Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Before class

So here I am in the office with a bit of time before going to class, where we look at the first script pages they've written. Always a day filled with "teaching moments," as the hotshots like to say. It should be "learning moments" (get the right emphasis).

So "Eight Oregon Plays" is out, and "Sodom..." will be next. Then an entirely completely very different track, I swear to the gods. I need this to happen. Otherwise I'll start babbling in the streets with the other old farts I see.

But what a journey!

And it will be fun and exciting to explore something new, too. I ain't dead yet.

Drug-Resistant Bugs Found in Organic Meat | Wired Science | Wired.com

Drug-Resistant Bugs Found in Organic Meat | Wired Science | Wired.com:

"If you’re paying premium prices for pesticide- and antibiotic-free meat, you might expect that it’s also free of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Not so, according to a new study."


Eight Oregon Plays by Charles Deemer in Literature & Fiction

Eight Oregon Plays by Charles Deemer in Literature & Fiction:

Round Bend Press: Publication Day--Eight Oregon Plays

Round Bend Press: Publication Day--Eight Oregon Plays:

Monday, January 30, 2012

Kenneth Slawenski: J.D. Salinger's Untold Stories: Tales Of A Recluse

Kenneth Slawenski: J.D. Salinger's Untold Stories: Tales Of A Recluse:

"When a copy editor at "The New Yorker" dared to remove a single comma from one of his stories, Salinger snapped. "There was hell to pay," recalled William Maxwell, and the comma was quickly reinstated."


A day's work before breakfast

Man, this is great, I got such an early start on class prep that I'm done already and it's not even 8:30. The rest of the day is my own.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Prep tomorrow

I have a long day tomorrow with school prep since I did nothing today, what with being sidetracked by the hyperdrama ebook. But if I get an early start, I should be fine.

Today was a great day despite the change of initial plans. The hyperdrama ebook is first rate.

Oscar nominations 2012: what the critics say – feature | Film | The Observer

Oscar nominations 2012: what the critics say – feature | Film | The Observer:

Hollywood women unite to break through the celluloid ceiling | Film | The Observer

Hollywood women unite to break through the celluloid ceiling | Film | The Observer:

Robert McCrum: as long as words are cool, the novel will flourish | Books | The Observer

Robert McCrum: as long as words are cool, the novel will flourish | Books | The Observer:

SAG, DGA Results Split Between 'Artist' And 'The Help' Adding Intrigue To Oscar Race - Hammond - Deadline.com

SAG, DGA Results Split Between 'Artist' And 'The Help' Adding Intrigue To Oscar Race - Hammond - Deadline.com:

'Chopsticks': Not Just for Kids - latimes.com

'Chopsticks': Not Just for Kids - latimes.com:

Mark Bernstein of Eastgate Publishing
This multimedia novel is being called a 21st century novel. In fact, 15 or more years ago when I went to the first hypertext conference at Yale, authors were already doing this sort of thing, most getting published at Eastgate, which Robert Coover called "the primary source for serious hypertext." THIS WAS OVER 15 YEARS AGO. So pop lit is catching up.

World's Most Outrageous Fantasy

"How much?"
So some honcho goes over to Smashwords and sees my hyperdrama ebook and reads it for free (the customer sets the price) and digs it, and it so happens he has a say in the MacArthur grants, so he goes back and buys another copy, setting the price at five or six figures, whatever it is. I don't need the grant, I need the money (ala Yeats, who on winning the Nobel said, before saying anything else, How much? Poets know what prizes mean!)

About my new ebook

This new ebook, Hyperdrama: my obsession with a new theater form, may be in the right place to win some converts. The form needs young blood! Now that I have a personal history and overview that soon will be in all the ebook markets, there's a chance, as there wasn't before, that a theater person among the younger tech-literate set will read this on an iPad or phone or Kindle and become excited enough about hyperdrama to explore more and maybe even do something to infuse the form with young new energy. I know a theater designed for hyperdrama, using my design or another, could attract an audience with good material. And a permanent location in which to see hyperdrama is just what is needed now.

Where are all the young Turks in theater, who should be grabbing this and running with it?



How fitting that I did this just as Eight Oregon Plays is about to be released as a paperback. The old and the new, wrapping up my theater career together.

Smashwords v. Amazon

I actually prefer Smashwords to Amazon for distributing ebooks but use both. Smashwords, in my experience, does a better job at formatting a doc file to Kindle. Smashwords distributes to everyone. For example, my greatest sales to date have been not at Amazon but at Apple's istore, which has a deal with Smashwords. At the same time, Amazon is Amazon and you can't really ignore it -- and it appears to be getting more powerful in the ebook wars. So I try to cover all the bases with things that matter to me.

Smashwords seems to have higher standards regarding format. I have had to redo things for Smashwords, never for Amazon.

Might as well do both, is my advice to ebook authors (which means avoiding the exclusive deal option at Amazon).

Smashwords — Hyperdrama: my obsession with a new theater form — A book by Charles Deemer

Smashwords — Hyperdrama: my obsession with a new theater form — A book by Charles Deemer:

Pittock Mansion, site of my first hyperdrama
This was fun to put together because so much of the material is online, to which I link. I also have it at Amazon/Kindle but I want as wide a distribution as possible. I'm looking for converts, not royalties ha ha, and I'm pleased with how the links get activated in Kindle with this book. A genuine ELECTRONIC book and not an ebook form of a linear book. Hyperbook! Hyperdrama! Hypertext!

Hyperdrama (again)

It occurred to me that I can renew my hopeless rabble rousing for hyperdrama to yet a new audience: the Kindle audience. That is, I've already written so much about hyperdrama and have so much material online, I can write an intro for Kindle that links to all this stuff, and give it away, and maybe find a few converts. I'm working on it now (instead of school work, which I must do later this afternoon).

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Round Bend Press: Eight Oregon Plays at Proof Stage

Round Bend Press: Eight Oregon Plays at Proof Stage:

Peter S. Goodman: At World Economic Forum, Fear of Global Contagion Dominates

Peter S. Goodman: At World Economic Forum, Fear of Global Contagion Dominates:

"In a riveting address here on Saturday, Hong Kong leader Donald Tsang recalled his place at the epicenter of the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s, and the experience of the 2008 global credit pullback, asserting that the current situation is worse.

"I've never been as scared as now about the world, what is happening in Europe," he said."

Ah, me.

Last reader checks in

Favorable, perceptive, good suggestions.

Damn close now.

Sky wonders

I only ever saw the Northern Lights once, in the 1970s in Manitoba, on a summer of camping coast to coast, up to Canada to be best man at my university roommate's wedding. I was blown away, of course. Pretty spectacular when it wants to be, as here recently during the sun's explosion.

Sundance Film Festival buyers more cautious - latimes.com

Sundance Film Festival buyers more cautious - latimes.com:

Patt Morrison Asks: The Internet Archive's Brewster Kahle - latimes.com

Patt Morrison Asks: The Internet Archive's Brewster Kahle - latimes.com:

"Thanks to Kahle's Wayback Machine -- a search engine named in homage to a cartoon on "The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show" -- you can follow the history of vanished Web pages. "

A great idea and service.

A busy Saturday

H at a conference all day. I'm reading student work ... making beef stew for dinner ... doing grunt work on the net ... trying to learn the new phone's secrets ... a low key nice day. I expect I'll be having many of these in the months ahead.

Friday, January 27, 2012

First email on phone

Read my first email on the new phone. Pretty cool, once I get the drift of it. Going to change a few rhythms, I think. What is it the kids say? Awesome.

New toy

H and I are Tracfone customers, pay as you go fanatics in the cell phone universe. I have an ancient model that I almost never turn on. I use it for emergencies only.

Well, I saw a sale on a smart phone, or maybe it's an almost smart phone, but it had mobile web access and it cost only twenty bucks, so I bit -- and now it's charging and in the manual looks overwhelming. It's amazing maybe. We'll see.

Meanwhile I gave a first reading to about half the scripts and have at least one "natural born screenwriter" in class. Always good to see. Only one shot a video last term, this term four are tackling it.

Now I'm waiting for the plays. But the phone was what I had to sign for, so I can go get coffee any time now.

Did I mention this is a great day?

Just what we need, another conspiracy theory

I have a conspiracy theory. The Romantic Myth of poets and artists as tortured souls who have to drown their misunderstood selves in booze and other drugs is perpetuated by the powers that be in their own self-interests.

Plato well knew how dangerous poets were. Not in my Republic, thank you very much. Poets are revolutionaries against the very foundations of political power. Don't listen to him, listen to your own heart. Somewhere along the way, a politician learned you could castrate the political threat of poets without having to ban them -- you could just keep them drunk and wedded to notions of being victims of a society that doesn't understand them. They'd go off and do their masturbatory dances of self-indulgence in arenas where nothing substantial could threaten the power structure.

And many poets and artists, maybe most, have bought into this myth ever since, especially the non-mainstream ones who, in fact, pose the greatest threat of all to (unlearned) culture. In fact, the powers are so ingenious they learned how to MAKE MONEY on the very products of their threat!

"the Fiery Chariot of His Contemplative Thought"
(Blake)
Leave it to Norman Brown in Love's Body to show the real threat of the poet to political culture -- the Fiery Chariot of His Contemplative Thought, to use (as he does) Blake's term. Leave it to Brown to separate the mythological war that changes nothing from the war that can be won, the war of the individual to move toward personal transformation, which changes everything.

I didn't realize until my brooding about Marty's death how convenient and even necessary the Romantic Myth of the Artist is to keeping the status quo of the culture in place.

Stone Age Social Networks May Have Resembled Ours | Wired Science | Wired.com

Stone Age Social Networks May Have Resembled Ours | Wired Science | Wired.com:

Proof may come next week

The proof of the novel has shipped, so I should get it next week, midweek or late. I really look forward to seeing it. I'm avoiding the book until then, to get some distance from it.

8 Plays should arrive today.

"For the Record"

In each issue of the L.A. Times is a section called "For the Record" in which errors from previous issues are corrected. Usually these are minor things, a name wrong, a year off by one or two, but now and again something more major gets corrected. What I like is the fact that the section exists -- and in the Kindle edition of the paper, of course, where nothing can get "buried," the section gets the same weight as any other article.

The more i read the Kindle L.A. Times the more I like it. I'm sorry it took me so long to discover it.



I'm expecting two deliveries today, one for which I have to sign and missed yesterday, so I don't want to venture away until it comes unless H is here to sign for it.

A leisurely day! I love it. I am going to get a start on student scripts, though, just to reduce weekend and Monday pressure.

I have no desire whatever to watch the Superbowl. Maybe we'll go to a movie.

Was brooding in bed this morning about the inevitable changes in this blog as my "writing life" changes with the publication of the new novel. The ending of one journey, the beginning of another.

I received a nice email from a woman in Australia. As a kind of test, I wrote a short article for Kindle called "Staying Sober Without AA." 2 folks bought it right away and she was one of them, responding to my invitation to send an email (you can have live links in Kindle articles and books, which is another attraction to them: in fact, you could do a hyperdrama-structured story with a website hosting some of the diversions -- no, no, Deemer, don't go there! ha ha). Anyway, she said the article was just what she needed, the right reading at the right time, and this alone felt like justification for writing it in the first place. I have several projects like this in mind to explore once the long earlier journey officially gets put to rest, some weeks or a few months away now, I think.

Android tablets gain market share vs. iPad - latimes.com

Android tablets gain market share vs. iPad - latimes.com:

Salinger, Pynchon & Co.: When writers are recluses - latimes.com

Salinger, Pynchon & Co.: When writers are recluses - latimes.com:

Olympic bid on line as U.S. women's soccer team faces Costa Rica - latimes.com

Olympic bid on line as U.S. women's soccer team faces Costa Rica - latimes.com:

Political and sex scandals: Do they still matter? - latimes.com

Political and sex scandals: Do they still matter? - latimes.com:

"Just how much do we still care about the foibles of our politicians?"

So different in other parts of the world (both more and less tolerant).

Dog-walker is hounded for doing the right thing - latimes.com

Dog-walker is hounded for doing the right thing - latimes.com:

"Lauren Kornberg grew up in Bronson Canyon in the Hollywood Hills. After the dogs she was walking came upon a severed head, the media onslaught began — and she quickly learned how words can be twisted."


Poet Robinson Jeffers, nature's oracle - latimes.com

Poet Robinson Jeffers, nature's oracle - latimes.com:

"California's first important poet remains, in some ways, its most imposing. He grapples with questions that speak directly to our ongoing predicament."


USC reels from 'Hangover'-style Web reality series - latimes.com

USC reels from 'Hangover'-style Web reality series - latimes.com:

This reminds me of "The Library of Our Lives," a soap opera
set on campus at the Univ of Oregon, written and produced
by students and faculty, a project I participated in in the
1970s, the brainchild of Peter Jamison, written up by Mike
O'Brien as the first satire of a soap opera. We had two
episodes a week! An amazing project, and O'Brien's
article captures it. Read the article here, scroll down on
individual plays to "Library of Our Lives."

On the death of Marty Christensen

Over at Oregon ArtsWatch is a tribute to poet Marty Christensen with a growing number of responses from folks who remember and pay tribute to the Oregon poet. But I've noticed something that I find interesting. Very interesting indeed. Not once, in any of the tributes or remembrances, including my own, do you find any of the following words: alcoholic, disease, waste, tragic.

The Japanese have a saying: first the man takes the drink; then the drink takes the drink; then the drink takes the man. Booze had taken Marty long ago, and I think we lost much as a result. Lost insights, lost wit, lost work.

In Love's Body Norman Brown makes the case that sober madness is more extraordinary (more dangerous)  than drunken madness. Marty's madness sober would have been mind-boggling to see. It's tragic we missed it.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Live-blogging

I can't stand watching the political debates but I've been reading Andrew Sullivan's live-blogging tonight, and it's pretty interesting. He throws in reader commentary besides his own, it's like sitting in the back row and reverse engineering everything as it happens. A lot more fun than the debate itself.



Good to be home. Hope to get a head start and read some student script pages tomorrow.

All things I'm expecting have now been shipped.

david elsey prose: BEST PORTLAND POET?

david elsey prose: BEST PORTLAND POET?:

More about Marty C.

Digital Textbooks Go Straight From Scientists to Students | Wired Science | Wired.com

Digital Textbooks Go Straight From Scientists to Students | Wired Science | Wired.com:

"As important as high-quality content is, Johnston sees the software’s open-source aspect as a crucial component of its future."


Washington is America's most literate city, again - CNN.com

Washington is America's most literate city, again - CNN.com: "America's Most Literate Cities in 2011:
1. Washington
2. Seattle
3. Minneapolis
4. Atlanta
5. Boston
6. Pittsburgh
7. Cincinnati
8. St. Louis
9. San Francisco
10. Denver"

No Portland. Seattle #2! (Meaningless, of course, but I always get a kick out of Pdx's being shut out, the trendy fanatics here can be so obnoxious.)

Would someone tell the eastern press that Washington is a western state, not a city?

Coming eventually

SODOM, GOMORRAH AND JONES, a dark comedy. Carlton "CJ" Jones, a retired professor. A widower. Historian of the American holocaust. Advocate of a Kennedy conspiracy theory. Struggling to live with dignity in a corrupt world. And then he meets a strange young woman. He rereads Thoreau. He discovers the poetry of Lew Welch. He learns that his wife led a double life. And everything changes.





Harriet is going to paint an image for the cover!

For Portland writer Charles Deemer, decisions to quit drinking, adopt new social life changed everything | OregonLive.com

For Portland writer Charles Deemer, decisions to quit drinking, adopt new social life changed everything | OregonLive.com:

First result of my participation in Oregon News Network. This from the Books section today. I assume this is only online, not in the print edition of the paper.

Paperback v. ebook

Friday I should get a proof of the paperback version of Eight Oregon Plays by Round Bend Press. The Kindle ebook has been out for a while and even sold a few copies. Yet I really look forward to seeing and holding the paperback.

An irony. Although I prefer reading on a Kindle, as a writer I know I'll get more satisfaction holding the paperback than I do seeing the ebook on my Kindle screen. There's still something about book as object, with weight and taking up space with a certain thickness. The writer in me has different preferences than the reader in me.

Maybe this will change over time. But at the moment, I look forward to Friday!

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Oregon students not selected as finalists in the Intel Science Talent Search | OregonLive.com

Oregon students not selected as finalists in the Intel Science Talent Search | OregonLive.com:

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Caught up! The rest of the day is my own. Well, I have to make a decision about class time tomorrow but that won't take much time.

Making progress on the Kindle essay. I'll put it up at $1.49 and see what happens. I'll link to it here when it's available. Topic? Have to wait and see.

Should be getting my proof of 8 plays today or soon. Eager to see it, as well as the galley of the novel.

Close to rapping all this up.

Afternoon

This afternoon I have the work of five continuing (advanced) students to look at. Other than this, my day is free. I expect to spend some time on an essay I'm writing for Kindle.

Oscars 2012: 8 interesting details about the nominations - latimes.com

Oscars 2012: 8 interesting details about the nominations - latimes.com:

Oscars 2012: Academy overlooks the darker performances - latimes.com

Oscars 2012: Academy overlooks the darker performances - latimes.com:

L.A. breaks tourism record with 27 million visitors in 2011 - latimes.com

L.A. breaks tourism record with 27 million visitors in 2011 - latimes.com:

Golden Globes TV rights trial opens in Los Angeles - latimes.com

Golden Globes TV rights trial opens in Los Angeles - latimes.com:

The choice and the good luck

Almost twenty years ago I made a choice that has contributed to this good feeling "of a kind of ending" I have these days. I also got lucky.

The choice was to stop drinking. Two folks get credit for this: the doctor who got my attention about health matters; the VA counselor who convinced me to spend six months in a VA domiciliary before I returned to the world.

The good fortune was meeting and connecting with Harriet. The hardest part of quitting drinking is not quitting drinking but changing your social life. Harriet brought along her own social life, a built in substitute for the one I had to leave. It made the entire period of transition one hell of a lot easier than it would have been otherwise. Maybe I wouldn't even have made it without this alternative. Harriet provided a new world and invited me in.

The trilogy of books I mentioned earlier could not have happened without the choice and the good luck. No wonder I feel blessed. I've been given twenty years I wouldn't have had otherwise. And I'm still going strong, if ready to reinvent myself soon once again.

One thing I look forward to is having more time to be a consumer of art. Writing takes  a lot of time and demands a lot of focus. Consequently I've always been a half-ass consumer of art: never time to read enough, see enough films, hear enough music, go to enough lectures, and so on. My work always, always took precedence over the work of other people. And even when I went somewhere as a consumer, often my mind was preoccupied with whatever I was working on. My characters have never let me rest. In fact, in the past half century, I doubt if in a social situation I've ever been "all there." A part of me has always been obsessing about my story, my characters, my themes. I am hoping this will come to an end now, as I trade inside-out writing for outside-in writing.

(In the past, my outside-in writing, which I've done my share of, was to pay the rent. A part of me was always doing the other. I was as distracted at work as in social situations.)

I do have a small fear that I can't make the transition. Writing at this level may be a disease, not something I can exchange for something else. Maybe this is what happened to the old farts I see mumbling to themselves on the bus mall. They're really poets who couldn't make the transition except to stop writing it down. But they still have to babble the poetry, or the dialogue of the characters, or the brooding about a plot point. This would be a hell of a fix.

Right now I'm feeling I can do this. But I've been wrong before, so we'll see what happens. Tick tock.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Profit vs. Principle: The Neurobiology of Integrity | Wired Science | Wired.com

Profit vs. Principle: The Neurobiology of Integrity | Wired Science | Wired.com:

"Let your better self rest assured: Dearly held values truly are sacred, and not merely cost-benefit analyses masquerading as nobel intent, concludes a new study on the neurobiology of moral decision-making. Such values are conceived differently, and occur in very different parts of the brain, than utilitarian decisions."


Sundance 2012: Spike Lee: Studios 'know nothing about black people' - latimes.com

Sundance 2012: Spike Lee: Studios 'know nothing about black people' - latimes.com:

Joe Paterno tarnished legacy, John Wooden burnished his - latimes.com

Joe Paterno tarnished legacy, John Wooden burnished his - latimes.com:

"Joe Paterno could have been to college football what John Wooden was to college basketball. But the former Penn State coach had too little time to recraft his reputation after the Jerry Sandusky scandal."


Starbucks to add beer, wine to menu at select coffee shops - latimes.com

Starbucks to add beer, wine to menu at select coffee shops - latimes.com:

I don't like this idea.

Sundance Film Festival: A lavish scene for on-screen struggles - latimes.com

Sundance Film Festival: A lavish scene for on-screen struggles - latimes.com:

"There's a lot of economic suffering to be found in many of the films and documentaries at Sundance, but at Park City itself, it's a whole different story."


The audience for hyperdrama


Recent visitors to the Hyperdrama area in my archive. This is the only area where most visitations come from OUT of the United States, which speaks volumes to my past frustration in getting an audience for hyperdrama here and why my reputation is greater "over there" than here. Maybe the only thing I regret in my career is not "seeing the light" earlier and founding a theater company that would produce hyperdrama exclusively, using a high tech space for the purpose as designed in my video on the subject. Watch the video.

UCLA Football Recruiting Update: Coach Mora Rolls On - Bruins Nation

UCLA Football Recruiting Update: Coach Mora Rolls On - Bruins Nation:

UCLA is doing an amazing recruiting job considering how terrible they've been. They even got 2 hot shot linemen from L.A. high schools who had committed to Oregon to renege and now commit to UCLA. Changing from Oregon to UCLA is amazing for a kid, the new coach must really have charisma.

Oscar Nominations 2012: Academy Award Nominees List

Oscar Nominations 2012: Academy Award Nominees List:

Best Original Screenplay
Woody Allen, "Midnight in Paris"
JC Chandor, "Margin Call"
Asghar Farhadi, "A Separation"
Michel Hazanavicius, "The Artist"
Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, "Bridesmaids"
Best Adapted Screenplay
Alexander Payne, Nat Faxton, Jim Rash, "The Descendants"
John Logan, "Hugo"
George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Beau Willimon, "The Ides of March"
Aaron Sorkin, Steven Zaillian, "Moneyball"
Bridget O'Connor, Peter Straughn, "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy"

I'm rooting for Midnight In Paris or Margin Call and The Descendants.

Around the clubhouse turn

I have a really good feeling about my last three books: In My Old Age: Poems, Eight Oregon Plays, and Sodom, Gomorrah and Jones. Together they seem to summarize my career and bring it to an end in a very tidy way. Some good work is left out of this trilogy -- I'm thinking particularly of my plays Sad Laughter, Famililly and Oregon Dream, of my screenplays The Brazen Wing and Sad Laughter, of my novels Kerouac's Scroll and Love At Ground Zero (Christ, I'm a prolific son of a bitch!) -- but all the themes I've dealt with this past half century are there.

I'm always saying my work comes from whole cloth and usually I get blank stares in response. What the hell does that mean? This new short novel, more than anything else, illustrates what I mean. The novel is a marriage of invention, my past work and my life. For example, the protagonist goes to a hyperdrama in the Pittock Mansion called Chateau de Mort, written by his friend (I wrote such a play); the protagonist writes poetry and several poems are shown, which just happen to be poems from In My Old Age; trips to camp at Flathead Lake in Montana, to celebrate the summer solstice at the Stonehenge replica out the gorge, are significant trips from my own past; and so on.

One of the most unusual devices in the book, perhaps, are excerpts from a journal that my protagonist keeps about his "heavy reading." One of the reasons many will dislike this book is that it is driven by an unpopular premise: that the intellectual life can drive the personal life and is as worthy of dramatic expression. You see something close to a "novel of ideas" in the European tradition but not so much here. I wouldn't call Sodom a novel of ideas but it does take ideas seriously because the protagonist takes them seriously -- and we see what specific ideas we are talking about. Some will read this as pedagogical, pedantic. Fortunately others won't.

When I say I have a sense of an ending here, I don't mean a sense of quitting, but ending. Ending a certain path. Ending a certain journey. I really don't have much to say after Sodom, and it's about time. It's about time! My future writing now can focus on outside-in matters, not inside-out matters.

To be honest, I doubt if I have the mental and physical stamina to write another novel. Each one is more draining than the last. I can see why some writers have had nervous breakdowns after writing a book. If you're writing inside-out, a serious book, a book that seeks to tell some kind of truth, not just to entertain, and to express this in an artistic form unique to the material -- well, it's a heavy experience, heavier than seeing a shrink. Outside-in, on the other hand, is craft driven, an exterior matter, not introspectively driven.

So I hope in my future writing I am doing short, craft-driven things, and doing them for Kindle because the environment there is so friendly and there's a chance one can pick up some coffee change doing it. I've already put down some foundations for doing just this.

I think the new novel deserves a far greater audience than it's going to get -- but then I always think that about my work. It comes with the territory when you're "a marginal writer" in the culture, rather than a mainstream writer. It's a consequence of some decisions I've made along the way. But I wouldn't change a thing. I'll get my due because the work always wins out. The work always wins out. And if my work is worthy of attention, it will get it, even if later rather than sooner, and if it isn't worthy of attention, well, all I can say is I did my best to make it worthy. You can't do more than do your best. Guess what? This is enough.

Kucinich Announces ‘Game Changing’ Constitutional Amendment to Publicly Finance Federal Elections | Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich

Kucinich Announces ‘Game Changing’ Constitutional Amendment to Publicly Finance Federal Elections | Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich:

Monday, January 23, 2012

Good day for a noon movie

Perfect timing, I finish the latest revision, need a break, and we're scheduled to go with a friend to see Tinker, Tailor at noon.

It's a wrap (another step)

OK, done with the latest polish, I just ordered copies for myself and the publisher, what in the old days would have been called galley proofs. If all goes well, one more small step and we're done.

It came in at 212 pages, starting this revision at 228 pages. I added 3 vignettes and cut 3 vignettes. I know it's much stronger now. I don't know if it's as strong as it can be.  But I will soon enough.

Whew. I really do love this book. I don't expect a big audience for it, however. Whenever I love something, like the Mahagonny opera, like the novels of Josephine Hart, only a few agree with me. Why should this be any different?

Gloating

Here's an irony: even as I cringe at a passage I find in the book, at other moments the reading makes me gloat, as if to say, Damn, this is great stuff! I think the ending, the final 20% or so, is especially strong. I think it's now within my ability to make this as good a novel as I'm capable of and with a more ambitious concept than anything I've written, well, this looks promising indeed. I just hope I don't miss any of the passages that make me puke ha ha.

Up and at 'em

Up early to write a new vignette, a good one, about a summer solstice party at the Stonehenge replica in 1963. I went to one in 1967, which inspires the addition. It's the moment of the first kiss between my protagonist and his future wife.

To a movie at noon, Tinker Taylor ... I'm so glad my class is already prepped.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Shocking ...

... how much bad writing I am finding in my novel. I know why -- I'm racing ahead with the narrative, knowing I can come back and fix things later. So I am. But I would hope I had better "first instincts" than some of the drivel I'm finding ha ha. Thank the gods for rewriting!

Why my doctor scolds me

Headcheese
Good eating today! Scrapple,oatmeal and bacon for breakfast. A headcheese and havarti sandwich for lunch.

Koji Wakamatsu's 'United Red Army': A Second Look - latimes.com

Koji Wakamatsu's 'United Red Army': A Second Look - latimes.com:

"Koji Wakamatsu's 2007 docudrama is the latest film on the radical left of the '60s and '70s to come to DVD."


Martin Scorsese, George Clooney and more in Envelope Directors' Roundtable - latimes.com

Martin Scorsese, George Clooney and more in Envelope Directors' Roundtable - latimes.com:

"Martin Scorsese, Alexander Payne, Michel Hazanavicius, Stephen Daldry and George Clooney discuss the joys and hardships of filmmaking."

RLTV targets aging boomers - latimes.com

RLTV targets aging boomers - latimes.com:

I've long argued that the great untapped film audience is seniors.

Sexually, what's a girl to do? - latimes.com

Sexually, what's a girl to do? - latimes.com:

"It turns out that providing information to girls about sex is the easy part; helping them develop the expectations of love and commitment as prerequisites for sexual activity is another matter."

We watched a news item last night, half of middle school kids are sexually active. When we were their age, neither of us knew anyone who was sexually active or even pretended to be sexually active. Girls? Baseball!

Bob Dylan tribute album honors Amnesty International too - latimes.com

Bob Dylan tribute album honors Amnesty International too - latimes.com:

Obituary: Joe Paterno dies at 85; transformed Penn State into football power - latimes.com

Obituary: Joe Paterno dies at 85; transformed Penn State into football power - latimes.com:

Too bad about the screw up at the end.

Germany has the economic strengths America once boasted - latimes.com

Germany has the economic strengths America once boasted - latimes.com:

"Germany with its manufacturing base and export prowess is the U.S. of yesteryear, an economic power unlike any of its European neighbors. It has thrived on principles America seems to have lost."

The Right won't admit this.

Ahead of the curve

Had a very productive morning, got all my prep work for class Tuesday online ... so the rest of the day, and tomorrow, I have no pressure. The way I like it.

Which means I actually have a shot at finishing the polish reading today and tomorrow, which would be spectacular. I could order PODs and move on to the next step. The next reading I'll attempt to read as a reader, not as a writer, and so how I like it. Not so easy to do.

I'm putting down the foundation for two possible Kindle series, testing them so to speak, things I can do with my eyes shut, seeing if I can scratch up a little coffee change from a few things I know about a few things. It's actually fun because the writing is so easy for me, outside-in kind of stuff, the direct opposite of what I'm been up to on the novel.

I really am delighted to have Tues's class taken care off. I have to do a lot of work in Word and Photoshop to get it all online for us to look at together in class. Grunt work but it goes quickly since I have it down to a system. I got the class work prepped and online in about two hours, not bad at all.

Off for coffee, back to read. All the usual Sunday reading to do, too, though I did make a first pass through the LA Times early this morning. Haven't looked at the Guardian yet. Probably get a new NYer tonight and I have to finish the current one. Ah, me. So much to read! So much to write! How the hell can anybody be bored in this world?

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Second wind

Sitting here with the best cup of coffee in Portland, brewed with my hand expresso pump, figuring I may have a second wind to do some more careful reading this evening. Tomorrow I have to dedicate the day to class prep stuff -- very labor intensive since I started putting student work online to discuss, so we all can see it. Grunt work but it's actually grunt work I enjoy.

My POD of Eight Oregon Plays has shipped so maybe i'll get it in the week ahead.

Halfway there

Loving the process, about halfway now through the polish. Here's the plan:

when it's done, I'll make two more POD copies, one for me and one for Terry at Round Bend Press, the publisher, and this one will be like a traditional galley proof for a final read and approval.

I've responded to most of the constructive criticism I've rec'd so far (waiting for one more reader, a damn good one) but, in truth, two comments, one each from two readers, left me shaking my head -- say what? To my sensibility, to follow the suggestion would crash the whole novel-world, a tsunami of bad advice. Well, let's never forget the true cliche, There's no accounting for taste.


What I hope to teach my students is how to become their own toughest/best critic, so they can separate the good advice of others from the bad.

Watch out, America!

Had breakfast at Joe Brown's with Mark Marchus, the most interesting man I know these days, who manages to charge my battery whenever I visit with him. And today M had news: he broke down and bought a Kindle!

This may prove to be a pretty significant step in his creative life. He's working on a couple books but where he may find a special niche is in the area pretty unique to Kindle publishing, the short form of articles and essays. The audience who needs to hear what he has to say has little patience for "the long argument" but I think M could communicate his ideas and world view in short pieces, put on K for 99 cents, $1.49, whatever, and the search bots would find them, and readers in time would find them, and at the very least some important writing would be available and not stuck in his drawer somewhere.

This whole new digital world has barely started. It has negative impacts, to be sure (what I worry about most is the degradation and loss of reflection, contemplation, brooding, in the culture), but also positive ones, and high on the list is making non-commercial, non-mainstream writing readily available. This has not happened before in the history of the world. Maybe it could even lead somewhere.

So I look forward to seeing what M does on the creative end with his new Kindle.

This afternoon I can return to the novel polish.

We Must Stop This Corporate Takeover of American Democracy | Common Dreams

We Must Stop This Corporate Takeover of American Democracy | Common Dreams:

"I believe that the Citizens United decision will go down as one of the worst in our country's history – and one that demands an amendment to our Constitution in order to restore sovereign power to the people, as our nation's founders intended."

Bernie Sanders.

John Green's adds to his fan base with 'The Fault in Our Stars' - latimes.com

John Green's adds to his fan base with 'The Fault in Our Stars' - latimes.com:

"While watching one of his recent YouTube videos, it's immediately clear that John Green isn't just an author. He's a multimedia darling playing to 1,000-seat auditoriums of screaming fans."

Selling books with YouTube.

Sundance 2012: Bawdy flicks with chicks, but don't say 'Bridesmaids' - latimes.com

Sundance 2012: Bawdy flicks with chicks, but don't say 'Bridesmaids' - latimes.com:

2012 Sundance: Fest Veterans Returning With New Work - Deadline.com

2012 Sundance: Fest Veterans Returning With New Work - Deadline.com:

Friday, January 20, 2012

Round Bend Press: Etta James--1938 to 2012

Round Bend Press: Etta James--1938 to 2012:

20%

A very productive day on several fronts.

I started taking notes on what I am calling "the first polish," significant movement toward a final draft. I got 20% through the manuscript today. A great day.

But it's amazing how "bad" some of the writing is, in my estimation now. But it's easily fixed.

2 essential apps for Kindle

Instapaper's "Read Later" button and the new "Send to Kindle" feature from Amazon rank as the two K apps I use most frequently. The first saves any web page for later sending to Kindle ... and the latter allows any personal document or web page (anything that can be printed) to be sent to K with one click. Man, these are cool and useful!

Still rising

Wow, my screenwriting Kindle book is up to #35 this morning, which puts it two ahead of one of my favorite screenwriting books, Invisible Ink. I think the price, $2.99, is driving this crawl up the charts. Ink, for example, is at $4.99 and most are more expensive than that.

I read an article on pricing. The author had experimented with his own K books and reached some conclusions that I followed in pricing this. Originally I priced it at $4.95 ... but in a few days, I've already made more at $2.99 than I had made in several weeks at the other price.

If I can break into the top 20, I'll be on the first page of the results.

Fascinating, in its distracting way ha ha. Back to work!

Small things

Reading the LA Times early this morning, on the sofa with my feet up, coffee at hand, a quiet house ... the small pleasures that actually are huge in their contribution to one's sense of well being.

Some house chores to do today, beginning the careful reading on Kindle of the novel, class work prep to get started so I don't have to rush it later ... a low key day, my favorite kind.

Theater review: 'Our Town' at The Broad Stage - latimes.com

Theater review: 'Our Town' at The Broad Stage - latimes.com:

Helen Hunt as Stage Mgr
"... this is a stunning theatrical achievement. Cromer throws dazzlingly harsh light on the truth that's been there all along yet is always such a challenge to see."

Man, I hope PBS or somebody tapes this. I would love to see it!


'Film Socialisme' review: Jean-Luc Godard sets sail - latimes.com

'Film Socialisme' review: Jean-Luc Godard sets sail - latimes.com:

Hollywood dream of filmmaker Nicholas McCarthy is stop and go - latimes.com

Hollywood dream of filmmaker Nicholas McCarthy is stop and go - latimes.com:

"His 11-minute thriller had just played Sundance. He had hoped the premiere would launch — after many failed attempts — his dream of making it. He was offered one meeting on which all his hopes rested."

Persistence trumps talent most of the time.

Euphoric moment

Walking from the university to my bus stop yesterday afternoon, I was swept over by a rush of euphoric feelings, a sense of awareness of my good fortune in life, despite all the little things that can annoy me, the bottom line is I'm at a great time in my life, which is shared with two great people, my wife and my dog, along with several important professional and friendship relationships today, and having a job I love. Moreover, two important books are coming out soon, the collection of plays that summarizes the most visible part of my career, and the ambitious novel that brings together all of the themes I've been wrestling with all these years. I really have a sense of an approaching ending to this part of my life, leaving me to explore new things, for which I've already put down a foundation.

So what if the basement is leaking from the weather storm at hand?

Marketing

I've been a professional writer for almost fifty years. In that time, the greatest change I've seen in "the writing life" is a change in the writer's expected responsibility to market the work.

It used to be that traditional publishers took care of that. Publicists put together book store tours, which are marketing campaigns, and the writer jumped through the hoops. Now, even with traditional publishers, even with established writers, the writer is expected to carry more of the marketing burden. And if you use the new "self-publishing" tools like print-on-demand or ebooks, you are left to do ALL of the marketing because no one, except word of mouth, is out there to help you.

If you are starting a career this way, I see two unfortunate things happening: one, too much energy too soon must be devoted to marketing and not to writing, which is the only activity that will improve your skills; and two, by self-publishing early you run the risk, and embrace the temptation, of thinking you are better than you are because you've not been tested in a competitive environment. I urge my students to go the traditional route to publishing for this reason -- to get a collection of rejection slips. I think this a useful step in the writer's journey, even though today you can skip it and start publishing yourself. I think this is justified if you have validation of some kind that you're not being driven by ego and that your work actually is ready for the marketplace. But there is a lot of poor writing getting out there today, more than at any time in the history of literature.

The new tools are godsends for old farts like myself and to mid-list writers who have been stuck in their careers. In each case, validation is no longer the issue and the new tools get work out there that otherwise would be hidden in a drawer. This is good. Also the new tools permit a new marriage between work of special interest and the limited audience for it -- and I think most "serious" literary writers fit into this category.
I am constantly reminded of the course I took at UCLA, 19th C Popular Literature, in which we read the best-selling authors of that era, none of whom are remembered or read today. Learning this blew me away and gave me a new perspective on the relationship between literature and culture and a new understanding of my own place in the literary universe.

And later I was blessed with an iconic moment, a reader discovering an old essay of mine in a dusty library basement and being so inspired by it that he wrote an entire book on the subject (English Composition As A Happening, scroll down). This is exactly the relationship I want with a reader: to be discovered and inspirational. And if it happened once, it can happen again. So Sirc liberated me in a sense, gave me confidence that I was fine doing what I was doing.

There are two kinds of writers. Most writers who write about writing note this. I cal them writing inside-out and writing outside-in. Stephen King called them writing for yourself and writing for others. Marketing is always about writing for others. Serious literary writing is always about writing for yourself. And the tension between the two is as old as literature itself.

The new digital tools are amazing. It is great that more writers can reach more readers than ever. But writers whose work will never find a large audience, writers not destined to be popular, should not get too distracted or, heaven forbid, depressed by the dazzling sales figures being thrown around about Kindle books and other new modes. Be true to yourself. And use the new tools accordingly.

P.S. The times are ripe for someone to write a popular book about addiction to data. I haven't looked but it's likely already been done. As Pascal said, all the world's problems follow from an individual's inability to sit quietly in one room.

Samantha Garvey, Homeless NY Science Whiz Getting $50,000 Scholarship

Samantha Garvey, Homeless NY Science Whiz Getting $50,000 Scholarship:

Thursday, January 19, 2012

UPDATE: Robert Redford Sees Opportunity In Alternative Distribution: Sundance - Deadline.com

UPDATE: Robert Redford Sees Opportunity In Alternative Distribution: Sundance - Deadline.com:

School scraps 'Cougars' as mascot after complaints that it's derogatory – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs

School scraps 'Cougars' as mascot after complaints that it's derogatory – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs:

"It's tough to pick a mascot these days."


My Kindle book doing best is ...

Writing the Spec Screenplay, which has climbed from #94 to #50 in the screenwriting category. No great shakes but the movement is in the right direction. The top sellers are K versions of paperbacks, and I think it's the TOTAL sales that are counted, not just the electronic sales.

My K-book is the best buy out there but, of course, nobody knows that or would believe you if you told them. Be interesting to see what happens down the road. I'm not launching a great marketing campaign or anything. I'm in the FUN time of life now ha ha. What happens, happens. But I do make sure it CAN happen, that is, "it's out there."

But baby, it's wet outside!

Got to school without drowning, sort of. Dry off till noon, go show Tales from the Script, a very fine documentary about the screenwriting life. Takes the whole class, back for office hrs, home. An easy day!

Say what?



  1. 数码媒体与远程剧场[2]-文学论文-无忧考网

    www.51test.net › 文学论文 - 
    14 hours ago - 超戏剧”的代表作家狄孟(Charles Deemer)与智利圣地亚哥的并普里斯玛戏剧公司(Prisma Theater Company)合作期间,就通过因特网实现了对远程排练的指导。
  2. Prisma is the theater in Santiago where I developed a one-act hyperdrama as "playwright in electronic-residence," doing the entire development with the company in a chat room! And this was 15 years ago! Here is the result:
  3. The Last Song of Violeta Parra (1996)

Consumer Movie Disc Rentals -11% In 2011 As Paid VOD Grows - Deadline.com

Consumer Movie Disc Rentals -11% In 2011 As Paid VOD Grows - Deadline.com:

A note about influences

Evan S. Connell
There's a sense in which Sodom, Gomorrah and Jones is a marriage of two of my favorite novels, Evan Connell's Mrs. Bridge and John Dos Passos' USA trilogy. I use Connell's storytelling strategy of short vignettes, and I use Dos Passos' storytelling strategy of layering narrative with news events and impressionistic things. So what I have may seem like something of a "new" structure but in fact just combines the story strategies from two of my favorite works.

John Dos Passos
I am eager to finish all the nit-picking so I can sit back, relax, and return to this thing as an actual story, trying to read it not like a writer but like a reader. Be a while, I suppose, but it's an important step near the end.

The new rewrite

I found a second wind last night and managed to do a complete rewrite of the big things to fix, with three vignettes still needing work. I reduced the 228 page book to 212 pages. I removed one secondary and two minor characters. I added two vignettes (2 of the 3 above needing work). I uploaded it to Kindle for a slow note-taking reading. I think the next time it comes out of Kindle, I'll be ready for the final draft. We'll see.

I'm focusing so much on the small things now, I will need a time to set it aside for a week and come back to it "as a book," just reading it for pleasure. The last reader's complete enthusiasm, however, really has me jacked because all the work yet to do was getting me down -- it's as if this reader were able to see the end product and react to it, rather than to the partial mess at hand. He really got it. And he particularly liked the ending, though I have rephrased it since his draft ... same action, but moving the language around so the last three words in the novel are different and hopefully powerful.

Two students seeing me at office hours after class. Good, makes the time go faster.

Then home with time in next few days to work on the novel.

I really like the cover of Eight Oregon Plays. This is a book for libraries more than anyone else, I suspect.

The Best Fictional Scientists From TV and Movies | Wired Science | Wired.com

The Best Fictional Scientists From TV and Movies | Wired Science | Wired.com:

Death Valley students face loss of lifeline - latimes.com

Death Valley students face loss of lifeline - latimes.com:

"California has pulled funding for school transportation for the rest of this fiscal year and may eliminate it entirely next year. In Death Valley, where some students have a two-hour round trip, the cut is 'catastrophic.'"

As an educator and also as a desert person, I feel sorry for these kids.

Sundance: Critic Kenneth Turan spies some films to watch - latimes.com

Sundance: Critic Kenneth Turan spies some films to watch - latimes.com:

Hammer Teams With Studiocanal & Others For Major Restoration Of Film Library - Deadline.com

Hammer Teams With Studiocanal & Others For Major Restoration Of Film Library - Deadline.com:

23rd GLAAD Film/TV Awards Nominations - Deadline.com

23rd GLAAD Film/TV Awards Nominations - Deadline.com:

The Oregonian News Network: Community Blog Parners - OregonLive.com

The Oregonian News Network: Community Blog Parners - OregonLive.com:

We are now a community blog partner at the Oregonian.

Back to bed

Up doing some grunt work but I definitely need more sleep before class. Good night.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Awards Roundup: Oscar's Foreign Finalists - Deadline.com

Awards Roundup: Oscar's Foreign Finalists - Deadline.com:

The new gold rush

The digital books universe, in which a few amazing stories of self-made millionaires have grabbed so much attention, and inspired or challenged so many others, reminds me of the gold rush. The vast majority of folks who went to the gold fields did not strike it rich. That surely will be the case here. And yet the carrot is dangling there to be followed, and for many it's hard not to take a chance and follow it.

Supreme Court Upholds Right To Reinstate Copyrights For Works In The Public Domain - Deadline.com

Supreme Court Upholds Right To Reinstate Copyrights For Works In The Public Domain - Deadline.com:

TCM unveils list of 10 most influential silent films - latimes.com

TCM unveils list of 10 most influential silent films - latimes.com:

Sundance Film Festival: Sellers anticipating a bounty of deals - latimes.com

Sundance Film Festival: Sellers anticipating a bounty of deals - latimes.com:

Serendipity

Steve Smith
Putting togehter 8 Oregon Plays this morning has given me a small fit of sentimental nostalgia, reflecting on my good fortune in the 1980s. I was in the right place at the right time with the right stories. I'd already been publishing "Oregon stories" in my short fiction and now, as a playwright, I kept the same focus at a time when Portland theaters and audiences were ready to hear stories about themselves. Artistic directors Steve Smith, Gary O'Brien and Peter Fornara made it happen, and the Oregonian's drama critic, Bob Hicks, let audiences know the plays were worth checking out. It was a great decade for Portland theater in general and for me in particular.

In a strange way, coming out with this collection and the novel back-to-back reinforces my sense of a completion, an ending, a period at the end of a certain journey. Which, of course, leaves me to begin yet another and different kind of journey.

I hope I can get a second wind. I really am eager to get into the fine-tuning of the novel. But right now, man, I'm exhausted. I can't do this work for hours on end as I did when I was younger.

Coming soon

Unexpected trouble, the cover took longer than I expected ... need a recharge of energy now to work on the novel ... lunch first ...

Eight Oregon Plays

Round Bend Press is eager to go with this, so I need to prep manuscript and make a cover, grunt work, but a distraction from the novel ... I think I can do this before noon, work on the novel in the afternoon.

Winter storm

The snow line moved north of us, so Seattle is getting hammered with snow but we're just getting rain, a lot. A good day to stay home and work on rewriting the novel. High energy to do just this.

Tomorrow I show a documentary in class and pick up first assignments. Week 2, over and out.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

A rare reader

I have some ebooks at Smashwords listed at "pay what you want," which I decided to do instead of making them free. Tonight someone bought an old mystery of mine for $4.99. S/he set the price. Pretty unusual actually. 99% of the time they take them free.

The Recall is the Greatest Popular Democracy Movement in Wisconsin History | Common Dreams

The Recall is the Greatest Popular Democracy Movement in Wisconsin History | Common Dreams:

"The recall petitions that will be filed today, seeking the recall of Gov. Scott Walker and Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, will weigh 3,000 pounds.

That's a monumental message for the governor and his minions, as well as the pundit class that so doubted the depth and breadth of the Wisconsin democracy movement."

This is what grass roots groups should be doing, not camping in parks.

Scientific Doomsday: Ways the World Could Actually End | Wired Science | Wired.com

Scientific Doomsday: Ways the World Could Actually End | Wired Science | Wired.com:

You mean electing Republicans won't do it? How about Democrats?

The New Science Classroom Battleground: Climate Change | Wired Science | Wired.com

The New Science Classroom Battleground: Climate Change | Wired Science | Wired.com:

Multicellular Life Evolves in Laboratory | Wired Science | Wired.com

Multicellular Life Evolves in Laboratory | Wired Science | Wired.com:

"An evolutionary transition that took several billion years to occur in nature has happened in a laboratory, and it needed just 60 days."


The Rise of the New Groupthink - NYTimes.com

The Rise of the New Groupthink - NYTimes.com:

"SOLITUDE is out of fashion."

In my view, perhaps the worst symptom of our times.

Works and Days » So Why Read Anymore?

Works and Days » So Why Read Anymore?:

"Here are a few reasons other than the usual defense of the “classics,” the “canon,” and the glories of “Western civilization.”"


Pulitzer Prize-winning Author Cormac McCarthy Sells His First Spec Script – Deadline.com

Pulitzer Prize-winning Author Cormac McCarthy Sells His First Spec Script – Deadline.com:

UCLA Football Recruiting: Bruins Nab A Quarterback From Texas - Bruins Nation

UCLA Football Recruiting: Bruins Nab A Quarterback From Texas - Bruins Nation:

The new coach is getting his priorities right.

Ready to rock and roll

Very high energy to start rewriting the novel ... a new file, maybe the last one before the final draft ... very exciting. Lots of great constructive criticism from 3 readers I've heard from and the 4th is one the best readers I know, a former grad student of mine, always helpful in the past, so really looking forward to her feedback.

I like the notion that this is my best work. That's how I want to go out. Retire from the heavy inside-out stuff, and just dabble in fun, possibly commercial outside-in Kindle stuff (because it's so un-stressful and so QUICK and so POSSIBLE, o brave new world!). HAVE FUN, of a lighter kind by far than the heavy soul-searching stuff.

So if Sodom, Gomorrah and Jones could be my best work, or even close to the top, as tonight's reader believes it is, well, that would be very nice indeed.

But all that is so subjective, of course. In concept, I think it may well be. But can I pull it off? That was the original question, months ago. It seems I've come damn close to it. So now let's get it right and do the whole hog, as Pinter would say.

What a great time in my life.

More feedback

Reader #3 ... who has been a fan of earlier things I've written ... this is his fav of my work. Now that's a biggie. Also good constructive thoughts for making it even better.

Tomorrow, at last, I have time to start the new rewrite. I LOOK FORWARD TO IT! LET IT SNOW!

13 Brilliant Bloggers Talk About Kindle Publishing — BlogWorld & New Media Expo Blog

13 Brilliant Bloggers Talk About Kindle Publishing — BlogWorld & New Media Expo Blog:

Thanks, Mark. Some really terrific stuff here.

The Dark Side of College Football » NCAA Gridiron Gab

The Dark Side of College Football » NCAA Gridiron Gab:

Darker every season.

Dry and bare

No inclement weather here at the university. Hour to kill before class. Nice to have it. I hate running around in a rush for anything.

Snowed in

Sort of but the city is clear, so once I get out of the neighborhood, I should be fine.

Rethinking some Kindle things about what I'll do and not do in this growing new arena. I've done one thing right and one thing wrong so far.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Sidetracked

Well, instead of working on the book, I decided there were some Kindle chores I should get done sooner rather than later, so I've spent several hours doing those instead. No biggie. As my dear mother used to say, "It all gets done in the wash." She said a number of puzzling things. My favorite is, "People are more interesting than anybody."

The forecast sees snow tomorrow. Apparently later in the day, so I could get to school and then have trouble getting home. We'll see! I'm not a snow person, L.A. and all, so I'd be quite happy for the forecast to be in error.

H gave me a terrific idea for a Kindle book today. I mean, first rate. And the market is there -- not "empty" but ripe for the picking, no significant competition that I see. This would take a few weeks to do, and I should start sooner rather than later. In my copious free time ha ha.

GOLDEN GLOBES FILM: Is ‘The Artist’ Unstoppable After Latest Victory? – Deadline.com

GOLDEN GLOBES FILM: Is ‘The Artist’ Unstoppable After Latest Victory? – Deadline.com:

Film Editors Unveil Eddie Award Nominations – Deadline.com

Film Editors Unveil Eddie Award Nominations – Deadline.com:

Spectacular new Kindle app

If you send a lot of personal docs to Kindle, as I do, there's now a one-click app that makes it easier than emailing it to yourself.

Send to Kindle app. Right now, it's just for PC with Mac coming.

Man, this digital doc world gets more and more user-friendly, more and more amazing to me. I am working hard to crack this nut in the long run.

Dog from The Artist, Uggie, Charms at Golden Globes : People.com

Dog from The Artist, Uggie, Charms at Golden Globes : People.com:

The fun begins

I'm in pretty good shape for school tomorrow So after breakfast, I think I'll grab the notes from first two "feedback" readers and start reshaping the manuscript. I love this stage of the process. It's so much more rational than creating a first draft.

Martin Luther King Day 2012: Remembering His Life, Legacy

Martin Luther King Day 2012: Remembering His Life, Legacy:

Three of my early short stories deal with race in America:

Pasadena claims a slice of burger history - latimes.com

Pasadena claims a slice of burger history - latimes.com:

"But could the cheeseburger really have been invented in Pasadena? Anuja Navare, reading room manager for the Pasadena Museum of History, found a menu for The Rite Spot that listed the "Aristocratic Burger: the Original Hamburger with Cheese," for 15 cents."

Go, Pasadena!

Golden Globes reward little-seen cable TV shows - latimes.com

Golden Globes reward little-seen cable TV shows - latimes.com:

"Some of the biggest winners at Sunday's Golden Globes were critically acclaimed cable shows that draw relatively tiny audiences — in some cases, far fewer than 1 million viewers per week."


Climate change becomes a flash point in science education - latimes.com

Climate change becomes a flash point in science education - latimes.com:

"Some states have introduced education standards requiring teachers to defend the denial of man-made global warming. A national watchdog group says it will start monitoring classrooms."

Our anti-intellect legacy marches on!

Jerome Rubin obituary: Futurist who foresaw e-books dies at 86 - latimes.com

Jerome Rubin obituary: Futurist who foresaw e-books dies at 86 - latimes.com:

"Years before others, Jerome Rubin foresaw how technology would change the publishing industry."


Promotion, free download for next five days

Talkin' Aesop: the Shepherd Boy and the Wolf

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Darron Thomas speaks to ESPN, compares self to Cam Newton | OregonLive.com

Darron Thomas speaks to ESPN, compares self to Cam Newton | OregonLive.com:

I've never been a fan of this guy, former Oregon QB. I've seen him miss too many open receivers. Modest, too.

Blaming U.S. and Israel, Iran Reports Killing of Nuclear Scientist - NYTimes.com

Blaming U.S. and Israel, Iran Reports Killing of Nuclear Scientist - NYTimes.com:

"It was the fourth such attack reported in two years and, as after the previous episodes, Iranian officials accused the United States and Israel of responsibility. The White House condemned the attack and denied any responsibility. The official reaction in Israel appeared to be more cryptic."

Here's a good movie idea.

Golden Globes: 'The Descendants' wins for best drama - latimes.com

Golden Globes: 'The Descendants' wins for best drama - latimes.com:

Golden Globes: 'Midnight in Paris' wins best screenplay - latimes.com

Golden Globes: 'Midnight in Paris' wins best screenplay - latimes.com

Don't like the weather? Wait a minute.

I left on two short errands: to the post office to mail bills; to Starbucks on the way home. When I left the trace of snow had melted, everything bare. Ten minutes later I'm in a snow storm that is sticking. I was afraid I might not make it home. But home I am, and now it stopped and it seems to be melting again. Strange.

The snow storm was beautiful while it lasted. Maybe that's the best kind -- fifteen minutes of beauty and melt.

Elmore Leonard Digs Money, And He’s Not Afraid To Admit It: TCA – Deadline.com

Elmore Leonard Digs Money, And He’s Not Afraid To Admit It: TCA – Deadline.com:

"Elmore Leonard — the legendary writer who provided the source material for the FX hit Justified and serves as an executive producer alongside showrunner Graham Yost — admitted during a TCA panel this morning that he’s always tried to make his stories as visual as possible so they’ll sell to Hollywood. ”From the very beginning I’ve been in it to make money,” the distinguished author said, “and writing visually is the way you do it.”"

A direct, honest answer.

Promo

H came up with a terrific idea for a promo of Talkin' Aesop. Tape myself performing one as a talking blues and put it on YouTube and elsewhere. It couldn't hurt and I usually do talking blues first rate, it might end up being pretty cool.

Brilliant

I've been looking for this for months but couldn't remember the group or lyrics. I explained it to H and she came up with the Eurythmics as the group and I was home free. Man, I love this song. I don't like much pop music but this one really got me.

James Joyce moves into the public domain, mostly - latimes.com

James Joyce moves into the public domain, mostly - latimes.com:

Talk about something that makes you feel old!

Horton Foote's children keep his plays alive - latimes.com

Horton Foote's children keep his plays alive - latimes.com:

Envy: who the hell would keep my plays alive? Most are dead on the vine already.

I heard about Marty Christensen's death too late to attend the memorial but one who was there was depressed by how few attended. When I led a memorial gathering to spread the ashes of my poet friend Ger Moran in the Shakespeare Garden in Washington Park (where some of my dad's ashes are, where his mother's ashes are), half a dozen showed up. Six people! Six goddamn folks to send a guy off, among the many dozens who knew him. Unless you have strong family ties, or strong community ties, you pass and get quickly forgotten.

Reminds me of several poems that end with the word ... oblivion.

Year in Movies - latimes.com

Year in Movies - latimes.com:

Sunday morning

I love Sunday mornings. The L.A. Times, the Sunday Guardian and Observer, a leisurely breakfast, brooding about what to do the rest of the day, today quite a few class and other mental chores.

I'm a breakfast kind of guy. You can mess with my lunch and my dinner, tell me I take a pill for each, but don't mess with my breakfast. Breakfast has several incarnations:

  • Standard #1: oatmeal, with or without a slice of scrapple under it, with or without an egg on top.
  • Standard #2: scrapple and eggs, with or without potatoes.
  • Standard #3: sausage and eggs, with or without potatoes.
  • Standard #4: comfort breakfast, toast dampened with milk, with or without a slice of scrapple on top, with an egg on top,
  • Occasional #1: going out for breakfast, usually to a regular spot (Chinese restaurant, Nobby's, Fat City, McDonald's (!)), sometimes adventurous. (I like McD's sausage muffin, sorry ha ha).
  • Occasional #2: something different at home, like hotcakes or scrambled eggs.
  • Adventure #1: something new at home, like the recent wonderful hash brown quiche.
My favorite teacher Bob Trevor was a breakfast man, as I learned when I visited him in Honolulu after he retired. A wonderful trip! Especially since I got to visit with him before he died shortly thereafter. I fell in love with Hawaii, being taken to non-touristy spots, discovering it was no more expensive to live there than in Portland. I could easily live in Honolulu. At any rate, Bob had his breakfast routine, the same restaurant, the same booth, the same waitress, usually the same order -- my kind of man! I envied his retirement routine, as a matter of fact. I'm also a routine kind of guy.

Today is more busy than I like a Sunday to be but that's life. There's a sprinkling of snow outside and I haven't heard if more is coming or what. I'll find out. It's a holiday Monday so if it comes, let it come then so I don't get a class canceled. My syllabus is so tight, missing a class upsets me.

The Sunday Guardian and Observer costs 75 cents and is over-whelming, with over 50 stories on the arts. Over 50! Obviously I don't read them all but I skim the headlines and read many. 

In the 1960s the Oregonian's Northwest Magazine was like that to a lesser scale, a supplement full of great stories that you kept around to read all week -- this is when it was printed on newsprint with Joe Bianco as editor. It later got slick, began to deteriorate, and then disappeared.

It is astounding to me that more newspapers, including the Big O, don't produce a really, really first rate electronic model for online, Kindle, iPhone, iPad and other device reading. The production costs are negligible now, it's all about design and great writing. The L.A. Times does a great job. The Big O is barely passable. Why? I know the writers are in town, many already working there. Money, I presume.

So some of the town's best writers for the Big O have gone onto projects of their own, like Bob Hicks' Art Scatter and Barry Johnson's Oregon Arts Watch. Each is first rate. Apparently they had to do this on their own.

This much I know: Edmund White | Life and style | The Observer

This much I know: Edmund White | Life and style | The Observer:

"The author, 72, on monogamy, despising old people, and being a Falstaff figure"


The Doors: A Lifetime of Listening to Five Mean Years by Greil Marcus – review | Music | The Observer

The Doors: A Lifetime of Listening to Five Mean Years by Greil Marcus – review | Music | The Observer:

Traditional TV has survived the net threat, but for how much longer? | John naughton | Comment is free | The Observer

Traditional TV has survived the net threat, but for how much longer? | John naughton | Comment is free | The Observer:

Retirement villages: grandma's ghetto or country club? | Money | The Observer

Retirement villages: grandma's ghetto or country club? | Money | The Observer:

Ezra Pound's daughter fights to wrest the renegade poet's legacy from fascists | World news | The Observer

Ezra Pound's daughter fights to wrest the renegade poet's legacy from fascists | World news | The Observer:

Terrible coverage

You'd think 2 Portland women making the Olympic team in the marathon would be big news. The Denver Post thought so. OregonLive, on its Track and Field page, still has an old pre-meet story of the 13th. Man, they must be under-staffed. I can't believe they are this negligent unless so.

I finally did find a short news story after a search but, man, this should be a screaming feature, which is what the Denver Post did without any geographical reason to celebrate. A sad state of affairs here.

Australian Academy Of Cinema Names First International Awards Nominees – Deadline.com

Australian Academy Of Cinema Names First International Awards Nominees – Deadline.com:

A quick way to legitimize an institution is to start handing out awards.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Albee's Peter: Less Is More

We saw Albee's At Home At The Zoo tonight and came away with opposite reactions. This two-act play has as its second act the "former" classic one-act play, The Zoo Story, that launched Albee's career over half a century ago. In the first act, we find Peter at home with his wife and learn much about him, her, and their marriage.

H thought this illuminated and clarified what happens in the second act, the original Zoo Story. I think it restricts what happens in it. She thinks the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. I think it's considerably less.

I like the first act, however, but don't think it illuminates what follows but makes in clearer in a particular way, which in turn makes the play more naturalistic, less abstract, less about ideas and more about a particular character. It's no accident that Albee had to go to Europe to find an audience for The Zoo Story. Only after success there could the play return and find an audience here. The European theater tradition is not as wedded to naturalism as here.

The new play, to me, is more American and less interesting. It's more literal and less suggestive. By clarifying the character of Peter, the interpretative possibilities move from the abstract and symbolic to the particular and realistic, or even melodramatic. What was a one-act with a definite European flavor moves toward being an American two-act. I don't like the trade offs

Norman O. Brown quotes a passage from Kazantzakis in Brown's Love's Body that I've been looking for because it applies here. I can't find it but it quotes a priest who has been reprimanded for going beyond a literal interpretation of the Bible, and in his own defense the priest says, in far more poetic language that my memory here, that meaning is never caged within the meaning of the words but flies with the freedom of birds between the lines, that meaning is not text but subtext. Albee's new play, in my view, has considerably less subtext and for this reason is weaker than the original one-act.

I wish Albee had renamed Peter in act one and presented it as a new one-act.

James Sharinghousen & Don Alder
The production, by the way, was excellent. I've seen The Zoo Story about half-a-dozen times over the years and in a strong cast (Don Alder, Karla Mason), James Sharinghousen's Jerry is the strongest I've seen on stage. What he did with his face, his expressions, could be hypnotic and chilling at once. A specially incredible performance in a strong cast all around.