Meandering Starre

I realize I must be besieging whichever readers have not run screaming from my training posts with more traning posts. So here is a non-training post. Short and sweet even (well for me, Meb).

As I was writing my last post Ani’s song “School Night” came up on iTunes. Whenever I hear this song, it makes me stop and think. She does a great job of making one feel what they “main character” of the song feels–the struggle of love and overcommitment to another love, even if the struggle is foreign to the listener. The lyrics are so well done. And the part about the mom… Why don’t I share (okay not so short):

what of the mother
whose house is in flames
and both of her children
are in their beds crying
and she loves them both
with the whole of her heart
but she knows she can only
carry one at a time?
she’s choking on the smoke
of unthinkable choices
she is haunted by the voices
of so many desires
she’s bent over from the business
of begging forgiveness
while frantically running around
putting out fires
- ani difranco “School Night”

What can I say, Ani rocks!

Yes, Dumbledore was gay, according to JK Rowling, who was speaking at Carnegie Hall (from a boingboing post). I am sure this will give the book burning, school library banning, anti-Harry Potter zealots new fuel for their fires (literally and figuratively). But, it is nice to see more gay characters in fiction, especially “children’s” fiction (fantasy). It is too bad that this acknowledgment came after the last book and that Rowling did not make Dumbledore clearly gay and out in the series. Perhaps Rowling is suggesting that Harry lives in a world where things like race (various characters) and homosexuality are such a part of the society that they do not need to be “noted,” but somehow I doubt this.

Now I need to reread the series to get the hints (Grindelwald, for instance, is apparently one of Dumbledore’s loves, which explains a ton). I already wanted to reread it based on the Snape explanations in the last books (vague to not give any spoilers). Now, I just have more to read for.

I am not a big fan of Anthony Bourdain, a chef, a food writer, and now a TV travel food celebrity. I have found his show on FoodTV, which I caught occasionally, to be arrogant and odd. I had not even realized he now has a Travel channel show, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations. However I just watched one “episode” of this show, and episode that was not meant to be, and I was touched and moved.

Anthony Bourdain and crew were filming an episode of No Reservations in Beirut when the war broke out! He got one meal scene filmed before everything changed. He and his crew went from filming a proud people with a love for good food, friends, and partying, to watching a war. So they filmed their experience during all of this and it is a great look at what really happened in Beirut. It is not a news show and it had no agenda beyond giving us this look into Beirut. The loss, the tragedy of the war and the bombing. The faces of the people before and after. The friendship and the fear. Bourdain’s perspective is that of an American outsider, and one with a security specialist that apparently spent a great deal of time trying to prevent the crew and Bourdian from being kidnapped, and one whom spent most of the time in a lovely hotel most would only dream of staying in, but his thoughts and those of the people around him, along with the images and sounds, make this a moving look at the Beirut side of things, which we Americans get so little of. So, in short, I highly recommend his show. I am sure the travel channel will be replaying it. It is called, shockingly, Anthony Bourdain in Beirut.

As the fans of Firefly/Serenity, Angel, and Buffy know, Joss Whedon is pretty cool. He recently spoke at Equality Now, and his speech is definitely worth a listen. I highly recommend it. In this speech (which is short ~8 minutes, including his introduction) Joss answers, in many different ways, the answer he has been asked 500 times (or so) by the press: “Why do you always write these strong woman characters?” Joss gives many different answers, all good, but the best… or one of the best, is this: “Equality is like gravity. We need it to stand on this earth as men and women.” The full answer is much better, and all the other answers are great too. So give it a listen and raise your glass (whether it be wine, blood, or sarsaparilla) to one who will continue to write strong female characters until people stop asking him that question.

The stars in Maine

Brrrr…. It is cold out. But truly lovely. The stars in the skies at home home (Maine and specifically the place I grew up) are just truly spectacular. They are so brilliant, bright, sharp, and crisp. Cold almost too–-so clear they are cold sharp pinpricks of light shining, sparking in the dark heavens. It’s enough to write poetry, but also I am far too tired, and would not do it justice anyway. I’ve seen the night sky in many places, but for some reason the night sky I grew up with, and probably did not give it enough credit while growing up, is always the most breathtaking for me. I am often at home home and look up to stop in awe at the night sky. It is awesome, amazing, and awe-inspiring. Besides the dazzling heavens, the air here tonight is fragrant with the scent of spring–-delicate flowers, some pine, the green growing spring smell, damp earth, and other fresh, clean, and chilly scents… really, despite my attempts, indescribable. There is also the sound of the somewhat distant waterfalls, and crickets, providing a phenomenal backdrop to the beauty of the sky and the wind.

Okay, now to bed…

The husband and I went to a Liz Phair concert Monday night. Now we have been to many such cultural events in the areas and not once did we fit the audience, at least not well:
-Alanis & Bare Naked Ladies: not gay/lesbian and a bit too old
-Indigo Girls: not lesbian/gay and didn’t have a good spread (picnics were allowed)
-Prairie Home Companion: too young and not yuppie enough (well we got the Y, they got the rest). After all the Volvo is used.
-Cake: Free concert. We were far too old
-Phantom of the Opera: too cultured (we both know that shows don’t have intermission and that jean and t-shirts are not appropriate theater attire). There were people more cultured here (it was not an area we previously lived in where people yelled during the shows) in general, but not all
-Sarah McLachlan: Okay this was pretty close, but we were on the older edge of the ages. Most of the people there older than us had their teen kids there.

However, we actually fit in at the Liz concert. There were plenty of people who were in their late 20’s to mid and later 30’s who obviously had good jobs. It was almost strange. Although there was a certain alternative edge to the crowd (reminded me of the northeast more than the south) and there were certainly some younger people there (see rant below).

The concert was good. Not amazing, but good. And fun. The best part, well besides being like 15 feet from Liz and belting out “your ordinary average every day sane psycho Supergoddess,�? was being introduced to the opening band matt pond PA. We bought the cd we liked them so much. While listening to them live I was reminded of Cure, Tom Petty, and some other group that I cannot remember. Their album is much more mellow then their concert. The cello, which was pretty quite on stage, is much more obvious on the CD and really makes their music. After listening to the CD I can see some Counting Crows (this may have been the other band, I can’t remember) and some October Project, but really they shouldn’t be compared to other bands as they have their own unique sound (as they say in “several arrows later,�? “you should not want to sound like they do�?). The cello is a fabulous touch. The lyrics are great and I think meaning will appear after some listening and analysis, although heartache & break are certainly themes (like so much music, and poetry, and other art). The lyrics are defiantly poetic. The overall tone is mellow, but with some rhythm and pace. It is moody music, sober but sweet, and it makes me move a bit. I suspect I’ll soon be singing along. I’m a fan. In fact, I’ve been listening to them continuously since the concert—well them and my ringing ears. There new album Several Arrows Later came out the day after the concert, but we got it at the concert. Kidna cool. A few of the songs I find particularly catchy so far: “Several arrows later,�? “The trees and the wild,�? “So much trouble,�? and “Halloween.�? But really I seem to like most of them. And hey, this is music by a mostly male band… The fact I like them so much says something.