William Cullen Bryant find

One thing I cannot wait to post about Mineral Point is my 'find' at the used bookstore. One of the shops in the old Cornish foundry is a used book store, which we perused one afternoon. Lots of local interest books, maps, etc. No literature section, though there was a comparatively extensive section on haiku(?).

In the poetry section, I found a hard cover edition of William Cullen Bryant's poetry. 1899 and in very good condition. It contains all his poems, and is filled with illustrations including a frontpiece of the author (complete with protective tissue paper). There are a few signatures up front with dates, which I find rather nice (though I wonder if a serious collector would approve of this).

Anyway, I love his famous poem Thanatopsis and have really enjoyed several others that I read with similar themes. His poetry, to me, is the literary equivalent of the Hudson River School of painters (with whom I believe he associated). There's a sense of celebration of the new country and its potential as well as the untamed wilderness, which I have always found appealing.  So I've been interested in reading more of his work. Plus, as part of the early American period of literature, he fits right into my proposed area of focus should I ever become a serious bibliophiliac. 

I paid $7 for the book. I haven't seen anything online that is an exact duplicate of my purchase, but I did see one that was very close going for $15. So I at least got a good buy, though I won't be featured on Antiques Roadshow any time soon. I have to say I'm a surprised Bryant isn't more well-regarded as a poet. I mean, his work is very 'of the period' with the rhymes and some of his Romanticist phrasing, but he is so utterly American in his subject matter and tone that you'd think he would be a bit more embraced within 'the Canon'. Plus he was a mentor to Walt Whitman, and you can see how he influence the poet behind Leaves of Grass.

Can't wait to read some of the works in here, especially those that were not included in the other Bryant edition I have! One other thing about his poetry that I like (and this probably is a result of Bryant's transcendentalist leanings), is a definite quality of zen philosophy in between the lines. I'm sure he wasn't into Zen, but he obviously had some moments of kensho relating to nature. So his work resonates for me that way, as well.

Droid X

Jim and I definitely geeked out on our phones during our trip to Mineral Point. We used the GPS to navigate, the camera to take all our pics, and the Google Sky Map app to identify the stars in the sky. At night before bed, we downloaded free apps that didn't seem to want too much information.

On our recent bike ride, Jim wanted to take some pictures of the silver maples we pass at one point, as well as the 'cathedral'. The cathedral (not sure if I've mentioned it or not), is a part of the path where the trees interlock above in a consistent way to form a high tunnel that looks like the inside of a cathedral. I think of it as a transcendentalist or pagan cathedral. Anyway, his phone allowed him to act on the impulse. "These phones are so worth it," he said after he put it away. We're quite pleased with how useful they are.

Unfortunately, I have yet to take time to figure out how to download pics to my laptop. None of the cords I put in my desk seem to fit. So my Mineral Point posts will be a bit delayed.

Mineral Point, WI

Thanks to an invitation from our friends Daniel and Alan (and their faithful hound Rosie), we were able to get a guided tour of this off-the-beaten track village and artists' colony for a weekend.  We stayed at a B&B that was a three minute walk from Daniel and Alan's house, and we got to see all the sights.

Mineral Point used to be a mining town, and many of the old Cornish buildings made of limestone that were built during its heyday in the 1800s are still standing. Many even occupied and serve as artist studios, stores, restaurants, hotels, etc.  I'll be creating posts about our doings, including photos over the next couple days.

Chicago Tourist

Yesterday I stayed overnight in Chicago for business, which turned out to be a really pleasant experience in an unexpected way. During the 90's, I lived downtown and vowed I'd never return to the monochrome malls and homogeneous housing of suburbia. Of course, that all went out the window when I met Jim and we bought a house together. And it took quite a while for me to adjust to life in the burbs.

At first, I'd go back to the city as if I were returning home. There was a sense of relief to be back. However, over a couple years, I grew to like my new house and the garden and all that. And then, when I went into the city, I felt like a visitor not someone making a homecoming. My overnight stay last night represented a new feeling. I felt like a tourist, and that's infinitely better than being a visitor because a tourist experiences something as if it's brand new.

I stayed at a hotel on Wacker with a nice view of the river. I was by myself and had dinner at McCormick and Schmick's, where I sat outside to people watch. I was wearing some nice clothes, it was a beautiful evening, and people were still headed from work to home and just filtering into the restaurants. All of the sudden, I realized that I felt the same way I felt visiting London or Athens or New York. I was looking at the buildings and watching the people going by and felt excited to be there experiencing it.

If I'd had some postcards, I would have started writing to friends and family!  Then the waiter might have asked where I was visiting from.  What could I say?  Maybe I'd say New York.  Or I could fake a weird accent and say I was visiting from Lichtenstein or Malta or Singapore and make up some crazy story about why I was there and what my impressions of Chicago were. (These flights of fancy are not at all uncommon for me).

I took a walk after dinner, just enjoying the energy one always finds on the streets in a big city. And that's really when it really struck me that I was a tourist in Chicago now. Even though I knew this city very well, I had been away from it for long enough so that it was like new again. Now I'm thinking that it would be fun to take a vacation to Chicago. Find a nice place to stay, check out museums, do Mag Mile shopping, see some shows, etc.

Very odd to think of Chicago in this manner, but there it is. I'll have to start making some plans for a return visit. And get my story straight when some waiter sees me writing postcards I'll never be loopy enough to mail and asks: "So where are you from?"

Rank Test Snag

Looks like I'll be missing this rank test altogether! Jim and I will be in Mineral Point. Well, I guess my hope that I'd test for the blue stripe and the blue belt at my next rank test will definitely come true now.  I think I'd have to be pretty slow not to learn what I need by the next rank test.

On a positive note, I have controlled my time at work to where I have been going to Hapkido on a regular basis again. And work is not the reason I am missing this rank test.  That's something to be happy about!

Upcoming travels

A couple we know (Daniel and Alan) have invited us up to Mineral Point, Wisconsin where they have a vacation house. The town has a website billing itself as 'reminiscent of a rural English village', and it does looks very picturesque!  We've never been there before, but it sounds like there are a lot of 'our people' there as well as lots of artists and artisans who have shops there. I'd like to spend some time chatting with some of them to see how they got started with an enterprise like that. It seems like a really big undertaking, however I've thought about it as a second career after the house is paid off.  Of course, I'd have to get back in the saddle with drawing or painting or learn to do ceramics (and be good at it!) first.

We're also going down to Panama City Beach to visit my parents for a few days. They rent a condo down there almost every year, so we'll be able to beach and snorkel...and go deep sea fishing! Been a long time since I did that, and Jim has agreed to give it a try. Last time, I caught six or seven fish and was a sweaty, fishy mess when it was over. My mom took a pic but then leaned over the side the boat and promptly dropped the camera into the water. This time I hope we'll have the same luck with the fishing and much better luck with the pics.