The Yellow Review

Okay, so as the final part of my creative writing blog assignment I’m reviewing a short story.

The story is called The Yellow and it was written by Samantha Hunt. It was published in the November 29 issue of the New Yorker in 2010, so this year for anyone counting.
I loved this story. Now I know you’re supposed to keep objectivity and stuff, but it’s really good. Personally I found it really moving, and maybe it’s because there’s a dog in it and I love dogs. I am actually repeatedly haunted by dreams of my own dog, Freckles, who passed away last year. In the dreams she’s alive and well and we’re going for a walk. Usually part way through the dream I realize she’s dead and, become confused by her resurrection. I end up waking up to the realization that she’s in fact dead and not some how brought back to life, and I spend the morning coming to terms with it. I think it’s all due to the fact that I spend a good part of my life convincing myself she would never die. You’d be surprised what you can convince yourself of.

Anyway I digress. The story has very interesting characters. I found the character development to be fantastic, there is one character who only appears for a short time and says one thing, but that’s all you need to know that character. The two main characters have much more time spent on them and they are both as interesting and likeable as they are unlikeable.

The pacing of the story is very interesting, it beings with a slower pace then acculturates quickly. It’s very fitting of the story, it seems panicked and out of control, which reflects what the characters are going through.

I also enjoyed the dialog; it seemed quite realistic and slightly detached, which I think reflected the characters. There’s quite a bit of depth and I don’t want to give away what happens in the story, but that makes it hard to really get the depth across. This is the description the New Yorker gives the story:

“Short story about an unemployed man who moves back in with his parents and hits a dog while out driving…”

That doesn’t exactly explain it all. So do yourself a favor and go read the four pages.

Annie's Bright Idea: A Book Launch

Last night I attended a book launch and reading for the children’s book “Annie’s Bright Idea: A Christmas Adventure” by Audrhea Lande, illustrations by Jenny Prest.



It was nothing like what I expected. In my mind I had contrived this preconceived idea that it would be a small area with the author sitting on a sofa or a leisure chair reading to a small group of people who sat around her listening attentively, as she read from her book occasionally turning it around to show pictures. Not unlike what library class was like in elementary school.

Well this wasn’t like that at all the place was packed. I almost didn’t get in. Luckily some people left right as I was being turned away, and the hostess asked me to return.



The seat I ended up getting was way in the back and I could hardly see anything.



I was able to get a view of the large projector screen that showed images of the pages as Lande read the book, which I have to say was quite entertaining. I actually wanted to buy a copy of it, but it sold out so quickly that I didn’t get a chance.



Lande only read about half the book stopping at a perfect cliffhanger, which is probably part of what caused the books to sell out so quickly. Other than, of course, the fact that it was very entertaining. Lande later, said she didn’t plan on stopping at that point, which I suppose, makes it a very fitting coincidence.

After the reading Lande went table to table signing books for children and adults alike.



It was an interesting experience to say the least. I had no idea what book readings were like and the kind of following they generate.

Lest We Forget

Yesterday was Remembrance Day. I had originally planned to make this post last night, but because I was up late working on a journalism assignment I didn’t get a chance to write it.
Part of my journalism assignment was to go to a Remembrance Day service. I hadn’t attended one in a very long time. I’m not sure of the exact time, but it’s been about eight years since I finished high school, and I think it was sometime before that, when I last attended a Remembrance Day service.

My memories of them are kind of blurred. I remember that a few uniformed soldiers would attend. Students who were military cadets would also attend the services dressed in uniform. Everyone would be given poppies at the beginning of day. The gym would be full of students sitting cross legged, and some one would recite Flanders Fields. I have a particular vivid memory of two girls singing Imagine by John Lennon at one service.

The Service I attended yesterday seemed much different than the services I remembered from my youth. Part of it is probably my age, which I think comes with a higher understanding of the significance of what Remembrance Day means.

There was an understanding of the weight and seriousness of the event by everyone involved that came across in the presentation. The solemn looks on the faces of the veterans who experienced conflict first hand was instantly recognizable. They really know what this day means.

The readings at the service were moving and powerful. A particularly well spoken reading of the Soldiers’ Prayer moved many of the people in attendance to tears. It was a performance, but the speaker wasn’t performing to show off his ability to clearly articulate and emphasize the words he read. He was bringing to life all of those that are now without a voice, clearly illustrating what the words representing them meant, and attempting to show all of us who couldn’t possibly begin to imagine what they went through what they felt while going through it.

I always knew Remembrance Day was important, but after attending yesterday’s service, speaking to a veteran and seeing pictures of a now 80 year old man, when he was younger than me, dressed in uniform, and imagining the magnitude of the responsibility that was taken on by that generation, gave me a whole understanding of its significance.

I don’t know if it’s entirely appropriate, I decided to embed Shine a Light by the Rolling Stones.

The Mystery of the Sticky Fingers Bandit

Well, I think it’s been far too long since I made a decent blog post. Today, I want to talk about a mystery. This particular mystery happens to be unsolved, yet there are a few theories that possibly explain what happened. However, none of these theories have been proven.

It all started just over three years ago. Some months before I had purchased the Rolling Stones album Sticky Fingers, I say some months because some of the records for the case were destroyed in a fire that I made up to create continuity in this blog post to make it look like I’ve actually been investigating this case. Sticky fingers is in my humble opinion is one of the Stones’ best albums, one could even argue that it is their best album. So the some months that I spent with that album were some of the finest rock and roll months of my life, but it all came crashing down one infamous July evening in 2007.

I remember it like it was yesterday. I walked to the kitchen table where my CD wallet had been sitting, and opened the wallet. I stood astonished and aghast. There was an empty slot where previously there had been a CD. I quickly went through the wallet looking at all the CDs trying to figure out which was missing. After making sure that it wasn’t mistakenly put into the same slot as another CD. I tried to control my anxiety. I began searching everywhere I could think.

“Maybe it wasn’t in the CD wallet. I’ll check the Case. Not there. Maybe the CD player, check it. Not there. I know I’ll check my car CD player. Not there.”

Soon I was overcome by the horror of knowing my CD was gone. I pursued all the avenues, the lost and found at work, My CD player at work, the inside of my car, my work’s parking lot, all to no avail.

I had been working the overnight shift that week and had a caller that morning before I went to bed for the day. Immediately my suspicions turned to her. However, that was quickly ruled out, not for lack of evidence, but because I don’t really think she even liked the Stones. I don’t really even actually consider it a theory, I just threw it in because I said I had a few theories, and I didn’t want to have to go back and change that to a couple.

The second theory is probably the most likely. There’s a good chance the CD could have fallen out of the wallet when I was walking to my car that morning. Then anyone passing by throughout the day could have picked it up. I mean it’s Sticky Fingers, some guy was probably walking by and saw it and was like, “score!” On the other hand though, it’s likely that if someone had found it they would turn it in to the lost and found. One time, I did this pen experiment in the atrium, and this pen just stuck around for weeks. I bet the thing is still there even a couple of years later. Anyway, that’s probably better left to a different blog post. I did check the lost and found and scoured the parking lot looking for it. So if someone did find it they took it, if that is in fact what happened.

This is the third and final theory, and the one that I choose to believe, despite my lack of evidence or real investigating.

This will take a little bit of back story. It all started when this crazy thing happened at my work. I can’t really go into detail about it because I’m pretty sure it’s not really supposed to get talked about. So to make a long story that I can’t talk about short, I’ll just say for a particular reason security guards were hanging out in the area that I worked in for the over night shift for a couple of shifts. Anyway, basically what I think happened is that one of the security guards made off with my copy of Sticky Fingers. (It’s kind of fitting right? He’s like the Sticky Fingers bandit.)

At first I had thought it was a different security guard than the one that I currently suspect. The first suspect was an older man and he had talked to me about my music that night, but his demeanor towards me never changed and I had several conversations with him after the incident so it became really hard for me to believe that he could be the guilty party.

Around the same time that I began to realize that it was probably unlikely to be the older security guard. I began to consider that I might have brought the theft upon myself. Now if that sounds peculiar, allow me to explain further.

See the second suspect, who is a much younger guy, is a bit of an odd duck. The shift I was working where he was in the room, he kind of looked lost and was wondering around with a dumbfounded look on his face. Because he was there for a reason which was, and for the sake of my story I’ll give out this one detail, to look out for a crazy former employee who had just recently started no longer working there, I decided because I thought I was clever and because he looked so lost to say, “I think he might be over there in that back corner, you should go check it out,” which he then proceeded to do. He, of course returned from the corner with a slightly confused slightly annoyed face. I hadn’t expected him to go off to the corner. I kind of thought he would have picked up on my humor.

Anyway, it was after that night that my copy of Sticky Fingers went missing. Now I know that wasn’t much proof, and the only other thing that I have to go on, which really isn’t that much at all, is that even though that guy was pretty awkward to begin with he became even more awkward around me and one day shortly after that night, I passed him in the hall, and the whole time he looked away from me. Then right after he walked by me he let out a sigh of relief. A sigh that said, “Whew, I got away with it.”

That’s pretty much my whole case right there. As you can probably tell it’s no surprise that this case remains unsolved today. So as I sit here looking at my empty Sticky Fingers jewel case I think back and remember better times when I could sit and listen to Brown Sugar, Sway, Wild Horses, Can’t You Hear Me Knocking, You Gotta Move, Bitch, I got the blues, Sister Morphine, Dead Flowers, and Moonlight Mile all in that order. One of these days I’m just going to have to go out and buy it again.

P.S. I decided to embed the version of Bitch just because it was so good.