Neil and David

This week saw the deaths of two great and beloved storytellers. Problem is, one of them is still living.

Neil Gaiman was a widely revered and admired writer. His comics, short stories, novels, and TV episodes have inspired millions. He was a master of the power of imagination, the magic of words. Many lonely and isolated readers read his words, watched the episodes of Babylon 5 and Doctor Who that he wrote, watched the movies based on his stories, and thought: I can do that. I want to learn how to do that. For many years, his New Year's Eve messages filled readers with hope and strength to face the coming year.

David Lynch was a filmmaker. He was seen by some as an absurdist, by others as a transcendentalist. I suspect he saw himself as a realist. His films dug into the best and worst of humanity. The struggles, the dreams, the nightmares, the crimes, the love, all excised and laid bare and exposed to wind and sunlight. His movies and TV shows inspired both cult followings and enormous unease and confusion among many viewers. Time and again people who worked with him came away loving him.

In 2024 allegations emerged about Neil Gaiman, allegations that he had used his wealth and position to force sexual favors from women he had drawn into his orbit. On January 13, 2025, an article in New York magazine's Vulture ("There Is No Safe Word") revealed the enormity of these acts, and fleshed out these allegations in sickening detail, revealing a perverse and manipulative monster behind the mask of floppy hair and soft, gentle voice. The Neil Gaiman that fans thought they knew was dead.

David Lynch developed emphysema after a long smoking habit, and had isolated himself in his Los Angeles home throughout the ongoing era of COVID-19, knowing that contact with the unmasked public posed a threat to his life. The Los Angeles area wildfires in early January 2025 spared his home, but the smoke-filled air forced him to evacuate. It was all too much. On January 15, 2025, David Lynch died.

The revelations about Neil Gaiman resulted in two days of scorn and condemnation, which ended only when news of David Lynch's death came out. David Lynch's death has resulted in an outpouring of love and appreciation, with fans sharing their favorite scenes and clips, co-workers telling loving stories of time spent with him, and many people telling tales of random encounters with him in public.

The loss is enormous. David Lynch's work will live on, a testament to his vision of the world. Neil Gaiman's works are being tossed aside, their characters and stories forever tainted by the true nature of the man who wrote them. 

*          *          *

I was never a huge David Lynch fan. I enjoyed his Dune, an admirable attempt at making a film of an unfilmable story - if anything, I thought it was too conventional, too willing to condense complex details into simple action tropes. My friends were fans of Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet, which I felt were trying too hard to be weird for the sake of being weird. I enjoyed Wild at Heart and Lost Highway. I didn't know too much else of David Lynch's work, though I seem to recall in the early 2000s he had gotten heavily into furniture refinishing. But he has long had a persistent and enthusiastic fanbase online, and over the past few years I have learned to love him as a man and a creator through the clips they posted and anecdotes they told.

I was a pretty big Neil Gaiman fan. Not at first - I never got into the Sandman comics, and I only learned decades after I had bought it that he had authored "Don't Panic! The Official Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Companion." My first intentional purchase of a book by him was a used copy of American Gods from the Vintage Theater , the meeting place of my writing group, when the owner briefly experimented with used book sales. (Turned out the copy I bought was donated by a woman in my writing group. I eventually lent it to a girl I liked, who then gave it to someone else before she moved to Florida.) I later bought several of his short story collections in my first shopping outing after the release of the COVID-19 vaccine in 2021, and bought Anansi Boys in my first out-of-the-darkness shopping trip about six months after my mother's death in 2023. I enjoyed his "Silver Age" continuation of Alan Moore's Miracleman comics. I also enjoyed Bitter Karella's characterization of him in the Midnight Pals online series, where he was a brilliant but tedious magician of imagination - to the point that I considered auditioning to play him in the audio podcast. Neil Gaiman's name became a password among writers and poets, a way of showing that you were good and enlightened and willing to face the terrors of the world with love. In some readings I appended a passage* from his Hellblazer story "Hold Me" as a coda to my poem "Hands," and then ended by holding up the comic book from which I had just read Gaiman's words. All that is gone now. Neil Gaiman is gone now.

* "When we hold each other, in the darkness, it doesn't make the darkness go away. The bad things are still out there, the nightmares still walking. When we hold each other we feel - not safe, but better. "It's all right" we whisper, "I'm here, I love you." And we lie: "I'll never leave you." For just a moment or two the darkness doesn't seem so bad.”

Scranton Fringe Festival, September 22-30, 2018

The Scranton Fringe Festival is returning for a fourth year! From their Facebook page:

The 2018 Scranton Fringe Festival is a performing arts celebration that showcases original theater, international dramas, music, stand-up comedy, children's programming, dance performances, site specific work and much more! 

125+ individual performances will fill over thirteen venues in downtown Scranton this fall for the fourth annual Scranton Fringe Fest. 

Find out more from the official website, the official Facebook page, and the Facebook event page.

You can download a guide to the 2018 Scranton Fringe Festival here. Tickets are already on sale, and advance purchases are recommended.

Support the arts in Northeastern Pennsylvania! Take part in the Scranton Fringe Festival!

Scranton Fringe Festival StorySlam: Word to Your Mother

I was there at the beginning, for the very first one...the first Scranton StorySlam. The brainchild (and senior project) of Madeline Zoë McNichols, it took place on March 31, 2012 in the Penn Avenue location of the Vintage Theater. I only attended one StorySlam since then, the second one, held June 30, 2012 at the now-closed Banshee, but numerous others have been held over the last six years.

Since 2016, the Scranton StorySlams have fallen under the umbrella of the Scranton Fringe Festival, a multi-day, multi-venue arts festival which has recently come under fire from a single politician who questions why taxpayer funds should be used (in the form of grants) to fund the perverted arts.

On Saturday, May 12, the Scranton Fringe Festival presented another StorySlam, a Mothers' Day-themed night called "Word to Your Mother," held on the third floor of the Scranton Cultural Center at the Masonic Temple - a huge venue that also happened to be presenting "Beautiful: The Carole King Story" on the same night. I drove there with a friend who was also one of the presenters, and I dropped her off in front of the Center and went off to find a parking space. (I finally found one over two blocks away. This will be important later.)

The ceiling of the lobby on the third floor is a work of art.

Decaying beauty: The paint is peeling and the illuminated clock is stuck at 7:50, but the room where the StorySlam was held is gorgeous.

Detail of the ceiling. Flower, squid, or something else?

Monica Noelle, founder of #BeKindScranton, tells a story of siblings lost, and mothers found.

Musician and D.J. Justin Pardo tells the story of how he disappointed his mother by nearly getting killed twice in one night.

Alicia Nordstrom tells her winning story of why you should always have the diaper bag with you.

Eight storytellers told their true tales of being mothers, adventures with their mothers, or the special relationship between mother and child. The walls of the third floor of the Scranton Cultural Center rocked with laughter and applause. It was a great night, and I wish a certain County Commissioner had been in attendance.

Window nook in small side stairwell.

The view from the third floor through ancient drawn sheet glass windows.

The Scranton Cultural Center.

The event drew to a close and the attendees headed out to their cars or to wait for rides, including from drivers in private cars driving for the currently-popular ride-sharing service Uber. I suggested that my friend, who recently had knee surgery, wait for me while I retrieve the car and pick her up. I hiked the two blocks - uphill this time - to where I had left the car, and was grateful to find it still there. I then wormed my way through the maze of one-way streets to get in a position to pick up my friend.

As I pulled up in front of the Scranton Cultural Center I saw that there were several cars lined up in front of it. I made my way to the front of the line and put on my flashers while I scanned the area for my friend. As I waited, I saw someone else smile and wave and begin to approach me. Who is this woman?, I wondered - and then I realized: she thought I was her ride. She thought I was there to pick her up. I frantically shook my head and, I think, locked the doors to keep this woman from getting in. Then I saw my friend approaching in the rear-view mirror from much further back in the line of cars. I unlocked the doors and let her in.

I was about to tell her the story of what had happened when she said, "I just tried to get into somebody else's car. It looked just like this one."

Chaz Bennet: Encounter with a Cow

This is not my story. This is a Chaz story. I first heard this from Chaz Bennett at our writing group, the Northeastern Pennsylvania Writers' Collective, the group he founded, in early 2014. By then he had almost completely lost his voice, and was using a voice synthesizer on his tablet to read the story to us. The voice he had chosen was male with a very proper British accent, which made an already funny story that much funnier.

I saw this absurdist tale as a meditation on the Undiscovered Country: not necessarily death, but the unknown that lies beyond this moment. I wanted to read it as the final story at the final open mic at the Vintage Theater back in August of 2014, but I didn't get it from Chaz in time. But he did send it to me, and I think he knew that I would hold onto it until a specific future event happened.

That event has happened. Chaz Patrick Bennett (nee Charles) died on Tuesday, October 27. His obituary was published October 29, and I found out about the funeral this morning, three hours before it took place. I made it there. His wife recognized me and remembered my name. For some reason, that more than anything else made me burst into tears.

Chaz wrote many, many stories over the years. I hope someday they are all seen by the world. Here is one of them.

Note: This story is edited from the version Chaz sent me, to clean up some typos and format the punctuation. It also cuts off a few lines at the end that were not included in the version he read to us. This is not necessarily the definitive version of this story. 

I am walking on a country road.   It' s a sunny day in May and I  feel like obliged to reconnect with nature. I've my Brownie Instamatic hoping to get a picture of robin red breast, the only bird I can recognize. I think I should do this more often. I pause and practice deep breathing.  My friend on nature walks, he stands his head and mediates.  I consider this and rule it out.  For one thing, I don’t know how. For another thing, he’s crazy as a loon.

I hear Louie Armstrong singing ‘What a wonderful...’

Satchmo stops singing, I stop dead and stare.

“You looking at me?  Never saw a talking, purple fucking cow before?'

 I shook my head.

“I cannot hear you.”

“I didn't say anything.”

“Get over here.  You’d think we’re a couple of farmers shouting at each other.”

I'm thinking not every day you get an invite from a purple cow.

I take the bait. I walk to the purple cow making sure the fence is between us. 

“Took you long enough.”

“Can I take your picture?'

“Nooooo. Did that sound like a moo?'

“Yes it did.'

“It did?  I’ve got to work on it.”

“You’re a cow, for christsake.”

“Hey, watch it buddy. I’m born again. As a matter of fact, you can not take my picture, you can not say 'that got past your eyes,’ and if ever call me Betsy, I will bury you under of avalanche of cowshit.”

I sensed that I pissed off the purple cow. Since I have an aversion to manure, I’d continue my nature walk.

“Hey. Where you going”

“No where, man - I mean, cow."

“Don’t lie to me.” 

“I won’t.”

“I like you, pal.  Want to see something?  Come over the fence.”

I do. Why, I don’t know.

“Twist my tail."

I do.

A set of steps pop out of the purple cow.

“Climb  in."

I do.

My feeble attempt at illustrating this story, painted on the wall of The Vintage in Scranton at the very last 24 Hours of Art celebration. The Vintage closed shortly afterwards.

The Vintage: a personal history

The Vintage is closing at the end of August, 2014. It's not the first time it's closed, but it feels like it might be the last.

I first got involved with the Vintage in September, 2011. I was invited to take part in a "bloggers' roundtable" by Rich Howells, who was blogging and working for publication Go Lackawanna.  Back then I would normally have been reticent about such an invitation, but had just started a "say yes to everything" approach to life, so I agreed.

I was a little confused as I was heading up there. I had looked up the address ahead of time, of course, and the place wasn't where I expected it to be.  I remembered reading about the Vintage Theater when it had first opened a few years earlier, in an article in a copy of the Scranton Times someone had left in the break room. The article talked about how a brother and sister were someone was opening a new venue in the old Ritz Theater, a place where my friends and I used to go to see dollar movies in college.  I didn't remember much more, except maybe something about classic films.

In any event I found myself turning left where I would have expected to be turning right - if it hadn't been a one-way street. But there it was, right where the computer map said it would be, at 119 Penn Avenue - several blocks from the old Ritz Theater.

http://nepablogs.blogspot.com/2011/09/nepa-bloggers-roundtable.html
http://nepablogs.blogspot.com/2011/09/nepa-bloggers-roundtable-follow-up.html

(I would later learn that this was the second home for the Vintage Theater, and it had in fact originally been located in the Ritz Theater building.)

As I described in the linked post, the Bloggers' Roundtable was followed immediately by a poetry reading being put on by a group called the Northeastern Pennsylvania Writers' Collective. And the rest, as they say, is history.

http://anothermonkey.blogspot.com/2012/05/northeastern-pennsylvania-writers.html

There's a lot more to the story, of course. I didn't decide to meet with the group until a second encounter a few weeks later:

http://anothermonkey.blogspot.com/2011/10/pages-and-places-book-festival-part-1.html

My work schedule meant I wouldn't be able to attend every meeting, but I attended all that I could. Soon I found myself going up to the Vintage Theater for other events, like the BlueKey Tweetup in December 2011, the first Pecha Kucha night in NEPA in January 2012, and the first Scranton StorySlam in late March 2012. Plus the monthly Third Thursday Open Mic Poetry nights, and the occasional performance or event.

Then, on June 1, 2012, the Vintage Theater closed.

Not for good. We were assured that the Vintage Theater would be coming back someday, in some form. In the meantime the Northeastern Pennsylvania Writers' Collective found itself a new, temporary meeting place at Scranton's Northern Light coffee shop, though our performances were put on hiatus indefinitely.

The Vintage Theater came back a few months later in a new home, the old Manhattan Room bar of the old Hotel Jermyn at 326 Spruce Street. It was rechristened as The Vintage, and for a while shared space with the independently operated Morning Glory cafe. It took a while for the NEPWC to find its footing again, but after a few months of struggling we began presenting poetry to full and nearly-full houses.

And that's where we've been since then. The Vintage has continued on its mission as Scranton's premiere artspace, featuring bands and art exhibits and literary events, plays, a second Pecha Kucha night, and numerous other events.  It's been a popular place, but expensive to run.

This week, Conor O'Brien announced that the Vintage would be closing its doors again at the end of August. This time, for good.

It's not over yet, as I write this. There's a concert this Saturday, August 16. The Last Third Thursday Open Mic Poetry Night is going on next Thursday, August 21. A  music, poetry, and performance art event called velveteen will take place next Saturday, August 23.

On Saturday, August 30, there will be a farewell party. After that, the Vintage will be closed.

The Vintage has been a big part of my life these last three years. I've met a lot of amazing people because of it. Become a part of a community I might otherwise never have known existed. I've grown personally because of the things I've experienced and people I've met because of the Vintage. But now it's over.

So that's that. The Vintage will soon join the long list of places in Scranton that played a big part in the local arts, entertainment, and culture scene, had their time, and went away. Prufrock's. Cafe del Sol. The Test Pattern. Anthology. The Banshee. New Visions.

The Vintage.

Scranton playwright K.K. Gordon to have play performed in New York City

Scranton poet and playwright K.K. Gordon has had one of his plays selected to be performed in a competition at the American Globe Theatre in New York City. "Real Friends Help You Move" will be presented on Wednesday, April 24.

Read all the details here:

Northeast Pennsylvania Writers' Collective: K.K. Gordon's "Real Friends Help You Move" to be performed at the American Globe Theatre in New York

The Vintage Theater: AWESOMENESS IS COMING

It's a little to early to let the car out of the bag, but let me just say that there are some fundraising events that are coming up on behalf of the new and improved Vintage Theater in Scranton that are just amazing beyond words.  If you live anywhere near Northeastern Pennsylvania, YOU WILL WANT TO BE A PART OF THIS!!!

Details coming July 1!

Scenes from the Arts On Fire Festival, Saturday, June 2 2012

As I left the house to go to the weekly gathering of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Writers' Collective, I realized I had forgotten to grab my camera, just in case we decided to head out to the Arts On Fire Festival in Scranton afterwards. "That's OK," I thought. "I can just use the camera in my phone!"

So. Sorry about the poor quality of these photos.

Some of the vendors and the crowd.

Professor Jared Jaffe of Keystone College and some of his RAKU ceramic creations. On the left are ladybug and chicken whistles, while on the right are "RAKU Rocket" teapots. I thought the blue one in the front row resembled one of Lovecraft's Elder Things, while the green one brought to mind a stirge!

One of the most popular exhibits was an interactive art booth. For a few dollars you could buy a hexagonal blank mold made of soft brick. You could then scratch a design into it with a nail, and then molten iron would be poured into the mold, creating a positive image of the negative you had created. On Sunday, all of the cast iron hexagonal tiles will be assembled together into a collective art project! 

Pouring the molten iron into the molds.

Some of the molds. The one on the right in the second row was made by NEPWC member Laurel.

Pouring molten iron into a larger and more complicated mold.

"Arts On Fire," literally: after the molten iron was poured, impurities continued to burn off the surface of the iron for several minutes. This image captures a small flame on the left edge of the rightmost mold.

Who needs Instagram when you have a low-resolution phone camera with a dirty lens and low-light conditions? This old-timey-looking scene was just across the street from the iron furnace.

The Arts On Fire Festival continues through tomorrow, June 3 2012, and will run from 11:00 - 5:00.

Arts On Fire Festival this weekend in Scranton!

The Arts On Fire Festival in Scranton will be going on this weekend! Festivities kick off Friday, June 1. You can read all about it on their blog and their website.

Next weekend is the Scranton Zine Festival! Stay tuned for more details!

Next steps for the Vintage Theater

While it may sound dramatic to declare that "the Vintage Theater in Scranton is closing" (as I did) and to refer to the final First Friday celebration on June 1 as "the Last First Friday" (as I do), the truth, as always, is somewhat more nuanced.

The Vintage Theater is moving out of its current location at 119 Penn Avenue. (This isn't even the original location of the Vintage Theater. I discovered last night that I was correct in believing that it was originally housed in the old Ritz Theater where I used to see dollar movies when I was in college.) But that doesn't mean that the Vintage Theater is going away.

The idea of the Vintage Theater is what's important. It has been a multi-purpose art space where specific events - concerts, art exhibits, poetry readings, plays - brought the people in, and the synergies between the various art forms sharing the same space brought people back. That idea will be maintained, regardless of where the next incarnation of the Vintage Theater sets up shop.

The proprietors of the Vintage Theater are looking for a new home. Something affordable, something within the footprint of Scranton's First Friday celebrations, something accessible, something that is capable of serving the needs of all the different artists who present their creative works within the theater. They have made a list of seventeen different possibilities, and last night an eighteenth was presented - one that no one realized was even on the market.

But they're not rushing into this. They want to do this right. So during the transitional period, we will all have to be patient.

In the meantime, they have needs. Immediate, medium-term, and long-term needs. In the immediate future: they will need to be out of the 119 Penn Avenue location after the June 1 First Friday celebrations. That means that by June 1 they need to be 99% moved out. So in addition to being patient, anyone who really cares about the Vintage Theater should be prepared to lend a hand in some way - now, tomorrow, during the transition period, or in perpetuity.


The immediate needs:

- A plumber capable of doing the disconnection work on a very expensive and delicate European espresso/latte machine. I doubt that my own ham-fisted plumbing skills are up to the task.

- A carpenter with a portable saw to disassemble the very large and heavy countertops.

- An electrician to help with removal of light fixtures.

- General moving help to get stuff off the premises. This includes vehicles for hauling things away.

- Storage space for stuff that's been removed from the premises.

To reduce the tonnage of stuff that needs to be moved there will be a rummage sale on Monday, May 28th starting at noon. Books, chairs, art materials - almost anything that's still around on Monday will be up for sale. (So, FYI, if you're reading this and happen to have stuff that you kind-of left sitting around the Vintage Theater, you might want to reclaim it before Monday.)

After the hard (and frankly, heartbreaking) work of vacating the 119 Penn Avenue location is over, then the next stages will continue in earnest: identifying the needs of the next incarnation of the Vintage Theater, and making it a reality. And after that happens will come the really hard point: doing what needs to be done to keep the theater going.

The Vintage Theater is closing. The Vintage Theater will be back.

Jen Diskin Memorial Poetry Reading

This Thursday, May 17, the Vintage Theater in Scranton (119 Penn Avenue) will be hosting an evening of poetry by, about, and inspired by the late Jennifer Diskin. I never had the opportunity to meet her, but she was a much-beloved member of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Writers' Collective, and I know from the memorial posts at the time of her passing that she had touched the lives of many of my friends.


See the Facebook page for this event here.

Other places, other posts

You know, keeping up a post-a-day pace can get a little tiring - especially when I'm doing posts to other blogs at the same time. Here are links to the other posts I've done in the last twenty-four hours:

NEPA Blogs: June 10, 2010: Uncornered Market - LIVE in Scranton!
Uncornered Market is a fascinating blog documenting the world travels of a couple with ties to Northeastern Pennsylvania. On Thursday, June 10, they will be appearing live and in person at a bookstore in Scranton. Unfortunately, I am scheduled to work that day, but if you can make it you definitely should!

A Blog of Nanticoke: Church closings in Nanticoke
I've been documenting the church closings and consolidations in Nanticoke pretty well here on Another Monkey, but I've been neglecting to post anything on my Nanticoke-centric blog, A Blog of Nanticoke. This post covers not just the consolidation of Nanticoke's Catholic churches, but also the closure (or suspected closure) of churches from a few other denominations as well. For good measure I mention the closure and/or destruction of several other Nanticoke institutions, and the one successful business I've seen open recently.

NEPA Blogs: Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition
After updating the sidebar list on NEPA Blogs to include blogs posted by fellow blogger Gort, I discovered an e-mail from two weeks ago requesting a listing for this blog on one of the hottest local topics: natural gas drilling.


Here are some things I've posted to Facebook that you haven't seen if you're not friends with me on there:

"The Final Blow" by Eric Joyner. I have loved this painting since the first time I saw it in a book at Barnes & Noble. A full-sized version can be found as the third image from 2003 here: http://www.ericjoyner.com/tinrobots.aspx?year=2003
Here's a blog post about the book: http://www.thesneeze.com/2004/eric-joyner-and-the-little-painting-that-could.php

A discussion of the cadmium paint used on McDonald's Shrek Forever After glasses led to one of my Facebook friends reminiscing about an old trick involving dissolving teaspoons made of cadmium - a fun and highly toxic prank! Here's an article from Popular Science on how to make non-toxic versions of these spoons yourself, at a price only several times higher than making them out of solid silver: http://www.periodictable.com/PopularScience/2005/02/1/index.html


Harley Newman - I met him at the Sideshow Gathering last year, and he is absolutely the nicest person I have ever met. Courtesy of Paul Szauter (a.k.a. Doctor Wilson), who comes in a very close second!




Here are two articles on the environmental cost of the BP Oil Disaster in the Gulf. Not for the squeamish - but you should read them anyway. The most heartbreaking picture I have seen so far was on CNN, I think, of a pelican or other large bird in an oil slick in the surf completely covered by a blanket of oil, struggling to get out. But BP is trying to protect us from these disturbing images by using their control of the local police to keep photographers away - and to prohibit anyone with access to these areas from taking pictures.

Via David Gergen:
Charlie Riedel Photos of Dying Birds Put New Focus on Oil Spill - AOL News
www.aolnews.com
(June 4) -- AP photographer Charlie Riedel\'s pictures of dying, oil-coated birds on a Louisiana beach reawakened public outrage about the BP disaster as no words could.

Via Bill Retheford:
BP Tries to Block Photos of Dead Wildlife Animals Change.org
animals.change.org
For animal lovers, one of the most heartbreaking aspects of the Gulf spill is the oil-drenched wildlife washing up on shore. If you're too horrified to look at any photos, you're in luck — BP doesn... Read more of this post, BP Tries to Block Photos of Dead Wildlife, at Change.org.

They're not toys, dammit!

I've been reading up on a fascinating dinosaur called the Therizinosaurus lately. While it's known from just a few bones, including ridiculously oversized claws, some educated guesses have been made about its overall appearance based on the body plans of related dinosaurs. Safari Ltd. has a nice-looking model of it, though the sculpt actually seems to be based on more closely resemble this image of a Nothronychus.

Speaking of dinosaur toys models, I recently became antsy wondering when (or if) the Safari Prehistoric Sea Life Toob might come out. So I e-mailed their customer service department with a query. Four days later I received a response which read, in part:

The item is still in production and will not be available for distribution to store retailers until the middle of March.

Please see below some suggested retailers:

You may visit the following online retail sites:
http://www.safariltd.com/ (press the green button and it will direct you to Shopatron for retail purchases)
http://www.thebigzoo.com/
http://www.healthstonehobbies.com/ (Hmmmm, this looks like a bad link...I wonder if she meant http://www.healthstones.com/ ?)
http://www.store4knowledge.com/

Also the following large retailers carry our products:
Michaels Arts & Crafts
AC Moore
Learning Express
HobbyTown USA

Thank you for your interest in Safari’s products.

...which I though was pretty nice of them.

While we're on the subject of educational...stuff, the Everhart Museum in Scranton is currently exhibiting The Art of the Brick: Sculptures by Nathan Sawaya, featuring sculptures made out of Legos. I hope to get up there with my nephews, who are both big fans of Legos. They may find the rest of the museum pretty interesting, too.

And speaking of art, I recently had a memory bubble up of a blog post someone wrote a few years ago about cigarette vending machines being repurposed as vending machines for tiny works of art. While I found the website for the project - Art-o-mat®, "vending art and culture since 1997" - in less than a minute, I wasn't able to actually identify the original blog post. It was from perhaps five or six years ago, maybe longer, so the blog where I originally read this may no longer exist. I'll keep checking on the blogs of old blog-friends to see who might have posted this way back when.

Canadian Science Fiction writer Peter Watts assaulted and detained by U.S. border agents

When I met Chelsea Clinton in Scranton last year I had a few seconds to talk to her. Nothing much. Not that I was being rushed at all, and in fact I could have hung out with Chelsea at a nearby bar/restaurant afterwards, but I didn't want to delay the nice lady who took my picture and her daughter from getting to talk to Chelsea. So I think all I said to her after the picture was taken was something like, "I have a lot of friends who are afraid to travel to America. I hope your mom helps change that." I wasn't just thinking about our culture of violence. I was also thinking of the ever-more-draconian steps that are being taken to discourage any visitors from coming to this country, all in the name of National Security.

When Barack Obama became the Democratic nominee I threw my support behind him. I figured that either Democratic candidate would be more likely to reverse the Bush Administration's many miserably bad decisions than the McCain/Palin team.

On a lot of these, I'm still waiting.

Here's just another example.

On Tuesday, Dec. 8th, Canadian science fiction author Dr. Peter Watts was arrested and beaten while returning to Canada after reportedly helping a friend move in Nebraska.

According to Cory Doctorow (a personal friend of Dr. Watts), as border guards were inspecting his car, Dr. Watts got out and questioned what they were doing. He was subsequently punched, pepper-sprayed, beaten, handcuffed, and jailed. The witnesses in the car reported that Dr. Watts did nothing to provoke the guards into this response.

Dear President Obama: WTF? We hired you to fix these problems. This is the sort of crap I would expect under your predecessor. But I expect better from you.

See also:

Legal fundraiser for Dr. Peter Watts, SF writer Deanna Hoak (this is how I became aware of this story)

Dr Peter Watts, Canadian science fiction writer, beaten and arrested at US border - Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing

Not the Best of Possible Worlds. - Peter Watts' account of the situation. Contains some harsh language, understandably.

Science fiction writer charged after bridge struggle thetimesherald.com The Times Herald - A report in a Michigan paper from Port Huron, where this incident took place. Contains several inaccuracies and errors, which Watts addresses in the post linked below. Some of these inaccuracies and errors may actually be present in the official police report, though this was only verbally delivered to the reporter by Port Huron police Captain Jim Jones.

Squidgate. Update. - more from Peter Watts, including corrections to some of the reports floating around out there.

Edith Layton Felber Memorial

Adam Felber's mother Edith Felber, also known as historical romance writer Edith Layton, passed away last Tuesday:

My mother, Edith Felber, also known as the author Edith Layton, died early Tuesday, before dawn. She’d been fighting cancer rather secretly but determinedly for quite some time. And only very recently did the disease gain the upper hand.

You can find a wonderful tribute, with her friends and fans sharing their experiences of her right here.

Those of us who knew her by her third name, “Mom,” (or as she liked to style it on this site, “Old Mother Felber”) know that we’ve lost a beautifully unique, strong woman whose talent and wit was matched by a fierce, proud, unshakeable love for her children, her late husband, and -of course - her doggies.

Adam announced that a special commemoration of her love of doggies has been set up:

There is an Edith Layton Memorial, Fundraiser, and Giveaway you can get involved in, thanks to the terrific ladies at Dear Author and Smart Bitches.

Click either link to find out more, and by all means, help get the word out there.

Dear Author: Romance Novel Reviews, Industry News, and Commentary: Edith Layton Memorial Auction, Giveaway, and Fundraiser

Smart Bitches, Trashy Books Romance Novel Reviews: Edith Layton Memorial Auction, Giveaway, and Fundraiser

Photo study: The Whacked Iris

Yesterday while using a string trimmer on the weeds along the border of a flower garden, I accidentally whacked the head off of one of the Irises that had gotten tired and felt like having a little lie-down on the ground. Rather than toss it on the compost heap, I decided to preserve the flower in water for as long as it would last. But what kind of vase should I use? Usually I'm partial to Olive Garden salad dressing cruets and Snapple bottles with the labels still on, but there really wasn't enough stem left for either of those to be practical. I pulled out a small jar from our Vault O' Jars. It was a nice one, with chamfered corners. What the heck did it hold, once upon a time?

Today I realized that this Iris head in a jar might make a nice subject for a painting sometime. I set out to take a series of photos that I could use as references long after the Iris has withered into cellulose dust.


Each photo I took was from a different angle or had a different setting or different lighting conditions. Each one captured some different aspect that I might incorporate into a finished painting. For example, I love the broken refractions of the stem in these first two pictures.

Other pictures captured different colors in different parts of the image. I should really construct a screen of some sort to use as a backdrop.

This last image captures the bubbles in the water beautifully. In this photo and the previous two the jar is perched on top of a two-liter soda bottle, its cap covered with a tissue. (Balancing things delicately is one of my superpowers.)

The "table" on which the jar sits in this photo is actually a song sheet from church - a piece of paper folded in half - placed on top of the two liter soda bottle and covered with the tissue.

This Iris will probably be wilted and done with by tomorrow. But using these photos, I may be able to create an image which preserves it a little longer.

Other Churches, Other Windows: St. Stanislaus

For the past two Sundays I have attended Mass at St. Stanislaus Church in Nanticoke instead of my home parish of St. Mary's. This has been partly for the sake of expediency: St. Stan's offered the earliest Masses each Sunday at 8:00 in the morning, meaning a down-time of only an hour or so between my arrival in Nanticoke after work and the start of Mass. As I would be sore and tired from having just put in a twelve-hour shift of running around trying to convince multiple DVD manufacturing systems to continue working through the night, I would be looking for a parking place near the front entrance of the church. My early arrival would help ensure that that happened.


I have some history with this church. As a child, my grade school education was split between St. Mary's and St. Stan's, with kindergarten and the odd-numbered grades in St. Mary's and the even-numbered grades in St. Stan's. This arrangement was terminated sometime before my sixth grade as all classes were consolidated into St. Mary's. But during second and fourth grade St. Stan's was the church I attended for school-day Masses.

I remember it as a dark and imposing church, sulfurous-smelling and not very pleasant. About fifteen years ago there was a major renovation done to the church which included the replacement of all of the stained-glass windows with ones of a more modern design from local stained-glass window maker Baut Studios. (A friend who was working at the church at the time of the renovation does not know what became of the old windows.)

Unfortunately, St. Stan's is one of the Roman Catholic Churches in Nanticoke scheduled for closure after consolidation, and all this work will have been for nothing.

It was not the windows that caught my attention as I sat in the pew last week, exhausted and sore, waiting for Palm Sunday services to begin. Frankly, I don't like the modern windows very much, though I will allow you to judge for yourself. The thing that caught my eye was much more mundane, but had tied up with it a cultural and historical element of Nanticoke.


It was, as faithful readers ...tom... and Hedera noted in the comments for an earlier post, a hat hook - a spring-loaded clip mounted to the back of the pew in front of you that allowed gentlemen to hang their hats by their brims back in the days before John F. Kennedy's example set made going hatless stylish and standard. These hooks are ornate and appear to be lacquered brass; the ones at St. Mary's resemble eyeless, earless, tuskless elephant heads and are made of metal with a dark, glossy finish. In the decades since hats went out of fashion, these hooks have been used to hold missalettes (back when these books were issued monthly and were relatively thin), bulletins, announcements, or special collection envelopes.

The interesting thing about these hooks was the sponsor tag, a little plaque about one inch across affixed to each hook with what appear to be grommets.


These were most likely mass-produced items, relatively inexpensive to manufacture. The creation and addition of the sponsor plaque probably doubled (at least) the cost of each hook.

These hooks have outlived their sponsors. Gem Furniture, the sponsor of the first hook shown, was one of at least three furniture stores in Nanticoke, the others being Bartuska's and Noble Furniture. Gem Furniture closed about fifteen years ago. The Adam Olszewski Bakery was located across the street from what is now Nanticoke's Municipal Building, which would place it less than half a block from Sanitary Bakery. The Gem Furniture building now houses a Credit Union, a WIC office, and the offices of Representative John Yudichak. The Olszewski Bakery now houses a beauty salon.

Upon inspecting the second photo I could almost make out a line of text directly below the top mounting screw. But what did it say?


Some manipulation and enhancement later, and I was able to tease out two of the words - and surmise the rest:


The first word appears to be "OTHER", and the last, "PENDING." Now, what sort of things usually come in a group, and are often pending? I could only think of one obvious candidate: patents. So the middle word, I believe, it the abbreviation for "patents": "PAT'S" - with an exaggerated space between the "T" and the "S" to make room for the mounting screw.

Other items of historical interest populate this church. This rostrum, or lectern, or whatever it is, features ornately carved wooden images on all sides.


It was once nearly twice as tall and featured a set of steps the lector would ascend, where they would tower over the congregation while reading the Word of God. The recent renovation cut the lectern down to ground level, eliminating the possibility of seeing someone solemnly tumble down the steps - as I am sure has happened more than once in the church's history. As with the old windows, I have no idea what became of the base of the rostrum.


One other item of note is this image of the Last Supper, which I believe is a bas-relief - it certainly appears to be three-dimensional. It is located under the back altar and would be obscured from view by the front altar from all but the front few pews. (It is visible in the second photo in this post as a white rectangular patch in the lower center portion of the image, below the painting of St. Stanislaus and the small, flag-bearing statue of Jesus.)



As I have noted above, the new windows are of a modern style, featuring a much clearer glass where each pane is a single, uniform color. The windows also have an abundance of clear panes, providing plenty of light into the church.


The windows face East and West, meaning that except for the hours after sunrise and before sunset the sun is generally not going to be shining directly through them. The alignment of the windows is such that at 8:00 in the morning this past Easter Sunday, a sunbeam was aimed directly at the main altar - specifically, directly at the head and face and eyes of Father Nash, who was conducting the service. Above we see sunlight falling on the statue of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, who stands between statues of Jesus and St. Anthony of Padua.


In this photo, exposure time has been adjusted to capture the sharp and distinct colors being transmitted by the windows. Modern stained-glass windows have some virtues, I suppose.


A view of the Eastern windows as Easter services let out. Despite its relatively small size, St. Stanislaus looks quite imposingly large in this view. Note the ornate hanging light at the top right center.


A close-up view of the center window in the previous image. The window contains the opening lines of the Apostles' Creed: "I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth".


This image dominates the central portion of the church ceiling. It is fairly enormous - how large, I cannot say, but I will guess at least twenty feet from the top of the image to the bottom. To get this photo, I stood directly under the center of the painting and opened my lens up as wide as possible. I suppose I might have been able to get the whole image if I had, say, laid down on the floor.

That's not the whole story of St. Stan's, to be sure. But I am not as familiar with the history and traditions of this church as I am with St. Mary's. There are doubtless parishioners at St. Stan's who could do a much better job of documenting this church before its doors are closed for good in a year or two. I can only hope that some of them choose to take on this task.

The Stained Glass Project: St. Victoria and St. John the Baptist

This is part of an ongoing series called The Stained Glass Project, in which I am attempting to photographically preserve the stained glass windows of my parish church, Our Lady of Czestochowa (St. Mary's) in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania.


Continuing to move from the front of the North side of St. Mary's Church in Nanticoke, PA to the rear, the second window we come to is another truncated one. Like the window featuring Saint Anne and Saint Peter directly opposite it on the South wall, this one seems to have been modified from an original, full-sized window, since the donor tags at the bottom are missing.


This pair of windows depicts Saint Victoria and Saint John the Baptist.* As noted above, the windows appear to have been modified after installation, with the lower openable pane and the donor tags removed. Previously I have suggested that the upper openable pane has also been removed, but this appears not to be the case since the upright piece of the red cross at the center point of the semicircular fan window at the top is continuous with the top border of the portrait itself.

These windows are positioned directly above the alcove that until recently housed the church's baptismal font, which is now located on the South side of the main altar. This would seem to be an intentional coincidence, although the alcove itself appears to be, like the side entrance opposite it, a relatively recent addition to the structure - perhaps in the last fifty years or so.


The baptistery contains another stained glass window, but this window is clearly not contemporaneous with the twelve pairs of portrait windows that line the walls and will not be included in this study.


The left-hand portrait is of Saint Victoria. Victoria is a problematic figure: the name can apply to any of several poorly-documented and possibly apocryphal figures. The New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia does not even have an entry on anyone named Victoria, except in an entry for Diocese of Perpignan which states

In memory of former ties with the metropolis of Tarragona, the Church of Perpignan honours several Spanish saints: St. Fructuosus, Bishop of Tarragona, and his deacons Augurius and Eulogius, martyred at Tarragona in 259; some martyrs of the Diocletian persecution (end of third century); Justa and Rufina of Seville; Felix and Narcissus of Gerona; Aciselus and Victoria of Cordova; Leocadia, of Toledo; St. Ildefonsus (607-67), Archbishop of Toledo.

"Victoria of Cordova" is apparently the sister of Acisclus, who was martyred along with her. But other saints bearing the name of Victoria include Victoria of Albitina, Victoria the sister of Anatolia (also martyrs), Victoria the servant of Edistus (with whom she was, unsurprisingly, martyred - or at least martyred soon after), and, not to be outdone, a Victoria who was martyred along with Denise, Dativa, Leontia, Tertius, Emilianus, Boniface, Majoricus, and Servus. It is unclear which Victoria this portrait represents, but it is a pretty safe bet that she was a martyr.

Catholic Online lists three of these Victorias: Victoria the sister of Anatolia, Victoria of Tivoli (twice), and Victoria the sister of Acisclus. There is also a Blessed Victoria Strata, who has not been canonized as a saint; perhaps this is related to the fact that unlike the many Saints Victoria, she was not martyred.

No description of any of the various Victorias lists either a crucifix (which may symbolize martyrdom) or a lily (which may symbolize purity) among her attributes. However, the Wikipedia entry on Saint Acisclus (the brother of Victoria of Cordova, or Córdoba) notes as his attribute "with Saint Victoria, his sister, crowned with roses" - much like the Saint Victoria portrayed here. So perhaps this figure is Victoria of Cordova.


As obscure as Saint Victoria is, she is paired with one of the best-known saints: Saint John the Baptist.


John the Baptist is sufficiently well known that I will omit any details on him as an individual. Here is his entry in the New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia, and here is his Wikipedia entry.

Saint John the Baptist stands before a unique backdrop. Like most of the other saints portrayed in these windows, he appears to be in the "cathedral" setting, judging from the stone pavers on which he stands. But his background is not columns and arches, nor is it a window on the sky or the sea; instead he stands in front of a wall made of stone blocks. Like many of the other figures, this background is partially obscured by a curtain, though this curtain appears to be of a simpler design than the curtains in the other portraits, which feature details like this stitchwork seen over the shoulder of Victoria, and virtually invisible to the observer's unaided eye:




These two portraits have aged worse than many others in the church. This is especially noticeable in Victoria's hair and the loss of detail from John the Baptist's face and beard.

In contrast to this apparent weathering, the upper round window is sharp and clear, with some of the most legible script: "Civitas Dei", City of God, which I have conjectured is the setting for the "cathedral" images of the saints.

*Note: This image has undergone more correction than most of the others in this series. Apparently I succumbed to the temptation of getting as close to the window to photograph it as I could, which resulted in a perspective distortion - the bottom is much wider than the top. I have attempted to correct this by "stretching" the image at the top corners. This may have resulted in some distortion in the vertical dimension - when I was able to make the top as wide as the bottom, I realized the figures were too short, and I adjusted them by eye. Here is the image I started off with: