Acacia Sears CD, Der Struwwelpeter

Exactly one year ago, I made the announcement on Blatherings that we were moving out of our condo into a house. Egads, that seems like a lifetime ago. This was my old home office.

Five days until Christmas! I only have a few more presents to get. I'm not crazy about the chaos and crowds but whenever I start to feel whiny and resentful, I remind myself of my Scrooge moment last year. I still see the same flautist around subway stations from time to time and always try to give him money.



I've been enjoying the new CD by Acacia Sears; I also ordered her "(tiny and insignificant)" mini-CD-R but haven't been able to listen to it yet because I still need the proper insert for my laptop. I first met Cacie years ago at some filk convention whose name I can't recall. I think she was about 16 years old and I was blown away by her voice even back then.

You can find out more about Acacia on her Web site including some sample soundclips from the CD. I especially like George's Tongue (lyrics by Neil Gaiman).

Thanks to Helen and Dan for my Christmas present (see photo below), which arrived in yesterday's post. To Helen: I've been trying to e-mail you, but the mail keeps bouncing back.

Helen knows I've been studying German. :-) I recall her showing us Der Struwwelpeter at the cottage years ago...have any of out there heard of this German children's story? Apparently the image on the cover helped inspire Tim Burton to create Edward Scissorhands. This Web site has some of the book online:

"Der Struwwelpeter is a book in the fine tradition of 'be good or die' german fairy tales and stories. As a child, I was exposed to the charming imagery and sledgehammer morals of this book and I fear I may never remove the haunting pictures from my subconscious. However, the nightmares that followed were a very effective behavior training mechanism. As an extra burden of guilt, I am told my grandfather used to print these books to keep my family fed during the war. I am now inflicting this horror upon the rest of the world by scanning it and translating the german text into english."

The Web site writer admits his German is not all that good; I'd be interested in hearing from you native German speakers already familiar with the story about the accuracy of his translation.

Anyway, do check out The Sad Story of Paulina Pyro, Konrad and his Thumbs, and Soup Boy Kaspar.

Lovely, eh?

Also feel free to have a sneak peek at my new Will Write For Chocolate strip, which officially launches in January. This section of the Offpanel Productions site is still being tweaked, so please do let me know if you notice anything odd. I encourage you to leave a test comment. :-) Regular weekly updates will start in the new year.

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