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| Antidote has very interesting art. |
Sara
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Picture of The Day
Sara
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Picture of The Day
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| NanoFiction Series at Kaboom Books? Mm, I think I'll head out there for that. |
Saturday, October 30, 2010
P.S; books.
Today, I bought four new books at Kaboom:
Yeah, I'm pretty excited about these.
Sara
- A River Sutra, by Gita Mehta. From the back of the book:
"Evokes the Indian landscape so sharply that we can practically smell the night-blooming jasmine... the sense that things are richer and more meaningful than they seem, that life is both clear and mysterious, that the beauty and the horror of this world is irreducible and inexplicable." -Washington Post Book World
- Flaming Iguanas: An Illustrated All-Girl Road Novel Thing, by Erika Lopez. An excerpt:
"Magdalena and I are gonna cross America on two motorcycles. We're gonna be so cool, mirrors and windows will break when we pass by. We'll have our own hardcore theme music that makes us throw our heads back and bite the sky. Bugs may stick to my burgundy lipstick, but I'll just spit them back and they'll look all the prettier for it."
- The Abortion: An Historical Romance 1966, by Richard Brautigan. From the cover:
"This novel is about the romantic possibilities of a public library in California."
- House of Leaves, by Mark Z. Danielewski. From the back of the book:
Its secrets are rich and obscure. Danielewski's textured novel is about apprehensions, in all senses of the word: to anticipate with dread, to seize, to understand." -Gregory Maguire
Yeah, I'm pretty excited about these.
Sara
The Third Ward
Last Wednesday, I was assigned a story concerning the family who recently won Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. The Johnsons live in the Third Ward, and their house had been severely damaged by Hurricane Ike to the point where floorboards were rotting and accumulating holes. The size of the house, too, was a problem -- the Johnson family is made up of five homeschooled girls and their parents, too large a family for a house the size of your average living room. The family was picked partially because of their contributions to the community. The two adults, Elaine and Eric counsel couples and are planning to release their book next year. They're also major supporters of Houston's Green Initiative.
A fellow intern and I drove to the Third Ward to visit their new house and interview them about the process. As soon as we drove under the freeway and into the neighborhood, the change in atmosphere was incredibly clear. The houses started sloping, becoming smaller and smaller-- all chipped paint and chicken wire fences, and then no paint at all and chickens. The streets, too, were in a condition less than pristine. The edges of the road dwindled into roadside trenches. Holes pockmarked the surface. My mother and I drove through the neighborhood, craning our necks to look out the window, trying to find the proper house.
And then, from two blocks away, we saw it. Rising above bungalows in shambles with falling-apart roofs rose a house that looked more like it belonged in the McMansion section of Bellaire than among the other places. All stucco and wood and elegant wrought-iron fencing, it stuck out like a sore thumb when in front of the house across the street, a woman in threadbare clothes was shooing chickens into the dirt-and-dry-grass yard.
The interview went well -- the family proudly showed us their elegant home, documenting the entire thing on videocameras they'd just received and then playing us music on a brand new shiny red grand piano. There's no question they were a deserving family. Elaine and Eric Johnson were ready to volunteer information about everything they were doing for the community, sharing enthusiastically their family motto "live right, love all, give back." The five girls were all incredibly poised and sweet, answering questions with a "Yes ma'am" and complete, carefully articulated sentences. "We want to turn this into an Extreme Community Makeover," Elaine Johnson told us. As an article by Lisa Carey regarding the family and Home Makeover episode stated, here was Extreme Makeover helping out "another deserving, community minded family."
At the same time, though, it was hard to see. Who are we -- who is anyone-- to choose who's deserving and who's not? With run-down houses and rusty mechanical remains in lots next door, why does this family get a vast, imposing house when, for the same money, multiple smaller but equally functional and sturdy houses could be built? The family proudly said that their neighbors were happy for them and came to celebrate in their new abode, but it must have hurt at least a little to compare. Of course I'm happy for this family -- there's no doubt about that. They shouldn't have to live with a crumbling house. Then again, should anyone? Extreme Makeover crosses the country making examples of proud, large, photogenic, admittedly deserving and compassionate families and carefully avoiding camera shots of the houses next door.
I was pleased to meet the Johnsons and very happy for them that they finally would have such a wonderful place to live. They're an asset to our community, for sure.
But should this really be the reward for being "community-minded"...
When this is next door?
Sara
A fellow intern and I drove to the Third Ward to visit their new house and interview them about the process. As soon as we drove under the freeway and into the neighborhood, the change in atmosphere was incredibly clear. The houses started sloping, becoming smaller and smaller-- all chipped paint and chicken wire fences, and then no paint at all and chickens. The streets, too, were in a condition less than pristine. The edges of the road dwindled into roadside trenches. Holes pockmarked the surface. My mother and I drove through the neighborhood, craning our necks to look out the window, trying to find the proper house.
And then, from two blocks away, we saw it. Rising above bungalows in shambles with falling-apart roofs rose a house that looked more like it belonged in the McMansion section of Bellaire than among the other places. All stucco and wood and elegant wrought-iron fencing, it stuck out like a sore thumb when in front of the house across the street, a woman in threadbare clothes was shooing chickens into the dirt-and-dry-grass yard.
The interview went well -- the family proudly showed us their elegant home, documenting the entire thing on videocameras they'd just received and then playing us music on a brand new shiny red grand piano. There's no question they were a deserving family. Elaine and Eric Johnson were ready to volunteer information about everything they were doing for the community, sharing enthusiastically their family motto "live right, love all, give back." The five girls were all incredibly poised and sweet, answering questions with a "Yes ma'am" and complete, carefully articulated sentences. "We want to turn this into an Extreme Community Makeover," Elaine Johnson told us. As an article by Lisa Carey regarding the family and Home Makeover episode stated, here was Extreme Makeover helping out "another deserving, community minded family."
At the same time, though, it was hard to see. Who are we -- who is anyone-- to choose who's deserving and who's not? With run-down houses and rusty mechanical remains in lots next door, why does this family get a vast, imposing house when, for the same money, multiple smaller but equally functional and sturdy houses could be built? The family proudly said that their neighbors were happy for them and came to celebrate in their new abode, but it must have hurt at least a little to compare. Of course I'm happy for this family -- there's no doubt about that. They shouldn't have to live with a crumbling house. Then again, should anyone? Extreme Makeover crosses the country making examples of proud, large, photogenic, admittedly deserving and compassionate families and carefully avoiding camera shots of the houses next door.
I was pleased to meet the Johnsons and very happy for them that they finally would have such a wonderful place to live. They're an asset to our community, for sure.
But should this really be the reward for being "community-minded"...
When this is next door?
Sara
Friday, October 29, 2010
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Picture of The Day
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| T'afia, just off Main st. in Midtown (which, I've discovered, is one of the coolest places in the city). |
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Picture of The Day
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| Consider this a preview of my next real blog post. I have many intense articles I'm working on right now, but sometime soon I'll be writing something more on here. |
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