Category: Something Wonderful

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Humor in Music

Enjoy some musical humor.

Humorous songs have probably been around for almost as long as humans have been making music. From Weird Al Yankovic to the bizarre songs that get passed around on social media, comical tunes combine two pleasures: music and laughter.

While there’s plenty of fodder for posts on humor in music, I’m going to pick four of my favorite musical humorists to highlight in this post. I’ll start with the two that my readers are most likely to know and move on to two who are more obscure.

Peter Schickele/P.D.Q. Bach

I almost left Peter Schickele out of this post. I figured that everyone who loves classical music already knows about him, and those who don’t won’t care about him. In the end, I couldn’t omit him — it would be like leaving J.R.R. Tolkien off a list of fantasy authors. And maybe I’m wrong about his popularity, and I will actually lead someone new to discover his work!

Schickele is the humorist for people who love classical music. More than 50 years ago he created the character P.D.Q. Bach, supposedly the last of Johann Sebastian Bach’s many children. Since then, he has composed an enormous body of work under P.D.Q. Bach’s name. Nothing is sacred. Schickele shamelessly steals music from other composers with no regard to the era in which it was composed. One composition might incorporate references to Schubert, J.S. Bach, a folk song, and a television theme song.

For many Schickele fans, one of the best things about his P.D.Q. Bach compositions is his creative instrumentation. He’s used balloons, bicycles, mailing tubes, and wine bottles, among many other common objects. Even better, he’s invented instruments like the tromboon, a combination of a trombone and a bassoon, which Schickele describes as having “all of the disadvantages of both in one easy-to-schlep instrument.”

Schickele’s work extends beyond his P.D.Q. Bach compositions. He’s composed other humorous music under his own name, such as “Horse Opera for Brass Quintet,” as well as serious work, such as the film score for Silent Running. For several years he also had a radio program, Schickele Mix, which explored commonalities between several different musical pieces. One episode might include the last movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, an aria from Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro,” Strauss’ “Blue Danube” waltz, “Me & Bobby McGee,” “Mambo No. 8,” a traditional polka, and several other songs, ranging from classical to popular music.

I don’t think anyone could achieve what Schickele has done without knowing music inside and out. If by any chance, you do not know Schickele, and if you enjoy any classical musical at all, I encourage you to take the time to listen to some of his vast body of work.

Tom Lehrer

I also debated including Tom Lehrer on this list. Again, who doesn’t know him? But I felt that leaving him out would be as much a crime as leaving out Schickele.

Lehrer is probably best known for his song “The Elements” — a list of the elements on the periodic table set to Gilbert and Sullivan’s “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General.”

A mathematics professor, Lehrer wrote a few other academic compositions, including “New Math.” But Lehrer is at his best when he’s being a little wicked — wicked enough that several of his songs were banned in different countries. His earliest songs were mostly just for fun, such as his popular “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park.”

When they see us coming,

The birdies all try and hide

But they still go for peanuts

When coated with cyanide.

In the 1960s, he was hired to write songs for That Was the Week That Was, so many of his songs became more political or news-related. He didn’t hesitate to skewer anyone on the right or left as he sang songs about the folk song movement, censorship, pollution, nuclear proliferation, and the Second Vatican Council.

First we got the bomb, and that was good,

‘Cause we love peace and motherhood.

From “Who’s Next?”

In the early 1970s, Lehrer created a handful of songs (a couple of which he sang) for The Electric Company. Soon after that, he decided to leave music behind. He didn’t write very many songs during the period he was an active musician, but much of what he wrote is gold.

Flanders and Swann

Now we’re entering into more unfamiliar territory. English musicians Michael Flanders and Donald Swann attended school together, where they wrote a musical revue in 1940. They began working together again in 1948. They wrote and performed as a comedy duo until 1967. Because their careers overlapped quite a bit with Lehrer’s, I can’t help but compare them to him. When I think of Lehrer, I think of a man with a wicked sense of humor. When I think of Flanders and Swann, I think of a pair who were masters of a gentler and sillier kind of comedy. After all, some of their best-known songs are the inoffensive and very singable “The Hippopotamus” and their amusing take on the finale of Mozart’s Horn Concerto No. 4, “Ill Wind.”

But while they may not have written an ode to smut like Lehrer did (at least, not as far as I know), Flanders and Swann weren’t all sweetness and innocence. Their song “Have Some Madeira, M’Dear,” is dark and disturbing, particularly in light of the #metoo movement.

That song aside, the pair had other things in common with Lehrer. Their songs included political satire (“All Gall” poked fun at Charles de Gaulle) and references to nuclear proliferation, although their “20 Tons of TNT” is far more somber than Lehrer’s “Who’s Next?”

Children have no need of sharing;

At each new nativity

Come the ghostly Magi bearing

Twenty tons of TNT.

And, like Lehrer, the duo even turned to science for inspiration.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtEqn-5XHpU

I’m not sure that Flanders and Swann’s work has aged as well as Lehrer’s, which may account for their relative obscurity compared to him, even though they were far more prolific. But if they are new to you, you owe it yourself to look up some of their songs. Start with “The Gasman Cometh” and, if you enjoy classical music or ever played an instrument, “Ill Wind.” And if you have preschool-aged children, introduce them to some of Flanders and Swann’s animal songs — definitely “The Hippopotamus,” as well “The Gnu,” “The Warthog,” and “The Sloth.”

Anna Russell

Before there was Peter Schickele, there was Anna Russell. Not successful in opera or as a folk singer, Russell found her true calling when she started performing musical parody. Like Schickele, Russell is best appreciated by those who know classical music, though she also made references to subjects such as folk music and beat poetry (with jazz accompaniment).

While all of the performers I’ve listed here did a little spoken word performance, at least in terms of introductions, Russell’s work is a mix of music and spoken word. Her album Anna Russell, Encore? includes “The French Horn” and “How to Enjoy Your Bagpipe,” which are “lectures” on instruments. Other pieces are a combination of spoken word and music, such as her demonstration of lieder.

If you’re a fan of Schickele and don’t know Russell, you definitely should explore her work. And if you enjoy classical music but think too many people take it far too seriously, you will love Russell. Many of her albums can be purchased or streamed on Amazon and iTunes.

 

 

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Two Underrated Movies from the ’90s

Joe Versus the Volcano                       The Fisher King

Sometimes wonderful films fall off the public’s radar. Among these are Joe Versus the Volcano and The Fisher King, neither of which made The Rolling Stone’s list of the hundred greatest movies of the ’90s.

Both of these films are beautiful, even spiritual. Both involve a man on a transformative journey, although the two men start in drastically different places. Both are comedies, though they are deeper than many straightforward movies in that genre. Both have Amanda Plummer (a fact I only realized when looking at her bio on IMDB). And both are worth watching again and again.

Joe Versus the Volcano

Joe (Tom Hanks) hates his job, and rightfully so. He works as an advertising librarian in a bleak, hellish factory that manufactures rectal probes. The lights flicker. The coffee is bad. Joe’s boss won’t even let him keep a garish lamp that brings him joy, though he isn’t disturbing anyone.

When Joe goes home at night, it’s to an empty apartment that’s only a little better than his office. He has neither family nor friends. So when he is diagnosed with a terminal “brain cloud,” he snaps. He quits his job and asks a coworker on a date, which doesn’t go very well after he shares his diagnosis. He seems prepared to spend the final months of his life alone in his apartment, but that changes when a businessman appears with an enticing offer: Joe can live like a king for a few weeks if he’s willing to throw himself into an island volcano. In this way, the islanders will get what they want — a human sacrifice to appease the god of the volcano — and they will give the businessman what he wants — access to a resource on their island.

Joe takes him up on his offer and heads for the island.

The most moving scene of the movie is very spiritual, although not at all dogmatic. Following a storm, Joe is adrift on a patched-together raft with one other person, who has been unconscious the entire time. His situation seems hopeless. He’ll either die where he is, or he’ll somehow make it to the island, where he’ll have to commit suicide. And should neither of those happen, he still has only months to live. But sunburned and thirsty and with seemingly no way out, Joe says a prayer that is neither a plea for himself nor for his companion. He simply expresses awe-inspired gratitude.

I’ll say no more about this movie, but if you haven’t watched it, I urge you to do so.

The Fisher King

Unlike Joe, shock jock Jack Lucas (Jeff Bridges) is on top of the world at the beginning of his story. He’s just received an offer for a role in a sitcom. Sure, he’s having problems with his significant other, but all of that’s overshadowed by his career success.

Then something he said to a listener leads to act of violence, and Jack’s world comes tumbling down.

Three years later, Jack’s a clerk in a video store. He has a new relationship, but he’s barely holding things together. After an evening of getting drunk, contemplating suicide, and then being assaulted by a couple of teenagers, Jack is rescued by a homeless man, Parry (Robin Williams). Parry believes he is a knight in search of the Holy Grail and that Jack has been sent to help him. The plot sounds like a cliché: “man’s life is changed after he encounters a homeless person.” But the film doesn’t come off that way — in part because Jack’s path to redemption isn’t straightforward, in part because the story is propelled by the power of myth.

There are a lot of references to God in this film — from the opening minutes, when Jack declares, “Thank God I’m me,” to his girlfriend Anne’s interesting theory about women, men, God, and the devil. But it’s when Parry tells Jack the story of the Fisher King that the movie becomes spiritually powerful.

There are lots of redemption stories, but there’s something particularly wonderful about this one. Maybe because there’s more to the story than Jack’s redemption.

The next time you’re in the mood for comedy with a little weight to it, look for these two neglected films. It’s a sad day when neither of them makes a 100-best movies of the ’90s list that includes Dumb and Dumber.

 

 

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Five Wonderful Social Media Time-Wasters

We Rate Dogs is my favorite social media time suck
We Rate Dogs explains its rating system and gives birth to a meme

 

Social media can be a time-suck, but it also can provide a momentary escape.

It’s likely that you have some social media accounts you follow just for fun. I’d like to encourage you to add a few more to your list — five accounts I especially enjoy. I decided to confine myself to accounts on Twitter, Instagram, and/or Facebook. This meant that I had to leave out the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). LACMA is active on the platforms I was considering, but their Snapchat account is where they truly shine. I also chose to stick with accounts that are mostly light-hearted. That decision disqualified Humans of New York, which frequently dwells on serious subjects.

The sites listed below are in no particular order, except for the first one, which is definitely the best-known account of the group and the one that brings me the most joy.

We Rate Dogs

We Rate Dogs is on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, but — perhaps because it got started there — I really associate it with Twitter. There’s something about seeing a dog pop up in my Twitter feed that makes me smile.

Most We Rate Dogs posts are exactly what the account’s name promises. People submit photos or videos of their dogs, and the dogs are rated — always on an “out of 10” scale in which the dog’s rating exceeds a “10.” Between the photos and the ratings, you are practically guaranteed to feel happier after reading a few posts.

You don’t need to spend too much time with this account before you notice certain themes popping up. My favorite “series” involves dogs that are accused of being other fictitious animals, such as “sandy sea slugs.” One recent photo shows a happy dog in a lion costume with the accompanying comment: “This is outrageous. We do not rate Deadly Moroccan Road Lions, no matter how jubilant they may appear. We only rate dogs… 12/10.”

If you are not already familiar with We Rate Dogs, check it out on your favorite social media platform right now. You can come back to the rest of my list later.

A Small Fiction

Also on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, A Small Fiction is a microfiction account by James Miller. Some stories are funny (“‘You can’t have your cake and eat it, too.’ ‘Alright. I’ll have my cake, and eat your cake.’ ‘Wait, no, that’s–‘ ‘Who else brought cake?'”). Some are sad (“‘We won’t grow up. We’ll build tree forts and never come down,’ said the kids. ‘Good luck,’ said the adults, ‘we’re killing all the trees.'”) Some are simply beautiful (“Dog watched his human cry, concerned. Where was human’s smile? Probably lost somewhere, dog thought. That was OK. Dog knew how to fetch.”). If you’re a person who’s too busy to read for pleasure, you no longer have an excuse.

Unvirtuous Abbey

Unvirtuous Abbey has accounts on both Facebook and Twitter. These “digital monks” aren’t afraid to approach Christianity with a sense of humor and many pop culture references. In other words, these are my people. They’re a welcoming bunch, providing space for people who question faith or feel rejected by the church. Here’s a taste of what you’ll find if you visit them: In late February, Unvirtuous Abbey shared a tweet from @keet0007 about naming a German Shepherd “the Lord” so that they could say  “The Lord is my Shepherd.” In classic We Rate Dogs style, the abbey added: “13/10 would definitely walk on water with.”

Virtuous Abbey

I’d love to know what the relationship is between Virtuous Abbey and Unvirtuous Abbey. There clearly is one, because the abbeys sometimes mention each other in posts. Virtuous Abbey is the newer of the two. They post less often and have fewer followers. But despite their name, they can be every bit as irreverent as their “unvirtuous” brothers.  They describe themselves as “putting the attitude back in platitude, and the pie back in pious!” The pop culture references are there, too: in 2017, they posted an article on robot-led funerals with the comment “Ideally they’d take the form of Daleks and shout ‘Incinerate” to encourage cremation.” You can find them on Facebook and Twitter.

Queen of Luna

Saraswati, who goes by Queen of Luna on Instagram and Facebook, is a Malaysian makeup artist who incorporates her hijab into amazing cosplays. Her recent posts on Instagram have included her cosplays of Aquaman, Jessica Rabbit, Two-Face, Fiona (from Shrek), and Cinderella. I’m not usually into celebrity cosplayers, but I am awe-inspired by what she is able to do. If you are a geek, a Disney fanatic, or an aspiring makeup artist, I encourage you to follow Saraswati.

What are your favorite enjoyable ways to waste a little time on social media?

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Get Out of Your Rut… Sometimes.

photo of a rut
Photo credit: Jober788 on Morguefile

Getting Out of Your Rut is a Good Thing

A few weeks ago, I wrote a serious post about how we need to be willing to be uncomfortable if we want to make a difference.

Consider this post its light-hearted cousin: discomfort for the sake of fun.

As I mentioned in my previous post, one of the blessings of discomfort is growth. If we always eat the same sorts of food, read the same sorts of books, and see the same sorts of movies, we won’t grow.

There are countless ways to use your downtime to grow. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

  • Sneaky Cards. One of my earliest blog posts was about the interactive scavenger hunt known as Sneaky Cards. Most of us will feel stretched by at least some of the activities in this game. Anyone up for lying on the ground until someone asks if you’re okay?
  • Do One Thing Every Day That Scares You. This one-year journal is filled with inspirational quotes and assignments that encourage you to embrace discomfort. I started the journal in 2017, and a little over half-way through the year, I realized that I’d need more than a year to complete it. For most of us, life is filled with mundane details. You go to work, and when you come home, there’s dinner to make and the dog to walk and children to help with homework… you get the idea. Finding time to tackle one of the assignments in the book can easily become just one more thing on your to-do list. On my busy days, I would pick one of the easier assignments, such as “Dare to create art today.” When I got to the point where trying to fit the remaining challenges into my daily life was too overwhelming, I set the book aside. I still plan on finishing it, but I’ll do it in my own time.
  • You Can Do It! The Merit Badge Handbook for Grown-up Girls. This book is for people who loved earning merit badges — or wish they’d had the chance to earn some. You can choose from 60 badges, including filmmaking, speaking a foreign language, fire walking (think I’ll skip that one), snow sports, car care, and genealogy. There are even badge stickers in the back of the book. (Okay, they aren’t patches, but were you really going to sew your “starting a rock band” badge to a vest and wear it? You were? Maybe you can make your own and sew them to a vest you make to earn your “sewing” badge.) Despite the title, there is no reason a man couldn’t use this book to stretch himself. He can just skip over the female-oriented things, like a sidebar about “Gyno Know-How” in the “healthcare” badge section.
  • A Year of Reading the World and Global Table Adventure. Two different bloggers, two different challenges: you can read your way around the world or cook your way around the world. If you’re obsessive, like me, you can do both, and even see if you can find movies and music from each country you tackle.
  • Tyler Cowen’s suggestions for avoiding complacency. Tyler Cowen believes that Americans are becoming too complacent. Part of the problem is technology; companies figure out what we like and serve up more of the same. Part of it is our own refusal to move or to embrace the new. I’ll address some arguments against Cowen in a moment, but whatever you think of his priorities, check out his ideas for fighting complacency. Pick a book for its cover? Challenge yourself to shop exclusively at a specialty grocery store for a month? Sign me up!

There Are Times When a Rut Can Be Good

I mentioned arguments against Cowen. When I was telling a friend about his “complacency quiz” (no longer available on his website), she objected to how much of an emphasis he placed on moving. My family moved a lot, and I would like to live one or two more places — at least for a little while — before I die. But staying put is beneficial for relationships. People often stay in one place to be near their family and even their friends. While I’d be one of the first people to encourage those who have never lived outside a certain area to move somewhere else for a little while, relationships are important, and they’re worth taking into consideration if you’re pondering a move.

Ruts can also simplify your life. Dr. Richard Swenson argues in favor of cutting back on the number of choices we make (what we’ll wear, what we’ll eat for breakfast, where we’ll go on vacation) in order to create margin. Many of us live at such a frantic pace that we’re sorely in need of margin — a good reason to actually embrace complacency in some areas of our lives.

And ruts, of course, are the essence of habits — bad or good. If you’ve established the habit of taking a morning walk in order to get more exercise, by all means, keep doing what you need to do. I would argue that you could shake up your routine a little by trying running, if you’re able, or by choosing a different route, but healthy habits are more important than complacency.

Now get off the computer and try something new!

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Meet Herblock, the Cartoonist Behind the Term “McCarthyism”

Herblock
Herblock coined the term “McCarthyism” in this cartoon.

 

I spent my teen years in the Washington, D.C., area. During that time, I picked up the habit of reading the newspaper — specifically, The Washington Post. I don’t know how many political cartoonists I was exposed to through The Post, but two names stuck with me: Herblock (Herbert Block) and Oliphant (Pat Oliphant).

Reading Jackie Ormes‘ biography reminded me of Herblock and made me want to learn more about him. I ended up borrowing Herblock: The Life and Works of the Great Political Cartoonist. By the time I returned the book, I’d developed a new appreciation for him as one of the most significant political cartoonists in history.

Let’s start with one of the things Herblock is best known for: the word “McCarthyism.” With one cartoon, he defined an era. But years before McCarthy became a household name, Herblock had been commenting on the government’s communist witch hunt. Many of his cartoons from the 1940s and ’50s expressed his concerns about the House Un-American Activities Committee as well as Senator Joseph McCarthy and his cronies (including Richard Nixon).

Of course, Herblock was no friend of communism. One of his most powerful cartoons (awarded a Pulitzer Prize) depicts Joseph Stalin walking away with the Grim Reaper. Stalin carries a sickle dripping with blood. The caption reads, “You were always a great friend of mine, Joseph.”

Herblock’s career spanned a little over seven decades. Although he definitely leaned to the left on most issues, he freely criticized both Republicans and Democrats. In one cartoon, Eisenhauer and Uncle Sam stand in front of a window facing a burning house labelled “Civil Rights Crisis.” Eisenhauer is wearing a fire chief’s uniform. “Tsk tsk,” he says, “somebody should do something about that.” A little over two decades later, Herblock drew Jimmy Carter standing in front of his Oval Office desk, pounding on it and yelling, “Who’s in charge here?”

Many of his cartoons were masterpieces. Herblock won two other Pulitzer Prizes in addition to the one I mentioned above. (He also shared a prize with his Washington Post colleagues for their work on Watergate.) Another of my favorites, from 1956, shows two white men standing at a Montgomery bus stop. They stare at a black family labelled “Passive Resistance.” The caption reads, “Somebody From Outside Must Have Influenced Them.” The family’s destination? A church.

Sadly, some of Herblock’s cartoons are still relevant. His 1950 get-out-the-vote cartoon shows two men yoked to a cart labelled “Totalitarianism.” One man gapes at the other and says, “You mean some can and don’t do it?” In the distance are billboards reminding readers to vote.

Still more heartbreaking is Herblock’s 1964 cartoon reflecting on Barry Goldwater’s presidential campaign. The cartoon is simply titled “An American Tragedy.” It features a man labelled “Extremism” leaning over a boat, pushing GOP moderates under the water. The boat reads, “We’re in the mainstream of Republican thinking.” I wish I didn’t feel that the cartoon accurately reflects the state of the GOP today.

You can find several books that feature Herblock’s work. In addition, many of his cartoons can be found on the website for the Library of Congress.

 

 

 

 

 

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Something Wonderful: My Ten Favorite Superwomen

My favorite of all the spectacular superwomen
Bandette is amazing, adorable, and not the least bit humble.

 

In November, I wrote about The Spectacular Sisterhood of Superwomen. During that post, I mentioned that I had started reading several comics that were mentioned in the book.

Well, I’ve made my way through a pile of books, in addition to some comics available on the web. If anything, I’m even happier I read Hope Nicholson’s decade-by-decade list of “awesome female characters from comic book history.” I didn’t choose to read every comic mentioned in the book, and there were many I would have read, but I couldn’t get my hands on them. Of those I read, there were some characters or books that left me cold. But there were some I absolutely loved. Here’s my top ten list of characters I was introduced to through Nicholson’s book. Note that not all of them are characters she chose to feature, but I discovered these characters through her book. (Okay, that’s not completely true. I knew of Squirrel Girl. I’d just never read Squirrel Girl.)

10. Squirrel Girl (from Squirrel Girl)

Squirrel Girl is one of the silliest characters on this list, but that’s part of what makes her so wonderful. While I can and do enjoy a dark graphic novel or comic book series, sometimes it’s good to read something light. Squirrel Girl fits the bill. Considering the fact that her superpowers boil down to being a human squirrel with the power to communicate with squirrels, you wouldn’t expect her to be particularly powerful, but she is. It’s the sort of comic I’d pick for someone who was at home with a nasty cold — assuming that person was open to reading comic books!

Hannah Marie from Scary Godmother

9. Hannah Marie (from Scary Godmother)

Nicholson picked the titular character from Scary Godmother for her list. Certainly, Scary Godmother is lots of fun. She knows all of the coolest ghouls, and she’s the sort of person I’d love to sit down with for a cup of tea. But her close human friend, Hannah Marie, is ridiculously cute and so fond of Halloween that I can’t help but love her. When it looks like Halloween might not happen, Hannah Marie takes charge, working hard to do what she thinks needs to be done. She bites off more than she can chew and makes mistakes, but she is, after all, a very small and very determined child.

Beth Ross from Prez

8. Beth Ross (from Prez)

Set in a disturbingly believable dystopian future, Prez features Beth Ross, a teen-aged president who should never have been elected. Unfortunately for the real candidates, age no longer matters, but popularity does, and Ross has recently become an Internet sensation. Completely ignorant of how to play the political game, Ross immediately starts trying to make a difference, and she makes a lot of enemies in the process. It looks like there have been no new issues of Prez after volume 1 came out in 2015. Too bad. The series had a lot of potential.

Sister Peaceful from Castle Waiting

7. Sister Peaceful (from Castle Waiting)

Nicholson chose Jain from Castle Waiting, but I prefer Sister Peaceful. It’s rare to find positive depictions of faith in comics. Marvel is actually pretty good at doing this — from Nightcrawler in the X-Men to Kamala Khan in Ms. Marvel, there are a number of wonderful characters who belong to some sort of faith tradition. While Sister Peaceful belongs to a fictitious order of bearded nuns, the Solicitines, the order is clearly a Christian one, and Peaceful, mischievous as she is, is a real woman of faith. In fact, part of what I love about her is her fun-loving spirit. Peaceful is loving, not judgmental — the sort of person you’d seek out as a friend. Volume One of this series, the only one I’ve been able to get my hands on so far, includes a long section on Sister Peaceful’s backstory.

6. Beauty (from Megan Kearney’s Beauty and the Beast)

This webcomic isn’t even featured in Nicholson’s book; she just quotes the comic’s creator in her section on Annabelle from Nightmares and Fairytales. When I looked up comics that were in this book, however, I didn’t confine myself to the ones from which she drew her list of superwomen. I also searched for several that Nicholson mentioned in passing. One of those was Beauty and the Beast.

It took me several pages to really get into it, but once I did, I was hooked. Part of this was because I’ve always loved that particular fairy tale. Kearney is relatively faithful to the story, although she adds some nice touches, such as making Beauty’s sisters pleasant people instead of spoiled brats and having Beauty genuinely wrestle with her feelings about the being she sees as her jailer, albeit a kind-hearted jailer. But honestly, part of my enchantment is because Kearney writes a darned good slow-burn romance. Although I know how the story will turn out, as long as Kearney remains faithful to it, I still find myself awaiting each update to see what happens next.

Kamau Kogo from Bitch Planet

5. Kamau Kogo (from Bitch Planet)

Without being the least bit like A Handmaid’s Tale, Bitch Planet is its comic book equivalent. In Bitch Planet, women are subservient to men, and the most powerful men are referred to as “father.” Non-compliant women are imprisoned on Bitch Planet. The situation seems utterly hopeless, but there are still women — and men — who are willing to fight the system. Issues of this comic tend to end with smart-alecky ads for products like Agreenex, which “doesn’t change your circumstances, but… keeps you from caring.” There are several strong female characters in the series. Nicholson featured Penny Rolle, who certainly is an awesome character, but so far my favorite is the extremely badass Kamau Kogo.

Martha Washington

4. Martha Washington (from The Life and Times of Martha Washington in the Twenty-First Century)

Partway through Martha Washington, it occurred to me that there are probably several liberals and conservatives in its fanbase. Martha lives under a series of different governments, and all of them are deeply flawed. The conservatives are oppressive. The liberals are ineffective and corrupt. Even groups that truly mean to look out for the greater good go bad in the end. Through it all, Martha does her best to follow her conscience and fight for what she believes is right.

Maika Halfwolf from Monstress

3. Maika Halfwolf (from Monstress)

I almost didn’t read Monstress. I knew I could expect violence and gore, and the first volume delivered just that. But it was a stunningly beautiful comic with a character who truly wrestles with an inner demon. Along with Bitch Planet and Martha Washington, this is another dark, dystopian story, but this one is set in a magical world that clearly isn’t Earth. Maika looks human, but she is really an Arcanic, part of a magical race that is at war with human beings. She’s extremely powerful, and her companions are terrified of her, but as one of them explains, “I followed you. I thought it would be safer. You’re good at killing.” Grim as this series is, I’m eagerly awaiting the next volume.

Patty-Jo

2. Patty-Jo (from Patty-Jo ‘n’ Ginger)

Nicholson picked Torchy Brown for her book. I’m glad she did, because that character led me to the biography of her creator, Jackie Ormes. The story behind the biography itself is fascinating: author Nancy Goldstein, an expert on dolls, was helping a friend research the Patty-Jo doll and became fascinated with Ormes. Ormes was the first African American woman cartoonist, but she left behind few personal papers, and it was impossible to find many of the newspapers in which her work appeared. Goldstein conducted interviews with people who’d known Ormes and dug up as much information as she could to tell Ormes’ story and reproduce samples of the four comics she created — two single-panel comics and two Torchy Brown comic strips.

Torchy Brown is a career woman and romantic heroine who appeared first in the 1930s and later in the 1950s. I can see why Nicholson might include her, but I was far more interested in the precocious little girl, Patty-Jo, from Ormes’ longest running comic, Patty-Jo ‘n’ Ginger. While Ormes did include social commentary in her other comics, Patty-Jo ‘n’ Ginger was where she really let loose with commentary on everything from racism to McCarthyism. Learning about Jackie Ormes was probably the greatest discovery I made as a result of Nicholson’s book.

1. Bandette (from Bandette)

Like Squirrel Girl, Bandette is a light-hearted comic with a heroine you can’t help but love. Bandette considers herself the greatest thief in the world, and she very well may be. But while she loves to steal, she hates villainy, and she’ll frequently aid the police in bringing down criminal masterminds. She has a weakness for chocolate, and I was very disappointed when I found that her favorite candy bar, Chocobolik, isn’t real. Her friends adore her, and even some of her enemies, such as the swashbuckling assassin Matadori, can’t help but become her friends. Every time I finish a volume, I want to visit Paris. If I manage to go, I may find myself wishing that a gravity-defying, big-hearted thief would pop out of nowhere and ask me for a chocolate bar.

Have you read The Spectacular Sisterhood of Superwomen? If so, what wonderful superwomen has Nicholson introduced you to through her book?

 

 

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Something Wonderful

Something Wonderful: Pop Chalee

Book about Pop Chalee

I’ve wanted to write about Pop Chalee for a while, but I’ve struggled to find images I could include here. I finally decided to write about her anyway. Some of the links below will take you to pictures of her work.

Pop Chalee, born Merina Lujan, was given the Tiwa name that she preferred by her paternal grandmother. I’ve usually seen her name translated as “Blue Flower.” During her childhood, her parents divorced. She spent some of her childhood raised by paternal relatives at Taos Pueblo in New Mexico and attending the U.S. Indian School in Santa Fe. During her teen years, she went to live with her European mother in Salt Lake City; however, she was treated so poorly that she ran away and got married. She didn’t begin studying art until she was well into her adulthood, but once she began painting, she quickly achieved success. There are even suggestions that her deer influenced Disney’s Bambi, because Walt Disney purchased one or more of her paintings before the movie’s animation work started.

I don’t remember a time when I did not know Pop Chalee’s art. I spent part of my childhood in the southwestern United States and had many relatives in New Mexico. Running across her art was almost natural. Several of her paintings, commissioned by Howard Hughes, are in the Albuquerque Airport (or “Sunport,” as they call it), including her prominently displayed horse mural. I must have seen her art other places, too; her unforgettable horses and forest scenes are engraved in my mind.

Pop Chalee is probably best known for horses that stepped straight out of a fantasy world and deer leaping through magical forests, but she also painted several works featuring Native American dancers and hunters. Her paintings are colorful and have a sense of motion.

Pop Chalee also worked as a dorm matron for young scientists working on the Manhattan Project. I was excited to find a video of her while I was doing research for this post; unfortunately, the interview is about her memories of Los Alamos, not her work as an artist. (There’s a wonderful bit toward the end where the interviewer asks about the son of potter Maria Martinez, and Pop Chalee is far more interested in talking about Martinez than about her son.)

You can view Pop Chalee’s art in her biography, at the Albuquerque Sunport, and in various museums, particularly the Millicent Rogers Museum in Taos, New Mexico, and the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona.

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Something Wonderful

Something Wonderful: Joy Lists

Lilacs bring me joy
What brings you joy?

Recently a friend of mine reposted her “joy list” on Facebook. She first posted it a few years ago after I asked people to share their lists with me. Not only did she repost her list this week, but she decided to let it inspire her day. Since baking, the smell of cinnamon, and tea were on her list, she made cinnamon raisin bran muffins and had them with tea. As soon as I read that, I knew I should blog about joy lists.

A joy list is exactly what the name suggests: a list of things that bring you joy. It isn’t the same as a list of simple pleasures, although if your list doesn’t include many simple pleasures, you probably don’t get much joy out of life. Some of the things on your list may be free, like a walk on a summer night, and others maybe expensive, like travel. Some of the things, like baking, will be within your control. Others may be completely outside of your control, like waking up to a foggy morning. And over the years, your list will evolve. When I was a new mom, I added “getting to take a shower” to my list. As my child grew, I started taking showers for granted again.

Creating a joy list in and of itself can bring you joy as you reflect on the many wonderful things you’ve experienced and can continue to enjoy. And, like my friend, it may prompt you to do more of the things that bring you joy.

But don’t just stop with your list. There’s still more joy to be found in encouraging others to create their own lists and share some of their joys with you. It made me happy to see my friend reflecting on the things that bring her joy and incorporating some of those things in her day. Reading about the things that bring others joy also can prompt me to add new things to my own list. Sometimes it can even give me ideas for gifts for my loved ones.

This week, I encourage you to start your own joy list, share part of your list with others, and encourage your friends and family to create and share their own lists. Here are some of the things on my list to inspire you:

  • Folk festivals
  • Farmers markets
  • Clean sheets
  • The northern lights
  • Full-blown roses
  • Steel drums
  • The smell of a snuffed-out candle
  • Carlsbad Caverns
  • A walk on a summer night
  • Fireflies
  • Crawling into bed when I’m really tired
  • A foggy morning
  • A sincere compliment
  • Fireworks
  • Bagpipes
  • Waking up naturally and feeling well-rested
  • Tea with a friend
  • The Minnesota Renaissance Festival
  • Singing a really good hymn (e.g., “Be Thou My Vision”)
  • My dog’s love for me
  • Lilacs
  • Red-winged blackbirds
  • Looking out on fresh, new snow and knowing that I don’t have to go out in it
  • Travel to beautiful places (ranging from national parks to Rome, Italy)
  • A good book
  • Time to wander in an art museum like the Met or the National Gallery of Art

Please share some of your joys in the comments!

 

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Something Wonderful

Something Wonderful: Cabin Pressure

small plane

 

Several months ago, one of my coworkers mentioned how much he loved a BBC radio series called Cabin Pressure. It took just one episode to make me a fan.

Cabin Pressure is British humor (sorry, humour) at its best. It’s made up of 27 episodes, each named for a destination. The story involves a charter airline, MJN (My Jet Now), with one airplane and four crew members. Stephanie Cole plays Carolyn Knapp-Shappey, the tight-fisted owner who’s trying to keep the airline afloat. Benedict Cumberbatch is the airline’s pilot, Martin Crieff. Having worked hard to attain his dream, his rank means everything to him, and he’s frustrated when people assume first officer Douglas Richardson is the pilot. In fact, Douglas (Roger Allam) is a seasoned pilot, but he’s lucky to have his job; he was fired from a previous job for smuggling. John Finnemore rounds out the cast as Carolyn’s son, Arthur, who serves as steward.

My favorite characters are almost polar opposites in terms of intelligence. Douglas is very clever and very full of himself, and I couldn’t help but love him for his playful sense of humor. There are few things he enjoys more than playing a good game on the flight deck, such as inserting as many Hitchcock titles as possible into a flight announcement.

Arthur, on the other hand, is extremely dim, though he occasionally surprises everyone with a good idea. While I love Douglas for his wit, Arthur quickly won me over with his enthusiasm and optimism.

It took me a while to warm up to Martin. He can be an annoying stickler for rules. You can just imagine him as a kid, standing on the fringe of a group of misbehaving peers and saying, “You guyyyyys. Stop! We’re going to get in TROUble.” Unfortunately, I’m probably more like Martin than any of the other characters, which may be why I prefer Douglas and Arthur. Martin grew on me as I got to know him better over the course of several episodes, and by the end, I came to love him almost as much as Douglas and Arthur.

Carolyn was another character I had to warm up to. Although she is occasionally playful, she generally comes across as cheap and irritable. But as you learn about her struggles to keep her airplane from her ex-husband, and as she begins a very odd relationship with Herc, a captain from another airline, Carolyn becomes more human and easier to sympathize with.

More than anything, Cabin Pressure has made me a fan of Finnemore, who not only played Arthur but wrote the script. To quote Arthur, Finnemore is “brilliant” — a very funny man.

Cabin Pressure may be available at your local library; otherwise, you can buy a compact disc set from retailers such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble. It’s a bit pricey, but definitely worth it.

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Something Wonderful

Something Wonderful: Smith of Wootton Major

The Smith of Wootton Major
The Smith of Wootton Major and Farmer Giles of Ham by J.R.R. Tolkien

 

I know I’ve been writing a lot of “something wonderful” posts about books lately. I promise to write about something else in my next post of this sort. But because I associate Smith of Wootton Major with Christmas (I’ll explain why later), this feels like an appropriate time to write about it.

Smith of Wootton Major is essentially a 50-page fairy tale by J.R.R. Tolkien. Those 50 pages include illustrations by Pauline Baynes, best know for her illustrations for The Chronicles of Narnia. As in fairy tales, the characters are not complex and the story is simple. This is not The Hobbit, but I’m a sucker for a good fairy story. If you go in expecting that, you’ll find Tolkien’s tale enchanting.

The story opens with a wintertime feast, The Feast of Good Children, held once every 24 years. The highlight of the feast is the Great Cake, an opportunity for Wootton Major’s Master Cook to show off. Nokes, the village’s Master Cook, is incompetent; he relies heavily on his odd apprentice, Alf. When the time comes for Nokes to make the Great Cake, he decides to top it with a fairy queen, “a tiny white figure on one foot like a snow-maiden dancing.” Alf is clearly displeased with Nokes’ notion of fairies. He’s even more displeased that Nokes won’t take him seriously when he claims a star in the spice box is “from Faery.” The one thing Nokes and Alf agree on is that the star belongs in the cake, along with other trinkets and coins. It is swallowed by a boy, who becomes the eponymous hero.

It is this feast that makes me think of this book every time Christmas rolls around. The children and the cake topped with a balletic fairy queen remind me of The Nutcracker. And just as the Kingdom of Sweets is opened to Clara after she rescues the Nutcracker, the doors of Faery are opened to Smith soon after he swallows the star. He develops the habit of leaving his work and family behind to venture into Faery from time to time. Tolkien gives us tastes of Smith’s dreamlike journeys without ever allowing us to follow him completely.

When he first began to walk far without a guide he thought he would discover the further bounds of the land; but great mountains rose before him, and going by long ways round about them he came at last to a desolate shore. He stood beside the Sea of Windless Storm where the blue waves like snow-clad hills roll silently out of Unlight to the long strand, bearing the white ships that return from battles on the Dark Marches of which men know nothing. He saw a great ship cast high upon the land, and the waters fell back in foam without a sound. The eleven mariners were tall and terrible; their swords shone and their spears glinted and a piercing light was in their eyes. Suddenly they lifted up their voices in a song of triumph, and his heart was shaken with fear, and they passed over him and went away into the echoing hills.

I cannot tell you much more without spoiling the story. There are discoveries and loss and a final conflict between Nokes and Alf. The story won’t have you on the edge of your seat. But it is thoughtful and beautiful, and I love it.

You will often find Smith of Wootton Major paired with another novella, Farmer Giles of Ham. Although the latter book does not enchant me the way the former one does, it is definitely worth reading. It’s very different from The Smith of Wootton Major. A humorous story with a flawed hero, Farmer Giles of Ham doesn’t feel the least bit like a fairy tale. It’s lively and lots of fun, and because of that, you may like it the best of the two stories. As for me, I think it’s an enjoyable read, but it’s Smith of Wootton Major that calls to me every year as Christmas approaches.