// Someone just brought me homemade chocolate cookies. Thank you!
// Someone just brought me homemade chocolate cookies. Thank you!
Category: general
Poetry, the highest form of art
“Imagine living in a society where poetry was considered to be the most important art form. Where a poet could easily fill a football stadium. Where a poet’s death was the top news story for days.” Link
This echoes the thought that Icelandic books is the most important in Europe.
// Stopped by Asheville Brewing Co. on the way home after class. ABC was packed for the Presidential debate.
Well, duh. Personal story: Back in February, I assisted in an event for a national magazine. The event was pretty basic – invite loyal readers to attend a diner with their favorite columnists, editors and writers. For a reasonable fee (basically, the cost to rent a hotel conference room and the price of a meal), readers got to hear short speeches from the editorial staff (roughly five minutes each) and participate in a Q & A. The event was a resounding success.
// Bus broke down. Only got home 5 minutes late. How’s that for efficient public transit?
// Is trying to catch the 4 o’clock bus.
// someone’s cellphone is ringing in the other office… answer it, please.
// redux… why was the guy on the bus trying to sell a stolen credit card TO passengers? (I’m sure I ordered a double lattee. Where’s my brain this morning?)
// back at the office… why was the guy on the bus trying to sell passengers a stolen credit card? Idiot.
// listening to Morphine play over The Drip’s house stereo system
// making final revisions to a childrens book that is supposed to go to press today
U.S. Media Revenue Rises 4.6%
From AdAge:
The nation’s top 100 media companies saw a 4.6% revenue boost in 2007, their slowest growth since the recession year of 2001.
Media’s tempered growth mirrors that of the economy: GDP last year recorded its most tepid growth (2%) since 2002 amid signs the economy was heading into recession.
Media’s biggest winner is no surprise: digital, with revenue up 10.8%. Cable-network growth was close behind, at 10.6%. The biggest loser: newspapers, down 6.8%.
The right way to slack off at work
1. E-mail can wait.
2. Saying ‘no’ won’t get you fired.
3. Don’t multitask.
4. Give yourself a break.
5. Don’t eat lunch at your desk.
6. Schedule some “me” time.
Oh, really.
The idea is not the story
Does one really create ideas? I suspect I know what this writer is attempting to say. However, writing prose is about the story not the idea. Ideas embedded in the story make it great, but the idea itself won’t sell the story. The etymology of the word “idea” is “figure, image, symbol” and “to see.” A great idea is nothing unless it has a narrative substance. Besides, does one create an idea or does one have an idea?
Overheard on the bus
Bus rider: Yeah, last night there was another fight at the gas station. This time is was two women.
Overheard @ The Dripolator
Barrista: So you like spending money on higher education? What, you like got your degree lit… and… now it’s like sweet, I can’t get a job anywhere.
From Print is Dead blog:
…even though I wrote a book called Print is Dead, even I don’t think that publishing is over. Rather, it just needs to change and be willing to embrace new ideas and business models.
Link
sunili:(via theoisjonesing: tightgrip: thenausner)
Awesome! Analogue Sunday can’t come quick enough.
How Fat is The Long Tail?
Didn’t just write about this?
From Publishers Weekly:
“Some products belong in the tail not the head,” Elberse [Anita Elberse, associate professor at Harvard Business School] said.
Link
Poets Teaching Poets
This weekend I picked up a copy of Poets Teaching Poets at Malaprop’s. It is the only required book for the advanced poetry in which I am enrolled. I read the introduction and first few pages of the opening chapter on the bus ride back home. I hope the class is as engaging as this book.
The first class is Tuesday and I have a few predictions about the class:
- male students will be a minority
- students (regardless of gender) under 40 years of age will be a minority
- half (if not the majority) of the students will have had taught in an educational capacity at some time during their adult life (and now that they have retired want to write and publish poetry)
- the majority of the students will write in confessional lyric verse
This sounds a bit cynical, but I’ve taken a few classes like this in recent years and that tends to be the trend. I’ll share the results of these predictions later in the week.
An email from the class teacher arrived this afternoon as instructed all students to bring the following to class this week:
- one of your own poems
- and one of your favorite poems
writing a poem a day
I made a personal goal of trying to write a poem per day for the month September; or at least a sketch a day. Reality is a harsh master. A presentation project I am working on has kept my brain occupied with details regarding photo selection and event branding. I’ve only been able to compose a poem every other day. Normally, this would bring on a fit of frustration and depression, but not this time. Even a small sketch, the second one I composed, reminds me that patience and perseverance is essential and pursuing master of this craft. Here’s the second poem I wrote this month:
Half a pint down
eight minutes to go
half a porter to go
eight minutes ’til I leave
It’s a spare sketch; something in the vein of a hybrid haiku or tanka.
This excercise is to prepare me for an advance poetry class that I am taking. It begins this week.
Coffeehouse Junkie 