Month: October 2012
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The perks of being a blocked writer
Okay, in my last post, I alluded to being stuck between two places writing-wise, and I didn’t get into that. So, now I will. But of course, I’ll go off on another tangent first. I saw the movie The Perks of Being a Wallflower this weekend, mostly because I heard Cloud Atlas was a disaster. I…
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Back to bass
I have not been writing. I’m sort of stuck between two places. More on that in a bit. I went into my usual writer’s block mantra of “I wish I did something other than write”, which motivated me to go to our storage locker and pull out my bass guitar and amp. Before I put…
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The Recognitions by Steve Urkel
The Recognitions, published in 1955, is American author William Gaddis’s first novel. The novel was poorly received initially, but Gaddis’s reputation grew, twenty years later, with the publication of his second novel J R (which won a National Book Award), and The Recognitions received belated fame as a masterpiece of American literature. Steve is the…
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Stop bath acid memories
In my freshman year of college, my classes were mostly at Ballantine hall, which was rumored to be built from all the money IU made off of the fluoride patent they sold to the Crest toothpaste people. The morning stumble from Collins to Ballantine for an 8:00 German 100 class took maybe five or ten…
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Mission
There is a level in Modern Warfare 3 called “Mission” and everybody seems to love it, because every time I’m playing and “Mission” and any other level other than “Terminal” or “Dome” comes up, everyone votes for “Mission.” (“Dome” is one of those tiny levels where everyone shoots everyone and the maximum score limit is…
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Advice from Raymond Federman
I don’t remember when I got into Raymond Federman, but it was probably during the process of trying to look up every influence Mark Leyner mentioned in interviews. If you haven’t read him, both Take it or Leave it and Double or Nothing are genius, and demonstrate his mastery of experimental narrative. Both of those…
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It’s impossible to learn how to write plotless books by operating a plow
I watched an hour-long documentary with Richard Linklater a week or two ago, an interview that was done on some Austin cable TV show, which looked like one of those public access deals that they always had in Seattle in the mid-90s when I first got a TV, with a guest and a host or…
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First lines from my books and stories, presented without commentary
“I pulled the VW Rabbit off the road and killed the engine.” “You’re probably wondering why I did this.” “I’ve always had a great interest in reference material.” “I love Las Vegas, and I still have trouble telling people why.” “There were riots in the streets, people gunning down cops, escaped prisoners dragging motorists out of…
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The Evil Pink Mistress
Trying to shake a benadryl hangover, the evil pink mistress clogging every mental channel in my head with dizziness, apathy, and the dark grey dread and doubt and apathy that logjams any serious attempts at life. I remember waking at two or three, after the cursed recurring dream of being back in high school again,…
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Nuke from orbit
I did my first clean installation of OSX today, which is weird, given that I’ve been using OSX Macs since 2005. The reason I’m not in the habit of nuking a machine and reinstalling everything is twofold. One is that I’ve bought three Macs in that time period (a Mini in 2005; a Macbook in…