Young Adult

Clockwork

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An apprentice clockmaker facing failure…a writer with a story he can’t control…a girl whose courage will need to match her kindness…a prince whose mechanical heart is winding down…a clockwork knight with murderous tendencies…and a doctor who just may be the Devil.

Their stories come together piece by piece in this chilling tale where nothing is as it seems, but like the gears of a strange and wonderful clock, everything fits together.

And so reads the summary on the back of the multiple award winning 1996 children’s tale, Clockwork, or All Wound Up. Written by Philip Pullman (of His Dark Trilogy fame) and wonderfully illustrated by Leonid Gore, Clockwork tells a story within a story of adventure, deceit, clockmaking, storytelling, the high cost of failure and the triumph of love. Clockmakers, a writer, a royal family, clockwork beings, a mysterious doctor, a courageous heroine, a dying prince…all are contained within a scant 107 pages. It is actually quite amazing how much storytelling is done in such a small book.

Pullman sets his tale in “old” Germany and writes under the inspiration of the tales of the Brothers Grimm, Frankenstein, and Dr. Faustus. The story opens on a cold snowy night in a tavern on the eve of two special occurrences-Fritz’s latest tale of suspense and the revelation of Karl’s apprenticeship-ending edition to the town clock. The element of suspense is set immediately due in part to Pullman’s excellent storytelling ability coupled with the lush, gothic imagery of Gore’s illustrations. In the tradition of the fairytales of old, Clockwork has its share of dark, macabre moments that will appeal to children and to those adults who remember the childlike thrill of a good ghost story.

I sat and read this book cover to cover in about an hour and have to admit that I was disappointed when it all came to an end. While on the surface Clockwork has a deceptively simple, straightforward story there are hidden depths and meanings put forth in the tale that make it an intriguing read for an adult. I picked up this book in a used bookstore on our vacation earlier this summer and am thrilled to realize now just what a bargain I received. This book is wonderful. A perfect balance of suspense, creepiness, heriosm, and romance make it a great book to read yourself or to read aloud to your children. For some inexplicable reason Pullman includes one instant of cursing in the book which is my only real complaint as its wholly unnecessary and takes away from rather than adds to the book.

Clockwork is a great tale to read in the fall/winter when darkness descends early and the nights turn cool. Enjoy.

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The Arch, Donkeys, and a trip to the library.

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Earlier I regaled you with the tale of our weekend getaway to St. Louis to see Celtic Woman. At the time I hinted of a story to come surrounding our pre-show meal and with no further ado: The Tale of a Donkey and Fine-Dining (or, An Ass goes out to Eat).

Not knowing the city of St. Louis, Mary and I opted to eat at one of only 2 restaurants in the immediate vicinity of Fox Theatre. We chose Gary’s. Gary’s appeared to be a slightly upscale jazz club designed to maximize every bit of its small space. Consequently tables were very close together. Close enough that, in reality, you were seated with other people rather than next to them. We had the good fortune of being seated at the table with the Donkey of our tale and his date. This couple appeared to be in their 50’s, well-dressed, and wealthy. The date in question was an attractive lady who did not appear to be the sort of woman who needed to settle with just any old donkey. There was nothing particularly eye catching about this donkey.

Throughout our 45 minutes of fine dining we were witness to the most obvious case of verbal abuse that I have ever seen. And I work in the mental health profession! Despite our practically sitting in these people’s laps he berated and abused her through the entire meal. He berated her about the way that her children treated her, he went on a tirade concerning how he would walk out of a fancy restaurant were the owners to allow someone in that didn’t meet up to his dress code standards for said restaurant….at one point, trying to change the subject, she asked him if he had a tie tack. His braying response was “A tie tack? You tell me what you think a tie tack is!”, insinuating that he and he alone knew the proper definition of a tie tack.

I’m in no way doing this story justice, because he was terrible. I have never been witness in person to a man treating a woman so poorly for such a long period of time in my life. Throughout the meal she pleaded with him to change the subject from whatever it was he was railing about at the time and when he would finally acquiesce he would then put her down in relation to the new subject of conversation. She also spent a great deal of time complementing him in an effort to appease him. It almost put me off my feed. I haven’t wanted to punch someone in the face so much in a long, long time. Like the soldier caught by the bumbling constable in the Branaugh version of Much Ado About Nothing I wanted to get up and scream “YOU ARE AN ASS!!!!”

The only lesson of this tale can be, ladies, DO NOT ever, ever settle for a donkey for a companion. They may be a wealthy donkey and may get dressed up in fine clothes but at the end of the day they are nothing but an ass.

On a lighter note, when returning from St. Louis we stopped in Columbia to pick up Tori and visit with our niece and nephew, Haley and Elijah. Columbia is home to what looked like a very cool public library. Being book fanatics Mary and I were dying to get inside so we took the kids to the library to exchange their books. The Daniel Boone Regional Library is amazing.

This library is conducive to spending time and experiencing books. It is 3 floors with the entire first floor devoted to media and to the children’s section.

The children’s area was decorated and arranged to draw children in and to accentuate the joy that is reading. Wonderful, funky, comfy chairs were everywhere and they had great, creative arrangements of the new books that were available. They also had very modern self-checkout machines in which the kids scanned their books and swiped their library cards ala’ the self service lanes at Wal-Mart.

Freebies were available throughout the floor and I was quick to pick up these bookmarks.

The upper floors were devoted to all the other things you would expect at a library including warm, inviting and stylishly decorated study areas.

More pictures of the library can be found here.

Despite my niece and nephew’s report that it “wasn’t that big inside” we were all suitably impressed and I for one am quite jealous and ready to move to Columbia.

It was a wonderful end to our mini-vacation, spending time with the kids and encouraging the joy of reading…plus there were no signs of donkeys anywhere.

Book Reviews

The Time Traveler’s Wife

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Four library employees, including my darling wife, and a host of bloggers had recommended The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. I had a Border’s 30% off coupon burning a hole in my pocket last week and so I took their advice and picked up a copy. I had been meaning to pick up this book since I first laid eyes on it as I was struck by the cover image and colors as well as the intriguing title. Showing uncharacteristic restraint, however, I managed to put it off until now in an effort to reduce my reading pile. Let me tell you right now, reading pile be damned, quit reading this review and start reading this book now! It is that good.

It is no secret that reading is one of my great loves and I have a pretty good knack for choosing books that I end up enjoying. That being said the books that grab on to me and won’t let go…those that talk to me while I am sleeping and say “Quit wasting time, read me!” are few and far between. The Time Traveler’s Wife is one of those books. Despite clocking in at a hearty 536 pages the time literally flew by as I was lost in its pages.

Though the title may indicate otherwise, this is not a science fiction book. There are no Dr. Who-ish travels to visit the dinosaurs or trips into future space-age realms. The Time Traveler’s Wife is a love story. It is the story of Henry DeTamble, a Chicago librarian with Chrono-displacement Disorder, and the love of his life, Clare. It is the story about a man whose time travels are involuntary and often unwanted. This is also the story about a woman who chooses to love and live with this very difficult disorder. It is also a story about living life to its fullest in the time that is given.

This is, unbelievably, Audrey Niffenegger’s first mainstream novel. It is so well crafted and flows so well that I am in awe of her talent and aching for another book. The story is told entirely by Henry and Clare in vignettes describing the occurences on certain dates. While Clare’s story is relatively chronological, Henry’s jumps around in time. Each vingette begins with the date and time and the ages of both Henry and Clare. While Henry is 8 years older than Clare in “real time” he actually meets her at various ages beginning when she is 6 years old. It has been a long time since I’ve read Time and Again by Jack Finney (another amazing book) but something about this book felt like Time and Again. The time travel element is no doubt part of that similarity but I think the fact that both books focus on the relationship of characters in a real world vs. a science fiction focus on time travel gives them a similar feel.

Niffenegger does a marvelous job of infusing Henry and Clare with life. Each character has hobbies and talents (again no spoilers) that give the story such depth and dimension. Their sexual relationship (this is an adult story, not for kids) is not gratuitous and is handled in a loving way that gives richness and realism to their relationship. Also both characters have very interesting careers. Henry works in a fascinating library in Chicago and Clare is an artist who makes hand crafted papers, a hobby Niffenegger shares.

Audrey Niffenegger is a professor in the MFA program at the Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts. The program teaches such things as bookbinding, papermaking, and letterpress printing. Niffenegger’s previous books were small print runs of visual books with letterpress type and aquatint illustrations that she hand made. A self-professed woman “fixated on oddity” her previous creations touched on ideas surrounding “mutants, peculiar nature things, taxidermy, [and] amputation.” Her website gives a hint of what some of her other work may look like but is sadly still largely under construction.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It is rare that I find myself so easily enthralled in a story. Like any good love story this tale has happy and sad moments, both of which are powerfully rendered. Be prepared to smile but also to shed a few tears. I’m not ashamed to admit that at one point in the story I began crying and was still crying some 40 or 50 pages later. The Time Traveler’s Wife is an inspiring tale about the power of love, the value of good relationships, and the need to make the most of every moment in life.

I know many of you have read this book so I’m doing something a little different and am allowing and encouraging spoiler conversations in the comments. Please comment away but if you don’t want to read anything specific about the book then you may want to avoid reading the comments. Thanks!

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Happy Birthday James

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“True friends are the people that are there for you unconditionally. They are the people that never question you and support you no matter what the circumstances are. They are the people worth living for.” ~ author unknown

“Your friend is the man who knows all about you, and still likes you.”
~ Elbert Hubard

Its been almost seven years since Mary was hired for the university job in Kansas City, moving us from a place I was tired of….Tulsa, OK…but friends who I loved dearly. I had prayed that we would find good friends, especially couples, once we moved. James and Julie were the first answers to that prayer.

Today is James’ birthday and I want to be one of the first to wish him a very happy, wonderful day. James’ friendship is an indescribable blessing to me and I’m so grateful for our ever-growing relationship. Always giving, always laughing, James is an inspiration to be around. The domain name Stainless Steel Droppings dot com is a gift from James and he is my computer guru when it comes to things website related. You can see his work and get different glimpses of who James is at his wife’s site here and his gaming website here.

James has also fairly recently went into business for himself and you can see the site of his business, Integrity Countertops, here. They do a great job. My kitchen cabinets and countertops were done by James and they are wonderful!

“The better part of one’s life consists of his friendships.”
~ Abraham Lincoln

Early on in our relationship James and I got hooked on the computer game Half-life and many a night was spent online playing at one or the other’s house. We’ve both moved on to different PC games but we still occasionally get together for LAN parties and gaming. One of the things I enjoy most about our friendship is the childlike excitement we both have about PC’s and gaming. I don’t have the love affair with my printer that he does with his new printer, but that’s another story!

Being close to the same age we both grew up as Star Wars fanatics and I’ve had the joy of attending all 3 of the second trilogy with James, including a midnight movie of Episode II in which we waited in line for about 5 hours…only to sit next to someone who had just walked in the door! 🙂 Star Wars and gaming were really the things that helped cement the friendship early on for me. I knew if James could be that excited about Star Wars that he was a friend after my own heart!

James introduced me to the joys of dark beer. I had never really tried dark beer before meeting James and though neither of us are frequent drinkers I have the occasional pleasure of sitting down to a delicious black and tan and savoring the wonderful flavor of it. Thank you Jimmy, good beer really can taste good, contrary to popular belief!

As you can see in the picture above, in addition to his lovely wife Julie, James has four adorable daughters. I count them all as added benefits of this treasured friendship. They each are unique in their personalities but every one of them is funny and charming and alot of fun to babysit.

Coincidentally Jimmy, Missouri became the 24th state of the Union on this date in 1821 and the Smithsonian Institute was created in 1846. The 31st president of the United States, Herbert Hoover, shares your birthday with you as well as stars Rosanna Arquette and Antonio Banderas!

Happy Birthday, James! You are a terrific friend and I am sincerely thankful for you. I enjoy that we can sit and watch entertaining movies and have a great time and also enjoy the serious conversations that we have. You are a genuinely good person which is a rarity in this day and age. Thanks for your friendship and all that it means to me and my family. I look forward to many more years of good food (James is a gourmet on the grill by the way), good drink and overall good times!

Everyone else, please wish James a ‘happy birthday’!!!

“Wherever you may be it is your friends who make your world.”
~ author unknown

Home, Music

Celtic Woman

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“May it be an evening star
Shines down upon you
May it be when darkness falls
Your heart will be true…”
~Enya, May It Be

Indeed an evening star shone down upon Mary and I this past Friday as we traveled from Kansas City to St. Louis to experience the wonder that is Celtic Woman.

Celtic music has an enchanting quality, filled with both melancholic and joyful tunes that are rich with the tradition of people dating back to the first millenium B.C. It is perhaps this richness of tradition that explains the wonder I experience whenever I hear the Irish fiddle, the bagpipe, the tin whistle, or the haunting melodies of a Celtic tune. Celtic Woman celebrates both the ancient and contemporary history of this fascinating group of people.

A clandestine donation to PBS one cool April evening made it possible for Mary and I to attend this event. Though positively bursting with anticipation I kept this a secret from my darling wife until the tickets arrived two weeks ago. I had seen the original Dublin performance on DVD, another gift from St. Louis public television, and knew we were in for an inspiring evening of live music. It was breathtaking. But first, some history.

A little over a year ago producer Sharon Browne and composer David Downes sat down to discuss a musical project for many of the talented Irish female performers that they had been working with. From that discussion the idea of Celtic Woman was birthed. Celtic Woman brings together 5 talented female soloists with various experiences in classical music, traditional Irish music, and musical theatre. Downes’ vision marries the ancient traditions of Celtic music with contemporary accents to produce a magical musical experience. Thanks to a brilliant marketing campaign that included partnering with PBS, Celtic Woman exploded onto the American music scene and propelled the group to instant stardom. The women who comprise Celtic Woman are:


Lisa Kelly, Orla Fallon , Mairead Nesbitt,


Deirdre Shannon, and Chloe Agnew.

Dierdre Shannon was touring in place of Méav Ní Mhaolchatha who recently had a baby.

The music of this show is phenomenal. Haunting, melancholic traditional Celtic songs like Isle of Inisfree are joined by more modern melancholic tunes like Enya’s May It Be (from The Fellowship of the Ring). Classic favorites like Ave Maria, Nella Fantasia, and Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring were rendered beautifully alongside upbeat, manic Irish fiddle music. The show also included new material written by composer David Downes. In addition to this he also arranged each piece specifically to showcase the talents of these amazing performers. The concert included over 2 hours of music. There were a number of songs included in the show that are not currently on the CD and it is my hope that they produce a follow up CD to include this wonderful music.

Words alone cannot to describe just how spectacular the show was. Rich blue, green and violet lighting gave the show a very unique feel that was at once fantastical and contemporary. The whole of the second act was performed before a backdrop of lighting that looked like a star-filled sky. The elegant dresses of the performers were coupled with the black outfits of the background singers for a very classic look.

The voices of each performer were breathtaking and Mairead’s violin playing is nothing short of jaw-dropping. She bounds around stage twirling and leaping all while playing the most gorgeous music. Her fiddle numbers are so frenetic that it amazes you that anyone can play that fast and that wonderful. I wrote about her in my Sex and Violins post awhile back. This link is still active on which you can watch Mairead performing The Contradiction as well as see the closing number of the show, an ovation inspiring rendition of Josh Groban’s You Raise Me Up.

The Celtic Woman show was at the fabulous Fox Theatre in St. Louis.

The Fox Theatre was opened in 1929 and, though closed in the 1970’s, was purchased in 1981 and restored as close as possible to its original 1929 glory. Here are a few pictures of how it looks today:

It was an opulent venue that was perfectly suited to such an elaborate, rich show. The Celtic Woman tour is continuing into the fall and if you have the opportunity I highly recommend attending.

As the week begins I encourage you to surround yourself with beautiful music and embrace the tradition that makes you uniquely who you are. And:

May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields
and, Until we meet again
May God hold you in the palm of His hand
~An Irish Blessing

Eclectic Musings of a Renaissance Geek