Victor D. Infante's Blog, page 157
July 26, 2014
My tweets
Fri, 12:43
: RT @RadiusPoetry: Poem by Colin Dodds http://t.co/Ksy8Pzcy4T
Fri, 13:13
: AP sends clumsily worded tweet about MH17 victims, world reacts | Poynter.: http://t.co/Wn7dCQPRqz
Fri, 13:16
: I actually have some sympathy for @AP and its Tweet mess. Consumers want news NOW and FREE. Copy editing is the first casualty of both.
Fri, 14:58
: One more time: Order the "Comedy" issue of Barrelhouse, featuring my poem "Drunk-Dialing the Paris Review" http://t.co/rHUhTmTIDb
Fri, 22:40
: RT @tgpopculture: Song to Get You Through the Weekend: ‘Girl in a Country Song,’ by @MaddieandTae http://t.co/MZhIuiEtQj
July 25, 2014
My tweets
Thu, 12:20
: @RedLightComp, @FantasticLiars, @Zafakon, Ashley Jordan and other musicians you might overlook http://t.co/IYzB8og9zU
Thu, 14:57
: RT @tgpopculture: @CraigSemon wonders if @nineinchnails and @soundgarden are set for mutually assured destruction http://t.co/4iOvRhbIW4
Thu, 22:17
: It's the new issue of Barrelhouse! http://t.co/FZQNpV69Jd
Thu, 22:21
: At long last, my poem "Drunk-Dialing the Paris Review" has a home! http://t.co/CLfSBCHt03
Fri, 01:31
: Lovely month-late anniversary dinner with Lea at The People's Kitchen.
July 24, 2014
My tweets
Wed, 13:33
: RT @RadiusPoetry: "Invented Forms: The Trollanelle," by Adam Stone http://t.co/2OP1kKtuvW
Wed, 13:38
: This morning, Kismet! Ferret of Destiny! threw a Minor Threat concert in her cage. I'm both annoyed and impressed at her spunk at her age.
Wed, 14:58
: Today's Battle Song: "Your Racist Friend," by They Might Be Giants: http://t.co/orgiLdPiWm
Wed, 23:01
: RT @tgpopculture: 'Before cynicism was a bloody sear across your brow': #RememberingMaya at The Worcester Public Library http://t.co/rdcnok…
Thu, 11:50
: RT @RadiusPoetry: "Murder by Remote Control: an Essex Man story (The Conclusion)," by Gary Phillips http://t.co/A2ZHPbckCO
July 23, 2014
My tweets
Tue, 12:04
: RT @RadiusPoetry: "Baby Detonate for Me (Part Eight)," by @ocvictor
Tue, 14:24
: RT @WhitneyBierce: And speaking of witch stories: "I get it ... I’m a bomb”: http://t.co/I8aCL1lGSH
Tue, 20:07
: Today's Battle Song: "Girl in a Country Song," by Maddie & Tae http://t.co/y53nhWahUW
Wed, 00:27
: It's been fun running the first @WhitneyBierce story on @RadiusPoetry. I've had the edges of another story for her in my head ...
Wed, 00:28
: Of course, I suspect there's another story I need to tell before I get to that one. Sigh. My brain is a noisy place.
Wed, 00:29
: On another front, I had a lovely, inspirational time at the #RememberingMaya celebration at the library. Beautiful job, all around.
July 22, 2014
My tweets
Mon, 14:05
: RT @RadiusPoetry: "@UnionOfSupers: Freedom with a small f (Part Six)," by Jeff DeRego: http://t.co/6EZG2vVOgy
Mon, 14:59
: I have a preoccupation with rockers aging gracefully, and those who don't.
Mon, 17:03
: RT @tgpopculture: Holy longevity! Area stores to mark Batman's 75th birthday Wednesday http://t.co/Dvm6gxmmu4
Mon, 17:09
: RT @tgpopculture: @barenakedladies relaxed and high-spirited at @IndianRanch http://t.co/JmbZ8SctdS
July 19, 2014
Soon Exiting Livejournal ...
Hi all. So, within a month or so, I'll be abandoning this blog. Well, I may actually still use it for personal stuff, but that will all be friendlocked. Everything else will be moving to my new blog on VictorInfante.com. If you follow this blog on Feedly or some other blog reader, please add the VictorInfante.com blog, as this one will become functionally inactive soon.
You might be asking yourself Why? I mean. it's more likely, you don't really care, but you may be asking that. And the truth is, I'd been maintaining this blog, my Tumblr account and the new VictorInfate.com blog for sometime now, never mind my Twitter, Facebook, etc. accounts, and it's getting kind of exhausting, and I have to think about integrating some of this.
The fact is, LJ is the best of the blogging platforms, hands-down. The ability to lock posts and screen comments alone was worth a paid account. But when I started on LJ, everyone was here. There was a vibrant community that crossed over several of the worlds I live in. Now, very few people seem active here.
Most people come to my blog through either Twitter or Facebook, which means it doesn't matter what platform it lives on. If LJ was still a bustling place, that would be enough reason to stay. As it's not, the impulse to have my blog live with all the other content and information on VictorInfante.com is too tempting to pass up: If someone who doesn't know much about me or my work comes across one of my blog posts and likes what they read, they can find out about my work much easier. That's an attractive feature.
Also, Lea put together a really nifty blogging feature on the site, so I should use it. (:
All told, this is a good time to make the transition because I'm not terribly busy right now. Radius and the Telegram aside, I'm spending most of my time either writing or dealing with trying to sell Why We Should Suffer For This (which is another blog post). I have no gigs on the horizon and only a handful of publications on the horizons. Good time to reorganize.
We still have a few technical matters to work out, and I might try to see this blog off with some silliness -- What? Doesn't everybody throw a party for ending their blog? -- but I expect to be fully transitioned over there by mid-August. For most people, it will make no difference, but if you read this on your LJ friends list and DON'T follow me on Twitter or Facebook, please add me there. Otherwise, that's that.
Is it wrong to feel a little sentimental about switching blogs? This one and I have been through a lot together, after all.
You might be asking yourself Why? I mean. it's more likely, you don't really care, but you may be asking that. And the truth is, I'd been maintaining this blog, my Tumblr account and the new VictorInfate.com blog for sometime now, never mind my Twitter, Facebook, etc. accounts, and it's getting kind of exhausting, and I have to think about integrating some of this.
The fact is, LJ is the best of the blogging platforms, hands-down. The ability to lock posts and screen comments alone was worth a paid account. But when I started on LJ, everyone was here. There was a vibrant community that crossed over several of the worlds I live in. Now, very few people seem active here.
Most people come to my blog through either Twitter or Facebook, which means it doesn't matter what platform it lives on. If LJ was still a bustling place, that would be enough reason to stay. As it's not, the impulse to have my blog live with all the other content and information on VictorInfante.com is too tempting to pass up: If someone who doesn't know much about me or my work comes across one of my blog posts and likes what they read, they can find out about my work much easier. That's an attractive feature.
Also, Lea put together a really nifty blogging feature on the site, so I should use it. (:
All told, this is a good time to make the transition because I'm not terribly busy right now. Radius and the Telegram aside, I'm spending most of my time either writing or dealing with trying to sell Why We Should Suffer For This (which is another blog post). I have no gigs on the horizon and only a handful of publications on the horizons. Good time to reorganize.
We still have a few technical matters to work out, and I might try to see this blog off with some silliness -- What? Doesn't everybody throw a party for ending their blog? -- but I expect to be fully transitioned over there by mid-August. For most people, it will make no difference, but if you read this on your LJ friends list and DON'T follow me on Twitter or Facebook, please add me there. Otherwise, that's that.
Is it wrong to feel a little sentimental about switching blogs? This one and I have been through a lot together, after all.
July 12, 2014
Where In the World is Victor Infante?
Well, actually, I'm still here in Worcester, but it seems I've vanished from my blog, recently. It's been a little chaotic the last couple months: My work was sold, people were laid off, there was all sorts of wrestling with paperwork and new benefits, our old Escort died a quiet death at Mike the Mechanic's, Radius started publishing fiction, Brendan Constantine visited. All sorts of wild and crazy doings, some of which I have covered here, but which have finally begun to catch up with me. And then, amidst it all, I did something to my shoulder. Feels like I pulled it, but for various reasons, I'm certain it's stress-related. Whee! Today's a little better than yesterday, and tomorrow I intend to drink alcohol, so it'll probably be better still.
Upswing: I should fucking relax once in a while.
***
The New Voices Singing Awards went off well, in that the kids singing were were fantastic. I personally found being on TV weird. You can find Episode One and Episode Two online at WCCA TV's website. Would I do it again? Hell, yeah. As weird as an experience as it was, it was a lot of fun and the kids were great.
Other writings: I wrote about the mysterious Gin and Tonics Across Worcester blog, where the pseudonymous blogger Dante is setting out to have one gin and tonic at every bar in Worcester. It's strangely compelling reading.
In music, I've written up the latest from Joan Smith, Elijah Divine and Ernest Benoit, as well as the obligatory "songs of summer" story.
Most of my selections for the last one were fairly standard -- after all, I'm writing about what I think will happen, not what I want to happen. Still, I snuck two less high-profile songs into the mix, the first being "Every Little Word," by MNEK:
... and also "Rather Be," by Clean Bandit (which I've actually seen on someone else's list!)
Both songs have done well in the UK, but haven't really taken off over here. (And don't go making cracks about the Brits' superior taste ... they're as capable of embracing as much horrendously bad pop music as we are!) Still, both songs are catchy, smart pop, and I'd like people to hear them. But then, I want people to hear a lot of things, such as the aforementioned Joan Smith album, but I imagine I'm doomed to frustration.
I can write all I want, but my voice is only so loud. The commercial music machine will always be louder. C'est la vie.
Over on Radius, the fiction experiment is going well, and we've put out a call for submissions. We've wrapped up B. DeMarco-Barrett's Pink Aviary, but stories by myself, Jeff DeRego and Gary Phillips are still underway, and we have new poems up from Kristina England and Jeremy Radin.
And that's that. More to come soon, I'm certain ...
Upswing: I should fucking relax once in a while.
***
The New Voices Singing Awards went off well, in that the kids singing were were fantastic. I personally found being on TV weird. You can find Episode One and Episode Two online at WCCA TV's website. Would I do it again? Hell, yeah. As weird as an experience as it was, it was a lot of fun and the kids were great.
Other writings: I wrote about the mysterious Gin and Tonics Across Worcester blog, where the pseudonymous blogger Dante is setting out to have one gin and tonic at every bar in Worcester. It's strangely compelling reading.
In music, I've written up the latest from Joan Smith, Elijah Divine and Ernest Benoit, as well as the obligatory "songs of summer" story.
Most of my selections for the last one were fairly standard -- after all, I'm writing about what I think will happen, not what I want to happen. Still, I snuck two less high-profile songs into the mix, the first being "Every Little Word," by MNEK:
... and also "Rather Be," by Clean Bandit (which I've actually seen on someone else's list!)
Both songs have done well in the UK, but haven't really taken off over here. (And don't go making cracks about the Brits' superior taste ... they're as capable of embracing as much horrendously bad pop music as we are!) Still, both songs are catchy, smart pop, and I'd like people to hear them. But then, I want people to hear a lot of things, such as the aforementioned Joan Smith album, but I imagine I'm doomed to frustration.
I can write all I want, but my voice is only so loud. The commercial music machine will always be louder. C'est la vie.
Over on Radius, the fiction experiment is going well, and we've put out a call for submissions. We've wrapped up B. DeMarco-Barrett's Pink Aviary, but stories by myself, Jeff DeRego and Gary Phillips are still underway, and we have new poems up from Kristina England and Jeremy Radin.
And that's that. More to come soon, I'm certain ...
June 24, 2014
Happy (belated) Anniversary!
Lea and I have been so busy lately that we both forgot that yesterday was our 14th wedding anniversary. What a thing to forget! What with all the chaos, it's easy to lose track of something like that. Things get lost in the hullabaloo of everyday life.
But still: I'm the luckiest man on Earth, and I never forget that for a moment.
***
There's an article in the Telegram today by Intern Molly about the "New Voices Awards" singing competition, which I was a judge for. The shows will air at 9:30 p.m. June 27 and 9:30 p.m. July 4 on WCCA TV 13, and as I understand it, will stream live online at http://www.wccatv.com.
I'm pleased to be a part of the show, but really, it's about the kids: They were some of the msot gifted singers I've ever encountered, and that's saying a lot.
Also out today is the second and third parts in the serialization of my Whitney Bierce witch story, "Baby Detonate For Me." Read part One here and Parts Two and Three here.
But still: I'm the luckiest man on Earth, and I never forget that for a moment.
***
There's an article in the Telegram today by Intern Molly about the "New Voices Awards" singing competition, which I was a judge for. The shows will air at 9:30 p.m. June 27 and 9:30 p.m. July 4 on WCCA TV 13, and as I understand it, will stream live online at http://www.wccatv.com.
I'm pleased to be a part of the show, but really, it's about the kids: They were some of the msot gifted singers I've ever encountered, and that's saying a lot.
Also out today is the second and third parts in the serialization of my Whitney Bierce witch story, "Baby Detonate For Me." Read part One here and Parts Two and Three here.
June 20, 2014
Radius: A Few FAQs About Our Fiction
Well, as pretty much anybody standing in my general vicinity knows, this was our first week publishing fiction at
Radius
. Did it go well? It's honestly still too early to tell, but I know I'm pleased with the results, and stoked about the future.
The decision to begin eyeing the connections between poetry and genre fiction was perhaps a counter-intuitive one, but from where I'm standing, it seems a natural line of study: The first poems preserved the stories of gods and heroes, and genre fiction is steeped in metaphors and symbolism that we almost no longer recognize as such. It struck me as interesting terrain to explore.
And trust me, we're just getting started.
The decision to serialize stories came from thinking about the heroes and stories of the 19th century, how fans would return to a periodical to read the next part of a Doyle or Dickens story. This seems unnecessary on the Internet, where you can have whole libraries at your disposal instantly. But still ... I was curious. I wanted to know if anyone would respond to that sort of serialization, if they would develop that sort of reading habit. Frankly, I wanted to know if people missed anticipation for stories. Certainly, there's anticipation for new seasons of TV shows and sequels to movies, to the next issue of a comic book or the seemingly unreachable next George R.R. Martin novel. We talk about the story, but is the waiting for the story part of the experience?
I don't know. We're serializing four stories at the moment, each of which will run for a few weeks. Maybe everybody will just be annoyed, and indicate that they prefer reading everything in one gulp. Or maybe people will enjoy the format, and enjoy the thrill of waiting. Damned if I know. We'll find out when we get there.
Anyway, here's an index of the experiment so far. If you've not checked some of this out, I wholeheartedly suggest you do. We brought in some top-notch genre writers to launch this thing, and I 'm terribly grateful for their support and encouragement:
Introduction: Prayers and Stories: Pulling New Heroes From the Oldest Well , By victor D. Infante
Serialized Stories:
Mondays: Union Dues: Freedom with a small f (Part One), by Jeffrey R. DeRego
Tuesdays: Baby Detonate for Me (Part One), By Victor D. Infante
Wednesdays: Pink Aviary (Part One), by B. DeMarco-Barrett
Thursdays: Murder by Remote Control: an Essex Man story (Part One), by Gary Phillips
Related Essay:
On Falling: Action Heroes, Metaphor and Gravity, by Sam Cha: Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four.
And there we are. That's a heck of a lot of content for one week, isn't it? We'll be slowing down a bit, over the next week or so, and only serializing stories. After that, poetry will work its way back into the mix, and the two will co-exist in harmony. Hopefully. I guess we'll know when we get there.
(P.S.: Check out the nifty redesign by Lea C. Deschenes! We're still tweaking it, but so far, it looks gorgeous!)
The decision to begin eyeing the connections between poetry and genre fiction was perhaps a counter-intuitive one, but from where I'm standing, it seems a natural line of study: The first poems preserved the stories of gods and heroes, and genre fiction is steeped in metaphors and symbolism that we almost no longer recognize as such. It struck me as interesting terrain to explore.
And trust me, we're just getting started.
The decision to serialize stories came from thinking about the heroes and stories of the 19th century, how fans would return to a periodical to read the next part of a Doyle or Dickens story. This seems unnecessary on the Internet, where you can have whole libraries at your disposal instantly. But still ... I was curious. I wanted to know if anyone would respond to that sort of serialization, if they would develop that sort of reading habit. Frankly, I wanted to know if people missed anticipation for stories. Certainly, there's anticipation for new seasons of TV shows and sequels to movies, to the next issue of a comic book or the seemingly unreachable next George R.R. Martin novel. We talk about the story, but is the waiting for the story part of the experience?
I don't know. We're serializing four stories at the moment, each of which will run for a few weeks. Maybe everybody will just be annoyed, and indicate that they prefer reading everything in one gulp. Or maybe people will enjoy the format, and enjoy the thrill of waiting. Damned if I know. We'll find out when we get there.
Anyway, here's an index of the experiment so far. If you've not checked some of this out, I wholeheartedly suggest you do. We brought in some top-notch genre writers to launch this thing, and I 'm terribly grateful for their support and encouragement:
Introduction: Prayers and Stories: Pulling New Heroes From the Oldest Well , By victor D. Infante
Serialized Stories:
Mondays: Union Dues: Freedom with a small f (Part One), by Jeffrey R. DeRego
Tuesdays: Baby Detonate for Me (Part One), By Victor D. Infante
Wednesdays: Pink Aviary (Part One), by B. DeMarco-Barrett
Thursdays: Murder by Remote Control: an Essex Man story (Part One), by Gary Phillips
Related Essay:
On Falling: Action Heroes, Metaphor and Gravity, by Sam Cha: Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four.
And there we are. That's a heck of a lot of content for one week, isn't it? We'll be slowing down a bit, over the next week or so, and only serializing stories. After that, poetry will work its way back into the mix, and the two will co-exist in harmony. Hopefully. I guess we'll know when we get there.
(P.S.: Check out the nifty redesign by Lea C. Deschenes! We're still tweaking it, but so far, it looks gorgeous!)
June 13, 2014
Exciting Shiny Things to Wait For and Read
Lots of things looming, all of which I'm mightily excited about. But if I were honest, the one I'm most giddy about is the Barrelhouse comedy issue, featuring my poem, Drunk-Dialing The Paris Review:
Over on Radius, our new fiction component will be launching on Monday, featuring stories by myself, Barbara DeMarco Barrett, Jeff DeRego and Gary Phillips, along with some wild thoughts on action heroes and metaphor from the brilliant Sam Cha! More on that soon ...
More immediately, I've had pieces in the Telegram recently about Boston's Sons of Serendip, the Greg McKillop tribute album and Bobby Gibbs reading the work of Etheridge Knight.
And it occurs to me that, with all the hullabaloo over the paper being sold and layoffs and all that, I never mentioned my review of John Legend at the Hanover Theatre here. My mistake. It was a lovely show.
More soon ...
Over on Radius, our new fiction component will be launching on Monday, featuring stories by myself, Barbara DeMarco Barrett, Jeff DeRego and Gary Phillips, along with some wild thoughts on action heroes and metaphor from the brilliant Sam Cha! More on that soon ...
More immediately, I've had pieces in the Telegram recently about Boston's Sons of Serendip, the Greg McKillop tribute album and Bobby Gibbs reading the work of Etheridge Knight.
And it occurs to me that, with all the hullabaloo over the paper being sold and layoffs and all that, I never mentioned my review of John Legend at the Hanover Theatre here. My mistake. It was a lovely show.
More soon ...
