From my Mailbag
Jun. 13th, 2005 11:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellenkushner3 great letters I'd like to share:
My old friend Pat O'Connor (now a professor of Hispanic Studies at Oberlin who delivers papers on such topics as "Recent Erotic Experimental Writing from Latin America", but was once a humble member of our old New York Shakespeare-reading/after-dinner sea chantey-singing/dishwashing crowd - and with such a great performing background, trust me that you missed a good show at Wiscon 29 last month if you did not attend his presentation "Latin American Women Writers and the Fantastic/Dystopian/Science Fiction: present[ing] information about women writers of Argentina's neo–liberal bubble, including Ana Maria Shua, author of La muerte como efecto secundario (1997), a near–future dystopia, and Angelica Gorodischer, author of the rather fantastic historical fiction Fabula de la virgen y el bombero (1993)...." . . . . ANyhow, Pat is also one of the world's most amusing correspondants. He has finally switched from fitting 500 elegant words onto the backs of carefully-selected postcards to e-mail, and I just received:
"I am in New York, after the always entertaining overnight bus ride from Cleveland courtesy That Last Refuge of Scoundrels Greyhound Inc., and after a day recuperating in the fastnesses of Flatbush I am almost myself again. Until I figure out how to make my new laptop go Wifi I am typing from you at the Penultimate Refuge of Scoundrels, the huge internet cafe in Times Square, which if you come here early enough or stay late enough you get to meet all the homeless tranny boys, a new variation on an old Times Square theme.
"I have checked in with our mutual friend Mr. D[...] J[...]. As a retiree he is shocked, shocked only now to discover that the great cultural institutions of New York are not delightfully empty from 9 to 5 on weekdays, but are full of tourists (ca va sans dire) and people playing hookey from work (this he finds unacceptable, since in his years as a New York bureaucrat he did all of his hookey in Florence). I reminded him that the coffeehouses of the city, at least, are full of happily working writers such as myself and Delia, and that was when I suddenly recalled that the two of you may be in New York at some point in the next 2 1/2 weeks while I am here. We should do something."
[...possibilities discussed at length; then:]
"A burst of nostalgia: while in the comic book store of Oberlin I realized that I had skipped over one of the small Sandman spinoffs collected in a graphic novelette way back when, and when I purchased it, The Time of Your Life, I was delighted to see that Mr. Gaiman had dedicated it you two, presumably to excuse his not having attended your commitment ceremony (the issue was finalized in December 1996, and I believe I missed it the first time around because that was my first, rather hectic semester at Chicago which entailed traveling to your commitment ceremony as well as to Costa Rica). I am sure that he is disappointed that the two of you never cut a deal with Death to save the life of the baby that one of you had with a Puerto Rican cook before you journeyed along the moon's path with a witch to meet the King of Dreams, but I figure by now he's over it.
"And a burst of forward-looking giddiness: before I left Madison, far too soon, I registered for next year's WISCON. Even having only attended half the convention I realize that this one's a space and a milieu I want to return to regularly. Thanks for plugging me in to one of the coolest and funnest networks of readers and writers around. I hope to see the two of you sometime this June, if possible--
Pat"
The next two are from listeners to my weekly national public radio program, Sound & Spirit. The first is from an older listener, in response to the program we aired this weekend on MARRIAGE.
Date: Saturday, June 11, 2005
city_state: edison, NJ
program: MARRIAGE-6/11/05
DEAE ELLEN KIRSHNER:
LISTENED THIS MORNING TO YOUR PROGRAM --MARRIAGE!
TOTALLY ENTHRALLED!. YOUR COLLECTION OF MUSIC
AND TRADITIONS OF MARRIAGES OF WORLD CULTURES--
ABSOLUTELY MESMERIZING, FASCINATING, STUNNINGLY
ENLIGHTENING AND ENTERTAAINING...BETTER THAN
ANYTGHING ONE CAN FIND ON RADIO, TV OR FILMS
THESE DAYS!
WOULD THAT YOU COUL MAKE A DOCUMENTARY OF ALL YOU
HAVE RESEARCHED.
YOUR PROGRAM FILLED ME WITH LAUGHTER, TEARS AND
WISTFUL REMINISCENCES OF MY OWN MARRIAGE.
HAD MY HUSBAND NOT DIED 3 YRS AGO, WE WOULD HAVE
BEEN MARRIED 63 YEARS! HE WAS AN ARTIST- A TRUE
ARTIST IN BODY,SOUL AND WORK- A RENAISSANCE MAN--
BOTH OF US JEWISH--BUT OF TWO DIFFERENT ETHNIC
BACKGROUNDS (HE-RUSSIAN, I, HUNGARIAN) AND WHAT A
FASCINATING LIFE WE HAD--BICKERING ONLY ABOUT HOW
WE EACH PRONOUNCED THE YIDDISH VOCABULARY!
UPS AN DOWN LIKE A ROLLER COASTER-BUT HUMOR AND
RESPECTKPULLED US THROUGH MANY TRAUMATIC YEARS.
I WOULD NOT HAVE CHANGED MY LIFE WITH HIM FOR
ANY OTHER!
ELLEN-- MAY YOU CONTINUE YOUR FABULOUS
CREATIVITY FOR MANY MANY YEARS. (NOT TO FORGET
THOSE AMAZING PEOPLE WHO HELP YOU IN RESEARCH)
YOUR ADORING LISTENER,
SYLVIA J---
P.S. LOVE YOUR SOFT, WARM AND INTELLIGENTLY CARESSING VOICE.
The second is from someone who listens online:
Date: Sunday, June 12, 2005
Dear Ellen and All,
Your program always touches my heart in a way that the rest of my life does not. Normally,I can remain as stoic as need be. However, when I take the time to listen to one of your programs, I inevitably get an answer to a question I didn't realize I was asking and always there is a moment when tears gently caress my cheeks. That is my standard response to your programs. Thank you.
But, last nite I attended a gathering of women to celebrate the coming of summer and we were asked to bring three songs to share with everyone. I chose two possible selections from my Ulali CD and two possible selections from my Kate and Anna McGarrigle CD. To my dissapointment, everyone
there wanted to dance to popular music. But at one point I gathered my courage to attempt a listen from Ulali. I announced it as "different" and was allowed to play one track. As a result, the women stopped dancing and chatted happily with each other. It was bearly heard. Immediately they returned to the other music. I did not attempt to play any of my other possible selections.
On the way home I "appoligized" to the Ulali singers and thought maybe it was a typical response to the American Indian....that they are not heard even when expressing themselves in such a beautiful manner. But I felt I had somehow
failed them. And about precious Kate and Anna, I felt let down about not being able to share them with others.
And now back to this morning when I took the time to listen by computer (the ww web) to your Weaving program. I have done weaving in my past and so felt a connection to the theme.
And yes, the point came when tears roll...but then to hear Ulali...and then to hear Kate and Anna!!!! I felt immediately connected to you and your audience and I no longer feel sad about failing Ulali or Kate and Anna. I KNOW there is a community of folks who celebrate and appreciate their precious musical contributions. And THAT is thanks to you and your crew. It's as if a silver needle and gold thread have repaired the hole in a tattered fabric (my spirit).
Thank you Ellen and All for allowing Spirit to spin its Truth, Knowledge and Artistic Expression in you program. My faith is restored!
It is a perfect example of so much of what we try to do on the show (not the weeping - really not! - but the glorification of non-mainstream-popular cultures . . . dare I say, INTERSTITIAL?) - and is also a great example of a classic "Sound & Spirit Serendipity Moment" when the show delivers exactly what a person needs to hear right when they need to hear it. These kind of coincidences are reported by listeners from time to time, and are always delicioussssssly chilling!
My old friend Pat O'Connor (now a professor of Hispanic Studies at Oberlin who delivers papers on such topics as "Recent Erotic Experimental Writing from Latin America", but was once a humble member of our old New York Shakespeare-reading/after-dinner sea chantey-singing/dishwashing crowd - and with such a great performing background, trust me that you missed a good show at Wiscon 29 last month if you did not attend his presentation "Latin American Women Writers and the Fantastic/Dystopian/Science Fiction: present[ing] information about women writers of Argentina's neo–liberal bubble, including Ana Maria Shua, author of La muerte como efecto secundario (1997), a near–future dystopia, and Angelica Gorodischer, author of the rather fantastic historical fiction Fabula de la virgen y el bombero (1993)...." . . . . ANyhow, Pat is also one of the world's most amusing correspondants. He has finally switched from fitting 500 elegant words onto the backs of carefully-selected postcards to e-mail, and I just received:
"I am in New York, after the always entertaining overnight bus ride from Cleveland courtesy That Last Refuge of Scoundrels Greyhound Inc., and after a day recuperating in the fastnesses of Flatbush I am almost myself again. Until I figure out how to make my new laptop go Wifi I am typing from you at the Penultimate Refuge of Scoundrels, the huge internet cafe in Times Square, which if you come here early enough or stay late enough you get to meet all the homeless tranny boys, a new variation on an old Times Square theme.
"I have checked in with our mutual friend Mr. D[...] J[...]. As a retiree he is shocked, shocked only now to discover that the great cultural institutions of New York are not delightfully empty from 9 to 5 on weekdays, but are full of tourists (ca va sans dire) and people playing hookey from work (this he finds unacceptable, since in his years as a New York bureaucrat he did all of his hookey in Florence). I reminded him that the coffeehouses of the city, at least, are full of happily working writers such as myself and Delia, and that was when I suddenly recalled that the two of you may be in New York at some point in the next 2 1/2 weeks while I am here. We should do something."
[...possibilities discussed at length; then:]
"A burst of nostalgia: while in the comic book store of Oberlin I realized that I had skipped over one of the small Sandman spinoffs collected in a graphic novelette way back when, and when I purchased it, The Time of Your Life, I was delighted to see that Mr. Gaiman had dedicated it you two, presumably to excuse his not having attended your commitment ceremony (the issue was finalized in December 1996, and I believe I missed it the first time around because that was my first, rather hectic semester at Chicago which entailed traveling to your commitment ceremony as well as to Costa Rica). I am sure that he is disappointed that the two of you never cut a deal with Death to save the life of the baby that one of you had with a Puerto Rican cook before you journeyed along the moon's path with a witch to meet the King of Dreams, but I figure by now he's over it.
"And a burst of forward-looking giddiness: before I left Madison, far too soon, I registered for next year's WISCON. Even having only attended half the convention I realize that this one's a space and a milieu I want to return to regularly. Thanks for plugging me in to one of the coolest and funnest networks of readers and writers around. I hope to see the two of you sometime this June, if possible--
Pat"
The next two are from listeners to my weekly national public radio program, Sound & Spirit. The first is from an older listener, in response to the program we aired this weekend on MARRIAGE.
Date: Saturday, June 11, 2005
city_state: edison, NJ
program: MARRIAGE-6/11/05
DEAE ELLEN KIRSHNER:
LISTENED THIS MORNING TO YOUR PROGRAM --MARRIAGE!
TOTALLY ENTHRALLED!. YOUR COLLECTION OF MUSIC
AND TRADITIONS OF MARRIAGES OF WORLD CULTURES--
ABSOLUTELY MESMERIZING, FASCINATING, STUNNINGLY
ENLIGHTENING AND ENTERTAAINING...BETTER THAN
ANYTGHING ONE CAN FIND ON RADIO, TV OR FILMS
THESE DAYS!
WOULD THAT YOU COUL MAKE A DOCUMENTARY OF ALL YOU
HAVE RESEARCHED.
YOUR PROGRAM FILLED ME WITH LAUGHTER, TEARS AND
WISTFUL REMINISCENCES OF MY OWN MARRIAGE.
HAD MY HUSBAND NOT DIED 3 YRS AGO, WE WOULD HAVE
BEEN MARRIED 63 YEARS! HE WAS AN ARTIST- A TRUE
ARTIST IN BODY,SOUL AND WORK- A RENAISSANCE MAN--
BOTH OF US JEWISH--BUT OF TWO DIFFERENT ETHNIC
BACKGROUNDS (HE-RUSSIAN, I, HUNGARIAN) AND WHAT A
FASCINATING LIFE WE HAD--BICKERING ONLY ABOUT HOW
WE EACH PRONOUNCED THE YIDDISH VOCABULARY!
UPS AN DOWN LIKE A ROLLER COASTER-BUT HUMOR AND
RESPECTKPULLED US THROUGH MANY TRAUMATIC YEARS.
I WOULD NOT HAVE CHANGED MY LIFE WITH HIM FOR
ANY OTHER!
ELLEN-- MAY YOU CONTINUE YOUR FABULOUS
CREATIVITY FOR MANY MANY YEARS. (NOT TO FORGET
THOSE AMAZING PEOPLE WHO HELP YOU IN RESEARCH)
YOUR ADORING LISTENER,
SYLVIA J---
P.S. LOVE YOUR SOFT, WARM AND INTELLIGENTLY CARESSING VOICE.
The second is from someone who listens online:
Date: Sunday, June 12, 2005
Dear Ellen and All,
Your program always touches my heart in a way that the rest of my life does not. Normally,I can remain as stoic as need be. However, when I take the time to listen to one of your programs, I inevitably get an answer to a question I didn't realize I was asking and always there is a moment when tears gently caress my cheeks. That is my standard response to your programs. Thank you.
But, last nite I attended a gathering of women to celebrate the coming of summer and we were asked to bring three songs to share with everyone. I chose two possible selections from my Ulali CD and two possible selections from my Kate and Anna McGarrigle CD. To my dissapointment, everyone
there wanted to dance to popular music. But at one point I gathered my courage to attempt a listen from Ulali. I announced it as "different" and was allowed to play one track. As a result, the women stopped dancing and chatted happily with each other. It was bearly heard. Immediately they returned to the other music. I did not attempt to play any of my other possible selections.
On the way home I "appoligized" to the Ulali singers and thought maybe it was a typical response to the American Indian....that they are not heard even when expressing themselves in such a beautiful manner. But I felt I had somehow
failed them. And about precious Kate and Anna, I felt let down about not being able to share them with others.
And now back to this morning when I took the time to listen by computer (the ww web) to your Weaving program. I have done weaving in my past and so felt a connection to the theme.
And yes, the point came when tears roll...but then to hear Ulali...and then to hear Kate and Anna!!!! I felt immediately connected to you and your audience and I no longer feel sad about failing Ulali or Kate and Anna. I KNOW there is a community of folks who celebrate and appreciate their precious musical contributions. And THAT is thanks to you and your crew. It's as if a silver needle and gold thread have repaired the hole in a tattered fabric (my spirit).
Thank you Ellen and All for allowing Spirit to spin its Truth, Knowledge and Artistic Expression in you program. My faith is restored!
It is a perfect example of so much of what we try to do on the show (not the weeping - really not! - but the glorification of non-mainstream-popular cultures . . . dare I say, INTERSTITIAL?) - and is also a great example of a classic "Sound & Spirit Serendipity Moment" when the show delivers exactly what a person needs to hear right when they need to hear it. These kind of coincidences are reported by listeners from time to time, and are always delicioussssssly chilling!