Unity: The Introduction

Nothing seems all that strange about Unity, Connecticut. The winters are cold and lingering; the summers hot and humid. Unity was a thriving town until the factory shut down a few decades ago. Now descendants of factory workers mingle with an ever growing immigrant population. The rich and upper middle class live somewhere else. Ideas travel slowly, despite the town's relative proximity to New York City. Locals run conservative and focus on the ordinary.

"Ordinary" takes on a different meaning here. Sometimes new stores appear downtown, only to vanish a few days later. The howls coming from the woods sound nothing like coyotes. People avoid the library because the librarians interpret "knowledge is power" a little too literally. The mayor is both the youngest and the oldest in the state's history.

Unity doesn't seem strange, but viewing it that way takes practice.

Author's Note: I grew up in Connecticut. I've never been to Union, so any resemblance is a coincidence or a characteristic of the state in general. All characters are made up except for any historical figures that might appear as ghosts or time travelers.

The concept for this project is what I'm calling "open notebook." I will post character sketches, notes, and random doodles as well as actual stories. Things may very well end up contradicting each other but hey, that's Unity for you.

Albums I Have Loved: Savage Garden, Savage Garden

This post is dedicated to my college roommate, who also grew up with this CD. If this is your first time reading this feature (which it is, since this is the first review), here's a brief introduction to my process.

I don't remember my first trip to the record store. I remember other trips, poring over stacks of plastic-wrapped CDs in the glare of overhead lights, but nothing stands out as the first time. Savage Garden's self-titled first album was one of the first CDs I ever owned, but I know this because I owned about six CDs from ages 10 to 14, and half of those I "borrowed" from my dad. Savage Garden was a purchase all my own, though, based on listening to the radio rather than my dad's music collection.

A little backstory first: Savage Garden, the debut album of Australian pop duet Savage Garden (surprisingly enough), came out in 1997. I was a middle schooler with truly unfortunate bangs. Darren Hayes had yet to come out of the closet. It was a different time. Still, when I cued up the album 17 years later, I knew every word. I'll leave it to someone else to decide whether these tracks stand the test of time. The last days of my childhood are in this album, along with the first stumbling steps toward adulthood.