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Entries from May 2009

Very Dead Things, and a Small Box of Chocolate Bunnies

May 31st, 2009 · 11 Comments

If you’ve read my most recent Friday post, you’ve probably figured out that the early-1990s TV series Twin Peaks looms large in The Missus’s and my collective imagination.
(Actually, we have a habit of latching onto odd, off-center network series which don’t have a chance in hell of surviving past the first season or two — [...]

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Tags: Looking Backward · Music · Ruminations · Television · The Media · The Missus

Her Little Voice

May 29th, 2009 · No Comments

[Above is the longer version of the Twin Peaks opening title sequence, including a fairly
complete cast listing (at least for the recurring characters). The "official" and higher-
quality version, with a truncated theme song and cast listing, is here.]
[Note: Comments disabled for this post, for what will eventually be obvious reasons. :)]
From whiskey river:
And then [...]

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Tags: Looking Backward · Poetry · Ruminations · Television · The Missus · whiskey river Fridays

Robert Frost, Grouch

May 28th, 2009 · 7 Comments

Update, 2009-10-19: If you’ve come here by way of the BBC’s Justin Webb’s America piece on “Space, youth, and hope,” welcome! If you’re also here straight from the UK, , I also suggest that you skip over to the Phoenix Artist Club in London on November 3 for the London book launch event for artist [...]

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Tags: In the News · Poetry

The “Critical Mass” Progress Meter

May 26th, 2009 · 8 Comments

Just kidding. I don’t really have such a meter — except in my head.
The progress being metered, as you may guess if you’ve visited here before, is progress towards completion of a book — especially a novel. You can find real such tools scattered around the Writing Web, enabling you to depict your progress [...]

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Tags: Uncategorized

Paying Attention to Your Sense of Play

May 23rd, 2009 · No Comments

I’d already written this post’s title. And I almost began the body of it with these words: “Sometimes, you just have to”—
But, nah. I don’t think everyone, not even every writer, “just has to” do almost anything, much less experience the sort of off-the-wall moment I did one afternoon, years ago. And even less than [...]

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Tags: Everyday Life · Humor · Looking Backward · Paying Attention · Short Fiction · Writing

Airborne

May 22nd, 2009 · 5 Comments

From whiskey river:
As you go the way of life, you will see a great chasm. Jump. It is not as wide as you think.
(Native American Indian saying)
Not from whiskey river:
Don Juan and don Genaro stood up and stretched their arms and arched their backs, as if sitting had made their bodies stiff. My heart began [...]

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Tags: Art & Photography · Cartoons & Animation · Looney Tunes · Music · Ruminations · Television · whiskey river Fridays

It Is a Tweet Universally Acknowledged…

May 21st, 2009 · 5 Comments

Truly brilliant stuff. Very brief excerpt:
TheRealJaneAusten:
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of good fortune must be in want of a wife.
MrsB:
A Mr Bingley–worth 50,000 followers a year–has joined Twitter! He’s brought a friend, Mr Darcy–worth 100,000 followers a year! Pls RT
MrsB:
@JaneB @LizzyB @MaryBsaphorisms @KittyB @LydiaB I will have one [...]

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Tags: Humor · The Online World · Writing

Nothing (at All) Like Falling Off a Bicycle

May 21st, 2009 · 6 Comments

Some people imagine. And some people just flat-out do… even in defiance of gravity.
Hat tip to Haven Kimmel’s Blog for pointing me to this video:

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Tags: In the News

Real-Life Dialogue

May 19th, 2009 · 5 Comments

Patient (handing appointment card for his regular checkup to receptionist at desk in Super Mega Giant medical center): Hey, how you doing, I’m—
Receptionist: I know. Got you right here. (Hands exam paperwork to patient; calls out to someone out of sight behind her.) He just got here! I’m sending him right back!
(Patient wanders around corner, [...]

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Tags: Everyday Life · Language · Real-Life Dialogue

Mapping the WIP

May 19th, 2009 · 6 Comments

I once read advice from a… novelist? playwright? not sure — anyhow, someone who said something like, “The hardest job in writing a story is getting a character from one room to another.” This stuck in my head because at the time I was struggling with just this difficulty. I kept trying to account for [...]

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Tags: Looking Backward · Research/Resources · Seems to Fit · Style and Craft · Writing