THE CANOEIST (stop motion LEGO).

The kids and I made this this evening. It is about a brave canoeist who helps out a terrible RV driver.

BIBLE STORIES, RE-INTERPRETED, #1.

My wife and I frequently have the children draw out pictures of various stories while we're reading or telling them. The Biblical book of Genesis has been an especially interesting one, as we have given a great degree of creative license in rendering their own interpretations. Our daughter has drawn some lovely imaginings, and our son has...also drawn some intriguing renditions. His collection of Genesis artwork and accompanying stories is one that I could potentially see being appealing to Billy Graham, Richard Dawkins, and everyone in between. Or at least being a catalyst for some chuckles, which is good exercise for the belly and cerebral cortex. And David James Duncan has pointed out that God not only plays, but laughs, so I would guess that might happen, but I can't be certain. Perhaps I will post some illustrations eventually, but for now his first re-imagining is this:

HOW THE BIBLICAL ACCOUNT GOES.
Sadly, jealous Cain kills his brother Abel, infamously becoming the world's first murderer.

HOW OUR SON'S VERSION GOES.
"Abel starts fighting Cain, and pushes Cain into the river, and then a crocodile bites Cain's head off."

The tiniest bit of poetic license.

Just wait for Noah, Abraham, and Deborah. 

FIVE RECOMMENDATIONS, PLUS, GIRL WITH PONYTAIL.

“Anyone who knew Violet well could tell she was thinking hard, because her long hair was tied up in a ribbon to keep it out of her eyes. Violet had a real knack for inventing and building strange devices, so her brain was often filled with images of pulleys, levers, and gears, and she never wanted to be distracted by something as trivial as her hair.”


- Lemony Snicket, "A Bad Beginning"

1. EATING.
Mi Mero Mole, a little street Mexican restaurant off SE 50th & Division in Portland. Becca took us there for lunch this weekend and we all left with satiated appetites and a not overly-dented wallet.

2. READING, non-fiction.
Joe Queenan's "For the Books," an hilarious, often annoying, very precisely snobbish series of thoughts and stories about his relationships with books. A classic example of someone who might make you mad, but who you are forced to listen, respect, and love a little due to the force and humor of his assertions.

3. MUSIC.
Badly Drawn Boy. I love it when my wife gets on a listening kick with someone. I've been a BDB fan since his first proper album, and even more so after his beautiful score for the underrated Hugh Grant film About a Boy. But the last week or so, it's been her who keeps playing him. It's a great feeling when you know what you want to listen to at a particular moment.

4. MUSIC.
A few years ago, she picked up a collection of classical records for me at a garage sale. One of those 10-LP composer series deals. Been enjoying the Strauss selection, which inevitably makes me think of Stanley Kubrick. Lilting, light, but also sections of sweet melancholy and longing. Beautiful.

4. A VARIETY OF GOOD NEIGHBORS.
Over the last year, we have received cookies, brownies, cucumbers, tomatoes, flowers, coffee, and, as of this evening, a "little slice of chocolate cake" that turned out to be, size wise, roughly the equivalent of a semi truck tire. And tasted mmmmm delicious. You know who you are, neighbors. Thank you.

5. PLAY.
Building LEGO sets monochromatically, with occasional splashes of a single brick for accent. I've been building walls in single colours. Really, really cool walls. Seriously. My kids think they're cool and I have no harsher critics than them. Arbitrarily-imposed creative restrictions are truly an excellent gateway to innovation.

5b. STORIES.
It's the oldest story in the English language and it's just so good: Beowulf. Do you think my heart thumped a little bit when my son came up recently and asked if I thought his drawing of Beowulf looked very good? Uh, yeah.

Then he moved on to rendering Grendel. And THAT was terrifying. Such an epic tale. Find a version, even a mediocre one, and get familiar with it. So good.

Au revoir and gut nacht, universe. May your week ahead be filled with wonderful happenings and music you can then recommend to me.

THE BEHEADING GAME (STORY: GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT).

I promised, on the eve of sleep, that I would tell him the story of Gawain and the Green Knight tomorrow. Okay...technically, I said I would tell him the story of the Black Knight (with either Arthurian Perceval or Welsh Yvain), but I think Gawain is a much more compelling tale. It has an appropriately happy ending and some good life lessons, aside, of course, from that whole idea of entering into wagers that involve letting a mysterious knight attempt to sever your head with his giant sword.

Any good younger-ish Arthurian tale books? I know the stories fairly well, but haven't found a good - a really GOOD - collection of tales yet. So I just...filter them through my own mischievous narratives in a manner that is, ideally, not going to cause too much trauma. And, in the case of Gawain, I will wait until he is a little older to initiate a discussion about the multilayered symbolism throughout, its fascinating dichotomous comparisons of nature and chivalry, and the various interpretations as seen through several different lenses, not least interesting of which would be perspectives dealing with feminism and homosociality.

I think at this point, it has more to do with the fact that there's knights and big swords.

IN A NUTSHELL.

1. A giant (green knight) shows up at King Arthur's court on New Year's Day and challenges everyone to a friendly game: a single knight may strike him...but he will return to do the same to that knight in one year's time at the Green Chapel.

2. Sir Gawain accepts. He neatly beheads him. The Green Knight picks up his head, gets on his horse, and departs.

3. A lot happens in between. A few day's before the next New Year's, Gawain sets off to keep his end of the bargain. Along the way, he hangs out with a really nice couple in their castle and deals with some ethical quandaries.

4. He finally meets up with the Green Knight on New Year's Day and...

5. You really have to just read the story, with all the details. It's a great one. And it's a happy ending, depending on your perspective.

THE NEW AESOP, AND MAYBE THE BIG WOLF WASN'T SO BAD.

I'd like to think that my little scribblings are occasionally charming because of my great drawing ability, but they're not. They are my attempt at visually interpreting, literally, what I see and imagine, and they are (perhaps sometimes) unique BECAUSE of my limited skills, not in spite of.

So, when I tell a story and my children INTERPRET that story, and re-tell it, getting many of the details...different, their end result is frequently more interesting than the original.

To draw PERFECTLY is to re-create a photograph; to tell a story with the exact and total inclusion of accuracy, honesty, and detail is to serve up an often-boring and bloated narrative that may be reflective of the letter, but not the SPIRIT of the tale. Which is why fiction is sometimes more adept at conveying truths of human nature than non-fiction or "reality."

When I told the Biblical parable of the lost sheep and the farmer who searched for the one lost one, then this oft-told version paled in relation to my son's alternate telling. Here's the short version:

"If I had a hundred dragons, and one of them got lost, then I would go looking for for him....l

Pause for dramatic effect.

"...but I wouldn't find him because he would have been eaten by a bear."

And that is what "inspired by" means. Reframing and creating in terms of your own interest, perspective, experience and skills.

Happy Dienstag, all

BIG FISH AND PRETTY HORSES.

One of the things I love about the Winter Olympics is that it's an opportunity to show my children the kind of stuff that I used to do before they were around, like do crazy snowboard jumps.

"Did you do stuff like that?"
they wonder with wonderment,
as we watch Sage Kotsenburg soar 600 feet in the air upside down.

"Yeah, more or less,"
I answer,
more or less honestly.

I'm starting to believe myself.

All the Pretty Horses, and All the Other Ones Also on the Road (Homage to Cormac).
ALL THE PRETTY HORSES, AND ALL THE OTHER ONES ALSO ON THE ROAD (HOMAGE TO CORMAC).

STAR WARS SPOILER / WHICH TO SOCHI?

I have been extraordinarily mean and frustrating to our son; requiring him to make up his own Star Wars stories, as opposed to him absorbing the canon (yet).

I may have to re-think this, as a number of his recent tales - which are monumentally thrilling and original - end with...

"...and then Luke and Princess Leia get married."

Luke and Leia. 

"I don't want to impose my authorship upon your stories,"
I say kindly.
"But no. Luke and Leia do not get married. Not gonna happen. How about...Leia and Han? Or even...Leia and Jabba the Hutt? Could be funny."

- "No."
he says with finality.
"Princess Leia and Luke get married."

I sigh, and wonder where he learned to be frustrating. Probably from his mother.

May the Force be with you on this
Freitag.

ADVICE.
Just to be safe, always carry a flashlight at night, and when traveling, "always arrange to hire a limousine or rent a mule rather than take a bus to your destination." Also, it's much safer to get a companion fare for big slides.

the quotes portion:
The Vile Village, p. 20
Book the Seventh by Lemony Snicket


Happy snow, Northwest.