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Where, When, How Much, What Flavor.
"As we express our gratitude, we much never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."
--John F. Kennedy
Tomorrow is World AIDS Day (via 501c3cast)
Seattle had been named the most literate city in America. Must be that new library. Or Nancy Pearl. Or all that rain that keeps everyone indoors and reading by the light of the moon.
San Francisco is a measly 5th but that's up 5 notches from last year. I take some comfort in that (via ArtsJournal).
Susan Orlean (look to your right. I'm reading one of her books as we speak) is guest blogging at Powells.com this week. Which is all sorts of cool. She's good at it too.
Zoolander (2001): "Movies that begins life as five minute MTV sketches should probably die there too."
So hey, I'm done with my book tour. Like done done. Bookmark Now and I have parted company. We had a great run but now it's time for both of us to move on. We're going stay friends. We think.
Since I've been working the last 6 months almost nonstop, flying across the country a dozen times and eating way way too many egg mitts in waiting lounges, I'm going to take the month of December off. Any work that happens will be fit in between reading, movie viewings, trips to the gym, long walks and longer baths. It'll be blissful. By January, I may be ready to start the proposal for another book. I promise nothing
However, since I'm a workaholic freak, I need to structure my relaxation time. Which is pathetic. But otherwise,, I'll simply obsess about what I should be doing, even though I shouldn't be doing anything, feel lousy about not doing it, even though "it" is nothing and make myself and everyone around me miserable.
Below is an ambitious, insane list of what I'd like to do before 2006 shows up for checkers and milk. I'll slot each item in where I can, like tomorrow I'm buying a vaccuum.
1. Create personal budget for 2006
2. Record more episodes of Your Ten Minute World, my awesome podcast
3. Buy vaccuum cleaner
4. Try NIA or hip hop dance class at the JCC
5. Spend a day reading 9 inch pile of magazines I neglected this week.
6. Spend a day seeing 3 or more movies.
7. Spend an entire day reading one book.
8. Revisit geocaching
9. Take the giving of holiday gifts seriously this year instead of buying everyone I love a book from Amazon 3 days before Christmas.
10. Visit a place in Northern California I've never been to before
11. Write fan letter to Dailysonic
12. Write thank you notes to everyone who supported me during my book tour
13. Clean car
14. Empty old filing cabinet
15. Sell old computers on Ebay
16. Sell old CDs after buying a few large CD binders
17. Sell out
18. Sleep late (I suck at this)
19. Return 6 months of email buildup
20. Clean computers (files and casings)
21. Be.
What does your December look like?
So my book tour is over. 15 cities, nearly 50 events, thousands of miles traveled. I have no idea how well the book is selling and frankly, I don't want to. RIght now, I want normalcy, friends, family, loved ones, time with Suzan, my cat and myself. Time in San Francisco, time to wander, time to turn left when I meant right. Time to be.
I'll be taking December off before beginning my next project and to enjoy the holiday season. So you'll be seeing a lot more of me around these parts.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone. And thank you for your support. You make it all worthwhile.
Jarhead (2005) "An OK war movie can make excellent gay porn."
Wake me when American Literature stops its self-hating whining and fatalistic nonsense. At the ceremony for the National Book Awards (rundown of winners here), Toni Morrison, Norman Mailer and Lawrence Ferlinghetti (who I expect better from and should be ashamed of himself) all warned us (set your faces to cringe) that "The serious novel may be in serious decline." Never mind that Norman Mailer hasn't had a contemporary thought since the Johnson administration, or that Morrison has decided to conveniently overlook the explosion of interest in poetry and the written word happening in African-American communities across the country or that Ferlinghetti, a half-century resident of San Francisco, has ignored his adopted home's thriving literary culture. All of which leads me to place the blame at the feet of...
1) The Internet. The biggest evil the arts have known since the Nazis burned books on the Opernplatz.
2) "Desperate Housewives", who has drugged America into watching the idiot box on Sunday nights instead of doing what they were before: Quizzing each other on Proust.
3) Junk Food, which has made everyone so fat and lazy they can no longer lift a book like The Naked and the Dead and thus forced them to deny the First Commandment of Contemporary Literature: Length equals merit.
4) Podcasting, which, er, because I don't know what it is must be one of those new fangled distractions that keeps the kids from buying my books.
5) Arrogance and self-hatred. It serves exactly no one to moan the death of literature and propose no solution to the contrary. It is the height of arrogance to assume the decline happened safely after you had published greatness, collected your awards and been crowned a legend.
Miles Davis was perhaps the greatest musician of the 20th century. Not once did he complain that jazz was in peril, nor did he ever blame contemporary culture from shifting their interest away from him. At the end of his life, he was making music with Big Daddy Kane, Public Enemy and many other hip hop artists his contemporaries were cursing for killing the spirit of jazz.
Morrison, Mailer and Ferlinghetti should learn from his example. Theirs is an unwiliness to accept change, to see how the world could be different than the one you grew up in and to engage in labored denial of history. The novel has been declared dead since the day it was born. And when, in that 300 years, has it happened?
Their scolding is not wanted here, on the battlefields of contemporary literature, where many of still have the audacity of hope. Shame on all three of them for spitting on it.
An old chestnut that never seems to spoil, Slate asks a bunch of famous people to reveal their first literary crushes. This is a lot like asking someone to discuss their beloved's annnoying habits at their wedding rehearsal dinner. The circumstance precludes an honest answer. So no matter how self-effacing or down-with-peeps a media personality is, they are certainly not going answer something uncool like "Danielle Steel" even if it's the truth.
This is not one of Slate's prouder moments (via Readerville).
Title: Bloodangel
Author: Justine Musk
Relationship: Justine was a student of mine in the Book Promotion 101 workshop last January in Los Angeles. We've since become friends and, although I missed the launch of her book because I was wrapped up in the waning weeks of Bookmark Now touring, I'm still eager to give it a look. And to recommend it to you. I'm not much of a horror reader myself but knowing Justine, she seems to have a foot in several worlds, which is what I'd be looking for in a book like this.
Synopsis: Charismatic rock n roll singer's voice is summoning disciples from across the land. Just in time for the end of the world.
Acquired: Haven't yet. Will soon. This weekend is the 30th anniversary book sale at A Clean Well Lighted Place for Books.
Addendums:
Huuzah K.L Cook! The author of Last Call has written a fantastic article in this month's Poets and Writers about how he book together a book tour for himself, 60 events in several states and dragged his wife and four kids along. Reading at universities, elementary schools and backyard BBQs, he managed to serve his book with both dignity and sweat and not abandon his familial responisbilities or go bankrupt.
In my consulting pratice, the single most common question I get from pre-pub authors is "how do I promote my book and not desert my family/lose my job/have to sell a vital organ? From now on, I'm going to to give the best advice I can and assign this essay as required reading.
P.S. Works equally well for touring musicians/filmmakers or other on-the-road artists.
No rabbis did not discuss oral sex in schul when I was a boy. But I lived in simpler times (via Jewschool).
So I just finished watching the first season of "Lost" and have three questions for both you and I to ponder...
1) Why does nearly every episode begin with a close up on someone's eye?
2) How much of the show's appeal can we attribute to the hyper-connectedness of our world, to the idea that, in 2005 thanks to cell phones the GPS and the Internet, it's nearly impossible to be physically "lost" and that the nightmare of the 21st century is to be cut loose from that web of connection (question via Dave)?
3) How much of the show's appeal is a post 9/11 fantasy of a unified society, of a "country" bonded across race, class and gender lines around a common purpose, instead of the red state/blue state mess we find ourselves in now?
Your thoughts are welcome, neigh encouraged.
I think when Suzan and I are in New York City for Thanksgiving, we're going to make a point of visiting the all dumpling restaurant. What a great idea that is.
North Country (2005): Can a town, neigh a society, be held responsible for the attitudes of filthiest members?
Now I know this street corner very well. It's only a few blocks from my house and I've caught the train and had brunch their several hundred times. But I can't say I've ever seen this happen, although I'd pay good money for a repeat performance (via Torrez).
Much as I and my bedding need this, I have my doubts that it's so easy. Doesn't mean I won't try (via Dansays).
UPDATE: These instructions suck. I've tried it 4 times now and still end up with a lump of excess sheet at one end of the folding. Suzan took me through it. Seems on corners 3 and 4, you need to straighten the seams to keep the sheet from bunching inside the folds. But the instructions leave out that part.
Not having internet access in your hotel room in 2005 is like being asked to use the toilet in the lobby. And getting charged for the privilege.
I'll be thinking some about personal productivity in the month of December, which I plan to take off before beginning 2006 and a whole new slate of post-Bookmark Now projects. During this time, I'll be consulting the following data and panel of experts.
*A fantastic post at 43 Folders by my friend Scott Andrew called "Productivity for the Practcising Musician." I couldn't carry a tune in a pail but these tips apply to anyone who has both a day job and a second career as a creative professional.
*This dead on summary of productivity systems at Lifehacker. And sorry, there are no Top 10 lists, no thumbs up for magic tool sets that are perfect, just for you. No, the message is this (and I paraphrase): Find the system that works pretty well for you and is fun to use. And then work it. No system will work it for you.
*Keith Robinson's excellent site To-Done contains essays on personal productivity that feel written by a human being rather than an organizational development coach. Probably helps that I know Keith, but To-Done always makes me feel like I'm learning with it instead of being lectured at by it.
Whew! Episode #2 of my podcast, Your Ten Minute World, took me the better part of last night to finish up but you can find it here:
Again, If you already subscribe to this site's rss feed (available here), do nothing. It should send the podcast directly to you as an .mp3 file. Or if you want the podcast, plug this URL...
http://feeds.feedburner.com/WhereTheresSmoke
into iTunes or whatever you grab your podcasts from.
Episode #2 is called "Salutation:" Enjoy.
So all four of the Governer's ballot measures have failed.
Boo Yah!
So the summerwide hype of my book is drawing to a close but my publisher has kindly agreed to sponsor this contest, which gives you, the loyal or passing reader the chance to win a whole pile of really good books. Here's how it works.
Visit this site. Recommend your favorite books, the books that changed your life, to friends and loved ones. Doesn't have to be my book. Probably better if it's not.
Once you've made your recommendations, as many as you like, your name will be entered in a drawing to win this list of 15 books, as recommended by the contributors to Bookmark Now. No names are kept or sold or placed on a spambelt by anyone.
Da List
Christian Bauman recommends: The Shipping News by Annie Proulx
Tracy Chevalier recommends: Restoration by Rose Tremain
Stephanie Elizondo Griest recommends: Nothing to Declare by Mary Morris
Douglas Rushkoff recommends: Cosmic Trigger by Robert Anton Wilson
Nico Cary recommends: Power Politics by Arundhati Roy
Tom Bissell recommends: The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Benjamin Nugent recommends: Atonement by Ian McEwan
Paul Collins recommends: How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff
Paul Flores recommends: Smoking Lovely by Willie Perdomo
Glen David Gold recommends: Youth in Revolt by C.D. Payne
Karl Soehnlein recommends: The Beautiful Room Is Empty by Edmund White
Kelley Eskridge recommends: Lost Horizon by James Hilton
Dan Kennedy recommends: Shopgirl by Steve Martin
Neal Pollack recommends: Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth
Megham Daum recommends: The White Album by Joan Didion
Easy peasy. Recommend books, get entered to win. And blog owners, feel free to steal the graphic above to alert your own readers about this opportunity.
Again, the Electronic Bookmark, where this contest is happening.
I'm in Maimi tomorrow, reading and seeing my folks. More this weekend.
So when I found out from Lucia that I would be missing Pandora's first meetup because I would (again) be out of town on book tour (again), I just about lost it. Then I regained, remembered how excited I am to do be doing an event at Books and Books Miami and to see my parents, and figured this rage could be put to better use. Therefore...
If you are a creative person and have spend untold months on the road, keep a list of every event, happening, hootnanny and box social you miss at home. Then when your travels end, try and recreate these missed gatherings, one at a time on whatever scale you chose. You can throw a friend a second birthday, play a day's worth of Matt Nathanson because you missed his concert, or reenact the Pandora Meetup with finger puppets. I say do all three.
Gandhi (1982): "Just as one life can have infiinite value, when life must continue on, pain, confusion and all, when that live ends."
I had no idea that Stephen Crane, author of one of my favorite books, The Red Badge of Courage, was only 28 when he died. Tuberculosis (heard last week on The Writer's Almanac).
The New York Times profiles Chip Kidd, perhaps the only book jacket designer with name brand recognition, who has a new monograph out called Chip Kidd: Book One: Work: 1986-2006. Actually, it's a profile of the house he shares with his partner but whatever. It gives you a lot on the man too.
Despite the steep price tag, this exictes the hell out of me. Kidd is best known for such memorable book jackets as Michael Crichton's Jurrasic Park, David Sedaris's Naked, and Augusten Burroughs's Dry.
The holidays are coming up. Perfect for the book geek (me) in your life.
So I'm an idiot and left the files for Episode #2 of Your Ten Minute World at home. Which means no new episode until next week. Sorry everyone.
A few housekeeping items. I'm leaivng for Baltimore tomorrow where I'll be reading at central branch of the Enoch Pratt Library Thursday at 6:30 PM. If you can make it, much appreciated. Besides that, I'll be spending the weekend at my annual gathering of my old college friends, our 10th.
As such, blogging will be fairly light. You can grab linky goodness from Smokey Links (feed) which I'll try and keep fresh. I'm also going to be recording Episode #2 of Your Ten Minute World tomorrow night.
In case you missed Episode #1, Show Notes are below:
Your Ten Minute World #1: Pangea.
00:13 What does "Pangea Mean?".
00:50 Today's Rundown.
01:17 News and inane answers to it.
03:11 Genocide according to George Saunders (Recommended Book).
08:39 Why Judas Priest still "rocks you all around the world" (Recommended Song)
13:19 The Globe Theatre is back!
13:54 The Day is Yours.
14:19 Hidden track.
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit: (2005).
"I much prefer horror movies when satirized, British and rendered in clay."
Bookmark Now: Writing in Unreaderly Times edited by Kevin Smokler
