Definitely not running on all cylinders. In class, students writing exercise. I belong in bed.
"You can't fix it. You can't make it go away.
I don't know what you're going to do about it,
But I know what I'm going to do about it. I'm just
going to walk away from it. Maybe
A small part of it will die if I'm not around
feeding it anymore."
--Lew Welch
How to tell a story
Thursday, April 30, 2015
Hangin' in ...
Definitely not running on all cylinders. In class, students writing exercise. I belong in bed.
A modest proposal
TS suggests a street theater project this summer.
Hear, hear'
posted from Bloggeroid
Hear, hear'
posted from Bloggeroid
Progressive politics
posted from Bloggeroid
Not as far out as you think, alas
posted from Bloggeroid
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Wishful Thinking
landscape, where no one
knows me, I have no history
I have no memories
I have no ghosts
where I can study Greek tragedy
without distraction, without
interruption, quietly brooding
disturbing no one, happily ignored
happily invisible
Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides
the music of my days
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Comforts of home
An auditing student told me she's learned more in 4 weeks than in two terms with my replacement. Nice to hear but the opposite happens, too. She may be responding to my real world, no ivory tower approach. I mean, we spend two weeks on what a screenplay LOOKS LIKE, unread! Why? Because they can get rejected on appearance alone!
The reach and the grasp
This book deserves a much wider audience but it won't get it unless, far down the road if at all, an enthusiastic advocate for it appears. But it already has attracted enough favorable responses to satisfy me, to tell me I am not alone in my interests or tastes.
"This book surprised me. It is intelligent, funny, bawdy and real," wrote a reviewer at Amazon. Perfect.
Another wrote, "SODOM, GOMORRAH & JONES is a unique and original look at the world we live in from the perspective of someone who has done a lot of living. What's happened to the world in the last century is sad; the American Dream used to be about having a family, a house, a car, and a comfortable life without worry and stress. Now it's about getting rich, and then getting richer. And to hell with anyone or anything that gets in our way. If this speaks to you, so will this novel. I recommend it to those with an open mind, a progressive spirit, and a lust for life."
The critic Bob Hicks wrote,
Deemer’s novel flips easily through flashbacks and current events, and it can hit lightly on some of its scenes, like a screenplay (and in fact, Deemer has taught screenwriting at PSU for several years). It also drops in frequently on CJ’s increasingly hopeless and cynical view of the state of the nation: he was, after all, a historian and a political activist. As offhand as these passages can seem, they’re a crucial part of the novel, both in defining its position in the culture and in reporting the core of CJ’s character. Deemer doesn’t dwell on CJ’s political positions, and his references can pass so quickly that they sometimes seem more like sound-bite position statements than explorations of complex social issues. Yet the novel’s opening sentence – Was the American Dream coming to an end? – is a serious proposition that Deemer examines, in various forms, from beginning to end.Few and scattered fans but that's to be expected, given the parameters of the book's existence. I am glad it is out there, and I am proud that my grasp came so close to my reach. This is success, in my value system.
Monday, April 27, 2015
We v. Them
Neither shock, nor surprise
But riots stemming from racial and class injustices haven't shocked or surprised me for a long time. Baltimore today is just another chorus. What shocks me is how little has changed. In fact, with regard to rich and poor empowerment, the present is worse. Double standards of justice are more entrenched than ever. Media bias is more misleading than ever.
I hear the same bullshit rhetoric. I see the same refusal to face racism and classism head on.
We get the history we deserve.
Good morning
H off to exercise class for first time in months. Good for her. Can she keep it up?
Sunday, April 26, 2015
Gloomy Sunday
posted from Bloggeroid
Generation Empire
Of course, it is much harder for winners to look in the mirror than it is for the defeated.
Saturday, April 25, 2015
Wishful thinking
Leary may have had it right in theory, if not in methodology: turn on; tune in; drop out.
Gnocchi update
H off to an art show. No one acting as if the house is going up for sale. Well, some day. Maybe in the fall if we actually get busy. Beginning to think I'll die here. H isn't much help in prepping the house.
Saturday
Very curious about the loaf in the oven: chestnut flour! Had never heard of it.
In the hopper, my signature rye (with dark rye flour and cracked rye).
Chores and homework - but all I want to do is cook.
Friday, April 24, 2015
Yep
posted from Bloggeroid
Thursday, April 23, 2015
First try ...
posted from Bloggeroid
The new corporate gimmick
posted from Bloggeroid
Just the beginning, O brave new world
posted from Bloggeroid
Final Four
I'm outraged but not really surprised. Good for the Navy! (says this Norfolk-born brat).
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Morning therapy
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Duh
posted from Bloggeroid
Reality 101
posted from Bloggeroid
Asking the right questions
posted from Bloggeroid
Kitchen therapy
Now if the Mariners can win tonight ...
In the SU
Spell of great weather ending. Of course. This is Portland.
Climate change inaction
Monday, April 20, 2015
Sunday, April 19, 2015
Boston marathon tomorrow
Pass the test
Friday, April 17, 2015
Pain of a fan
Unless you're an adjunct ha ha
posted from Bloggeroid
Better late than never
Selling the house
This place is lovely in good weather! Maybe we stay the summer, at least.
Breakfast
Pasta by hand
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Made it ...
Been here before
Feel under the weather but will hold class.
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
A life
posted from Bloggeroid
Tribute to Gunter Grass
In the office
Not much else to say ... need to make progress on the house and yard this week!
R.I.P. Eduardo Galeano
Ha ha ha - got ya!
posted from Bloggeroid
Cartoon
posted from Bloggeroid
Monday, April 13, 2015
Sunday, April 12, 2015
Mozart in the Jungle
Slowing down
Email from 1980s actress, now involved in "hyperdrama" in Houston. Sounds pretty tame.
Saturday, April 11, 2015
Ms needed this
Friday, April 10, 2015
Mariners nightmare
posted from Bloggeroid
Flat
posted from Bloggeroid
Thursday, April 9, 2015
Running on empty
Going down slow
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
Blessed are the Aged
for they have paid dues
in years and health
and deserve whatever
peace and quiet
the gods will give them
blessed are the aged
who have more memories
of more accomplishments
than youth will ever
experience or know
blessed are the aged
who look at the world
and find no desire
to be any younger
blessed are the aged
who ask for nothing
but a little respect
blessed are the aged
whose time is past
blessed are the aged
Gadgets
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
OMG
posted from Bloggeroid
Exhaustion
Women's final soon ... on paper, no contest. But you have to play the game.
Deck washing tomorrow, hired out, and I'll strip my office for moving. So much work to do to prep for selling ...
Great tablet
Monday, April 6, 2015
Opening day win!
https://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/games/350406112
36 lectures
Play ball!
The way it is
full of horrors & atrocities
balanced by wonders & gifts
I am unapologetically selfish
preferring one to the other
and thereby passing the lance
of evil to the next guy
Sunday, April 5, 2015
Saturday, April 4, 2015
Milk toast
About five or ten years ago, I began living on homemade scrapple and often would put a fried slice on milk toast, eggs on that.
Then I quit making scrapple when I started baking bread - one obsession at a time. But today's breakfast is typical lately, homemade milk toast and eggs. Still great comfort food.
And these days I need all the comfort I can get.
posted from Bloggeroid
Friday, April 3, 2015
Fly fishing
http://www.kgw.com/story/features/2015/04/03/fly-fishing-helps-oregon-veteran-fight-anxiety-depression/25267907/
posted from Bloggeroid
Yesterday at the university
Show a doc about screenwriting today, easy day. Real work begins next two weeks, lectures and exercises and workshops. Still working on structure of workshops ... think I'll make groups of four, same four thru entire course, Group work, then sharing with entire class ... lots of q and a. Atmosphere for picking my brain.
Steve and I are marketing the old splay again. Agent friend of his didn't pan out, as I predicted!, so first step is going after agent. None of my old ones still around. Though the agencies are. This is a long shot ... should have been marketed 2 and 3 yrs ago, when all the similar Silicon Valley stuff was getting bought ... may be too late for that fad. It's all about being in the right place at the right time with the right material. In other words, a total crapshoot. Totally!
Am I the only writer left in America who loves using the AlphaSmart, as I am now? Yep, the AS rides again.
Top priority
posted from Bloggeroid
Thursday, April 2, 2015
R.I.P.
First week done, 9 to go. Fun so far. More than I expected.
posted from Bloggeroid
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
Song of the Innocent
has found me innocent
and without dissent
let me thank you
for the free room and board
in jail awaiting trial
44 months worth!
with opportunities for
solitary meditation
all at tax payer expense
more generous hearts
cannot be found
but my freedom now
is a bit of a shock
so please forgive me
if I don't send out
thank you cards
please forgive me
if my universal answer
to just about everything
you may want to know is
fuck you!