Denver to Chicago by Plane and by Train

Initially I planned to fly both to and from Chicago. But, then something went wrong. Both tickets, spaced four days apart, were for flights from Denver to Chicago. Some days after booking the flights, but well before the flight dates, I realized my mistake: you just can’t fly to a city if you’re already there. I attempted to get a refund for the second ticket, but they said it was already too late. Even changing the flight date would cost more than the ticket had. Economy fares are great when they save money, but when their providers are unwilling to refund or exchange their tickets, they are no bargain at all. So, I lost $68.00 and Spirit Airlines lost both my custom and good will.

On the plus side, I was now free to rethink my return trip. I decided to take a train back instead, and I’m glad I did. Trains don’t go as fast as planes, but they’ll show you far more scenery. And, the clacketty-clack sound of steel wheels rolling on iron rails are soothing to the soul. The train rolled past fields of yellow grain and over the wide Mississippi River before entering that long tunnel called night.

Sleeping in coach is not as comfortable as is doing so in the sleeping car, but it is reasonably tolerable. Besides, I did not ride a train to be pampered. I rode a train to take a journey. In the air, there is little to see and even less to do. However, on a train, conversations happen and one experiences the solid land between here and there. Periodically, the train stops and one walks along the platform breathing the night air of a strange, and otherwise unvisited, city.

In Omaha, the train platform is old, dingy and dim, but in Nebraska’s capital, Lincoln, the platform stands outside a modern and friendly looking station. Just before dawn, the train arrived in Denver. It stopped several blocks from historic Union Station. When renovation completes in 2014, Union Station will serve as a regional transportation hub. However, for now a detoured stop is used.

Killing with the Edge of the Moon

Killing with the Edge of the Moon
A. A. Attanasio
Fiction 160 pages
Prime Books. 2006

Would you go all the way to Hell just to get a date? Chet does, but not entirely willingly. He makes the trip partly due to a very convincing witch, but also because he has a crush on Flannery.

Long ago, Orpheus made a similar trip. However, when he tried it, things didn’t work out so well. Of course, the Otherworld isn’t exactly Hell, and Flannery, unlike Orpheus’s wife, Eurydice, isn’t exactly dead. But, the situation is similar, and if Chet isn’t able to work the Fetch, Flannery will be both dead and dragon food.

While Flannery dances with fairies in the Otherworld, her body lies in a hospital bed connected to life support equipment. For Flannery, the Otherworld is far more joyful than the one she has known all her life. But Arden, the fairy prince, hasn’t told her everything, and Flannery doesn’t know how much danger she’s in. Even if her witch grandmother, Nedra, is able to convince Chet to work the Fetch, Flannery and Chet will face great danger before their story is done.

The Orpheus myth is a prime example of what Joseph Campbell calls the hero’s journey. Chet’s hero journey is faithful to the mythic archetype, yet modern and unpredictable. Filled with reversals and surprises, Attanasio’s story pits the uncertainty of contemporary adolescence against the ageless themes of Celtic myth.

After Dancing Long and Well, It’s Time to Pay the Piper

It’s absurd to maintain tax cuts for the wealthy when the country faces massive debt and many of its citizens are unemployed. By now, most of us realize that prosperity does not trickle down from the wealthy, and never did.

It’s argued, however, that increasing taxes for the wealthiest citizens may result in lost jobs. But it’s also argued that the resulting reduction in the federal deficit will more than compensate for those lost jobs. Further, it’s not certain that job losses will occur since businesses are running on minimal staffs already. After Clinton raised taxes, the economy thrived, so it’s entirely possible that the effect of tax increases for the wealthiest may have no, or only minimal, effect on job losses.

Alternatives that include reducing entitlement funding will also increase the hardships already faced by entitlement beneficiaries. As for cutting federal spending, we all know that Republicans never actually follow through with such reductions despite their talk. To do so would result in lost jobs for federal employees and for those who supply the government with goods and services. Clearly not an acceptable alternative.

During the Eisenhower years and beyond, affluent Americans paid much higher taxes than they do today. The country prospered and employment was strong. Currently the wealthiest citizens hold a greater percentage of America’s wealth then they ever held previously resulting in record levels of income inequality. Yet does all this capital in so few hands result in economic growth? Not at all. In order to bring economic growth, capital needs to be moving, not sitting stagnantly in the hands of the elite. The United States does not have a royal class, yet the desire to worship royalty remains present in those who seek to protect it from imaginary threats.

Keelung Indigenous Cultural Hall

Taiwan’s indigenous people are the descendents of early residents of Fukien China who crossed the Taiwan Strait six thousand years ago. The Keelung Indigenous Cultural Hall is a modest, yet cheerfully sunlit building located near the bridge to Heping Dao (Peace Island).

 

The museum displays examples of aboriginal buildings, clothing, art and artifacts. The top floor leads out on to a plaza featuring additional carved artwork, a suspension bridge, paths, and a fine view of the Pacific Ocean.

Nowhere to Hide

Once again Israel and Palestine are going at each other, and as usual, the Palestinians are getting the worst of it. Benjamin Netanyahu says that the reason so many Palestinians get killed is because Hamas “hides behind civilians.” Consider the population to the Gaza Strip: There are 9,713 people per square mile living there. Compare that to the 809 people per square mile living in Israel, the 650 in the United Kingdom, the 365 in China, or the 84 in the United States.

Is it really fair to say that Hamas hides behind its civilians in an area so crowded that there’s nowhere else to hide? For years Israel has managed to portray itself as the plucky underdog fighting for survival while surrounded by enemies. There’s some truth in that, yet Israel has been far too aggressive, far too often, and now the story is beginning to wear a bit thin. Lately it looks more like a bully than an underdog.

Neither nation is entitled to claim righteousness, high-mindedness, or innocence. However, Israel is the stronger of the two nations, and as such, she should be the first to make concessions. If Israel doesn’t modify her belligerent stance, her naked aggression will be exposed, world opinion will change, and she’ll find herself with nowhere to hide.

Is science fiction a dead genre, or is it merely un-dead?

As a science fiction fan, I follow several sites that post about eBooks. Of late, I see many new titles about werewolves, vampires and zombies. Such creatures are fine when they keep to their proper genre, but when they masquerade as science fiction I get irritated.

I like the end of the world as well as anyone, but does it always have to be the same zombie stuffed, vampire ridden post-apocalyptic world? Why can’t you authors write stories like those in Jack Vance’s “Dying Earth”? Vance mixes crumbling technology and magic without resorting to un-dead or dog-eared characters. Why can’t you guys?

Occasionally one of you gets a vampire right, but werewolves? Come on. And, zombies—plah-eze—they are so implausible. I mean, can a walking sack of rotting flesh get readers to suspend disbelief? Let’s try something new, something with at least a trace of science in it, not another werewolf story. Is the world going to the dogs, or what? 

The Rock

Peter Blume’s painting, “The Rock” is one of my favorites at The Art Institute of Chicago. Some have concluded that this painting symbolizes hopeful renewal in a postwar or post-apocalyptic world. At first glance, this makes sense; however, I viewed this painting recently and came to darker conclusions.

 That destruction has occurred and renewal is occurring is clear from the ruined building on the right and the construction on the left. The trees in the background possibly lack leaves because of the season, but the shirtless workers in the foreground suggest warmer weather. I think the forest experienced a recent fire, perhaps the same fire that destroyed the building on the right.

Though the painting’s right and left sides create its general theme, what is occurring in its middle is less clear. The woman on the left side of the rock is reverently patting the soil beneath the rock in an attempt to stabilize its foundation. The man on its right could be working to restore the rock’s foundation, but he could also be destroying it. The workers supplying shaped stones for the construction on the painting’s left side suggest that the man with the shovel is removing the soil and stone which support the rock.

What about the rock itself? Does it actually represent hopefulness, or does it represent decay and futility instead? Only one figure in the painting is capable of giving birth, and this woman seems determined to preserve the rock’s foundation. There’s an animal skeleton directly above her, a symbol of death and decay. The grass next to the rock is dried and dying and the roots beneath it are dead and detached. Even the red blooms are not those of flowers, but of fungus, a plant which thrives on decay.

The woman’s efforts to keep the rock from falling are futile — the rock is already dead. A closer look reveals that it is not formed from enduring material such as marble or granite, but of decaying organic matter. For the rock is a watermelon, split, overripe and rotting. There’s no future here. Ultimately civilization cannot be rebuilt. It is destined to crumble and rot.

 Click to see Peter Blume’s, "The Rock".

Is all the talk about climate change just a lot of hot air?

Some will say that Hurricane Sandy turning Manhattan into a swimming pool is further proof of global warming and climate change. Others are doubtful. Mainstream thinking is that climate varies from decade to decade and true change occurs over centuries. Critics are correct to assume that no single storm—not even a superstorm—proves climate change. However, a cluster of extreme weather events occurring in a short period time, does suggest a pattern.

According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), climate change accelerated during the last ten years, and extreme weather events, including drought, floods, heat waves and dangerous storms, greatly increased during the decade spanning 2001 to 2010—a decade that was the warmest since measurement began in 1850 (See article).

Is it merely a coincidence that this century’s first decade is the warmest on record? There’s good reason to think so, and many do. After all, we’ve only been keeping records since 1850. Yet, the WMO, an agency of the United Nations, which represents 183 countries, believes otherwise. WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud claims, “… climate change is happening now and is not some distant future threat.” A more conventional view is that climate change occurs over centuries and our recent warmer weather is merely coincidental. Rather than get excited about a warm decade that could be a statistical fluke, why not wait another 50 or 100 years until there’s more proof?

Why not? Because if we wait it may be too late. But, if we act now, we have nothing to lose. Am I saying we should invest millions of dollars in technology that may be unnecessary? That’s exactly what I’m saying. Eventually oil based energy will either run out or become so expensive that few can afford it. So, why not invest in renewable energy and cleaner burning fuels? Even if you think vehicle exhaust fumes aren’t a health hazard, you still don’t stand around traffic islands during rush hour if you can help it. So, why not promote technologies that will create cleaner air?

Some resist making expensive investments in unproven technologies without the certainty that we’re addressing a real problem. But, the investment is worthwhile even if the problem is imaginary. We no longer have a significant presence in space, yet the space program gave rise to important technologies that wouldn’t exist otherwise. Similarly, any investment aimed at developing clean burning, renewable energy is money well spent. Having air and water that are cleaner is worthwhile if only for the sake of our comfort, if not for the sake of our health.

Investments in new technology will pay dividends even if their aim is to solve imaginary problems. If we do not build those technologies, someone else will. Critics argue the administration wasted stimulus money on green energy companies like Solyndra, that failed to become commercially viable. They fail to acknowledge that Solyndra wasn’t competitive because the Chinese government subsidized its manufacturers. The facts don’t prove that green energy isn’t useful. They only prove that the Chinese are more interested in green energy than we are. If we don’t get interested soon, Chinese investments will reap economic advantages while our economy declines due to our failure to advance our technology.

Finally, if there is some truth to the argument, even a little truth, and we take action to reverse climate change, we can prevent human suffering by reducing the frequency, or severity, of forest fires, floods, tornadoes, and glacial and polar melting caused by climate change.

Understand digital prepress

Real World Print Production with Adobe Creative Suite Applications

Claudia McCue
Nonfiction 352 pages
Peachpit Press. 2009

When there’s a lot at stake and it’s got to be right, a little know-how goes a long way. I wrote “Graphics Essentials for Small Offices” to help beginners learn the basics of design. Claudia McCue takes the process much further. The digital revolution has simplified designers’ prepress tasks in many ways, but there are still numerous gotchas that they need to be aware of. Too many books treat the graphics applications they discuss as if their solutions can be poured, like breakfast cereal, straight from the box. McCue knows better. She knows the pre-digital history of graphics, the challenges designers used to face preparing work for print, and the challenges that remain. This book provides the knowledge that designers need to guide their work process toward problem free print outcomes. This book covers a lot, but it really excels in providing the kind of knowledge designers get on the job rather than in art school.

He read it all and lived to tell about it

The Arabian Nights : Acompanion

Robert Irwin
Nonfiction 342 pages
Tauris Parke Paperbacks. 2004

Henry Reeve discussed the translations of the Arabian Nights available during his time, saying, “Galland is for the nursery, Lane is for the library, Payne for the study and Burton for the sewers.” Burton’s version of the Arabian Nights is full of archaic language, gratuitous vulgarity, and racism. It is also the most readily available complete translation, and the one you may have to read if you want to become thoroughly acquainted with this story collection.

During the time Burton was translating it, a Middle Eastern superstition claimed that no one could read the entire Arabian Nights without dying. Author, Robert Irwin, writes that he read the entire Burton translation without dying, but not without pondering suicide as an alternative to slogging through it. Fortunately, if you wish to be better acquainted with the Arabian Nights, you can read Irwin’s Companion instead.

Irwin explores the Arabian Nights from a variety of perspectives as evident in his chapter titles, including, “Street Entertainments”, “Low Life”, and “Sexual Fictions”. Of particular interest is Irwin’s discussion of how stories mutate, merge, migrate, and reappear elsewhere. For example, a short story about partners plotting to kill each other is the plot of “The Pardoner’s Tale” in The Canterbury Tales. Later it’s a movie plot in The Treasure of Sierra Madre. Other versions of a story from the Arabian Nights, “The Tale of the Woman who Wanted to Deceive her Husband” also appears in Sanskrit in the 11th century, Latin in the 12th, and in the 14th both Persian and Italian in Bocccaccio’s Decameron. In the 20th century, Thomas Mann reused the plot once again in his Dr. Faustus.     

Besides Mann, other modern authors have found inspiration in the Arabian Nights, including James Joyce, Marcel Proust, Jorge Luis Borges, John Barth and Salman Rushdie.

Irwin’s The Arabian Nights : A companion offers an expansive and thoroughgoing look at this great work. There is little that he doesn’t touch upon. If you don’t want to risk death by reading the entire Arabian Nights, then read Irwin instead.