I worked about 13 hours yesterday and will do the same today. Work-from-home, be-your-own-boss, oh yeah , baby. Work your keister off. But I'm loving it.
Our new Dell laptop got here, and it's beautiful. For $529, it's better than I thought. Nice display, 3 gb RAM, DVD burner, 250gb HDD, and I had the Windows XP downgrade installed. Vista doesn't seem to be in my immediate future. Microsoft is always changing and upgrading its software, like Hotmail or Internet Explorer or Windows or Office, and asking 10000000 questions every time you go on the Internet. Why not just leave us alone for a while? take a long vacation. Write a 1076 page novel.
Is it worthwhile to read a 1076 page novel? I just started Infinite Jest and I must say, it's one of the best entertainments I've found in a long time. The breadth of imagination, the technical detail, the vocabulary. And drugs, lots of drugs. Between Wallace and Ken Kesey, I am reading so much about drugs I'm having an LSD flashback. Just finished reading Kesey's story "Killer" about smoking STP at a 4th of July party. STP, PCP, it all seems the same. What an awful thud to the brain that stuff was.
I'm looking forward to working with Laurie Seidler on the Spring edition of Verbsap.com. She's asked me to be a reader. If you've written something good and in a small amount of words, like under 2000, let me know. I'll post details as I get them.
Giles Goat-Boy by John Barth. That book has been on my mind lately. If you haven't read it, go get it and get started. It is a comic masterpiece. The parody of Oedipus Rex alone is worth the price of the book.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Congratulations, Neil
Saturday and I'm way too happy for this early in the morning. I expect to look in the mirror and see the face of a lunatic wearing a Neil Crabtree mask. Something is definitely up. What's the Springsteen song?
For the ones who bear the notion
The notion deep inside
That it ain't no sin
To be glad that you're alive
We'll be taking caller number 9. Win a free trip to your own backyard.
Lots of fun last night at and with Friday Night Writers. John Dufresne is in Fort Myers today for a literary event at Florida Gulf Coast University. John generously offered to check out my novel excerpt at Amazon.com/ABNA and post a review, and of course, like an Okie sitting on the porch of his Dust Bowl farm, I say, Nah, I'm okay, too damn dumb to just shut up and let someone do something nice. John actually read the whole novel and gave me some excellent editorial comments last fall. And Les Standiford, author and teacher extraordinaire, has also sent an encouraging note. Again, if I don't fail at this, it won't be because I haven't tried.
And CONGRATULATIONS to Neil Plakcy, Winner of the Left Coast Crime conference Hawaii Five-O Award for Best Police Procedural for his novel, Mahu Fire.
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/features/arts/offthepage/blog/2009/02/neil_s_placky_nmkelby_at_left_1.html
For the ones who bear the notion
The notion deep inside
That it ain't no sin
To be glad that you're alive
We'll be taking caller number 9. Win a free trip to your own backyard.
Lots of fun last night at and with Friday Night Writers. John Dufresne is in Fort Myers today for a literary event at Florida Gulf Coast University. John generously offered to check out my novel excerpt at Amazon.com/ABNA and post a review, and of course, like an Okie sitting on the porch of his Dust Bowl farm, I say, Nah, I'm okay, too damn dumb to just shut up and let someone do something nice. John actually read the whole novel and gave me some excellent editorial comments last fall. And Les Standiford, author and teacher extraordinaire, has also sent an encouraging note. Again, if I don't fail at this, it won't be because I haven't tried.
And CONGRATULATIONS to Neil Plakcy, Winner of the Left Coast Crime conference Hawaii Five-O Award for Best Police Procedural for his novel, Mahu Fire.
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/features/arts/offthepage/blog/2009/02/neil_s_placky_nmkelby_at_left_1.html
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Correction Day
Guess what I'm doing right now? I'm re-printing 26 page ones of my new piece, "My Yard" so I can change eleven words. I had printed the 26 copies last night so i'll be able to turn them in at Friday Night Writers tomorrow. Stapled and ready to go, right. And this morning as I'm getting ready to submit the same story to the American Fiction contest, I notice the first sentence is inaccurate. I describe the lake behind my house as "a sizable body of water" but if I lived in Wisconsin a sizable body of water would be a hell of a lot bigger than this quarry lake that's maybe one hundred feet across. It's too small for power boats. So now it's "a narrow body of water" which I don't really like but I've already said it was a lake, one of the Kendall Lakes, as this area of Miami is called.
Anyway, now I have to pull 26 first pages off and replace them with this revision.
And I got a call from wife that the work I did late Saturday night was 90% correct but the 10% I fucked up is bad enough to cost me my new work-at-home job. I corrected that too but now I will have the awful day-long feeling that whatever I was satisfied with recently is going to return as a ghost, rattling the chains of my incompetency and demanding satisfaction.
To rub in the silly and vainglorious nature of the happy daydreamer, I checked my reviews at Amazon.com/ABNA and find I've been slammed hard by a total stranger, Raquel The Writer, for reasons beyond my control. I looked to see what Raquel has actually written so I could at least see what I'm dealing with, but apparently there is nothing worth putting in her profile. She did give 5-stars to my friend Louis Lowy so I guess one out of two ain't bad. I know better than read reviews but hey, that's why I write. I'm constantly on the make for attaboys.
But "My Yard" with the change looks strong, the best I've done this year. I'm overdue re-writing The Barricades of Heaven, maybe 25 pages of changes I plan to do. In case somebody actually does want to print this...
Anyway, now I have to pull 26 first pages off and replace them with this revision.
And I got a call from wife that the work I did late Saturday night was 90% correct but the 10% I fucked up is bad enough to cost me my new work-at-home job. I corrected that too but now I will have the awful day-long feeling that whatever I was satisfied with recently is going to return as a ghost, rattling the chains of my incompetency and demanding satisfaction.
To rub in the silly and vainglorious nature of the happy daydreamer, I checked my reviews at Amazon.com/ABNA and find I've been slammed hard by a total stranger, Raquel The Writer, for reasons beyond my control. I looked to see what Raquel has actually written so I could at least see what I'm dealing with, but apparently there is nothing worth putting in her profile. She did give 5-stars to my friend Louis Lowy so I guess one out of two ain't bad. I know better than read reviews but hey, that's why I write. I'm constantly on the make for attaboys.
But "My Yard" with the change looks strong, the best I've done this year. I'm overdue re-writing The Barricades of Heaven, maybe 25 pages of changes I plan to do. In case somebody actually does want to print this...
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Who Is Lars Dolf?
Ken Kesey wrote one of his best stories for Esquire, a semi-autobiographical piece using his alter-ego Devlin Deboree (pronounced deb-ree, like debris, he notes) and assigning an alter-ego as well to his friend and Merry Prankster Neal Cassady. "The Day After Superman Died" tells of Deboree living on his farm in Oregon, the LSD days of The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test long behind him, his time and probation served. He is "too young to be a beatnik and too old to be a hippie"--in fact, two hippies hitchhikers back from the Woodstock music festival play a menacing role in the story.
A woman who had been with Kesey and Cassady in their hide-out in Mexico shows up to tell Deboree that Houlihan (Cassady) has died of exposure Down South after drinking and taking a handful of downers and walking the railroad tracks between two villages. His last words were, "Sixty -four thousand nine hundred and twenty eight," which to Deboree sounds like some of the mystical numbers Houlihan used when rapping and filling in gaps while his brain started up again.
By story's end, Deboree learns the real meaning. And we learn more about Cassady-Houlihan, portrayed as Dean Moriarty in Kerouac's On The Road and as Hart Kennedy in John Clellon Holmes' Go, and as himself in the Tom Wolfe book previously mentioned. Read Demon Box, the story collection of Kesey's, still available from Viking Penguin Press, to find this great story, or search the Esquire archives.
In the story, it tells of another proto-hippie mentor power figure in the days when San Francisco and the North Shore were just getting rolling, an ex-football star turned Buddhist yogi, whose physical and mental prowess amazes Deboree and Houlihan. In the story he is called Lars Dolf.
Anyone who knows who this character really is (was) please write me via the comments.
A woman who had been with Kesey and Cassady in their hide-out in Mexico shows up to tell Deboree that Houlihan (Cassady) has died of exposure Down South after drinking and taking a handful of downers and walking the railroad tracks between two villages. His last words were, "Sixty -four thousand nine hundred and twenty eight," which to Deboree sounds like some of the mystical numbers Houlihan used when rapping and filling in gaps while his brain started up again.
By story's end, Deboree learns the real meaning. And we learn more about Cassady-Houlihan, portrayed as Dean Moriarty in Kerouac's On The Road and as Hart Kennedy in John Clellon Holmes' Go, and as himself in the Tom Wolfe book previously mentioned. Read Demon Box, the story collection of Kesey's, still available from Viking Penguin Press, to find this great story, or search the Esquire archives.
In the story, it tells of another proto-hippie mentor power figure in the days when San Francisco and the North Shore were just getting rolling, an ex-football star turned Buddhist yogi, whose physical and mental prowess amazes Deboree and Houlihan. In the story he is called Lars Dolf.
Anyone who knows who this character really is (was) please write me via the comments.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Goodbye, Marbled Steak Road
Red meat makes you dead faster. Much faster.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/03/23/healthmag.red.meat.lifespan/index.html
My son Andrew stopped eating red meat a couple years ago. Now he has cut out chicken and turkey as well. Fish and veggie burgers and fruit and the good things nature offers. He is fit and trim and never gets heartburn. I am unfit and untrim and have heartburn every freakin day.
Morningstar Farms, Boca Burger, and salmon burgers from somewhere. Black bean chipotle burgers. Veggie sausage. He says that the Veggie Burger at Burker King is actually decent.
The numbers are scary, for red meat and cancer and heart failure. Lots of fish, tilapia and salmon and grouper and tuna. Swordfish steaks on the grill are as good as tenderloins.
So, that's my new project. Everyone in my household wants to do it. Eliminate the fat, the cholesterol, the 20 pounds of magma stuck in the colon. If I'm still blogging next year, the new diet may be the reason.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/03/23/healthmag.red.meat.lifespan/index.html
My son Andrew stopped eating red meat a couple years ago. Now he has cut out chicken and turkey as well. Fish and veggie burgers and fruit and the good things nature offers. He is fit and trim and never gets heartburn. I am unfit and untrim and have heartburn every freakin day.
Morningstar Farms, Boca Burger, and salmon burgers from somewhere. Black bean chipotle burgers. Veggie sausage. He says that the Veggie Burger at Burker King is actually decent.
The numbers are scary, for red meat and cancer and heart failure. Lots of fish, tilapia and salmon and grouper and tuna. Swordfish steaks on the grill are as good as tenderloins.
So, that's my new project. Everyone in my household wants to do it. Eliminate the fat, the cholesterol, the 20 pounds of magma stuck in the colon. If I'm still blogging next year, the new diet may be the reason.
Monday, March 23, 2009
March Hare
Where did March go? Blink and it's gone. March Madness, I suppose. Basketball, high winds, spring cleaning, Budweiser hangovers. Frisbees sailing up to the roof and not coming down. Easter PEZ candy dispensers. Waking up with the urge to reform. Better diet, more sleep, go back to wine, try to put in writing the new crystal clear perception that memory, that agenbite of inwit, seems to playback life's blunders more and more. It is quite possible we live in an unconscious fog, and our memory simply plays back our conscious mind trying to catch up. If you read any good Biology of Mind books, the neurobiologists have proven that we unconsciously react to events, then the conscious mind catches up. We get a racing heart rate, sweaty palms and shortness of breath as an immediate reaction to a safe almost falling on us from 7 stories up.
Then the mind tells you what just happened. But the LOOKOUT!!! does not originate in consciousness. Consciousness is the movie version of life. It may even change the script.
I owe reviews to everyone at the Amazon.com/ABNA and will take care of that today, in theory. Amazingly, every review has been 5 stars. It's a tradition I can live with and will continue. I know the writers and the effort they put out, so that makes things easier.
Then the mind tells you what just happened. But the LOOKOUT!!! does not originate in consciousness. Consciousness is the movie version of life. It may even change the script.
I owe reviews to everyone at the Amazon.com/ABNA and will take care of that today, in theory. Amazingly, every review has been 5 stars. It's a tradition I can live with and will continue. I know the writers and the effort they put out, so that makes things easier.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
News About Others
Kristen Tsetsi details the struggles of getting a self-published novel placed where readers can get it at her blog, http://www.kristentsetsi.blogspot.com/. Kristen has actually done an interview on NPR and received excellent reviews. See her main website for more about this fascinating young lady. http://www.kristentsetsi.com/. Also, the entry date for the American Fiction lit contest is extended to May, 2009. http://kristentsetsi.blogspot.com/2009/03/american-fiction-prize-deadline.html
Laurie Seidler, founder/editor of Verbsap.com, is learning to take care of gorillas. Honest. Gorilla sign language, the whole bit. Remember the movie Congo? And that great Amy Hempel short story, "In The Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried." Laurie is actually doing it.
Bernard Bailey and Ron Oliver have put together this years We're Not Dead Yet Party in Tampa today. God I wish I could be there. Music, great people, country living on a ranch out in the toolies. Best to All!!
Laurie Seidler, founder/editor of Verbsap.com, is learning to take care of gorillas. Honest. Gorilla sign language, the whole bit. Remember the movie Congo? And that great Amy Hempel short story, "In The Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried." Laurie is actually doing it.
Bernard Bailey and Ron Oliver have put together this years We're Not Dead Yet Party in Tampa today. God I wish I could be there. Music, great people, country living on a ranch out in the toolies. Best to All!!
Friday, March 20, 2009
Here We Are Now, Entertain Us
Obama appears on The Tonight Show. Give it a rest, Barrack. The campaign's over. And remember: Familiarity breeds contempt. No one gets sick of a celebrity quicker than the American public. Next there will be some sex tape on YouTube. We know the pattern. Just go to work and shut up.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/29789322#29789464
And another thing: I don't want to hear the President say he's "stunned" by AIG giving out Million Dollar bonuses. I've been warning from Day One that these are the same Rich Thugs who got us into this mess. To be surprised that they will take billions of dollars of free money and put it directly into their pockets should surprise no one. The Bailout money should go to the end-users, the American taxpayers. To make it so we have to grovel to some corrupt banker to get our own damn money back is assinine.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001UG3DC0 I checked and there are Customer Reviews there, like little Christmas presents under the tree. Thanks to everyone. It's just what I wanted. And I only got you these gift certificates. Aaaahhh.
A little Dylan, to keep it in perspective:
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/29789322#29789464
And another thing: I don't want to hear the President say he's "stunned" by AIG giving out Million Dollar bonuses. I've been warning from Day One that these are the same Rich Thugs who got us into this mess. To be surprised that they will take billions of dollars of free money and put it directly into their pockets should surprise no one. The Bailout money should go to the end-users, the American taxpayers. To make it so we have to grovel to some corrupt banker to get our own damn money back is assinine.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001UG3DC0 I checked and there are Customer Reviews there, like little Christmas presents under the tree. Thanks to everyone. It's just what I wanted. And I only got you these gift certificates. Aaaahhh.
A little Dylan, to keep it in perspective:
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Back to Reality
Now that my 15 seconds of fame are over, I can get back to work.
Class act: Natasha Richardson, wonderful actress and gracious lady, dead at 45. My favorite roles she played: The Handmaid's Tale, a fine movie version of the Margaret Atwood novel. And a PBS Sherlock Holmes, the good ones with Jeremy Brett, had an oldie that introduced her, The Case of The Red Weinie or something, and she steals the show.
Good day shopping: Ken Kesey's last book, Demon Box, for $5.00. And Philip Larkin, Collected Poems, full pop, for the hell of it. Example:
Wires
The wildest prairies have electric fences,
For though old cattle know they must not stray
Young steers are always scenting purer water
Not here but anywhere. Beyond the wires
Leads them to blunder up against the wires
Whose muscle-shredding violence gives no quarter.
Young steers become old cattle from that day,
Electric limits to their wildest senses.
----Collected Poems, Philip Larkin
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Class act: Natasha Richardson, wonderful actress and gracious lady, dead at 45. My favorite roles she played: The Handmaid's Tale, a fine movie version of the Margaret Atwood novel. And a PBS Sherlock Holmes, the good ones with Jeremy Brett, had an oldie that introduced her, The Case of The Red Weinie or something, and she steals the show.
Good day shopping: Ken Kesey's last book, Demon Box, for $5.00. And Philip Larkin, Collected Poems, full pop, for the hell of it. Example:
Wires
The wildest prairies have electric fences,
For though old cattle know they must not stray
Young steers are always scenting purer water
Not here but anywhere. Beyond the wires
Leads them to blunder up against the wires
Whose muscle-shredding violence gives no quarter.
Young steers become old cattle from that day,
Electric limits to their wildest senses.
----Collected Poems, Philip Larkin
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Now What, Readers of America?
Anyone interested in actually READING an excerpt of my novel, The Barricades of Heaven, can do so at Amazon.com. In fact, it would be wonderful if people would READ and REVIEW the excerpt. That's right. You can actually post your review there at the Amazon site. There's no charge for it, but of course anyone who helps this way does get a share of the MILLIONS OF DOLLARS all writers get when their books are published. You may even get to go to the Oprah Show with me. Honest. And also HOLLYWOOD to do a cameo in the MOVIE and then of course to the ACADEMY AWARDS show and SIT WITH FAMOUS MOVIE STARS.
Simply click here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001UG3DC0
There's NO CHARGE or a charge of $0.00, more accurately. If you ever bought at Amazon.com, you login or register. They do ask for your credit card number or some other method of payment. Even though the charge will be $0.00. Don't be alarmed. This is how we're bailing out AIG and making sure their execs get their million dollar bonuses.
So please. Do your part as an American who wants to meet Oprah Winfrey and go to the Academy Awards show with me. While you're there, review
Louis Lowy (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001UG3BTA )
Mark Goldberg (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001UG3DBG
and Karen Kravit ( http://www.amazon.com/Leaving-Folk-Amazon-Breakthrough-Novel/dp/B001UG3BHW/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_1 )
Karen already has 6 reviews, so we know where she gets her books. Since she has the most reviews, she and her guests get to sit in the front row with Brad and Angelina.
Simply click here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001UG3DC0
There's NO CHARGE or a charge of $0.00, more accurately. If you ever bought at Amazon.com, you login or register. They do ask for your credit card number or some other method of payment. Even though the charge will be $0.00. Don't be alarmed. This is how we're bailing out AIG and making sure their execs get their million dollar bonuses.
So please. Do your part as an American who wants to meet Oprah Winfrey and go to the Academy Awards show with me. While you're there, review
Louis Lowy (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001UG3BTA )
Mark Goldberg (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001UG3DBG
and Karen Kravit ( http://www.amazon.com/Leaving-Folk-Amazon-Breakthrough-Novel/dp/B001UG3BHW/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_1 )
Karen already has 6 reviews, so we know where she gets her books. Since she has the most reviews, she and her guests get to sit in the front row with Brad and Angelina.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest Quarterfinalist
My Novel Is a Quarterfinalist in the Amazon.com Competition!!
The Barricades of Heaven has become a quarterfinalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards competition. I found this wonderful wake-up call in my inbox:
"Now that you're a Quarterfinalist, Amazon customers can read, rate and review your excerpt while your manuscript is being reviewed by Publishers Weekly. Last year, tens of thousands of reviews were written by customers and fellow contestants giving authors valuable feedback on their writing. You can find your excerpt on Amazon.com via the following link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001UG3DC0, and access the main contest page where all entries are located at www.amazon.com/abna. "
The link takes you to the 50 page excerpt and reviews so far. FNW early readers will note that the Johnny Fallon opening has been dropped in favor of getting to Rooster and the DooMee Device motif earlier. At this point, I'm just happy to be here. Thanks to the folks at Amazon ABNA for the consideration.
The Barricades of Heaven has become a quarterfinalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards competition. I found this wonderful wake-up call in my inbox:
"Now that you're a Quarterfinalist, Amazon customers can read, rate and review your excerpt while your manuscript is being reviewed by Publishers Weekly. Last year, tens of thousands of reviews were written by customers and fellow contestants giving authors valuable feedback on their writing. You can find your excerpt on Amazon.com via the following link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001UG3DC0, and access the main contest page where all entries are located at www.amazon.com/abna. "
The link takes you to the 50 page excerpt and reviews so far. FNW early readers will note that the Johnny Fallon opening has been dropped in favor of getting to Rooster and the DooMee Device motif earlier. At this point, I'm just happy to be here. Thanks to the folks at Amazon ABNA for the consideration.
Green Beer For All
Happy St. Patrick's Day, to Mick Nick and the Maggies!
"Your feats end enormous, your volumes immense,
(May the Graces I hoped for sing your Ondtship's song sense!),
Your genus its worldwide, your spacest sublime!
But, Holy Saltmartin, why can't you beat time?"
---Finnegans Wake, (419.5)
"Your feats end enormous, your volumes immense,
(May the Graces I hoped for sing your Ondtship's song sense!),
Your genus its worldwide, your spacest sublime!
But, Holy Saltmartin, why can't you beat time?"
---Finnegans Wake, (419.5)
Monday, March 16, 2009
Why We Love Science
Richard Feynman was one of the greatest theoretical physicists since Einstein. A quote from him in Brian Greene's The Elegant Universe: "Quantum mechanics describes nature as absurd from the point of view of common sense. And it fully agrees with experiment. So I hope you can accept nature as She is---absurd."P.111
Michael Gavaghen has an exciting new blog, http://frequentlyalert.blogspot.com/ and promises to keep us in touch with his views on writing and trying to get published in an indifferent (or absurd) world.
Why has killing everyone you know become so popular? In Miami, for the second week in a row, a man shoots and kills his family. http://www.miamiherald.com/486/story/951963.html
Nationwide, this is happening at an alarming rate. Here's a tip: if Daddy gets laid off, go out and buy firearms for the whole family. At least make a fair fight out of it.
Cheney dislikes doing away with the torture chambers. So does Jack Bauer. But we all know, it's just a show. Like 24. When the shite hits the drafthole, you hippie punks get outta the way.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/15/cheney.interview/index.html
http://www.fox.com/24/
AIG gave its bailout money to German banks. Ouch.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/03/15/AIG.banks.list/index.html
John Cheever posthumously wrecks his career:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/books/review/Wolff-t.html?_r=1&8bu&emc=bua1
Michael Gavaghen has an exciting new blog, http://frequentlyalert.blogspot.com/ and promises to keep us in touch with his views on writing and trying to get published in an indifferent (or absurd) world.
Why has killing everyone you know become so popular? In Miami, for the second week in a row, a man shoots and kills his family. http://www.miamiherald.com/486/story/951963.html
Nationwide, this is happening at an alarming rate. Here's a tip: if Daddy gets laid off, go out and buy firearms for the whole family. At least make a fair fight out of it.
Cheney dislikes doing away with the torture chambers. So does Jack Bauer. But we all know, it's just a show. Like 24. When the shite hits the drafthole, you hippie punks get outta the way.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/15/cheney.interview/index.html
http://www.fox.com/24/
AIG gave its bailout money to German banks. Ouch.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/03/15/AIG.banks.list/index.html
John Cheever posthumously wrecks his career:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/books/review/Wolff-t.html?_r=1&8bu&emc=bua1
Friday, March 13, 2009
Friday the 13th and a full MOON WITH BUDS
BREAKING NEWS! CALIFORNIA CONSIDERING LEGAL POT TO CURB FINANCIAL DISASTER!!!http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1884956,00.html
Anna Nicole Smith's boyfriend and doctors charged, finally. They gave her thousands of prescription drugs for no medical reason, and killed her deader than Elvis.
http://tv.msn.com/tv/article.aspx?news=356634>1=28103
Shooter had failed in his dreams to become a Marine or a cop, authorities say. So he went on a killing rampage, rather than go into telemarketing.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/03/12/alabama.shooting/index.html
See the Dennis Lehane story, "Running Out of Dog" in Coronado
Jon Stewart meets Cramer. The Mad Money man takes insults well.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/TV/03/13/cramer.stewart/index.html
South Florida welcomes SpringBreakers. No bitching from the old fogies this year.
http://www.miamiherald.com/457/story/947431.html
True Love Ways: Man beat girlfriend to death over beer. Then tried to screw her corpse.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/southflorida/story/947482.html
Anna Nicole Smith's boyfriend and doctors charged, finally. They gave her thousands of prescription drugs for no medical reason, and killed her deader than Elvis.
http://tv.msn.com/tv/article.aspx?news=356634>1=28103
Shooter had failed in his dreams to become a Marine or a cop, authorities say. So he went on a killing rampage, rather than go into telemarketing.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/03/12/alabama.shooting/index.html
See the Dennis Lehane story, "Running Out of Dog" in Coronado
Jon Stewart meets Cramer. The Mad Money man takes insults well.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/TV/03/13/cramer.stewart/index.html
South Florida welcomes SpringBreakers. No bitching from the old fogies this year.
http://www.miamiherald.com/457/story/947431.html
True Love Ways: Man beat girlfriend to death over beer. Then tried to screw her corpse.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/southflorida/story/947482.html
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Beware of Darkness
Watch out now, take care
Beware of falling swingers
Dropping all around you
The pain that often lingers
In your fingertips
Beware of darkness
Watch out now, take care
Beware of the thoughts that linger
Winding up inside your head
The hopelessness around you
In the dead of night
Beware of sadness
It can hit you
It can hurt you
Make you sore and what is more
That is not what you are here for
Watch out now, take care
Beware of soft shoe shufflers
Dancing down the sidewalks
As each unconscious sufferer
Wanders aimlessly
Beware of maya
Watch out now, take care
Beware of greedy leaders
They take you where you should not go
While weeping atlas cedars
They just want to grow, grow and grow
Beware of darkness (beware of darkness)
Song and lyrics by George Harrison
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=3383
Beware of falling swingers
Dropping all around you
The pain that often lingers
In your fingertips
Beware of darkness
Watch out now, take care
Beware of the thoughts that linger
Winding up inside your head
The hopelessness around you
In the dead of night
Beware of sadness
It can hit you
It can hurt you
Make you sore and what is more
That is not what you are here for
Watch out now, take care
Beware of soft shoe shufflers
Dancing down the sidewalks
As each unconscious sufferer
Wanders aimlessly
Beware of maya
Watch out now, take care
Beware of greedy leaders
They take you where you should not go
While weeping atlas cedars
They just want to grow, grow and grow
Beware of darkness (beware of darkness)
Song and lyrics by George Harrison
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=3383
Friday, March 6, 2009
Embarassing Capitalism
It's always embarassing ( EM-BARE ASS-ING)when our highly touted, unassailable capitalist system grinds to a halt, and the head capitalists can't figure out how to fix it. Things are as bad as when democracy breaks down, and we elect an idiot for not one but two terms, who saves us from terrorism but gives away our jobs and our homes. Ooops. At least the oil companies made billions of dollars of windfall profits. Oh, the banks did too? AIG did too? And now we have to bail them out? Why?
Does anybody worry that these same capitalists might be fucking us over yet again? I mean, think about it. For 8 years, we have been told, when our property values went up, not to hang on to our equity and pay down or off our mortgages, but to refinance--REFINANCE--though our grandfathers rolled over in their graves when they heard the infommercials. How many ads did you hear every freaking day telling you to refinance your home? Who made money on that?
And Detroit decided we needed SUVs as big as Greyhound busses to drive around, and the oil companies doubled --DOUBLED--the price of gas. Does anybody worry that these same capitalists who fucked us out of our homes and jobs and money are laughing their asses off right now? WE'RE GIVING THESE SAME PEOPLE BILLIONS OF DOLLARS FREE!!!!!
This should be obvious, but the capitalists honestly believe we are the dumbest human beings who ever lived. "THERE'S ONE BORN EVERY MINUTE," ever hear that one? They're talking about SUCKERS.
But Rush Limbaugh can figure it out. Or Sarah Palin. Ask Stephen Colbert.
Consumer based economies depend on the consumers having money to spend. Don't bailout the banks and Wall Street. They'll keep the money in their Cayman Island accounts. Give it to the normal people, to go wild and a have a shopping trip like never before. The banks and Wall St still get the money. We just have some fun with it first. 90 million households get 10 grand each. Tell me that won't work. It's so simple the capitalists will never think of it.
The number 1 rule of capitalism: protect the rich people at all costs. The worker bees die that the Queen might live. Drone away, my brothers and sisters.
Does anybody worry that these same capitalists might be fucking us over yet again? I mean, think about it. For 8 years, we have been told, when our property values went up, not to hang on to our equity and pay down or off our mortgages, but to refinance--REFINANCE--though our grandfathers rolled over in their graves when they heard the infommercials. How many ads did you hear every freaking day telling you to refinance your home? Who made money on that?
And Detroit decided we needed SUVs as big as Greyhound busses to drive around, and the oil companies doubled --DOUBLED--the price of gas. Does anybody worry that these same capitalists who fucked us out of our homes and jobs and money are laughing their asses off right now? WE'RE GIVING THESE SAME PEOPLE BILLIONS OF DOLLARS FREE!!!!!
This should be obvious, but the capitalists honestly believe we are the dumbest human beings who ever lived. "THERE'S ONE BORN EVERY MINUTE," ever hear that one? They're talking about SUCKERS.
But Rush Limbaugh can figure it out. Or Sarah Palin. Ask Stephen Colbert.
Consumer based economies depend on the consumers having money to spend. Don't bailout the banks and Wall Street. They'll keep the money in their Cayman Island accounts. Give it to the normal people, to go wild and a have a shopping trip like never before. The banks and Wall St still get the money. We just have some fun with it first. 90 million households get 10 grand each. Tell me that won't work. It's so simple the capitalists will never think of it.
The number 1 rule of capitalism: protect the rich people at all costs. The worker bees die that the Queen might live. Drone away, my brothers and sisters.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Any World That I'm Welcome To
Edible Excretions: Taiwan's Toilet Restaurant
http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1882569,00.html
Be careful with the poo-poo platter
Horton Foote dead at 92:author of dramas, Tender Mercies, The Trip to Bountiful, To Kill A Mockingbird's award winning screenplay
http://entertainment.msn.com/news/article.aspx?news=355432>1=28101
Rush Limbaugh Debate Is Idiotic:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/04/rollins.republicans/index.html
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Exciting Lit Tidbits!
The New Yorker features a brilliant 174 page piece by D.T. Max on David Foster Wallace, as good a short literary biography as you'll ever see.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/03/09/090309fa_fact_max
Procrastination Lit:Great Novels about wasting time By Jessica Winter in Slate
Featuring William Gaddis and Thomas Bernhard
http://www.slate.com/id/2191252/pagenum/all/
Thomas Bernhard, from Gathering Evidence, a memoir:
His description of Salzburg well exemplifies Bernhard's notoriously hyperbolic prose style: "This city of my fathers is in reality a terminal disease which its inhabitants acquire through heredity or contagion. If they fail to leave at the right moment, they sooner or later either commit suicide, directly or indirectly, or perish slowly and wretchedly on this lethal soil with its archiepiscopal architecture and its mindless blend of National Socialism and Catholicism. Anyone who is familiar with the city knows it to be a cemetery of fantasy and desire, beautiful on the surface but horrifying underneath"
http://www.thomasbernhard.org/cousineautbintro.shtml
The William Gaddis website:
http://www.williamgaddis.org/agape/index.shtml
William Gaddis
"I feel like part of the vanishing breed that thinks a writer should be read and not heard, let alone seen. I think this is because there seems so often today to be a tendency to put the person in the place of his or her work, to turn the creative artist into a performing one, to find what a writer says about writing somehow more valid, or more real, than the writing itself."
--from his acceptance speech for the National Book Award in Fiction for J R , April 1976
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/03/09/090309fa_fact_max
Procrastination Lit:Great Novels about wasting time By Jessica Winter in Slate
Featuring William Gaddis and Thomas Bernhard
http://www.slate.com/id/2191252/pagenum/all/
Thomas Bernhard, from Gathering Evidence, a memoir:
His description of Salzburg well exemplifies Bernhard's notoriously hyperbolic prose style: "This city of my fathers is in reality a terminal disease which its inhabitants acquire through heredity or contagion. If they fail to leave at the right moment, they sooner or later either commit suicide, directly or indirectly, or perish slowly and wretchedly on this lethal soil with its archiepiscopal architecture and its mindless blend of National Socialism and Catholicism. Anyone who is familiar with the city knows it to be a cemetery of fantasy and desire, beautiful on the surface but horrifying underneath"
http://www.thomasbernhard.org/cousineautbintro.shtml
The William Gaddis website:
http://www.williamgaddis.org/agape/index.shtml
William Gaddis
"I feel like part of the vanishing breed that thinks a writer should be read and not heard, let alone seen. I think this is because there seems so often today to be a tendency to put the person in the place of his or her work, to turn the creative artist into a performing one, to find what a writer says about writing somehow more valid, or more real, than the writing itself."
--from his acceptance speech for the National Book Award in Fiction for J R , April 1976
Monday, March 2, 2009
Frost on the pumpkin
Slumdog Millionaire stars return to live in Mumbai slum:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/showbiz/2009/02/26/kapur.back.to.the.slums.cnn?iref=videosearch
Miami temperature dips below 50! Brrrrr!
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/weather/03/02/winter.weather/index.html
Writers tapping out novels on cell-phones:keitai shosetsu
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/02/25/japan.mobilenovels/
China now able to hit the moon:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/03/02/china.moon/index.html?iref=mpstoryview
Neil's vegetable lasagna a success! Send for free recipe! Include $49.99 for shipping and handling! Cash!
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/showbiz/2009/02/26/kapur.back.to.the.slums.cnn?iref=videosearch
Miami temperature dips below 50! Brrrrr!
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/weather/03/02/winter.weather/index.html
Writers tapping out novels on cell-phones:keitai shosetsu
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/02/25/japan.mobilenovels/
China now able to hit the moon:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/03/02/china.moon/index.html?iref=mpstoryview
Neil's vegetable lasagna a success! Send for free recipe! Include $49.99 for shipping and handling! Cash!
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Lasagna
I'm going to make vegetable lasagna today, not as easy as it sounds. The last few times the vegetables were a soggy mush in the middle layer, so I'm abandoning that recipe. It was a vain attempt to imitate the most fantastic pasta I ever had, in Little Italy in NYC, at a kosher Italian place down a flight of stairs, where the waiters sang opera and played violins. The lasagna was easily three or four inches high, a perfect square, no slouching or drip, yet moist, juicy, delicious. In sixteen years, I have not been able to duplicate it, though I have tried several times.
The trick, I'm figuring, is to give up imitation and just go with what should be good. The key to all cooking is this: if you use only good tasting ingredients, it's hard to fuck it up. Whatever you produce should still taste good. Go with a basic format and experiment and hope for the best. Drink a bottle of wine in the process. Use a lot of cheese. People will eat anything if you put a lot of cheese on it.
One recipe says to put the vegetables, sauted, in the cheese. Another says to chop them small and put them in the sauce. I'm leaning to the sauce version. It will be easier to pick out the vegetables if you don't want to eat them. That defeats the purpose of vegetable lasagna, but hell, who am I to judge. Eat what you want. As long as you help clean up, It's fine with me.
There was a moral or theme here I'm forgetting. Something about life is like lasagna. I'm not actually sure that's true. My life certainly has its cheesy moments, and has been saucy from time to time as well. My history is layered and a little melted on top. I have tried to use only good ingredients. And as always, it's best to let me cool for five or ten minutes before you cut me open.
The trick, I'm figuring, is to give up imitation and just go with what should be good. The key to all cooking is this: if you use only good tasting ingredients, it's hard to fuck it up. Whatever you produce should still taste good. Go with a basic format and experiment and hope for the best. Drink a bottle of wine in the process. Use a lot of cheese. People will eat anything if you put a lot of cheese on it.
One recipe says to put the vegetables, sauted, in the cheese. Another says to chop them small and put them in the sauce. I'm leaning to the sauce version. It will be easier to pick out the vegetables if you don't want to eat them. That defeats the purpose of vegetable lasagna, but hell, who am I to judge. Eat what you want. As long as you help clean up, It's fine with me.
There was a moral or theme here I'm forgetting. Something about life is like lasagna. I'm not actually sure that's true. My life certainly has its cheesy moments, and has been saucy from time to time as well. My history is layered and a little melted on top. I have tried to use only good ingredients. And as always, it's best to let me cool for five or ten minutes before you cut me open.
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