There is, naturally, a slight pang of guilt in that the author will lose the royalty that they might have received from the publisher, and I do think about that, but it is overwhelmed by the weird thrill I feel at imagining who else has owned this – who else read these words, on this page. Did anyone else get to the lines:

…I’d write “Anna” in the air – backward and right to left – so that the person I was speaking to could see, and when I was on the phone I’d dial the numbers – 2, 6, 6, 2 – so the person could hear what I couldn’t, myself, say.

…and feel the same odd little rush that I did? Maybe the rush originated from those shared moments, aligned in time around these magical objects – as if each copy of every book is a little Horcrux unto itself.

Or is it really just some internal sleight-of-hand dazzling our innate yearning for personal connections, sparked by a unique turn of the phrase that seems special and magical and all of those things that make for good storytelling?

~

[NOTE: Apologies to Jonathan Safran Foer for buying my copy of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close on the cheap. If anyone is on the fence about this book, follow the link and buy a (new) copy...]

“Modern sports fans, who spend more and more of their free time consuming sports, ultimately want nothing more than to get away from the stuff. We’d rather watch sports than play sports; we’d rather watch sports on TV than watch sports in person; we’d rather play video-game sports than watch sports in any form. We’d rather follow fantasy teams than real teams. If there were a podcast about dead baseball announcers imagining pie in hell, we’d never listen, but we’d faithfully read some guy’s blog summary.”

I added it to my Instapaper account for a re-read when I got to the “Michael Vick has never been at war with Eastasia” line. Wow.

… He would have 31 in his career; enough to tie him with Joe Montana, but still trailing Elway (34), Johnny Unitas (34), Peyton Manning (35) and Dan Marino (36). As it stands, the Arizona win was Favre’s 30th comeback victory.

And here, for example, is a bit of Marino greatness. The infamous ‘fake spike’ that sent the Jet’s organization into a funk and Pete Carroll running back to college.

My feelings on the movie are best echoed by this orgasmic review of the said-fancy disc by Adam Tyner of DVDTalk:

“So, somewhere in the middle of Scott Pilgrim’s second date with the very literal girl-of-his-dreams, one of her ex-boyfriends suddenly crashes through the ceiling. Within a minute or two, this guy breaks out into a Bollywood dance number, continues his shoulder-jiggling dance routine mid-air, spawns a gaggle of winged, fanged demon-hipster-chicks, and flings a barrage of fireballs Scott’s way. ‘Course, everyone knows that Scott Pilgrim is the best fighter in the province, so he air-juggles Ramona’s ex Street Fighter-style until he bursts into a couple bucks in coins. Scott isn’t concerned so much about the fact that a levitating, demon-summoning, pyrokinetic Indian kid had tried to kill him before exploding into pocket change; no, he’s just miffed that the guy didn’t leave enough for bus fare back home…(fast forward)…In other words, it’s pretty much the best thing ever.”

“Look, I long ago stole everything I wanted from the Beatles catalogue. (Or ripped the CD. Same-same, but different.) And I’m not the only one! Plenty of people managed to play it on iTunes and iPods and iPhones and, for gosh sakes, even their Zunes before today. I mean, OMG: The Beatles were the top played band on last.fm charts last week! But how?”

Apple’s finally brought the Beatles to iTunes?

THE WALKING DEAD “Opening Titles” from Daniel Kanemoto on Vimeo.

Attaboy to Daniel Kanemoto

“Tea Party types mistakenly believe reasonable and progressive Americans disrespect them for their anti-government rhetoric. That’s untrue. Despite its use in attack ads, there is no such thing as an “anti-jobs” candidate. Everyone wants less spending, reduced deficits and decreased government control of everyday life … So it’s not that many of us don’t want what the Tea Party wants; it’s that we don’t believe the Tea Party genuinely wants those things”

From of Abe Sauer at THE AWL.

“Keep in mind, O’Reilly may pull just over 3 million viewers a show, but Prairie Home Companion bests that by a million. Even Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me has as many listeners as Bill has viewers. Recently, O’Reilly’s audience surged to over 4 million following the hissy fit on “The View.” That’s a regular week for Car Talk, listened to and loved by 4.4 million. Even gratingly twee This American Life (1.7 million) pulls just about the same numbers as Fox News superstar Glenn Beck.”

I’m more of a plotter, an editor, and have never had the discipline for systematically GettingThingsDone. Instead, I daydream of neat plot twists and characters, but never take the time to write.

This year, I’ve been stumbling forward, notebook in hand, outlining the story and adding definition to my hazy dreams.

So, what’s the point, right? I was cleaning out ye olde hard drive today, both seeking to avoid actual productivity and browsing materials, notes, and false starts regarding said novel when I came across a key document in which I’d punched out some notes and decided (monumentily, I thought at the time) to change my main character from a young boy who runs away and joins the circus to a young girl who runs away and joins the circus. It led to a dozen other changes that all seem to make the story better and were inspirational in themselves.

When was this decision? October…2002.

Eight fucking years ago.

So, here we are now. November is around the corner and as a result, so is NaNoWriMo, aka National Novel Writing Month.

I signed up and entered my info. I know it’s a stretch to ‘complete’ an actual novel in that time, but more so I’m hoping to break the cycle of ineptitude and sloth that has plagued me.

Here’s to the hope that come December, I’ll be 50,000 words closer to sharing with you the dazzling tale of carnivals, pirate treasure, musical magicians, toothbrushes, and the young girl given a chance to choose her time.

“I don’t give a shit if people want to call it Art. I am an eye-man, and I look and look…And if I see something I find interesting, whether in a theme park, or a museum, then it has value for me. High, low, one stop up, one stop down…Is there a lift that takes one from kitsch to art?”

via Giles Revell

I have a HU-hu-huge stack of unread magazines, articles, books laying about, and when I finally made it thru the Spring issue of UK art-mag ELEPHANT, that quote from Wim Delvoye (he of CLOACA and x-ray erotica fame) resonated. Great magazine, btw. Anything that brings you Giles Revell and Zak Smith in one gulp can’t be too bad for you…

//
www.elephantmag.com
www.wimdelvoye.be
www.gilesrevell.com
www.zaxart.com