The Music of Ur

Reading Elif Batuman's piece in the current New Yorker about Ur and the civilizations that preceded this Biblical home of Abraham put me in mind of a harp my grandfather made. A link to it is here . It's the lapis, gold, and tiger maple one. That's tuned accurately to the scale used in Sumerian harps. The museum calls it a "bull-headed lyre," which when you say it aloud, sounds like what my grandfather would have called my father. Really. My mother's father made this is in his "workroom" which was the basement of a little ranch house. He was kind of a genius. He tried to get me to eat borscht. I wouldn't. But you should see the jewelry he made. This harp is at UC Berkeley, in the museum.

This is always in here.

This is always in here. I wish I could thank Russell Hoban.

Five Books I'll Bet You Didn't Read This Year

End of the year and the "best of" lists are upon us like autumn leaves. I'm not complaining about "best of" lists - Invisible Sisters made several of them in 2009, and they make a big difference in how a book is received. Which is why I'm starting my own first annual "Five Books I'll Bet You Didn't Read This Year (Get 'em While They're Hot)" list. Disclosure; three of these five are by friends. But if they weren't good, I wouldn't recommend them. And in the habit instilled in my by years of corporate slavery, this list is alphabetized by author surname. I wouldn't want to list someone in preferential order or perceived preferential order. 1. Burial for A King, by Rebecca Burns. Research-driven and beautifully voiced, a look at the week of Dr. King's burial. 2. East of the West, by Mirov Penkov. Sardonic, witty, and spellbinding short stories from a masterful new author. 3. A Moment in the Sun, by John Sayles. John Sayles, 900+ pages, every one of them brilliant. And it's about imperialism. Need I say more? 4. Fall Line, by Joe Samuel Starnes. Money vs. history in 1950s middle Georgia. You didn't think that was a natural lake, didja? 5. The Memory of All That, by Katharine Weber. A family history that includes George Gershwin, a film-gimmick that stank up a garage, a beloved grandmother and a search for solid footing in a lapidary memoir. All of these are available via IndieBound

Atlanta, do you remember the "old" Carnegie library downtown?

Do you remember the "old" Carnegie library downtown, the one with the wonderful children's room with the blue and white tiles around a huge (yes, even if you were grown) fireplace? The one with marble columns out front? Well, here are the remnants of the marble work, on the grounds of the old Atlanta prison farm off Key Road. Thanks to Save the Atlanta Prison Farm for the guided hike.