Free Friday Book of the Week: Unremembered Histories

It seems like every time I turn the page I'm reading articles about the demise of print media. Even though I'm an ePublisher with four eBooks under my belt, I refuse to believe all the hype about eBooks.

Personally, I still love my Kindle as much today as when I got it two years ago. However, I also love the wall of books in my office. I like the way they look, I like the way they feel and I even like the way they smell.

Nevertheless, when I travel it's always with my Kindle. What a great concept. That's why as of last summer eBooks surpassed printed paper in U.S. book sales. In Britain, 1 in 4 books being read today is digital.*

You don't need a Kindle or Nook to read eBooks. All it takes these days is an app. Even if you don't have a Kindle or other digital reading device, you can still read this week's Free Friday Book of the Week on your iPad or tablet or most laptops and computers when you download the app. Anyone with an iPad, or a tablet of any kind, or most computers can download and read eBooks.

Today, April 19, N&L Publishing is making Unremembered Histories available for free download.

The supernatural or paranormal is one of the common denominators in these stories. An experienced reader might recognize the fingerprints of Jorge Luis Borges on a few of these pieces. An Unremembered History of the World is one of my personal favorites, as is the short lead-off story Two Acts That Changed the World. I had a lot of fun writing Duel of the Poets, and was gratified when in the 1990's I was contacted by a Croatian poetry website that asked permission to make it a centerpiece there. The story more recently appeared in print last year in PROOF Magazine.

Of this collection of six stories an Amazon.com reviewer wrote, "If you value the short-story form, written in a way that entertains, informs, and prompts you to think, then there's a lot to appreciate in this little gem." If you forget to download the book on Friday the 19ths, you can still purchase a Kindle version for $1.99 any other day of the week by clicking on the book cover on the right side of this page.

The photo on the cover of this book is really cool to me. I took the picture with my film camera and later when I processed it I had forgotten what it was I'd taken a photo of. The abstract design reminded me of a man on a raft on a river with ice flowing all around him. As I enlarged the portion with the man I realized suddenly what it was, a large moth that had alighted on the door of my garage. It seemed to work for me as a book cover here, and like the subject matter, appearances can be deceiving.

I personally enjoy stories with that kind of "Aha!" feature. I'm hopeful that some of these will do just that for you. 

Today only: download Unremembered Histories here.

CORRECTION: Unfortunately our Free Friday giveaway offer has run afoul of a technicality in the fine print of our agreement with Amazon.com. Hopefully this will be corrected by next Friday, but in the meantime, IF YOU EMAIL ME (ennyman at northlc dot com) I will send a a copy of the manuscript by email. OR, if you purchase the book from Amazon.com today, I will send you an Official Red Scorpion Bookmark, which is a dollar bill with a Red Scorpion stamped on it. Value: one dollar.

Enjoy!

*wallstreetdaily.com, The Death of Print Media Continues, April 17, 2013.

23rd Annual Gallery Hop, Riversmith and More

A new sculpture by Eric Dubnicka

Let's pretend that it didn't snow last night and that it's not going to snow some more today because tonight I'd like to be able to attend Adu Gindy and Eric Dubnicka's art opening, Dancing in the End Zone. The exhibit will be at Lizzard's Art Gallery & Framing on Superior Street here in Duluth. In the event that you can't make it to the opening, you'll be able to see the work Saturday if you jump aboard the 23rd annual Earth Day Gallery Hop.

The gallery hop has a bit of everything for everyone, including a shuttle so you don't have to think about parking in the various locations. Eleven galleries are involved from one end of town to the other, or rather, from the Duluth Art Institute to the Tweed up at UMD and all points in between. You can catch the full list
in today's Wave (DNT).

Saturday evening there's one more opening to catch, this one at Adeline's Hair Salon, 1132 E 9th St, Duluth, MN 55805.  Adeline herself is an artist and I was able to catch her first event when the salon had its opening there on the East Hillside. This Saturday evening Bridget Riversmith will be showing some of her new work. Riversmith's piece at last year's Steampunk Gala struck me as nothing short of incredible. So naturally, I will do my utmost to make it to Adeline's. The opening is from 7-9 p.m.  You can catch more of her art and creative spirit at RedRabbitRiversmith.com.

And finally, next Tuesday is the launch party and reception for the North x North Music and Arts Experience. NxN is the newly minted name for May arts month here in the Twin Ports. There is so much happening in May that it might do you well to show up even if it's only to grab a schedule of upcoming events. The party and reception will begin at 5:30 in the Zeitgeist Atrium.

Meantime, don't miss the train. It's going to be a very special ride.

Dancing in the End Zone, tonight at Lizzard's.

Wordless Wednesday: Again

Hello, Russia, I'd Like To Get To Know You

This is a brief note to all my blog readers in the former Soviet Union. According to my stats I have had a growing number of readers from your part of the world. Any chance we can start a conversation? Tell me why you have been reading my blog. It's quite amazing how our life experiences can vary so much yet our arms reach around the globe to find common ground.

Thank you for your manifold visits. May I learn more about you? Send your thoughts to ennyman at northlc.com.... I'd like to get to know you.

Apocalypse When? A Brief History of the End of the World

While cleaning my office this past week I came across a piece of paper with a list of Bible passages that demonstrated when the end of the world would be. The calculations concluded that the meaning of all these texts added up to the Lord’s return in either 1984 or 2004, depending on how you calculate the years of Israel’s exile from their homeland.

It got me thinking about all the other predictions of apocalypse I’ve heard over the years.

I remember when David Berg, a.k.a. Moses David, predicted that the possible end of the world would when the the Comet Kahoutek was coming in 1974. I was at Ohio University at the time and a bus with a lot of young people arrived in Athens to recruit students to join them. They were called The Children of God, and I well recall the tract they handed out, which was an elaborate explanation of the lyrics for American Pie. I know at least one art student who left school and ended up in a barbed-wire enclosed Texas compound.
 
In 1975, while auditing a class on the Book of Revelations by Dr. Bruce Metzger at Princeton Seminary, I learned that end times predictions have been a recurring theme throughout church history. Pope Sylvester II predicted the Lord would return in the year 1000. Christians were so fearful of the end being at hand that on the last day of the year they lay on the faces in the churches till the stroke midnight on the last day of the year. Many pilgrims headed East to Jerusalem for the occasion. When the end didn't come, they probably celebrated or reflected, relieved. But then someone got the notion that the 1,000 years of the church must not have begun at Christ's birth, but rather His death. so 1033 was the new prediction for earth's end.

Christians aren't the only once making predictions. The Mayan calendar got it's fair share of publicity last year. In the late '90's the group Heaven's Gate also made a bit of news for themselves with their 39 suicides and castration ritual.

Here are some of the other dates that have been predicted to be the end.**

1186  John of Toledo predicts the world will end in 1186 based on the alignment of the planets.

1284  Pope Innocent III (d. 1216) predicted that the world would end 666 years after the rise of Islam

1356-61  During the Black Plague many Europeans believed it to be a sign of the end times.

Feb 1, 1524  A group of astrologers in London predicted the world would end by a flood starting in London based on calculations made the previous June. 20,000 Londoners left their homes and headed for higher ground in anticipation.

1533  Melchior Hoffman, an Anabaptist prophet, predicted Christ's Second Coming would take place this year in Strasbourg. He claimed that 144,000 people would be saved, while the rest of the world would be consumed by fire.

Other dates in the 1500s which were predicted as the end included, 1504, Feb. 24, 1524, May 2, 1528, Oct. 19, 1533, April 15, 1534, 1555, 1585 and 1588. Then came the 1600s in which the world was predicted to end in 1600, 1624 (by the same London astrologers who goofed in predicting 1524), 1648, 1654, 1656 (by Christopher Columbus in 1501), 1857, 1658, 1660, 1673, 1688, 1689 and 1697 by Cotton Mather.

In the 1700s we saw still more predictions of the end followed by countless more predictions and prophecies in the 1800s right up to our very own time so that almost anyone who is anyone has made declarations, from Martin Luther, Sir Isaac Newton and John Wesley to Pat Robertson, Tim LaHaye and Jerry Falwell.

As I deliberated on these things, I had a few thoughts on how to respond to these kinds of predictions, especially the very specific ones.

1. Sincerity is not truth.
Just because someone is earnest does not mean they are correct or to be followed. Many a cult leader has been earnest in the extreme, but sincerity can never be the measure of validity. Suppose a car is travelling north on Highway 61, and the driver believes he's headed south because he is on his way to Mexico. No matter how earnest he is, in a few hours time he will be in Thunder Bay, Canada.

2. Being wrong about one thing doesn't discredit everything else they said.
I think here of Martin Luther and Sir Isaac Newton most notably.

3. Let's practice humility when making pronouncements. 
I defer here to philosopher/theologian Jacques Ellul on this matter. "Incompetence is inadmissable on the part of Christians... when providing others with a sense of direction, speaking with authority and encouraging young people to become involved. ... But Christians allow themselves to be taken in by the prevailing vogue. They see everybody expressing his own ideas so why shouldn't they do the same? That's all right as far as I'm concerned... only let them be less pretentious about it, less authoritative, less inclined to expect everyone to follow in their wake. And let them not claim to be representing Jesus Christ." (False Presence of the Kingdom, p. 155-6)

For what it's worth, we live a broken world... It would be nice to be able to return home to the Paradise we lost.

** List of dates predicted for Apocalyptic events

Remembering Jonathan Winters

"I couldn't wait for success, so I went ahead without it." ~Jonathan Winters

He made us laugh. He was one of a kind. He was Jonathan Winters.

On Thursday, April 11, Jonathan Winters died in his home of natural causes, in the midst of family and friends. There were numerous tributes to the eccentric comedian who made us laugh so hard that it hurt, who's whirling imagination could rake laughs out of porcupines. I'll defer to this one from CNN.

Most of his fans were unaware that the comic had also been an artist. Like Churchill and many others, painting served to bring a form of balance to his world. It was actually through his art that I had the opportunity to interview Mr. Winters. By accident I'd came across some of his original paintings which were being screen printed by Joe Petro, a Kentucky screen print artist. When I discovered that he painted, I acquired his book Hang Ups, and landed an assignment with Screenprinting magazine, to do a story on Petro, which opened the door for my forty minutes with Mr. Winters (and several of his other personalities.)

Of his painting Winters shared, "The bug bit me in show business. My art at the time was so commercial, so commercial it was sad. I would have been good if I was going to do industrial drawing or be a commercial artist, which I wasn’t. I’m not a commercial comedian, so I certainly wasn’t going to be a commercial artist.

"I didn’t find a style until I was well out of school. In the early 70’s I really got down to painting. I was working on the road, in gin mills and night clubs and stuff, but when I’d come home I’d paint. I think I had my first art show in ‘72, here in Southern Cal or LA, and I have been painting ever since."

In 1999 Winters won the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, a rather late acknowledgement in my opinion. Then again, maybe that's what we do with our old heroes, we acknowledge them and then we remember them.

Thank you, Jon, for everything you gave us.


Jon Winters photo courtesy Bergstrom Photography

Sea of Bowls Helps Feed Northland's Hungry

When I first came to Duluth seeking a writing job, the word on the street was that the place to be if I wanted job security was Harcourt-Brace-Javonovich (HBJ), a magazine publisher that employed as many as 400 people in their downtown offices. Despite the fact that a VP there had the same name as me, fortune intervened and I landed a writing position elsewhere. What people didn't see was the upheavals that would soon be so disruptive in the magazine industry. HBJ was sold, and the next company and the next. Consolidation moved some people to offices in Cleveland and left others to see employment elsewhere.

One of these was Dave Lynas, a graphic designer at HBJ, who chose not to leave the region, remaining here where he was already part of a community. The decision freed up his time to pursue his passion as a ceramicist and making pottery, teaching classes at the Duluth Art Institute and being a quiet influence for good to this day, and an unsung hero in the community for his lifetime of "giving back."

This week, in the Depot's Great Hall, the 20th annual Empty Bowl benefit is being conducted to raise money for the benefit of Second Harvest Food Bank, the largest provider of meals for the hungry in our region. According to potter Karin Kraemer, "Empty Bowl was the Brainchild of Dave Lynas and Linda Hebenstreit at the Duluth Art Institute." It's a remarkable event, both for its community participation and its impact. It's another major was in which the arts gives back to the community.

Nearly everyone involved in the pottery scene, artisan and amateur alike, is involved somehow. Many, like Kraemer, open their studios for months in advance so that others can join in making of decorating bowls. (I decorated two.) Local schools have students making bowls. The Duluth Art Institute, Lake Superior College and many others contribute. In the end, it's literally a sea of bowls and historically it works like this: you go to the Depot and buy a bowl of soup, except you get to take the bowl home with you. The Empty Bowl benefit provides you with a meal, and you also have a souvenir that also serves to remind you of the hunger here that has not been eradicated in our neighborhoods.

Second Harvest Food Bank provided 3.8 million dollars worth of meals last year. Empty Bowl helps stock those food supplies.

Because not all bowls are created equal, the event has evolved to include opportunities to bid on more exquisite ceramic works that have been set aside for this purpose. These are currently being auctioned online at BiddingforGood.com
 
Tomorrow evening, April 15, is the famous Sea of Bowls, a.k.a. Empty Bowl Preview Night, a gallery-style showing complete with wine and cheese reception. Bowls range in price from $25-$100. If you're expecting a nice tax refund, this might be a good place to consider sharing some of it. The event is from 5–7 pm at The Depot, 506 West Michigan Street here in Duluth. 

Tuesday's the big day, from 10:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.  $20 includes a bowl and a simple soup meal. Price drops to $15 after 4:30. 

Everyone in the area is invited to come buy a bowl of soup. The bowl goes home with you, the money goes to the needy. You end up with your tummy full, and so do those whose stomachs need filling.