20 Tuesday Nov 2012
Posted in Uncategorized
News10 producer Duffy Kelly investigated reports about a turkey terrorizing local joggers. The turkey reduced her to a quivering mess of panic.
“OK. Um… Oh my God! OK. Go away!”
“Help! OK. He won’t stop!”
“No!! Aaah! God!”
“What do we do? Can you grab it? Throw something at it? I can’t throw my camera at him.”
19 Monday Nov 2012
Posted in Writing
Weather
This post-summer, pre-winter bright cold that’s officially fall but doesn’t feel like much of anything.
Item
Unexpected but satisfactory developments in novel land: FELLOW MORTALS has a new cover design with a more impactful title font (see on the righthand column, or scroll down for a larger version).
Plus the publication date has been moved closer, to February 5, 2013. So the thing’s suddenly coming out in less than three months. It’s basically Thanksgiving, Christmas, holiday recovery holy cats pub day.
I suspect some early reviews from Publishers Weekly and Kirkus will appear in the next month or two, so I’m bracing for that. The book’s doing well on Goodreads so far. Will I read my negative reviews when they emerge? You bet. What has thicker skin than a rhino? SUPER RHINO. I will be a super rhino, fending off sour reviewers with my hair horn.
As you can see on the new cover, I received a wonderful blurb from Stewart O’Nan, one of my favorite writers. That was a thrill, and it was all the more enjoyable because it happened exclusively via snail mail. I mailed him a postcard asking if he’d consider giving my novel a look, he postcarded back, my editor mailed him a copy, he mailed me a handwritten note with the blurb, and I wrote him a thank you. No email, no prior connections. It was so old-timey and good.
I hereby counter-recommend his own books. Last Night at the Lobster is a great place to start. Pretty much everybody likes that book. Those who don’t get the hair horn.
My other pre-pub endorsements can be found HERE.
Colonial-American Word of the Day
Buffle-headed: (adj) confused, stupid
Go Forth!
There’s a show I’ve never heard of because I’m often woefully out of touch. The show is called “Bob’s Burgers”. They have a Thanksgiving song, and this song was covered in somber and affecting style by my favorite band, The National. Check out both versions by following the link. It’s really worth hearing.
The National Cover “Bob’s Burgers” Thanksgiving Song
Music
Handel, “Violin Sonata in F Major, Op. 1, No. 12, Allegro”
08 Thursday Nov 2012
Posted in Home Life
Tags
Weather
Cold enough to buy the dog a coat.
Item
Fed-Ex arrived and Bones went predictably ballistic, barking and fogging up the window, his scruff electrified and hot to the touch, and once the Threatening Deliveryman departed and Bones’s barking settled into a nervous grumble-whine, I opened the door and took the box inside.
Bones loves a good fresh box and crotched me pretty hard trying to grab it out of my hands. I opened the box at the dining room table and displayed the contents — a brand new dog coat — and Bones reacted like yeah! Some kind of blanket toy! And then I leaned down with the coat and he was all, double-yeah, let’s play with this thing!
And then I put the coat onto his back, secured the velcro around his belly and neck, and said, “What a great coat! You look so cozy and distinguished.” And Bones walked around very slowly with an expression that said, “Why is Dad punishing me?”
Colonial-American Word of the Day
Bedizened: (adj) dressed out, over-dressed, or awkwardly ornamented
Go Forth!
Snowfall time lapse
Music
Crowded House, “Four Seasons in One Day”
07 Wednesday Nov 2012
Posted in Music
Bonnie Prince Billy’s version of R. Kelly’s “The World’s Greatest”, one of my favorite covers ever:
06 Tuesday Nov 2012
Posted in Home Life
Weather
Ah, the nose-hair stiffening air of democracy.
Item
Benjamin Franklin on elections: “Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.”
Colonial-American Word of the Day
Oil of Gladness: (n) “I will anoint you with the oil of gladness,” ironically spoken for “I will beat you.”
Go Forth!
Northern Exposure’s Chris in the Morning, on Election Day.
Music
The Continental Harmony Singers, “Lamentation Over Boston”
05 Monday Nov 2012
Weather
Smells like snow.
Item
I helped my friend Kurt clean ancient rubble and junk out of his spacious workshop on Saturday. The biggest challenge was a 100-gallon water tank, which we moved on a hand trunk, then drag-battled up a large backdoor step, then realized we could roll across the grass and into the open-ended dumpster. It was heavy and rusty and scary, and I stepped in the worst-ever cat poop along the way. Here is the dread Water Tank of Doom:
But the really scary part was the Giant Rusty Old Piece of Dismantled Fire Escape. This was a 15-foot-long ladderlike thingamajig that Kurt and I picked up all casual like, when suddenly a sharp metal rung flipped sideways and cut a perfect, terrifying flap, like the door of an Advent calendar, in the crotch of my jeans. It missed my underwear/vital interests/femoral artery by millimeters. Shaken but safe, I spent the rest of the morning thinking my fly was open, which wasn’t far off. Apologies for the gratuitous photo:
Colonial-American Word of the Day
Ape Leader: (n) an old maid: their punishment after death, for neglecting to increase and multiply, will be leading apes in hell
Go Forth!
The Red Pen of Doom. I would recommend a specific post or two, but it’s all good.
Music
Godspeed You! Black Emperor, “We Drift Like Worried Fire”
