Filed under: A Year Of Old Things | Tags: 1q84, Field Notes, Japan, novels, Reading books, Sisters Brothers, Swamplandia!, TOB, Tournament of Books, World War two
At the beginning of this year I made a vow to do old things. I was going to buy an Ipad but decided to invest the money into old things. I bought books and pens and found free paper. I wrote letters to friends and letters to celebrities. I read books and magazines. I subscribed to magazines that would make me a better me. Now I am trying to read books that I wouldn’t normally read. I read City of Thieves that was recommended by a mean lady at an awesome bookstore. I bought it because of her store and in spite of her. It was a great read. It’s about a mission a young man must take during the worst days of Leningrad in Russia during WW2. Oddly the next book I read was MAUS, about a son dealing with his father’s story of surviving ghettos and concentration camps during the same time period, different place. My journey through Old Things has taken me so very far and now I’m looking towards the future.
I’ve really been enjoying the Tournament of Books. One of the contenders 1Q84, I will be reading very shortly. It’s in the mail. I also wish to pick up two more books because of reviews during this tournament. They both sound awesome. Swamplandia! and Sisters Brothers. But this tournament is about winners! Today those two books are head to head and I’m going to decide which one to read through this duel. Maybe I won’t pick the actual winner but the review will help me greatly towards my decision. What I find interesting about this tournament is not just the fact that they put books head to head and discuss what books mean in general but also they have commentary of the review. So there’s a review, then a review of the review. Everyone puts their opinions out there about the book and also about each other. There was a great side conversation going on about MFAs in creative writing and fiction and what it means. It’s helped me a little in my own personal quest this month to figure out if I want to go back to school. (Film School)
I highly recommend checking this out if you have any interest at all in good novels. http://www.themorningnews.org/tob/
Also it’s supported/sponsored by Field Notes which I’m a huge fan of and actually right now am really panicking because I lost my notebook with some very funny things in it. Need to go find that. Might be in my other pants.
If you haven’t already done it, please check out the Tournament of Books http://www.themorningnews.org/tob/
It’s going on right now so you can quickly catch up or just keep reading from the Semi Finals on. If I get another four months alone in a dark room I will pick up the past winners of this tournament. For now I’m going to take a month to read the almost 1000 pages of 1Q84. I am just finishing a thick book right now that I wouldn’t recommend at all so I won’t tell you the title. Let me just say that it’s long, boring, procedural and slandering an entire country. It’s not worth my time but I got it for free so I’m getting my money’s worth. (I know that doesn’t make any sense but just trust me.. there’s more in life than money… okay okay I know that makes even less sense.. this coffee is going straight to my head and my bladder and my bladder is winning.)
Filed under: Uncategorized
Could you call a soda machine repair man a Fizz-ician?
Filed under: Uncategorized
Hunter S. Thompson has got the Write Situation!
Filed under: A Year Of Old Things, Crazy Idea, Creative Process | Tags: how to write, ideal situation, typewriter, usb typewriter, where to write, writing
The ideal situation would be high on a cliff with a small wooden table of my own making with a slight wobble but not enough for me to do anything about where upon a typewriter sits. I should have the technology enough to be able to type but then have it also scanned into a computer for digital editing. So why not have a typewriter that does actually work but also is connected through USB to my laptop which sits whirring very gently in the hot sun. Ideally waves would be crashing along the bottom of the cliff but it doesn’t necessarily have to be close by. I can sit amongst the trees with a hammock nearby even if it’s not the caribbean. Caribbean may be too hot. I’m thinking like Virginia weather in spring, or Chicago in fall, or French Riviera in late fall. Something with cool nights and warm days but not too hot. If it’s too hot then please give me lots of shade to sit under but also plenty of sun drenched space so that if I choose to sit in the sun I can but also quickly get out of the sun when I tire of it. I’d also like to be with in 5 minutes of a beach. I get these ideas in my head that I’m a swimmer, they come quickly and I wish to tear off my clothes almost fully and swim easily. If I have to go to a public beach or a non private area then I’ll wear a swim suit. But if I could ideally it would be a private beach, or at least a beach only a few people know about. It doesn’t have to be perfect, the sand doesn’t have to be completely white with a nice slope into the water. It could be rocky and actually I almost prefer rocks. Not all rocks mind you but at least a lot of rocks. Rocks that I could possibly climb on from time to time and if I were one day to have kids, they could also climb around on and at the end where the rocks jut out into the water, they could jump into the water. The very first time I do it I would be a little scared that I would be pushed, crushed against the rocks but once I did it a few times I’d be comfortable and then when those kids go out there, the first time they might not know to be scared, I would be scared. See this beach should be close by also in case of an emergency. I’d love to have a part of the house where I could see the entire beach. I could let those kids go out and play at the beach while I wrote and then when I want to check on them I could go to the area of the house, maybe a lanai or patio that overlooks the beach. Ideally here there would be two places that look out over the beach, one inside and one outside. The outside one have a table, and chairs that could be used for dinner times and when we have company. We could set out a nice family dinner any night of the week. Of course also have along the edge a high table with bar stools that a few people could enjoy the view and look down on the beach and also have a few drinks if they so wish. But the writing spot shouldn’t look over the beach. It could if it had to but I’d like it to be a little like a nest. Definitely this needs a hammock and a good firm chair. As I said before the table doesn’t need to be firm but almost firm but the chair needs to be firm. I’d like the table to have a bit of the wobble so I can always have something to complain about. Living in such nice weather, with a great view and a great wife and with work as a writer, what else would there be to complain about? It would be this damn table. I’d put folded napkins underneath the shorter leg but it would always have just a little bit of a wobble no matter what I did. Eventually maybe I would replace the table with someone else’s table. But I’d like the fact that I built it myself. I’d like to make brackets and fittings and saw down the legs to the right height. work with the table for a week and then make the necessary adjustments. Maybe the wobble is there so I always have something to work on. If I have a table too well made then I can’t work on it. Now come to think of it I’d rather have a wireless typewriter. The typewriter should be connected wirelessly to the laptop that sits inside always plugged in. I can go inside if I want to make edits or do any editing but the wireless typewriter is outside to do the hard part, the actual writing. The typewriter is where the greenery is. Where the house is most alive. The trees making shade and the look out on the water, out to the sky. I should be able to look straight up and see sky, with maybe a retractable roof. This retractable roof should be manually adjustable but it could be electronic if needed. I’d really like it to be on rollers and I can reach up, or pull a cord, or a rope, or pull a large lever or something so that I could see the sky straight up, also at night this is important. When it’s late, or a sunset everyone looks out to the sun while I’d love to see the clouds above reflecting the glow of the sun. The three dimensional form above me instead of the two dimensional seeming sunset in front. There should be plenty of small plants around as well. It doesn’t need to be a rose garden or anything like that but at least a few pots that I need to water each day. Each day as I water them I’m doing a physical action of watering while my mind prepares to water the seeds of ideas. I’d also love there to be a series of small speakers around the writing area that I could set to play random music. I’d probably by that time have a good playlist of music that I always like but whenever I’m writing about a theme I try to create a thematic playlist of songs I don’t normally listen to or of songs that have been recommended to me. It’d be great to hear them but not really have a speaker directly in front of me blasting the noise. The sound should come from all around, fill the air with sweet or sad songs. It doesn’t have to be very loud or clear. Just needs to fill the air with something. It needs to shake the still air but also be able to be turned of easily as I sometimes need to concentrate on the task at hand. I make no bones about writing for a living. I didn’t want to write to live. I never set out to write as a living and I don’t think I will. It’s just that the stories I want to tell I haven’t heard, or seen anyone write them. Nobody else can write the stories I wish to tell. Looking at it now I don’t think I will ever write for a living so this ideal writing space doesn’t need to be large. It just needs to exist. Ideally it exists in a beautiful house, or apartment , or shack somewhere in the world. I’ll find it one day. It doesn’t matter if it takes a long time to find. It might be more about the journey to find it than finding an ideal place to write.
Filed under: A Year Of Old Things, Crazy Idea | Tags: hand written, ipad2, letter writing, letters, Old Things, technology, write
This last year the world saw an influx of new things, new habits, new new things. Twitter this and Google that, Twitter my facebook and Google a Yahoo. We’ve had the iPad but the iPad2 came out to dominate markets. New kindles and other small tablets that are cheaper have made tablets ubiquitous. A year of the world’s technological extremes will be followed by a personal journey of mine to the old world. I may be a hermit or a kind of retired old man sitting in the grocery store lobby waiting for the day the meds run out. But I like it. I like sitting with those old men and hearing them wheeze and whine over their heart conditions and arthritis. My time spent at horse tracks has usually been sitting within ears distance of a group of old men who come every day. I hear the banal, the mediocre, the absolute inane things about the world passing by them by.
At the end of the end of 2011 I told myself I would become a man of letters. I had a few famous people I wanted to write letters to and see how it went. I only got one of those written and it was sent by email. The other is still waiting for me to stop fretting and just start writing. I’ve allowed myself time to procrastinate but that time was well spent making a Holiday card and sending it out. Now I’m addicted to the post office. Bringing a stack of letters to be sent out has captured my attention.
The Letter writing Campaign of 2012 has begun!
What else can I adopt this year besides an iPad2? My goal might be to take the money I would have spent on an iPad2 and instead redirect it to material, old things. But I haven’t been successful at keeping good accounts. I want something more than an iPad, something that is tactile, that uses more senses than just touch and only the tip of my finger. Call me old fashioned but I think I will get a lot more out of this than a few hours spent destroying pigs with birds. I think I’ll get lost a few times without a map, I’ll be carrying a poorly drawn map on a piece of paper that gets wet when my water bottle sweats in my backpack. But I’d rather get lost and see something new than to get there and see something everyone else has seen. I’m not giving up all the things of modern ways but I’m just adopting some old things that people may scoff at. As the other tourists pass by with their gps orienting maps. I’ll be trudging along looking for the street signs to point my way. I might end up tired and exhausted in an alley way cafe while others find the famous restaurant. But I’ll be with the people I know… the unknowns.
Here’s to a Year of Old Things!
Join me, or watch me fade into obscurity. Come along on the horse drawn carriage ride or wave to me from your corvette speedster. Imagine a world of hand written letters being picked up and taken somewhere far away or twitter your 3pm diet coke drinking habits yet again. It’s your choice and it’s mine!
Filed under: Crazy Idea | Tags: comedy sketch, plumber on facebook, silly idea
If my plumber were on facebook would I have to read his status updates? Did he update his status when he worked on my leaky toilet? “Nick is in the bathroom fixing yet another leaky toilet.” and then maybe he starts to read my awesome library of bathroom books I have. “this dude has some serious literature in his bathroom. Must stay here for a while.” And start to read through the silly stuff first. “Dude has Thus Spake Zarathustra, gives me an idea for a bathroom book This Shat Zarathustra.” And now if he gets this idea in my bathroom and then writes it do I get any claim for it? I mean I’m the one who clogged the toilet that led to him finding my copy of the book in my bathroom. Does my plumber also tweet this stuff? @NickThePlumber found Moby Dick in this dude’s bathroom, the book not the turd”
What does this do to our relationship? Now if I friend this guy on facebook and find out that he also enjoys Bad Movies do I invite him to my weekly Bad Movie night with my friends? If he hangs out a lot and maybe comes for a potluck but has some serious shits and clogs my toilet, will he fix my toilet for free? Or even if he wasn’t the one to do it. Maybe he comes over for my birthday party without a gift but I end up tearing the faucet off my sink. Will he fix it for free for my birthday? How do I ask him a question like this?
Facebook is really messing up my normal relationships with regular people.
Filed under: Crazy Idea, Creative Process, Wonderful Things | Tags: Creative process, design, new year, new Year's checklist, new year's eve, new Years, photograph, photoshop, sketching
Here’s a rundown of the creative process I went through for a New Year’s Checklist advert to make people phone their families on New Year’s day.
Two days before New Year’s Eve I got and email from Marketing and Revenue Manager:
do you have a appropriate backdrop we could use and fill text prompting guests to use their cell phones to call home and with their loved ones a happy new year.
I asked if he could give me exactly the copy he’d like to have and his response:
For the evening of NYE this…
Bring in 2012 in style onboard Liberty Of the Seas!
Formal Wear….Check!
Formal Photograph…Check!
Champagne…Check!
Don’t forget to make a phone call to your loved ones back home to wish them a happy new year!
But in the early (or very late!) hours, to switch to just
HAPPY 2012!
Have you phoned your loved ones back home to wish them a happy new year?
Filed under: Unfinished | Tags: begin again, never done, screenplays, uncompleted, unfinished
It’s been a while .. so let’s begin.
Recently in my personal life I’ve dug up old demons, scanned through the skeletons in my closet and openly discussed the 600 pound Gorilla in the room. I’ve Spent most if not all of my time hashing through all I’ve done wrong… the little I’ve done right and the reasons for doing each and every one of those things in horrifying detail. and then came to the awful classic conclucion that I’ve been afraid. and Scared. and a wuss. A mouse among men and that I didn’t know I was. That my work and personal life have been intertwined for so long that I didn’t know I was lacking both a personal life and a work life. I never needed a career because I had projects. My projects would get me through to the next level and the next level would bring happiness to me personally. Involving the two have made me who I am and made my family what it is. A heaping sack of crying in the corner because the emotional pressure is too much.
Let me bare to the world my failures. My many starts and inevitable stops.
I will present my favorite failures which I must deem now failures. For the past few years I’ve held these things close to my heart because that is the only place for them. I should have been working but I’ve been playing. These next ideas are all just that.. ideas. with no power behind them or in them or much invested. I haven’t gotten much out of them because I didn’t put enough in them. I had for the longest time hoped that these would be my inevitable savior. That one day I may have time to make them awesome but it’s not time I need. It’s a backbone. With all the time in the world I’ll never get to them.
so let’s begin together, going through my past work. We may end up getting the longest piece of fiction I actually completed by the time this is done.
Filed under: Japan
The new year brings new luck.. maybe. We lost our money at the Pachinko slots. But it wasn’t a lot. the room was smoky and these Pachinko machines seemed so complicated. They weren’t as complicated as I thought but we still lost money and it wasn’t as fun as other gambling types.
Smoky the Bear says, “Only lung cancer can prevent gambling addiction!”
