Creative Writing 101

"SPIN: I just saw the band at Madison Square Garden. It must make you feel good that the biggest audience reception now comes during "Don't Look Back in Anger," which you - and not Liam - sing.

Noel Gallagher: Yeah. It's kind of taken over for "Wonderwall" as the anthem. It's like a hymn. To be quite honest, I sing that song every night, and there's that groundswell when it leads to the first chorus. But I think: What the fuck are all these words about? "Stand up beside the fireplace." What the fuck is all that about? And then you get to the chorus and it's "So Sally can wait / She knows it's too late / As she's walkin' on by." Where's she goin'? I don't fuckin' know. I don't know who she is. I don't know what she's doing or where she's going, but you know, her soul's slid away, and now she turns around and says, "Don't look back in anger." What? [Laughs] And "Champagne Supernova." I still have no idea how once can slowly walk down the hall faster than a cannonball."

- Spin, October 2005, pg. 42

I normally hate Spin, but the October issue actually has quite a few entertaining interviews, including this jem:

Ad-Rock (of the Beastie Boys): Video screens are the new giant dick.

Layout issues

I don't know why the dice are displaying weird... but you get the idea.

Also, you can click on the images to see each side in its full resolution.

Collage education

I created this pair of dice for the collage section of my Narrative Theory and Practice class. The idea was to combine a “story” and a 3-D medium (it occurred to me that collage is more often flat). There were other ideas, but you can ask me about it if you’re curious.

Please imagine these are being two cubes (as they are in my TV room).

Collage education (images)

A silence, and the fear of falling

I’ve fully listened to the new new Fiona Apple cd, and I must say that – for the most part – I prefer the Jon Brion version, but the difference isn’t as profound as it could have been.

Now, this isn’t always true. Take Tymps (The Sick in the Head Song), the new version of the song formerly titled Used To Love Him. If anything, Mike Elizondo brought out the sardonic undertone of the song in a way that adds a whole new level of depth and reminds me of some of Fiona Apple’s best songs (i.e. Paper Bag).

There are the missteps too, though. Red, Red, Red goes from being a powerful angry song to… something else. Something slow and middling. Not something one could listen to over and over when frustrated with the opposite sex.

On the whole though… it’s just a slight variance. A kind of play on the same theme (perhaps like you’d get in concert).

I guess I expected it to sound more like remakes of the songs I already knew then reworkings (perhaps “rewordings” is a better metaphor).

Also, the new song bores me. Oh well…

On an unrelated note, I’m finally giving serious time to Clap Your Hands And Say Yeah! and Kanye West’s Late Registration. They are brilliant and both make me curse the time I wasted trying to enjoy the newest piece of mediocrity from the formerly fun The Dandy Warhols (whom I plan to see in concert December 10th).

Thunder, Lightning, Strike

The Go! Team just put on the most joyous concert I have ever seen. People were cheering, hugging, giving high fives, passing around booze and, in general, dancing the fuck out.

I hope I don't get mono.

Ecce Homo

Hegel and I have a thorny history.

It all began Freshman year when I wrote possibly the worst paper I have ever written in my life. I have no shame in admitting that Elements of the Philosophy of Right went right over my head. I was a Neuroscience Major at the time.

The course was taught by the avuncular and soft-spoken Stephen Crites who acted as if he lacked a foothold in anything outside of his self. I remember being awe-struck when I learned that he not only knew German, but that he studied Hegel in his original tongue. Again, for a Neuroscience Major that was unbelievably badass.

Shortly after his retirement, my friends and I spotted him at Taco Bell.

There was something infinitely charming about a man, who after 50 years of close-textual readings of Hegel had finally gathered enough conviction to postulate that Hegel might have possibly been talking about God, munching on the least World-Historical-of-Foods, the Taco Bell Mexican Pizza.

Is Chicago, Is Not Chicago

Palmyra is in the room.

All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues

Entertainment Weekly reports that Darren Aronofsky will direct an episode of Lost for May sweeps.

Do you think Brad Pitt might cameo as one of the 'others'?

“All the girls stomp your feet like this”

I shop at Banana Republic now too, so it shouldn’t be too surprising. But I really enjoyed seeing Gwen Stefani in concert. (Also, somewhat enjoyed seeing the Black Eyed Peas.)

Sure it was a stadium concert. Sure it was the most random concert audience I’ve ever seen. (You’d be shocked by how many people take this young, young daughters to this kind of show. You’d also be shocked by how many people have young daughters.)

Still, there was a flow and energy in the air that was very much alive (and unpretentious).

At the very least, Love. Angel. Music. Baby. is one of the most entertaining and unique albums I’ve listened to… well… ever. It has a great mix of Japanese, Rock, Hip Hop and Rap styling that combine into a nearly avant-garde “stupid dance album”.

As for the Black Eyed Peas… they weren’t utterly irritating. And they suffered the misfortune of playing a venue with poor acoustics, assigned seats and security guards that would stop people who were dancing too closely or too sexually (not exactly their ideal venue, it seems). I can talk more about how much I like and how much I dislike the Black Eyed Peas, but I have no desire.

This is not a metaphor for love

I woke up.

My head was spinning.

I had no appetite. (No want to eat even, nothing seemed edible.)

I couldn’t remember of the details of the night before (travel from point A to point B, when I made it home), but I could remember the feelings.

But I learned a few important lessons:

1) Don’t let Brandon make your drinks for you.
2) Don’t mix champagne with anything, but especially beer and brandy.
3) Campbell’s Chicken Noodle soup is not just for children.

(*note... this is clearly my stupidest entry yet. logan, the bar has now been set.*)

History Lesson - Part IV

“There is undoubtedly a major incongruity between the logic of the clan – involving allegiance and the destruction of all political, personal, and professional relations of solidarity not based upon political adhesion to Stalin’s politics or person – and the administrative approach of a modern industrial state founded on the principle of competence.”

- Nicolas Werth, Stalinism & Nazism: History and Memory Compared, pg. 32

Adelphophagy

My graduate seminar as seen through biological analog:

Among the lamnoid sharks, a particularly bizarre reproductive strategy is employed.

The maternal ovary produces thousands of relatively small eggs about the size of a garden pea, each enclosed in an egg case. Embryo development rapidly exhausts yolk reserves. Sand tiger embryos precociously develop tooth buds by the time they are 30 mm in total length and by 60 mm they have multiple rows of erupted teeth. Embryos use their dentition to tear out of their egg case and feed on other uterine eggs in a process called oophagy (egg eating) and - in the case of the sand tiger - cannibalise other smaller uterine siblings (intrauterine cannibalism or embryophagy).

At term only one fetus survives in each uterus, achieving gigantic proportions of more than a metre in length.

Destroy Everything You Touch

I don't have the vocabulary to talk about music in any sophisticated manner, but I will make periodic recommendations for songs that strike my fancy.

Destroy Everything You Touch, Ladytron's second single off Witching Hour, is a sinister dancefloor anthem bristling with energy and menace. What is it that music critics always do - reference two bands with the hope that they delimit each other to create a precise musical reference point?

How about My Bloody Valentine and the Human League.

Make sense? Yeah, me neither. Just download the song using the above link.

Also, if you have a burning desire to see Ladytron as snowy topped mountains, you can do so here.

A short, beautiful thing

"Another way all this is like madness: a mad person not helped out of his trouble by anything real begins to trust what is not real because it helps him and he needs it because real things continue not to help him."

Lydia Davis, from "Liminal: The Little Man"

Serenity Now

Movie theaters have gone extinct in Hyde Park. Certainly with a sizable (albeit anti-social) student body, the neighborhood could support a small indie film house. Instead, the remains of old cineplexes abound, their husks appropriated by liquor stores. Ecological naivete.

Without any other discernible way to see Serenity, I grabbed a couple of acquaintances with wheels and headed downtown, paying ungodly amounts for parking in the process. These two didn't strike me as the type to enjoy a space western; they spent a disconcerting amount of time in front of the Elizabethtown and Chicken Little posters. Nevertheless, I figured they were a good barometer of how the movie played to the uninitiated.

[I should say first that I liked Firefly. I never saw it on TV, and I certainly wasn't clamoring for more after watching the series on DVD. But, I enjoyed its clever story-arcs which always twisted in messy directions and the charming - if slightly wooden - characters and their unmistakable relationships.]

Honestly, I can't imagine who Joss Whedon was planning to satisfy with this motion picture. Nor can I imagine that Universal was thrilled with the box office results. After three weeks, Serenity has barely managed to earn over 20 million.

My acquaintances were certainly not thrilled having to spend 9.75 for the film. They understood the broader themes, cultural hegemony and the like. All the same, they found the movie to be crass and, well, chintzy. The tone of the film is certainly hard to register rapidly.

I walked away entertained but disappointed. The motion picture format did not play to the shows strengths at all. Their world is so insular that strapping it to a plot of such consequence and scope was ill-matched. I am going to sound like a broken record here so I may as well cut and paste: But with the rush to reveal [River's origin], [Joss Whedon] damaged the slow-burn momentum that made the show so enjoyable. Charming character interactions [were] nowhere to be seen. Remember when [Character 1] and [Character 2] were [doing that thing] together?

Speaking of which, what was with the death of [Character 1] and [Character 2]? I have heard rumors, with all due respect to Derrida, that there were reasons outside of the text for these decisions. Still, as a fan I was none too happy with the choices.

I guess there is always hope with Elizabethtown and Chicken Little.

And, of course, Doom.

History Lesson – Part III

"It is a suggestion, I think, of Schopenhauer (to whom Borges turns as often as he does to Berkeley), that what we remember of our own past depends very largely on what of it we've put our tongue to telling and retelling. It's our words, roughly, we remember: oblivion claims the rest––forgetfulness. Historians make more history than the men they write about, and because we render our experience in universals, experience becomes repetitious (for if events do not repeat, accounts do), and time doubles in confusion like a hound which has lost the scent."

Willian H. Gass, "Imaginary Borges and His Books", page 126-127

History Lesson - Part II

"Indeed what remains striking about those hot July weeks is the role not of collective forces nor of long-range factors, but of the individual... Domestically Berchtold, Sazonov, and Bethmann Hollweg had acquired reputations for diplomatic weakness, which they now felt the need to counter by appearing strong. But even this interpretation fuses the individual with wider national pressures.

More bizarre is the conjunction of the individual with accident - the wrong turn of Archduke Franz Ferdinand's driver and the fortuitous positioning of Princip who had already assumed his assassination attempt had failed...

And Conrad von Hötzendorff, whose advocacy of preventive war proved so important to Austrian calculations at the beginning of July - were his motives patriotic or personal? He calculated that, as a war hero, he would be free to marry his beloved Gina von Reininghaus, already the wife of another. Conrad's infatuation cannot, obviously, explain the outbreak of the First World War. But it remains a reminder that the most banal and maudlin emotions, as well as the most deeply felt, interacted with the wider context."

- Hew Strachan, The Outbreak of the First World War, pg. 126-7

Toward the Within

Let it be recorded in the annals of the internet: the Dead Can Dance performed tonight at the Auditorium Theater in Chicago.

And it was good.

Adrift

Lost has lost its narrative rhythm.

This has nothing to do with the mysteries of the island and the revelations to come - hell, it could be a dream for all I care. If anything, I think this season has been largely successful in expanding its core mythology (i.e. dharma).

But with the rush to reveal the contents of the hatch, the producers have damaged the slow-burn momentum that made the show so enjoyable. Charming character interactions are nowhere to be seen. Remember when Jin and Hurley were fishing together? I do. I smiled.

Where is Sun? or Shannon? I think I saw Charlie and Claire interact a couple of episodes ago. Something about the return of a lame drug subplot (honestly, is there anywhere else you can go with that character?)

Did we really need to see the events of the first episode from the perspective of Locke and Kate? Did we learn any new information? Did it advance the plot? Speaking of which, what was the point of Michael's flashback? That he really, really, really loves Walt. I caught that last season.

I don't mean to be snotty or nitpicky; this may merely be a symptom of narrative compression. Plus, the climax of Orientation was particularly intense and well integrated into Locke's subplot. I just hope the series can escape the myopia that has plagued it for the first three episodes.

Or it could just once again end with Jack pointing a gun at Desmond.

"You!"

“I am a leaf on the wind…”

There’s the moment when Wash flies Serenity through two battling armadas (the fascist Alliance and the id of a serial killer personified in the Reavers), and drops through the atmosphere of Mr. Universe’s planet. Or when Mal leaves someone to be eaten alive by the Reavers, only to shoot him and put him out of his misery. That the comparison to Star Wars becomes obvious, and also worthless.

[I should first say that I don’t have the patience for ANY of the Star Wars movies anymore. Now that I’ve watched them as an adult (and with nostalgia aside) it’s pretty obvious that they’re timeless for something besides their quality. Particularly since George Lucas continues to rape your fond memories (and not allow you to see the original as they were… originally).]

Serenity is dark, funny, quick and – most prominently – tight. There is little time wasted in the movie to explain the world or the characters to the informed, yet the story functions for the uninitiated on a minimum of exposition.

(The only bad thing is that some of the more interesting “color” of the “verse” ends up filling an arbitrary role in the movie. Namely how the characters swearing in Chinese.)

Then there’s Revenge of the Sith. Plodding story line. Leaps in logic. And a lot of time doing the filmic equivalent of telling instead of showing grit, darkness and evil.

Moral of the story. Serenity is brilliant. It has more action and intelligence that any other movie made this year and deserves to be seen. I was one of the (allegedly) few who watched Firefly when it was on television. (All 11 episodes.)

I am also (apparently) one of the few who went to see Serenity in theatres. I plan on seeing it again (perhaps twice) before it’s gone.

I would tell everyone else to do the same. But I’m a little burned out on telling people to watch smart things so they won’t be replaced by mediocrity.

My apologies to Jesus, Buddha and Tom Delay

I can't believe the Red Sox lost.

Watching El Duque take away their last real shot at a victory... it almost hurt. But there is still hope in the world. If the Angels win today at Yankee Stadium, balance can be restored.

The thrilling conversion you've been waiting for

I’d like to make it official.

It’s over between video games and me.

We’ve had some good times. A lot of good times, even. But video games just don’t keep my interest anymore. There are just too many sexier, more entertaining things to do with my time.

And let’s face it: we’ve both changed. I’m more interested in writing and reading and people now. Video games are only interested in money and status and the way they look. It’s not about having fun anymore, which is what I’m looking for in my life right now. Besides, video games have gotten really repetitive with their stories. I know all about the young boy who defies and defeats an evil empire. I realize that 2006 was an entirely different sports season than 2005. You don’t have to keep telling me. I won’t forget.

And, quite frankly, can’t video games ever learn how to control their more violent tendencies? It didn’t used to be so bad. But now it’s almost always like talking to an over-sexed, serial killer with a bad rap/punk soundtrack in the background.

That said, I won’t deny that there might be a few flings between me and video games before it’s totally over.

Like this sexy thing.




It plays completely different and it seems like we might be able to have a few good times. Things could be different. I’d feel more involved and, thus, wanted. (Since the whole point is using the controller as a motion detector, an active IR “wand” and as a regular old wireless input/output device.)

I’m so sick of playing games the old way and Nintendo is the only one who seems to think that’s even possible. Proof, I guess, that sometimes all you need in a relationship is for the other side to listen. You know.

This is the Thrilling Conversation You've Been Waiting For

I was a child of the 80s until 1997. Synthpop was my life. If it did not have a 12'' extended remix associated with it, I was not interested.

I first heard Harvey Danger's Flagpole Sitta during the trailer for some movie I hope time has forgotten. Zombies may have been involved.

As silly as it may sound, the song struck a chord with me. My irrational standoff with 90s music began to thaw and I have been playing catch up ever since. It was my personal glasnost, if you will.

I even flew to San Francisco to see them on their reunion tour.

That is another story.

The reason I wax nostalgic about my lame musical awakening, is that Harvey Danger has released their new album online for all to listen to. You can download it directly off of their website, or through a linked torrent file. You can even purchase the album or donate money if you are so inclined.

It is an interesting marketing/release strategy. You can hear the guitarist, Jeff Lin, speak about it during a radio show on Seattle NPR affiliate KUOW's The Works.

Now, sing with me:

"I had visions, I was in them, I was looking into the mirror..."

Jesus, Buddha and Tom Delay walk into a bar...

The Red Sox are going to own the White Sox. The White Sox will be wearing leather collars and having their safety word ignored by game 3. Even the people in Chi Town can see that coming.

Right?

Fortune Presents Gifts Not According to the Book

"It is difficult to overestimate the extent to which popular politics in mid-nineteenth century Europe involved the consumption of substantial amounts of alcohol. A large drinking capacity was probably the first qualification of any successful political agitator."

- Jonathan Sperber, The European Revolutions, 1848-1851, pg. 176

God, I love history.