburgh in 2012, the entire trip was built around the fact that the cast of the radio show was doing a live performance, with Neil Gaiman as the voice of The Guide. Going to that show was the culmination of three decades of love for the HHG franchise. The entire series is fluffy good fun and I enjoy re-reading it once every few years.

Pyramids – Terry Pratchett

While all of the Discworld novels are entertaining, the seventh book in the series is somewhat separate from the rest of them- it has no shared characters from the rest of the series, and has little to do with the story arcs from the other novels.

The book is a hilarious satire of religion and faith, set in the desert kingdom of Djelibeybi, which is basically Discworld’s answer to Egypt. The story is about a twelve-year-old Pharaoh named Pteppic (the P is silent), newly graduated from the Assassin’s Guild, as he tries to meet his responsibilities, build a pyramid for his recently deceased father, and deal with a headstrong handmaiden named Ptracy. (Again, the P is silent.) There are mad priests, sacred crocodiles, and a mathematical genius named You Bastard who happens to be a camel.

I’ve always been a little bit fascinated by Egyptian culture, pyramids, and the like, so this was just a delight to read from cover to cover.

Stranger In A Strange Land – Robert A. Heinlein

Stranger in a Strange Land is another one that I like to re-read every so often. First released in 1961, it tells the story of Valentine Michael Smith, a human being who was raised on Mars, away from any other humans. The story begins with his return to Earth, and shows him learning to deal with other people and their complicated lives for the first time. So-called “Human Nature” is alien to him, and he introduces the world to his own beliefs and values.

This book is the origin of the term grokking, or “to grok,” a word that has its own Wikipedia page and is now in the dictionary. The Library of Congress named it one of 88 “Books that Shaped America.”

It’s really, really good.

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch – Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman

Whenever someone asks me what my favorite book is, I usually answer this one. I love it dearly and it’s another one that I re-read once every few years. Here’s what it’s about:

What if the end of the world was going to happen next Saturday, just after tea, and the major players in the end times have misplaced the antichrist? This book is the story of that eventuality. Among the very large cast of characters is Aziraphale, the answer to “what if C-3PO was a fussy angel instead of a fussy droid,” a fast-talking, fast-living demon named Crowley, witches, Witchfinders, hellhounds, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and of course the antichrist.

Good Omens was notably adapted for television last year, and that was one program I had been waiting for since the first time I read the book in the early 1990s. I was utterly convinced that it was completely unfilmable, but if modern technology can give us a convincing Balrog and an updated Howard the Duck, it can certainly show us the end of the world. It turned out to be completely delightful and I’m incredibly happy with it, but it still only captured about two-thirds of the wonderfulness that is this hilarious, amazing book.

Still Life With Woodpecker – Tom Robbins

While most of this books listed in this post are in no particular order, I chose this one for last because it is the only title that is neither science fiction nor fantasy. Still Life was written by Tom Robbins in 1980, and it concerns the love affair between a red-headed environmentalist princess and an outlaw.

The novel repeatedly addresses the question of “how to make love stay.” Although it is set in more or less the real world, it most definitely has elements of fantasy. It is at times quite funny as well.

As I’ve been writing this post, I’ve also been looking at other people’s reviews of these books on Goodreads, and this one is divisive- a great many people leaving reviews did not like Still Life With Woodpecker. Ah, well, to each their own.

What are some of your top-rated favorite books?

50/52 (and 29 of 30!)

‘Tis the Season

On By StevenIn Life At Home15 Comments

As we put Thanksgiving in our rear-view mirror and hurtle onward toward December, two of my favorite seasonal beverages have returned!

The Family Friendly One: Egg nog! While some people make their own nog, I prefer the store-bought variety. Egg nog started to show up in stores partway into November.

I like Lactaid’s version of this holiday classic best because dairy and I are not friends and Silk Nog just isn’t quite creamy enough.

One of my favorite things about eggnog is that it kind of always tastes like there’s rum in it, even when there isn’t. Speaking of boozy drinks,

The Slightly More Adult One: I was first introduced to Glühwein while I was living in Germany. It’s mulled wine, and it’s served hot. If you ever have the chance to go to a Christkindlmarkt, or Christmas Market, a mug of hot Glühwein while you’re standing around outside with friends in the cold is just a delightful thing. I hate that the markets are almost certainly closed this year. Stupid Covid.

Trader Joe’s carries bottles of Glühwein this time of year, made in Germany and imported to the US for the consumption of those of us who love it. I was excited to see the bottles all stacked up in the store. All you have to do is heat it up and drink it.

I might bundle up and drink it outside on the balcony, just to have a more authentic experience.

Which do you prefer, eggnog or Glühwein?

49/52 (and 28 of 30!)