The Electric

The last few weeks, I’ve really been getting into the work of Darwyn Cooke. Cooke was the guy with Ed Brubaker, who jump started the new Catwoman book. Cooke did the new catsuit which is more practical and sexy while Brubaker took the backstory and made it realistic.

Cooke’s work brings about a level of familiarity while feeling fresh at the same time. The looks is at times like that of a classic 1950’s commercial illustration while not feeling retro. Two books I’ve just torn thru was DC: The New Frontier and his issue of Solo.

I can’t say anymore about The New Frontier that what has already been written about it. It’s a great book in that I stopped caring about the story so much as I was caring for the characters.

Solo is this cool idea DC launched last year. Every other month, a DC artisit or writer is given one book to do what ever they want. Darwyn’s showed his range both as an artist as well as a writer by blending different elements from The New Frontier and Batman into the different stories. Do yourself a favor and check it out..

-> The Democratic National Committee is meeting in Columbus this weekend in an attempt to form the “strategy” for the 2008 midterm election. I hope this means we’re going to start talk more about what we’re going to do rather than trying to convince everyone just how bad things are under the GOP.

-> I don’t get http://www.werenotafraid.com/. I mean I could send a photo of myself saying “I’m Not Afraid” but then I’m in Ohio. Of course I’m not afraid. Now if your someone who uses the London or for that matter, UK bus or train lines, then you have a reason to use this as a rallying cry. Same goes for NYC, Bali Tokyo and Madrid. Everybody else just say a prayer for them and save the photos.

-> It is still amazing to me that more people are not upset about Karl Rove outing CIA agents and Tom Noe stealing from the Worker Comp system. I mean, people came unglued about Clinton but he didn’t break a law, he was just stupid. These guys brake the law and people just kinda sit there like it’s not a big deal.

The last three years, I’ve been the captain of the OCLC cooperate challenge co-ed softball team. This is a dubious distinction given that the team hasn’t won a game in the close to 4 years I’ve been with the company.

Now this year I had hoped to pass captaincy to someone else. Except that person never did showed. So thanks to my locked up schedule (new job, family commitments plus trying to get a fence built) we never had a full practice with everyone showing up.

Because of this, I was expecting the worse.

So I must note that this year’s team was surprising in many different ways.

First, we had some new players join us for the first time who played really well given that they hadn’t been on a field in a few years.

Next, we scored more runs in the first inning of the 2nd game than the previous 4 teams did COMBINED.

Yet we still went “Two and a barbecue”

First game with Bysis was close except for one big inning that did us in.

The second game with CAS hurt in more ways than one. After a 10 run first, we only managed to put another 7 on the board. Next, CAS just kept chipping at us until they got a big inning of their own to tie the game. After the top of our order was held scoreless, CAS push across the winning run just before the skies opened up raining out the rest of the event.

I should also note that one of our women players had to come off the field due to the heat which was like being in a sauna. I’m praying she is able to bounce back and would be willing to play with us again.

My knee is sore and the Advil hasn’t hit yet so I’m heading to bed…

Just before we headed to church this morning I got a few photos of Jill, Marta and Meghan with Jean and John which I’ve posted over on Yahoo.

The performance was different. First was the enacted prayer which started with one of the members of the troupe asking for a prayer request or praise. Once the request was made, members of the troupe would then take on a role in that prayer and then act it out.

For example, the first prayer was for a healing. A daughter of one of the ladies is undergoing a treatment trail to deal with her cervical cancer. So Megan took the roll of the daughter, Marta was the mother (who requested the prayer) and Jill was the medical staff. Three others took the rolls of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost interacting with each of the mortals. Once it was clear who was who, the prayer would start with motion but not words. The daughter going for a test, the mother at home staying busy, the medical staff working all the while the trinity is with each in a different way until the end when the results confirm the healing… yet this is all communicated without a sound.

A prayer for the eyes that was quite moving.

Jean and I talked later about why neither of us raised our hands for a request. Jean thought of the Woods and just couldn’t put Sasha’s loss into context for them. I thought of asking for a blessing for our family as we deal with trying to have another child while dealing with the grind of life. Yet I was reminded of how many blessings I have with John and Jean and felt a bit selfish for asking for more. London has also been on my mind but again, I’ve seen too much from the BBC to want to see more. I must confess that looking back, enacted prayer has some very deep roots into the world of improv but without the jokes.

The play was in the form of three stories from II Kings. This is not a book that gets its due and the selections from it were interesting in the message that they bring. I really enjoyed the vocal and percussion that was used for a background (I do love the different sounds from a djembe) and the performances were top notch.

My one suggestion would be that of framing the stories into a context. How does this event apply to you some 2000 years later? For it is very much in the Jewish tradition (I’ve been reading a ton of books on the roots of the modern Jewish faith from my pal J over in New York) to talk about these events and to decided as a community their context. Plus it would be a great way for the actors and the worshipers to talk with each other.

Also it would be interesting to see how would these stories look in the modern world. Once I tinkered with the idea of taking the story of David and Bathsheba and placing it into a mixture of 1930’s Europe with Middle Earth. Like Julie Taymor’s Titus but much darker and tell it from Uriah’s point of view.

Oh and why did I say event rather than story? The historian in me looks at the bible in terms of events rather than stories and people rather than characters. Because events happen were a story might be made up and people existed while characters don’t. Yes I know there are things in their that are stories but this is my hang up.

On Wednesday I got a message on my machine from my Pastor. We had talked about meeting to discuss getting the web site off the ground but I noticed that he also wanted to talk with Jean. So I rang back and while John was splashing around in the tube Pastor Steve asked if we could host a few of the performers from the group who would be performing at church Sunday.

Performers, church, Sunday.. nothing was clicking but I said yes anyhow. We have a king size bed in the guest room, a double in John’s plus another double in the futon downstairs so we are more than equiped for company. Plus Jean and I enjoy hosting folks over at the house.

So Saturday after helping Jay dig a few post holes with a Bobcat as well as cut his phone and cable lines, I quickly showered and headed over to meet Megan Hodgin, Jill Vaughn and Marta Kotzian from the Northwestern College’s summer theatre touring company.

John took to Jill right away and drafted her to ‘build blocks’ with him in his room but soon was dragging Marta to ‘play’ . Megan had to fight off Dexter from bed while getting ready to clean the ink she just had done in honor of her Mom..

Plus all three had laundry from getting caught in a monsoon a few days ago.

While Jean got John down for bed, I made a late night run to Meijers for some fresh fruit plus some stuff for her cooking club on Monday…

I had really hoped the blur would have left me alone once the calender flipped to the 7th month.

But that was not to be. Weekend started with Shasa’s funeral and ended with John puking three times in the middle of the night. So much for resting and recharging.

After Shasa’s funeral, which just left me drained, I spent most of Saturday and Sunday getting the house ready for Kathy and Mike’s visit plus the 4th of July cookout with the Maxwell’s.

We had a good visit with Kathy and Mike but Jean and I just couldn’t get into host mode at all. We spent most of the time just hanging plus Kathy and Mike made a run to pick up Christmas ornaments down by Kings Island.

Monday after they left, I cleaned the grill while Jean picked up parts for a rebuild kit. The new burners went on without a hitch.

From here, Jean, John and I headed for the golf course across the backyard where Great Games was there with their massive inflatable slides and games. John was slow to take to them since the inflatables were phyicaly hot for him. But I was able to help him past the hot spots and he had a blast going down the slides.

We ran into the Maxwell’s as we were leaving. They had dropped off their stuff for the cookout, so we ran back to get things situated then head back to the games. Sadly, one thing lead to another and we just stayed at the house. Dave and Karen and very cool and Miss E is a very smart kid. Post fireworks, we threw in the last Peter Gabriel concert DVD while the kids worked over the Playdo while they waited for the traffic to thin. One of the major joys of our place is the fact we don’t have to drive home after fireworks.

All appeared claim until 4:30 when the pukes hit John. It was so rough for the little guy and unlike the last time he picked up something this stuff stank so bad I was starting to get weak in the gut. By 6 I had emailed the Maxwell’s to make sure things were OK on their end then went to bed for about 2 hours before rolling to work and having something blow up…but that’s for another post.

Had a discussion with some friends who are staying over this weekend about the trouble with the Democratic Party.

Now I’m a very low level Democrat (a poll judge) and I’m so low that I don’t even get the newsletter but I try to stay informed on the party as best I can.

Yet the conversation reminded me of one of the major issues I’ve had in the last few months since the election.

Many on the left and even a few in the center have looked at the GOP with the sense of envy, hate and fear as they hold control of two of the three branches with the ability to take the third now with the retirement of Justice O’Connor.

This comes out in book after book, show after show, email after email and in the end it’s just intellectual whining that doesn’t do a thing.

We have become a national of analysts but not of doers. The too many good people have sat back and did nothing. The result is the government that we as a nation deserve.

Shasa Wood died this week.

She was 14 months old and there is just nothing you can write about the idea of losing a child that young other than to ask for prayers for Tracy, Bob and Xander.

Last few weeks have been just one big blur for me which is part of the reason I haven’t been posting as much.

In the month of June, just at work mind you, the director over my group was let go, I was asked to help organize a symposium on library services for the blind, our Admin left to take another job and then my training registration process came unhinged while try to get everyone trained by Aug while folks are out of the office for vacations and membership gatherings.

Home was spent working with the city for a variance for putting up a fence (which we got approved after finding out our survey was wrong and that the planning commission thought we were going to put up a wall rather than a pool style open fence.

Needless to say, I’m stressed.