Rocket man
Yeah, watch this video. It would scare the crap out of me to do this. But, man, wouldn’t it be a ride?
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Ira Glass on Story and Surprise
I found this a fascinating talk. It’s Ira Glass who is the executive producer of the This American Life radio program from Chicago Public Radio. It’s a show that merges true stories (and some short fiction) of everyday people, surprise, humor, and meaning. There’s a structure to the types of stories that they produce. It’s not a new thing. It’s used all the time in a venue many of us are familiar with. Maybe you’ll identify that venue immediately. If not, it doesn’t matter. Watch and listen. This is a fascinating talk and it highlights just how much humor, curiosity, and insight depend on surprise.
Ira Glass at Gel 2007 from Gel Conference on Vimeo.
Crow Journal, day 1
I decided to put my money where my mouth is. Or at least some peanuts and cheese. I want to make some friends with a couple of crows or ravens.
I’m a little hesitant. One or two buddies, okay. A freaking tribe swirling around the house, pooping on man and beast, or, horrors, tormenting the cats and demanding food–well, that’s something to write about, isn’t it?
Zing.
Besides, I’ve only ever seen a pair. How many friends can they have?
So I braved my fears and gathered six raven and crow calls from the internet. Then I put them in a play list, stuck my speakers in my office window, and began broadcasting crow. The mixture probably said something like, “Hey, there sweet momma, get off my branch you hawk turd!, can somebody pass me a napkin?” It’s got to pique their curiosity at least.
With the calls running I set out some cheese and peanuts at the edge of the lawn out our basement door. It appears these folks eat anything and tend to like fatty food. When I go to Logan next I’ll get some potato chips.
Results:
1. Three buzzards swooped up the slope and passed by.
2. The herd of cattle down the hill and across the street all stood and stared up at the house.
3. One of the cats came around to see what the commotion was all about. Stuck its head through the deck railings to get a look down where the sounds were coming from.
I played the calls all during lunch. Nothin. So I turned them off.
At about 3:40 PM I set out for my hike. Put out the speakers again and departed. On my way back down the hill at about 4:40 PM I saw the crow pair (or maybe they’re ravens) flying up the hill about 200 yards south of the house. They were dinking around in the air not trying to get anywhere fast.
Hustled down and checked out the peanuts and cheese. Nothin. No sign of any visitors coming to investigate. Will try again tomorrow.
Mitt Romney’s Body Man
There’s going to be a novel and movie about a presidential candidate’s Body Man. I can feel it. The topic is too rich.
I’m not talking about his body guard. Or some wardrobe guy. Or, please, some sexual thing (good grief, people). I’m talking about the dude whose task it is to free up the candidate so he can focus on meeting, talking, etc. instead of rousting about for a pen or cell phone.
Check out this NY Times video on Romney’s body man.
One of my favorite stories of all time featured two characters in just such a relationship. That would be Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee in The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien writes in his letters that he based their relationship on his observations during his military service in World War 1 of the relationship between a batman and his officer. “Batman” being, not a Bruce Wayne wannabe with a utility belt, but a Soldier-Servant assigned to an officer in the British army of the time.
I want a story about a body man. Or a body woman. It feels so delicious.
NPR’s Intelligence Squared
Sometimes I love NPR, and sometimes those folks drive me nuts. But with Intelligence Squared they’ve come up with wonderful programming. I accidentally tuned in one night and found I couldn’t turn the radio off.What they do is bring together articulate experts, half who argue for a motion such as “Guns reduce crime?” or “Is the government responsible for health care?” and half who argue against it. The nice thing is that they make enough TIME to allow full statements. These aren’t roundtables of knucklehead pundits spouting sound bites. These are long discussions.
Of course, so much depends on the presentation skills of the various experts. But being able to listen to both sides of an issue, at the very least, gives much to think about.
In this debate they argue for and against the motion “The US is winning the war in Iraq”.
They convinced me (I won’t say which side, however). Take some time and listen to this while you do monkey work for the day job.
Suckling pig
This from a gal I know who’s been touring Spain…
I ate a quarter of a suckling pig today. I feel like a monster for eating such a young animal; a rotund, content, sleepily sluggish, well fed monster.
If you’re going to kill an animal, kill it when it’s young. It so much more barbaric that way…
And she sends along these pictures.
Is that not the voice of a character speaking to you?
Zing, Baby!
