Though the current project started as a series of posts charting my grief journey after the death of my mother, I am no longer actively grieving. Now, the blog charts a conversation in living, mainly whatever I want it to be. This is an activity that goes well with the theme of this blog (updated 2018). The Sense of Doubt blog is dedicated to my motto: EMBRACE UNCERTAINTY. I promote questioning everything because just when I think I know something is concrete, I find out that it’s not.
Hey, Mom! The Explanation.
Here's the permanent dedicated link to my first Hey, Mom! post and the explanation of the feature it contains.
Marvel comics smartly redefined Ms. Marvel as a young Muslim woman living in New Jersey and created one of the sweetest, most sensitive, most real portrayals of young girl hood in comics, EVER.
I have been amazed with this comic since its debut.
You can look at the link, but I think I want to just reprint what I wrote.
Ms. Marvel #003
When I first saw the ads for the new Ms. Marvel book, I was excited. I loved the idea of a Muslim-American comic character. I wrote about this news in my T-shirt blog in T-shirt #235 (reprinted here). I LOVED the first cover image. But I was not impressed with the first issue. I was slightly more impressed with issue #2. And now, with issue #3, I am definitely a fan.
I enjoyed Adrian Alphona's work on Runaways, one of my very favourite comics of recent years. Alphona spices his art with flavors of old style newspaper strips, a loose, sketchy style that gives the comic an endearing yet smart quality.
The story telling by G. Willow Wilson is beautiful. Kamala, the main character, is a very real girl, trying to understand her new powers and how to both do good work with them and how to be a good daughter and a good Muslim. The story takes us inside a New Jersey Mosque. We also see Kamala in school as her powers flare up unexpectedly.The dialogue is a crisp and realistic, especially the scenes with her family that are peppered with ethnic-specific terms of endearment.
Since I am behind schedule in writing, I just read issue five, and this comic just keeps getting better and better. I hope it survives an early cut and is not canceled any time soon.
First up is the new "Ms. Marvel." The Marvel Comics Company must renew trademarks, and with the previous Ms. Marvel (who has been known by many names) taking the mantle of Captain Marvel (a smart move given her history), it's time for a new Ms. Marvel. Nerd magnet Stephen Colbert satirized a reaction in a link farther below, shared by Charles Skaggs.
FROM WORD OF THE NERD ONLINE (see link):
Ms. Marvel will center on 16-year-old Kamala Khan, a Muslim-American teenager living in Jersey City, New Jersey. Like any teenager, all of her opportunities are in front her and she is full of potential, but her parents’ high expectations come with tons of pressure and has led Kamala to carve out a future that she has little interest in.
“At her core, Kamala is just a 16-year-old girl, exploring the many facets of her identity when she is suddenly bestowed with super-human powers that send her on the adventure of a lifetime,” says Marvel Comics Editor In Chief Axel Alonso.
The series, and its central character, are brought to life by an all-star creative team, led by acclaimed novelist and multi-Eisner nominee, G. Willow Wilson (Air, Mystic, Alif The Unseen). Her writings about modern religion have appeared in such outlets as New York Times’ Magazine and The Atlantic. Critically-acclaimed artist Adrian Alphona (Runaways, Uncanny X-Force) brings his vivid artistry to the project capturing the vibrantly rich and kinetic world in which Kamala lives.
Here's the page that I copied for the banner image above today's titles.
AND THEN, there's the image below!
So beautiful.
A mother hugging her daughter. It so reminded me of us, Mom, despite the gender/sex difference.
Another beautiful image from the last issue of this series before the launch of the next.
There's a reason it won the Hugo for best graphic novel of 2014. I voted for it, too!
Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.
Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #134 - Because wine - a picture and a video
Hi Mom, I am buried in work, trapped beneath tons of rock with very little food and only a little more air. I know that's a melodramatic image and maybe in poor taste given the mining accident it references, but it's how I feel.
I always said that some days these entries would be short.
Enjoy this cute photo and this great video set to one of my favorite songs. It captures the sound of an exorcism.
I will be back tomorrow with more content when I feel less buried.
Brian Eno and David Byrne's "Jezebel Spirit" from the album MY LIFE IN BUSH OF GHOSTS
I miss you, a lot, today, Mom.
Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.
Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #133 - "One" again, Seven Song part two
Hi Mom,
I always said these would be short. This item has nothing to do with puppies but puppy pictures are always appreciated, right Mom?
In trying to do the seven songs thing, though not in consecutive days, I posted about the song "One" by U2 and I posted that at this LINK HERE: Hey Mom #115.
Then, I was reading about the song, via Bono, in the very cool Reunions issue of Entertainment Weekly dated October 16-23, 2015. Here's what Bono had to say about the song. It's all I have for today as I being smothered under a mountain of work.
Find it at this link EW - 25 YEARS AGO ARTICLE or reprinted below WITHOUT permission (I love doing that, BTW).
Bono, front bloke of the band U2 said the following:
I remember flying to Germany to record “Achtung Baby.” We were on the last plane into the old [formerly divided] Berlin. The pilot had the sky to himself so he circled the city a few times. When we landed, we went out to find the rumored parade and celebration [for the reunification of Germany]. We walked out to find this rather glum crowd of people, and I’m thinking, “Wow, the Germans don’t know how to party! What is this?” Then I found out we were at the wrong party — we were at the protest for the wall coming down, with all the communists! But we indeed found some very festive Germans and had a very late night with them. It was a very exciting moment to be in Berlin. But we were having a difficult time recording, to tell the truth. It was a cold winter. We wrote our song “One” about that coldness, and the coldness we’re referring to is oddly about the band. We weren’t getting on very well. We almost broke up. The song became something we held on to quite tightly. And it became an anthem in Berlin, in the east and west. “We’re one, but we’re not the same.” It was special. You learn this lesson continually as a band, which is that you’re made much better by the company you keep.
Here's another version of "One."
Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.
Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #131 - Satchel does chickens
Hi Mom,
Time again to have a puppy on this blog.
Knowing Satchel as I do, this is a great picture of her as she is telling me: "Dad, it's time to do chickens."
"Doing chickens" means that she gets in to the side yard, which is currently closed to her. In the morning, we let the chickens out sometime between 8 and 10 a.m.
Satchel runs full tilt to the gate to the side yard and then sprints for the back fence, checking all her spots. She has not responsibility in the morning when we let the chickens out of the coop to roam, and she has more time to explore and sniff her spots if I have to change their water and/or food.
At night, we put the chickens away. Sometimes, we time it right, and the chickens are already in the hen house. But if they are still in the yard, Satchel gets to wrangle them, shooing them back to the coop.
Recently, some chickens did not wish to be shooed, hunkering down in bushes next to the fence far from the coop. There was a terrifying ordeal of many minutes attempting to herd the chickens. I feared that Satchel intended to grab one in her jaws and carry it like a bad puppy to the coop. In the end, I carried one chicken back.
Satchel is a very good puppy. She does not try to hurt the chickens, though if she gets into the side yard during the middle of the day, she will chase them back to the coop anyway.
One thing that makes her extra excited is that she gets a treat each time her returns from the side yard both in letting out the chickens and putting them back in the coop, which is partly why her is so excited. This is how we talk about her. We just use "her" for everything.
Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.
Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #130 - Turkeyville Christmas Show
Hi Mom, You were with us today. Dad and I went to the annual Christmas show at Cornwell's Turkeyville Dinner Theatre, produced by Top Hat Productions.
You love these Christmas shows.
I may post my review later, after it appears in the newspaper, but here's a few thoughts.
Above is a picture of Dad and me with producer Dennis McKeen.
As you can see, he is wearing a very festive suit.
Christmas show 2013
So, Dennis decided to do a tribute for you. His wife Holly, who played Charlie the Christmas Elf, in the show of the same name, announced the sing-along, dedicated to you. She called you a "young lady," which I thought was very sweet. But she accurately recounted your complaint about them dropping the sing-along from the show, and how Dennis put it back in just for you.
It was a very sweet dedication. Both Dennis and Holly have lost their mothers in recent years, and both were sympathetic to our feelings, especially as Dad and I attended the first Christmas show without you.
But even before the tribute, I was already pretty wrecked as the cast closed the show by singing Jeff Buckley's "Hallelujah."
I love that song.
But it really made me weep, this time especially.
Also, I did some shopping in BOTH gift shoppes in your honor, Mom. I didn't buy anything, but Dad did. He bought a gift for Lori.
I wish you had been there physically, Mom, though I felt you embracing me, all around me, around us, in spirit.
It's early, but Merry Christmas.
Here's a video of "Hallelujah." I chose a version with four part harmony to try to recreate what they did at Turkeyville.
Turkeyville gift shoppe
Turkeyville candy counter
Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.
