Crushing Krisis

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Stops Just Short of Calling Tolkien “A Little Bitch”

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The fascinating Hero Workshop posts the following excerpt from a recent article:

A greedy, smaller-than-human creature finds a treasure in the depths of a river. The treasure is a ring of great power which exerts strange influences on its owners including giving them the ability to disappear but always to bring danger or death to its owners. A hero enters the fray armed with a reforged sword that had been broken. Various races of humanoid beings attempt to gain control of the ring by magic and by heroism until it is finally brought at great cost and sacrifice back to its origin where it is purified by fire. The last pursuer perishes along with the ring.

Sound familiar? Is that because you’re familiar with Wagner’s opera tetralogy The Ring of the Nibelung, AKA The Ring Cycle?

Don’t worry, i’m not either. At least, I wasn’t until I read Caroline Leech’s fascinating article about Tolkien and Wagner. Did Tolkien borrow from Wagner, or are their stories both so commonly archetypal in theme that they could hardly help to intersect?

Regardless of the answer, Welsh National Opera’s dramaturge Simon Rees offers the follow summary opinion:

The more I look at the two pieces, the clearer it is to me that Wagner produced a piece of extraordinarily united and unified work that you can tap from every angle and it remains as sound as a bell. And that Lord of the Rings is the conception of a very much lesser imagination, though still a very interesting and powerful piece of writing.

“Basically Wagner is for grown-ups.”

Ouch.

For some additional background on The Ring Cycle the the First Timer’s Guide, or the Wagner Experience @ uTexas, or ever-trusty Wikipedia’s articles on each of the four parts: Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung. Or, if you are musically inclined, examine the collected vocal scores, all available via the Indiana University Digital Library Program.

A Consumerless Christmas

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Heather Anne Hogan warms my supposedly scrooge-ish heart by putting the freeze on holiday consumerism through making Christmas charitable.

I love giving gifts, but I’ve never been comfortable receiving them. There isn’t much that i need or want – I work for a living and manage my budget, rewarding myself conservatively but appropriately throughout the year. I don’t like to rely on receiving gifts to fulfill my desires, and anything I don’t already have is probably exorbitant, anyhow. Correspondingly, I don’t like the pressure of seasonal wish fulfillment for the people that are important to me.

This means I’m typically unexcited by Christmas and the rush of holiday shopping that accompanies it. Every conversation from Thanksgiving forward seems to be about exchanging large sums of money for consumer goods, and if you look closely you can see me twitch with every additional shopping destination that’s rattled off. It just makes me uncomfortable.

Instead of just shutting out the materialism of the season (as i am prone to do), Heather Anne Hogan is transforming it. She sent a memo to her entire family that her Christmas giving-and-getting cycle was being devoted entirely to charity.

Her idea really struck a chord with me. A few years ago my boss at the time made a donation in my name as a Christmas present. I hadn’t ever received a donation before, and was honestly flattered and touched by the idea.

Last year my mother and I reciprocated donation-gifts when she bought me a flock of chickens and i bought her education for a year. Except my gift was deployed in Africa, and hers in South America. We bought other things too – gadgets and movies and socks – but the former pair were the gifts i wound up gabbing about all year.

I feel quite merry in announcing that I no longer want to be a consumer for Christmas. I haven’t started shopping yet, and now I think I’ll be making customized donations instead. Since in some cases it’s too late to intercept gifts bought for me, for every pricey gift I receive I’m going to write a thank you card requesting that the giver make a donation in 2007, or write me a check so i can do so on their behalf.

If you happen to be planning on buying me anything more expensive than a card this year, please consider contributing a philanthropic gift instead. You can still tell me all about the cool gift you thought of – maybe we can go shopping for it together!

Cool People Care offers a press release to get you started: “Christmas Is Not Your Birthday” (unless you are Jesus, Jimmy Buffet, or my dad). Afterwards, World Vision offers some great ideas, as does the more recognizable Heifer International, and the more local Donor’s Choose. Also, Water is Basic.

Like the Weather

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I once theorized that the commonality of an experience makes it seem less real, as if the more people we’re aware of sharing it with the less intense it becomes.

Since weather is a universally experienced phenomenon, maybe we’re always talking about it to make sure it’s really real?


December 1st in Philadelphia was balmy – is balmy still. It’s a beautiful 71 degrees outside, with a warm breeze whipping up the streets as though we’re in for a tropical storm. The prognosticators at the Weather Channel claim we’ll dip nearly 40 degrees overnight.

The air seemed to insist that i walk home rather than take the bus so I could soak in the strange summery atmosphere. Because, we take delight in unreal weather – the hottest hots, and the coldest colds, the most rain or snow – so that we can brag about feeling it later.

“It was as warm as the Fourth of July on the first of December!” we exclaim, continuing, “of course, you would have no idea what that feels like.”


I want to drag my sleeping bag out into our tiny, cement back yard and sleep under stars, taking time-lapse photography and making extensive notes as Philadelphia makes its slow descent into winter, watching as my city fades from peculiar unique reality to a perfunctory seasonal fiction.

Welcome to NaBloPoMo

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November was National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo) at Crushing Krisis; it was also the month the blog transitioned from Blogger to WordPress.

I posted at least once a day during NaBloPoMo, and each post was self-contained – referring only to other posts (or original songs) blogged in November.

You could start by reading the introduction or conclusion, or by checking out my brief bio, a post about identity, or a story about trusting people.

Or, listen to a Trio of newly recorded songs, each corresponding to a loose topic. Original song topics included Identity, Elise, Hindsight, Things Left Unsaid, Friendship, Perspectives, while three cover-song Trios focused on Childhood, Teenage & Current Influences.

Finally, I read every participating NaBloPoMo site, offering highlights from each: #, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z. In all i highlighted about 10% of the over-2,100 participating blogs.

Many Splintered Realities (or, The Conclusion of NaBloPoMo)

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I began this month by comparing my entry into National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo) to a DC comics-style Crisis – a reboot of me and my entire multi-verse of blogging, all for the benefit of any new readers that might stop by. Everything familiar would be eliminated, or re-imagined from scratch.

 

 

I was never a DC comics fan, so fittingly this month wound up more of a Marvel Comics event, even if i didn’t intend it. Marvel doesn’t have a hand catchword like “crisis” for their crossovers, and they usually don’t destroy the entire universe to make their point.

Age of Apocalypse is a particular favorite of mine, because it involved the X-Men, which was my concentration in Geekdom. In it, Professor Xavier is assassinated in the past, causing decades of history to shift radically.

For four months all of the many X-Men books were canceled and replaced with their alternate reality counterparts, similar at the core but alien on the outside. Wolverine and Jean were mercenary lovers. Magneto formed the X-Men, and Scarlet Witch was the first to fall in battle. Beast was an evil scientist, and Shadowcat a heartless bitch.

Unlike DC Comics, Marvel never really eliminates the past. At the end of four months the history we knew and loved returned. Not unscathed, though … it came along with new insight onto characters, and relationships, and some new characters mysteriously brought over from the alternate time line.

 

 

My little Krisis of the Infinite Crises (AKA NaBloPoMo) wound up a lot like that.

Clearly I am still me, and everything I’ve written over the past six years of Crushing Krisis remains part of my personal canon. Yet, during NaBloPoMo I recast some of my major characters, topics, stories, and songs. Certain themes, previously prominent, didn’t merit a mention. Others were played up anew for dramatic and comic effect.

Some changes were temporary for the sake of simplicity, like the comedification of my mother, and the suspension of archives and backlinking to old posts.

One universe-shattering change is here to stay: the port of my blog to WordPress.

Other, smaller changes may or may not stick: The return of Trio, the web’s longest running single-artist web session (AKA podcast). Reinstatement of comments. Retirement of certain prominent persons and topics. New favorite reads. OCD Godzilla.

 

 

As I re-imagined my personal narrative for NaBloPoMo I was reminded about the best aspects of myself and my life, and how they could be reflected in the best aspects of my blogging. I realized how blessed I am to have a six-year-old website that I still enjoy updating, and how unique I am to be able to express some of my sentiments in song.

I realized how truly, truly lucky I am to have such fascinating people interested in reading about it and hearing it.

I thank each of you for your attention, patience, and support. I sincerely hope that you decide to stick around to see what the future holds in store.

 

 

We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog.