Non Photo-Blue

So far. ..

2006-04-26T21:22:00.000-07:00

I've just handed out a new draft for workshop. It's non autobiographical, so that's new for me. I'm really excited. It's that horrible time though, where I hand it in, and have to wait a week before I hear anything about it. Hate that. But I've learned, at least, *not* to read over the mss this week. It's best if I don't think about it at all. I think I'll publish it on here, serial

Great Project

2006-04-13T21:54:00.000-07:00

Over the break in Chicago, I had gotten a few free books-one was a nice craft book put out by the Gotham Writer's Workshop from NYC. Every other street corner in the city has ads for these guys. I never gave them a second thought. So my composition director grabbed the book for me (thanks, LH) I ripped through it and really liked it. I think it would be a great tool to teach intro to fiction

Chicago Convention and nose surgery

2006-03-28T17:51:00.000-08:00

So this last weekend I went to the CCCC convention in Chicago. I was worried about doing this presentation since I was asked way back last quarter. In the end in wasn't really a big deal. I spoke for ten minutes, a short narrative about my experience coming to Irvine as a new teacher and having to teach college for the first time, along with learning the writing studio, which is a web based

Readings and Revisions

2006-03-18T14:57:00.000-08:00

Listening to The Frogs' My Daughter, The Broad.For my seminar this quarter, I was lucky enough to have a teacher who is very MFA friendly, so much that she allowed us to write narratives for our papers, with an introduction relating to the theory or books we've read.First, that was strange writing an analysis of my own text. It felt very self-conscious. But was it was interesting, once I put it

Last Exit to Brooklyn

2006-03-12T03:23:00.000-08:00

So A few days ago I finished Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby. A really interesting book. The voice is intense, like a non-stop verbal barrage of word clumps like whydoncha shuddup, thinks of that sort, some page long sentences, SOME ENTIRE SECTIONS IN CAPS. It was five major sections, if I remember right, with some intersecting characters, all in Brooklyn, most Italians. There was no

Banana darts.

2006-03-10T13:44:00.000-08:00

Week Nine is done. One more to go. I'm mostly done with Brad's interview. Well, maybe half-way. Wednesday we had a meeting before workshop with the search committee. So they asked us about our meetings with the visiting writers and what we thought of them. What I hadn't realized until that point was there was a serious division between the members of the search commitee, which became

Meetings

2006-03-07T23:03:00.000-08:00

Today was busy. I started in the morning doing a critique for workshop. Then I went to campus to see my teachers at their office hours. First I went to see Brad, to tell him some of the thoughts I had to finish the interview. I needed a better opening since it seems right now to jump in mid conversation. I also told him I'd like him to tell a story, and he had one come to mind. So we'll

New format

2006-03-06T19:09:00.000-08:00

So I got tired of the old look: all that black and also those pictures. I figured I needed to get things simpler here. Now I like this setting but it looks weird that the title is "Non Photo Blue" but it's in an orange background. Crazy. But this type is bigger and I think better to read which is important, don't want anyone going blind out there. As for me, I did spend Friday morning with

Weary

2006-03-03T00:05:00.000-08:00

The end of week eight. Lots of work. Another meeting with a visiting writer and potential hire, Anthony Giardina. It went fine, the reading was good. I'll be taking him to see Laguna Beach tomorrow since no one else was around to drive him. So that's cool, I've had lots of time over the last few weeks to hang with writers, which is nice.I have to write an introduction for my seminar paper,

Mercury and Minotaur

2006-02-26T20:51:00.000-08:00

This weekend I managed to finish Brad Watson's Heaven of Mercury. Brad's a great writer, and has been swell to work with in workshop. His novel I liked very much, and comes alive when Parnell comes on the scene--there's a few sections about necrophilia that are amazing, complex, and yeah, endearing. I also read Benjamin Tammuz's Minotaur, by the suggestion of Brad. A great book. Told in

Book List

2006-02-24T23:43:00.000-08:00

So I've been keeping a list of the books I've read recently, here goes:Feb 2006:The Whale Rider, Witi Ihimaera so so. Short, quick prose style, but a little disney-esque. I can't say all that much about it, really.Baby No-Eyes, Patricia Grace Another Maori island narrative. Biotheft and ghosts and replacement children running themes, the prose style at first seems very intriguing

Winter

2006-02-21T21:43:00.000-08:00

Once again, it's been too long since I've written.So the winter quarter has seen a lot of action out here. Our visiting writer for the quarter is Brad Watson. He's from Mississippi, and I've been reading his book, The Heaven of Mercury, and it's really good. Some great necrophilia in there. Brad's kind of a good ol' southern boy, real laid back. He lifts the gag rule during workshop, which

Vacationing

2005-12-16T21:31:00.000-08:00

The quarter is, and has been, over. I've spent the last week doing nothing but reading books and watching movies, and occasionally going to the gym. I read In Cold Blood, and then I started reading The Heaven of Mercury by Brad Watson, who's teaching our workshop next quarter. I liked the book, but felt like moving on to something bigger, so I stopped after 40 pages or so. I read some essays

End of the Quarter

2005-12-03T09:22:00.000-08:00

So Wednesday's workshop got a little crazy. There's a student who doesn't get along well with the teacher. They had some words outside of class before this week. So at the end, three people were supposed to hand out stories for workshop next week--mine being one of them--and we all only get two. The student didn't want the teacher to read his last work. So he tells the teacher, in front of

Draft for tomorrow

2005-11-29T23:44:00.000-08:00

Well, my draft is due tomorrow. It's crazy how much I've worked on this in such a short period of time. Four weeks back, I started trying to write a draft to hand in, and for two weeks I wrote in fits and starts, amassed 15 pages of four different story starts that I while I didn't hate, I didn't really get into either. Then I freaked the fuck out two weeks ago because I had nothing.Then I

Sorry

2005-11-26T11:55:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it's been six weeks since I posted. Well, thanks to someone named Darren, who stumbled on the site and e-mailed me imploring me to write more--here I am. So let me spend a few minutes trying to recap the last six weeks in general terms.I handed in that first draft, which went pretty well. My teacher Michelle Latiolais had some high praise. I got a lot of constructive feedback

Drafting

2005-10-04T23:49:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been working on a draft. I have to submit a story in two weeks from Wednesday, and right now I have a mess. So I feel like a mess. Plus, I'm trying to write about my friend Joe, his death, his funeral, etc., so that's a little numbing. Plus, one week of teaching writing composition and already I'm sick of it. Monday I taught class and ran out of things to say after 15 minutes."Well," I

Up in LA Way

2005-09-24T23:33:00.000-07:00

I can't catch up on everything, but I'll hit a few of the highlights. This week has been "welcome week." From Monday to Thursday, all the new teachers were forced to sit through eight hour days of seminars and lectures about topic ranging from sexual harassment (who hasn't heard this speech?) and web sites and handicapped access and any tiny detail you could imagine, except of course, you know,

Insert Title here.

2005-09-15T02:39:00.000-07:00

I'm down to once a week with this blog thing. Well, things have been busy. Between flying back to NY, then back here, getting set-up (I finally got a bed, Queen size, for free on Craigslist!) just in time to start welcome week. That starts Monday, and it's basically a series of meetings, mostly concerning teaching, giving us some basics and introducing us to the course material.Tonight I met most

Bad news.

2005-09-08T11:52:00.000-07:00

I received terrible news last evening. My good friend Joe died yesterday, an overdose of prescription meds. He was 25. I'm getting a flight to NYC right now, to attend the wake and funeral tomorrow.He was one of my closest friends.

California Daze.

2005-09-02T04:23:00.000-07:00

Well, I've arrived. Irvine. The land of many strip malls. Parking lots and yogurt stands as far as the eye can tell.I've been here since Tuesday. I moved into my apartment Wednesday, and have been getting set-up since. Little shopping, little computerizing (I'm finally writing from my new home, my computer is set-up, and I don't have to worry about running out of internet time.)I'll try to keep

Rocky Mountain NP

2005-08-27T14:01:00.000-07:00

Thursday.We woke early that morning. We ate, tried to shake off the morning mountain chill, and got ready for a hike. Our mission was to reach Loomis Lake, another 1,000 ft up and west, into the curl of the mountain area we were in. The trick was, there was no trail after the camp, so we were on our own to cross the rocks and forest. We started off very gung ho, climbed some steep rocks, then

Nederlands Continued...

2005-08-26T12:28:00.000-07:00

continuing form the last postWoody, a blue eyed, bearded, nice guy explained it to me."Yeah, I was just driving through," I said."Uh-oh," he laughed, intimating that that's how people get pulled in to Nederlands. That's where I was. Nederlands. And I could see how that worked: always looking for a nice place to hide away and write a book, this place was sticking to me, after one Latte. And if I

Nederlands, entrance to Rocky Mountain NP.

2005-08-25T12:32:00.000-07:00

So, Wednesday the 17th. We slept soundly in Genesse Park, but awoke to flashlights at five in the morning. Sheriff. Right- like I had said, there was no camping in the park. Well, he took our ids, and checked them out. While we waited to hear back from the station to hear back that we weren't wanted for murder or armed robbery ( I was curious myself), the Sheriff asked why I was going to

Denver II

2005-08-22T10:39:00.000-07:00

This is the second time I'm writing this. I wrote a whole entry, then lost it, and then ran out of internet time. So here's to the second time around:Tuesday morning in Denver. My friend Mo was coming into Denver in the afternoon. I decided to get myself some tourist info at the visitor center to find something to do for the day. It turns out, finding the visitor center was something to do for

Wind Cave and arrival in Denver

2005-08-19T12:31:00.000-07:00

I'm writing this just outside Rocky Mountain National Park, where I spent the last two days camping. Way up near the tundra at 11,000 feet. But I'm not writing about that, as there is about a four day delay in this blog. So you'll have to wait for that.So, Monday the 15th. After camping in Wind Cave, I got up, and went on a tour of the actual cave. It was beautiful. Like Jewel Cave, Wind Cave

Sunday in the South Hills

2005-08-16T10:21:00.000-07:00

Tourist day. First, upon waking, realized that I had been sleeping in front of a giant lake that I didn't see in the dark. So that was nice.First Mount Rushmore. A nice thing to see, and though the idea of it never impressed me, seeing a sculpture carved out of a mountain is quite the experience. Even for me, unpatriotic as I can be. But, blah, blah, I stopped for a little while and drove on.Next

Saturday in the North Black Hills

2005-08-16T09:37:00.000-07:00

I'll do each day in a separate post, and see how far I get. (I'm writing you from Denver, as I promised.)Saturday. After Saturday's evening in the Badlands, I hammocked at a nearby rest area. In the morning, I drove up North, into the Black Hills. I started by driving up past Sturgis, along a scenic canyon, which was stunning, and then followed the road into the city of Lead, and then Deadwood.

Badlands II

2005-08-13T11:48:00.000-07:00

So yesterday, that's Friday, after getting a great night sleep in my hammock (it poured early on, but was done by 11, so it was warm enough, I slept like the dead under the black sky--not many stars, kinda cloudy) and after going the wrong direction on the interstate and heading 30 miles out of my way, I stopped at Wall Drug to get a few things- an inflatable pillow (my neck was killing me) some

Sioux Falls part II

2005-08-13T11:13:00.000-07:00

Ok, more Sioux Falls. So back on Wed morning, after sleeping in my hammock at the nearest rest area out of town, I'm having breakfast at a place called Kaladi's Coffee Legend and Bistro. Without a doubt the funkiest place in Sioux Falls.Sandwiched between endless gun ranges, casinos (I think they're all just slot machine joints, but I don't know for sure,) pawn shops and fast food chains (there

Badlands

2005-08-11T20:06:00.000-07:00

First of all, I must apologize for all the typos in my last post. I had to type in a hurry, as there is only one place in Sioux Falls to internet and that's the library, and they had an hour max usage time. And I ran out, and I didn't have time to proof read. For shame. Thanks to John for the edits.Second, I have to talk about this: two weeks ago, I blogged (under Thursday night quotes) about a

Ok, so, Sioux Falls then.

2005-08-11T09:00:00.000-07:00

Arrived in Sioux Falls wed night, about 10:30 PM. I wanted to get to an internet spot, so I had my pal John go on the internet in Queens and direct me over our cellphones using google's satellite maps. The weird wired world. So I go to a place called Gregg's Ultra subs and Casino. And it's open till two am. Welcome to South Dakota! A state of leniency, I thought. Laissez-faire. The speed limit is

First, some notes

2005-08-11T08:36:00.000-07:00

Leaving Chicago was an impulsive decision, and the right one. I finally feel like my trip is starting.Total miles yesterday: 570.States: Illinois, Wisconsin (which is beautiful,) Minnesota, South Dakota.Favorite town name yesterday: Blue Earth, MN.Things I learned in Chicago: Hammocks are environmentally low-impact.Things I learned driving so far: the smaller the town, the bigger the grocery

Aches and Pains

2005-08-10T07:19:00.000-07:00

I'm headachey and homesicky and not really in the mood for a fun city like Chicago. Last night a dozen of people from the hostel grouped up and went out to a comedy improv show called Improv Olympics. It was really good, and apparently there's a whole improv scene out here, with performers rated at different levels of skill. It's very interesting.But I've had a dull headache for the last 18 hours

Day one.

2005-08-08T21:44:00.000-07:00

I'm here, now, in Chicago.Total miles for the day: 750.I'm staying at Hosteling International Chicago, and it's an impressive place. It's like a hotel. The only bad part is there's no parking - just a lot that's gonna cost me 18 bucks a day. Ah, well.Today I drove through: New York, Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and finally into Illinois. I like PA, lots of mountains, green hills and trees

Taking off

2005-08-08T06:10:00.000-07:00

Today is the day. My car is packed. I've had a marathon of goodbye parties: work, school friends, childhood friends, family, on and on. I'm sitting in an internet kiosk on Second Ave, I just burned my tongue on my coffee, and it's about 15 hours to Chicago.I'll be checking in whenever I can.Three weeks on the road!

A response.

2005-08-03T11:00:00.000-07:00

So, I intended to post a few things. I just saw Last Days and I wanted to post a review of that. I never finished my analysis of Sherlock Jr. and capitalism, and the connections between that movie and Fellini's 8 1/2. So many things to blog about! Plus, I don't even have a computer right now. I'm living out of boxes, ready to go cross-country. But Lotte and I have been having a little debate

Cross country Plan

2005-08-01T09:30:00.000-07:00

So I figured out a rough skeleton guide for my trip in my '93 Saturn to Californ I A.I depart Monday the 8th at five a.m., and head west. First stop will be that afternoon, in Ohio. Maybe Cleveland, or maybe Toledo. Haven't decided yet. I'll spend the night there, and then up to Chicago. A few days there. Then, up further north to Milwaukee. But that'll be a short stop. Then - more driving. West

Mike Doughty covering Neutral Milk Hotel

2005-07-30T10:12:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Music Cherry for putting up a link to Mike Doughty covering Neutral Milk Hotel's "King of Carrot Flowers Part I" off The Gambler EP.Press here to play it now.Ok, I do really like Doughty, and I love Neutral Milk Hotel, so this track is interesting, but, as covers go, it's little flat. I am not really happy about Mike's signing with

Thursday Night Quotes

2005-07-29T08:10:00.000-07:00

OK, so it's Friday morning. I'm late. This is my last week at my job, and of course, it's been hell. But I've had this quote in mind for a bit, so I'm glad to be dropping it now. It's from a poem by Bill Knott.Your nakedness: the sound when I break an apple in half.This one's been on my wall for a while, and I'll tell you why. Starting with the first word: Your. Good word. When you read it, it

Art and Artifice

2005-07-28T22:33:00.000-07:00

This post started out as a response to an good comment from lotte on my previous Marilyn Monroe post. Once I started responding I couldn't stop, because she brought up an interesting point which has been spinning in the back of head about MM since seeing The Seven Year Itch.First to quote her response:Funny that you call Marilyn's performance "genuine." She was actually one of the hardest-working

Buster Keaton, Sherlock Jr., and Capitalism?

2005-07-28T07:28:00.000-07:00

"You've become a cinemaphile," John Weir said to me last night after I dropped him off at his Lower East Side apartment.And I have to admit it. I've just finished moving out, I'm packed up, ready to drive across country, and the thing I'm thinking is: I wonder what film revival house they have in Irvine?Last night's screening, at BAM- (that's the Brooklyn Academy of Music) was a Buster Keaton

When it's hot like this - you know what I do? I keep my undies in the icebox.

2005-07-24T18:44:00.000-07:00

The Seven Year Itch was released 50 years ago: 1955, for the mathematically challenged. 50 years, and Marilyn Monroe hasn't lost a bit of her presence. Screen power. Walking out of the movie, I overhear at least five different women doing their best Marilyn impersonation, "You're married? Well, I think that's just delicate."And there was nothing delicate about the inflection Monroe put on that

Thursday Night Quotes

2005-07-22T00:04:00.000-07:00

So I'm going to start one of these weekly blogging segments that I enjoy in other people's blogs. Mine will be a weekly quote about writing or maybe just a good line from a poem. So here's my first entry, it's from the preface of Slouching Towards Bethlehem, a collection of essays by Joan Didion: "A writer is always selling someone out."Hmm...is that why everything I write is about my family?

CIA USSR Parapsychology reports.

2005-07-19T22:16:00.000-07:00

I found a link on a nice internet tech blog: Sharing KnowledgeHe's got a link to a database of free e-books: http://e-asia.uoregon.edu/easia/other.htmI scrolled to the bottom of the list and found a motherload of US government documents. The ones that interested me the most are the set of paranormal psychology experiments in the CIA and USSR in the 70's. (The WMD ones about Iraq are great too,

Monkey Buisness...

2005-07-18T19:25:00.000-07:00

It's taken me a while to put up a post. What had happened was, I found a blog that played mp3's, and I was so impressed, I wanted it on mine. I want, I want, I want! So, it took me a couple of days of messing around, trying to get it set up. So no posts.But it's done!Ok, so over the last two months I've become addicted to double-bill revivals at the Film Forum. But apparently, the people who run

Turning 30...

2005-07-16T09:29:00.000-07:00

Tonight, I have a birthday party to go to--not a 3oth Birthday, but actually a 31st. So here I am, in the post-turning 30 zone. About a year ago I went to about five thirtieth birthday parties, or should I call them, "organized anxiety attacks in drunken stupors." There was a range of reactions: one of my friends sent out invitations in Black and Silver as if it were a grand gala. The party was

Cell phones: The consumerist hammer of Satan!

2005-07-15T09:40:00.000-07:00

I bought a T-Mobile cell phone, a year and a half ago. When I bought it, it was the latest technology. It cost over a hundred dollars, color screen, blah, blah, blah. I was too oblivious back then, not realizing that I had been brainwashed into believing I really needed this cost-inflated, poorly thought-out piece of plastic.First off, I went to a Cecile B. Demille film at the Film Forum last

Fellini's 8 1/2

2005-07-14T12:58:00.000-07:00

Last night John and I watch 8 1/2 by Fellini, not once, but twice. That's five hours of film. The second time we watched with the commentary on, which was the best commentary I've heard on any DVD. I highly recommend buying the DVD to see this.All of the following info is not my own, but a simple repetition of the commentary on the DVD. It's interesting none-the-less. If you don't know, 8 1/2 is

Time to make the journal.

2005-07-13T13:33:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I'm the editor for my college literary journal, even though I just graduated. I'm moving out to go to grad school at the end of the month, and I have to have the journal done by then. That means, well, designing the damn thing (I am not a designer, but have some concept of good typography) including the cover art, etc. (which I did for last year's journal), contacting all of the artists

What I Did Wrong...

2005-07-12T20:21:00.000-07:00

My best pal and mentor John Weir's second book, What I Did Wrong, has just finished being edited and is due out in April. From Viking Press. The check's in the mail! It's fucking brilliant, it will rip apart your understanding of sexuality and desire and tear your heart out while you laugh the whole way through.He's got a story and an interview as the featured writer in this fall's Gulf Coast, as

Neo-realsim and fiction.

2005-07-12T09:08:00.000-07:00

So John Weir and I are at the St. Mark's bookshop last night. John's asked that I buy him a copy of Take Me Out, a play about baseball and men who are attracted to men (sorry, but I don't like to use catagorical words for sexuality). I've never seen it, but John's taking an acting class and needs a monologue for this week. It has a good one, but I caution him- it's a monolgue to the audience,

Prelude: Packing it all.

2005-07-09T00:26:00.000-07:00

MFA's are the 21st century version of the modernists going to Paris. Disappearing to a small college town is the closest you can get to being an expatriate now. It's the in-thing, the MFA. I went to a poetry reading a few weeks ago, billed as "Poets recently finishing their MFA without a book published." It sounded like a DSM-IV diagnosis. Or a Fox News special. "What to do when your kids finish