Stuff (and some reading materials) - Alternative Media Expo 2009

I attended the Alternative Media Expo two Saturdays ago to promote the One Book, One New Orleans project. I took a few breaks to see the other vendors and found many interesting items.


The difference that I noticed from 2005 (the last time that I attended) and 2009 is that there aren't as many zine vendors and there are more crafters. And the vendors were not as grungy as before. The alternative people are becoming mainstream, although many of the vendors did sport very colorful tattoos.


I didn't buy as much as I wanted, but I was able to pick up business cards and buy a few small items.



Starting from the top row , the story of the green bike rider and the tiny book were made by by Gutwrench (I think). She sells stories She will be starting to sell her items online soon.


Bottom row:

The small business cards are for SquirrelBunny and Emilonious Designs. Besides having cool business cards, they have nice items on etsy.com


The booklet was made by Chris Crean, about his ancestor, Tom Crean, who was in Antartica with Ernest Shakleton (my personal hero!)

More goodies.

Top row - Journal made with different papers, including bamboo from BlueBird-Art

The High Voltage Camp is a great program that needs your support! The card was sold by Beth Bookstore.

Bottom row: Houston based writer, Hank Hancock, is writing a series called Broke. Born to Fight Dinosaurs takes pictures and then sews them to a heavy stockcard. This picture is of the Joan of Arc statue in the French Quarter. Dead Squirrel Girl tells of the adventure of a girl whose hat is a dead squirrel; the artist, Kristin Hogan, lives in Austin. One Book, One New Orleans bought a copy of Lewis Aleman's Cold Streak to nominate for the project. Aleman's book is set in New Orleans.

I bought a CD of old-fashioned, parlor music and bookmarks by Morella. And with this purchase, I drank some Absinthe, the previously forbidden drink. (It tastes like ouzo or anisado.)

Creeping Hemlock has a book that I want: Children of the Disorder. It reminds me of PD James'

The Children of Men.

I also checked out the following fun vendors. A future purchase is my wish.

• Amy Pain - Art of birds
• Savoy Truffle - Couture Jewelry and Accessories
• Nola Nicole Photography
• Ya Betta' Supa Don't (especially the street signs)
• Junk Medal - guitar picks
• Miss Malaprop - Blogs about handmade products in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast area.

There were other booths and I couldn't get to them all, but I hope to attend next year to buy goodies.

Books - Lisa See Conference Call for Peony in Love

My March's 2009 Mini-Challenge was to attend a book event and blog about it.

And, I have a great report.

The March selection for the International Fiction Book Club of New Orleans was Lisa See's Peony in Love. Besides having a regular discussion, we had the great honor of talking to Lisa See via conference call!

For 30 minutes, we talked about the book, the themes that it covered (love, ghosts, music, opera, arranged marriages, women writers who met in public, war and the pain it causes, Chinese beliefs in the afterlife, anorexia, binding of the feet.)

When Lisa See got on, she clarified some of our thoughts. Peony, the main character, really grows through her relationships with the other wives. Peony's anorexia, besides being a way of controlling her life, is similar to what Christian Saints might have experienced through the visions. They also suffered from anorexia.

The authors who wrote the lovely poetry in the novel really existed. Their book was the first anthology of Chinese poetry written. It's still read in China, but it's not too popular today.

The opera (the Peony Pavilion) that Peony witnesses was performed in New York's Lincoln Center in 2000. It lasted 25 hours and it was the first time it was performed in 200 years. Lisa See saw a condensed version in California that lasted 9 hours (3 hours/night); it showed only the portions about love. All the battle and the baudy servants' section was cut out.

Lisa See believes that her books allows her to answer questions that she has about her family.

By presenting novels about an ancient culture, she can bridge two worlds.

Lisa See has a new book coming out in May, Shaghai Girls, about women who move to the West Coast of the United States and keep their restrictive culture despite the fact of all the modernization in China.

If she comes in 2010 for her book tour, I think my book group will be there to meet such a gracious author in person!

News

I have many things to post, but I am still reading Gone With the Wind, and it seems to capture me completely.

I am in the part of Reconstruction and a honeymoon in a New Orleans that I don't recognize.

Two weeks ago, I participated in the Blue Cypress Bookstore Book Group and it was interesting. I plan to go back soon, but not in March nor April.

Yesterday, author Lisa See joined the International Fiction Book Group (via conference call) to discuss her past and future novels. I took notes, so some of her words will be in another post.

I am a judge for the History of Medicine club and read many interesting papers. More on in a later, later post.

This weekend, I will be volunteering in One Book, One New Orleans at the Alternative Media Fest.

Spring is in the air. I take advantage of going out as much as I can during the Spring, because I hibernate in the summer.

So, I will be writing more soon, but later next week (maybe?).

And, oh, I need to read my Daily Lit of Moby Dick selections.

Stuff - Illustration Friday

This week's theme for Illustration Friday is Intricate.

So, I decided to try two new-to-me knitting techniques: knitting with beads and knitting with Habu yarn (really more like threads) with larger circular yarns.

I knitted in the garter stitch. And it looks more complicated than it really is.

Books - Daily Lit - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

BookGirl recently enrolled in Daily Lit, so I decided to check it out and I found a free version of the Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald available for viewing.

I saw the movie and want to know how the clock moving backwards related to Benjamin being born old. However, there is no such clock in the short story, so I will have to rent the DVD when it comes out to find out this mystery. (In the movie, the old lady speaks so softly, I couldn't hear what she said.)

I haven't enrolled for it, but I am sorely tempted.

Books - Historical Notes - Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell

This novel is not a hard read, but there are so many details, that I just can't read it quickly.

The amount of my reading time is now less since I have started working again, so I can't juggle two books right now.

So, I decided to examine whether some of the details of life mentioned in are authentic.

In Chapter 8, Scarlett describes what she knows about the founding of Atlanta. It started as Terminus, where many railroad lines joined, was renamed Marthasville, and finally got the name Atlanta.

This site explains the history of the city.

One of the Atlanta ladies fell in love with a Zouave from Louisiana in Chapter 9. This type of uniform was used by both the Union and Confederate sides. Mitchell describes the color and baggy of the pants to the T.

In Chapter 12, Dr. Meade writes a letter to the newspaper. Mitchell writes that the front page is "devoted to advertisement of slaves, mules, plows, coffins, houses for sale or rent, cures for private diseases, abortifacients and restoratives for lost manhood."

I was really surprised to read this. The paper sounds like a racier version of Craig's List. An aboritfacient induces abortions. I wonder what the 1860s version of ED pills was! Well, I checked out a sample newspaper (The Weekly Georgia Telegraph - December 1859 issue)from the nearby city of Macon and found that Mitchell was accurate. I found out you could rent slaves and there were "Runaway Slaves" ads in other issues. There were very hard news items on the front page. (You might need to download the DiVu plugin to view this page.)

In Chapter 3, Mitchell describes how Mr. O'Hara won the plantation, that he later called Tara, in a poker game. I assumed it was a name of someone special in Ireland, but it turns out that Tara

is a spiritual place in Ireland, where kings were crowned in the past. I learned this by reading my latest copy of the Smithsonian Magazine. A new highway is being built that will split the Hills of Tara!

In Chapter 15, Ashley comes home from leave, and Scarlett will give him "a small "housewife," made of flannel, containing the whole precious pack of needles."

Here's a picture from the Smithsonian Institute - Civil War Collection.

Matt is continuing to offer his literary views on GWTW. I like reading what he says, but I am not just ready to do the same right now. So, I will do research to find out the history behind the novel and offer my literary review when I finally finish it.

Books - Upcoming Book Events

I am in the midst of my Gone with the Wind read, so I don't have much to blog about it.

(If you want to join, us, click here.)

In a few weeks, the Tennesse Williams Festival will happen. If you can't make it this year, just sign up for the email notifications and come next year!

One Book, One New Orleans is accepting nominations for the One Book. Even if you live out of town, please nominate a book!

As a volunteer for One Book, I will be manning a table at the Alternative Media Expo. I am excited, because I haven't been to one since 2005. I want to see what zines and other indie works I can find there.

When I have time to get back from the Civil War to the 21th Century, I'll blog again.

See you later!

Books - Book Review - Breath - Tim Winton

I did a review of Cloudstreet by Tim Winton, and Ted recommended that I also read Breath. I borrowed an copy from my library and am happy that I did.

Breath takes place on the western coast of Australia. The present is set in this century. Bruce's memories of his youth are probably sometime in the 1980s.

Bruce doesn't feel quite at home in his town. Even though he was born in Australia, his parents immigrated from England after WWII, so Bruce was too new to be a real Aussie. The father grew up in Kent, but never told Bruce any stories about his youth. The mother remembers going into the Tube during the bomb raids and coming out to see destroyed buildings, but that was all that she said about her old home.

(I am assuming the parents came via the Empire Settlement Act.)

Bruce somehow becomes friends with Loonie, the son of the local pub owner, who also has trouble making friends.

Loonie was lonely, and Bruce's parents recognized this. "They sensed that for all the derisory swagger, he respected them (Bruce's parents) and even loved them in his own way. He often crouched alongside my father at the smoker while the fish were racked and he was forever seizing a teach towel whenever he found himself in my mother's kitchen."

For the most part, the town and its people were conventional and even a bit boring to Bruce. It wasn't until he started surfing with Loonie and picked up even more tips from a former professional surfer that he felt that his life had some purpose.

"We talked about skill and courage and luck - we shared all that, and in time we surfed to fool with death - but for me there was still the outlaw feeling of doing something graceful, as is dancing on water was the best and the bravest thing a man could do."

In this novel, I learned a lot about the evolution of surfing in the late 20th century, including the types of board used, what surfers search for in order to surf, the risks that are involved, and the intoxication of the sport.

As Bruce gets more involved with the older surfer dude, his friendship with Loonie changes and does his relationship with his parents and other people in the surfer world.

Although I was never interested in the surfing culture, I didn't find it boring to read about it. Winton weaves this world so well with his words, that it was a enjoyable and thoughtful read.

In another sense, it's a coming-of-age novel but for mature readers.