MonkInTheCellar Discussion

[Dave]

Well, of course Matins may be at 2:30 a.m.! I did say Beep woke Jesse up "in the middle of the night.

I've begun a new "sidebar serial" cartoon on the MonkInTheCellar main page. It will look familiar to some. It would fit only at the very bottom of the page and still be readable.

[keith]

Yes, but I had to tease a bit.

[Dave]

Keith, I hope you don't mind that I gave away your Clarence Bunsen role to M&M. And to have C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton loan their visages once more ... even though they and their estates are unaware of it ... is satisfying. Maybe this time I can work in Hilaire Belloc, or at least his home. I love that place.



What a great back yard. And he had his own windmill!

[Dave]

www.windsweptpress.com/images/belloc crop.jpg[/img]


I mean, it's just so easy to imagine Hilaire stumbling out the wooden door with steaks on a platter, ready to light the cooker (I'm not sure which piece of debris is the cooker) while C.S and G.K. each finish one more cigar and two more glasses of sherry before a sumptuous dinner of beef and wine and cherry tarts followed by brandy and more cigars. After which the three will go out for an early evening walk on the heather like Thomas Hardy characters in Far From the Madding Crowd, climb the windmill and all die of cholesterol fueled heart attacks!

[keith]

One would hope that the cooker is one of the non-flamable peices of debris. I think I will stick with my grill. Some thought and possibly some experimentation will be required before I would ofer such celebrated guests cherry tarts from the grill.

I do, however, have a severe case of windmill envy.

[Dave]

I wonder why Lowes doesn't sell a Windmill in Kit form.

[Dave]

Another shot of Belloc's windmill first and then an interesting shot of the fantail mechanism atop the mill, followed by a writeup by the photographer (found on flickr.)





www.windsweptpress.com/images/belloc fantail.jpg[/img]


"Shipley windmill, an eight sided smock mill was built in1879
In 1905 the mill and the adjacent house King’s Land were bought by Hilaire Belloc. After his death in 1953 funds were raised to preserve the mill as his memorial and now a charitable trust with a volunteer group of Friends of Shipley Mill undertake to maintain the structure as a working mill, open the mill to visitors and provide educational visits for school children.

An imposing building that has appeared in several TV drama productions - most recently as the home for Jonathan Creek.

A small group of the volunteers were on site today painting and doing minor repairs. Two sweeps (sails) were recently renewed and the wood is already on site to replace the other two. Sadly, work has been limited and all guided tours are suspended as the future ownership of the property is currently uncertain."

www.flickr.com/photos/25547217@N07/3486462074/


Wiki: "A Fantail is a small windmill mounted at right angles to the sails, at the rear of the windmill, and which turns the cap automatically to bring it into the wind. The fantail was patented in 1745 by Edmund Lee, a blacksmith working at Brockmill Forge near Wigan, England, and perfected on mills around Leeds and Hull towards the end of the 18th century. Fantails are found on all types of traditional windmills. They are more common in England, Denmark and Germany than in other parts of Europe, and are little-known on windmills elsewhere except where English millwrighting traditions were in evidence.

The rotating fantail turns the cap of windmill via a system of gearing to a toothed rack around the top of the mill tower, or to wheels running on the ground in the case of a post mill. It does so until the fantail sails are oriented parallel to the wind, as in this case the wind can no longer move them. When the fantail is oriented parallel to the wind, the main sails are in the optimal perpendicular orientation and produce maximum power."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windmill_fantail

[keith]

Interestng info on the fantail and also the details of this windmill.

Sears did sell windmills at one time for farm use. Initially to pump water, later some were converted to generate electricity.

The first time my father came to visit us in CNY we drove north on Rt. 12. Just south of Mapledale, he broke off conversation to look at something. He then told me that we had passed under one of the first steel tower electrical transmission lines built in the country. It was constructed from windmill towers purchased from Sears and modified for electrical transmission use.

[keith]

Dave,
Did you see this?
www.uticaod.com/features/x1277013673/New-pride-in-the-Utica-Zoo

"A newcomer to the Utica Zoo, “Bakari,” a 6-year-old African lion, is now on display as the zoo readies to open for the season on Saturday.

And Bakari is not alone. A female lion “Monni’ is soon expected to be introduced to the display, zookeepers said."

By the way, there is a M&M Tax Service advertising in Myrtle Beach.

[Dave]

Haha! That's great. Re M&M.

So the Utica zoo is back in the lovemaking business!

[Dave]

Thanks, Keith, for your comment on the Blog today. In fact, I've been thinking about story development for the past two weeks. At our twice monthly Woodstock Writers' group, I normally read my shorts and often to an appreciative audience, I'm lucky to say. At the last meeting I read some parts of the MonKInTheCellar blog and the reactions were mixed. They found the technical aspects of the writing good, which surprised me. I don't take the same degree of care on the Blog that I do on my shorts, since I consider the blog a first draft of a novel...or something. But the audience of a half dozen or so felt I wasn't getting directly to the story, that I was meandering around. Well .. guilty, I'll be the first to admit it. But it caused me to think about Blog vs. Novel or even short story. And they are not the same. I asked if any in our group regularly read blogs and got one hand raised. Then I asked if anyone had ever read a developing story on a blog. No one had.

Now I suppose this sounds like writer-ly self excuse, but I think a blog is more like a series of letters you get from your sister as she explains what's been going on in her life and a story emerges. It's not a novel, it's more like a newsletter. Maybe that's also why I've had some difficulty in trying to turn the blog into a novel.

So that's where my mind is today.

[keith]

I haven't read it in a long time, but back in the 60's there was a posthumous publication by Mark Twain titled Letters from the Earth. I recall it having a series of letters format.

I'm sure I've read other things of that nature, but it always takes awhile for those sorts of mind searches to yield results.

It may be a problem if someone reads it with the expectation of a story. The episodic nature of the blog gives time for review and introspection. What happens to Jesse isn't really as important as how he got there and what I learn about Keith (or Dave). Remember when Concerned (?) published his Lenten blog? That was also a learning experience.

Sorry, on a re-read I realize this is no help on the actual problem.

[Dave]

Absolutely! I well remember Letters From Earth. It was released by Clemmons' family in he 1960's, I think, and not before because the work embarrassed his family. In it the angel wondered why earthlings spent so much of their time o n earth thinking about and longing for sex that he was astounded they believed there was none in heaven! That instead they expected only to sit around on clouds singing hymns.

Your post is indeed of help. It bolsters the idea MonkInTheCellar is indeed something different. Too bad I can't think of more stuff to make it into a 365 day Devotional book. Tongue in cheek, of course, but yet with a spiritual (small "s") message.

[keith]

Couple questions Dave,

When you direct someone the the Monk in the Cellar site (assuming you do) how do you describe it?

If you were asked to write an Amazon review of the blog, could you do it?

[Dave]

I usually babble on about how it's about a monk in a cellar who posts on the Internet. That I choose a piece of music for each post, that it's a loosely bound story that is more interesting for Jesse's thoughts than his day to day activities.

I like the summary I have on the very top of the blog: "MonkInTheCellar: A story building on the web, post by post, song by song. Story: Brother Jesse et al were burned out of their Catskills monastery before superiors back in Ireland could kick them out and sell the place. The Order of the Brothers of the Holy Ground in Fermoy, County Cork, needed the cash from the sale of the decaying ex-resort to pay their debts. Jesse and the Brothers are now working a dairy farm in central New York."

Sure, I could write a review. It would of course be positive!