I am terrible at social media and my tolerance for it is lower than decaffeinated coffee. I do have Facebook and Instagram, but they aren't my preferred places on the web. Notes From Rabbit Tobacco Field, is a mini-blog for small posts that are not suited for my main blog.
April 26, 2024
It has been such a wonderful spring for the roses this year at home. The blooms have been abundant and with the rain last Sunday the weight almost broke some bushes.
This orange one growing at one end of the back yard has been spectacular.
The New Dawn that we grew at my childhood home and I grow now has its first bloom of the season. It should be covered in the coming weeks.
I didn't learn until yesterday that former NPR Morning Edition host Bob Edwards died in February. He was a hero of mine in radio with his wonderful voice and style. I was a regular listener to his show in those years. He was also a Louisville native and there was that special connection since I lived and worked in radio there. Bob is mentioned in my next novel.
I no longer listen to NPR, haven't for several years, as the hosts are insufferable and the programming is insulting. The Atlanta affiliate WABE has completely lost me too with its narrow viewpoint and activist journalism that I can't relate.
Louisville which has three public radio stations under the Louisville Public Media umbrella, including one that is still dedicated to classical music (rare these days), is a better option.
It's a shame that Bob was pushed out in 2004 and what NPR has become.
April 19, 2024
It has been a very good week working on my next novel. The current word count is over 105,000. It is longer than where I want it to be and it will have to be slimmed down, but I am happy with the writing.
April 17, 2024
The abandoned Nolan mansion is still standing this spring as I passed by last week. There were too many miles and hours on the road last week from Rome, Georgia in the northwest part of the state to Juliette, Georgia in the central part of the state. There were plenty of interesting sights that I'd not seen before. At home, the roses are blooming in abundance.
April 03, 2024
My next novel, due this summer, currently sits at just over a 100,000 words. I'm in the editing phase as I battle the distractions of life. The wind is howling outside at the moment. The last month has been so busy with work, hosting a family dinner, spring chores around the house, visiting gardens and being out on the trails once a week to replenish the mind. I'll be returning to the road again.
Winding my way along Sawnee Mountain a couple of weeks ago. It was the first time I had been back in thirteen years. It was cool and windy and just perfect.
Tulips in the gardens in Athens, Ga.
Movies & documentaries that I've watched in the last month:
Drifter (set in Berlin and loved it)
Downtown 81 (that period of New York fascinates me. Dreamy and gritty.)
The Killing Of A Sacred Deer (there isn't a
March 07, 2024
I've had a difficult time shaking this funeral. It felt premature since the person was younger than I am and I had known them since childhood. I haven't moved on from it yet or processed it fully.
It has been a busy week of yard cleanup for spring, picking up a van full of furniture from a recent purchase up near Dawsonville, refinishing a couple of tables at home and a million other things.
There is a dinner planned for this weekend.
I first heard this piece from Ravel about four years ago and I love it. It is great to listen to it in my office at night.
March 02, 2024
I've spoken at two funerals in my life, the second today, and I never want to do it again. I'm not built for speaking in front of large audiences. It was good to see people who I've not seen in a dozen or more years.
February 28, 2024
I was looking through some of the first drafts for the next novel and was surprised to see some of the dates. I began writing some of this book four years ago right after I had finished Dweller On The Boundary. The choices in the editing are getting more and more difficult as to what stays and what goes. Progress.
Pet Shop Boys' Being Boring plays as I polish shoes. That was my life for a time. This funeral is occupying too much of my mind this week. It feels like a dress rehearsal.
February 27, 2024
Some beautiful scenery during a walk near home on Monday at dusk. Spring was raging with highs in the seventies and so was the pollen. I want more winter, not spring.
I have a funeral to attend this coming weekend.
The writing continues despite what happens in daily life. I haven't decided if this funeral will have an influence on the next novel or not. It could. This person had appeared in a couple of my books in very brief mentions and is already written into the next novel in the early drafts.
February 20, 2024
After the morning writing sessions this last weekend, I did go down to the city to pick up another chandelier for the house, get new glasses from Warby Parker, venture into Athens, and squeeze in some miles in the woods.
And I made it over to the Marietta Square, which was part research. Spring has definitely sprung by the looks of trees and the daffodils blooming everywhere.
Gin Blossoms, Hey Jealousy.
February 10, 2024
There were two large rabbits in the back yard this morning. I guess they were looking for Rabbit Tobacco Field. After three weeks of daily nonstop writing and editing, my brain is taking this weekend off.
February 09, 2024
Where did the pretty pop music go? I checked the Billboard Hot 100 chart this morning and was saddened to see the state of popular music, but it has been this way for a very long time. This is currently the number one song.
Pop music was so much better and was actually music when I was a teenager. I could not imagine growing up today when pop culture is this awful, nasty, vulgar and degraded. This is such a poor reflection of society and humanity that it has come to this. It is shocking how bad American culture has become in my lifetime.
In 1990 when I was seventeen, this beautiful song (Love Will Lead You Back by Taylor Dayne) was the number one song on the Billboard Hot 100. Despite the problems that existed then, we were a better civilization.
February 08, 2024
As complicated as this story is, I am
beginning to fall in love with this current novel that I had doubts
that I could write. I'm feeling the same way about it as I did at
this stage in writing Dweller On The Boundary.
One of my girlfriends in school said that we would live this song, Jessie by Joshua Kadison. We did live parts of it as we got older, but those teenage dreams never turn out the way we envision.
February 03, 2024
February 02, 2024
From the pandering, small minds comes bad and dangerous legislation. The war on ideas and books under the old trope from lazy politicians of "save the children" won't you? Have they nothing better to do than gin up the old culture wars? Bad legislation never fixes bad parenting and being involved your children's lives in a healthy capacity. I'd say follow the money and see which lobbyists are behind this and who they are donating to.
If you want to make your children's lives better get them off social media, that is what is doing the most harm to their developing brains.
February 01, 2024
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| Chicago's Look Away music video. 1988. |
I have been on this tear of listening to 80s music from Chicago for a week or so during my writing breaks. I loved Look Away when it came out in 1988. What struck me most in watching in the music video was how sexy fashion was in the 80s compared to today. We've replaced sexy with trashy since. There seems to be a failure to recognize the difference between the two in what we see dominating pop culture.
January 31, 2024
I don't like when January ends.
This morning the thought came to me that writing is an emotionally abusive profession.
Annie Lennox - Pavement Cracks
January 28, 2024
I know I'm really in my groove when I'm writing and editing through weekends. This novel is a sprawling tale.
I hope readers connect and understand how special the character Everett was in real life.
January 27, 2024
I surprise myself sometimes with the sappy songs I become enamored with from the past. The Next Time I Fall by Peter Cetera and Amy Grant has been one of those songs this week. We played it in concert band in junior high.
When I was writing my novel Dweller On The Boundary, I listened to Never Gonna Let You Go by Sergio Mendes to get myself in the mood and headspace to write about the character of Robin. It was a trick I used on myself to tap into those feelings of love and pain.
It has been a busy and productive week of writing. My next novel should be out this summer.
January 24, 2024
Out for a walk yesterday. This is January here as it should be - dark, damp and gray. It was forty-five degrees as I made miles through the woods and mist. January is my favorite month.
I've been reading Ted Hughes who is fitting for the weather. Crow's Fall stuck in my mind.
January 22, 2024
Now that was a cold weekend. It was below freezing here from 7PM Friday to noon on Sunday. The low on Sunday morning was eleven degrees above zero fahrenheit. I loved it.The January thaw arrives this week and so does the rain.
January 17, 2024
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| That cold look coming south on I-985 yesterday. |
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| Lake Lanier as the sun disappeared over the horizon last evening. |
It was ten degrees fahrenheit this morning. That's the coldest it has been here this winter, but not as cold as last winter when it was in the single digits around Christmas. It was painfully cold in the wind yesterday even in the bright sunshine. I like the cold and there will be no complaining from me. Each season brings its own joy.
January 05, 2024
I'll be on the back roads, taking the
long way this weekend. I'll swing through Paulding County, but I
won't be stopping in New Hope or Dallas this time around.
It was a bad week for novel writing with too much distraction. I am proud of the blog piece that I spent a day on, but not what it is about. I had to write it. Whether readers appreciate the disclosure and how difficult it was remains to be seen. I doubt if they understand why it was necessary, but it was.
January 04, 2024
What I am writing in my next novel made think of Wicked Game. I put it on repeat while I thought with my feet on my desk. There are some hard decisions to be made with this novel.
December 22, 2023
Bravo! Saltburn is a fantastic movie. I watched it tonight. It is absolutely twisted with dark humor, though it does remind me the tiniest bit of The Talented Mr. Ripley. It might be the best movie that I've seen this year. The ending scene is pure deliciousness. (trailer) I would watch it again and I rarely watch a movie more than once anymore.
December 21, 2023
Tonight I watched the movie Maestro about Leonard Bernstein. As with anything, the film has been criticized on many fronts, some silly like a prosthetic nose, but we are lucky that films like this are even made today in Hollywood. Be grateful that not another action hero/comic book movie was made and this was instead. I enjoyed it and there are other adults out there too that enjoy seeing movies that appeal to adults. I recently purchased a copy of the Bernstein biography by Joan Peyser and hope to read it soon.
As expected the culture war and book banning in Georgia is moving from school libraries to public libraries that cater to all ages. Now the zealots are aiming to have gay books banned there under the same lie, "protect the children." The anti-gay sentiment attacking books is a pathetic ruse to attack gay people using any method they can. It is obvious that the people who make decisions about library funding have not set foot in a library since they were a child based on their lack of knowledge on anything about them. (article)
As a gay southern writer, I find all of this bullshit unsettling, but also predictable. The bigoted war against being gay will never end in my lifetime and that's sad.
December 20, 2023
The audio book of Dweller On The Boundary is now available and exclusive to Apple. The audio book for Uncivil X is still in production.
November 27, 2023
You would not expect to find much fair and decent writing in The New Yorker about the south, but this recent article, The Death of a Relic Hunter, was surprisingly good. It's a peculiar story and is so very much Georgia.
In the 1980s we had the occasional metal detector types hunt on our family land, with permission, and after reading this article I have to question how honest they were about what they found. Our land was in a good spot for hunting Civil War relics given its close proximity to the battlefield at New Hope, Georgia. We did find some pieces over the years.
November 21, 2023
We have reached peak silliness in terms of protest and narcissism when people have time to waste on the closing of a bar that hasn't even been around that long in comparison to others in Atlanta. Cities change and that's reality whether we agree with it or not.
Also dear news media, there is no such community known as the "LGBTQIA+ community." That's just made up nonsense that lumps together and dehumanizes a wide array of people with little to nothing in common into one box. As a gay man it does not represent me though they would claim the G is supposed to do that.
November 17, 2023
Today was the first time I've been down to the city since August when I was at Ponce City Market and the Beltline. It was a gloomy day with mist in the afternoon and it was quite nice. I was hanging out in West Midtown and Blandtown. I still have a kernel of fondness for the city, especially when it's gloomy, but I don't want to live there again.
Otherwise, I am locked away at home being extremely productive with the next novel due in 2024.
Imperial Drag - Boy or a Girl from 1996
October 15, 2023
Because we all need to be reminded that in the past, good music was made by actual musicians.
The Georgia Satellites, Keep Your Hands To Yourself
October 03, 2023
Over the weekend I had the 10,000 Maniacs MTV Unplugged album on repeat. I loved that album when it came out in 1993. It's my favorite Unplugged album. The concert captures the moodiness of the time. I can smell the fireplace of home listening to it.
I've been out on the trails in the woods, up in the mountains and getting a lot of writing done. It seems I prefer writing in the fall and winter more than I do in the summer.
September 26, 2023
Book bans continue across the U.S.
I've been back on the road, this time Pensacola.
On my mind, Pete Townshend's 1980 gay song, Rough Boys. I like it.
September 13, 2023
Where the rise in book bans is going is a bad place. I am so surprised that society is staggering backwards into the culture wars of the past. Politicians and internet activists have way too much power and too little common sense. This is all smoke and mirrors while the real problems in this country go unsolved. We are a perpetually unhappy and unhealthy country bent on self destruction.
September 12, 2023
I cannot imagine how much of a bad idea it would be to mine near the The Okefenokee Swamp.
September 8, 2023
Elton John has finally moved out of Atlanta (Buckhead) after maintaining a residence there since 1991. I would've loved to have seen the art collection he had housed there which was massive. I know that he had some Keith Haring art. The condo was featured in Architectural Digest.
I passed by his building millions of times; it might have a great reputation, but it is one of the ugliest buildings in Buckhead from the exterior. Elton owned seven units in the building.
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| The Cove. |
The article linked mentions some of his Atlanta activities, but not some of the stories I heard. Someone told me long ago that he loved to cruise the parking lot at the Cove nightclub. The Cove, located on Monroe Drive at Worcester Drive on the backside of Piedmont Park, was a 24/7 club like the much more well known Backstreet. The Cove closed in either late 1994 or early '95 and was torn down for sewer upgrades. I remember seeing the building in my earlier times in the city when I was in my teens, but it was closed when I moved to the city in May 1995 at the age of twenty-two. I was fortunate to enjoy the party at Backstreet, but I just missed The Cove.
Atlanta has changed so much since and the bigger skyline is nicer to look at, but I can't say the city is better. The carefree spirit of Atlanta was long ago sold for progress.
September 6, 2023
As I write the last novel in the trilogy I hate reliving the early 2000s. My stomach is in knots with some of the conversations I had with my mother that last year.
September 5, 2023
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| Charleston 2023. Photo by me. |
Charleston was a good trip a couple of weeks ago. I got a better feeling for this city after this visit. The first visit did not much impress me and I'm still more partial to Savannah.
I have so much email to catch up on and that's a good thing. If I owe you an email then it's likely to arrive this week. I moved past my writer's block and work is going well with the next novel.
August 31, 2023
An AJC poll conducted by UGA.
August 30, 2023
Hurricane Miss Idalia came ashore this morning in Florida and skirted us here in North Georgia with all day light rain. There was not even a strong gust of wind. The weather was much worse to the south.
There goes an August that was the hottest and most humid of the summer months this year. It was 99 degrees with a heat index around 110 last Saturday. I am ready for autumn.
August 26, 2023
Someone posted this childish music video on Facebook last night in support of its message. If you believe that society changed to be more accepting, then you might be naive. They were just better at hiding it for a time and now it's back in the open. It's going to get worse.
August 25, 2023
It truly is going backwards in society when a writer is canceled at a school speaking engagement for using the word 'gay' in an unoffensive and historical context in front of 5th graders. This incident, as reported in the AJC, happened this week in Forsyth County, Georgia to writer Mark Tyler Nobleman.
I've experienced the rise in homophobia in society over the past two years including an incident in San Antonio. There have also been other more minor incidents online and in person. The bigots are emboldened again after a brief slumber. My personal security and awareness is higher than it has been in years.
August 24, 2023
I've been on the road too much this summer and time has flown. I was catching up with local news and saw that the Atlanta paper had reported what the theme was for this year's Pride. Oh, it is sure enough tacky; "Show up and show out," is the theme. I hope it did not take an entire committee of people to come up with that juvenile slogan.
I will be skipping Pride this year, with that unwelcoming slogan and logo. Pride appears to have become a drag pageant or worse with that militant fist and I have no desire to attend that. Not a good look for Atlanta Pride.
July 29, 2023
I watched the Belgian film Close a few weeks ago. It was a devastating and haunting movie about the innocent love and friendship between boys that is lost with age and societal pressure.
Great movies are still made, just not in Hollywood.
July 24, 2023
Watching Twitter go down in flames for the past several months has been great. It should remind people not to get to attached to any social media platform and count on it to promote themselves or products or maintain relationships of any kind. There was Myspace and Friendster before Twitter's death and there will be other services that will come and go. Only a fool or the inexperienced would invest so much of their online life, persona, image or business into a service that they do not own.
July 14, 2023
Peak summer arrived with June bugs in the yard, cicadas, afternoon thunderstorms and long walks.
When it gets to be this time of year I am reminded of the 1980s summer afternoons in Decatur County, Tennessee, the sweltering river bottoms and the haziest skies of my life. Nothing moved from the shade to the sun unless it must.
West End Girls by the Pet Shop Boys was playing in my head on repeat then.
June 30, 2023
If I was programming, I would be all over this album (Food For Worms) by Shame. I've been listening to it for a couple of months. The best songs are: Fingers of Steel which is reminiscent of Interpol, Different Person (love that song), Alibis (awesome), Orchid (moody), Yankees, The Fall of Paul.
June 29, 2023
On repeat today and bouncing around my office.
June 28, 2023
Out making miles yesterday in nature at a lake nearby to home while strangers argue about nonsense online, like every day. People make weird and unproductive choices of how to spend their time on Earth ever since the internet became widespread.
Anyway, I'm making lots of notes and progress on the next novel.
June 27, 2023
I've been listening again to this Bright Eyes album from 2002 the past few days. Lover I Don't Have To Love is such a sexy song and so are Conor's vocals which sound like he is about to cum the entire song.
June 25, 2023
June 20, 2023
Facebook has changed so much this year for the worse. I feel silly mentioning how much worse it is, but it has reached new levels of being pointless. The algorithms are such that I never see posts that I am interested in, but pages I don't follow and ads most of the time. I also get two to three scam friend requests a day from faux profiles promoting crypto scams or by real people promoting a business that I would never do business with. There seems to be no enforcement or moderation of any kind on the service anymore. Facebook has that last days of Myspace kinda feel about it. Perhaps people are finally tired of it?
June 07, 2023
The rise in incivility as questioned by an AJC writer.
I disagree with all of the conclusions listed. The main factor, I believe is social media on the internet. People are inhumane to others online and carry that behavior over into reality. Contributing factors would be lazy parenting, changing cultural norms and a few other reasons. When I have to interact with a stranger online or in real life, I am very guarded in my interactions knowing that it could turn volatile in a split second. I hate that it has become this way, but it is not worth it.
June 05, 2023
Duran Duran's Big Thing Tour was my first concert at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta in 1989. I should write have written about that night as a fifteen-year-old going on sixteen turned loose in the city. I can't share the story without revealing an identity unfortunately. Fun night it 'twas. I Don't Want Your Love and All She Wants Is were the hits.
Do You Believe in Shame? was the best song on the album and very appropriate for that night. It's also one of the best videos ever made.
June 01, 2023
Some of my rear garden roses as June begins.
What was the best Soundgarden song: Burden In My Hand , The Day I Tried To Live, or Fell On Black Days?
I'm missing being on the radio this morning, playing 90s alternative and talking about music.
May 30, 2023
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| Diary from Sunny Day Real Estate, 1994 |
I'm in some 1990s time warp this morning listening to In Circles from Sunny Day Real Estate. I ask myself what was the best year that decade? Though I wasn't in radio in those years, I really liked the disconnection of 1993 and 1994. Those were some deep personal wilderness years.
May 28, 2023
An education scandal in my old home county of Paulding. You don't say?
"He said teachers he’s talked to about it feel like it reflects a culture of low standards that can permeate all level of classes, even Advanced Placement."
May 25, 2023
I'm not sure the reason, but this year I've been doing much more meditation than in the past few years. My beginning with meditation dates back to the early 1990s.
May 22, 2023
Someone does not understand chess and they underestimate their opponent.
May 11, 2023
Every so often Rufus Wainwright's Poses album should be required listening for remedial reasons; especially the title track.
May 4, 2023
I too have spent many hours watching old television talk shows and lamented how public discussion and civil society have degraded. We live in ugly times with ugly art, entertainment, architecture and streets.
I don't agree with everything in this thoughtful piece, but I agree with much of it.
Where's Johnny? On the last art of public conversation
Monday April 24, 2023
I have been very much enjoying Depeche Mode's new album, Memento Mori. The song I am liking the most is My Favourite Stranger. I don't know if alternative radio is playing this album or not, but they should be.
Saturday April 22, 2023
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| April 2023. Photo by me. |
The roses that I grew up with are blooming at my house. This bush is in its second year and is already four feet high and three feet wide. It is the prettiest rose I will ever know.
I feel like I have been home little this month with time spent in Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, Alabama, Athens and Madison. There was also one afternoon in Decatur and Atlanta. Each time I am in the city, it reaffirms that I do not miss it.
Friday March 31, 2023
I've ended my exclusivity agreement with Amazon for eBooks. My eBooks are now available on Apple Books, the Barnes & Noble Nook in addition to Amazon Kindle.
Wednesday March 29, 2023
I've done many things in the rain, but I've yet to "dance in the garden in torn sheets in the rain." I'm still waiting since 1989.
Sunday March 26, 2023
I suppose it is one of those forgotten 90s songs? The Sugarcubes Hit. Still great.
Thursday March 23, 2023
Longtime Atlanta photographer Boyd Lewis passed away last week. He shot for Creative Loafing, The Great Speckled Bird and other publications for decades. He captured Atlanta when it was a much more interesting city from Buttermilk Bottom, Summerhill to Cabbagetown. Much of his work is available through the Atlanta History Center.
Monday March 20, 2023
This is so worth the time from Harper's. While climate change is real, beware the zealots peddling pseudoscience in the media because the media is laundering bad science. For many, climate change is about accumulating power and wealth through fear.
Saturday March 18, 2023
I watched the documentary Turn Every Page - The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb last night. I enjoyed it. The beginning was too slow and as with all modern documentaries there are too many unnecessary talking heads, but it was good overall. I'm glad I stuck with it and didn't stop after the first twenty minutes.
Anyway, I have so many topics to write about these days but I've been bogged down in researching the biography of a family that I don't even know. Such is life!
Anyone remember Ben Folds Five? Army is a funny song.
Friday March 03, 2023
Feels like a lifetime ago, but it was only ten years ago. Hanging out with Rod at a festival in Candler Park. The city life I led long enough.
I loved Clarity by Zedd that year. I need that clarity again and I think a lot of my generation is needing it. I noted the other day that pop culture has become too cynical.
More importantly, after that creepy text message to my private phone, I will state that I vigorously protect my personal security.
Wednesday March 01, 2023
March already?
I watched this interview again with Japanese photographer Daido Moriyama. There's much to be learned from him and serious photographers in general about life.
Tuesday February 28, 2023
Save the Pinelog WMA petition. I've hiked here a few times and it is a beautiful place. I would hate to see it sold and developed. I would prefer to see this piece of nature preserved for future generations to enjoy.
Monday February 20, 2023
Oh, that was such a good film; Victim from 1961 starring Dirk Bogarde.
Monday February 13, 2023
When people from my past reenter my life after a long absence I try to keep an open mind about them. I try not to suspect their motivations and assume there is some genuine curiosity on their part. I do enjoy hearing from them under those circumstances. No matter the history, good or bad, I try to give them the benefit of the doubt if they make the effort to reach out to me. It is the only fair way to behave. There are exceptions of course.
Bang & Blame - R.E.M.
Saturday February 04, 2023
The group think is strong on Facebook. I swear it's the same as it was in school. I'd find it funny if it wasn't so scary.
People tend to forget this.
Saturday January 28, 2023
The Underground Youth band from Berlin. Just heard of this band, but I like what I hear. It's good to hear new postpunk /shoegaze music that does not suck.
Saturday January 21, 2023
Still so good decades later and even better with strong black morning coffee. Gotan Project's La Revancha del Tango.
Wednesday January 11, 2023
Since hearing this song, Drugs, for the first time over a month ago, I've been loving it. Perhaps it's because I love Richard Butler's voice. The 80s footage of Berlin in the video is great too.
I watched the 1975 film, Nashville, this week and paid more attention to it this go around. I enjoyed all three hours of it. The movie still resonates today.
Wednesday December 14, 2022
Yes, the traditional publishing industry is very insular and the New York Times Bestseller List is a scam. Much of what makes the list is people buying their own book to inflate the numbers and their ego. The public has long given too much undeserved weight and respect to the list and the traditional publishing industry as a whole. You see this also among writers who are insecure and seek traditional validation. I'm happily independent in today's modern publishing industry. If the general public knew how literary agents and editors behaved they might think twice about looking down on us indie writers.
Monday December 12, 2022
It is strange and sad to read about the closing of the Tara last month in Creative Loafing. I wrote about the Tara in my new novel, Uncivil X. I saw many films there that I would not have seen if it had not existed. I have no idea why the author of the CL piece needed to take the silly and unnecessary swipe at the name; that was a gratuitous pose. Most residents would never have known the origins of the name and if they did, they would not have cared. I did not know or care - it was a place to watch films and enjoy them. The name was not a political statement.
Tuesday December 06, 2022
This was such a fascinating film. I watched B-Movie: Lust & Sound in West-Berlin 1979-1989 last night. I appreciated seeing the archival footage and learning.
Now that I've had a little more free time, I've been catching up on films. Tar was very enjoyable. Not perfect, but miles and miles better than most films today.
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| Symptoms 1974 |
I also watched a little known film, Symptoms, from 1974. I think of the 1970s as the high point of film and enjoy finding films from that time that I have never seen. I also enjoy films set in country houses and plenty of those were made in the seventies. Symptoms was slow, atmospheric and worthwhile.
Monday December 05, 2022
It’s nice to have 99X back on the radio and playing classic alternative. I’m not much for nostalgia, but this seems right.
Friday December 02, 2022
I do hope that readers find a universal appeal in Uncivil X and connect with it. My fear is that I'll be misunderstood, but that's always a potential no matter what I write.
I need a long, long break.
Thursday December 01, 2022
It's amazing how much work is required on book launch day. It's not glamorous, but I'm happy about it. Uncivil X is out there.
Sunday November 27, 2022
Something About You by Level 42 is one of my favorite songs from the 1980s. I learned so much from it. I listened to it again this morning to get fired up and reassure myself for publication week. Uncivil X on December 1st.
Wednesday November 23, 2022
A week before my new novel launch and I'm going through the cold feet stage knowing what is inside it. I am excited about this book. I do believe it is a good novel and I've definitely worked hard to write it.
To the 90s and the present Change by Lisa Stansfield.
Friday November 18, 2022
This story about a fifteen year old boy committing suicide breaks my heart. He suffered from bullying, informed people and this still happened. He appeared to be a sweet kid and good student. Tragedy.
Sunday November 06, 2022
A beautiful painting of Narcissus by Gyula Benczur.
Some adults behave as though their life is a television show on Facebook or that they are somehow interesting. They’ll say they are proud, but they are simply vain.
From Seamus Heaney in Personal Helicon : to stare, big-eyed Narcissus, into some spring is beneath all adult dignity.
I can’t imagine how exhausting they must be in person.
Wednesday November 02, 2022
Sunday October 30, 2022
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| Click to enlarge. |
To Have Without Holding by Marge Piercy is one of my favorite poems. I had to read it this morning. I read this poem so many times in college in the early 90s that my copy of The Norton Introduction to Literature, Fourth Edition, 1986 opens directly to it.
If you are reading my books on this free Halloween weekend I would be grateful for a rating or review on Amazon. Thank you and happy Halloween.
It's cool with periods of rain and drizzle here - perfect spooky weather and Nick Drake listening, Riverman.
Thursday October 27, 2022
Dweller On The Boundary and Terminal Wake will be free on Amazon Kindle October 29th, 30th and 31st.
Sunday October 16, 2022
I scrolled through Facebook this evening and lasted five minutes. Let people have their fantasies I
suppose, it's easier than the truth. If they knew what I knew then they'd have to reconsider their past. Some doors are welded shut for good reasons.
What A Fool Believes
Saturday October 8, 2022
Mums and some pansies hidden in that buggy for the fall flower season.
Tuesday October 4, 2022
I've used Facebook a few times in the past couple of weeks after a long absence and it makes me feel so icky and gross. It is awful.
I went for a nice long walk in the fall air the other day and saw a few deer. It is so dry around here.
Friday September 23, 2022
New website launched today. Hopefully all of the bugs have been worked out in the new design.
Friday goodness. The Cowboy Junkies - Sweet Jane
Thursday September 15, 2022
Dweller On The Boundary and Terminal Wake will be free this weekend (Sept. 17-18) on Amazon Kindle.
Tuesday September 13, 2022
From 2015, Mama Said by Lukas Graham, when I still thought there was hope for modern music. A song not about showing off, narcissism, money, bling or any of the crap that is in most modern pop music.
Never forget from where you came and stay humble.
Sunday September 11, 2022
Yesterday was one of those days at my house that was a tease as to what follows in the fall. It drizzled all day with light showers at times, temperatures remained in the 60s and a nice easterly wind was steady. It was great weather to be outside. I watched the water droplets on some of my roses in the rear. Fall is my favorite season and I'm ready.
Friday September 2, 2022
I cannot believe September is here. Two months to go until my next novel is released.
I've spent the last week bouncing around in Monroe, Athens and Atlanta in old warehouses and cotton mills looking for objects for the house.
I found myself listening to 97.1 HD2 The Other Side Of The River more this week. I was not writing and wanted to keep my head in the 90s by listening to the music while on the road.
They played a song by James that I had forgot. I loved the song back in the early 90s and it related to my life then.
Thursday August 24, 2022
This was the best thing I've read in a long while. I've noticed this trend also and it is unfortunate.
I ordered more books today. None of them were published this century.
Tuesday August 23, 2022
Since music is the filing system of my mind, I have went back and forth on sharing the story in my next novel filed under the song Beautiful In My Eyes by Joshua Kadison. I haven't decided if it makes the cut.
It makes for a great wedding song anyway.
Monday August 22, 2022
Someone said to me that they would like to write a book or I suppose a manual on how to live life.
I chuckled at the arrogance.
Who are any of us to tell strangers how to live or who among us is so perfect that we have figured out some secret meaning to human existence?
My second reaction was that the person had no business giving advice. I would not consider them qualified on such matters, but maybe they could be one of those new quasi-gurus called life coaches. They could also sell branded merchandise such as tee shirts and coffee mugs. Once you turn yourself into a brand, why not go all the way?
Sunday August 21, 2022
Summer is folding itself up and being stowed away for another year. I am thinking of the road. My name is painted like the dotted yellow line down the middle. I suppose it's almost time to go south and float in the water with closed eyes.
It is the two year anniversary of Dweller On The Boundary and two years I have worked on my next novel. I may like this one better.
Crash Into Me makes me think of summer no matter the time of year I hear it.
Saturday August 13, 2022
Book blurbs are the most dreadful piece of marketing to write. They are more difficult than you can imagine. I agree with Salinger.
Story from The Guardian.
The cooler temperatures and lower dew points this weekend are nice.
Friday August 12, 2022
I watched hype! again last night. I've seen it a number of times over the years. It's about the 90s music scene in Seattle. I think it's a great documentary and it holds up well all these years later.
It gave me a strong dislike of one of the members of Soundgarden that whined through the entirety of it.
Otherwise, the work continues, I'm busy and there are things on my mind about the nature of people.
Friday August 5, 2022
I finished writing the ending to my next novel this morning.
I remember getting comments from readers about the ending of Dweller On The Boundary. They said they did not want it to end. That was the response I wanted.
I don't know how readers will react to the ending of the next novel, but I love it.
Thursday August 4, 2022
We are over the hump with summer, schools are back in session here, an hour of daylight has been lost and I'm ready for the shorter days and cooler weather. I also am ready to have this next novel out. The final work on it is quickly coming together. When it gets to this stage, as with the previous books, it surprises me what writing choices I made. I went into it planning to write about certain subjects and some made it while others were replaced by different subjects.
I've been listening to that Georgia
band, The Black Crowes, this week. It's strange to think how popular
they were in the early 90s at the same time grunge was happening. I
loved their first two albums.
Twice As Hard
Sunday July 31, 2022
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| Toronto March 2007. Photo by me. |
In 1989 when I was fifteen going on sixteen I saw this Toronto band called The Pursuit of Happiness open for Duran Duran here in Atlanta at the Fox. I liked them. I'm An Adult Now, the video was filmed in what looks to be mostly the Queen Street West area of the city.
Saturday July 30, 2022
After another productive week of work on my next novel, I have a much firmer date on its completion. It will be out this fall and I have a more precise date in mind. I'm not ready to announce it yet, but barring something unforeseen it will be out on schedule. I'm excited about this book.
My email inbox is unattended except for work related business. I can be reached by email for personal matters, but do not expect a quick reply or a lengthy one.
Morning music - All Night Party by A Certain Ratio (John Peel Session version)
Tuesday July 26, 2022
There is something funny about seeing someone you haven't seen in five years. At first they look the same, but then after a few minutes you notice the changes like wrinkles or weight or some other change. It plays tricks on the mind.
Unrelated to this, but after years of not listening to Nirvana, my favorite 90's band, I have listened to interviews and watched some live shows in the last week. It reminded me why I loved them so much then and how I have missed them.
I wrote a several thousand word defense of the band from memory for an email and my memory was pretty spot on.
I remember watching the Live & Loud show from Seattle in 1993 and it made me miss that time.
Friday July 8, 2022
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| Me in the first half of the 1990s. Taken from a video. |
Sometimes we hear songs that we have lived and they hit us in the gut or the heart. The One by Elton John was one of those songs for me in the early 1990s. Though I was a huge fan of Nirvana and grunge, I was still a sucker for romance. The writing on my next novel has been going well this week and it makes me excited to share it and what was the aftermath of the 1980s. Later this year, it's coming... cross my heart.
Monday July 4, 2022
I watched the film The Living End today that came out in 1992. I had not seen it since the mid 90s. It's a good movie and I like the other Gregg Araki movies that I've seen. What I loved most and I love this about most older movies is the lack of technology such as cell phones and the internet. I loved that freedom of being disconnected we enjoyed back then. The quiet is almost palpable.
Sunday July 3, 2022
Dweller On The Boundary and Terminal Wake are free this weekend on Amazon Kindle.
Have a song for the holiday, I'd Have You Anytime, George Harrison. His album All Things Must Pass has been getting plenty of listens by me these past few days.
Tuesday June 28, 2022
I am eating cupcakes and listening to Morrissey's The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get. I loved the album Vauxhaul and I so much in the 90s. I watched two movies in the last week, one was this twisted movie filmed in 1973 in Athens called Poor Pretty Eddie - it was very much insane, but I did enjoy the Georgia scenery from the year I was born. The other movie I watched was Men, which came out this year. I had high hopes for it, but it was absurd and the ending was laughable - easily the worst movie I have seen in a very long time.
Also it has been so nice to feel like I have disappeared by not being on Facebook since some time in May. I don't know how people tolerate that service everyday.
Thursday June 16, 2022
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| Rachel Ward in Against All Odds |
I have been plenty quiet about what is in my next autobiographical novel and there are plenty of reasons for that. One reason is that I want it to be as shocking as Dweller On The Boundary. Much of the next novel remains set in Paulding County, but much sunnier locales are front and center.
I've been working on this novel for a year and a half and parts of it have been written while staying in Fort Lauderdale. Home away from home is a place that influences and inspires me, more so this time around.
Against All Odds - I loved the movie and song since I was a kid in the 80s and it was relevant to my last novel and is again in the next one too, but in a different way.
Wednesday June 15, 2022
One aspect I love about writing is learning about obscure to me topics. Now I’m learning about the Mistral wind and shark fishing.
Sunday June 12, 2022
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| Photo courtesy the real person behind the character of Tavin. Taken in Columbus, Ga. |
4 AM and thinking of the conversations with some people from the past that I'd like to have and may never. Perhaps that is what writing is about for me, having conversations with them. I wish social media worked for me in this regard, but we are incompatible.
Miss You Like Crazy, Natalie Cole - I wish I had included the story attached to this song from Florida in Dweller On The Boundary.
Thursday June 9, 2022
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| Fort Lauderdale. Photo by me. |
I am in fortress mode for awhile, I'm too focused on writing, which is going well, to commit to social engagements. I hope my readers in the northern hemisphere are having a great summer and running on the beach with "Kennedy flair" as it goes in Summerfling by k.d. lang.
Wednesday June 8, 2022
The risks I am taking in the next novel will be worth it, is what I tell myself after a good morning of writing. Time to catch the sunrise and smell the morning after the rain.
Tuesday June 7, 2022
Via The New Yorker, How the Internet Turned Us Into Content Machines.
Saturday June 4, 2022
The hard parts are always written before sunrise. Four a.m. to six at my desk and I'm back from thirty years in the past.
Constant Craving was so good in 1992, k.d. lang. I laugh and smell incense in my old room whenever I listen to this song.
Wednesday June 1, 2022
It is incredible how much more productive my writing has been without the distractions and horseshit of social media over the past week and a half. Why does it exist? Related: via The Critic.
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| Photo by me. June 2022. |
As Voltaire said, "cultivate your own garden."
Tuesday May 31, 2022
At least I am not the only one that sees the problems with text messages and instant messages. Via Wired.
Monday May 30, 2022
I reactivated The Tunnel after an absence of a year since I am not using Facebook. I don't think people realize how busy I am day and night. It's no wonder I weigh as little as I do.
Saturday May 22, 2021
The 90s were fun and the music was the best. Matthew Sweet's Sick Of Myself rocks.
Saturday December 12, 2020
I see I have not written one of these in over a year. Work is coming along nicely on the short story collection. I am pleased and eager for people to read them. Sitting here at my big wooden desk this gray December morning.
Wednesday August 21, 2019
I noticed today that all of the high school yearbooks from when I was in school have been uploaded to Classmates.com. Scary stuff. I had never seen my senior year book since I did not purchase one. It was mildly heartbreaking looking through it; such bad memories buried in it. I almost wish that I had not looked at it. Third Eye Blind's Jumper fits that time.
Thursday April 11, 2019
It was nice tonight to sit out and watch the crescent moon weave in and out of out the clouds on this warm night. Moonlight Sonata.
Friday March 29, 2019
A splendid and satisfying day. I managed 4,500 words today. Another chapter complete I believe. It's warm today 70 and it is spring. Supertramp's Take The Long Way Home is my song today.
Thursday March 28, 2019
I wrote over 5,600 words for the book today. I hope they were words in meaningful sentences. Emotionally drained after that marathon writing session. I had to get those words out to take the load off my mind about that chapter.
Morrissey's going to relax me with The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get while I shop hotels.
Thursday March 21,2019
I dislike the smell of old newspapers. Yuck!
Saturday March 16, 2019
This piece in Harper's is wonderful reading.
Wednesday March 13, 2019
It took me eight years to track down what happened to the person behind Oliver. so I have to keep trying to find this other person. I have opened the file I had of him in my mind and now I need to complete it.
Friday March 08, 2019
I've regained an interest in Swatch that I haven't had since 1990.
Monday March 04, 2019
I had thought it time to put the gloves and scarves away for the season, but the winter cold has returned.
Saturday February 23, 2019
This fog we've had for the last straight five days would be great for filming a horror movie.
Thursday February 21st, 2019
Research via property records has been enlightening.
Wednesday February 20th, 2019
The lightning is so intense tonight. I cannot remember lightning like this ever in February.
Tuesday February 19th, 2019
It is currently 37 degrees this afternoon with thunderstorms booming overhead. You don't see that combination often. Odd weather.
Saturday 06/23/2018:
I've been so busy planning the trip of a lifetime the past couple of weeks. I've never done a trip quite like this and so it is taking so much planning. Thankfully I have plenty of time as I don't leave for this trip until late July. It's exciting.
I've been listening to Max Richter's Blue Notebooks often.
Monday 05/28/2018:
Watching the rain from the storm named Alberto has been relaxing. I hope it is a wet summer.
Thursday 05/17/2018:
Standing outside tonight enjoying the rain was so nice.
Monday 05/07/2018:
It's official I love James Bay. Pink Lemonade is hot.
Saturday 05/05/2018:
I woke up at 5:30 this morning with plans to write and my mind was buzzing with thoughts. After breakfast and a shower I sat down to write and then I couldn't think/focus. I hate when this happens. It will come or it won't. Song for the day.
Monday 04/30/2018:
This is still one of the sweetest songs ever recorded. The good thing about writing a book mostly set in the 1980s is rediscovering all this great music.
Wednesday 04/25/2018:
My head has spent so much time in the 1980s with this book that I feel like I've lost touch with 2018, but I have been in a groove over the last week and I'm so happy with what I am writing. Go 1980s!
Tuesday 04/24/2018:
Work is going extremely well on the book. I remember "Peter", 1985, the cold, the heat and everything else. White Socks/Computer Blue is a fun chapter.
Wednesday 04/18/2018:
It has been a productive week editing and rewriting chapters in my book. I am determined to see this through despite the dark tunnels it takes me down.
The best song Kenny Loggins ever recorded is, Meet Me Halfway. I like to think of it when I look at the stars and dream.
Wednesday 04/11/2018:
I am thinking about my book tonight. I was thinking of rewrites that I might make and then I became fixated on the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion in 1986 and my memories associated with that day. I can remember that day perfectly thirty-two years later. My mind is working hard tonight.
Monday 04/09/2018:
I had heard this song a million times on the radio but then yesterday I listened to it for the first time. James Bay...wow.
Tuesday 02/27/2018:
This was one of the top songs of 1981 and I had completely forgotten about it until tonight; I was eight years old when it came out. I love this song. Gino Vannelli, Living Inside Myself
Saturday 02/24/2018:
Peter Hujar's photography was wonderful. I had seen the Candy Darling photo plenty of times before, but never knew who shot it. Link 1, Link 2 I wish I could see the exhibition in person but I have no plans to visit NYC before the show closes in May.
Thursday 02/15/2018:
It seems spring has come early again. It was 68F (20C) this afternoon. I spotted a guy on a sidewalk today wearing only shorts and a tank top. This is too early for shorts and I'm not ready to give up my scarves and jackets just yet.
Tuesday 02/06/2018:
I'm remembering my trip hop period tonight. Many good times and late nights were had listening to 2Wicky by Hooverphonic back in the day. This song is still fine.
Monday 02/05/2018:
I need to hike soon. I can feel the craving building inside me to hit a new trail and see new places. Maybe this Saturday if the weather is okay. A song for the trails.
Saturday 02/03/2018:
Song For You by Alexi Murdoch is a sweet song for a Saturday. There's too much political strife in the world so I'm looking at the sweet aspects of life today. I was reading the poetry of Walt Whitman this morning, I hadn't read any of his work in many years and that's a shame. No serious thinking for me today.
Friday 01/26/2018:
My Friday morning sunrise. Winter skies are the prettiest.
Roads is still one of the best songs ever recorded and I'll never change my mind on that. I just lean back, close my eyes and listen to Beth Gibbons break hearts.
The PNYC live version. The studio version. Such sweet, sweet sorrow. When the strings come in at the midway part of the song they just soar...
Tuesday 01/23/2018:
Ok I may be several years late but I'd always wanted to check out The Strokes but never got around to listening to them. Now I'm digging The Strokes. They remind me of Television.
Friday 11/10/2017:
I've been largely quiet lately on my blog and I have my reasons.
I so love this soundtrack from the movie Goodbye Lenin. I've yet to see the movie, but I have been enjoying the soundtrack for months now.
Sunday 10/29/2017:
Today was a marvelous day out walking in the cold and the wind - a temperature of 39F (4C) with a much colder windchill this afternoon. The leaves are getting prettier by the day on the South Peachtree Creek Trail.
Saturday 10/28/2017:
Watching the first episode of Stranger Things Season 2 and enjoying knowing that it is filmed here in metro Atlanta. I appreciate seeing some of the natural beauty of the area on the show and knowing some of it is filmed only a few minutes from where I live.
Monday 10/23/2017:
Digging through my old CD collection this evening and I came across this song and I had completely forgotten how wonderful it is.
Thursday 10/12/2017:
In addition to it being gay pride this weekend there's a cool event I am going to attend in Marietta. It is a chalk art event that looks really cool. I've never had the opportunity to go in years past because I always forget, but not this year.
Friday 10/06/2017:
Under a Tropical Storm Watch here in Atlanta now. Seems the bad weather will start on Sunday. I might can get in a hike tomorrow. This will be the third tropical system this year for us here in the city.
Wednesday 10/04/2017:
It appears we may have another hurricane come through Atlanta early next week. This will be the third time this year we have had a tropical system impact us.
Sunday 10/01/2017:
Such a busy weekend. Saturday went to SCADfash for the new Guo Pei exhibition then over to Fernbank Museum for the new gladiator exhibition followed by a walk in the Fernbank Forest. Sunday was four miles walking from Mason Mill Park to Medlock Park and back instead of the usual walk at Grant Park. Oh and I watched another sad Japanese movie last night, The Long Excuse. I need to stop watching so many Japanese movies.
Wednesday 9/27/2017:
I ordered tickets today for a lecture by artist/photographer Marilyn Minter in October at the Woodruff Arts Center. The lecture is part of a series presented by the photography festival, Atlanta Celebrates Photography. I can't believe September is almost over already.
Friday 9/22/2017:
Oh dear. I am alive.
Thursday 9/21/2017:
I am sitting here constructing a custom map in Google and listening to Philip Glass when out of nowhere I hear the rain falling. It is a nice surprise thunderstorm at night on the last night of astronomical summer. It's the only spot in the city that is raining at the moment.
Wednesday 9/20/2017:
Tomorrow is the last day of astronomical summer. When summer is over I'm typically happy about that because I am tired of the heat and humidity after several months of it.
This song for whatever reason sounds like summer to me, it makes me think of dark green forests and getting lost. Bye summer.
Thursday 9/14/2017:
Yeah this song, Hey Kind Friend.
Wednesday 9/13/2017:
This gay movie, Call Me By Your Name, is getting a lot of buzz in films circles. Some are saying even Oscar worthy. I've not see it yet. It was directed by Luca Guadagnino and it looks pretty, which his films are. I Am Love, another film of his was also pretty; it starred the gorgeous Tilda Swinton. I look forward to seeing this new movie. Here is the trailer for Call Me By Your Name.
Tuesday 9/12/2017:
The electricity went out last night from the hurricane. The cell service died this morning. By afternoon the electricity and cell service was restored. The internet service was down too. Thankfully all have returned to service now. For me Hurricane Irma was a fun storm to track and experience but for many others it was a tragedy and fatal. I feel bad for the people that lost everything because of this storm. The weather and nature for all their beauty can also be the cause of great suffering and misery and that shouldn't be forgotten.
Monday 9/11/2017:
I made it through Hurricane Irma today as it hit Atlanta. Strong wind and good sideways rain was fun to observe and get out in. Lots of power outages around the city, but for now I have power. The storm is dying down here it seems.
Sunday 9/10/2017:
(Visible satellite imagery focused over North Georgia.)
These are the first clouds to arrive in Atlanta from Hurricane Irma. These are the exhaust clouds from the northern side of the storm. The storm is still a very long ways away, off the coast of far southwest Florida. The clouds arrived just before noon today.
Saturday 9/09/2017:
The hype and worry over Hurricane Irma in Atlanta and what she will bring to us early next week is ridiculous. It will rain and there will be wind. It will not be this apocalyptic scene and chaos that many people seem to be fearing and predicting. I shake my head at the foolishness. I've been through several tropical systems in Atlanta and this will just be another to add to the list.
Sunday 9/03/2017:
If definitely feels like fall this morning especially with the low humidity it feels crisp outside. It is currently 59F (15C) in my neighborhood. It is beautiful weather for the long holiday weekend.
Thursday 8/31/2017:
We are finally getting some rain here in Atlanta from the remains of Hurricane Harvey. The rain started yesterday and it is still raining today. We needed the rain as August has mostly been a dry month here. I'm glad to see the rain again.
Saturday 7/22/2017:
Today on average is the hottest day of the year in Atlanta. It feels like it today with temperatures in the low 90s and high humidity. The heat index is around 100 degrees. Today is the peak of summer and it is all down hill from here. I like summer, but I love fall so I will anxiously be waiting for it in a couple of months.
Monday 7/17/2017:
The thunder sounded like the classic thunder from a movie and it seemed the sky was ripped open to loud cracks. The wind gusted and the rain poured again this evening. It had been a sunny and hot day until this evening but once again the rains came. I enjoyed it, but it seems like I live in a tropical location this year with the constant downpours that seem to be so regular. A wet summer this has been.
Friday 6/30/17:
Whoa I haven't written one of these in a long time I see! I haven't been on Facebook since the middle of May and won't be back on there until September as I take my summer break from it. That break kinda had me stopping all these status update type things including here.
Anyway, I have beachy thoughts on my mind. Ever seen the movie Against All Odds? I like that movie even though it isn't a great film by any means. I mostly like the setting where it was filmed, also Jeff Bridges sure was pretty in the early to mid 1980s. The title song from the movie is good too. I watch the video when I need a little exotic in my life.
Sunday 4/16/17:
For the last year I have been donating to Lost N Found Youth which is a charity for homeless LGBTQ youth here in Atlanta which is a marvelous place to help. I had been donating clothes to other charities, but for me this one is something I can more closely relate.
Today someone posted a thought in an unrelated thread over at Democratic Underground about charity and I thought it was very true, "money is agnostic, it allows good people to be better and bad people to be worse."
Sunday 4/10/2017:
Those damn sentimental Japanese movies always get me. I watched If Cats Disappeared From The World tonight and oh I fell for it.
Wednesday 4/05/2017:
I cannot wait for it to be released.
Tuesday 4/04/2017:
A little after nine at night and I'm sitting here with my coffee. Just thinking.
Thursday 3/30/2017:
Today was the first day of wearing shorts for the season. It was so nice to be able to go out and walk in the warm humid weather this evening. It was like an early summer preview.
Wednesday 3/29/2017:
In 1987 I such a secret crush on him. He was so damn beautiful and he could sing. His music was very different compared to what most pop music was doing at that time. I wish he had been more successful.
Saturday 3/25/2017:
Feeling this song today.
Maybe it is the weather, but I feel great today.
Tuesday 3/21/2017:
Over the past few months I've been on a serious spell of listening to Natalie Merchant and her earlier band 10,000 Maniacs. I had forgotten how much her/their music meant to me back in the late 80s and into the 90s. I need to write more in depth about my love for them.
Oh...What's The Matter Here? That point Natalie goes off at 2:55 is one of my favorite moments in a song ever.
Saturday 3/18/2017:
The spring birds are singing and the rain is falling on this Saturday morning. The perfect song for the morning coffee on a day where I don't thankfully have a damn thing planned.
Wednesday 3/15/2017:
I see that Little Tybee is playing the Atlanta Jazz Festival in Piedmont Park this May. I hope I get to see them. I particularly like this song and this one and this one too hahahaha.
Macy Gray will be performing too which is awesome. I still love I Try.
Tuesday 3/07/2017:
I nearly fainted from excitement when I found out that Fleet Foxes had released their first new song this morning in six years and that a new album is coming out in June. They have been my favorite band of the 2000's.
Here is the new song and video via direct link.
Friday 3/03/2017:
Wednesday 2/22/2017:
Whatever Happened to the Avant-garde? Fascinating program from BBC Radio 3 though I don't agree with the bit about technology at the end. I think the future of avant-garde will be the anti-tech.
Sunday 2/19/2017:
The peace of a Sunday morning is the sunshine and listening to the singing birds of spring even though it is still winter.
Saturday 2/18/2017:
Having finished Zoo Station it is time to start a new book. This time a gay love story set in Athens, Greece.
"We all have wings but some of us don't know why," INXS Never Tear Us Apart.
Oh my allergies are awful this week as the trees are beginning to pollinate waaaay too early this year.
Tuesday 2/14/2017:
I'm indulging my fascination with 1980s Berlin and I've started reading Zoo Station about that period.
It mentioned a song I had heard as a kid in the 80s and I completely had forgotten to time. I found it on YouTube and instantly smiled.
Monday 2/13/2017:
This Pablo Neruda poem gets me every time in that scene from Patch Adams.
While Dave Gahan has the time of his life performing in the new Depeche Mode video his band mates look like the two most bored guys on the planet.
I like the song though.
Saturday 2/11/2017: It might be old now, but this video from 1997 by the Dandy Warhols is still the funniest music video.
Friday 2/10/2017: Fashion labels are always co-opting what's on the street. Now at Fashion Week they have co-opted the the Black Bloc/Anarchist/Antifa look to sell clothes. Protest fashion has now gone mainstream. Just LOL.
I still don't really care much for that Black Beatles hit, mostly I just like the video because it was shot in Atlanta.
Thursday 2/9/2017: Thread by k.d. lang is as smooth as my coffee.
Wednesday 2/8/2017:
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| James Baldwin in Paris. |
Music this morning.
Tuesday 2/7/2017:
Giovanni's Room is the next book on my reading list. I cannot refuse James Baldwin right now.
Song for today is Me And The Devil, Gil Scott Heron. Heavy...
Friday 2/03/2017: I hate when you are looking for an obscure movie and you can't find it on any of your resources. I've been looking for Blank Generation and I can't find it anywhere.
Sunday 1/29/2017: The weather has gotten cold again and it feels like winter should which makes me happy. I've been watching German films from the 1980s this weekend.
Saturday 1/28/2017: Radiohead's Hail To The Thief is relevant again. Song for the day.
Saturday 1/21/17: Thunderstorms in the morning in January now that's bizarre. Climate change has been raging this month so far. Day after day of temperatures 20 or more degrees above normal. Temperatures over 70F (21C) in January is not welcome, I even had to turn on the air conditioning yesterday. Never in my life have I ever turned on the air conditioning in January.
A good song from A Tribe Called Quest for these dark times.
I thoroughly enjoyed watching Moonlight the other night and of course Atlanta worked its way into the movie.
Sunday 1/15/17: Damn I just saw Arrival. I had heard it was good. It was so predictable and I figured out the plot half way through. Ugh Hollywood.
Tuesday 1/10/17: Every so often I have to listen to Vienna Teng's Dreaming Through The Noise album. This album is perfect for cold evenings. I wish I could remember how I found this rather obscure album but I can't. It is so gorgeous sounding. Nothing Without You. That album reminds me of some of Tori Amos' work, Winter or the devastatingly sad Hey Jupiter.
Saturday 1/07/17: Argh ice storm!
Saturday 12/31/16:
Sometimes there are good surprises in life. A little surprise snow this morning to finish this year.
Friday 12/30/16: Listening to Lukas Graham's Mama Said and thinking how it addresses poverty and having pride and growing up without the material things, but with love. It's a good song.
I'm also taken by the James Baldwin poem Munich, Winter 1973.
Wednesday 12/28/16: Sitting here at home looking at photos of mine from the 1990s and thinking about how different the world was then and how in so many ways we've grown boring. I'm not even feeling nostalgic, but man pre-24/7/Facebook world was a lot more fun. Anyway, Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star from Sonic Youth was one of my favorite albums from the 90s.
Thursday 12/22/16:
Sunday 12/18/16: Writer David Sedaris will always make me laugh. Growing up in the country we didn't waste food either as we would throw the table scraps into the woods at the edge of the yard and something would eat them if it wasn't our own dogs.
Saturday 12/17/16:
I will take my quiet and cold weather sunrises any day over the sunrise in summer. This was from one morning this week, I think maybe Thursday before the next storm was set to come.
I lost a couple of days of writing this week due to research that took longer than expected but I did very much enjoy the Chinese lantern festival at Centennial Olympic Park on Monday night.
Sunday 12/11/16:
This morning after sunrise the sky had the appearance of a snow sky. A storm was coming and I stepped outside to feel the damp cold. It was the kind of cold that with the help of a light breeze on a Sunday morning sneaks its way past your scarf and underneath your big wool coat to get inside you. The bones are cold and the cold is a quiet cold deep inside. I like this cold. With the blanket of overcast, sound travels farther than normal and my ears were gifted the sound of the distant train whistle.
Beautiful sounds.
Saturday 12/10/16: It was so refreshing this morning at sunrise to walk out into the heavy cold and hard frost as temperatures dropped into the mid 20s. You feel so alive when it is this cold. Hooray!
Wednesday 12/06/16: I watched The Handmaiden. The first movie this year that I have seen that I couldn't figure out the plot turns in the first ten minutes. It's a great movie and might end up being my favorite for the year. It's a wickedly good movie.
Sunday 12/04/16: Raining and cold this beautiful morning. It reminds me of one of my favorite Christmas songs, Carol Of The Bells. The raindrops are the piano notes.
Saturday 12/03/16: I stepped out into the morning cold for the sunrise. The remaining stars in the sky were fading in the west. This is to me what sunrise sounds like. It gets me every time I listen.
Thursday 12/01/16: This story made me laugh out loud. I loved the pics of the person dressed up as a gorilla. Thank you people for the laughs.
Wednesday 11/30/16: A couple of years ago I saw this Bob Dylan inspired video about quitting Facebook and thought it was spot on. It focuses on the artificial and unnatural social aspects of the site in a creative way. It is worthy of viewing. As a side note: this is the original Dylan video.
Tuesday 11/29/16: I woke up early this morning to enjoy this wonderful rain. I had to see, hear and smell the raindrops. This is the first significant rain we've had since early September. I don't think I have ever gone this long without seeing rain in my life and that's not an exaggeration. In honor of the happy rain, this song.
Sunday 11/27/16: Normally by the end of November I have seen several movies that I would have really liked. So far the only movie that I have thought was very good was Mountains May Depart.
Friday 11/25/16: "And I will never be set free as long as I'm a ghost you can't see." It will forever be one of my favorite lines from a song.
Saturday 11/19/16: Philip Glass you write such beautiful music. I'm off to the mountains again tomorrow to enjoy the cold. It has been a sunny, cold and windy day. It feels like winter and I love it. I'm about to listen to a radio version of Watership Down on BBC Radio 4.
Friday 11/18/16: A quiet night at home. I watched SenSommer, which is a Danish movie. Listening to Under The Milky Way by The Church and thinking about the 1990s, I always loved this song.
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