Nightbirde

I

ts no often that I'm moved by anyone on AGT; all of the reactions seem so rehearsed. There is something genuine, however, about the singer who calls herself Nightbirde that cannot be ignored. 

The song is called "It's okay," which is perfect for this particular time--when many people do not feel ok .This is a song that asks everyone to accept their situation, whatever it may be.  

She sings with a pleasant, echoing vibrato. For me, its not the performance or the vocals but the actual lyrics that stand out most. For example, she sings, "said I knew myself but I guess I lied."

The Big Door Prize by M.O. Walsh

 

In a novel that's sweetness served up with a side of realism, Walsh explores a small town's inhabitants desire to live the best version of themselves. When a simply plywood cubicle with the word DNAMIX shows up at Johnson's grocery story, it causes the good people of Deerfield to behave in outlandish ways.

The machine, which does a quick DNA scan, determines if an individual has lived up to his or her potential. Ordinary townspeople suddenly decide they are meant to be puppeteers, Olympic champions, magicians, or members of royalty.

The townspeople's gullibility infuriates Douglas Hubbard who feels the machine spits out random occupations. He is flabbergasted and irked to learn that his readout is spot-on. Even though Douglas wants a more exciting life, that of trombone player, the machine tells Douglas his life station is "teacher."

Douglas has been a teacher for years and it leaves him depleted and exhausted. Every day that he teaches feels like eight days instead of one. Naturally, he is irked to find he is the only person in town given such a prosaic life station.

Most of the characters are humorous and endearing. Pat, Deerfield High's principal, refuses to swear yet she uses nonsense words that sound suspiciously like swear words. Tipsy is the town's only cab driver. He drives constantly, taking no money for fares, because it helps him keep a promise he has made to himself.

Father Pete is a good man even if he takes a drink now and then. The mayor nearly abandons his mayoral duties after getting his DNAMIX readout of "cowboy."

Mixed in with the humor, however, is an unfolding mystery. What happened to the mayor's son, Toby? Did he die from a DUI accident or was it something even more sinister? Beneath the amusing stories about Deerfield eccentrics, there is a darker story of the mistreatment of a young woman and the unquenched desire for revenge.

PBS' The Gene Doctors a New Era of Medicine.

This PBS film introduces viewers to a new world of therapies that may help anyone who has an incurable genetic disorder. Scientists are using viruses, messenger DNA, and CRISPR to treat disease at its root level, the genetic mutation that causes disease. 

Research scientists--Dr. Jean Bennet, Dr. Edwin Stone, Dr. Jennifer Doudna, and Dr. Eric Green--make appearances in the film. Viewers also hear from the patients whose lives are directly affected by their research.

Book Review: How I Build This by Guy Raz

 

Business podcaster and journalist, Guy Raz, offers insights on how many innovative companies got started in How I Built This. Raz summarizes key takeaways from his podcast where he interviews founders.

Even though no two stories are alike, there are some similarities. In his estimation, entrepreneurs are open to the call. Some businesses were a direct response to an unmet need. Carol’s Daughter, FUBU, Walker & Co. met the needs of an ethnic demographic. Other companies thrived when their business model tweaks the industry: Airbnb, the Knot, Stitch, Rent the Runway, Canva, Warby Parker.

Entrepreneurs face many obstacles which Raz eloquently describes in Part 2. Some companies are noted for how well they have recovered from setbacks e.g. Jeni’s Splendid ice creams. Others are notable for how well they have pivoted into new niches: Stacy’s Pita Chips, Angie’s Boomchickapop, Slack, Twitch.

Even after companies have succeeded, founders must decide whether to sell or to maintain creative control. Neither decision is right or wrong; it just depends on what the founder’s goals may be.

While there are many success stories, there are a few cautionary tales: Dippin Dots and American Apparel.

How I built This is great for those who want to dip their feet into the entrepreneurial waters. While it offers many tips from the world’s foremost startups, its an enjoyable and engaging read.

Millions of jobs won't be coming back

 

According to the Washington Post, millions of jobs will not be coming back after the pandemic ends. Many people will need to discover or rediscover their "why" (as Sinek calls it). they will need to repurpose, repackage their career or make career shifts and changes.

More people will work from home and less employees will travel. According to the McKinsey Global institute, twenty percent of business travel will end. 

The economy will need the same number of jobs post pandemic as pre-pandemic, but the job duties will change.

Start With Why by Simon Sinek

In  six part and fourteen chapters, Sinek reveals what organizations need to do to be industry leaders. Surprisingly simple, leaders needs to remind employees why the organization was founded in the first place; they need to remember their WHY.

Those organizations that forget their WHY experience a strange bifurcation between what they do and why they do it. According to Sinek, Dell, Microsoft, Walmart, and Starbucks are some of the companies that have forgotten their original purpose. 

For Sinek, it all comes down to a golden circle. At the center of the circle is the company's purpose or passion. The leader turns this golden circle, now imagined as a cone, into a megaphone. Everything the company does, even the people it hires must be aligned with company's purpose. 

Using anecdotes and historical examples, Sinek explains how a trend is different from a fad, how novelty is different from innovation. Real innovation changes the industry and can change society.

Sinek highlight those companies that inspire the most--most notably Apple, Virgin Records, Southwest Airlines but also some less well-known companies.

To be successful, these companies need to market to early adopters and others that share their values. They need a marketing team that effuse their message;  products and services that pass the celery test. They need good successors that keep the WHY alive.

Playwright, Ken Lin

Ken Lin speaks about the universality of performing arts in this Houston Chronicle article:

 “My parents were immigrants, and I grew up in a family where some people didn't speak English...So as a child, I learned the power of storytelling and also of nonverbal communication. I was drawn to the performing arts because of how universal they are.”

Lin is best known for the plays Po Boy Tango, Farewell My Concubine, and Kleptocracy. 

https://www.chron.com/entertainment/article/Playwright-Kenneth-Lin-is-realizing-his-dreams-1706503.php

Arrokoth

Detected in 2014, Arrokoth is the most distant and  object  explored by spacecraft so far. 

Arrokoth is the Powhatan/Algonquin word for sky. 

        Credits: NASA/John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/Roman Tkachenko

For a great overview of everything space-related see Universe which is streaming on Netflix (an eighteen part series). 

German Library Acquires 400 Year Old Friendship Book

 

Mymodernnet.com reports that a German library,  Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel acquired a 400 year-old "friendship" book containing the signatures of kings and emperors.

This is like a modern day equivalent of a yearbook.

Grants for Cozy Mystery Writers

For my writer friends,

Cozy mysteries accepted between January 1 and November 1.

https://www.malicedomestic.org/grants-program.html

• Authors are invited to submit one work in progress per submission period.
• The Grants Committee is looking for works in progress that are consistent with the Malice Domestic genre of Traditional Mystery, typified by the works of Agatha Christie. These works contain no explicit gore, violence, or sex. 
• The submission period is from January 1 - November 1 every year.
• Please include your author name, story title, brief bio, contact email, and phone number on your submission. 
• Submissions are accepted via email (click below).
• Please contact our Grants Chair Harriette Sackler with any questions regarding your submission or the Grants Program. 

The Memory Garden by Mary Rickert

 

Perfect for Halloween, The Memory Garden by Mary Rickert is a treat. 

Mistaken for a witch, Nan is actually an older lady who happens to have a shoe garden. People send her cast-off shoes and they become the perfect planters for hollyhock, pennyroyal and mallow. 

Along with harsh words, people leave clothes, bread, honey. Eventually, someone leaves a baby in a shoe box. This sets all kind of figurative fireworks and changes the course of Nan's life. 

The author's use of foreshadowing is superb:

"Nan tries to hold her breath against the scent of memory, but there they are, the three of them in whispered conference, standing in the snow, promising to die with the secret of Eve's last hours, bound by the very oath that would tear them asunder."

This is a story of three old women with a dark secret and the baby (now grown into a teenager) whom Nan has adopted.

Similar titles:

Shipman, Viola. The Heirloom Garden. 

The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert

 

No matter how far they roam, bad luck follows Ella and Alice. Eventually, they settle in Brooklyn where Alice meets someone she recognizes from her past, the man who had kidnapped her a decade ago.

Alice becomes obsessed with her grandmother, Althea Prosperine, whom she has never met. She is also obsessed with reading her grandmother's book, Tales from the Hinterland. Even though its rare, the book has generated a lot of passionate fans who keep in touch on websites.

In Brooklyn, Alice's mother's luck seems to change. She marries a rich man, Harold, whom she thinks she loves. Their love quickly sours and then Ella vanishes; Harold tells Alice that Ella was taken by a group calling themselves "the Hinterland."

Alice's only clues are things left behind by the strange man at the coffee shop: a feather, comb, and bone and a rhyme given to her by one of her Grandmother's "fans."

Albert takes tried-and-true fairy tale elements and gives them a refreshing contemporary context. Time spend in a fairytale world is depicted as a kidnapping; characters from one world or the other are "refugees."  As dark as that sounds, its possible to change a story's ending. Alice breaks her doomed story and one broken story leads to others.  

If readers want to hear more about Alice, there's a second book in the series, The Night Country.   

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

 

In this fanciful and breathtaking novel, two young people are drawn into a dangerous game by their caretakers. Both have been trained in the arts of real magic, not illusory magic, and have been brought up to fight a magical duel.

Marco is an orphan and Celia has a cruel, misguided father. Their challenge will take place at the traveling circus which shows up unannounced at various cities throughout the world. 

The Night circus, which has no clowns and elephants, focuses on the unusual and the sensual. Visitors enter tents to see acrobatics, an ice garden, smell concoctions, or have their fortunes told.

Celia is the circus's illusionist who uses magical arts to impress her audience. 

Though the Marco and Celia realize they are opponents, neither know when or how the challenge will take place. 

Marco, who is based in London, uses the magical bonfire at the circus to refuel his energy. The bonfire also has protective properties which keeps the circus performers from aging.

Though it was not a pact they entered willing, Celia and Marco have ignored the challenge's effects on others. 

Lanie makes this clear to Celia,

"I am tired of everyone keeping their secrets so well that they get other people killed. We are all involved in your game, and it seems we are not as easily repaired as teacups."

The two masterminds, Hector and Alexander, have more to answer for. Fittingly, in the end, Alexander seems to realize the harm his game has caused:    

"It is one thing to put two competitors alone in a ring and wait for one to hit the ground. It is another to see how they fare when there are other factors in the ring along with them. When there are repercussions with every action taken."

 The love story and denouement of this novel are particularly impressive. The conclusion is bittersweet but satisfying. 

Marco and Celia find a way to thwart the game. Uncertain and lost, Bailey finds a mission. Widget, who perhaps possesses the most powerful magic of all, wins the circus with his story telling abilities. 

Morgenstern began The Night Circus in 2003 during NaNoWriMo challenge, an annual online writing challenge in which authors try to complete 50,000 words in November.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

 

Station Eleven is about the Georgia virus, one that is even more disrupting than COVID-19. In this prescient novel, Mandel writes about a virus that ends civilization, eliminating people quickly and with them the knowledge of technology. After it hits, there's no electricity, phone, internet, cars, law enforcement, hospitals, or government. Bands of survivors that set up settlements in abandoned restaurant, hotels, and airports.

The principal characters are all connected in some way to a King Lear production that took place shortly before the collapse in Toronto. An aging actor, Arthur, dies on stage; the actor's childhood friend, Clark, and a child actress in the production, Kirsten, survive. 

While this is a grim scenario, Mandel cleverly knits the factions together. Jeevan, for instance, is an aspiring paramedic that rises out of the audience to try to rescue Arthur. His story interconnects with Kirsten's and the roaming Symphony that band together for art's sake after the collapse. 

Kirsten believes that "survival is insufficient." In addition to survival, there must be beauty and art; thus, she continues to perform Shakespeare with the Symphony in spite of the hazards. The Symphony sometimes wander through dangerous territory and encounter sinister people such as the mysterious Prophet.

The Symphony are all armed and trained, even if they aspire to preserve beauty. Kirsten is an expert knife-thrower who can defend herself in necessary. The Prophet, in contrast, is an armed aggressor who takes what he wants, including children, as his wives. He kills without regard and proclaims himself the "Light."

The Prophet is also connected, Clark soon learns, to his old friend Arthur. Miranda is linked to Arthur and it is her graphic novel, Station Eleven, that provides a clue to the Prophet's origins. Everything is wonderfully knotted together, its up to the reader to unravel the connections. 

HBO is creating a ten-episode drama series based on Station Eleven starring Mackenzie Davis and Himesh Patel. 

Wick Poetry Center

Wick Poetry Center,

https://www.kent.edu/wick

Community poems at the Wick Poetry Center.

Users can read a model poem and than submit one of their own inspired by that model. 

The current community poem at The Wick Center honors nurses. The community can submit poems based on the model poem "Some Days."

https://communitypoems.travelingstanzas.com/somedays

Look Me In The Eye by John Elder Robinson

 Robinson who has written other books about autism has a difficult start in life. He grew up feeling different and not knowing why or how to label it. He was frequently told he needed to look people in the eye. Ostracized by kids, he turned to adults who were more forgiving of his lack of social graces. He learned to love machines (e.g. trains and amplifiers) and could visualize complex equations in his head.

In spite of a high intelligence, he could not adapt to school and dropped out at 16. He was a practical joker who learned to create elaborate devices that would fool the eye. He was also spending more and more time learning the ins and outs of the music industry. 

Eventually, he created a guitar that appeared to explode on stage, which the band KISS became famous for. Several chapters in Look Me in the Eye are devoted to adventures he had while working as a sound engineer for KISS. The band paid well but sporadically. Robison eventually explored a career in the corporate world. 

Despite not having an electrical engineering degree, Robinson found working at Milton Bradley an easy fit. He could designing electronic toys as well if not better than any of the engineers with degrees. 

As good as he was at design, though, he could not hack the corporate culture:

"I was thoroughly sick of all the criticism. I was sick of life.   Literally. I had come down with asthma, and attacks were sending me to the emergency room every few months. I hated to get up and face another day at work. I knew what I needed to do. I needed to stop forcing myself to fit into something I could never be a part of A big company. A group. A team."

Robinson thought the answer is to create his own business, repairing high-end cars like Land Rovers and Rolls-Royces. While that works for awhile, it isn't completely satisifying.

A friend who was also a therapist helps him making a discovery about himself that changes his outlook on life. The chapter, "A Diagnosis at Forty" focuses on his coming to terms with his diagnosis. 

Robinson not only comes to terms with his autism, he also makes peace with his parents who were at times indifferent and abusive while he was growing up.

This is an intimate portrait of one man's journey with autism and how it affected his professional life and personal life. He writes about his son, who also has autism, in a separate book, Raising Cubby. Robison also writes about his search for experimental therapies in Switched On. 

Robison is a scholar-in-residence at the College of William and Mary.