First Lines
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 06:10It is quiet in the cold dark house. A single light whams the living room. The grandfather's clock chimes. Outside, the birds are singing in the early morning drizzle. I sit, with my computer in my lap, looking at the screen, trying to find the first line.
I know what I want to write about, and the moment I find the opening sentence, I expect the words will flow out rapidly, falling one over another.
I started thinking about first lines recently, when someone posted a link to the American Book Review's 100 Best First Lines from Novels.
"Call me Ishmael" leads the list. I read through it, and found many old friends; lines that I've often quoted: "riverrun, past Eve and Adam's", " It was the best of times, it was the worst of time", "Someone must have slandered Josef K", "Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road".
I could easily let lost in reverie thinking about these first lines, but it made me think about blogging. Can you remember the first line of any blog posts? Are there any blog posts that you've written that you feel really proud about the first lines?
As I think back over my years of blogging, very few of my first lines are memorable. The first one that comes to mind is a blog post I wrote for work over a year ago which starts, "For a brief moment, I was five years old again in the small sandbox behind my house." There have been a few other blog posts that have started off well. They have typically been posts for work that start off with a story from long ago.
At 11:26 AM, EDT on July 8, 2011, the Space Shuttle Atlantis lifted off on the final voyage of the Space Shuttle Program.… It seemed like every year or two a classmate of mine in high school would die in an accident.
So, what first lines do have you written that feel the most compelling? What do you do to come up with good first lines? For me, I set aside extra time to find that first line. If it is morning, perhaps I have some coffee and oatmeal while I wait for the line to come. Now, I'll add scanning the American Book Review's list of 100 Best First Lines from Novels to my methods of searching for inspiration.
A Brief Personal History of Familial Hot Beverages
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 05/02/2012 - 06:41Colin McEnroe is doing a show on the Keurig coffee machines, which got me thinking about this idea.
My parents were always tea drinkers and I didn't have coffee until I headed off to college. The only coffee in the house was usually a small bottle of Maxwell House instant coffee, held in reserve for guests. As a kid, the kitchen often sounded with the rattle of the tea kettle as the water heated up, followed by the shrill whistle reminding us that the water was boiling. At times, I would find tea cups with dark brown tea, the tea bag still steeping, sitting unforgotten on a counter.
At special times, such as birthdays, everyone would have tea. As kids, we added lots of milk and it was closer to watered down warm milk than it was to tea. Even in these cases, the tea would usually be made as single servings using tea bags, instead of in a tea pot, and the tea was always just plain tea. Liptons, or, when we could find and afford it, Red Rose tea. Red Rose tea always had little porcelain figurines in the boxes that we would fight over.
When I headed off to college, I discovered that there were other types of tea, but I still favored quick, simple to prepare single servings. Somewhere, I found a recipe for instant spiced tea. You took instant tea, mixed in Tang, and a cinnamon and a few other spices. It became my signature drink for a while. Even in college, coffee never became my hot beverage of choice.
After college, I moved to Brooklyn, not far from the Arabic shops on Atlantic Avenue. One of my roommates was Lebanese, and I learned to drink dark muddy Arabic coffee that was boiled in a small pot, with strange spiced, perhaps Cardamon. I started drinking coffee at work, often purchased, along with a cinnamon roll, from the stainless steel trucks or little trailers found on the side streets of Manhattan. Yet still, coffee rituals were few and far between.
Years after I moved out of Brooklyn, one of my old roommates and I would gather on Saturday mornings to make pancakes, drink coffee and listen to Pink Floyd. We used an old glass Pyrex percolator, and that is perhaps the first coffee making device that gained significance in my life. Later, I lived on a sailboat and used a French Press, or a metal coffee put where you put the coffee in the bottom, the grounds in the middle and boiling forced the coffee into the upper chamber. Somewhere, along the way, I went through various drip coffee machines based on the Mr. Coffee design. None of them really resonated for me.
Eventually, we got an expresso/cappuccino maker which also turned out to be a passing fad. As I aged, my blood pressure rose, and I was told to cut the coffee, or at least to switch to decaf. My wife still drinks coffee with caffeine, so we had issues of how best to make coffee. I would have a single cup of decaf, and she'd have a single cup of high-test, and so many of the coffee machines just weren't feasible for us. Using a single serving drip machine was about the closest we could get.
Someone got us a Keurig, which I initially rebelled against. The single plastic cups were expensive and environmentally unfriendly. A little searching online revealed the Keurig Coffee Filter basket. Now, we buy our coffee in bulk and I make my cup of decaf and later my wife makes a cup of high-test. It seems highly efficient, both economically and environmentally, and has been making great coffee for us, although some friends say that they cannot get their coffee strong enough this way. Their the ones who still use a 1960's vintage electric percolator.
I've found the Keurig coffee machines to be great at various places I visit. Often people will make a big pot of high-test, but if they have a Keurig around, there is still a chance I can get decaf. They're also great for place that want to provide coffee but not get into all the complexities, including, apparently, board of health issues, of having large coffee making machines.
Yeah, thirty years from now, people will look back at the Keurig as a historical remnant, the way I look at some of the coffee machines of my youth. There might be some talk about the role it played in a return to individualism as opposed to collectivism, but perhaps the Keurig is just riding that trend instead of contributing to it.
So, I'll eat my oatmeal, make my cup of decaf for the road, and see if I can find a moment to tune into Colin's show this afternoon.
Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 05/01/2012 - 06:23Well, April, the cruelest month has come and gone. The lilacs are in bloom now. The taxes are done, and most importantly, we have moved. All of the activities of buying a house and moving has taken much of my energy, and April has been the month that I've written the fewest blog posts in many years. There are many stories to be told about buying the new house and moving, and hopefully, this will provide good blog fodder for the coming months.
Work has been no less busy. Today, CHC celebrates its Fortieth anniversary. Then, on Saturday, there is a ribbon cutting for our new building in Middletown. It will be a very busy week with many activities.
There are several other big things coming for May. Podcamp CT will be May 12th. This is a social media unconference which will take place in New Haven. If you have any interesting in blogging, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, or how to make the best use of many forms of social media, this is a great event to attend, and I hope to write more about this soon as well.
Unfortunately, Podcamp is the same day as the Democratic State Convention. I've covered political conventions as a blogger since 2004, and this should be a good convention that I don't want to miss. Then, on May 14th are the Congressional conventions. I will try to make it to the Third Congressional District Convention which will be in West Haven. There won't be much drama there. Instead, it is expected to be a celebration of the many years that Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro has served the district. I'll probably slip out early so that I can make it to the Fifth Congressional District Convention in Waterbury. This should much more exciting as there is a competition as to who the Democratic candidate to compete for Congressman Chris Murphy's seat will be.
All of this takes place as Internet Week gets off to a start in New York City. I'll miss the end of Internet Week, because of my scheduled colonoscopy. As a blogger who writes more and more about health, I'm hoping I can find a good way to write about this in a way that will encourage others who should get colonoscopies to get theirs.
Internet Week is bookended by the Amity High School production of Legally Blond, and at the end of Internet Week, there will be the next concert in the Lakeview Lodge music series in Bethany.
As the month comes to an end, the Country Club of Woodbridge pool will open under new management and Fiona is very interested to get back in the pool. It will be good for me as well. I certainly got a lot of exercise last week during the move, but swimming laps in the pool will do me well.
April has come and gone. Lilacs have bred desire out of the dead land, and now we are on to May flowers, celebrations and more politics.
The Old Clarinet
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 04/16/2012 - 20:15It has been a long frustrating day, lengthened by too much work and a vendor providing substandard service. It was a day of record breaking heat, which for mid April wasn't unbearable. To decompress, I walked down beside the Connecticut River at lunch time. There were plenty of people to say hello to, and soon, I was back at my office, ready to face the second part of the day.
The commute home was mostly uneventful. I left the office late and there was little traffic. However, as I approached Wallingford, smoke covered the road and traffic slowed to a crawl. Off in the distance you could see firetrucks gathered to fight a brush fire. It has been hot and dry and there have been more fires than usual.
On my way home, I stopped at the Sam Ash music store in New Haven. Sometime ago, I had dropped my old clarinet off to have it fixed up. Some of the cork was coming off and a few pads were loose. I had gone to pick it up on Saturday, but found it wasn't completely repaired, so I left it, and they finished the job today.
After my frustration with a vendor earlier in the day, I was pleasantly surprised at the good customer service Sam Ash provided.
Kim was working late this evening and Fiona was staying with her grandparents, so I was home alone. I did ate, did some chores and checked out a few things online. Yet I was restless. So, I took out the old clarinet and gave it a test drive. It has been years since I played the clarinet and I never was all that good at it. My embouchure is all out of shape, and I barely remembered the fingering. But, I played a few scales, and picked out a tune by ear. Soon, my mouth was sore, and I knew better than to push things. So, I put away the old clarinet, contented to have reconnected with an old friend.
The Harpeth Rising Quadrille at The Buttonwood Tree
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 04/15/2012 - 12:23Rebecca stood in front of an old brick wall covered by paintings made by animals from the Beardsley Zoo. She quietly plucked a few notes on the strings her banjo, as if trying to remember a long forgotten tune. Facing her were a couple dozen fans of the band Harpeth Rising who had come to The Buttonwood Tree in Middletown, CT to hear them perform. They leaned forward waiting for the tune to emerge.
The melody emerged. It was then picked up by Maria on the cello. Chris added the rhythm and Jordana took up the melody as others moved to the counterpoint. It was almost as if Bach wrote bluegrass for the banjo.
The Falcon Ridge Folk Festival has interpreters signing the lyrics of songs in American Sign Language and I've often wondered what it is like for hearing impaired to experience the performance of musicians. The lyrics are but a part of the performance. Yet, with Harpeth Rising, I could see a beauty in the performance that those just listening often miss. It was as if Maria was dancing with her cello as she leaned into her music and her arm and bow moved perpendicular to the strings. The dance was mirrored by Jordana, Rebecca and Chris. The four of them, with their musical instrument partners were performing an intricate dance, something between a quadrille and a square dance, with the only caller being the smiles and glances they exchanged amongst themselves, as one followed another's lead.
I thought back to Falcon Ridge. One of the most enjoyable aspects of the weekend is Friday afternoon when the emerging artists perform on the Mainstage. Each performer is given ten minutes and those who get the most votes from the audience are invited back as part of the 'most wanted' for the following year.
This year, it seemed like many of the performers sounded the same; young female singer songwriters, who I noted in the bulletin as GFV, generic female vocalist. Perhaps that was unfair, because each of them had their strengths and weaknesses. Each of them had their idiosyncrasies which made them interesting and stand out.
Harpeth Rising launched into one of the songs written by Jordana's father, with tight vocal harmonies. I don't have a category that I can easily lump them into, but the way their voices worked together made me think of Red Molly, an "Americana/Roots Female Trio" that formed at Falcon Ridge that also has tight vocal harmonies.
Other than going to Falcon Ridge, and a few local venues, we rarely make it out to hear live music, but Harpeth Rising, like Red Molly, are two bands that are well worth the trip and we try to hear whenever they are in the area.
