Weekly Roundup 29: The Anti-Troll

Over the past couple of years, the iconic Sasquatch of North America has been having a moment. But that one crypid can't really hold a candle to the humanlike creatures that populate Nordic folklore, including elves, dwarves, gnomes, spirits, and of course trolls. 

Living in forests, caves, or rocky areas, trolls are closely tied to the natural world. They might be portrayed as oafish and dumb or cunning and malevolent, but rarely are they kind and helpful to humans. The mountain troll in Harry Potter, for example. (And it's not difficult to understand how the trolls who populate the dark recesses of the internet got their name.)

But Breckenridge, Colorado is home to a different kind of troll. 

Isak Heartstone is a wooden sculpture made by the Danish artist Thomas Dambo. Standing 15 feet tall, Isak is constructed of reclaimed and recycled materials. With one hand around a nearby tree trunk, he gazes down at the steady stream of visitors who follow the short Trollstigen Trail to come and say hello.

Dambo refers to himself as a Recycle Artist and Activist. A self-proclaimed dumpster diver, he has built hundreds of installations across 20 countries/5 continents and doesn't appear to be slowing down any time soon. His mission? "Showing the world that beautiful things can be made of trash."

I didn't know all of this when I visited Isak. And I didn't know he has more than one hundred brothers and sisters around the world. I knew only that this big wooden fella had a kind face, a sweet vibe, and made everyone who saw him smile.

The end of July is upon us. See you in August!

#TBT: Why I Ban Books

For #ThrowbackThursday, here's a Banned Books Week repost: 

In honor of Banned Books Week, I have a confession: I ban books. Sometimes I do it regretfully, sometimes I do it with enthusiasm. Here are ten reasons why:

10.  Brain Ache – This occurs when a story is so convoluted, I need the ghost of Stephen Hawking to get me through the first two chapters;

9.   Ridiculous Character Names – I’m sorry, but I can’t read 300 pages about the adventures of Duffy von Winklesnout;

8.   No Story – If a story arc is flatline, my interest is, too;

7.   Adverb Abuse – When the characters smile happily, glare menacingly, skip gleefully, ogle lustfully, I put the book down. Hastily;

6.   Deus ex machina (“god out of the machine”) – No plot should need the equivalent of divine intervention to reach resolution, unless it’s in a book about…well, divine intervention;

5.   Weird Formatting – This includes lack of punctuation, phonetic spelling of dialects, anything that makes me overly conscious of the act of reading;

4.  Overpopulation – I’m from a small family. I’ve never taught a freshman-level course or directed a Broadway production. Too many characters overwhelm me;

3.  Apathy – If I don’t care about the plot or characters by page 100 (max), I’m out;

2.  Envy – When a mediocre book makes it big (huge! colossal!), I know that reading it will make me yank on my hair and eat too many carbs. (This ban is often trumped by curiosity, but not always.); and

1. No Payoff - Frank Conroy said: "The author makes a tacit deal with the reader. You hand them a backpack. You ask them to place certain things in it - to remember, to keep in mind - as they make their way up the hill. If you hand them a yellow Volkswagen and they have to haul this to the top of the mountain - to the end of the story - and they find that this Volkswagen has nothing whatsoever to do with your story, you're going to have a very irritated reader on your hands." Hear, hear.

My point is—yes, I do have a point, and thank you for asking—I have the freedom to ban any book from my personal library for whatever reason I choose. But I would never presume to do the same for someone else.

For more information, here's a recent NPR article about Banned Books Week. 

Take care friends, and I hope you're reading a good book this week, banned or not.

And the Oscar Goes To...

Me.

I'd like to thank the Academy...

Okay, obviously I did not win an Oscar, but I feel like I should get some kind of award for spending 15 hours of my life watching 6 1/4 of the 9 films nominated for Best Picture.

I enjoy movies, but I don't see as many as I would like. Every year when Oscar season rolls around, I can only check off one or two of the Best Picture nominees. So, this year, I set myself a goal to see them all. It seemed reasonable at the time, before I realized what I was up against.

Through a combination of Netflix, pay-per-view, and actual movie theaters, I watched:
Marriage Story
Parasite
The Irishman
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Jojo Rabbit
1917, and
1/4 of Joker (maybe on a different day, I would have stuck it out, but, frankly, I was in no mood).

I have not yet seen Little Women or Ford v Ferrari, so the following opinions do not apply to those movies.

Here's my take on the ones I did see:

• They are quite male. But you knew that;
• They are replete with egos. Husband egos, military egos, actor egos, rich guy egos, mafia egos. And, dare I say, the real life egos of the two directors who thought they needed 3 hours 29 minutes and 2 hours and 41 minutes, respectively, to tell their stories.  
• They have plenty of violence. War violence, emotional violence, gangster violence, animal-on-human violence, interpersonal violence. Lots of people get shot, and I wouldn't be surprised if this year set a record for Best Picture stabbings. Very stabby.

But having said all this, every movie also had some combination of: amazing performances, poignant moments, surprising plot twists, stunning cinematography, evocative scoring, humor (even if dark), and unexpected humanity. I don't regret seeing any of them, and I'm looking forward to finishing the list with Little Women and Ford v Ferrari. And I might give Joker another try.

Congratulations to all the 2020 winners, and here's hoping that next year's crop of Oscar contenders is a little less...exhausting.

In case you missed it, here is Saturday Night Live's Melissa Villasenor's musical take on this year's best picture nominees:

 

When TED Talks, People Listen

   

This TED...

Hello and happy Wednesday! Considering the adversarial, and often downright ugly, tone of the news these days, it's easy to forget that the world is full of people who know and do interesting things and are willing to share them with the rest of us. I reminded myself of this last week when I decided to watch a daily TED talk.

Not this Ted.

If you are unfamiliar with TED, here's what the website says about their organization:

TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less). TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged, and today covers almost all topics — from science to business to global issues — in more than 100 languages. Meanwhile, independently run TEDx events help share ideas in communities around the world.

TED has also expanded to include the TED Radio Hour, TED Masterclasses, the TED mobile app, and TED-ED animations, which are short, fun videos that use fun graphics and music to explain a variety of science and lifestyle topics.

Other than catching snippets of the TED Radio Hour in my car, I've been in a TED-free zone for quite some time. It's one of those things I tell myself I should do more of--"Hey, self, you should watch more TED talks!"--but then I never actually do it. So I was grateful for my Take It or Leave It kick in the pants, because I really enjoyed my daily dose of TED.

I learned, among other things, about the physics of bubbles, the science behind human organ regeneration, and how dog noses work. I was inspired to re-think my personal narrative and persevere in the face of failure. I got some tips on how to get better at the things that really matter to me. I listened to a guy talk about how he tried something new every 30 days, which confirmed to me that small changes in our lives are much more sustainable. Last but not least, I watched a semi-compelling animation about why humans should eat more insects. (Bugs look much more appetizing in cartoon form, I must say.)

Many of the TED talks are quite short, and there was no need to devote hours and hours to broadening my world view. But once I got started, it was easy to just keep watching. All in all, this week of TED has been one of my favorite new activities, which makes this Take It or Leave It a definite Take It.

Once Upon a Time...

...there was a little girl who loved reading fairy tales. She had a two-volume set of Grimm's, one book blue and one red. As time went by, she lost track of those books. Fast-forward a few (okay, many) years, and that grown-up girl happened to come across one of the same books in a second-hand store. She bought it, because eight bucks is not bad for a big dose of nostalgia. In reading through it, she remembered a) how much she loved fairy tales, and b) she had bought a complete Grimm's Fairy Tales from Barnes and Noble a while back for next to nothing, and that big book was just hanging out in her stack, waiting to be rediscovered. So the next week's Take It or Leave It was born...

I read (at least) one fairy tale every day for a week, and I think I've identified what it is about them that captivates me: the stories collected by the Brothers Grimm are flippin' nuts. I mean, just absolutely wacko. Yes, they are full of deep symbolism and archetypes--witches, roses, mirrors, tricksters, and so on--but they're also like the craziest fever dreams a person could have. Talking animals? Of course--and also trees, streams, rocks, and bones. Glass mountains that open up and swallow whoever or whatever happens to be near? Yes, sir. A guy the size of a thumb? Sure, why not. Children made entirely out of gold? Got 'em. Well, how about a child who is a hedgehog on top and a human boy on the bottom? Him, too.

And don't forget all the scheming, double-crossing, lying, homicide, wisdom and stupidity, patience and haste, laziness and industriousness, dying and resurrection, sinning and redemption. So many themes. So many lessons and cautionary tales. So much potential for creative inspiration.

I'm glad I spent the week getting reacquainted with Grimm's tales and will continue to read through them, including the great Philip Pullman's Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm. For now, I'll leave you with the first two lines from a story called Fitcher's Bird, which stopped me short:

There was once a wizard who used to take the form of a poor man, and went to houses and begged, and caught pretty girls. No one knew whither he carried them, for they were never seen more.

Sweet dreams!