The Shield, 40 Hours Without Sleep, and a Broken Trunk: A Wrestlemania Road Trip (Part 2)

What you are about to read is Part 2 of a true story of two library bloggers and their daring Wrestlemania 29 adventures. Part 1 can be found here. This harrowing account is presented in a back and forth manner, taking you from the road trip itself to each of the exciting Wrestlemania matches. Christina will tell you about the wrestling matches, and Chris will tell you about everything else.

As we recount more of this gritty tale we will weave plenty of literary connections into it. Links for titles titles will take you to that item in the library catalog. Links for other things will take you places where you can learn more about the topic being discussed. And as always we will have a link at the end that will take you to a list of all the items mentioned in this blog.

You will also encounter two videos in this post. They are both embedded into this blog, meaning you just need to click on them and they will play right here. The first requires sound, since there is a lot of talking. The second has music, but the sound is optional. 

Also, did you know you can see a larger image of all our pictures simply by clicking on them?  Well now you know.  After viewing the larger image just click the back button in your browser to return to the blog.

Sunday, Day 6: This is it, the big day! Up until this point we haven’t really talked about Wrestlemania itself, other than the matches. So allow me to fill you in some here, and I’ll try to give you an idea of the scope of this event. As Christina’s father, who lives in New Jersey, said: “I guess this is a bigger deal than I thought.”

First, the basics. Wrestlemania 29 was held at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ. This is the same stadium that the New York Giants and J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets play at. Announced attendance was 80,676, which set a stadium record. Yes, you read that right, eighty thousand. Fans came from all 50 states and from 34 countries. WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.) also reported over 1,000,000 pay-per-view buys. The Empire State building was lit up in Wrestlemania colors. It was, indeed, a big deal.

It was a short drive from the hotel to the stadium, and I made sure we got there plenty early.  Once they opened the doors first stop was a souvenir booth. Sure, we could have gone into the WWE superstore they had set up, but it the line was out of the door of that place as soon as they opened. That line was positively Disney-esque.

The souvenir booths at these types of events always seem to be the same. There is no line. Just a mob of people pressing forward, waiting their turn. It somehow works. Sure, you always get a couple of drunk ones and the creepy guy pressing up on the ladies, but perseverance pays off and tshirts are acquired. We had to wait a bit as the guy in front of us wanted to double check the $450 replica championship belts he was buying. Note the plural there.

Finding our seats proved to be an adventure. I finally asked (I know, how unmanly of me) and turns out our tickets were for club seats. Woohoo! While still outside, the seats did give access to an exclusive inside concourse. It was fun to watch others arrive in our section and give each other high fives at the awesomeness of the seats.

We were in section 245.

And finally the show began! As Sheamus came out to his music in preparation to a beatdown from The Shield it began to rain. Fortunately the rain didn’t last long. It was in the 40s, and we should have brought a blanket with us, but once the show really got going we weren’t bothered by the cold. Plus we could always pop inside to warm up.  One time that Christina did pop inside to grab some coffee she ran into a New York Giants football player.  She knew this because others were recognizing him, but alas she did not remember his name.  He was a big dude, though.

Celebrities often get involved with Wrestlemania. Governor Chris Christie was there, and was roundly cheered. Snooki was there, and was soundly booed. P. Diddy performed, which provided an excellent opportunity for a bathroom and beer break. Fireworks boomed throughout the show. CM Punk, as usual, came out to Living Colour’s Cult of Personality, but this time they were on hand to play it live!

After the show the line was still out the door for the superstore, and of course it took quite a feat to get out of the parking lot.  But to be honest, it was easier getting out of there then it was leaving Wrestlemania XXVII in Atlanta two years ago.

 Travel note: I’m pretty sure that I gave the parking lady two $20s and a $5 instead of two $5s and a $20.  Ah, such is life!  A little planning can go a long way.  Buy shoes on Wednesday and tweet at 4:00 : more of the best times to buy this, do that, and go there

Match 6: One of the more controversial feuds right now in WWE is the one between Jack Swagger and Alberto Del Rio. Jack Swagger’s current gimmick (or wrestling persona, if you will) is of a self-proclaimed “real American”, who along with retired wrestler Zeb Colter creates promos in which they rail against foreigners and immigrants. Swagger and Colter are, of course, merely portraying characters, and have addressed this in an open statement to Glenn Beck:

I went to fetch a drink and when I came back, Zeb Colter was in mid-rant about all the languages he’d heard while in New York. This is not an unusual observation; this Times article proclaims New York City as “the most linguistically diverse city in the world”.

Monday, Day 7:  Once again we start out at midnight, as we pull into the Tick Tock Diner on the way back to the hotel.  This New Jersey landmark, located a stone’s throw from the hotel (I have a pretty good throwing arm), was once featured on this show.  You probably won’t be surprised to hear that the diner was full of people wearing wrestling themed shirts.  The food was great, and we avoided any issues with management, which apparently was a very good thing. 

Once we got back to the hotel I verified that a headlight was out on the car, and we grabbed some sleep.  First thing in the morning Christina made an appointment at a nearby VW dealership, and we again played the waiting game to see if a hospital visit was going to happen.  It did not.  

The car dealership fixed up the headlight no problem, and also a back up light that was out.  this part was tricky because of the broken trunk.  As we headed off, I noticed that one of the directional lights was acting funny, and a quick check showed that a brake light was now out.  That car also suffers from loose connections with the lights.  So, right back to the dealership so they could fix that stuff up. 

After that we decided to hit the movies again and see Jurassic Park in IMAX.  To fit the theme of the trip the theater’s soda fountains were broken.  but they had a coffee and smoothie bar in there, so consolation raspberry and strawberry smoothies it was. 

Dinner was a yummy take out pizza from Anthony’s, and then it was time to watch Monday Night Raw.  This (usually) live show has aired every Monday night since 1993, and is the longest running weekly episodic TV show in history, with over 1000 consecutive episodes to date. 

The Raw after Wrestlemania can be an exciting show, like last year’s, when Brock Lesnar made his return to WWE after years fighting for real in UFC.  This one, which took place at the IZOD center directly next to MetLife stadium, took a different tone.  The crowd, likely featuring a goodly number of foreigners, had a grand old time, singing and chanting things that had no relation to the in-ring action.  Indeed, they made Fandangoing a thing.  People were even playing Fandango’s song on their car horns after the show.

Travel note:  the fifteen minute drive from the hotel to the car dealership crossed multiple town and county lines, and a river.  We crossed the river via bridge, as opposed to, say, something like Cork boat : true story of the unlikeliest boat ever built.

Match 7:  Oh man. I was really looking forward to this match, as was everybody else in the crowd. Basically Undertaker is sort of the Meryl Streep of Wrestlemania. His record is 21-0, no losses at Wrestlemania. Chris was rooting for Taker, I was rooting for Punk. I was sad to see Punk lose, but as always he put on an amazing match. Dude can wrestle.

A look at inevitability.

In case you’re wondering why I compared the Undertaker to Meryl Streep, it’s because she has quite an impressive record of her own – she has been nominated for an Academy Award seventeen times. In fact, Wikipedia has a page devoted to all the awards Ms. Streep has won or has been nominated for and it’s rather extensive.

Tuesday, Day 8:  Time to take our leave of the Garden State.  With the trunk not being available to us, I had to pack everything into the back seat that morning.  It was during my second trip out to the car that I had to take off my hoodie due to it being warm.  Yep, after a week of cool temperatures Mother Nature said, “Hey, you guys are driving for hours and hours?  Then let’s make this the warmest day of the year so far!  The wafting stench of baking manure will be your companion today!” 

So back south we drove.  I’m sure you are all gleefully anticipating that something else terrible will befall us, or more specifically to our car.  But alas, we made it back unscathed.  And again we drove through the more scenic parts while it was dark.  Either that or some parts of Tennessee are covered in eternal gloom. 

Anti-gloom evidence, or Photoshop? The truth is out there!

Travel note: it seems to me that in the not so distant past, the signs on the highways that indicate what eating establishments were available at exits only showed fast food chains.  This time I saw more local places featured, and also non-fast food chains.  Case in point, we found a Ruby Tuesday’s for lunch, and the salad bar really hit the spot after hours of hot driving.  With more time at our disposal we may have looked for one of these:  Retro diner : comfort food from the American roadside.

Match 8: Triple H (with Shawn Michaels) defeated Brock Lesnar (with Paul Heyman).  A No Holds Barred match with the stipulation that if Triple H had lost, he would have been forced to retire. 

Brock Lesnar heads down the ramp. The fan boys in our section got giddy when he came out.

Most people look forward to retirement, even if they are forced to retire early due to injury (like Edge). Philip Roth, author of the notorious Portnoy’s Complaint and various other novels, has recently announced his retirement, prompting this article to ask if writers ever actually DO retire.  All I know is that I hope Stephen King keeps plugging away.

Wednesday, Day 9:  Technically we again start at midnight, still driving home, but nothing exciting happens.  In fact, nothing exciting happens that whole day.  We may have watched a movie.  We were not inspired to eat 50 eggs.  Cool Hand Luke.

We recommended starting small and working your way up to 50. Remember, pics or it didn’t happen!

Match 9: John Cena defeated The Rock, becoming the new WWE Champion. The final match of the night was a revisit from last year’s Wrestlemania, only this time Cena was victorious against The Rock. This battle became personal, with John Cena discussing his real life marriage troubles in promos against The Rock. 

The Rock waits in the ring for John Cena.

Redemption is a popular literary theme, from the Harry Potter series to Crime and Punishment to A Christmas Carol. If you’ve already read those and want more titles, you can search “redemption” as as keyword in our catalog and come up with over two hundred titles. I’m guessing you’ll find something that interests you.

Wrap-up.  In the past I had wondered, while watching wrestling on TV, if the fans in attendance were encouraged to cheer or boo or chant by messages displayed at the arena.  Kind of like the taping of a TV show, where an applause sign is lit up at the appropriate moment.  And the answer to that is no.  All of it is spontaneously created by the fans.  The epitome of this was during the CM Punk/Undertaker match, which was easily the best match of the night.  It is not just that the dueling “Un-der-ta-ker/C M Punk!” chants were loud, I think even louder than the Cena vs Rock chants were, but that they went on for the entirety of a 20+ minute match.  Except when they changed to the rare “This is awesome!” chants. 

Wrestlemania is a grand spectacle to behold, put on be a company that really knows how to deliver its product.  There is the predictable (Undertaker is now 21-0 at Wrestlemania) and the surprising (the Rock lost).  Our adventure had more than the standard amount of frustration and expenses and heartbreak.  But we got through all of that okay.  And already our eyes and plans turn towards The Big Easy, New Orleans, the site of Wrestlemania 30.  Let us know if you need a ride.

Here is a treat for you: a “slideshow” of Christina’s Wrestlemania 29 photos.

This link will take you to a list of all the titles discussed in this blog.

https://fontana.nccardinal.org/eg/opac/results?bookbag=19948;page=0;locg=155;depth=0

The Shield, 40 Hours Without Sleep, and a Broken Trunk: A Wrestlemania Road Trip (Part 1)

What you are about to read is the true story of two library bloggers and their daring Wrestlemania 29 adventures.  This harrowing account is presented in a back and forth manner, taking you from the road trip itself to each of the exciting Wrestlemania matches. 

Yes, Wrestlmania is this cool.

As we recount this gritty tale we will weave plenty of literary connections into it.  Links for book titles will take you to that book in the library catalog.  Links for other things will take you places where you can learn more about the topic being discussed.  And as always we will have a link at the end that will take you to a list of all the books mentioned in this blog.

Tuesday, Day 1: Usually a road trip starts out in the morning. You wake up early, finish loading the car, grab the coffee or Dew or energy drink, and head off.  This story is different.  This trip begins at night, in the dark.  The goal was to leave from North Carolina Tuesday and to reach New Jersey in time on Wednesday to meet with friends that evening.

The day started with Christina running errands and me visiting the dentist.  We both worked until 8:00 that evening.  Once home we grabbed a bite to eat, finished packing, and loaded up the Jetta.  Such excitement!  Plugged in the iPod, queued up a new playlist, and headed out.

Travel note:  the 6th generation iPod we have was bought last April to use for our wedding and reception.  It held its battery charge for the entire drive up there, and same for the drive back.  Learn more fun things with iPod : the missing manual .

Match 1: Oftentimes, WWE will have “dark matches” before shows, which means they aren’t televised. This being Wrestlemania, they had a “prematch” before the big show started. Unlike dark matches, this one was in fact televised and featured a title change.

Entance stage at Wrestlmania

Fun fact: If you read the introduction to Neil Gaiman’s “Fragile Things”, you’ll find a short story hidden in there. How cool is that?

Wednesday, Day 2:  Midnight is when this day starts, driving through the mountains.  Clear skies, clear roads, and good tunes.  I-40 into Asheville, I-26 up through Tennessee, and then I-81 in Virginia.  the bulk of our driving is on this interstate.  We always seem to drive through the scenic areas when it is dark.  Christina handles this stage of the driving.  We stop at most rest areas to stretch and keep awake, stamping about in the cold. 

Life as we know it.

We stop for a sit down meal at a Denny’s in Wytheville, VA.  Nearing 4:00 am now.  In our younger days staying up like this was much easier.  But we have things to do and people to meet!  Must push on! 

Christina is able to keep it up until about dawn, and then I take over the driving.  I discover that 5 Hour Energy does indeed work.  We get through West Virginia and Maryland.  The end seems to be within reach.  Most of Pennsylvania is done, and we move onto I-78.  As we get to the Bethlehem area I suddenly feel a tug on the steering wheel.  Well, the road conditions in PA are not great.  But I notice that the battery light is now on, and that the steering has gotten tight.

I don’t say anything at first.  Once we come up to an exit with gas stations I let Christina that we might have a wee bit of a problem.  As we go off of the interstate I realize that there power steering is gone.  I’m able to manhandle the car into the no parking zone of the first gas station we come across.

This is not good.  A call to 411 to find a tow truck or similar service is not helpful.  Christina inquires within the gas station and the woman there tells her that there is an auto parts store nearby.  With limited directions I head off on foot.  And what do I find directly next door to the gas station?  A Chevrolet dealership that has a service department.  Huh.  What do you know.  I head into there, and they are glad to be of assistance.  They even send a guy over to drive our poor wounded car to their shop.  Turns out that the power steering belt and arm are gone.  They quote us a reasonable price and get to work.  Takes longer than anticipated since they had to get the parts delivered, but they stick to the quote and soon get us on our way again.  Not as disasterrific as it could have been.

Now the plan had been to get to the hotel, grab a few hours of sleep, and then meet up with Christina’s friend Mary and her boyfriend for dinner and such.  But it is already into the afternoon, and we haven’t even made Jersey yet.  Plans will have to change.  Christina gets a hold of Mary and finds out that she is not in NJ either.  She is in Philadelphia.  In the hospital, to be precise.  They had been in a serious car accident the previous night.  Multiple fractures to both of them.  This is really not good.

Mary (not her real name, by the way) is an aspiring wrestler, training with one of the independent wrestling companies.  She was scheduled to make her in ring debut in July, but now has two broken legs and assorted other injuries.  This is super not good.  Now, let me jump ahead here and assure all of you loyal readers that Mary is going to be okay.  She is done with the surgeries, should be up and walking next month, and doctors are optimistic that she can resume her squared circle dreams.  She hopes to visit us here in Franklin in the coming weeks.

With heavy hearts we drive on, passing into NJ, onto the Garden State Parkway (toll only $1.50), and make it to Clifton and the Howard Johnson we had our reservations at.  Luckily our room is on the first floor.  We unload the car and hit a conveniently close by TGIF’s for dinner and much needed drinks.  Back to the hotel and finally sleep, blessed sleep.

Travel note:  I find out very quickly that people drive differently in NJ than in western NC.  If there is the slightest gap they are going to take it.  But once you realize this and expect to be cut off than it is not so bad and the traffic flows.  It turns out that I am not the only person to notice differences in driving styles: Traffic: why we drive the way we do (and what it says about us)

Match 2:  When you’re a fan of anything, you learn to deal with crazed optimism and cynical defeat. I had high hopes that one of my favorite  – okay, my favorite – wrestling stable known as The Shield would win their match. I’m used to not having things work out the way I want in the wrestling world, but I was hopeful. My hope was not futile, however, as they won! I was the only one who stood up in our section and cheered (The Shield are bad guys and are often booed. But hey, I tend to root for the bad guys.)

The Shield in action

It sort of reminds me of when I first read The Stranger. The main character, Meursault, is by no means a good person, but when we read it, we care for him, as the story is told from his point of view. It forces us to see things from his perspective, and naturally, we try to empathize, even though he’s cruel. The same could be said about Lolita, or A Clockwork Orange.

Thursday, Day 3:  I’ve never slept so well in a hotel room.  I’m guessing that exhaustion has more to do with it than the comfort level of the room.  We were up approximately 40 stress filled hours. 

Clearly this is a pre-trip photo, when sleep was plentiful.

Any existing plans for the day having been trashed, we set out on a quest for supplies.  Google maps works wonderfully for this.  Simply zoom in on the area and most businesses are listed.  And what do we find within minutes of our hotel?  Anything and everything we need.  Multiple restaurants, a grocery store, Trader Joe’s, Target, Barnes & Noble, a movie theater, multiple drug stores, a post office, a 24 hour Dunkin’ Donuts…jackpot.

The rest of the day is spent killing time in the hotel room.  No matter where you go there is still not much on TV.  Luckily there is a lot of Duck Dynasty on, as well as My Cat From Hell and a replay of the Mets losing.  Not ideal vacation time but understandable all things considered.

The plan for that night was for us to meet up with Mary and her guy at the famous Caroline’s on Broadway.  Here is a partial list of the comedians who have performed there:  Jerry Seinfeld, Jay Leno, Chris Rock, Jon Stewart, Robin Williams, and on and on.  Joe, a professional wrestler whom Christina had become acquainted with via Twitter, was also supposed to be there. 

The plan was that the ladies would hang out with Joe and us guys would busy ourselves talking about guy stuff, like this.  But since Mary wasn’t going to make it, I told Christina that she should go ahead on her own.  It took her way too long to get a cab, but it finally showed up and she headed off to New York City.  I headed to bed.

Travel note:  seriously, how does a NYC cabbie get lost going to Times Square?  Of course, NYC is pretty big:  The world in a city : traveling the globe through the neighborhoods of the new New York. 

Match 3:  Two giant guys collide! One of them is Ryback, who is over 6 feet and almost 300 pounds, and the other is Mark Henry, legitimately billed as The World’s Strongest Man.  Some of the weightlifting records that Henry set back in the 90s still stand today.

Speaking of records, most of you probably envision Les Miserables and War and Peace as huge tomes. You’d be correct; both books are over 1400 pages. The record holder for the longest book goes to In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust, though – it’s 4211 pages in seven volumes. That’s almost three times the size of War and Peace and Les Miserables. 

Friday, Day 4:  My day started with the hotel phone ringing.  It was my wife, who was still in the city and wanted a ride back.  The cab had been very expensive, and especially after emergency car repairs we weren’t exactly flushed with disposable cash.  So I grabbed a stray bottle of 5 Hour Energy and my keys and headed out for my first venture into New York City.  Yes, my first time was driving into the city on a weekday morning!

My route took me through the Lincoln Tunnel, which has a $13 toll.  Luckily I had enough cash on me, because they don’t take debit cards at toll booths.  (There is a business idea for someone.) 

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.

Once you come out of the tunnel there is a large intersection where all traffic laws seem to be suspended.  I made sure to follow one of my personal driving laws (yield for bus) and made it through.  I was amused by the guy in the red car who blasted away on his horn at the taxi and bus in front of him.  He was a prime example of an exercise in futility.  The woman in the car with him did not seem amused.

Once I cleared the Intersection of Doom successfully, and without making a wrong turn, I discovered something very interesting about driving in NYC.  The streets are laid out in grids and and are numbered in a sensible fashion.  Very different than driving in, say, downtown Atlanta.  With good directions I had no problem finding my way.  And thankfully no toll in the tunnel coming back out.

By now I am sure you are all wondering about Christina’s adventures in the city.  Well, by the time she got there Caroline’s was closed.  Luckily Joe was still about and the two of them strolled around.  Some people might ask me, hey, weren’t you worried about your wife walking about NYC after midnight?  And the answer is no, not particularly.  The Times Square area is not notably dangerous, plus she was accompanied by a rather large man.  She was pretty safe.

So they wandered along to a bar which wasn’t letting anyone else in since closing time was coming up.  But the doorman actually recognized Joe and let them in any way for a drink on the house!  Yay!  And as these things tend to go, people were met, conversations engaged, and now as a larger group they closed down the bar and headed out in search of pizza.  Being NYC it is totally normal to expect to find an open pizza place in the middle of the night.  And they did.  And before you know it, it is 7:00 am, Joe is heading back to his hotel, and Christina’s feet are aching and she decides to forego the cab fare.  And I get to be the hero who rides in to her rescue!  Well, okay, she didn’t actually need rescuing, but it was still a mighty feat to drive into the city as I did.

The rest of the day was spent largely waiting to see if we would be able to drive down to Philly to visit Mary in the hospital, but that didn’t work out.  So we went and saw the excellent Evil Dead remake, watched SmackDown, and called it a night.

Travel note:  we had lunch at Anthony’s, a surprisingly large chain of pizza places that was within walking distance of the hotel.  First thing they said was that they only do thin crust pizzas in their coal-fired ovens.  We said excellent!  Also, they had dark beer on tap, which seems a bit of a rarity in NJ, in my limited experience.  Wish I could make pizza like that.

Match 4:  We were excited to see Daniel Bryan and Kane (better known as Team Hell No) in tag team action. We got to see them at a house show back in November, but seeing them defend their titles successfully was pretty awesome.

Team Hell No is fun because it involves a huge scary guy in a mask and a smaller, bearded “goat face” guy going around demanding hugs. It’s all because they were forced to undergo anger management classes and the results were…interesting.

Kane makes his presence felt

If you’re having your own problems with conflict resolution, you can always search “conflict” under Subject in our catalog. My favorite title would be “Since strangling isn’t an option: dealing with difficult people – common problems and uncommon solutions” by Sandra A. Crowe. Or you can be like Kane and go around wearing a mask, demanding that people “hug it out” with you.

Saturday, Day 5:  Another day spent waiting around.  Everyone was very keen on a hospital visit, but things like “minimally invasive back surgery” (I may be mis-remembering the actual procedure) kept getting in the way.  Mary also wanted to let us use her Wrestlemania tickets, since they were presumably better seats than ours.  Believe me, that was not a big concern of ours at the time.  But in the end again no visit.  Bummer.

There was one interesting thing that happened on Saturday, though.  The opening mechanism for the trunk of the car broke.  At least the trunk was empty of anything important at the time.  Turns out this happens with some frequency to this model.  There is more than one video on YouTube about how to fix it.

Travel note:  I find most hotel or motel showers to be subpar.  There always seems to be an issue with them being too small, or not enough hot water, or some oddly configured curtain system that ensures you will flood the bathroom floor.  But the shower in this room was great.  Decent size, great water pressure, and plenty of hotness.  The term “hotness”, in this case, applies equally to the water and my wife.  Of course the toilet was a good six inches higher than they usually are.  Heads in beds : a reckless memoir of hotels, hustles, and so-called hospitality .

Match 5: Wrestling is an interesting business and often becomes surreal. Case in point: Fandango. His gimmick, or wrestling persona, is one of a ballroom dancer who flips out if you mispronounce his name. In his Wrestlemania debut, he fought and won against Chris Jericho, a wrestling veteran and one of my all time favorites.

Chris Jericho fires the crowd up before battling Fandango. The close up at the top right is one of the 20 giant screens at MetLife Stadium.

Fandango winning in his first match at Wrestlemania is an impressive debut. Some other people who have had impressive debuts: V.C. Andrews with Flowers in the Attic, William Gibson with Neuromancer, and Ian Fleming with Casino Royale, the first book to feature James Bond. If you want to peruse through other literary debuts, Wikipedia has an impressive list, sorted alphabetically by title.

Stay tuned for Part 2, coming your way in two weeks!

Use this link to find a complete list of all the titles mentioned in this blog: https://fontana.nccardinal.org/eg/opac/results?bookbag=19806;page=0;locg=155;depth=0

The Searchers

“The Searchers”  is a memorable movie. The first time I saw it was in a second run theater in Cincinnati, Ohio in the mid-1950s.  I guess the film made an impression on me, but I can’t for the life of me remember how often I have seen it since.  Some critics see the character of Ethan Edwards, who spends seven years searching for a girl who was kidnapped by a Comanche war party, as John Wayne’s finest role.  “The Searchers” began as a serial in popular magazine by Alan Le May, later he published it as novel, then it was made into a motion picture by John Ford, and finally, it is the subject of a book by Glenn Frankel.

Debbie Edwards, the young girl who Wayne’s character searches for, was based on the historical figure  of  Cynthia Parker, who was kidnapped by Comanches in 1830, lived with them for 24 years before being “rescued” by cavalry and Texas Rangers.  While living with the Comanches, she had three sons, one of whom was the famous chief Quanah Parker.  Parenthetically, Parker was the subject of a recent best selling  book, Empire of the summer moon : Quanah Parker and the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history .

LeMay’s novel and the script of the movie deviated from the real story on a number of points.    The book and the movie were both set after the Civil War, while Cynthia was kidnapped in 1836.   Where the Parkers actually lived in a fortified settlement, the  movie ranch seems isolated.  The men of the settlement were farming about a mile from the fort instead of hunting for stolen stock when the Comanches attacked. Additionally, Frankel points out LeMay focuses his story on the pursuers instead of the kidnapped. Finally, Debbie, in the movie seems glad to be re-united with her relatives.  Cynthia, who  did not want to be reunited with her white family,  died of a broken heart after being removed from her children and their Comanche relatives. Ironically, her oldest son, Quanah Parker, became the Comanche chief who led the tribe to peace with white America.  Additionally, Frankel notes that descendants of the two families still send representatives to each other’s family re-unions.

The cruelty on both sides is manifest in the novel, the film, and Frankel’s book. The Edwards family in the novel and the film are slaughtered with the exception of their daughters. Ultimately, Debbie is only who survives because her older sister Lucy is later found raped and murdered.  The two men kill and scalp Debbie’s husband, the fictional Comanche warrior Scar.

The chronicle  of the making of the film is almost as interesting as the story itself.  Harry Caray, Jr.,  wrote a forward that appeared to the last two paperback editions of LeMay’s novel, describing his experience acting in Ford’s production.  Frankel also devotes a good part of his book to the making of the movie, including mini-biographies of John Ford and John Wayne.

To see the film’s trailer go here.

Advice on Books

So many books; so little time….

Fans of Goodreads, fear not! Even though your web site has been acquired by Amazon, there are still many other sources for book recommendations on the internet that are free from the taint of merchandising. I’m thinking in particular of print book-reviewing publications that post some or all of their reviews online for free, along with literary essays and publishing industry news. I confess I’m addicted to book reviews, and often congratulate myself on being well read when in fact it’s just the book reviews that I have consumed—and not the books themselves. But before I came to the Hudson Library, I spent many years working in bookstores where—as at the public library—one has to keep up with the latest titles, as well as classics.

Goodreads, as the name implies, is more about reading, than the books themselves as physical objects, and features reviews by regular readers—which is great, as far as it goes, and is made possible by the culture of the Internet; I am signed up with Goodreads. But I like to think there is still room for trained, paid professionals to bring their knowledge and experience to book criticism.

All of our Fontana Regional libraries have complimentary copies of BookPage which features author interviews as well as reviews and columns focusing on mysteries, romance, cooking, audio books and book clubs. All these can be found at their online site, as well as “web exclusives” which currently features a profile of Theron Humphrey and his hound, Maddie, who travel the country as Mr. Humphrey takes photos of the interesting people he meets along the road. But Maddie has a way of stealing the show and it looks like their new book, “Maddie on Things,” could be reminiscent of William Wegman’s Weimaraners.

We also have subscriptions to the New York Times Book Review, which appears every weekend and is probably the most widely read book review in the country;  you can find them in your library’s periodical section. But I’ve become so obsessional in my book-review quest that I find their selections ho-hum, and lately about half the pages seem to be taken up with the various best-seller lists, with their combinations of print and ebooks, etc. The Wall Street Journal—also found in your library’s periodical section has an excellent selection of book reviews in it s Saturday “Review” section (which also includes other arts coverage). Thanks to NCLive–accessed through your library’s public computers or via the Fontana Regional Library’s homepage on your own device (but you’ll need both your library-card number and your password)—Fontana Regional Library cardholders can access all of the Journal’s articles, features and reviews for free, which is amazing considering the current introductory, three-month subscription offer for the print and online versions of the newspaper is $25.99. Last weekend’s section was devoted to Spring Books, and included reviews of:  “Return of a King” about the disastrous 1839 British invasion of Afghanistan by William Dalrymple, a wonderful historian and memoirist (I loved his “City of Djinns” about life in New Delhi); a biography of CIA chief William Colby (“Shadow Warrior” by Randall B. Woods); a history of Greenwich Village by John Strausbaugh and Meghan Cox Gurdon’s column on children’s books, among many, many other great offerings. If you know exactly whichWSJ  review you’re looking for, you can also get there via Google.

 My favorite book review is the weekly Times Literary Supplement, published in London and founded in 1902. Print subscriptions aren’t cheap (though the online version is much more affordable) but some of the most interesting recent reviews in all categories can be viewed for free at their web site. 

The Times Literary Supplement, published in London

The TLS reviews books published in the United Kingdom and the U.S., as well as some books published in German, French, Italian, etc. and covers literary fiction and everything non-fiction. Among the interesting, free offerings on their web site now is one about literary hoaxes, with particular interest in the purported 1862 London meeting between Charles Dickens and Fyodor Dostoevsky; it’s a fascinating piece of sleuthing. Plus there are not one, but two free blogs, including “A Aon’s Life” by classics professor Mary Beard. The web site has this puff from the prize-winning Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa: “I have been reading the TLS since I learned English 40 years ago. It is the most serious, authoritative, witty, diverse and stimulating cultural publication in all the five languages I speak.” I just speak English, barely, but I agree—and I have a print subscription.

BookForum: A little more cutting edge…

Another favorite of mine is Bookforum, (five issues a year) brought to you from the folks of Artforum. Bookforum is more cutting edge than the reviews discussed above. That is, both the reviewers and the books themselves are more likely to question the status quo, whether now or in 1700. Under “Reviews,” their website offers not just some of Bookforum’s more recent offerings, but also links to yet other book reviews of note from various publications; “Omnivore” has links to interesting articles from the press about culture and current events; “Paper Trail” has the latest literary and publishing news and gossip—yum yum. The most recent issue includes Vivian Gornick taking James Salter task for his new (but really same old, same old) novel “All That Is.” As Gornick puts it:

“Certainly, it is true that most writers have only one story in them—that is, as Flannery O’Connor put it, only one they can make come alive. Then again, it is also true that it is the writer’s obligation to make the story tell more the third or fourth time around than it did the first. For this reviewer, Salter’s work fails on that score. In his eighties he is telling the story almost exactly as he told it in his forties.”

Her review is available online for free.

Love and the Feathered Rex

Who are you looking at? Recent discoveries suggest there was nothing sluggish about Velociraptor. (Photo courtesy of Jurassic Park III)

When I was a kid, I was gob-smacked by the movie “The Beast of Hollow Mountain.”

The womanly charms of Patricia Medina couldn’t compete with the sense-shattering awesomeness of The Beast of Hollow Mountain.

This glorious American-Mexican co-production featured rugged cowboys, the low-cut charms of Patricia Medina (who fostered strange stirrings that I wouldn’t understand for a few more years), stampeding cattle and treacherous patches of quicksand – the essential ingredients for a kid’s classic. But haunting the dark center of this 1956 horse opera was an astonishing Tyrannosaurus Rex that chowed down on cows and vaqueros alike. A stop motion idea by animator Willis O’Brien (whose career peaked two decades before with “King Kong”), this dinosaur lodged itself in my cerebral cortex and planted a lifelong passion for these magnificent creatures.

Fortunately, there was plenty of cultural dross and gold to nurture this budding romance. Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Lost World” and Edgar Rice Burroughs’ “The Land That Time Forgot” set the template for the strata that would pile up over the years – an isolated land where dinosaurs are still able to fulfill their destiny (eating one another in spectacularly bloody battles), betrayals, cliffs or swamps or some form of treacherous natural barrier, and, somewhere, somehow, a tiger-skin-bikinied cave chick to rescue and fall in love with.

 There were variations of this theme in pulp novels, comic books, TV shows and movies, and for a dedicated kid like me it was an endless banquet. It found its full flowering in 1933’s “King Kong,” still a dazzling achievement after all these years – if you ask me, “Kong” is the quintessential American movie, technically astonishing, operatic in its oversized emotional core and leavened with surprising moments of playfulness and sensuality (witness Kong toying with the shattered jaw of the T-Rex, and how on earth did O’Brien get permission to animate Kong slowly stripping Fay Wray down to her dainties?).  

Even after 80 years, the battle between King Kong and a Tyrannosaurus has lost none of its visceral power. (Photo courtesy of Turner Classic Movies)

The only trouble was, back in those days, scientists were convinced that dinos were sluggish, slow-witted reptiles whose own gigantism ensured that they’d be out-played by the frisky mammals playing in their shadows. It was hard to imagine that your plastic brontosaur was stomping a native village when it really didn’t have enough strength to haul itself out of the lake.

 But thanks to revolutionary discoveries in the 1960s and 70s, it became apparent that there was a lot more to dinosaurs than anyone had guessed. They became hot-blooded, agile and as dynamic as they always were in kids’ imaginations. Paleontologists began to explore the Mesozoic Age as a discrete ecological system of which dinosaurs were only a part. For a remarkably complete view of this new interpretation and the evident excitement that now informs this science, read “Dinosaur Odyssey: Fossil Threads in the Web of Life” by Scott D. Sampson.  

Don’t call me “Fluffy.” Even with the inclusion of feathers, T. rex was the apex predator.

  Well, eventually this new vision of the Terrible Lizards was translated into the popular descendants of Conan Doyle’s “The Lost World,” reaching its apex in Michael Crichton’s  “Jurassic Park” and Steven Spielberg’s irresistible widescreen adaptation. All those new notions that we dino-lovers had held close to our hearts were finally planted into the general public’s consciousness – they were energetic creatures capable of sudden bursts of speed, intelligent problem solvers, and the forerunners of the birds that have blossomed in nearly every environment.

 But here’s the thing – in the 20 years since “Jurassic Park” premiered, the understanding of dinosaurs has rendered big chunks of the novel and movie as moribund as those beasts that used to float around in their swamps. It turns that our views are still evolving in ways as surprising as Tyrannosaurus done up in feathers and sniffing around late Cretaceous plains looking for carrion.

If you’d like to explore this new world, pick up “My Beloved Brontosaurus: On the Road with Old Bones, New Science, and Our Favorite Dinosaurs” by Brian Switek. It’s a paleontologist’s valentine to these remarkable creatures that will not be corralled and a meditation on the ways science will not be contained. Even if you still think of these creatures as sluggish lizards, you can’t help but be caught up in Switek’s wide-eyed enthusiasm for his subjects. “My Beloved Brontosaurus” is a new book that’s been waiting 65 million years to be told.

Spring Break? Time for an Adventure!

Delphi, Greece

What do monkeys, monasteries, and banana milkshakes all have in common?  They are all part of my most memorable travel moments.  Whether it’s a last-minute weekend camping getaway or a more extensive planned out affair, travel feeds my adventurous heart.  Each year I anxiously await the arrival of Spring – the season of spring breaks.  It’s the time to break free from our normal lives and go on an adventure!

Before I start planning any adventure, I ask myself a few questions:  How much time and money do I have?  Do I want to immerse myself in another culture?  Do I want to relax on the beach?  Do I want to have an active vacation?  Answers to all of these questions help to determine what kind of adventure to plan for.  The library should be any traveler’s first stop on their journey.  Fontana Regional Library has many books to help dream, plan, and realize a multitude of trips.

For the armchair traveler or for those that are dreaming of trips to come, check out our NextReads Armchair Travel Newsletter for a number of titles to whet your appetite for adventure.  National Geographic’s Journeys of a Lifetime: 500 of the World’s Greatest Trips and Secret Journey’s of a Lifetime: 500 of the World’s Best Hidden Travel Gems provide stunning visual trip ideas.

If the previous suggestions failed to inspire an adventure, there is always Patricia Schultz’s 1,000 Places to See Before You Die or Frommer’s 500 Places to See Before They Disappear.  Conversely, if you are looking for places to avoid on your travels then Catherine Price’s humourous 101 Places Not to See Before You Die should be right up your alley.  If humanitarian work is what you seek, check out Volunteer Vacations: Short-Term Adventures That Will Benefit You and Others by McMillon, Cutchins, and Geissinger.

Tulum, Mexico

Once a destination and trip type has been decided upon, it’s time to plan!  Different travelers plan to different extents.  Some travelers pick up a guidebook, hop on a plane or in a car and leave the rest to fate.  Others spend hours doing research and planning everything out.  The rest fall somewhere in between.  Regardless of travel style, most people have an idea of what they would like to accomplish on their adventures.  Guidebooks help travelers learn about what’s available in certain destinations from food to lodging to attractions and activities.  Before heading out the door, The Smart Traveler’s Passport: 399 Tips from Seasoned Travelers by Erik Torkells is a fun read and provides a variety of unique travel tips.

Of course, regardless of how much you prepare, everything doesn’t always go as planned.  You may miss a flight or an attraction you desperately wanted to visit is closed or you have to suddenly leave a country in the midst of a revolution.  Nevertheless, travelers have to learn to be flexible.  In fact, many great travel stories evolve out of situations that were unexpected.  So enjoy your spring break adventures and create your own memorable travel moments!

“Adventure is worthwhile.” – Aristotle

You can find all of the books discussed in this blog post by clicking HERE.

Show me the money! Or lack thereof…

“I believe that the public library is the heart of my community. It enriches my life and inspires my future. For these reasons, I support the funding of public libraries with my tax dollars.”

You’ll be seeing those words a lot when you visit your local library, because Spring has sprung, though you’d never know it by our weather, and the coming of Spring marks another Library Legislative Day. This March 26th, people will descend upon Raleigh and attempt to meet with their representatives to show their support for libraries and library funding.  Those of us that aren’t able to make the rather long trek to the capital will send letters and email to our representatives, sign petitions, and perhaps remind Raleigh that yes, people do live west of Asheville.

Throughout this blog, I’ll be sharing fascinating facts and scintillating figures about Fontana Regional Library. Aren’t you excited? Much of what we do is under the radar, so some of this information may surprise you.

Currently, State Aid to libraries sits as $13.1 million to be spread amongst all the public libraries in North Carolina. That breaks down to roughly $1.30 per person, far less than the $2.55 libraries received per person in 2000. Our original plan was to remind our legislators that we are continually doing more with less and to request a modest increase to State Aid funding. And then Governor McCrory’s proposed budget came out.

These Clone Troopers, Storm Troopers, and Boba Fett, do not approve of this cut.

He is proposing a 4.8% CUT to library funding.

Because of this new development, we’re changing track. We are asking you, our patrons, our supporters, our family, to contact your local and state officials and let them know that you support tax dollars funding public libraries. Their contact info can be found here for Macon, here for Jackson, and here for Swain.

Here in the mountains, and in rural communities across NC, public libraries are some of the only places that provide free high speed internet and free access to computers. Our digital access and computer services are core to our mission. According to our recently completed computer usage survey, our patrons feel the same. You can view the full results here.

Now here come the numbers. Are you ready? Good, let’s do this.

Total population of Macon, Jackson, and Swain counties according to the 2010 Census: 88,174

Total circulation of Fontana Regional Library (FRL) items last fiscal year: 420,375. If residents had to pay for these materials individually it would cost over $7.2 million.

Total number of people attending FREE FRL programs last fiscal year: 52,767. If the library had charged going rate for entertainment residents would have paid $600,400.

Total number of FRL computer usage last fiscal year: 92,351

Total number of FRL wi-fi usage last fiscal year: 44,641.

The cost of computers, accessories, software, internet, and maintenance would be pretty close to astronomical if residents had to pay retail prices for this service. This is how libraries are bridging the digital divide.

These kids are seriously talented.

The library also provides things that are hard to turn into statistics. How do you quantify the joy a child experiences when letting their creative juices flow? Or the excitement of a person rediscovering an author they haven’t read in ages? The palpable relief that a teen feels when they find just the right book for the paper that’s due next week? The only thing we have for those stories is you.

It’s your personal stories that make the library real to our representatives. With your stories and our statistics, we may be able to remind the powers that be that libraries are crucial to our state and to our lives.

Please take a moment to contact your representatives and let them know how much you love your library and that you support funding us. We can’t do it without you! Contact info for Macon, contact info for Jackson, contact info for Swain.