Stephen McClurg's Blog, page 55

Next time you better plan your massacre more carefully: Laboratory #2

I’m co-hosting a writing podcast with Jason Quinn Malott called The Laboratory. We are giving each other monthly writing prompts and then seeing what comes of them. We get into writing process and mechanics in a way that’s at least interesting to me. Our third episode was released today. I’ve started cataloging our references from each episode, which I use as a shorthand for our thought process and discussion. Also, it reminds that there’s a lot of work out there I need to check out.

Episode 2 was our first with writing prompt products, so we feature those at the beginning. Neither of us had a particular problem in mind, so our discussion was more free-flowing than the last one. We did discuss violence in popular culture several times and that led to the prompt, which was also about shifting perspective.

Here’s the catalog for Laboratory #2. You can listen to it here.

Soulbane Strategem: Diabolical Subterfuge That Threatens to Destroy Us / Norman Jetmundsen /  Gas City / Loren Estleman / William Burroughs / Brion Gysin / The Shining / The Ticket That Exploded / The Western Lands / Stephen King / The Da Vinci Code / The Daily Show / Moonspun Magic / Catherine Coulter / The 1975 / “Girls” / Gertrude Stein / Christian Bök / Rae Armantrout / Rear Window (1954) / Agatha Christie / Aesop / Doug Sneyd / Bret Easton Ellis / American Psycho / The Rules of Attraction / Less Than Zero / Tom Clancy / Marc Maron / Glamorama / Marilyn Manson / Fear and Trembling / The Three Stooges / Lunar Park / Huey Lewis and the News / Talking Heads / Whitney Houston / Quentin Tarantino / Dawn of the Dead (1978) / The Catcher in the Rye / Django Unchained (2012) / Gone with the Wind (1939) / Reservoir Dogs (1992) / Pulp Fiction (1994) / Kill Bill Volumes I and II (2003-4) / Inglourious Basterds (2009) / Ennio Morricone / The Godfather (1972) / Christoph Waltz / Django (1966) / Tom Savini / Don Johnson / Jamie Foxx / Birth of a Nation (1915) / “The Ride of the Valkyries” / Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012) / Akira Kurosawa / Ingmar Bergman / Persona (1966) / Ben Nyberg / One Great Way to Write Short Stories / Writer’s Digest / Gary Clift / James Grauerholz / Mortal Micronots / Allen Ginsberg / “A Thanksgiving Prayer” / Gregory Corso / Anne Waldman / John Giorno / Michael McClure / Jim Carroll / Patti Smith / Thurston Moore / Queer / Junky / Bobbie Louise Hawkins / Fielding Dawson / Kristen Iversen / Keith Abbott / Junior Burke / Dodie Bellamy / Will Christopher Baer / Brian Evenson / Robert Creeley / John Ashbery / Frank O’Hara / Jack Kerouac / Lawrence Ferlinghetti / Richard Brautigan / “A Boat” / Trout Fishing in America / Downstream from Trout Fishing in America: A Memoir of Richard Brautigan / Derek Ballard / Michael Ondaatje / Troy James Weaver / Abraham Smith / Mark Ehling / Frank Zappa / Julio Cortázar / Hopscotch / Ray Bradbury / Fahrenheit 451 / Harlan Ellison / L. Ron Hubbard / Megadeth / Pantera / Obituary / 120 Minutes / Witchita Stories / The Sheik (2014) / Andre the Giant / Samuel Beckett / The Wild Bunch (1969) / Robocop (1987) / Paul Verhoeven / That ’70s Show / Total Recall (1990) / Starship Troopers (1997) / Showgirls (1995) / Elizabeth Berkley / Saved By the Bell /Spartacus: Blood and Sand / George Romero

It’s not a trick, it’s an allusion.

I’m co-hosting a writing podcast with Jason Quinn Malott called The Laboratory. We are giving each other monthly writing prompts and then seeing what comes of them. I never studied creative writing formally, so the show gives me a chance to have conversations about process, creativity, blocks, culture, etc. that I haven’t been able to have in the past.

After doing a few episodes, I thought it would be interesting to catalog our references from the shows. It’s a way of following our train of thought.

Our first episode dealt with Jason’s desire to work with experimental techniques, particularly to prepare for a larger work he has planned. That was the practicality of the show. Within that, we discussed the problems of experimentation, our own writing influences, and then who influenced our influences.

Our first prompt dealt with cut-up and blackout techniques. You can read the results at the link above. If you are interested, in episode two we discuss the full process of our cut-ups and use of multiple source texts.

I should mention that this is a podcast within a podcast. The Laboratory is part of Jason’s Outrider Podcast.

Here’s the catalog from episode one of The Laboratory:

Jenn Zukowski / Kazuo Ishiguro / Ursula K. Le Guin / Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone / Woody Allen / John Updike / Philip Roth / Jonathan Franzen / The Hobbit / Theodore Roethke / Robert Frost / Emily Dickinson / Lewis Carroll / Laura Mullen / William Faulkner / “A Rose for Emily” / The Evolution of Shadows / Ghoulanoids / Laura Hawley / The Egyptian Book of the Dead / Samuel Beckett / Derek Ballard / Ron Cobb / Semiotic Standards for Alien (1979) / Son of the White Mare (1981) / Eyvind Earle / Sleeping Beauty (1959) / My Life: Eyvind Earle (2000) / Alejandro Jodorowsky / Joseph Campbell / Beowulf / Ray Harryhausen / Brothers Quay / Jan Svankmajer / King Kong (1933) / El Topo (1970) / Holy Mountain (1973) / He-Man and the Masters of the Universe / Walt Whitman / “Street of Crocodiles” (1986) / “Street of Crocodiles” / Bruno Schulz / Robert Walser / Franz Kafka / “The Cabinet of Jan Svankmajer” (1984) / The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) / “Jabberwocky” / Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland / Edgar Allan Poe / Rudolf II / Giuseppe Arcimboldo / Vertumnus (1591) / Fire (1566) /  James Joyce / Marcel Proust / “Whoroscope” / Rene Descartes / David Cronenberg / Look Who’s Coming to Dinner? (1967)  / Sidney Poitier / Sideways (2004) / The Coen Brothers / Guillermo Del Toro / The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film / Walter Murch / Michael Ondaatje / John Berger / The English Patient (1996) / Apocalypse Now (1979) / Touch of Evil (1958) / Lynn Sloan / Jorge Luis Borges / Ernest Hemingway / Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. / Isaac Asimov / Italo Calvino / If on a winter’s night a traveler / Ulysses / Microscripts / Philip K. Dick / Stanislaw Lem / Solaris / A Perfect Vacuum / Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? / Blade Runner (1982) / Gertrude Stein / Robert Coover / Spanking the Maid / Fifty Shades of Grey / John Barth / Donald Barthelme / Thomas Bernhard / W.G. Sebald / Jack Kerouac / On the Road / William Burroughs / Junky / Queer / Naked Lunch / On the Road (2012) / Kristen Stewart / Salman Rushdie / Julio Cortazar / Hopscotch / Finnegans Wake / Giordano Bruno / Giambattista Vico / Street Trash (1987) / Waiting for Godot / Richard Baxter / “Directions for a Peaceful Death” / GI Joe / Karl Marx / Emmanuelle / Anais Nin / Tropic of Cancer / Little Billboards / Brion Gysin

 

 

 

 

Catching-Up with Quinn #4

Read Quinn���s post here.

Listen to our first podcast in a series we call The Laboratory.

Reading

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

About three years ago, I decided to read the Hebrew and Christian Bibles. I finished them and read the Pirkei Avot, Sefer Yetzirah and the official Apocrypha. I suppose this book represents the ���unofficial��� Apocrypha. After this I���ll read the Gnostic Gospels. Then the Koran and then major Hindu and Buddhist texts. Just getting started, so I don���t have much to say about it.

Saga of the Swamp Thing: Book Three: Moore/Bissette/Totleben

Moore���s run on Swamp Thing is highly-celebrated and rightly so. Book Three introduces John Constantine of Hellblazer fame. A great sci-fi/horror comic with Moore���s bits of occult mysticism.

Finn: Jon Clinch

This is a book about Pap Finn, Huckleberry���s dad. It���s a great idea, but I am bogging down about 80 pages in. I���m reading this with a book club. I���ll be interested to see what they think. I like the prose style, very descriptive and poetic. It echoes but doesn���t ape Twain.

Collected Poems: Theodore Roethke

What I���ve enjoyed about this collection is getting to read the range of Roethke���s work. I���ve read the anthologized poems for years, but I was unaware of his poems that operate like surrealistic folklore. I was also talking to a friend of mine about how brilliantly Roethke writes of the textures and smells of soil.

Watching

The Story of Film: An Odyssey (2011)

An intriguing history of world cinema in 15 episodes.

Louie: Season Four

Is it the addition of Steven Wright that���s made this season so great? I���ve liked the show since the beginning, but the writing and acting on season four made some of the best episodic TV I���ve seen in a while.

A Place in the Sun (1951)

Montgomery Clift plays a young guy who starts working for a rich uncle hoping some of that fulfilled ���American Dream��� will rub off on him. He gets caught in a love triangle with Shelley Winters and Elizabeth Taylor and the movie takes a surprisingly dark turn. This is one of several ���50s films that I���ve seen recently that has made me want to research this era of film.

I made a lazy Sunday of new episodes of Cutthroat Kitchen on Netflix.

Listening

Several times I���ve written about a lack of time to listen to music. Lately, with lots of housework, grading, and child-watching time, I���ve been exhausted and have had some listening time.

Alvin Lucier: I am sitting in a room

I���ve been obsessed with this piece for a few weeks. It���s simple and amazing, but not for everyone. Click this link for the description and here for a recording.

Alvin Curran

Curran���s music moves from found sounds to something like Aphex Twin���s ambient works to Philip Glass to Naked City. I���ve particularly liked some of the piano pieces including For Cornelius and the Inner Cities series.

Gary Lucas: Cinefantastique

Great film music performed by a great guitarist. Lucas is known for his work with Captain Beefheart and Jeff Buckley. I love his take on the Psycho theme.

Writing

Grading is in the front seat currently. I���m processing and dabbling with my piece(s) for the next Laboratory episode. I���ve got a variety of wordage to do for the next three or four collaborations I���m doing with Derek Ballard. They are all in various states of completion. In the first Laboratory episode I give more detail about some of it.

Catching up with Quinn #3

Read Quinn’s new post here.

Reading

White Egrets by Derek Walcott.

Sometimes I read for surprise and difficulty. Sometimes I read for comfort. The voice and craft of this book put it in the latter category. Not that all the topics of the book were comforting: aging, losing gifts or talents, losing loved ones and peers, identity, etc. It felt like I should just listen, think, and enjoy. Maybe on a second read I can be more critical.

Versed by Rae Armantrout.

I���m not a fan of current New Yorker poetry, although it���s been a year since I���ve read any. Armantrout seemed to be in every issue when I read regularly and I���ve had the hardest time finding an entrance into her poetry. I decided I���d give a full book a chance. As I was reading I was having the same experience, so I decided to find some interviews online with her just to see how she talked about her poems. In the first interview I watched, she identified herself as a Language poet and as stupid as this sounds, everything clicked into place for me.

Armantrout can be coldly precise or maddeningly abstract and most of her poems leap from line to line. Often her poems are divided into short sections, often only a line, that on the surface seem to have nothing to do with one another���like a series of haiku. Too often I think I tried to find a surface through-line in individual poems, but she is often working against that. I should have picked up on that earlier, but I didn���t. Anyway, I have a new appreciation for her work.

Watching

The Beast with a Million Eyes (1955)

I���ll likely write more on this movie later, but I found it an extremely charming cheap-o Corman horror/sci-fi. Does it suffer from a lot of B-movie problems? Sure, but I like it despite its obvious flaws. The beast is an alien that is slowly taking over the consciousness of Earthly life forms. Includes several bird attacks before The Birds. The internal dread of the characters is captured perfectly, maybe accidentally, in the external shots of the countryside and the credit sequence is killer!

Doctor Zhivago (1965)

Gorgeous movie. David Lean is now a director I���ve got to eventually sit and deal with. I know little to nothing about him, except that he made beautiful epic films. The title character is a poet and doctor whose work has been loved and reviled throughout the Russian Revolution and Civil War. The frame story involves Zhivago���s half-brother attempting to find the poet���s daughter and his niece, while the main story is a grand romance.

Reza Abdoh Short Films

From UbuWeb:

Reza Abdoh was an Iranian-born director and playwright known for his large-scale, experimental theatrical productions that utilized multimedia elements and violent sexual imagery. Artaud’s “Theater of Cruelty” is often evoked in writing about his work.

I���ve watched the few short films I could find and particularly like ���Daddy���s Girl��� and ���The Weeping Song��� both from 1991. I want to see Abdoh���s only feature The Blind Owl (1991). A documentary of the same name has either just come out or is set to soon. I think there are attempts being made to collect the performances, which often included his films.

His work is experimental, non-linear, and at times gruesome. Definitely NSFW and not for everybody.

The Criterion Blu-ray of Videodrome (1983) is fantastic.

Listening

One of my favorite records of solo improvisation: Maldoror by Eric Friedlander.

Writing

Honestly, not much I can talk about here for now. Hopefully I���ll have some good news to release soon. Meanwhile, I am trying to organize some of my output on the ���Words and Music Elsewhere��� page above.

the reason for living was to get ready to stay dead a long time: Reading Faulkner

I’m reading Faulkner���s novels in chronological order with a friend. We���ve read Vonnegut and Hemingway, so Faulkner seemed the obvious choice after Hem. After spending so much time with Hemingway, then beginning Faulkner, one of the most obvious takeaways we���ve had is wondering why these guys get compared so much. Other than attempting to be great writers publishing at the same time, there isn���t a lot to compare. Their goals and techniques seem so different that they are almost not even worth comparing.

It’s strange that I’ve actually been asked on several occasions: Hemingway or Faulkner? I would say that anyone who asks that question hasn���t read much of either author. It’s a false dichotomy. I remember in college someone even saying, ���I���m a writer from Mississippi, so I can���t like Faulkner.��� This was said seriously without a speck of smirk or smile.

Here���s what I���ve read so far:

Soldier���s Pay (1926)

Surprisingly good first novel about a soldier returning home from the war with various physical and mental damage. A lot of what we expect from Faulkner is already here: elegant prose (that here sometimes gets away from the first-time novelist), stream of consciousness (very light touches here), and family drama.

Something apparent here is also that Faulkner���s women are much more interesting and developed than Hemingway���s early women characters.

New Orleans Sketches (written and published in newspaper 1925; collected in 1958)

A friend of mine who had already made a chronological run on Faulkner suggested we read this collection of early work written at the same time as Soldier���s Pay. Good call. Every story involves Faulkner attempting to write from the perspective or mind of a different character living in New Orleans. None of these stuck in my mind like say ���Barn Burning,��� but one does get to see a young Faulkner invested in what will become the shorthand for his style later on.

Mosquitoes (1927)

A novel satirizing various aspects of the artist���s life. It���s obvious what he���s going for in this novel, especially if you���ve spent time with artists, as an artist, or with the people who hang around and say they want to be artists.

Maybe not as painful as Hemingway���s Torrents of Spring, still, I couldn���t finish this one. Too close to home at times.

Sartoris (1929)

The first novel to take place in Yoknapatawpha County and to feature the Snopes and Sartoris families. Young Bayard comes home from World War I damaged and addicted to speed (driving fast) in various forms. This is likely due to him seeing his brother, a pilot in the war, get shot down. The family history goes back to the Civil War and we see some interesting analogues among the soldiers of these wars. Like Faulkner and Tennessee Williams seem so often invested in, we get the chronicle of a decaying family.

The speed/crashing motif could probably extend to the family or the cultural milieu. On my initial reading I would also say that this book isn���t as clearly realized as Soldier���s Pay. There are more moments when the prose just gets away from Faulkner and the descriptions don���t hold up or are just too much. It���s a slow cooker at first, but gets better as the book proceeds.

The Sound and the Fury (1929)

This was my second time reading the novel so I decided to read the chapters in chronological order rather than the published arrangement. I know I���m not supposed to like him necessarily, but I enjoyed Jason Compson this time around. He���s cruel and funny, which are characteristics I often enjoy in Faulkner���s works.

As I Lay Dying (1930)

I���ve always read this as a sardonic mock epic and it makes me cackle with joy. My students seem horrified when I break out into laughter, but I can���t help it. I love this book. Fifteen narrators. Stream of consciousness. Deathbed requests. New teeth.

Next for me is Sanctuary (1931) which was actually the first Faulkner novel I read close to two decades ago.

Universal Horror

A friend of mine who is a big film and book nerd asked me to make some horror film lists for him since it wasn’t a genre he knew well. It’s been a fun process (I’ve been a horror film fan for about 35 years!). You can read my top ten here.

The UNIVERSAL MONSTERS

It took me too long to think of beginning here. Almost anyone you can think of in the horror genre was influenced by these films. The exceptions would be folks trying to make a quick buck and just more recent ignorant filmmakers. Horror gets a bad rap, and its fans are often dismissed as troglodytes. I had to constantly listen to sci-fi fans who thought they were better than anyone else because they read something that may have accidentally had ���science��� in it. Even some recent directors have referred to their work as ���elevated genre��� because they don���t want to be associated with the horror genre.

Each of these films is worth seeing. Each character became iconic.

The UNIVERSAL MONSTERS

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923)

The Phantom of the Opera (1925)

Dracula (1931)

Frankenstein (1931)

The Mummy (1932)

Invisible Man (1933)

The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

The Wolf Man (1941)

Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)

Honorable Mention: The Man Who Laughs (1928) I haven���t seen this. I just could never find it, but it���s always been of interest since Conrad Veidt���s character���s make-up is said to have influenced the design of the Joker in Batman comics. Lon Chaney was supposed to play the role originally. I���m sure it���s available today.

Related: Universal���s This Island Earth (1955) featured a great alien design with its Metalunans. And as thin as genre lines can be (and I will shamelessly cross them in my commentaries), this movie feels like sci-fi rather than horror.

MY FAVORITES

Frankenstein (1931)

The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)

These three are my favorite monsters of the Universal era. They are wonderfully designed films and characters. The Gill-Man has little to no backstory in the movie if I remember correctly and I always liked that. Dracula is great, too, but I���m more interested in the feral vampire than the dandy. When I was about fourteen, I would have included Phantom and Hunchback because I was obsessed with makeup artists. Lon Chaney did all his makeup and he was a major influence on Tom Savini, who was a hero of mine as a young artist.

It���s been some time since I have seen��Invisible Man, but that story never grabbed me as much. I have a feeling that it rewards more watching it as an existential picture or something.

After Quinn: Catch-Up #2

You can read the previous post for an explanation of the title. Read Quinn’s new post.

READING:

Still reading The Apocrypha and Roethke.

Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller. A student asked me about Cancer and I didn’t have much to say. That afternoon I went to the library to get a new audiobook and it was on the shelf. Quinn will probably scream because I had The English Patient (finally!) in hand, but put it down for Miller. I’ve learned to try and embrace moments of synchronicity.

I don’t know much about Miller, but I have seen a few documentaries and interviews and he seemed like a jolly old man, much different from the narrative voice of this book. This is also a book that has likely destroyed many a young writer who got a hold of it too early. Not every story of puerile rage or sexcapade is interesting.

There’s a lot of youth and youthful ire here that accompanies a middle schooler’s vast vocabulary for genitalia and sexual activities. I’m guessing that was freeing for writers at one time. Now I could be saturated in “worty dirds” if I wanted. Miller partially wanted to shock and he does, but that sometimes seems less impressive or interesting with time. But don’t get me wrong, that’s not all that’s here. There’s some real humor and poetry at times. The voice immediately reminded me of Notes from Underground and later he mentions Dostoevsky, so I figure he was an influence.

Campbell Scott is the narrator and he’s been one of my favorite voices since I started listening to audiobooks.

Untamed State by Roxane Gay. I’m reading this with the only multi-member book club I’ve ever been a part of that has met more than once. It’s a fabulous group of English teachers I used to work with and my wife. The nights we meet have been an oasis. With two children under the age of three, we don’t make a lot of social occasions. Everyone in the group loves kids and we have a lot of fun and good discussion. And snacks!

I’ve read some of Gay’s short fiction and enjoyed it. I’m not sure where I stand on this one yet. There’s an interesting trick of cognitive dissonance in the book. The narrator wants her fiance to understand Haiti on a deeper level and get beyond the everyday suffering, meanwhile she documents for the readers the atrocities of her kidnapping and its part in Haitian culture. I’m only about halfway through, so I just don’t know what to make of it yet.

Possible next reads: Sanctuary by Faulkner. In Cold Blood by Capote.

WATCHING:

Black Mirror. For the next book club meeting, LT decided we should also watch the first three episodes of this show. You’ve probably heard about it by now. I loved episodes 2 and 3, in particular 2. Many folks I know have said that episode 3 is one of the best things they have ever seen in episodic TV format. I’d say the same for episode 2. I connected with that one more.

AFI Top 100

Recently saw Wuthering Heights (1939). Not one of my favorites. I liked the music and cinematography. It’s one of my favorite novels, so that may have something to do with not enjoying the film as much, even though I know that’s problematic. Still haven’t watched Zhivago and it looks like The Jazz Singer is next.

Also watched Polanski’s Macbeth, the first film he made after Sharon Tate was murdered. Brutal and interesting. Too much voice-over for my taste, but some clever decisions and some disappointing ones are made. That’s normal for any Shakespeare film adaptation.

LISTENING:

Anything I can find by the Sun City Girls. And Sublime Frequencies: Shadow Music of Thailand:

And Sublime Frequencies: Group Inerane–Guitars from Agadez–Music of Niger:

I love the drum rhythms/timing on this one.

WRITING:

Looks like Derek and I will be at an Austin literary and cartoon arts festival this summer. Once more of that is finalized I’ll mention it and the “special edition” book we’ll have with us.

As usual, Little Billboards. A few larger comic projects that I’ll hopefully get to announce soon. Some rough drafts and freewriting for poems have been happening as well.

A friend of mine asked me for a horror film list because he knew my interest in the genre. I ended up writing commentaries on the Universal Monsters, werewolf films, and Cronenberg’s filmography before I settled down and wrote the lists that would be useful. I wrote a favorites list (201 films), an “essential” list based on my favorites (137 films), then a top 50 and a top 10. It was more difficult than I thought it would be. My Top 10 doesn’t have many surprises, but they are all films I still watch and have personal connections with. I may share more of the lists here in later posts.

McClurg’s Top 10 Horror Films

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

The Exorcist (1973)

Jaws (1975)

Eraserhead (1977)

Suspiria (1977)

Dawn of the Dead (1978)

Phantasm (1979)

The Shining (1980)

An American Werewolf in London (1981)

The Thing (1982)

Now I need to sweep up a bucket of crayons and feed the kids. Not the crayons, btw. They eat enough of those on their own. The wife made a delicious Southwest sweet potato chili. Gotta get plates cheesed and chilled and chilied.

After Quinn: Catch Up#1

One of my partners in the Eunoia Solstice venture posted a “catch-up” entry that I enjoyed. Actually, I���ve always enjoyed Jason���s posts and I keep him in mind when I write for my own blog. I stole the structure of his post for my own, but don���t expect mine to be as intelligent or well-written. You should check out his post, the Outrider Podcast, and his fantastic novel Evolution of Shadows.

Don���t blame Jason for what follows. It���s all my fault.

READING:

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance:

A cult book that I���ve heard about, but missed. A co-worker considers this one of his two favorite books, which gave me more of an impetus to read it. I���m about 200 pages in and I want to say that it���s one of those books that many people read parts of and then say they���ve read it. There is a large amount of information and ideas to digest here. Pirsig dissects not only Western and Eastern philosophy to some degree, but he also carves into notions like reason or quality themselves.

This is a difficult book. Pirsig is often dealing with three timelines at once. He���s dealing with notions of the self, attempting to relate to his young son, and dealing with historical and philosophical ideas. I���ve enjoyed it so far, but I also know that I will benefit from rereading.

While I have enjoyed it, so far I wouldn���t recommend it as a beginner’s book of zen. I suggest Shunryu Suzuki���s Zen Mind, Beginner���s Mind or Brad Warner���s Hardcore Zen.

Into the Wild

Seems like I���m one of the few people I know who hasn���t read this one. I loved all the Jack London wilderness stories as a kid, but I never did much in terms of going out to those places myself. Most people probably know at least an abbreviated form of the story. A young idealist and traveler sets out into a particularly rough part of Alaska and doesn���t return. I found some articles that problematize aspects of Krakauer���s story and thesis. I���m okay knowing that this is just one version of Chris McCandless���s story. A disturbing element of the book is a how it chronicles a series of travelers who are careless in the extreme or suicidal or both. Any amount of wanderlust I had died years ago. Actually, I often have a difficulty relating to place and environment. That���s something to discuss at another time.

The Apocrypha

After several years of reading the Bible, I finished over the holidays. Now on to the Apocrypha and then I���m going to do a little research on ���lost��� books and Gnostic books. I only read about a chapter a day, so this will be a long ongoing reading project. Once I���m done with the Apocrypha I plan on reading the Koran and then the Mahabharata.

Theodore Roethke: Collected Poems

I always like to be reading a poetry collection and I tend to read them at a slow pace���one to three poems a day. I just finished Mayakovsky���s selected poems and Baudelaire���s Flowers of Evil and intended to read some more ���world��� lit, when I came across this in our school library. I���ve always like the few Roethke poems that I���ve known for decades now. Time to see what else is there.

WATCHING:

I���m close to finishing the extended AFI Top 100 Film list. I���ve been watching this list on-and-off for a few years and up next is Dr. Zhivago (1965). Lists like this one pull me out of my comfort zone and introduce me to films that I wouldn���t likely pick on my own.

I watched All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) and was surprised by such an early war epic that didn���t seem to hold back in terms of the war sequences. The film even depicts the complex psychology of soldiers who at once have been damaged by their experiences���death,�� continuous shelling, trench warfare, rats, cheap supplies and cheaper food���yet return to the front.

A book club I���m in added three episodes of Black Mirror to our reading of Roxane Gay���s Untamed State for next month, so I���ll be watching that highly-recommended show soon as well.

LISTENING:

About the only time I have for listening to music these days is when I���m writing and I don���t always like to write to music. Recently, I checked out NEU! ���75 to hear something new. Since then, I���ve been listening to all of their albums.

NEU! is classified as a krautrock band and was begun by a couple of guys who left Kraftwerk. That should give you a sense of their sound. Like Kraftwerk, but more like Wire. I���ve found the music easy to write to because of its repetitive nature. What will surprise a newcomer is how many bands one will have heard that have been influenced by them.

If you���re into film music���think of NEU! as a ragged cousin of Popul Vuh.

WRITING:

I should mention Ghoulanoids. Yes, it���s on its way! Life happens. Sometimes life happens hard and it trumps everything else. My apologies and thanks to those who have ordered. But, I will say, it���s going to be way better than what Derek and I had thought it was going to be. I think Daniel is going to make a second batch of toys as well.

And again, Derek and I will have some forthcoming announcements. That���s about all I can say for now. Once everything���s solid on these projects, they will take up most of my writing time.

Little Billboards: Until Jason, Eric, and I can fully revision and revitalize Eunoia Solstice, it will be in a kind of hibernation. We���re actually working and experimenting with some options, but we���re all busy and we live in different states.

With that, I���ve decided to use my Twitter as a way of getting Little Billboards out there. It���s just something I like to make. The current format is often a type of humument hybrid���often with haiku. This project also gives me the chance and pure freedom to play with color theory and hermetic symbolism. It���s allowed me to explore some ideas of sacred geometry and I���m slowly getting the confidence to attempt more with the art, like Islamic tiling. On Fridays, I may offer abbreviated song poems made from notebook scraps and electroacoustic collage.

SUBMITTING:

Derek and I have been writing and submitting various cartoon ideas since this summer and are taking a break. Our pitches hit a lot of desks and meetings and we���ve been told many times, ���we love this, but I need to talk [so-and-so] into blahblahblah.” We both know it���s part of the game, but it can be devastating on the creative psyche. We���re taking a break from it. And like I said, we have a couple of cool opportunities and announcements coming up.

Now that I have a regular writing schedule again, I���m going to try to get back into writing and submitting poetry and short fiction. It will take me a bit to get my bearings again.

Also, I hope a project that���s been done for years will see the light of day. I wrote a poetic bestiary with a friend of mine. Since we finished the book, we���ve both had kids and he moved out of state. Hopefully we can pick up the pieces. We did some research and realized that our manuscript either broke all the rules or was decidedly against the grain of what���s popular in children���s publishing. We rewrote the book with a narrative and included some of the poems as if the main character had written them. My friend introduced this version to several readers and overwhelmingly what stood out for them were the poems. So I think we���re going back to our original idea and we���re going to give it a run. If nothing happens, we have discussed the potential for self-publishing it. Maybe we can move forward one way or the other this year.

��cavaleras!

For years, I have celebrated Day of the Dead by writing ���cavaleras literarias.��� Some people write poems for loved ones, but another tradition is to write humorous ���tombstones.��� I write the latter���or try to. I mostly try to make fun of myself for my students.

This year’s is Bama-centric. I’m constantly asked about what team I cheer for and what I thought of “the game.” I don’t care about any of it! It simply is not part of my life. When I express this in the Land of the SEC, people often look at me like I’m peeing out of my eye sockets. I’ve got nothing against sports or athletes. They can be expressive and quite beautiful, but it’s just not an interest of mine. Anyway, that’s where this year’s cavalera came from.

Here Lies McClurg (2014)

He had no pals, not even a beagle.

On game days, even the sweet became evil.

But before season’s end,

He thought he’d find a friend,

No chance!–as he stood yelling ���Roll Eagle!���

 

Here’s last year‘s, which has a link to the previous tombstones.

¡cavaleras!

For years, I have celebrated Day of the Dead by writing “cavaleras literarias.” Some people write poems for loved ones, but another tradition is to write humorous “tombstones.” I write the latter–or try to. I mostly try to make fun of myself for my students.

This year’s is Bama-centric. I’m constantly asked about what team I cheer for and what I thought of “the game.” I don’t care about any of it! It simply is not part of my life. When I express this in the Land of the SEC, people often look at me like I’m peeing out of my eye sockets. I’ve got nothing against sports or athletes. They can be expressive and quite beautiful, but it’s just not an interest of mine. Anyway, that’s where this year’s cavalera came from.

Here Lies McClurg (2014)

He had no pals, not even a beagle.

On game days, even the sweet became evil.

But before season’s end,

He thought he’d find a friend,

No chance!–as he stood yelling “Roll Eagle!”

 

Here’s last year‘s, which has a link to the previous tombstones.