In more evidence (not that any was needed) that I've completely taken leave of my senses, I'm planning to do this. So posting here will probably either be much more sporadic. Or possibly it'll have the reverse effect and I'll be more on top of all aspects of life.
(you can stop laughing now)

Daylight savings time starts tonite/tomorrow and while I (for one) welcome the extra hour of sleep this evening, since it'll now be dark by the time I get outta work every day, I'm not sure exactly how I'm saving any daylight. Not like anyone asked me...
XDU "all DJ" meeting was this afternoon. One of the more sparsely attended, it seemed to me. I was barely present, feeling fairly cranky and out of sorts. Probably cos I'd barely eaten anything all day. Did a short spiel on world music, bought some XDU t-shirts and left without talking to hardly anyone. (nothing personal, y'all)
Turns out that my continuing-ed writing class is supposed to start this coming Tuesday. Unless they call me the day before and cancel (which happened last time I signed up for a class), I'll be away from TV until 9pm on election night. Must remember to leave work early so we have time to go get our free fries.
And speaking of the election, here's some wackiness from Amsterdam.

Early programming note: I'll be subbing the jazz show this coming Monday (11/1). You know the drill... 88.7fm if yr local. Website if yr not. I'm planning to start off swing -- Goodman, Miller, James, Dorsey, Shaw, Lunceford, whatever else I can turn up at the station. And then we'll see where it goes from there.
Just got back from volunteering my services as design asst. over at the Charming English Cottage o' Death. Serious eyeball fu, as well as other installations accomplished. Partypartyparty tomorrow.
and again, i say "woot!"

Something I learned this week: Bush the Lesser has a French tailor. Woot!
Hilarity ensues... Tony Bourdain starts the smackdown, with Mario Batali, onstage in NYC. I love Bourdain. Loved Kitchen Confidential and Cook's Tour. Altho his kvelling about 7 hour dinners at Ducasse doesn't match up all that well with his captured-on-TV enthusiasm for the equally marathon French Laundry. Hey... foolish consistency... hobgoblin... etc... (note: having never eaten the food, the mgmt and staff at House of Dioxin cannot endorse Mr. Bourdain's highschool-ish dope slapping of Charlie Trotter but will agree that he has less TV presence than any host this side of Bryce Lane, the entertainingly dorky NCSU prof/host of a local gardening show)
But this is even funnier. Dishoom, baby!

the Observation Deck :: "make a list"
Pretty much as expected. Discussion of the value of making lists -- lists as brainstorming tools. But did get to some specifics that I'd not thought about. Such as the idea of generating lists of chapter titles as a way to spur work on a novel. Also the idea that, when faced with a problem, instead of beating yr head against it trying to come up with the one perfect solution, try creating a list of 20 possible solutions. Sure, 15 of them will probably be either impossible or totally stupid, but in figuring out what doesn't work, we're perhaps better able to figure out what will work. (I note to myself that this might be a useful approach to take in some matters work-related that I'm dealing with)
Another interesting thing was the mention of a journalling workshop where participants are encouraged, before writing about a period of their past to first make a list of important people in their lives at that time (friends, lovers, family, bosses, co-workers, teachers, etc). Then expand that to include public figures of the time (politicians, movie stars, etc). And go on adding to the lists and elaborating -- what were they doing, what kind of problems might they have been having and so on. Oddly enough, I was thinking this very sort of thing this morning when I woke up early and couldn't get back to sleep. Not about myself but about some characters in something I'm thinking about writing. Maybe. (if i'm crazy enough). Anyway... list type thing in extended entry

One of my favorite things from driving around Durham lately has been the proliferation of church signs announcing some sort of Halloween-alternative event, usually planned for this Saturday, the 30th. Because, of course, if they had it on Sunday no kids would show up cos they'd all be out trick or treating. What's funny is how many of them are called "Harvest Festival" or some such thing. Oh yes. Harvest Festival. That's MUCH less pagan than Halloween. For a while, one church I pass every day on my way to work was plugging a Harvest Festival and Bonfire. Booyah! It was changed recently from a bonfire to a talent show. Coincidence? Or did some smartass comparative religion student point out harvest festivals and bonfires might be a bit more, say, druid than born-again...

top 10 wrrld music CDs @ WXDU (week ending 10/24/04)

Sunshine Barato :: Mosquitos
Quelqu'un M'a Dit :: Carla Bruni
Tassoumakan :: Issa Bagayogo
Rough Guide to Manu Dibango :: Manu Dibango
Margie's :: Conjunto Los Pochos
Fiebre :: Radio Tarifa
Sweet Soul of Kenya :: David Nzomo Trio
Choro Na Feira :: Choro Na Feira
Moliendo Café aux Portalies :: Graciana "La Negra" Silva
Sweet & Sour, Hot y Spicy :: Ely Guerra

Today was cool and grey, rainy and autumnal. Esp. nice that it held off from yesterday when it would've washed out the art car workshop. Got up early and took off to get the oil changed. And got there before they opened so off to Mad Hatter for a chai latte and reading the Indy's voter guide. Noticed that they actually said nice things about Ray and Sean. Not that they endorsed them or anything. I expect hell will freeze over before the Indy endorses a Libertarian. But that's fine. Freedom of the press certainly applies to the people that own the presses and they can endorse as they choose. It's just nice to see them taking at least some of the Libertarian candidates more seriously.
But I digress... Dropped off the car, went home and had a lazy morning. Went back out, did some shopping, ate a big sandwich, picked up car. Hit Goodwill to search for Halloween costume components (note: costume idea totally provided by Lisa B. Rockmeier who is very suspicious...). Very limited success on that front but I did score a J. Crew sweater (black) in great condition. Yay for thrift shopping.
Reviewed CDs for XDU, cooked dinner (ropa vieja... meaty wonderfulness), and watched Circle, another fantastico performance by Eddie Izzard
and then i wrote this...

Last night was the end of a long somewhat frustrating week at work. But it was also the last night before the Chicks Rock DIY Art Car Workshop, which I was planning to help Sarah with. We did go out and drive the route for the glow-cruise that's planned for tonight. And made a trip to another dollar store and Wallyworld for a few last supplies. Had dinner at Patrick's, a new restaurant up on No. Duke in Durham. Joe blogged Patrick's a while back, and I'd been wanting to check it out. Yesterday's N&O had a review and it was also very positive. The parking lot was packed (it was 7.30 on a Friday) but we only had to wait 5-10 min. for a table. I had a draught Oktoberfest from Carolina Brewery. Yum. We skipped the appetizers (to leave room for dessert). Sarah had the shrimp 'n grits. I think she was happier with the dish than Joe (altho perhaps not as happy as the N&O reviewer who suggested they were better than those served at Crook's Corner). I had one of the dishes from the seasonal menu, BBQ quail over a risotto with country ham and pimento cheese. I'd never had quail before, so that was interesting. Flavor somewhere between cornish hen and duck. The BBQ seemed sorta generic. But the risotto was awesome. Cheesy, hammy rice. Very yum. For dessert we split the pumpkin panna cotta, which was outstanding. Light, creamy, just the right blend of pumpkin-pie spices, and a cranberry-walnut sauce, nice & tart to balance the sweet richness of the panna cotta.
By the time we got home, I was feeling really crashed. I planned to lie down and read a bit and then get up and help Sarah with some more prep for the workshop. But I ended up basically crawling into a hole and pulling the hole in after me. Next thing I knew it was 8am this morning.

So Rick! wants to watch the Astros game tonight. So I'll be on air, 8-10pm. 88.7fm if you're local. Or streaming from the XDU website. Maybe this time I'll remember to bring my copy of Scritti's "Jacques Derrida" so I can play it.

Perpetrated one of my biggest culinary disasters in quite a while tonight. I tried a new recipe (from the Early Girl website of all places) for a pumpkin soup. I thought it sounded really good. Very seasonal and all. And it looked real pretty in the bowls. But the flavor managed the tricky double-feature of being both bland and way-too-spicy at the same time. Retrospectively, I realize that I wasn't tasting enough while cooking. So I was caught off guard when I got to the finished soup and found that it had not much flavor except "hot." Too much red and white pepper, I think, and not enough salt. Probably I could go back and tweak this or that in the recipe and make the soup better. Or I could just go out and find a better recipe.

Coupla links to share:
Interview with Tommy and Marky, 2 of the surviving Ramones. The drummers! Hey, Ringo, hang on. There's still hope

USB sushi!

Two things, not even related by proximity::
(1) Booker Prize was just announced and it went to Alan Hollinghurst. I wonder if the fact that he's the only one of the nominees I'd even heard of (I'm so woefully out of touch with contemporary fiction I certainly hadn't read any of the books up for the award) says something about the prize committee. Perhaps he was a "safe" choice. But, still, I loved the Swimming Pool Library so I'm pleased that he's won. I think Alicia read Cloud Atlas, one of the other nominated books. Was this a miscarriage of literary justice or an honest difference of opinion or just one of those things?
(2) Meanwhile at the Temple of Doom, the Sox have gone from ever so close to goin' out like chumps to actually turning this into a series. I know... I know... of all the trivial things in this world. For most of the year I pay absolutely no attention to baseball. But, just like brussel sprouts and GW Bush, my loathing for the Yankees comes from a place beyond reason. So I'm happy to see them flailing on the edge of another potential post-season failure. And even tho the Red Sox really are just evil empire wannabes, they kinda remind me of the shambolic late 70s Yankees (Jackson, Munson, Gossage, and of course Oscar Gamble and his 'fro). Hell, the Sox have Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer in center-field. That's gotta be worth something... (game 7, I guess)

What's better than a day without a 2 hour meeting? A day where the 2 hour meeting is replaced by a 3 hour conference call that I don't have to participate in. And which ends up at the State Fair. Hey, the NC State Fair even has a webcam. Like they say, one of the great things about the South is that we'll deep fry anything. And then sell it to you. I briefly considered the fried Oreos (at the same stand where we sampled the fried candy bar a few years back when I went with friends from work) or the fried Twinkie (so conceptually horrifying and yet strangely compelling that I still don't know how I resisted the temptation) but, really, I'd entered the fairgrounds with a mission -- to find the fried banana pudding. And find it we did, altho we really just stumbled onto the stand while we were wandering. The guys even asked me how we'd heard of them (there was a brief mention in the N&O article last Friday). I was hoping that they were selling banana pudding which was fried. But, actually, what they're selling is pudding made with fried bananas. More accurately, deep-fried bananas with a side of pudding served as a dipping sauce. They also had on the menu something called a fried banana wrap. My guess is the fried bananas and pudding rolled up in a crepe, possibly with some whipped cream involved. But I didn't see anyone ordering one of those. No matter, the bananas were awesome. But I still think the deep-fried pudding idea would totally work. Just freeze some banana pudding, put a stick in it, dip it in batter and bang it in some hot oil... what's not to love?
The other thing I thought about getting was the pork-chop-on-a-stick. It's just such a cool name for a food product. But I remember my bro getting one of those when we went last year and being kinda disappointed. And I'm all about avoiding the disappointing food experiences. I meant to go back and find the Cajun booth that was selling alligator-on-a-stick but by the time it stopped raining I was tired of walking around the fair and we were near the exit so we just bagged it for home.

the Observation Deck :: "ask a question"
Related to the earlier advice to be specific. The text discusses the value of asking questions, esp. in non-fiction. But it also talks about asking questions as a way to create and define characters in fiction. Starting from general and moving towards more specific.
Related to this, something I saw on boing boing today, an interview with Jaime Hernandez. As you might guess from the sidebar, I'm a huge fan of Love and Rockets and particularly of Jaime's stuff. Interesting stuff about drawing, and Hernandez's fondness for Dennis the Menace but esp. the passage where he's talking about aging his characters and questioning what that means for them and trying to figure out how they're changing.

Friday started off with a visit to the always exciting DMV. Actually, as DMvisits go, this was pretty painless. I was finished and out the door within about 30 min. Then off to work, about which the less said the better. And the week wrapped up on a fine high note with Xta's CRX party, a lovely evening of fire, booze, and bacon-wrapped hot dogs, attended by a party of favorites, including the creme de la creme of Durham blogerati. And, yes, in fine SGCTC stylee there was a cake and party hat. Woohoo!
The weekend was lowkey. A bit o' yardwork. A bit o' shopping. A lot o' TV. And some random chainsaw mayhem.
...good times...
(and now we're all caught up)

top 10 wrrld music CDs @ WXDU (week ending 10/17/04)

Tassoumakan :: Issa Bagayogo
Sweet Soul of Kenya :: David Nzomo Trio
Sunshine Barato :: Mosquitos
Sweet & Sour, Hot y Spicy :: Ely Guerra
Choro Na Feira :: Choro Na Feira
Rough Guide to Brazilian Hip Hop :: various
Bats'i Son :: various
Choros, Por Que Sax? :: Mario Seve & Daniela Spielmann
Bowmboi :: Rokia Traore
Songs from 68 Degrees North :: Triakel

Between the fun and the no-fun, it's been a busy few days since we got back from Asheville. Before moving onto life as we know it, one more vacation shout out -- Tuesday morning after we left the Cliff House, we went back down to Asheville and had breakfast at Early Girl Eatery. Highest recommendation. If you're in Asheville and looking for breakfast, it's not to be missed. I didn't have anything fancy, just eggs, grits, sausage. But it was sublime. A fitting example of the glories of top-quality ingredients prepared well. (The dinner menu looks good too. Will have to check that out on the next trip.)
Thursday, as previously mentioned, was Gogol Bordello. Insane stoopid awesomely good show. They came screaming out of the gate (literally -- the first song included mucho screaming from both backup singers/drum pixies) and the energy level of the show actually went up from there. The only other band I've seen with that kind of sustained energy was Pogues. That was way back on the Rum Sodomy & the Lash tour. (I remember at one point Spider Stacy was banging the tambourine on his head to keep the beat.) GB did not do my 2 fave songs of theirs ("Punk Rock Parranda" and "Occurrence on the Border") but so what. The show kicked mucho ass. And I think my ears have finally stopped ringing.
...well, that gets me up to yesterday morning. but that'll have to wait for the next post

Today started out too early with dog-barking-to-be-let-in at 5am. Gray rainy and heading out the door at 7am only to be detoured by a doggy deposit on the kitchen floor. I figured either the day had to improve from there or it was an ill omen. It's "ill omen" by TKO here at the end of the day. Work was just a big headache. Upside: most of the dominos I set up before going away fell at the right time so no major crises. Downside: everyone, me included, missed one major step in the process of managing orders, making this afternoon a slow trip thru the meatgrinder. Backwards.
At least I got to hit a coupla hours of radio this evening, subbing for Santa Salsera. Started with mambo, dropped a bunch of salsa, then no doubt drove all the regulars away with an hour+ of Marc Ribot, Mala Rodriguez, Control Machete, Manu Chao, Ozomatli, etc. But I had fun. Jason was hangin' out before his show at 8. Altho generally exuding a completely justified bad mood, he did provide a good storage tip for the truffles Sarah and I bought in Asheville. (More details on those to follow.)
It's media overload night again. Following the debate via liveblogging (CNN and Wonkette -- alas, Salon's server doesn't seem to be up to whatever load it's trying to handle... hmm, that's interesting -- Salon just took down the link on their front page to the liveblogging; guess something wasn't working), and the playoffs (Yankees, aka Evil Empire One, still ahead of Sox, aka Evil Empire Wannabe). iTunes on random (it's Neubauten just at the moment). And an okay glass of wine. I'm trying to figure out what I like and don't like in wine, hopefully without having to start thinking about why something tastes like mahogany and black raspberry. So far: Europe's got it all over California. Red over white. Cotes du Rhone: yes. Shiraz: maybe.

Oh yeah... Gogol Bordello tomorrow night at the Cradle. Woohoo!

Thanks to Alicia for mentioning that Derrida died at the end of last week. I didn't do much news-surfing over the weekend so I hadn't heard. It's been interesting reading the obits. The NYTimes described him as "abstruse" in the headline of the obituary, which seems an unnecessary slam. I mean, when Stephen Hawking kicks, I doubt the Times will point out that almost no one who read it actually understood A Brief History of Time. Embarrassingly, I can't actually remember if I ever saw Derrida speak. I think I did, at a big seminar at NYU on Foucault. But that was a period in the mid-80s when I was seeing and doing (and drinking) lots of things and some of the details are fuzzy around the edges...

Hey! I'm still on vacation. (neener neener...) Drove up the Blue Ridge to Blowing Rock today (okay, now that you've finished mentally composing all the Beavis & Butthead jokes you can, let's move on). Nice drive along several NC state roads to get past parts of the BRP that were washed out in the hurricanes this summer. And along the Parkway. Then onto Blowing Rock which is just terminally quaint and folksy and overly subscribed with shoppes but was a nice place to stop and have lunch. The only downside of the day was that when we got back to 40 on our way back to Asheville, it was closed for some random reason and we had to wander around backcountry western NC for an extra 45 min. I dunno about you but I never want an extra 45 min tacked onto the end of a drive, esp. not when I'm ready for the drive to be over. But now we're back in Asheville. Back at the New French Bar. Life is pretty damn good right now.

Al fresco bloggin' live from downtown Asheville. Dusk is dusking, an all-female jazz combo is about to start up, and I'm sipping from a somewhat less than expertly poured Guinness. (ah but it's a French bistro... what do they know from pouring Guinness? and anyway, even a less than perfect Guinness is still about as good as it gets in a glass). Too bad I can't really think of anything interesting to say. Sarah's already written up the wonders of the Cliff House. It's cool being there. But it's just cool to be on vacation, even a short one. We hacked around Asheville yesterday. Had a lazy morning today and then went to the NC Arboretum, which was very nice even tho I was dressed for the cool hazy pre-noon weather and not the warm sunny afternoon weather.

Observation Deck (day 7) :: "consult the news"
Well, I'm sitting here listening to iTunes on random (currently spinning: Holmes Brothers), making blog entries and/or comments here and there. I'm checking a couple of continually-updating commentaries on the debate (I lack the intestinal fortitude to what crap like that live). Also following the score of the Yankees-Twins game (alas, there's one evil empire that doesn't seem to be crumbling tonight). Is that consulting enough? The point, of course, is that you never know where/how inspiration will arrive. Something as simple as a story in the paper or on a website could spark a whole novel. The suggestion from Epel is to find something in the news and use it as a trigger and write for 15 min. I might try that over the weekend. Or maybe I'll just wait until the next time I pull this card from the deck.

Another week o' work over. No more calls at home. I don't know that any of the problems that caused me to be called at home have actually been solved, or even addressed for that matter. But it doesn't have anything directly to do with me. I mean, a general air of chaos never makes my job easier but it's both out of my hands and located a coupla rungs higher up the chain o' command than where i live M-F 9-5. Neither of which it now is so I'm shutting up about work.
Watched Paris is Burning last night, an excellent documentary from 1990 about the "ball" scene in NYC in the late 80s, the black & Hispanic gay culture of drag competitions. Which was later appropriated by Madonna for "Vogue." I was living in NYC at the time this movie was shot, and some of the street scenes and locations are familiar. But, even though I remember reading about the balls and the Houses at the time, it really was a whole other world from mine. Overall it's a very "up" movie, very much about how these people have formed their own community/family. There are a few moments where things do get pretty heartbreaking, but the director (Jennie Livingston; this seems to be the only movie she's done) does a really good job of letting the people speak and not editorializing but just leaving it to the viewer to notice the tragic distance between dream and day-to-day reality for some of the "children" (as they call themselves) in the movie. Watching the movie now, 15+ years from when it was filmed, is tinged with the sad realization that many of the people you're watching are quite possibly dead. According to IMDB, several of the cast died in the early 90s. And Pepper LaBeija (far and away the most fabulous in the film) died just last year.
Not out on DVD and the VHS is out of stock at Amazon. We saw it on IFC. If you can track it down, it's highly recommended

Got called at home about work tonight. A big order that's supposed to go out Thursday is quite fubar-ed. Perhaps I had something to do with it. I won't really know until tomorrow. If my fingerprints are found, it'd be a small mental lapse (doing data entry from the wrong one of three order forms) and not a hangin' offense but it's still distressing and just feeding into my overall agita this evening. Note to self: it's a bad idea to eat nothing but coffee, a cookie and a handful of tortilla chips all day and then have a big rich porky meal at 9pm.
Improving my mood somewhat: unsubtle political humor (worth it alone for the Edwards v. Monty p-shop halfway down the page). (via NewYorkish)

the Observation Deck (day 6) :: "switch instruments"
Makes the very good point that it can be helpful to change your style of working, to try typing or hand-writing or computer or dictation. I think anything that knocks you out of your routine can probably help to jumpstart the creative process. Referencing Prentiss' point about jazz, I'm pretty sure I've read about a jazz musician who switched from one horn to another while he was in the process of working out a new composition/performance style. I'm thinking it was Coltrane switching to soprano sax. But I could be wrong (and I'm feeling too lazy to google it and find out).
But I swear to "Bob" if I have to read one more ode to hand writing, to the glories of longhand and etc I may well hurl right onto the iceBook here. The text mentions the "surprising" number of authors who still write by hand for at least some of their process. And then goes on to list Norman Mailer, William Styron, Gore Vidal, and Joyce Carol Oates. Not exactly children of the information age there so the point is less surprising. Now tell me that Cory Doctorow writes his fiction longhand... that would surprise me. Technology changes and a writer should use whichever tools work best for them. Yes, you can possibly get results by switching tools. But you won't automatically get better results by using pen and paper, just because all your writing teachers used them back in the day. Pen and paper are not magic tools guaranteed to make your writing better. Feh! on that romantic twaddle

top 10 wrrld music CDs @ WXDU (week ending 10/03/04)

Sweet & Sour, Hot y Spicy :: Ely Guerra
Bowmboi :: Rokia Traore
Rough Guide to Brazilian Hip Hop :: various
Choros, Por Que Sax? :: Mario Seve & Daniela Spielmann
Rough Guide to Tango Nuevo :: various
Moliendo Café Aux Portales :: Graciana La Negra Silva
Selwa :: Choying Drolma & Steve Tibbets
Guitar Fö :: Sekou Bembeya Diabate
Mañana :: Savath & Savalas
Rough Guide to Mambo :: various

the Observation Deck (day 5) :: "learn from the masters"
Again, with some fairly obvious advice -- if ya wanna write good, ya gotta read. Some interesting specifics about transcribing passages from authors as a way of getting inside their heads. That I'd never thought of but it makes sense that you'd get a better idea how Phillip Roth constructs a sentence by writing it out yourself that you would just by reading it. And I know I don't make enough time to read. Not as much as I'd like to, and definitely not as much as I should if I wanna get more serious about writing.
But also again I must quibble. I am not down with the assurances in the text that emulating another writer will not end up as a cheap knock-off, that one's own "unique history and way of seeing the world guarantee that (the) work will have a style all its own." I understand that this book/deck is about inspiring the aspiring and all but the idea that the fact that we are all different (i'm not!) is a guarantee that our fiction will be unique is wooly-headed nonsense. Of the worst kind. I agree that there are no new ideas, really. The Voltaire quote about standing on the shoulders of giants. All that. But after a year working the slush pile and more writing classes and writers' groups than I'd care to list just now, I've seen a lot of writing that was not unique, that didn't even look like it aspired to be unique, or would recognize unique if it dropped upon it from a great height. It's a tricky thing to quantify, though. Especially because much of what's considered success in writing is in publishing, and there are many factors quite external to the quality of any given manuscript that might determine whether or not it gets published. And it seems like publishers want books that are similar to something that's been successful. At least until they don't want it anymore (publishing being as trend-driven and faddish as everything else). But the slush piles are full of failed attempts to knock off what's already selling. These days I would imagine it's Helen Fielding, J. K. Rowling and Stephen King (as always). I think a lot of it comes down to talent. You either have that spark that's gonna allow you to put a unique spin on Chick Lit Novel A or Spooky Horror Novel B, or you don't. I think with practice and work you can develop your craft at writing to such a point that you can make up in skill what you lack in talent. Maybe I think that. I'm not sure. I'll have to think so more about whether I actually think that...

a few things, related only by proximity...

Shaolin Soccer just f-ing kills. Go out and rent it Right Now. I was kinda miffed at myself for missing this when it was in theaters this summer but that turned out to be a good thing. Because the DVD included the original Chinese version along with the edited with a miram-Axe US version. Those who've seen lots of HK martial arts movies will probably enjoy this more, especially the way the stock characters and situations of historical martial arts epics are dropped straight into this standard plucky underdogs sports story. Lots and lots of good fun that is funny. I'm hoping that some day Netflix will start carrying Stephen Chow's God of Cookery.

My friend Prentiss (linked on the left there) was just voted Best Austin Blogger by the Austin Chronicle. Go Prentiss!

Very excited to read that MOMA will be re-opening in Manhattan on 11/20. We're hoping to go up to NYC for Xmas and that'd be a great thing to do for a day. And it really does take a day. I've always found trips to MOMA way more exhausting than any other museum. I think that's because, unlike the Met (NYC) or MFA (Boston), MOMA is actively designed with an agenda. The galleries aren't set up for casual browsing but tend to direct you in certain ways, to follow the curator's ideas about modern art, its development and history. So I've always felt this impetus to keep walking, and to keep walking in certain definite directions. Apparently the re-installation for the renovated and expanded museum space takes a less doctrinaire and more expansive/inclusive view. There's a big long interesting article about the new MOMA installation in the Sunday NY TImes Magazine (available online, at least for a while, altho you have to go thru an annoying free registration process to get at any content on the Times website). One of my all time favorite art museum moments came at MOMA when I walked around a corner and came up on "Starry Night" which I'd completely forgotten lived there. Wowie wow wow. The old MOMA install also had an entire room of Jackson Pollock's which was quite a thing to behold. I hope they'll keep that intact.

the Observation Deck (day 4) :: "conduct an interview"
Well, I'm hardly going to call someone up and start asking them questions at half-past midnight. But there were several interesting threads that spun off this card. Most obviously, the idea that you should ask someone if you don't know. I've know, well maybe not a lot, but a few writers who were feverishly averse to the idea of doing research. Seems silly when phrased that directly but I think there is something in the whole "writer mystique" about just sitting down and writing, without any drudge work like research, etc. Most everyone gets over that at a certain point. If I hadn't already, certainly working on a non-fiction book would've gotten me over that. But I really enjoyed all the reading I did for the VRT book and I hope that I've integrated those skills into my approach to fiction writing. Assuming I ever actually approach fiction writing again.
As always, the risk of going too far in the other direction is always present. Probably more beginning writers get lost in research and compile mountains of notes without ever getting any kind of a story down on paper. I think anything that keeps you from writing is likely to be seized on as a defense mechanism, a delaying tactic. Even if it's not consciously done.
One other interesting point was the idea of interviewing yourself. So when I sit down to write, if I'm trying to come up with a solution to something, or figure out what a character would do in a certain situation, instead of just grabbing at the first idea that comes along, thinkiing about it some more, asking "what else?" Sometimes our first instincts are right on the money, but sometimes we need to probe our own defenses, so to speak, to push a little further and see whether our ideas really hold up to scrutiny.

Kind of a busy weekend. But fun. Great party chez S & D last night. Mini hot dogs, many drinks, and Wattstax on DVD. Highlights of which included the huge 'fro on the Bar Kays sax player, Rufus Thomas and his matching hot pink shorts, coat & cape ensemble, lots of Richard Pryor, random appearances by Ted (Isaac, your Bartender) Lange, and Jesse Jackson as Isaac Hayes' private hat valet. Another fun thing was firing up the iTunes giftcard that I got from Xta way back on my birthday. Grabbed stuff by the Temptations, Celso Piña, Rahzel, Control Machete, TJ Rehmi, Jolly Mukherjee, and Frank. There's a bunch of tracks from the Sinatra V-Discs on the iTunes store. I may have to go back and get some more later.
And another fun thing: Old Jubilation Ale. This is the winter brew from Avery Brewing out in Boulder. Supa-outstanding! I love those dark winter beers and Old Jubilation ranks right up there with Snow Goose and Snowball's Chance.
And something I've been meaning to blog for a while now. Can't remember where I found this. But the fact that it's out there makes me very happy. Homer Simpson, call your office... (2008 edit: this link goes nowhere now, which does not make me happy... it used to point to an article about some insane big sammich... oh well...)

Stupid stupid op-ed over on Salon this weekend by some disillusioned non-New Yorker. Having seen (on TV) three examples of boorish, racist, classist behavior by rich white assholes from NYC in the last week, the writer has (at this late date) discovered that there are rich white assholes in NYC. I am shocked! (/Claude Rains) Apparently, because NYC is staunchly and solidly lefty, in general, they were under the impression that all residing therein were secular saints of some sort. Having somehow missed out on new stories about Abner Louima, Bernhard Goetz, Big Paul Castellano, Kitty Genovese. And not seen Do the Right Thing. Or read Bonfire of the Vanities. Or heard the words "Rudy" and "Guiliani" used in the same sentence.
So. yes, children, there are rich white assholes in NYC. Also ones of varying colors from varying parts of the socio-economic spectrum. It's also true that some of the things that make NYC such a hot-spot are at least partially funded by the RWA community (art museums and galleries, theater, concerts, Central Park).
The final lesson I draw from this is that I should not get worked up over op-ed pieces written by someone gleaning insight into my native land by watching the Apprentice, Wife Swap, and the latest antics of Paris Hilton.

the Observation Deck (day three) :: "rhyme"
Today's card/text advocates for spontaneous rhyming exercises as a way to loosen up your writing. Or to loosen up yrself as a writer. This is the first card I have disagreements with. I'm down with the whole goofing around, mental calisthenics thing. But the text makes some arguments, about using the spontaneous rhyming as brainstorming for writing that seem to undercut the unstructured, "this ain't about art, it's about freeing your playful side" argument. I guess I see what they mean, but it's a tricky play, to just spill out a tangle of rhyme for rhyme's sake, without any thought to its use or meaning and then to go back in after the fact and treat it as brainstorming material for a story or whatever. If I know in advance I'm going to do that, it seems like that would make it harder to be genuinely spontaneous. Perhaps this is just an indication that I'm not a poet. All of which is by way of saying that I will spare you (and my future self when I go back to read this) any of the ultrawack rhymes I knocked off just now.

Okay, I've been kicked to the curb of the weekend, mostly by work. But at least I was being kicked in the right direction. Pausing to take a breath, I see that pausing to take a breath was a good idea. Much much doing things with stuff and doing stuff with things impending in the month ahead. Gallery opening at Tyndall tomorrow. Party fun after that back in Durham. Possibly Mariza on Tues. Gogol Bordello on 10/14. State Fair 10/15-10/24. Cary Diwali on 10/16. Asheville trip also this month. Chicks Rock DIY Day on 10/23. My writing class starts at the end o' the month. Halloween party at Baffling English Cottage o' Death. At least 2 radio shows and the 2nd XDU Wrrld Music Night-out. Plus the usual unscheduled mental traumas. And some general autumnal yard maintenance/destruction. Cos I wouldn't want things to get boring...