Snow and Music

A few months back, I signed up to be a DJ for campus radio. Since that time, I have been searching to broaden my repertoire of music. Two talented women have recently made my playlist of lesser known, artistic music.

American harpist, pianist, singer-songwriter Joanna Newsom was suggested to me awhile back by a friend, but I hadn't discovered her beautifully bizzare music for myself until very recently.

Newsom's whimsical lyrics and eccentric voice make a unique sound that is very fresh and original. There is an element of wonderment in each of her songs.

We sailed away on a winter's day/With fate as malleable as clay/But ships are fallible, I say/And the nautical, like all things, fades and I/Can recall our caravel:/A little wicker beetle shell/With four fine maste and lateen sails/Its bearings on Cair Paravel

-"Bridges and Balloons" from The Milk-Eyed Mender

The wonderful world of Pandora introduced me to Canadian instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Basia Bulat.

Bulat's soulful voice versatilely compliments songs of sentiment as well as power. Her variety is impressive; both lighter folk sounds and faster, stronger music is found on her debut album, Oh, My Darling. In addition to her talent as a lyricist and vocalist, Bulat plays the guitar, dulcimer, ukelele, autoharp and piano, which she incorporates into her varied songs.

Both women are real artists of their medium, and I recommend them to anyone with a taste for music with a deeper meaning. 

Tree Hugger

I am a highly emotional person. And don't get me wrong, I love having the capacity for feeling that I do. I wouldn't have it any other way; I like being able to feel human. Yet...

There are times when I need centering. I often need to reevaluate my current situation before getting too carried away with the moment.

For these reasons, solitude is vital to my well being. I love people very much, but when my mind whirls with emotions so violently that I can't hear my own thoughts, I need to get away from it.

I am, again, so sure that I've chosen the right college. The landscape here is teeming with beauty, and when I need to be alone, (weather permitting) I can walk through woods and fields and just be still in the silence.

God is so alive in nature. I know that "tree-hugger" can carry a negative connotation with it, but I am not ashamed to say that I am one. When I feel alone and sad, perhaps the most comforting thing I can to is wrap my arms around the trunk of a tree and hold it tight. This actually physically centers me, as well as providing me with a sense of emotional stability. I honestly believe that if more people did this; actually took a moment to be a part of nature; many problems could be caught and solved in a positive way. Ever since I was little I have found the act of hugging trees to be such a comfort, and I am thankful that it still helps me today.

Photograph by Blasius Erlinger.

The Outsiders

"I could picture hundreds and hundreds of boys living on the wrong sides of cities, boys with black eyes who jumped at their own shadows. Hundreds of boys who maybe watched sunsets and looked at stars and ached for something better. I could see boys going down under street lights because they were mean and tough and hated the world, and it was too late to tell them that there was good in it, and they wouldn't believe you if you did. It was too vast a problem to be just a personal thing. There should be some help, someone should tell them before it was too late. Someone should tell their side of the story, and maybe people would understand them and wouldn't be so quick to judge a boy by the amount of hair oil he wore."

It is the early 1960’s in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Ponyboy Curtis, a newly turned fourteen year old, finds himself caught up in the growing tensions between the poor gang he and his brothers belong to, the lower class "Greasers," and the elite "Socs," rich kids from the other side of town. Raised by his older brothers, Ponyboy, is somewhat outside of the gang himself. Smart and very sensitive, he loves books and movies, and constantly struggles to find his place of belonging amidst the inevitable severity of his life. He dislikes fighting and constantly questions the nature of the hate between groups as well as his place it it.

"Soda fought for fun, Steve for hatred, Darry for pride, and Two-Bit for conformity. Why do I fight? I thought, and couldn't think of any real good reason."

I remember my mom praising this book when I was little and, as she said, "not old enough to read it." Somehow, even when I was "old enough," The Outsiders slipped under the radar of my reading aspirations. Now, I am infinitely grateful to finally have read it; it has opened up windows in my mind and heart to real problems that are still prevalent today. It may not be Greasers and Socs anymore, but there is still so much animosity that can exist between people with differences, whether is be social classes, cultures or subcultures, ethnicities, lifestyles... I love this book because it is a story that radiates truth: whatever walk of life you are on, we are all human beings and, deep down inside ourselves, we are not much different from the next person.

Sometimes, as a female, I find it hard to relate to a book consisting almost entirely of males. This is definitely not the case with The Outsiders. It was beautiful to witness, through Ponyboy's voice, the wide range of emotion faced by the young men in the book. I was touched to see the fierce loyalty and brotherly love that Ponyboy and his gang held for one other.

The compassion this book invokes in its reader reminds me of the film Boys Town, when Father Flanagan says, "There is no such thing as a bad boy"... I wanted to open my arms to Ponyboy and bring him out of the near constant violence and hate that the surrounded him. I'm amazed that such a powerful work was written by a sixteen year old girl (who, at that time, earned a "D" in her creative writing class). In Ponyboy, S.E. Hinton captured the spirit of a boy whose pure heart was yet untainted by the adversity that encompassed his world; a bright light in a cavern of darkness.

One of the most powerful passages is from a note written to Ponyboy from his dying friend,

"I want you to tell Dally to look at [a sunset.] He'll probably think you're crazy, but ask for me. I don't think he's ever really seen [one]. . . There's still lots of good in the world. Tell Dally. I don't think he knows."

I cannot recommend The Outsiders highly enough. Read it.

Life.

Life has been difficult lately. It seems one family crisis just leads into another. In the wee hours of this morning, one my brothers was mugged and beat up at gunpoint. It hurts to see his pain, but my biggest prayer has been one of thanks, thanks for his life. Please pray for us. In these times of uncertainty, I can only hope and pray for a future of peace and goodwill toward our fellow brothers and sisters.

"We shall find peace. We shall hear angels. We shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds."

-Anton Chekhov

I Capture the Castle

Every so often, a reader unexpectedly comes across a real gem of a book. So I did, with Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle.

Set on the English countryside in the 1930's, seventeen year old Cassandra Mortmain begins the story by recording her peculiar life in a half-penny journal. Living in a state of more or less comfortable poverty in a crumbling castle that is her home, Cassandra is surrounded by a colorful backdrop of characters. From her detached, eccentric father who once wrote a bestselling book but has given up writing, to her loving but maudlin stepmother, Topaz, who likes to take moonlit walks dressed in nothing at all, to her beautiful but melancholy sister Rose, life at the castle is never quite normal.

Cassandra and her family are unexpectedly met with a stroke of fortune when their poverty is at its worst. American brothers, Simon and Neil Cotton, show up at the castle as the new landlords. Rose immediately launches a plan to have one fall in love with her to escape her life, but Cassandra remains in the background, quietly observing the changes that occur. Her life is also about to change, drastically.

I fell in love with the characters and setting, but most of all with the marvelous insight of the narrator. Dodie Smith created a real treasure in a such a narrator as Cassandra. I could not put this book down, and even after finishing it I find myself revisiting the story in my mind.

Going Green

Lately, I've become a bit of a freak about using organic products. After reading Squeaky Green: The Method Guide to Detoxing Your Home, I decided that it was time to stop buying harmful products pumped full of toxins, parabens and pesticides, and begin to buy clean, biodegradable, earth-friendly alternatives.

Method, the line of products created by Eric Ryan and Adam Lowry, offers safe, non-toxic cleaning supplies, that really get the job done. I was very pleased to see the effect they had on the old grout and tile on my bathroom floor.

I am a fan of aromatherapy. I am interested in making essential oils a bigger part of my own health and beauty care products. I found A'kin hand soap on clearance at Target, and have been thrilled with its quality. Also, the scents are incredible and really put me in a better mood.

My naturally wavy hair has been a trial for me. Every time I wash it, I used to fear how it would dry. This usually resulted either in a frizzy mess or an overly gelled down ponytail (I discarded my straightener after having to get inches and inches cut off due to two-and-a-half years of frying the curl away.) Thankfully, I found a new line of all-natural hair care, Yes to Carrots, which uses Dead Sea minerals and carrot juice, my oppressed follicles have been experiencing wonders.

Burt's Bees also offers a great line of natural products. I am especially taken by their lip balm and hand creams. I always feel better with a balm of beeswax and natural ingredients on my lips than when I can taste the artificiality of synthetic lipstick and gloss.

Stay tuned for other personal endorsements as I try out new green ideas!

NOTE: If you're a guy and reading this, you may not be especially interested in the beauty products mentioned, but I strongly recommend reading Squeaky Green for tips on detoxing your home. 

The Historian

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I have been mostly bedridden since my surgery, and have had plenty of time to read and sleep.  Thanks to this opportunity, I was finally able to finish The Historian, a book introduced to me by my grandma several months ago.

Elizabeth Kostova weaves a gripping narrative story that involves the research of centuries, three narrators, and one unsleeping, undead manifestation of evil: Vlad Tepes, the Impaler, also known as Dracula.

A teenage girl, the daughter of a historian, is swept away in a search for her father, who disappears after a strange series of events, with only letters of research and documentation he left her, and Barley, a college student, to guide her through Europe as she embarks after her father.  Through the letters, the narrative of a journey decades before is told through Paul, the girl's father, and how he and Helen Rossi, a spirited Hungarian woman, are thrown together in a quest to save Paul's mentor, Helen's father, who has seemingly been taken by Dracula.

As the quests unfolded, I felt as through I was in the midst of an exciting and compelling history lecture.  Although the story is fiction, the research is fact.

A darkly gripping read.  Recommended for thrill-seekers, mystery lovers and historians alike.

Till We Have Faces

I had all four of my wisdom teeth pulled last Friday, and have been more or less an invalid since.  Although much of this time has been spent sleeping, I have done quite a bit of reading.  I chose to read Till We Have Faces because, for one, it has been praised and recommended to me several times within the past few months and, secondly, the title stood out to me as I'm waiting for the swelling to subside so I'll get my own face back.

I have been enthralled with the myth of Cupid and Psyche since I was a little girl.  The tale of losing and rediscovering love was very powerful to me from the first.  Till We Have Faces still contains these elements, but it is told in a drastically different way.  

Instead of being told from beautiful Psyche's perspective, the narrator is Orual, Psyche's ugly older sister, whose obsessive love for Psyche is jealous and possessive to the point where she would rather see Psyche killed than love and be loved by another.  

Orual's character is multifaceted.  One one hand, the reader pities her for her ugliness and agrees with her complaint against the gods.  On the other hand, the reader is angry with how selfish her love is, and how cruel she becomes through her jealousy.  As Orual veils her own face, she loses herself and becomes merely the "Queen."  She gains power and respect through this action, but her very being is lost.  

I do not wish to spoil this deeply philosophical work for anyone who has not read it, but I would suggest that they read it if the chance comes to them.