Strange Christmas Traditions

Today in Music History

Today in 1858, Giacomo Puccini, Italian composer, was born! Here is a clip of Maria Callas performing Puccini's opera Tosca.



For more Puccini operas, check out the library's DVD selection!

Merry Winter Solstice!

The longest night of the year is honored by many traditions as a sacred and rich time. In the past, it's been a night to gather 'round the fire, or set out candles to call back the Sun. On the calendar, it falls between December 20th and 23rd in the Northern Hemisphere.

~from About.com Astrology

The Meaning of the Winter Solstice

Doodling in Math Class

I recently read about this "recreational mathematician" on NPR. I was intrigued by the idea of teaching math "more intuitively, more joyously"-I was never good at math in school & dreaded math class. I like her videos, which you can find on YouTube.



Check out Vi Hart's website for more mathematical doodles, mathematical food, mathematical balloon twisting, & how to make a paper didgeridoo!

For a related take on math education, check out the essay "A Mathematician's Lament".

I've also heard good things about the books Danica McKellar has written for teenagers, with user-friendly titles like Math Doesn't Suck.

Mystery of Nikumaroro

In June, Discovery News announced that "Tantalizing new clues are surfacing in the Amelia Earhart mystery, according to researchers scouring a remote South Pacific island believed to be the final resting place of the legendary aviatrix."

As of December 18th, the big news is that "Bones found on island might be Amelia Earharts's". To see a slideshow of pictures of Earhart & the discoveries on Nikumaroro Island, click here.

What do you think? For more information on Amelia Earhart, visit her official website, her listing at AcePilots.com, or your friendly library webpage.

Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson

It's crunch time for my Victorian reading challenge! Way back in January, I swore I would read 12 Victorian books by year's end. Well, as usual, I've waited until last minute & I have just a couple of weeks to read Jane Eyre, Wives & Daughters, & Lady Audley's Secret. Yikes! If only Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter counted (I'm finding that really amusing)...but I have to read more books written during the Victorian era, not faux Victorian zombie lit. At least I have finished Kidnapped.

I always feel the book should be titled Kidnapped!, as though it were a tabloid headline. But really, Robert Louis Stevenson's classic novel is anything but sensational & lurid. I was excited to realize that Stevenson was a Victorian writer, because I read & re-read Treasure Island as a kid, & I thought Kidnapped would be more of the same. However, while it is in a similar vein to Treasure Island, it's a very different book.

According to the introduction by John Seelye that opened my edition, Kidnapped (written in 1886, three years after T.I.), was the "second of Stevenson's so-called 'boys' books'. Kidnapped...is a carefully constructed fiction, with intentionally strong connections to historical circumstance, namely the aftermath of the Jacobite Rebellion in Scotland." Seelye suggests that T.I. was more of a slapdash affair, geographically inaccurate, purely a fantasy. He also refers to Stevenson's criticism of Henry Fielding's Tom Jones, set in the same era but with nary of mention of Jacobites, & Stevenson's debt to Sir Walter Scott for his romantic history Waverley, set during the same period. One of the characters in the book refers to the protagonist's journey as a kind of Scots Odyssey. So you can see that, even with clocking in at just over 200 pages, Kidnapped really packs a literary wallop.

Set in 1751, it's the story of the adventures of David Balfour: as the opening page attests, "how he was kidnapped & cast away; his journey in the Wild Highlands; his acquaintance with Alan Breck Stewart & other notorious Highland Jacobites; with all that he suffered at the hands of his uncle, Ebenezer Balfour of Shaws, falsely so-called." & that pretty much sums up the action, right there. I think the novel's title is misleading-the kidnap is actually a small part of the plot, though a vital part. A lot of the novel concerns David's travels, alone & later with Alan Breck (which, in less capable authorial hands, could have degenerated into a kind of 'buddy movie' material).

What I so enjoy about Robert Louis Stevenson is his writing style. David Balfour & Alan Breck Stewart are vividly portrayed characters who quarrel & make up; help each other & betray each other, all while saying "Hoot!" & "Wheesht!". The uneasy camaraderie that develops between these two characters is very realistic. (Ebenezer Balfour is a bit of a hobgoblin, but a real baddie is called for in the narrative.) Everything Stevenson writes about is so detailed & intense, so compelling, that the reader is irresistibly drawn into the action, despite, in my case, knowing nothing about the Jacobites. Stevenson, showing geographic due diligence this time, takes you through a detailed tour of Scotland, from Queen's Ferry to the Isle of Mull & back again; through wood, heather & moor, under less than pleasant conditions (mainly cold & wet). David also meets Cluny Macpherson, another famous Jacobite, hiding out in a kind of wattle & moss treehouse known as "Cluny's Cage" & Stevenson takes you through a bit of the history of clans, or at least which clans don't get along & the fact that the wearing of tartan had been outlawed.

I would highly recommend the entertaining works of Stevenson & I think I will be reading more of his adventure stories in the future. Meanwhile, if you really like Kidnapped, you should consider its 1893 sequel, Catriona, though John Seelye says it is a lesser work. At the end of Kidnapped, Robert Louis Stevenson indicates, however, that "all went well with both [David & Alan Breck], in the limited and human sense of the word 'well'; that whatever befell them, it was not dishonour, & whatever failed them, they were not found wanting to themselves."

The Church of Beethoven

Last Sunday I went to see local poet Joy Harjo perform at the Church of Beethoven. This local institution has been going on for a few years now, & I had been once before. However, now that I work Sundays, it's a bit of a stretch for me to attend. I'm so glad I didn't miss this!

The website says "Not church . . . more than Beethoven. Arrive early and enjoy the complimentary espresso bar. Our one-hour program of ensemble music and poetry begins promptly at 10:30 am. We usually open with a short work— something out of the ordinary— followed by a reading by our poet of the morning. Intermission is a two-minute celebration of silence and we close with a substantial work of chamber music." The Church of Beethoven was founded in 2008 by musician Felix Wurman, who has since passed away, to showcase ensemble music, poetry, & performance. It takes place at The Kosmos & attendance ranges around 100-140 "enchanted listeners", even with tickets at $15 a head.

For Sunday's event, because Joy Harjo is a poet & musician (she played at least 3 instruments at the Church of Beethoven), the show began with the amazing Ikuko Kanda on violin as the only other performer besides Ms. Harjo & the musicians who accompanied her. Ms. Kanda performed the Adagio & Fugue of Bach's Sonata in G Minor. I found the Adagio especially compelling, but Ms. Kanda performed both brilliantly.

For the rest of the time, it was Joy Harjo's event. Accompanied by Larry Mitchell & Tony James, she performed many of her poems in song with music, although her latest piece she chose to read while music played because she hadn't gotten the rhythm down yet. Her songs included "This is My Heart", "Equinox", & "Goin' Home". Ms. Harjo also read from her children's book, For a Girl Becoming. Whether singing or reading, it was a truly inspiring performance. For other works by Joy Harjo, check the library catalog.

Don't miss next Sunday the 19th, when Vivaldi's The Four Seasons will be performed in its entirety, interspersed with readings of sonnets originally created for the work!