Friday, May 11, 2007
Co-op Apartments
There was a story on Minnesota Public Radio this morning about people getting thrown out of their apartments in the Twin Cities even though their rent was paid in full and on time. Turns out that the down-turn in the housing market, along with subprime loans, is making it difficult for the landlords to make their payments and they're getting foreclosure notices. The law says that if a landlord is getting foreclosed upon, he/she must give tenants notice so that they have enought time to move. Of course, many of them don't, so renters are getting a slappy surprise when they're put out on the street. This got me to thinking . . . . Can apartment buildings be owned in a co-op fashion, with the renters owning the property? Has this sort of thing been done before? (And I don't mean a condo situation. I'm thinking more along the lines of a co-op health food store.)
Labels: apartment, co-op, housing, minnesota, mpr, renters
Friday, May 04, 2007
Talk Show Question #2
Here's another soft-ball question for you while I'm working on something a bit more lengthy:
If you could be a GUEST on a talk show, which talk show would you choose? Why would you be a guest on this show?
I'd pick Oprah's show hands down for this one. I'd be on for something I had written. Oprah's got the kiss of life for writers. The other show that ranks up there for the same reason is Talking Volumes on Minnesota Public Radio. Either one, or both, hey, I'm not picky.
If you could be a GUEST on a talk show, which talk show would you choose? Why would you be a guest on this show?
I'd pick Oprah's show hands down for this one. I'd be on for something I had written. Oprah's got the kiss of life for writers. The other show that ranks up there for the same reason is Talking Volumes on Minnesota Public Radio. Either one, or both, hey, I'm not picky.
Labels: mpr, oprah, talk show, talking volumes, writing
Saturday, April 07, 2007
More on Favorite Books
My post on favorite books, based on an MPR program, had two takers. Kim at Knit Whimsies and Joanne at Poppy Seed Heart both posted about their favorite literature. Kim did it with a twist, choosing to highlight her favorite authors. Joanne gave a nice summary of why each book was her favorite. This is a difficult little exercise. While my list is pretty firm - only two are ones that I could switch out for something else (My Lord Bag of Rice and Fahrenheit 451), the rest are definite - I have many other favorite writers. (Just figure that I pretty much enjoy all the other works of the writers on the first list.) I decided that my other favorite writers should get their due as well, so here goes:
Michael Crichton - The guy really knows how to tell a story, always with a scientific bent, which I really like.
Edgar Allan Poe - The original master of horror. My absolute favorite of his is the poem "The Raven." Nothing beats reading this aloud.
J.K. Rowling - Imaginative, able to write about a gazillion characters and somehow readers manage to keep them all straight. I've only read books 1-4, so I have some catching up to do.
Amulya Malladi - I have loved both of the books I've read of hers - "The Mango Season" and "Serving Crazy with Curry." I think perhaps I've been reincarnated from India. I have always had an affinity for the country. Maybe it's just because I read and loved Frances Hodgson Burnett's books as a kid ("The Secret Garden" and "A Little Princess").
Stephen King - For as prolific as this guy is, I've only read two of his books - "On Writing" and "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon." Both are fabulous. I shy away from his horror because I'm not a horror fan, except for Poe, of course.
Margaret Atwood - She's an excellent writer, and she's here for that reason. The endings of her stories are dark and leave me very unsettled, which is why they didn't make my very best list.
Kate DiCamillo - "Because of Winn Dixie" and "The Tale of Despereaux" are simply wonderful children's stories. They hooked me.
Growing up, I was a huge mystery reader. Agatha Christie, the Nancy Drew series, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Alfred Hitchcock's compilations of short stories were the thing. I'm a big fan of Dr. Seuss, but more so as an adult than I was as a kid. My all-time favorite children's book was a Little Golden Book called "The Saggy Baggy Elephant." One-two-three, kick! One-two-three, kick! He danced through the forest, and then someone made fun of him and he hid in a cave. Eventually, he is told by other elephants that he is beautiful and he is happy again.
This list and my previous one barely scratch the surface of all the reading I've done in my life. There's nothing in here that's nonfiction, for one. My other problem is that I've read many marvelous books over the years, but they don't stick with me. In order to keep track (which helped me with today's post), I've been recording the books I read in a small notebook since 2003. It's annotated, which jogs my memory. It also shows me that I've spent a lot of time reading. Yeah!
Michael Crichton - The guy really knows how to tell a story, always with a scientific bent, which I really like.
Edgar Allan Poe - The original master of horror. My absolute favorite of his is the poem "The Raven." Nothing beats reading this aloud.
J.K. Rowling - Imaginative, able to write about a gazillion characters and somehow readers manage to keep them all straight. I've only read books 1-4, so I have some catching up to do.
Amulya Malladi - I have loved both of the books I've read of hers - "The Mango Season" and "Serving Crazy with Curry." I think perhaps I've been reincarnated from India. I have always had an affinity for the country. Maybe it's just because I read and loved Frances Hodgson Burnett's books as a kid ("The Secret Garden" and "A Little Princess").
Stephen King - For as prolific as this guy is, I've only read two of his books - "On Writing" and "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon." Both are fabulous. I shy away from his horror because I'm not a horror fan, except for Poe, of course.
Margaret Atwood - She's an excellent writer, and she's here for that reason. The endings of her stories are dark and leave me very unsettled, which is why they didn't make my very best list.
Kate DiCamillo - "Because of Winn Dixie" and "The Tale of Despereaux" are simply wonderful children's stories. They hooked me.
Growing up, I was a huge mystery reader. Agatha Christie, the Nancy Drew series, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Alfred Hitchcock's compilations of short stories were the thing. I'm a big fan of Dr. Seuss, but more so as an adult than I was as a kid. My all-time favorite children's book was a Little Golden Book called "The Saggy Baggy Elephant." One-two-three, kick! One-two-three, kick! He danced through the forest, and then someone made fun of him and he hid in a cave. Eventually, he is told by other elephants that he is beautiful and he is happy again.
This list and my previous one barely scratch the surface of all the reading I've done in my life. There's nothing in here that's nonfiction, for one. My other problem is that I've read many marvelous books over the years, but they don't stick with me. In order to keep track (which helped me with today's post), I've been recording the books I read in a small notebook since 2003. It's annotated, which jogs my memory. It also shows me that I've spent a lot of time reading. Yeah!
Labels: authors, blog, books, children, fiction, knit whimsies, memory, mpr, nonfiction, poppy seed heart, reading, writers
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Favorite Books
This morning on MPR's Midmorning program, there was a discussion about who various writers would include in their top ten greatest literary works of all time. J. Peder Zane has compiled a book called "The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books." According to the conversation, when writers were approached to pick their top ten, they were first asked to define what made a great literary work. One of the guests said that a work was great to him if it was something he himself couldn't write, but wished to. That's a pretty good definition. Someone else said that a great book was one that really struck you at exactly the right time in your life, something formative. I'd also say unforgettable, or something that makes you think in ways you hadn't before. Of course, when listening to such a discussion, the mind wanders to what you might pick for your top ten. And you know very well that I'm going to have to share my top ten. Most of these books came immediately to mind, a couple I had to really think about. These are not in any particular order.
Shop Girl by Steve Martin
My Lord Bag of Rice by Carol Bly
Anne of Green Gables (the first in the series) by L. M. Montgomery
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Lamb by Christopher Moore
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Charley by Joan Robinson
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
That's my top ten, and most of them will remain on my list for a long time because I read a bunch of them when I was a kid and they've stuck with me all this time. So, what books would you include in your top ten?
Shop Girl by Steve Martin
My Lord Bag of Rice by Carol Bly
Anne of Green Gables (the first in the series) by L. M. Montgomery
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Lamb by Christopher Moore
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Charley by Joan Robinson
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
That's my top ten, and most of them will remain on my list for a long time because I read a bunch of them when I was a kid and they've stuck with me all this time. So, what books would you include in your top ten?
Labels: books, christopher moore, mpr, neil gaiman, steve martin, top ten, writers
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Disgruntled
I heard a report on MPR today about U.S. Attorneys who have lost their jobs due to political shenanigans. The Justice Department defends its position, saying that these attorneys are no more than disgruntled employees. Disgruntled? I'll say. Who wouldn't be disgruntled if they were fired for no reason related to job performance, but because they were an inconvenient cog in a political system?
Labels: attorneys, disgruntled, mpr, politics, problem
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Nikki Giovanni
I was listening to Midmorning today on Minnesota Public Radio and heard Kerri Miller interview poet Nikki Giovanni. What a great program. Nikki has spark and snap. During her discussion, she was talking about copyright and whether people could use her work. She said that as long as she's alive, she wants people to use her work. And when she dies, she will have left instructions with her executor that people will still be able to use her work. She believes that her art is meant to be shared.
She's a girl after my own heart. What with all the big companies clamping down on copyright, sometimes even trying to squelch fair use, it's getting so that I feel I must get permission from artists merely to be inspired by their work. It's a dreadful state of affairs. Thankfully, there's a movement afoot to counteract some of this overreaching by heavy-duty copyright owners (who have the bankrolls to lobby for themselves and hire lawyers to glare at and sue anyone who dares put a finger on their works). That movement includes something called Creative Commons. Creative Commons is a voluntary licensing program wherein the creator of a work can choose the rights he/she wants to reserve. By using the Creative Commons program and posting the Creative Commons notice on a work, those who want to use it to inspire their own works will know exactly what rights they've been allowed. I've added a Creative Commons license (CC) to my blog. The license I've chosen allows others to use my work, but they must attribute it to me, they can't use it for commercial purposes, and if they use it, they have to be willing to share it.
She's a girl after my own heart. What with all the big companies clamping down on copyright, sometimes even trying to squelch fair use, it's getting so that I feel I must get permission from artists merely to be inspired by their work. It's a dreadful state of affairs. Thankfully, there's a movement afoot to counteract some of this overreaching by heavy-duty copyright owners (who have the bankrolls to lobby for themselves and hire lawyers to glare at and sue anyone who dares put a finger on their works). That movement includes something called Creative Commons. Creative Commons is a voluntary licensing program wherein the creator of a work can choose the rights he/she wants to reserve. By using the Creative Commons program and posting the Creative Commons notice on a work, those who want to use it to inspire their own works will know exactly what rights they've been allowed. I've added a Creative Commons license (CC) to my blog. The license I've chosen allows others to use my work, but they must attribute it to me, they can't use it for commercial purposes, and if they use it, they have to be willing to share it.
Labels: album art, blog, copyright, creative commons, inspiration, mpr, nikki giovanni, poet, share
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Album Art & Lyrics Cards
Until a solution is presented, I'm going keep coming back to this. Now that music is going digital, what's going to happen to album art and printed lyrics? We're so quick to jump ship toward something new that we forget to look for sharks in the water. We're so quick to embrace the newest in technology that we forget to examine what we might be giving up. When it comes to album art, some think, "Good riddance to bad rubbish. No tears here if there is no album art. " On MPR's The Current music blog, Hans Eisenbeis posted "Album art! Does it matter anymore?" The title says it all, but there are several wonky album covers pictured in the post. If we want to have a discussion about album art, why don't we pick the cream of the crop, rather that the crap? I, of course, think that album art is important. I am an artist and album art is a great way to bring fine art to the masses. Album art gives fans a physical representation of musicians and bands. It allows us to connect with musicians along another dimension. Album art helps to brand musicians. It is also one avenue of employment for visual artists. If pictures of the musician or band members are included, we get to know what people look like. Another important part of album art is the printed lyrics. How often have we misinterpreted a song because the singer or our hearing wasn't as clear as desired?
I asked my daughter, who did not grow up with 12-inch albums, if she liked CD booklets with their album art. She answered in the affirmative. She especially liked being able to read the lyrics. Daughter has an iPod, and she said, "Mom, the album art comes with the downloads." I asked her to show me this album art. There it was, in postage stamp form on her iPod screen. If that's what album art has come to, why bother?
Of course, with music becoming available solely through the digital realm, album art can't remain the way it has. For one, most people download singles, rather than entire albums. We're not going to want an entire CD booklet for one song. You can find lyrics for most any song online, but I, for one, don't want to be intravenously connected to a computer 24/7. I listen to music away from the computer and want to be able to have quick access to those lyrics.
I've been pondering this problem of dying album art & lack of lyrics for a while and have a possible solution: Lyrics Cards. For each song a band creates, there could be a card produced that has lyrics on one side & art on the other. Think of playing cards, no . . . that's not quite right . . . think of Tarot cards. Lyrics cards would have to be bigger than playing cards so the lyrics would fit. I suggest cards about the size of current CD booklets, if only because most of us have CD holders we could fit them into. They'd also be big enough to show some decent artwork and allow the lyrics to be seen without a magnifying glass. I imagine Lyrics Cards to be like trading cards. We can mix-and-match with friends. We can arrange our own playlists with them. When someone downloads a song, if they desire, they could have a Lyrics Card mailed to them. Bands could use them as promotional items.
So, there you have it. My crazy idea for saving album art: Lyrics Cards. Will it work? I have no idea. Maybe I'm just an old codger at the tender age of 39. Maybe I'm not with it and the majority of people want to see album art and printed lyrics leave in a whimpering fizzle. I, however, am not ready to give up without a fight.
I asked my daughter, who did not grow up with 12-inch albums, if she liked CD booklets with their album art. She answered in the affirmative. She especially liked being able to read the lyrics. Daughter has an iPod, and she said, "Mom, the album art comes with the downloads." I asked her to show me this album art. There it was, in postage stamp form on her iPod screen. If that's what album art has come to, why bother?
Of course, with music becoming available solely through the digital realm, album art can't remain the way it has. For one, most people download singles, rather than entire albums. We're not going to want an entire CD booklet for one song. You can find lyrics for most any song online, but I, for one, don't want to be intravenously connected to a computer 24/7. I listen to music away from the computer and want to be able to have quick access to those lyrics.
I've been pondering this problem of dying album art & lack of lyrics for a while and have a possible solution: Lyrics Cards. For each song a band creates, there could be a card produced that has lyrics on one side & art on the other. Think of playing cards, no . . . that's not quite right . . . think of Tarot cards. Lyrics cards would have to be bigger than playing cards so the lyrics would fit. I suggest cards about the size of current CD booklets, if only because most of us have CD holders we could fit them into. They'd also be big enough to show some decent artwork and allow the lyrics to be seen without a magnifying glass. I imagine Lyrics Cards to be like trading cards. We can mix-and-match with friends. We can arrange our own playlists with them. When someone downloads a song, if they desire, they could have a Lyrics Card mailed to them. Bands could use them as promotional items.
So, there you have it. My crazy idea for saving album art: Lyrics Cards. Will it work? I have no idea. Maybe I'm just an old codger at the tender age of 39. Maybe I'm not with it and the majority of people want to see album art and printed lyrics leave in a whimpering fizzle. I, however, am not ready to give up without a fight.
Labels: album art, art, daughter, lyrics, lyrics cards, mpr, music, tarot cards, technology
Friday, December 29, 2006
Social Computing
For quite some time now, using a computer has been a solo experience. Sort of a personal productivity machine - one screen, one keyboard. As more interactive programs and websites have popped up and taken over, it is not uncommon to find several people huddled in front of a computer screen. While watching House Hunters on HGTV the other day, I saw a family of four sitting at a table, each with a laptop, looking for properties. My daughter joked that they were probably IMing each other. People have been predicting the demise of social activities because of computer technology and the Internet, but it's not happening. It may have been happening for a while, but human beings simply can't live without other human beings, so the pendulum is swinging back.
In a related story, there was a discussion on MPR today about the changes in media and news broadcasting brought about by the shift to digital media. The prediction was that people would only seek out the stuff they were interested in if there weren't newspapers or broader TV programs that gave people a well-rounded bunch of stories. While I could argue that much of what is presented as news today isn't particularly well-rounded, what strikes me about this is the lack of faith in the ability of humans to search for stuff outside their direct interests. People get bored really quickly, so once something gets old, it gets old, and we start looking for new stuff. Also, as mentioned above, we are social creatures. If I don't happen to hear a particular news story, there's a sure bet that my husband, my children, or my friends have heard it and will pass it along. We're talking the Internet, here, folks. We are not living in fully separated cardboard boxes with blinders on and earplugs in. The news will get through.
In a related story, there was a discussion on MPR today about the changes in media and news broadcasting brought about by the shift to digital media. The prediction was that people would only seek out the stuff they were interested in if there weren't newspapers or broader TV programs that gave people a well-rounded bunch of stories. While I could argue that much of what is presented as news today isn't particularly well-rounded, what strikes me about this is the lack of faith in the ability of humans to search for stuff outside their direct interests. People get bored really quickly, so once something gets old, it gets old, and we start looking for new stuff. Also, as mentioned above, we are social creatures. If I don't happen to hear a particular news story, there's a sure bet that my husband, my children, or my friends have heard it and will pass it along. We're talking the Internet, here, folks. We are not living in fully separated cardboard boxes with blinders on and earplugs in. The news will get through.
Labels: computer, daughter, family, house hunters, husband, media, mpr, news, technology
Friday, December 22, 2006
Criminalizing Poverty, Part II
I got a surprise today when I got home from work around 4:10 p.m. (Bear with me. The time's important.) The surprise was not a good one. A while ago, I posted about filling out a MinnesotaCare application. The app went through okay and we got a notice that our coverage would continue. I waited for a bill. It did not enter our household until December 18, 2006 - this past Monday. The statement was dated December 13, 2006, with a due date of December 14, 2006. Got that? We didn't get the bill until FOUR DAYS AFTER IT WAS DUE! We wrote out a check and sent it on December 20, 2006. Today, the surprise. We got a cancellation notice from MinnesotaCare for not paying our bill on time. And, here's the kicker: The cancellation notice was dated December 14, 2006.
I immediately tried to call MinnesotaCare to let them know the situation and got a round-about system that never did give me the option to talk to a real person. I did find out the hours for the office: 8 a.m. - 4:15 p.m. I guess they figure that poor people sit on our butts all day watching TV. Funny that. I was at work all day. In fact, while there, I heard a program on MPR about what constitutes good design in both objects and systems. You now have an example of poor design, unless, of course, the MinnesotaCare system is purposely designed to criminalize poverty. It succeeded in making me feel like the lowest scum who'd ever slithered on earth. (No offense to you scum out there.)
I immediately tried to call MinnesotaCare to let them know the situation and got a round-about system that never did give me the option to talk to a real person. I did find out the hours for the office: 8 a.m. - 4:15 p.m. I guess they figure that poor people sit on our butts all day watching TV. Funny that. I was at work all day. In fact, while there, I heard a program on MPR about what constitutes good design in both objects and systems. You now have an example of poor design, unless, of course, the MinnesotaCare system is purposely designed to criminalize poverty. It succeeded in making me feel like the lowest scum who'd ever slithered on earth. (No offense to you scum out there.)
Labels: bills, criminals, design, minnesotacare, mpr, poverty, work
Sunday, October 08, 2006
FtTP - k. d. lang + K. T. Tunstall
I caught a bit of an interview with k. d. lang on MPR not long ago. Her newest album is called Reintarnation. I've also heard a couple of songs on the radio by musician K. T. Tunstall, notably Black Horse & the Cherry Tree (which I think of as the Woo Hoo song) and Suddenly I See from the album Eye to the Telescope.
The similarities in lang's and Tunstall's styles are easy to see. A duet is in order here. And, I'm not the only one who thinks so. I did my research on this Frankensteining the Talent Pool idea. Tunstall and lang haven't done anything together yet, that I can find, but another blogger is of the same mind that I am. The blog, KhaiLee.info, even publishes photos showing similarities in appearance between lang and Tunstall.
The similarities in lang's and Tunstall's styles are easy to see. A duet is in order here. And, I'm not the only one who thinks so. I did my research on this Frankensteining the Talent Pool idea. Tunstall and lang haven't done anything together yet, that I can find, but another blogger is of the same mind that I am. The blog, KhaiLee.info, even publishes photos showing similarities in appearance between lang and Tunstall.
Labels: frankensteining the talent pool, FtTP, k. d. lang, k. t. tunstall, mpr
