Signifying nothing

Congratulations are in order for Hightouch who received Salt Lake City Mayor's Artist Award for Literary Arts last Friday at the Utah Arts Festival . I was unable to attend the ceremony because of pressing camping and disc golf needs. I did, however, apologize to Hightouch and promissed that I would crow about it here. I'm looking forward to reading the outcome of that 500 pages worth of poetry you printed out the other day. Congratulations also go out to Dr. Write , as well, who had a reading that I was also unable to attend due to the same pressing camping and disc golf needs on Friday. I did see Dr. Write on Thrusday night at the Arts Festival . We discussed the possibility of a disc golf outing, that will no doubt be documented at Disc-a-rama , just like last week's outing . The good Dr. also ran the insane Wasatch Back race the previous weekend.

You should participate in this: Waterstone's - What's Your Story?

I've been too busy to even think of one prank to play on any one, let alone prank on the blog. I have, however, had the odd good idea that pops into my head about the blog: A "Fascinating Facts" series, since I apparently know a lot about nothing in particular (no doubt this will go the same way as all my other failed attempt at being consistent with any thing on this site). A discourse on places I have wanted to see in the past but no longer wish to see, accompanied by a similar discourse on places I would really like to see but most likely never will. A list of links for the Earth Day Challenge to inspire fellow travelers on conservation methods they can engage in. An inventory of the pens that have made their way into my pen bucket. (This one would be visual and perhaps haiku.) A tribute to odd socks. (Again visual, but not poetic.) A recap of the Jazz season with a clear explanation of their massively good second half of the season. A better review of Scott Kelby...

Dostoevsky Originally uploaded by huxleyesque Good choice*, readers. While I think Underground Man (or Notes from the Underground ) is probably the most essential reading of Dostoevsky , I think The Possessed is probably my favorite work of his. I spent many a dark winter night pouring through the text while writing one of the best papers I wrote in college on that book. I'm hesitant to dig into my box of juvenilia (which I retrieved some time ago from my mother's basement) to see if it is as good as I remember. Somehow, I think my recollection glorifies and distorts my perception, making my existence a cruel joke. My lack of authenticity astounds. See, I have read a lot of Dostoevsky. *I voted for Tolstoy, by the way.

Lisa b of Hightouchmegastore has ordered that everyone blog every day for the month of November in honor of NaBlogPoMo or the National Blog Posting Month. Given my reputation for complete compliance to requests and peer pressure, I at first was tempted to take the entire month of November off from any sort of writing with the final post being "screw that" in regards to NaBlogPoMo. I don't mind being an asshole like that, generally, but I thought better of it as it would not be nice to Hightouch who has been a faithful reader and commenter for several years now, and I pretty much write the most inane crap everyday anyway, so it really isn't going to be that different now, is it? So here I am, just doing my part. Small children in India will no longer have to go without blog posts about ex-kid show stars who stalk bloggers to read! "Good night, and good luck" or is that "Courage"?

Since I'm officially on vacation, I'm thinking of work--well some would probably not call it the writing I do as work, but they can go to hell. I like the idea of staying up late huddled in front of my computer fiddling around with words: the crickets outside singing the hours away. Anyone want to write a Renga with me? Kendrakoo? lisa b? Dr. Write? Middlebrow? Condiment? Anyone? ---------------- Listening to: The Rapture - Get Myself Into It via FoxyTunes

Given that it is summer, I thought I would provide you with just snack writing, gentle reader. Snacks are the best summer cuisine. Rather than "snacks" I think we should use the Spanish word tapas . When I think of Spain I think of eternal summer, even though I know it is not aways summer there and they do, indeed have cold weather, pine trees, and snow. One can dream of the land of eternal summer, however. So the point of tapas is not to have a point. You just eat small portions until you are full, drink some wine, and then fall asleep beneath and Andalusian sky. You wake up to bread and cheese and then start the whole thing over again. That's what summer is and that is what writing in the summer is. Too bad it has to end.

If you didn't hear This American Life this past weekend, then I urge you to listen to it ( Episode 102: Road Trip! ) online via mp3 or with their player doohickey that I can't link to here because it is javascript-crippled. The first three acts are ok, but act four--"Paw Paw for Jesus!"-- is classic. The fun commences around 50 minutes. "Paw Paw for Jesus!" is a short story by Chicago writer Cheryl Trykv who I or the Internet's tubes know precious-little about. I do know she's done other This American Life stuff, but that's about all. Anyone heard or read other stuff by her?

Well what do you know? It is Wallace Stegner's birthday today. I used to not really like Stegner that much until I read his simple story which I can't really remember the title of. In any case the story is about a faculty party where, it seems, the faculty are getting progressively more drunk, more gloomy, and more disturbed. The story ends with the main characters peering into the dark abyss of an arroyo that is cut into the rock just off the patio where the characters have slipped away from the bustle of the inside world to confront with some sort of existential, essential angst. The simplicity of the event and the unimportance of the characters contrasted against the dark chasm (of Nature) struck me as a rather clever way of capturing the essence of that anxiety and uncertainty to life. I rather liked the story and his other short stories. The novel Angle of Repose is interesting too. I have not yet cracked Big Rock Candy Mountain , however, but might just do it this...