Even During MEAN WEEK, There Are Still Some Things I Don’t Hate; Here are Three (And a Bonus)
Rachel Sherman – I mentioned last week how bummed I was to miss the launch party for Living Room, Rachel’s new novel. She’s reading tomorrow at the KGB Bar here in NYC, and I’m really hoping to make it there.
The Rumpus Interview with Lydia Millet.
The Interrogative Mood: A Novel? by Padgett Powell – In a month that has been more or less one long relentless shitstorm, punctuated by occasional binge drinking, I had no time to read anything that wasn’t assigned–either to me or by me. But I damn well made time for this, my old teacher’s first new book since Mrs. Hollingsworth’s Men (2000). Every time I opened the book it was Christmas afresh. Honest to goodness pleasurable reading. If anything kept me from putting my own head through a wall this October, it was probably this book. But don’t take my word for it. Ask the NYT.
****SPECIAL MUSICAL NON-HATEFUL BONUS*******
Magnolia Electric Co. Daytrotter Session – Another sweet find directed my way by the increasingly essential Alec Niedenthal. Seriously, what did I do before I knew this kid? Because Jason Molina is awesome, and because he seems to believe that the base unit of musical thought is “album,” his band’s theoretically EP-length session is a whopping six songs (the average is 4) and clocks in at just over 22 minutes. It includes new versions of two tracks off Josephine, a new version of “The Dark Don’t Hide It,” which is an all-time Molina great, a couple unreleased songs, and a cover of Warren Zevon’s “Lawyers, Guns and Money.”
The Redneck Trilogy
The Redneck Trilogy
(Danny Dever – Phoenix)
Choice Gleanings from the Doomsday Film Festival and Symposium
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy5rL5rRbwI
Gabriel McKee, the moderator of the panel I appeared on on Friday night, runs a very cool blog called sfgospel.com. There’s a double review up now of the new R. Crumb take on Genesis with the Wolverton Bible.
Nick Thompson, senior editor of Wired, was on the panel too. He spoke about the Soviet Doomsday Machine.
Then, at a second panel on Sunday, I found myself in the company of Bob Fingerman, John Joseph Adams (editor of Wastelands, the apocalypse anthology that came out shortly after mine, and which I have always privately regarded as my book’s worthy nemesis), plus two fine people whose names escape me at present, including a woman named Hillary who got more than a bit breathless when discussing Japanime, especially Akira and Legend of the Overfiend (see above).
Then somehow I wound up at this site Overthinking It (I think this was via the Rumpus, actually, but it’s Doomsday-appropriate) which I’m rapidly falling in love with. Here’s their explanation of the new technical term, “Ghost Ship Moment”-
The Ghost Ship Moment (or GSM), in its most basic formulation, is when the characters in a film learn what you know from the movie’s title.
Random / Comments Off on Choice Gleanings from the Doomsday Film Festival and Symposium
October 26th, 2009 / 10:35 am
October 26th, 2009 / 10:35 am
Play Sleuth #1
Anyone know the origin of this photo? Digging the ink, the stance, the composition, everything.
Adam Robinson—
Does it seem like there are an unusually high number of posts here today, I mean for a Friday?
26
Drew Toal—
Has there ever been a good book about skateboarding? I was just watching Thrashin’ for the millionth time the other day, and thought, “Man, this story of Corey Webster and his one-man skate crusade against nemesis Hook (and his band of loyal Daggers) as they battle first at the joust and then at the big downhill,” would make for a riveting read. I had hopes for that When Skateboards Will Be Free book, but it turns out that it wasn’t really about siiiick Acid Drops at all. Disappointing.
The 2nd Outlet
Blake, famously, illustrated his poems. Henri Michaux was an accomplished and renowned artist as well as a “master” prose poet. Archie Ammons painted (my friend Brian Clements owns a bunch of originals). Flannery O’Connor too. And she recommended it for writers.
And I recommend “it” too. And by “it” I mean some other form of creativity besides writing. “Real” writing (ha ha). Even blogging (??) can be this 2nd outlet of creativity.
I draw and smear around on paper. And take photos of it. And I find it quite rewarding. And in some way(s) I am sure this enhances and complements my writing.
But, as with anything else (wine, women, werewolves, etc) the 2nd creativity can become too much. An obsession. A distraction. (Blogging !!!!)
I’m not sure how successful I am in keeping the different disciplines in good check but one solution for me is to write and smear at different times of the day. And, in general, to just keep an eye on the situation.
I’m guessing that many of yall have a 2nd creative outlet and wanted to know how you keep it useful without it becoming a harmful distraction ? (that being said some writers may well be better artists or whatnot and, so, the 2nd creative outlet SHOULD take over…..)
NYC Area Alert: Doomsday Film Festival and Symposium Begins Tonight, Runs All Weekend
So yeah, get your Apocalypse on! And come see me! I’m on a panel tonight entitled “Doomsday Over the Ages & How to Survive The Apocalypse,” with Nicholas Thompson from Wired, Hugo Award-winner Ron Miller, Lee Quinby (author of Millenial Seduction: A Skeptic Confronts Apocalyptic Culture), and Andrew Rosenthal–a chaplain. There’s stuff happening all weekend long, including an Apocalypse Literary Reading on Sunday (which I’ll also be part of). As near as I can tell, the whole thing is going down at DCTV (87 Lafayette, NYC). All the details are here, and it’s perfect for date night–so I’ll see you there, and/or in Hell.
GPS Flash Fiction?
In January of 2009, this marathoner wrote a message on a map with GPS tracking software to raise funds for a small village in Uganda and posted the video on YouTube. If you can’t read it, it says “Hello I am running in the 2009 Flora London Marathon for ICYE UK; please sponsor me at justgiving.com/jennys_run.”
This website “investigates principles and techniques of drawing and sculpting with satellite navigation technology.”
Question: when will Sean Lovelace write a flash fiction with a GPS tracking device?
(via old NYTimes story)
Drugs (a guest post from the Tyrant, Giancarlo DiTrapano)
The Tyrant‘s got some questions:
You write, man? You do drugs, man? You do drugs and write, man? I don’t want to count drinking as drugs but I guess I will if you’re going to fucking make me. Man, those drinkers sure knew how to write, didn’t they? You know who they are. What happened to that? Did anything happen to that? I’ve tried to drink and write but I always want to talk once I’ve had a drink so I end up at my computer facing a blank word doc, but then I’m fast on the phone with a childhood friend or someone else I usually wouldn’t want to talk to. But (some) drugs are different. They make you think faster or slower or better. Maybe they allow you to think of things from your past that you can’t bear to think of sober. Some say they give you “Ass Power” and now I bet you want to know what that is. I heard an interview with Tony Robbins (that giant-mouthed guy) talking with Quincy Jones about Michael Jackson recording Thriller and all the “Ass Power” Michael Jackson had. “Ass Power” is the power to keep your ass seated and get some fucking work done. Do drugs give you “Ass Power” or “Word Power” or “Story Power” or whatever the fuck you think you have or had when you wrote that story that you think is so good but no one will publish? Let’s hear it. You get high and write? Snap tubes, brah? Pop Xannies? Bumpsters? What do you drink, smoke, snort, run when you write? Or maybe you do nothing at all. Let’s hear it, cokeheads.
P.S a) The Tony Robbins story is true.
b) What’s your guy’s number?