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.

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.

Olympic marathon trials marked by triumph and heart break - The Denver Post

Olympic marathon trials marked by triumph and heart break - The Denver Post:

""I never really imagined myself winning this race, based on my short period of time to train for it," Goucher said. "I can't remember the last time I've been this nervous, but I can't remember the last time I've wanted something so bad, either.""

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I got tired of waiting for OregonLive to publish something on this -- 2 Portland runners and Denver beats us to the punch! Terrible.

Do you read to your children?

Check this out.

POD drafts arrive

Finally received the POD drafts of the book. I don't know, not as exciting as I thought to hold them in hand. Maybe because I still have a lot of work to do on them. And it's funny, in a way they look better to me on Kindle now. Maybe I'm morphing.

So very cool that both Portland women runners made the Olympic marathon team. Hot stuff. Track athletes impress me more as athletes than beefy football players or gangling basketball players do. Track still strikes me as an actual sport. I can't wait for the summer Olympics.

Looking forward to the Albee play tonight. Two nights out in a row! Am I becoming a social butterfly?

Mostly getting grunt work done today but nothing I could be doing, like for class, like for friends, like for the book. Ah, there's always tomorrow.

Houston 2012 Marathon Olympic Trials - Women: Portland rules!

Houston 2012 Marathon Olympic Trials - Women:

Portland's Shalane Flanagan first, Kara Goucher third!

Watching the marathon

Kara 

Really into the marathon Olympic trials on TV now, esp the women with two women who train in Portland running. I esp am rooting for Kara Goucher. Go, Kara! who is not among the 3 favorites to make the team. But she's up there, she might do it.

This race is damn exciting, KG hanging in with the lead group so far. I know some think watching a marathon on TV is boring but not I. This is great suspense!

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Now lead group of 4, KG still there, so is S, the other Pdx woman -- but only 3 make the team.

RIP: ‘My Flashlight Was Attacked by Bats’: Farewell to poet Marty Christensen | Oregon ArtsWatch

‘My Flashlight Was Attacked by Bats’: Farewell to poet Marty Christensen | Oregon ArtsWatch:

William Burroughs & Marty Christensen

Marty died Jan. 5th -- I hadn't known. When I was editor of Sweet Reason and published several of his poems, he was tickled pink because even that long ago (early 80s) he had fallen through the cracks unless you'd been in Pdx a while. He was an eccentric, talented poet and painter, who drank too much, as so many do. He died two days short of his 70th birthday.

Amazon.com: TALKIN' AESOP (stories to read to children): The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf eBook: R. J. Charles: Kindle Store

Amazon.com: TALKIN' AESOP (stories to read to children): The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf eBook: R. J. Charles: Kindle Store:

A new adventure: the fables as talking blues, hip hop verse.

Good vibes

Really nice dinner and visit with my favorite ex-mayor and his lady friend last night. Bud and I shared some good stories and found some things in common we didn't know about. AND, he enjoyed my book of poems so much, he's ordered three copies to send to friends.

Working on a new project for Kindle. It's the kind of project with a built in "brand," so if I can make it work, I can make some good pocket change. But making it work, i.e. marketing, is the challenge and something I generally am pretty bad at. I'm doing this under a pseudonym to ease the pain ha ha. The good news is, the project itself is engaging craft. It's a left-brained project. More later perhaps, especially if it works.

Advisory: Live-Snarking The Golden Globes – Deadline.com

Advisory: Live-Snarking The Golden Globes – Deadline.com:

In the oven

Made vegetarian lasagna this morning, one of my signature concoctions, which works mainly because I make my own pasta. Taking it to friends for dinner tonight. What a guest, brings dinner! ha ha.

Busy day actually. Barely started, had to go get most of my ingredients for dinner.

Brooding about feedback, a couple suggestions re minor characters I definitely am embracing. That's what great feedback is for, working in sync with the concept.

Will Micro-Budget Films Like ‘The Devil Inside’ Change The Economics Of Studio Moviemaking? – Deadline.com

Will Micro-Budget Films Like ‘The Devil Inside’ Change The Economics Of Studio Moviemaking? – Deadline.com:

Micro is a relative term ha ha. When I say micro, I mean MICRO!

‘The Artist’ Best Pic, George Clooney, Viola Davis Top Actors At Critics Choice Awards – Deadline.com

‘The Artist’ Best Pic, George Clooney, Viola Davis Top Actors At Critics Choice Awards – Deadline.com:

Best original screenplay to Woody Allen.