St. Matthews Multicultural Festival 2016

We made it to the very end of the St. Matthews Multi-Cultural Festival in October, 2016. St. Matthews is an Orthodox Christian church in Columbia, Maryland. We had meant to go to the Octberfest night on Friday, which featured German beer and dancing. A conflict came up so we couldn't go. We finally went on Sunday afternoon for an early dinner.

Various vendors had tents up outside, selling items like religious icons, crafts, and food.

Festival tents

The food tents

The food tents were especially nice since they had food from many regions in the Orthodox church. They served Greek, Lebanese, Romanian, Slavic, and Ethiopian foods. We had pierogis (Slavic), lamb kabob (Lebanese), tiropita (Greek), and a hot dog (American) for my daughter.

Kabob with pita and tiropita

I also visited the beer tent for my beverage. Unfortunately by Sunday afternoon all that was left was Leinenkugel's. They had taped over the premium German beers, so I don't know what Oktoberfest goodness I missed.

Beer Garden

We ate in the main tent which had a stage for performances. Throughout the weekend talents of all sorts were on display: Flamenco dancing, Irish dancing, martial arts, ballet, Mexican music, and more. While we were there they had belly dancing, which included audience participation. We were too shy to try it out, but others in the audience were braver.

Dance lesson

The kids were ready to go home, so we did not get the chance to tour the church. Maybe next year! On the way out, we stopped at the dessert booth and bought a multi-dessert pack. Our favorite was the baklava.

Dessert sampler at home

Dessert close up

Book Review: Avatar The Last Airbender: North and South Part 1 by G. L. Yang et al.

Avatar The Last Airbender North and South Part One written by Gene Luen Yang, lettering by Michael Heisler, art and cover by Gurihiru

Sokka and Katara return home to the Southern Water Tribe only to find a lot of progress has happened in their absence. Instead of a bunch of igloos and huts, their home village has been transformed into a city. After the war with the Fire Nation ended, some Northern Water Tribe people came to improve and modernize things for the locals. Sokka is all for it but Katara worries about their own culture and attitudes being lost. Their father is on board with the developments and is now chief of all the whole Southern Water Tribe. An underground resistance element has sprung up with which Katara sympathizes. They try to recruit the brother and sister, but are their methods too questionable?

The issue of preserving cultural identity while being part of the larger world is an interesting one, though I feel like it has been covered in this series before. I am looking forward to some new angles or ideas that will come out of this series, though I'll have to wait till January for the next installment of the story.

Movie Review: Green Room (2015)

Green Room (2015) written and directed by Jeremy Saulnier

A down-on-their-luck punk rock band gets possibly the worst gig ever--they play an afternoon set at a white supremacist bar. They don't know what their getting into, of course. The guy who arranges the gig just tells them not to talk politics. The band is more interested in drinking and goofing around, which they do until one of them witnesses a killing. They wind up locked in the green room of the bar and have to try to negotiate their way out. Things do not go well. The bar is owned by Darcy (Patrick Stewart) who is the sort of cool, collected, and ruthless man no one should try to outsmart.

The movie is very tense. The initial ten or fifteen minutes seems like a road movie for the band but the road ends pretty quickly at the bar. By that point they are established enough as characters that viewers care for their plight. The band struggles to figure out the situation and find some way out, either by talking or sneaking away. The situation doesn't go well for anyone. Enough little twists pop up to keep things engaging and more believable and more horrifying. The violence is very intense when it happens and is very gory.

I wouldn't call this a fun movie but it is engaging and a great example of a "siege thriller." With the graphic injuries, it's not for the feint of heart, either.

Book Review: History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth

History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth

Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote this fictionalized version of English history that starts with the Trojan War. Aeneas flees from Troy and founds Rome. His great grandson Brutus leaves Italy and eventually founds Britain. The book covers a vast range of time, from the fall of Troy in the 1100s B.C. to  circa A.D. 700. He covers a lot of ground, much of it mythical or at best historically dubious. The highlights for me were his passages about King Lear (as in the character from Shakespeare's excellent play) and about King Arthur. Arthur and Merlin take up a big portion of the middle of the book, with Merlin getting as much space as Arthur. The most fascinating bit was how they took what we now call Stonehenge from Ireland and set it up in Britain as a burial ground for royalty. Arthur's military conquests are also chronicled but not the various quests of his knights (which comes in later literature maybe inspired by Geoffrey). The last third of the book tells of the Saxons coming to the island and how often they betrayed the local kings and dukes. After a while, it seemed like a lot of anti-Saxon propaganda!

The book was written in Latin and translated by Sebastian Evans in 1903 with a very Elizabethan-styled text. The style gives the book a sense of archaicness that can be off-putting for readers, with liberal use of words like "natheless" and "howbeit so" and other constructions that were surely antiquated even in the early 1900s. I eventually got used to the style; others may adapt more or less quickly. The style does give the book an ancient feel.

The other challenge in reading the book is the sometimes quite massive liberties that are taken with the history. At this point, scholars consider it ahistorical, which is pretty obvious especially when reading about the Roman invasions of Britain that don't match up with any other history. Many portions just describe a few battles by the noble British kings against invaders and betrayers, or when they invade or reconquer Brittany (the part of France across the English Channel). The accounts all start to blend together. Even though it's fiction, it's still fairly dry reading for many parts.

What this book really needs is a "highlights" version compiling all the good bits in a shorter volume. The book is only 270 pages long but a hundred page "best of" version would be more readable and leave out the less interesting parts.

This book was on our shelf of "read and keep or get rid of" and unfortunately, it has landed on the "get rid of" side. If you want some ancient British history, read Bede's History.

Laurel Riverfest 2016

The last Sunday in September was Riverfest in Laurel, Maryland.

The main attraction was a competition among classic cars. Awards were given out at the end of the day but we didn't stick around, so we don't know who won what.

Car show

Chevy Master Delex (1939)

Plymouth

A patriotic car

Pontiac GTO (1971)

Ford Coupe (1930)

Cadillac Hearse (1941)

Ford Mustang(1964)

Car version of the yellow pages

More displays

The main attraction for my daughter was the food, especially the ice cream truck. She managed to get cotton candy-flavored ice cream bar, satisfying two desires at once!

The sun is too bright!

The toddler looked extra cute as he walked around with his baseball cap.

I am ready to drive one of the cars!

A path led along the river with more festival activities. The path was lined with booths selling wares. We did a little window shopping but did not buy anything, especially at the political booths!

Booths

More booths by a playground

The playground was another big hit, though it is a permanent structure. We can visit it anytime! We'd read on line that carnival rides would be operating but we did not find them. The playground was fun by itself.

Sliding with big sister

We admired a bit of the river (the Patuxent) at the riverfest!

Calm waters

Old tree stump

The festival had two stages. The river stage had a bluegrass band. We only listened as we walked by.

Savage Bluegrass

Back by the cars was another stage with Jacked Up playing rock 'n' roll music. We bought some french fries and lemonade, so we had time to listen to a bunch of songs.

Jacked Up!

Food by the entrance

Birthday Number Nine

Our oldest son is nine years old?!? Where has the time gone?

We had a party with his friends a few days before the actual birth day. We had a Nintendo/Mario theme. The first activity was the classic ice-breaker game where each child wore a headband with a Mario character so they can't see which character it is. The child asks others yes-or-no questions to figure out who is on the headband. They enjoyed it so much, once they guessed, they'd get a new headband from the bag and try again!

We also had an obstacle course, Mario-style. They had to run, jump, and tag coins to complete the track. And fight bubbles!

Going through the dry water hazard

Jumping for a coin

Bubble blizzard

Fighting the bubbles with Goomba balloons!

Inside the house, they did a scavenger hunt with a checklist for little squares hidden throughout the house. Happily, they were more cooperative than competitive. They helped each other find the items, especially one that was so hard to find, even the adult who hid it couldn't find it!

Scavenger Hunt checklist

Can you find the Mummy-me?

We did let them play games for twenty minutes or so before the pizza came. We also let them try out the ultra-light quadcopter Millennium Falcon that my son received by mail early in the week.

Ready to launch the Falcon

One more try for the Death Star

After pizza, we had cupcakes decorated like Mario mushrooms. They were yummy and easy to make.

Red fondant and mini-marshmallows make a good mushroom!

Eating them was even more fun.

Ready to blow out the candle

The final activity was Nintendo trivia with the kids versus the parents. Luckily, the parents had two ringers who had grown up playing the NES, etc., so they odds were much more even.

Consulting on an answer

More consulting

We had a grand time.

On his actual birthday, we had our traditional "presents at breakfast." He was delighted with his Nerf crossbow with extra bolts. Also, he received his favorite snack, Cheetos. At dinnertime, we had a luscious homemade cake. For dessert, of course. We wouldn't eat it for our main meal. At least, we wouldn't admit it!

A fabulous cake

A fabulous boy to match!

Book Review: Secret Coders Vol. 2 by G. L. Yang and M. Holmes

Secret Coders Volume 2: Paths and Portals by Gene Luen Yang and Mike Holmes

Students Hopper, Eni, and Josh discover the remains of an older school beneath Stately Academy. The academy's janitor was once a teacher at the previous school and he's provided secret access to the old robots in the basement. He teaches the children how to program the robots for simple tasks (something he's done so he doesn't have to mow lawns or do other tedious, robotic chores). Unfortunately, Principal Dean has some interest in the children's activities and is scheming against them, going so far as to use the rugby team to spy on our heroes.

The story is fun but lightweight. The emphasis is more on the programing (using the Logo programming language) and readers are encourage to figure out how to write programs that the characters will use. The characters follow a few programs step by step, showing how the coding works to get jobs done. So the book has a thinly-veiled educational tone. It's a nice introduction to programming and has enough story to keep readers engaged.

The book has a web site with activities including learning to code.