Mark Stratton's Blog: AGGASPLETCH, page 12

102 Today

It’s a bittersweet birthday for my Grandma Stratton today. She turns 102, but is not doing well at all. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers as she makes this transition in life. It’s been a good one for her…and I am certainly going to miss her.

Reading in 2012

I don’t know if you were aware of this or not, but I like to use GoodReads to track what I read, and to kinda/sorta see what others are reading as well.

Every year they have a “Reading Challenge” where you declare how many books you’re going to read over the coming year. I’ve done this for 2011, and 2012. Made my goal and then some both times. According to my little tracker, I read 75 books last year (My goal was 40). Sounds impressive, huh? Well, it was to me. Until I actually looked the list...

The Grades Are In. I Passed!

Long time (and suffering) readers of mine may recall that I enrolled in a Poetry Workshop class a year or so ago. I was all excited at the time and promised many updates. This I did not do. It had more to do with the fact that I wasn’t sure how to convey the class without breaking confidences or making people uncomfortable. So, I didn’t.

I also didn’t complete my coursework on time. Depression reared its ugly and merciless head and I was hard-pressed to revise poems I’d struggled to write for...

Intensity can be Delusional

I’ve done the Reverb thing in years past but elected not to participate this year as it would be either too painful or too damn personal for public consumption. That hasn’t stopped me from reading a few of the entries other writers have shared this year, and it hasn’t stopped my wheels from clanking.

Today’s prompt/question is a stellar example of why I am not joining in the fun this year: What made you dance in 2012? What made you weep? Or, what were your most intense emotions? (My paraphrase...

Advent Calendar – Day 6

Yesterday I shared a link and a thought on letters to Santa. Today, you get to read my mail.

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Dear Santa,

How do you feel about the various portrayals in popular culture? I would think being portrayed as a rich uncle from out of town would be tiresome after awhile. I know from my mother’s explanation of what you really are that this isn’t the total picture.

Santa, Mother explained you as an ideal. A goal to strive for, a role model. Not exactly in the whole hanging with the elves and reinde...

Advent Calendar – Day 5

So..um….yeah, I didn’t do this yesterday. Oops?

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I was about 6 years old, maybe 7. I’m not really sure about that, but I do remember getting the only telegram I’ve ever received in my life. It was from Santa Claus. Spiffy paper, teletype letters on strips of white tape glued to the paper, general message of be good, I’m watching, blah, blah, blah. I thought it was so cool at t the time. I wish I’d kept it.

I remember writing a couple of letters to Santa, and who can forget the mailroom scene i...

Advent Calendar – Day 3

There are certain things done every year at their appointed times. Then, there are things or activities that are best indulged in during certain, socially acceptable times, or one does tend to attract a raised eyebrow or even whispers. Holiday movies are a part of the latter category.

I have to admit I have a real soft spot for the stupidest of holiday movies. Really, it’s almost embarrassing how much I enjoy the silliness of “A Carol Christmas” with Tori Spelling as the Scrooge character. She...

Advent Calendar – Day 2

Click here to view the embedded video.

I remember listening to this particular version of “Sleigh Ride” with my dad in the car around Christmas time most every year. It’s also from one of the greatest Christmas albums of all time, A Christmas Gift for You from Philles Records.

Advent Countdown – Day 1

I am a creature of habit. I like to think of myself as all spontaneous and ready to go do this, that or the other thing at the drop of a hat but as I get older, I find that I am thinking the same thoughts at the same time of year and do the same things in a certain order. There is frustration and comfort both in this.

Click here to view the embedded video.

There is something to be said for routine, for habits and traditions. One of my personal traditions is to listen to Phil Driscoll’s “Heaven...

Coltrane – A Love Supreme/Dear John, Dear Coltrane

I enjoy jazz quite a lot, but make no claims to great knowledge about it. I have a nice collection, some artists whose work I enjoy quite a lot and Coltrane is one of them. I appreciate more his earlier work than his later more dissonant work or his “sheets of sound” recordings. I was talking with Randall J Weiss about this at lunch on Saturday and this morning I found a link to Dear John, Dear Coltrane by Michael S. Harperin my twitter feed this morning, that he had sent along. I shall spen...