richardcampbell

E-in-C to Dean

My old boss, David Meyer. Editor-in-Chief of The Michigan Daily (1981-1982) has now been named Dean of Tulane Law School. A picture of the gang back in the day (David is on the left) and now. I can understand the white hair, but I'd figure even law schools would have upgraded from blackboards to whiteboards by now!

(Photo from the College of Law, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

Our New House

Even though the formal "closing" ceremony has been postponed (due to the snowstorm - one foot of snow around these parts), we're told that all the docs have been signed and the monies transferred, so, apparently, we are new home owners! We're planning on moving next week...

Of course, same email and same cell-phone numbers; get in touch and let us know when you can drop by!

Blockheads

Finally figured out that Adblock is blocking my Amazon bookstore and in-line ads. Just FYI.... You can of course do your own surfing to any bookstore you like, but there are links here that work in all the browsers. If you don't seem them, check out your ad blocking plugins.

Recent Reading.....

Finished a nice World War II true adventure story, We Die Alone, relating the trevails of Jan Baalsrud's escape and rescue after a failed espionage attempt in way northern Norway. Great stuff, but the one flaw in the book describing the hiking, swimming, sailing, sledding, doesn't include a map of the trek. Here's one. And the movie, Ni Liv, is apparently great, and a staple on TV in that area, but not available on DVD over here.
In fiction, The First Assasin, is a well-told Jackal-like attempt on President Lincoln early on in his first administration. The real highlight of the book is the evocative recreation of a panicky and defenseless Washington, D.C. sorting out who was on what side during the days before the Civil War began. Again, while the book is careful at getting the details right and setting incidents in real locales in D.C., no map!
Finally, From Tiny Acorns, the Kenny Baker story. (To put it simply, the guy inside R2-D2). An odd, light-hearted biography that manages to convey the hardships, successes, and love of life of Kenny. While we don't need quite as many details of which English pantomine show's he performed in, it's amazing how hard-working the man was. And I had no idea of his decades-long relationship with Jack Purvis and their cabaret act, The Minitones. Alas, there may be no film of that - can't find any original clips on youtube.

Livin' on a prayer

The headline is in keeping with the local NJ music scene....the news is we are scheduled to close on our new house in North Caldwell next Friday 26 Feb. Several planets still need to align, electronic wire transfers must complete, and even then who can say. But if this doesn't work, we're moving to North Carolina!

A Promise

A change of pace: Keep finding this faded clipping on my desk, and since this is the info age, why not transcribe it here where I can always find it. But then, it's not the same thing as coming across the yellowed scrap while looking for something else.

Anyway, "A Promise" by Glyn Maxwell:

I made my child a promise, so a weight
was passed to her. I saw how carefully

its power was handled, that it lit the thoughts 
around it, and I felt it warm her talk

and urge the hours along. Since I, like you, 
no longer know a word like that, the light

she gained was lost to me. It didn't mean 
I'd let her down-I didn't-but I seemed

to be aligned with those who might in time, 
as if I'd somehow set coordinates.

reading pleasures

goodreads.com - possibly a neat site for bibliophiles. But then, does it add enough over just posting reviews here? (which i'm pretty bad at updating) Or why not just get a 'list' or blog over at Amazon.com? Then again, something for the green bike crowd back in Ann Arbor: bookcrossing.com

Happy Holidays!

From the Campbells....

Wine and Gaseous Permeability

Google Reader has helped me find what seems to be a decent wine blog - http://www.wineloverspage.com/. While the recommendations and commentary look fun, I was also interested to read the article on a new brand of composite cork. Which led me to this summary report on the recent findings concerning various permeability rates of wine in bottle. What surfing the net is all about!

String Music

Driving home from work the other day, I heard some beautiful symphonic music on XM/Sirius - mostly strings, melodic, thematic, gorgeous. It took a bit of internet sleuthing to find out what it was: Mark O'Connor's Appalachia Waltz (last song on the playlist). I've since bought various MP3 albums of his. A great find for those interested in contemporary classically-minded, bluegrass-tinged music.

Yellowhammer

Interesting (for me) bird sighting here in middle-north-eastern New Jersey. We've got lots of blue jays in the back yard, but for the first time I've seen the Northern 'Yellow-Shafted' Flicker woodpecker. Big bird, overall brown-hued, flew past the window; then I saw several on the ground. One of the few woodpeckers to search for food around the yard (and given our recent rain, you can understand why). Nice picture on the (current) wikipedia page

HMDB

In the spirit of the awesome imdb there's now the Historical Marker Database , capable of wasting hours of your time. Add your own local markers. But Joe, please don't make up not-so-funny fictional markers that ought to be.

Art and Weddings

Great ex-DailyPhotographer Paul Engstrom has set up a studio in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. Look for marvelous work from him and his colleagues; and he's also available for hire. Not sure when I'll get there - I'll be happy to post reviews if anyone visits. http://paulengstromfineart.com

Off-Island

One reason for the lack of postings has been our move out of Manhattan into the Garden State. Our kids pretty much filled up the two-bedroom condo, but the real problem was just the added burden of dragging a two-seater stroller up and down the 7 stairs in our building, and the unbelievable amount of 'stuff' needed to be carried along when travelling by car (again, lugged in and out of the apartment seemingly every weekend). When it's such a chore to take a kid out of the apartment that you just stay indoors, something's wrong.

Selling the condo in this market wasn't a disaster, but took many months too long. All in all, things worked out ok - due to my renovation/combination, the fiscal side was fine. But dealing with devious, lying, inconsiderate, and incompetent real estate brokers was terrible.

We were looking to buy a place and basically just move in; had a place picked out and were in negotiations. But again, dealing with that seller's attorney made us continue to lose our faith in our fellow man.

So, now we're renting a house in Towaco, NJ (no decent Wikipedia page!). The house is quite nice, quiet street, one-level, big deck, nice yard. Can't tell you how nice it is to park a car in the attached garage, as opposed to looping around Upper West Side streets looking for parking. And we're able to just open the sliding doors and let Liam and Caroline crawl outside.

So now, we're all closed on our condo sale and off on a house search. Kristen's mom is coming over to watch the kids for a couple hours - she's only 10 minutes away, and that's the main benefit to moving out of the city.

Of course, we're both sad we moved. I moved to New York in 1991 - 18 years ago!!!!! Longest I've lived in any one spot. Luckily we both moved to the city when it was in full recovery from the dreadful '60s and '70s (a real economic disaster). We had great jobs, close friends, and the infinite and ever-changing variety of restaurants, clubs, theater, street-life, subways, and construction that make up that greatest of cities.

Not to worry though, if we really need a quick fix of good Chinese food, say, we're just 30 minutes away.

South Pacific

A month ago, before leaving the island, we went to see South Pacific, a gorgeous, honest revival. No clever restaging, no subtext, just Rogers and Hammerstein's glorious music - and apparently based on the original orchestrations. Bravura performance of a rightfully beloved musical.

Can't show you what I saw, but here are some online clips: