ThomStratton.com

Last year one of our big events was taking the boys to the Pokémon World Championships in San Francisco. That isn’t happening this year. Long story, but the bottom line is Pokémon screwed things up to where we didn’t think we had a chance of even getting an invite, so we made arrangements to go to North American International Championships instead. A fair bit bigger, but not as prestigious, and not as cool swag. And only Walter went this year.

The up-side was that one of Walter’s friends was also going, so we had traveling companions in his friend and his friend’s mother. After tackling it all alone last year, I have to admit it was nice having another adult along.

The adventure began with a red-eye flight from Salt Lake City to Atlanta, departing at 11:00 pm and arriving around 5:30 am the next morning. About the only good thing to that was the sunrise in Atlanta.

From there we caught a flight to Indianapolis, Indiana, where the tournament was to be held. Everything was to take place downtown, so while we waited to check into our hotel we took a little walking tour along the White River.

The downtown area along the river has really been taken care of, with many projects clearly intended to make it a pleasant destination. We passed by a museum and the NCAA Hall of Champions along our way, and both Indiana University and Purdue University were close by. Another few miles away was the Indianapolis Motor Speedway where the famous Indy 500 race is run, but we only ever saw that from the air.

Once we were able to check into our rooms we crashed until evening. The boys met up with some other players from the Salt Lake area for some Pokémon practice, while we adults went shopping–for supplies. We walked farther than we had intended, but we eventually found a grocery store and stocked up on food for breakfasts and lunches. In the process we got a more in-depth feel for the city, and I have to admit that I was starting to fall in love with Indianapolis. For a bigger city it really felt clean and safe. And there is such an amazing mixture of architecture!

The next morning marked the beginning of the competition. It was nice having the competition next door to the hotel–and practically a part of it, as it was connected by a skywalk!

There were over 250 players in Walter’s division, so they had to play nine rounds to determine the top 32 that would move on to the second day.

It was a long day! And when the smoke finally cleared Walter came in 55th, missing the top cut by one match. But he probably did the best of any of the Utah contingent.

The next day there were a lot of side events that the boys could participate in, so they spent much of the day at that. I did a little sight-seeing, and had a wonderful tour of the Indiana Statehouse. It’s a beautiful old building, and our tour guide was terrific! He was a retired fourth-grade teacher, and he knew his stuff–and knew how to make it fun. It turns out I was the first person from Utah to tour the Statehouse so far this year!

Beneath the rotunda is an incredible stained-glass window I just knew my mother-in-law would love! I tried to get the best picture I could for her, but my phone is only so good.

The floors are covered in Italian marble, and many ancient snails were caught in the stone. They left the fossils in, and so every so often you’ll find old snail fossils in the floor. Most of them have been named by those who work there.

Here’s another example of their amazing architecture around the government plaza.

The next day we flew home to Salt Lake City. Not much to talk about or show there. But all in all, I had a great time. Walter had a lot of fun, and barely even minds not getting to go to Worlds this year. I’d have to call our Indianapolis adventure a success!

When I was in my late teens New Age music arrived on the scene. Artists like David Lanz, Tangerine Dream, Vangelis, Andreas Vollenveider and others introduced music that was, in many ways, more simple, more ethereal, with just a touch of pop production values, but clearly a counter movement to pop music.  While it was little more than a curious side-show than its own genre deserving of its own radio stations, it became popular enough that one of our local radio stations produced a show every Saturday night called “Digital Star-streams” that would play New Age music. Sometimes it was a mix of various artists and albums, and sometimes they’d play part of a single artist’s album.

I discovered a lot of music through that program that has stuck with me through the years. Philippe Saisse has proven the one that stuck with me most, probably because he followed me into my Jazz phase. Tangerine Dream (their later “Private Music” work for true fans) also has endured well.

That was over twenty years ago, and New Age is all but gone, though it lives on under a diaspora of other monikers, such as Electronica, Trance, Ambient, Minimalism, World Music, Vaporwave, and the like.

Perhaps two years ago I discovered musician Nigel Stanford, who produced a fascinating music video called “Cymatics” with imagery created from various forms of cymatic waves. I listened to a little of his other music and thought it interesting, but nothing really stuck out at the time. “Cymatics” was cool, but lacked staying power.

I recently came across “Cymatics” again, and subsequently found several of his other tracks from his Solar Echoes album available on YouTube. For whatever reason it caught my attention this time, and then began to grow on me. It’s smooth and ethereal with an underlying energy, with interesting harmonies and flirtations with melodies, and a mixture of electronica and analog instrumentation that blends well.

I’ll admit my primary love of this new find is as background music. It provides presence and energy while not demanding attention. But it also rewards the active listener. I like enough I bought the album–in itself a bargain, as you get an hour and a half of music. He’s got another album already out, and a third in pre-release. I shall be watching his career with great interest.

Here’s a sample:

Trigger warning: Not for the faint of heart

Ayup. One of the down-sides of aging is confused hair.

Evidently it’s been 20 years since Harry Potter first exploded on the children’s literature scene. It doesn’t seem that long to me, and that’s probably because I was late to the Harry Potter party.

I was in college when it came out. I had plenty of other things to do. And let’s face it, paying attention to the latest and greatest in children’s literature wasn’t a high priority. My brother’s kids loved it–okay, their entire family loved it. So did a lot of other people. It was hard not to hear about Harry Potter.

And so I avoided it for quite a while. I tend to get a little snobbish about popular entertainment–if everyone loves it, then it can’t be that good. After all, most of the movies everyone loves leave me scratching my head over what the big deal is. Mass appeal has never been a recommendation for me. And I admit I’ve missed out on some good stories with that attitude.

So in my elitist snobbery, I can at least take consolation in the fact that I did become a Harry Potter fan before the movies came along. It was probably either my younger brother or moving in with my older brother’s family for a while that got me off the fence and into the books. And they were fun! There is so much to love about the Harry Potter world.

I remember especially finishing “The Goblet of Fire” and feeling the ground move beneath our collective feet. The gloves were coming off. Harry Potter was getting serious. Rowling had turned a corner, and it was delicious. The series got dark, but without crossing all the way over into dark and gritty. The sense of wonder was still there. The sense that goodness and decency would win in the end was still there. But the stakes were suddenly much higher, and we knew that defeating Voldemort would come at a cost.

Then along came the movies–or rather, with me, the movies followed close behind. They were good. They were fun. But they were limited. They couldn’t go as deep as the books could, but they were valiant try. Radcliff, Watson, and company became the de facto images in my mind as I read the latter end of the series, and that was fine. The movies have become the shortcuts back into the books. I can watch the movies and remember all the things I enjoyed in the books that didn’t make it in.

Harry Potter is very much a part of me now, and of my own family. I read all seven books to my kids (and Dumbledore’s voice nearly made me lose my own). I have a wand (thanks to my woodcraftsy brother). I don’t know what house I’m in. I don’t know which HP character I’m most like. Like most things I really love, my enjoyment is personal and mostly private. I don’t need all the pop culture trappings.

And while I of course love Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Snape, they are not my favorite characters. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Luna Lovegood, and Remus Lupin are more my style. And, I suppose, that’s an indication of the depth of Rowling’s world and storytelling. It’s big enough to give a reader room to walk around and explore outside of the immediate orbit of the main characters. There are characters of such variety that everyone can find someone they can relate to.

I’ve not tried to read anything else Rowling has written after “Deathly Hallows”. I’ve not even tried to watch “Fantastic Beasts”. Maybe it’s the old snobbery raising its head again. Maybe it’s the fear of disappointment. Perhaps it’s just my limited time. I don’t know. All I know is that if all I ever enjoy is Harry Potter, that is enough. Thanks, Ms. Rowling, for a magical ride.

I know I just posted something from this guy, but today I found this little ditty. I’ve loved this song for quite some time already, but his vocal arrangement is phenomenal. His lush jazz harmonies give me tingles. Peter Hollens has nothing on Tim Blay (sp?).

It’s science! It’s history! It’s acapella singing! What more could one ask for in one video? What? An “Aladdin” parody? I’m SO there! (Fits amazingly well, too!)

This is cool and kinda eerie at the same time:

Fancy wine descriptions can make you feel more emotional when you drink

That’s the conclusion of a recent study from the University of Adelaide. This immediately brought to mind Mary Robinette Kowal’s short story “Waiting for Rain”, which deals heavily with the wine industry and includes such wine descriptions as section-bumps.

Finding the right balance so that description doesn’t become purple prose can be a little tricky–as the article suggests–but perhaps it’s more worth trying for than I previously thought.

It’s no secret by now that I find Camille Paglia fascinating. By all modern media standards she shouldn’t exist. But every time I read either an article by her or an interview with her I learn something, even if I don’t always agree with her. But perhaps that’s her appeal: where we disagree it seems she disagrees thoughtfully and respectfully. She can be strong in her denouncements, but not strident, and the fact that she holds views all across the political spectrum only lends to her credibility.

Perhaps I’m only seeing what I want to see, but she seems like someone with whom, even if you disagree, could have a fascinating and thought-provoking conversation. I would love to have the chance to validate that view sometime.

The latest piece of evidence can be found here: On Trump, Democrats, Transgenderism, and Islamist Terror