Author: Katie L. Carroll (Page 132 of 142)

Karaoke and My Favorite Punctuation

September 24, 2009 / Katie L. Carroll

I think I heard “I Love You Period” at a karaoke night (I generally don’t get up and sing myself, except to maybe provide backup when the girls get up and do “Baby Got Back” or “Ice Ice Baby“). It’s really quite a terrible song, but I thought it fitting for National Punctuation Day (yeah, yeah, we all know I’m a big dork). Here’s the full chorus in all its glory:

I love you period
Do you love me question mark
Please, please exclamation point
I want to hold you in parentheses

I’ve been thinking about what my favorite punctuation mark is, and I have to say I don’t think I can decide. I’m a big fan of the semicolon; yet I also really enjoy ellipses…and I’m sure you have all noticed how often I like to use parentheses (they’re great for asides). What’s your favorite?

Rivers of Fire

September 13, 2009 / Katie L. Carroll

WaterFire Providence is an interactive work of art that was designed by Barnaby Evans. It consists of 100 iron braziers that seem to defy physics as they float on three rivers in downtown Providence. The fires are lit at sunset and keep going until after midnight.

(Here’s Waterplace Park in the daytime. You can see the braziers are stacked with wood. On the left is the Courtyard Marriott and on the right is the Westin Hotel. Even more buildings have been put up since this picture was taken a few years ago. This area of Providence has gone through a real growth period over the last ten years.)

The WaterFire experience is really something that can’t be described, but I’ll give it a try. Imagine a communal ritual based around fire—very natural and primal—but in a modern, urban setting. The juxtaposition is part of the beauty. In order to really appreciate the full work of art, the hubby and I walk down the riverside in a slow procession of people, surrounded by the sounds, smells, and sights of city and art. For once, I don’t mind having to take a minute to pause and experience all the moment has to offer. All my senses are engaged.

(Here’s the park at night from a different angle. Providence Place Mall is in the background.)

Sight is obvious. The bright orange flames glow in the braziers, reflecting off the inky waters. Bright ash flits by us. The boats move up and down the river: the pontoons full of people, the romantic gondola designed for two, and the staff boat with the black-clad volunteers that steal up to the braziers like some kind of fire phantoms. Then there’s the city scape: the Bank of America Building (locally known as the Superman Building), which always reminds me of Dana’s apartment building in Ghostbusters; the cars driving by; the mall; the people; the bridges; and all those the city lights. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention the street performers dressed as gargoyles and fortune-tellers.

Smell is pretty obvious too, given that the scent of fire is pretty distinct. These fires smell of pine and cedar. But there’s also the city smells: car exhaust, street vendors, and all those unidentifiable, funky smells that are part of city life.

Sound is prevalent as well. The wood cackles and pops as the flames hit air pockets, and the musical program that is part of the art experience echoes along the walkway (my favorite song this visit is Chopin’s “Nocturne No. 8 in D flat major” performed by Daniel Barenboim). And of course, there’s the sounds of the city: car horns, the shuffle of feet along the walkway, quiet murmurs of the crowd, and the whir of motors of both cars and boats.

Touch is more subtle. The fires send a wave of warmth across my skin. A light breeze blows my hair around my face. The stone walkway is cool and uneven beneath my sandals.

Taste is the most elusive sense. On this trip, I have the delicious memory of the previous night’s dinner. The hubby and I went to Constantino’s on Federal Hill. We started with carpaccio (which neither of us had ever eaten) and some Riesling. Then I had gnocchi and the hubby had chicken parmigiana. Both were awesome! For dessert, I had a cannoli platter…of course! But none of that really has anything to do with the WaterFires. Sure, there’s a bunch of restaurants along the rivers, but I want a better connection between taste and fire. Well, the program informs me that Indian Buddhists believe the element water is associated with taste (fire is sight, earth is smell, and air is touch).

Even with having to stretch a little for taste, it was still a lovely evening.

Feeling A Story Despite A Language Barrier

September 2, 2009 / Katie L. Carroll

My nephew and sister showed me this clip of the Ukraine’s Got Talent winner and it was so moving I had to share it. (And for once I had something to show my husband on YouTube that he hadn’t already seen!)

I won’t pretend to understand all the symbolism of the piece (seeing as I’ve never been to the Ukraine or lived in a war-torn country), but it was certainly impressive. The speed and accuracy with which Ms. Simonova drops, moves, and swipes the sand around the light board is amazing. I love how she layers the images to merge one into another instead of wiping the whole board clean and starting over. Her musical choices (my favorite was Apocalypitca’s rendition of Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters”) were also effective in setting the tone of the piece and assisting the transitions.

As a writer, I felt like this was a lesson in story-telling. There was so much to learn from this piece: establishing voice and tone, use of symbolism, flawless transitions, engaging multiple senses, drama, story arch, relevance to the real world, emotional connection, character. It was all there. And even though it was on a Ukrainian television show, there was really no language barrier to deal with. I love words and language, but this piece just goes to show that they are limited in ways that art isn’t.

What did you think? Oh, and keep an eye out for my next post about another multisensory art form (one I have actually experienced first-hand).

Answering the Tough Questions from Kids

August 17, 2009 / Katie L. Carroll

I spent last week relaxing in Vermont; not exactly a jet-setting type of vacation, but one that was much needed. The room in which my husband and I stayed had a bird’s nest on the outside sill. It had three little blue eggs (most likely robin eggs) in it.

(This was taken through the window…hence the weird glare)

When the kids (my 10-year-old nephew, 4-year-old niece, and 3-year-old nephew) arrived in Vermont, they all had to see the eggs. The novelty soon wore off for the boys, but my niece was a little obsessed with them. Every time she came downstairs, she just had to see the eggs. Then she started asking all these questions about the eggs.

Now, my niece is very curious (as most 4-year-olds are), but trying to answer some of her questions has gotten me into trouble before. Recently, I was wearing my dragon-claw necklace, and my niece wanted to know all about it. She loves when I make up stories, so I told her one about how I defeated a dragon and took his claw as a souvenir of my triumph. It sounds a bit gory, but I kept it pretty tame.

At some point during the story, my niece wanted to know what color the dragon was—I think I said it was blue because that’s what color the stone in the necklace is—because clearly that’s a very important detail when you’re fighting a dragon. Then she asked why the claw wasn’t blue anymore, and I said I had to dip it in metal to preserve it. “What’s preserve?” she asked.

Somehow my explanation led to how living things—including people—decompose when they die, which I told her means they turn to dirt (I guess they really turn to dust, but dirt was easier for her to understand). She looked at me with big eyes and said, “I don’t want to turn into dirt.” I told her she didn’t have to worry about that because she wasn’t going to die for a very long time and hoped she would forget about it.

Well, she didn’t. My niece now periodically asks her mother about when she or Grandma or whoever is going to die and turn into dirt. Mostly she thinks about this right before she goes to bed. My sister is so very pleased with me!

Anyway, back to Vermont. My niece asked, “When are the birds going to hatch?” I don’t really believe in lying to kids (and my sister is pretty straight-forward with them), but I didn’t want to repeat the turning-to-dirt episode, so I told her eggs usually only hatch in the spring and since it’s already summer, these probably won’t hatch.

She was okay with that for a little while, but not for long. “Why aren’t they going to hatch?” Luckily, my sister and my mom were there to answer these questions, and I was off the hook. My mom said that without a mommy bird to keep the eggs warm, the babies inside can’t hatch. “Where’s the mommy bird?” My mom explained that maybe the mommy bird had to leave the babies. “Why would the mommy bird leave?” Well, no one really had a good explanation for that. We said that maybe the mommy bird was hurt, or even died, because some times that happens in nature, but none of our answers were really good enough.

I realized while we could give her scientific answers to her questions, they weren’t really the answers she was looking for. And really, don’t we all still have those questions? Why would a mother abandon her unborn offspring? Why do animals have to die? Where do they go when they die? Why do bad things happen to innocent beings?

I’m not sure what’s harder: telling my niece that these bad things happen or not being able to really explain to her why these things happen because I don’t know the answer myself.

So That’s What Milk Looks Like: A Short Rant

July 27, 2009 / Katie L. Carroll

I’ve been known to go on the occasional rant, and it’s been awhile since I’ve gone on one (well at least on this blog anyway). That means I feel the need (no, not “the need, the need for speed”—five stars to the first person to name that movie!) to vent a little. Here goes:

I don’t watch my local news stations very often, but the few times I have caught their riveting stories of late, I’ve noticed their stellar use of visual aids. One news reporter was standing in front of a court house talking about a local case. To sum up the report, he said the court papers had been filed and held up a stack of white papers. Oh, so that’s what court papers look like. My life is now complete since I’ve seen a shot of those papers.

And just yesterday, I watched a news report about how children aren’t getting enough vitamin D. Again when the reporter (a different one from the one mentioned above) was summing up his report, he noted that drinking milk is one way to increase vitamin D and held up a half-gallon of milk. Finally, someone has shown me what milk looks like. I never would have known otherwise.

Apparently I missed the memo that said any old visual, no matter how pointless, should be used. I always thought—and I was a CLA (kind of like a TA, but with fewer responsibilities) for a introductory level communications class in college—that visual aids should somehow enhance the presentation. But that’s just me…I guess those TV guys think otherwise!