Join us as local photographer and attorney Stanley L. Rodbell highlights his travels throughout the world — including South America, Australia, Asia, Africa, and Europe. Rodbell has been an avid photographer for more than 50 years, having trained at the Penland School of Crafts in Penland, North Carolina, Catonsville Community College, and Howard Community College. Rodbell is the recipient of a first prize and honorable mention in The Baltimore Sun for his eye-catching works.

Rodbell will discuss his photographic journeys at Howard County Central Library on Wednesday, May 19, at 7:00 pm. Rodbell’s works are on display at Howard County Central Library now through May 31.

Elaine Johnson – Central Library

King Corn is a great documentary about economies of scale in agriculture and food. In the vein of Barbara Kingsolver or Michael Pollan, filmmakers Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis head back to the heartland — Greene, Iowa. They have a simple dream of growing one acre of corn, better understanding agriculture and food production in the process.

With help from local landowners, support from distant relatives, and funding from the Federal Government’s agricultural subsidies, Cheney and Ellis plant and tend their acre and find out about their crop. They compare their corn agriculture with that of their great-grandparents, and note the huge increase in yield from the same amount of land. Stop motion animations make the major trends in farming history easy to follow and understand. Simple graphs and charts turn statistics into readily understandable visuals. On-camera interviews with key players including farmers, feedlot owners, representatives of the corn industry, and government officials place corn in context and introduce us to the economics of food. 

On trips away from Iowa, Cheney and Ellis follow “their” corn to a feedlot in Colorado, where cattle are fattened on corn before sale, and to a convenience store in Brooklyn, where sodas sweetened with corn syrup are available by the gallon. They investigate the economic benefits and dietary pitfalls of the use of corn as both an animal food and a sweetener. Along the way, their adventure raises questions about the economic and health benefits of our twenty-first century diet, and leaves the audience interested and curious about why we eat what we eat. King Corn is both entertaining and eye-opening, and is a great cinematic companion to recent bestsellers about local and seasonal food. Watch King Corn today!

John Jewitt – Savage Branch

Travel nearly 25,000 miles with Karen Trennepohl on her amazing journey that includes Botswana, Zimbabwe, Egypt, and Cyprus, with quick stops in Qatar, South Africa, England, and Ireland.  Experience the excitement of safari, excursions to Victoria Falls, Cairo’s pyramids, and antiquities of Cyprus.

Join us for A Trip of a Lifetime at Central Library on Tuesday, May 19 at 2:00 pm. Register online or by calling 410.313.7860.
 
Elaine Johnson – Central Library

Luke Dempsey’s A Supremely Bad Idea, the tale of “three mad birders and their quest to see it all,” is a grabber, a book with a first paragraph that completely drags you in to the writer’s world. Dempsey’s discussion of train-spotting and morris dancing establishes a framework for his introduction of bird watching. From there we’re on a slippery slope towards a fun read, particularly once we meet Dempsey’s bird-crazy traveling companions, Don and Donna Graffiti.

Throughout the book Dempsey emphasizes the generosity and extraordinary knowledge of his fellow birders. Whether from Robin Diaz in Florida; Ted Ollinger in Gig Harbor, Washington; or Barbara Kennett on South Padre Island in Texas, Dempsey and the Graffitis are the repeated beneficiaries of kindness and hospitality, based only on a shared interest and set of specialist knowledge. In many cases Dempsey sees or hears the bird he seeks because of the support provided by these local heroes. His community encounters contrast with several unfulfilling “strip mall” events that the trio experience in generic Anytown, U.S.A.

Dempsey’s book articulates an environmental agenda in a new and different way. His argument, while less scientific and more aesthetic, has no lesser impact. It is hard to disagree as he explains the migration and nesting patterns of the rare birds that he seeks, and points out that it would only take a minor change in habitat, feeding patterns, or temperature to permanently affect the behavior of these particular birds. As an example, Dempsey explains the migration patterns of the Cerulean Warbler, a bird whose habitat in western South America has been drastically reduced by deforestation for coffee cultivation.

The Warbler is not the only bird explored in depth. Dempsey’s detailed explanation of birds’ behavior makes it clear that with a little effort, a good birding guide, and perhaps a recording of the song, we, too, could have an encounter with a “life bird.” Employing wit, sparkle, and a clear affection for his subject, Luke Dempsey’s A Supremely Bad Idea encourages us to seek out nature that is happening all around us.

February and March are National Bird Feeding Months. Why not stock a feeder in your backyard, pull out the birding guide and binoculars, and see which of Luke Dempsey’s friends show up for dinner?

John Jewitt – Savage Branch

William Least Heat-Moon

Blue Highways is a wonderful narrative of William Least Heat-Moon’s journey of discovery across the United States in the late 1970s. Responding to “thoughts that come in the night,” Heat-Moon reacts to the loss of his job and the breakup of his marriage by traveling around the country in an old van named “Ghost Dancing.” Staying off the interstates, riding the blue highways and taking the time to get to know people in the communities through which he passed, Heat-Moon produced a lasting masterpiece of American travel writing that holds up thirty years later.

What makes this a truly exceptional read is the author’s focus on the people that he meets, each of whom has unique local knowledge and perspective. Heat-Moon lets them speak for themselves, and allows them to lead his journey with their marvelous stories.

Heat-Moon’s first book established the trajectory of his career. Blue Highways was followed by PrairyErth, in which the author traveled Chase County, Kansas on foot, producing a “deep map” and getting close to both the people and the land. Heat-Moon then crossed the country once more, but this time by boat, in River Horse. This past October, Heat-Moon made a welcome return to the back roads in Roads to Quoz.

Check out Blue Highways as an excellent introduction to this wonderful author and to the backroads of the United States. You won’t regret it.

John Jewitt – Savage Branch

Hot on the heels of Ilf and Petrov’s American Road Trip (see Karen’s April 15th blog post to read more) comes another highly recommended road book. This one is not only the granddaddy of all road books, but also the pure and super-secret scroll version of the text. In celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Jack Kerouac’s seminal 1957 novel, On The Road, Viking Press has published On The Road: The Original Scroll by Jack Kerouac. "What scroll?",  I hear you cry. Well… the scroll, the definitive complete draft of the novel that Kerouac typed single-spaced on eight long sheets of tracing paper in an apartment on West 20^th Street in Manhattan between April 2 and April 22, 1951.

Kerouac had been wrestling with On The Road since 1948, with multiple attempts to frame the story “always vaguely planning and never specifically taking off.” Inspiration finally came when Kerouac received a couple of long first-person letters describing the exploits of his friend, Neal Cassady, at the end of 1950. These letters were the key to Kerouac’s fresh approach to the novel, and the scroll was born.

As an object, the scroll has become famous as a physical representation of Kerouac’s new technique. His clattering typewriter and sweat-soaked t-shirts hanging over the bathtub to dry are iconic representations of the energy which he brought to getting this story onto the page. The ribbon of paper flying from the typewriter is both a physical manifestation of the road that Kerouac was struggling to capture, and an indication of the “flow” that the author didn’t want to break. We’ve known about Kerouac’s creative process since publication of the novel, but the actual product of his creative frenzy has been inaccessible to us until now.

In this manuscript version, all of the characters are referred to by their real names. There are also some great critical essays included to provide context for this unedited version of the novel. Reserve a copy of On The Road: The Original Scroll by Jack Kerouac today. If you’re interested in a side-by-side comparison between the scroll and the version that made it to print, Howard County Library also has On The Road as originally published by Viking in 1957. You can also catch the scroll on tour. Take a look at the Kerouac Scroll Tour Schedule for 2008-09 to see pictures of the artifact itself, and maybe even plan to see it.

John Jewitt – Savage Branch

One morning while Eric Nuzum sleepily munched his Count Chocula at breakfast, he realized he was surrounded by vampires. Not literally, of course. News stories, advertising, television shows—it seemed vampires were everywhere. Motivated by curiosity, this National Public Radio employee decided to research people’s fascination with the mythical blood sucker, resulting in The Dead Travel Fast, a very humorous research/travelogue title.

Nuzum first decided to attempt to watch every vampire movie ever made. He details how Nosferatu and Bela Lugosi’s Dracula were made, providing interesting reading for film buffs. The list also includes Samurai Vampire Bikers from Hell, Rockabilly Vampire, and Atom Age Vampire. There are a surprising number of interesting facts interspersed with the narrative, particularly about Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula. Nuzum and his very skeptical wife travel to England, tracing the locations mentioned in the book. Stoker was a stickler for setting. Nuzum gives a nice background about what may have motivated Stoker to write his classic horror story, and how it’s been interpreted and reinterpreted through the years. The chapter in which he travels by tour bus through Romania to research Vlad Tepes (the “real” count Dracula, who was very pro-impalement) is the funniest travelogue I’ve read. Think you’ve had a bad family vacation? Nope. Nuzum’s travelling companions included Butch Patrick, "Eddie" from The Munsters—who spent most of his time asleep. The trip included a dog bite, an infected mosquito bite, sinking boats, an emotionally disturbed monk, and lots of vomiting. After eating a Romanian “American-style” pizza, which included fried eggs, venison and goat cheese, let’s just say things were a bit messy on the bus.

One thing missing from this book is an index. Other than reading the entire book, there’s no easy way to discover such trivia gems as the fact that Roger Daltrey (of the band The Who) acted in the 1996 celluloid stinker, Vampirella.

A caveat to potential readers: there are swear words aplenty. If reading foul language makes you uncomfortable, this book may not be your cup of tea. Or vial of AB negative…

Karen Marks – Elkridge Branch

Although Ilf and Petrov’s American Road Trip sounds like a really bad summer teen flick, this book is actually an easy to read, entertaining, and sometimes biting travelogue.

In 1935, Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov, satirical writers, came to America for two months, rented a Ford, and drove from New York to San Francisco and back. (Perhaps this inspired Nabokov to send Humbert Humbert on a tour with Lolita…) This book is a kind of political/social commentary journal, but it’s no boring laundry list of tourist traps.

Most of the chapters are titled geographically , such as “The Small Town,” “The Desert” and my personal favorite, “Hollywood.” Also included are chapters on “Native Americans” and “Advertising.” The chapter “Negroes” contains an excruciating Borat-style transcript of a conversation with a young man.

Although the style is more acerbic than charming, I often laughed out loud at how they described their situations. Visiting a Mexican restaurant:

“A bonfire caught fire in our mouths and burned for at least three days.”

The authors lived before Stalin’s terror purged many writers, but to help avoid hotel Gulag Archipelago they sprinkled some political statements throughout the book, mostly on the order of Communism=Good, Capitalism=Bad.

They complained Americans valued mindless, vapid entertainment, something heard even today:

“You can graduate from twenty schools and universities and after a few years of regular cinema attendance turn into a total idiot.”

They were in awe of America’s technology but were astounded at the social inequality and the lack of curiosity people had toward them. They mused, why, in a country with so much technology and wealth, there were so many poor. They were two communist writers for Pravda traveling through America, and no one asked them questions.

Ilf took some snapshots along their journey. The reproductions aren’t top quality, but it doesn’t matter too much since Ilf was no Ansel Adams. Imagine giving your six-year-old a camera to record the family vacation. Nothing is framed, posed or even has a slice-of-life look. The photos are oddly static, like a drawing of a plant or bird in Meriwether Lewis‘ journal, but the book would not have as much impact without them.

I highly recommend this title for anyone who appreciates dry, sarcastic humor—it’s a fine ride.

Karen Marks – Elkridge Branch