Month: June 2010

Free author readings and lectures

The Warren Wilson College MFA program for writers provides free readings and lectures to the public. The first reading begins tomorrow night. The reading schedule is posted on their web site (link). I plan on attending as many as I am able. However, a passage from one of Günter Grass’s novels makes me wonder about the validity of creative writing programs.

Here unpolished literary attempts were read aloud and critiqued…. based on the American notion of teaching creative writing. (Crabwalk, Chapter 2)

The Warren Wilson College MFA program for writers provides free readings and lectures to the public. The first reading begins tomorrow night. The reading schedule is posted on their web site… read more »

Free author readings and lectures

Czeslaw Milosz’s birthday is today. Just in case you wanted to know.
To believe you are magnificent. And gradually to discover that you are not magnificent. Enough labor for one human… read more »

Poetry; “the passionate pursuit of the Real”

Poetry; “the passionate pursuit of the Real”

Czeslaw Milosz’s birthday is today. Just in case you wanted to know.

To believe you are magnificent. And gradually to discover that you are not magnificent. Enough labor for one human life.

Gardening: spirituality and vermicomposting

Squash and peas begin to flower
The urban garden as it looks in early June; squash and peas begin flowering.

Oh, Adam was a gardener, and God who made him sees
That half a proper gardener’s work is done upon his knees,
So when your work is finished, you can wash your hand and pray
For the Glory of the Garden, that it may not pass away!

(link: The Glory of the Garden by Rudyard Kipling)

The correlation between gardening and prayer had not occurred to me until I read that Kipling poem. American culture has forgotten how growing one’s own food is a lot of labor and often a gamble. This year there has been sufficient rain, but previous years these mountains have experienced drought. In years past I’ve lost plants to a Spring frost, plant mold and blight. But when Kipling wrote those lines ubiquitous herbicides and pesticides where unavailable as well as genetically modified plants. Gardening and spirituality have always been connected, but only in recent history that we have forgotten that truth as the culture detoured to a road of industrial foods.

So far the garden has yielded a modest supply of lettuce for occasional salads, a dozen or so snap peas, a half-dozen chili peppers. The tomatoes should be coming in soon as well as the squash. The first load of vermicompost was used in the garden box where the peppers grow. (It may be difficult to see in the photo, but there are two green totes behind the tomato garden box where I vermicompost table scraps.) At the current pace, worms compost one tote of table scraps every three to four weeks. It’s hard to imagine that this little garden provides so much work that many evenings and weekends are filled with labor on my hands and knees.

The urban garden as it looks in early June; squash and peas begin flowering. Oh, Adam was a gardener, and God who made him sees That half a proper gardener’s work is done upon his… read more »

Gardening: spirituality and vermicomposting

Soundtrack to the late 90s

I can’t complain and all my bills have been paid.
Thank you so much for all the wonderful…

Link: PlankEye

This weekend, I visited the 90s through the portal of my compact disc collection and discovered that some of my favorite, modern, alternative, somewhat indie, but mostly obscure bands released their creative energy upon the world around 1995. Most of them didn’t survive the threshold of Y2K. Those who did survive Y2K, panted, sputtered, and collapsed shortly after 9-11. As I listen to some of the old tunes I recall how some of these songs resonated with me. Room Full of Walters came out with a song that articulated a message I didn’t have words for. At the time, I lived in the gun-totting, bible-thumping, concealed-arms permits Southern state. First time I heard the song, I said out loud, “You read my mind!”

Jesus Christ would never carry a gun
but you defend your right to bare one….
What’s up with you?
Why do you do the things
you do in the name of God?

Link: Room Full of Walters

Straight out of the university with a degree in graphic design, I had a passion for art. During the day I’d work at a small publishing company designing newsletters and booklets for residential and commercial properties, but at night I was painting, writing and reading. My goal was to have a solo show with at least 20 paintings. That’s when the music of Dimestore Prophets hit me like a two by four.

Truth is getting so hard to paint
Just chasing the wind, no place to begin
Mister, you’re not the first
Try working with dirt
Yeah sure ok Monet

Link: Dimestore Prophets

By the time the curtain closed on the 90s I finally had that solo art exhibit.

Another Dimestore Prophets song that stung me like a bee and wouldn’t let me ignore it was a tune called “Soothsayer.” At the time, I was recovering from the effects of being in a Christian fundamentalist environment and I just couldn’t stomach religion anymore. “Soothsayer” complicated my thoughts about God and faith and life in a way that still haunts me today.

Kneel down to the
system, hail religious
grind

Now jump like a
circus
dog through my hoops of fire

You won’t find a
back door to
heaven

Link: Dimestore Prophets

And then there are girls. Futile attempts at romance. Negotiating various relationships. And this song sometimes captured those moments at night on the patio, drinking coffee, smoking a cheap cigar, trying to read a book about two lovers who just don’t quite connect because of class or taste or some other issue that complicates life (but makes great novels).

Better off if things were left unsaid.
Tomorrow’s sorrows waiting there once again.
The silver pinholes of the night
refuse to sing their starry song tonight.

Link: PlankEye

And I realize that these songs are kind of like milestones. Some chosen, others placed in my way, but markers nonetheless to surviving the late 90s and progress on to the new century — new millennia.

I can’t complain and all my bills have been paid. Thank you so much for all the wonderful… Link: PlankEye
This weekend, I visited the 90s through the portal of my compact disc collection and… read more »

Soundtrack to the late 90s

Is it possible to be a polymath in today’s culture?

Are polymaths extinct? In the ancient world polymaths shared expertise in various fields of knowledge. One example is Leonardo da Vinci — not merely a painter, but sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, cartographer, botanist and writer. More recently, Thomas Jefferson fits that definition as a horticulturist, political leader, architect, inventor, and founder of the University of Virginia. Is it possible to be a polymath in this modern world? As it relates to blogging, can effective bloggers be polymaths?

Copyblogger offers some habits of effective bloggers. The list includes:

  • prolific
  • concise
  • focused and consistent

(Link: 8 Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers)

One of the things stated as an attribute of an effective blogger is:

Successful bloggers choose a topic and stick to it.

They write consistently about their chosen subject… Even when they write about something that seems to be off-topic, they relate it back to the niche they know…

This makes practical sense as far as marketability. You don’t expect comic books sold at a doughnut shop. But what about a gas station? Of course, you purchase gas at a gas station, but most gas station owners don’t make profits from the sale of gasoline. Most of their revenue comes from products sold inside the gas station. In high school, I stopped by the gas station routinely to purchase comic books. Should blogs be doughnut shops or gas stations?

In the marketing world, as in the blogosphere, an individual who chooses a topic and sticks to it is a specialist or consultant. In Peter Rubie’s Telling the Story, he presents this definition of genres:

The development of genres came about as a marketing necessity. “Category” and “genre” are marketing terms… Their purpose is basically to help you more easily find what it is you’re looking for.

Telling the Story then goes on to list seven narrative nonfiction categories: adventure, travel books, biography, history, military, memoir and true crimes. The music industry follows the same protocol: country, pop, rock, hip-hop, and so on into the sub-genres of goth-metal, indie-folk-americana, afro-celt, etc. What Copyblogger proposes is to be marketable to your online audience. If you’re a tech blog, write about technology. If you’re an organic gardener, write about gardening. If you’re a mom, write about mommy stuff. That way your online readers are trained to expect only doughnuts at the doughnut shop.

The question is this: if blogs are specialized, will that make the community more or less knowledgable? I’ve noticed that art blogs often link to other art blogs. I understand that the reason for this is to create a strong community. The challenge with specializing content is that the specialists become islands of highly focused, topical knowledge surrounded by the waters of ignorance of other general knowledge. Jacques Barzun explores the idea of specialized knowledge and more in The House of Intellect. Let me go back to the opening paragraph where I stated “more recently, Thomas Jefferson…” Between Thomas Jefferson and our present information age, the society and culture has changed so dramatically that I wonder if our institutions of intellect suppress the nurture and nature of polymaths.

Should you do an audio or video podcast?

Here are a few thing to consider before you start:

People will remember:

  • 10% of what they read
  • 20% of what they hear
  • 50% of what they see and hear

(Link: Is Web video really effective?)

I’m not sure about the accuracy of those numbers, but here is another thing to consider: who is producing the content? Video takes a lot longer to produce than audio, and there are a lot more variables to video capture (like what’s in the background, natural lighting, audio, etc.)

An audio podcast — providing there is good audio capturing technique — is relatively easy to produce on a regular basis. Using a good digital recorder and mic, you can capture audio relatively quickly, download it to a laptop, edit it using various audio software, export it as a MP3 file and upload it to a Web server for online distribution.

“Last Night at the New French Bar” to be published

My poem “Last Night at the New French Bar” has been accepted for publication in an upcoming issue of Crab Creek Review — a distinguished literary publication from the Northwest.

Mickey’s First Day: an indie comic

A comic book about a hair salon called Tease and a cosmetologist named Mickey may not be the first floppy you look for when you shop at your local comic book dealer. Then again, I’m not your typical comic book reader. Last week I picked up an Asheville indie comic from Deaver Park Press at Comic Envy. Tiziana Severse and Brent Baldwin team up to self-publish Mickey’s First Day (I was able to secure #69 of 75 limited edition copies). As far as slice-of-life drama comic books, it’s off to a good start.

A few years ago I read an excellent black and white graphic novel titled House of Java (now collected in two trades). The artwork wasn’t particularly top notch, but the stories were engaging and the characters were always interesting. Maybe that’s the appeal of indie comics: great writing and engaging stories. I don’t expect Barry Windsor Smith artwork from indie comics. I expect a raw art form found in Mickey’s First Day and House of Java. Another indie comic book I eagerly collected as floppies was The Waiting Place (now beautifully collected in one volume). Again, the artwork is good, but the storytelling is great. I hope to see more good material from the team of Deaver Park Press.

A good poem is like a good film — haunting

The past few weeks I’ve returned to a few poems that capture my imagination and thoughts. I tend to read poems the way some people view great film dramas — something like Big Night— enjoying all the subtle nuances, characters and texture. One such poem is from Vera Pavlova, titled “If There Is Something to Desire, 9, 17, 18”. Here’s a few lines:

Why is the word yes so brief?
It should be
the longest,
the hardest,
so that you could not decide in an instant to say it…

(Link: If There Is Something to Desire, 9, 17, 18)

Khaled Mattawa poem “Ecclesiastes” needs to be read a couple times to enjoy it. I particularly enjoy this stanza:

The rule is everyone is a gypsy now.
Everyone is searching for his tribe.

(Link: Ecclesiastes)

And final, from an English Romantic poet John Keats, a few lines from “On the Grasshopper and the Cricket”:

The poetry of earth is never dead:
When all the birds are faint with the hot sun,
And hide in cooling trees…

(Link: On the Grasshopper and the Cricket)

Getting things done: first define your goals

The simplest approach is not always the most effective. Seth Godin offers a Simple five step plan for just about everyone and everything. The operative word is “simple.” The one-size-fits-all approach may work for someone, but other situations are complicated with many variables. So, when you want to “make something happen,” try this:

  • Define your goals.
  • Determine a desired outcome.

Once those two actions are accomplished, prioritize tasks by:

  • doing
  • delegating
  • deferring
  • or deleting nonessential actions that don’t contribute to the defined goal and determined outcome.

More advice about GTD (getting things done) is available at GTD Times.

What’s easier, selling books or flipping burgers?

Here’s a fantastic infographic that presents a visualizes the answer to the following question: How Much Do Music Artists Earn Online? If you think those results look abysmal, try publishing a book.

Here’s a book publishing case study to consider. A couple of years ago I worked on a 72-page book. The book features one-color illustrations on the text pages and full-color cover. The cover price is $5.99. It costs $1.58 per copy to have the books printed and delivered to the warehouse. You’re probably thinking that’s not so bad. There’s a $4.41 profit and the author (assuming the author receives a 10% royalty) walks away with $0.44 per copy sold. Not really impressive is it?

The publisher has to ship inventory to booksellers (online or brick-and-mortar) and that costs quite a bit. For example, let’s say the publisher receives an order from Amazon.com and one product is ordered. It costs the publisher $0.97 to properly pack and label the order and $2.13 to mail it using USPS. So far, the publisher costs for one book sold through Amazon.com is $4.68. That reduces the profit margin to $1.31 per copy. Like most retailers, Amazon.com buys books at 55% off the cover price: $2.70. You’ll notice that the publisher is running a deficit. It literally costs the publisher $1.98 to sell a $5.99 book title. The author receives no royalty.

If the publisher sells the book through its own web store, then the net profit is $1.31 for one book sold. The publisher pays the author $0.13 per copy sold.

All that to say, the author of the book in this case study needs to sell 2,240 copies on the publisher’s web store to earn the same amount of money that an employee at Hardee’s (earning minimum wage) earns in a 40-hour week.

Last night I stood in a bookstore transfixed

Last night I picked up some art supplies downtown. The staff at True Blue is not only helpful, but offered me a cup of water after I coughed a couple of times. For some reason the pollen this year is especially irritating to my throat. It’s not often that staff voluntarily offer a cup of water to store customers, and that kind of service is why I plan to return often.

Being downtown, I couldn’t resist dropping by Malaprop’s for a visit to one of my favorite booksellers. Wandering through the book aisles I came across two book titles that caught my attention. The first book is by Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation.  I haven’t read much of Merton’s writings. But as I was flipping through pages of New Seeds my eyes fell upon the following passage:

If I am supposed to hoe a garden or make a table, then I will be obeying God if I am true to the task I am performing. To do the work carefully and well, with love and respect for the nature of my task and with due attention to its purpose, is to unite myself to God’s will in my work. In this way I become His instrument.

The work ethics idea in this passage seems so foreign in today’s culture that it caused me to stand, shifting my weight from one foot to the other, and ponder the question: am I true to the task I am performing? However menial the task, do I accomplish tasks with due attention to its purpose?

The other book that caught my attention while I walked through the book aisles at Malaprop’s is The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard. Here’s a passage that arrested my attention:

And whereas philosophical reflection applied to scientific thinking elaborated over a long period of time requires any new idea to become integrated in a body of tested ideas, even though this body of ideas be subjected to profound change by the new idea (as is the case in all revolutions of contemporary science), the philosophy of poetry must acknowledge that the poetic act has no past, at least no recent past, in which its preparation an appearance could be followed.

This took me a couple of readings to unpack the idea in this passage, and I’m not sure if I agree with it or disagree with it. My initial thought is not to agree with it simply on the basis that there is nothing new under the sun. However, counterpoint to my initial thought is a recollection of Jane Hirshfield’s thoughts on creativity and originality in poetry.

I wish I could have purchased these books last night, but I spent my money at True Blue and will have to wait until new funds arrive to purchase these titles.

Writing tips: Establish writing goals

Here’s some writing tips from Copyblogger:

  • Write down your goal
  • Divide your ideas into sections
  • Editing, your deadly new friend

For more tips visit this link: 7 Quick-Start Techniques for Fighting the Fear to Write

On a personal, blogging note — I took a hiatus from blogging awhile ago. I switched blogging platforms and then quietly began blogging on WordPress.

Back in 2004, a good friend of mine encouraged me to begin blogging after he attended an open mic where I read a few poems. He told me that my poems connected with listeners and said my writings might resonate with blog readers. So I committed to writing a thousand blog posts. For three years I posted something almost every day. As I drew closer to the goal, I sort of cheated by posting links and videos with brief commentary, but I wasn’t posting original material as I did when I began. When I had reached that goal of a thousand posts I stopped. Quietly, I hoped that the blog writing would lead to a book manuscript and maybe publication. Book publishing is quite a challenge (I’ll share more about that later in the week). But, if I didn’t have the encouragement of a friend and a goal, I would not have written prolifically for a three or four years.

One thing to add to Copyblogger’s list is a writing partner or writing group. Writing can be a lonely craft and the support of friends is essential to stay on task and accomplish your writing goals.

Vigilant fact checking is still essential to journalism

It appears that you can’t just say 70% of what you read online is by your friends on Facebook or Twitter. You actually need to provide reference material.

Silly me. I thought everything on the internet was true. [citation needed]

Link: Is 70 percent of what we read online really by our friends?

Quote: Philosophy kills

Awhile ago, a friend introduced me as a philosopher, artist and writer. It turns out that philosophy may be a potentially hazardous lifestyle.
From Simon Critchley:

Philosophy should come with the kind of health warning one finds on packs of European cigarettes: PHILOSOPHY KILLS…. Socrates was charged with impiety towards the gods of the city and with corrupting the youth of Athens…. A couple of generations later…. Aristotle, escaped Athens saying, “I will not allow the Athenians to sin twice against philosophy.” From the ancient Greeks to Giordano Bruno, Spinoza, Hume… philosophy has repeatedly and persistently been identified with blasphemy against the gods, whichever gods they might be. Nothing is more common in the history of philosophy than the accusation of impiety.
Link: NYT: What Is a Philosopher?

Maybe being introduced as an “intellectual” would be safer than a “philosopher.”

Publishers considering iPad apps need to be agnostic evangelists

Yesterday, during a conversation about publications preparing apps for iPad, I said that an iPad app that allows me to flip through digitized pages of a magazine is, wait for it, boring. The challenge for magazine or newspaper publishers is to provide a consistent brand by enhancing the consumer’s experience.

I suspect the people sitting around the table enjoying coffee beverages thought I missed what they said. They were sharing details about iPad apps and I was responding with comments about branding. But that is exactly the challenge. To repeat what a Seattle branding studio said: Brand Is Product. Brand Is Service. Brand Is Experience. (via AdPulp)

So, what does an ink-on-deadwood-pages publisher need to know about new technology and providing consistent experience, service and product? Part of that answer is addressed in the following article from Der Spiegel:

Part of the reason for all the hesitation is that many publishing executives and journalists, as enthusiastic as they are about the new Apple device, are having trouble developing concepts to bring together the various media worlds: online journalism, magazine feel, the dramaturgy of computer games, video effects and the look and feel of a touchscreen.

Many publishers have long held the erroneous view that the iPad in itself represents the solution for all of the print media’s problems. Only gradually are they realizing that it will not be enough to simply pour the usual content that is normally printed in newspapers and magazines into the iPad, through some sort of electronic funnel, as it were — and expect everything to turn out for the best.

In fact, it is now clear that more and different ingredients are necessary. But what exactly should this “more and different” consist of? Or could it be that precisely the opposite is needed, and will the all-too-convenient magic of multimedia merely end up exhausting readers?

Lukas Kircher, the managing director and principal founder of a newspaper and online design firm, is currently serving as a consultant to several iPad projects of German newspapers, including Bild. He is one of the most important representatives of his trade. “It is a huge mistake to believe that we already have the content, and that the iPad is just another distribution channel,” he says. In fact, he adds, readers will expect a “much stronger visual form of narration” on the iPad.

According to Kircher, iPad users will expect something from journalism that they have found predominantly in computer games until now: the ability to examine an event, relive it and almost experience it directly themselves. “The 20-page essay won’t replace that,” says Kircher. “At the same time, however, a new way of telling stories will emerge.” According to Kircher, the reader will expect, to a far greater extent than in the past, to be cleverly seduced into acquiring information and knowledge. Kircher believes that we should not be searching for the model in today’s online journalism, but in computer games and e-learning programs, and that these are presumably the most important motivating factors for many people to buy such a device — and not, for example, the apps of daily newspapers.
(Link: Will the iPad Save the Publishing Industry? By Markus Brauck, Martin U. Müller and Thomas Schulz)

So, my take away is this: publishers need to adapt ink-on-deadwood-page content to multimedia formats that enhance consumer emotional and psychological investment in their brand. One example that seems to have it right is Paste Magazine. I’m not aware of Paste’s financial situation nor their business model, but they present a product that enhances user experience and provides a product and service that reflects their readers’ lifestyle choice and value system. Another example of an ink-on-deadwood-page publisher that seems to understand their readers’ investment in their brand is The Economist.

Bottom line is this: publishers need to be technologically agnostic and brand evangelists.

367,000 podcast downloads

This morning I checked the podcast stats. The total downloads for 2009 (12 months) and the total downloads for 2010 (five months) are almost dead even — over 367,000 total podcast downloads to date. Heading into June, all podcasts feature paid sponsors.