A hairshirt for whoever’s responsible

September 30, 2006


Becket

It’s a travesty.

One of the greatest movies of all time — a multiple award Oscar nominee and Golden Globe winner, starring two “hall of fame” caliber actors (Peter O’Toole and Richard Burton) — has been canceled for its DVD release.

Yes. Becket has been canceled.

This movie is a fascinating account of the legendary battles between King Henry II and Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury. The history alone is DVD worthy, but this film transcends it all. After watching it for the first time in Carl Swanson’s British Literature class, it quickly became my favorite story of British history. I even named my dog after Thomas Becket. And now? The movie’s being banished into the same dark corner that Banacek (a great television show from the 70s) and the second season of Twin Peaks occupy — a shameful area where brilliant, classic pieces of film and television are left without DVD release.

It’s sad.

*sigh*

So, for now, let’s try to get this movie back on track. Sign the petition to bring Becket to DVD. Do just do it for me. Do it for history.

Do it in the name of good film.

Tags: Movies |

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Happy Anniversary HenkinSchultz!

September 28, 2006


It’s not every night you get to drink on the company dime.

HSXV

Of course, when it’s the 15th anniversary party — for clients and employees alike — it happens to be a tradition.

Happy Anniversary, HenkinSchultz!

Tags: Career |

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Inspired

September 26, 2006


I like to think I’ve got the world figured out. Unfortunately, I don’t. This weekend, I learned something.

At the 4th Annual Festival of Books, I learned a lot of things, actually – both about books and about writing. And through it all, I found myself inspired in a way I haven’t been in years. I came close to literary greatness, to success in a difficult field, and I’d like to think now that, while I don’t have the world figured out, I’ve at least seen the keys to getting started on that road.

I spent a couple hours being a moderator and host for Rob Fleder, editor for Sports Illustrated magazine and a handful of Sports Illustrated books. More than introduce, I listened. I had the opportunity to eavesdrop on a true success in a field I once fancied myself a rising star. As he recounted, humbly, his style and his profession, I realized that while journalism wasn’t exactly my game, writing was.

There was a connection – if only to me, by him – that made me realize that I was surrounded by genius. And later, when I sat side by side as he gave opinions and advice to other published authors, I realized that I was getting a true gift – insight on how the book and magazine industry works. Rob Fleder met with two people: John E. Miller, a Laura Ingalls Wilder scholar and author of the book Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder (a biography reviewed by the New York Times and Washington Post), and Jean Patrick, who wrote the children’s book The Girl Who Struck Out Babe Ruth.

These people were coming to him for advice. Published authors. Looking for success.

As we were leaving, and after I had said goodbye to Rob, I was asked by Jean if I was a writer. I said “kind of,” conceding that I was at the sleazy end of the writing spectrum – a blogger and advertising copywriter.

She told me that some of the most well written authors started in copywriting, goaded into the field without a formal writing education. They know how to write to people, and not to professors. It made this desire-without-training idea sound plausible – possible, even.

She asked me what I wanted to write. I didn’t know. I’ve never really thought that far ahead. I’m so interested in becoming a writer, so focused on becoming good at writing and qualified in my job and well known on my blog, that I’ve never even thought about what I wanted to write. Which, actually, might be part of the problem.

I said short stories. Columns. I don’t have the patience to throw myself into a full length novel – at least, not yet. Novels take years to write. That means years with the same characters. The same settings. The same lives, being formed and perfected and then sometimes chopped off, for three to five years. And then, what if it’s not good? What if it’s a failure? That’s a lot of time to spend working towards nothing.

Which brings me to Marilynn Robinson – so far, the only Pulitzer Prize winner I’ve ever shaken hands with – who inspired me to not worry about what I can or can’t do. She inspired me to just do it.

Two novels in twenty five years. That’s Marilynn Robinson’s output: Gilead, a beautiful book made even more beautiful by an amazing panel of speakers, including Robinson herself, and made understandable by some deep thinking and group discussion; and Housekeeping, another award winner from the 70s. Regardless of how prolific she is (or isn’t, actually) she’s always on key. Still, while she speaks gracefully, it’s with a bit of hesitation, as if she’s afraid to be on stage, afraid of being judged. She seems a little high and mighty, but she also seems timid, afraid to embrace the culture that comes along with a major literary prize. She’s internal. But she writes wonderfully.

Through that discussion, I discovered that Gilead was more amazing than I had thought on my first read. The first line alone, simple, striking, yet unsupported at the time I read it, became so much more meaningful after finishing the book and coming back to it. It spans so many relationships and encompasses so many themes that it’s difficult to understand without reading it. And it’s so uniquely written, with a style that slows the reader down to a more sensible pace, that it seems to really take into consideration the age of the novel’s protagonist. It’s beautiful.

And, it’s possible.

Great writing doesn’t need as much talent as it needs inspiration. Let’s see how long this inspiration lasts. If it’s even there at all. Maybe this is all just a ploy; my mind’s way of thinking that this sudden urge to write and start a book club and buy books and read five of them a month and emerge from the other side with a clear head and a name tag that says “writer” is truly inspiration.

Regardless, it starts with inspiration – false or not. And that’s good, because it’s got to start somewhere.

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“I told you last night that I might be gone sometime, and you said, Where, and I said, To be with the Good Lord, and you said, Why, and I said, Because I’m old, and you said, I don’t think you’re old.” — John Ames, Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

Tags: Writers, Writing |

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Web 2.0 comes to BMOWP

September 25, 2006


For some of the web, the future is bright — bright like a neon blue logo with the obligatory “beta” tag. Of course, for some of us — especially those of us who cling to the ancient form of information called “the book,” the future might not be as positive.

Don’t worry about me, though. Even if Black Marks on Wood Pulp becomes an archaic reminder of my life as it was at age 27, I’ll always be “next generation, 2.0″ with my logo.

Black Marks 2.0
by
Vilhaur

Now I just need a 2 million dollar IPO.

(From the Web 2.0 Logo Creator)

Tags: Meta |

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Instead of books, can we ban stupidity?

September 25, 2006


Don’t worry. One of these days I’ll get back to my pointless blathering. But until then, it’s more about books, authors, and writing.

Tonight, I plan on getting a reaction up about the 4th Annual Festival of Books from my point of view as an outsider with access to the inside. As a host, I helped one author for about two hours while getting a sneak peek at the insides of the festival’s structure. I got to listen to a wonderful author speak, and I learned things about writing that I really hadn’t even considered – a new motivation, really, and a full understanding of what it takes to be an accomplished author. I’ll talk about that later.

For now, I want to welcome everyone to Banned Books Week, a time put aside by the American Library Association to promote and embrace books deemed unworthy of inclusion by a variety of groups.

Never read a banned book? Actually, you most certainly have. Tom Sawyer. Huckleberry Finn. Harry Potter. Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. These aren’t just books that straddle the line between fiction and racy art; these are books that are analyzed in schools, supported and held up as the best of the best, the reason that children should learn to read. Most of us have read these books whether or not we wanted to. Because we ought to.

Amazingly, it’s still going on today. I would think that in a country that was built on free speech, one that has created it’s own rules on everything but still holds to the idea that anyone is free to voice his or her opinion, that banning books would have gone the way of the cassette tape. The 8-track. Banning books is the type of thing that happens in a communistic dictatorship, not in the United States.

But it still happens. There are still groups out there who can’t keep their nose out of everyone else’s business. These are the people who feel their value system should dictate someone else’s choices, like we’re all seen as unfit to read anything that might otherwise undermine the status quo or cause our children to think outside of the safety of banal self-help books and right-wing political theory.

Howie Rumberg (AP) wrote a nice article about the ten most challenged books of the 21st century. In it, he describes the reality of fringe groups attempting to pull books from libraries and schools, and how often times these groups can be successful.

Banning books is not something from another era or for science fiction — like Ray Bradbury’s chilling ”Fahrenheit 451” — it’s taking place today. There was a renewed outcry against ”The DaVinci Code” when the film came out this summer. Last year 44 requests to pull a book were successful in the United States, including Tim O’Brien’s Vietnam collection, ”The Things They Carried,” and Nobel winner Toni Morrison’s ”The Bluest Eye.”

So what should we do? We should fight this. Illuminate the moronic notion that some vocal minority is trying to tell your library what to stock. In fact, start requesting that your library holds these banned books, if they don’t already. Every book on the list – organize a group and request each one. Make noise. Challenge the validity of their claims. Insult them, if you have to. After all, they’re doing the same thing right back at you – they’re insulting your ability to make a literary choice, and they’re insulting your freedom to have access to reading material that might change your views on life.

Or in the case of Harry Potter, change your views on magical castles in the middle of England. I mean, they can really undermine a nation’s security.

Tags: Books, Politics |

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The Top 25 Writers: 5-1

September 22, 2006


Twenty-five people or groups. Twenty-five of my favorites. Of my most revered. These twenty-five entities would make up my dream cocktail party. They would write the story of my life in twenty-five brilliant chapters.

They have taught me how to read, to write, and to understand the power of the written word.

5. J. K. Rowling
Personal Defining Work: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
A few years ago, I remember telling someone – in a drunken state, I’m sure – that J. K. Rowling might be the most important writer of our generation. Yeah, I said that. And I stand behind it. No one has gotten more children to read than Rowling. And a certain percentage of that group will grow up to be readers and writers, and they will remember their first favorite book being a sometimes scary, sometimes beautiful novel about a wizard boy that goes through the same adolescent changes and choices that each young reader did. And that’s what I mean by importance.

4. Blake Schwarzenbach
Personal Defining Work: Orange Rhyming Dictionary
Schwarzenbach started his musical career as a three-chord, punk god with Jawbreaker, never needing to construct anything more complex than a three-minute song about boats. What he eventually morphed into, especially with his last band Jets to Brazil, was a lyrical master, able to throw an idiom on its head and twist a commonly envisioned scene into a dark, brooding puddle. No other lyricist in my collection has done more to turn a phrase in such an entertaining way, comparing the bitter feelings of lost love to being tied to a chair, the shitty song on the radio, or a name he had never really fit into. Thank you, Blake, for allowing punk to be smart.

3. Nick Hornby
Personal Defining Work: High Fidelity
Hornby came to me first in movie form – High Fidelity, of course. From there, I branched out. I read Fever Pitch – his great journal on loving a sport too much. Then, I read High Fidelity the book. And on, and on. Hornby is at his best when he’s morphing himself into someone else’s voice – a teenage girl, a mother with a vegetable-state son, a feuding married couple. He’s literary without being too off the wall. He says “quit a book if you don’t like it.” I’ve stolen a lot from him, and since that still seems to be the most often used form of flattery, I’ll stand behind everything I’ve stolen – from book columns to a pseudo-love of soccer.

2. Bill Bryson
Personal Defining Work: Notes from a Small Island
Four years ago, I was in Omaha for a wedding. I was just two years removed from an England trip that, without claiming hyperbole, changed my life. Kerrie and I went to a bookstore and I poked around the “travel reading” section, looking for something to read. I saw Bill Bryson, and I saw Notes from a Small Island. I read it. And suddenly, just like that, I wanted to write. It rekindled every jones I once had for writing, and Bryson made it look all so easy. Really, Bryson’s travel memoirs boil down to “a sometimes cranky guy goes to some other country and writes about the funny things that happen.” It’s a genre that has been packed in recent years with authors that are either too serious or too boring. Bryson has, thankfully, refrained from doing either.

1. John Steinbeck
Personal Defining Work: East of Eden
This should come as no surprise to anyone who reads this blog. As far as writers go, this Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winner created some of the most finely crafted fiction – all of it steeped in the history and non-fiction of the Salinias Valley in California – by writing about the simple beauty of life. From the treacherous journey across the United States in The Grapes of Wrath, to the unfiltered debauchery in Tortilla Flat and Cannery Row, Steinbeck brought the lives of real people into the forefront, idolizing and turning them into heroes. His work smacks of the common human experience, and his themes were often borrowed by Woody Guthrie and Bruce Springsteen to create emotional, working class music. Sure, it’s an obvious choice, one with little surprise and no originality. But there’s no one better.

Tags: Literature, The Top..., Writers |

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Top Ten Writers — Friends and family, part two

September 21, 2006


We all have different tastes. We all cherish different writers. And this is what I love about life – its differences, and its similarities.

What do my personal friends and sometimes acquaintances think about their top-10 writers?

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Eric
The Daily Pooper

10. Conan O’Brien
My favorite late night host. Wrote for the Simpsons, wrote for SNL when it was still pretty good.

9. Philip K. Dick
Me likey future, me likey this. Yeah Total Recall, Blade Runner, A Scanner Darkly, tons of other great books that weren’t turned into movies.

8. Charles Bukowski
Corey once said something like this about a Bukowski story: “I woke up and took a shot of whiskey. then, I farted. I took another shot of whiskey and farted again.” Hey! Sounds like me! Thanks Chuck!

(Eds. Note: I believe the quote also involved leaning against an empty bookshelf and eventually having sex with a dirty woman with no teeth. Amazingly, I forgot to add “betting on horses.”)

7. Quentin Tarantino
Remember the dialogue in Pulp Fiction? How ’bout Reservoir Dogs? How ’bout Natural Born Killers? How ’bout True Romance? How ’bout…well you get the idea.

6. Chuck Palahniuk
More than just Fight Club. Those other books are pretty damn good. There icky, and funny and weird and unpredictable. Kewl.

5. Richard Pryor
His stand up movies are the funniest, by far. On top of writing all that great stuff, he also helped to write Blazing Saddles. Yup, he did.

4. Mitchell Hurwitz
GOLDEN GIRLS! Well, yeah, but really I put him on here because of my favorite television program, Arrested Development. Gob rulez!

3. Kurt Vonnegut
Do I need to write why Vonnegut is sweet. If you don’t know why, find out. If you don’t think he’s sweet, you’re wrong.

2. Hunter S. Thompson
Umm, yeah again do I need to say why? No probably not. Hell, I named my damn cat after him.

1. Bill Hicks
If you listen to Hicks now, it’s weird how much of it is still just as true today as it was when he said it almost 15 years ago. I often find myself thinking, what would Bill do? What would he say now? Mostly the same thing, but I’d love to hear it. We always seem to agree. Is that maybe because ol’ Bill helped to form my young mind so many years ago? Probably. Fuck. I miss ya Bill. DAMN YOU BILL! DAMN YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Rose Costello
In Jean Nicholson’s book club.

Each and every person on my Top 10 is a treasure, someone I love to spend time with. I think I’ve read everything each of them has written, many of them several times. Each is a reliable Good Time, even though each for a different reason. (in alphabetical order)

1. Karen Armstrong
History and, really, anthropology of religion.

2. Willa Cather
Through her fiction making our shared pioneer history accessible and meaningful.

3. Robert McCloskey
Kids’ books that are so utterly charming that even thinking about them gives me a glow.

4. Alan Furst
Historical fiction that is almost a guilty pleasure.

5. Jon Hassler
Fiction so firmly rooted in the upper Midwest that I feel I must know his characters in real life.

6. Georgette Heyer
Regency Romances that are unabashedly guilty pleasures and completely addictive.

7. Dorothy Sayers
The creator of Peter Wimsey MUST make my list.

8. Dylan Thomas
Poetry that I can actually memorize so he is often in my thoughts.

9. Barbara Tuchman
History that is fascinating and relevant to today.

10. W. B. Yeats
Poetry that is melodic, thematically meaty, engaging, compelling - I just love his poetry.

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Clara
Post Haste
Co-worker, basement dweller

1. Louise Erdrich
She’s my absolute and complete favorite. Not only does she write beautiful, soul-splitting novels, but she owns an awesome independent bookstore in Minneapolis, Birchbark Books, where I have spent many hours and far too much of my income. Not only does she live by Lake of the Isles, where my mom grew up, but she writes about historic and contemporary Indigenous American experience, which is of the utmost relevance in my own life. Her language is beautiful, her mixture of myth and reality is delightful and her affection for her characters is contagious. I’ve read all her novels and taught her fiction, which stands up to the deepest scrutiny. About 20 years ago, I saw her read, and she was riveting. Last year, while in her store, I had the opportunity to shake her hand. I still haven’t recovered. If you haven’t read her work, start immediately, with Love Medicine or Tracks.

2. Toni Morrison
One of the true masters, Morrison is unparalleled. The beauty, density, detail and force of her writing are astonishing, over and over again. She doesn’t just tell a story – she plumbs the depths of that story until the lucky reader is ten miles below the surface and has traveled through space, time, memory, dirt, rock, lava, flesh, good and evil. Reading her work is for me a little like reading Faulkner, who I also worship. However, I feel as though her novels are becoming more dense and harder to understand. I’d stand by earlier works — Song of Solomon and Beloved – until the end of time.

3. Paul Bowles
Bowles isn’t a cult writer, but isn’t really mainstream, either. He went off to live in Morocco in his 20s and entertained all sorts of famous artists and writers. His wife, Jane Bowles, also wrote, although she died young. Paul ended up staying in Morocco for life, and he just died in the last few years. He’s best known for The Sheltering Sky, a novel, and his excellent short stories. I discovered his work entirely by accident, became obsessed with his work, and then had the opportunity to study with him for six weeks one summer. It was an amazing experience.

4. Shakespeare
Sorry to be conventional, but he’s the god of the English language. And the more time that elapses since he walked our planet, the more mythical baggage he accumulates. Today, scholars speculate he was actually someone else – or that several people together wrote under his name. If you ask me, it’s just a short step from being three different people to being a trinity. Anyway, I do worship Shakespeare. He simply has no equal in inventive use of language and depth of meaning. Plus, he forces the reader into emotional multi-tasking, making us laugh, cry, hope and cringe simultaneously.

5. Seymour Hersh
Beautiful language isn’t the point here. This is all about using writing to reveal hidden truths. Hersh has been doing this since I was a teenager reading Rolling Stone magazine, breathless over his articles about corruption and politics. Now he’s moved up – or over – to The New Yorker and is still kicking ass. I really respect him! For me, Hersh represents a time when America – and my young brain – became very cynical. After Watergate, which was exposed by investigative reporters, nobody trusted elected officials. And we still don’t, partly because Seymour Hersh continuously exposes their lies.

6. Aaron McGruder
OK, I know somebody is going to object to having McGruder and Shakespeare on the any list together. But who knows? For example, Crazy Horse was a terrorist in his time. Today he’s a heroic leader. And someday, when they’re wiping up the remains of North America, they’ll see Crazy Horse Mountain and say he was our god. What I love about McGruder, author of Boondocks and other sharp-edged comics, is that he tells the truth. People who tell the truth have my greatest admiration. And people who can serve it up with humor deserve even more. Along with McGruder in this category I’d include Dave Chappelle, George Carlin, Molly Ivins, Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, Matt Groening, the guys who do South Park, and Eddie Izzard. Delivering humor is a very important task of language.

7. T. S. Eliot
I know this selection clearly marks me as Old School. But I can’t help it. Eliot’s poetry sounds familiar the first time you read it. And sound is a key word here, because you must read poetry aloud. It’s as though he captured the sound of our hearts – something we all know and feel, but usually don’t share. I even have a book of his poems in my car door, in case I’m stuck waiting in traffic (as though that ever really happens where I live!). From reading about him, I don’t think I would have liked him at all. When I read his poetry, however, all differences among men and women, upper and lower class, hero and jackass fall away, and we become painfully fragile and mortal. My favorite is “The Four Quartets.”

8. Samuel Beckett
I had a serious love affair with Mr. Beckett. His plays and short prose are simple yet incredibly weighty. To me, he’s the ultimate existentialist. He breaks writing down into the smallest possible pieces, finding the lowest common denominators. As a writer, I learned a great deal from his work. But I have to give props to other outstanding playwrights, including Eugene O’Neill, August Wilson, David Mamet and Suzan-Lori Parks.

9. Joy Harjo
We need a blogger on this list. Harjo is not only an incredible poet, but a journalist, blogger, podcaster and musician. I love her poetry. It’s filled with beauty, truth, magic and ritual. Hearing her read aloud is even better. I like her blog because it demystifies her life – yes, she’s a famous writer, but she still breathes and eats and gets bored and deals with her family, just like the rest of us. Harjo is Mvskoke, which is misrepresented as Muscogee, which is misrepresented as Creek and is an Indigenous rights activist. Check out her blog at http://www.joyharjo.com/news/.

10. Jorge Luis Borges
I was going to put Gabriel Garcia Marquez on this list, because I’ve read and adored much of his work. But I’m disappointed in him right now, so I’ll go with Borges, who is the true father of Latin American magical realism. I really hesitate to choose authors who don’t write in English, because we’re at the mercy of the translators. Borges lets his imagination loose in his short pieces, which are true gems. I also have to brag that I saw Borges read. He was frail and blind by then and he recited his work from memory, in English. It was very moving.

Now, I’m at 10, but there are a few more I need to mention: Poets Mary Oliver and Sharon Olds and fiction writers Margaret Atwood, Italo Calvino, Jose Saramago, Leslie Marmon Silko, Flannery O’Connor…for starters.

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Will
Frequent BMOWP commenter

1. Ken Kesey
The greatest American writer, bar none. There’s nothing like it. Too bad he only wrote a few books, but he did more with those few than most do with dozens. Kesey is an enormously influential cultural figure. As a corollary to Kesey, I’d recommend Tom Wolfe’s Electric Kool Aid Acid Test, which is sort of a biography of Kesey and his gang of Merry Pranksters.

2. John Steinbeck
Needs no explanation. His stories bring tears to my eyes.

3. Tom Robbins
Perhaps a bit obscure, and definitely out there, but deep, profound, hilarious, and superbly entertaining.

4. Fyodor Dostoyevsky
If you want to learn how to *write*, read Dostoyevsky. Rich and deep and complex, but amusing and fun as well.

5. Jack Kerouac
There are some writers you just identify with, regardless of the writing itself. That’s sort of how I feel about Kerouac. Nothing special about Kerouac’s writing itself, but what’s behind it is what’s important.

6. Robert Heinlein
I’ve read only one of his books (Stranger in a Strange Land) but it was enough to get him on this list. Heinlein is a sci fi writer, but he uses sci fi to communicate some truly revolutionary ideas. It’s the ideas that make Heinlein worth reading.

7. Richard Bach
Of Jonathan Livingston Seagull fame. Simple books which communicate a great way to look at life. They’re all worth reading. Particularly Illusions.

8. Robert Pirsig
Wrote the cult favorite Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, a book which is sort of like a pencil sharpener for your mind. I think it makes you a little smarter to read that book. He wrote another one too, Lila, which is just as good. Pirsig isn’t for everybody (like most of the authors on this list) but if you have an interest in Eastern philosophies, this is a good book.

I’m sure I’m forgetting many, but this is what comes to mind. I’m intentionally leaving off non-fiction and the great philosophers, like Plato, Rousseau, Locke, and Nietzsche.

Ahhh … so many books, so little time to read them.

Tags: Friends, Literature, Writers |

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