Aaron on Rum: A Saturday Snapshot

First of all, this is not me.
If this was a picture of me, there would be paramedics on the way before the pixels were dry.
This is a shot of my nephew Aaron in one of his many impromptu contortions -- and after drinking his own body weight in rum [or whatever else was being handed out wholesale] at my niece's wedding.
If this was a picture of me, the next frame would show split pantaloons.
And again, ambulances and things like that. Much blood. Possibly exposed entrails.
But I include it here in this weekend's Saturday Snapshot to remind us all of how wonderful it is be young and agile and half-insane [and drunk].
Aaron is a wild child, the youngest son of my brother. At yet another wedding, I will never forget him entertaining us all outside of the venue with a rendition of his alter-persona, which he calls "Professor X".
I laughed so hard, again -- it very nearly required a 911 call on my behalf.
I think the kid is schizophrenic.
Vive le youth!

Thank you Alyce, for hosting this terrific Saturday Snapshot meme @ At Home With Books.
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Splash du Jour: Friday

Well, in Bookpuddle news -- with my last night's posting, Blogger arbitrarily changed my blog template and basically, all of my former customization has been lost.
It's very disheartening.
My [dear friends'] Blogroll is gone.
As is my "Currently Reading" sidebar.
Stuff like that.
A whole new look that I did not choose to create.
So, later today, I am going to jump off my balcony.
But first, I have to go to work.

Have a great Friday!
*****

Two Spooky Novels

Sort of… by happenstance… two of the most recent books I have read have been downright spooky.
I love spooky books. Ones with scary elements to them, or bizarre un-realiities laced throughout. And so I thought I would mention these two real beauties here.
The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde.
Drood, by Dan Simmons.
Usually, in and around Hallowe'en season, I love a good creepy book. But this year I have pre-empted myself, and read these a month or two ahead of time.
Many of you know of the tale of Dorian Gray, or have indeed read the thing. I was surprised by how much I truly enjoyed the book. Written way back in 1890 by the infamous Oscar Wilde, it tells the story of Dorian Gray, a young man who makes a dire oath when presented with a portrait of himself:
"How sad it is!" I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. It will never be older than this particular day of June…. If it were only the other way! If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that -- for that -- I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!"
Suspend your imagination for long enough to read this whippersnapper of a tale, if you have not already done so, my friend. Dorian's wish comes true, and leads to unimaginable horror.
Then there is this massive book, Drood -- by American writer, Dan Simmons.
I have about 40 pages left to read, and so I want to quickly write a bit here and get back to it -- because the thing has me in its thrall.
Drood is a fictionalized story of the relationship between the latter-day Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins -- arguably two of the most famous English authors of the Victorian era. Thoroughly intriguing and engaging.
On June 9, 1865, Dickens survived a devastating train derailment -- and became obsessed with a figure he "saw" wandering amongst the wreckage. Or so he says!
The reader never knows if this "Drood" character really existed -- and neither does Wilkie Collins. Because of his dependency upon laudanum [opium], Collins becomes enmeshed in this character, and Drood [real or not] gains possession of his already drug-addled brain. Told in the extremely unreliable first-person narration by Wilkie Collins, this story is filled with doppelgangers, hypnotism [or mesmerism, as it was referred to back then] and more twists and turns than an underground sewer system!  Grisly murders and suspense reminiscent of Edgar Allen Poe.
In fact, if there are two things that link these two books, they are this:
1) In each, the primary antecedent event occurs in the month of June.
2) Both emphasize the idea that nightmare-ish obsession leads to murder.
This latter thing I find interesting, because -- well, laudanum usage has never had that effect on me!
Two great reads which I highly recommend -- Hallowe'en or pre-Hallowe'en!
*****

Splash du Jour: Thursday

The whole difference between construction and creation is exactly this: that a thing constructed can only be loved after it is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists.
-- Charles Dickens --
Have a great Thursday!
*****

Splash du Jour: Wednesday

A lot of the people who read a bestselling novel, for example, do not read much other fiction. By contrast, the audience for an obscure novel is largely composed of people who read a lot. That means the least popular books are judged by people who have the highest standards, while the most popular are judged by people who literally do not know any better. An American who read just one book this year was disproportionately likely to have read ‘The Lost Symbol’, by Dan Brown. He almost certainly liked it.
-- The Economist --

Have a great Wednesday!
*****

Splash du Jour: Tuesday

It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.
-- Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes --

Have a great Tuesday!
*****

Splash du Jour: Monday

"Never," said my aunt, "be mean in anything; never be false; never be cruel. Avoid those three vices, Trot, and I can always be hopeful of you."
-- Charles Dickens, David Copperfield --

Have a great Monday!
*****

A Bookpuddle Wall

Recently, my Texan blog-friend Sam Sattler wrote a terrific piece entitled What Your Bookshelf Says About You. If you haven't already done so, fellow bloggers, you really need to add his site Book Chase to your blogrolls. He regularly writes engaging book reviews, and stays on the cutting edge of what is happening in the e-book world and book marketing in general. Sam is a wise veteran book-blogger, erudite writer, and prolific reader.
In Texas-terms, he's a lifer. Serving a maximum sentence. In it for the long-haul.
I love his by-line: The problem is I want to read it all but I fall farther behind every day.
Hah! Don't we all.
Anyhoo, ever since reading his posting a while ago, I've meant to take a picture of my own main bookshelf area. It's rather difficult to get a good shot of it because my apartment is so small -- I'd have to materialize through the nether wall to get far enough back to get it all in one frame. Plus, on those other walls are… other shelves. Of books!
But here is one view of some of them, anyway. If you really look closely, you can see that I'm sponsored by the fine folks at VISA.
I arrange my books somewhat haphazardly -- they are not categorized much at all.
Yet, I know my own system so well that I can pretty much instantly locate any book I need, to reference anything. Or to simply re-read something.
And you will notice, that in keeping with my in-other-areas cluttered lifestyle, I like to have several books sideways on the shelf, as well as vertical. Usually lying atop the horizon of a row of normally placed books.
But mostly just… higgledy-piggedly.
Be sure to visit Sam's site, and note how much better his own shelves are, than mine. Plus, visit the site that he himself is alluding to in his posting. It's called Share Your Shelf.
"No one who can read, ever looks at a book, even unopened on a shelf, like one who cannot."  
-- Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend --
*****

Niagara: A Saturday Snapshot

Niagara never ceases to thrill me.
I have visited Niagara Falls perhaps ten times.
This is my favourite picture I have ever taken of the "Canadian" side of the cataract. [Which, by the way, is also the BEST side!]
It was several years ago, a visit my best friend and I made.
If you comment, dear reader, choose from the following responses:
A) I've been there, and loved it.
B) Was there…. did not like it.
C) Have never gone, and probably never will go.
D) Have never gone, but I want to.
E) Had my honeymoon there.

Thank you Alyce, for hosting this terrific Saturday Snapshot meme @ At Home With Books.
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"Which of those two is now?"

Well, the weekend is finally here and I am already engaged in something I've been looking forward to all week.
The drinking of much beer!
One of my favourite musical artists is Alan Parsons. Also known as The Alan Parsons Project. [Alan Parsons produced one of my favourite album's of all time -- Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.]
I just lit a few candles and clicked on my iTunes and started listening to an old old album of his, called The Time Machine. The first piece is called Temporalia, and it is just a guy talking for about a minute. 
But wow -- what he is saying really hit me as being quite profound.
Maybe it's the beer!
So I located the same narration piece on YouTube and want to share it with you here. Maybe you don't have time to listen to the full piece, but take a minute to listen to what the guy is saying at the start.
And specifically, what he says 45 seconds into it.
The whole topic reminds me of a poem I recently wrote, and definitely, it is food for [semi-drunken] thought!
Cheers!

Splash du Jour: Friday

Fiction and nonfiction are not so easily divided. Fiction may not be real, but it's true; it goes beyond the garland of facts to get to emotional and psychological truths. As for nonfiction, for history, it may be real, but its truth is slippery, hard to access, with no fixed meaning bolted to it. If history doesn't become story, it dies to everyone except the historian.
-- Yann Martel, Beatrice & Virgil --

Have a great Friday!
*****

Splash du Jour: Thursday

And yet, there was something about this night, about right now, this moment, that went far beyond whatever “flights of passion” are. Tonight was a decision. It was far more the end of something, than the beginning of another. The beginning had long since, begun.
-- From one of my own short stories, entitled White --

Have a great Thursday!
*****

Energy Crisis

I've received several emails from concerned blog-readers, wondering if I am dead. 
Not quite. Not quite yet.
I've been so busy at my workplace that I have very little energy -- or even inspiration to really write very much, after hours. Has anything like this ever happened to you? My blog-arteries are clogged. I'm still reading all the time -- and I'll finish a book and think, "Wow, that deserves a great review!" Then -- I'll take a nap. I'm coming through one of the most intense [and prolonged] times of just… too much work, at work.
After work, it's all I can do to limp and hobble into the nearest Starbucks and just read for a while. So, I'm saying all of this just to let some of my faithful readers know I am still very much in the game, but just a bit on the sidelines -- napping.
Doesn't help that there's so much hamburger in my bloodstream, I guess.
But stay tuned -- things are going to get better -- one day.
*****

Splash du Jour: Wednesday

Have a great Wednesday!
******

Splash du Jour: Tuesday

Despite the tons of romantic literary twaddle to the contrary, trust me, Dear Reader, when I assure you that no woman can be attractive when she whines and glares.
-- From Drood, by Dan Simmons --
Have a great Tuesday!
*****

Splash du Jour: Monday

The very existence of flamethrowers proves that sometime, somewhere, someone said to themselves, “You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I’m just not close enough to get the job done."
-- George Carlin --

Have a great Monday!
*****

Vertical Symmetry: A Saturday Snapshot

 

I have a thing for vertical symmetry.
And by "vertical symmetry" I'm referring to architecture, especially urban skyscapes.
In other words, technological symmetry -- I marvel at the exactness of good engineering. When I walk down a city street I am always on the lookout for the way that tall buildings in the foreground match the vertical sides of buildings more distant.
I can't even tell you of how many times I have escaped being run over by cars driven by drivers who do not have the same fascination, as I gaze upward in a jay-walking stupor.
Here is a pic I took while walking down St. Catherine street in Montreal.
So, note the thoroughly ancient church in the foreground.
The office tower in the background is blocks distant.
But look at how they proportionally line themselves up. I just love that!
Built perhaps a hundred years apart. A bit of a clearer shot -- HERE.
I want to go to Chicago sometime, on a Total Vertical Symmetry Tour©.

Thank you Alyce, for hosting this terrific Saturday Snapshot meme @ At Home With Books.
*****

Splash du Jour: Friday

Customer in a restaurant: How do you prepare your chickens?
Cook: Oh, nothing special really. We just tell them they’re gonna die.

Have a great Friday!
*****

And be sure to check out my own poultry-related poetry -- HERE.

Splash du Jour: Thursday

Luckily, even as a young man not yet become himself, John Bridgens had two things besides indecision that kept him from self-destruction -- books and a sense of irony.
-- Dan Simmons, The Terror --
Have a great Thursday!
*****

Splash du Jour: Wednesday

Have a great Wednesday!
*****

Splash du Jour: Tuesday

The real marriage of true minds is for any two people to possess a sense of humor or irony pitched in exactly the same key, so that their joint glances on any subject cross like interarching searchlights.
-- Edith Wharton, A Backward Glance: An Autobiography --

Have a great Tuesday!
*****

Some Thoughts on the Afterlife

I'm really enjoying this book, The Belief Instinct: The Psychology of Souls, Destiny, and The Meaning of Life, by Jesse Bering.
For those of you who may not already know this, those topics in the subtitle are among my favourite musing points in life. In fact, my goal is to write a book about my own original ideas on the subject of the afterlife and umm… ultimate reality, etc.
At the end of a chapter entitled Curiously Immortal, the author says:
The mind is what the brain does; the brain stops working at death; therefore; after death the mind no longer exists.
Earlier on, he asked: Why do we wonder where our mind goes when the body is dead? Shouldn't it be obvious that the mind is dead too?
These are controversial points, of course. It may not be a book for everyone, and, as you may surmise, it's definitely not published by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association©!
But I tend to agree with most, if not all, that Bering says.
In a nutshell -- there is no afterlife. Not in the traditional sense that most people might vaguely ascribe to believing in it, when pressed on the issue.
But the whole topic was making me think today, while I was at work.
The above quotes for instance -- What is retained after death?
What value [or logic] is there in speaking of an individual's "mind" after death of the body?
Obviously, testimonials are plethora… all the bright light stories and arriving at the mansion in heaven and all.
And then it hit me.
I work with a guy that was dead once.
And just as I thought this, there he was, not fifty feet away. So I sauntered on over to him.

____ [<-- name withheld] had a massive heart attack about two years ago now.
He was in his car, stopped at a red light. As it went green -- he went black! His car accelerated and slammed into a post, alerting an off-duty police officer who was filling his tank with gas at a nearby station. This officer arrived at the scene and performed CPR on ____, breaking his ribs in the process. He then revived him with a defibrillator from the trunk of his own car. Paramedics later used a defibrillator again on the way to the hospital. And then again at the hospital. In the end ____ was placed into an induced coma.
He spent upwards of a year or more, in recovery. And is alive today.
So I asked him this morning what he experienced in his mind, during the time he was actually in a state of body-deadness.
He said that he experienced absolutely nothing, having no memory of any events between seeing the green traffic light and waking up a week later, in the hospital.
I asked him what this entire experience has done to him, regarding any sort of faith in God or whatever. He said that he was more of a "believer" prior to any of these events, than he is now. When I asked him why this is the case, he said, "Because now I KNOW that after death there is nothing. No thinking about anything."
Obviously, this is but one person's experience with the beyond -- but even so, I did find his honesty and sincerity with me rather significant, especially in light of what I am now reading in this book.
Any comments regarding your own experiences or those of people you know would be greatly appreciated.
It's a topic that very much fascinates me like no other.
*****

Splash du Jour: Monday

Have a great Monday!
*****

Mr. Buckingham: A Saturday Snapshot

 

My ears are still ringing from an outdoor concert I was at tonight.
One of my favorite guitarists of all time -- Lindsey Buckingham.
You may not have heard of him [them again, maybe you have] but I'm sure you've heard of Fleetwood Mac, and he performed with them for somewhere around half a century. The guy is absolutely amazing!
I talked about him here on Bookpuddle a while ago, and tonight was the night of this one-man show. It was a dandy.
Although there were a few God-induced technical glitches.
It was an overcast night, in fact it did turn to rain right after the show -- but apparently some random lightning issues killed the power exactly as Lindsey was halfway through his guitar solo on MY FAVORITE SONG, called So Afraid.
He left the stage, and the problem was resolved a few minutes later.
He returned for the rest of his set -- and after the encore, the crowd was yelling:
"Play it again".
He had a few words with a technician, and then graciously obliged the cheering fans [me included]. Amazingly, this time exactly two or three notes into the same solo part, BOOM -- total power failure again, and this time it never went back on.
Which proves something I've been saying for a long time now -- LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM'S GUITAR SOLOS ARE JUST TOO DAMN POWERFUL!

Thank you Alyce, for hosting this terrific Saturday Snapshop meme @ At Home With Books.
*****

Splash du Jour: Friday

-- Jefferson Memorial, Washington, D.C --

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of currency, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of their property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.
-- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) --

Have a great Friday!
*****

Splash du Jour: Thursday

And why is McDonald's still counting? This is really insecure, isn't it?
40 gillion, 80 million, zillion, billion, killion, tillion...
What is this?
Does it mean anything to anyone?
89 BILLION SOLD!
“O.K. I'll have one."
I would love to meet the chairman of the board of McDonald's...
Just to say to him: "Look, we all get it. You’ve sold a lotta hamburgers, whatever the hell the number is. Just put up a sign: 'McDonald's, we're doing very well!’
I don't need to hear about every goddamn one of them."
What is their ultimate goal? To have cows just surrendering voluntarily?
Showing up at the door: "We'd like to turn ourselves in."
"We see the sign... we realize we have very little chance out there."
"We'd like to be a 'Happy Meal' if that's at all possible."
-- Jerry Seinfeld –

Have a great Thursday!
*****

Splash du Jour: Wednesday

Have a great Wednesday!
*****

Splash du Jour: Tuesday

 

What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.
-- Salman Rushdie --
[I could not agree, more!]

Have a great Tuesday!
*****

The Pregnant Widow

Martin Amis has several children, and writes the kind of novels that make a reader beg the question:
"My God, Marty -- have your daughters read this one?" Because they are ribald things.
[The novels, I mean].
Racy.
Steamy.
Crasser than crass.
Sex, sex, sex -- characters endlessly engaged in one manner of progfligatry [<-- should be a word] or another. Everyone with their wild sides exposed.

Brave-living anti-hero protagonists stretching the boundaries ["What boundaries?" Amis might ask…] of normalcy.
Anyhoo -- I just finished Amis's [2010] novel The Pregnant Widow, and he was true to form. I've read three previous Amis novels, and this one I liked the best.
So, to those critics who claim that Amis is losing some of his verve and excellence as time's arrow [not to mention the cigarette smoke] shoots him full of wrinkles, I disagree. This one was a real whippersnapper.

The year is 1970, and a group of 20-somethings are vacationing in a castle in Italy.
[I know -- we all did this, right?] Never mind -- it works, here.
Keith Nearing, housed in a room with his somewhat lacklustre girlfriend Lily, soon finds himself profoundly enamoured with a rapturous blonde vixen, appropriately named Scheherazade. She is separated from him only by an adjoining communal bathroom, and the topless sessions at the pool become a bit much for him.
As one astute reviewer put it, "Keith wants to have his Kate and Edith, too!"
Keep in mind that, given the lull between the last two World Wars [21 years]… this burgeoning generation were feeling that any time now they, too, were about due to be sent off to die in Another One. The time was ripe -- 25 years since the last great armistice. Sex now, or death tomorrow!
The Sexual Revolution© was in high gear.
The neat thing about Martin Amis is that he is not only racy and steamy and buttocks amok! He does write a thinking-person's novel!
Throughout the thing, he outlines and illustrates the four major tenets of the Sexual Revolution:
1) There will be sex before marriage.
2) Women, also, have carnal appetites.
3) Surface will start tending to supersede essence.
4) A dissociation of sensibility.
Having said all of the above, which is not much at all, I must add that The Pregnant Widow does not sensationalize the sex act.
Scenes in which sex takes place are actually downplayed, and the effects, emphasized.
For details about how-people-are-doing-sex, a reader desiring such things will have to stick with Fifty Shades of Grey, and similar ilk.
As I said, this is, as are all of Amis's books, more of an intellectually stimulating piece.
Rife with allusions to poetry and literature, issues far deeper than meet the surface -- and yet with boobs and man-parts all over the place, making their cameo appearances in all their jiggly craziness.
This is his oeuvre! His niche!
Starting with the flush and ripeness of youth, but finishing up with the fifty shades of grey -- as in, where all of that takes us.

 
Just two nights ago -- I saw Amis's brand new novel on the shelf in a bookstore.
It's called Lionel Asbo: State of England. 
I opened to the dedication page and saw there the words, "To Christopher Hitchens."
At the time, that alone almost compelled me to buy it.
But now, having finished this, his previous work -- I have all the more reason to take his new one up to the cashier.
The guy's on an upswing!
*****

Splash du Jour: Monday

 


He sat on under a sky now crazed with stars -- stars in such wild profusion that the night had no idea what to do with them all. Actually, it did. Actually of course it did. We don't understand the stars, we don't understand the galaxy (how it formed). The night is more intelligent than we are -- many Einsteins more intelligent. And so he sat on, under the intelligence of the night.
-- Martin Amis, The Pregnant Widow --

Have a great Monday!
*****