Thursday, March 31, 2011
Portable apps
In the office early setting up my flash drive for class. Not sure why I never did this before. U3 programs like Firefox, Celtx, getting everything I need together so I don't have to use whatever computer is in the classroom -- a matter of convenience, I suppose. I can make the bookmarks I need etc. Took me over 10 years to figure this out ha ha.
Running errands
I love running errands -- as long as I am alone. Because if I'm alone, then I can turn the experience into a slow brooding creative private brainstorming session about whatever the hell I'm working on or what's bugging me to be worked on ... I can mumble, talk to myself, take my time, and otherwise take an hour doing a 15 minute chore. Doesn't work too well if the wife or anyone else is around.
Hence this morning, when returning library books and buying supplies for scrapple became a long session of brooding. Brooding is one a writer's most valuable tools. When those early producers in LaLaLand found the studio screenwriters staring out the window all the time, they didn't think they were working. Little did they know.
Easy day in class, I think, the first couple weeks usually are because I introduce so many concepts that are new to most of the students. Today I'll try out the Portable Celtx I put on a flash drive and talk about format and writing style while developing a script on the screen. Usually I do it by hand on a chalk board or whatever they call those white boards that sometimes replace "black boards," as they were called when I was a student in class. Also have a couple short videos to show, interviews with screenwriters ... and then next Tues I'll show the feature documentary "Tales from the Script." I give them a lot of exposure to the pro's from the start, who of course say the same thing I or any competent screenwriting teacher says. But when so many are saying the same thing, more or less, it has an impact.
I need a short project of my own for this term. I'm not ready to get serious about the novella yet, I see that as being obsessive and taking most of my mental time. A summer project. I'll keep writing poems, of course, and I can get a jump start on putting the book together ... but I'd like a new project that takes a couple months. I've had a couple ideas for stage plays but I keep remembering what a "former playwright," now successful screenwriter, once told me, that now and again he had an idea for a stage play but he found that banging his head against the wall and drinking a lot of whiskey got rid of it for him. He was speaking, of course, to the lack of remuneration for such work, especially when compared to screenwriting. I mean, you can make more money on screenplays that go nowhere than on stage plays that do well! This may have been more true in the 80s when Option Fever became a pandemic among producers. But playwriting can be thankless unless it's so much in your blood, you love it so much, that you do it, and theater generally, despite everything. I don't have the energy or dedication any more -- though I still flirt, now and again, with the idea of forming my own company and doing small serious plays, writing and directing myself. Well the video does the same thing with larger exposure.
On the other hand, I feel genuine relief and excitement about doing a project, the novella ahead, that requires no collaboration. I love working with actors. But I also love, and often more, working alone.
Well. The point is, I am fumbling around for a term project to get me to the summer. Or maybe I should just spend all that energy on practicing the banjo and get much better at it.
Decisions, decisions.
Hence this morning, when returning library books and buying supplies for scrapple became a long session of brooding. Brooding is one a writer's most valuable tools. When those early producers in LaLaLand found the studio screenwriters staring out the window all the time, they didn't think they were working. Little did they know.
Easy day in class, I think, the first couple weeks usually are because I introduce so many concepts that are new to most of the students. Today I'll try out the Portable Celtx I put on a flash drive and talk about format and writing style while developing a script on the screen. Usually I do it by hand on a chalk board or whatever they call those white boards that sometimes replace "black boards," as they were called when I was a student in class. Also have a couple short videos to show, interviews with screenwriters ... and then next Tues I'll show the feature documentary "Tales from the Script." I give them a lot of exposure to the pro's from the start, who of course say the same thing I or any competent screenwriting teacher says. But when so many are saying the same thing, more or less, it has an impact.
I need a short project of my own for this term. I'm not ready to get serious about the novella yet, I see that as being obsessive and taking most of my mental time. A summer project. I'll keep writing poems, of course, and I can get a jump start on putting the book together ... but I'd like a new project that takes a couple months. I've had a couple ideas for stage plays but I keep remembering what a "former playwright," now successful screenwriter, once told me, that now and again he had an idea for a stage play but he found that banging his head against the wall and drinking a lot of whiskey got rid of it for him. He was speaking, of course, to the lack of remuneration for such work, especially when compared to screenwriting. I mean, you can make more money on screenplays that go nowhere than on stage plays that do well! This may have been more true in the 80s when Option Fever became a pandemic among producers. But playwriting can be thankless unless it's so much in your blood, you love it so much, that you do it, and theater generally, despite everything. I don't have the energy or dedication any more -- though I still flirt, now and again, with the idea of forming my own company and doing small serious plays, writing and directing myself. Well the video does the same thing with larger exposure.
On the other hand, I feel genuine relief and excitement about doing a project, the novella ahead, that requires no collaboration. I love working with actors. But I also love, and often more, working alone.
Well. The point is, I am fumbling around for a term project to get me to the summer. Or maybe I should just spend all that energy on practicing the banjo and get much better at it.
Decisions, decisions.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Lazy afternoon
Got some actual work done this morning, finishing an old screenplay and getting into passive marketing. Feel like I've accomplished something. Then a little banjo practice for my first class tonight. I'm presentable if not great.
It occurred to me, there's a periodic string band class in town but it's always on Tues night when I teach. BUT next school year I teach at noon -- so I can take the string band class! And by the gods I think I will. Something else to look forward to.
It's nice to look forward to things, especially when some folks think I'm morbid ha ha. Morbidity looks forward only to one thing.
It occurred to me, there's a periodic string band class in town but it's always on Tues night when I teach. BUT next school year I teach at noon -- so I can take the string band class! And by the gods I think I will. Something else to look forward to.
It's nice to look forward to things, especially when some folks think I'm morbid ha ha. Morbidity looks forward only to one thing.
When someone remembers
A comment on a 2007 post here, in which I remember my mentor the late Dean Regenos, has good things to say about Dean from someone who knew him before I did, who credits Dean with the reason he got excited about and went into theater. We're not forgotten by everyone all the time, which is comforting to remember.
Portable Celtx
Celtx, the terrific FREE screenplay format software, has a portable version that you can run from a flash drive on any PC, thus giving screenwriters great mobility. It's available at a Danish website.
Portable Celtx homepage.
Portable Celtx homepage.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Home sweet home
Exhausted and glad to be home. Teaching takes more out of me the older I get. I couldn't teach two classes back to back any more.
And Baylor is losing! God I hope the Baylor women lose. I dislike them because they play men's style with their gigantic center. Boring.
And Baylor is losing! God I hope the Baylor women lose. I dislike them because they play men's style with their gigantic center. Boring.
Curtain Call (poem)
Curtain Call
I suspect it will happen
without warning or fanfare
without drama or premonition
now you see him now
you don't sort of thing
and of course there will be
those who are surprised
and those who aren't
but no one collapses
from shock
the tidbit in the paper
gets published or not
and a gathering of sorts
arranged by my wife
and some come
and some don't
a few nice things get said
somebody reads something
if I get my way but
of course I'll never know
and that's about it really
maybe a few mentions now
and again but there's no family
legacy to speak of
just a library full of writing
an online archive the same
gathering dust and whatever it is
that happens in cyberspace
to megs of forgotten bytes
finally no one remembers much
of anything and says less
silence begets silence
even dust to dust suggests
more activity than merited
by oblivion
--Charles Deemer
I suspect it will happen
without warning or fanfare
without drama or premonition
now you see him now
you don't sort of thing
and of course there will be
those who are surprised
and those who aren't
but no one collapses
from shock
the tidbit in the paper
gets published or not
and a gathering of sorts
arranged by my wife
and some come
and some don't
a few nice things get said
somebody reads something
if I get my way but
of course I'll never know
and that's about it really
maybe a few mentions now
and again but there's no family
legacy to speak of
just a library full of writing
an online archive the same
gathering dust and whatever it is
that happens in cyberspace
to megs of forgotten bytes
finally no one remembers much
of anything and says less
silence begets silence
even dust to dust suggests
more activity than merited
by oblivion
--Charles Deemer
Life In Portland (poem)
Life In Portland
you own the sky she said
look up and claim your space
but when I did all I got
was water in my eyes
--Charles Deemer
you own the sky she said
look up and claim your space
but when I did all I got
was water in my eyes
--Charles Deemer
Progress
Managed to take notes and finish the proofing of a manuscript, which I can update tomorrow and send off. So the afternoon was very productive here in the office. A former student roamed by and stopped, and we chatted. He's doing very well, just took a full time job with a publisher.
Office sweet office, or Excitement
A new term! I'm here 4 hours early with bells ringing. And I'm looking forward to fall already, when I teach at noon, which will be a new experience on campus here for me.
I brought work to do, some proofing on Kindle, some newspaper/magazine catch up reading. I can keep myself busy. I've always been good at that.
A very full class this term, a bit larger than usual. They upped the minimum and I usually let a few strays in. Also I am using a new book, the new collection of screenwriting exercises that I contributed to. Gives students a very wide sampling of approaches to craft.
I brought work to do, some proofing on Kindle, some newspaper/magazine catch up reading. I can keep myself busy. I've always been good at that.
A very full class this term, a bit larger than usual. They upped the minimum and I usually let a few strays in. Also I am using a new book, the new collection of screenwriting exercises that I contributed to. Gives students a very wide sampling of approaches to craft.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Civilization (poem)
Civilization
reading today about
Guatemala I am reminded
how we who call ourselves
civilized wear blinders
to the red core of
our violent world
in civil wars especially
where bodies are
hacked dismembered
women raped
babies crushed
their brains splattered
against wall and tree
the natural order of death
we prefer to pretend
such things never happen
how much easier to drop
bombs from great heights
where victims are too
small to reveal suffering
than to lift a crying
baby in your hand and
swing its small head
against the nearest
fruit tree
--Charles Deemer
reading today about
Guatemala I am reminded
how we who call ourselves
civilized wear blinders
to the red core of
our violent world
in civil wars especially
where bodies are
hacked dismembered
women raped
babies crushed
their brains splattered
against wall and tree
the natural order of death
we prefer to pretend
such things never happen
how much easier to drop
bombs from great heights
where victims are too
small to reveal suffering
than to lift a crying
baby in your hand and
swing its small head
against the nearest
fruit tree
--Charles Deemer
Romance (poem)
Romance
in line at Starbucks
she leans forward
and kisses him
soft as her skin
in the shower earlier
their glow still fresh
all things possible
divorce for example
when this moment
gets forgotten
and there's the tragedy
not the divorce
but the forgetting
let nothing negate
the kiss at Starbucks
it matters it counts
and without it
in a zero-sum universe
the balance of the world
tips askew
you must horde the good
moments in memory
despite everything
--Charles Deemer
she leans forward
and kisses him
soft as her skin
in the shower earlier
their glow still fresh
all things possible
divorce for example
when this moment
gets forgotten
and there's the tragedy
not the divorce
but the forgetting
let nothing negate
the kiss at Starbucks
it matters it counts
and without it
in a zero-sum universe
the balance of the world
tips askew
you must horde the good
moments in memory
despite everything
--Charles Deemer
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Sports Pundits
I've never liked sports pundits but they've become more outrageous than ever as the culture entered the Age of Arrogance and Hype. They are verbose, obnoxious, egotistical with few exceptions. So I am delighted they are so wrong about March Madness. Almost no upsets, they said. They were outraged, OUTRAGED, that VCU got into the tournament.
So what happens? More upsets than usual! And VCU upsets #1 Kansas today and goes to the Final Four, where they will play ... BUTLER! I love it.
So what happens? More upsets than usual! And VCU upsets #1 Kansas today and goes to the Final Four, where they will play ... BUTLER! I love it.
Obituaries (poem)
the morning paper gives
an artist friend several
dozen inches and photo
but only because my wife
hounded them to do so
nearby an old man
who drove a bus
gets brief polite
required notice
of his passing
no photo
does it come to this?
coverage in the obit
section of the paper
with the squeaky wheel
getting the grease?
later in households
throughout the city
both artist and driver
wrap the garbage
another monument to
equality
--Charles Deemer
Saturday, March 26, 2011
My favorite mother-in-law story
In the early 70s, "Sally's" parents visited us in Eugene, where we were both grad students. It was summer, we had time off, so planned a trip up the coast together, ending up in Seattle to visit S's brother. On the FIRST NIGHT, staying at the Oregon coast, at one of the fancier resorts, S and her father got into a huge argument during dinner. It continued after dinner at the bar. They were arguing about how he treated her jr high school boyfriend. I couldn't believe it! Anyway, Martha and I bailed and ended up taking a long walk on the beach. I really dug her, so this was a grand time. However, we returned to discover that S and her father refused to continue on the trip together, so we drove back to Eugene and they rented a car and continued up the coast. Unbelievable!
However, decades later, I would be reminded of S's capacity to hold a grudge because after she came out, she held one against me and holds it to this day. Unbelievable once again. UNBELIEVABLE.
Well, my dear departed mother said it all: "people are more interesting than anybody."
However, decades later, I would be reminded of S's capacity to hold a grudge because after she came out, she held one against me and holds it to this day. Unbelievable once again. UNBELIEVABLE.
Well, my dear departed mother said it all: "people are more interesting than anybody."
Belated R.I.P.
Martha Ross Stewart
7/14/15 – 12/10/08
After a long struggle, Martha Ross Stewart died in her sleep of heart failure at age 93. She was born during the First World War to Harriet Wightman and Milton Hurlock Ross in the Forrest Dale ward, west of Sugar House. All the stories indicate she was an active, bright, talented, child. At age seven she won first prize at the Utah State Fair for a water color. She skipped two grades to graduate from LDS High School at age 15, then entered the University of Utah. There she honed her artistic and poetic skills, affiliated with phi kappa alpha and Mortar Board honorary societies, edited the Pen literary quarterly magazine and graduated with honors in Art at 20.
Martha married Justin Call Stewart NewYears Eve, 1935 in New York City. They had three children, Peter, born in 1938, Polly, in 1943, and Heather, in 1948. While raising them, she found time to pursue her painting and poetry, and later took up stained glass work. Martha was celebrated among friends and family for her magical lino-cut Christmas cards which she produced for over fifty years.
She and Justin were long-time members of the First Unitarian Church and Humanists of Utah.
In 1954 Martha began to work at the Salt Lake Public Library, and subsequently worked at the State Library for the Blind and the Utah Historical Society, retiring in 1980. She became a docent at the University of Utah Art Museum, often wearing thematic costumes and delighting in teaching children around Salt Lake valley. Martha also enchanted generations of children with her paper cut-outs of birds and butterflies.
Through her last fifteen years, Martha hosted a bi-weekly waffle brunch at her home in the Avenues where the company was always lively and provocative.
Preceded in death by Justin, Martha is survived by her siblings, Ruth and Zaner and her children Peter, and Polly Stewart and Heather Stewart Dorrell, six grand children, Kate, Rachel, Leslie, Brett, Justin and Gawain; eight great grand children, and one great, great grand child.
Martha was an accomplished artist and a warm and witty woman. She was infamous for her puns. Her death leaves a void in our lives.
I like this Saturday because ...
- all necessary chores completed by 10 a.m.
- lots of banjo practice time
- women's March Madness back in gear
- beginning to feel like spring is here
- summer not far behind
- lots of brooding about summer novella, which will be a hoot to write
- usual blessings
A new Candide
Voltaire covered the bases for the "best of all possible worlds" mentality in Candide. Maybe it's time for the equivalent satire of the "worst of all possible worlds" mentality. If it's already been written, I don't know it.
Hope to get some banjo work done today. Received files I missed from first day of class a few days ago when I was at the beach.
Also women Madness reengages, Sweet 16. Women play a more interesting game than the men do, and this will be true until they raise the men's hoops by at least a foot.
Hope to get some banjo work done today. Received files I missed from first day of class a few days ago when I was at the beach.
Also women Madness reengages, Sweet 16. Women play a more interesting game than the men do, and this will be true until they raise the men's hoops by at least a foot.
Friday, March 25, 2011
"I contain multitudes"
Despite the last two poems, I'm in great spirits tonight! How can this be? Whitman told us: "I contain multitudes."
Many people, it appears, are more humane than their governments.
At any rate, did some revising of the syllabus and more to do. Should be able to print it tomorrow and get it copied.
Many people, it appears, are more humane than their governments.
At any rate, did some revising of the syllabus and more to do. Should be able to print it tomorrow and get it copied.
Why Life Is A Comedy (poem)
Why Life Is A Comedy
if Victor Frank can find
meaning to life in a
Nazis concentration camp
surely yours truly
can find something meaningful
in Portland Oregon
--Charles Deemer
if Victor Frank can find
meaning to life in a
Nazis concentration camp
surely yours truly
can find something meaningful
in Portland Oregon
--Charles Deemer
Despair (poem)
Despair
I despair for those
who will outlive me
their world soon enough
will become horrific
getting even worse
through all their days
voting and all that
never fixes anything
the elected President
always belies the campaign
Wall Street gets anything
it wants rich getting richer
nobody protests money anyway
because everybody wants it
and here's the final insult
Nature is sick of us
Nature is sick of us
before we're sick of ourselves
instead of riots in the streets
earthquakes floods and fissure
and as we await Death
we cry out for God
passing the buck
even at the end
in one final gasp
rejecting responsibility
--Charles Deemer
I despair for those
who will outlive me
their world soon enough
will become horrific
getting even worse
through all their days
voting and all that
never fixes anything
the elected President
always belies the campaign
Wall Street gets anything
it wants rich getting richer
nobody protests money anyway
because everybody wants it
and here's the final insult
Nature is sick of us
Nature is sick of us
before we're sick of ourselves
instead of riots in the streets
earthquakes floods and fissure
and as we await Death
we cry out for God
passing the buck
even at the end
in one final gasp
rejecting responsibility
--Charles Deemer
Teaching hat
Wrote draft of new syllabus this morning. Need to proof and digest it, make necessary changes. To copy center tomorrow.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Arizona creams Duke 93-77
Takes some of the sting off BYU and SDSU losing earlier. Also Butler winning big so far, which would make me 2-2 tonight.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Coastal trance
The ocean does not inspire work. I have things I can do, should do, but I keep staring at the ocean in a state of half-sleep with no energy to do a damn thing.
Ocean (poem)
Ocean
what draws me to
the inscrutable ocean
of many moods is
a larger constancy
a reach toward eternity
a voice like immortality
coming before everything
remaining after everything
always, always Ocean
--Charles Deemer
what draws me to
the inscrutable ocean
of many moods is
a larger constancy
a reach toward eternity
a voice like immortality
coming before everything
remaining after everything
always, always Ocean
--Charles Deemer
Fame & faith
Roiphe's incredible memoir (see below) raises questions that linger. Yes, as a young writer I sought "Fame" but this was not the fame of a movie star or rock star. This was the fame of Einstein. This was the fame of someone who discovered and shared a profound truth, in literature's case about the human condition. One wanted to be not just good but damn good, amazingly good. One wanted to get a response from others like the response you gave your favorite authors.
Of course, I learned as I aged how little "Fame" has to do with merit. This is a similar insight to learning, when I reached the point in my career when I was asked to judge literary competitions, that contests are about judges, not writers. Fame is about the culture, not art.
Yet there is a kind of fame wedded to merit but for the writer it works on a more one-to-one basis, a connection between the work and the individual observer. This is why I am so pleased about Sirc's comment on my essay -- especially his description of reading it in the dark basement of his university library. He found a treasure! That's what I want to do, write something that a reader finds in an unlikely place and considers it a treasure. Like I now treasure Roiphe's memoir, which I had never heard of but found and was attracted to its title, Art and Madness,
Or it's the fame of spontaneous appreciation, as when a single audience member at the curtain of my play "Country Northwestern" yelled out, "This play has balls!" No critic's praise can make me feel better than that. Or when a poet acquaintance caught up with me to say that he thought my short story "The Idaho Jacket" was the best fiction he'd ever read about the Northwest, including Kesey.
These are just opinions, of course, but they also are sincere connections. You write for the people who "get it," who get what you are trying to say. This is not a message, however; it's an experience, an emotional moment to share, an emotional truth to share. And I've been fortunate in this respect, despite not being a Superstar Writer. I've had my share of folks get it and communicate to me they get it, including a few critics who do that sort of thing for a living. And I've had the opposite, just to keep me honest, just to keep me from getting a swelled head. As my mother used to say, It all comes out in the wash.
I'm also fortunate to have two large archives of my work at two universities, one of them maintained online. This means the possibility exists that another Sirc will wander to my work after I pass. Indeed I have faith, the usual irrational faith, that this will happen. A grad student, most likely, wandering the Univ of Oregon library for a thesis topic. Stumbles upon my archive. Is blown away. This, too, is the ultimate compliment, "I'm blown away by ..." The one work of mine that drew this more than any other is my novel Kerouac's Scroll, no doubt because it is truthful and real about male experience of a certain generation and environment. Those who shared this react accordingly.
Roiphe ends her book by saying she would never do it all over again. Terry Southern's ex wife, in contrast, would. And I would myself. I made my share of mistakes but I'd do it all again. In fact, I'm not sure I'd be capable of doing otherwise.
And despite having outlived all my closest friends, which results in a new experience of loneliness, I like where I am today. I don't have a lot of years left but I sure as hell am going to live them with gratitude and as much energy that a still vibrant mind can muster from a weary body.
Of course, I learned as I aged how little "Fame" has to do with merit. This is a similar insight to learning, when I reached the point in my career when I was asked to judge literary competitions, that contests are about judges, not writers. Fame is about the culture, not art.
Yet there is a kind of fame wedded to merit but for the writer it works on a more one-to-one basis, a connection between the work and the individual observer. This is why I am so pleased about Sirc's comment on my essay -- especially his description of reading it in the dark basement of his university library. He found a treasure! That's what I want to do, write something that a reader finds in an unlikely place and considers it a treasure. Like I now treasure Roiphe's memoir, which I had never heard of but found and was attracted to its title, Art and Madness,
Or it's the fame of spontaneous appreciation, as when a single audience member at the curtain of my play "Country Northwestern" yelled out, "This play has balls!" No critic's praise can make me feel better than that. Or when a poet acquaintance caught up with me to say that he thought my short story "The Idaho Jacket" was the best fiction he'd ever read about the Northwest, including Kesey.
These are just opinions, of course, but they also are sincere connections. You write for the people who "get it," who get what you are trying to say. This is not a message, however; it's an experience, an emotional moment to share, an emotional truth to share. And I've been fortunate in this respect, despite not being a Superstar Writer. I've had my share of folks get it and communicate to me they get it, including a few critics who do that sort of thing for a living. And I've had the opposite, just to keep me honest, just to keep me from getting a swelled head. As my mother used to say, It all comes out in the wash.
I'm also fortunate to have two large archives of my work at two universities, one of them maintained online. This means the possibility exists that another Sirc will wander to my work after I pass. Indeed I have faith, the usual irrational faith, that this will happen. A grad student, most likely, wandering the Univ of Oregon library for a thesis topic. Stumbles upon my archive. Is blown away. This, too, is the ultimate compliment, "I'm blown away by ..." The one work of mine that drew this more than any other is my novel Kerouac's Scroll, no doubt because it is truthful and real about male experience of a certain generation and environment. Those who shared this react accordingly.
Roiphe ends her book by saying she would never do it all over again. Terry Southern's ex wife, in contrast, would. And I would myself. I made my share of mistakes but I'd do it all again. In fact, I'm not sure I'd be capable of doing otherwise.
And despite having outlived all my closest friends, which results in a new experience of loneliness, I like where I am today. I don't have a lot of years left but I sure as hell am going to live them with gratitude and as much energy that a still vibrant mind can muster from a weary body.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Why write?
"One of the Composition-specific articles in this genre of radical sixties pedagogy, one which I have never been able to forget since the day I first read it in the dimly-lit stacks of my university's library, was written in 1967 by a young graduate teaching assistant at the University of Oregon, Charles Deemer." (G. Sirc)Because writing assumes a reader who matters. Because writing assumes community, however small. Even if writing for "a majority of one," writing never happens in a vacuum.
Jazz
 |
| Gerry Mulligan & Chet Baker |
Monday, March 21, 2011
Gonzaga 89 UCLA 75
Zag's Courtney Vandersloot became first Div I player, man or woman, to have 2000 career pts and 1000 career assists. Best point guard in the country.
March Madness improvement
To see how much better March Madness coverage is for the men's tournament this year, with ALL games telecast on four stations, all one has to do is watch the women's tournament with the older style coverage where they cut between games. Thus I was involved in the UCLA-Gonzaga game, close early on, and the station cuts to give me Kentucky-NC, which doesn't interest me at all. Stanford is also playing now. 3 teams in the west are not featured in the west! I hate it. But can the women's game get the commercial interest to copy the new men's coverage template? Probably not.
My career: a summary by books
If you read these books in order, you'd have a roughly chronological literary experience of following my career.
The Man Who Shot Elvis and other stories ... I began writing seriously as a writer of literary short stories, finally breaking into the market and publishing with some consistency. Three stories were selected for the Roll of Honor in the annual Best American Short Stories anthology. At about this time, I abandoned fiction (a failing novel) for playwriting.
Seven Plays (finalist, Oregon Book Award) ... The best decade for my playwriting career was in the 1980s when I was playwright-in-residence at the New Rose Theatre and later at the Cubiculo Theatre. I had a solid regional reputation.
Movies They Should Have Made ... I started screenwriting after a producer bought the film rights to my play Waitresses. I optioned scripts and eventually had several shorts made, then much later started making my own digital films. I've actually made more money as a screenwriter than as a playwright despite more production and critical success in the theater.
The Seagull Hyperdrama ... A commissioned theater piece introduced me to what is now called hyerdrama and I became addicted. This is the area in which I am best known internationally, my work considered in several graduate theses in European countries. I even am credited with coining the term hyperdrama in one book but this may not be true. At any rate, just as moving to theater took energy from short fiction, my enthusiasm for hyperdrama took energy from traditional theater. In both cases, my overall career was not advanced by these enthusiasms -- but I followed my bliss, as they say.
Kerouac's Scroll ... As I aged, I got tired of collaboration and returned to fiction, not to stories but to novels. This is the book that has received the most praise from my peers.
Dead Body In A Small Room ... I also tried my hand at mystery fiction. This one was a Mystery of the Year finalist at Foreword Magazine.
Dark Mission ... I wrote the libretto for John Nugent's fine opera.
Dress Rehearsals ... My somewhat complicated career is the focus of my memoir.
All these books (and others) are available at Amazon. Here is the link to begin.
Coming this summer, In My Old Age, my first book of poems.
The Man Who Shot Elvis and other stories ... I began writing seriously as a writer of literary short stories, finally breaking into the market and publishing with some consistency. Three stories were selected for the Roll of Honor in the annual Best American Short Stories anthology. At about this time, I abandoned fiction (a failing novel) for playwriting. Seven Plays (finalist, Oregon Book Award) ... The best decade for my playwriting career was in the 1980s when I was playwright-in-residence at the New Rose Theatre and later at the Cubiculo Theatre. I had a solid regional reputation. Movies They Should Have Made ... I started screenwriting after a producer bought the film rights to my play Waitresses. I optioned scripts and eventually had several shorts made, then much later started making my own digital films. I've actually made more money as a screenwriter than as a playwright despite more production and critical success in the theater. The Seagull Hyperdrama ... A commissioned theater piece introduced me to what is now called hyerdrama and I became addicted. This is the area in which I am best known internationally, my work considered in several graduate theses in European countries. I even am credited with coining the term hyperdrama in one book but this may not be true. At any rate, just as moving to theater took energy from short fiction, my enthusiasm for hyperdrama took energy from traditional theater. In both cases, my overall career was not advanced by these enthusiasms -- but I followed my bliss, as they say. Kerouac's Scroll ... As I aged, I got tired of collaboration and returned to fiction, not to stories but to novels. This is the book that has received the most praise from my peers. Dead Body In A Small Room ... I also tried my hand at mystery fiction. This one was a Mystery of the Year finalist at Foreword Magazine. Dark Mission ... I wrote the libretto for John Nugent's fine opera. Dress Rehearsals ... My somewhat complicated career is the focus of my memoir.All these books (and others) are available at Amazon. Here is the link to begin.
Coming this summer, In My Old Age, my first book of poems.
LIQUOR AND LIT
LIQUOR AND LIT
My own adventures at the end of the era about which Roiphe writes. Well, maybe the era never ends.
My own adventures at the end of the era about which Roiphe writes. Well, maybe the era never ends.
Anne Roiphe nails it
I've never read a better depiction of the darker side of creativity than Roiphe's memoir Art and Madness, focusing on her late teens and twenties during the 1950s-60s when she was an artist-writer groupie, in essence, all this prelude to her own considerable achievements as a writer. She is frank and revealing, nails the period and its primary male forces, and raises questions about "art and madness" that may still be unresolved. This is as fine a memoir of the era as I've read. I haven't finished it yet and may have more to say later. From the book:
Only jazz musicians took drugs. It wasn’t that everyone else was cautious or uninterested. But the bar was open and men drank and writers drank more and no one I knew thought of this as a disease, no one intervened to prevent anyone else’s thirst. A dry writer was to be pitied.
Deemer's special breakfast
I've never seen anything like this on a menu anywhere but it's a first rate breakfast.
- Make Snoqualmie Falls Lodge oatmeal. No other brand will do. Try it and you'll understand.
- Heat a cold slice of scrapple in the microwave for one minute.
- Fry two eggs, preferably sunnyside up.
- Put the scrapple in a bowl. Put the eggs on the scrapple. Cover with oatmeal. Add milk or cream.
- Incredible!
Body and Soul at 4 a.m. (poem)
Body and Soul at 4 a.m.
a guttural staccato
heavy breathing
a symphony of sleep
and then a change
softer and melodic
almost like longing
almost like desire
somehow my wife
regresses to find
her voice as a
teenage girl
--Charles Deemer
Sunday, March 20, 2011
At the Bar (poem)
At the bar
they are not hard to find
sitting at the bar
alone but talkative
laughing smoking coughing
telling jokes even if
nobody is listening
maybe buying a round
men needing attention
men needing distraction
if only for a few drinks
before paying up
before heading home
another lonely man
another married man
who needs to get laid
--Charles Deemer
they are not hard to find
sitting at the bar
alone but talkative
laughing smoking coughing
telling jokes even if
nobody is listening
maybe buying a round
men needing attention
men needing distraction
if only for a few drinks
before paying up
before heading home
another lonely man
another married man
who needs to get laid
--Charles Deemer
Conversations (poem)
Conversations
when my closest friends
were still alive
we'd often get together
for coffee or drinks
and our conversations
reached deep into
our essential selves
with trust and affection
today my conversations
have little reach
beyond some trifling
remark about whatever
it is that people
talk about when
they have nothing
important to say
in my head I still
talk to my friends
but they have yet to
respond
--Charles Deemer
when my closest friends
were still alive
we'd often get together
for coffee or drinks
and our conversations
reached deep into
our essential selves
with trust and affection
today my conversations
have little reach
beyond some trifling
remark about whatever
it is that people
talk about when
they have nothing
important to say
in my head I still
talk to my friends
but they have yet to
respond
--Charles Deemer
SI.com: Former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach finding it difficult to land his next coaching job | College Sports Blog |
SI.com: Former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach finding it difficult to land his next coaching job
I think he got royally screwed because the kid's father is an ESPN bigshot. I hope he wins in his lawsuit.
Ritual for first day of Spring
To recite cummings: as long as you and i have arms and lips which are for kissing and to sing with, who cares if some oneeyed sonofabitch invents an instrument to measure Spring with?
The Only Time a No. 16 Beat a Top-Seeded Team - New York Times
The Only Time a No. 16 Beat a Top-Seeded Team - New York Times:
"That matchup has happened 148 times in the men’s or the women’s tournament, and the 1998 Harvard team remains the only one to pull that most improbable feat, beating host Stanford, 71-67, in a game that resonates for members of both teams 10 years later."
The Harvard women did it in 1998!
The Tourist (poem)
The Tourist
I feel like a tourist
without a destination
which is to say
where I am isn't home
where I'm going
isn't clear
waiting for the bus
that never comes
leaving me to do
what I do well
which is to amuse
myself in solitude
--Charles Deemer
I feel like a tourist
without a destination
which is to say
where I am isn't home
where I'm going
isn't clear
waiting for the bus
that never comes
leaving me to do
what I do well
which is to amuse
myself in solitude
--Charles Deemer
Done!
Just sent off notes on my last script, Double check grades and I'm done, my break begins on Monday.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Highlight of the day (so far)
Tennessee women won by 60 pts. Ouch.
Reading
It's so much easier to read on the Kindle that "normal reading" almost has become a nuisance. Consequently I uploaded my two student scripts to Kindle, figuring out how best to do this, and I'll read them there -- I can take notes, too -- and we'll see how this works out.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Almost there
Only 2 scripts to go and the work of a late student. The scripts are from advanced students and longer. Hope to get one done today, one tomorrow, then hear from the late student and I'll be done.
Can't imagine how the games today can be more exciting than yesterday, which was a rare day indeed. Tomorrow the women start, and I follow them more closely usually, after the initial games. 4 very strong women's teams this year: Conn, Tenn, Baylor and Stanford. I'm rooting for UCLA and Stanford. One interesting pairing ... UCLA meets Montana for first game. If Portland State had won the Big Sky tourny, as they were favored to do, it would have been UCLA v. Portland State, which would have been fun if a mismatch.
Made a batch of scrapple. Mental health project.
Can't imagine how the games today can be more exciting than yesterday, which was a rare day indeed. Tomorrow the women start, and I follow them more closely usually, after the initial games. 4 very strong women's teams this year: Conn, Tenn, Baylor and Stanford. I'm rooting for UCLA and Stanford. One interesting pairing ... UCLA meets Montana for first game. If Portland State had won the Big Sky tourny, as they were favored to do, it would have been UCLA v. Portland State, which would have been fun if a mismatch.
Made a batch of scrapple. Mental health project.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
It's never over
I mentioned UCLA's inconsistency. With 8 mins left they had a 23 pt lead over Mich St .... now with 4 secs, a ONE point lead. They are bringing it inbounds ... tick tick ... quick foul ... UCLA shoots 2 ... makes first ... misses, 2 pt lead ... Mich St travels ... UCLA wins by 2. Whew.
#11 seed Gonzaga looking like the 3rd upset ... if all holds, 16 games, 3 upsets, 3 favs win at buzzer. Not bad for the first day.
#11 seed Gonzaga looking like the 3rd upset ... if all holds, 16 games, 3 upsets, 3 favs win at buzzer. Not bad for the first day.
Summit Scandal At The Hollywood Reporter – Deadline.com
Summit Scandal At The Hollywood Reporter – Deadline.com
This sort of trade off is not rare nor recent. Saw it all the time in my journalism days, esp with business publications, incl the one I worked for.
So far, so good
Mostly competitive games, more than the usual buzzer beaters (3 games!, all won by favs), and two big upsets, a great start to March Madness. My favorite game thus far, Princeton's 2 pt loss to Kentucky, genuine student jocks against a professional farm team, and the brainy kids only lost by a bucket. I think there will be at least one more upset before the day is over. In fact, I worry about UCLA being one of those upset victims. They aren't very consistent.
An early upset in March Madness!
#13 seed Morehead State beat Louisville 62-61! I love it. The pundits said there would be few upsets this year but, as usual, who can trust the pundits and upsets make for a better dance. Off to a good start. Moreover, brainy Princeton hung in with storied Kentucky in the first half. The more upsets the better.
Amateur night
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Need a second wind
Current student grades in, continuing/advanced students left to do.
Tomorrow probably.
Time for a coffee break. Time for a basketball game break.
Tomorrow probably.
Time for a coffee break. Time for a basketball game break.
How an invading army changes from Chinese to North Korean: Reel China - latimes.com
How an invading army changes from Chinese to North Korean: Reel China - latimes.com:
"Without Beijing even uttering a critical word, MGM is changing the villains in its 'Red Dawn' remake from Chinese to North Korean. It's all about maintaining access to the Asian superpower's lucrative box office."
Morning Fantasy (poem)
Morning Fantasy
in this morning's fantasy
I'm in bed with a young beautiful
poet ballet dancer
professor of Greek mythology
whose husband is furious
to find us in bed together
discussing Sisyphus
I'm lucky to escape with
my life my underwear
hobbling through the gray damp
morning wearing only skivvies
a middle-aged overweight
woman picks me up
who assumes I'm on my way
to the VA hospital where
she's a psychiatric nurse
no the nearest bus stop
would be nice can I
borrow a dollar for fare?
when she drops me off
she says you don't remember me
do you? a former student!
still angry I gave her
a B not an A
the bus driver won't let
me on until the riders
protest in chorus
"let the old coot on!
let the old coot on!"
of course I don't have
my apartment key telling
the manager some story or
other he lets me in
where I take a very
very hot shower ready to
go back to bed and wake up
from this nightmare
but not yet because
the professor poet
ballet dancer is
in bed waiting for me
wearing her tutu
humming Tchaikovsky
I scream at her
"I don't want to hear
any more about Sisyphus!"
when the manager arrives
complaining of noise
I tell him the TV volume
was on too loud sorry
and he reminds me the rent
is due so I write a check
on his arm and head back
to bed and he says
you sure do have an interesting
retirement
--Charles Deemer
I'm in bed with a young beautiful
poet ballet dancer
professor of Greek mythology
whose husband is furious
to find us in bed together
discussing Sisyphus
I'm lucky to escape with
my life my underwear
hobbling through the gray damp
morning wearing only skivvies
a middle-aged overweight
woman picks me up
who assumes I'm on my way
to the VA hospital where
she's a psychiatric nurse
no the nearest bus stop
would be nice can I
borrow a dollar for fare?
when she drops me off
she says you don't remember me
do you? a former student!
still angry I gave her
a B not an A
the bus driver won't let
me on until the riders
protest in chorus
"let the old coot on!
let the old coot on!"
of course I don't have
my apartment key telling
the manager some story or
other he lets me in
where I take a very
very hot shower ready to
go back to bed and wake up
from this nightmare
but not yet because
the professor poet
ballet dancer is
in bed waiting for me
wearing her tutu
humming Tchaikovsky
"I don't want to hear
any more about Sisyphus!"
when the manager arrives
complaining of noise
I tell him the TV volume
was on too loud sorry
and he reminds me the rent
is due so I write a check
on his arm and head back
to bed and he says
you sure do have an interesting
retirement
--Charles Deemer
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
The company you keep
I read an obscenity in the news today. The online story was about librarians boycotting ebooks from HarperCollins because they want to limit their use. The story said the publisher's authors include Doris Lessing, Joyce Carol Oates ... and Sarah Palin! CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS!?
Summer book
Terry Simons at Round Bend Press wants to publish a book of my poems, which sounds good to me and by summer I should have enough for a slim volume, which I'd call IN MY OLD AGE. There are the ones I publish here, which I'll consider drafts to revise, discard, or keep as is when I assemble them, plus I want to add three short libretti I did based on Maupassant short stories, an old project with a composer that fell through but may be getting revived. At any rate, Terry is excited to do it and you can't argue with enthusiasm. I also hope to plod forward on the new novella, to do some composing myself on the art song to film later, maybe in the fall, and also to continue my growing banjo skills and maybe even make a CD for friends (certainly nothing more than this with my average playing).
Thinking about those stories by Coover and Sorrentino that knock my socks off, I was wondering if I've ever written something that does this. Moments, surely. But a complete work? I know it wouldn't be any of my popular things, though these also are some with moments I cherish ... but candidates for whole pieces that wow me now, as in "man, was I really that good (once)?", are several early short stories, especially "The Thing at 34 degrees..." and "The Idaho Jacket" and maybe the novella "Love At Ground Zero" and maybe the plays "The Stiff" and "Sad Laughter" (and a former agent puts the screenplay version of this at the top of his list) and maybe the screenplay "The Brazen Wing," but none of these really knock me for a loop the way Coover and Sorrentino do, so I'll probably never reach their mark, but then this is all "matters of taste" (already heard from someone who thinks the Coover story is pretty STUPID (!!!)), and anyway great moments are nothing to sneeze at and I've written quite a few of those in various works over the years, perhaps some of the best in my novel "Kerouac's Scroll." Well, suffice to say, I can be proud of my archive and that is no small way to be when one comes around the clubhouse turn.
Hmm, I think when you don't have kids and grandkids you spend a lot of your old age trying to justify your existence ha ha.
Thinking about those stories by Coover and Sorrentino that knock my socks off, I was wondering if I've ever written something that does this. Moments, surely. But a complete work? I know it wouldn't be any of my popular things, though these also are some with moments I cherish ... but candidates for whole pieces that wow me now, as in "man, was I really that good (once)?", are several early short stories, especially "The Thing at 34 degrees..." and "The Idaho Jacket" and maybe the novella "Love At Ground Zero" and maybe the plays "The Stiff" and "Sad Laughter" (and a former agent puts the screenplay version of this at the top of his list) and maybe the screenplay "The Brazen Wing," but none of these really knock me for a loop the way Coover and Sorrentino do, so I'll probably never reach their mark, but then this is all "matters of taste" (already heard from someone who thinks the Coover story is pretty STUPID (!!!)), and anyway great moments are nothing to sneeze at and I've written quite a few of those in various works over the years, perhaps some of the best in my novel "Kerouac's Scroll." Well, suffice to say, I can be proud of my archive and that is no small way to be when one comes around the clubhouse turn.
Hmm, I think when you don't have kids and grandkids you spend a lot of your old age trying to justify your existence ha ha.
Puddle City
Man, it's raining hard! Better check the basement. Hope it lets up before I have to hobble to campus in it.
Old Couples (poem)
Old Couples
I envy old couples
who were young together
who can see through
wrinkles and flab
and find the young
firm and innocent
bodies full of wonder
full of wonder
whose aged minds
still see mysteries
whose aching limbs
embrace like young
lovers
--Charles Deemer
I envy old couples
who were young together
who can see through
wrinkles and flab
and find the young
firm and innocent
bodies full of wonder
full of wonder
whose aged minds
still see mysteries
whose aching limbs
embrace like young
lovers
--Charles Deemer
My Memorial (poem)
My Memorial
when I'm gone I won't know
what happens so maybe it's
not worth mentioning but
I hope a few people gather
and read from my work
to send me off
my wife knows what
to do with my ashes
which is a private affair
but something more public
would be nice though of course
how the hell will I know?
and anyway most the people
inclined to do such a thing
are dead or long gone
you couldn't fill a room
with those who remember
anything I've done
or so it seems to me
but honestly I don't know
if I'm right or wrong
and will never know
so what the hell
what happens happens
it's been nice
--Charles Deemer
when I'm gone I won't know
what happens so maybe it's
not worth mentioning but
I hope a few people gather
and read from my work
to send me off
my wife knows what
to do with my ashes
which is a private affair
but something more public
would be nice though of course
how the hell will I know?
and anyway most the people
inclined to do such a thing
are dead or long gone
you couldn't fill a room
with those who remember
anything I've done
or so it seems to me
but honestly I don't know
if I'm right or wrong
and will never know
so what the hell
what happens happens
it's been nice
--Charles Deemer
With praise like this ...
"I really liked your film. I fell asleep in the middle of it but what I saw I liked."
Gee, thanks.
Gee, thanks.
Around the clubhouse turn ...
A few more projects to evaluate this morning. To the university to pick up finals this afternoon. They are easier to grade, should get through them tomorrow and Thurs and turn in grades before the end of the week.
Then lots to do before school starts again.
Then lots to do before school starts again.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Daily Kos: Why There Are So Few Scientists And Engineers In Politics
Daily Kos: Why There Are So Few Scientists And Engineers In Politics:
"Given that all of our serious challenges have a scientific or technological component, and that half of all economic growth over the past century can be attributed to technological advancement, and that the US is rapidly losing its scientific and technological edge, this lack of scientists and engineers in government is a serious problem for our country. "
Daily Kos: The New Corporate Media: $315 Million for Huffington Post Owners Costs Pink Slips for 200 Americans
Daily Kos: The New Corporate Media: $315 Million for Huffington Post Owners Costs Pink Slips for 200 Americans:
"Huffington Post celebrated this acquisition by announcing a ramped up corporate team as their 'contributors,' but do you know what they have to say about this AOL layoff? Nothing, except the syndicated AP report. That's right. A website famous for its opinions and 'fighting' cojones has nothing original to say about its new corporate overlords laying people off."
Greed knows no political boundaries.
Parenting
Diners, Drive-ins and Dives
His Death (poem)
His Death
His death was a stone
dropped from a great height
shattering on the sidewalk
to startle a few passersby
by its silence
--Charles Deemer
His death was a stone
dropped from a great height
shattering on the sidewalk
to startle a few passersby
by its silence
--Charles Deemer
Coover's story is "stunning"
That's how a writer friend in Paris describes it after I sent her the link. Man, it has been a very, very long time -- since the 60s and Gilbert Sorrentino's story "The Moon In Its Flight" -- since a short story has hit me so powerfully. I keep rereading it in total awe at the literary accomplishment. This story, like Sorrentino's, reaches a level all its own and makes "realistic" fiction seem, well, almost quaint. The truth here is delivered in such an original, quick, instant way, it's yes stunning. Stunning. Best story I've ever read about what Thoreau called man's "lives of quiet desperation."
In contrast, the Sorrentino story is about first love. I can still remember the last line, at least to paraphrase it. The first love doesn't go into the future but many years later the lovers meet and go to a hotel room. Then he goes home to his wife. Sorrentino writes something like, I know you'll accuse me of sloppy writing when I say she told him he was white as a ghost but that's exactly what she said. Art cannot rescue anybody from anything.
Pow! I stand in awe of Sorrentino and Coover.
Pow! I stand in awe of Sorrentino and Coover.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Robert Coover: “Going for a Beer” : The New Yorker
"He finds himself sitting in the neighborhood bar drinking a beer at about the same time that he began to think about going there for one. In fact, he has finished it. Perhaps he’ll have a second one, he thinks, as he downs it and asks for a third. There is a young woman sitting not far from him who is not exactly good-looking but good-looking enough, and probably good in bed, as indeed she is. Did he finish his beer? Can’t remember. What really matters is: Did he enjoy his orgasm? Or even have one? This he is wondering on his way home through the foggy night streets from the young woman’s apartment"
The best short story I've read in decades! Brilliant.
Greensboro, NC, war stories
To my surprise, the theater was in the same huge complex as the basketball court -- so when I was asked what I wanted to do in town, the first thing I wanted to do was see the court! They found a janitor to open it up and I got to peek at the basketball court where I'd seen so many games on TV.
Later I also visited the memorial where the Greensboro sit-in at the lunch counter happened and also O. Henry's house. But the first thing was the March Madness court.
It was an amazing production because the actor playing Swami Kree was dying of cancer. On opening night, he decided scene by scene whether he had strength to come out or to pass to his understudy. He did over half the scenes and he died before the run was over. Given the content of the play, and the Eastern attitude toward death, this made for a pretty unique experience for all involved.
I remember a party with the actors when, as guest of honor, I was given the worm in a bottle of whatever it was called, like tequila. I took it but didn't swallow, figuring to spit it out later. Shortly afterwards I was talking to an actress and she suddenly screamed. One end of the worm was peeking out between my lips! There went my image as Mr. Cool.
It was a very good gig in Greensboro and a trip I'll always remember.
Sunday morning
NY Times on Kindle & coffee ... breakfast (scrapple & eggs on toast) ... read a project ... TV special on March Madness ... back to projects.
Each year the Madness has more hype, more greed, it may not be worth watching down the road. Very sad. Greed and hype ruin more good things.
Each year the Madness has more hype, more greed, it may not be worth watching down the road. Very sad. Greed and hype ruin more good things.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
NCAA Indoor Championships: Tough, determined, Jordan Hasay leads Oregon to the NCAA women's title | OregonLive.com
NCAA Indoor Championships: Tough, determined, Jordan Hasay leads Oregon to the NCAA women's title | OregonLive.com:
"COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- No. 1 Oregon landed the knockout punch when Jordan Hasay led a 1-3-4 finish in the mile, and the Ducks won the women's NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championship going away Saturday in Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium.
Hasay broke a 29-year-old school record by finishing in 4 minutes 33.01 seconds, then came back to outkick Villanova's Sheila Reid and win the 3,000 meters in 9:13.71.
It was a dominating performance before a crowd of 4,487, by both individual and team."
I saw her run in Eugene as a high school student -- and the crowd maintained a deafening chant, "Come to Oregon! Come to Oregon!" It worked.
Hasay broke a 29-year-old school record by finishing in 4 minutes 33.01 seconds, then came back to outkick Villanova's Sheila Reid and win the 3,000 meters in 9:13.71.
It was a dominating performance before a crowd of 4,487, by both individual and team."
I saw her run in Eugene as a high school student -- and the crowd maintained a deafening chant, "Come to Oregon! Come to Oregon!" It worked.
Oregon high school girls: Jesuit 42, Clackamas 39
Caught audio on the net and rooted for Jesuit all the way. Boys team also in finals, be great if they sweep.
Day's end
Think I've done enough projects for the day. Back at it first thing in the morning.
Didn't see as much basketball as I would've liked but just saw Washington upset Arizona in OT for the Pac 10 crown. One of my few winners today. Harvard lost. UCLA and Portland State women lost. I also had Navy women winning.
Need to get out and get a pepsi, stir crazy and blurry eyed.
Didn't see as much basketball as I would've liked but just saw Washington upset Arizona in OT for the Pac 10 crown. One of my few winners today. Harvard lost. UCLA and Portland State women lost. I also had Navy women winning.
Need to get out and get a pepsi, stir crazy and blurry eyed.
Etc Etc Etc (poem)
ETC ETC ETC
here's another politically
incorrect opinion:
I was never impressed with
male jocks who had sculptured
bodies unless, of course, they
were weight lifters
(weird enough but not as weird
as those Japanese wrestlers)
but I want mainstream jocks
football basketball baseball
to look like normal joes
somebody I'd have a beer with
and this being the case
just imagine my opinion of
WOMEN with sculptured
arms legs torsos
bulging muscles shiny
with their sweat
it's enough to turn my
stomach and that tells you
what a dinosaur I am
etc etc etc
--Charles Deemer
here's another politically
incorrect opinion:
I was never impressed with
male jocks who had sculptured
bodies unless, of course, they
were weight lifters
(weird enough but not as weird
as those Japanese wrestlers)
but I want mainstream jocks
football basketball baseball
to look like normal joes
somebody I'd have a beer with
and this being the case
just imagine my opinion of
WOMEN with sculptured
arms legs torsos
bulging muscles shiny
with their sweat
it's enough to turn my
stomach and that tells you
what a dinosaur I am
etc etc etc
--Charles Deemer
Basketball
As expected, the Stanford women came roaring back but UCLA helped them considerably, losing composure and permitting an 18 pt turnaround, Stanford winning by 9. The Bruins will get to the dance but they need to learn how to stay focused for an entire game. They made really stupid mistakes in the 2nd half.
Portland State women, in contrast, played a terrible first half but only trail by one. They need to win to get to the dance.
The Harvard men, who have never been to the dance, lost a last-second heart-breaker to Princeton. Damn, I wanted them to go.
LATER. The favored Portland State women also are shooting themselves in the foot and looks like they'll miss the big dance, losing against Montana.
Portland State women, in contrast, played a terrible first half but only trail by one. They need to win to get to the dance.
The Harvard men, who have never been to the dance, lost a last-second heart-breaker to Princeton. Damn, I wanted them to go.
LATER. The favored Portland State women also are shooting themselves in the foot and looks like they'll miss the big dance, losing against Montana.
Nikki Caldwell rocks!
Boo hoo
I love it when LaLaLand loses its shirt on stupid movies.
But the movie that all of Hollywood was talking about Friday is Disney's lamely titled Mars Needs Moms 3D. Why? Because the Dick Cook leftover is going to be one of the biggest money losers of all time. It cost $150M but, even with the higher 3D ticket prices, it'll be lucky to pull in $10M this weekend -- that's rightall weekend. "It's about as bad of an animated miss as possible," one rival studio exec emailed me. It's rare that any Disney toon flops at all, much less this badly.
Michigan Governor Plays Fast and Loose with Democracy, Invokes Radical New Powers - E.D. Kain - American Times - Forbes
Michigan Governor Plays Fast and Loose with Democracy, Invokes Radical New Powers - E.D. Kain - American Times - Forbes:
"Perhaps lost in the Wisconsin shuffle is the story of what exactly is happening in Michigan. Newly elected Republican governor, Rick Snyder, is set to pass one of the most sweeping, anti-democratic pieces of legislation in the country – and almost no one is talking about it.
Snyder’s law gives the state government the power not only to break up unions, but to dissolve entire local governments and place appointed “Emergency Managers” in their stead. But that’s not all – whole cities could be eliminated if Emergency Managers and the governor choose to do so. And Snyder can fire elected officials unilaterally, without any input from voters. It doesn’t get much more anti-Democratic than that."
Snyder’s law gives the state government the power not only to break up unions, but to dissolve entire local governments and place appointed “Emergency Managers” in their stead. But that’s not all – whole cities could be eliminated if Emergency Managers and the governor choose to do so. And Snyder can fire elected officials unilaterally, without any input from voters. It doesn’t get much more anti-Democratic than that."
Rain, gray, daylight savings, projects
A very wet weekend. Keep my nose in the projects with occasional breaks to check basketball scores or maybe pick the banjo.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Slow start
Divided the term projects into piles but am very slow to get to today's pile, finding it easier to practice banjo and watch basketball. Ah me. What else is new?
It's official
In 2011-12 I teach noon-two. I really look forward to the change. Get to see campus in the daylight!
Banjo III
New class starting, and I want to take it. Would miss first class, but that should be okay. We'll see if I can work it out. This is just what I need for spring term.
LATER. Signed up!
LATER. Signed up!
8.9 Earthquake In Japan (poem)
8.9 Earthquake In Japan
no matter how selfishly
viciously the powerful prey on
the vulnerability of others
Nature waits in the wings
ready to take suffering
to a new level
and remind us
who's boss
--Charles Deemer
no matter how selfishly
viciously the powerful prey on
the vulnerability of others
Nature waits in the wings
ready to take suffering
to a new level
and remind us
who's boss
--Charles Deemer
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Alma mater v. alma mater, or home sweet home
Great to be home! And home with a pile of term projects to grade.
But tonight it's the Pac 10 tourny and UCLA v Oregon, the latter with a 10 pt lead in early 2nd half, a huge upset if it holds. I guess I don't care who wins.
I'll read half a dozen projects a day for the next five days. Rain, rain, rain, so it's not as if I'd be doing something outside, though I am eager to do a spring mowing when weather permits.
But tonight it's the Pac 10 tourny and UCLA v Oregon, the latter with a 10 pt lead in early 2nd half, a huge upset if it holds. I guess I don't care who wins.
I'll read half a dozen projects a day for the next five days. Rain, rain, rain, so it's not as if I'd be doing something outside, though I am eager to do a spring mowing when weather permits.
Hobbling to school on the last day of class
Thinking along the way to my office, I've been doing this routine for 12 or 15 years, same days and times, so it will be a tad exciting to teach at noon next all. I actually look forward to it. Spring term, though, it's the same routine, Tues and Thur, 440-630 class, 3-4 office hrs. I suspect I miss out on a lot not being on campus in the heart of the day.
Idaho blew a basketball game, just tossed it away. Amazing.
Idaho blew a basketball game, just tossed it away. Amazing.
Owen Laster, Literary Agent, Dies At Age 72
Owen Laster, Literary Agent, Dies At Age 72
Laster was the first agent to take interest in my fiction. I was in grad school, had published literary short fiction, was working on a novel THE IDAHO BLUES and he loved my early chapters. Alas, I got stuck (the idea later became my 1974 Roll of Honor story The Idaho Jacket) and ended up changing my emphasis from fiction to theater and got my MFA in playwriting, not novel writing. Sometimes wonder how my career would have been different etc etc etc until I realize those kind of mind games bring no rewards and possible false grief. But I have fond memories of Laster for his early encouragement of my writing.
History Lesson (poem)
History Lesson
if we look at history
over the long haul
the clearest common
denominators are these
powerful cultures decline
powerful cultures die
thus our own decline
should surprise no one
and wishful thinking will not
keep the dream alive
what is unfortunate
what is new
is that now we can take
so many others with us
I won't be here to learn
if we do or not
I'm happy to miss
the end game
in the meantime
I hold tight onto
the people I love
the things I treasure
and I cherish the time
I spend with my dog
because more than anyone
my dog makes me
laugh
--Charles Deemer
if we look at history
over the long haul
the clearest common
denominators are these
powerful cultures decline
powerful cultures die
thus our own decline
should surprise no one
and wishful thinking will not
keep the dream alive
what is unfortunate
what is new
is that now we can take
so many others with us
I won't be here to learn
if we do or not
I'm happy to miss
the end game
in the meantime
I hold tight onto
the people I love
the things I treasure
and I cherish the time
I spend with my dog
because more than anyone
my dog makes me
laugh
--Charles Deemer
The Experiment (poem)
The Experiment
as I watch the news this morning
angry citizens in Wisconsin
suspicious senators questioning Muslims
wars hither and yon
and your kid getting bullied
not to mention floods and
the usual "natural" mayhem
I wonder if it might not be
time to admit that this
gallant experiment called
homo sapiens
(homo consumerus)
is a failure
though there has been much
to praise about our efforts here
(Brahms Beethoven Bach and such)
this zero-sum universe still feels
negative, which is to say
much less than zero
we survive if at all
by embracing survival cliches
by wearing blinders
by burying our head in the sand
yes, the world is too much with us
under the circumstances how fortunate
to be the old man that I am
than young and trying to find
level ground in a world tilted
toward extinction
how much better to have
a memory than a life
how sad to say so
--Charles Deemer
as I watch the news this morning
angry citizens in Wisconsin
suspicious senators questioning Muslims
wars hither and yon
and your kid getting bullied
not to mention floods and
the usual "natural" mayhem
I wonder if it might not be
time to admit that this
gallant experiment called
homo sapiens
(homo consumerus)
is a failure
though there has been much
to praise about our efforts here
(Brahms Beethoven Bach and such)
this zero-sum universe still feels
negative, which is to say
much less than zero
we survive if at all
by embracing survival cliches
by wearing blinders
by burying our head in the sand
yes, the world is too much with us
under the circumstances how fortunate
to be the old man that I am
than young and trying to find
level ground in a world tilted
toward extinction
how much better to have
a memory than a life
how sad to say so
--Charles Deemer
Missing Morse and McCall
It's been a while since we've had politicians like Wayne Morse or Tom McCall -- Morse, the Oregon senator and very early opponent of the Vietnam war, like Obama a Constitutional scholar, who was in order a Republican, an Independent and a Democrat (who in the Eisenhower administration sat in the aisle of the Senate because he refused to join either side!); and McCall, the moderate Republican famous for saying visit Oregon but don't stay (famous last words), whom I profiled in Oregon Business Magazine when I worked there, honored to spend a week with him with a tape recorder on, an extraordinary experience, whose desk was messier than mine and who said, so my boss could hear, "empty desk, empty mind" (which shut up my boss on this issue); two principled politicians who were not ideologues, which is the occupational hazard today. I miss them. Moreso, the country misses them.
My play about Wayne Morse, 1989, originally commissioned as a teleplay by Oregon Public Broadcasting, which fell through the cracks for political reasons after a changing of the guard and which I later revived as a one-person stage show, which toured the state a few years ago.
Wednesday, March 09, 2011
Weigel : Wisconsin Senate GOP Tries Nuclear Option for Passing Anti-Union Bill [UPDATE: It Worked]
Weigel : Wisconsin Senate GOP Tries Nuclear Option for Passing Anti-Union Bill [UPDATE: It Worked]:
"In thirty minutes, 18 State Senators undid fifty years of civil rights in Wisconsin. Their disrespect for the people of Wisconsin and their rights is an outrage that will never be forgotten. Tonight, 18 Senate Republicans conspired to take government away from the people. Tomorrow we will join the people of Wisconsin in taking back their government."
Duncan: 82 Percent Of US Schools May Be Labeled 'Failing' Under No Child Left Behind Policies
Duncan: 82 Percent Of US Schools May Be Labeled 'Failing' Under No Child Left Behind Policies:
"The Department of Education estimates the number of schools not meeting targets will skyrocket from 37 to 82 percent in 2011 because states are toughening their standards to meet the requirements of the law. The schools will face sanctions ranging from offering tutoring to closing their doors."
Is this country dying on the vine or what?
Jay Inslee: Republicans Suffer From 'Allergy To Science And Scientists'
Jay Inslee: Republicans Suffer From 'Allergy To Science And Scientists':
"'If Copernicus, Galileo, Newton and Einstein were testifying today,' Inslee, an environmentalist with a knack for confrontation over green initiatives, posited, 'the Republicans would not accept their views until all the Arctic ice has melted and hell has frozen over, whichever comes first.'"
Ethics and student athletes: BYU v. Ohio State
An interesting contrast, two ethics issues at two universities in two weeks. BYU suspended its star basketball player for the rest of the season, this by a ranked team just before the tournament starts! The player had sex with his girlfriend, violating the team's code of conduct at this Mormon school. Whatever you think of the rule, the player knew it and the university owns up to it.
In contrast, the football coach at Ohio State was caught lying to the NCAA and received a slap on the rest, missing two games next season, this for a violation more flagrant to the game itself.
Conclusion: at Ohio State, winning matters more than ethical behavior, and at BYU the opposite.
I'm not a big fan of Mormons, or any organized religion for that matter, though Benedictines impressed me when I did a story on their seminary once, impressed me with the rigor of their high school classes, but despite this I plan to root for BYU as far as they can go without their superstar. I like how they walk the talk.
In contrast, the football coach at Ohio State was caught lying to the NCAA and received a slap on the rest, missing two games next season, this for a violation more flagrant to the game itself.
Conclusion: at Ohio State, winning matters more than ethical behavior, and at BYU the opposite.
I'm not a big fan of Mormons, or any organized religion for that matter, though Benedictines impressed me when I did a story on their seminary once, impressed me with the rigor of their high school classes, but despite this I plan to root for BYU as far as they can go without their superstar. I like how they walk the talk.
Teaching change
A dozen or more years ago, whenever it was that I was invited to start undergrad and graduate screenwriting classes at Portland State, and the timing couldn't have been better, I accepted under one condition: I didn't have to teach in the morning, which was my writing time.
Ever since then I've taught TuesThur 440-630 pm. Now for fall 2011 I am changing, having been invited to do so due to conflicts ... I'll be teaching TuesThur noon-150. I really look forward to it! I can see the school at the height of its rhythm. I think the change will affect the demographics of my class but we'll see. Less older students with jobs, I would think.
Ever since then I've taught TuesThur 440-630 pm. Now for fall 2011 I am changing, having been invited to do so due to conflicts ... I'll be teaching TuesThur noon-150. I really look forward to it! I can see the school at the height of its rhythm. I think the change will affect the demographics of my class but we'll see. Less older students with jobs, I would think.
Almost feels like the good old days
Up at 3 a.m. to write, most of a poem in my head, and I haven't done that in a long time. Almost like the old days when creative insomnia was the norm. However, my knees remind me soon enough that it's not the old days at all.
A good day, I think. I have Soldier's Joy down on the banjo and I am about ready to tackle Arkansas Traveler.
A good day, I think. I have Soldier's Joy down on the banjo and I am about ready to tackle Arkansas Traveler.
Summer Solstice 1967 (poem)
Summer Solstice 1967
it was 1967
the first night of summer
and P and I drove from Portland
to the Stonehenge replica
along the Columbia River
high on a bluff
on the Washington side
P's brother and friends
drove over from Seattle
engineers at Boeing
and arrived with a case
of strong homemade mead
and we'd brought pot brownies
and the party was on
we partied the long warm night
above the river under the stars
drinking eating laughing
and laughing some more
and had Stonehenge to ourselves
a revelry ahead of the curve
a night never to be forgotten
finally the sun rose and someone
decided to test the shaft of sunlight
through the placement of stones
but the beam was placed wrong
the stones were out of joint
these builders were poor Druids
but it didn't ruin the party
we crashed into sleeping bags
on the hard ground above the river
but slept only a few hours
before the interstate traffic below
filled with trucks and woke us
and I remember a frowning tourist
not pleased with our party scene
did they report us? who cares?
the party was over
a night for the ages
and it wasn't just the mead
it wasn't just the pot
it was mainly the laughter
loud and repeated into the night
we didn't think we were Druids
we were young and alive
and thought we could do anything
so when P's brother had the idea
we gathered at Stonehenge
for the summer solstice
and had our all night revelry
and P and I were happy
so it didn't matter
if the stones were out of place
or a morning tourist disapproved
P and I were happy that summer
the divorce still years away
oh yes P and I were happy
--Charles Deemer
it was 1967
the first night of summer
and P and I drove from Portland
along the Columbia River
high on a bluff
on the Washington side
P's brother and friends
drove over from Seattle
engineers at Boeing
and arrived with a case
of strong homemade mead
and we'd brought pot brownies
and the party was on
we partied the long warm night
above the river under the stars
drinking eating laughing
and laughing some more
and had Stonehenge to ourselves
a revelry ahead of the curve
a night never to be forgotten
finally the sun rose and someone
decided to test the shaft of sunlight
through the placement of stones
but the beam was placed wrong
the stones were out of joint
these builders were poor Druids
but it didn't ruin the party
we crashed into sleeping bags
on the hard ground above the river
but slept only a few hours
before the interstate traffic below
filled with trucks and woke us
and I remember a frowning tourist
not pleased with our party scene
did they report us? who cares?
the party was over
a night for the ages
and it wasn't just the mead
it wasn't just the pot
it was mainly the laughter
loud and repeated into the night
we didn't think we were Druids
we were young and alive
and thought we could do anything
so when P's brother had the idea
we gathered at Stonehenge
for the summer solstice
and had our all night revelry
and P and I were happy
so it didn't matter
if the stones were out of place
or a morning tourist disapproved
P and I were happy that summer
the divorce still years away
oh yes P and I were happy
--Charles Deemer
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