Potpourri, June 18th (2018 edition)

[Above: I have had this track playing incessantly in my head for the last couple of weeks… maybe by posting it here I’ll free myself of it, at least for now. The performance is not a particularly famous one to those who haven’t heard it; it came at the tail end of a suite of songs, a sort of “history of jazz” which Goodman et. al. performed that night (particularly for the sake of those unfamiliar with the sound of jazz in such a venue). Billed as a “jam session,” although they’d rehearsed it earlier in the week, it worked out more or less to earn the billing. A series of foreground soloists (some from Count Basie’s and Duke Ellington’s bands as well as Goodman’s) take turns improvising against one another’s themes — all over Gene Krupa’s driven backbeat. Harry James’s trumpet, it seems to me, kind of owns the thing.]

Another year gone by… time for my annual brain dump on no particular theme, for no particular reason other than because I can… It occurs to me now that — except for the word “annual” — that pretty much describes how I started blogging at Running After My Hat in the first place, haha.

—

Over there at the right, we have evidence of one highlight of my past year: the two most recent posts from my Instagram feed, most recent one first. And yes, I really mean two most recent: every few hours, the feed as displayed here will be refreshed — the one at the right will be replaced by the one to its left, and a different “most recent” one will shown up in the primo spot. (Obviously, or maybe not, if I haven’t posted anything new on Instagram in the interval, the “refreshment” will have no obvious effect.)

Instagram itself doesn’t really obsess me — it’s the photography, especially the black-and-white type. (I explained all this here some months ago, in what was theoretically just the first of a series of posts on the subject.)

More recently, I entered a few photos in an annual local arts-and-crafts show. (They’re the ones stacked over there to the left.) No big deal, is the self-deprecating phrase… and yet, it feels oddly momentous. It’s familiar to me with my writing — the experience of submitting something with strangers “cold,” unread/unseen by anyone but me up until that moment. But this is a first (for me) with photos. And I find that I’m weirdly excited by this.

The process of selecting three photos (the maximum number which could be entered) became surprisingly complicated. By now, I’ve got a ton of photos which haven’t been posted to Instagram, in addition to the almost 500 which have. So figuring out even where to start felt at first impossible. Deciding to limit the selection just to those posted on IG (I had to start somehow), eventually I got the list down to about 65… whereupon (discretion, valor, all that) I enlisted The Missus’s help.

Hard to say what exactly appealed the most to me about these three photos… or maybe not so hard. The decision was driven not just by my own taste but by various other considerations:

• I wanted a mix of black-and-white, and color; and
• I didn’t want to repeat any subject “categories” (e.g., no more than two “door pix”); and
• because this show is organized by a local quasi-governmental arts group — I wanted to appeal not just to the judge’s taste in art, but also to their natural “boosterish” instincts, so to speak.

The judges supposedly announce their selections today, June 18, so I’ll soon see if the weird excitement has been, well, more exciting than weird, or vice-versa.

Edit to add: All three photos were selected to appear in this show. I had a hectic few days to get them all printed and framed professionally by a local shop (consensus so far among people (including me, haha) who’ve seen the final product: they look great); I deliver them Tuesday, and the exhibit runs July 11- August 20, 2018.

(Aside: although the show isn’t a real “gallery” show — the sponsors themselves won’t handle any sales — we were given the option of labeling them “not for sale” (or otherwise, sans price), and of including contact information for interested viewers.  I do hope to sell them!)

—

Then there’s writing — fiction writing, for a change…

On a lark, more or less, I entered a short-story contest late last year. You can read about the contest here, and at the various pages it links to, but in rough form:

• 4,000 entrants from around the world participated in Round 1;
• for Round 2, 625 “winners” were chosen by the judges; and
• for Round 3 — the last one — 75 “winners” were chosen

Each round required participants to write to these constraints:

• Maximum length:
  • in Round 1: 2,500 words;
  • Round 2: 2,000 words;
  • Round 3: 1,500 words
• Time limits:
  • Round 1: eight days
  • Round 2: three days;
  • Round 3: 24 hours
• Heats:
  • Rounds 1 and 2: participants were grouped randomly into heats of (respectively) 32 writers each and 25 writers
  • Round 3: all 75 writers were placed into the same heat
  • Participants didn’t know their assigned heat until the second the round began — which is to say, they had no time to prepare anything in advance. All development, research (if any), writing, and editing had to occur within the given rounds time limit.
• Genres: everyone in a given heat had to write a story in a certain genre. The genres were ones familiar to anyone who’s spent some time with books, either as a reader or writer: suspense, thriller, romance, etc. (Notably absent: literary.) In Round 3, participants were allowed to write in whatever genre they wanted (including “no particular genre,” “genre mashups,” etc.).
• Characters: everyone in a given heat had to write a story featuring a particular character type (not necessarily as the protagonist). For example, it might be (taken from the Round 2 assignments) it might be an alcoholic, a backstabber, an inventor, a mute, etc.
• “Subjects”: this vague term used by contest organizers specifies some thing or some experience to be featured in a given heat’s stories. For instance: medication; a rocket launch; vintage clothing; road rage…

To get to the point of this bit of this blog post: I’m one of the 75 writers who made it through Rounds 1 and 2, and now await the results of the third and final round of judging. (In Round 1, I wrote an action/adventure story featuring a travel agent and a shortcut; in Round 2, again an action/adventure story, this time featuring a delivery driver and animal rights; and in Round 3, a story of no readily identifiable genre featuring an actress and involving — somehow — altruism.)

The judges’ announcement for this contest is scheduled to take place at 11:59 PM Wednesday, June 20.

Edit to add: My NYC Midnight Round 3 entry for the short-story challenge placed sixth. This was high enough in the rankings to earn me $100 and several non-cash prizes. The list of all prizes awarded is here.

So… this is gonna be a week of pleasant surprises and/or disappointments on the creative front. Lucky me!

—

Finally, momentous news of another sort: my official retirement date will be July 31: the last day when I’ll be employed as a permanent, fulltime worker anywhere.

Alas, this doesn’t mean I’ll be unemployed, period. I do have retirement savings coming to me, Social Security, that sort of thing; but I’ll need to continue to work just so we can live month to month, for at least a year (barring some out-of-the-blue financial windfall).

It feels… strange.

I’ve been “doing software” for 39+ years (interrupted by a two-year leave to write); before that, and moving backwards in time, I worked in a book publisher’s warehouse (specifically, the shipping department); taught high-school English and journalism; worked as a housekeeper in a hospital; and drove a cab. (During high school and college, I held the usual assortment of summer jobs — farm work, retail sales, corporate mailroom, stockroom work…)

It’s been a long time coming — no longer for me than for many, agreed, but still. I’m regarding the experience, frankly, with a mixture of excitement and anxiety. We’ll see, right?