Black & White Nonfiction
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More than 250 species of trees (native and introduced) have been recorded in Illinois. Illinois forests provide habitat for more than 420 vertebrate species.
When you are first meeting a tree, it is ok to have feelings of shyness. Proceed with patience, introduce yourself calmly and if you want to use a lighter wind whisper or lean gently along the trunk, it is recommended that you first ask permission.
After asking permission, you should wait for the tree to answer. The tree won't always respond in the way you would like and you might have to come back the next day. Please respect that the tree might need some space and time and that it might have been exposed to trauma, including being side swiped by an axe, witnessing a natural disaster, losing all of it's leaves each year and nearly freezing to death, seeing sometimes their entire family being murdered so that a human could have toilet paper, and being left by a lover who went to build a snowperson instead.
Really, you have to give your tree a whole lot of credit for still standing!
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Mushin’ around is a prime time drama about shrooms that are a little extra in a forest that always has something exhilarating happening just on top of the mossy surfaces. In it’s infancy, the show was meant to be a docudramedy appealing to the scientific community who felt they had a sense of humor. Hard core mycologists and forest fanatics were drawn to the crazy antics of these shrooms and their unique personalities. The scientific community’s Skype was sizzling with excitement, especially when they were waiting for their solutions and procrastinating on putting in another order to replace broken test tubes. Microscopes were also having a magnificent time! Could this be a genre bending nonfiction dramedy? Could this be an anti capitalistic statement with recommendations to prevent further climate change? Could this actually be a reality show set in a forest? Either way, it’s easy to understand the almost alarming long standing baited breath. And so, what was supposed to be a one off show became more of a running thing, with a whole cast of memorable characters and their daily joys and struggles because that’s what happens when the world demands something (I guess?).
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Based on a true story is an exhibit currently at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) in Chicago but it also makes me think of the visceral nonfiction that is part of being alive. Yet, we are horrible self reporters of our own history. We remember everything a little wrong and that is why some of us go to great lengths to document each important moment with a camera. But, sometimes we hear certain stories often enough to convince us we knew exactly what happened as if we were hovering above ourselves as an objective ghost.
I was born into this world probably without an Apgar score in a small hospital in upstate NY. No one realized the only doctor on staff had Alzheimer’s Disease until he asked my dad how to deliver me. My dad then asked this of the floor and didn’t receive an answer. My mom was planning on having 5 children until I came along and I was told I was “enough!” I spent the first couple of weeks of my life in an incubator too small for me because of a hole in my lung and the hospital actually charged my parents an extra $2,000 even though it was clearly the fault of the doctor.
Anyway, we humans are born screaming in protest before we could ever fathom crawling or walking and maybe there’s a reason for that. Some of us don’t ever quiet down.
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For the flickr group, "Smile on Saturday," and this week's (4-22-2023) theme, "Words." These are words from a page in my second book, "A Knock in the Attic."
Here's the link for those that might be interested in learning more about my book:
Or for those who wish to buy here's the Amazon link:
www.amazon.com/gp/product/1977239374/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin...
The book's cover is in the first comment section, below.
This book is a memoir by Deborah Levy where she reflects on both her personal life and the process of writing and meanders through time and influences so you get a little bit of an idea of how her mind works.
www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/06/cost-living-deborah...
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I recently finished short prose/essays by Elena Ferrante where she wrote about a subject each week for a year for The Guardian and rather enjoyed her musings on being an author, mother, human, lover of films, admirer of Daniel Day Lewis, and being Italian,
readingintranslation.com/2019/11/11/self-construction-by-...
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I finished my 76th book of the year a couple of days ago which is where this quote is from a memoir-Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh…Allie draws and writes short prose about everything from being a child curious about her next door neighbor, becoming her own friend, the suicide of her sister, and a dog with a catastrophic health issue. Brosh is funny but real or amusing yet honest. Ultimately, you feel like you just have to love this human.
simonandschusterpublishing.com/alliebrosh/
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"In the beginning, nearly fourteen billion years ago, all the space and all the matter and all the energy of the known universe was contained in a volume less than one-trillionth the size of the period that ends this sentence."
-'Astrophysics for People in a Hurry' by Neil DeGrasse Tyson
More interesting facts from the book I posted in My June Blog
Which do you prefer...or maybe both at the same time?
I just finished a couple of books-the Removed by Brandon Hobson about a Native family who is the victim of a police murder and faces struggles with drug use and Alzheimer's Disease and also a non fiction book called The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human by Jonathan Gottschall.Two very different books but both worth reading.
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Carmen Maria Machado conveys what it was like to live her life in an emotionally abusive relationship with another woman in this very honest, reflective, and sometimes brutal account which also explores how abusive relationships involving women are historically not taken very seriously.
www.npr.org/2019/11/05/776316011/in-the-dream-house-inven...
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Highly recommending "It's What I Do" by war photographer Lynsey Addario. Truly one of the most riveting memoirs I've ever read.
I am the author of both of these nonfiction books. The first, "Riding with Ghosts, Angels, and the Spirits of the Dead" was published in September of 2020, and my second book, "A Knock in the Attic," was published in February of 2021. I'm working on my third now, also nonfiction, as well as a horror novel.
Both books are available online at all major booksellers: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, etc.
www.amazon.com/Riding-Ghosts-Angels-Spirits-Dead-ebook/dp...
www.amazon.com/Knock-Attic-Spine-chilling-Paranormal-Adve...
Books on a Blanket for the flickr group, "Smile on Saturday!" and August 7th's theme: "BEGINS WITH B".
Great signage seen as Chicagoans celebrate Biden's electoral win back in November. I also want to recommend a book I read recently that was amazing called Children of the Land by Marcelo Hernandez Castillo. I highly recommend this book….a poetic nonfiction book about a Mexican family and all of the real horrors of just trying to exist in a space in this country and how hard we make it. It is unjust, it is inhumane and it needs to stop.
www.npr.org/2020/01/25/799470733/marcelo-hernandez-castil...
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A relax space designed for lucky UC Berkeley students in the 1920s, located within the huge Doe (main) Library. It’s still wonderful and open to all— with mysteries, nonfiction, new magazines, book reviews, you name it. The room is open to the public, so long as one obeys the simple rules. View from my comfortable couch. grad.berkeley.edu/news/egrad/morrison-library/
I actually can't recall exactly where in Europe this is but time and space are merely an illusion. Quote is from Carlo Rovelli's Reality is Not What it Seems about black holes and is timely because astronomers recently found a massive and fast growing black hole. Spoiler alert: we're all trapped inside and probably just don't realize it. How else can we explain modern events?
www.cnn.com/2018/05/16/health/fastest-growing-black-hole-...
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Don't just question the instant and its history
Question the need to use punctuation
To indicate the need for information
In an age that was different from now
When facts and alternative facts were not just
A touch away
Question the ruin of us
Who rely on others instead of our own intuition
On digital information over human interaction
Who cannot distinguish the nonfiction from imagination
Who think the opinions of others are more important
Than our own understanding of self.
Question the ruins of creativity
The idea that what you have in your brain
Can't be as good as an AI mechanism
So why get better at something
When you could just zone out and
Not feel anything at all.
When we talk about ruins
We think of physical things so
Let me make it easier for you
Questions the ruins
You still have potential in your brain
You're not done dead yet.
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Emil Ferris is one of those humans who you can just sense their utter brilliance. I literally think it's an amazing gift to share the same respiratory space with such an amazing human. I was thrilled to be able to speak to Emil after the Q and A following The Music Box Theater's documentary of Art Spiegelman entitled Disaster is My Muse (This should be available on PBS in the upcoming months according to the director)
I was telling Emil Ferris about this nonfiction book I was reading called Beyond Anxiety by Martha Beck, who speaks about how a creativity cycle can disrupt an anxiety cycle. I think many of us artists in this current political climate are feeling increasingly restless and hopeless. Channeling that into art is a good idea at this time.
In any case, this is a great film and Emil Ferris's My Favorite Thing is Monsters (Book 1 and 2) is absolutely phenomenal. Highly recommended!
In these current times, the monsters are humans who have been given absolute power to enforce their wills and desires on all. Every day is a new horror and destruction of human rights. Some will try to counter this by praying ceaselessly. Others, like myself, will continue to maximize their time on Earth by doing art every spare moment. It is perhaps the only way to cope with the madness of reality and maybe enough of us could create a new world out of the embers left.
More about Emil Ferris: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emil_Ferris
If you haven't read My Favorite Thing is Monsters, you haven't led a complete life. Here's a link for more info: www.fantagraphics.com/products/my-favorite-thing-is-monst...
More about Disaster is My Muse: www.imdb.com/title/tt32276169/
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I'm not a religious person so I don't really celebrate Easter but Happy Easter if you do! I enjoyed these elegant mannequins with their bunny heads. I'll be spending Easter at a book club discussing the book of essays, Impossible Owls, by Brian Phillips. Some of these I liked more than others but they are definitely quite diverse from topics like Iditarod, Suma Wrestling, Russian animator Yuri Norstein, and even UFOs.
brevity.wordpress.com/2019/06/28/a-review-of-impossible-o...
If you want a film recommendation today, I think the Italian film, Happy as Lazarro/Lazarro Felice (currently streaming in the US on Netflx) is a great one. It's a 2018 film directed by Alice Rohrwacher and has one of the best endings:
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This quote is taken from another book I read this year-The Lost Tribe of Fatherless Girls by T Kira Madden, whose mother was of Chinese Hawaiian descent and father was Jewish American. She was raised in Florida and had to cope with both dysfunctional parents as well as the racism she experienced within her family and at school. This is also a story of her falling in love with another woman. I swear I have read more than just memoirs this year, though it seems like lately I have been drawn to them more than usual!
www.npr.org/2019/03/06/700325158/long-live-the-tribe-of-f...
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Ольга Мезенцева, Мария Рогачева, Тамара Гаянова. Семинар по разработке региональных программ по поддержке детского и юношеского чтения в России. Российская государственная детская библиотека и 20-ая Международная ярмарка интеллектуальной литературы non/fictio№ при поддержке Федерального агентства по печати и массовым коммуникациям провели День библиотекаря.
Мария Рогачева - генеральный директор московской дирекции по развитию культурных центров на Дне библиотекаря на Non/fiction 2018/
copyright: © FSUBF. All rights reserved. Please do not use this image, or any images from my photostream, without my permission.
Quite literally. There is little in life, if any, that I have enjoyed as much as riding this sweet, sweet machine. Almost 114,000 miles so far.
The adventures we have shared! The wonderful memories we have made!
And, she was the vehicle—both literally and figuratively—for my award-winning multicategory best selling nonfiction book: "Riding with Ghosts, Angels, and the Spirits of the Dead."
Gates I discovered off a dead-end road and enclosing an empty lot. Photoshop effects complete the image, of course.
Выставка «Детская книга 1917–2017. История с продолжением» — первая попытка представить историю советской и российской литературы в её динамике, в её многогранном и порой непредсказуемом развитии. Стартовая дата, 1917-й, выбрана не только по случаю векового юбилея октябрьского переворота, но и в связи со 100-летием со времени выхода основополагающей детской книги — поэмы «Крокодил» Корнея Чуковского». Организаторами выступили издательство «КомпасГид», компания «ЭКСПО-ПАРК. Выставочные проекты», Российская государственная детская библиотека и Российская государственная библиотека. При поддержке Федерального агентства по печати и массовым коммуникациям. Организованна в рамках 19-й Международной ярмарки интеллектуальной литературы non/fiction.
Excerpt taken from the Nonfiction work by Carlo Rovelli which looks at quantum physics and gravity and which I understood probably only about a third of but was fascinated by. Rovelli is Italian and is considered to be making things like black holes sexy for the masses by some. (I thought Lee Bontecou already did that, though)
I have a very different view of mass...and gravity.
But, basically we're all really drifting through a black hole and also I'm still in the wrong timeline. In my other timeline, I've never even heard of Trump, I assure you.
This photo was taken from Rome, which might be in a slightly different location within the black hole than Chicago.
More on this mesmerizing book here:
www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2017/02/01/512798209/reality-is...
**All photos are copyrighted. Please don't use without permission**
A short excerpt from the wise fantastic autobiographical adventure of Yiyun Li. Photo from Berlin.
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Another found subject (previously visited) during the TAG project hunt! This would have been quite the house...
Bonaventure Cemetery sits on a steep bluff above the Wilmington River. The cemetery is considered a must see when visiting Savannah, mainly because the cemetery is a big part of the (nonfiction) "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" book. There are guided tours by golf car, Segway and on foot. It is an interesting place, it is sold out but still has burials for lot owner's family members
I recommend a visit to Bonaventure when in Savannah, but Laurel Grove is the cemetery for photography. First burial in 1853, sold out by the 1890's and with few burials after about 1920 it has much more artistic memorials and lots of sculpture - also few visitors.
The bluff above the river at Bonaventure is stabilized with large rocks - mostly stone from the monument makers. They used cracked or broken stones and cutting mistakes and imbedded them in the bluff to stop erosion. I think this stone must have been used for that and washed out and fell.
Bonaventure Cemetery, Thunderbolt, Chatham County, Georgia,
Rejected by admin for group " Cemeteries, Graveyards, Tombstones and Mausoleums".
...I'd like more time in my days; but alas, school and family and work should be priorities and have been especially demanding lately.
Just a quick lil' shot, this week has been a bit busy, but it'll definitely wind down pretty soon. Since I got Christmas break starting next week, I think I'll try and use some time to do that stop-motion test I've been wanting to do with that one character. We'll see though. Any who, that's it for now, I hope you have a good one!
Resolution in 2010: Read more... Less coffee.
The Drink: Tea Indian style with milk and Cinnamon
The Book: IRON JOHN: A Book About Men by Robert Bly.
Bly now 84, is an American Poet, Storyteller and Group Therapist.
"Bound and weary I thought best
To rest upon my mother's breast."
There's a dozen or so years from my early life ;-)
I have no clue where I found this...it is off a paved road on the way to Nebraska to return my friend to her home, last fall.
Explore #255.