Calliope’s Blog

Does anyone have a mirror? I’d like to see my true reflection…

Posted by: calliopeblog on: October 7, 2008

I’m constantly in awe of the immaturity levels displayed by many. Sadly, that often includes my own.

It started as I drove out of work this afternoon. I was waiting to turn right, and a car in the parallel road was making a left turn onto my road. So, I turned right, knowing the car waiting at the stop sign to my left would not be able to get across because of the turning car. Well, that incensed the waiting car, and even before she had started moving (and I had already made it into my lane) she was honking her horn her at me. Whatever. I accept that sometimes in life, someone will beep their horn at you, even when it’s not a sign of danger.

Once we’d both left the campus where we work (unless she was a student, couldn’t say for sure), if we both turned left at the light then she was doomed to follow me for the next nine miles on a windy, canyon road, with no opportunity to pass. ‘Ha!’ I thought, as her left blinker flashed in my rear mirror. ‘Now I’ll show you what my car can do.’

And when I turned left, off I roared, as fast as my right pedal, the law, and safety, would allow. No good. She had a heavy right foot too. Such a heavy right foot that she decided it would be appropriate to drive trunk to hood (boot to bonnet) for the next mile, despite the hairpin bends. ‘Oh! You want it that way, do you?!’ I thought, glaring at her in my mirror.

I slowly lifted my foot off the pedal. My speedometer travelled down from 50… 45… 40… 35. At this point I could brake and not even finish a blink before she would sitting in my back seat. Too bad for her, then, there was no way I was going to speed up when she was so dangerously close. She was stuck behind me, and I wasn’t going to go any faster than I had to – my red Mustang is too pretty to have her dumb, black beamer embedded in my trunk.

And that is what I did for the next eight miles. I drove as slow as I could stand. From my rear view mirror I could practically see the steam coming out of her nose as she looked around me to see if there would be an opportunity to pass. There wasn’t. I even slowed down slightly at approaching lights, in the hopes they would turn amber and I could roll through, leaving her stuck behind the red. Alas, the universe would not cooperate with my pettiness.

Still, I got a sick thrill from teaching her a lesson. And the lesson is that it’s not safe to drive up against someones bumper. And also, that Sarah Fisher still has a bit of growing up to do…

– Sarah

PS. I’d like to defend myself by adding that there was no one else behind her – it really would be selfish and petty to hold up a whole line of traffic and I wouldn’t stoop quite that low.

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October Classic

Posted by: calliopeblog on: October 4, 2008

My eighteenth October has finally arrived, as well as my first semester in college, and I am welcoming both with open arms. Summer has been long and hard for me, and I can say that I am ready for a much needed change in season. Over here in Los Angeles the change in seasons is subtle, but if you look closely you’ll see the leaves beginning to turn brown and the air beginning get cooler. Autumn is probably the most poetic of all seasons, with the exception of Spring, and this is why I like it. Hemingway said that one always feels immortal in the warmer seasons, especially Summer. You lose focus, have too much fun and, eventually, burn out. But when Fall comes around and the cool wind chills your cheeks you begin to come to the harsh realization that all of this will end someday.

October is a great month for Los Angeles this year. The L.A. Dodgers are in the playoffs and, as of this moment, they are ahead of the Chicago Cubs in the National League Division Series. The Dodgers tend to disappoint me year after year, but as of now I can finally find solace in the great American sport of baseball. I’ve always believed baseball to be the most poetic and Romanic of all American sports, and the great old October classic always puts me in somewhat of a contemplative mood. 

Last month I watched the New York Yankees play their last game at the historic Yankee Stadium. Next year they will move across the street to their new, improved ballpark, but I couldn’t help but feel nostalgic for all of the memories I have attached to the Yankees and their great ballpark in The Bronx. But I managed to wipe my tears away when I watched the Dodgers massacre the Cubs in the first two games of the NLDS.

October is quite an ironic month, if you examine it closely. It is a month in which we celebrate. Oktoberfest, Halloween and the MLB postseason all amount to a large party for most of the nation. But it is also a month in which we watch the leaves slowly fall to the ground and die, making way for the bitter cold that we all will face in wintertime. But it is also time for a nice change, and I’ve been looking forward to Autumn 2008 for a long time. So far it’s living up to my expectations.

– James Draney

This week’s Calliope column.

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Lazing on a Rainy Afternoon

Posted by: calliopeblog on: October 4, 2008

Well, I have been in Los Angeles for nearly four months now and have yet to see one drop of rain. By the looks of the angry clouds gathering over the hill across the road from my apartment, I’d say that’s all about to change. Having been raised in England, where the average number of rainy days per year runs to about 320*, I can’t decide if the approaching showers are hostile, or welcoming. 

Part of me has missed the rain. There’s something comforting about sitting in a warm room, cosy inside while outside a torrential storm batters the soil, the patio furniture, the parked cars, and the unfortunate pedestrians (always funny to watch, never funny to be). In fact, now I’m watching the clouds and noticing the atmosphere change, and wishing the drops would start falling already so I can make myself a mug of tea and curl up with my book. I can do that on a sunny day too, I realize, but on a rainy day it’s imperative. 

There’s another part of me that has been very glad to wave goodbye to the grey skies of England, however. It’s impossible to plan an outdoor event there, for example. Even a BBQ planned for July is an uncertainty, frustratingly. Here in California you can plan any outdoor event all summer and the biggest thing to worry about is finding enough shade to recover from the heat. 

I’m naturally an indoor person, even over here, but I’ve surprised myself by getting something akin to a tan, on my arms at least. It’s a total by-product of existence in Los Angeles – even just the walk from the apartment to the car is guaranteed to put some colour** in the skin. 

So, the point of this weather ramble (yes, that is incredibly English of me) is to say that the coming rain (hurry up already) makes a nice change, but I wouldn’t want it to become too frequent a visitor.

– Sarah

* Disclaimer: Statistic gathered from the Memory Bank of Ms. Fisher.

** Yes, in America it’s ‘color’, not ‘colour’, but when just writing as myself I can’t bear to drop the extra U. Poor little U, so cavalierly dismissed by the Americans. For simplicity’s sake, or out of sheer laziness? I’ll have to research the reasons behind the butchering of traditional English spellings, but no matter what, I can’t break 24 years of writing habit just because a red squiggly line in the editing page of a WordPress blog tells me to.

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Ladders and Original Fantasy

Posted by: calliopeblog on: October 4, 2008

I fell down a ladder today.   Rather, I slid, holding on tightly and forcing my feet to keep contact with the steps as they bumped their way down step by step.    I landed on my feet, with only minor scrapes on my arm.

I have once again managed to survive the plight of my own clumsiness, receiving only minor injuries and a short rebuke from the stage manager, who forbade me to ever hurry down the ladder in a not-so-safe fashion again.

Like so many of my recent injuries, it could have been much worse.   My arm stings, but it didn’t even bleed.

I blame my lack of coordination (for today, at least) on the fact that I stayed up til 5:30 AM reading the 2nd book in the Twilight saga.    I’m surprised I made it through the day conscious on just 2 hours of sleep, so minor ladder injuries are really not such a big deal.

Now I want to get the third book, and even though I have things I need to be doing, I feel the compulsion pressing in the back of my mind to finish the story, to obtain resolution — even though I suspect that, like so many book series, even the last book will leave me with a lingering lack of closure.

This is why I love and hate reading book series… I love the thrill and the immersion of it, knowing that the story doesn’t end with just one book, but that I have more to anticipate and enjoy.   But at the same time, it’s a bit annoying, knowing that I will feel compelled to continue reading them one after the other until they’ve all been read, and then I’ll slowly ease out of my fiction-stupor as the withdrawal symptoms subside.

I know how it feels to read a great fantasy series, one that captures the mind and imagination, but what does it take to write one?   I’ve been wanting to write a fiction series for quite some time now, and have actually been working on one for several years, but I worry that it will be unoriginal.

Have all the good plotlines been taken?  Have all the captivating characters already been created, and all the immersive fantasies been used up already?     How can I follow the likes of Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, or even Twilight, without seeming like just another imitation, a pathetic attempt at an already flooded fantasy genre?

What does it take to write original fantasy?  Does it require new rules — like breaking the traditional guidelines for vampires?   Does it require new creatures, beings unlike the dwarves, dragons, vampires, werewolves, and wizards so widely used in fantasy?   Or does it just take a unique plot, one that breaks the usual “hero with unknown origin or ability discovers his own strength when faced with a dangerous but vital quest”?    Then again, how can you escape the fact that all fantasy stories must use at least some of these familiar elements in order to fulfill expectations for fantasy?      Or must they?

“There’s nothing new under the sun…” but is there a way to use the familiar elements and still be truly original?

– Crystal

(Originally posted October 2, 08)

Chaos

Posted by: calliopeblog on: October 4, 2008

I’ve realized that I enjoy chaos, but only if I’m not the one responsible for controlling it.

I work a live animal show, so it is common for things to go wrong — birds fly off, animals don’t do behaviors as they’re expected to, etc.   Sometimes, the people are the cause of the chaos, like forgetting to set up a prop or missing a cue.  One moment everything is going along perfectly, and the next we’re all running around backstage like madmen trying to get to our spots to compensate for whatever went wrong.

I relish in those moments of chaos.  It’s exciting and fun, a break in the routine that disturbs the monotony and adds some interest to the daily rhythm of the job.   We all understand that things happen, so it’s no big deal… just something to laugh about and a funny story to tell my friends.

When I’m responsible for controlling things, however, I don’t like chaos at all.    I spent a brief period working at an elementary school, and I remember the feeling of panic that writhed within me as I attempted to calm and control a classroom of disorderly 8-year-olds.   I was responsible for maintaining order, so in that case the chaos meant failure for me, guilt and a sense of fear at the question: “What if I can’t regain control?”

Chaos is so much easier to take when I’m not the one in control.  Then, I can sit back and enjoy the humor of it without fear of repercussion.    I think attempt to maintain control is a leading cause of stress in many people’s lives.   If they could just learn to let go, and to accept that in life, things happen that we can’t control, they might be able to relax a bit.   Maybe they could even learn to relish the chaos.

– Crystal
(Originally posted October 1, 08)

Massage Message

Posted by: calliopeblog on: October 4, 2008

Today, I got a free massage at work from a professional masseuse!  It was wonderful, and helped to relieve some of the tension in my shoulders and neck.

However, I had a moment when I saw the sign-up sheet (”Massage Sign-Up”) where I wondered if I had read it correctly.  Massages at work?  Or did it say messages?

This brings up a common complaint with the English language — why are so many of our words so similar?

We’ve got messages and massages, pubic and public — I’ve seen that typo more than once! — and the worst, the words that are actually spelled exactly the same, but mean different things or are pronounced differently based on the context, like “live” and “read” and “lead”.

And yet — here’s the amazing part — even a small child can learn and properly use the different forms of words without much effort.   Of course, we all get confused now and again, but in general most people have a functional understanding of the different usages of each word, proper contexts, correct pronunciations, etc., by a very young age.

When I think about this, I am astonished at the human ability for language.  Not only can our memory contain an endless number of grammatical rules (and exceptions to them!), but we also have the ability to communicate complex, abstract ideas with little complication.   I mean, really, how do you explain the feeling of “anger” or “sadness,” or even “love” to a child just beginning to learn language… and yet we all know exactly what those words mean, when to use them, how to use them, and even how to be more precise with specifying degrees of each feeling, such as “furious,” “irate,” or “frustrated” instead of just “angry.”

We are linguistic beings, obviously, with brains not only capable of, but proficient in, the use of symbolic sounds to capture and communicate our ideas.

I’m not sure why this is so impressive to me, except perhaps that as a writer, I am fascinated by the power of language to impact the human heart and mind, and our ability as individuals to use that language to communicate such complex and abstract concepts.

– Crystal

(Originally posted September 30, 08)

Sarah Fisher: Hobo Chic the Early Years

Posted by: calliopeblog on: October 4, 2008

I think I’ll be the one and only blogger in the world not giving my opinion on the $700 billion bail out rejection. This is because I haven’t quite decided what to make of it yet. When I do, I’ll throw in my meaningless opinion too, because it’s what bloggers are supposed to do.

Instead, I’m going to get excited because I’m growing up in this world. First of all, I am staying late at work most days to finish stuff up. That’s dedication my friends, because evenings are very important to me. This is the first sign that I am becoming An Adult. Secondly, I just bought patio furniture. That’s right, I parted with the precious green stuff to buy a nice little garden table and two cute garden chairs for my lovely west-facing balcony. That is called ‘nesting’, and it’s what Grown Ups do. Now I just need to experiment with the idea of cooking real food and not existing off La Salsa and Jamba Juice. 

It actually just occurred to me in the moment of typing this that perhaps today, with the economy all in a crisis and all, might not have been the best day to buy that furniture, come to think of it. Maybe I should have waited a week or two, made sure I still have a job this time next month. Oh well, too little too late, and if I’m thrown out in the harsh world of unemployment, at least I’ll have my patio table to live under on Santa Monica beach with the other bums.

– Sarah

(Originally posted September 29, 08)

What Does Writing Mean to You?

Posted by: calliopeblog on: October 4, 2008

For me, writing has always been a form of expression, an outlet for feelings of sadness, or excitement, or anxiety, or anger.  Even when I was young, I used writing as a type of therapy, pouring my thoughts and feelings out on the page.

The strange thing was that I never really kept a journal.  Instead, I usually translated my feelings into fiction or poetry, creating imaginary situations to capture what I was feeling while allowing myself a way of experiencing things from another angle.

What does writing mean to you?

– Crystal

(Originally posted September 29, 08)

Living Biblically on a Sunday

Posted by: calliopeblog on: October 4, 2008

I love Sundays, though they always make me a bit sad. I’m considering a career in politics, and my first act will transform Sunday into the first 48-hour day. We can skip Thursday to make up for it. Thursday is always a rough day in my mind – far enough into the week for me to exhausted, and tantalizingly close enough to the weekend to be frustrating. I like the sound of Tuesday, plus it’s the day I was born (full of grace – alas, no), and Wednesday is the funnest one to spell. So Thursday, you’ve gotta go to make room for my new 48-hour Sunday. 

Changing tack from Twilight, I’ve started reading The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs. It’s his one year quest to live by every law, rule, and code of conduct in the Bible. As an agnostic who is also technically Jewish, for him it’s an interesting exploration of the behavior of religious folk and the reasons behind their beliefs. It’s also a journey of discovery – agnostic being another word for ‘religiously uneducated’ in his case, the project gives him a chance to actually learn about religion in order to make an educated decision about what he chooses to believe. I’m not skipping to the end to find out what he concludes on day 365. So far, one month in with an itchy beard and a confusing list of the obvious rules (a la the Ten Commandments), and the lesser-known, crazy sounding rules (such as attaching tassles to clothing), he’s wary of religion, but always respectful. In turn, his biggest reason for undertaking the experiment was so that he could raise his young son with a definite idea what to teach him, which is a totally respectable reason. No matter what the outcome is at the end of the book, at least when his kid asks him why he believes / doesn’t believe in this ‘God’ he keeps hearing about, Jacobs can give him an honest, and, more importantly, informed response.

– Sarah

(Originally posted September 28, 08)

What I’m Reading Now

Posted by: calliopeblog on: October 4, 2008

I finished Twilight. The writing actually got better towards the end, or perhaps I noticed its failings less thanks to an action-packed plot in the final third of the novel. I think it might actually make a much better film than it did a novel. A film can capture the highly visual story, and cut out the frustrating first person dialogue. How many times in one 500 page novel can a character be described as dazzlingly beautiful?! Which, obviously, Robert Pattinson is (see below) but honestly, I got sick of reading about how beautiful Edward Cullen is, along with how clumsy Bella Swan is. It’s lazy and repetitive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In other news, I’m sure everyone knows by now that the legend of cinema and salad dressing, Paul Newman, has passed out of this life and gone to the ranch in the sky (geddit? Ranch? Oh hardy-ha-ha). It’s a sad day for the state of Hollywood greats – there are so few true stars left. Modern ‘celebs’ are mostly just ships passing in the night. But Paul Newman was an icon of cinema, an actor who left an indelible mark on decades of filmmaking. It’s just such a shame he had to get old – someone so ludicrously handsome should be preserved in their glory, not allowed to age, and sag, and grow wrinkly.

And, my final thought for the day – ever wondered if you’re a raging egomaniac? Well, just check out your own Facebook profile. Apparently, a new study shows that there might be a correlation between a persons level of narcissism, and how they portray themselves on the social networking site. Call me crazy, but doesn’t that seem a tad obvious? The whole idea of creating a page dedicated to your pictures, your thoughts, your quotes, your biography, is pretty self-appraising. But that’s the world we live in, and besides, most people sign up to spy on their friends’ pictures anyway, not to carefully craft a detailed personal page. So it’s how use your page says something about you. I chose a picture of me that I think makes me look half way decent  - I guess the very fact that I took time to consider it makes me a narcissist. My ‘About Me’ section is empty, mostly because I’m friends (to some degree or other) with most everyone I’m ‘Friends’ with on the good ol’ FB, so I figure no one needs my life story.

And even if they do, they can just wait for my memoirs. There you go, that’s something more narcissistic than a Facebook profile – an autobiography! I’ve yet to start writing one, so I guess I’m doing okay for now. ) Besides the fact that I just wrote about my own Facebook profile…

– Sarah

(Originally posted September 28, 08)

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