Grit City Xmas

Happy Isaac Newton's Birthday, everyone!

 

 

So, Coco wasn't satisfied with the way her Christmas-Eve Brownies™ came out last night, so today we bounced out in the rain to the local to get more ingredients for she could make some Christmas-Day Brownies™ for the guests (and we get the keep the irregulars for ourselves).

 

Shout out to all those folks who work the holidays so the rest if us can enjoy ourselves! 

And off-kilter holiday post here for our first holiday in Tacoma. No monster movie marathon today; we're hosting the Putnam fam this afternoon and heading out to a "regular" movie together after. But no fear: Coco and I did see Godzilla Minus One in the theater a few days ago (it was grrrrreat!) so the streak is maintained in spirit if not in fact!

This has been a year of transitions, as so many have.

 

For Coco, it was the end of her master's program and the beginning of her practice as a mental health counselor - a practice which is going strong already!

 

For me, it was opening up and then tying off so many threads, as we managed the move and I began to really lean into retirement. Just this week I passed a landmark - I merged my work desk and my art desk and have just one station instead of two. I realized I don't have a work-me and a play-me anymore and I get to be just-me. And that feels pretty good.

Anyhoo, still lots of holiday fun to be had over the next week, and beyond until our Steel Anniversary in January. 

 

I think I owe this space three book reviews and should update my other spaces too. In the meantime,for anyone here who doesn't already have it, this is me:

https://linktr.ee/walakaofearthtwo

One last thought: all of this can seem so trivial compared to the struggle and privation so many people are undergoing this year all across the planet. Let us all hope for and work toward a world free from the hate, cruelty, and greed that blights us.

One love.

Solitaire Book Club for days

Lightning Round! Time to catch up on all the reviews I haven't posted since I have been so busy... um... being retired. So, in no particular order:

 

 

The Tumbling Girl by Bridget Walsh. Wonderful evocation of late nineteenth century, appealing characters, and a suitably macabre mystery marred by a slightly unsatisfying resolution that does our protagonists no justice. I'll check out the second in the series, but warily.

 

 

The Accidental Time Machine by Joe Haldeman. An engaging and ultimately delightful story not without its perils. Haldeman's story reads like he has given H.G. Wells's Time Traveller and name and updated his adventure for modern times - a rousing success.

 

 

 

 

 Paved Paradise by Henry Grabar. Not since Suburban Nation have I read a book that so clearly explains and illustrates how land-use regulations -- some well-intentioned and some the result of greed -- have so drastically shaped our landscape and our lifescapes. A must-read for anyone who has ever complained about about parking.

 

Soonish by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith. The SMBC cartoonist and his much smarter wife take us through a journey of technicalities that could exist, might exist, and maybe shouldn't exist. Enough science to be creditable and useful and enough fun and funny pictures to be accessible.

 

 

Death Comes to Marlow by Robert Thorogood. I usually try not to start a series with a book later than the first, but this second adventure of these older women amateur  (but quite capable) detectives pulled me right in. A great locked-room cozy with witty writing and fun characters. I will certainly seek out the rest.

 

The Sorcerer of Pyongyang by Marcel Theroux. A North Korean boy is exposed to the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide and the trajectory of his life is changed forever. The D&D game features not so much as nerd service as it does as an extended metaphor for luck, agency, and destiny. A great read for anyone.
 

 

The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi. In my mind, Scalzi is the spiritual heir to Ron Goulart and with every book I read is creating a as strong on hold on my aged heart as Goulart ever did on my young one. This rollicking tale of a kaiju NGO (think Save the Monsters instead of Save the Whales) packs more humor, wit, adventure, and pathos in its relatively short length than it has a right to.

Just got a hold notice today so it'll be off to the library soon for more!

Still crazy after all these...

 

 

 Enjoying a birthday taiyaki treat

 

So, here we are again, celebrating 66 years of bouncing around the planet, trying to live my best life and be a mensch.

The festivities included dinner, drinks, and taiyaki (see photo) in Georgetown with J&J;  pho in South Tacoma; pizza in Proctor with the always-gracious Bev Conner; and prizes and lovies from the Wonder Wife, Coco. I am sure the revels are not quite totally over, so we shall see.

I am using this birthday as a milestone to really lean into being retired. The first months post-career felt like a much-needed sabbatical; the next chunk was all about the transition - Coco finishing school and starting her practice and our move from Bellingham to Tacoma. Now, all the dust has settled, it seems: Coco's practice is up and running and growing strong in the beautiful Birdhouse and The Ferdinand Ranch is all but totally pulled together. I no longer feel like a project manager.

I have made inquiries into some volunteer work and I am continuing my cartooning practice; if I could find some regular gaming in Tacoma I'd be a long way toward a full schedule.

In the meanwhile, there's plenty of books still to be read (I'm behind on book club entries) and walks to be taken.

Time to get golden.

Solitaire Book Club: Ice

Ice by Amy Brady. I am not sure whether Mark Kurlansky actually invented this genre of focused popular non-fiction with Cod and Salt in the late nineties/early aughts, but Brady is certainly a worthwhile inheritor of his mantle in any case. Ice is a fun book that gives a well-researched but accessible account of its topic substance, not from a physics perspective (although there is some scientific background) but through the lenses of social, political, and economic history. The book is well-organized, beginning with a comprehensive chronological overview, then exploring deep dives into food & drink and sports & entertainment, and wrapping up with some future projections, always holding the reader's interest as developments are recounted and connections are explored.

Special kudos go to Brady for recognizing and mentioning the often overlooked contexts of capitalism, colonialism, and racism that played such an important if unfortunate part in human history and the creation of the world as we know it.

It was an especial treat to read this book during a heat wave here in the Pacific Northwest!

Where the heck have I been?

We are certainly past due for a check-in, since the last time we actually had a conversation was back in March, when we moved the clocks ahead. let me see if we can do a quick timeline of haps since then:

• April 1 & 2: First open house for selling the Donovan condo. Meh. No good offers.
• April 10: Take house off-market while we re-group
• x
• x
• x
• May 7 & 8: Two off-market showings - no action
• x
• x
• May 20: Coco's Grad party
• x
• June 2 & 3: Second open house weekend
• June 8: Solid offer - we accepted
• June 11 - 13: House hunting in Tacoma
• June 14: Make offer on Ferdinand house
  
• June 15: Offer accepted
• June 23: Donovan sale closes, we stay as "renters" (no rent)
• June 29: Ferdinand house closes
• July 1: Pick up keys to Ferdinand and move a little junk in
• July 8: At Ferdinand to start floor refinishing and move a little more junk in
• July 13: U-Haul to Ferdinand to bring plants & precious and have internet installed
• July 14: Bellingham Good-bye Fest
  
• July 19: Movers take all our stuff; we spend night at Ferdinand

 

• July 20: Movers deliver all our stuff
• July 21: Walter back at Donovan for final clean/move-out
• July 22: "Unpacking Sprint" begins - major move-in work daily
  
• July 23: Build IKEA bookcases

 

• July 29: Coco does art studio organization with Kristin B
• August 1 & 2: Dishwasher/disposal installation
• August 8: Sprint ends; house looks lived-in. Slowed our roll

So, after a sloooow start, things just went hucklety-buck and all of a sudden we live in Tacoma.

 

And that was just the bare-bones of the move; we have already had visits to the new place from Brenda and Courtney and Kristen and Karmin and Jay and Robb and Jackie & Jeff and we have visited Titlow Beach and Jefferson Park and the Lincoln District Food Walk and Point Defiance Park and Jack Hyde Park and the Chinese Reconciliation memorial and I met with Scott & Jim & Steve B for lunch and we went to the Summer Fest and Coco went swimming in Kandle Park and of course Gig Harbor is just minutes away so we have seen Ann & David and Bev a bunch and hoo-boy have we been busy.

Coco has had a whole side-project of her own, remodeling "The Birdhouse" outbuilding into a therapy office, and her practice should kick into gear right after Labor Day.

 

 

As for me, we shall see how "semi" my retirement becomes or whether I relax into the indolent life of the neighborhood's new Sidewalk Superintendent.

 

 

7/4/23

 

And still, over two decades later...

Solitaire Book Club: The Golem and the Jinni

The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker. A masterless golem who can pass for a human woman (albeit a tall one) and a jinni freed from captivity but bound to human form find themselves in 1899 New York City and cross paths with a Syrian tinsmith, a Jewish social worker, a rich ingenue, a wise rabbi, a cursed ice cream vendor, and a mad wizard. Not so much magical realism as it is realistic fantasy, the story is really one of exploring desire, regret, the source of one's identity and the nature of love all while providing enough suspense, danger, and mystery to make it a page-turner.

 

Although I just discovered it, this book came out ten years ago; I even more recently found out that Wecker published a sequel two years ago. That one will certainly be added to the list.

Solitaire Book Club: Tales from the Cafe

Tales from the Cafe by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. This book is the second in series. The first book (reviewed here) was charming and insightful in its examination of human emotions through the conceit of time travel; the first sequel attempts the same lyricism but hits some false notes. Part of the joy of the original stories was how much was left unsaid or unexplained; this volume fills in too many blanks - one character has even investigated all the incidents recounted in the first book! The focus is also shifting from the (formerly) enigmatic waitress, the original main protagonist, to the daughter of the cafe owner, who I just found mostly annoying.

 

 A bit of a sophomore slump here, but I will still check out the next volume.

Solitaire Book Club: Before the Coffee Gets Cold

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. A small coffee shop has an unusual feature: if you sit in a certain chair, you can travel through time. But you can only stay in the coffee shop, anything you do in the past won't change anything in the future, and you had better finish your coffee before it gets cold or there will be dire consequences. Kawaguchi's novel is less about people using time travel to change fate and more about how people revisiting events can change their own emotional responses. If you have ever seen the Japanese series Midnight Diner, you will recognize the same understanding of human complexity and generosity toward human failings.

Special note: the first novel was originally a stage play - and the author has written three more books about the cafe.

Solitaire Book Club: The Man Who Was Thursday

The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton. If you are familiar with the cult classic TV series The Prisoner, you know it was a smart, stylish, suspenseful spy saga for 16 episodes and then either a deeply symbolic story or an incoherent acid trip for its last installment.

The Man Who Was Thursday is a lot like that.

It starts out as a detective thriller, with threads of social commentary, as a police officer infiltrates a cabal of anarchists, and the story gets more and more outrageous until it seems to become farce, but then it takes a very dark turn, and finally is maddeningly opaque at the close of the narrative. No wonder Chesterton subtitled the book A Nightmare.

And yet, the story pulls the reader along without let-up -- I never considered not finishing it, as lost as I might be.

I am not sure why I added this to my list -- I heard someone say something about it somewhere, as I recall -- but I am glad I did.

Solitaire Book Club: Questland

Questland by Carrie Vaughn. With all due respect to Vaughn's sprightly prose, several times during reading Questland I felt like I was reading a Michael Crichton story - maybe because it takes place mostly on a billionaire's private island and maybe because its set pieces are so cinematic as to be part of a movie treatment rather than novel. None of that takes away from from the draw of Vaughn's protagonist - a damaged but resilient uber-nerd professor of popular culture - or the colorful team of mercenaries she is sent to assist with the retaking of a hijacked pleasure resort, a sort of Westworld for Dungeons and Dragons.

 

There's so much geeky fanservice that I wonder whether the book can reach beyond its nerdy niche, but here's also high-tech hijinks galore, just enough sex, and some surprising twists at the end to satisfy the more normcore reader.

I can't wait for the movie.

Solitaire Book Club: Viviana Valentine Gets Her Man

Viviana Valentine Gets Her Man by Emily J. Edwards. When a private investigator looking into the affairs of a diamond heiress disappears right after a badly beaten and comatose man is found in his office, it is up to his secretary to solve the crime, clear his name, and tie up all the loose ends the investigation has frayed. Not exactly a playfair mystery, but close enough, the novel has a multi-layered mystery and an interesting cast of characters. One quibble might be that the relationship between the P.I.s and the cops seems a little too pat; it seems unlikely for the police to accept the say-so of an untested detective and call together the suspects for a Nero-Wolfe-esque denouement in the office.

Edwards creates real sense of place in her depiction of 1950 New York, although the period vernacular can sometimes be laid on a bit to thick and verge on parody, to wit: "Just a small-potatoes gangster whose plans were messed up when a lady kicked him to the curb after he tried to give her a five-finger explanation during a minor dustup." Quite a mouthful, there.

Nonetheless, an enjoyable read, and I look forward to further adventures of Tommy Fortuna and Viviana Valentine - and it seems there's at least one more.

Solitaire Book Club: How to Hide an Empire

How to Hide an Empire by Daniel Immerwahr. At its peak, the British Empire controlled 24% of the land mass of the globe. The U.S.does not hold nearly that much, but it does have over 800 overseas military bases (more than 30 times the rest of the nations in the world combined) and several overseas possessions and territories which might be of the U.S. but which are in important ways not in the U.S. In this scholarly but accessible tome, Immerwahr shows how the U.S. developed a "pointillist empire" not by seizing land but by using economic power, industrial strength,and technological advances to secure its interests. The confluence of circumstances that resulted in the U.S. coming to into its prime after the second world war allowed it to eschew the traditional colonialism with which it had experimented early in the 20th century and create the hegemony it enjoys today. An important read, especially for anyone who doesn't know that the U.S. held The Philippines as a colony for over the 30 years and that Guamanians are American citizens but cannot vote in federal elections.

Solitaire Book Club: Myth America

Myth America edited by Kevin M. Kruse and Julian E. Zelizer. In this hefty tome, 21 respected historians provide heavily-researched, evidence-based, fully-cited chapters debunking commonly-held misconceptions about the United States: that American Exceptionalism means anything; that the New Deal and the Great Society were failures; that change could be made if only we had "good protests"; that confederate monuments celebrate history, not racism; that "America First" is not fascist; that the Republican Party did not deliberately court southern racists for political power. The content is not exactly news to anyone who has really been paying attention, but seeing it laid out clearly and precisely is an education, with some astonishing moments highlighted that are often overlooked.

But of course, one must wonder how much it matters. The people who need to read this book will not read it, since it reeks of the "wokeness" they despise, and even if it were read to them they would ignore the facts and the historical record and the documentary evidence and choose to believe the narrative that makes them feel both comforted and victimized and which justifies their continual rancor. So it goes in America today.

Sprung forward

So, there were bold plans for this morning - a 7am walk on the Bay trail with a pal. But when the kitty-gets-his-pills 6am alarm went off at what was still 5am in my head and body and I realized that it would actually be a pre-dawn walk with the time change, we canceled. I thought about sleeping in, but the kitty shortly thereafter decided it was time to get up anyway, so here we are.

Since the PST/PDT is a marker of change, I thought I would check in to this venue about the Bug Change that is coming up: at the end of the month, the Bellingham condo will go on the market and we will begin our transition to Tacoma.

There's lots of moving parts involved in this transition: selling this place, with a rent-back; finding a new place 120 miles away - just far enough away to be really annoying; closing both of those; moving; Coco's finishing her thesis and graduating; Coco's finding or starting a practice in Tacoma; and my figuring out what I'm going to do next. And we have to do all that while caring for our superannuated cat, dealing with the "end" of the pandemic, and trying to make sure we keep connected to the people we care about up here. It's gonna be a busy 90 days or so.

And yet, it feels right. As much as we both love Bellingham and will miss our walks on the bay, it is time for a change. We're getting a better sense of what this next chapter is going to look like,and starting it in a new place seems fitting.

For a little while, book reviews and ruminative essays might be a little thin on the ground, but only because I will be otherwise occupied.

Oh, and by the way:

That was then...

 

So, I was looking for something else in some dusty computer files but ran across one of my old, ubiquitous spreadsheets (see unreadable facsimile above). It is a record of the social activities (both dates and group events) that Coco and I initiated in Fall/Winter of 2005.

Over the course of a little over four months, we had some sort of activity about every eight days with an average participation of 8 individuals (ranging from just the two of us to twenty people on New Year's Eve). A total of 31 friends and acquaintances are represented in these activities, most attending between one and three events and six people attending five or more.

I look at this from 17 years ago and compare it to my experiences even in the last decade or so and I can feel the drastic difference. A number of factors have contributed to that, of course; a minor diaspora of the old Seattle gang, mostly in response to housing pressures; our own move to Bellingham seven years ago; the general effects of aging and changing job circumstances on social activities; and, of course, for the past three years or so the disruption caused by the pandemic (which I believe is leading to continued patterns of behavior, but that's another essay). In any event, outside of work, I am not sure I have socialized with 30 different individuals in the past five years...

I don't have a spreadsheet with the stats (shocking) but I am sure the same decline is true in my tabletop RPG experience. I can remember playing every week in the campaign John was DMing, DMing my own campaign, and participating in a campaign at the game store on Cap Hill, all at the same time. Now I have one Zoom/Roll 20 game that I can attend three times a month.

So it goes.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. When I shared with Coco the details of the spreadsheet, she said "No wonder I was a wreck and you were so happy!" It is true that the pandemic slowdown -- less socializing, working from home, etc. -- has actually played to some preferences of introverts like her, but I wonder if it it isn't time to swing the pendulum back a little bit, maybe not all the way to our "posse days" but somewhere closer to the middle.

Blogging about blogging is a sin... but this is different

So, in pursuing this whole new be-a-cartoonist deal, I have had the pleasure of working with some folks from SAW (Sequential Artists Workshop), a school and online community based out of Gainesville, Florida but with members from around the world. One close associate has been Syne Mitchell, who coincidentally just lives down the proverbial road apiece, in King County. We have been sharing a few open studios on zoom each week for many months now, and this Valentine's Day saw the release of two projects, one all hers and one a sort-of collaboration.

In any case, you can read all about it in these posts:

Me talking about my project and Syne's project on my art blog

Syne talking about my project on her blog

and if you want to go right to the source:

Syne's latest project, My Ex, Vlad

My flip books, including the latest project, Marla of the Plains

Some good stuff there, folks - especially from Syne.

International Man of Mystery

So, as you may or may not recall, last August I completed my first big comicking project, Selkie-Boy: Stories of a Cat, which you can read about/read/order a copy/&c. here, on Talent Not Guaranteed.

Well, it took six months, but the zine is now officially an international best seller:

Libby Dean, a great and good friend from the Sequential Artists Workshop community, had been trying to get a hold of a copy ever since it was published, but whether through malice or mishap, somewhere along the chain of custody it disappeared. 

It took some doing, but through the combined efforts of the United States Postal Service and the Canada Post Corporation/Société canadienne des postes, the zine finally made its way to the wilds of Nova Scotia and into Libby's hands.

Anyhoo, digital versions of this and all my longer works (new item coming soon!) and be found on my Anyflip page.

And BTW, Libby is a totally cool human who works in the environment, conservation, and community health fields as a researcher and a graphic recorder at meetings. Her graphic representations of meaningful discussions are awesome, as in this excerpt:

Read all about Libby on her website. It's too bad she's 3,541miles away, or I would figure out some collaborations.

Solitaire Book Club: If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal

If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal by Justin Gregg. Scientists still aren't quite sure just what the definition of intelligence is, but Gregg is pretty sure that whatever it is, humans having developed it is at best a two-edged sword and at worst the stupidest thing ever. Gregg uses his experience in animal behavior and communication to walk us through human and animal examples of the various types of cognition that comprise aspects of intelligence and consciousness - theory of mind, episodic foresight, mental time travel, death wisdom - and demonstrate that however useful they may be, they are not necessary for a species or individual to survive and thrive, and in fact may have unintended consequences that actually create unhappiness, not just for individuals, but for the rest if the world as well.

The book functions as primer on what it means to think and feel, and Gregg's snappy writing keeps it grounded, accessible, and entertaining on every page.

New new year

Gung hay fat choi! Today marks the beginning of the Chinese lunisolar calendar and the concomitant Spring Festival (I guess they had a big celebration up in Vancouver - it was all the radio folks were on about this morning).

I sometimes kick my new year's stuff back three or six weeks from the Gregorian January 1 to the Chinese 1 zheng yue to give myself a little more time to declare, resolve, reflect, or announce, but this year I haven't done much milestoning or landmarking on either date. Things still feel pretty liminal, and the next six months could find me in any one of a number of different situations; it's hard to assert intentionality when one is pretty much in ready-response mode.

So, no big new here, but one item of note. This is the Year of the Rabbit, which is Coco's birth year. My own is the Rooster, which won't come around again for a while now. But that Rabbit-Rooster pairing is worth noting, to wit:

Hmmmm. To elaborate further:

Hmmmm. I think I prefer this vision. It looks like more fun.

Solitaire Book Club: American Gods

American Gods by Neil Gaiman. If Harry Stephen Keeler had ever written one his webwork novels that wasn't totally batshit insane, it might have come out something like American Gods. But we are lucky that Neil Gaiman did the job instead, for while it is as expansive as any Keeler story it is a lot more coherent and readable. This long sprawling novel (practically Dickensian in scope) never fails to captivate as it tells the story of a new world, old gods on the wane, new gods on the rise, and the universal feelings that lie in the breasts of gods and humans alike. Gaiman has an ear for dialogue, grounding his characters in an emotional truth all while spinning a most fantastical tale. Well worth the time.

Solitaire Book Club: Elizabeth Finch

Elizabeth Finch by Julian Barnes. I got this from the library because I heard a radio interview with Barnes, who theretofore had not been on my radar; it is an elegantly written exceedingly intelligent book. The first third is a study of the titular character, a professor with a distinctive intelligence and character who has a great impact on the narrator's life; the middle is a historiography of the Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate, a figure who looms large in the Finch's intellectual work; the last third is the narrator coming to grips with her life, his relationship to her, and his own life. Like the narrator himself, I am not 100% certain of the conclusions I have drawn with regard to any of this, but the journey of understanding was mesmerizing.