It’s always nice to know how much my children adore me. At seven years old, my son still runs excitedly toward me as soon as he gets off of the school bus to give me a big hug and kiss. My toddler greets me at the front door with a giant grin and an emphatic, surprised-like-I-just-returned-early-from-war “Mommy!” if I so much as walk out to the mailbox and back. Dropping off my four-year-old at preschool elicits a flailing, kicking, screaming, knock-down, drag-out hallway scene, because she just doesn’t want to leave my side.

OK, that last bit of proof of my child’s adoration I could do without.

I didn’t quite imagine Elaine, my middle child, being the crying kid at preschool. As a toddler, her personality seemed to foreshadow more of a “Mom, this will be harder on you than it will be on me” school separation. In fact, when we would drop off my oldest at preschool, it was his younger sister who would cry because she wanted to be the one to stay and play.

By the time it was Elaine’s turn to actually be the one staying and playing, however, she had apparently lost interest in the whole thing and decided instead to take the fight-it-tooth-and-nail approach. Although it took much longer than I had hoped or anticipated, we did make progress by the end of three-year-old preschool. She had come to accept the two-and-a-half-hour, twice-a-week breaks in our otherwise constant relationship. Yet, the beginning of four-year-old preschool has put us right back where we were a year ago – with my child clinging to me like pet hair on a black pair of pants.

Just when I began to think that the whole thing was nothing but a performance put on by an actress in the making, her emotions bubbled over with the heartfelt admission, “My tummy just hurts too much when I’m not with you.” As much as I somewhat want to be completely annoyed that my daughter continues to shun the school she has grown to know and love over the past 12 months, I understand where my little girl’s coming from. For years I was the kid calling my parents to come get me from sleepovers at midnight because I had developed that wish-I-were-home pit in my stomach. Until I simply grew out of it, I remember the only feeling of cure being a reunion with my parents, so I try to at least remain sympathetic.

Considering my own history as a young cling-on, perhaps Elaine’s separation reluctance is due to some homebody gene that hasn’t yet been identified. Still, as any good mother would, I can’t let the opportunity to think my child’s difficulty is somehow caused by my own faulty parenting pass me by. Did I miss too many minutes those first eleven days of her life she had to spend in the NICU? Did I emotionally scar her when I signed up to help with Sunday school just to be in her class, but ended up in a different one? Should I have sent her to the preschool she picked instead of the one I picked, even though her pick was based solely on a toy she had spotted during the tour?

I have come to believe that avoiding some minor or not-so-minor parenting misstep along the way would not have set my daughter on a completely different, perfectly well-adjusted path. As much as I’d love for her to happily and confidently walk into preschool each day with no tears in sight, her difficulty transitioning to new places and new faces is a wrinkle that needs to be ironed out over time. In the meantime, it is hard knowing that my child’s most challenging quality is likely overshadowing all of her other great ones.

My daughter is a happy, giggly, creative, considerate, mindful, engaging, self-sufficient, lovely human being who just happens to clam up or even crumble at the first sign of unfamiliarity. As much as just enjoying her company and all of her wonderful qualities where she Elaine feels comfortable displaying them is enough for me now, I look forward to a day when she allows the rest of the world to fully appreciate her too.

Shannon and her husband Michael are raising three children in Sylvania. E-mail her at letters@toledofreepress.com.

I wrote a column a couple of weeks ago for Toledo Free Press sharing the numbers of a Fox News poll describing the displeasure of voters with those currently serving in Congress (in both parties). The apparent consequence of this dissatisfaction was the call once again for the imposition of Term Limits on these legislators. I made no attempt to make the case for such legislation, in spite of the fact that it already exists for the nation’s chief executive as well as many other elected officials. I did however point out the unlikely potential of such legislation seeing the light of day, and suggested that even such doomed attempts should be applauded.

I’m not a particular fan of Term Limits; not because I enjoy seeing career politicians serving at every level of government, but because such legislative restrictions seem to always carry the law of unintended consequences on their coattails. This position permits these unforeseen hitchhikers to come back and bite voters on a rather sensitive area, leading to painful results often more problematic than the original concern.

I was taken to task however, for failing to point out the possible negative repercussions of such legislation. While I don’t normally consider myself a particularly sensitive person (I am after all a Conservative, and therefore without a heart), the accusation caused me to question whether my logic on the subject had in some way failed. Was I assuming that lifelong legislators were ‘guilty until proven innocent’?

These ruminations led to consideration of what a national legislature without politicians seemingly in office from cradle to grave might provide:

Laws with fewer pages that the Bible or the Dictionary. (It should be noted that the entire federal government was outlined in a document consisting of four pages called the Constitution … five if you count the Bill of Rights.)

Creation of laws that could be read before being passed, so that unintended consequences could be avoided and the implications of laws could be understood by more than the special interest groups and lobbyists crafting them to their own purposes.

Willingness to enforce existing laws on things as large as gun control and small as ‘driving while distracted’; making unnecessary the creation of additional and unenforceable laws for no better reason than to create the appearance that legislators were doing something the media could notice during reelection campaigns.

Allow us to elect true ‘servants of the people’ who accept the responsibilities and obligations of office instead of abrogating them to agencies, bureaucrats, and czars while they take fact-finding junkets to exotic locales.

Create a Congress that takes back the capability to decide where and when this nation’s soldiers fight under their Constitutionally granted power to declare war, instead of merely grumbling in front of microphones about the funding required to support such undeclared conflicts decided by an Executive branch with no Constitutional authority to do so.

Provide a legislature dedicated to living within the the budget of its revenues instead of running up debt like a shopaholic, while simultaneously printing money non-stop in an attempt to reduce such debt through inflation.

We might even manage to do away with a tax code so large and complex that it cannot be understood by the legislators who wrote it (Can you say Charlie Rangel?), the taxpayers who must pay it, or even the Internal Revenue Service who must collect its revenues and enforce it.

I might be wrong here of course, but it seems that Congress’s history shows that ‘professional politicians’ have not done all that well. It appears that in spite of the fact that Congress has been crowded for years with non-amateurs, that they have failed to rise to the level of professional performance.

A Term Limit solution could in fact have nothing to do with imposing them however, but would instead simply do away with legislator pensions. If politicians had to worry about saving for their retirement like the rest of us, perhaps they would quickly return to the private sector in order to insure that they were not forced to spend their golden years living off the doomed Social Security System that they think we can.

These obligations were seen by the Founding Fathers who created them as ‘citizen service’, and it was never their intention to turn them into lucrative careers. Legislators were paid $3 per day while Congress was in session; and no one was eligible for additional remuneration after such service, including the early presidents. It was only later that lavish compensation was added to the position by those self-same politicians, making it worth pursuing as a profession. If we really want to limit the terms of legislators, we need merely eliminate these perks to insure that the terms of this profession indeed have limits.

Tim Higgins blogs at http://justblowingsmoke.blogspot.com/.

For Kyle Gass, the road to being a rock star was, in some ways, also the path of least resistance.

Growing up in California, he was a fan of many of the biggest names in popular music — not only the British rock icons like the Beatles, Stones, The Who and Zeppelin, but classic American acts like Crosby, Stills and Nash. But when he started playing himself, he realized that the kind of music he loved was also the kind that came easiest to him.

Trainwreck

“I noticed that it wasn’t THAT hard to play rock. I started playing classical and jazz, and never really excelled. But, I always enjoyed listening to rock and pop. So, I started playing those, and it was easier, and more fun.”

For nearly two decades, Gass has been having fun on stage, performing with an eye on capturing both the hard rock edge of the bands he loved and the humor of a natural comedian. He is best known for his work with childhood friend Jack Black in rock comedy group Tenacious D.

Gass is currently on tour with his own group, Trainwreck, which is “in the Tenacious D family,” as three of its members play in both groups. The band will appear at Frankie’s on September 23, and at Howard’s Club H in Bowling Green on September 24.

The foundation for Trainwreck, Gass said in an interview, began over 13 years ago.

“Even playing in Tenacious D, I always wanted to incorporate music and comedy. Tenacious D did really well pretty quickly. And I always liked gigging live a lot, and just felt like I had the time. Jack was starting to do a lot more movies, and I had some more time on my hands, and I thought it’d be fun to start another enterprise.”

With a new enterprise came new personas — each member of the band has developed Trainwreck alter ego to play in concert, though Gass (who plays “Klip Calhoun”) downplays how seriously even the members of the group take these alternate roles.

“Jason Reed, who plays Darryl Lee Donald, I wanted him to be kind of a lead guy, singer, very entertaining fellow. And I thought it would be just kinda more freeing and liberating if you could sort of do it all in your character. And D was doing so well, that I just wanted to kinda break away from that a little bit. So, I thought going with characters would help with that.

“The character is pretty thin. It’s not like we’re trying to be like Andy Kaufman or something,” Gass said. “At the end of the day, it’s just us playing these cartoon characters. It’s mostly music, and we have some fun with the banter, but it’s pretty easygoing. It feels more like us than like we were in character. The music’s kinda the main thing.”

What kind of music Trainwreck performs has evolved over time, however. The sound of the band has grown as the group matured, Gass said.

“It’s evolved quite a bit. I wanted it to be really good, musically. And I think it’s evolved from that. It started as a duo, but that was just for one gig. And then we added drums, kinda copping the minimalist, White Stripes vibe, just guitar and drums. But when we added electric guitar and base, then it really just became more of a traditional band thing, which I like.

“We added keyboards for a while, but I felt that really wasn’t the right vibe. It needed to be kinda more hillbilly guitar, classic rock.”

That sound has been captured on three different album releases so far — one live recording and two studio albums, the most recent of which, “The Wreckoning,” was released last year. Gass himself thought of one of the most unique collectables that will be available to Trainwreck’s fans in Toledo and BG.

“This tour, I thought, ‘You know, it’d be fun to put it out on vinyl.’ So, we ordered a limited run of vinyl and are selling that on tour.”

And really, the tour is what it’s all about for Trainwreck. Gass said that there’s no greater feeling for a musician than being in front of a great crowd.

“It’s kinda the whole reason to do it. Honestly, that’s like everything. You’re performing so you can, like, have a connection with the audience. And when it’s really packed and everything is going well, and everyone is having a good time, it’s a real high.”

E-mail Jeff at PopGoesJeff@gmail.com.

Serenity Health and Wellness Center is hosting an open house Sept. 24.

Tours, chair massages, food and wine as well as free giveaways will be available for individuals who attend. Owners and therapists will be on site to answer questions.

Serenity Health and Wellness Center offers message therapy, acupressure, facials, waxing services as well as cellulite reduction, colonic hydrotherapy and wellness hypnotherapy among other services.

The open house is from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Serenity Health and Wellness Center is located at 1685 Lance Pointe Drive.

For more information, visit www.serenityhealthmaumee.com.

The Sept. 22 issue of Toledo Free Press Star is available as an electronic edition.

Paulette Kilmer remembers being sent home from school for bringing “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” into the classroom. Although her teachers had not read the book, they labeled it inappropriate.
“I remember thinking, ‘People really are afraid’,” Kilmer said.
Kilmer, the founder of the Banned Books Week event at the University of Toledo, said approximately 500 students participated in the vigil last year. This is the 13th year UT will host the event. Prior to having the vigil on campus, Kilmer said she used to take her students to a Banned Books Week reading at Thackeray’s Books.
“The basic freedom — our whole way of life, our democracy, our culture, is built from this right to read and think freely. If we can’t read freely then someone can manipulate us like we’re robots. We can be programmed,” Kilmer said.
UT will host its Banned Books Week Vigil Program Sept. 30. The event begins at 9 a.m. in Sullivan Hall, room 2030, and ends with a song performance at 5:30 p.m. Speakers from various university departments and the local community will address historic and contemporary issues surrounding the First Amendment and censorship. A banned book will be given away every half hour.

Paulette Kilmer

Engaging discussion
Recurring themes in many banned books include sex, abuse, rape and homosexuality, said Glenn Sheldon, honors professor of humanities in the honors college at UT. Sheldon is the keynote speaker for the Sept. 30 event.
Think for yourself
Sept. 25 to Oct. 2 marks the American Library Association’s (ALA) celebration of Banned Books Week. The week’s slogan is, “Think for yourself and let others do the same.”
“The purpose of Banned Books Week is to remind people that their freedom to read is a right all Americans should hold dearly and not take for granted,” said Barbara Jones, director of the Office of Intellectual Freedom for the ALA in Chicago.
According to the Office for Intellectual Freedom, 460 challenges to books and literature were reported in 2009. None of the infractions were in Northwest Ohio.
“Books are powerful — I think ideas are powerful. We need to engage with those ideas,” Jones said. “It really doesn’t help you to ban a book — it doesn’t solve your problem or keep your kids away from these ideas either. Parents want to prevent their children from reading about drugs. Chances are, in the 21st century, children are going to find out about drugs.”
Freedom to think
“Every year, something else is going on. Last year we were talking a lot about the Harry Potter cutting parties,” Kilmer said. “The battle is never over.”
Jones, Kilmer and Sheldon discussed the national attention Pastor Terry Jones of Gainesville, Fla. garnered for threatening to burn the Quran.
“To burn a book, it doesn’t get rid of that idea,” Jones said.
“People turn mean, and they want a scapegoat. They want something and someone to blame. If they can target a book, that’s something concrete. They can take out all their frustration and anger,” Kilmer said.
Censorship in schools
Sheldon said most books are banned and challenged in K-12 school districts when the content of reading material is questioned. Sex, drugs, religion, politics and language continue to be the primary objections parents have with books their children read in school, Jones said.
About two-thirds of the challenges between 2001 and 2009 were in schools and libraries; 48 percent of all challenges came from parents.
“Some things never change. I would say in this country, political books usually don’t get censored. People continue to worry about sex and people engaging in sex too early,” Jones said. “Any books with the n-word, like ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ which has the word 58 times.”
Brian Hickam, former librarian for UT’s College of Health Science and Human Services, has been involved with the university’s Banned Books Week since he joined the staff in 2004.
“It’s about more than books. The freedom to view, listen, think,” Hickam said. “We need to uphold our freedoms and remember that censorship is always a possibility.”
This year’s event is dedicated to Hickam, who is leaving the university.

13th Annual UT Banned Books Week Vigil Program
Sept. 30, Sullivan Hall room 2030
Door prizes every half hour, snacks and coffee all day, finger food 11:30 a.m. and pizza 4:30 p.m.

• 9 a.m.     “Greetings”— Dr. Marcia Suter, Director of Library Service,
  General Libraries
  “Speech, Reading & the Banning of Thoughts”
  — Dr. Jim Benjamin, Chair, Communication
• 9:30 a.m.   “The First Amendment and the Public Interest Standard”
  — David Tucker, Communication
• 10 a.m.   “Unfortunate Candor: Banning Walt Whitman”
  — Tom Barden, Honors Program Director
• 10:30 a.m.   “Keep the Interwebs Neutral: Non Neutrality and Censorship on the Web”
  — Paul Many, Communication
• 11 a.m.    “We Are Strangers” — Warren Woodbury, Toledo author
• 11:30 a.m.    “Remembering Rane Arroyo, Passionate Poet, Professor, and Friend”
  — Barbara Mann, English
• Noon      Keynote Address (Original Poem): “The Story of Giles Corey”
  — Glenn Sheldon, Honors Program
• 1 p.m.   “Postcards from Prison: Censorship and the Penal System”
  — Renee Heberle, Political Science
• 1:30 p.m.    “Civil Rights, Civil Liberties, and the Two Faces of American Culture”
  — Carter Wilson, Political Science & Law and Social Thought
• 2    “Book Burning in Nazi Germany” — Larry Wilcox, History
• 2:30 p.m.     “How to Ban a Book!” — Ben Pryor, Learning Ventures
• 3  p.m.  Comments from UT President Lloyd Jacobs
• 3:30 p.m.   Jeopardy!  — Hasan Dudar & Jason Mack, Independent Collegian
• 4  p.m.  “Remembering Judith Krug: Librarian &  Founder of Banned Books Week”
  — Elaine Reeves, University Libraries
• 4:30 p.m.    “Sexuality in Children’s Books” — Sharon Barnes, Women’s and Gender Studies
• 5 p.m.   “In Moderation: Censoring Public Website Comments” — Michael S. Miller,  editor in chief, Toledo Free Press
• 5:30 p.m.   “Three Troubled Tunes”
  — Edmund Lingan, Theatre and Film, & Risa Beth Cohen

“Vengeance Valley,” a 1951 Western starring Burt Lancaster and Robert Walker, kicks off the Rave Cinema Classics series Sept. 27 at Rave Motion Pictures at Levis Commons. Based on a novel by Luke Short and directed by Richard Thorpe, the 83-minute film was filmed in Canon City, Colo.

Tickets are $2 for the Cinema Classics series, which runs Mondays at 1 p.m. The lobby opens half an hour before the show.
The Rave Motion Pictures Cinema Classics series is sponsored by Toledo Free Press Star and the Area Office on Aging.
There will be special veterans promotions for the Dec. 13 showing of “White Christmas,” sponsored by Columbia Gas of Ohio. A FOX Toledo charity event will take place at the Dec. 20 showing of “It’s a Wonderful Life.” JB’s Sarnie Shoppe at Levis Commons will join Toledo Free Press Star in a social networking promotion that will award a weekly winner with free lunch for two.
For more information, call (419) 874-2154 and watch www.facebook.com/toledofreepress for contest and weekly promotion details.

• Sept. 27, 2010: “Vengeance Valley”
• Oct. 4, 2010: “His Girl Friday”
• Oct. 11, 2010: Holiday –No Showing
• Oct. 18, 2010: “Big Trees”
• Oct. 25, 2010: “Africa Screams”
• Nov. 8, 2010: “My Dear Secretary”
• Nov. 15, 2010: “The Time Of Your Life”
• Nov. 22, 2010: “Royal Wedding”
• Nov. 29, 2010: “Angel On My Shoulder”
• Dec. 6, 2010: “Scrooge – A Christmas Carol”
• Dec. 13, 2010: “White Christmas”
• Dec. 20, 2010: “It’s A Wonderful Life”
• Dec. 27, 2010: Holiday Week –No Showing
• Jan. 3, 2010: “Gung Ho”
• Jan. 10, 2010: “Heartbreak”
• Jan. 17, 2010: Holiday – No Showing
• Jan. 24, 2010: “Mc Clintock”
• Jan. 31, 2010: “The Stork Club”

Baseball fans can enjoy big league power in the Little League format on PlayStation 3 (PS3) and Xbox 360 now with “Little League World Series 2010”. Activision and Now Productions now expand this quality series beyond the Nintendo Wii. Authentic action-seeking players can rejoice that developers include the new PlayStation Move controller option. Move controller owners definitely have an advantage, with greater movement sensitivity, gameplay is a bit more challenging with a regular PS3 controller.

The worldwide teams and appealing visuals provide nice variety for players who play offline co-op mode and up to four players in the multiplayer mode. Full tournaments are another great option while special one-time use cards, which work like power-up abilities and activated talents based on a special meter, provide some variable gameplay elements.
Players can learn terms and concepts of the game through some thoughtful commentary from Gary Thorne and Brent Musberger. The announcers also comment on each player’s data when boy and girl players step up to home plate. Inexperienced players should try the tutorial and skill challenges.
Batting works smoothly while aiming hits becomes more challenging. Players can also tweak the pitching and fielding options between easy and technical. Camera angles can be challenging, but players can easily snag fly balls. Pitching controls present the most challenge as hurlers have a limited cache of change-up, two-seam fastballs or four-seam fastballs.
The sizable tournament mode, exhibition mode, and mini games work well while online features include leader boards, achievements and trophies. It would be great to see a full gameplay mode online in the next installment (***, rated E, available on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360).

As they say, fish gotta swim and birds gotta fly — and Harlan Ellison had to return to comic books. The Grand Master himself, one of the greatest living writers of imaginative and speculative fiction, has kicked off a new four-part series with IDW Publishing, “Phoenix Without Ashes,” which marks the culmination of a decades-long journey.
The Game Room’s Paul Shiple couldn’t be more excited about Ellison’s reunion with the medium, the Ohio native’s first all-new comic project of the 21st century.
“It was originally developed as a teleplay in 1973 for the television show ‘The Starlost,’” Shiple said. “But the series producers so badly mangled the production, Ellison removed his name from the credits and refused to take part any further in the series. Fast-forward 37 years. Ellison, in collaboration with artist Alan Robinson, resurrected the story and has finally restored his intended vision. Fans of any genre will enjoy the result: a fully realized piece of SF storytelling.”
The ill-fated “The Starlost” featured “2001: A Space Odyssey” star Keir Dullea. After Ellison’s walk-out, Ellison was billed under his well-known pseudonym Cordwainer Bird. The often-controversial writer is no stranger to comics; his work in the industry stretches back to a 1971 story in Marvel Comics’ “Avengers” and includes such diverse properties as Batman, the X-Men, the Hulk and the 1991 “Twilight Zone” title. Ellison’s popular “Dream Corridor” series with Dark Horse is at four volumes and still counting.
His prose stories have been adapted by such famous illustrators as Jim Steranko, William Stout, Moebius and Alfredo Alcala.
“Phoenix Without Ashes” No. 1 begins the tale of Devon, a 28th century farmer who must make his way as an outcast in an ever-confounding world. IDW plans for the series to be released monthly for the next three months, and all issues will most likely be collected in one volume at a later date.

He’s a journalist, actor, director, producer and up-and-coming author. But if there’s one thing Toledo native Jason Gilmore, 33, is focused on at the moment, it’s the success of his latest short film.
Gilmore’s independent film, “Individualized Education Plan,” (“IEP”) will be screened at the International Black Film Festival in Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 29 through Oct. 3.
Of being chosen for the film festival, Gilmore said, “It was a nice affirmation any time that any festival says, ‘Hey, we saw your film and we want you to be a part of what we represent’.”
“IEP,” which premiered at the LA Shorts Fest this year on July 28, is the fictional story of a harsh reality in the Los Angeles school system. The fictional film looks at Xavier, an 8-year-old African-American boy who, because of behavioral problems at school, is under scrutiny and at risk of being put in special education and the ramifications of that situation.

Jason Gilmore

The script for “IEP” was written by actress, school psychologist and Gilmore’s wife, Trenekia Danielle. As a psychologist for the LA Unified School District, Danielle became upset by what she witnessed happening to children, particularly young black males, in the school system.
“My focus was always with acting [and] singing, those kinds of performances, I would write more for myself almost like my own little diary but I never saw it as something I would pursue professionally,” Danielle said. “So that was my way of letting go of that situation.”
The film is not based on a specific child, but the big issues Danielle dealt with, she added.
Gilmore said after researching the topic, he wanted to shed light on the problems.
“I looked at it [the script] and said ‘this is something we should do’,” Gilmore said. “Unfortunately it’s one of those things that most people don’t know about unless it happens to someone they know.”
Still, the common thread in all of Gilmore’s short films has been relationship issues. Gilmore has written, directed and starred in a number of short films, including “How Shawn Parker Fell in Love,” “Something Borrowed” and “Straight from the Heart.”
Choosing one area of expertise is not likely with Gilmore’s aspirations. He said he’s always been a writer first and foremost; whatever the project in motion, his ideas are born when his pen hits the paper.
“In high school I wrote a lot of different poems, short stories and raps – I was all over the place, and I just never stopped,” he said. “I just go where I’m interested.”
Gilmore was inspired by the work of Gordon Parks, a famous photographer, filmmaker, composer and writer.
“That kind of validated that I could do this,” Gilmore said of his multifaceted idol.
After graduating from Maumee Valley Country Day School, Gilmore attended the University of Pittsburgh, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in film. Creativity is a passion taken very seriously with the married couple, who live in Los Angeles, where all Gilmore’s films have been shot.
“When we put our minds to something that’s creative we’re pretty successful at it … we become very focused and very driven about it so we can do the very best we can in that art form … I think [Jason’s] drive is what pushes his talent,” Danielle said.
Up next for Gilmore: tackling a feature-length film which he hopes to have finished as early as next year. He’s also been working on a coming-of-age novel, “Somewhere Between Here and There,” which is in the works to be published.
To watch Gilmore’s short films, visit www.vimeo.com/jasongilmore.