Author: Don

Some Catching Up

Happenings on the “life outside writing/blogging/anything artistic” front have been flying. News on those if/when things germinate. For now, here’re some things I’ve been meaning to post for the past month…

1
Now what am I supposed to watch on Sunday mornings?

2
[Michael] Chabon defends mass entertainment against the accusation that it is merely a formulaic product. At times it is; yet commercial culture’s focus on deadlines and profits can also act as a “quickening force” on an artist’s imagination. He demonstrates this with discerning essays on Arthur Conan Doyle, Will Eisner and Howard Chaykin, all of whom, like Chabon himself, attained the ultimate goal of the “pop artisan”: a delicate balance between “the unashamedly commercial and the purely aesthetic”. He disagrees with those who equate literary entertainment with mindless escapism, passive consumption or unproductive activity (“guilty pleasures” is “a phrase I loathe”). Instead, he finds that different forms of writing offer distinct satisfactions to an alert reader.

3
It’ll probably still be a while before you can neurointerface directly with the internet or your friends and lovers, but psychologists are testing implantable brain ‘pacemakers’ that regulate brain activity and so far appear really useful for treating the most stubborn forms of depression.

But we can dream, can’t we?

4
Some people may think that a monk is somewhat reclusive — kind of isolated, in a bubble, meditating all day. But it’s quite the opposite. I’m on the computer, e-mailing. I’m driving, using cell phones and using Facebook. I have my own Web site.

Maybe becoming a monk isn’t so bad after all.

Reading is Fundamental

I haven’t gotten to do any Unvarnished Reviews in awhile. I’ve actually been reading collections fast enough that I haven’t had time enough between books to review every single story I’ve read.

But thanks to goodreads, I can at least tell you what books I’ve finished lately…

Varieties of Disturbance: Stories Samuel Johnson Is Indignant: Stories Severance: Stories

Meet Me in the Moon Room: Stories Howard Who?: Stories (Peapod Classics)

“Thank you very–NEXT”

I thought the unusually lengthy response time from a particular flash market might’ve been due to a piece being shortlisted. But when I queried last week, I got…

Thanks for following up. We’ve been having some problems with a few email providers marking our emails as spam. We’re trying to fix that, but in the meantime, some responses are getting lost. Unfortunately, we decided to pass on “Civic Responsibility.”

Ain’t no thing, though. Off to the next one.

Home Alone

I saw The Wife off this morning on her trip to Boston to visit family. So now I’m home alone, looking at all the little things around the apartment crying out to be done: dishes, the cluttered living room, my inbox, my tickler files, the book I’m close to done with. i.e. anything other than finishing the damn story I’m working on right now.

“Take a break,” you might say. “Enjoy the sun! Have a cookout!” Already did those things, though, in small bits and pieces. But you’re right, let’s take a moment on Memorial Day to remember…

All right, I feel motivated now.