My book club is called Book and Binge since we coordinate the chosen reading selection with a local restaurant's menu so we can "eat, drink and be merry" while discussing the work for that month. The Lost City of Z saw us at the Jax Brazilian Cafe. A Dave Robicheaux adventure found us dining of Shrimp Étouffée and jambalaya. The People of the Book found us "down under" at Outback.
While we eat, we talk about the book using questions submitted by the book's sponsor. (I LOVE this part because it allows the career teacher in me to re-visit skills retirement have put on the shelf.) Next month, our book is Jimmy Buffett's Where is Joe Merchant? Since I suggested it, I had to create our discussion questions. This was a challenge because not one person in Book and Binge knew he was a writer, and only a couple knew much about his music. So I wanted to develop questions that built from a knowledge of his words.
I have been a Parrothead since I first heard JB in Key West after I moved to Florida in the mid 70's. I bought my vinyl of A1A and have never looked back - only to the horizon. I own 9 vinyls, many tapes and cds as well as all his books. I even required my AP class to analyze Tully Mars for a Timed Writing!
I have been entranced and delighted by the depth of JB's facility with words and ideas. And, bemused when people who have never paid attention to those words discover the layers which exist in them. (I have often wished he would write a song called "Layers" as it seems to be a perfect fit for him.) Hence, I eagerly await Book and Binge's reactions to their introduction to him.
While I was researching my discussion questions, I found a fellow admirer of the layers in Jimmy in a blog entry from Preacher Mike. Reading this blog prompted me to try to make my own list of Top 10 Jimmy Buffett songs. I have been stymied. Every time I generate a list I believe I can live with, another song pops into my head and I have to renegotiate with the current list. I don't think my struggle will ever end and I adore having a rationale for listening to all that "shrimp boat rock" offers its audiences.
Jimmy is a year older than me. He touched a chord in A Pirate Looks at Fifty, I joyfully anticipate what will happen when that self-same pirate looks at 70 in a couple of years. Like Einstein in one his latest songs, Jimmy is a surfer riding the swells and troughs of life and making connections from his world to the one the rest of us inhabit.
After Book and Binge meet in October, I'll write about what happened. I hope he'll ride this wave to the beach and not wipe-out, but waves and readers are not always predictable.
Note: Anyone planning on reading Joe Merchant who wants my questions, just let me know.
While we eat, we talk about the book using questions submitted by the book's sponsor. (I LOVE this part because it allows the career teacher in me to re-visit skills retirement have put on the shelf.) Next month, our book is Jimmy Buffett's Where is Joe Merchant? Since I suggested it, I had to create our discussion questions. This was a challenge because not one person in Book and Binge knew he was a writer, and only a couple knew much about his music. So I wanted to develop questions that built from a knowledge of his words.
I have been a Parrothead since I first heard JB in Key West after I moved to Florida in the mid 70's. I bought my vinyl of A1A and have never looked back - only to the horizon. I own 9 vinyls, many tapes and cds as well as all his books. I even required my AP class to analyze Tully Mars for a Timed Writing!
I have been entranced and delighted by the depth of JB's facility with words and ideas. And, bemused when people who have never paid attention to those words discover the layers which exist in them. (I have often wished he would write a song called "Layers" as it seems to be a perfect fit for him.) Hence, I eagerly await Book and Binge's reactions to their introduction to him.
While I was researching my discussion questions, I found a fellow admirer of the layers in Jimmy in a blog entry from Preacher Mike. Reading this blog prompted me to try to make my own list of Top 10 Jimmy Buffett songs. I have been stymied. Every time I generate a list I believe I can live with, another song pops into my head and I have to renegotiate with the current list. I don't think my struggle will ever end and I adore having a rationale for listening to all that "shrimp boat rock" offers its audiences.
Jimmy is a year older than me. He touched a chord in A Pirate Looks at Fifty, I joyfully anticipate what will happen when that self-same pirate looks at 70 in a couple of years. Like Einstein in one his latest songs, Jimmy is a surfer riding the swells and troughs of life and making connections from his world to the one the rest of us inhabit.
After Book and Binge meet in October, I'll write about what happened. I hope he'll ride this wave to the beach and not wipe-out, but waves and readers are not always predictable.
Note: Anyone planning on reading Joe Merchant who wants my questions, just let me know.
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