Full · Fathom · Five

We arrived back in Atlanta at 3 a.m. the next day, after a minor tire-related delay in Gainesville. It was Tuesday morning. Already.

I did nothing yesterday: I slept. I woke up. I went shopping and did an errand with very little ambition, before going to sleep, again. I read Great Gatsby and made short work of it, watched some Jon Stewart, and then finally went to bed.

Gatsby. Another title in my growing laundry list of Books Most Everyone Else Read Years Ago, but Were Unable to Explain to Me Why They're Any Good. I liked this one, and can see why it might have influenced other writers.

I know at least two who shadowed Fitzgerald. The young Hunter Thompson copied his words, most likely on a typewriter, furiously absorbing the voice, one key at a time. I can see similarities between Gatsby and passages in both Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as well as Rum Diaries.

And the other writer? Haruki Murakami. Murakami was initially known in Japan simply for his work as a translator. (For instance, of Raymond Carver and other Americans.) When he wrote Wind Up Bird Chronicle,  Murakami had still never used a typewriter or keyboard for his short stories or novels. He wrote them all longhand, vertically, into the common square-grid-lined paper used for everyday Japanese. Even so, he told his biographer that writing phrases in English was an exercise he often employed for simplifying his ideas and achieving a more modern, conversational style. The model was commonly Fitzgerald, the author he shadowed as a teenager.

I had hoped the Florida trip would be a nice, though much less epic, approximation of Rum Diaries. It wasn't quite that, but it was still excellent.

It was nice to see you. :-)
*

This moment will be timeless for me. Thanks to everyone who helped make it happen.

*

http://ghostmap.blogspot.com/
*

Pictures on the way, no doubt.
*

This one:
http://artswriters.org/guidelines_sf_writing.php
It's worth a cold $30,000. Har har!
*

And who is Brett W. Thompson!?
*

... takes a minute or two to "warm up"

... though the temperature is very chill ...

*

It looks like I have a chance to be an art critic in this town.  A real one.  Ironically, I think it's largely due to the fact that -- in the print business -- lot's of people are losing their jobs, or are choosing more stable work.  I just happen to be stubborn enough to keep at it.  Life is mutable after all, but I rarely find myself in a position to do anything deliberate or creative with it. 

It's another one of those Arjuna situations. I suppose I have to just tread right into it, despite the terror of it all.  And it isn't at all like the last time I felt this way (a situation where I needed to tell someone they sucked, i.e., "damned if I do ... damned if I don't").  It's more like:
-

Thank you everyone here who's supported me over the past couple years.  I owe you so much.  I'm sorry for not reading your LJ's enough
*

I posted this to our other blog:
http://burnaway.org/2009/04/wehrle-romero-slow-death-by-graffiti/
Comments welcome, anonymous or otherwise ...
*

Interesting story.  I might actually write about it later, but it was basically a "misunderstanding." 
*

It seems I've promised to be in three places at once on Friday.  Gotta make some phone calls ...
*

I rewatched Dark Knight recently. I love how Harvey Dent says,

The night is always darkest just before the dawn.

But then, well ... things don't go so well for him, do they?
*
Barring some political/administrative disaster, Legislative Session ends today. Let's see how this goes...
*

Machiavelli was a big fan of using rhetorical analogies.  In several instances, he compares the art of the state to the practice of medicine.  The context of course varies, but, cumulatively, the suggestion is that a leader should become familiar with the ways of draining "bad blood" (or some other such other Old World remedy). 

With strategy, in terms of time, place, and degree, which of course is the trickiest part of all. 
*

From the Georgia Center for the Book:

NIGHT OF THE RECLUSE AUTHORS
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
7;15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

You won't be able to stay away from this all-star fun panel of great (and almost unseen) American authors on our stage for one night only! Be among the amused ones to meet, sort of, J.D. Salinger, Thomas Pynchon, Cormac McCarthy and Philip Roth! They will be talking about their lives and their books as well as discussing cotton futures, the Kindle and other bits of tomfoolery. Of course they will not sign any of their books, so don't even think about it. Don't miss this extraordinarly rare -- actually, it's unheard of -- droll literary evening.

*

Maggie White posts this picture of yours truly, along with a link to our interview posted to BurnAway.org earlier this month.

Hurm. (As Rorschach might say...)
*

Culture Surfing, CL's new arts and entertainment blog, officially "hard launched" this week. Basically, all of the newspaper's online A&E content will move from Fresh Loaf to the new address.

Main page:
Click for Culture Surfing here.

and...

Today:
Dosa Kim + Beep Beep preview

and, for the industrious...

Updates on all my posts:
Author Archive for Jeremy Abernathy

*

http://lucididiocyblog2.blogspot.com/2009/03/your-guide-to-crossover-day.html

Of course, I think guys like T. Wheatley and S. Henry know much more about it than I do. Irony, irony.

(Note: I do not blog on local politics, nor do plan to report on my workplace in any way.)
*

I love this picture.

I'll be hanging out with Evan Comeaux this weekend, who just might trick me into going to a lecture the Institute for Humane Studies convention at Emory. They'll be talking about Depressionomics and, most likely, advocating free market solutions instead of a stimulus (or anything else Keynesian.)

He's also bringing me some of his home brew.

as a part-time blogger for Cl's Fresh Loaf. Look out for new posts on ATL visual arts every week.

Exhibit A (today's post):
Beth Lilly ACP Public Art

Exhibit B (linking all my posts for CL):
Author Archive for Jeremy Abernathy

*

a stranger more or less, and now I'm beginning to suspect...

I have a temper.

Yes. And like we've all learned from growing up in front of the television, one must always "Admit the Problem."

Though I may amend that earlier statement to (I think) I (may) have a temper(, still). It's true that when I was a child, I would have sudden bouts of fury. I also cursed like a sailor at the age of 2. But people who know me now all seem to believe that I'm a thoroughly "gentle soul," which I think is about 90% true.

I was at the Carlos Museum this weekend (which I now like to think of as My Museum), listening to a tour on the Asian exhibit. When you trade ideas with literate, mostly highly literate people most of the time, it's easy to forget the kind of expectations the general public has when they enter a museum; for instance, one lady couldn't identify the image of the Buddha.

It's a typical Indian statue, though to her credit the head is missing (like most statues from antiquity). She commented But I thought all Buddhas were fat.

Growing up in front of the television has consequences.