Contributing to Another Blog: "On Rejection"

So as the title suggests, I've been invited to contribute to another blog. It's entitled Expert Textperts. For my inaugural post, I dug out an old non-fiction essay I wrote called "On Rejection." Ostensibly, it's about man's relationship with God; and I think when I wrote it, I tried very hard to make that the focus and in many ways succeeded. However, one can also very easily read between the lines and notice that it's coming out of another type of rejection as well. It's a piece of writing that came from a time when I was still working on my efforts at clarity--not that I've completely addressed that trait; however, as you'll see, I've come a long way. That said, it is still one of my favorite essays. There are many beautiful sentences and themes that I'm quite proud of. And where else are you going to read about Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Julia Kristeva, Dante, and Jesus? To find the blog and the post, just click on this link. Hope you enjoy and start following Expert Textperts as well. The other contributors are very bright and wonderful people. A compelling post by one of them in particular inspired me to re-share "On Rejection." Enjoy.

Catching Up on September: Part 2

This is a continuation of my chronicling the events of September. I like to call this installment:

Chapter Two: Late September, or What Happens to a Dream Referred?

So towards the end of September, Facebook notified me that one of my favorite authors, Sarah Vowell was going to be one of the many speakers or readers at the Library of Congress's National Book Reading Fair. For those of who don't know her, you probably have heard her voice before. As anyone who knows me is aware, she provided the voice of Violet Parr from The Incredibles--the invisible teenage girl.

Yeah, this picture might already be saved to my computer and occasionally do a cameo as my desktop background picture.

She was reading from her newest work about the history of Hawaii, Unfamiliar Fishes. I very quickly decided that I would be spending the day (24 Sep 2011) in DC and that I would make a whole day of it by going to play in the evening. But yes, all the planets revolved around my chance to meet Sarah Vowell so she could sign my book.

And as you can tell, while I do not have Unfamiliar Fishes, I had plenty of other options to choose from.

I went with The Partly Cloudy Patriot. That was the first book I ever heard her read from and it has a lot of sentimental value to me. So yeah, after the fabulous reading I went to stand in line so that she could sign my book. It was awesome even though I couldn't think of anything to say to her when I met her. The same thing happened when I met Suzan-Lori Parks and signed my copy of her plays. This time at least, I was told that I could write something for her to use to sign my book. At first, I wanted to have her write, "For one who understood what the Gore campaign could have learned from watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer." But then I figured that was too long. So I went with this instead:

Sorry for the blurry resolution.

If you can't make out the inscription, it says: "To Allan--to not know me is to love me." It was something she said at the reading in Minnesota that was broadcast back in 2002; otherwise known as the first time I heard her. She said it after a stranger in the audience shouted a proposal to her. "'Will I marry him?' was the question. Um, sure. You're in the dark and I can't tell who you are, so why not? No, no. I'm sure it looks all fine from 50 yards away but believe me, to not know me is to love me." I mentioned that she said it at one of her readings one time and I like it. Her response: "that does sound like something I would say." And that was our exchange. I felt that it fit, the thing I asked her to write because honestly I think there's some wit and truth to it. At the end of the day, as much as I admire her and love her writing, it's quite possible that I might not really like to know who she is in every day life. Part of me still doubts that, but for now, it seems like a really insightful thing to say.

I spent the rest of the day reading in the restaurant in the basement of the Smithsonian Museum for American History. I was there until it closed and then when I sat outside (still reading homework) waiting for the museum to close, I ended up getting a free pretzel. I thought that was kinda cool.

The night ended with a ride to Arlington. I went to a Samuel Beckett play called "Happy Days." It's about an elderly woman buried in the dirt who just talks. It's like she's talking to the audience, but she never really acknowledges the audience, so it's more like she's just talking to ward off the silence. She wants desperately for her male companion (possibly her husband???) to acknowledge her and validate any statement that she makes, but he either cannot hear her or he chooses not to respond. It is so heartbreaking and yet so hopeful. It's a Beckett play and it was quite amazing.


It was in a really cool space too. The Artisphere. Their building had a giant white sphere on the outside and inside was very classy. I really enjoyed it. I hope something takes me there again soon.

Oh and there was also a time I got a free ticket to a stand-up comedy show called "Allah Made Me Funny." It spoke to me--religious identity based performance? is anyone surprised. But really, it was absolutely hilarious. Good times at the end of September. Good times.

Catching Up on September: Part 1

I have fallen a bit behind this last month. Over the next few days I'll post a few "catch up with my recent adventures" articles.

Chapter One: Early September

Judy Collins Concert
Thursday 08 Sep 2011

I went to northern Virginia to attend a Judy Collins concert. The public transportation available to the surrounding DC areas is quite fantastic. Collins, if you’re not familiar, is a signer with an expansive career that started with the folk movement in the 60s. So she’s famous for singing songs written by Joan Baez and Bob Dylan. The woman’s voice, after so many years, is just still so fantastic. I have tried thinking about how to explain it or articulate why it touches my core so deeply; and honestly I don’t know that I’ve arrived at anything better than my initial response to hearing her voice: her voice is a river of silver that passes through your heart and into your soul. Seriously when I hear her sing it just sounds like silver somehow—but liquid silver. But then I tend to describe Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” as having a “purple quality” to it. But for Beethoven’s piece it is the aspect of the color, while Judy Collins’s voice is more like the metal silver at a liquid state or possibly mercury. Suffice it to say, I had a fabulous time.

The day of the concert, there was not an hour that it didn’t rain. The venue was a partially opened theatre. The Wolf Trap was mostly enclosed—it had a roof and some open sides. This made some seats (plastic) damp; however, that was fixed by ushers drying the seats with towels. The awesome thing about the circumstances of the evening and the performances was that occasionally between songs you could hear crickets. It was quite organic. Furthermore, every so often, the audience would have the chance to catch a flash of lightning in their peripheral vision; but the storm was also far enough away that we couldn’t hear the thunder. In short, everything sensorially contributed to a magnificent experience. I loved when she sang a song about her mother and when she told the story of the night she was with Bob Dylan when he wrote “Mr. Tambourine Man.” Then she started singing Mr. Dylan’s classic and on the chorus invited us to join in with her. It was a lot of fun. Definitely worth the travel time and money. If you’re not familiar with the work of Judy Collins, I obviously recommend you give her a chance.

She has aged really well. And her voice is still fantastic. I'm not kidding: look her up.

A Day in DC
Saturday 10 Sep 2011

I wish to tell you about my Saturday adventure in DC. One of my homework assignments was to go to the library and obtain a card—oh, and by “library,” I mean “library of Congress.” So in the morning, after breakfast, I jumped on the bus to go to the metro station in Greenbelt. After that I rode the metro into DC and there was a stop right next to the administration building for the Library of Congress. It was across the street from the main library. And now I have a card. I’m looking forward to going there. Dear Goodness! Best library ever—at least in the US . . . well, you know, sorta.

I didn’t go into the Library proper. Saturday was my day of fun so I took pictures outside of it and then continued on, taking pictures of the capitol Building. I spent some time at the Botanical Gardens. It’s the kind of building that would have bored me as a child. Who would ever want to see plants? Please?! Now. I love that stuff. It reminded me of Kew Gardens outside of London—but oh so not as wonderful as Kew Gardens. It was soothing and fantastic. Yay, Plants and flowers!

And for you, I have made a video of pictures I took that day. At the time I was listening to my Ipod. I turned on some Yo-Yo Ma covers of Ennio Morricone songs. Awesome orchestration of personal experience and life. It wouldn't load onto the Blogger so I made a video on Youtube. Enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFQG2p6_7zs

After the Botanical Gardens, I headed west to look at some exhibits at the Smithsonian’s American History Museum. They had Phyllis Diller (a 20^th Century comedienne) displays with her cabinet of jokes, wigs, gloves, shoes, etc. I also checked out Julia Child’s kitchen, a history of science form the late 19^th century to the late 20^th century, and a collection examining the visualality of race in the 1950s to 1970s—the use of visual images in the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements to combat centuries of visual and media images that denigrated or whited out blackness. It only lasted a couple of hours, but I had a really good time. I wish I could have seen more, but it was nice to go as a visitor and not a tourist. I didn’t feel like I needed to see everything because it would be years before I’d come back. I could take my time and pace myself how I wanted. And then I went to the cafeteria to get some lunch.

The afternoon was set apart for an activity set up by the Graduate Studies Group or Society for Graduate Studies (Graduate Student Government). I bought a ticket to take a workshop with other UMD students at the Washington Improv Theatre (WIT). It was basically 2 hours of theatre games so it was nice but not anything I wasn’t familiar with. What was really fun was that on my way I needed to head from the Washington Mall to the metro station near the National Archives and on the way needed to cross Pennsylvania Ave. I tried crossing the street (b/c the cross walk said I could) but a police officer indicated that I needed to head back. After a few minutes a number of police officers on motorcycles came down the road in front of a motorcade of black vans heading towards the White House. There was no limo, so I don’t know if any of those vans contained President Obama if they were other important guests; but yeah, it was kinda cool.