Thursday, January 28, 2010

Why is there always one person from workshop you want to punch in the face?

So, yes. I had my first fiction workshop here and NMSU. Conversationally, it was good. It was like at WWU when everyone wanted to share (but Kate wasn't there to write the order of people as they raised their hand). The problem was many things, though. I really don't want to talk about specific problems with the work, 'cause that's universal, everywhere. My professor told one kid that he didn't see the novel working, that it wasn't possible. He basically said there are only two ends, and both weren't art. (Yes, that bullshit what is art what is genre, that no one really knows, but thinks they do). I said that you can't give narratives an either/or. The professor kept to his guns and half the class started defending his story, even though we all had massive problems with it. The idea was there, and the potential was quite huge. But our professor couldn't get past it. It was infuriating. I like the prof, and he was acting like that asshole in workshop that refuses to accept that it might work. Circles. All of us, tried to move on and talk about how to make it work, and the Prof, kept going, "It won't." And then, there's this one guy. He doesn't say much of anything, except to be an ass. (Remind you of anyone? Hm?). He's this fat fuck, from Minnesota, who thinks when he speaks God has parted the clouds. He sits there in the corner and makes Goddamn faces anytime someone says something nice about a story. Ugh. I will, by the end of the semester, punch him in the face. (Figuratively or not, he will get it). At one point, I made a comment about this guys details of destroyed land, and how the characters are learning to intake information as humans, and the guy goes, "HAVE YOU READ THE ROAD? When the man touches the grass and it turns to ash, that's devastating detail." I just laughed. All day yesterday, even one I ran into, was like, "Yeah, I didn't like that story, but there's no place to tell someone that they can't write something."
*
OK. that's all for my bitching.
*
I just got Informers from netflix. Then the next round is all The Wire.
*
Have a good day.
Love,
Joshua

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Tuesday Morning.

Indie just jumped into my lap cause for some reason she just has to lick my fingers right now. So, we just finished the first season of the Wire. My God. Can you say Omar? Yes. What a way to end. The show seems to steer away from any sort of hollywood narrative, in that, sometimes it give you what you want (you know that feeling you get when a good guy is about to die, and the bad guys are wavering...you know what scene I'm talking about) but most the time it turns the other way. But its not either/or, the writers seem to take the most realistic choice. And what happens always tugs at your what-the-fuck-just-happened strings, even though, you knew it would happen. Man there's so much to talk about. It's funny. The show is really funny. And at times really tragic. I'm gonna think about it some more. I do like where everyone one ends up. It really funny. And Stringer Bell is, well, you know. D'Angelo was a big surprise to me. It's a shame, he's a good man. OK. that's all for now. Dave and Ian, you were correct. This show is one of the best I've ever seen. I asked Emily if she wants to just watch some of the movies on our queue or keep at the Wire. She said, "I want to keep at the wire." She's hooked.
*
I promised lists:

I always do albums. So, today. Top Ten songs (in no order). These are the songs I'm loving right now, the ones I can't stop listening to.

1. American Flags - David Bazan
2. Ne Mosquitoes Pass _ Joan of Arc
3. Everyone is My Friend - Owls
4. Times They Are a-Changin' - Bob Dylan
5. The Worst Kind of Liars - Waxwing
6. Hussy - Crystal Skulls
7. Reality? As If - Rooftops
8. Down & Able - James William Hindle
9. Kings Crossing - Elliott Smith
10. Angles of the Silences - Counting Crows

OK. Here's my top ten poetry books

1. Lug Your Careless Body Out of the Careful Dusk - Joshua Marie Wilkinson
2. The Lice - WS Merwin
3. Carolina Ghost Woods - Judy Jordan
4. Elegy for the Southern Drawl - Rodney Jones
5. Names Above Houses - Oliver de la Paz
6. The World Doest End - Charles Simic
7. The Southern Cross - Charles Wright
8.Winter Stars - Larry Levis
9. Ultima Thule - Davis McCombs
10. Lead Belly - Tyehimba Jess

And of course, Favorite novels

1. The Things They Carried - Tim O'Brien
2.Less than Zero - Bret Easton Ellis
3. American Gods - Neil Gaiman
4. 100 Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
5. The World According to Garp - John Irving
6. The Surrounded - D'Arcy McNickle
7. Kavilier and Clay- Michael Chabon
8. The Windup Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami
9. The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chobosky
10. Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides

(Yes, I didn't include short story collections by here are my top few: Raymond Carver's Will You Please Be Quiet Please? Andre Dubus' In the Bedroom and Wp Kinsella's Dance Me Outside...)

There ya go. That was fun.

Right now I'm reading The Girl with The Glass Feet by Ali Shaw. It's great! Kind of Gaiman-ish.

For my only poetry class this semester, we're reading five books in the first three weeks and workshopping the rest of the time. I really like that. It takes the pressure off rushing through the readings. I think I might workshop like that when I teach upper level undergrad and grad level.

Em and I have been working out at this Gym called Tom Young's. It's cool and kitschy, and not busy all the time. It's nice. But it feels good to be working out again. Well, that's all for now.

Later.
Love,
Joshua

Thursday, January 21, 2010

It's Thursday Night and I'm About to Head to Bed

Hi. So, I've been trying to catch up on Fringe, but I had to skip a few episodes cause I couldn't find any streaming sources for them. I don't want to download. Anyway, that's all I'll say about that right now.
*
I teach at 7:30 in the morning MWF. I miss my class from last semester. They were awesome. I don't have a feel for my new class yet. I'm sure it will be fine, but we'll see. Tomorrow we'll be discussing the Personal Narrative. Fun stuff. Next week will be reading and talking about ethos, pathos, and logos, among other things. That sound be like pulling teeth...it always is. No one ever really wants to talk. Plus it will be so early in the morning. Yikes.
*
Since I'm taking fiction classes this semester, I've got a lot of fiction to read. I'm excited. Right now I'm reading Lost in the City by Edward Jones. It's good check it out. I'm also reading a handful of poetry books. We read five books the first three weeks, then workshop the rest of the semester. Pretty awesome if you ask me. Fiction we read 4 books and workshop the whole time.

My magic realism books are sweet. I'll post about them as I read them, but the Aimee Bender book, The Girl in the Flammable Skirt is rad--I'm presenting on it in my class, so I'll have more to say about it when I figure all that out. I'm going to start reading The Girl with the Glass Feet by Ali Shaw. I'll let you know. Right now, though, we're reading Kafka. Mother fucker. If I have to read Metamorphosis one more time in graduate school, I'm gonna fucking Scream! I've read it so many times, I just want to wash my hands of it (even though it's brilliant). We spent over an hour talking about that story today. One guy was crazy in love with it and practically shaking over it. It's good, but come on. OK. That's mean, but maybe I'm just tired of reading it and talking about it.

For this class I wrote a story about a guy who turns into a dog when he's in his apartment. There's a possessive brother in the story that accuses him of acting like a dog, when his wife scolds him. The brother's whack. I like it. I'm might work on it some more, see where it goes. The next project is based on a Flannery OConner essay. The quote suggests the good fiction distorts the real...or something like that...by distorting you find the truth (or as I would put it, the honesty in reality). I don't know what I'm gonna do yet, but we'll...I'm sure you'll hear about it.
*
For poetry I'm working on all brand new stuff for this semester. Let's see what kind of project comes out of this. I'm starting to see one. It might bleed into one I've been fiddling with already. We'll see. We'll see.
*
Wendelin gave me the names of some Joan of Arc songs. Most importantly a song called Ne Mosquitoes Pass. It's fucking rad. This is the same band, more or less, as Owls--I ranted about how good they were in the fall. But they're old school. We're talking early Jade Tree/Polyvinyl shit. Anyway, I'm obsessed with this song. The end goes, "Fucking Strangers feels better, feels better fucking strangers," a whole bunch and the last line goes, "Big Gay Mr. T knocks your fucking teeth out with a telephone." I don't fucking know what that means, but I can't stop singing it. Emily's like, "Stop saying, 'Fucking Strangers feels better...' and then sing about a big gay Mr T." The music is great and the voice is off, in a cool way. If you know Joan of Arc or Owls or Make Believe, or any of the Tim Kinsella projects then you know what I'm talking about. I need more.
*
We get the final disc of The Wire Season One tomorrow. I can't wait. I just want to watch that shit already. I'm on the edge of my seat. Oh that reminds me. I saw Year One. Trash. Don't fucking wasting your time. I laughed here and there, but overall it was almost as bad and You Don't Mess with the Zohan. Yeah, I saw that. If you want to place blame, look to my father. He said it was great!
*
I think my next post will be concerning my top ten favorite novels, poetry books, and songs. Maybe records and films and TV shows. We'll see. I don't know why, but I feel like I should. I like lists. My notebooks are full of lists. Lists of songs. Lists of stories. Lists of poems, journals, contests, things I want, shows I want to watch, films I want to see, things I need to pay, people I need to call, things i need to do, Things I need to clean, and on and on. I could probably trace my taste in things by looking at my old notebooks. I could probably trace my history for the last five or so years by reading what I was listing. It's an obsession I wish I didn't have, but I can't stop. It's like I need different reminders in different places about the same things. Sometimes, I find the same exact lists in three different notebooks.
*
I hope everyone is enjoying this winter. I hope to see everyone soon, or later, or whenever. I want to have a beer or a coffee with all of you, and talk, catch up, talk about the shit we talk about and others things.

That's all for now. I love you guys and thanks for reading.
J to the Izza.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Fringe and Stuff...

I had a very good break. A month long. I finished a draft of The Story Thief (but I have sooooooooo much work to do on it. Thanks again to Ian for some great, great comments...I have some reworking and some cutting to do, before I start really beefing up the second half of the novel...there's so much that I'm starting to realize needs to make its way into the novel...anyway...). I wrote a ton of poems too. I started writing some short stories for my workshop this semester. I sort-of planned some of my class...at least I finished my syllabus. Barely.
I also made a lot of time for some TV watching or more accurately some computer watching. I made it through season 2 of Dexter and started season one of Fringe, and Em and I are almost done with season one of the Wire. One disc left. I'm in love with all three of those shows, for so many different reasons.
*
I saw Beetlejuice for the first time last night. Yeah, I know. Talk to my mom if you think that's crazy. I just wasn't allowed to see it as a kid and time passed and then I turned 28, and Em was like "You should probably see it already." I've been waiting forever. Netflix has it marked as "A very long wait." And the blockbuster here closed. And the Hollywood didn't have it...until last night. We watched that and UP. Oh man, Up was really great. If you haven't seen it (I'm sure, like always i'm months behind and you've all seen it), see it!
*
I think my Magical-realism class will be cool. We'll see. My teacher is cool (Robin Romm). Her writing is sort of in that vein, though I've only seen excerpts, but it's good. Our books look cool. She's allowing the poets in the class to write prose poems, but I think I might just try to write some short stories. We'll see what I'm in the mood for. There's a lot of genre haters in the class. It's bullshit if you ask me, but I'm trying to take it in stride (yeah, first day, people just started bashing). Sure, I think the same thing about genre many people do, but I still give it a chance. It seems like a lot of students might want to discredit writing if it seems to be genre, rather than finding the literary in it. Though, I might be speaking to soon. We'll see.
*
OK. I just go a ton of books (mostly for class) in the mail and I'm stoked for them all. I want to push through most my class books early, so I can go back and read them again, and also, so I can read whatever I want during the quarter. That, for some reason, is keeping me sane in grad. school. I read Sedaris during the last semester. That was a nice change of pace.
*
I made some tofu salad today (like egg salad but with no animal products...i use Veganaise instead of mayo and it's good BTW). Dave. It's good. I think I'm gonna make some hummus tomorrow.
*
I should probably see Avatar already. I keep putting it off. We'll see how that goes.
*
Got a gym membership. So, we started working out again...i've been slacking lately. I think this membership thing will help.
*
I know, sometimes this blog turns into a sort of web-to-do-or-this-is-what-I-did list. Maybe sometime soon, I post about things cinematic or literary, but maybe not. I'll probably have something to say about Fringe and Dexter and The Wire and the films I watch. OK. Fringe: So, into it. There are some meta-Xfiles nods throughout. One was in an episode in season one: there's an actual shot of Fox Mulder looking up at some lights in the sky. At the beginning of season two, Broyles is in DC talking to a committee of Senators about his Fringe unit--they're trying to shut it down after some crazy shit went down, fucking bureaucracy--and one of the senators says something like, "The US government has spent too much money funding the X cases and the Fringe unit without results." The cool thing about Fringe is that there are almost always results and always some kind of answers, but the story just keeps getting deeper and more intertwined, even stories that seem unrelated, end up related. Anyway, I like that element. But I like the idea of science development is what's causing problems, not monsters or aliens, but actual science getting out of control, or used for the wrong reasons. It's interesting.
*
Alright, I'm gonna watch some SVU and read poetry. Yeah. I said it.
*
Who's gonna see Toothfairy? Looks like a good one!
*
Later,
Love,
Joshua

Sunday, January 10, 2010

It's Sunday...

...and Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations is on (Egypt). Emily and I are talking about how much we want to go to Europe (yes, Matt and Chelsea, we want to go to where you are and hang, then venture out into other areas). But we can't afford to. Not for a while. But at least we know we want to go, sooner rather than later. It's depressing being stuck in one place--a place I really don't like--while my friends are either home or out in cool places. Even Ian, where New Hampshire is at least close to cool places...OK. I'm done bitching. I just want to go somewhere cool. Well, I do need a passport, so I think Em and I are gonna try and get some while we're down here. Who knows when we'll get to use it...Juarez, just south of El Paso is drenched in violence, kidnapping, and a whole lot of shit right now connected to the drug cartels...so that's out of the question...

*

OK. I just finished Dexter Season 2. And I'm hooked. Right now, I'm trying to find some online sights that have full episodes to stream for season 3. In the process of looking for Dexter episodes I stumbled upon a little show called Fringe. My God. If you know me at all, you know I was obsessed with X Files (except for the Sister Episode...that shit still gives me nightmares). X Files was amazing--two years ago, I worked my way through all the season up to season 6. Anyway, Fringe is an updated version, and follows some of the same formula, only there are promises of answers, because "the pattern" is acknowledged rather than ignored (like a lot of the shit in X Files). I only a few episodes in, but I love it already, and hope to see it continue for years. Unlike X files all of the cases with weird incidents relate to "the pattern" and to the research done by one of our main characters in the 70s. Fuck, it's good. It doesn't have the holes X files did. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the X files, but I think Fringe is dong something a little cleaner and organized, while X files seemed to be grasping at straws a lot of the time and remaining mysterious for mysterious' sake. Everything was withheld, whereas in Fringe everything discovered leads back to one BIG case..."the pattern." Anyway, Awesome.

*

Well, I'm sure I have more to write, but I smell Emily's cooking (Rice and Lentils in coconut milk)...I'm out!
Love
Joshua

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Yes, I am blogging again...

So, has anyone else seen Dexter? I just finished Season One. And I want to talk about the flawed narration. The Voice Over seems to suggest that Dexter is our humble narrator, and many things are given to the viewer as Dexter learns, but as the season continues the narration drifts from his Point of View (and what he knows) and starts treading in the Hitchcockain-Bomb-Before-the-Blast reveals (I.e. Showing the ice truck killer in action...around episode 8). But the Voice over never changes. This is a common thing in TV and Hollywood Film. There seems to be no trigger, and yet, the narrative drifts in that direction. It bothers me. Why are we given VO and led to believe that we only learn things as the main character does, and then when shit gets real, the narration starts leaking? Am I wrong to question this (let me stop for a second to say I loved Dexter and will continue to watch it, but this little trait rubs me the wrong way). Why can't filmmakers stick to their guns...why do they cheat?
Ok enough of that.
*
I'm about to order all my books for school. Shit. There's a lot.
*
This is the first time I'm not totally stoked to go back to school. At WWU I'd be shitting my pants waiting to get back to Poetry with Beasley or de la Paz, of Film with Park or Askari, or Fiction with Trueblood (Damn I wish I would've studied with Guess and Magee) or NIL with Purdy, but here I'm just sort of like "Man I hope this quarter is better than the last." I think it might be better, but we'll see. I will miss poetry with Richard Greenfield. Anyway, next week, back to it.
*
I made some black bean hummus the other night. Hella good. Maybe less garlic next time.
*
OK. that's all for now.
Love,
Joshua

Monday, January 4, 2010

I'm typing this while an episode of SVU plays in the background...and shit is getting real...

So, here I go again.
*
I just watched District 9, which was really fucking good. I'm actually kind of unable to talk about it. I'm still processing certain elements of it. I mean, it's not a mind fuck or anything, but everything about it was so familiar, yet original. I didn't feel like we were viewing a reiteration or revisiting of a classic narrative, even though the film is clearly doing such. What struck me the most about the film is the main character's character. He's just so innocent and all he wants is to do a good job and be with his wife. It's heartbreaking when his wife shuts him down, and even more heartbreaking when she calls him back later. If you read this and you haven't seen the film, sorry for any spoilers. But let's step away from that side of the film and talk about how fucking cool all the special effects were: The violence was top notch and very tastefully done, while still giving us shit blowing up, blood, and limbs being violently amputated by force or weapons. The hovering craft in almost every shot of the film was great, and looming, and became a fixture. The weapons were so cool.
OK. so, the social commentary. I won't go into it. It's obvious, But I just want you to know, I'm thinking about it.
OK. The director went to school in Vancouver BC at the Vancouver film school. So, that's pretty cool.
*
I just started watching Dexter (I know, I'm always so behind on things...I remember when I was single and my friends were assholes who avoided me all the time--not all my friends just some friends--and my other friends had gone out of town, or had real jobs, and I would rent three movies (or TV episodes) a day from Film is Truth. I would sit in that basement apartment and watch shit, building my knowledge of film and TV, feeling really fucking lonely. At least, I had my cineaphilia. Did i spell that right Matt H? OK. Anyway, I'm just behind. I've been writing and reading a lot, so I guess that's OK. Though, I've been thinking a lot about my Iranian Cinema paper and hopefully I will get the opportunity to do something with it (conference, journal, something). Anyway, again, Dexter. I'm amazed that I went this long without watching it, especially its nod to Bret Easton Ellis. (One of Dexter's aliases is Patrick Bateman from American Psycho). It's voiceover could be completely stupid like USA's Burn Notice. Ugh. That is a shitty VO. But it's wonItalicderful and it's unreliable. Not in the sense that it's just first person from the POV of a serial killer, narrating his story, but that he claims to be hallow and empty inside, but he's not. He just thinks he is, and what you get to witness is someone who has believed he is one way, but his actions and reactions tell the viewer otherwise. I'm only halfway through the first season, but I'm hooked. God. Between this and the Wire I'm screwed. I got a lot of catching up to do. Then Lost starts and I want to watch Battlestar (this one will have to wait).
*
Speaking of Bret Easton Ellis. Twenty years after his first novel Less than Zero, he has finished its sequel, Imperial Bedrooms. All the characters twenty years older. I don't know much about it...mostly because I'm trying to avoid too much info. But I know the first line is "They made a movie about us..." or something like that. I'm stoked. I first read Less than Zero after I wrote my first novella called Standards, which none of you will ever read--though about five have read, maybe ten. It's about a band who gets really big and breaks up, then starts a new band. I plan on writing a more realistic and better version one day, with different characters, bands, tours (now that I have real experience on the road and in the studio...I was 19 when I wrote it...with a three day tour under my belt and one recording session that wasn't at our high school). It'll probably be chalked full of stories from my experience with The Braille Tapes. Anyway, I read the novel, because a guy who I met through a friend (a pastor and english teacher) offered to read it and give me notes. He told me to read Less than Zero, Generation X by Douglas Coupland and some Raymond Carver. All of these were huge influences...though most of you who have read me already know this. But when we met he gave me these books and told me to learn how to write not just exposition, but feeling. Not telling people emotion, but giving it to them through words...yeah, yeah, classic show not tell. Those books were amazing for me. But they also taught me how to use understatement instead of giving everything to the reader in one fat load. Say things that imply there's more underneath. Ellis and Carver are the kings of this.
*
It's funny. I've been reading a lot of fiction lately. I'm kind of getting sick of reading poetry. Maybe all the fiction will recharge me. Oliver de la Paz told me I'd hate reading poetry when I'm done with my MFA. Maybe, I will, maybe I won't. But I'll tell you this. I hate poetry that sounds and looks like poetry. I want poetry that does more. That tells stories, that show films, that offers plays, that sounds like a fucking guitar strumming a D minor and playing dissonant arpeggios. There are a couple books that I am looking forward too. One being my professors first book, which I've only read pieces of and Joshua Marie Wilkinson's latest book. Oh and Howl. Haven't read that in years. Oh and Tony Trigilio's first book. Anyway. I'm reading a book called The Girl in the Flammable Skirt by Aimee Bender. It's weird and cool and I'm enjoying it.
*
God. I feel like I'm missing something here.
*
Oh, I wrote a story about a kid who prays to God to make it stop raining in Seattle. But it's Seattle so God (who looks like Bowie) says he can make it rain something else, so they choose feathers. Whattacha think? I think I just miss the NW and wanted to write about the rain, plus, Labyrinth popped into my head, and I thought, if God looked like Bowie I think I might be more inclined to believe.
*
I think that might be all for now. I'll probably post something new soon.
Love
J to the Izza