*** Two O'Clock Eastern Wartime, John Dunning, 2001
This may be my favorite John Dunning novel, ever. I really like the Janeway books, and taken together I guess I like them better. This one started slow, but when it gets to the power of the old radio serials and the sheer intoxicating of writing, I was sold. And the thriller part of the story is not bad, either.
Here's The Chaos, a poem that is a catalogue of about 800 of the most notorious irregularities of traditional English orthography. Background on the poem and author here.
Here's the first 4 lines.
Dearest creature in creation Studying English pronunciation, I will teach you in my verse Sounds like corpse, corps, horse and worse.
At 274-lines, it's long, but worth skimming. If you find this sort of thing amusing. Which I do.
From Songwriters on Songwriting by Paul Zollo:
Thompson: I've never recorded anything piece by piece. I've always recorded as much as possible live. To try to get something at once. And to record as fast as possible. We usually only take a couple of takes on any particular track. Two takes, three takes.
Zollo: Your tracks always have the energy of a live performance. Are you singing and playing guitar live as well?
Thompson: Yes. Sometimes we'l fix the vocals later. But I'm actually out there doing it.
Zollo: You do the guitar solos live?
Thompson: Yes.
Zollo: You said recording fast is part of the approach?
Thompson: The approach is to have fun. In the recording process. And not make it a job or a chore. Or a perfect thing. We'll leave perfection to God. So we try to keep that spark and really have a good time doing it. I think there are people who can spend a long time making records and do it bit by bit and make it sound exciting and spontaneous. And that's a kind of gift. And I really don't have that.
*** Wodehouse: A Life, Robert McCrum, 2004
I've had this for a long time, staring at me accusingly from the shelf. The thing is, I love Wodehouse. He's in my top ten, maybe even the top three. At least the top five. It's not like it's a official list or anything. I mean, I've never worked it out on paper, but the point is, I love Wodehouse. [Note: Despite how it's spelled, his name is pronounced Woodhouse.)
The reason it's been on the shelf for so long is that it has at least a rat-killing book on the BLCS scale. But I recently realized that books higher on the BLCS are perfect for reading on the elliptical, since they tend to stay open easier than a small paperback. So last year I pulled it down and gave it a go. It took me 3 or 4 months to get through it, in 40-minute sessions.
Thankfully, it passed the Elliptical Test with flying colors. In fact, I actually looked forward to working out because I wanted to read this book. [Perhaps I should create an Ellipitcal Book Classification System (EBCS) as well, indicating to what degree it distracts one from the unpleasantness of one's activity. If I did that, this book would be at the top, making me want to work out.]
Besides learning about the life of Wodehouse, which was the point of the book, it being a biography and all, there was the inspirational aspect of it. I'm in the middle of the first draft of a new novel (I tweet random choice lines as I write them.) and the more I read about Wodehouse and his writing, the more it made me want to go and write. Immediately.
Here's a sample P. G. quote about writing from the book:
The only way a writer can keep himself up to the mark is by examining each story quite coldly before he starts writing it and asking himself if it is all right as a story. I mean once you start saying to yourself, "This is a pretty weak plot as it stands, but I'm such a hell of a writer that my magic touch will make it all right," I believe you're done.
The funny thing is, that part in quotation marks kind of describes the Fred Books. The plot is not that structured but the writing makes up for it. One of the reasons I spent the last three years learning to write screenplays is to help me with plotting. And it has. The current work in progress is plotted to the nines. It might even be plot heavy, or plotty, as they say. I'm sure somebody says that.
So, back to Wodehouse, if you haven't read him, you should. You can find some of his stuff on Gutenburg.org (get Right Ho, Jeeves) and, of course, at the book store or the library. Check him out. And if you're a writer or a Wodehouse fan, this book is a great read, too.
The BLCS classifies a book by the size of organism it can kill when thrown.
Holy cow. I was looking for the lyrics to Mark Heard's Big and Strong and came across this cover. Seeing Olivia smile as she sings it leads me to believe she doesn't quite get it. Lyrics below. Tell me what you think.
Big and Strong, words and music by Mark Heard
Strong man strangles universe--he drowns the stars Blinded by the mission of a thousand wars He's fit and dominant--no wonder why He loves the battle cry Strong man is survivor--he lives to pound Little wooden crosses in the bloody ground He's fit and dominant--his will is truth His hand is absolute And the world keeps on turning And the sun keeps on burning And the children keep learning How to grow up big and strong How to grow up big and strong Strong man takes no prisoner--favors no plea He leaves no gold in teeth of enemy He's fit and dominant--rises above He has no word that means love And the world keeps on turning And the sun keeps on burning And the children keep learning How to grow up big and strong How to grow up big and strong
** Morality for Beautiful Girls, Alexander McCall Smith, 2002
I had a four-hour solo road trip ahead of me, and then the four hours back. I zipped to the library on the way out and picked through the meagre selecton of audio books. Some years back I read The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency and found it amusing, but the head hopping annoyed me.
This book still had occasional head hopping, but the thing that made me reach for the fast-forward button was the tedious stating of the obvious in interior monologue. It was all a part of character development and sense of place, but I was not a willing participant.
I doubt I'll give the series another go.
** Adventureland, Greg Mattola, August 5, 2007
Can't remember why I put this in the NetFlix queue, but there it was. When it came in I found a copy of the screenplay and read along. It took a lot of pausing as the draft I read was very different from the movie, which was much improved over the 122 page script. Nice elements, however, not so much my kind of movie.
