Full · Fathom · Five

abeyance (noun)
temporary cessation or suspension




This card won Matt Linde the 1998 Pro Tour.

I wonder if it's possible to do this with the entire vocab list ... transform useless knowledge into something useful?
 
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for self-motivation:

Procaution: to prepare well, to be impervious to snares, and to leave the job finished and smoldering in heaps behind you. Distinct from precaution, i.e. hesitation. Put on yo' face, put on yo' gloves, and TBC like a Boss. Like a Pro.

"Everything that can go wrong ... will perish."

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that I've never been stung by a bee? Isn't that ridiculous?
... Or is it? joculum  just informed me of a book that uses the disappearance of bees (and bee stings) as social commentary.
(Now that I think of it, I also recall a motif in Doctor Who Series Four involving disappearing bees.)
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Do I go to Dragon*Con this year or do I go to D.C. instead? I now have at least three people to visit in D.C. who will be there at the end of August, and my roommate wants to go, too. Hurm ....
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My friend ejam recommended I try going to the movies by myself. I don't recall ever watching a flick solo, at least since I worked at a movie theater in high school. (I worked there for barely two paychecks, quit without regret, and took my earnings with me to Europe.) (I'm pretty sure one of our other friends goes to the movies solo. That Jamie fellow? He's a film person, right?)
Considering that Bad Lieutenant flick. And maybe Avatar.
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General Resolves:

1. Become more adept at blogging lists
2. Get my finances in order
3. Take the GRE and ace it

And ... two super optimistic/ambitious extensions if I accomplish the latter two:

4. Save for a down payment on a brand new (used) car
5. Apply for graduate school for enrollment in 2011

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mayoral elections are tomorrow?!
http://www.sos.ga.gov/elections/

Looks like I'm still registered to vote in Avondale Estates and not Atlanta proper. Blurgh.
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something of a minor lupus episode last night, the first since we started dating. It wasn't terrible, but she says she's been in pain off and on for the past couple weeks. She spent all day cooking a huge dinner, and the cold she's been fighting for the past week must have finally caught up with her. Even though she slept a full night the day before, and took several short naps yesterday, she was very obviously fatigued despite all the rest. And she looked soo cute.

She's sleeping now and I'm spending the day fooling with technology stuff. Things like Apache and PHP and Virtual Private Servers and secure shells, which are all fun but honestly (just a little) over my head. Wish me luck?

September 16, 2009

Dear Arts Writer,

Thank you for your application to the Creative Capital | Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant Program. Although your proposal is not advancing to the panel stage of the grant program, you have been selected as a finalist for the Art Writing Workshop, our new partnership with the International Art Critics Association/USA Section (AICA/USA) designed to give practicing writers the opportunity to strengthen their work through one-on-one consultations with leading art critics.

Of the 159 applicants to the Arts Writers Grant Program who asked to be considered for the Art Writing Workshop, 45 were selected as finalists, reflecting our belief in the potential and promise of their writing and their ability to benefit from the workshop process. The 10 workshop fellows will be selected by the critics with whom they will be working. Your application and writing samples are being forwarded to AICA/USA for their review. Please expect to hear from them via e-mail by November 17, 2009.

On behalf of the Arts Writers Grant Program, I’d like to let you know how much we appreciate the time and attention you took in preparing your application. Please note that we cannot offer feedback on your proposal: Since we do not have the staff resources to comment on all the applications we receive, it seems unfair to extend this privilege to a select few. Thank you for your understanding regarding this policy.

We encourage you to visit our web site (www.artswriters.org) and join our email list to receive automatic updates on future grant cycles. Guidelines and deadline information for next year’s grant cycle will be available in Spring 2010.

Sincerely,

Margaret Sundell
Director
Creative Capital | Andy Warhol Foundation
ARTS WRITERS GRANT PROGRAM
65 Bleecker Street, 7th Floor
New York, NY 10012

Conspiracy isn't just for libertarians anymore. I should probably be really upset about this sort of thing:
Glenn Beck is a moron, but people still let him talk on TV.
My buddy Evan became a libertarian two years ago. This is the sort of thing he thinks and talks about all the time. I think I cured myself of the paranoia sometime briefly after college, but I'm still powerless in talking anyone else out of it.
It all starts with making analogies. Collect enough analogies, and then call them "connections." Then, draw lines through the analogies and call them "direct connections" from B to A, C to A, and D to A. Then perform the grand reduction: A is part of the grand conspiracy of B, C, and D.
So much for the Plan. Or, telluric currents for that matter.

Unfortunately it's only online. Sad face!

Meg Aubrey, Daniel Biddy, Donna Johnson, and Dosa Kim. Click here to read "Ones to Watch shows ATL as a dialog of differences."

(Art by Dosa Kim)

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... I still have trouble falling asleep, and always have for some reason. I can't figure it out. What to do? What to do?
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My latest "email from Barack" begins:
Michelle and I were heartbroken to learn this morning of the death of our dear friend, Senator Ted Kennedy.
And ends:
Heard a segment on the radio yesterday ... seems Ted was an amazing dude? I should look into it.
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Zizek's essay book on the 9/11 attacks. It went down rather smoothly, I'd say. The first part is a semiotic analysis of the original footage -- the second plane crash, the horrible cloud of dust rushing toward the camera and at screaming people on the ground, etc. -- within a greater media/pop culture intertext. Basically, he's trying to figure out how these images are perceived by a television audience, and what that tells us about our era. None of the essays are especially strong, although I'd probably appreciate his assessment of world politics if I knew a lot more about the Cold War. (Cuba and Yugoslavia are among his favorite examples.) I don't find him nearly as offensive as most seem to believe he is; he even gives a sentence or two in praise of the American passengers who ambushed their hijackers over PA. (Nevermind the conspiracy theories that say these audio tapes are fake; Zizek finished writing and had published through a London press in 2002, before the US had even invaded Iraq.)

to attend my first writing seminar. And I think it's about time I start listening to writers outside of the visual arts. There is no such thing as a full-time art critic in Atlanta -- unless you count editors who also write criticism. I'm not aware of anyone who's achieved it, at least not in the last decade?

(What's the deal with Jerry Saltz? He used to live in Atlanta, right? Now he's one of the most well-known critics in the country.)

I'm going to one of two workshops by, who?, Hollis Gillespie. That's right. She's a comedy writer, and if anyone knows how to reach an audience, it's someone who can "write funny." Cuz' that's what publishers are looking for, right? One of her most well-known works is called Bleachy-haired Honky Bitch.

Here are the seminars. I can't decide if I want to do "Blog Your Way out of the Recession" or "New Media Rehab for Journalists or Writers." They both appeal to me, but one might be beneath my level, and in the other ... I'll almost certainly be the youngest person in the room. Though it won't be the first time.

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

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http://ghostmap.blogspot.com/
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Pictures on the way, no doubt.
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This one:
http://artswriters.org/guidelines_sf_writing.php
It's worth a cold $30,000. Har har!
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