Holiday Reading

When the nights are dark and cold, there’s nothing like curling up in a comfy chair, next to a warm fire, with a good book.

Few of us have wood fires these days (though I happen to be sitting beside one at the moment), and in any case there are air pollution issues, but I find I can achieve something almost as good with ducted heating, a few candles, a nice reading lamp with a full-spectrum bulb, and some Christmas lights twinkling on the tree or around the window.

(If the smell of wood smoke is vital for you, you can always get one of those small Hibachis and burn a few pine chips, but make sure your smoke alarms are turned off first if you are going to burn more than two or three.  Or you can get a piney smell by draping a few branches and garlands around the room. I have been known to bring home fresh cut pine when I come across it for the aroma.)

And here are some suggestions for Christmas-themed reading—and a few books, as well, that I think go well with a warm chair in the dark nights:

A Christmas Carol—Charles Dickins — The classic story, which so many people know without having read it.  And it is worth reading (and seeing in a live theatrical production). [on Amazon; ebook version]

The Night Before Christmas — Many of us can recite this poem (by Clement Clarke Moore) by heart, but it helps to have a nicely illustrated version to read aloud on Christmas Eve, and the illustrations in this one, by Charles Santore, are lavish and appealing, albeit very much the expected, traditional thing. [on Amazon]

How the Grinch Stole Christmas—Dr. Seuss — Yet another classic Christmas text we all know by heart, but I suspect many people know it mostly from the original animated TV version, which is charming and terrific, but shouldn’t supplant the original. [on Amazon]

Olive, The Other Reindeer—Vivian Walsh and J. Otto Seibold — The newest edition to the canon of Christmas classics, at least for me—I found it utterly enchanting, first in book form and then in the TV special, with Drew Barrymore doing the voice of a dog named Olive who thinks she’s the other reindeer from the line in the song, “all of [Olive] the other reindeer.” [on Amazon – the ebook is free if you have Kindle Unlimited]

Miracle and Other Christmas Stories—Connie Willis — Hugo and Nebula award-winning author Connie Willis reimagines some of the key themes of Christmas in this collection of warm and generous stories. [on Amazon]

Doomsday Book—Connie Willis — Set in Oxford of the future, when time travel is a research tool for history departments, and in Oxford of the 1300s, when plague stalked the land. It’s a phenomenal read, deeply moving in places, and set during Christmas. An excellent book for curling up with on a winter evening. [on Amazon]

Hogfather—Terry Pratchett — “Everything starts somewhere, although many physicists disagree.”  Sir Terry Pratchett has been called the greatest living satirist writing in English.  Here he turns his satirical, but also always warm and generous, wit loose on Christmas (among other things). [on Amazon]

The Riverside Shakespeare — Shakespeare is always readable, and I’ve spent many a winter’s night curled up with one or another play. “A Winter’s Tale” might seem like the seasonal reading, but I’d suggest giving it a miss. It’s one of the problem plays and doesn’t really have much to offer of a seasonally appropriate nature. Paradoxically, the play I might most recommend for reading during the long nights around the winter solstice is… “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Its magic, mystery and wonder seem much in keeping with the season, and of course it’s delightful.  [on Amazon]

The Lord of the Rings — Not at all holiday themed, but a book I’ve been curling up with during winters for more years than I care to reveal. Again, as with the Shakespeare, there is something about the mood that it summons in you as you read that does seem to consort well with the mood of the holidays, even when the content has nothing at all to do with Christmas or the holidays. [on Amazon]

In the past I would have included the YA fantasy series by she who must not be named. Not any more. But if you have them and they were special to you, they have nice Christmas scenes in them.

A newer addition to my holiday reading is Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising which I was turned on to by a social media post by Rob Macfarlane maybe 5 years ago, when he was proposing a winter solstice read. That led to Rob adapting the book as a radio play — which will be broadcast by the BBC in 12 parts beginning on 20 December. I’m very much looking forward to it, and am foregoing my annual read in anticipation. [book on Amazon]

If you are looking for any of these books, or for books as gifts for people you love for the holidays, please shop at independent bookshops as much as possible. If you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area, try Green Apple Books, Booksmith or Borderlands in San Francisco, or Moe’s Books or Mrs. Dalloway’s in Berkeley. They will also ship to you wherever you are.

You can also order from Powell’s Books in Portland, and Book Riot has a handy list of independent bookshops around the country from which you can order online. And if you are in the UK you can support independent bookshops by buying online with Bookshop.org

Filed under: What I Read Today, books, Christmas, eBooks, holidays

Funk for Friday: Funkadelic – Funky Dollar Bill

From Funkadelic’s second studio album, Free Your Mind… And Your Ass Will Follow (1970). Rock critic Robert Christgau said of this album, “Not only is the shit weird, the weirdness signifies.” The weirdness has its shit together most solidly on this track, which still melts my face.

Filed under: Song of the Day, funk

Hipster Bingo – a social media win

Sightglass Bingo is a cool little app for playing bingo by spotting items at Sightglass Coffee, a hip and popular café and roaster in San Francisco’s SoMa neighborhood. These kind of social bingo jokes seem to pop up pretty regularly (cf Queen’s Speech Bingo, Amnesty’s Human Rights Presidential Debate Bingo), and when they’re done right they can be quite funny. The iPhone app + Twitter aspect is a very nice upgrade, though.

Play bingo by spotting items at Sightglass Coffee in San Francisco.Development by David Kasper. Design by Caleb Elston.Built using parse. (via Sightglass Bingo.)

Some of the bingo entries are going to be practically automatic, they occur so frequently – “Payment w/Square” – whereas some are going to be pretty tricky, like “TechCrunch Article” or “VC” (presumably Venture Capitalist, given the context, and not Vice Chancellor, which was my first, inappropriate context reading).

I’m not sure if this is still active – the app hasn’t be updated since 2011 and there’s been almost no activity on the associated Twitter account (@SightglassBingo) – but I think it’s a great idea. And if it’s not active, let’s get it going again.

Well, actually, you’ll have to do that without me. I never go to Sightglass. (Long story. Short version: I’ve had to divide up the city with an asshole who can’t stand to be in the same place as me – no, not an ex – and he insisted on Sightglass as part of his domain.)  So I won’t be playing this, but it’s easy to see how this could be extended to pretty much any of the other hip, popular coffee spots without much if any modification.

In fact, it would probably work even better at Four Barrel or Ritual, both on Valencia St. in the Mission (and coffee spots that are in my domain).  A few modifications might be in order, though, to improve game play.  You never see them bagging beans at Ritual, for instance, and the roasters are gone. And obviously, you want to make sure that the “cards” are kept fresh – over time, the selection of what’s hip in clothing could change, you can add in the website of the moment, or the newest smartphone or facial hair style.  But the concept is sound, and a hoot.

Sightglass Bingo for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on the iTunes App Store.

Sightglass Bingo (SightglassBingo) on Twitter.

Filed under: Coffee, Tech, app, coffee, iPhone, San Francisco

Coffee and Books in San Francisco’s Mission District – the perfect job?

Borderlands Cafe, the (somewhat) newly minted accompaniment to San Francisco’s best science fiction and fantasy bookstore, Borderlands Books, is hiring:

We have an unusual job opening at Borderlands Cafe.  It’s not glamorous, but it would be great for a local high schooler or a nearby person with a flexible schedule.  The hours would be 7 pm – 9 pm, Monday – Friday, and the job would include cleaning, busing tables, and doing the closedown work at the Cafe.  Considering how short the hours are, the person really should live quite close to the cafe.  Pay is SF minimum wage, but you get to work with a great group of people and you get a discount at the bookstore!  Email jfeldman@borderlands-books.com for more information before sending a resume.

I’ve spent a lot of time there, and I can personally attest to the greatness of the people.  This job is a lot like the first job I had—at a game store—but with the addition of COFFEE!  So, totally awesome and vastly superior—possibly the perfect first job for a high schooler who lives in the area.

You can see that I am not alone in loving the cafe by checking out their Yelp page. (I love it just slightly less since they removed the couches up front, and have never been 100% reconciled to their no -WiFi policy, but I understand and support the reasoning behind both decisions.)

 

Filed under: Coffee, San Francisco, cafes, job, Mission District

Songs of the Season: Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring

Some classical music with no obvious, overt connection to the holiday has nonetheless become associated with Christmas over the years—at least in the United States. Bach has a Christmas Oratorio, but his choral movement known as “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” also seems to have become something of a Christmas tune (as well as a popular piece for weddings).

Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring is the English title of the 10th movement of the cantata Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147 composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. A transcription by the English pianist Myra Hess (1890–1965) was published in 1926 for piano solo and in 1934 for piano duet.[1] The British organist Peter Hurford made his organ transcription for the chorale movement as well. Today, it is often performed at wedding ceremonies slowly and reverently, in defiance of the effect suggested by Bach in his original scoring,[2] for voices with trumpet, oboes, strings, and continuo. Written during his first year in Leipzig, Germany, this chorale movement is one of Bach’s most enduring works. (via Wikipedia.)

It is, or at least can be, stately, beautiful, serious but also full of joy. You can see why people like it for occasions such as weddings and Christmas. The Windham Hill version is pretty much my favorite version as a “holiday” song:

David Qualey, “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” – from A Winter’s Solstice

The numerous other versions available can vary greatly in appeal:

• “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” – a traditional version
• a version with English lyrics
• Jay C. Wingard – from Christmas Collection
• Daniel Ho, from his album, Christmas Ukelele Style
• an organ version
• a version on cello with choir

Sarah Brightman also included a version on her album, A Winter Symphony.

For more…

• Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring – Wikipedia
• If you liked the ukelele version, these albums have all the Christmas standards performed on that instrument: Hawaiian Style Christmas 2 and  An Ukulele Christmas. And you can check out other albums by Daniel Ho.
• Bach: Voices Of Angels – Amazon
• Bach Cantatas – Ton Koopman, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir – Amazon
• A Winter’s Solstice: Windham Hill Artists

Filed under: Song of the Day, Bach, Christmas, classical, holidays, music

What I Read Today: Tasty quotes on our online life

Two tasty quotes concerning our online life:

“have you ever wondered why discussions in chat rooms or instant messaging turn nasty so easily? Or wander off topic? It’s because the behavioural cues we use to trigger socially acceptable responses aren’t there in a non-face-to-face environment. If you can’t see the other primate, your ethical reasoning is impaired because you can’t build a complete mental image of them—a cognitive frame.”

Rule 34 by Charles Stross

We have information fatigue, anxiety, and glut. We have met the Devil of Information Overload and his impish underlings, the computer virus, the busy signal, the dead link, and the PowerPoint presentation.

What Just Happened: A Chronicle from the Information Frontier by James Gleick

Filed under: What I Read Today, internet, science, science fiction, technology, teh interwebz

Poetry and Blackberry Picking with Seamus Heaney and Robert Hass

Over on her blog, turbidus has posted a (poem of the day) Blackberry Picking by Seamus Heaney, including a great video of Heaney reading it:

I would just like to counter / respond with my own favorite poem about blackberry picking, by Robert Hass from his breakout second book, Praise:

Picking Blackberries with a Friend Who Has Been Reading Jacques Lacan

August is dust here. Drought
stuns the road,
but juice gathers in the berries.
We pick them in the hot
slow-motion of midmorning.
Charlie is exclaiming:

for him it is twenty years ago
and raspberries and Vermont.
We have stopped talking

about L’Histoire de la vérité,
about subject and object
and the mediation of desire.

Our ears are stoppered
in the bee-hum. And Charlie,
laughing wonderfully,

beard stained purple
by the word juice,
goes to get a bigger pot.

A poet and blogger made a really interesting observation on this poem a few years ago that I just ran across:

I also like the way Hass employs the word “stuns” in “Picking Blackberries…” to give a quick nod toward Sylvia Plath’s “Blackberrying.” Plath wrote of the flies buzzing round her English blackberries: “The honey feast of the the berries has stunned them; they believe in heaven.” The acknowledgment of the debt is a classy little move, typical of the work of Robert Hass. (via sonnets at 4 a.m.: A Poem by Robert Hass.)

Though of course I’ve read Sylvia Plath, I have absolutely no recollection of this poem, but now I want to rush out and read it.  (I can’t read a poem for the first time online; there’s something about computer screens that seems to inhibit that initial connection for me.)

For more poetry by Robert Hass, and some background on him, check out Robert Hass : The Poetry Foundation:

Robert Hass is one of contemporary poetry’s most celebrated and widely-read voices. In addition to his success as a poet, Hass is also recognized as a leading critic and translator, notably of the Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz and Japanese haiku masters Basho, Buson and Issa. Critics celebrate Hass’s own poetry for its clarity of expression, its conciseness, and its imagery, often drawn from everyday life.

Praise, by Robert Hass – Powells.com
Praise, by Robert Hass – Amazon.com

Filed under: Poetry, blackberries, Jacques Lacan, Robert Hass, Seamus Heaney

I learned 3 fascinating things on public radio this morning

In the space of 20 minutes, I learned three fascinating things this morning, all of which seemed directly relevant to me and my concerns, listening to KQED on my drive to work. (I normally bike, but I have a lot of stuff to carry today.) According to a story on NPR’s Morning Edition, autism may be caused, at least in part, by an interconnectivity problem between different parts of the brain.  From KQED, I learned that one in every $3 donated to California state campaigns since 2000 came from a tiny group of just 100 individual and group donors who together gave over $1 billion, and that more than 40% of registered voters in California are new voters, or people who only turn out occasionally.

The latter two facts/figures obviously reflect troubling trends in our political system that are only getting worse, and are skewing politics dramatically to the right.  The autism study seemed particularly fascinating to me because it held out the hope of limited treatments in the present, which was discussed in the story on NPR, and because it suggests that possibility of discovering why there has been an apparent increase in the prevalence of autism; if improperly functioning fibres in the brain are to blame, in whole or in part, we can begin to investigate what might be damaging the formation of these fibres or discover which genes regulate their structure and function. It’s pretty exciting.

I felt charged up in different ways and different directions by these three fascinating facts – but definitely charged up, and grateful to have learned them. So I joined KQED.  I get more out of KQED and NPR over the course of a year than I do from a lot of the other media and entertainment I pay for. Easily more than any five books I might buy during the course of a year. So donating $100 seems the least I could do.

That’s what I feel good about this morning.

For more…

• What’s Different About The Brains Of People With Autism? : Shots – Health Blog : NPR.
• Epidemiology of autism – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
• In State Politics, Big Money From Few Donors: Forum | KQED Public Media for Northern CA.
• Finding Ways to Motivate the Occasional Voter: The California Report | The California Report.
• Donate, Join, Renew | KQED Public Media for Northern CA.

Filed under: Feel Good, autism, different parts of the brain, election, KQED, NPR, Politics, prevalence of autism, public radio, state campaigns, voting

Nerdware mashup

May the force be ever in your favor…

Shirt Punch.

Filed under: Nerdware, clothing, Hunger Games, movies, science fiction, Star Wars, t-shirts

Know your coffee birds: Blue-crowned Motmot — Coffee & Conservation

Coffee & Conservation provides information about the connection between coffee and the environment — especially bird habitat.

One bird that frequents environmental sensitive coffee plantations is the Blue-crowned Motmot (Momotus momota), a “member of a family of New World tropical birds related to kingfishers. Like kingfishers, they nest in burrows which they dig themselves into soil cliffs or road cuts; these burrows are five to up to 14 feet long, and winding. Most motmots are medium-sized (robin size or larger), and are sit-and-wait predators of large insects, small reptiles or mammals and similarly sized prey, along with a little fruit.

The Blue-crowned Motmot is the most widely distributed motmot, and is found from Mexico to Argentina in lowland forests, on up to 1300 meters. It’s fairly tolerant of somewhat disturbed habitats, and thus can be found in open woodlands and second-growth forest such as those found on shade coffee plantations.”

Know your coffee birds: Blue-crowned Motmot — Coffee & Conservation.

Filed under: Coffee, birds, nature, South America

Nerdware for lounging around your blue box

Doctor Who: Towelling Robe: 4th Doctor @ Forbidden Planet.

Filed under: Nerdware, clothing, Doctor Who, science fiction, television

The Ultimate Caffeine Delivery System?

“Imagine a coffee brewer that you don’t have to leave running. A coffee brewer that has no pressurized boilers, requires no yearly inspections and heats up water from cold to hot at the push of a button.”

Imagine having an instant brew coffee machine – espresso, cappuccino, you name it – on your desktop – and controlled by your iPhone!  I think I may have died and gone to heaven.

The compact model is about the size of a computer tower: 22 inches tall, 18 inches deep and 7 inches wide. The Scanomat TopBrewer – an idea whose time came when I got to work this morning.

Filed under: Coffee, gadgets