let the commencement beginulate

WriMo update: was up until around 2am last night and with that and a couple of long sessions over the weekend, I find myself up around 12K. That's not a pace that'll get me to 50K in a month. But I'm sort of okay with that. I'm trying to stay focused on the process, to just sit down and write some every night. When I think about the scope of the larger project... well, that gets overwhelming and makes me want to take a nap or watch TV for 5 hours. But if I just focus on doing, on writing, not even so much on moving the story along so much as just getting something "down on paper" (I'm writing on the iceBook so I don't know what the slang-y phrase for that is). And at that level it's been really interesting. Just over the last couple days, actual plot has started to emerge. Things happening to the characters, things for them to react against and stuff. Last night in class, Sharon (the instructor) said something that really helped a lot -- just a reminder that it's not necessary to write in a linear process. So I was able to come home and get a nice scene down that happens days later in the story line. Cos that's what I'd thought of, but if I'd tried to sit there and figure out everything that has to happen over four days to get to that scene, well it just wouldn't have happened. I'd have gotten more sleep but I feel better having gotten the writing done instead.

I don't think I've raved about the new Nancy Sinatra CD. Yes, that Nancy Sinatra. These boots are made for walkin' and etc. It's not a novel approach at this point, pairing a musical icon with younger artists/fans. But it still works when it feels like the guests actually want to be there (Tom Jones' Reload and Loretta Lynn's Van Lear Rose, por ejemplo). Morrissey, Jon Spencer, Calexico... what's not to love? Even Bono and the Edge whip up a nice Frank-style saloon song for Nancy. The Thurston Moore number, tho... Godawful. Which surprised me since he was collaborating with Lydia Lunch around the same time she was checking in with her awesome cover of "Some Velvet Morning" (with Rowland S. Howard).

And Lisa mentioned Survival Research Laboratories recently. I was pleased to see that they're still going strong. 25 years of machines and mayhem. They don't seem to travel to the east coast much but hopefully I'll get the chance to see them some day.