|
Prolonged Absence
Posted 5:53 PM, Jan 29, 2006 |
Has it really been 10 days since we last talked? Sorry - I’ve been really busy with work and other things; I was even out of the office all week last week with the exception of one afternoon.
I’ll try to do better to keep in touch with you - you know how I value our conversations, every spoken and written word. It pains me to know that it has been 10 days since we talked and I barely noticed.
But then, on the other hand, it’s not like you were writing me, either. I don’t feel so bad, after all.
|
|
|
|
Shows
Posted 9:43 PM, Jan 19, 2006 |
More shows added to the calendar, including Jamie Lidell, Ladytron, and Rogue Wave (opening for Nada Surf). I added two new venues, the Varsity (for Jamie Lidell) and the Whole Music Club (for the Books).
Until next time.
|
|
|
|
Bending the Truth
Posted 11:51 AM, Jan 17, 2006 |
This article by Michiko Kakutani from The New York Times manages to elucidate a whole bunch of things that have, at times in the last couple weeks, been wandering around my head. She talks about James Frey’s non-memoir A Million Little Pieces, the, as she puts it, “troubling insistence… that it really didn’t matter if he’d taken liberties with the facts of his story,” and how truth and actual non-fiction aren’t really that important today, and not just in the literary world.
(She also points out the interesting contrast between A Million Little Pieces and Elie Wiesel’s Night (Oprah’s new book selection) in the sense that they both deal with memory, although one (Pieces), it turns out, pretty much abuses the idea of memory, beating it into a parody of itself.)
I ran into someone who was, at the time (a couple weeks ago), reading Frey’s book. She hadn’t heard the revelation that the book was, at the very least, a liberal bending of the truth. She proclaimed not to care and not to see what the big deal was whether it was true or not. I find that reaction a little hard to swallow - as Kakutani points out, the book sold very well in 2005 (#2, second to the newest Harry Potter), but not because of its literary merits. It sold well because of its exposure on Oprah, which stemmed from the fact that the book was, ostensibly, a memoir. Had the book been published as fiction, as a novel, it would have gone almost entirely unnoticed.
(I’m trying not to just recycle Kakutani’s ideas, but her piece is so spot-on.)
In a discussion with some friends, we were talking about how most of the work relationships in the office where I work are perceived as layered with intrigue, duplicity, and backstabbing. People are perceived as having ulterior motives. People are portrayed as constant schemers, paying lip service to anyone around just to get what they want. In reality, while there are these kinds of relationships and this kind of “intrigue,” it’s not nearly as widespread or ingrained as people think.
I suspect relationships are perceived that way because of reality television. When Contestant A on the latest Survivor is particularly nice to Contestant B, the show is framed and staged in such a way that all the contestants look for ulterior motives and try to deduce some nefarious scheme. Nothing on Survivor (or any other reality/survival shows) happens without the purpose of furthering the plot and ratcheting up the suspense and intrigue.
Frey’s novel does the same thing, taking mundane or uninteresting details and stretching them, framing them in such a way as to make everything more interesting. It isn’t bad — I don’t think anyone’s against things being interesting or suspensful — but it isn’t real, and shouldn’t be catalogued as such.
This whole topic has many, many more layers, obviously, and historical roots that trace back past Pentimento, Oliver Stone, and even Capote and new journalism. I’d be totally interested in tracing the decay of the idea of truth and objectivity. Maybe I’ll do that.
|
|
|
|
A Personal History with the Washington Redskins
Posted 7:01 PM, Jan 14, 2006 |
i have so few memories of you,
washington redskins; you were not on television
the new year’s day on which i accidentally
got drunk on champagne and had to hide
among the hanging sleeves
of the coat closet, my tongue fizzing for hours.
today you are the team to make things interesting,
the washington generals, perennial, hapless,
the tackling dummies and second-string,
there to fill out the field.
you are the team i would pick
last if i were choosing sides in a flag
football game.
my most striking memory of you,
washington redskins, if forced to recall one,
is the time my third-grade teacher told
the class not to use the word “redskin”
when talking about professional football.
i have never looked
back at you, but i am sure
you are behind me.
|
|
|
|
An Extra in the Movie Adaptation of the Sequel to My Life
Posted 1:33 PM, Jan 13, 2006 |
I have come up with the leading candidate to play me in the movie of my life, and that person is Jason Lee.
Expel any thoughts of that Earl show, and consider this picture.
Also, for use as a guitar body double, Sam Beam (Iron & Wine), as seen here.
Other suggestions will be heard, but I really do challenge you to find a better match than Jason Lee (thanks to Meaghan for pointing this out a long while back).
|
|
|
|
The Well is Dry
Posted 9:10 AM, Jan 11, 2006 |
Things are quiet over here. When things are going poorly, I have many things to say.
I’ve also been extremely busy at work.
The good news is I’ve been able to watch an entire season of Arrested Development, half of Freaks & Geeks, play a fair amount of guitar, shoot lots of pool, throw some darts, have drinks with numerous fine individuals, see some art, have excellent food, watch football, and get in a middling amount of sleep. That’s what I’ve been up to instead of this tomfoolery, this ballyhoo.
|
|
|
|
Update
Posted 6:00 PM, Jan 5, 2006 |
I also posted up through chapter 14. I have this tendency to:
1) make disclaimers about things that I write, particularly fiction, so consider this, that, and
2) when I have to write action, I forget about everything else, and end up losing most of the small ability I have (you can consider this a disclaimer, as well).
My stories would be great if nobody ever talked or moved.
|
|
|
|
Stack 2
Posted 2:34 PM, Jan 5, 2006 |
A continuation of list describing the stack of articles on my desk at work.
19) A piece from The New Yorker about Sara Silverman.
20) Fiction from The New Yorker - “Where I’m Likely To Find It”, by Haruki Murakami.
21) An interview with Jonathan Lethem (from The Morning News).
22) A short piece about the idiosyncracy (and predicatability) of “the McSweeney’s short story,” and how it’s become a menace.
23) An article that makes a case for reading (and writing) difficult books.
24) Ben Marcus vs. Jonathan Franzen and some “literary wrangling” over the status of contemporary American fiction.
25) A Salon interview with Karuki Murakami (of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle vintage).
26) “The Trendspotting Generation,” by Daniel Radosh, a piece about trends.
27) A short story by Ali Smith, “True Short Story,” described as, “Without the cancer drug Herceptin, this is how short the story of a life might be.” This was good.
28) Fiction from The New Yorker - “Wenlock Edge” by Alice Munro.
29) A Bookslut interview with Annie Proulx.
30) Film review by Anthony Lane (The New Yorker) of Brokeback Mountain and Narnia.
31) An interview with Barbara Ehrenreich (from The Morning News).
32) An interview with weird-fiction short story writer Kelly Link.
33) Fiction from The New Yorker - “La Conchita” by T. Coraghessan Boyle.
34) A Guardian interview with Joan Didion about The Year of Magical Thinking (which I really want to read - the book, not the interview).
35) Fiction from The New Yorker - “Brokeback Mountain” by Annie Proulx.
36) A New York Times piece about child pornography.
37) Tuesday Morning Quarterback from December 20, 2005.
38) “Auggie Wren’s Christmas Story” by Paul Auster (taken verbatim from, I believe, the film Smoke).
39) Tuesday Morning Quarterback from December 27, 2005.
40) Tuesday Morning Quarterback from January 3, 2006.
41) Short piece, “This is No Game,” by Jack Handey, from The New Yorker.
42) “Talking About Seeing: A Conversation with James Benning.”
43) Fiction from The New Yorker - “The Cryptozoologist” by Tony Earley.
44) “9/11: Debunking the Myths” from Popular Mechanics.
45) “Why Are Movies So Bad? or, The Numbers,” an essay by Pauline Kael (from The New Yorker, June 23, 1980.
46) “Neal Stephenson’s Past, Present, and Future,” an interview by Mike Godwin from reasononline.
47) An interview with Michael Lewis (Moneyball) (from The Morning News).
48) “Absolutely, Power Corrupts,” an article by Michael Lewis, about power and steroids in baseball, from The New York Times back on April 24, 2005.
Whew. If you can’t tell, I’ve been reading a lot of online content from The New Yorker, but am happy to now be a subscriber to the real, print version. This might cut down on my reading at work, or maybe expand it to other venues.
|
|
|
|
Just a Little Note
Posted 6:15 PM, Jan 3, 2006 |
So I had written a lot more than I thought, and so I added chapters 6-10. I now have to sit down and write more, because you have everything that I have. Also, I know I have problems with inconsistent tenses. I’m blaming it on chihuahuas.
|
|
|
|
Little Things
Posted 2:49 PM, Jan 2, 2006 |
A few little things:
1) Um, like, happy new year. And stuff.
2) I changed the “fiction” link on the right to new stuff.
3) I removed the ————- link on the right, so it’s not there.
4) I updated the fiction, too. I think I left some of it at work, but I posted everything I have. So maybe more later.
|
|
|
|
|
){kind=link}
