Kinkaju-ji Gardens

 

When we went to Japan in 2010, we gave our then 5-year-old daughter a camera. She took this picture of the gardens at the famous Golden Temple, Kinkaku-ji. Although the temple is as stunning as promised, I was most impressed with the gardens, which are possibly the finest gardens I have seen in Japan.

Help! I Have a Samaris Question

Among many cute Icelandic things Icelandair does, like naming each plane in their fleet after an Icelandic volcano, is playing Icelandic music in the cabin before take-off and upon landing. The first time I heard the song Goða Tungl was while the airplane named Katla taxied to the gate at Keflavik Airport, delivering me to Airwaves 2012. I thought, “How cool! Björk covered Einstürzende Neubauten.” Of course I was wrong, and that’s why I need your help.

A Song of Hate and Fear

I watched one movie while I was sick. The Shop on Main Street was a black and white Czechoslovakian movie from 1965. The Netflix disc had been sitting on top of my tv for literally months. But the film will stay with me even longer than the disk did.

Problems with People

I grabbed Problems with People off of my stack of didn’t-read-before-publication review copies just as I was sliding into the infection that obliterated my entire month of November, so my impressions and memories of the stories it contains may be colored by illness. But it was a painful book to read. Let me be clear – the reading was easy. I finished the book in one evening. It was the stories themselves that were painful. In Problems with People, author David Guterson explores social awkwardness.

Peacock

This peacock was showing off at the Woodland Park Zoo.

Wreckage

Eighteen days ago, I was ahead of my National Novel Writing Month goal; I had two weeks of blog posts pre-written to free up time for novel writing; had received nibbles on a couple pitches; and was feeling hopeful after interviewing for a part-time publishing position. My house was clean and I knew what was going with my kids at school. Eighteen days ago, I felt like I was coming down with a cold.

A Childish Review of Director’s Choice at Pacific Northwest Ballet

The Director’s Choice repertory is always one of my favorite ballet performances of the year; I look forward to Peter Boal’s selection of modern, intriguing, challenging pieces all year. So when I found myself running a temperature of 102 F a day before I was supposed to go, I hated the thought of missing it. Fortunately, as a season subscriber, I was able to call the box office and change my dates without any fees. Unfortunately, on the day of the final performance, I was still completely out of commission, so I ended up sending my husband and daughter. My daughter has been attending the ballet for half of her life. That’s only five years of ballet, so her opinions are not necessarily the same as mine. But her opinions (lightly edited) are the ones you’re getting today.

Airwaves in August

Younger Than Karin

This used to be my favorite season, but the past couple years, I’ve found myself getting a little blue in early November. No matter what wonderful things may be going on in my life, a part of me is wishing I was in Reykjavik, attending Iceland Airwaves again. Fortunately, this year there have been a couple of chances to see some favorite Icelandic bands and discover others here in Seattle. I’ve already written about Reykjavik Calling.

There was also a curatorial exchange between Bumbershoot and Iceland Airwaves that resulted in some of the most painful scheduling conflicts of my festival, pitting local rockers against Icelandic electronica. Of course you know how the story ends.

Grom School

Very tiny students at Steven’s Pass Ski School.

October Tsundoku

My TBR bookcase.

In the absence of a regular paycheck, I’ve started paying closer attention to my budget, and it has reminded me that everyone has financial blind spots. It’s easy for me to see that my husband spends too much money on technical gear. But when it comes to buying books, the money I spend never gets subtracted from my mental balance sheet.

The worst part is, that I already have an entire bookcase of unread books in my house, as well as a long list of library holds. The Japanese concept of tsundoku has been getting a lot of attention lately, and I may be the poster child. But I don’t buy books for the emotional gratitude of owning them – at least, I don’t only buy books for that reason. I really do intend to read them, and I do work my way through the piles. It’s just that there is no hope of my ever reading them faster than I bring them into the house. I get two to three unsolicited ARCs in the mail each week, and these alone account for more reading than I could possibly do in a lifetime.

So, in the interest of shining a light on my own blindness, and to give a little love to my impulsive purchases that may never get read, here is a summary of my October book purchases.