Media Nugget

Weather Central

Ted Kooser
Weather Central
1994

Kooser lives in Nebraska, teaches at the state university, and works as an insurance executive.

The Back Door

The door through which we step out
into the past is an easy push,
light as the air, a green screen door
with a sagging spring. There's a hook
to unhook first, for there have been
incidents: someone has come up
out of the past to steal something good
from the present. We know who they are.
We have tried to discourage them
by moving from house to house,
from city to city, but they find us
again and again. You see them coming
sometimes from a long ways off--
a pretty young woman, a handsome man,
stepping in through the back garden gate,
pausing to pick the few roses.

OK Computer

Radiohead
OK Computer
1997

A couple of years back, an acquaintance and I were comparing notes on the latest Sonic Youth record. "There's something really screwed up about this album," he said with a grin, clearly thrilled at the prospect of wrestling with difficult music. Listening to Radiohead's OK Computer, I couldn't help but remember that moment. That's not to say the record is in any way inaccessible. It's just that there's something delightfully weird about it.

Old Coin-Op Arcade Games

Old Coin-Op Arcade Games

You can emulate plenty of old arcade games on your PC, but there's nothing like the thrill of pounding on the console of a full-size coin-op classic. Space Invaders and Pac-Man were huge hits, but some of the best games were much less ubiquitous. See if you can find cool vector-graphics titles like "Star Wars," "Red Baron," and "Tempest." The best place to scoop 'em is at an arcade distributor or maybe a really seedy bowling alley.

Nick Bantock

Nick Bantock

Bantock is the creator of the popular Griffin and Sabine series of illustrated books. These volumes are compelling not just for their visual richness but also for the simple mysteries that are at their heart. Bantock has upped the ante with his latest, The Venetian's Wife, combining his artwork with a more intricate and emotionally complex plot. You may also want to check out his earliest publications, a string of pop-up books illustrating classic poems such as "Jabberwocky," "Solomon Grundy," and "Kubla Khan."

The Collected Stories

Flannery O'Connor
The Complete Stories
1996

"Alone with The Misfit, the grandmother found that she had lost her voice. There was not a cloud in the sky nor any sun. There was nothing around her but woods. She wanted to tell him that he must pray. She opened and closed her mouth several times before anything came out. Finally, she found herself saying, 'Jesus, Jesus,' meaning, Jesus will help you, but the way she was saying it, it sounded as if she might be cursing."

--from "A Good Man is Hard to Find"

ActiMates

Microsoft
ActiMates

Today's Nugget is more cautionary than complimentary. Am I the only one a little uncomfortable with Microsoft's new target demographic? The software giant is teaming up with Barney (noooooooooooooooooo!) to bring your children their very own animatronic playmate. He talks, sings, watches TV, and helps with computer games. Sure, today's three-year-olds are tomorrow's Windows 2008 users, but isn't this going a bit too far?

Paderewski Plays Chopin

Ignace Paderewski
Paderewski Plays Chopin, Vols. 1 & 2
1988, 1990

These two discs capture the legendary Polish pianist performing a broad selection of Chopin's etudes, mazurkas, preludes, and nocturnes. Recorded from 1912 to 1938, the performances include a little bit of hiss due to the primitive recording equipment, but in every case the virtuousity comes shining through. Don't miss "Berceuse op 57" and "Polonaise in E flat minor op 26/2."

I Am One of You Forever

Fred Chappell
I Am One of You Forever
1987

Part magical realism, part tall tale, this novel is about a young boy's life on a small Southern farm in the 1940s. It's also one of the sweetest books you'll ever read. After you fall in love with it, try the two other volumes of the "Jess" trilogy, Brighten the Corner Where You Are and Farewell, I'm Bound to Leave You.

Blade Runner

Ridley Scott
Blade Runner
1982

Today's Nugget bemoans the sorry state of affairs in the movie world. Fifteen years ago, Ridley Scott teamed up with Harrison Ford and Rutger Hauer to bring us a dank, dark, foreboding vision of the future. Of course, that future is looking better and better now that we're faced with epically unimaginitive films like Air Force One and G.I. Jane. And where the heck did Rutger Hauer get off to? Maybe he's hiding. I wouldn't blame him...

History

Robert Lowell
History
1973

Lowell told it like it was. Capturing moments from the private lives of public figures, Lowell's scenes put photography to shame. History is out of print. Pick up Collected Poems when it comes out.

Robert Frost

Robert Frost at midnight, the audience gone
to vapor, the great act laid on the shelf in mothballs,
his voice musical, raw and raw--he writes in the flyleaf:
"Robert Lowell from Robert Frost, his friend in the art."
"Sometimes I feel too full of myself," I say.
And he, misunderstanding, "When I am low,
I stray away. My son wasn't your kind. The night
we told him Merrill Moore would come to treat him,
he said 'I'll kill him first.' One of my daughters thought things,
knew every male she met was out to make her;
the way she dresses, she couldn't make a whorehouse."
And I, "Sometimes I'm so happy I can't stand myself."
And he, "When I am too full of joy, I think
how little good my health did anyone near me."