Matthew Dicks's Blog, page 468

Do racists long for the good old days?

I’ve often said that my father was born 100 years too late. My father was a cowboy in ever sense of the word. When I was a child, he spent more time on a horse than not.

He once brought a horse into the dining room to eat off the table.

He would’ve fit perfectly into the Old West. I suspect that if given the choice, he would’ve opted to be born at least 100 years earlier. 

With that in mind, I’ve been obsessing over this question for the last week:

Do racists regret the fact that they weren’t born during a less enlightened time in human history? Do they lament the days of segregation or even pre Civil War slavery? If given the choice, would they have wanted to be born in a time when they would still possess supremacy over African Americans?

I’m asking in all seriousness.

While I’m at it, what about the bigots who oppose same-sex marriage and homosexuality in general? Delaware is on the brink of becoming the eleventh state to legalize gay marriage, and an NBA player just came out of the closet to near-universal praise. 

Are bigots lamenting the days when they could still use gay slurs as a means of insult?

Are they bemoaning the fact that so many television shows and movies portray gay people as normal? 

Do they wish they they had been born in another time in history when their bigotry was the norm?

Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend: The paperback release

Today is the paperback release of MEMOIRS OF AN IMAGINARY FRIEND!

Since my first two novels were originally published in trade paperback, this is my first actual paperback release. It’s not quite as exciting as the book’s initial release, but it ain’t bad.

Also some amazing news: Target has chosen MEMOIRS OF AN IMAGINARY FRIEND as their May 2013 Book Club pick. It even appeared in their circular this past Sunday! 

Yesterday, my wife and daughter just happened to be spending some time in our local Barnes & Noble when they stumbled upon my book, on the table a little early.

“It’s Daddy’s book!” Clara shouted. I wish I had been there to hear her.

Speak Up: A recap of our first show

Our inaugural Speak Up storytelling event took place at Real Art Ways in Hartford, CT on Saturday night, and Elysha and I couldn’t be more pleased with the results. Thoughts from the evening include:

1. One of our greatest fears was that there simply wouldn’t be enough people interested in storytelling to fill the space and provide our storytellers with an audience. Thankfully, we couldn’t have been more mistaken. We had seating for 80 guests and ended up with a standing-room-only audience of close to 150 people, many of whom Elysha and I did not know. It turns out that there is an appetite for storytelling in Hartford after all. We couldn’t be more thrilled. The audience was exceptionally supportive of our emcee and storytellers and couldn’t have been more enthusiastic. I have told many stories for The Moth and other storytelling organizations in the past two years, and Saturday night’s audience rivaled them all in terms of sheer energy.

2. While admittedly biased, I must say that our storytellers were incredible last night. Several people who are familiar with The Moth through their weekly podcast, radio show and live events told us that last night’s show was “Moth-like quality.” As an unabashed fanboy of The Moth and a frequent Moth storyteller, I could not imagine a better compliment. Elysha and I went to bed talking about how difficult it was to choose a favorite story from the show because the performances were all so remarkable.

3. One of the most frustrating aspects of producing an event like this is the inability to speak to everyone in attendance. If you were at the Saturday night show and Elysha and I did not have a chance to chat with you, our deepest apologies. We were busier than we thought we would be. We wish we could’ve spent time with one and all.

4. Launching this endeavor and producing last night’s show with my wife reminded me of how fortunate I am to have a person like Elysha as my wife. She is creative, encouraging, inspiring and brave. Saturday night’s show was one I will never forget, but it wouldn’t be nearly as satisfying had Elysha not been my partner in this new venture.

5. One of the aspects of the show that people seemed to enjoy the most was the variety of stories that were told. They ranged from humorous to heartfelt, thrilling to heart-wrenching. Yet oddly enough, there was also a connective tissue between many of the stories that was both unexpected and fascinating. At least three storytellers told stories in which their names played a key role (including my own). Unbeknownst to us, two storytellers told stories about traveling to Greece when they were young (one changed her story less than 24 hours before show time). Three storytellers told stories about a school-based competition. Yet every story stood alone in terms of its content, message and impact on the audience. They were all unique, compelling and completely entertaining.   

6. After the show, Elysha and I went to The Corner Pug for dinner and ran into four people who had been at the show. They raved about the storytellers and Elysha’s performance as emcee. It was the perfect way to end the evening.

7. A former elementary school classmate, Kevin, and his friend and podcast co-host, Cornflake, made the trip from central Massachusetts to attend the show. Kevin is the same classmate who attended a January performance of The Clowns, the rock opera that I co-wrote with Andy Mayo that we produced at the Playhouse on Park in West Hartford, Connecticut. More on Kevin and Cornflake in a subsequent post, but needless to say, they were awarded the prize for the greatest distance traveled to attend the show. 

8. We are grateful to so many people who played a role in last night’s success. Some of these people include:

Rob Hugh, who helped make the recording possible. We recorded all the stories from Saturday night and will make the recordings available via a podcast that Elysha and I will be launching soon.

Vanessa Del a Torre from the Hartford Courant, who was kind enough to write a story about our event. Many people informed me that they had heard about Speak Up through the Courant and were in attendance because of the story that she wrote.

LB Munoz, Will Wilkins and the rest of the staff at Real Art Ways who provided us with the perfect venue to launch this endeavor. They were generous, knowledgeable, patient and bend-over-back helpful in making this happen. We look forward to working with them long into the future.

Our storytellers, without whom there would be no show:

Game show host extraordinaire, James Bengiovanni

A woman who truly knows how to celebrate Mother’s Day, Ellen Painter Dollar

Spelling bee champion, Rachel Leventhal-Weiner

The man who rode a crocodile from Africa to America, Okey Ndibe

The grandson of the Queen of the Goats, Plato Karafelis

Summer Lovers/Peter Gallagher devotee Kim Damokosh

We thank you all for your expertise and exceptionalism. We were honored to have you launch this endeavor with us. 

9. We are already planning our next Speak Up event, which will likely take place in September. When we have more details, we will be sure to provide them.

Deep thoughts on God, pets, holidays and the Internet: Ian Martin covers it all

British author Ian Martin offered 60 thoughts on turning 60 years-old.

The whole piece is excellent. Here are a few items that I especially loved:
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20. A pre-internet world is unthinkable.

21. There wasn’t any internet 30 years ago.

It’s true. And though the Internet is 30 years old, it is less than 20 years old for most of us. I was active on the Internet in 1995, but most of my classmates at Trinity College were not. Even then, the Internet was a shadow of what it is today. There was no commerce and little two-way communication between users. In terms of ubiquitous use by a large segment of the American public, the Internet didn’t truly take hold until the beginning of this century. Despite all this, it’s almost impossible for me to imagine a world pre-Internet today.

Also, please note that Martin doesn’t capitalize the word “internet.” I’m not sure if this is a British convention, but it’s the way Internet should be spelled.

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24. Holidays seem so much more arseache than they are worth.

I love this for two reasons.

First, the word “arseache” is brilliant. I don’t know if it’s a word that the Brits use on a regular basis, but I love it. So much better than the phrase “pain in the ass.”

Also, I agree with him. Holidays of every kind are almost always a pain in the ass.

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41. Oh shut up, of course God exists. Even if God turns out to be just science in fancy pajamas. Honestly, you think all this stuff “militant here in Earth” is not being saved to some “memory cloud”? There are Tumblr accounts for people’s bloody cats.

God is “just science in fancy pajamas.” That’s a religious view I can almost get behind. 

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My wife would most heartily approve the following:

11. I have nothing against pets in theory. It’s just that, in reality, pets are noisy, selfish, practically incontinent, morally depraved and just really stupid. They are walking, flapping analogs of your own paranoid self-loathing. You take your soul-searching Labrador for a walk and a chat. I’ll just watch a bit of telly.

I am reminded at least once a week that we will not be getting any more pets ever again.

Makes me smile every time

When was the last time you had a pillow fight?

On the day of his assassination, Martin Luther King Jr. had a pillow-fight in his motel room.

I love this. I’m so happy that he was able to experience such joy on his last day.

As a twenty-something, my friends and I had enormous, knock-down, drag-out pillow fights in our apartment, usually with the lights off. Minor injuries, broken lamps and an occasional bout of romance often resulted.

I started a relationship with a girl in the midst of one of these massive pillow fights.

I nearly lost an eye on a zipper once.

I haven’t had an honest-to-goodness pillow fight in twenty years. I didn’t even know that there was a National Pillow Fight Day until just now.

What a tragedy.

Thankfully, I have a four year-old who will probably more than willing to correct this.

Life lesson from a little one

Another reminder from my daughter:

“Jumping is fun. You should jump more.”

She’s right. Jump before you can’t jump anymore.

 

I have not mastered disdain, and I hate myself for it.

One of my greatest regrets is that I have not mastered a look of disdain powerful enough to break through the hubris and blind momentum of so many of the people assigned to lead meetings, conferences or training seminars.

I try like hell to let them know how pedantic, ineffective, offensive, condescending or downright stupid they are being, but try as I might, they continue on, unaffected by my attempts to exude disdain in their general direction. 

I’ll keep working on it, but I’m starting to give up hope.

From the mouths of babes to children’s authors everywhere

We were talking about children’s picture books in my fifth grade class this week when one of my students said something that I think every children’s author and illustrator should hear (though I suspect that many already know this).

We were talking about the choices that illustrators make, and specifically how some books contain visual tricks, repeating images, pop up elements and simple games to entertain the reader along with the actual story. The classic example of this is the tiny white mouse in GOODNIGHT MOON. In addition to to the beautiful story, children love searching for that mouse on each page.

Even I do.

Another good example is the way in which Marc Brown hides his children’s names in his ARTHUR books. And the way you are apt to find Mo Willem’s famous pigeon from DON’T LET THE PIGEON DRIVE THE BUS in many of his other books, too. 

Many picture books have these small, repeating images or similar visual games for kids to play while a teacher or parent is reading the book to them.

A boy in my class who happens to be one of my most avid and voracious readers said that when he was younger, he did not like books and had a hard time learning to read. He said that he might’ve given up on reading completely had it not been for things like the mouse in GOODNIGHT MOON to “keep my head in the books when there was nothing else in there for me to like.”

“So these little games that illustrators play helped you learn to read?” I asked.

“They saved me,” the boy said.

I can’t imagine three more important words for a children’s author and illustrator to hear. As a teacher, I claw and scrape to find ways to hook my students into reading. Sometimes all it takes is one great book to set them off on course as a lifelong reader. Other times a trusted friend can convince a kid that books are worthy of their time. Too often it requires cajoling, coercion, bribery and outright extortion. It doesn’t matter. I’ll do whatever it takes to get a kid to love books. 

Apparently the love of reading can also be achieved with the help of a little white mouse. 

Resolution update: April

In an effort to hold myself accountable, I post the progress of my yearly goals at the end of each month on this blog. The following are the results through April. 

1. Don’t die.

Done. Unless we’re all living in a simulation, at which point we were never alive. But that is a post for another day.

2. Lose ten pounds.

I lost another pound. Four pounds down, six to go. To be honest, these 10 pounds should be gone already.  

3. Do at least 100 push-ups and 100 sit-ups five days a day.  Also complete at least two two-minute planks five days per week.

Done.

4. Launch at least one podcast.

Preliminary work continues. I’m still picking at my manuscript, which is holding me back a bit. But I’m nearly ready to begin.

5. Practice the flute for at least an hour a week.

The broken flute remains in the back of my car.

6. Complete my fifth novel before the Ides of March.

Done!

7. Complete my sixth novel.

I have decided upon my next book. If I could just stop fiddling around with book #5, work on book #6 would commence.

8. Sell one children’s book to a publisher.

I’ll be reading my manuscripts to my students this month in order to get their feedback. A will perhaps revise a little, and then I’ll send one or more to my agent with hopes that she adores them as much as me.

9. Complete a book proposal for my memoir.

Work will not begin on this goal until the summer.

10. Complete at least twelve blog posts on my brother and sister blog.

No blog posts written yet for the year. My sister has moved, though, and ensures me that work will commence post-haste.  

11. Become certified to teach high school English by completing two required classes.

I am now just one class and an inexplicable $50 away from achieving certification. That class will be taken in the summer. 

12. Publish at least one Op-Ed in a newspaper.

I’ve had two pieces publish in the Huffington Post and one in Beyond he Margins. Both of these publishing outlets exist online but might actually be better in terms of audience and publicity than an actual newspaper. Still, I’d like to get something into an actual newspaper this year before they all go extinct.  

13. Attend at least eight Moth events with the intention of telling a story.

I attended one Moth event in March, bringing my total to six. Three days ago I told a story at a StorySLAM at The Bitter End about a time when I made a plane of passengers wait so that I could ensure that my luggage was onboard. I finished third behind two more deserving stories.

14. Locate a playhouse to serve as the next venue for The Clowns.

The script, the score and the soundtrack remain in the hands of the necessary people. We have begun talks on a new musical as well. As much as I don’t want to be excited about a new project like this, I am excited.

15. Give yoga an honest try.

Though I’m ready to try this whenever possible, the summer might be the most feasible time to attempt this goal.

16. Meditate for at least five minutes every day.

Done. After a year or so of meditating, I have gotten quite good at clearing my mind. Shockingly good, in  fact. I’m not sure if it’s doing me any good or making a difference in my life, but it’s always rewarding to master something.

17. De-clutter the garage.

Progress continues. 

18. De-clutter the basement.

No progress. Summer job.

19. De-clutter the shed

No progress. Summer job.

20. Reduce the amount of soda I am drinking by 50%.

I will begin recording my soda intake starting this morning (8 ounces thus far). This will allow me to set a guideline for future reduction.

21. Try at least one new dish per month, even if it contains ingredients that I wouldn’t normally consider palatable.

I did not try a new food in April, but I tried two new foods in March, so I’m counting it.  

22. Conduct the ninth No-Longer-Annual A-Mattzing Race in 2013.

I can’t believe I set this goal for myself. The races are fun, but they are a ton of work, too.

23. Post my progress in terms of these resolutions on this blog on the first day of every month.

Done.