Looks great ... how will it taste?
How to tell a story
Friday, January 31, 2014
Sorry, Seattle
I am rooting for Denver, which is to say for old man Manning; and because this UCLA man remembers the USC roots of the Seattle coach. In fact, a blow out would suit me fine.
Fridays
I think of Fridays as recovery: from the exhaustion of teaching, which gets greater the older I get. Hence today, practicing ukulele, cooking dinner. Tomorrow, a tall pile of student work to start at. But not today. A full day of Recovery.
The Pledge
Was able to tape this, an indie sleeper, Nicholson at his best, directed by Sean Penn, based ln a rare novel by Durrenmatt, my favorite playwright. How can you lose with talent like this? A fine film indeed.
Headline of the day
"Metal band Skinny Puppy send US government invoice after finding out their music was 'used as torture device in Guantanamo Bay'."
Capitalism marches on.
Capitalism marches on.
Basketball courts
I know. Let's play on a court-sized screen so we can have a slide show of ads during the game! Score during a Nike ad for an extra point!
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Nike strikes again
Tried watching UCLA game in Eugene but the bball court makes me sick in my stomach. The Ducks have become Fashion Queens of the worst kind. So far the track team has escaped but I worry about the future.
Next bread challenge
Buttermilk bread. First try was disappointing. Will try again. Present dough in refrig is olive bread. Last loaf baked was sesame wheat. Coming soon, rye.
3 standards are rye, wheat, olive. Want to add buttermilk. Then rotate them.
3 standards are rye, wheat, olive. Want to add buttermilk. Then rotate them.
Pete Seeger: a Dissenting View
Pete Seeger: a Dissenting View » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names:
"Seeger faced loss of livelihood and even prison for standing up for what he believed. He lent his voice and strength to many good causes over the years; and yet, even though I enjoyed his music and many of the songs he sang have become part of me, I cannot bring myself to join in the celebrations of his life. Why? Because the standard I apply to those I take seriously is not simply their support for peace, civil rights, labor and the environment, but their willingness to oppose the misleaders within those movements, and that, so far as I know, he never did. I guess some would call me sectarian."
Interesting argument: Seeger as ideologue.
"Seeger faced loss of livelihood and even prison for standing up for what he believed. He lent his voice and strength to many good causes over the years; and yet, even though I enjoyed his music and many of the songs he sang have become part of me, I cannot bring myself to join in the celebrations of his life. Why? Because the standard I apply to those I take seriously is not simply their support for peace, civil rights, labor and the environment, but their willingness to oppose the misleaders within those movements, and that, so far as I know, he never did. I guess some would call me sectarian."
Interesting argument: Seeger as ideologue.
Highlights of my archive
My archive is here.
Here I list my personal favorites in my body of written work.
- Hyperdrama
- Chekhov's The Seagull
- Changing Key, a video project introducing hyperdrama.
- The Last Song of Violeta Parra
- Plays
- Screenplays
- Fiction
- Essays
- Poems
- In My Old Age
- Varmints, a libretto.
- Audio
- Dark Mission, an opera by John Nugent, libretto by Charles Deemer. The MIDI files.
- Ramblin': the songs and stories of Woody Guthrie
- Real Audio Screenwriting Tips
- Video
In the office
Giving my students a challenging in-class exercise today. Wonder how they'll do.
Heard from a former student, thanking me for showing him the power of using sentence fragments in a screenplay. Cool. I learned it from Pinter. Passing it on.
Heard from a former student, thanking me for showing him the power of using sentence fragments in a screenplay. Cool. I learned it from Pinter. Passing it on.
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Energy
In my old age, I seem to wake with a finite allotment of energy for the day. When it's gone, it's gone.
Pooped
A few scripts from advanced students to look at - but I'm done for the day. Ran out of gas. Try and do them before I leave in the morning.
Ah, it will be nice to have nothing I have to read ...
Ah, it will be nice to have nothing I have to read ...
Quotation of the day
"I know I am old because passionate anger has turned into weary disgust: nothing impresses me." --Martha Gellhorn
A very under-rated writer!
A mere job is the curse of the creative class
One of my former students, talented, creative, a dynamo, just went to work as a claims adjuster at an insurance agency. Sounds like a necessary, stopgap job to me, but what do I know? Talent deserves more, that's what I know. Ah, me. The world is too much with us ...
Retirement mode
Really in retirement mode this morning, tying together loose ends (Overlook project, in this case), wrapping things up, getting in a position where only one "literary" action is incomplete: the new CJ. I am ready for this. I feel good about this. Simplify, downsize.
STORIES IN OVERDRIVE: A new form of narrative: the Overdrive experiment
STORIES IN OVERDRIVE: A new form of narrative: the Overdrive experiment:
I am ending the Overdrive experiment at ten novellas. I pass the torch. I consider the experiment an aesthetic success and a commercial disappointment, typical of my work ha ha. Onward.
I am ending the Overdrive experiment at ten novellas. I pass the torch. I consider the experiment an aesthetic success and a commercial disappointment, typical of my work ha ha. Onward.
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Memory
The death of Seeger inspired an old friend from the Army Language School to write ...
It brings back memories of Monterey, The Pad, and drinking beer behind some bushes in the park. Remember?Oh yes, I remember indeed. Those were great times (1959-60)..
Magnum Opus
The Chekhov Hyperdrama
From the introduction:
In the late 1980s, after I had several produced hyperdramas under my belt, I became aware that a great deal of audience education would be necessary before the power and significance of hyperdrama were appreciated. At best, hyperdrama was appreciated as a kind of eccentric entertainment, the way "happenings" were appreciated in the 1960s, a trend that would continue with the later production of the most popular hyperdrama to date, Tony and Tina's Wedding.
But I took hyperdrama more seriously than this. I had come to believe, and still believe, that this dramatic form, more than traditional theater, mirrored reality as the new physicists had come to define it: traditional theater was Newtonian, a passive audience observing in the dark, while hyperdrama was modern ("quantum"), the audience defining its own play by the choices it made.
So the question I posed to myself was: what can be done to give hyperdrama respect, to have it taken seriously? My answer became: by adapting a classic work of theater to the form.
This decided, it did not take me long to decide that Chekhov's The Seagull was a perfect vehicle for this purpose. There was even an appropriate speech in the play to justify the experiment:
"Uncle, what we need is a new kind of theater," says Treplev. "A theater with new theatrical forms!"
An orderly transition
Several recent books have made my hard copy archive much more "user friendly," which means, more attractive to browsers and easier to find similar writings. That's the entire point of the exercise. As soon as I update my digital archive section heads, I'll be in great shape ... and I anticipate only one addition to the literary part of the archive, the new CJ, after which I hope to focus on the audio area, which has been neglected. Music, maybe some readings.
So I feel damn good about where everything is at now. One other change: I am ending the Overdrive experiment at 10 books. I'd gather 9 of them in 3-book volumes (one already done), leaving the Christmas story to stand alone. Grunt work I'll do after retirement, I expect.
The Overdrive experiment has mixed results. A few readers understand its new and even ground-breaking contribution to narrative. A few more hate it, expecting traditional and more verbose writing. But I think a champion of the new form, with more energy than I have, could make it work. I'm not the guy to do it. I hold out the baton for someone younger to run with it.
The new CJ story is very clear to me. What is not clear at all is the right take on the material, the style, the attitude in the telling. Maybe I should try some page ones in different styles and see if anything excites me.
Ever onward.
So I feel damn good about where everything is at now. One other change: I am ending the Overdrive experiment at 10 books. I'd gather 9 of them in 3-book volumes (one already done), leaving the Christmas story to stand alone. Grunt work I'll do after retirement, I expect.
The Overdrive experiment has mixed results. A few readers understand its new and even ground-breaking contribution to narrative. A few more hate it, expecting traditional and more verbose writing. But I think a champion of the new form, with more energy than I have, could make it work. I'm not the guy to do it. I hold out the baton for someone younger to run with it.
The new CJ story is very clear to me. What is not clear at all is the right take on the material, the style, the attitude in the telling. Maybe I should try some page ones in different styles and see if anything excites me.
Ever onward.
Daily Kos: Testimony of Pete Seeger before the House Un-American Activities Committee, August 18, 1955
Daily Kos: Testimony of Pete Seeger before the House Un-American Activities Committee, August 18, 1955:
"Mr. SEEGER: I am not going to answer any questions as to my association, my philosophical or religious beliefs or my political beliefs, or how I voted in any election, or any of these private affairs. I think these are very improper questions for any American to be asked, especially under such compulsion as this. I would be very glad to tell you my life if you want to hear of it."
"Mr. SEEGER: I am not going to answer any questions as to my association, my philosophical or religious beliefs or my political beliefs, or how I voted in any election, or any of these private affairs. I think these are very improper questions for any American to be asked, especially under such compulsion as this. I would be very glad to tell you my life if you want to hear of it."
Where is the will?
Last night I watched a PBS documentary on Hartford, the fuel-making part of the Manhattan Project, and once again I watched in awe at the American ability to meet incredible challenges. We did it with the bomb. We did it with reaching the moon.
Too bad we don't bring the same focus, energy and will to feeding our starving children ... and educating them properly after we feed them. We could improve the world in a generation. But we won't. Sounds too much like socialism.
Too bad we don't bring the same focus, energy and will to feeding our starving children ... and educating them properly after we feed them. We could improve the world in a generation. But we won't. Sounds too much like socialism.
R.I.P. Pete Seeger
Became a fan in high school, esp of The Almanac Singers and The Weavers. Never got into sing-a-longs, though.
Once considered doing a play about his relationship with Burl Ives. As young men, they hit the road together to sing at labor rallies. Then Ives grew more conservative, went to Hollywood, and got rich. Seeger kept the faith all his 94 years. (Look at the length of that banjo neck!)
Once considered doing a play about his relationship with Burl Ives. As young men, they hit the road together to sing at labor rallies. Then Ives grew more conservative, went to Hollywood, and got rich. Seeger kept the faith all his 94 years. (Look at the length of that banjo neck!)
Monday, January 27, 2014
Hat pin
Explanation (as told years ago):
I loved Classical Greek, and my professor urged me to take second year. But I was in graduate and get out of Dodge mode, I just took language because I needed the credit.A fav "total accident" story, obviously. Decided to wear the pin in my old age in protest of the democritization of art.
I thought that was the end of it. It wasn't. Something over a year later I'm at the University of Oregon, a grad student, when I get a letter in the mail from UCLA. They want me to march with Oregon's undergrad seniors to be admitted into Phi Beta Kappa a year late for my graduating class at UCLA. What what what? This is absurd. But a phone call reveals they are serious, I've been admitted into Phi Beta Kappa at UCLA a year after the normal time, which is graduation. It didn't make sense because I had about a 3.3 average, too low for the honor society, and this low because I took, a 21-unit overload every term, picking out a course I'd just get a C in but take for the reading and discipline and lectures. Broadening my humanities education with all the energy of an ex math/science nerd.
So I march, get my Phi Beta Kappa pin, which I wore on my baseball cap till it was stolen ... but never figured out what was going on till I got my certificate from Phi Beta Kappa ... which was signed by my Greek teacher! She was the President of the Society!
So here's what happened. She thought I was hot shit. She was stunned the computer did not kick me out as a candidate for the Society when I graduated. So she took it upon herself to investigate. She discovered I indeed was on the Honors English Program, had an A average in my major, but for some reason took an overload each term, getting a C in things like Chinese Literature, Indian Lit, Introduction to the Opera, African Song Poems and whatnot. So she petitioned that an exception be made and I be admitted into Phi Beta Kappa and since she was the Prez at this time, she got her way.
Stanford band
Stanford women destroying USC. The Stanford band here, as entertaining as ever - eccentic, whacky, Nerd Nation doing its own thing. Love it!
Women's basketball
ESPN (secondary channels) showing a lot of games this season. Dig it! Not many dunks, which I prefer. I think basket should be raised in men's game.
Sunday, January 26, 2014
America in the world
Caught part of interesting BBC panel this morning ... at one point Sen. McCain complained that his President didn't even believe in American Exceptionalism. Man, did that bring on the UK and European charges of McC's arrogance, rightly so. The world is tired of such bullshit.
Coho disaster
Calif. Coho are stranded in the ocean, streams used for annual migration to spawning grounds dry from drought. Biologists fear extinction.
Saturday, January 25, 2014
This is more like it
Better rise on this sesame wheat loaf.
Technically, my best loaf. Good rise, hard crust, soft airy interior, good taste. Now to reach this high bar consistently.
Technically, my best loaf. Good rise, hard crust, soft airy interior, good taste. Now to reach this high bar consistently.
No more loose ends?
With the new book of essays, I think my archive is about as orderly and user-friendly as I can make it. A new novel to add ... after that, expansion will be in ukulele studies. Relief!
Coming this fall (the gods willing)
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| Click to enlarge |
I structured the story this morning.
- Part One: On the Road
- Part Two: The Mission ... the Play ... the Death ... the Arrest
- Part Three: The Trial
- Part Four: Last Will & Testament
Roughly, the action moves this way: on the road, CJ meets Felicity Flowers (Flo), croan actress, veteran of SF Mime Troupe ... working on performance art to protest health care ... Kayla's suicide brings CJ back to Portland for services, Flo follows ... Matt and Flo hit it off, Matt the director loves her script, wants to use some of CJ's poems ... they decide on street theater mission, take show on road ... one of actors denied Death With Dignity help, despite terminal condition, gets drugs from Mexico and decides to die "live" during performance of play, this done at State Capitol, huge senior protest ... CJ, Flo and Matt arrested for murder ... the trial ... aftermath of trial. CJ's death? Probably.Many details to work out but overall flow feels good to me, layers and chaos within a solid structure.
I am raring to go! Why wait until summer?
Room for improvement
As good ss my bread has been, not perfect, definite room for improvement. Also, going to try mixing one loaf dough batches, not two. For issues of quality as well as quantity. Not there yet but learning all the time - and less than perfect is pretty damn good.
Friday, January 24, 2014
Feb. 25th
Updated my baseball app - and this is the date when I can start listening to games. I am ready!
New paintings for China
Harriet has a show in China next month and is doing new work for it. Here is one ...
She's also trying to raise some money to help with expenses. Want to help?
Been there, done that
When I moved to Portland in the late 70s and quickly burst into the limelight, the 80s becoming my decade here, I remember meeting an "older, forgotten writer" who, I learned later, had been in the local limelight in the 50s and 60s. How bemused and bored he looked! It puzzled me at the time, although even then I thought he deserved, he had EARNED, more respect than he received.
Now that I am an "older, forgotten writer" myself, I know exactly where he was coming from. Fame is a dark farce.
Now that I am an "older, forgotten writer" myself, I know exactly where he was coming from. Fame is a dark farce.
Levels of retirement
I've been "retired" as a playwright and screenwriter for several years now. Come July, I'll be retired as a screenwriting professor. I plan to retire as a fiction writer - just a novelist? - as soon as CJ's Last Will and Testament is done. whenever that may be. I'll still write poems. I may do something in the narrative universe around the ukulele. I'll keep busy, that's for sure.
I look forward to retiring as a novelist. Takes too much out of me. Maybe I'll still write short fiction.
I like what the future looks like now.
I look forward to retiring as a novelist. Takes too much out of me. Maybe I'll still write short fiction.
I like what the future looks like now.
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Foundation
Made notes on the beginning-middle-end structure of the new CJ, homage to Aristotle, and it looks pretty good to me. A solid structure essential in such a wild, chaotic and layered story. The flesh will hide the bones but the bones are foundation.
This soup rocks
To chicken broth I added ... soy sauce, dr pepper, rice vinegar, fish sauce, bean paste ... added buffalo meat balls, zucchini, tofu, broccoli slaw. Outstanding!
The Information Counter-Revolution | Common Dreams
The Information Counter-Revolution | Common Dreams:
"Many people in Kiev awoke Tuesday morning to a frightening text message on their phones. “Dear subscriber, you are registered as a participant in a mass disturbance,” it read.
Using widely available technology, Ukraine’s dominant carriers have reportedly helped the government pinpoint the locations of their customers. Anyone with a cellphone in the vicinity of recent protests was added to a list and sent the intimidating text.
The incident is just one in a growing number of attacks on Internet users. It’s a troubling sign that the information age has entered a new era — one where our rights to connect and communicate are under constant siege."
'via Blog this'
"Many people in Kiev awoke Tuesday morning to a frightening text message on their phones. “Dear subscriber, you are registered as a participant in a mass disturbance,” it read.
Using widely available technology, Ukraine’s dominant carriers have reportedly helped the government pinpoint the locations of their customers. Anyone with a cellphone in the vicinity of recent protests was added to a list and sent the intimidating text.
The incident is just one in a growing number of attacks on Internet users. It’s a troubling sign that the information age has entered a new era — one where our rights to connect and communicate are under constant siege."
'via Blog this'
There Has Been An Average Of One School Shooting Every Other School Day So Far This Year | ThinkProgress
There Has Been An Average Of One School Shooting Every Other School Day So Far This Year | ThinkProgress:
I sure get tired of these examples of American Exceptionalism.
I sure get tired of these examples of American Exceptionalism.
In the office
A little time to kill before showing Juno ... just as well, not feeling at full speed, still moments of fragility from the recent illness. Will take it easy when I get home.
Breakfast rhythms
Changes. I haven't made scrapple in weeks and feel no urge to. Has the Scrapple King retired? Too soon to say. My kitchen focus has been on baking bread and remains so. Breakfast has been affected. This morning, for example: scrambled eggs with a slice of rye and a slice of wheat toast. Yummy.
We'll see what happens.
We'll see what happens.
A doowop morning
Early shopping so I don't have to do it after class - and the store music was doowop! I dug it.
A very mellow start to the day. I dig it.
Always curious to see a new class' first submissions, hoping to find a "natural born screenwriter" among them. Find out soon enough.
A very mellow start to the day. I dig it.
Always curious to see a new class' first submissions, hoping to find a "natural born screenwriter" among them. Find out soon enough.
Round Bend Press Books
Round Bend Press Books:
"RBP now stands as a vanguard small press, one example of the uprising. A number of fellow authors who discovered RBP and decided they too wanted to publish their work under our banner have contributed to this lively catalog of books. What the authors have in common is a belief in printed books and the power of writing. They are beholden to printed books and to the allure of the new small press dynamics--an important aspect of the future. "
The new site.
"RBP now stands as a vanguard small press, one example of the uprising. A number of fellow authors who discovered RBP and decided they too wanted to publish their work under our banner have contributed to this lively catalog of books. What the authors have in common is a belief in printed books and the power of writing. They are beholden to printed books and to the allure of the new small press dynamics--an important aspect of the future. "
The new site.
The Decline of the American Book Lover - Jordan Weissmann - The Atlantic
The Decline of the American Book Lover - Jordan Weissmann - The Atlantic:
"The Pew Research Center reported last week that nearly a quarter of American adults had not read a single book in the past year. As in, they hadn't cracked a paperback, fired up a Kindle, or even hit play on an audiobook while in the car. The number of non-book-readers has nearly tripled since 1978."
"The Pew Research Center reported last week that nearly a quarter of American adults had not read a single book in the past year. As in, they hadn't cracked a paperback, fired up a Kindle, or even hit play on an audiobook while in the car. The number of non-book-readers has nearly tripled since 1978."
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
CJ rules
Already dreaming scenes from the new book. Really don't want to start it until summer but CJ may not wait this long. Man, it's going to be a hoot, in the tradition of The Ginger Man and Henderson the Rain King.
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
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Progress
A good day in the classroom, which I needed. To celebrate ... marinading tofu ... baking Scotch eggs. Onward!
De-wired
After retirement, I am reducing my online activity considerably, I think. I hope. Get it down to basics. I want to bake/cook, play ukulele, do house chores, listen to audio books, watch movies, work on CJ, spend more time with Sketch (and with H, though she usually is too busy to spend time with) , and not much else. I plan to spend very little time online. A disappearing act. Looking forward to it!
Most Authors Make Less Than $1,000 a Year: DBW - GalleyCat
Most Authors Make Less Than $1,000 a Year: DBW - GalleyCat:
"The majority of authors make less than $1,000 a year, according to a new report from Digital Book World. Almost 80% of self-published authors and more than half of traditionally published authors earn less than $1,000 a year, according to the report. "
"The majority of authors make less than $1,000 a year, according to a new report from Digital Book World. Almost 80% of self-published authors and more than half of traditionally published authors earn less than $1,000 a year, according to the report. "
Being Labeled a 'Radical' Is Meant To Be an Insult. History Tells Us Otherwise | Common Dreams
Being Labeled a 'Radical' Is Meant To Be an Insult. History Tells Us Otherwise | Common Dreams:
" It's time that America dumps its fear of "radicals" and embraces their political beliefs."
" It's time that America dumps its fear of "radicals" and embraces their political beliefs."
In the office
Almost feels like the first day of class after such an absence, however short. Hope class goes well and I'm back in the groove.
Been brooding about CJ, a 3-part structure in the new novel, a metafiction really, a posthumous manuscript published by a small press. Working titles for the parts: On the Road ... The Play, the Death, the Arrest ... The Trial.
He meets the crone on the road, they hang out, she convinces him to convert some of his poems to street drama, starring herself ... back in Portland for a funeral, runs idea by Matt, who loves it and volunteers to direct ... they do street theater ... in a production protesting senior health care, a terminal actor commits suicide during a theatrical rite, but CJ is arrested for murder ... the trial, from two p of v's, the DA and a journalist covering it ...
Lots of wild layered ideas. As far as I'm concerned, the more formally outrageous, the better, as long as coherence and suspense are not lost. I am getting very excited about this ... and I think the title is a keeper, CJ's Last Will and Testament. Because that is what it is.
Been brooding about CJ, a 3-part structure in the new novel, a metafiction really, a posthumous manuscript published by a small press. Working titles for the parts: On the Road ... The Play, the Death, the Arrest ... The Trial.
He meets the crone on the road, they hang out, she convinces him to convert some of his poems to street drama, starring herself ... back in Portland for a funeral, runs idea by Matt, who loves it and volunteers to direct ... they do street theater ... in a production protesting senior health care, a terminal actor commits suicide during a theatrical rite, but CJ is arrested for murder ... the trial, from two p of v's, the DA and a journalist covering it ...
Lots of wild layered ideas. As far as I'm concerned, the more formally outrageous, the better, as long as coherence and suspense are not lost. I am getting very excited about this ... and I think the title is a keeper, CJ's Last Will and Testament. Because that is what it is.
Back to the classroom
Today will be my first real class since I got sick ten days ago. Feeling up to it.
Monday, January 20, 2014
Lament
Lament
Black widows and hackers
al qaeda and guns
a wonder, it is
that I have any fun
fresh bread and scrapple
iced coffee and Sketch
life gets more simple
when in the home stretch
Black widows and hackers
al qaeda and guns
a wonder, it is
that I have any fun
fresh bread and scrapple
iced coffee and Sketch
life gets more simple
when in the home stretch
Being quiet
One more prep task but I'm pushing it to morning ... done for the day regarding energy and concentration ... ah me, old age calls the shots, but that's fine. I'm not into the Forever Young nonsense, which tough-minded Susan Jacoby destroyed in a recent book. She has one of the best bullshit detectors in the journalism business.
King Holiday
King Holiday
talk and more talk
this year echoing last year
which echoes the year before
but in fact change
is moving in a direction
opposite to the dream
of all this talk
all this memory of past action
the present action making
the rich richer
the poor poorer
nothing to celebrate
even on a holiday
talk and more talk
this year echoing last year
which echoes the year before
but in fact change
is moving in a direction
opposite to the dream
of all this talk
all this memory of past action
the present action making
the rich richer
the poor poorer
nothing to celebrate
even on a holiday
Careful!
Finished most of prep work, started fixing essay book ... and my stamina crashed. Exhausted. Better take it easy.
Damn, I make good bread! Toast for lunch.
No relapses!
Damn, I make good bread! Toast for lunch.
No relapses!
Cranking up
In my basement office, hoping to finish prep this morning ... afternoon, the essays and ukulele get attention. Bon voyage.
Progress report
Just finished close reading of essay book, lots of fixes. Maybe later today after school prep, or Wednesday. At any rate, Kindle book should be out this week. I like this collection a lot, but it's esoteric and eccentric, without wide appeal.
O Ye Brethren!
O Ye Brethren!
marginal writers of the world
listen up, listen up
don't be despondent
don't be disappointed
yes, we are ignored
yes, we are disrespected
but consider the source
consider the culture
our job is not to please
our job is not to get famous
our job is not to get rich
remember why we write
write what you see
write what you feel
write what you discover
bringing light to dark places
our job is ruthless honesty
our job is artistic growth
our job is stay out of fashion
each is a majority of one
do the best you can
and celebrate your success
make your work available
to readers of the future
this is all we can do
this is all we need to do
o ye working brethren
marginal writers of the world
marginal writers of the world
listen up, listen up
don't be despondent
don't be disappointed
yes, we are ignored
yes, we are disrespected
but consider the source
consider the culture
our job is not to please
our job is not to get famous
our job is not to get rich
remember why we write
write what you see
write what you feel
write what you discover
bringing light to dark places
our job is ruthless honesty
our job is artistic growth
our job is stay out of fashion
each is a majority of one
do the best you can
and celebrate your success
make your work available
to readers of the future
this is all we can do
this is all we need to do
o ye working brethren
marginal writers of the world
Sorry, Seattle
I should root for my local/regional team but I can't get excited about how they won and am turned off by their arrogant celebrating ... and at the same time am blown away by Manning's talent and great class as a player and human (even if he does endorse Papa John's, a terrible pizza) ... so I'm rooting for Denver. But I won't watch. I'll tape it and go to a movie. I'm disappointed that Seattle came off bush league at the end.
Sunday, January 19, 2014
Super Bowl
This is exactly the final I wanted, but my enthusiasm is tempered by Seattle's sloppy play, compared to Denver's mastery. But anything can happen in two weeks. The hype begins.
Denver v. Seattle in Super Bowl
Sloppy game, Seahawks, mostly outplayed, get lucky.
If everybody plays like today, Denver will walk away with it.
If everybody plays like today, Denver will walk away with it.
Rising to occasion?
Sharapova just won first set, 6-3. Best, 3 aces and no double faults. She's tough when she's not beating herself.
26-16, halfway there!
Denver great, Manning brilliant, 400 yds, no sacks or interceptions.
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Now ... go Seahawks!
Now ... go Seahawks!
So far, so good
Denver by 10 at the half.
Really enjoying the day. Tomorrow devoted to student work.
Really enjoying the day. Tomorrow devoted to student work.
3 bread family
These have become my "show breads":
Sesame wheat ... caraway rye ... olive.
Next exotic to try: feta spinach bread.
Sesame wheat ... caraway rye ... olive.
Next exotic to try: feta spinach bread.
Saturday, January 18, 2014
Pussy Riot For Seniors
This concept becomes better the more I brood about it. Can you imagine the media attention if a dozen old farts performed like Pussy Riot around issues of health and death with dignity? This would keep CJ busy.
Will this energize Sharapova?
Serena Williams has been upset at the Australian open. Sharapova's nemesis. The Russian, seeded 3rd, playing poorly but still alive, should realize she has a better chance than before to go all the way. If she can control her serve ...
SAG-AFTRA awards
My favorite awards, actors honoring peers in a dinner party setting, far less hype and bullshit, much longer In Memoriam film, focused and professional. So I watched it tonight.
Quotation of the day
"You say the poet is in the clouds; but so is the thunderbolt." --Victor Hugo
 |
| Drawing by Bill Deemer |
Research
Getting serious here. Reserved a few books on street theater. Not a new form for me, having written two, THE DRAGON, based on the Russian play, and the commissioned BLOOD AND ROSES, which toured, became controversial, and was featured in an NPR story. CJ needs to write a good one.
Preparing for the summer. I'm excited! Aiming for a tight, solid structure, into which I can put outrageous, culturally dangerous (ha ha) content.
Preparing for the summer. I'm excited! Aiming for a tight, solid structure, into which I can put outrageous, culturally dangerous (ha ha) content.
Unorganized brooding about CJ
A lot of brooding about form. Definitely not a traditional narrative!
Layered, like the earlier novel, Sodom. Parts to include: entries from CJ's blog ... a play within a novel - CJ meets a crone on the road, who convinces him to write and with her perform Brechtian street theater, probably directed by his theater buddy Matt ... maybe this idea explodes, a senior theater group gets involved, they become Pussy Riot For Seniors ... maybe CJ and others get arrested ... a court drama as frame action? ... a death, a senior actor has heart attack on stage and children sue CJ as instigator ... an old folks nude sit in, protest, maybe at a beauty pageant ... another frame action? a DA preparing his case against CJ and others.
Fast moving, outrageous, darkly comic, thought-provoking. Theme: old artists and eccentrics, I'm mad as hell and won't put up with it any more.
CJ's Last Will And Testament, still my working title. Drawing by Tom Strah:
Layered, like the earlier novel, Sodom. Parts to include: entries from CJ's blog ... a play within a novel - CJ meets a crone on the road, who convinces him to write and with her perform Brechtian street theater, probably directed by his theater buddy Matt ... maybe this idea explodes, a senior theater group gets involved, they become Pussy Riot For Seniors ... maybe CJ and others get arrested ... a court drama as frame action? ... a death, a senior actor has heart attack on stage and children sue CJ as instigator ... an old folks nude sit in, protest, maybe at a beauty pageant ... another frame action? a DA preparing his case against CJ and others.
Fast moving, outrageous, darkly comic, thought-provoking. Theme: old artists and eccentrics, I'm mad as hell and won't put up with it any more.
CJ's Last Will And Testament, still my working title. Drawing by Tom Strah:
So long ago
Was browsing through a scrapbook and found these two items about my play THE PARDON: a note from some audience members, going out of their way to let us know; and a newspaper article about the play's nomination for a Pulitzer by a very enthusiastic local critic. Ridiculous and nice at the same time. So glad I now have it published.
Check it out.
http://www.ibiblio.org/cdeemer/sbitem04.JPG
Check it out.
http://www.ibiblio.org/cdeemer/sbitem04.JPG
In the mail bag
I'm referenced in a Portuguese screenwriting manual. You know, if I wanted to create myself as a screenwriting guru, there were opportunities. I even turned down an offer to teach a workshop in Madrid some years back. A distraction from my real work, my writing, though if the money had been outrageous rather than just adequate, I probably would have gone.
Here's the reference. Not a clue what it says.
O mercado é competitivo e a procura de guionistas é escassa, sobretudo no nosso país, onde apenas existem alguns canais de televisão, e rareiam os apoios à sétima arte. Como explica Charles Deemer, no manual Screenwright: The Craft of Screenwriting (1998), mesmo nos EUA, uma nação vocacionada para o cinema, são submetidos a apreciação mais de cem mil argumentos por ano, mas apenas algumas centenas recebem luz verde (pág. 16). Outras estatísticas referem que só um em cada cem ou mesmo um em cada cento e trinta guiões é aceite.
Here's the reference. Not a clue what it says.
O mercado é competitivo e a procura de guionistas é escassa, sobretudo no nosso país, onde apenas existem alguns canais de televisão, e rareiam os apoios à sétima arte. Como explica Charles Deemer, no manual Screenwright: The Craft of Screenwriting (1998), mesmo nos EUA, uma nação vocacionada para o cinema, são submetidos a apreciação mais de cem mil argumentos por ano, mas apenas algumas centenas recebem luz verde (pág. 16). Outras estatísticas referem que só um em cada cem ou mesmo um em cada cento e trinta guiões é aceite.
Looking ahead
One of the things I plan to do after I retire is fill in some gaps in my literary education. Reading the Victorians in more depth than I have ... a lot of Hardy and Dickens, maybe use Chesterton's history of the age as my guide.
I also want - I've been thinking of this for a few years - to write an annotated reading of Brown's LOVE'S BODY, a personal response chapter by chapter, perhaps in a new blog created for the occasion.
CJ still calls, too, but I refuse to let him control my life as earlier, when he came close to giving me a nervous breakdown. In school they never tell you about the physical demands and mental stress of serious writing, which I call writing Inside-out (most writing is Outside-in and commercial to one degree or another).
I am very much looking forward to retirement. But first things first. The next six months belong to my students.
I also want - I've been thinking of this for a few years - to write an annotated reading of Brown's LOVE'S BODY, a personal response chapter by chapter, perhaps in a new blog created for the occasion.
CJ still calls, too, but I refuse to let him control my life as earlier, when he came close to giving me a nervous breakdown. In school they never tell you about the physical demands and mental stress of serious writing, which I call writing Inside-out (most writing is Outside-in and commercial to one degree or another).
I am very much looking forward to retirement. But first things first. The next six months belong to my students.
Bread therapy
H has friend coming over today, baking her a loaf of wheat bread. Just mixed a batch of carraway rye dough. Going to experiment with incorporating soy flour into a few recipes.
Simplicity
Simplicity
The most natural acts
of waking, walking, peeing,
returning to bed,
fill me this morning
with a sense of good fortune.
Let good fortune prevail.
The most natural acts
of waking, walking, peeing,
returning to bed,
fill me this morning
with a sense of good fortune.
Let good fortune prevail.
Friday, January 17, 2014
Slow down
A work day, and my first full dinner in almost a week - but fragility lingers, and I need to watch against "acting well" before I'm truly well. I would benefit from s slow Saturday
Dusting the archives
The motivation for bringing out my recent books is clear and has absolutely nothing to do with the marketplace: it's to make my archives, particularly the print archive at the Univ. of Oregon, easier to browse. I am thinking of 50 years from now, after I'm long gone, and there's a grad student in literature shelf-shopping for something new to write about, for work that hasn't been analyzed to death. I am offering, like decorative flies to a trout, as many options as possible.
If you laugh at the absurdity of this, consider this: something similar has already happened to me three times in my career. If the work is available, it can be found, no matter how much dust has settled over it. Sirc has written eloquently about "discovering" an essay of mine over 30 years after it had been published. His story gives me goose bumps, still, because this is the connection, the understanding, that gives me the most satisfaction.
"Ah, the Happenings. All dressed up in ice cream and candlelight, they had nowhere to go in Composition. Before we knew it, our goal went from participants in the electric drama reengaging their hearts to having students "appreciate the varieties and excellences of academic discourse" (Lindemann 311). Deemer gave up and went off to write plays."
(I love that line!)
"Macrorie's theory, Coles's classroom work, Deemer's and Lutz's materials . . . reading them is like sitting in a circle and listening to a patient elder gently guide us on the vision-quest, using parables and jokes and truths. It's so retro, it's become avant-garde."
"Charles Deemer's (un)original allegory has been a pleasure to cover. I salute the next remake of English Composition as a Happening, on and on through n-dimensions. A great era of the legend continues."
If you laugh at the absurdity of this, consider this: something similar has already happened to me three times in my career. If the work is available, it can be found, no matter how much dust has settled over it. Sirc has written eloquently about "discovering" an essay of mine over 30 years after it had been published. His story gives me goose bumps, still, because this is the connection, the understanding, that gives me the most satisfaction.
From English Composition as a Happening by Geoffrey Sirc:"One of the Composition-specific articles in this genre of radical sixties pedagogy, one which I have never been able to forget since the day I first read it in the dimly-lit stacks of my university's library, was written in 1967 by a young graduate teaching assistant at the University of Oregon, Charles Deemer. His article, "English Composition as a Happening," did what many of these articles did, but did it in a formally compelling way (the article is a collage of brief sound-bite snippets, alternating between Deemer's own poetic reflections-as-manifesto and quotations from Sontag, McLuhan, Dewey, Goodman, and others), and Deemer's ideas seemed to catalyze my own discontent with what passed for Composition during the 1980s."More from Sirc:
"Ah, the Happenings. All dressed up in ice cream and candlelight, they had nowhere to go in Composition. Before we knew it, our goal went from participants in the electric drama reengaging their hearts to having students "appreciate the varieties and excellences of academic discourse" (Lindemann 311). Deemer gave up and went off to write plays."
(I love that line!)
"Macrorie's theory, Coles's classroom work, Deemer's and Lutz's materials . . . reading them is like sitting in a circle and listening to a patient elder gently guide us on the vision-quest, using parables and jokes and truths. It's so retro, it's become avant-garde."
"Charles Deemer's (un)original allegory has been a pleasure to cover. I salute the next remake of English Composition as a Happening, on and on through n-dimensions. A great era of the legend continues."
Batter up!
The 2014 MLB app is being released at end of month. Spring training games on radio, here we come! I am so ready for BASEBALL.
About the collection of essays
I found 15 to include but all are short so the book comes in under 100 pages. Most had been published earlier in mags, newspapers and books: in Nothwest Magazine, Northwest Variety, Theater in Cyberspace, Oregon Magazine, College English, Cyber Film School. A lot of tricky format work to do.
Thursday, January 16, 2014
You can read Kindle books on any electronic device
Some of you may not know this. All it takes is the appropriate FREE app. Check them out here.
Writers and Rum: Why Authorship and Alcohol Have Gone Together : The New Yorker
Writers and Rum: Why Authorship and Alcohol Have Gone Together : The New Yorker:
"The critic Olivia Laing has just published a good, sad book on this subject called “The Trip To Echo Spring: On Writers And Drinking,” which tells at length the mostly familiar but still melancholy stories of the drinking lives of Fitzgerald and Hemingway and Tennessee Williams and John Berryman and John Cheever and Raymond Carver, complete, it sometimes feels, with tipped-in napkin stains from each of their favorite bars."
Good review of a good book I happen to be reading now.
For my take, see Liquor and Lit.
"The critic Olivia Laing has just published a good, sad book on this subject called “The Trip To Echo Spring: On Writers And Drinking,” which tells at length the mostly familiar but still melancholy stories of the drinking lives of Fitzgerald and Hemingway and Tennessee Williams and John Berryman and John Cheever and Raymond Carver, complete, it sometimes feels, with tipped-in napkin stains from each of their favorite bars."
Good review of a good book I happen to be reading now.
For my take, see Liquor and Lit.
Small irony
Well, I made it. Hobbling to campus, this occurred to me: 1. I feel like shit 2. I am damn lucky. I mean, my discomforts and complaints are a flea in the universe of legitimate reasons to complain. But what an interesting thing to say about the world: I'm lucky and feel like shit!
Fortunately, today I show the excellent documentary TALES FROM THE SCRIPT, so as long as I can do that, I'll have a class! Next week the usual routine returns but presumably I will be better. I do continue to improve. I am now improved to the degree of feeling like shit ha ha.
Fortunately, today I show the excellent documentary TALES FROM THE SCRIPT, so as long as I can do that, I'll have a class! Next week the usual routine returns but presumably I will be better. I do continue to improve. I am now improved to the degree of feeling like shit ha ha.
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Three documentaries
Warched two excellent docs on public tv ... The Secret State of North Korea ... 1964.
Listened to another on public radio, The History of Civil Rights in America - and every possible minority was covered but one: American Indians! Appalling. No wonder CJ gets so frustrated.
Listened to another on public radio, The History of Civil Rights in America - and every possible minority was covered but one: American Indians! Appalling. No wonder CJ gets so frustrated.
New Kindle book
To my surprise, I discovered I hadn't released a Kindle version of my last Round Bend Press book, the new poems. So I did, adding the essay as intro. Whether RBP updates the paperback is up to them.
*
On the health front, Tues passed without puking or hiccups. Still no real meal since Sat. ... lost ten pounds. Hell of a diet. Still feel like I'm going to puke at any minute (and not even watching the news!) but I don't. Tomorrow I show a documentary, so I should be able to handle that.
I'm going to retire as a food buff and start eating like a monk. I'd rather be dead than go through 7 hours of puking again.
*
On the health front, Tues passed without puking or hiccups. Still no real meal since Sat. ... lost ten pounds. Hell of a diet. Still feel like I'm going to puke at any minute (and not even watching the news!) but I don't. Tomorrow I show a documentary, so I should be able to handle that.
I'm going to retire as a food buff and start eating like a monk. I'd rather be dead than go through 7 hours of puking again.
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer
If you get a chance to see this HBO documentary, don't miss it. A tad of hope. "Jail is not the worst place for a thinking person."
Creativity. Faith. Impotence.
http://www.ibiblio.org/cdeemer/Creativity2.pdf
I confess I don't remember writing this short essay. It must have been written during a kind of trance-like obsession, like Fragments Before The Fall, the birthing circumstances of which I do recall. But this wears well. I like it. I sit in awe of it. An essay that begins "Writing is fucking" surely is headed somewhere challenging.
This should have been the introduction to my recent book of poems, A Majority Of One.
I confess I don't remember writing this short essay. It must have been written during a kind of trance-like obsession, like Fragments Before The Fall, the birthing circumstances of which I do recall. But this wears well. I like it. I sit in awe of it. An essay that begins "Writing is fucking" surely is headed somewhere challenging.
This should have been the introduction to my recent book of poems, A Majority Of One.
When less is more
In the large cavern of my archive, some of the work I am most proud of are small, thin books. Here are (IMHO) four gems, available in Kindle and paperback formats:
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Rare decision
Cancelled class ... only 2nd time in almost twenty years. Show movie on Thurs, so should be there.
Good morning!
Good morning!
Of all the ways to greet the day
here is one, I have to say,
that makes me frown and shake my head
and hurry off right back to bed.
Of all the ways to greet the day
here is one, I have to say,
that makes me frown and shake my head
and hurry off right back to bed.
Unpopular Opinions
Unpopular Opinions
You can twist my arm
beat my head with a brick
and I'd still rather be
dead than sick
You can twist my arm
beat my head with a brick
and I'd still rather be
dead than sick
Monday, January 13, 2014
Bad but better
Haven't thrown up since yesterday ... doc says not food poisoning because it took too long after I ate ... maybe flu virus variation ... maybe gallstones but I'd have other symptoms ... flu most likely ... wait, see if I continue to improve.
May or may not cancel class tomorrow. One hour at a time.
May or may not cancel class tomorrow. One hour at a time.
Sunday, January 12, 2014
O What A Night
Alas, I do not refer to the doowop classic by The Dells. I refer to a night of hell orchestrated by the gods of digestion and/or viruses.
Went to bed at 10, feeling good. 30 mins. later, stomach cramps. And then I am puking my guts out, which I repeated every hour or so for the next ten hours! 10 of hell, 50 recovery, through the long night. I didn't know humans could puke up so much. Terrible. H, 20 years with me, had never seen me sick like this.
In the morning, the sessions stretched out, every two hours. I last got sick at 9 but don't feel done yet.
No other symptoms, so likely not the flu virus going around. Maybe a bad oyster at breakfast.
The pits. But slowly improving.
Went to bed at 10, feeling good. 30 mins. later, stomach cramps. And then I am puking my guts out, which I repeated every hour or so for the next ten hours! 10 of hell, 50 recovery, through the long night. I didn't know humans could puke up so much. Terrible. H, 20 years with me, had never seen me sick like this.
In the morning, the sessions stretched out, every two hours. I last got sick at 9 but don't feel done yet.
No other symptoms, so likely not the flu virus going around. Maybe a bad oyster at breakfast.
The pits. But slowly improving.
Saturday, January 11, 2014
Sports in America
UNC Professor Receiving Death Threats For Revealing Athletes' Low Reading Levels (VIDEO)...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/10/unc-professor-death-threats_n_4578818.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/10/unc-professor-death-threats_n_4578818.html
Muscles
I still can't get used to football players with muscular biceps, which bulge more every year. What a dinosaur! ha ha.
Army-Navy!
Women's bball, soon to begin. Perfect for a Saturday morning after an oyster breakfast.
Worked on Pardon book this morning. A special project, the play dear to my heart.
Worked on Pardon book this morning. A special project, the play dear to my heart.
Friday, January 10, 2014
Bread report
Cheese bread is good but not great. However, a new batch of olive bread (varying the method) is first rate. Rye and olive on the keeper list.
Oysters for dinner: oyster casserole, + fried. A success.
Oysters for dinner: oyster casserole, + fried. A success.
A remarkable woman
Kathleen Russo is the widow of Spalding Gray. I heard a remarkable conversation between her and her daughter, Gray's step-daughter, about Gray's disappearance and suicide a decade ago.
I know many men and women who would call Gray's action selfish, thoughtless, irrational. Not this widow and step-daughter! To them, what he did was a logical extension of his world view and creative work. They felt blessed to have had as much time with him as they did!
I about fell out of bed, hearing this. They must have had as great a marriage as any I've heard of. She actually understood him.
I know many men and women who would call Gray's action selfish, thoughtless, irrational. Not this widow and step-daughter! To them, what he did was a logical extension of his world view and creative work. They felt blessed to have had as much time with him as they did!
I about fell out of bed, hearing this. They must have had as great a marriage as any I've heard of. She actually understood him.
Cheesy morn
First of two loaves of Wisconsin beer cheese bread just out of oven ... man! Making loaf for friend, 2 more for Harriet to give to friends. And one for us. This smells like a keeper ha ha.
Thursday, January 9, 2014
Brooding about CJ
Want new CJ novel to have unique form (relatively), like the first one. Think I'll shape it as a play within a novel. CJ teams up with "crone", modeled after dear long friend ... who acts and gets CJ into writing a play, which his director buddy Matt will direct ... gives me considerable layering and thematic possibilities. Liking these initial brood-buds!
Also have notion of starting and finishing with a funeral.
Love the early chaos at this stage. Everything seems possible.
Also have notion of starting and finishing with a funeral.
Love the early chaos at this stage. Everything seems possible.
 |
| by Tom Strah ... "CJ" |
R.I.P. Amiri Baraka
The former LeRoi Jones, activist playwright. Burst on scene in 1960s with political play DUTCHMAN, which Mailer called the best play in America. Kissed no commercial asses.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/09/amiri-baraka-author-activist-dies-79_n_4570912.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/09/amiri-baraka-author-activist-dies-79_n_4570912.html
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