An Unexpected Proposal

     I should begin by sharing that my future bride and I are avid Tolkienites.  Though I'm ascribed the honor of resident Star Wars nerd where I teach by virtue of the many Lego Star Wars vessels hanging from my classroom ceiling and advisorship of the Sci-Fi Club, The Lord of the Rings is without question my sci-fi/fantasy franchise of choice.  So when it came time to propose, I knew from the outset it ought to be very us.  And frankly, few things are more Laura and me than a shared penchant for British period drama, which we agree finds a kind of high-water mark in Tolkien's saga of wise, immortal Elves; stout-hearted Dwarves; brave Hobbits; sinister Orcs; and us, humankind, a last hope for the becoming world in a long-past, mythical epoch of transition known as Middle-Earth, of which the central conflict, of course, hinges upon the Ring of Power, the One Ring forged by the Dark Lord Sauron in a bygone age, with the power to ruthlessly dominate all life.

     Now, I honestly can't recall a longstanding notion of how I wished to propose to my future wife, but I chose to ask Laura to marry me December 13, 2013, the very night we attended an

Dickens' Favorite Kid

He wrote 15 novels, and the story goes, his favorite of these well-regarded children was David Copperfield, the 877 pages of which I recently finished, and found myself moved to believe it one of my favorites as well.  Now, to be fair, it is to date my only cover-to-cover Dickens experience, so calling it my favorite Dickens is accurate by any standard.  I mean then it's become one of my all-time favorites, and one to which I may return.  It was touching, compelling, poetic, and everything else a novel should be.  What's more, you'll find in the opening chapters maybe the most poignant description of childhood in not only the Victorian canon, but in all of literature.  It isn't surprising to find

Indian Summer Blues

I've been acquainting myself with a collection of solo piano tunes called Indian Summer by jazz legend Dave Brubeck.  Of course, I made it through another working summer seeking enrichment and renewal in many ways.  But in the end, the seemingly endless parade of concerns concurrent with my job take their toll, and I resolved to spend the last two weeks of summer vacation keeping an intentional distance from work, a kind of Indian summer in itself.  And Brubeck helped. 

Summer school's a pretty relaxed and straightforward enough gig, though not entirely conducive to a sense of real "staycation," especially in light of all the fun and trip-taking so many close family and friends seemed to have enjoyed.  I had plenty of fun myself, for sure: saw my lady quite a bit, swam and barbecued, read and wrote, and otherwise tried taking it easy as often as I could afford to.  But here's hoping this was my last summer spent teaching.  Altogether it really wasn't so bad; the kids were great, and all went fairly smooth-like, everything considered.  At the same time, I'm naturally anxious to have a bit more balance,

A Little Revolution

It's been more than a year that I've neglected Serenity Now, and with good reason; the majority of my artistic life has been spent making progress on the most ambitious creative project of my life so far, a novel called Stuart Delaney.  Now that I've managed to make it a quarter of the way through that literary behemoth, I felt like there was a little room to breathe and take a day or two to share some of the thoughts that have drifted through my mind since the recent Criterion blu-ray release of the 1971 dark comedy and downright epically unassuming cinematic treasure Harold and Maude, which is more than a little apropos since many of its themes run through my own opus, not the least of which include a wayward vocational vector, rejection of social mores, and youthful disillusionment.