CARRY ON.
BE SMART, STAY HOME, PROTECT THE VULNERABLE!
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Archive for Current Events
Love in the Time of COVID-19
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Today is my mother’s 94th birthday. She lives in a retirement community, Peconic Landing, in Greenport, Long Island. She requires advanced care and her mind has gone cloudy with only occasional patches of sun.
Our original plan was to travel down to visit this weekend, spend the night, surprise her with cake, balloons, and small gifts. But that was before the virus. Before the world changed. From what we’ve been told, as of two days ago, Peconic has already experienced three virus-related deaths. It now begins to wash like a great wave through the community, affecting healthcare workers and elderly patients alike. I don’t know if I’ll ever see my mother again.
These are hard times. For much of it, we are strong and brave and something close to our regular selves. Other times, we might feel that weight drag us down. For a few minutes, alone in my room, the tears come. I tried to call, something that I’ve all but given up on in the past. Thanks to the help of the staff, the call gets through. Our conversation becomes confused very quickly. Eventually, in the muddled silence, I hang up. Goodbye, I say.
It’s far better to see her in person, face to face, squeeze her hand, push the wheelchair outside, look out into the bay. My mother enjoys a cup of Lipton tea with sugar and still, amazingly, eats like a stevedore. That’s one of her signature expressions, which I love. Such a visit is not possible right now, will likely never again be possible.
Yet here in upstate, the sun is shining and the sky is blue. It’s the first day of Spring. Our two youngest children, Gavin and Maggie, are home with us. Our oldest, Nick, is healthy and working at home in New York City, supposedly the new epicenter of America’s coronavirus epidemic. My wife, Lisa, a midwife, is an amazing woman, doing important work. She touches lives in deeply meaningful ways. I’m infinitely proud of her.
There is still so much to love in this world. The trees, the clouds, the morning’s dawn chorus, our friends and family. Forgive me, if for a moment, I forget. I think we all have to forgive ourselves during these lapses. These moments when we feel it closing in around us. I’d planned on getting some work done this afternoon, attempting to make a bright, upbeat video for young readers who might have enjoyed my books. Throw it on Youtube, maybe somebody would find it. That’s something positive, right? But now? I’m not feeling it. Work can wait until tomorrow. This effing virus. Oh Mom, oh my family, this small mercy is not the ending I wanted to write, not the first day of Spring I had imagined with balloons, and small gifts, and cake.
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Category: Current Events, Family / Tags: Ann Preller, James Preller family, Love in the time of COVID-19, Peconic Landing
Online Support: Working with Teachers, Schools
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Everyone is scrambling to catch up with an ever-evolving news cycle where the world beneath our feet seems to radically shift by the hour. Schools are closed or closing. We’re all supposed to stay indoors. We’re not sure how best to respond.
As an author of children’s books, familiar with speaking to large groups at school visits, I haven’t figured out my best response to all of this just yet. But I do expect to offer up some Youtube content, book talks, readings — I’m not really sure at this time what would be most helpful. There’s a learning curve, most certainly.
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Illustration by R.W. Alley from Jigsaw Jones: The Case of the Hat Burglar.
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If you are interested in anything like that, or in something more interactive with readers, please feel free to contact me at [email protected] and hopefully I can provide some support for meaningful, book-centered learning.
My inclination is that this would be free or low cost, depending on the time and effort required. I’ll keep posting as this concept develops. Please don’t hesitate to write to me with your thoughts, questions, ideas. I’ve never used Zoom before, but my wife has, and it sounds user-friendly. Most important of all, please take this virus seriously. Stay home. Hunker down. Read, think, reflect. Take long walks. We’ll get through this.
The Poughkeepsie Children’s Book Festival: Saturday, April 4th
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Who among us doesn’t leap at the chance to visit Poughkeepsie?
Exactly.
Now there’s one more reason: I’ll be there along with more than 45 children’s book authors and illustrators, including Marc Brown, Tracey 
Baptiste, Nick Bruel, Lesa Cline-Ransom, Beth Ferry, Dan Gutman, and more.
When you arrive, please swing by my table and buy everything.
No, wait, I mean: say hello!
And if you wish, please ask about school visits. I visit elementary and middle schools, with age-appropriate paperback titles for each grade level. Don’t leave without my fancy brochure.
I’ve got a few new books since last year, including Blood Mountain and Jigsaw Jones: The Case of the Hat Burglar.
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Google “Poughkeepsie Book Festival” for more information, including a full list of authors and other featured events. But these are all the facts you need to know:
Saturday, April 4th, 2020
10:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Poughkeepsie Day School
260 Boardman Rd.
Poughkeepsie, NY 12603
Admission is Free
The festival is made possible by the support of the Friends of the Poughkeepsie Public Library District.
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2019 in Music: Year of the Full-Album Project, My Top 20 & Honorable Mentions
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Okay, I’m going to move beyond the fact that most of my usual readers couldn’t care less about this, and just write what I want anyway.
It’s my blog after all.
It occurs, typing this, that speaks to all my writing. If I worried too much about people reading it, or “liking” it, I wouldn’t have the heart to continue. You have to move forward regardless of approval. Like life, I guess.
Back to music: I listened to a lot this year. Always have, but this was the first year I kept track. My sons, Nick (26) and Gavin (20), came up with a “full album” project; I tagged along for the ride. We each approached it somewhat differently, but the basic agreement was to listen to at least a full album a day. I got to 778 full albums, in addition to all the other random-scattered listening I do.
It was Nick’s idea, motivated by the realization that the album is an underappreciated art form. For most listeners, and quite a few musicians it seems, music has increasingly become a singles and playlist experience. Nick’s rule was to never repeat artists, to listen to 365 albums by 365 different artists, because he wanted to expand his palette. I didn’t limit myself in that way. (Yes, I see now that I listened to 43 different Bob Dylan albums this year — hey, I was trying 
something — along with every album by Kanye West, including “Watch the Throne” and “Kids See Ghosts.” Overall, I’d say that my discovery of the year was Bill Callahan/Smog: I went deep there.)
I listened to 125 new albums that came out in 2019. I liked most of them, and loved a lot. There’s so much outstanding new music that comes out every single week. My success rate was high because if I didn’t like an album, I usually either 1) knew to stay away in the first place; or 2) didn’t bother to sit through to the bitter end. So when I listened all the way, it was because I enjoyed it or felt compelled to finish for some reason.
Personally, I enjoy reading lists like this. They help me find music I missed, or prod me to listen again, more closely, to albums I may have dismissed too quickly. I’ll paraphrase something Jeff Tweedy once 
said. When he doesn’t like an album — especially one that others might be enjoying — he doesn’t begin with, “This music sucks!” Instead, he asks of himself, “What am I missing here? What am I not hearing?”
That is, the problem might not be with “it,” but with the attitude of the listener. For me, that’s an interesting and a humbling notion.
ONE LAST THING ABOUT MY LISTENING HABITS/TASTES: Because I’ve now got this large file on my desktop, I noted the artists I listened to most widely (by the measure of at least 3 different full albums). Those included in 2019: Aimee Mann, Arcade Fire, Avishai Cohen, Beach House, The Beatles, Beth Orton, Big Star, Big Thief, Bill Callahan, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, The Byrds, Cass McCombs, Charles Mingus, The Clash, Courtney Barnett, David Bowie, Death Cab for Cutie, Don Cherry, Drive-By Truckers, Elliott Smith, Elvis Costello, Elvis Presley, Florist, Frank Zappa, Genesis, Gillian Welch, Grateful Dead, Hayes Carl, Hot Tuna, James Blake, Jason Isbell, Jeff Tweedy, Joe Henry, Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, John Prine, Joni Mitchell, Kanye West, The Kinks, Laura Cannell, Laura Marling, Leonard Cohen, Lou 
Reed, Magnolia Electric Company, Miles Davis, Mitski, Mountain Goats, Neil Young, Nick Cave, Nick Drake, Nick Lowe, Paul Simon, Pavement, Penguin Cafe, Radiohead, R.E.M., Rolling Stones, Ryan Adams, Sam Amidon, Silver Jews, Smog, Steely Dan, Stevie Wonder, Sufjan Stevens, Sun Kil Moon, Teenage Fanclub, Thelonious Monk, Tom Petty, Tom Waits, War on Drugs, Waylon Jennings, The Who, Wilco, William Tyler, Van Morrison, and Yo La Tengo. Safe to say that I love them all, and more.
TOP 20
Purple Mountains: s/t
Weyes Blood: Titanic Rising
Big Thief: U.F.O.F
Lana Del Ray: Norman fucking Rockwell
Billie Eilish: When We All Fall Asleep
Aldous Harding: Designer
Julia Jacklin: Crushing
Faye Webster: Atlanta Millionaires Club
Michael Kiwanuka: Kiwanuka
Sharon Van Etten: Remind Me Tomorrow
Brittany Howard: Jaime
(Sandy) Alex G: House of Sugar
Solange: When I Get Home @ 2019
Joe Henry: The Gospel According to Water
Better Oblivion Community Center: s/t
Sudan Archives: Athena
Tinariwen: Amadjar
Lankum: The Livelong Day
Nick Cave: Ghosteen
Rhiannon Giddens: there is no Other
HONORABLE MENTIONS (35)
World
Brighe Chaimbeul: The Reeling
Ye Vagabonds: The Hare’s Lament
The Gloaming: The Gloaming 3
Mdou Moctar: Ilana
Hip-Hop/Rap
GoldLink: Diaspora
Summer Walker: Over It
YBN Cordae: The Lost Boy
Freddie Gibbs, Madlib: Bandana
Jamila Woods: Legacy! Legacy!
Tyler, the Creator: Igor
Little Simz: GREY Area @ 2019
Jazz/Experimental
Avishai Cohen: Playing the Room
Penguin Café: Handfuls of Night
Jamie Branch: Fly or DIE II
The Comet Is Coming: Trust in the Lifeforce
Caleb Burhans: Past Lives
Nivhek: After its own death … spiral
1000 gecs: s/t
Indie/Folk
Kacy & Clayton: Carrying On
Bill Callahan: Shephard in the Sheepskin Vest
Jake Xerxes Fussell: Out of Sight
Florist: Just Emily
William Tyler: Goes West
Jessica Pratt: Quiet Signs
Indie/Rock/Pop
Mannequin Pussy: Patience
Jay Som: Anak Ko
Fontaines D.C.: Dogrel
A.A. Bondy: Enderness.
Helado Negro: This Is How You Smile
James Blake: Assume Form
Big Thief: Two Hands
Wilco: Ode to Joy
Country/ Americana/Songwriter
Tyler Childers: Country Squire
Caroline Spence: Mint Condition
Hayes Carl: What It Is
CONCLUSION: Forget what I like or dislike, whether I have “good taste” or bad. The interesting thing for me was keeping track. So, come 2020, for the first time I’m going to do it with BOOKS. Yeah, it scares me a little.
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