Read an original essay by Paul and Anne Ehrlich and save 30% on The Dominant Animal: Human Evolution and the Environment.
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Read an original essay by Paul and Anne Ehrlich and save 30% on The Dominant Animal: Human Evolution and the Environment.
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Grady Harp has commented on (439) products.
Grady Harp, July 8, 2008
The Art of Chinese Calligraphy: Learning Language with the EyesFor most Westerners the mystery of the Orient has always been cloaked in the seemingly impenetrable complexity of languages based on characters. The frustration of wanting to learn one of the Eastern languages is usually heightened by the fact that a 'character' can mean a word or a concept and for the Western mind to step away from the building of words from a set of 26 alphabet letters requires releasing the security so ingrained in our 'inside the box, phonetic approach' to learning language.
Sam Y. Song's fine book LEARNING CHINESE THE EASY WAY changes this perception. Instead of devoting the mind to memorizing countless words, arranging them into nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc., Song shows us how the Chinese language is essentially a visual experience - a fascinating exploration of simplifying line drawings of visual things (man, fish, water, eyes, and so forth) and thereby creating visual representations of words created from these reduced lines. Even in explaining the process, Song makes so accessible one of the major differences between, say, Chinese and English, is that need to scientifically dissect symbols relegated to vocabulary instead of merely using the eyes to visualize the objects around us to transmit visuals to the written word.
Case in point: 'look at; see; watch' is a character that is composed of a reduction of a sketch for an eye and a hand that when combined result in a symbol of 'a person watching something with his hand above his eye' or 'to look at, see, or watch. ' Sound simple? With Song's gift for line reduction moving into calligraphy it IS simple, and with the added 'word' for each symbol along side the completed visual, very soon sentences can be constructed or thoughts can be expressed.
From Song's user friendly teaching lessons comes this example of how he accomplishes his Mission: "How do we find a character to express 'water' in Chinese? Let's look at a sketch of a river firstly!" (he then draws wavy lines, progresses them to the simplest form, compresses them logically, and Presto!) we "reach the character \shui\ which means 'water' in Chinese". Eastern wisdom seduces Western thought into understanding a new form of language. And with Sam Y. Song's technique, it seems that each of us can enter a mysterious world of Chinese symbols comfortably. This is a fine book that entertains as it teaches. Highly recommended. Grady Harp
Stuff White People Like: A Definitive Guide to the Unique Taste of Millions by Christian Lander
Grady Harp, July 5, 2008
A Laugh Out Loud (or Secretly Snicker) Book About Human FoiblessChristian Lander - with some photographic help from his wife Jessica Lander - has succeeded in transforming into book form his blog site STUFF WHITE PEOPLE LIKE and the result is a compendium of 150 idiosyncrasies that mark white people as a groupie well worth 'mocking'. Lander writes so well that his zingers remain on target while providing entertainment for the reader instead of producing a mockery or lambast too personal to continue. The first clue to his universal approach is the subtitle of the book, 'A Definitive Guide to the Unique Taste of Millions', and if you don't catch the humor in that then much of the book will be lost on you!
After reading some of the 'Stuff' Lander lists we begin to feel the artifice of Lander's thinking; the long list of everyday items, as defined or described by Lander, spreads in comic relief the pretentiousness, the shallow desire to be 'with it', the countless fads we indulge while denying the commonality of those items, and the way 'white people' are perceived by the world at large - both at home and abroad. It has been said that nothing is funnier than reality and this book proves that statement 150 times - with many more thoughts initiated by the book that extend the depth of comedy in the 'unique tastes' we claim. For instance, one favorite thing to discuss is public transportation, heralded as a big city luxury worth expanding into the little cities, but stopping short when the word 'bus' enters the conversation. 'When it comes to the subject it's best to understand that white people do not recognize public transit as a viable option until a subway line is built that runs directly from their house to their work. Until that time, public transportation is a luxury only for New Yorkers and Europeans, sort of like opera.'
Other topics addressed range from Netflix, Veganism/Vegetarianism, Microbreweries, Yoga, Tea, Black Friends/Gay Friends, Portland, Oregon to San Francisco prejudices, Bakeries, Hardwood Floors, Integrity (versus 'selling out'), Natural Medicine, Plays, Cheese, Therapy - the list seems endless. From Following Their Dreams, to where to visit/vacation (Third World Countries for all the wrong reasons) to the importance of knowing how to give 'the good dinner party', Lander finds truths that cause us to ache a bit in acknowledging but force us to relax and really laugh at how each of these item is so very true.
To continue on another thing ('stuff') that Lander addresses, Awareness of just how each of these traits define us in the brush with reality that will perhaps not only entertain us while reading this wisely humorous book, but will also turn on the light to the acceptance that 'white people' have become as marginalized as other social groups who have long since found audiences who delight in the 'truth confessionals' that fill our computer YouTube and TVs - oh, but then real white people don't own TVs.... Christian Lander has a major hit on his hands. Read this and share this. It is hilariously entertaining!
Grady Harp
(6 of 6 readers found this comment helpful)
A Walk Through Life by Duane Ashley Poole
Grady Harp, July 4, 2008
Good Thoughts Sabotaged by the Hip Hop InfluenceDuane Ashley Poole is a new writer and his first published book of poetry reflects his nascency. His thoughts and selected topics for poetic interpretation are valid and touching: friendship, love found and lost, transience, spirituality, depression, anxiety and perseverance in the face of obstacles are universals that never tire of being explored.
Poole's thoughts are insightful and tender and few would be able to criticize the content of this collection sixty, one-page poems. The style of writing in rhyming couplets certainly has historic precedence - think Chaucer, et al. But in this era of hip hop music, the use of this poetic device has become so specifically connected to street language that the use of the rhyming couplet on paper, such as in all of Poole's poetry, detracts form the emotional content. It is difficult to read these poems without listening for what Wikipedia defines as 'rhythmic style of speaking called rap over backing beats performed on a turntable by a DJ.'
There is little doubt that Duane Ashley Poole has significant things to say, even in poetic form, but before we can appreciate him completely he needs to try abandoning his beginning style of writing and speak to us in either free form verse or even short story. The content is there as is the heart. Finding a valid mode of expression will be his next challenge.
Grady Harp
(1 of 1 readers found this comment helpful)
Bonneville (Widescreen)
Grady Harp, July 3, 2008
A Little Film with Heart: Appreciating Fine ActorsBONNEVILLE creeps up on the viewer. It is a solid marriage of light comedy and sentiment and the somewhat slight story is brought to life by the natural gifts of a trio of superb actors. Why it did not find popularity in the theaters is probably due to the topic of death and the cast of 'older actresses', but it is a solid little film that deserves more attention.
Arvilla (Jessica Lange) has lost her husband of 20 years and promised to scatter his ashes over places the couple loved. Her step daughter Francine (Christine Baranski) demands the 'ashes' be buried next to her mother's grave in Santa Barbara, threatening her stepmother with eviction from her Pocatello, Idaho home if Arvilla doesn't comply. Two of Arvilla's friends - the restless widow Margene (Kathy Bates) and the oh-so-Mormon Carol (Joan Allen) support their friend and plan to fly with Arvilla to take the ashes to Santa Barbara. But circumstances begin to change when the threesome bond tightly and decide to take Arvilla's husband's old Bonneville on a road trip to California. From here on the film is a Road Trip - a time when the three women learn lessons about life and death and love and compassion from each other - and from a young hitchhiker Bo (Victor Rasuk of 'Saving Victor Vargas', 'Stop-Loss' etc) and trucker Emmett (Tom Skirrett). The trip from Idaho to California passes through some of the Southwest's most beautiful scenery, places once shared by Arvilla and her late husband, and slowly the urn of ashes is distributed along the way to the dreaded Santa Barbara funeral.
Christopher N. Rowley directs this sweet story by Daniel D. Davis with great respect for the gifts of the three fine actors, allowing them to show us just why they remain some of our finest talent on the screen. It is not a great film, but it has such a fine heart that we can relax and just ride along with it. Grady Harp
(4 of 4 readers found this comment helpful)
Vantage Point by Pete Travis
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1-5 of 439 nextGrady Harp, July 2, 2008
Confusion and Terror from Multiple Vantages
The story line of VANTAGE POINT is a brief one: a summit meeting on terrorism aimed at addressing the differences between the Arab world and the Western world is taking place in Salamanca, Spain and the arrival of the President of the United States is greeted with assassination attempts, terrorist explosions, and car chases. The difference in this thriller from the many others of the same genre is the use of telling the story from at least five different vantage points - the news reporters (Sigourney Weaver, Zoë Saldana and Staff), the CIA (Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, et al with William Hurt as the President), a group of terrorists, an American bystander with camera (Forest Whitaker), and the viewing public. Things are not as they initially seem and the more times the story is rerun through repetition of the incident, the more information is added.
Based on a story by Barry Levy and directed by Pete Travis the film could become tiresome in its use of repeated reruns, but given the quality of the cast and the twists and turns as the 'plot' is further elucidated makes the story more of an investigation of Intelligence forces from all involved countries and drives home the reason 'terrorism' is so terrifying. Some of the peripheral cast members are particularly fine - Bruce McGill, Edgar Ramirez, Saïd Taghmaoui, Ayelet Zurer, and Eduardo Noriega among others. It is a film that takes patience on the part of the viewer, but staying with it until the end results in some very fine entertainment.
Grady Harp
(3 of 3 readers found this comment helpful)