Linda C. McCabe's Blog, page 2

Rose Bowl Memories and Lessons Learned

 Twenty-six years between appearances, and twenty-three years of my personal waiting to attend a game

 I attended the Rose Bowl this year for the first time in my life. Growing up in the state of Michigan, I remember watching the televised Rose Parades every year and the annual football game. It seemed at the time that the only schools from the Big Ten conference that played in that game were the University of Michigan and Ohio State University.

My mother was a graduate of Michigan State University (MSU), as well as many of my aunts, uncles and cousins. I grew up being surrounded by MSU partisans and later, that is where I went to college. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, MSU's football program wasn't the greatest. I attended the games while in school, but we lost more than we won.

This changed after I graduated when they hired a new coach and in 1988, MSU went to the Rose Bowl and beat the University of Southern California.

I couldn't attend that game due to timing and finances, but I did cheer on my team as I watched the televised broadcast.

In 1991, my husband and I moved to California. We promised each other that if Michigan State ever made it to the Rose Bowl while we lived in California that we would go to the game. It has been an annual joke when I told my bosses that I would be willing to work the New Year's Day holiday, *unless* Michigan State was in the Rose Bowl. Usually by October I told them that we had been mathematically eliminated from contention and I could work that holiday. So my husband and I have waited twenty-three years since moving to California for MSU to be in the Rose Bowl (but it has been 26 years between appearances.)

Getting Tickets to the game

The last few years have been nail biters as to determining if MSU was going to go to the Rose Bowl. About three years ago when I thought there was a good chance MSU was going to go, I started investigating how we would actually get tickets. I called a friend who went to the game back in 1988. Josh had a friend who was a season ticket holder and who allowed him to purchase the Rose Bowl tickets reserved for him. I didn't think that it was likely I could score tickets that way, so I went online and discovered the Team Tix option.

Team Tix is a money making scheme, similar to buying stock options. You don't actually purchase the tickets, but reserve the opportunity to buy tickets at face value should your team attend the Rose Bowl.

Here is how it works:

In September, you go to the Tournament of Roses website and follow links to the Team Tix site. The earlier you start the process, the cheaper it is and the greater number of tickets available together. These are non-refundable reservations and you are obligated to buy the tickets if your team wins, and please note that the fee paid to reserve tickets does not apply to the cost of the tickets themselves.

The longer in the season you wait, the higher the price per reservation and the fewer reservations are left. Once all the reservations for a specific team are sold, then there is the ability to trade them on an online market where people will place bids for these reservations and the current holders will determine which bids they want to accept.

So we paid money for reservations in 2011 and 2012, but didn't get any tickets from the process. We just gave money to an agency for the right to dream that our team would go to the Rose Bowl. For them, it is like printing money. They get money from alumni from dozens of schools who get nothing for their reservations. It is kind of like playing the lottery where you know going in that you might not win and you won't get your money back if you lose.

This year, it worked for us. We reserved four tickets at $25 a reservation and when Michigan State won the Big Ten Championship playoff game against Ohio State University, we received an email the next day telling us how to obtain our tickets at the face value of $150 each.

That experience was a lot better than a friend of mine who decided two weeks before the Big Ten Championship game to try and get tickets for the Rose Bowl. The Team Tix at that point was red-hot for MSU fans and her online bid didn't get accepted, like she thought it did. Instead, she had to wait until the tickets went on sale to the general public on a Tuesday morning. Ticketmaster was sold out of their allotment in minutes. My friend Sue wound up paying a different website $520 per ticket for two seats near the Stanford end zone.

It was crazy, but at least she bought tickets at that point in time. Later, the secondary market had tickets over a thousand dollars each.

That's what happens when it is twenty-six years between Rose Bowl appearances, you get a lot of pent up desire by alumni to attend. MSU did have a certain number of tickets reserved for their alumni, but 24,000 was not close to meeting the demand. The alumni tour packages sold out instantly and some creative Spartan fans looked to the Stanford allotment of tickets and found a loophole.

Since Stanford had gone the previous year and won at the Rose Bowl, there was not the same level of hunger by their alumni to attend the Rose Bowl. Stanford offered the ability to purchase four Rose Bowl tickets at face value to those who put a $100 deposit down on 2014 season tickets. It was discovered that MSU fans were swallowing up these tickets with no intention of purchasing season tickets at Stanford.  Once it was discovered, this opportunity was taken down off the Stanford website. That is why there were many Spartan fans in the Stanford sections.

Getting to Southern California:

Since we live in California, we didn't have the travel headaches that Michiganders did. We simply chose which day we wanted to start driving down and arrange for hotel accommodations. We ran into a few Spartan fans who said they were unable to get a flight into LA, and instead flew into Las Vegas and got a rental car to make it the rest of the way.

That's just crazy, but it does show the determination of Spartan fans to be where they needed to be to cheer on their team.

Getting hotel rooms in the area was a difficult and expensive task. We decided to avoid the Pasadena area entirely and instead looked to Anaheim the home of Disneyland. We went to the theme parks on December 31st and January 2nd and saw many MSU fans wearing Spartan green. After making the decision to watch fireworks on New Year's Eve at midnight meant that getting to Pasadena early in the morning to be at the parade would be pushing our luck and energy. If we tried doing everything, we would be exhausted by the time the game started and *the game* is the reason we were down there in the first place. So we decided against going to the parade and instead just programmed it to be recorded on our DVR before we left home.

Parking

There is limited parking at the Rose Bowl Stadium. It is first come, first served with the lots open at Oh Dark Thirty in the morning. I am not joking, the parking lot opens at 4 am. Imagine celebrating New Year's Eve at midnight and then getting ready to wait in line for a parking lot to open four hours later. YIKES.

The Rose Bowl Stadium does allow for tailgating before games, but there are specific rules about that and a long list of prohibited items.

There is also another parking lot that is about a half an hour's walk away - the Parson's Lot. They have passes you can purchase in advance and that is the option my husband chose. However, we did not get the pass in the mail when it was promised. By the time we realized it hadn't come, and we had the postal Christmas holiday to contend with, it was very late in the calendar year. My husband sent an email and had to wait for a few business days for a reply. Thankfully there was enough time for the company to reply and have passes waiting for us at "will call" at a certain entrance.


Getting to the parking lot

We would have been better off using a paper map. Instead we trusted modern technology and GPS. BIG MISTAKE. The GPS recognized that there were barricaded streets due to the parade route, but it still tried to direct us through streets we could not traverse. We were coming from Anaheim and made really good time on the LA freeways because it was a holiday and there was no traffic to speak of, but we should have thought long and hard about the parade route and tried to go west and north of the parking lot and then get closer. Instead we followed the GPS and approached it from the south and east. Once we actually got around the parade route and were on the street we needed to be, the traffic was at a snail's pace. We would watch the traffic lights go through two or three cycles where we would advance maybe a single car's length.

It was painful.

Once we got to the parking lot, they did have our parking pass waiting for us. :whew:


There is no tailgating allowed at this parking lot, so we had to try and meet up with our friends at the stadium.



It was a sea of green and white that stretched out into a really long line waiting to board the shuttle buses. There were some Stanford fans wearing red, but they seemed outnumbered by the green wearing Spartans.

In retrospect, it would have been faster for us to walk to the stadium. Instead, we waited patiently in line.

I had made grand plans to meet up with friends and family before the game. I had read and re-read the guidelines for what was allowed for tailgating. Except, I didn't quite understand some of the finer details so my grand plans didn't work out too well.

I did meet up with my Uncle Jim, but that was after several cell phone calls and text messages trying to explain exactly where I was standing using land marks. It wasn't easy, but here we are mugging for the camera.

  
Lessons learned from my attempt at tail gating fiasco: unless I am willing to brave the morning rush of cars at 4 am to get a prime parking spot at the Rose Bowl Stadium's parking lot, forget about trying to bring food or drink to tail gate. They have food and drink for sale in a specified area and will not allow you to bring in anything from the outside.

Plus, I should have kept my cell phone in my pocket on vibrate. I certainly could not hear it ring reliably in my purse with the ambient noise of thousands of excited football fans.

My husband had brought his nice camera with him. Too bad we didn't notice a mention in the fine print of a prohibition for telephoto lenses. He had to surrender his camera during the game and had only a specified short period of time to pick it up after the game concluded. To make sure he didn't lose out on getting his camera back, he left the game with about three minutes left. So he missed the greatest play of the game which guaranteed Michigan State's victory.

(We did watch it on our DVR'd recording after we returned home.)

Here is a view from the Spartan end zone:


I also ran into my cousin Joann in a tunnel before the game started and had a chance for a quick hug and picture.


My thoughts about the game:

It was a close, hard fought game. I wasn't too worried when Stanford at the beginning. I knew there was a lot of time left in the game and we would get our chance.

I was surprised that the MSU Fight Song had a few minor changes done to it since I had last attended a football game. There's a part of the song which goes,

"See their team is weakening
We're going to win this game
FIGHT, FIGHT, RAH TEAM FIGHT
Victory for MSU!"

 The way the fans in the stands near us were singing was a little more "in your face" style.

"See their team is WEEEEEAK"

It is fun to sing, but kinda mean.

Other observations:

I enjoyed watching the Spartan Marching Band as always. They are a great tradition and I am proud to have them represent my school.

I thought the Stanford Band was weird.



Their dress is not uniform, their instruments are not always real instruments, (one woman was using a STOP sign as a percussion instrument), they don't really march in formation or make good formations one can understand, their sound is passable but not great. Maybe if it was my school I would learn to love it and feel their irreverent ways were really cool. Being from a different background and competing school, I was taken aback by my surprise in their attire and casual approach to music.

I also think the Stanford mascot is weird. They have a dancing tree that looks like it is covered in carpet remnants. Strange.

One more thing that I find uncomfortable about Stanford is referring to the team as "the Cardinal." Singular. It is not a title of a religious leader nor of a bird, but instead it is a color.

I heard sentences that had strange syntax in them using the singular "cardinal" in a manner meant for plural usage. It was awkward and as someone obsessed with language, it bugs me.

A tree as the mascot, but the team is referred to by a singular color. Eh?

Michigan State University's mascot is Sparty, but the school and the fans are referred to as Spartans, and our colors are green and white. It doesn't seem difficult to understand or say in the singular or plural usage.

/end rant about my befuddlement about the Stanford mascot/naming scheme

Here is a scene after the victory by Michigan State University:


 My group of happy Spartan fans found each other after the game was over in the parking lot. We decided to follow the large crowd walking back to the parking lot rather than wait for the incredibly long queue to take shuttle buses back. That was one of our best decisions of the day.


All in all, it was a great time and one that I am glad we did. I will always have the memories of being at the 100th Rose Bowl and cheering on my alma mater to victory.

My travels to Ferrara, Italy - Part I

Outside the cathedral in Ferrara, Italy



In honor of Ludovico Ariosto's 539th birthday on September 8, 2013, I felt I should start blogging about my recent trip to the city of Ferrara, Italy. I visited there in June of this year.



I wanted to see as many sites associated with Ariosto, Matteo Maria Boiardo and their patrons - the noble house of d'Este - as was possible for the limited time I had available.



I had spent countless hours planning the sites to see, but alas, things do not always work out the way you hope.



I discovered there were apartments for rent in a building once owned by Ariosto. I reserved a room for three nights.  My plan was to arrive in Ferrara after a day of sightseeing in Firenze, spend the next day exploring Ferrara, and the following day we would have a day trip to Ravenna.



I had wanted to sleep in a home that once belonged to Ariosto and hope I would become inspired by the experience.




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  <br />
I was looking forward to that experience, but then Fate upended my plans.<br />
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Ferrara suffered from a large <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/world..." target="_blank">earthquake in 2012,</a> and as luck would have it - the historical building I had reservations for wound up having maintenance scheduled to be performed during the time we were supposed to stay there.<br />
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These things happen. At least I learned about the conflict with adequate advance notice to secure a different place for us to stay. I am also grateful it was not a case of being At The Wrong Place At the Wrong Time and have something Truly Bad Happen, like the devastating earthquake that necessitated the seismic retrofitting. Instead, it was simply a disappointment and inconvenience for my family.<br />
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Here is an example of damage from the earthquake and the subsequent tremors has had in Ferrara. The picture is of a ceiling fresco in the Castello Estense.<br />
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I was surprised the first time I noticed tape on the ceiling, but then quickly understood why it was there. We asked a docent about the tape and our suspicions were confirmed as to its purpose. It is to prevent further cracking until restoration can be performed.<br />
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There was a lot of tape used throughout the castle on artwork. It serves as a sober reminder of how historical items are vulnerable to the power of Nature. They are not just pieces of art created centuries ago, but are precious items that need to be preserved for future generations.<br />
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We arrived in Ferrara on a Wednesday evening, but several hours later than we expected. Our connecting train in Bologna was late. Then again, most trains were late that day. One woman on the platform informed us that earlier in the day someone had thrown themselves upon a set of train tracks and it delayed all the trains in the region for at least an hour.<br />
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Once at the Ferrara train station, we had a taxi bring us to our B&B (bed and breakfast). It would have been a half hour walk, and dragging our luggage that far after being exhausted, and really hungry was not worth saving a few euros. Taking a taxi was a necessity and not a luxury at that point in time. <br />
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By the time we got to our room we were tired, our feet were sore from our sightseeing in Firenze and we were really hungry. The weather in Italy had been HOT for days and it added to our desire to find dinner, and go to sleep early in our air conditioned rooms.<br />
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My husband and son at that point in time were not all that interested in noticing the charms of Ferrara, but I came became revived once we left our baggage behind and started exploring the city. One aspect that I love about Ferrara is that it is a bicycle friendly city. There are cars and some Vespas, but bicycles seem to be the biggest method of transportation used by the people. They are not fine racing bikes, but instead generally old beat up bicycles with baskets on their front handle bars. They are utilitarian and get their riders from place to place over the cobblestone roads.<br />
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Rome has a frenetic energy about it which led me to the conclusion that traffic there is a blood sport. Crossing a busy street in Rome you must be wary. That sense of self-preservation extends to walking in the side streets as the drivers of cars and Vespas zoom past you with little regard to your safety. There were several occasions when I found myself hugging the walls in the back streets to avoid being hit by cars, scooters or motorcycles. Ferrara was a pleasant change of pace for me and I began to relax and appreciate the atmosphere of this historic city.  <br />
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We walked past the Piazza Ariostea and I was enchanted by the sight of a statue of Ariosto and the moon.<br />
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Here is a close up of the inscription on the statue.<br />
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That night we ate at a local pizza joint. It was "okay, nothing special." At least we were served quickly and it was not expensive. Afterward, we walked back to our B&B and slept soundly.<br />
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The next day was my day to explore Ferrara. My teenaged son decided that he just wanted to relax, sleep in and not go exploring. That meant I was free to roam around the city.<br />
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My husband and I started the morning by walking down the Corso Porta Mare and passing the Piazza Ariostea again.<br />
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I enjoyed walking in the park and gathering spot for locals that was built dedicated in honor of my favorite poet. We continued on the Corso Porta Mare until we came to Corso Ercole I d'Este, named after the patron for both Boiardo and Ariosto.<br />
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On that street is the famous building Palazzo dei Diamante. There are thousands of diamond shaped marble bricks covering the outside of this building. The shadows cast by the diamonds change during the day due to angle of the sunlight making the building a large and complex sun dial. It is a spectacular sight, even if it seems a bit disorienting at first.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An up-close image of the Palazzo dei Diamante and the Renaissance street Corso Ercole I d'Este.</td></tr>
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My husband and I walked down the Corso Ercole I d'Este until we came to the heart of the Renaissance city. I had to make a quick stop to see a Piazza named for another poet who also worked for the noble house of d'Este.<br />
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Alas, this piazza was nothing more than a parking lot.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Piazza Torquato Tasso</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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We soon made it to one of the big destinations for me: seeing the castle where the Estes family lived.<br />
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It is an impressive sight.<br />
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I shall continue my travelogue about Ferrara in another post, lest this
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New landmark for my blog and photos of a real landmark in Paris

This humble blog has now surpassed 100,000 hits. Huzzah!



To celebrate this landmark I would like share a real landmark of France. There is an old saying that "all roads lead to Rome." In France, all distances are measured from a marker in front of <!--
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And here is a close up of the marker itself.</div>
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Thank you for visiting my blog and I hope you will return again to enjoy my musings and pictures from my travels. </div>
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<a href="http://lcmccabe.blogspot.com/2013/07/..." target="_blank">http://lcmccabe.blogspot.com/2013/07/... </a></div>
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Magic words in France and Italy

Traveling can be an enriching experience, not only from seeing new sights but also by learning new customs. My language skills in French and Italian are limited. I have taken French lessons at my local Alliance de










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Française, but I realize that my grammar is still rustic and rudimentary.<div class="MsoNormal">
I do my best to use as many French words as I know, and with the best pronunciation as I can muster, knowing that if I am patient enough I will manage. I learned early on that the French people are formal and that you must start every interaction with "bon jour." If you do not begin with that nicety, you are considered rude.</div>
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I can respect wanting a formal greeting. It is a cultural difference and this may be a source of some friction Americans have when they visit France if they do not recognize the cultural expectations of the host country. Americans are much more casual and we will chat with anyone, and even think about needing to start a conversation with a greeting of "good day."</div>
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Many times we will be at a store, say a coffee shop, where we are staring up at the menu. Then, when we are greeted and asked for our order, we are more likely to answer with the drinks we want than to start with "Good day, I would like to have..."</div>
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During my first trip to France in 2007, I did my best to use bon jour with every interaction I had with a French person. It was when we were in the Midi-Pyrenees region and at farmer's markets that I discovered a different phrase, that of









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bonne journée. (It is pronouced <a href="http://www.forvo.com/word/bonne_journ..." target="_blank">bun jour-nay)</a>.<div class="MsoNormal">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A farmer's market in Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val.</td></tr>
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At first I thought they were wishing me to have a good journey. I wondered how obvious it was that I was on vacation. Later, much later, I realized the significance of bonne journée. </div>
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It is the feminine version of bon jour and the polite way of ending a conversation by wishing someone a good rest of their day.</div>
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Get it? Start with the masculine bon jour and end with the feminine bonne journée. It is like book ends to a conversation.</div>
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In 2011, when I returned to France I used bonne journée instead of au revoir to say good-bye. The reaction was startling. I found that in the villages, my wishing bonne journée was treated as if I paid them a high compliment. On more than one occasion, the person's voice went up an entire octave and they trilled out "Aussi!  Bonne journée!" (You too! Have a Good Day!)</div>
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Seriously. Americans have become so jaded and cynical that wishing someone a good day or "have a good one" is fodder for stand up comedians. Yet, that simple nicety will endear yourself in France with the locals.</div>
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My Italian is more sparse than my French. It consists of a few all purpose words such as buongiorno, buena sera, grazie, ciao and prego.</div>
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Having learned my lesson in France, I did my best to start any conversations with Italians with buongiorno or buena sera. </div>
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The word that surprised me as to its usage is "prego." I feel it is the Swiss Army knife of words in Italian.</div>
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It is used to say please, thank you, and you're welcome. I have had waiters come to my table with their pad in hand and simply say "prego." It might translate as please, but it has <i>so</i> many more uses.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tasso Ristorante Pizzeria in Sorrento, Italy</td></tr>
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If you are traveling in Italy, know that prego is used far more often than per favore.</div>
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During our trip this summer we visited our exchange student and his family. While he was living with us in California, I saw him use his cell phone for reading texts, emails, etc., but do not remember seeing him talk into the phone. In Italy, I saw him answer the phone a few times and was surprised at his greeting.</div>
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"Pronto!"</div>
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Not buongiorno or salve, but pronto.</div>
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It reminds me of the old greeting, "go ahead, it's your dime."</div>
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The other day when I had a phone call from an unknown user, I decided to use "pronto" as my greeting. The caller was flummoxed and hung up on me. Just as well, I think it was a telemarketer and I am on the "do not call" list.</div>
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Does anyone have any other "magic" words they learned in a foreign country they would like to add? </div>
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<a href="http://lcmccabe.blogspot.com/2013/07/..." target="_blank"><br /></a></div>
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<a href="http://lcmccabe.blogspot.com/2013/07/..." target="_blank"> http://lcmccabe.blogspot.com/2013/07/...
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Writing, adaptations and public speaking

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This essay was inspired by a private correspondence I have been having with another writer. I realized my experience might be helpful to others and so I decided to make this into a blog post.</div>
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Every writer has specific strengths and weaknesses. The
differences are as different as the writers themselves and their own life
experiences. Back when I was in high school I was a member of our forensics
team. In this context, forensics means public speaking and has nothing to do
with autopsies.</div>
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Being involved in competitive public speaking not only
helped me develop self confidence, but it enhanced my own inherent flair for
drama, working within time limits and knowing how to engage an audience. I was
involved with three different categories during my four years of competition.
In my freshman year I was a member of our "multiple." Multiple Interpretation is a
category for a group of speakers (between three to eight) and our selection was
to be between ten and fifteen minutes in length. We were not allowed to have
physical or eye contact with one another. The only props allowed were stools
and scripts.</div>
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The selection we used during my freshman year was a script
from an episode of the old television series "The Twilight Zone." The
story was <a href="http://vimeo.com/63670863" target="_blank">"Monsters are due on Maple Street"</a> and it dealt with space aliens
causing the residents in a small American town to turn on each other.</div>
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Being part of a multiple meant that I was part of a team effort to succeed. It was similar to a mini-play competing onstage against other mini-plays. Everyone involved in that year's
multiple was a first year member of the team and we practiced everyday after
school for months working on our performances and our timing. We made the final round in tournaments a few times and even
placed second in one invitational, but we did not do as well as we had hoped.</div>
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One aspect of being on the forensics team is that our coach
had a large filing cabinet with hundreds of scripts. Some had been used in
previous years and were considered "winning scripts" that were to be
inherited by a new generation of team members. Those proven scripts were
outnumbered by ones purchased from a catalog and had never been read
before being put in a file.</div>
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My sophomore year I was able to change categories and tried
my hand at Humorous Interpretation. That was a solo competitive event where the
speakers would rotate two different comedic scripts that were five to eight and
a half minutes in length. I spent the summer looking for my own selections and
settled on editing an essay from one of Erma Bombeck's books and a short story
from Shirley Jackson. I was okay, but my talents were not really suited for
that category.</div>
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In my junior year, I switched to Serious Interpretation and
found my groove. The major difference between Serious and Humorous, (other than
trying to make the audience cry rather than laugh), is that your selections alternated between poetry and prose. In the beginning of the tournament a drawing
would be held and it was announced which of the two formats would be read in the
first round of competition.</div>
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Because many poems are short, there were some competitors
who read collections of poems to fulfill the time requirements. I found that
approach to be lame. I also found myself getting bored when I heard the same poem
being read by numerous people.<a href="http://classiclit.about.com/library/b..." target="_blank"> "Patterns" by Amy Lowell</a> was one of those overused poems.
One tournament I heard that poem read three times and by two different girls in a single
round of competition. It was popular because it was a single poem that when read fit the time requirements, was written by a woman poet and
most of the competitors in Serious Interpretation were female. I found the poem
boring and mentally tuned out when I heard it announced in the introduction. I
wondered how many of the judges had similar reactions due to its overuse.

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That was another reason why I thought it was better to find my
own selections rather than depend on my coach to recommend something.</div>
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In my junior year I remember one of my competitors had
written his own selection based on a novelization from the movie <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078788/" target="_blank">Apocalypse Now</a>.</i> I had not seen the
movie, but was astounded at his performance, and felt that its difference from
the majority of the scripts helped him stand out as a competitor. Later, when I saw the
movie, it felt as if he were sitting next to me, whispering in my ear. That is
how good his adaptation of the movie was to encapsulate its essence into eight
and a half minutes.</div>
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That inspired me to do something similar for my senior year's selection. I read the
memoir <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11..." target="_blank">Playing for Time by Fania










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</style></a> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Fénelon</span>. She was a Holocaust survivor who had been a member of the all woman
orchestra in Auschwitz. Her life was spared, but she was still in a death camp and was forced to play music up to eighteen hours a day. The reason the musicians were allowed to live is because they played impromptu concerts for SS officers who found it relaxing to listen to orchestral music after a long, hard day of killing
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I remember reading the book with a highlighter in one hand
and marking up several particularly emotional passages. I wrote my script using portions of scenes along with transitions making it fit my time
frame and knew that no one else would be reading the same work.</div>
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That strategy worked for me.</div>
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After the regular invitational
season was over in my senior year, my coach told me something that spurred me on to doing another
adaptation. This time it would be for the Multiple Interpretation category.</div>
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Our team was so large and successful that we had more
members on it than could be entered into  the District Tournament. So there
were many teammates whose season was going to be over unless he did something
creative. He told me that he was thinking of dusting off the "Monsters are due on Maple Street" script and create a second multiple to enter at
Districts. I cringed at the thought. It was an okay script, but I did not want to
see it used again. Especially since judges had seen it only a few years before. I knew my teammates who would be asked to be a part of it might feel as if they were leftovers thrown together in a hastily prepared
soup.</div>
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I went home and grabbed a book of short stories by Stephen
King and banged out a script for what I titled: "A Taste of Horror."
I made sure that it fit the time constraints, typed it up and made a few copies. On the next school day, I told my coach that I had a different idea for a multiple and
handed him the script. I also offered to direct.</div>
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It was far more than he expected from that little chat we
shared on the bus. He also accepted my offer. We only had a few weeks of
rehearsals, but I was proud of the performances by my teammates and I am
certain they felt more confident with that script when they competed against
other teams' multiples who had been together for months.</div>
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Then I entered college and didn't have any time for creative writing. Or drama. Or much else besides watching an occasional movie.</div>
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After I finished college and began working full time, I felt there was something missing in
my life. I realized that I longed for an outlet for drama like I had back in high school and that one of my greatest strengths was recognizing dramatic scenes and
adapting it for presentations to audiences.</div>
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I decided that I would try that on a larger scale, and so I
took one of my favorite novels <a href="http://www.deankoontz.com/whispers/" target="_blank">Whispers by Dean R. Koontz</a> and try to adapt it into a screenplay. I owed college loans and was making entry level wages, so I certainly did not have any ability to buy the movie rights. I did however, decide to adapt the novel as a writing exercise to see if I had the talent
and stamina to do such a project. I went back to using a highlighter and marking up scenes, then
transferring them into my computer in a screenplay format. It took several
months, but I finished the task and it was in the 110-120 page range for a two hour
movie. (The working rule is one page of a movie script equals a minute on the screen.)</div>
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I was proud of my work, but I also knew that as an unknown writer with
no credits I would never get hired to do film adaptations. So in order to have
any chance in pursuing that career path, I first needed to write my own
screenplays.</div>
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I took two screenwriting classes at Wayne State University
and learned a lot. I had to write an original screenplay for the course and I realize now that it was spectacularly depressing and would never have been made into a movie had I pursued trying to get an agent. (It seemed like a good idea
to me at the time, but hindsight can have better visual acuity than foresight.)</div>
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During this time I
purchased several scripts of movies that I enjoyed. I re-watched those movies
with the scripts in hand and analyzed any deviations. I also began watching
movies before and after I read the books and compared the adaptations. I took copious notes including writing down each and every scene in a movie and realized for the first time how many different scenes there are. Sometimes over a hundred in a two hour movie.</div>
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I have been devastated when a beloved story's lifeblood was leeched out when
it was translated to the silver screen by oversimplification of plotlines and
elimination of characters, etc. and I have marveled at how the essence
of a story was enhanced by condensing timelines, characters, etc.</div>
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I learned by this extended critical analyses that novels and movies are two different mediums
and what works in one does not necessarily work in the other. In novels, you
can spend an entire chapter in a character's head learning their inner
thoughts, but on a movie screen that could be accomplished by a close up of a
raised eyebrow or summarized into a single line of voice-over narration. Another thing I learned was the importance of having scenes with conflict and action. A stage or movie script has bare bones descriptions, whereas novels need to describe the setting, the actions/reactions of characters so that the readers "can see" these important details as well as the characters are wearing if it is important to the plot.</div>
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I have been told by many of my readers that they can see my story as a movie. I take that as a compliment that my years of analyzing what works in cinema and translating it into a different format has paid off.</div>
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My adapting the epic poems of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Orlando innamorato</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Orlando
furioso</i> is a result of my years of experience of larger narratives and culling portions then changing its format so that it will work for a different
audience.</div>
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I still love watching movies based on books and analyzing
the differences between the two forms and formats. One movie adaptation that I
am looking forward to watching is the forthcoming, <a href="http://www.percyjacksonthemovie.com/u..." target="_blank"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters</i></a> due out<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> August 7th.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">Please let me know what some of your favorite or cannot stand adaptations from novel to screen are in the comments.  By the way, I did watch the <a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/whisp..." target="_blank">movie adaptation of the novel <i>Whispers</i></a> by Dean R. Koontz.  It was awful!  My script was far better.</span><br />
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">http://lcmccabe.blogspot.com/2013/07/... </span></div>
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Glowing review from Midwest Book Reviews

I am happy to announce a glowing review of my novel by the Midwest Book Review.

In "Quest Of The Warrior Maiden", author Linda McCabe reveals an
undeniable talent for creating a truly memorable and epic fantasy saga
incorporating memorable characters, cliff hanger suspense, magic and
Arthurian romance of the first order. "Quest Of The Warrior Maiden" is
enthusiastically recommended reading and a first rate selection for
community library Science Fiction/Fantasy collections.

http://lcmccabe.blogspot.com/2013/05/...

Reading and signing in Milan, Italy

I am happy to announce that I will be doing a reading and book signing at the English Bookshop in Milan.



Mark your calendars for Monday, June 17th at 6:30 pm, at the corner of Via L. Mascheroni and Via Lodovico Ariosto.





 




I blogged about this wonderful bookstore back in January. I had a wonderful chat with the store's owner, Peter Panton, and I am looking forward to seeing him again.







I was saddened to hear that he made the decision to close his store as of June 30th. It will be a great loss to the literary community in Milan. I am grateful that Mr. Panton agreed to hold an event so soon to his store's closing.



Please help spread the word to your friends and colleagues who live in Northern Italy about the book signing and also of the store's closing. I am certain Peter would like to hear from people about how his store has touched their lives over the last thirty-five years.



Another request I have is to contact him ahead of time for those who will be attending my signing so that he can better prepare the amount of chairs to set out and the number of books to order. The phone number isl: 02 4694468



You can also direct people to my official Facebook page's event listing and have them RSVP there.







Thank you and I hope to have many pictures to share later from this memorable occasion.



Linda










http://lcmccabe.blogspot.com/2013/05/...

2013 Medieval Congress in Kalamazoo

Douglas Gallagher, Professor Richard Scott Nokes, Linda C. McCabe, Alexis E. Fajardo, Brandon Spars



I have a quick announcement before I give my report on the 48th International Congress on Medieval Studies:

I will be doing a reading and book signing at the English Bookshop in Milano, Italy on Monday, June 17th at 6:30 pm. The address is 12 Via Mascheroni (the store opens on Via Ariosto!). Please help spread the word to anyone you know who lives in Northern Italy and might be interested in hearing me speak. Note: I do not speak Italian, so they would have to understand English. If they intend on coming, please let Peter Panton know in advance to help him determine how many chairs to set out and how many books to order. Another way to RSVP would be to send me an email or to join the event on my Facebook page.

 Okay, back to my report:



I recently returned from my first ever Medieval Congress held on the campus of Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan.



To give you an idea of how large this gathering is, here are a few statistics:

There are approximately 3,000 medievalists from all over the world who attend this four day annual event.



This year's program had over 250 pages



There were over 500 sessions with roughly fifty running simultaneously

The deadline to submit proposals for next year's Congress is June 1, 2013

It is so large that it not a conference, it is a congress.  I do not know at what point the classification changes from conference to congress, but perhaps it is with the sheer number of sessions offered.





If you couldn't find something you wanted to attend, you didn't look hard enough.



I grew up in the state of Michigan, but it was only after I moved to California and started reading medievalist blogs that I  learned of this annual event.



It took a fair bit of advance planning over a year ago for me to be a participant in this year's congress. Thankfully, I found some like minded people who all happen to live in Sonoma County to agree to join me in a panel. We all had adapted the legends of Charlemagne in the hopes of introducing these tales to twenty-first century audiences. I also approached a regular attendee of these congresses and asked if he would be our organizer and preside over the session.



Thankfully, Professor Awesome agreed.



Schmoozing with Professor Richard Scott Nokes AKA Professor Awesome.



We were session #402 out of 582 sessions. I think we were lucky in our schedule because it was Saturday morning at 10 am. It could have been an evening session after the wine hour or we might have had an 08:30 am Sunday morning session when people are recovering from the popular Saturday night dance.



I helped Lex Fajardo staff a table in the exhibit hall. We took turns staffing the table during meal times and when one of us wanted to attend a session.





Lex Fajardo and me at the exhibit table




There were several sessions I attended that I want to highlight. The first was "Constructions of Women Warriors in Medieval Eurasia 2.0." In particular, there were two papers that seemed appropriate to my interest in the women warriors in Carolingian legends.



Suzanne Hagedorn of the College of William and Mary gave a paper titled "The Amazon as Temptress: Thalestris in the Alexander Romance Tradition." I had never heard of Queen Thalestris and the story of her approaching Alexander the Great asking to bear his child since she regarded him as being the epitome of male strength, valor and prowess.



It was an interesting paper and it that reminded me of a portion of Orlando furioso that I did not use in my novel.  Canto XX details the history of an Amazonian tribe that warrior Queen Marfisa came across during her travels. Men were scarce in this tribe and those who were allowed to live after venturing near their shores had to pass tests of surviving combat with ten men in a single day and then satisfying ten women later that night.



(While this passage is interesting and humorous, it did not further my plot of Bradamante and Ruggiero's love story and so it was cut by me.)



The second paper from that session that I would like to mention was delivered by Diane Wright of Grand Valley State University. It was titled "Early Iberian Models of the Female Warrior: History, Myth and Legend."



I look forward to corresponding with Diane in the future about those legends.





Schmoozing with Professor Diane Wright





Another session I attended was the French Cultural Traditions in Italy: The Era of Andrea da Barberino. I do not speak or read Italian, so I was unfamiliar with the source material mentioned in the various talks. However, I met scholars interested in the Matters of France and how they were disseminated into Italy and Italian literature. I anticipate having a good correspondance with those contacts.



On Friday I attended a panel regarding E-publishing and Medieval Studies. I wanted to show support for Professor Nokes as well as meet Peter and Sandra from the wildly popular blog Medievalists.net fame.







Peter and Sandra from Medievalists.net and Professor Nokes



Saturday was the day of our session and while I had been hoping for better attendance, those who came were enthusiastic about our topic.



I spoke about the challenges of adapting two epic poems into a novel suitable for 21st century audiences. This included correcting continuity errors with geography, culling extraneous subplots, and balancing the needs of drama vs. historical accuracy.



Lex Fajardo discussed his approach to blending the Beowulf story with heroes of other legends in a graphic novel form. In his Kid Beowulf series, Beowulf and Grendel are twelve year old twin brothers and his stories are "prequels" to the classic legends.





Lex showing images from the prologue of his first graphic novel Kid Beowulf and the Blood-Bound Oath

Doug Gallagher discussed how he and his students adapted Orlando furioso into a stage production using Pink Floyd's album The Dark Side of the Moon  as a soundtrack.





Doug showing a picture of the many visual elements of that incredible stage production.




Brandon Spars then talked about how he taught the Song of Roland to his class. It involved using a tin foil horn as a prop as he read the classic poem and then squirting ketchup on his face to simulate Roland's temples bursting. I am sure none of his students will forget that day's lesson.





Brandon Spars with "blood" on his face





After our session, I participated in a lunchtime roundtable discussion sponsored by Kalamazoo's local independent bookstore Kazoo Books. There were seven (or eight?) authors on the panel discussing writing historical fiction. Most of the authors were also professors, and I believe I was the only one whose genre extended into the fantasy realm. There was a good give and take between the presenters and the audience who asked some thoughtful questions. For the next two days I had people who recognized me from that talk and I was able to extend the conversation with them about our shared love of books.



Here are two other photos of people that I met who helped make this a special time for me.





Here I am with Medievalist blogger and grad student Jennifer Lynn Jordan




I had read Jennifer's Per Omni Saecula blog for many years and grew to appreciate her humor and love of all things medieval. It was even better meeting her in person. She's cool and I hope once her busy academic year is over that we can share a bad medieval movie mash up like she did once with Carl Pyrdum.



I had so many wonderful conversations with medievalists from all over the globe. I was thrilled to meet Italian and French medievalists so that I could talk about the legends of Charlemagne with them since it is a part of their shared heritage.



I also met a man who is descended from the Noble House of d'Este.



Yes, as I read his name badge, I asked James Estes if he was a descendant to the patrons of Boiardo and Ariosto. He admitted that he was.



This led to a spirited exchange with many laughs and this photo.





Schmoozing with James Estes, descendant of the patrons of Ariosto and Boiardo

How many times do I have the opportunity to geek out over the Noble House of d'Este?



More photos from the 48th International Congress on Medieval Studies can be found on my novel's official Facebook page with this open link. (Meaning you don't have to be a member of Facebook to see this album.)



I plan on going back to the Medieval Congress again, but perhaps in 2015 to help spur on the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the original publication of Orlando furioso. Plus by that time, I should have my sequel published.



Please let me know your experiences with the Congress and any other pages with photos, remembrances, etc.



Thank you,



Linda








http://lcmccabe.blogspot.com/2013/05/2013-medieval-congress-in-kalamazoo.html

Closing of Panton's English Bookshop in Milan

I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but another wonderful independent bookstore is closing. This time it is Peter Panton's English Bookshop in Milan, Italy.



I blogged about this store back in January, and had been hoping that I might be able to arrange an event in his store during my upcoming trip to Italy.



Alas, Mr. Panton has announced the closing of his store for good on June 30, 2013.




 


This is his official message on Facebook:



DIGITAL BOOKS HAVE BECOME
A SIGNIFICANT PART OF THE BOOK WORLD

The book industry is going through dramatic changes, influenced by the
transition from print to digital. No part of this industry is being more
influenced with this new trend than bookshops.

From independent bookshops to big chains like B&N, Borders,
Waterstones etc., etc, no one seems to be immune to these changes.
Milan’s first all English bookshop, Panton’s English Bookshop, established in 1978, is no exception!

It’s a well known fact that book lovers are quite happy to spend time
in a bricks-and-mortar bookshop to see what sort of interesting titles
they find and then, off they go home to buy online where prices are
often cheaper.
Much to our regret “Panton’s English Bookshop” will be closing for good on 30th June 2013.
A MASSIVE CLEARANCE SALE WILL BEGIN ON 13th MAY 2013.
Panton's English Bookshop
Via L. Mascheroni, 12
20145 - Milano, Italy
Phone:+39. 024694468
OPEN FROM MONDAY TO SATURDAY FROM :
9:30-13:00 / 15:30-19:30 www.englishbookshop.it



This news saddens me. I hope that come July, Mr. Panton will find more time to enjoy the simple pleasures of life such as eating bruschetta and drinking wine, as well as more time for his writing.









http://lcmccabe.blogspot.com/2013/04/closing-of-pantons-english-bookshop-in.html

Medieval Congress in Kalamazoo

For several years I have seen blog posts by Professor Richard Scott Nokes about all the fun he has had at the annual Medieval Congress held in Kalamazoo, Michigan on the campus of Western Michigan University.



This year I am going to join him.



Correction, this year I am going to be in a panel discussion where Professor Awesome will be our moderator.



This will be Session #402 out of 582 sessions.



"Carolingian Legends: Adapting Medieval and Renaissance Literature for Twenty-First Century Audiences" on Saturday, May 11th, 10-11:30 am in Room 2355 Schneider.



The panel will consist of Alexis E. Fajardo, author of the Kid Beowulf series,











I will be discussing adapting my novel Quest of the Warrior Maiden from the epic poems Orlando innamorato and Orlando furioso,











as well as Douglas Gallagher and Brandon Spars of Sonoma Academy who produced an incredible musical adaptation of Orlando furioso set to the soundtrack of Pink Floyd's "The Dark Side of the Moon."






 







It should be a fun round table discussion. We hope to inspire medieval literature professors in their preparations to have a grand celebration of the five hundredth anniversary of the publication of Orlando furioso in 2016.






I would enjoy meeting up with other medievalist bloggers at the Congress. Please drop me a line here or attend my session. Lex and I will also be vendors, so you can try to find us there as well.








If anyone has any suggestions about these Congresses and what to expect, I would enjoy hearing about it. I have attended other conferences, but never one with so many sessions and an expected three thousand attendees.




Help this newbie out if you can!