Damn, it’s been a good week at Ash Tree. Posted a link to a story and now Ian of RetroBabe wrote a post about a couple of my songs. Thanks, Ian. Go check out RetroBabe. "Apartment" and "Be My Wife," interesting choice. Though maybe it's because those are the first two.
Also, a woman recently wrote me and asked if she could post my story about Sew the stray dog at her dog site. It’s at Bark Park Arizona. She changed "shitty little apartment" to "little apartment." Damn censors! I don’t blame her.
July 15, 2005
July 14, 2005
My Cherry
Identity Theory has posted my story "My Cherry" about a misogynist on his honeymoon. I haven’t read it on the site, but it feels great to have it up there. Thanks to Identity Theory.
My wife and I never went on a honeymoon. The story is based on a trip I took with an ex-girlfriend a few years before I met my wife. She was an art student in Philadelphia and we took a trip to Atlantic City one weekend. She won several hundred dollars and I kept losing. It was sort of demoralizing. I took that feeling and exaggerated the hell out of it, which is what I like to do.
Don’t tell my wife but I took a day off on Tuesday to work on my novel. Don’t worry, S, I’m at the beginning of a pay period so I earned the day. So that’s what it feels like to be a full-time writer. I set aside the music I wanted to listen to and plugged in my changes all day. It was like a vacation. My job is creative somewhat, but more on the surface. My mind opened up in a much different way. Even the music sounded better. The novel’s almost there.
I know this blog is the "Journal of a writer," but I don’t like writing so much about the writing process. Seems presumptuous, maybe. But it’s what I’ve been thinking about, mostly. Soon I’ll write about something else. Until then, check out the story.
My wife and I never went on a honeymoon. The story is based on a trip I took with an ex-girlfriend a few years before I met my wife. She was an art student in Philadelphia and we took a trip to Atlantic City one weekend. She won several hundred dollars and I kept losing. It was sort of demoralizing. I took that feeling and exaggerated the hell out of it, which is what I like to do.
Don’t tell my wife but I took a day off on Tuesday to work on my novel. Don’t worry, S, I’m at the beginning of a pay period so I earned the day. So that’s what it feels like to be a full-time writer. I set aside the music I wanted to listen to and plugged in my changes all day. It was like a vacation. My job is creative somewhat, but more on the surface. My mind opened up in a much different way. Even the music sounded better. The novel’s almost there.
I know this blog is the "Journal of a writer," but I don’t like writing so much about the writing process. Seems presumptuous, maybe. But it’s what I’ve been thinking about, mostly. Soon I’ll write about something else. Until then, check out the story.
July 13, 2005
July 12, 2005
Blog
Man, I just don’t feel like blogging these days. Now that I’m working heavily on my novel, I don’t have the desire to write here, that part of my brain is being satisfied. There’s an interesting article (via Beatrice) by a writer who says he fears that writing a blog can affect fiction writing--like in therapy, all your problems, observations, etc. will go "out the mouth" rather than onto paper. Depends on the writer, I guess. For me it’s been extremely positive, but I’m more in the place of trying to resurrect my writing career through the blog. In that respect it’s worked. I’ve actually written and published more fiction since I started the blog. And it's not like blog writing is useless and fiction writing is all that matters. Writing is writing.
Been reading the Daily Kos for the first time since the election. I’ve stayed away from politics. The London bombing brought me back. I needed to read some other voices. This thing with Rove seems like a fantasy from Nov. 3, 2004.
In musical news, I got a turntable from my dad which he hasn’t used for years. The belt was slack and melted and needs to be replaced but I’m gonna be back listening to LPs: stuff my brother and I bought in high school like Roger Waters’ "The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking," bad Return to Forever records, and Sly Stone disco remixes. I’ll be obsessing about finding cheap obscure records in no time.
Been reading the Daily Kos for the first time since the election. I’ve stayed away from politics. The London bombing brought me back. I needed to read some other voices. This thing with Rove seems like a fantasy from Nov. 3, 2004.
In musical news, I got a turntable from my dad which he hasn’t used for years. The belt was slack and melted and needs to be replaced but I’m gonna be back listening to LPs: stuff my brother and I bought in high school like Roger Waters’ "The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking," bad Return to Forever records, and Sly Stone disco remixes. I’ll be obsessing about finding cheap obscure records in no time.
July 6, 2005
Desk
That’s where I work now that I’ve got a new desk. Very tired lately. Not much to say here. I work 9:30-4:00 until Olivia comes home from daycare. Spend time with her until she goes to sleep at 7:30/8 and then work on the novel for 2 or 3 hours from there. Tiring.
Losing my mind somewhat. I got very bad when I wrote the first draft of the novel--writing a book about people who are firmly detached from reality. My wife was pregnant at the time which was turning my life upside down. I was a weirdo. It’s not as bad for the rewrite--more like a contact high.
The book’s progressing smoothly. Almost done reading through the book once. I thought I’d show my mom’s credits as well, don’t want to leave her out. Here’s her IMDB page. It might explain why I write a lot about Hollywood.
July 1, 2005
Dad
While I’m posting stuff my dad wrote, he also wrote these movies:
At one point when I was a kid, I hung around with Jodi Foster. I have an autographed picture of her. She calls me a "Turquey." I have also peed in Robbie Robertson’s (The Band) bed. Man, my Hollywood kid credentials are intact.
Also, my dad wrote a precursor to "A Nightmare on Elm Street." He actually ended up working with Wes Craven on a TV show called "Nightmare Café." My mom once had a meeting with Quentin Tarantino. He said, excitedly, "Your husband wrote ‘The Sender’? I’ve made my own copy using the TV edit." A true film freak. It’s an obscure horror movie:
Click on the posters for a synopsis.
At one point when I was a kid, I hung around with Jodi Foster. I have an autographed picture of her. She calls me a "Turquey." I have also peed in Robbie Robertson’s (The Band) bed. Man, my Hollywood kid credentials are intact.
Also, my dad wrote a precursor to "A Nightmare on Elm Street." He actually ended up working with Wes Craven on a TV show called "Nightmare Café." My mom once had a meeting with Quentin Tarantino. He said, excitedly, "Your husband wrote ‘The Sender’? I’ve made my own copy using the TV edit." A true film freak. It’s an obscure horror movie:
Click on the posters for a synopsis.
June 30, 2005
Hugo the Hippo
My dad wrote the book and the screenplay for "Hugo the Hippo"--a seventies kids’ movie which I haven’t seen in 25 years. My friend in elementary school got my dad to sign the book when he came over to our house for the first time. It was his favorite book. I think it has a small cult following. I just discovered there’s a site devoted to it: Hugothehippo.com.
June 29, 2005
Happy Birthday
It’s my birthday today. 33. June 29, 1972. NYU hospital, New York City.
True story: a girl once said to me, "You were born on June 29? That’s such a nothing day."
"When were you born?" I asked.
"August 3rd," she said.
From "Taxi Driver": "June twenty-ninth. I gotta get in shape. Too much sitting has ruined my body. Too much abuse has gone on for too long. From now on there will be 50 pushups each morning, 50 pullups. There will be no more pills, no more bad food, no more destroyers of my body. From now on will be total organization. Every muscle must be tight."
Hey, and Christ was resurrected when he was 33, right? OK! It’s going to be a good year.
True story: a girl once said to me, "You were born on June 29? That’s such a nothing day."
"When were you born?" I asked.
"August 3rd," she said.
From "Taxi Driver": "June twenty-ninth. I gotta get in shape. Too much sitting has ruined my body. Too much abuse has gone on for too long. From now on there will be 50 pushups each morning, 50 pullups. There will be no more pills, no more bad food, no more destroyers of my body. From now on will be total organization. Every muscle must be tight."
Hey, and Christ was resurrected when he was 33, right? OK! It’s going to be a good year.
June 27, 2005
Fren
On Friday night, my wife and I went to the Cloverfield Press reading and then to drinks afterwards. I had a Jim Beam on the rocks. I don’t think I’ve drunk hard liquor since my daughter was born, almost three years ago (in July). Drinking Jim Beam reminded me of being in New York, going to Ludlow bars, drinking shot after shot of Jim Beam, maybe Jameson, and chasing it with beer. Getting really fucking drunk.
Those days seem long past. I could never be a hardcore drunk because I can’t really drink hard for more than two nights in a row. Maybe it has something to do with my bad kidneys, I don’t know, but I could never be a hard-drinking writer type because my body just shuts down after a couple of days. Still, though, it was very satisfying to get a drink or two with my wife in an L.A. bar.
Our social life has been pretty much nil since we moved to L.A. I think this could change dramatically soon enough, but then I always have felt this. We’ve been here a year and a half and we don’t have many friends. People who we see often and feel we can count on and count on us. Actually, this is part of the reason we came together. We both lean towards being hermits. We bring this out in each other and tend to foster it. It’s been like this everywhere we’ve lived. Not the greatest impulse in the world and we both want to shed it. We’re good for each other in many other ways.
Being parents makes it that much harder. We have had a very hard time meeting conducive people in Los Angeles. The parents at the park are so aggressive and competitive, and sort of hyper-normal. I have a theory that women who wear beige capris and pastel shirts: suck. Sorry if I offended anyone there. They exaggeratedly push their child on the swing, chirping, Wee, Wee! not for the benefit of their kid, but for everyone else, as if to say, "LOOK! I’m a good parent. LOOK! I’m a good parent." My wife recently went into a public restroom at our neighborhood park where two women had their shirts off, comparing their breasts after implants. "Sometimes they sag, but they look so much better than after my baby was born." We feel like aliens in a world of aliens.
Don’t take that the wrong way, we take her to the park all the time, we’re just not always comfortable.
No doubt we’re too judgmental, but we just haven’t connected with anybody. My wife feels very distant from these women. She’s a former stripper and many women might judge that. Somewhere there are stripper friendly, non-competitive parents out there. We just haven’t found them. We also live in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood so many parents we meet are staunchly religious, Bush supporters. On election day, our neighbor asked her husband, "Who are we voting for?" It’s been hard.
So…we went to a literary reading and got a taste of people who like books and such. Had some conversations that didn’t make me want to kill myself afterwards. I’d like some more of it.
Those days seem long past. I could never be a hardcore drunk because I can’t really drink hard for more than two nights in a row. Maybe it has something to do with my bad kidneys, I don’t know, but I could never be a hard-drinking writer type because my body just shuts down after a couple of days. Still, though, it was very satisfying to get a drink or two with my wife in an L.A. bar.
Our social life has been pretty much nil since we moved to L.A. I think this could change dramatically soon enough, but then I always have felt this. We’ve been here a year and a half and we don’t have many friends. People who we see often and feel we can count on and count on us. Actually, this is part of the reason we came together. We both lean towards being hermits. We bring this out in each other and tend to foster it. It’s been like this everywhere we’ve lived. Not the greatest impulse in the world and we both want to shed it. We’re good for each other in many other ways.
Being parents makes it that much harder. We have had a very hard time meeting conducive people in Los Angeles. The parents at the park are so aggressive and competitive, and sort of hyper-normal. I have a theory that women who wear beige capris and pastel shirts: suck. Sorry if I offended anyone there. They exaggeratedly push their child on the swing, chirping, Wee, Wee! not for the benefit of their kid, but for everyone else, as if to say, "LOOK! I’m a good parent. LOOK! I’m a good parent." My wife recently went into a public restroom at our neighborhood park where two women had their shirts off, comparing their breasts after implants. "Sometimes they sag, but they look so much better than after my baby was born." We feel like aliens in a world of aliens.
Don’t take that the wrong way, we take her to the park all the time, we’re just not always comfortable.
No doubt we’re too judgmental, but we just haven’t connected with anybody. My wife feels very distant from these women. She’s a former stripper and many women might judge that. Somewhere there are stripper friendly, non-competitive parents out there. We just haven’t found them. We also live in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood so many parents we meet are staunchly religious, Bush supporters. On election day, our neighbor asked her husband, "Who are we voting for?" It’s been hard.
So…we went to a literary reading and got a taste of people who like books and such. Had some conversations that didn’t make me want to kill myself afterwards. I’d like some more of it.
June 24, 2005
Slime
More about music. I love the Beach Boys’ "Smile." I’ve got "Smiley Smile," the stuff from the "Good Vibrations" box set and "Brian Wilson’s Smile" which was just put out. That’s it though. Empty Drum and I used to religiously listen to a "Smile" bootleg tape which I’ve since lost, or maybe he took it. The people at The Smile Shop could nerd me under the table any day. In their forums, I found a link to someone who made a mix using the sequencing of the new "Smile" using the old recordings. It’s good. I like the old recordings better--they’re more innocent, and so weirder. But they did an amazing job with the Smile remake.
While I’m writing about epic psychedelic records, Ray Davies and Pete Townshend should be slightly murdered for selling their songs to American commercials. Every time I hear "Picture Book" on that commercial for a printer I feel sort of betrayed. Even if the effects are kind of neat. Same goes for "Tommy" and a car commercial. Ann Margaret rolling around in baked beans pouring out of the TV in the "Tommy" movie is a great anti-corporate moment, and the story is about a spiritual awakening. I guess Pete Townshend is trying to resurrect himself after being accused of pedophilia. Hence the use of the song, "I’m Free."
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