Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Connie Willis Interview

I found a Connie Willie interview here.
An idea

Several months ago I broached the idea of starting a literary website. We would be the editors and take submissions from the general public. Your response was underwhelming. Now I have another idea for you to consider. I would like each member of our group to come up with a couple pieces of writing which we could post to a webpage that would be reserved just for our writing. What do you think of that?

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Not writing or reading related

I don't know about you guys but I love nighttime photography, especially of cities. May I direct to this online gallery?

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Collabs- not a month late this time!

I once saw and elk tangled up in a barbed wire fence. I had been walking for most of the day and I was so tired I was at first convinced it was a dream. But the blood was too real.
Whenever I smell frost I think of that elk, and the small caverns carved of the hot red drips, corrosive on the snowy ground. I wanted to help the creature but it was thrashing about madly in its desperate attempt to escape. I sighed and took one last glance and walked away. I could smell the snow as I crunched along. Soon I came to a forked path. One was lined with evergreens, only some snow on the ground. The other was worn dead trees and snow falling. It was a beautiful sight, the light of the setting sun peeking through the branches. I picked that path and started walking again.
What was I thinking about?

(Open for submissions of a nice, concise ending. Seriously, get off your butts and give me something good, people.)


Choose Your Own Adventure (ha, Ed, mine is cooler than yours 'cos it has a name!)

Stephen Colbert...was running for president. [scratched out stuff, only "Terrorists could be anyone" legible] Maybe that's the appeal- everyone becomes a potential threat. Every cell phone whipped out could be a detonator, every package a bomb. It makes public transportation nerve-wracking. But it is not enough to shake the magnificent being that is Stephen Colbert.
He would make a perfect president because he has both of his eyes. (Damn you.)
But Jon Stewart was bitter about his colleague's enormous popularity and charisma. He began to plot the young man's (what?! he's 43!) downfall. His downfall...into Jon Stewart's arms.
Because Jon Stewart could crush a small car in his arms. (Awesome.) He figured correctly that if he could get Colbert in a hug he could crush the life out of him in about ten seconds. Colbert knew that. Colbert didn't care.
Fin. <3

The last one was obviously a war between the non-shippers and the fan-girls. We won. And I wasn't the one who drew the heart after the overly-pretentious "fin." (though I did write THAT.) Also, for anyone who wanted to know, I always grab the collabs so I can have the liberty of adding all those comments in parentheses. :D

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Whole bunches of you

Yay! Parallel universes may actually exist. Cool, maybe there is a world out there where I am playing first base for the Chicago Cubs, we are in the world series and during the off season I play bass for U2.

Monday, October 22, 2007

A post for Mitchell

I'm sure she has heard and I should have posted this as soon as I heard but a character from Harry Potter has been outed by Rowling. Dumbledore is gay. I guess the only question is, does anyone really care?

Thursday, October 18, 2007

The poem I wrote

Here's the longer version of the poem that I read tonight.

Everyone is older
my dad's youngest brother
always seemed so young
the adult that could
talk to the kids
is almost as old as Bob Dylan
he plays horse shoes half heartedly

My dad, the eldest
his nose ravaged
by his recklessness,
his balance more and more
off kilter
as the years between him
and his motorcycle accident
increase, struggles with horse shoes

The middle brother
his competitiveness stoked by
the horse shoe contest
his red hair fading
like paint on an old car
doesn't lose a game all day

My sister takes pictures
convinces the usually camera shy
to pose and smile
in the red afternoon sun
she's like a attractive queen
who just learned her rival
has had acid thrown in her face.

Aunt Bert's steak
is the rawest steak I've ever seen
eaten with utensils
I tell her, "You could just have left
that sitting out overnight and it
would be done to your liking."
"Yup," She says, "just leave it out
in the sun for a few minutes and
I'll eat it."

It's a good party, the kind people
don't want to leave
with long goodbyes
vows to do this again
"Not wait ten years this time,"
the middle brother says.
"We might not all be here ten years from now."
His wife punches him in the arm.

Everyone is older, even the trees

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Le Guin on serious literature

Now this is funny stuff.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Bill Watterson reviews new Charles Schulz Biography

You can read the review here.

Meeting

Don't forget that we are meeting this Thursday because the room will not be available next week. This Thursday, 6 o'clock.

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Lego Hawking

Interested in seeing a Lego version of Stephen Hawking?

Sunday, October 07, 2007

I am America

As Grace mentioned, her is the cover of the Stephen Colbert book. That is a funny face. I don't know how many of you watch the Colbert Report on Comedy Central but, if you haven't, you are missing some of the best comedy of the last twenty years. I don't know if I've seen any better writing and performing since the Kids in the Hall were in their prime. I read an interview with Colbert and he said when he and Jon Stewart created the character he plays on the show Stewart told him he should play it as a person who is a know it all but an idiot. I think he pulls it off.

Saturday, October 06, 2007

The possibility of talks

Hey, even the chance that discussions concerning a Peter Jackson directed version of the Hobbit is enough to get me excited.

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

The Family Reunion
(just something I jotted down today. It'll be much much much longer later. It'll be an epic poem not unlike the Iliad)

Everyone is older
my dad's younger brother
always seemed so young
the adult that could
talk to the kids
is almost as old as Bob Dylan
he plays horse shoes half heartedly

My dad, the eldest
his nose ravaged
by his recklessness,
his balance more and more
off kilter
as the years between him
and his motorcycle accident
increase, struggles with horse shoes

The middle brother
his competitiveness stoked by
the horse shoe contest
his red hair fading
like paint on an old car
doesn't lose a game all day