Stalks: Spanish Civil War

Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell
Links to Help You Enjoy the Book More

Links For Book Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell:

University of Illinois Collection of Spanish Civil War Stuff
Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives
University of Southern Florida: Oral History Project
Wikipedia Article on the Civil War in Spain

Maps

To listen or not to listen?

Reading according to Websters Dictionary is an  activity of interpreting music, a situation, or something said or written.   But it also means to be able to read a written or printed text.  Today one can read in a variety of formats; the traditional format can be read on the computer, on one's kindle, or on a traditionally bounded set of printed words.  But also reading is now being defined as listening to books; the reader can listen to complete books via audio c.d.s or via a MP3 file, on their computer.

But is listening to an audio book reading?  Does listening to a book constitute the same experience as reading one?  Will the reader's reaction to the book be influenced by the listening experience?  Some authors have published and read their own works on an Audio format.  Neil Gammon read his Graveyard Book and recorded it onto C.D..  I ponder if my liking Fahrenheit 451 was due me listening to it, and not reading it.  Bradbury is a really good oral story teller, but is his writing good?  Hmm we ponder!

Kareuac on Food and San Francisco

San Francisco is a food hunter’s paradise; even the United Wing of the San Francisco Airport has a plethora of delights.    Jessica (my wife) and I had so many choices for lunch, there was Clam Chowder in San Francisco Sour Dough Bread Bowls, Japanese Bento lunches, mission style burritos, good micro-brews, and probably a lot more; I was unable to see it all because my senses were overwhelmed.    

Jack Kerouac wrote of the bounty of food in San Francisco:

From on the Road by Jack Kerouac (Part Two - Chapter Ten)

In the window I smelled all the food of San Francisco.   There were seafood places out there where the buns were hot, and the baskets were good enough to eat too; where the menus themselves were soft with foody esculence as though dipped in hot broths roasted dry and good enough to eat too.  Just show me the bluefish spangle on a seafood menu, and I'd eat it; let me smell the butter and lobster claws.  There were places where hamburgers sizzled on grills and the coffee was only a nickel.  And oh, that pan fried chow mein flavored air that blew into my room from Chinatown, vying with the spaghetti sauces of North Beach, the soft-shell crab of Fisherman's Wharf- nay, the ribs of Fillmore turning on spits! Throw in the Market street chili beans, red-hot, and french-fried potatoes of the Embarcadero wino night, and steamed clams from Sausalito across the bay, and that's ah-dream of San Francisco.  Add fog, hunger making, raw fog, and the throb of neons in the soft night, the clack of high heeled beauties, white doves in a Chinese grocery window.

Mayfair by the Lake: Haikus

Dad and I hike up

through dewy laid state park, 

gray slug crawls on moss.

                        - Gregorio Roth

Up way too early, 

have to put up the Artwork,

I need coffee now!

                 - Jessica Baylor Rothbard 

These Haiku were written by my wife and I, the morning of Mayfair by the Lake. The influence for Gregorio Roth's poem is a recollection of a hike my dad and I took at Ecola State Park, Oregon.   It was a rainy day and we witnessed a Slug slurping up a leaf; it was amazing to see something so slow, yet progressing steadily consuming a whole leaf.    I hope you enjoyed them.
Mayfair by the Lake

50 States of Reading Revisited: Mississippi - Eudora Welty

Podcast Highlighted: 


I was listening to PRI's selected short stories of Eudora Welty. There is beauty, vexations, truth, and imaginations in the reading of these beautiful pieces. I enjoyed them seriously: PRI Selected Shorts.

What I am listening during rush hour on I-75

I am enjoying listening to the USF Reading of "A Tale of Two Cities". The reading is well done, not one of those that sounds like a computer drone reading words; rather it is affective in getting to the content of the selection. I think y'all will enjoy one of the stories, offered free from Lit2Go (USF on ITUNES U). LIT 2 Go Stories are great to listen to while spending your time driving in rush hour. Imagine what thoughts, what great thoughts one may have parked in traffic on I-75.

Harlan Ellison Dreams of Sharp Teeth Eating Antisemitic Flesh

Check out the movie:  Harlan Ellison:  Dreams with Sharp Teeth

I loved watching this movie for its honest portrait of a writers life.  The movie shows the hard work of being a synthesizer of words, and how one's muse directs this synthesis.    A number of greats share with us the life of Mr. Ellison; including Robin Williams, Dan Simmons, Neil Gaimon, and Harlan Himself.   The movie deals with diverse subjects:  bullies, army, Judaism, antisemitism, atheism, anger,  and creativity.   

Unfathomably I have not read any of Harlan's books but I plan to.   I have made a month in my reading plan just to read him.   

I am thankful for incredible documentaries, on incredible people, with incredible hearts.   

Check out the LOST Reading List... 

Forever War Notes

Hatching a Population

Triangulation

Science fiction important to know when book was written, 1974

New technology is only effective for a short window of time before the other knows how to defend itself.

Days to Contact .00001
11 .001514
15 .032164
20 .103287
25 .676324
30 .820584
35 .982685
40 .993576
45 .99369
50
Mediam
28.9554 .5000

Space presents problems for defense
Taurans primes and powers of 2

FOrever War by Joe Haldemann

Goin Deeper Wednesday

Glory be to God for dappled things—
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;
And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.


All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.- Manley Hopkins

Life as a Frog!

The squish of mud between your toes; how would you live your life as a frog?

I died, last month. Wow what an ordeal, I thought I would be talking to St. Peter! But... I entered a great hall and Vishnu the great Hindu deities sat on a giant throne, (it was actually a toilet) he beamed a blueish grin. (He had been sucking a blow-pop.)
Vishnu said: "You have been a bad bad monkey. Now I pronounce your new incarnation to be that of a frog."
"Ribbit!" was the only word I could muster, so many other words were in my head, but all I could say was "Ribbit!"

Playing Gods the Board Game:

Playing Gods the Board Game:
I personally have not played this game, but it seems of interesting note.

Review from the Blog- "Zombiebacon":

Aware that much of the world’s violence comes from the source of eternal love, Radford realised that mocking various images of God and their faithful adherents would “make more social commentary” and “pierce the pretensions of extremist religious zealotry with humor.”

That it does wonderfully, passing many hours in the entertaining pursuit of monotheism.

Someone should really distribute this game to all the world’s spiritual leaders so they can settle their differences without destroying us in the process.

The Color of Family by Patricia Jones

The Color of Family by Patricia Jones:

Color aint got nothing to do with it, it is humanity that matters. What happens when someone close to you dies? Does their ghost create a white elephant in the room? What are the bonds that hold a family together? What are the things that cut these bonds? The cover of the book would keep from picking it up, as it looks too "girly"; but once I started reading it, it became treasured.

William Shakespeare Toast!!!

Happy New Year's Eve, lets raise our glasses of sparkling grape juice and cheer in 09....

Come thou monarch of the Vine
Plumpy Bucas with pink eyen!
In the vats our cares be drowned
with thy grapes our hairs be crowned!
Cup us till the world go round,
Cup us till the world go round!

Grobes by Roald Dahl

From Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator
In the quelchy quaggy sogmire,
In the mashy mideous harshland,
At the witchy hour of gloomness,
All the Grobes come oozing home.

You can hear them softly slimeing,
Glissing hissing o'er the slobber,
All those oily boily bodies
Oozing onward in the gloam.

So start to run! Oh, skid and daddle
Through the slubber slush and sossel!
Skip jump hop and try to skaddle!
All the grobes are on the roam.