Life in Abstract America

A Good American

The author is an immigrant to Missouri. There lies his main interest of the book. The book is narrated by James who ' was the only one who had nowhere but to look back'. He is the grandchild of the German immigrant couple who are fortunate to meet helpful people.
The narrator writes of an eventful life of his family, ancestors and the community. The book is interesting to read but not something that will leave an indelible impression on your mind. The first generation's struggle has the reader spell bound with how things are going to work out for them. I kept wondering how would Joseph's success story be. The book delivers with its unexpected twists and the narrator learning his own story while yarning out the rest of the town's. The story always stays within the town limits. The extremes are provided in the stories by making the families incomplete with either a father or mother sacrificed for the story. In every alternate chapter, theres a death.
With a lot of 'tiger mom' gusto to music, I expected something grand from the family members. 'A Good American' seemed a good context for the first generation's story to hinge on. For Joseph looked at America as a place where 'future was the only thing that mattered'.But the later on generations had too quotidian a life.
Author's interest in jazz music, playing sax and cooking/eating are all reflected in the book with a bar with live music turned to a restaurant back to bar.
4/5

Whats worthy of poetry?

Night of the republic

Kaadedi kavitakanarham kukkapilla, sabbu billa, aggi pulla - Sri sri

This telugu line means that even a puppy, soap bar or a match stick are not incapable of being poetry subjects.
A note about the titles in the book. They are common places that you encounter in your life. The poet's palette is full of the most familiar and obvious elements like the restroom indispensables of soap and towel.
His
Of the canned goods and foodstuffs
Stacked in columns onto columns
Under columns pushed together

Into walls of shelves
Of aisles all celestially effacing
...
Of bodies that have picked
Packed unpacked and placed
in the poem `Supermarket' are reminiscent of the pepsi and cola cans which have been arranged in different colors to form human features.
His choice of words looms at you like the blocks in a tetris game. The reader is required to be on their toes.
His `Parkbench' poem is a juxtaposition of all things and events that happen in and around a park bench in the endless reel of time.
Even though the poet writes on everyday objects, he makes them interesting by discarding their static being and imbuing them with an organic quality. For example, in
`Stone Church'
Each stone is another
stones resistance

Bell ringer

At Bashas, I saw a person ringing a bell. I didnt know that they represented salvation army.

The Birding life

MapHead
Map watching, the author picked places which have similar outline.
Third culture kid
California map society
Travelers century club
Lilly Gaskin
National geographic bee
Sylvie and Bruno inspired Borge's story On exactitude in science
Degree confluence project
Collecting: An unruly passion
Antipode map
How to essays by Umberto Eco has On the Impossibility of Drawing a Map of the Empire on a Scale of 1 to 1.”, in the line of Carroll and Borge's work.

Magical thinking

I feel great about my hands and other unexpected joys of aging

Each book has a secret

The mystery of metamorphosis

Amazon review

Sand hoppers use their visual cues in calculating the tide occurence.

Did dolphins learn sponging from Sponge crab ?

Mollusc and human eyes

Radial symmetry evolution

Larva and starfish - Luidia arsi

Cephalopods have three hearts and blue blood

Francis Balfour

Octopus mom cares for her young and dies. Penguin parents have to travel far to fed themselves.

Reflections on a summer sea

The great peacock moth
The Life of the caterpillar

Great hall of Beijing 2005 -pg 25

A tea pot in a saucer
A cup next to it
for every political adviser
in each of the red velvet chairs
in rows of wooden tables.

A woman in red
stocks them one by one
In the empty hall
of name tags.

The penguin and the leviathan
review

Idea hunter

What is more likely to hold us back as individuals - a lack of things or a lack of ideas? - Andy Boynton.

Authors blog

When older people dont eat well

Yoga for women.

Our fathers, ourselves

How much should a local phone call cost?

There are many cases where people have been charged exorbitantly for local calls.
ILD Telecommunications has a D+ rating.

TMobile connects and charges calls to Mexico and Canada, even though you disable international calls.
TMobile does not disable international calls for the phones added o family plan. When the billing is taken care of by the primary account holder, shouldnt the settings be default from that account.