Friday, February 27, 2009

Yuengling News

News from the Philadelphia Daily News "Beer Reporter". Yuengling Bock

Did you ever consider becoming the Lehigh Valley "Beer Reporter"? Or "hot dog" reporter?

~H

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Tout les jours

You probably already know about this blog, but I want to put out a recommendation for Scott Horton's great work at Harper's. The url thingamajig is here:

http://www.harpers.org/subjects/NoComment



Also, I've been listening to some zydeco lately (Mardi Gras, of course), and right at this very moment I am enjoying a record I think you would like: "Clifton's Cajun Blues" by Clifton Chenier, an oddly titled thing, put together a long time ago by a record producer who either didn't know about Louisiana Creole culture, or assumed his intended audience didn't. Anyway, it is one of the King of Zydeco's more straight up blues records--but with accordian, of course--and has some great stuff. I overpaid for it at a record sale in Allentown a few years ago; talked the man down from 12 dollars to 11. I'm really good at bargaining.

Also also, Colleen was nice enough to buy me two John O'Hara books today to help fill out my collection: The Lockwood Concern, and The Hat on the Bed. I can't recommend O'Hara enough.

B.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Republican Nihilism

For a change, I totally agree with David Brooks
I couldn't believe he said this last night. L and I were screaming with laughter at the way he rips Jindal and the Republicans. If you didn't see it, you have to watch it.

~H

Monday, February 23, 2009

Washington Post and Updike Pilgrimage

From the WP In Reading, PA., Memories and Monuments of Updike

The Marvel Ranch is a temple of greasy awesomeness! It's in the same building where I took trumpet lessons when I was a kid. It's at the corner of 4th and Penn. It is a total dive! I had no idea Updike liked to eat there. I used to hang out on that block every week before and after lessons. Peanut Bar too... not in High School.

Take note of the April 5th discussion at the Reading Public Library

It's on

Well, it is semi-official now: we'll be having an Updike remembrance discussion and reading on the 18th of March (his birthday). The noontime talk is titled, "Updike's Pennsylvania," and will feature a short talk on the subject by noted Updikeian Jack DeBellis and a few readings of passages from Updike's works. So, we must start looking for some appropriate passages!

Hope all is well down Philly way; prepare for the Fastnacht!!

B.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

W is for what we all deserved

Saw the movie "W" early this morning. Though it could have been the fever-induced haze I watched it through, it didn't impress me all that much. By portraying the pres and the other big-timers in the administration as ridiculous egomaniacs that have no clue what they're doing, it obscures the much more important lesson we should have learned from the last eight years: that the administration of G. W. Bush is the perfect result of the Reagan Revolution. That far from being heretics in the conservative movement, their policies were the logical culmination of Republican ideology from the past 30 years. Bush/Cheney weren't in any way aberrant; they are what you get for government when you keep saying how awful government is and then vote accordingly. And thanks to the "conservative" media strategy of the last 20 years, we as a country are in real danger of not being able to figure out something so basic and obvious.

Colds make me grouchy.

B.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Pity me

It finally happened: I'm sick. Damn students. I tried to hold out, to keep washing my hands, etc. But now I'm here on the couch at 5:30 in the morning, in and out of sleep, watching Eric Foner discuss Lincoln on CSPAN.

Lincoln’s head cold put him in a daze during his first night in Gettysburg.


[from a site called the History Bluff]

B.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Thanks Harry!


Harry Wright, Father of Professional Baseball, is buried in West Laurel Hill Cemetery overlooking the Schuylkill Expressway and Manayunk, Pennsylvania.

The New York Times posted an article from 1897 when the monument was first dedicated.

HONORING HARRY WRIGHT.; Monument to the "Father of Baseball" Unveiled in Philadelphia.

June 21, 1897, Wednesday

Best laid plans

I stumbled upon a wonderful little book this past weekend: Brithers A'. A Minute a Day with Burns, Poet, Lover and Prophet of Brotherhood. It was waiting for me at a bookshop in B'hem called the Old Library Book Shop, or something like that. [By the way, as I'm typing this, the font seems to be two different sizes, and I have no idea why.] It combines two of my favorite things: old daily devotionals, all things Rob't Burns, and crazy ideas. Three!--it combines three of my favorite things. Anyway, I started it today, with the intention of making it through all 60 days of Burnsian poesy, prophecy, and pretty frickin' awesomeness. I'll let you know what I learn, but so far I've read about how wonderful the young Burns really was. I get the feeling the editor/annotator isn't the most objective person with regard to the Scottish Bard.

Also, thanks for doing the picture. I couldn't figure it out, naturally. And it is a classic, and very Dutchified. The Great Allentown Fair!! By the way, Brad Paisley and Kelly Clarkson are playing there this year. Here's the web page: http://www.allentownfairpa.org/ And my sister excitedly called me the other night to let me know that David Cook is going to be at Musikfest. Woo. Hoo. Apparently, he won some sort of singing contest.

B.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Shartlesville Hotel

I heard that the roof of the Shartlesville Hotel blew off today in the wind. It sounds like it is no longer open. There is an extensive discussion of PA Dutch and Amish dining in the area including a comparison of Haag's Hotel and the Shartlesville Hotel in their heydays.

Reading Eagle: High winds force police to close down roads; roof blown off Shartlesville Hotel

I'm getting hungry. Sure could go for some pie!

It was relatively good

Saw a performance of "Einstein's Mozart" this past weekend, which I thought I ought to report to you. It was interesting, and the Serafin Quartet played really beautifully. It was commissioned a few years ago, and was brought to Lehigh for a command performance. Or something like that--I don't really know what "command performance" means. The narrative and poetic interludes between the movements of the quartets were a mixed bag, but so is life.

Here's the address for it at the poet's web page: http://www.katelight.com/einstein.html

If I had any idea how to make pretty links, I'd do it. You'll have to teach me.

Oh, and Happy Abe Lincoln's Birthday, and a belated Happy Daniel Boone's Birthday. Was the latter celebrated at the school where you band-directed?

B.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Wrestling with...

We saw "The Wrestler" last night. It is a good movie; probably not nearly as wonderful as the Hollywood awards folks would like to have us think, but it is solid and has some really great scenes. I particularly liked the straightforward way the showbiz side of what we in the U.S. call Professional Wrestling was portrayed, and the nice, if un-subtle, comparison between it and stripping for a living. What stuck with me into the wee hours, though, was a theme more personal, and deeply rooted in our nation's present economic situation. As the main character has to face retirement, he is forced to eek out a living working at a local Acme hauling boxes and working the deli counter, and it reminded me of past recession/depressions, and made me face the fragile situation I am in as a less-than-superstar scholar. One of the main narratives of our Great Depression is of the educated, formerly successful man, working in a field or on a truck or at some other hard labor just to get by. Now, I ain't a young'un, and these last many years of teaching and sitting in an office haven't exactly conditioned me for hard work, particularly since I screwed up my knee and can't even contemplate being on my feet for extended periods. But let's face it, I'm an English teacher. It's a more useful profession than generally acknowledged, but not exactly as vital to our nation as a civil or agricultural engineer. Oh well, at least I like the clothing from back then.

One other thing, to whomever is out there: read Glenn Greenwald at Salon.com. Everyday. And go to the Bill Moyer's Journal page and watch the segment with Glenn and Jay Rosen. They provide one of the best and simplest explanations of how our national press is killing our democracy, without really intending to do so, of course.

B.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Poe is 200, "The Raven" is read

Today we at Lehigh U had a noontime reading and talk about Poe's "The Raven," in honor of E.A.'s 200th birthday last month. Old friend and colleague Ed Pettite (sp?) came up from the Philly hinterlands to update us on his career as a literary provacateur, fighting the good fight to have Poe thought of as a Philly writer, since many of his best works were written when he was living here. It was good to see Ed, and to hear of his "debate" with a Baltimore Poe expert at the Free Library of Philadelphia last year. Ed also had some literature for an ongoing exhibit at the Library Company about Philly Gothic lit; I really hope to see it.

The other attraction was the one-time display of the Raven page from Auduban's huge book of American birds in the Lehigh collection. Because it is the first page of the second volume, it hurts the very old book to be open to that page, so it is only done for one-off displays such as this. It was wonderful to see it.

B

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Nicely put

"Throughout all that varied work, one theme rose and was repeated over and over. Updike's great subject was the American attempt to fill the gap left by faith with the materials produced by mass culture."

and

"...all these images and moments, recalled at random from his work, are not just reported but quietly rhapsodized, registered with love. It is his affections that rise, and that we recall."

--from Adam Gopnik's Postscript in the latest New Yorker magazine

Will it work?

Created, but waiting for creators...