i am da brodeo
Monday, November 18, 2013
One Man
One man stands in the forest, full of trees. The dying horizon is falling. Its colors are changing and so is my mind. I thought I was right. But I am wrong. The sun is setting. The trees are bending, the cold breeze, blowing. The only thoughts here are my own. And so it goes...
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Course Reflection
This course has been
extremely helpful for me as a writer. I felt relatively free to explore writing
and to try other styles. For instance, the Ulipo movement
was very interesting and I really enjoyed the attempt at restraint based
writing in this class as well as in others classes. My classmates are extremely
talented and that forced me to raise my level of writing as well. I looked
forward to our presenting my/our zines with each other either through simply
reading them on our own or by performing them in class. It was through that
sharing that I was able to observe their personalities and styles.
The moment I feared
the most was the reading at Woodland Pattern. But as it grew near I began to
think of it as an opportunity to share myself, my work with others, for good or
ill. It made perfect sense. I don’t want to write in a vacuum. I write because
it has to get out of me and go anywhere, somewhere. I don’t know what it’s like
to get high from any drug and I’ve never been drunk. But after the Woodland
Pattern reading I felt so alive. I had so much energy tingled through me that
I’ve never experienced before. I could feel that energy in my arms and in my
heart. It wasn’t a typical rush but rather a sensation that felt more spiritual.
I loved it so much that I want to do it again! So thank you for the
opportunity! I’m very blessed to have taken this class with you as an instructor
and with all of my classmates. I felt like I really belonged in this class. Too
bad it’s over.
Reading 2
Boswell
Books held a reading on November 20, 2012 for Lilly Goren, coeditor of Women and the White House: Gender, Popular
Culture, and Presidential Politics. Goren’s reading was a very thought
provoking take on modern American politics. The reading that she focused on was
her interpretation of how Americans were “primed to some degree, by
presentations by African-American men and women in Hollywood films and
television.” She claimed that Americans adjusted to the idea of an
African-American as our current president by seeing Morgan Freeman, as well as
others, in films first. Whatever her political theories, what I enjoyed most
was her elegant reading style. Her tempo was simple and smooth which made
paying attention to her easy.
I thought her claims to be highly
interesting but ultimately not enough for me to read any of her work in the
future. But her voice had the ability to be smooth and soft while reciting her book.
It must be said that the book seemed very accessible and didn’t veer to far into
verbose academic writing. As for seeing a person live versus reading their work
is understandably a different experience. It appears that most authors seem so
very ordinary like a next-door neighbor. Well, at least Goren does. Also, I
find it difficult to sit still for too long and I become shifty and then I lose
focus. So after half and hour I was ready to leave. But, the most important
aspect that I took from both readings is the fact that I need/want to be a part
of this literary community. I’m excited for future readings. What ideas are
waiting to be shared with me? How will that open me up as a reader and a
writer?
Reading 1
Boswell
Books held a reading for Paul Salsini’s latest book, The Temptation of Father
Lorenzo, on November 19, 2012. The small audience mainly consisted of an
older generation of Salsini admirers and a few students. Salsini’s lineage
stems from a village in Florence, Italy and it was while visiting a relative in
a Tuscan village that interesting stories from World War II were shared with
him. It was these stories of amazing story of bravery of these villagers that
Salsini wanted explore in all of his Tuscan themed books. The Temptation of Father
Lorenzo is an extension of those revelations. The book became a series of
short stories that revolve around previously established characters from the Salsini’s
previous Tuscan Trilogy. Interestingly, Salsini wrote this book as a response
to the past trilogies character’s that called to him. He even joked that “I
couldn’t get them out of my head.” He often wondered what they were up to as if
the actually existed in the present day. In the end, it was interesting to hear
Salsini expound on the past lives of the Italian villagers during this period.
For
the first few minuets of Salsini’s introduction I was distracted. What took my
focus was his uncanny resemblance to the actor John Houseman. Once I got over
that detail I was able to focus on his opening announcements. Salsini’s voice
was an uninteresting monotone that was hard to connect to. Nevertheless, I
observed that he certainly takes great care of the relationships that he has
with his characters. Other than that positive aspect of his working method, his
reading didn’t intrigue me. I felt that his stories belonged to an older
generation. Superficially, I didn’t connect to his work because he didn’t
fascinate me with his style and his characters seemed bland. Now, one aspect to
his live performance that I quickly recognized was that there seems to be a
technique to reading that keeps people engaged. He doesn’t have that technique.
Certainly the man is gifted as a writer but not so much as a speaker. He’s not
very entertaining and maybe that’s not the point to a reading. But then again,
maybe it is? Needless to say, I won’t be reading any of his work any time soon.
Sunday, November 18, 2012
The Taste of Noise.
It’s difficult for me to read at
home. I have to have silence and little distraction in order to concentrate.
But in my house there’s the TV and it’s accompanying library of movies that
call to me. What about the wife and son? They’re tough to overlook with her
inquiries and his jumping solidly onto the floor every few minutes. There are
the neighbors who love to howl beneath our floor when listening to raging
techno music. So I try to spend some time reading and writing in pseudo-solitude
at the library. Generally, that’s a place that’s kept silent. But not right
now. There’s an alarm shrieking that I’m desperately trying to ignore. My
silence has been shattered.
I watched with interest when the
little Asian man viewed the door that said “Emergency Exit Only.” He inspected
the door hesitantly, touched the handle lightly with his thin fingers to ensure
no alarms would sound. Nothing happened. Then he forcefully pushed the door
open. In that last moment before the alarm went I off, I too thought as he did,
that he’d made it through without setting it off. But when he took his first
step through the door is when the alarm went off catching us both off guard. As
it rang, he came back in and swiftly pulled the door shut tightly hoping that
the sound would stop. Then he searched the entire door for a switch or a
trigger to kill the sound. After he was unable to locate any device to halt the
noise he ran away. He left me sitting
here listening to this noise.
Bookface
She seemed larger than I remember.
She grew to be a giant. I remember her small frame, blonde hair, and sharp nose
that fit her foreignness so elegantly. Maybe the prettiest nose I’ve ever seen
on a woman? But now her giant body cast large shadows on the wall and obscured
the light that was behind her back. Why was she wearing an old blue nightgown
that belonged to my grandmother? Suddenly, there was a shift and she became normal
size and I was reduced to a small phantom. She looked older now. She never once
spoke to me. And maybe if she did her heavy words would pin me to the floor.
She kept her distance and never looked me in the eye.
Constraint
I’ve always found my dreams to be very
interesting. I’m communicating fears or hopes within them. How do I/we come up
with some of the images or language that is expressed in dreams? I’d like to
use my dreams as a constraint for the next project. I might view them in the
style of New Criticism or maybe not. Then again I like the idea of taking other
associations into account. I’m still uncertain. I am thinking of the dream that
I had last night and what it meant. I’ve never been one for social media,
especially Facebook, but looked at the site recently and it rekindled my memories.
But it was all too easy to do. To “see” people you haven’t visited in years all
I have to do is look them up on my computer. I could see them, their kids, and
what kind of lifestyle they lead. No mystery, it was figured out in a matter of
minutes. Running into an old friend at the Outpost? Boring. Anyway, all of that
relates to my dreams. Somehow, my dreams connected Facebook with elaborate tracheotomy
tubes
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