Last weekend, I finished reading Isaac's Storm, by Erik Larsen. I've been meaning to read it for a while now and just now got around to it. I'm glad I read it, but man, it was a tear-jerker. It's about the great hurricane that struck Galveston in 1900, so I knew going into it that it wasn't going to be the feel-good book of the year. Other than the terror of living through such a storm, another thing that struck me about the book was how far meteorology and storm tracking have come in the last hundred years. It's funny to think that I, as an average person, know a lot more about the subject than the great weathermen of those days. Granted, the fact that I know these things is because of the work they did. Even after watching the aftermath of Katrina last year, it is comforting to think that we have much more advanced weather watching systems than they did back then. 6,000+ people died in Galveston from that storm. Imagine how many could have been spared if they had known what was headed towards them.
On a happier note, I watched Mad Hot Ballroom the other day. It is a documentary about the ballroom dancing lesson that are taught to fifth-graders in the NYC public schools. It was really fun to watch the kids dance. Kids are funny at that age anyway - some of them are worried about being cool, but the dancing kind of got past that, and some of them never even heard of cool, so that added to the entertainment. I didn't get up off the couch and dance with them (the blinds were opened!), but it did make me want to learn some ballroom dances.
Posted by christin at August 29, 2006 01:23 PM | TrackBackBallroom dancing...the only sort of dancing I'm any good at. My grandparents would take us with them when we'd go visit them(they lived in Weatherford, TX and we'd all drive over to Fort Worth) and we'd all go to this club that had a big band, huge dancefloor, and lots of ahem...older adults. Well, I loved it from the very beginning. You could understand the conversation, you could learn the dances and it was fun!
Close the blinds Christin and start the foxtrot!
A couple of years ago, I watched a History channel show about the Galveston hurricane and cried my eyes out.
So is ballroom dancing part of the inner-city school curriculum or what? Figures.
Posted by: Emily at August 29, 2006 06:37 PMNot only does the book sound like something I would be interested in reading, but the movie sound fun to watch. Now if only I can get Josh to watch it with me(??)
Posted by: Lacey at August 30, 2006 04:29 PMThe book has a lot of technical stuff in the first section, so it's hard to get into at first, but gets more personal later on. It's by the same guy who wrote Devil in the White City (which I read - and enjoyed - earlier this year) and is similar in style as far as the mix of technicalities and personality. He tries to make it as historically accurate as possible, but still make it lively by assuming some details.
I think you would enjoy the movie, Lacey, and Josh might like it if he can appreciate it for what it is (a documentary about 5th graders) rather than on technical movie merit.
Posted by: Christin at August 30, 2006 06:30 PMHey now. I can appreciate a lot of movies for what they are, I'm not just about technical merit. I like Adam Sandler movies, don't I? This might be a bit of a stretch though. I've already watched one bad movie this week because it was Lacey's birthday ("Just My Luck"), and we have another poorly-reviewed one in the DVD player (Poseidon). I'm not sure I can handle another "Save the Last Dance", documentary-style.
Posted by: UJ at August 31, 2006 05:00 AMBut it's my birthday week Josh.....
Posted by: Lacey at August 31, 2006 02:55 PM