Kurt R.A. Giambastiani's Blog, page 75
May 21, 2013
Write If You Find Work
If you say the word “gullible” very slowly, it sounds like “oranges.” Did you try? Did you even think about trying? Then I’ve got a guy who wants to meet you. I heard about this guy over at Ms. Vivienne’s Process of Elimination blog, andI thought she was making it up. She wasn’t. His name […]
And We’re Walking, We’re Walking
….and we’restopping. When I was a boy, I walked to school. From Greenfield Avenue down the Miracle Mile, onto 4th Street, stop for a moment under the vent at Bordenave’s Bakery to take in the scent of fresh sourdough, then on to H St, 5th Ave, and West End Elementary. It was just under a […]
May 20, 2013
Open Season on Dan Brown
Renowned author Dan Brown has a new book, and it is therefore open season for critics, professional and amateur alike. But I’m going to leave that to others, especially Michael Deacon of the Daily Telegraph, who did it better than anyone in his pastiche of the Brownian “style.”Really, go read it, but don’t drink coffee […]
May 17, 2013
See Spot Run
Sorry for this late post. I’ve spent the morning dodging trolls over in the LinkedIn writers’ groups. Oy vey. But while there, someone brought up a topic that actually interested me (until it submerged into troll-dom). The topic was: big words. Or, more precisely, obscure words. The poster was complaining about the word “chthonic.” Anyof […]
May 16, 2013
Extended Metaphor #1
As part of my natural writingexercises, I’ve been encouraging my right brain to “do its thing.” As a result, I’ve noticed a growing number of metaphors and some interesting imagery creeping into my day. Yesterday, I watched an interesting video about metronomesand a striking metaphor came to my mind. The video shows 32 metronomes (for […]
May 15, 2013
Two-Time Debutante
Question: When is a “debut author” not a debut author? I recently saw an ad for a new book by a “debut author.” Amazon was flogging this book hard, and the publisher had placed adverts in the trades and bought ad space on websites and magazines. Much buzz was being generated about this “debut novel” […]
May 14, 2013
Celluloid Dreams
Yesterday, after posting about “Persuasion,”I asked my online peeps what their favorite on-screen kiss was. I did not ask for Best; I asked for Favorite. When Best walks in the door, it has Judgment on one arm and Argument on the other, while Favorite is pure opinion. You can’t argue or judge someone’s favorite. Best […]
May 13, 2013
Defining Best
Mother’s Day was spent, in part, watching dramatizations of Jane Austen novels. I’ll freely admit that this is not a tiresome chore for me. I love Austen’s novels, as does my wife, and we have nearly every dramatized version of every Austen novel, so we often have discussions of which version is best. The answer […]
Redefining Best
Friday night we screened “Argo,” awarded the Best Picture Oscar™ by AMPAS, and through most of it all I could think was, “Really?” Was it enjoyable? Yes. Was it exciting? Yes. But “Best Picture”? No. I haven’t even seen all of this year’s nominees, but I’ve seen two others from the list: Spielberg’s “Lincoln” and […]
May 10, 2013
Painting the Elgin Marbles
My front doors are like the Elgin Marbles. Our first trip to London, we planned a trip up to Bloomsbury to visitthe British Museum. No surprise there, really, considering who we are (i.e., a couple of nerds). The day of our excursion, I was excited. All my life, I’d heard about the Elgin Marbles, one […]
