uptown katie brown in print

My writing friend Cris Beam told me she was doing a freelance article on religion. She wanted to know if I knew anyone who had made a significant life change with Mormonism that she might be able to interview.

Katie Brown (DuRocher) immediately leapt to mind. When I became Katie's roomate she had recently moved to Provo, Utah, from L.A. of all places, where she went to USC and her life, from the sound of her stories, mostly revolved around her sorority and frozen yogurt. The mind reels at the culture shock she submitted herself to when she converted and transferred to BYU. Yet Katie is the kind of person who blends with all sorts of people, and is generally beloved by everyone she meets. I used to say, "If you don't like Katie, there's something wrong with you. It's like not liking Santa Claus." It's still true.

Cris was also of course won over by Katie, gushed about her smarts and likability, and featured her in her article for Real Simple that came out this month. The piece is brief, but touches a little on Katie's love for God across the different people, geographies, and faiths she's included in her life. More importantly, her love for those people regardless of their own beliefs, customs or circumstances; which, when you think about it, is pretty Christ-like.

Scan of the article compliments of Emily at evlove. Thank you, Em!

little happy surprise

A few days ago I was in a friend's apartment, retrieving something for her that she needed for her wedding, which was to take place the following day. I found this poem taped to her wall.


Good Night

Sleep softly my old love
my beauty in the dark
night is a dream we have
as you know as you know

night is a dream you know
an old love in the dark
around you as you go
without end as you know

in the night where you go
sleep softly my old love
without end in the dark
in the love that you know

-W.S. Merwin, from the May 2, 2005 issue of the New Yorker

Finding this lovely verse at that time, in that place, was a perfect little moment.

be it resolved

My friend Greg Whiteley made a movie called "Resolved" that debuted at the L.A. Film Festival last spring and won the audience award, and finally just had a screening in NYC. The movie is a documentary about high school debate.

I know, you're thinking Spellbound, etc., crazy over-achieving kids with their quirky personalities and nerd-version of cheer-mom parents. The great thing, to me, about this movie was that it is actually much more than that, and as much as the kids themselves are quite likable, it capitalizes very little on their personalities or one-liners. Greg, who has incredible felicity (his last film New York Doll, seems to have stumbled on the perfect subject at just the right moment), found a pair of kids who set out not to win debates, so much as to change debate itself. As students at an inner-city L.A. school where few graduate from high school, they seem the most unlikely candidates to upset the long-honored debate tradition. But revealing the inherent bias toward privilege within the sport (can debate really be called a sport? Extra-curricular activity?) is what they set out to do, frazzling the competition and winning debates all over the place.

A couple things about this as a viewer: this could be a cutesy topic, but is instead made into an interesting race and class issue. But more than that, even, the film subtly comments on the way we use rhetoric and information now in a time where argument and logic seems to have fallen by the wayside in favor of information glut. Also, formally, it is interesting to see how this film is cleverly crafted even though the two narratives presented (the L.A. debaters vs. the prep-school debaters who are the best in the country) don't intersect the way you expect them to. Many filmmakers would've felt like they didn't have a movie, but the way it's put together actually makes use of this discrepancy to further themes of the film. Finally, the viewer actually likes both sets of kids, they are both shown with equal generosity as intelligent, ambitious, and vulnerable in that way that only pubescence makes possible. Lesser films would pit the two against each other.

Go see this film if it is anywhere near you. Here's the website: http://www.debatemovie.com/. It's not just another subculture movie--it's really after much bigger game. And props to Greg for making another awesome film.

p.s. I was a debate nerd in high school as well (though not anywhere near the level these kids are). I won several debates talking about the subject of pigging out on junk food and how to do it properly. I made it all the way to the top at one competition only to get beat by some kid with yo-yo tricks. (This might tell you something about the intellectual quality of these debates.)

mailbox bliss

The only thing better than buying gifts for others is buying gifts for yourself. Accomplish both with this ingenious Holiday Swap from emily at evlove.

The idea is, you put together a package of stuff you'd want to get for Christmas, and send it to your swap pal. Sounds kind of painful at first, but think about it: It's a good way to brainstorm original ideas for that family swap in which you always get a gift card to B&N anyway...and plus, I can figure I can always buy doubles and give my husband or parents something to "put under the tree" for me. Or, I can do a little stuffing of my own stocking. I've never been above stuffing my own stocking.

Also, maybe the delightful swap loot I get in the mail will give me fresh inspiration for my own gift-giving. Besides, what better way to kick-off the season than a little package tied up with string in your own mailbox?

Here's how to join, plus rules and regulations.

The details:
1-email (emilycox at gmail dot com) with SWAP in the subject line. Please email by November 18th (that's 2 weeks)
2- Include yourname:email:shipping address:something you want this holiday season: (include link if you've got it)your url for blog/ flickr/ web page if you've got it.**indicate if you'd be willing to have an international swap partner
3-Put together a package of stuff you'd be delighted to be receiving.
4- Wrap it up real nice
5- By December 1 ship out a present to your swap buddy I assign. Value of gifts should be below $30. Please include stuff you'd really enjoy receiving.
6- Mailbox Bliss awaits.

visit em's blog at http://evlovedesigns.blogspot.com/

spooky night out

On my subway car the night before last, there was

1 Devil

3 Grim Reapers

2 200+ lb. Babies

1 Rabbi

2 Cowgirls

1 French Maid

1 Michael Jackson

3 Pirates

1 Conga Band

2 Princesses

2 Bikers

1 German Barmaid

1 Reggae Diva

1 Cat


And some were in costume!


This was my favorite:


























Look carefully at his forehead. Just when you were going to stop believing in Unicorns.

delicious, delicious chemicals

We had a guest lecturer in one of my classes today who talked all about something I don't think about much, but probably should think about right now having consumed approx. 3 lbs of processed, preservative-packed and flavor enhanced CANDY in the last 24 hours. (I don't know exactly what's in the center of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, it's not peanut butter, it's something much, much tastier.)

Anyhoo, this lecturer spoke about the history of chemicals in our foods (most of it comes from the plastic bottles and wrappers that our food comes in (which chemicals then leach into the food), as well as fertilizers and pesticides and hormones used in growing and producing our foods. Most of this was brought to us by the technology and manufacturing know-how of post-WWII and the huge petrochemical companies that resulted from it and stopped making war stuff and started making consumer goods.

Apparently, for a long time the FDA and scientists have known that these chemicals are potentially dangerous, but through a series of investigations, research, law suits with chemical companies, etc. the law has mostly settled on a "low dose" allowance, meaning these chemicals are allowed in food in certain levels.

Lately, though, there has been an alarm about a certain kind of chemical called "endocrine receptors." Even in low doses, these chemicals seep into our endocrine systems and can cause hormonal changes that have been linked to cancers, diabetes, reproductive organ problems, etc.

But here's the kicker. The effects of these chemicals doesn't show up so much in the organism that digests it, so much as in their offspring. The timing of exposure is crucial, and embryonic exposure is the most powerful.

So. If most of these chemicals were introduced post-WWII, and my parents were some of the first generation to digest them in mass amounts, that means the receptacle of those chemicals is ME.

This has really made me start thinking about the role of women and mothers and health. USA Today ran a series of stories yesterday about an estrogen receptor called "Bisphenol A" or BPA that is under fire because it is used heavily in baby bottles, and introduces large amounts of this chemical to infants. Moms, check it out here.

The lecturer ended by noting that yes, most of us synthetic-age first-worlders have been born with hundreds of chemicals in our bodies; we shouldn't so much freak out as be aware. Because this is becoming a hot topic, it is becoming highly politicized as huge economic stakes are at play. What we need to think about, she said, (and I think especially women) is the relationship between prosperity and public health, what has been driving this proliferation, and what we, as consumers and citizens, can do to assert rights to clean water, food, and bodies.

That gives me something to think about while I polish off this bottled water and the last of my plastic-wrapped fun-size Snickers. What do you think? Does anyone know more about this?

Read more about endocrine receptor research here and here for tons of news articles and here for a link to a group of scientists who are spearheading this research and wrote a popular book about it.

adoration and adulation

Last week I went to a smallish speaking event with Francine Prose, acclaimed author extraordinaire and woman with perhaps the best writerly name of all time.

Usually at these events, writers will talk about themselves and their myriad accomplishments, etc. Instead, Francine Prose made all of us read the story "murderers" by Leonard Michaels (which you should go read RIGHT NOW if you haven't read it--it truly is remarkable.) Then she talked about craft by having us close-read and pick apart Michaels to figure out how he had made something so brilliant and beautiful. For example, she couldn't get over this sentence:

"We sat on that roof like angels, shot through with light, derealized in brilliance."

What does derealized mean? She asked. It's not even a word! It's made-up! But it's perfect. You know from the sentence exactly what it means.

At one point during Q&A, someone said, okay, you've talked about all the good stuff, what is flawed in this story?

She paused and said, "You know, adoration and adulation are underrated experiences." She kept saying this, too. And refused to critique the piece at all.

I kept repeating this in my head all week, and I kind of love Francine Prose for saying this--esp because in my head she always lived somewhere close to Virginia Woolf in terms of probable approachability.

Try repeating it to yourself in your head. Adoration and adulation are underrated experiences. It's nice applied to art, but also to people. And even, once in a while, to yourself.

Prose's new book is about writing, and according to Livs, has even more about adulation and its positive effects, check it out here