Reviews: KQED interview with Barbara Kingsolver

I found the book, Spiritual Envy by Michael Krasney,  at the E Branch of my Local Library here in Lakeland.   The book pricked my interest because I have always been interested in people's search for spiritual answers, especially atheists and agnostics.  How do Spiritualists and Agnostics shape their point of view.   Also the book had a forward written by Joyce Carol Oats.   Michael Chabon stated that the author, "sets the standard by which all public affairs and cultural radio is measured.  He is a Bay Area cultural institution."


So I looked up Kresany's show on KQED, and found a great interview with Barbara Kingsolver.  Kingsolver politely states her environmental position in her new book: Flight Behavior.  Her gentle spirit is respectful to all. She knows how to bridge the biological scientific position with the people who need natural resources for their livelihoods    She also knows how to explain the complicated scientific questions with "real life."

"People need fiction we will always come home to our stories." (Paraphrased from the Interview)
Kingsolver loves how readers engage with her books.   She is fascinated with how every reader can interpret the story in new and unique ways.  She illustrates  that reading books and engaging in conversation is a key to being a good citizen to the community in which one lives  .  The books act as "a new medicine" to cure what currently affects you, or at least begin a search for an elixir.

I look forward to reading Flight Behavior as the subject of the book sounds invigorating and timely.     



 Here is the interview, enjoy:


Here is a book excerpt from Flight Behavior as provided by Good Reads: "the intensity, glory, and absolute assuredness if my mind's flight made it very difficult for me to believe once i was better, that the illness was one i should willingly give up....moods are such an essential part of the substance of life, of one's notion of oneself, that even psychotic extremes in mood and behavior somehow can be seen as temporary, even understandable reactions to what life has dealt....even though the depressions that inevitably followed nearly cost me my life." 

Musical Notes and Mathematical Tragedies

Resources to Find Good Music

Tune Find is a great resource to finding songs to your favorite T.V. shows and movies.
The music played in Sons of Anarchy and Supernatural is fabulous.   The tunes set up the feel and keep fan interest in tune (no pun intended, or maybe there was).

Etymology: Word Histories and Mythology

Bull Moose Party:  Theodore Roosevelt ran for president as an independent party, outside of the two party system.   Roosevelt survived an attempted assassination in October 1912 during the campaign.  The attempt happened before his speech in Milwaukee Wisconsin.   The bullet hit his glass case and speech.  He addressed the crowd, "I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot, but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose.   The bullet is in me now, so that i cannot make a very long speech, but I will try my best." 
"I can tell you with absolute truthfulness that I am very much uninterested in whether I am shot or not." 

Poetry Museum

To Grandma Pearl Influenced by Allen Ginsberg's Poem to Aunt Rose

My grandmother was a head case with a bitter stinging tongue, but despite her hard exterior, she was my grandma, and I was her grandson.  And I will always love the moments we spent together.

Grandma Pearl - might I see you
with your bent back, purple hair, and your kitchen guilt
of osteoporosis - and a punishing grey tongue
your worn thin dresses
sweeping the floor in Denver on the linoleum,
past the one painting you did,
in the basement
where dreamland rendered
between red painted bricks of your home,
(hysterically) the nice Grandson watching,
while you apply more red to white canvas,
Suffern dreams danced-
Aunt Ruth, Uncle Bob, a stranger with a platform
in his pocket
and huge young bald head
of Denver Nazi Order

-radio spoke bad news
Alan Berg gunned down.
at the hands of a white supremacist

Grandma
Bruce Pierce is dead, Bruce Pierce is in Eternity, Bruce Pierce is with
Ginsberg and William Burroughs.

Though I see you walking still, a ghost in Highland Town Center,
down the aisle, observing my customer service
limping a little with a humped back,
in what must have been a worn thin,
overworked dress,

praising my father, the Dentist, on his visit to Denver
-see you bent over in the kitchen
cooking Macaroni despite Osteoporosis
and lighting the Sabath candles
to bring in one more Passover.

Bruce Pierce is dead and Alan Berg is not speaking
The fuel Berg spilled is not aired
Uncle Harold with his well groomed style,
Greg is married to a beautiful art teacher,
Andy guitar in hand, a monument in San
Francisco Chronicle playing psychedelic muse.

last time I saw you was the hospital
and you had lost that viperous bite
you were on your way out, headed east, 
towards New York 
and your dreams of Swan Dives into a stilled  Suffern Lake.   

Men Naked in the Woods

The King Finds Himself Without Clothes and Reading Pascal's Pansees: 

You were driving home and the car radio broke!   You remember the feeling?   You found nothing to distract you from dealing with your inner voice?  The voice that says, "Hey stupid where are you going?"   A primal fear arose and stalked your weakened mind. I know that you know what I mean?  Don't you?  Did you want to scream and fill up the void with your own noise?  Why did your mind search to find something to break your silent meditation? Did the eternal silence of infinite spaces frighten you?   Why is it; a king can master a kingdom joyfully, but masters himself  miserably?  


157: Pascal's Pansees
Contradiction:  contempt for our existences, to die for nothing, hatred of our existence.

162:
He who will know fully the vanity of man has only to consider the causes and effects of love. The cause is a je ne sais quoi (An intangible quality that makes something distinctive or attractive.) and the effects are dreadful. This je ne sais quoi, so small an object that we cannot recognize it, agitates a whole conutry, princess, armies, the entire world.  
Cleopatra's nose: had it been shorter, the whole aspect of the world would have been altered.

Interest of the Saturday Afternoon Club

Syndicalism Official Flag

•  Location: France

Year    No. of Machines    Total Horsepower
1839          2,450                33,000
1851          5,672                 71,000
1861         15,805              191,000
1871          26,146              316,000
1881          44,010              576,000
1891           55,967               916,000
1901            75,866            1,907,000
1910              82,238           2,913,013[ 3]

Louis Levine. Syndicalism in France (Kindle Locations 241-247).

• The World's Largest Burger King is on Gulf Street, in Kuwait
• 1912 October 14th in Milwaukee, an assassin attempted to kill Theodore Roosevelt, the attempt was not successful. Roosevelt survived because the bullet hit his manuscript and eyeglass carrier before reaching his body.  
• He coined the term Bull Moose Party from the incident when he said, "I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot, but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose.   The bullet is in me now, so that i cannot make a very long speech, but I will try my best." He was one tough Rough Rider.    "I can tell you with absolute truthfulness that I am very much uninterested in whether I am shot or not." 

Reviews: Ponche from Lush

Ponche from Lush is a bath soap that men will steal from their girlfriends.  
The smell is earthy and sweet.  One comes out of the shower ready to get festive for the season.  And it will remind you of the time you enjoyed a sunset on the Mexican Beach, drinking Ponche, and hugging your favorite Senorita.  Okay, I haven't been to Mexico, but I can dream, right?

So girls if you want to make your special someone feel special than definitely buy this shower Gel.  Also Ponche has not been tested on Animals, so there will be no guilty vibes inside any bottle.        

PONCHE SHOWER GEL

Christmas

This packs a ponche – with orange juice and a shot of tequila

Inspired by traditional Mexican Christmas punch – this shower gel is bright, boozy, fruity and uplifting.

Freshly squeezed orange juice, plum and cinnamon infusions, a good shot of tequila and a fruity fragrance all add up to your own little party in the shower.  But this is one party punch that will hit the spot without leaving you with a headache the next day! 

Feel refreshed and ready to face the morning.   So good, you will want to have another one for the road.

Musical Notes and Mathematical Tragedies

What Are You Listening To?

   Jazz  

and                                   

 Lee Ronaldo!

1. Albert Ayler Live in Greenwich Village: The Complete Impulse Recordings discovered this album from the book 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die.   The album is at times challenging as it is a Jazz Battle between Albert Ayler and his band mates.  
2. If you are into something smoother, why not try Robert Glasper.  His music blends a nice groove with a hip hop sensibility to offer a mood that is relaxed yet will not lull you to sleep.
3. Blackilicious and Friends: I love these hip hopper jazz droppers and they have a new album.
4. Lee Ronaldo was featured in Amoeba Record's "What's In Your Bag".  I was not sure who he was but knew he was in Sonic Youth.  His musical talent is outstanding, and seem to fit my mood today.  He has that old REM sound but with his own unique spin.   Also his lyrics are poetic and give one a full range of pictures to fit your mood.   Sit down.  Pour some Glen Levitt on the Rocks.  And as you sip, relax, smile... and do whatever.  

Mathematical Tragedies

Can Binary Star Systems Harbor Habitable Planets?

Astronomers recently announced the discovery of a short period Earth-mass planet in the Alpha Centauri system. Could Earth-mass planets exist in the habitable zones of binary stars?