Not just checking for era-specific undergarments

One thing that was true of Septembers not that long ago was the pop culture roll-out of new network TV shows. I'm extra sensitive to this dated concept even to this day, because I grew up in a house with no chance of cable TV (we lived WAY too far out in the country). We got the big 3 networks (FOX was but a feisty upstart with no long-range presence in northern Wisconsin when I went happily away to college). Plus the snowy hint of a channel that sometimes morphed into PBS. Try explaining that to them goldarn kids these days. So this lingering toehold on life in the 1970s and '80s causes me to still look to those new Fall shows in hopes of, I don't know, maybe identifying with something? Almost always an empty proposition, especially with the way TV seasons are split and an endless array of something better being out there a few clicks away. In all, I maybe watch one row of shows off our DVR these days. Still, if I had to put money on a winner this year, I'd go big obvious - "Pan Am" on ABC. Good origin story (as a concept, via it's creators), great case study for an era (the "jet age" and all the hipness it employs even if they've somewhat disingenuously eliminated everyone's cigarettes), and the most awesome logo in a long history of iconic design greatness. Personally, I'll be fascinated to see if something of that era works on one of the old networks where they consistently play it safe. I think it might land well in a growing retro strip. The comparisons to "Mad Men" have flown around constantly even though that trope's about as tired as Andy Rooney's eyebrow wrangler. My final question is, how authentic will the costuming really be? If you're looking for the hint at my underlying angle, there you go - wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

Until the next page turns...may the excitement surrounding tonight's NFL Season Opener not pull you away from at least acknowledging that President Obama deserves our attention during the pre-game.

Let the Months be your guide

The start of the school year has me thinking about continuity. That ol' chestnut - the more things change, the more they stay the same. We brought our own daughter to her first day of First Grade this morning much like families all across the country are doing or recently have done. So goes this time of year. For me, continuity is a touchstone not only of these special family moments but the overall structure of Pelting Out. I'm using a timeline that extends across decades, but not in anything like a yearly chronological sense of time. Instead, I'm hanging everything off an eternal monthly calendar. What happens in September, stays in September - whether we're talking 1917 or 2011. That, for me, has allowed narrative threads to be strung between what would otherwise be hard to connect periods of history. When I frame my thinking using the months of the year, I can consider what my Grandfather Harry might have thought on my family's then nearly 40-year-old homestead in northern Wisconsin in September of 1917. Then, just maybe, I can present the parallel with what's going on as I enjoy Seattle's beautiful extended summer. Much like what I experienced for the first time when I arrived here for graduate school nearly 20 years ago. The trick will be to do that over the whole arc I've set up for Pelting Out. Narrative non-fiction is, after all, an exercise in storytelling that requires structure and (hopefully) a unique point of view.

Until the next page turns...I hope you saw your own child skipping into the classroom this morning.

When A Term Shifts

I was reminded today of yet another semantic shift caused by 9/11 - the broad re-purposing of "domestic terrorism". Specifically, in what constitutes such an act. It is such a loaded label. But I suppose it is like the famous definition for obscenity ("I know it when I see it"). Whether or not people think about it much, there are groups upon which the terrorist tag has since 9/11 been applied broadly and with lasting impact. Which brings me to my first movie recommendation in the short arc seen thus far on this blog. A very good, rather small documentary came out in theatres this summer - it will continue to be shown at a variety of film festivals through the Fall. It's titled "If A Tree Falls" and I've been fortunate to start a dialogue with one of the filmmakers (Marshall Curry) regarding this particular work. To see the people on screen who had been labeled as such was truly interesting, given how ineffective and sad they were shown to be in their current state of affairs. Even though they were tagged as terrorists in most of the cases shown before 9/11, the ante was surely upped on them after the tragic events of so-nearly ten years ago. That's neither here nor there. Maybe I'm just trying stuck in the loop of my own current research finding its way into most conversations. This film is still worth a solid - please check it out if you're close to a screening.

Until the next page turns...I hope your own school year kick-off BBQ has all the kids in your house buzzing with excitement right up to the moment they fell fast asleep.

Looking for new linkages between Europe and Asia

For all the thinking I'm doing about China, another pair of countries often enough enter my focus on Pelting Out. Namely, Denmark and the Netherlands. I'd love to consider myself rather well qualified to freely associate random places and concepts - I'm using the pop psychology understand of the term, but I know there are many others. Still, these three countries present a lit'l brain teaser I've not yet detangled. I've got (for my purposes) one way in which Denmark, the Netherlands and China finish 1-2-3 in a manner of tabulation, just ahead of the United States. Are there others? Can there be others or is that free association just too random? Surely in a world this big and complex, there must be a way of crunching some esoteric numbers that will allow me to spin a yarn of connectivity between these three nations. So I throw it out there into the ether for a Labor Day. As I marvel at the sight of a table of snoozing Santa Barbarians in decidedly fresh surfer fashion (there's your oxymoronic sign for our nation's celebration of this holiday) - anyone got a clever, similar ranking for me of these global citizens?

Until the next page turns...may your flights be on time and all your fun family photos duly uploaded for sharing.

Prepping for a trip to China, tracking the roots of the ginseng trade

I'm preparing for a big trip in less than two weeks. I've known about it for the past few months and the timing is fortuitous given my writing plans. I'm still largely unsure of what I'll see along the way. No withheld mystery here - I'm going to China. 10 days, a chance for a big drink from a wide open firehose. I'm being afforded the chance to briefly explore Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Call it a trade mission, because I'm going with a group of Americans and Canadians whose purpose and interest in visiting China has a specific business implication. But I have plans to be personally adventurous (within safe bounds - hello, unseen all-knowing Internet sniffers) along the way. As a matter of educating myself, I've been reading a fair amount online, flipping through maps and guides, and asking questions of some well-placed friends and friends-of-friends. I'm also finishing off a book this weekend that just came out in August by Tom Scocca - titled Beijing Welcomes You. One direction he pointed me is to mention a travel guide titled Beijing By Foot that is made up of set of 40 maps (printed on cards) that itemize walks around the city. I noticed that journalist James Fallows wrote one of the blurbs on their website. Not bad. I contacted the publisher and they can send a copy to my hotel after I pay by PayPal. Call it the ultra-modern equivalent of getting a TripTic from AAA. Costs more, pays off much much more. I hope.

For today's clue about why I'm here, doing what I'm doing as the sun struggles to burn off the Santa Barbara fog a handful of hours earlier than most recent days. A tangent got me wondering about the Trans-Pacific (if that's what you can call the connection between China and the USA) trade of ginseng. I've always been struck by how little truth in labeling there is on any teas or Whole Foods-y things that feature ginseng. It's rather like trying to find out what part of the moon your moon rocks come from - complete lack of specificity. I suspect this has always been the case with ginseng. And the crazy part is that ginseng from the USA has been making its way to China for centuries. When the trade with Korea (the traditional source of most of the ginseng consumed in China) collapsed, American wild ginseng entered the breach. Eventually, cultivated ginseng became a new trade opportunity. The degree to which that continues, I'm now exactly up to date. But this is something I'm thinking about, for the time being. We'll see if I learn more during my visit.

Like what you see thus far? Well, then become a Follower of my blog. Use the top box in the right-hand column. It won't hurt. It will actually help - updates come automatically, I'll be able to respond to questions, everyone gets a free hug. Or some of those things, in no particular order.

Until the next page turns...may you have a chance to go to the beach and eat pancakes after a workout.

Back with good reason. And a first clue for why that might be.

The time has come to quote that most overused of Al Pacino lines (no, not "Say hello to my little friend"). I'm speaking, of course, of that widely-paraphrased bit from "Godfather III" where Michael Corleone says "Just when I thought I was out...they pull me back in." And so it is with me and blogging. I'd been out. For a year, in all but the rarest of circumstances. Aside from my beloved (albeit small) audience from past ventures, I don't expect that the world is missing my contributions to the world of blogging. After all, aren't we over this and other similar venues by now? I've said so myself - in the future, no one will blog. Is this the future? Well, not yet. I've still got some work to do.

In particular, I'm writing a new book. One that was always my "Plan A" for a big, personal, unique and meaty tome. Non-fiction. With a major league first person narrative hook. After writing two novels and countless words on subjects that I suppose in retrospect largely stand as somewhat contrived or at least not nearly as personal as what I've got planned with this project, the time has come to redirect. I'll explain myself a bit from this - the utter outset of my blog "Pelting Out". But don't expect this will be an entirely above-board examination of a particular subject in a particular way of framing. Do, however, expect this will be a place to see a mystery unfold. One that I fully intend to be worth following. Those of you with a sleuthing instinct will dig down deep pretty quickly. Still even those searchers will be flummoxed by what I've got in store. Because this is a blog about a world I expect few (if any) of you know a thing about. Oh, sure - you may think you know something about it. I'm amazed how many people do. They are often at the very least misguided, though. Usually wrong - painfully so. Almost always missing an important piece of the whole puzzle. And without a doubt set up for a sucker punch of hidden truth. Or a volley, delivered not with an ulterior motive other than to educate and entertain. Slice this or any of my past work to its core and the intent remains the same - I am here to tell stories.

Does this sound like something you might be interested in following? I certainly hope so. Then, please, do so and come back. The clues will present themselves daily - a rather cumbersome gambit, but one that I expect will make more sense as time goes by. I'll even set up some of those mechanisms to alert you when a new piece has fallen into place, especially for subscribers to this blog. For today - this first post and my first step back into blogging - I will offer one thing:

Alice Munro may be the only writer who has proceeded me on this path. I don't claim to have a thing on her as a writer. A person on the perennial Nobel Prize short list stands far above the twittering, blogging mass of New Century voices. I'm only speaking of her past. For this one, our shared old friend Wikipedia can surely give you all that's necessary to see the landscape. The pieces of "Pelting Out" after this won't fall into place so easily. So you're welcome. But, more importantly, thank you for checking in.

Until the next page turns...make way for time at the pool, with a daughter who has recently found her way to being a happy, confident swimmer.