Fred Smith's Blog, page 3

How to Turn an Apple Box into a Drum Set

Having spent nearly 10 years working in the film production industry, I’ve logged my fair share of downtime, sitting on apple boxes and tapping my fingers into their unique wood patterns searching for a timbre only drummers can fully understand. One day I decided to take a pair of sticks to a weathered apple box that looked like it had endured more hours on film sets than Michael Caine. It was love at first double-stroke roll. No matter where I struck the box, I discovered another tone. I began

The Night I Met Alex Rodriguez

It was at a 1993 house party in Perrine during my sophomore year where he humbly introduced himself to me simply as Alex. Before he was Major League Baseball’s favorite witch hunt target, Alex Rodriguez was an All-American shortstop at Miami’s Westminster Christian High School. Back in ’93 the A-rod moniker had yet to be bestowed on the 17 year old who was already built like a pro and projected to be the number one overall pick in the upcoming amateur draft. He was unpretentious. Still I

Dead Grapes of Walking Wrath

How The Walking Dead is a post-apocalyptic retelling of The Grapes of Wrath. Fair warning: John Steinbeck's great America novel is a primer to help predeict how the TV show may end. See the evidence HERE.

Guts and Conviction: the story of a music rag

In the early 2000s, I published a music magazine out of my 300 square-foot apartment in Gainesville, Florida. A free rag dedicated to the local music scene and its culture. Read the story HERE.

Raising Kids in a World with Itchy Trigger Fingers

I’ve got this friend. For the sake of keeping his real name anonymous, let’s call him Gerald. Gerald is black and looks like a genetic hybrid of an NFL offensive lineman and the Michelin Man. He’s about fifty years old and has been happily married for some time to a woman named Sarah (not her real name, either) who’s white. Gerald and Sarah have two kids (a daughter, 11 and son, 6) who are perfect blends of their parents in ways beyond their good looks. Gerald is, by all measures of the word, a

Why the Battered Woman Stays with the Brute

I’ve written a novel with a battered wife for a supporting character. Given the recent noise on domestic violence, it seemed appropriate to share the conversation I had with myself that led to my creating a fictional persona that an audience would believe. Who is she? She’s the mother of our main character. Not a main character herself? No. but she’s important to the story. So you don’t have much time to present her in a way that makes sense to the audience. Exactly. Married? Separated. Why?

The Driving Snow

I snapped this picture of an old railroad while traveling westbound across America's heartland sometime during the Great Recession. The result proved to be a wonderful juxtaposition that showed the reflected silhouette of the great Snow Chamberlain; a road warrior if ever there was one. Cartier-Bresson would call it decisive, but the truth is sometimes you just get lucky.

"The Mick" a smoke-long story

The Chinese called them smoke-long stories since they were written at a length to be consumed in the time it took someone to smoke a cigarette. These days, the term "flash fiction" gets thrown around to describe the form. I like the Chinese way better. Either way, you can read this tale in about as long as it would take to light a smoke on a windy day.

Facebook is no place for art

My good friend and fellow Grownman Gordon Myhre helped me realize that Facebook is the wrong kind of dive for the thinking man's art. He's got a point, and now theonlyfredsmith.com has a blog.

Stalling...a poetic groove

I snapped the punchline picture to this thing in a bathroom in Iowa City. Borrowed the groove from Stanton Moore--who legend has it built a drumset from wood whose birthing tree was struck by lightning just like in the movieThe Natural. Little bit of flange effect on my voice andthe first poetic groove was born. I'm kinda into the way words, grooves and images can help explain the choas.