Stephen McClurg's Blog, page 54

KNIFEZINE

I’ve got work in various modes of production. Some liner notes. Some haiku and other poems. Some comics. Some larger projects.

An upcoming comic with Derek Ballard tentatively called “KNIFEZINE” will be a part of Yeti Press’s main releases in 2016.

From Yeti Press:

LOOSE KARMA will be two-artist ‘split zine’ showcases. Each issue will have a limited print run and be 24 pages (with each artist getting exactly half), including two covers. It will also feature an exciting collaboration between the artists in the middle spread of the book.

We’re starting with three issues in 2016.

We’re proud to announce the line-ups for the first three issues:

#1 Derek M. Ballard / Joe Garber

#2 Scotty Snowden / Pam Wishbow

#3 Rosemary Valero-O’Connell / Chris Kindred

LOOSE KARMA will be available in 2016 at TCAF, Linework NW, CAKE, and the Yeti Press online store.

 

Laughable. Unphotographable.

A friend of mine gave me the impossible challenge of picking the five “Greatest Love Songs.” He’s working on a lesson plan for his students and we’ve always had the practice of doing every activity we ask students to do.

Of course, I didn’t quite follow directions and I came up with various criteria so I could make choices. Lists are fun. And futile.

This also gives me a chance to post about “Love’s Labor,” a comic I recently wrote for Study Group’s Valentine’s Day series called “Modern Love.” It was a collaboration with artist Josh Burggraf. His work is fantastic. I hope we work together more. We’ve discussed something, but it all depends on time and timing.

What the exercise of choosing love songs revealed to me is that I gravitate toward the songs of either hope or despair, rather than the celebration of romantic love. Songs like “Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac or “Dreaming” by Blondie. There’s a bittersweetness to these songs. I decided to eschew those as much as possible. And arbitrarily I chose songs in English (well, that is my native tongue so it’s not that arbitrary, but love songs don’t have to be in English) and vocal versions.

And like every list I write, I’m sure I violated my own rules at least three times.

I did strive to pick songs that mean something to me or affect me on a visceral level in a way that Mingus, Mahler, or Morricone have. I mostly listen to instrumental music.

These don’t suit you? Great. Go make your own list. Let me know and I’ll check it out.

My List of Fifteen of the Five Greatest Love Songs

1. “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)”: The Talking Heads

2. “My Funny Valentine”: Frank Sinatra

3. “Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours”: Stevie Wonder

4. “What a Difference a Day Makes”: Lonnie Johnson

5. “You You You You You”: The 6ths

6. “Knocks Me Off My Feet”: Stevie Wonder

7. “In My Life”: The Beatles

8. “You Are the Everything”: REM

9. “Something Stupid”: Frank and Nancy Sinatra

10. “Stand By Me”: Ben E. King

Beach Boys + One

1. “Be My Baby”: The Ronettes

2. “Don’t Worry Baby”

3. “Good Vibrations”

4. “Wouldn’t It Be Nice”

5. “God Only Knows”

 

 

The Red and The Black: a card game for improvising musicians

The idea for this came about when a quartet of musicians came together for a week of recording. Rather than simply firing away at each other all week, we started putting together ideas for structure. This was mine. Four musicians and four suits. With that, I only offer the following as general rules to be used or discarded as the players see fit. With larger groups than a quartet, more than one person could be a “heart” or “club.” It would also be up to the players to decide if the color schemes still held.

Thinking about it several years later, I suppose someone could do this as solo pieces (Solitaire!) if they made equivalents to the suits or colors.

I liked that the draw meant each improvisation would likely have a different texture in the same context. Sometimes a suit isn’t drawn or one is drawn two or three times. In the case of the quartet, the players could decide if they were playing as suits or colors, solo or duo. Individually, a player could interpret the numerical information on the card based on their own musical ability or simply ignore it.

I always intended to come up with something similar for a Tarot deck, but never did.

General Instructions

1. Pull the aces from a deck of cards and shuffle. Lay them out face down. One person (or representative in case of a larger ensemble) picks a card. He or she is now that suit. So if the player picks the ace of hearts, he now plays either when conducted or when a heart is

drawn.

2. It may be best to organize the playing space so that the red and black suits are together. Also, everyone should be able to see the cards that are drawn. In large ensemble situations, maybe an overhead would be good to use.

3. Shuffle the remaining deck with or without the jokers. Draw four cards. These represent the score. (H=Hearts; S=Spades; D=Diamonds; C=Clubs)

4. Once this score is finished, discard. Pick four new cards and begin again until the deck runs out. (48 cards = 12 scores in one set)

5. If you use the jokers, I recommend using the joker as a wild card, so the deck ends with an even four cards. In other words, draw four cards with the joker.

Example:

Drawn: 3H 4S 4H 2D

Because Hearts are drawn first they control this score. They can choose to play completely through the entire piece and signal Spades and then Diamonds in or out in the order they appear. They could choose to signal in everybody in the order they are drawn and then signal everyone out. They could also choose to have the Diamonds play along with them (as the Red team).

If a player chooses, she could also read the numerical value of the card. For example, if I get the 3H, then I could play in 3/4 time, 3 chords, 3 actions, 3 seconds, three frets, notes, or strings or I could only play in thirds (harmonically or melodically). It’s up to the player and the conducting team.

 

Happy New Ears

For the last few years, I’ve found myself listening to Thai music around the New Year. I don’t know why and I just noticed it when was searching for something new to hear. I discovered Christopher Adler, who I intended to write about in this post.

His music is influenced by American minimalism, which I had been listening to lately, but also has a strong strand of Laos, a folk music of Laos and Northern Thailand.

This led me into Laos and then into some Thai recordings that I had listened to in the past.

The music is often celebratory and upbeat and maybe that’s why it’s become part of my New Year’s tradition. Besides, the kids like dancing to it and they don’t always want me playing the Talking Heads or James Brown and I get tired of “The Hot Dog Song” and “Shake It Off.” It’s a nice compromise.

Besides being a composer and improviser, Adler plays khaen, a bamboo mouth organ.

I was struck by the tone and clarity of this performance by Master Nouthong:

Which led me to a good cassette recording of a Master player from Laos:

Oddly, my interest in American minimalism grew out of trying to find music that allowed me to write while I listened to it. This recording has that openness and quality of a drone.

That led me to music played on a Thai lute called a phin. Very surf party ready:

And I found a live performance that someone had sent me years ago that’s still great. (Jon? Mike? Can’t remember…)

More recently someone uploaded the over-two hour concert. It’s listed as Khun Narin’s Electric Phin Band: Thai-Psychedelia.

Shredding Streetside Isaan. I like the mix with the traffic sounds.:

What seems to be a recording session with a young phin player. She rocks! And really starts shredding after the five-minute mark.:

All of this led me back to some of the fantastic Sublime Frequencies records I had heard in the past. If you’re a record collector or music adventurer you should check out their releases. Fans of Dengue Fever will likely enjoy.

Since my kids are old enough for me to have time to listen and think about music again, I’m going to try to hear a lot more this year. I’ve been to two live concerts in nearly four years: a jaw-dropping Anthony Braxton solo set and free St. Paul and the Broken Bones show when they were just a band in town. Already I have tickets to see the Sun Ra Arkestra and Napalm Death. That may honestly be it in terms of live shows for the year, but it’s a good start.

Also, besides all the usual yearly health goals, I’m going to be getting more writing done, here and elsewhere.

Happy New Year!

 

The End of the Year in Reading

As with the film lists, these aren’t meant to be a best-of, just books I enjoyed this year and that stuck with me in some way.

Fiction

Something Wicked This Way Comes: Ray Bradbury

Illustrated Man: Ray Bradbury

There is an exuberance and positivity in Bradbury that I admire, but rarely seem to find as much in myself—or at least it feels that way. Bradbury’s love of poetry comes out in his prose and these two titles may be my favorites of his, though I do like a lot of his work.

Secret Agent: Joseph Conrad

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?: Philip K. Dick

This was the third time I had started this one and I was finally able to finish it. It made me want to go back and watch Blade Runner again and allowed me to appreciate both pieces for what they are. PKD is becoming one of my favorites.

Notes from the Underground: Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Sanctuary: William Faulkner

English Patient: Michael Ondaatje

V: Thomas Pynchon

Treasure Island: Robert Louis Stevenson

I hadn’t read this in decades and I was blown away by how much fun it was to read again.

War and Peace: Leo Tolstoy

Nonfiction

Illuminations: Essays and Reflections: Walter Benjamin

Stockhausen Serves Imperialism: Cornelius Cardew

This was my introduction to a musical figure I knew by name only. If anything, I enjoy Cardew’s passion and ideas (he may have been murdered because of them), even if I still like the avant-garde of Cage and Stockhausen. The book also introduced me to several other musical figures like Frederic Rzewski.

The Art of Fiction: John Gardner

Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method: Gerard Genette

Dense read that attempts to dissect the complexities of written narrative. It’s a book that is fascinating and one could spend a lot of time working through everything Genette does here. Like labeling parts of speech in a sentence, Genette gives ways of labeling functions of narrative within prose.

Silver Screen Fiend: Patton Oswalt

Scandals of Classic Hollywood: Sex, Deviance, and Drama from the Golden Age of American Cinema: Anne Helen Petersen

As much as I love Kenneth Anger and Hollywood Babylon, this is a sobering look at many of the Hollywood myths and stories those of us interested in Classic Hollywood have heard for years. The analysis of the ideologies of the star and studio systems are fascinating, if disturbing at times. One of the more awful details here is the fact that studios were giving uppers and downers to child stars like Judy Garland in order for them to meet performance schedules. Disgusting. The book doesn’t revel in the details, but serves as more of a critical analysis.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: Robert Pursig

The Social Contract: Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Me Talk Pretty One Day: David Sedaris

Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief: Lawrence Wright

Other

Apocrypha: KJV Text

The Lost Books of the Bible and the Forgotten Books of Eden

Rameau’s Nephew: Denis Diderot

D’Alambert’s Dream: Denis Diderot

The Case of the Flying Saucers: Manly P. Hall

Art / Comics

1450-1950: Bob Brown

One of the most inspiring works I’ve read this year. Wonderfully done.

River Dead of Minneapolis Scavenged by Teenagers: Mark Ehling

Ehling’s one of those guys you want to hate because he’s good at everything. And he’s a nice guy, too. The nerve of some people.

Monsters in the Movies: John Landis

Large coffee table book of movie monsters, stills, and poster art. Fantastic. Many of the films I’ve never heard of and I’ve been watching horror and monster movies since the age of four or five. It’s hard to compete with Landis though, who obviously has a deep love for these films and has lived almost his whole life in or near Hollywood.

In the Night Kitchen: Maurice Sendak

Mr. Wuffles: David Weisner

All-Star Superman: Morrison and Quitely

Hellboy Volume Ten: The Crooked Man and Others

The Humans, Volume One

Saga of the Swamp Thing Books Three and Four

Transformers vs. GI Joe Volume One

Vampirella Archives: Volume One

The Walking Dead Volumes One and Two

Poetry

Collected Poems: Theodore Roethke

Ashagalomancy: Abraham Smith

My favorite book of his so far. In theory, a book of creation myth poems, but so much more.

White Egrets: Derek Walcott

Drama

Ghosts: Henrik Ibsen

Rhinoceros: Eugene Ionesco

The End of the Year in Viewing

These film lists grow out of the traditional year-end motivations, but also from finally keeping a film journal since this summer. I’ve said I was going to do this for years, but now that I’m old enough to forget films I’ve seen, and along with the business of working and raising kids, it’s practical now.

Rewatched and Retired

The first movies listed here are favorites that I’m not going to include in other lists. These are films that I plan on writing about more in the future.

Godzilla (1954)

As many times as I’ve seen it, I think this was the first time I watched the Japanese version. I’ve always loved Godzilla films and my almost four-year-old daughter caught me watching it and is now obsessed with the movies and the ‘70s cartoon.

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966)



Before video rentals, when these holiday shows would come on they were events. I’m more excited about watching these shows with my own kids than I was watching them when I was younger. We got rained out this Halloween, so we rented this one.

It was really nostalgic. The voices. The music. Charlie Brown’s costume. “I got a rock.” I’ve watched this and other holiday specials throughout the years with many family members who are no longer here. It was nice connecting with my kids and reconnecting to some of my memories of being a kid.

The Grandmother (1970)

I think I was introduced to David Lynch in grade school. I believe I saw Elephant Man late at night on HBO. I’ve been hooked since. Eraserhead is one of my favorite films and the one I’ve probably seen more than any others.

I happened to watch The Grandmother again when Criterion offered a nice transfer for free online.

Jaws (1975)

Art by Scott Woolston

I think I watch this every summer. I have an Amity Island vacation poster in the living room.

Road House (1989)

I have pieces of an essay on ‘80s masculinity and Road House that I’ll eventually put together.

The Brothers Quay Short Film Collection (2015)

Probably my favorite artists and filmmakers. I won the new Blu-Ray in a contest that involved identifying ten stills from their films. The Blu-Ray transfer is fantastic and the new content is as great as anything they’ve done. The Christopher Nolan directed Quay (2015) is fascinating in that it’s the most detailed, though brief, discussion I’ve seen the Quays give on their techniques. Their work is a continual inspiration.

The Rest

I’m never able to get out to see current films, so I doubt if I’ll ever write anything like a “year’s best.” These are simply films I liked this year. Some are here because I think they are great (Son of the White Mare) and others, though flawed, worked for me on a particular level (Session 9).

Animated

Gertie the Dinosaur (1914)

Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926)

The Mascot (1933)

Son of the White Mare (1981)

The Junky’s Christmas (1993)

Documentaries

4 Artists Paint 1 Tree (1958)

The Love Goddesses (1965)

Surviving Edged Weapons (1988)

Corey Haim: Me, Myself, And I (1989)

Dream Deceivers: The Story Behind James Vance vs. Judas Priest (1992)

In the Mirror of Maya Deren (2002)

Rewind This! (2013)

Dark Star: HR Giger’s World (2014)

Free the Jazz (2014)

I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story (2014)

Plastic Galaxy: The Story of Star Wars Toys (2014)

What Happened, Miss Simone? (2015)

Art House

Shana Moulton: Everything. One of my favorite artists and my favorite film discovery this year.

Aleph (1966)

Fuses (1964-7)

Plumb Line (1968-71)

Zorns Lemma (1970)

Hotel Monterey (1972)

They Do Not Exist (1974)

Two Tons of Turquoise to Taos Tonight (1975)

Horror / Sci-fi / VHS Weirdness

Don Dohler:

The Alien Factor (1978)

Fiend (1980)

Nightbeast (1982)

The Galaxy Invader (1985)

Blood Massacre (1988)

Blood Freak (1972)

Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)

Logan’s Run (1976)

Death Bed: The Bed That Eats (1977)

The Shout (1978)

Fascination (1979)

The Children (1980)

Inseminoid (1981)

Visitors from the Galaxy (1981)

Deadly Prey (1987)

Creating Rem Lezar (1989)

Session 9 (2001)

Primer (2004)

The Descent (2005)

The Triangle (2009)

Absentia (2011)

Everything Else

Dr. Mabuse, The Gambler (1922)

Foolish Wives (1922)

The Fall of the House of Usher (1928)

Pickpocket (1959)

Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964)

Daisies (1966)

Donkeyskin (1970)

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974)

A Woman Under the Influence (1974)

Empire of Passion (1978)

Camera Buff (1979)

Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985)

The Dead (1987)

The Double Life of Veronique (1991)

Tree of Life (2011)

Shoptalk #2

Jason and I discuss writing and digesting our entertainment and art intake. I get so emotional talking about Ray Harryhausen I can’t say anything intelligent. Then again that may not be much of a change.

The Outrider Podcast is available on Podbean, iTunes and Stitcher. You can also listen at Jason’s website (http://jquinnmalott.com/index.html).

Catch the Spirit, Catch the Quinn

You can read Quinn’s post here.

Check out The Laboratory #4!

Reading

V.

After finishing War and Peace, I felt I had enough time to finish another longish novel before school begins. While teaching, I read shorter novels because my reading is interrupted so much by work. So far, V. is what you expect from a Pynchon novel: a large cast of characters, urban legends, songs, conspiratorial murmurings, shadowy and not-so-shadowy government agencies, funny character names, multiple narratives, etc.

I’m thinking next summer’s big read will be Infinite Jest.

Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method

Genette’s major work of narratology. Jason and I are both interested in literary theory and this fits with our concept of The Laboratory. It’s dense, but I find Genette’s terms useful, especially splitting apart the different meanings we have for “narrative.” Particularly interesting, and rather dense on first read, is his shorthand for representing narrative in a novel including side-narratives, flashbacks, and other fluctuations of narrative time.

Between this and the podcast, I find myself reading in a different way these days. I’m reading more like a writer and looking at how texts are constructed. I’ve also found that this is affecting my writing in general.

Watching

In the summer, I watch more movies than I should. Lately, to balance the reading of books like The English Patient and War and Peace, I’ve been watching a lot of trash, euro-trash, and exploitation films. Too many to name here, but I’ll say Fascination (1979), Death Bed (1977), and Blood Freak (1972) are particular favorites. Some reviewers feel extreme hatred for those last two, but I found them a lot of fun in their own way. I’ve also been watching some art film to balance some of the trash:

Son of the White Mare (1981)

Not only one of the best animated films I’ve ever seen, but one of the best films period. The story is based on a kind of Hungarian Beowulf epic. The use of color here is fantastic and intense. This movie makes me want to make things better. Click the title above to get to a version on YouTube. Thanks to Derek Ballard for introducing me to this one.

Shana Moulton

I’m still processing her work. It’s slightly disturbing and hilarious and brilliant at the same time. The films I’ve seen are mostly out of the Whispering Pines series in which Moulton’s character Cynthia pursues self-improvement through versions of New Age and mundane medicine. You can see her work by following links at her webpage.

Carolee Schneemann

Out of several films I’ve watched by her, my favorites so far have been Fuses (1967) and Plumb Line (1968-1972). Fuses is described as a meditation on heteroerotic love. Not for kids and NSFW. Plumb Line is about the decay of a relationship and probably the most experimental listed. Films are scratched, burned, reversed, etc. I would love to see these in a theater or museum. Maybe I can talk my cinematographer friend with a projector to screen these one night.

Listening

With the exception of Parmegiani’s Violostries, I’ve been listening to movie soundtracks. Sometimes while writing, sometimes not. Generally, I’ll try to listen to an hour of music at the end of the day if I have time. I’ve been playing and replaying:

Assault on Precinct 13: John Carpenter

Lost Themes: John Carpenter

Lucifer Rising: Bobby BeauSoleil

I recently discovered Stelvio Cipriani’s score work. Listening to what I can find. I think I love Carpenter’s film music more every time I listen to it.

Writing & Submitting

Ghoulanoids #2 is fully drafted. Derek and I consult and discuss and re-write the whole time he draws it, so our final draft is the issue when it comes out. There should be multiple toys with this release and we’ll have bigger news in the Ghoulanoids world soon. I’ve got at least three more issues heavily outlined and partially scripted and the overall story outline in skeleton form.

We’ve heard from the publisher that issue one is now being shipped all over the US. If you pre-ordered, it should be on its way within a week or two. Copies will be available at Quimby’s and Floating World and some other places. Drippy Bones will be updating their site shortly and you will be able to order from them as well.

Derek and I have another book to deliver this year unrelated to Ghoulanoids. I’ve outlined the story and scripted most of it. There’s still quite a bit of work to do on it.

I’m almost ready to begin submitting poetry and flash fiction again. I just need to set out some time to edit and make some files and submit. Sounds easy, but it’s a whole job in itself.

I need to work on Lab #4’s exercise.

 

 

 

 

Wherein I play catch-up to the Quinn again.

You can read Quinn’s post here.

Reading



War and Peace

My big summer reading project. This is the third start as I’ve had to set it aside for teaching duties. I’m close to finishing (Book 11 of 15, plus two epilogues). Slowly I’ve been catching up on the great Russian literature I’ve missed. Epic, but you knew that.

The Zend Avesta, Part II: The Sirozahs, Yasts and Nyayis

One of my reading projects involves religious, spiritual, and mythological writings. The Zend Avesta is a collection of Zoroastrian texts. I find this interesting, though I know many would find it dull.

I’m catching up on a few magazines I haven’t been able to read: Poetry, Paris Review, my free Harper’s subscription. One day I’ll get to read that one year of McSweeney’s Quarterly I have. One day.

Watching

One of the first things that gets cut in my day is viewing time. When I was in Austin and had some downtime I watched It Follows (2015), which I enjoyed. I thought the film used interesting metaphors to capture the fear and anxiety of teenagers dealing with sexuality. I’ve really liked the poster art I’ve seen for the film, mostly throwbacks to VHS box art. Other than that, I watched Re-Animator (1985) for maybe the 20th time.

I have seen Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast (2015) about seven times with my oldest daughter. It’s actually watchable and touching. Other than that I’ve only been able to process a few episodes of season four of Bob’s Burgers.

Listening

My listening has been more confined than my viewing. On Monday, I recorded an upright bass track for a friend’s solo album that’s coming out later in the year. I had to listen to the song and practice since I haven’t played bass in 3 years. My left hand would work for about 15 minutes. I used to do 4-hour bluegrass gigs.

Anyway, the song is great and I just hope I didn’t mess it up. We did 3 takes, all usable, but each got better, I believe. My intonation was probably the best on the third take.

I’ve been doing frequent pre-bath/book/bedtime dance parties with the kids. Our main groove source has been Stop Making Sense by Talking Heads with a little James Brown thrown in.

Writing and Submitting

The first issue of Ghoulanoids is out! It premiered in Austin at the New South Festival. I stayed with a friend I hadn’t seen in 23 years and it was like we never had down time. I’ve rarely felt that welcome anywhere. Cheers, mi hermano!

If you pre-ordered from Secret Prison, then you should get your comic soon. They should also be available for order hrough our publisher Drippy Bone.

Ghoulanoids #2 is written. Just needs some tightening and editing. I believe Derek’s even started drawing some pages for it. We have another book (unrelated to Ghoulanoids) coming out in early 2016(?). I have the story outlined, but I’ve got to go back and do detail work.

Derek and I worked really hard from last summer into winter to very little avail. We had a lot of stuff “in meetings.” It was production hell. Then we were excited because we were editorial favorites to re-do the new Madballs comic. Unfortunately, some of the trademark holders refused to let us work on it. After those disappointments, it’s nice to have work flowing and being completed again.

Check out the toys from Dolphin Wizard! We’ll have other collectable toy announcements soon.

I also need to work on my piece for the next Laboratory podcast. See my last post for info on that.

Random Thoughts

Even though I’m with my kids almost every night, I do enjoy the time that opens up in the summer. I’ve been able to cook more for my family. I get to try new things in the summer, instead of simply worrying about the practicality of getting food in bellies. I even have freestyled a few desserts based on fruit we’ve needed to use.

I also take on a few educational projects outside of working on my classes. Every year, I get more into grammar and grammar theories and try to diagram more and more difficult sentences. It’s oddly fun. Studying math has been, too. I’ve been using Khan Academy to study math, history, and computer programming. The first two subjects are weaknesses of mine. The last is something I’ve been playing with on a whim.

Thanks for reading! Happy summer!

Your story has to be about asking questions, not coming up with the right answer or There’s poop on the floor: Laboratory #3.

This is the catalog for episode three of The Laboratory, part of The Outrider Podcast. If you’re not sure what this is, start here.

Episode 3 began with our discussion of our unique failures in handling the last prompt. Jason wrote a paragraph or so and I wrote over 2,100 words of a still unfinished story. Both of us began with a violent event, but neither of us did anything with the heart of the exercise: shifting perspective. (You can read our prompt responses here.)

I think Jason’s work is DOA. I’m going to finish my story. I may have created a universe I can use all the genre, particularly horror, tropes I love but don’t work with regularly.

Even though listening to my rambling feels painful at times, I noticed that my process for “Widdershins” is probably not unique and made me think of that question: “Where do you get your ideas from?” I started with an image, like I always do. It happened to be from a biography about Skip James. This image combined with part of a Hellboy comic I was reading that was influenced by Manly Wade Wellman. All of this then combined with my interests in religion, folklore, and music. And I even used that dull gem: “Write what you know.” I based the whole story in Alabama.

Ideas to write about don’t come to me in the way images do. I do a lot of connecting of images and ideas and hope that something works.

I mentioned my difficulty with straight narrative too much in the episode. After listening, I realized that it’s likely as simple as Jason and I having different problems to solve in our work. I identify more as a poet and I believe he identifies more as a novelist. We have different questions and problems to work through. Even though I couldn’t say that straightforwardly while recording, it may have taken the discussion for me to realize it. I’m glad Jason’s patient. I guess a novelist has to be.

We almost had a discussion on raw lit theory. In the future, it might be fun to read some theoretical essays or book chapters and discuss them in terms of craft.

Here’s the catalog for episode 3:

I’d Rather Be the Devil: Skip James and the Blues: Stephen Calt / Oxford American / Robert Crumb / Hellboy: The Crooked Man and Others / John the Balladeer / Silver John / Manly Wade Wellman / John Constantine / Alan Moore / Swamp Thing / Derek Ballard / “The Most Dangerous Game” / Duel (1971)  / Predator (1987) / Jaws (1975) / Bram Stoker / Walt Whitman /  Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method: Gerard Genette / Gustav Freytag / Aristotle / Michael Ondaatje / Marcel Proust / Sophocles / Mythologies: Roland Barthes / “The World of Wrestling” / “Rita Hayworth’s Face” / “Greta Garbo’s Face” / Tzvetan Todorov / Mikhail Bakhtin / On Moral Fiction: John Gardner / The Art of Fiction / On Becoming a Novelist / Stanislaw Lem / Sigmund Freud / The English Patient / Treasure Island / Game of Thrones / Breaking Bad / Ulysses: James Joyce / The Dead Zone: Stephen King / Samuel Beckett / Emily Dickinson / War and Peace / Sanctuary: William Faulkner / Richard Chizmar / Cemetary Dance / The Dead Zone (1983) / The Shining / Carrie / Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief  / The Unbearable Lightness of Being / Henry Miller / Catcher in the Rye / John Updike / Woody Allen / “Outage” / “A&P” / Quick Question: John Ashbery / James Tate / James Schuyler / Elizabeth Bishop / Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi / Inside Amy Schumer / T.A.Z.: The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism: Hakim Bey / Fahrenheit 451: Ray Bradbury / Hunger Games / Lord of the Flies / Josip Novakovich / Henry James / “Hills Like White Elephants” / Foundation Trilogy: Isaac Asimov / Martian Chronicles / Philip K. Dick / HP Lovecraft / Stranger in a Strange Land: Robert Heinlein / L. Ron Hubbard / George Lucas / Star Wars / To Kill a Mockingbird: Harper Lee / One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest: Ken Kesey / The Thorn Birds / Sylvia Plath / “Daddy” / At the Mountains of Madness / Moby Dick / The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket: Edgar Allan Poe / “The Raven”