Wednesday, March 28
When a middle-aged writer's thoughts turn to baseball
Just in time for opening day: Selections from "O Holy Cow! The Selected Verse of Phil Rizzuto." Perhaps my favorite from these is "From Slumber I Heard the Men At Work."
If you're a fan of the baseball, and you've never spent any time wandering around the Cosmic Baseball Association, you're missing out. The 2007 season is under way. The Dharma Beats are a game behind in the standings as I write, and the Washington Presidents are already five games back. 19th President Rutherford B. Hayes went 2-for-5 in a recent game. There's no way to explain it, really. Just go spend a half hour exploring. Or an hour. Or two.
If you're a fan of the baseball, and you've never spent any time wandering around the Cosmic Baseball Association, you're missing out. The 2007 season is under way. The Dharma Beats are a game behind in the standings as I write, and the Washington Presidents are already five games back. 19th President Rutherford B. Hayes went 2-for-5 in a recent game. There's no way to explain it, really. Just go spend a half hour exploring. Or an hour. Or two.
Wednesday, March 21
Video writers
Can video save the literary star? Powell's Books in Portland, Ore., is planning to show a series of short films featuring authors, instead of having books signings?
It's not quite the same. But I'd watch them.
It's not quite the same. But I'd watch them.
Monday, March 19
One up-author-ship
Sunday I wrote about seeing Kerouac's 'On the Road' scroll down in Denver. I e-mailed this news to my brother and nephew, two who might share my enthusiasm. Well, my nephew Nick is in St. Petersburg, Russia, this week, collecting research for his thesis on Nabokov. And here's the snarky-top-this-e-mail he sends back from half-way around the world last night in response to my Kerouac news:
today...
...I'll eat lunch at the cafe at which Pushkin ate right before his ill-fated duel.
Eat your heart out Kerouac...
today...
...I'll eat lunch at the cafe at which Pushkin ate right before his ill-fated duel.
Eat your heart out Kerouac...
A Pynchon wiki?
It's true, and it's way cool! A wiki for four (so far) of Pynchon's novels. Get lost!
(Or, better yet, go read the real thing....)
(Or, better yet, go read the real thing....)
Sunday, March 18
Kerouac's scroll
So I did something kinda cool yesterday (well, OK, 'cool' in the sense of it being something not very ordinary to do for someone who lives on the edge of nowhere): I drove down to the Denver Public Library and took a look at the famous Kerouac scroll manuscript from "On the Road." I couldn't convince any of the family to go with me, so it was solo pilgrimage. And no photos please, so you'll have to check out one of the links below to see a photo.
Up on the fifth floor, in a sixty-foot long glass and steel box raised about four feet off the ground was the second half of his novel, in early draft form. Legend has it he was a fast typist (100 words a minute, according to the wall-mounted info) that he hated having to slow down to change pages in his typewriters (or maybe it was the speed), so he got these long pieces of paper that he could just keep typing. Then he taped them all together, 119 feet 8 inches worth. All single-spaced, and more or less margin free.
I think it said there were 170,000 words on the scroll, which legend says he typed in three weeks. It was the ultimate National Novel Writing Month effort. Then it took him seven years to get it published, included 10 rejections, including from the publisher of his first books. Go figure.
The scroll was sold at auction a few years ago to the millionaire who owns the Indianapolis Colts football team. And he's been showing it at libraries around the country.
It was pretty cool to see, I'll admit. Dense, dark type. Single spaced. A few pencil marks here and there, a few xxxxxed-out spots. Mostly just intensity. I can picture him hunched over his typewriter, his mind going a trillion-miles-a-minute. Now, once upon a time, like all 20-year-old males, I definitely had an "On The Road" phase where I thought it was the like totally most awesomest book ever. I've made my share of long road trips by car, no doubt somewhat inspired by Mr. Kerouac.
Then maybe five years ago I re-read "On the Road" and I didn't like it at all. Too much. It made me tired. Maybe I'm getting old, but that's OK too. So my favorite Kerouac book is now: The Dharma Bums. Go read it, class.
Up on the fifth floor, in a sixty-foot long glass and steel box raised about four feet off the ground was the second half of his novel, in early draft form. Legend has it he was a fast typist (100 words a minute, according to the wall-mounted info) that he hated having to slow down to change pages in his typewriters (or maybe it was the speed), so he got these long pieces of paper that he could just keep typing. Then he taped them all together, 119 feet 8 inches worth. All single-spaced, and more or less margin free.
I think it said there were 170,000 words on the scroll, which legend says he typed in three weeks. It was the ultimate National Novel Writing Month effort. Then it took him seven years to get it published, included 10 rejections, including from the publisher of his first books. Go figure.
The scroll was sold at auction a few years ago to the millionaire who owns the Indianapolis Colts football team. And he's been showing it at libraries around the country.
It was pretty cool to see, I'll admit. Dense, dark type. Single spaced. A few pencil marks here and there, a few xxxxxed-out spots. Mostly just intensity. I can picture him hunched over his typewriter, his mind going a trillion-miles-a-minute. Now, once upon a time, like all 20-year-old males, I definitely had an "On The Road" phase where I thought it was the like totally most awesomest book ever. I've made my share of long road trips by car, no doubt somewhat inspired by Mr. Kerouac.
Then maybe five years ago I re-read "On the Road" and I didn't like it at all. Too much. It made me tired. Maybe I'm getting old, but that's OK too. So my favorite Kerouac book is now: The Dharma Bums. Go read it, class.
Wednesday, March 14
Home again
We went to southern California for four days, and while we were gone the edge of nowhere went from end of winter to middle of spring, or so it seems. Warm sunny days, the tulips and crocus and daffodils are all coming up, and we already have a few small iris blooming.
Disneyland was fun, as always, and we did it up big time this year, staying at the Disneyland Hotel for the first (and probably last) time ever, getting a three-day park pass and spending most of the daylight hours wandering the park, standing on lines and attending the many fun attractions.
Now it's back to real life for awhile, reading, working on the my president's musical, writing in the epic one-year journal, reading about the Gilded Age and thinking about getting outside to the big yard projects we have set for this summer.
Disneyland was fun, as always, and we did it up big time this year, staying at the Disneyland Hotel for the first (and probably last) time ever, getting a three-day park pass and spending most of the daylight hours wandering the park, standing on lines and attending the many fun attractions.
Now it's back to real life for awhile, reading, working on the my president's musical, writing in the epic one-year journal, reading about the Gilded Age and thinking about getting outside to the big yard projects we have set for this summer.
Sunday, March 4
Hear it
LoudLit.org has free, downloadable recordings of classic novels and public domain works. Fill up you iPod with great lit. Make your commute a little more interesting.
Saturday, March 3
On rejection
Song lyric: "Rejection is one thing / But rejection from a fool is cruel." I think that's Morrissey, and I'm sure he's not talking about submitting stories for publication,or trying to find an agent.
So what about this, my writer friends: Whatever rejects us only makes us stronger. Even talented writers are often found to be unfit for publication. More hope for a new month.
Keep on, keeping on, as they say.
So what about this, my writer friends: Whatever rejects us only makes us stronger. Even talented writers are often found to be unfit for publication. More hope for a new month.
Keep on, keeping on, as they say.
