Behind the Scenes at the Opera

If you haven't seen me blogging here recently, it's because I've been busy creating a podcast about the Tacoma Opera for Exit133.

It's the first time we've tried to tackle a "production" like that--so far we've focused on events and individuals, but this one required a lot of film time, mainly because I didn't quite know what I wanted so I just kept filming everything. Which was great because by the end, little moments I'd captured on film early on were on film to compare to the end result on stage. Even though all I have to show of those first few rehearsals amounts to 10 seconds of film in the final product, it was still worth it.

Pretty quickly, though, I discovered the music. The classic Can Can, and the intro to it, which I mostly recognized from Moulin Rouge (Spectacular, Spectacular, in the words of the vernacular ... ).

Once I heard it, and got it stuck in my head, I knew that was the way to go.

I had a great time at the rehearsals. It's good theater (in English no less!) and done well by Tacoma Opera. If you're around you should see it this weekend. And if you're not, here's the video on Exit133. And if you're here, but not sure you want to see it, watch the video, then decide.

Here's the link to Tacoma Opera if you want more info.

Who Cares About Dumbledore's Sexuality?

When I first heard that JK Rowling considered Dumbledore as a gay character, I thought--hmm, interesting. That's bound to piss some people off.

For myself, it didn't faze me as important because it's not necessary to the books in any way. Like at all. It makes the boyhood crush Dumbledore had on Grindlewald a little more clear, but it was pretty effective as it stood anyway.

There's an article in the New York Times right now arguing that just because JK thought of him as gay, doesn't mean anyone else has to. But the article ends with this rather interesting point that I rather like. It's just not important:

She sets the epic in a British school long associated with landed privilege and wealth. But throughout she undercuts the claims of that old world. Those who believe in the importance of ancestry and inherited powers turn out to be easily corruptible and morally blind — tools for Voldemort.

Her heroes are the hybrids, the misfits, those of mixed blood, all bearing scars of loss and love: the half-giant Hagrid, the mudblood Hermione (whose parents were not wizards), the poverty-stricken Ron, the orphaned Harry. Perhaps speaking of Dumbledore as gay was just a matter of creating another diverse rebel against orthodoxy.

This is the formula for much popular fiction, but Ms. Rowling refuses to be content with simply rejecting the old order and championing a morally vague multiculturalism. The pure-bloods here are blinded by their pride, but Harry and his friends see something more profound, a threat that goes beyond self-interest and identity. This is why Dumbledore’s supposed gayness is ultimately as unimportant as Ron’s shabby clothes. These wounded outsiders recognize the nature of evil, and finally that is what matters.

Well said.

Tacoma Pitcher!

Very cool to see a Tacoma native pitching in the 4th game of the World Series. Keep it up, Jon Lester!

Reading List

I've been pretty actively making my way through a bunch of mystery and crime novels these past few weeks. Things got underway after I found some early books in the "Dalziel and Pascoe" series at Powell's on our way back from Cannon Beach. I've been through two of those: An Advancement of Learning, and Exit Lines.

I also enjoyed Alexander McCall Smith's "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency." It's a novel, but in practice it reads like a series of short stories. The setting--Botswana--and the characters really make the story work. It's a fun read.

Mary lent me "Murder Must Advertise," a British mystery in the Lord Peter Wimsey series from the 1930s. The language is a bit dated in a few places, but when it really comes down to it, it's a pretty good mystery, full of comedy and cocaine.

And then there was "No Country For Old Men," by Cormac McCarthy. It's a good potboiler written by a great writer. Cormac McCarthy is probably the most likely American author right now to win a Nobel Prize for Literature. A movie version comes out soon, and promises to be a wonderful movie. Ebert called it "perfect" and it was a huge hit at the Toronto Film Festival.

The book reads like a film script.

Which is cool and all, but McCarthy can write great literature, and this just isn't that. But I did finish it in a day, which is something.

Hanna Heights finishes paint job

The scaffolding came off Hanna Heights months ago, but the north side of the building remained in a partial state of paint until this week. They finally finished the paint job, which is good, because I was getting tired of looking at a half-painted wall out my window.

Thanks, Prium!

In other good news, I received a response from the City about the state of my alley. As soon as the alley is open on the south end, they're going to send a crew through to cut the brush back and clean it up. Hallelujah!

Putting the "Space" in Space Needle

There was an article that made its way to my screen today about the future of space travel in the next 20 - 30 years. Which, if you're in to that sort of thing, should be good reading.

But it also got my local eyes interested because two companies the article mentions are based in the Puget Sound area (Andrews Space and AirLaunch). Put that with Jeff Bezos' company, Blue Origin (so named because if you're leaving Earth you have a blue origin) and you have the makings of an industry growing in the area. Of course, that the industry would emerge here is not too surprising--we have Boeing already in the Space industry and a lot of money floating around thanks to Amazon and Microsoft.

And of course, for the three I can think of locally there are a bunch in Silicon Valley, which will add space to its list of tech industries.

I should also add that many think Brazil will do pretty well in the future of space flight, thanks to its location on the globe. Why? Since the Earth spins faster at the Equator than in locations closer to the poles, the added boost of a faster Earth makes Brazil a good place to launch large things into space for a bit cheaper than elsewhere.

And there's your random fact for the day.

Tacoma from the Air

There is something very nice about seeing Tacoma from the air during take-offs and landings.
Part of it is the joy of picking out tiny little buildings, but there's also a peacefulness to the scene, too, which primarily comes from the Sound, I think.

I used to fly pretty regularly between Minnesota and Sea-Tac when I was in college and the Sound was always distinctive, even at night, when the land was only defined by the lights and the water by its absence. It's hard not to really appreciate Tacoma and its environs when you see the Olympics, the blue Sound, the trees ... etc etc. On the other hand, even on a crappy day like today when you have to play peek-a-boo with the clouds to get any kind of view I still enjoy flying home. It feels pretty good.

California Dreamin'

We spent yesterday on a driving tour around LA. Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, and out to Malibu even. We spent a few hours in Santa Monica especially, which is really cool. And in the evening we went to very nice outdoor mall called The Grove. (No famous people in sight, though).

Our morning before the driving tour was nice, too, as we went to the rooftop deck of the hotel and had breakfast with all of the City spread out in front of us. Great views from Sunset Blvd overlooking the rest of LA. Though there was a bit of a haze that made me recall "the Cloud Wall" in Winter's Tale because it cut the views off so distinctly.

We also had a low-key dinner at Mel's Drive In, one of those in the chain where American Graffiti is partially set.

So all in all, it was a pretty great LA experience. Malls, beaches, pools, palm trees, traffic, famous people, movie lots and television studios, plus a day at Disneyland ... pretty much what you go to LA for.

Famous People Day

We left Anaheim early yesterday and rushed north to Burbank so that we could arrive in time for our 11:20 tour of the Warner Bros. Studio. If you've ever done the Universal Tour, Warner is nothing like it. Our tour group was "full" with just 13 people and you spend most of the 2 hours and 10 minutes on the working lot of Warner Bros., unlike the tram ride you get at Universal.

I really like the Warner tour. When I did it 10 years ago with my dad and my sister we did it during the summer so there was more flexibility in where to go, but this time it was pretty cool to have shooting going on around us.

After lunch there we crossed the freeway and parked at NBC studios, where we had tickets at will-call for The Tonight show (thanks, Lynn!). The area we waited is the same that I was in for an NBC tour (also 10 years ago, I think). And it hasn't changed at all, which was rather odd.

Anyway, the Tonight Show taping was very cool. Mary and I were put near the back but still had a great view. Jay Leno was pretty funny, Halle Berry was kind of a dud, and then we were surprised that Greg Grunberg (who?) was Matt Parkman from Heroes, also on Alias, and with a brief cameo in the pilot of Lost (killed by the monster).

So that was very cool. Later we saw him drive off through the stage exit at NBC.

From there we went to our very cool hotel (Le Montrose in West Hollywood via Mulholland Drive and Laurel Canyon (both movie titles, incidentally) where we checked in and then admired the view from the rooftop deck and pool. But pretty quickly we left again and drove Sunset Blvd all the way to The Arclight, perhaps the coolest movie theater in the country.

Last year I talked my way in to a sneak preview of Scoop there and as we were leaving we saw Katherine Heigl dining.

This year we saw two recognizable faces. Doris Roberts, from Remington Steele and Everyone Loves Raymond; and Joaquim de Almeida, who was on Season 3 of 24, and played the pacifist French general in "Behind Enemy Lines" (although pacifist and French might be repetitive when talking about American action films).

We also caught a late show of "Michael Clayton," a very excellent movie with George Clooney.

It's a driving tour today!

PS--Jenny, to answer your question Pirates seemed pretty similar to what it used to be, except there were a few robotic Johnny Depps around. Not much different from the old ride, I'd say.

The Full Report from Disneyland, CA

As you would expect, Disneyland was a great time today. Last night we dined at Downtown Disney and walked the neighborhood (read: fake village).

Today it was up bright and early and off to the Park. But that didn't do us much good since we forgot the tickets in the room. So we just continued around on the trolley and were in the doors of Disneyland by 10:20 or so, just 20 minutes after it had opened.

As our guide, we used a day itinerary we got out of Frommer's. We knew what we wanted to hit, but were willing to accept their recommendations on order.

And their order was no good. We started at Space Mountain, which was a rough introduction to the Park for Mary and for me, reminding me that roller coasters in the dark make me queasy. And then we followed up with Star Tours, which is always a little jerky and again--we both left not feeling in tip-top shape.

That's when we arrived at Indiana Jones right as they evacuated the lines because the ride was broken. But wait! Never mind, it works! We turned around and were first in line for a wonderful thrill ride that was so good that afterward Mary finally said "I get what the big deal is [with Disneyland]."

We did all the biggies. I even made Mary do "It's A Small World," which might have been cruel of me, but that's ok. How can you come to Disneyland and not ride Small World?

One important note. I remember getting splashed on Splash Mountain. And the people in the log flumes who disembarked in front of us as we got in were lightly sprayed. Our boat--sorry, log flume--got DRENCHED. Drenched like you would not believe. Drenched like water coming over the sides of the flume. Drenched. We had thought ahead and used our zip-loc bag from the flight to store our iPhones on the right we knew might get us wet. But ... man. Soaked right through my jeans, my shoes, my socks ... drenched.

If you're interested, here's the complete list of rides we did during the day, in order. We pretty much hit all the good ones!

Space Mountain
Star Tours
Indiana Jones
Pirates of the Caribbean
Haunted Mansion
It's a Small World (After All)
Matterhorn
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Splash Mountain
Enchanted Tiki Room
Jungle Cruise

Tomorrow we're going to Warner Bros and then to Jay Leno. I'll try to report afterward. Too bad I missed Obama last night on Leno. He had a few good zingers for Hillary that would have been very cool to see.

O2BINLA!

We're starting our LA vacation in a few hours and will be arriving by 4 this afternoon. Vacationing includes a trip to Disneyland tomorrow (awesome!), a tour of Warner Bros. Studio on Friday (super awesome), and tickets for Jay Leno Friday (double super awesome) with guest Halle Berry (triple super awesome?).

I'll try to do a little travel blogging along the way of celebrity sightings and all the other good LA stuff.

11 minutes 32 seconds across Tacoma

From 15th & Geiger (just a block up from Jackson) to 4th & St. Helens in 11:32. That's counting one yellow I squeaked by on at 12th & Cedar, and an illegal right turn at 6th & Sprague. It is a really dumb place for an illegal right turn and where there aren't any cars, I'll take it. I'm dangerous like that.

Anyway, 12 minutes across Tacoma is pretty good. It can only be done when there's no traffic because doing it doesn't actually mean you did it that fast: it means you hit the lights. And when you don't get much cross traffic on 12th, the lights are wide open for you.

I've been making the drive back and forth to my parents from downtown Tacoma since I moved here in 2002 and I keep coming back to the same route. 12th both ways (11th up the hill in downtown, to be specific) and you're made. Even during rush hour traffic it's still the fastest way across Tacoma, I think.

Although I will mention that coming back from work, the left hand turn across 11th is nearly impossible. I've taken to following Union to 6th and riding 6th all the way home. It's not the quickest, but it's the best drive after work.

Someone needs some acting lessons

There's an interesting article in the New York Times today that I thought I would share the main point of:

Acting Attorney General Peter D. Keisler ... is running the Justice Department until a new attorney general is confirmed by the Senate to replace Alberto R. Gonzales. Mr. Keisler had been in charge of the department’s civil division.

The No. 2 and No. 3 officials are also acting — Deputy Attorney General Craig S. Morford and Associate Attorney General Gregory G. Katsas. More than a quarter of the department’s 93 United States attorneys around the country are “acting.”

At the top of the Department of Homeland Security, there is an acting general counsel, acting under secretary for national protection and acting assistant secretary for strategic plans. At the Department of Health and Human Services, the $600 billion-a-year Medicare and Medicaid programs have had an acting administrator since last fall.

That's a lot of acting.

A thousand freaks Xeroxing their worthless opinions

Thus Spake Homer Simpson.

In a 2004 episode about media consolidation, Homer Simpson pretty well summed up the "blogosphere," when he says, "Instead of one big guy controlling the media, now we have a thousand freaks xeroxing their worthless opinions." I just saw the episode recently and loved it.

Homer's description is, in many ways, accurate. I jot down my opinions about many unrelated topics--social policy, restaurants, theater, movies, national politics, etc.--because I can. Like a lot of other people.

In fact, the number of blogs worldwide was estimated at about 60 million in 2005 with more than a million single posts per day. So let's call ErikEmery.com's opinions what they are: the proverbial drop in the bucket.

And I'm pretty cool with that. I've started to drop back a bit on opinion-blogging, especially when the criticism is negative. The negative side does come out when something really gets under my skin (the videotape of two girls kissing in Gig Harbor, for example).

But the best criticism is creation. Someone famous said something to that effect. If I don't like a piece of art, then the best thing to do is to create another piece of art that's better and let that stand for my criticism.

Which is one reason I'm looking forward to National Novel Writing Month next month. Because I get to create something. And why I am proud of the Horatio, even though we've stalled a few times in this first year, for the same reason.

All that said, I am so incredibly grateful for blogging. Not my blog, though--other people's blogs. Because I would rather have a thousand freaks xeroxing their worthless opinions than one big guy controlling all the media. And bloggers have called out serious errors in the mainstream media. Cable news is the best and easiest target (anyone remember the miner debacle), but bloggers were pretty instrumental with the Blair scandal at the NYT. Blogs also have the ability to skip the "right-wing spokesperson said/left-wing spokesperson said" stories that pass for objectivity in newspapers. Bloggers can transpose Donald Rumsfeld's speeches over three years and show the changing message; newspapers would get drummed for it.

So yes, cheers for the thousand freaks. They have a lot of power and it's only going to grow. I'm pretty cool being on the sidelines of it. My goal the last few months has been one post a day. I'll stick to that for now.

Some surprises from the Tour

I noticed some things today that surprised me. If you're still interested, check them out on tomorrow's tour. You can find a good map of the properties at Exit133 here.

As a downtown resident already, I wasn't exactly on the tour looking for a place. That said, I still found some that were pretty tempting. But considering that I've been following the development of many of these projects, I was happily surprised by many features, amenities, or design choices.

Here's what surprised me:

A private courtyard inside the Roberson. Who knew? Very cool looking!

The high tech gizmos at 505 Broadway. Talk about a "smart house."

Metro City Homes, Madison unit. Like Triangle but wider, which really helped the floor plan.

The view from Hanna Heights (my favorite view of the day, actually). Looking South over Tacoma from the 4th floor ... we've never looked so urban.

The 500-bottle wine storage at the Granville right off the kitchen

The massive corner deck on the penthouse of One St. Helens.

Marcato's courtyard and theater. Beautiful common area, sweet theater.

Room service at the Walker. The Walker was very cool in many ways. Valet service was not expected (and might be a bit much for my tastes). But room service from the restaurant Troy Christian will be opening downstairs is a huge bonus in my book. That would be very tempting certain nights when you don't want to go out but don't want to cook either.

I thought the tour was well worth it. We started with breakfast at PSP at 9:30 and saw all the buildings we wanted to by 12:30. Check it out!

Gore Now Has Right-side Bookend

An Academy Award on the left, and a Nobel Prize on the right. Voila! Two good bookends.

I was a skeptic of An Inconvenient Truth before I actually sat down and watched it. I left feeling quite impressed. I know some are going to hate that he got this award. But I would point out that it's not like he was given a Nobel for making a movie. He has been fighting against pollution and climate change for a very long time.



And when we have a Northwest Passage for the first time in human history, it's a reason to start being a tad concerned.

Block Tie Affair

I had a great time last night at the Block Tie Affair. I hadn't been last year, so I don't know what to compare it too, but the idea is cool: get downtown dwellers together for a good party on the eve of the Tour of Urban Living.

We were at the Washington State History Museum; the galleries were open, but unfortunately I never found time to go see the Bridging the Narrows Exhibit, which I've been looking forward to. I'll have to go back!

Anyway, fun to meet so many people, from retirees to young professionals to a high school student, we were all there to have a good time.

Tour of Urban Living this weekend!

I am very much looking forward to this year's Tour of Urban Living. I've been on every tour save for last year's. This year I'm particularly looking forward to seeing the renovated Walker, as it is a close neighbor. Last night I saw they had planted trees and lit them from the ground, which looks very cool. And this evening they were hauling in furniture and art for their model unit (I presume that's what its for at least.).

This year, you can find an interactive Google map on Exit133 with information on all the tour sites, photos, etc which will make planning your weekend tour of condos and apartments easier. Yeah for the Tour of Urban Living!

Night out in St. Helens

Mary and I spent some good time tonight after our Costco run. We started at Stadium Bistro with a few friends where we loaded up on delicious appetizers and wine.

Afterward we headed over to the Grand to see the movie "Outsourced," which is not part of the film festival, but we'd been thinking about seeing it anyway. The story is about a guy whose job is outsourced to India, and he's asked to train his replacements.

The film makes India look pretty cool and we both liked that part. I was hoping for a little more funny, and a little more smart writing. But it wasn't bad.

Dinner and a movie, all just a block away from home. Gotta love it.

Finding me on Google

Thanks to my handy Site Meter I can find out how people find me if they use Google or another search engine.

I think this is my favorite search that has found my blog yet:

"How do you start off a persuasive paper about Obama Barack and three major issues?"

It was an AOL search, but I don't think I helped the searcher too much with their paper. Sorry.

Travel (Planning) Blogging

My dad told me last week that he heard travel was going to be expensive this holiday season. Since he was right about the helium shortage, Mary and I bought our tickets for New Years.

We'll be spending New Year's on Madeline Island, a small island in Lake Superior that's part of the Apostle Islands (I'm guessing there are 12 of them).

So it's back to Minneapolis for me for a night probably, followed by a long drive north into Wisconsin to Madeline Island. Hopefully I'll get to spend some time in the Twin Cities and see all y'all out there.

NaNoWiMo

I posted on The B Side last week about "National Novel Writing Month," which is this November. The organization behind it is conventionally known as NaNoWiMo (Nano Rimo, roughly) and their hope is that aspiring writers will put 50,000 words under their belt in November.

That's a lot of words. But it's a good excuse for me to get on the ol' novel-writing horse. In high school and college I finished a novel roughly every 18 months, which is crazy to think about looking back on it. The last one I finished was in 2002.

Once I entered the working world, though, the creative writing I used to do all the time just stopped, nearly cold. I couldn't do it anymore. I think I needed a period of adjustment to a whole new way of life (you mean, I can't just set my dishes on a conveyor belt and have them go into the dining hall kitchen anymore!).

The other side of it is that I've written enough memos, reports, business plans, etc, that I sometimes wonder if the dull writing I have to do at work has impacted my creative writing.

So this year I've gotten a little better. I wrote a 5 minute script for the 72-Hour Film Competition. I wrote a 10-minute script for the Double Shot theater festival just a few weeks after that. So now I'll try a novel under pressure.

I have a pretty good idea for a cat-and-mouse cop chasing a serial killer potboiler. I think I could pump out 50,000 words of it in a month.

I'll be meeting with a writer's group Tuesday nights in November at Suite133. We'll get started between 5:30 and 6:00 and write our heads off until we get hungry.

Send me an e-mail if you might want to join me!

Amazon's Unbox

Ever since NBC announced they were pulling their shows from iTunes and offering them on Amazon's "Unbox," I've been curious about that service. Unbox doesn't work on Macs, which is stupid, but it does work with TiVos.

I discovered, while browsing, that TiVo actually offers a lot of very cool stuff like links with Amazon Unbox. Right now, I have a subscription to the 3 min Onion News Network shorts that they produce which are--of course--hilarious. I also subscribe to Rocketboom, which can be awesome sometimes and really bad other times. Turns out TiVo can even pull the New York Times video shorts.

On to the Unbox. Every so often, my TiVo doesn't get the right channel. It's actually a function of an old cable box rather than the TiVo, but it's still annoying. It's rare, but what's even rarer is that it missed both the first and the second episode of "Heroes" this season.

The first episode we caught again later in the week. The second just wasn't available, so we turned to Unbox. The show took a long time to download, much longer than iTunes, but the quality was better than a regular TV signal.

And then it was great. Also great is that Amazon knows that I own it and if I delete it from my TiVo to create more room, I can get it again from them later (unlike iTunes). This nearly makes up for not being able to burn it to DVD or transfer it to my computer (again, unlike iTunes).

That said, I would predict that Amazon's Unbox is a regular part of my downloadable media diet. So here's how I watch television now...

1. TiVo for new episodes of shows like Heroes, Lost, The Office, 30 Rock, South Park, etc.
2. Netflix for watching shows I've missed like Battlestar Galactica (Seasons 1 & 2), Rome, The Wire, etc.
3. Unbox w/ TiVo for filling in episodes when Tivo misses them or when they aren't available on DVD.
4. iTunes w/ iPhone when I want a show for a plane or a bus trip.
   

I think the only thing I watch live anymore are the Seahawks and baseball ...

Helium = the new Gold

You might not believe me, but it's true.

I didn't believe my dad when he told me. But it's true. There's a worldwide helium shortage right now. The US has about 900 million cubic meters of the gas stockpiled, but expects to go through that in just a few years. NASA has cut back their use of the gas.

So helium prices are up because of the shortage.

Can you imagine a world without helium? Why ... it'd be tragic. Balloons would hang limp off the wall. No one would ever get to have a squeaky voice at parties. Goodyear blimps would explode because they'd switched to hydrogen not having learned the lesson of history. Pandemonium, I tell ya.

Although apparently it could shut down MRI machines, which would actually be bad. Apparently 1/5 of all helium is used for MRIs.

Banned Books Art Auction - Raise Your Paddle!

I had a great time at the Banned Books Art Auction tonight. I had some half price appetizers at Doyle's ahead of time and read my book with a nice Stella before heading over.

I was happy to see a number of friends and familiar faces at Kings Books, which was very cool. The art up for auction was creative and fun. As for me and a few friends, we're now going on a studio tour with Beautiful Angle and Springtide Press, which is going to be awesome. Tacoma has some great letterpress art and we're going to see some of the best.

Cool to raise some money for the Scholars and Champions Association. Here's the event notice at Exit133 from earlier in the day that inspired me to check it out.

Put School of Maritime Sciences on the Foss

So with the success of the School of the Arts, I've heard talk every so often about creating another magnet high school in downtown Tacoma: a High Tech High. I've also heard that Tacoma doesn't have the tech industry to support it the same way that we have the art world to support SOTA.

Well, here's my idea: locate Tacoma's High Tech High in two buildings: The Foss Waterway Seaport and the Urban Waters facility. Students would learn about hard sciences with a focus on marine biology, marine chemistry, meteorology, climatology ... and they could work with researchers in those fields at both institutes. They could add nautical science credits through piloting a small boat the school would run for research in Commencement Bay. And classrooms could still teach them calculus/web programming and other "tech" stuff.

The school could even go so far as to operate a small skiff to cross the Foss between classes, allowing students to go between the buildings freely. If it stopped off at 15th & Dock Street, Tacoma workers on the Foss might appreciate the connection to downtown.

So that's my idea. High Tech High with the hard sciences and technology right there on the Foss. Urban Waters, the Port, The Foss Waterway Seaport (AKA Maritime Museum), the new Puget Sound Partnership (see Exit133) that the State will locate there all could be augmented by a Tacoma School of Maritime Sciences.

We have SOTA. Let's add SOMS.

When, O when, will my alley be clear?

This alley was closed since the summer of 2005. And before that it was closed since 2003, after the fire of the Cambridge Apartments. It was open briefly for the summer, but since then Prium has had it fenced off, first with their construction crane in it and second with their work trailer.

But over the weekend the work trailer disappeared. The fence is down. All that is left is a Honey Bucket and a dumpster, which actually may be part of the Walker project. It's clear for pedestrians, but not yet for cars.

So the question is, will it be open soon? I hope so. With the alley closed for two years, the alley has become overgrown, kind of scary, and a veritable dumping ground.

Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin

I picked up Mark Helprin's book "Winter's Tale" last year, mainly because of its title. I'd been working on a play since 1999 that used Shakespeare's play "A Winter's Tale" as inspiration and as a challenge.

So the title caught my eye and I picked it up.

I finished it this weekend at Cannon Beach. The book is ... wild. It starts in the 1890s or early 1900s and then leaps 100 years forward to 1999. Many characters from the first part come back. A flying white horse runs to the rescue. And the scenery, the imagination, and the joy of discovery are on every page.

It's a fantasy novel, but I cringe to write it that way. It's a fantasy novel, but that's like accusing Dickens of writing fantasy because he had ghosts in A Christmas Carol. It's got some magic and wonder, but shame on the book that doesn't.

Actually, I don't mean that literally. Hardhitting, in your face reality has its place too, but even there is a certain element of wonder, I suppose. I think what I'm defensive about is the term "fantasy novels," which make me think of Tolkien knock-offs and elvish archers on horseback. But there are good novels where the author has imagined a new set of rules that govern the world, and this is one of those.

And it is good. It is weird, too, as you might expect from what I've said so far. Even reading it, and being prepared for it, you're going to be left head-scratching a few times at some truly surprising turns. But it will stick with me for a long while.

Here's the NYT Review from 1983 (when the book came out). Notice it's not behind their firewall anymore. Good for them. The review does contain this rather stellar line:

THERE'S far more that I would wish to say about the book - so much more that I
find myself nervous, to a degree I don't recall in my past as a reviewer, about
failing the work, inadequately displaying its brilliance. ... ''Winter's
Tale'' is a great gift at an hour of great need.

And here's a recent mention of it at the NYT again, when they did a survey trying to find the best work of American fiction in the last 25 years. It received multiple votes.

Here it is on Amazon.

If 700 pages is your kind of read, and if you love New York (or want to) here's a book for you.