I haven't written much of anything lately because nothing much has been going on. I've been reading... another Wallander mystery and, yes, I've succumbed to peer pressure and started the Twilight series. I wouldn't be reading Twilight at all except my sister surprised me over the weekend with the FULL SET of books because she knows I like vampires. I just really hated the movie so...eh...I'll give the books a shot. Considering they're written for ninth graders I'm whizzing through the first one pretty fast.
I finally watched The Wrestler. Quite depressing but ultimately good. It was good seeing Mickey Rourke again. I always thought he was a good actor and he doesn't disappoint in this one either.
I also watched a couple of really good documentaries. The first was called Jupiter's Wife about a woman named Maggie who is clearly mentally ill. She was living in Central Park with her dogs. The documentary digs into her life which was quite remarkable. She was the first female carriage driver in Central Park and gained some celebrity because of it. She exists on the kindness of Park Avenue big wigs who remember her from her past. It's a touching and haunting story.
The other was Who The #$&% is Jackson Pollock? This was a very entertaining and true saga of a 74 year old truck driver who buys a painting at a junk shop for $5. It turns out it could be an authentic Jackson Pollock but the art snobby muckity mucks won't hear of it. She gets forensic evidence (a finger print on the painting that matches one in Pollock's own studio and one on an already authenticated Pollock) but they still won't hear it. She gets offered millions of dollars for the painting but won't sell because she is determined to make them eat crow. She's a real character too. Swears a blue streak and takes no shit from anyone!
That's about it. It's back to work and it's just as well. Though it was sunny here today tomorrow is supposed to be cloudy again so I might as well be in an office!
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Monday, June 1, 2009
Friday, July 25, 2008
Remembering what I liked about what I used to know...
When I was "growing up" I never really got the hang of deciding what it was I was supposed to do for a living. I never seemed to have a definite career track. More or less, I "fell" into jobs and followed whatever it was I was interested in doing at the time. For example, the route I took to become the supervisor of the case management unit in a human service agency was very interesting and not at all what I thought I would be doing. And today I realized, as I reading a book that just arrived from Amazon, I seem to have created a career using a combination of things I've learned from all of my jobs along the way and have come full circle.
After graduating from the university, I took some early childhood education courses and found that I quite liked the idea of teaching pre-kindergarten. I love kids and 3-4 years old is the best age! One of the books we used as "additional" reading was a book called The Aesthetics of Play: A Didactic Study of Play and Culture in Preschools. I remember being very impressed by this book. The book illustrates how children play and how play and the culture they are in can be a very beneficial educational tool. Children can learn any number of subjects through play. Later, when I was teaching, I found myself using these principles again and again. For example, if we were learning about dinosaurs I would create entire themes for each lesson I wanted them to learn. We became paleontologists and had a "dig" in the sandbox. Wearing Pith helmets and carefully brushing the sand from the "dinos" we'd find we would label and catalogue them just like the real deal. All the music we would use would be about dinosaurs or I would play some classical music that was BIG, and LOUD and IMPRESSIVE so we could become the dinosaurs moving about the room. These were all ideas that came to me from reading The Aesthetics of Play. Turns out that I became so good at this that my then boss asked me to teach my colleagues how to do this as well. So, as you can see, this book was pretty influential in my life.
But here's the most interesting point about the book itself. The book was written by a woman named Gunilla Lindqvist. When I first read the book I had no idea who she was nor would I know. She was living and working in Europe and over here other less progressive psychological works and child development professionals were in vogue. It wasn't until much, much later that I would find out who she was - long after I wasn't teaching anymore. This book, this title, would come up in a conversation I had about two years ago now - a conversation with Alex. Alexander Lindqvist. My Alex... who, it turns out, is Gunilla Lindqvist's son.
Pretty cool, huh?
After graduating from the university, I took some early childhood education courses and found that I quite liked the idea of teaching pre-kindergarten. I love kids and 3-4 years old is the best age! One of the books we used as "additional" reading was a book called The Aesthetics of Play: A Didactic Study of Play and Culture in Preschools. I remember being very impressed by this book. The book illustrates how children play and how play and the culture they are in can be a very beneficial educational tool. Children can learn any number of subjects through play. Later, when I was teaching, I found myself using these principles again and again. For example, if we were learning about dinosaurs I would create entire themes for each lesson I wanted them to learn. We became paleontologists and had a "dig" in the sandbox. Wearing Pith helmets and carefully brushing the sand from the "dinos" we'd find we would label and catalogue them just like the real deal. All the music we would use would be about dinosaurs or I would play some classical music that was BIG, and LOUD and IMPRESSIVE so we could become the dinosaurs moving about the room. These were all ideas that came to me from reading The Aesthetics of Play. Turns out that I became so good at this that my then boss asked me to teach my colleagues how to do this as well. So, as you can see, this book was pretty influential in my life.
But here's the most interesting point about the book itself. The book was written by a woman named Gunilla Lindqvist. When I first read the book I had no idea who she was nor would I know. She was living and working in Europe and over here other less progressive psychological works and child development professionals were in vogue. It wasn't until much, much later that I would find out who she was - long after I wasn't teaching anymore. This book, this title, would come up in a conversation I had about two years ago now - a conversation with Alex. Alexander Lindqvist. My Alex... who, it turns out, is Gunilla Lindqvist's son.
Pretty cool, huh?
Friday, February 15, 2008
By way of something different....
We're getting more snow this weekend. I swear I don't know how much more of this I can take.
But, since it looks like sometime after noon tomorrow I will be homebound I have stocked up on good reads. My failure though is that I completely finished one the them tonight. I should have waited...but I'm like that. I just finished Cormac McCarthy's "The Road". I wasn't sure if I wanted to read this one since it's pretty dark and fairly disheartening but, I have to admit, it was a good read. Made me think and really got me in the end. I recommend it. Tomorrow, while the snow flies, I shall be taking on "Shantaram" by Gregory David Roberts. This was recommended to me by Jessica, Alex's sister. I just read the blurb on the author and, crap, if this book is half as interesting as his life it will be well worth it. He was born in Australia, convicted for perpetrating several armed robberies, spent some years in prison, broke out, ended up in Bombay, India for ten years working as a smuggler, counterfeiter and gunrunner for a branch of the Bombay mafia, got caught, was sent back to prison to do the rest of his time plus some and wrote this book while he was in prison. Whew! Now that's a life! I have no idea what the book is about yet but it's big with lots of good words and it will be the perfect thing to curl up with protected from the snowy blast.
On a completely unrelated note...I was channel surfing tonight and came across this tele-evangelist named Pastor Melissa Scott. I listend for a while, not because I thought what she was saying was all that interesting, but because she just had this strange thing about her that was compelling to watch. Not like any evangelist I've ever heard...so, after a few minutes, I Google her name... turns out not only is she the Pastor of a ginormous congragation in Los Angeles, she is also the wife of a very eccentric (now deceased) evangelist named Gene Scott who was about 90 years old. She is 30 or so AND....she is also a porn star known as Barbi Bridges. How this all ties together or why I even find this so interesting is beyond me but, man, doesn't that sound like a made for Lifetime movies waiting to be made? Haha!
But, since it looks like sometime after noon tomorrow I will be homebound I have stocked up on good reads. My failure though is that I completely finished one the them tonight. I should have waited...but I'm like that. I just finished Cormac McCarthy's "The Road". I wasn't sure if I wanted to read this one since it's pretty dark and fairly disheartening but, I have to admit, it was a good read. Made me think and really got me in the end. I recommend it. Tomorrow, while the snow flies, I shall be taking on "Shantaram" by Gregory David Roberts. This was recommended to me by Jessica, Alex's sister. I just read the blurb on the author and, crap, if this book is half as interesting as his life it will be well worth it. He was born in Australia, convicted for perpetrating several armed robberies, spent some years in prison, broke out, ended up in Bombay, India for ten years working as a smuggler, counterfeiter and gunrunner for a branch of the Bombay mafia, got caught, was sent back to prison to do the rest of his time plus some and wrote this book while he was in prison. Whew! Now that's a life! I have no idea what the book is about yet but it's big with lots of good words and it will be the perfect thing to curl up with protected from the snowy blast.
On a completely unrelated note...I was channel surfing tonight and came across this tele-evangelist named Pastor Melissa Scott. I listend for a while, not because I thought what she was saying was all that interesting, but because she just had this strange thing about her that was compelling to watch. Not like any evangelist I've ever heard...so, after a few minutes, I Google her name... turns out not only is she the Pastor of a ginormous congragation in Los Angeles, she is also the wife of a very eccentric (now deceased) evangelist named Gene Scott who was about 90 years old. She is 30 or so AND....she is also a porn star known as Barbi Bridges. How this all ties together or why I even find this so interesting is beyond me but, man, doesn't that sound like a made for Lifetime movies waiting to be made? Haha!
Sunday, February 3, 2008
I need suggestions....
and since I only have one reader, yes Van, I'm talking to you! Haha!
I love to read and lately ever book I've picked up has been some abominal mess that has bored me to tears. Give me some titles!
Now onto other business...
We're having a Mayoral election here soon. Our current Mayor who's done much to turn this little city around and brought much business, culture and visual improvement to us has decided not to run. Last night on a local access channel they aired a debate of sorts for those who have decided to run. All I can say is SHEESH! There were six candidates but one has dropped out. More about him later. Anywho - candidate #1's claim to fame is that he has his own local access talk show and he thinks he is the reincarnation of Johnny Carson except without the sense of humor. He has never worked in city government. In fact, I don't think he's ever worked at all at anything. #2 is a nice guy but he's about 110 years old and kept talking about how the city was better off 35 years ago. Thirty five years ago the city lost it's most important employer which sent the entire city into a decade of blight and poverty. Man #3 is someone who is so soft spoken he could barely speak when asked a question. He had some good ideas but was getting walked all over during the one hour debate. #4 is a woman who works in the Operations Dept. of the city and her answers to the qeustions were almost undecipherable. Mister #5 used to be Mayor at one time. He quit and went to take another job in another city. Then he was sued by Kenosha for something he had done in his short term and he completely lost it. He showed up at his hearing toting a gun. Besides that he looks very much like Gomez Adams. Now candidate #6 - the drop out candidate - also has his own local access show. It's called Dr. Destruction's Crimson Theatre (no shit) and he dresses in full on goth/Herman Munster make up...even in his off time. He's a musician who used to front a band called Die Monster Die. Here's the thing - he dropped out because, obviously, people were not taking him seriously but before he dropped out I got the chance to hear him speak about the city and the direction he would like to take it. He was good! I probably would have voted for him. I guess most people can't concieve of having someone in full goth/Herman Munster make up running city hall. Haha!
So, who to vote for? I have no idea. This is really going to be one of those eeny meeny miney moe choices for me and, probably, most of the citizens of Kenosha, WI.
I love to read and lately ever book I've picked up has been some abominal mess that has bored me to tears. Give me some titles!
Now onto other business...
We're having a Mayoral election here soon. Our current Mayor who's done much to turn this little city around and brought much business, culture and visual improvement to us has decided not to run. Last night on a local access channel they aired a debate of sorts for those who have decided to run. All I can say is SHEESH! There were six candidates but one has dropped out. More about him later. Anywho - candidate #1's claim to fame is that he has his own local access talk show and he thinks he is the reincarnation of Johnny Carson except without the sense of humor. He has never worked in city government. In fact, I don't think he's ever worked at all at anything. #2 is a nice guy but he's about 110 years old and kept talking about how the city was better off 35 years ago. Thirty five years ago the city lost it's most important employer which sent the entire city into a decade of blight and poverty. Man #3 is someone who is so soft spoken he could barely speak when asked a question. He had some good ideas but was getting walked all over during the one hour debate. #4 is a woman who works in the Operations Dept. of the city and her answers to the qeustions were almost undecipherable. Mister #5 used to be Mayor at one time. He quit and went to take another job in another city. Then he was sued by Kenosha for something he had done in his short term and he completely lost it. He showed up at his hearing toting a gun. Besides that he looks very much like Gomez Adams. Now candidate #6 - the drop out candidate - also has his own local access show. It's called Dr. Destruction's Crimson Theatre (no shit) and he dresses in full on goth/Herman Munster make up...even in his off time. He's a musician who used to front a band called Die Monster Die. Here's the thing - he dropped out because, obviously, people were not taking him seriously but before he dropped out I got the chance to hear him speak about the city and the direction he would like to take it. He was good! I probably would have voted for him. I guess most people can't concieve of having someone in full goth/Herman Munster make up running city hall. Haha!
So, who to vote for? I have no idea. This is really going to be one of those eeny meeny miney moe choices for me and, probably, most of the citizens of Kenosha, WI.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)