Monday, October 31, 2011

Listen On Librivox


Three questions raised in Lost World Narratives are:
 
1.       Is the primitive more evolved than modern man? 
2.       Is there a place where the modern world is reshape-able, free from the cost of sin? 
3.       Can the main character reshape self free of past?

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Listen On Librivox


Book Reviews The People That Time Forgot part Two of the Caspak Series: The Land That Time ForgotThe People That Time Forgot, and Out of Time's Abyss


The present rubbed legs with the past, it set a strange milieu.  Edgar Rice Burroughs leads a tour of Caprona.  He leads us through strange lands amidst noble savages and sub-humans.   The book is a Caprona tour, but lacks action to be exciting.  It makes me wonder if he was forced to write this one.  

(I listened to this on libri vox read by  Ralph Snelson)

Caveat lector, the ideas of the early 20th century are not of our own, and may offend those with politically correct notions.  




Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Listen On Librivox


The Land That Time Forgot Part One of the Capak Series



The Land That Time Forgot (Caspak, #1)The Land That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A fun read, but not as good as the LOST WORLD by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.   The characters seemed flat and cartoonish.  It is difficult to feel heartedly for cartoons.   However, the overall story arch is classic adventure tale and can be a delightful journey.   Two movies are available on Netflix for your viewing.

Caveat Lector: the ideas of the early 20th century  are not of our own, and may offend those with politically correct notions.  Feminists may be offended by the seeming lack of respect paid towards women of this period. 


View all my reviews

Previews: Halloween at Libri Vox


  1. H.P. Lovecraft: Collection of Public Domain Works.
  2. Edgar Allen Poe:  Poetry of 
  3. Algernon Blackwood: The Wendigo
  4. Edith Wharton: Afterward
  5.  Famous Modern Ghost Stories (Compiled by Dorothy Scarborough(1878-1935))
I searched a number of cool horror stories offered free from Libri Vox for your listening pleasure.   I hope these stories scare you silly.  

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Oakland: Colorado County


An Old Soviet Union Bus-Stop
The old professor was in love with ideas.  He loved to explain these ideas to anyone who came his way.  One day, as usual, the professor was deep in thought about the Theory of his notes on Zeno’s paradox.
 He did not notice the unseemly men standing by his new BMW car.  He felt a need to 

Monday, October 24, 2011

Oakland: Colorado County



Warming Up


Food smells permeate the high school football game.   “Ketchup on hotdogs, balderdash!” reports my wife Jessica.    

The temperature outside is not freezing, but I am cold and under dressed.   I stuff boiled peanuts into my mouth, hoping to warm up.    

But, I do not warm up. (49:365)

Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey towards it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us —Samuel Smiles

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Book Reviews

The Lost WorldThe Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is a model for adventure stories in science fiction.   The book influenced Michael Crichton in his creation of the LOST WORLD (Jurassic Park). 
Edward Malone, a reporter for the Daily Gazette,  finds no real excitement in his life.   Ed wants to woo Gladys, but Gladys wants to marry a romantic hero.  Gladys does not see Ed as a knightly figure, at least not yet.  So Ed must find his romantic quest in the name of his beauty Gladys. 

Library Notes

I am blessed with around 955 books, give or take a more or less.  So how does one organize ones library? How do you find a book?  Library Thing shows users a book's Dewey Decimal Number.  I have used the Dewey Decimal System, set up in 1876, a period of great indexing of cultured society.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Library Notes



Where Have I Been


I am currently listening to the LOST WORLD by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Libri Vox).   My buddy Lou has been volunteering for the group.   He told me that I should check this site out.   I have enjoyed listening to the various readers giving voice to  great literature, while I organize my library.  

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

El Camino: Borderland States



{March 17th 1988 (Daniel is 19)}

My hands ache warming up. 
Angela drives determined.
I turn on “Wyoming Radio”.  All I hear is crop projections, sales of Mrs. Augers junk, and an occasional cowboy crooner.   Then I hear “Today, a Colombian Boeing 727, crashed into the side of mountain, killing 143 passengers.  There were no survivors.”  
What were there fleeting thoughts?(48:365)

El Camino: Borderland States



{March 17th 1988 (Angela is 18)}
We scrape the window of the Mitsubishi, ice has covered the windows.   The inside of the car has fogged up, as the car has been running since I picked up Daniel from the train station.    I wonder if I infatuate the lonely wanderer, or if perhaps I am leading him astray.   
We get warm inside. (47:365)

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

El Camino: Borderland States


{November 21, 1979 (Daniel is 5)}



Again and again the witch visited my dreams.   She did it again, and I pulled up, my star wars bed sheets, over my head.   I attempted to create a cave where the witch would not get me. Tonight was a repeat show; I alone had to kill this ugly hag, could I do it? (46:365)

El Camino: Borderland States




{March 17th 1988 (Angela is 18)}


Yes the road seems long when the journeys all alone for six hours on end, and never a soul in site. Occasional tumbleweed blew across Interstate eighty. He's mom called... waking me... Daniel's dad had been called away on business, and did not want to strand him,  so I came quickly…so now I am here.
(45:365)
Beckett, Samuel. Waiting for Godot; Tragicomedy in 2 Acts,. New York: Grove, 1954. Print.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Oakland: Colorado County


{1986 (3:00 Recollection)}





I stood in the layup line, wearing my jam shorts, basketball sneakers, and Pee-wee's Playhouse T-shirt.  I waited to run and jump, and then shoot the ball off the backboard.   I loved the feel of releasing the ball and the ball hitting the backboard, and then swish it banks off the rim. 

My brother approached.   (44:365)



“Did you see the Space Shuttle today?”


 Our class had to do math problems instead of watching a teacher go up in space.


 I replied enviously, “NO!”  


Then my brother said, “It went up in a cloud.” 


I thought he was joking, attempting to make the cows loony. 
  
I told him, “Don’t joke about that!”(43:365)


1986 A Musical Rewind




 James: So Many Ways
The House Martins: Happy Hour
The Bolshoi: Away
REM: FALL

Recommendation: Check out Groove Shark then put in your favorite group, or song and listen to what they have a great place to remember when....


Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Book Reviews

Instructions: Everything You Need to Know on Your JourneyInstructions: Everything You Need to Know on Your Journey by Neil Gaiman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Neil Gaiman, teams up with illustrator Charles Vess, to bring an engaging invitation to journey.   Instructions, is everything you need to know on your journey. Where does that well lead to? How do you treat the old lady that sits under the tree? What, on earth, do you do with an eagle feather?   The illustrations by Charles Vess are just right for young imaginations: not too boring, nor too scary.    This book may be overlooked due to a cover that is understated, but don’t overlook it, the book is fantastic.



View all my reviews

Thursday, October 6, 2011

El Camino-Borderland States


{March 17th 1988, Daniel 19, Angela 18}

Angela picks me up.  She is wearing a fur coat. I can only imagine what is beneath the fur; perfumed imagination makes me hard.
“ I have a present for you!”
She winks and circles her tongue around her red lips.
“But where's my father!?”
We wipe the snow from the window of her Eclipse. (42:365)

El Camino- Borderland States


{Headed North Bound} 

MARCH 16, 5:00 A.m, 1988: (Daniel IS 27)

I keep an eye on the oncoming tracks; everything is blanketed by a white-grey sheet of snow.   January’s snow had not yet melted, and in parts there is a snow wall, on the side of the tracks, about six feet high.  Looking at my Thermowatch, I see that the temperature outside is thirty-two degrees Fahrenheit.  (41:365)

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Note on New Project!



Dear Readers, 

Tending Turnips new project is El Camino-Borderland states.   El Camino uses Carl Jung’s study on dreams to explore one’s “dream existence”.  It is a mixture of media. I am a writer, so it will be mostly writing.   But a song track will be listed between scenes.    

I also want to try my attempt at other forms of media: short films and drawings.  I hope you enjoy the trip.

Thanks for your time, 
Gregory D. Rothbard

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

El Camino: Borderland States






March 16, 1988: Greg is 27



…and then after the Tsunami;   I woke up wearing a striped conductor hat, and overalls  smelling the steam of the engine moving past the mountains on my left.   The mountains were the ones I remembered being in front of my junior high school, years of torment and pain.  I was thinking just keep moving; don't look back at the 100 cars of Sugar Beats.(40:365)

Monday, October 3, 2011

El Camino: Borderland States






{March 15 1988, (Greg is 15)}



Before I can smash the window, a flood of water wipes away the ten year older Greg.   He disappears, like someone shaking an “Etch a Sketch”.   Only puddles of water are left.  Is this when I go crazy? Was he a spirited ghost? Should I follow the direction of the wave?  Now I am shaken.
(39:365)  

Hypnagogia article in Wikipedia.
By the sea shore.  The sea breaks into the land, flooding everything. Then the dreamer is sitting on a lonely island. Jung, C. G. Dreams. New York: MJF, 1974. Print. pg 122

Saturday, October 1, 2011

El Camino: Borderland States



March 15, 1988: (Greg 15)


Ten year older Greg, the one outside under the light, is saying something important, but I cannot hear him.   I am on the other side of a window and the wind's howl is louder than the words he speaks. I must smash this window open, if I am going to hear my future self talk. (38:365) 
Jung Dream 2: The dreamer is standing in front of the window, he blocks the view for his fellow passengers.  He must get out of the way.pg 122.

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