Quilters Without Borders

Last Thursday night, I went with Lotus (who comments here sometimes) to Quilters Without Borders, a service organization begun about a year ago by an some women in an LDS ward who wanted to do something that involved people who weren't the same ones they saw at church all the time. A letter was sent out to churches near Foothill Blvd, and the group currently includes the St. Ambrose Catholic Church, the 7th Day Adventist Church (on Foothill, sorry, but I can't recall the exact name of that congregation), the Zion Lutheran Church, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Foothill 6th Ward -- and anyone else who wants to come (me, in this case). (So far, I don't think there've been any men, but I'm sure they'd be allowed if they showed up. Lotus took a quilt home Thursday for her teenage sons to do.)
The idea is to get to know some different people while quilts are made for various organizations. A different church hosts the party each month (click the post title for a link to the website for more info). If the women of that church provide the quilting materials, then they decide which charity gets the finished products. Otherwise, there are two options. Delta Airlines will provide the materials if the quilts are then given back to their company, who will present them to Primary Children's Hospital (so that each child has a quilt to take home when s/he leaves the hospital). Or the group meets at Welfare Square, the huge LDS humanitarian aid center on the west side of the valley. There, the LDS church in general (not just the ward who created this) provides the materials, and the quilts are stored to donate anywhere the need arises, be it a hurricane in the US or an earthquake in China or request from the local homeless shelter when cold weather sets in.
Everybody wins here. Women get a social night out and meet some people out of their comfort zone. Local churches get some good press. Delta gets a tax write off. Fabric stores sell extra cloth and yarn. And lots of people get quilts. Oh, and someone usually brings brownies. Many of us will do a lot for a good brownie. :)
I worked with Lotus and two women from St. Ambrose. We laughed, talked, and stitched. In two hours, we'd finished two quilts. Each of 3 other tables had produced the same, and one lady had brought a beautiful quilt she'd tied at home to donate. With the one that Lotus took home for her boys to do, that's 10 quilts this month. Not bad.
Live in Salt Lake and want to join in? Click the post title and go to the website for details. Live somewhere else and like the idea? Google it. This isn't the only society like this in the world. Can't find one near you? There's no time like the present to start. Don't quilt? Start something else. How about putting together school supply kits for needy kids in the world? You don't need special skills to pack Crayons and pencils. Or go out and pick up trash in a local park.
Just don't forget the brownies.

Happy 4th!

Thank you, Mr. Bagley.

JKR Signs Up Against Age-Banding on Books

Click the post title to read the article.
With Rowling's support, these huge publishing companies may give up this hurtful idea.
The organization against age-banding was requesting teacher support, so I e-mailed a very detailed letter a couple of days ago -- and received a thank-you from author Anne Fine, which was quite a fun thing.

China: The Land of "Close Enough" English

Mary Wilson sent me an e-mail a couple of days ago that sent my mind zipping back to 2001, when she and I often roomed together on a dance tour in China.
It was less than one month after the terrorist attacks that demolished the Trade Towers in NYC, and only a few months after some US/China tensions over a crashed spyplane (ours) that had been in their airspace and they had held the pilot hostage (unharmed, but not free) for awhile. The Chinese government was determined to show these guests from the US that they could keep Americans safe -- even if America couldn't.
And we were safe -- from terrorists, at any rate. Not from the water. Or the toilets. But soldiers and cops were with us everywhere.
I learned many things in China. And one of them was that, although English is everywhere (for foreigners who can't speak/read any form of Chinese), none of the locals seem to care whether it's right or not. One hotel had a huge sign made of separate neon letters near the eating facility, spelling out "DINGING ROOM." It amused me that they must've paid extra for the G that made the whole sign stupid. In Shanghai, we saw a porn store with the playboy bunny proudly posted next to a neon sign that spelled out "Palyboy." And one hotel room had a sign up in the bathroom, next to the little basket of shampoo and soap. The sign clearly stated "Expandible items will not be replaced until they are used up." How do you use them up if they keep getting bigger?
So, while I did not take this photo of the menu featuring something "deep fried and look like squirrel," I can relate.
Mary and I spent one memorable evening laughing so hard we cried over the "service guide" of the Dongjin Dynasty Land of Peach Blossoms Hotel. The hotel was very flattered when we asked if we could keep copies of the guide, and we were allowed to take them. Thus, I am able to share with you now the exact wording of our favorite parts of the guide.
Note: I will type the spelling and grammar EXACTLY as they appear in the booklet.
From the welcome page:

"The sense returned home is really good -- hopes this is that you enter the experience to the Dongjin Dynasty the Land of Peach Blossoms. Has entered one gate of the house, and has been one family, I allocate here these, concentrates for you serve, have come, although enjoys is. It is not convenient to fear you, and you read earlier this service guide especially please, and is not regarding as an outsider, and outside long existing, the family also has a not familiar time, and does not have. My this family property is not very, but the family belongings are calculated completely, and living comes down, and eats well, plays well and has a rest well, and there are the necessaries to a kindness feeling in the picture, although greets, and shows just in this."

Um. Yeah. Mary and I figured it meant: "Welcome to the hotel and we hope you feel like family here."

A few other highlights included:

On the "requirement" page: "4. No dangerous articles. No using of vehicles, oils, liquefied gasolines, electrical stoves. No whoring, smuggling, gambling and drug. No immoral and criminal behavior. no smoking in bed."

(So is the smoking in bed literal? Or is it metaphorically connected to the no whoring bit?)

On the "amusement" page: "the amusement center Has the elegant of tea and a table ball and tenpin bowling and song and dance hall KTV and well-informed colour and the healthy body and the white mulberry takes etc. service."

Okay, I'm really glad to know that the color in the hotel is well-informed. I hate it when colors are left uninformed, don't you?

Under "room service: "2. the washing cloths service Every day morning 9:00 before, namely the clothing and other articles for use that will need to scald to wash are put into the laundry bag to give a layer face service desk, and can take back the clothing and other articles for use late on that day. Washing clothes price is seen only the express servce detailed rules and regulations. Stirring telephone 5302 are served."

It took us a second, but Mary and I finally figured out that stirring uses the same motion as the old action of dialing a rotary phone. So, uh, "stirring." yeah.

And finally, what to do in case of an emergency: "Safty service. All the houses of the villa are equiped with smoke senser. Alert will be made when it is dangerous. Waiters will come quickly for help. Don't be alarmed. All the workers have been trained how to anti-fire."

Help me! I'm a waiter!!

So this was China in 2001. I know they have been preparing for the Olympics, but have they put in decent public toilets? Have they cleaned up their water supply so that Americans and Europeans will not come down with Chairman Mao's Revenge after brushing their teeth?
And has someone on their Olympic committee hired a native speaker of English? Please?????

This Is Not A Joke

(Click the post title to see the website for yourself.)
After the Texas raid on the YFZ Polygamists' ranch a few months ago, the rest of the world saw what Utahns have long been familiar with: the FLDS pioneer-with-weird-hairdo clothing styles. Now, you can buy AUTHENTIC FLDS clothes for your kids -- yes, folks, even the underwear, from this website. Talk about an anachronism: using the internet to sell clothing designed, made, and forced upon kids who reportedly aren't even allowed to study history past the American Civil War and are taught to believe that space travel is a hoax. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around this irony.
Okay, part of this is a good thing. We have women who are now supporting themselves in a 21st Century world and who will ( I hope) gain some autonomy by so doing. This is good. And, originally, the website was started so that the foster families who had the children could not use the excuse of not having the FLDS clothes when trying to let the kids experience something slightly more normal (like, say, jeans and a sweatshirt on a boy or perhaps a daring turtleneck and floor-length skirt on a girl). Now, however, anyone with a credit card can buy the stuff.
I saw some polygamists while I was down in Cedar City. Every day during the lit seminars, a boy of about 18 or so would pass by with about 8 girls of the same age. They were all dressed just like the ads on the website, the girls had those unbelievable poofy-front hairstyles with long braids down their backs, and they all had modern shoes and backpacks. It is an odd thing to see a girl dressed for the Donner-Reed party wearing white plastic clogs and pulling a wheeled backpack instead of a handcart. (Note: the boy must've been a brother. Boys that young generally don't have multiple wives.)
Now, no doubt Mainstream Mormon mothers will buy some of these clothes for the 24th of July (For those of you who've never lived in Utah, that's Pioneer Day, a HUGE state holiday commemorating the settlement of the SL valley by the pioneers, who took it when no Native Americans wanted it.), as it's quite common to see the pioneer or cowboy look on just about anyone during the Days of 47 times. (The valley was settled in 1847.)
And, I suppose, it MIGHT be kind of cute to see toddler girls at church in some of those dresses once in a while. But please, I hope NO ONE seriously considers dooming their kids to such constraining clothes full time. And, unless their kids ski or play ice hockey, I hope no one buys the underwear, the wearing of which in the summer months should be expressly forbidden by the Geneva Convention. And, please: SKIP THE HAIRSTYLES.
Look, I am in favor of modesty. And I love dressing up in costumes myself. But no child should be forced to dress like this on a regular basis. A girl cannot run, jump on a trampoline, dance in mud puddles, or climb trees comfortably when she is dressed in pastel, floor-length polyester. A boy should not constantly look like he's on his way to church. To me, parents who force kids to dress like this are just as scary as the ones who let their girls come to school in shirts that show all their cleavage and their bellies and their boys buy shirts that say "You know that thing your girlfriend does that you like? I taught her." (I've seen both at school -- and hauled them off for dress-code violations, only to see their mothers come in dressed worse than the kids.) Which one is worse: teens dressed like prostitutes and pimps or babies forced into ankle-length underwear in 110 degree heat? See what I mean? They're both scary.
So, I applaud these FLDS women for being resourceful and trying an adventure in capitalism which will allow them some contact with the outside world and some choices it brings. But I worry about the overboard GospelNazi mothers in Mainstream Mormon or perhaps even other strict faiths who might start thinking this is a good thing. I mean, Utah already has moms who won't let their kids play with children who aren't LDS and parents who won't let their kids go to public schools where they might be tainted by the world and parents who won't let their kids see any movie that isn't a Disney cartoon (I'm not exaggerating here; I could name names). I certainly hope we don't get moms who want their kids to dress like this all the time. Talk about writing the book on how to engender teenage rebellion. wow.

How I Spent My Shakespeare Vacation in 2008

(Click on the post title to see all the Utah Shakespeare Festival's official photos.)

I spent last Monday through Thursday in a very tiring but pleasant visit to the Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City, Utah. To demonstrate what I mean by "tiring," let me run through Wednesday's schedule:
6:30 - 8:15 AM Do stretching required for back, eat, bathe, dress, spend 30 mins. filling out review forms (for Southern Utah Uni credit) on Tuesday night's orientation, play, and greenshow.
By 8:30 AM must be seated on the benches in the Seminar Grove in order to get a seat out of the sun. Read parts of Two Gentlemen of Verona
9:00 AM Seminar on Othello with the director (from Tuesday night's play)
10:00 Seminar on Taming of the Shrew with the director (Tuesday's matinee)
11:00 Actor seminar with the men who played Iago and Othello
12:00-1:00 rush to restroom, snarf down the hard-boiled egg and granola bar in my backpack, and fill out forms on the seminars
1:00 play orientation for Fiddler on the Roof
1:40 PM rush to restroom then find seat for Fiddler
2:00 -4:30 PM Fiddler
4:30- 6:15 PM get food, eat, go back to hotel room, fill out forms on Fiddler and orientation seminar, clean up, drive back to theatres.
6:45 PM Orientation on Two Gentlemen of Verona
7:10-7:40 PM Green show, then rush to restroom
8:00 -11:00 PM Two Gentlemen of Verona
11:00-12:00 drag self back to hotel, get ready and go to bed after sorting out forms for Thursday.



I got almost no exercise and not enough sleep for the 3 1/2 days I was there. Whew.
The plays, however, were incredible (except one), and I am very glad I chose to go during opening week so I could meet the directors, see previews and openings, see the press, etc.
The first play I saw was the one I disliked: Moliere's "School For Wives." I guess I just don't get Moliere. I didn't understand why the protagonist was one the audience was supposed to empathize with right up until the end, at which point we were supposed to feel good that he goes off defeated. There was waaaaay too much humor for it to be a tragedy (yeah, I know, Shakespeare puts in comic relief in tragedies, but you don't see MacBeth done as slapstick much, either), but the protag had a tragic fault (pride-- surprise, surprise) and comes to naught in the end. Plus, there's the whole little deus ex machina bit of bringing the girl's father in out of nowhere.
Also, I didn't like the director's interpretation (and he was the only director to blow off the offer to talk at a seminar, so we couldn't ask him either.) The director used a very modern translation (with words like "weird," "jerk," and "piss off") but put it with very authentic-looking 17th century costumes. It was like seeing Louis XIV singing rap. Ick.
In great contrast, the evening's play was Cyrano d'Bergerac. Ah. Brian Vaughn. Wow.
The man is good. I mean, Cyrano's a tear-jerker at the end anyway, but I had streams running down my face for the whole last 20 minutes or so. And the funny parts were hysterical. Wow. The Anthony Burgess translation is not my favorite (I like Robert Hooker's in English -- and, of course, Edwin Morgan's in Scots), but director David Ivers made it work. This was my favorite of the plays I saw.
Taming of the Shrew had a female director who chose to set it in 1947 in occupied Italy. The setting change worked. I wasn't as keen on how many times she changed the script (don't mess with the Bard's words, dude), but Kate was superb. Unfortunately, the end didn't quite work. The director had decided that Kate would take all the misogynist crap in the play as a joke, but by the end, she was all serious about it. Huh? So, parts of this were good and parts rather mediocre. (I did love how the director had it end with the song "That's Amore." very funny.)
Othello was intense. The actor who played Othello had a smaller role in Cyrano -- and didn't do it too well. So I was worried Othello would be a wash-out. It was not. The man was superb. Unfortunately, Desdemona was played by an actress who could be outdone by half the kids I know in the drama classes at the high school where I do hair and make up. She was pretty -- but that was about it. I cared about him when he killed her, but I didn't care that she got killed. Iago was far different than the Iago played by Kenneth Branaugh in the movie, so I was a bit tainted in my opinion. But he was nasty. Emilia was the best! She was far better than any other actress I've seen play the role. It's a pity Desdemona wasn't as good.
Fiddler on the Roof was... well, it was Fiddler. Since Mormons love to identify with the Jews (which probably bugs the Jews but at least Mormons are pro-Semite rather than anti), until Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat came along, Fiddler was the most popular musical in Utah. I've seen it a gazillion times, so it was hard to be impressed. However, this was a good Tevye and the scenery was very nice.
Two Gentlemen of Verona was very good, especially considering it is a play with an awkwardly fast ending. The two leads were fine, the two servants were better, and the dog was the best. Julia was the same actress who played Desdemona, and she was slightly better as Julia, but nothing to rave over. Sylvia was fabulous (and stunningly beautiful). Turio was very funny. Of course, Brian Vaughn (as Lance, the servant) was amazing. He and the director had worked out a little silent routine right after intermission, where Lance was supposed to come out on stage and retrieve his master's dropped letter and rope ladder. It was total slapstick comedy, with dropped papers, tangled ropes, and a frustrated man, but it was one of the highlights of the show.
Whew. This is long.
Overall, if anyone who reads this is planning on going to the festival this summer, I suggest you see all the plays except Wives -- unless you're a die-hard Moliere fan. But whatever you do, don't miss Cyrano.

The Edinburgh Book Festival

(Click the post title to go to the website.)
The SLC book festival lasts 3 days, has at least 3 authors that no one has ever heard of before, possibly an agent, the poet laureate, lots of booths, and a workshop on papermaking.
The Edinburgh International Book Festival lasts 3 weeks. It has 800 authors and 750 events and two bookstores.
It's no wonder I find myself disappointed yearly in the SLC bookfest; I'm spoiled.
Last year's SLC bookfest did have Lauren Thatcher Ulrich (Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History) who rocks. But the other authors were:
William Kittredge & Hal Cannon
Hampton Sides
Janette Turner Hospital
Katharine Coles & Luci Tapahonso
Jane Hamilton

Ever heard of these people? Me neither. Look, not even the relatively famous local authors (Shannon Hale, Terry Tempest Williams, Robert Kirby, Brandon Mull) signed up. (The festival is currently scrounging for authors -- maybe I should volunteer: no one's heard of me, either.

On the other hand, the Edinburgh festival has a few well-known people: Salman Rushdie, Ian Rankin, Alexander McCall Smith, Debi Gliori, Terry Pratchett, Nicola Morgan, Joe Donnelly, Eoin Colfer, Darren Shann, Celia Rees, and Liz Lochhead, to name a few. (In the past, they've had a few other "sorta famous" authors, too, like Doris Lessing, Neil Gaiman, and JK Rowling.) Oh, and Sean Connery has written his autobiography, so he'll be there this year.
Unfortunately for me, I can only be there for the first week of the festival, so I can't see half the authors I want to. And Ian Rankin's one early event sold out in approximately 3.5 seconds. I'm thinking I might be able to get see Eoin Colfer, though. Keep your fingers crossed.