Monthly Archives: April 2014

Experiencing technical difficulities

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Technical difficulties
Technology offers great time-saving efficiencies. Until something breaks. You probably know what I mean.

Your faithful laptop suddenly experiences hard drive issues. Instead of waiting until it is too late, you preemptively order a replacement and it arrives. But it is the wrong model. How did that happen? So you return it and its replacement delivers to your apartment (according to the online package tracking system). But you never see it. Nor does your neighbor, who nicely inquires about the missing package with other apartment dwellers. But alas. It is missing. How does something as simple as replacing a hard drive eat up nearly a month of hassle? So, disappointed by the delay, you place another order for the hard drive. It arrives! Yay! You do the happy dance. (Until you realize that you now have a month of backlogged freelance and contract work to do in a single week.) And you’re back to business.

Well, maybe you do not know what I mean. That never happens to you, right? Yeah, me neither.

All that to say, the relaunch of the audio podcast has been delayed, but is on its way. As soon as I catch up on some projects. Stay tuned.

Quote: “The short story is the art form…”

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“The short story is the art form that deals with the individual when there is no longer a society to absorb him, and when he is compelled to exist, as it were, by his own inner light.”

Frank O’Connor (via libraryland)

Quote: “Turn the unspeakable into words”

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“The writer’s job is to turn the unspeakable into words – not just any words, but, if you can, into rhythm and blues.”

Anne Lamott (via teachingliteracy)

Last snow before Easter?

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The week before Easter - a light snow

The week before Easter – a light snow

Quote: “If you want others to follow, learn to be alone with your thoughts”

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How do you publicize the necessity to disengage from status quo and social media pressures? Read this article, “Solitude and Leadership.” Actually, it is an essay/lecture by William Deresiewicz. Take your ear buds out. Put away your mobile device (and tablet). Find a quiet corner of a public library (as I am doing presently). And read the essay from beginning to end. Here’s another acorn from the tree to whet your appetite:

“…true leadership means being able to think for yourself and act on your convictions.

One of the consequences for following this wisdom is you will not be popular. Here is another acorn to digest:

“Multitasking, in short, is not only not thinking, it impairs your ability to think. Thinking means concentrating on one thing long enough to develop an idea about it. Not learning other people’s ideas, or memorizing a body of information, however much those may sometimes be useful. Developing your own ideas. In short, thinking for yourself. You simply cannot do that in bursts of 20 seconds at a time, constantly interrupted by Facebook messages or Twitter tweets, or fiddling with your iPod, or watching something on YouTube.”

Does that sound familiar? Do you see the need for undistracted time and space to develop ideas?

NOTES:

[1] William Deresiewicz, “Solitude and Leadership,” The American Scholar, Spring 2010 accessed April 8, 2014 http://theamericanscholar.org/solitude-and-leadership/#.U0QWZa1dXKI

Calling antiquarian book collectors

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For those how love a well-crafted book, AbeBooks.com has a special featured titled “The Wonder of Woodcuts” by Scott Laming. The selections posted here, The Wonder of Woodcuts, are high quality (and high priced) books for antiquarian collectors.

Acoustic music and poetry

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If you were to match a musician with a poet for an evening of culture and entertainment, who would they be?

A month ago I noticed this ad:

An evening of acoustic music and spoken word/poetry at Pepperdine University

An evening of acoustic music and spoken word/poetry at Pepperdine University[1]

Who wouldn’t want to attend this event? Two great artists on one stage for one evening. Makes sense to me.

Acoustic music and poetry fit together. Nearly a decade ago, I participated at a bookstore café event with musicians.[2] It is something I really enjoyed doing. The marriage of poetry and music resonates with an audience—especially an audience who does not know that they might enjoy poetry.

A few years ago, the Rooftop Poets (somewhat legendary) roof garden book launch and poetry performance featured jazz to accompany an evening of poetry.[3]  Three poets and two musicians joined for a lively evening of poetry, music and light refreshments.

What about you? As a poet, who would you love to work with for an evening of acoustic music and poetry? I have my wish list. What about you?

NOTES: [1] An evening of acoustic music and spoken word/poetry
[2] Malaprop’s Music/Poetry Gig Meditations
[3] A poetry reading and jazz show on the Roof Garden of the Battery Park Hotel

[Podcast] Re-release of episode 14

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Here is a re-release of episode 14 of the Coffeehouse Junkie audio podcast. It is a bit dated in the fact that there is a reference to gingerbread latte. Anyway, the relaunch of the Coffeehouse Junkie audio podcast is almost here.

The Flood Fine Arts Center in Asheville, North Carolina was the home to poetry writing workshops I directed. One of the six-week workshops featured a syllabus and writing exercises. There is discussion at present to make that syllabus/workbook available as an e-book for those interested parties. This episode features the essay “The Hunger” from the poetry writing workshop. It is abridged and will be released in an expanded version in a forthcoming book.

Listen to: Episode 014

I look forward to your feedback. Post comments, question and/or requests in the comment section of this blog post and I will address it in an upcoming episode. Thanks for listening!

Unreleased demo tapes

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In preparing for the relaunch of the Coffeehouse Junkie audio podcast, I discovered some old, unreleased episodes. According to the notes on the audio files, three episodes were recorded and set to publish sometime in 2010 or 2011. But these demos never made it to the airwaves (or cyberspace). One episode is too corrupted to release. But the raw demos of two podcasts (what was planned episode 16 and 17) might make a fun bonus. Anyone interested in hearing these unpublished demo podcasts?

In other exciting news: It reached 42°F outside today. Time for a long walk in the thawing tundra.

[Podcast] Re-release of episode 13

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As mentioned last week, here is a re-release of episode 13 of the Coffeehouse Junkie audio podcast. This episode features the essay “The Field” as well as two poems that are discussed in the fourth session of the poetry writing workshop I directed at the The Flood Fine Arts Center in Asheville, North Carolina.

As a side note, each poetry writing workshop I lead concluded with a class chapbook featuring the best of the students’ work and a poetry reading. Additionally, the essay featured in this podcast is abridged and will be released in an expanded version in a forthcoming book.

Here is: Episode 013

As always, I look forward to your feedback. Post comments, question and/or requests in the comment section of this blog post and I will address it in the upcoming episode 15. Episode 14 will be re-released later this week. Thanks for listening!