music and angels

a new cd in the mail, high and dry, the single. and on itunes right now -

maquiladora with its cool guitar stuff going on.

and part of another charles simic poem today:

“in the library”

there’s a book called
“a dictionary of angels.”
no one has opened it in fifty ears,
i know, because when I did,
the covers creaked, the pages
crumbled. there I discovered

the angels were once as plentiful
as species of flies.
the sky at dusk
used to be thick with them.
you had to wave both arms
just to keep them away.

an early performance, on MTV, of "you"

and below, a later performance on BBC of "fake plastic trees"

like a strange dream

sometimes i think i am an information junkie. the internet, jeez. i can spend hours, days, my entire life just clicking every link to every other bit of information and photo and video. and when i am not on the computer, then i am pulled to bookstores and magazine stands, cuz it's not like i have enough books or magazines to read! i could open a bookstore, i have so many books. i can rationalize that i like all this info because it feeds my fiction writing. and it does. but mostly it just feeds my curiosity. there is no good reason to gather as MUCH information as i do.

am i going to do anything about it? no. except, after this, i will probably log on to amazon and order a couple of books i've had on my wish list.....

meanwhile: on itunes now - "remyxomatosis" from a radiohead japanese cd, "com lag"

and some poetry:

charles simic from a poem "evening talk"

everything you didn't understand
made you what you are. strangers
whose eye you caught on the street
studying you. perhaps they were the all-seeing
illuminati? they knew what you didn't,
and left you troubled like a strange dream.

the blackbird is involved

one novel is out being looked at by an agent. another novel is in my hands.

loralie.

it is instructive to edit this now that i've been through the ok computer novel so thoroughly. i have a better idea of what this needs (more dialogue!) and how to improve it.

loralie is my punk-rock musician with the secret family past - she doesn't know the secret, but it is affecting her life. she meets and marries this cool musician, an armenian guy in glendale (shades of "system of a down") which is a good thing. but she has to face her demons which is very nearly a very bad thing.

on itunes right now: fake plastic trees (acoustic)

and poetry - has been escaping me lately. so here's wallace stevens. #8 in 13 ways of looking at a blackbird:

I know noble accents
and lucid, inescapable rhythms;
but i know, too,
that the blackbird is involved
in what i know.

nada

it's finals week. i don't teach. i sit and watch students struggle to write a three page essay in two hours. i feel like a torturer. except .... i read their essays after they are all done, and the essays are damn good. they are such perceptive students! they found themes and ideas in the books that i hadn't noticed. they seriously attempted to analyze the book they read and it is so damn cool. i'm proud of them. especially the class that read "our ecstatic days" because that's a hard book to comprehend. look it up. it's way post-modern. but they did a terrific job of analyzing it. great, great students. i feel like i just led them to these good books and they used their own brains to make something out of the them. i love it when i actually don't feel like a teacher and instead feel like a facilitator.

that said.

on itunes right now: banana co, acoustic version. lovely

cozy

this photo is from the Q awards in, i think, 2002 or something....

on itunes right now: street spirit, acoustic version.

sigh - live performance

thom yorke
how to disappear completely

and .... i finally learned to embed video here!

all i want to do.....

feeling young today, so why not a young picture of thom?

the biggest and best advantage of working with high school students is that they keep me young. they don't wear me down or tire me out or make me feel old. where else in my life can i get into a deep discussion about which radiohead b-side is the most interesting? where can i share my enthusiasm for something as simple as fall out boy's newest song? where else can i get teased for having sheryl crow on my ipod? speaking of which ....

on itunes right now: all i want to do is have some fun - sheryl crow.

the novel progresses. and it's nearing the end. i have had 4 people read it. very similar comments from each one, a few scenes added here and there to eliminate confusion or weak areas. i think it is strong, and i think it is very nearly ready (one more pass!). i have a list of 30 agents. surely one of them will like it!

thinking young, thinking positive.....

the good the bad and the queen

want a mix of radiohead, blur and gorillaz?



ths is the good, the bad and the queen - damon albarn's newest incarnation. check them out on thegoodthebadandthequeen.com

this is what you get

and that's the new name of my OK novel. a better name for a novel.

nothing on itunes cuz it's bedtime but i had to put something on my blog first. something. anything.

my students read "13 ways of looking at a blackbird" today and then they all had to write their own 13 ways of looking at something - except that they passed their papers around so they wrote one stanza on each other's idea.

they came up with great little stanzas! over the next few days i will post some of them here - like little haikus or zen koans. i just love my students when they do that.

can't you see what love has done?

on itunes now: the new U2 song - Window in the Skies.

i tried to embed the video, but it didn't work; a great video, well worth searching for in aol videos.

back to school! yikes and yuck. actually it was fine, and i like the students so much that it is quite entertaining, but it's hard to give up all that unstructured time. and sleeping late.

maggie may is back on my desk with comments from other readers. i need to add a scene or two, i need to weave her own creative endeavors throughout, but otherwise, it seems to hang together well. people like it! they like reading it and have told me that they get caught up in the story and forget that they are reading for critique. cool. way cool.

a line of poetry:

and you yourself, how could you know what primordial time you stirred in your lover. what passions welled up inside him from departed beings.

rilke, the duino elegies

as far as forever

on itunes: thom yorke doing neil young's "cinnamon girl"

a windy day in L.A. and blue sky and sun and it's cold for L.A. winter break is almost over and of course now i want to write. wasted all that time, as usual. so my new year's resolution is "willpower." applies to everything: losing ten pounds, writing every day, being a more organized teacher.

to celebrate the new year (a bit late, yes) with a poem, here is william stafford's poem "our story" in its entirety:

remind me again - together we
trace our strange journey, find
each other, come on laughing.
some time we'll cross where life
ends. we'll both look back
as far as forever, that first day.
i'll touch you - a new world then.
stars will move a different way.
we'll both end. we'll both begin.
remind me again.

everything in its right place

on itunes right now: "everything in its right place" from the boston concert last summer (thanks to ryan's smashing life - see my links list)

writing: getting inside the head of a young man. his friend is easy, his friend's all like "dude, what's up?" but gawain doesn't talk like that, not as much. he's more complex. and so troubled. it's hard and interesting to be inside the head of someone so messed up. i like doing it. but it's not easy.

but, then, it shouldn't be, should it?

radiohead chat: um, i love thom yorke's voice. what else is there to say?

(hoping for a) happy new year

First, we must get out of iraq. 3000 young americans have died there, and many more iraqi men, women and children. it's just insane. we have to leave.

second, every individual needs to step up and do something about the environment: use biodiesel, buy a hybrid car, purchase carbon credits to help reduce corporations' pollution. small and big things. everyone needs to help.

now on the positive side:

a year for great music?! radiohead's new cd?? maybe. green day? probably not until 2008. red hot chili peppers making another sweep through l.a. so i can see them again? i hope so. and lots of new bands to listen to and enjoy.

for me? an agent perhaps. one novel nearly done, two others in process. dare i say it .... maybe i'll get published in 2007. or soon after.

on itunes right now, speaking of new music: "the fuzz" by silversun pickups.

have a happy new year!