The Radio and What it Says

You can learn a lot about a person from the "things" they own. The type and style of their clothes, car, phone and music can clue you into who they are- at least in part. Like most people my age I own a stereo. At any time you might find "Wicked," "Music and Lyrics," church music, or some compilation of my iTunes in it. The CD inside would tell you much about me and my state of mind on any given day.

I'll guess that on a sad day you will find something soft and soothing or perhaps fast to bounce me back to my happy self. If I am contemplative, which I would say I am quite often, I will have on music somewhere in between, so long as I can understand the lyrics and they make me think.

Maybe even more importantly you can learn about me from where my stereo can be found. Right now it is sitting amongst papers and odd ends on my desk. Dust is accumulating on it. This reminds me that I don't spend much time in my room lately. I can picture myself on-the-go, swirling the iPod trying to find the right song for the day. 

There are those days where you will find it in the bathroom as I am curling, straightening, or spraying to go out for the night. You might find it down stairs for all my nieces and nephews to dance to when they simply won't sit still. The music follows me and my life. Or maybe I follow it. Whichever way it is,  my stereo says a lot about me. Not everything of course. Not the full song but maybe just the tune.

Essays to Emulate

From the moment I began reading "The American Man at Age 10" by Susan Orlean, I knew it was a piece I wanted to emulate. Her writing was clearly that of an experienced writer, all the while reflecting a young male. Her word choice and pacing allowed us to see that she colored her writing  with the perspective of her interviewee.  Something that I admire in writing is character development. Orlean's dialogue and detailed childhood experiences with Colin Duffy allows us to believe in him--believe he is real. Something I enjoy about reading is that I learn about what other people go through and find that I am not alone in many things that I experience. The vehicle to many reader's hearts is a developed character. That is what I admire most in this piece-- how Orlean makes us fall in love with this little boy, as we read things that make us laugh and things that make us think.

Another essay I loved was "Total Eclipse" by Annie Dillard. I have read some of her other work and I have decided she is a master of detail. Some essays and stories I have read can get heavy with too much "stuff" but I always feel like all that Dillard includes as detail serves a purpose. I have never seen an eclipse but the way she describes this event, I feel like I have. She also has an amazing ability to make the reader in awe of some phenomenon whether it be cosmic, or mental or emotional. I think perhaps because of her intense detail, the readers become so involved as to not be able to escape the world that she creates with her words. A question I would ask Annie Dillard is how she decides what details to include and how much of it if she does.

There are many essays that I have learned from this semester. These two happen to be ones that have stuck out. In order to become better at these two aspects of writing I will need to continue practicing. Hopefully I can incorporate life-like characters and captivating detail in all my writing, not just creative non-fiction. These are just a couple of the lofty goals I have for my future writing.

Love At First Sight

Grandpas love to tell stories. And as my grandpa tells his own love story, he says he knew instantly that he would marry my grandmother. The story he told is now elaborated in the way I like to imagine it.

Waiting in the bus station Forrest hiked up his neatly ironed trousers and flipped through the newspaper. He grumbled about the gloomy events and continued to skim until he heard the bus wheeze to a halt. Folding the paper, he picked up his coat and waited like a gentleman for the pressing line to file onto the bus ahead of him. Everything was typical. Sideways seats, metal handles, and the smiling driver. The bus gave a familiar grumble to life as they pulled away from the station and Forrest began to get comfortable in his seat.

But his desire for comfort left when he saw a fair skinned girl with jet black hair. A blue hat sat on her head and she had a quiet pleasant smile on her face that was looking away from him. Suddenly sitting up right he tried to fidget and cough to get her to turn from the window. Finally after knocking over his own suitcase, she looked at him. He smiled up at her as he bent to set his case right. She smiled back. I am gonna marry that girl. 

Perhaps my grandmother had something for clumsy men or just for my grandpa. Because they were married in February. The day after the wedding he left for WWII. They have been married for over 65 years.

Film Review: Valkyrie

The most recent movie I saw was Valkyrie. It is one of the greatest movies I have seen in a while. I can therefore find many qualities to emulate in another form of storytelling, which is writing. For the purposes of comparing elements of writing nonfiction to filmmaking, this is particularly fitting because Valkyrie is based on a true story.

What made this movie excellent was the way the setting, time period and character attitudes reflected the authentic events as best as possible. In writing, fiction or nonfiction, the reader has to believe what they are reading. Even if in the case of writing fiction, the reader has to buy into it and the author allows that to happen by making the setting, era, and characters real. The outfits as seen in the film could be described in detail. The specific personas were performed through specific gestures and actions. This can also be applied to writing. The best piece of advice I have been given in regards to writing is "show us, don't tell us." 

With this same tool we can learn about the rhythm of our writing. The movie uses pauses and silence to build tension. A writing teacher once taught me that punctuation is our best friend in making "special effects." This sense of creativity and art in a nonfiction piece may be the difference between history and a captivating story that really happened.

I certainly cannot verify whether or not facts were checked perfectly but it is clear that research came before the creation of the movie. This is a good example to anyone who is trying to recreate some part of real life. It can be a huge discredit to any piece of art depicting some part of history when facts are found to be false. Fact checking is crucial to certain types of nonfiction. In general Valkyrie has many techniques that can be channeled into writing.

Free Breakfast at Denny's

The line was very long. This was to be expected, naturally, because Denny's had advertised  that they were  giving away free "Grand Slams" from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Emily and I arrived around 9:30. In forty-five minutes I learned a lot about people and free food. 

During our wait, I noticed a man standing next to me who had a face like a platypus. It was an honest observation, one that was not attached to any intentional unkindness. The length of his face was extra wide, his eyes and nose spread across it proportionately. Without thinking, a twinge of pity came into my heart. I also noticed a family in front of us. The husband was short and thin, the wife double his size and holding the baby. He was a bus driver and I soon discovered that he had a warm bubbly personality I was sure none of my bus driver's in junior high had.

The sun was beating down even though it is barely February and some complaining began. First about the sun and then about the injustice the Cardinals were served at the Super Bowl. A woman who worked at Denny's came out with a plate of "Pancake Puppies" and the line jittered with suspicion that they had run out of Grand Slams. These were surely to soften the blow when they told us they ran out of Grand Slams they said. I laughed to myself. 

No one had made us stand out here. It's free food people. Geez. Just be grateful. 

I was pleased with my logic and silently congratulated my own sensibility.

Then the platypus-looking man took a step. I knew that step. I knew exactly what is meant too. It was the kind that meant he intended to cut me in line. I was not perfectly standing in front of him  but I was not perfectly standing adjacent to him and now he thought he'd take advantage of where I was standing. But this was not my first time involved in line thievery. I stepped forward to regain position. So did he. This was an outright sign of hostility! He fully expected me to stay behind him . Stepping again, I placed myself where he could see me, and I him, and we both knew this was a battle.

Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye I saw tan, leathery man with a beard down to his belly button riding on a bike. As he came closer he slowed his pace. The clear plastic backpack he wore revealed a banana peal, socks and a bowl. He was looking at the long line wrapped around Denny's. Some spark of awareness lit his eyes. A toothless smile showed through his white beard. 

"Holy S***!" he yelled excitedly and peddled faster to the end of the line. Everyone looked at each other and smiled. Even me and my platypus-looking rival shared a sheepish smile. Suddenly I felt funny. Perhaps a twinge of guilt now. Human nature had gotten the best of me. By then we were near the door, in a cluster and it was hard to distinguish who was in front of who. A man with a clipboard came out and began jotting down party sizes and names. I learned that the bus driver and the woman with the baby had come separately and were not married. When the man with the clipboard began taking down my rivals name, he quickly pointed to me and explained we were actually ahead of him. Guilt. Recognition.

I had seen everything wrong.

People and free food.