Matthew Arnold Stern's Blog, page 40
August 21, 2017
Writing Reseda: Free fallin’ (and risin’)
In previous installments, I cited scenes from movies about Reseda. Here’s another scene set in Reseda from a book I hope you’ll see soon: Whenever I drove into the heart of Reseda, I felt like I was going into my past. Stores and restaurants had new names and bright coats of paint, but they still …
August 18, 2017
Banish boring words
Does your writing bore you? You might be using boring words. Words like happy and sad are repetitive, and they don’t express your complete feelings. Donna Norton of Custom Writing provides this infographic listing alternatives to 28 boring words. Use them to make your writing more expressive and interesting.
August 17, 2017
Writing Reseda: Nowhere is safe
If you saw another movie set in Reseda, Boogie Nights, you have a hard time forgetting that donut shop scene. If you haven’t seen it, I won’t ruin the movie or your appetite by describing it. Let’s say that the violence in it shocked a lot of people, except for me. That’s because I lived in …
August 13, 2017
Charlottesville
I will get back to the Writing Reseda series, but I need to say a few things about what happened yesterday in Charlottesville, Virginia. Oddly enough, this is a story about Reseda and something that happened to me 40 years ago. It is about the first display of overt and direct anti-Semitism I ever experienced. I won’t name …
August 8, 2017
Writing Reseda: Hillside versus flatland
Here’s the first thing you should know about the San Fernando Valley: The Valley Girl from the “really good part of Encino” doesn’t represent all of us. In fact, there are parts of the Valley where she’s despised. That’s because of the second thing you should know about the San Fernando Valley: Its communities are …
August 5, 2017
Writing Reseda: Introduction
Location, location, location. It’s as critical in writing as it is in real estate. Think about John Steinbeck and Salinas, James Joyce and Dublin, and Henry David Thoreau and Walden Pond. A place can shape and inspire a writer. You can guess which place inspires me. Then again, this place has inspired a lot of …
July 29, 2017
A prayer for Anthony Scaramucci
If you’ve been following my website, you’d assume that a member of the Trump administration would be the last person I’d express sympathy for — especially the new White House Communication Director Anthony Scaramucci. He went off on his fellow staffers as if someone told him to go get his shine box. (NSFW link, but …
July 25, 2017
When you feel like giving up
Important: If you or someone you know is threatening to commit self-harm, call your emergency service number (911 in the United States) immediately. For additional assistance in the United States, contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255. When you are in a safe place, please read on. It’s hard to listen to reason and reassurance …
July 21, 2017
Recessional
When a high school classmate dies, I look at his or her yearbook picture. It may have been the last time I saw that person face-to-face. It gets harder to look at those pictures now. Knowing what time has done to those once youthful faces. Knowing that those faces will never again feel the sun. …
July 19, 2017
Still dissenting and protesting
OK, here’s another “forty years ago” post, but one with present-day relevance. It shows one of the most important lessons a teacher taught me. If you’ve looked through my posts, you know where I stand on current political issues. What has amazed me is how many of my classmates from Reseda High School share the …
