Category: Weeknotes

Weeknotes S05 E06: Slow and Steady

Close up of a snail on the ground.

Slow and steady wins the race, but it’s usually difficult for me to see progress as it’s happening. But as cynical as even I can be, even I have to acknowledge milestones when I see them.

1
The past couple of weeks have been cramming to get things done before I start my weeklong “enforced” staycation tomorrow – enforced in so far as if I don’t start burning accrued PTO, I stand to lose some of it and I’ll be got’damned if that happens!

It was a productive couple of weeks, though. There’s some stuff I’ve been slowly working my way toward for the past couple of years that are finally bearing fruit now. In a way, it’s the worst time for someone like me to take a vacation, because now I want to capitalize on the momentum! But see, I always want to capitalize on the momentum and what that usually does is burn me out.

Well, not today, Satan! Slow and steady…

2
Finished Reading:

  • AUTOCORRECT by Etgar Keret
  • THE BOOK OF ALCHEMY by Suleika Jaouad

Started reading:

3
One of the things I’ve been binging with my new PBS Passport subscription (in support of WSKG, the PBS station closest to me) is PROFILAGE–which I refuse to reference by its US title, THE PARIS MURDERS. I mean, I can understand why the BBC One’s SPOOKS was re-branded MI-5 in the US. I didn’t know any better because it was still indicative of what the show is about. But retitling TF1’s PROFILAGE (“Profiling”) to THE PARIS MURDERS just doesn’t do the show justice. I feel like it’s got the best characters I’ve ever seen–not just the main cast, but the suspects as well.

Weeknotes S05 E05: These Trying Times

close up of a sleeping tuxedo cat with a paw draped over his eyes
I know how you feel, Asher Mir. I know how you feel.

From an overall life-management standpoint, this past week was pretty uneventful. I should just count my blessings. Obviously that doesn’t mean These Trying Times(TM) are over. But I’ve reached an age where I find myself appreciating the calm between storms.

1
I missed this episode of INDEPENDENT LENS the first time it came around, but when I found it online, I had to give it a go. (It’s free for about another 3 weeks if you’re interested.)

And So It Begins follows the Philippines’ turbulent 2022 presidential race, with the son of ousted former dictator Ferdinand Marcos waging a combative social media campaign against his more progressive opponent, incumbent Vice President Leni Robredo. Following it all is independent journalist and Nobel-winner Maria Ressa, with an eye toward the specter of increasing autocracy.

It took the Philippines a good 50 years to bury Marcos’s Proclamation No. 1081 in a deep-enough memory hole to elect another Marcos. I guess since the U.S. isn’t willing to learn from its own history (2016), I suppose it’s going to take Martial Law happening here? I hope not, but if past is prologue–that is, three years in the past in the Philippines–then I don’t like where this is heading.

My parents came to the U.S. barely six months before Proclamation No. 1081. Wouldn’t that be some bullshit if Martial Law would be why I might have to leave?

2
First Ozzy Osbourne passes, and now Tom Lehrer…

When Lehrer wasn’t teaching college-level math, he was sitting at a piano making people laugh — and worry — about the world. His targets included politics, nuclear destruction, and even social harmony.

Tom Lehrer was one of the most subversive things I, as a Fil-Am kid living in the Midwest going to a Catholic boys high school in the ’80s, could possibly get into. I never heard of him until a friend of mine came to school with a cassette tape on which he’d recorded an episode of a weekly comedy show that played on college radio. (I know, I know, “Tell me you’re old enough to crumble into dust without crumbling into dust.”) On that tape were bits from George Carlin, Eddie Murphy, songs from Dr. Demento, a nice bossa nova from Martin Mull, skits from The Firesign Theatre, and what I’m 99% sure was this song if memory serves…

::takes off eyeglasses and raises them:: Here’s to you, Tom!

3
Stephen Colbert triple-dog-dares them–which is a fine response to These Trying Times™.

Hey, any effort to stave off Martial Law is greatly appreciated.

Weeknotes S05 E04: We’re Here For a Good Time

Weeknotes–more like “monthnotes,” amirite? It’s a personal cliche by now: a spontaneous burst of posts after an extended period of radio silence followed by a hiatus where I just “never get around to posting.” If past is prologue, I’ll keep this up for longer now until I drop out completely for a few months. But if I’m not gonna be on here for a long time, let’s at least make it a good time!

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Speaking of good times, that SUPERMAN movie, huh? It’s not often a film puts an honest-to-god smile on my face.

Look, I never hated on the DCEU Henry Cavill Superman, but I can honestly say I love James Gunn’s take. SUPERMAN (2025) exceeded every high expectation the trailers stirred up in me.

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The reading list:

  • I finished THE ASK by Sam Lipsyte. It’s an almost too-relateable story of a guy bumbling his way through family life and his job in his administrative University job. (Thank the gods I’ve never had to work in alumni development!)
  • Because I can’t get enough of deeply wounded and traumatized characters and have been on a Lidia Yuknavitch kick anyway, I’ve cracked open her novel THE BOOK OF JOAN. Not that I was ever the type of reader who got too bent out of shape one way or the other when a “literary writer” dips a toe into science fiction, but for those who are, I’d say if this book is good enough to get blurbed by Jeff VanderMeer, it’s good enough for you!
  • Picked up another “The Book of…,” THE BOOK OF ALCHEMY by Suleika Jauoad, which has a series of essays and writing prompts, including one from–surprise, surprise–Lidia Yuknavitch, in which she throws an IYKYK shout-out to Tom Spanbauer.
  • I’m about to polish off the last 2 or 3 stories in Etgar Keret’s latest collection AUTOCORRECT.

3
Had a birthday a few weeks ago and my driver’s license was up for renewal, so I finally got the REAL ID version. Technically, I already had one in my passport card, which is set to be renewed in a couple of years, but I wasn’t too keen on carrying that around with me, or my passport for that matter.

At least now I have something conveniently on me if and when some balaclava-wearing dude in a matching camo tac vest and blue jeans carrying an AR-15 stops me on the way to my job at an Ivy League university in a Sanctuary City saying, “Papers, please!”

What is this world coming to?

4
Seen out in the wild, something else to file under: some ol’ bullshit. I didn’t have “spot a racist coded dog whistle on the bus ride to work” this past week, but just my luck…

A bus ad for the company for a tech company with the tagline "A moment of reckoning has arrived for the West." The portion toward the top right is wrinkled.

I like to think the wrinkle in the upper right was someone’s failed attempt to take it down, but maybe I’m just being too optimistic about the state of humanity at this point. But you know what? After seeing SUPERMAN, maybe that’s not such a bad thing to be.

Weeknotes S05 E03: Proof of Life as Resistance

When I write my future memoirs, I hope never to include the line, “I was napping when World War III started.” I mean, c’mon, it sounds more like the opening line of an Etgar Keret short story. But if (when?) future generations ask me where I was when I heard we bombed Iran, the sad truth will be revealed.

With everything going on, I don’t know what the point of a weeknotes post would be right now. Like Charles Bradley sang, “This world is going up in flames”. But maybe that’s why I need to write one. Proof of life as resistance.

There are moments when my typical attitude of “The only way out is through” works against me. Moments when I only have one or two spoons left and it seems like everything on my list takes at least three. And so I look for ways to use the one or two I have left to get me forward anyway, even if 99% of the time all that generates is resentment which is a lousy feeling, but better than the alternatives (not really).

I’m not the only one to know this. I came across this reading Sam Lipsyte’s THE ASK:

I had learned long ago how to refine the raw guilt into a sweet, granulated resentment.

I had a burst of writing energy for the past couple of weeks which is on the usual trend downward and I know I’m there because while I know I need three spoons to working on my current short story, I feel like I need to be using use the one or two I’ve got to do what I “should” be doing. Like, reading all the stuff that’s won Nebula, Locus, or Stoker awards this month rather than 15-year old litfic novels. Or grousing about an article on AI boosterism I never expected to see in BREVITY, of all places.

I mean, c’mon…

And just as a hammer can build Habitat for Humanity or take a human life, the tool is dependent on the human user.

Yeah, except that hammer’s design wasn’t stolen off of the work of people’s blood, sweat & tears and mass-produced via a gross waste of natural resources. But I digress. After all, that’s not the worst thing going on in the world this week, is it?

Writer Harvey Pekar narrating a comic panel from a piece called "The Terminal Years" (c) 1999 Harvey Pekar Art by Gary Dumm
From “The Terminal Years”
(c) 1999 Harvey Pekar
Art by Gary Dumm
Maybe holding on to my remaining spoons would’ve been a better idea. On the other hand, maybe fellow Clevelander Harvey Pekar has it right.

Fuck it, here’s one skirmish. Now, what’s my next one gonna be?

Weeknotes S05 E02: Carnival Like No One’s Watching

It’ll be a short one today. I’m tired, my family’s tired, it’s been A Week. While the world is on fire, our home had a couple of plumbing-related mishaps that had to be dealt with along with everything else. Still, we found the time and a little bit of energy to enjoy a tiny little pop-up carnival held for the second year in a row in the parking lot of the local almost-dead mall.

Elevated shot of a pop-up carnival in a mall parking lot in front of an abandoned Dick's Sporting Goods

When you think about it, it really is our way of protesting. The Fam is actually a perfect intersection of about 99% of everything the current regime hates. ICE has already been through here once and they’d probably still be here if they weren’t busy handcuffing US Senators in California while “liberating” Los Angeles.

WRITING
I was only 3 days out of 7 trying to keep The Chain going. Like I said, it’s been A Week.

But I did have a couple of bright spots.

LISTENING
Last fall’s release of DANCE, NO ONE’S WATCHING by Ezra Collective got by me, but I rectified that this week!

READING

I had a chance to pick up THE ASK by Sam Lipsyte on the cheap and the discovery of this passage made it worthwhile, hitting me in a personal way that I haven’t been since Etgar Keret’s “What Do We Have In Our Pockets.”

I’d had a hard time deciding whether to carry a knapsack, a messenger bag, a canvas book bag, or a briefcase. Each seemed to embody a particular kind of confusion and loss.

Weeknotes S05 E01: Return of the Mack

Watch my flow.

WRITING:
Feels like the time of year where I feel I have the space and the spoons to start reconnecting with the writing world again. If past is prologue, it may not last long. But if I’m not here for a long time this yeear, let’s make it a good time!

It’s been a minute since I put up one of these. It’s also been a minute that I’ve been this consistent, with short fiction at least.

Screen shot of a Google calendar showing red banners on dates in June when I met a writing goal.

LISTENING:
It was also a week to splurge on music, apparently.

Why did I not know that one of my favorite trumpet players has been part of an all-star jazz band that’s put out 3 albums on Blue Note in the past 5 years until I saw this Tiny Desk Concert? You know I picked up their latest album ARBORESQUE the microsecond after I watched.

ARBORESQUE by Artemis on Blue Note Records

I’ll also throw my money at The Budos Band and their brand of Psych Funk for the End Times. BUDOS VII is not one to sleep on, folks!

I swear, you look at the tracklist for their last 2 or 3 records, and it reads like the table of contents of someone’s Weird Fiction story collection.

READING:
Came across this article on The 1970s “Filipino Invasion” of Comics, and it reminded me of a relative who was an artist himself with “I could’ve been a contender” stories about the days when he hung out with Romeo Tanghal and Whilce Portacio. But, as is typical, the good old days weren’t always good…

The Filipino Invasion has a complicated history: there’s the implied union busting and opportunistic underpayment, plus allegations that DeZuñiga, who served as a go-between for DC and the Philippines-based artists, skimmed a percentage off the top without DC’s knowledge. But none of that negates the beauty of the work that Filipino artists did in comics during this period (and continue to do!), or the importance of recognizing and celebrating their contributions.

If nothing else, I’ve kept a full book-reading dance card. On tap right now:

That’s all I’ve got right now.

Weeknotes S04 E07: TBR

It’s fall, and around these parts that means the October Friends of the Library Book Sale. It’s where I was last weekend instead of writing this. I always find a treasure there. Always. And it’s probably one of the few places I’ll buy a dead tree book–not because I have anything against dead tree books. We just don’t have the space, and ebooks are the only way I can practically read in the interstices of an otherwise busy life.

I usually focus on two sections before I start wandering around the place: the science-fiction/fantasy section and the literary short story section, which is where I scored what I discovered was the inaugural issue of the lit mag NOON, edited by Dianne Williams and Christine Schutt. Then, I’ll wander around the other sections and finish off at the CDs. The big score here was a recording from Return to Forever’s 2008 RETURNS tour, the first album from this classic jazz fusion band in over 30 years. I remember freaking out when I first saw the YouTube videos of the Montreux part of the tour. They didn’t lose a step, that’s for sure!

I picked up a copy of the HEAVY METAL soundtrack as a lark, and the interaction I had with the older volunteer who sold it to me made it totally worth the price. She goes, “Great soundtrack! Blue Öyster Cult… I was actually listening to them before I came here today.” Rock on, auntie!

There are two other conditions where I’ll buy a dead-tree book: (a) When I want something that’s only offered in that format and (b) I want it right the fuck now and don’t care if it’ll end up in an ebook later on. That doesn’t happen very often and when it does, I tend to forget when I pre-order them. So this week I got, not one, but two pleasant surprises from past me.

I guess if I go another month between Weeknotes, we’ll know why.

#Weeknotes S04 E06

There was a time when skipping Weeknotes for three weeks in a row would’ve been a source of shame and self-abnegation. I’m over that. Mostly. Life happens, yes — fam, dayjob, a couple days of feeling under the weather, not to mention general exhaustion.

I’ve been feeling like the dude in the picture in the next section.

IN THE WILD:
I saw this picking up a late lunch one day and say a very relatable dilemma. I mean, at a place that’s open 24 hours where you’re gonna have to get this done sometime (whatever this was), I guess broad daylight would work just as well as the middle of the night?

I feel you buddy, I really do.

IDIOT BOXING:
Can’t keep track of what I’ve seen on which streaming service anymore, but it’s been a month of binge-watches.

  • It’s been interesting watching GRIMM and BLEACH: THOUSAND-YEAR BLOOD WAR, what with all the random German getting thrown around.
  • I finally had a chance to check out what all the fuss about RUSSIAN DOLL was about. I get it! I mean, I find Natasha Lyonne’s work enjoyable anyway. The part where her character describes herself as a cross between Andrew Dice Clay and Merida from BRAVE. I see Sam Kinison, myself.
  • The highlight of my binging was DOCUMENTARY NOW. I missed it when it first came around, but when I saw the episode “Long Gone” being a take on Bruce Weber’s LET’S GET LOST, I regretted it. A send-up of CHEF’S TABLE with Jonathan Gold and David Chang doing cameos? A little Spalding Gray (-ish) thing? Where was this all my life?
  • Awhile back I found the complete IN SEARCH OF… series from the ’70s featuring Leonard Nimoy on DVD for five bucks that I’ve been slowly going through. More reliving my youth, I guess.

READING:
I’ve been slacking lately. By slacking, I mean “not knocking out 2-3 books in a weekend.” But like a true book addict, that didn’t stop me from adding two new sci-fi novels from friends of mine, a short story anthology, and a couple of non-fiction books. Because, why not?

NEXT EPISODE(?):
Hopefully it won’t be three more weeks, with life happening — the fam, dayjob, a couple days of feeling under the weather, general exhaustion — until the next post. But you know, all that happens when I do manage to keep this up weekly, so exactly what goes on in these fallow periods of mine? I’ve been trying to break that down and I don’t have anything close to an answer yet. Maybe I’ll have one next time.

#Weeknotes S04 E05: Pressed for Time

I had a couple of “vacation from the vacation” days but after that, this past week was all about getting back on track with daily life. I still haven’t gone through all the photos I took from Boston.

Okay, you know what? Let’s start there, then. I have just the thing, a metaphor for how I’m feeling — a little pressed.

IN THE WILD:
Life-sized diorama of a "pressing" taken at the Salem Witch Museum.

Yeah I feel you, buddy.

Anyway, one of the places we visited was the Salem Witch Museum, which starts off with “an immersive look into the events of 1692” using life-sized dioramas and narration that sounded like it was recorded in the late 1970s — kind of like the intro from Tales from the Darkside — to underscore the prejudice and injustice behind it all.

Yes, this is where I got that Margaret Hamilton photo I posted a couple weeks ago.

READING:
I haven’t gotten a lot of reading done, beyond poking away at Garielle Lutz’s complete story collection after finishing ESSAYS by Wallace Shawn, which I talked about the other day.

WRITING:
I did make a little movement on this front, though! There were a couple of calls for submissions that I noticed last week, so I put something together for one and am in the process of a new piece for another. Because, why work on the other things you have going right now, when you can just start new shit on the spot, right?

You know, I think that’s all I’ve had in me this week. Along the lines of stuff from the 1970s, maybe what I need now is to rebuild some Cognitive Salubrity…?

#Weeknotes S04 E04: More Than a Feeling

IN THE WILD:
Last week’s undisclosed location was Boston, MA where I took a much-needed long-term mental health break with the fam. This was the first time in a long time where I took one before (just before) the wheels fell off. My therapist was proud!

This was the first non-convention related trip to Boston (I forget how many Readercons and Boskones it’s been at this point) in over a decade. I guess for that matter, this was my first post-pandemic trip, too. Lotta firsts on this trip. I’ve got enough pics and video, not to mention thoughts and reflections, for several weeks’ worth of blog posts that I’ll probably dribble out slowly. You might’ve noticed I did some experimenting with dribbling out posts over the past week. That’s where the one pier picture came from, btw.

PREVIOUSLY…
Oh, you missed the pier picture? Not to worry. Here’s a recap.

READING:
Still working on THE COMPLETE GARY LUTZ and QUANTUM CRIMINALS. The latter, I’m savoring slowly, like Cuervo Gold. (See what I did there?)

Like most readers I know, though, I added to the long backlog with DREAM TOWN: Shaker Heights and the Quest for Racial Equity by Laura Meckler. I grew up a couple of ‘burbs over, so a tiny bit of my history overlaps with this, so I thought it’d be interesting. And, randomly, I pulled something up to the front, ESSAYS by Wallace Shawn. I dunno, I think it bubbled back up to the surface because of all the YOUNG SHELDON reruns I’ve been watching lately with Wally in them. I’ll push my thoughts out sometime this week.

Back to the dayjob tomorrow, so I’m going to finish out the weekend reminiscing about the trip to what cultural scholar Carl Brutananadilewski calls The Ultimate Song…