Quick Like a Bunny Post Before Rushing Off to See Spiderman 3
So some updates. In Nabokovilia, new entries for a math textbook, Claire Messud, Gary Shteyngart, and an updated entry for Dan Simmons. In Nabopop, new entries for Game Theory, Kicking and Screaming, and (coming soon) Lost.
So some updates. In Nabokovilia, new entries for a math textbook, Claire Messud, Gary Shteyngart, and an updated entry for Dan Simmons. In Nabopop, new entries for Game Theory, Kicking and Screaming, and (coming soon) Lost.
Sneak Preview
The Waxwing site went without updates for a whole freaking year. I was lazy. Och. But I've just added eleven entries to Nabokovilia: Isaac Adamson, MC Beaton, Lawrence Block, Christopher Bram, Richard Brautigan, Andrew Lewis Conn, Barbara Kingsolver, Arthur Phillips, Anne Rice, Katherine Weber, and Irvin Yalom.
Later this afternoon: three updates to NaboPop. Will update the What's New? page tomorrow, so there you go. Sneak preview. Today. Tomorrow, it'll be old news.
The Waxwing site went without updates for a whole freaking year. I was lazy. Och. But I've just added eleven entries to Nabokovilia: Isaac Adamson, MC Beaton, Lawrence Block, Christopher Bram, Richard Brautigan, Andrew Lewis Conn, Barbara Kingsolver, Arthur Phillips, Anne Rice, Katherine Weber, and Irvin Yalom.
Later this afternoon: three updates to NaboPop. Will update the What's New? page tomorrow, so there you go. Sneak preview. Today. Tomorrow, it'll be old news.
Disgruntled Vegans
Las Vegas is a place for the very angry, the very disgruntled, and those who choose to express themselves via all sorts of physical objects and writing utensils. (The first note was one of several stapled to a post--each handwritten with the exact same angry message. Whoever wrote it clearly preferred angry repetitive handwriting to the convenience of angry photocopying. And if you're against cops, gangs, or work--what better medium than the back of a bus stop? Even better, you get to correct those who came before you. It's like the Internet, but with less porn.)
Late night addenda: I said, in the paragraph above, that vegans clearly preferred angry repetitive handwriting to the convenience of angry photocopying. I may be wrong.
By extension, then, Las Vegas seems like a treasure trove of ephemera. Witness Eavesdrop--which I can't wait to see a show of (see also the Las Vegas City Life article for more information). A flyer for a recent show was hiding somewhere on the telephone post to which the first missive was found.
*
Las Vegas is a place for the very angry, the very disgruntled, and those who choose to express themselves via all sorts of physical objects and writing utensils. (The first note was one of several stapled to a post--each handwritten with the exact same angry message. Whoever wrote it clearly preferred angry repetitive handwriting to the convenience of angry photocopying. And if you're against cops, gangs, or work--what better medium than the back of a bus stop? Even better, you get to correct those who came before you. It's like the Internet, but with less porn.)
Late night addenda: I said, in the paragraph above, that vegans clearly preferred angry repetitive handwriting to the convenience of angry photocopying. I may be wrong.
By extension, then, Las Vegas seems like a treasure trove of ephemera. Witness Eavesdrop--which I can't wait to see a show of (see also the Las Vegas City Life article for more information). A flyer for a recent show was hiding somewhere on the telephone post to which the first missive was found.
The last message--posted months and months ago--was a self-absorbed little missive on my comings and goings, and why should this one be any different? Here is what's been going on. With me. Me me me me.
So:
Not-So-Disgruntled Me 1/4
Two of my pieces, "Your Significant Other's Kitten Poster" & "Liner Notes for Renegade, the Opening Sequence," can be found in the UNLV English department's Sceal, and Sceal can be found at
http://english.unlv.edu/scealissues/sceal1-2.pdf
Not Me 1/1
If you find yourself in the library and near the elevators on the first floor, you might want to take a look at the glass case to your right. The case displays the works of David Schmoeller, an assistant professor at UNLV's film department. Professor Schmoeller is also responsible for UNLV's wonderful, eclectic, short films program:
http://www.unlv.edu/programs/filmarchive/about/archive_director.html
More importantly, however, and of more interest to me, is that Schmoeller is also responsible for directing/writing/guiding Lorenzo Lamas through freaking Renegade:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103524/
Perhaps equally cool (or maybe even cooler) is that Schmoeller is responsible for writing the very first Puppet Master, the original w/ all the characters, the one that spawned five or so sequels:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098143/
This is just to say hello, I guess, but also to say that at one point or another it would be wonderful to sit down with the man who may well have written the following: He was a cop, and good at his job. But then he committed the ultimate sin and testified against other cops - gone bad. Cops who tried to kill him, but got the woman he loved instead. Framed for murder, now he prowls the badlands. An outlaw hunting outlaws, a bounty hunter - a RENEGADE!
And also, there's this--is there other faculty (outside the English department) who have done very odd, very cool things that we may not know about? If UNLV is home to creator of Renegade, who else are we home to?
Me, Not Disgruntled 2/4
I wrote a sonnet, and it's been set to music. A news bit is available here:
http://english.unlv.edu/newsitemsarchive/april06/martinez.htm
And information on the composer, Moya Henderson, can be found here:
http://www.amcoz.com.au/composers/composer.asp?id=3400
and here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moya_Henderson
and an interview is available here:
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/music/mshow/s726689.htm
Information on the event is available here:
http://music.ucsd.edu/public/pubcal.php?cmd=cal_category_print&query_start_time=2006-04-%25
More Me 3/4
I was interviewed for my old English department's newsletter. The interview, along with a far more interesting profile--wittier, funnier, more interesting--of my thesis director, Susan Hubbard, can be found here:
http://www.english.ucf.edu/docs/newsltr/knightnotesspring2006.pdf
The interviewer was terrific, and sent buckets of questions but ended up using only a small fraction of the answers. In service of exactly absolutely no one, the full Q&A follows below.
All of Me 4/4
1. What is your full name?
Joan Manuel Martinez. (My dad was a big fan of Joan Manuel Serrat, a Catalan singer, but when we first moved to the States I changed it, since it got old way fast to explain that Joan was not a girl's name in a small Spanish province. But Serrat is a terrific singer, and a sharp writer--more a writer than a singer, really, like Lou Reed or some of Paul Simon's later work, or even the Fiery Furnaces. You may be able to find some of his songs on iTunes: I suggest "Tu Nombre Me Sabe a Yerba" and his adaptations of Machado poems.)
. Where were you born?
Bucaramanga, Colombia.
What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
Reading. Reading buckets and buckets. And running. I love the treadmill more than I should, but it's been a lifesaver: when you're done you feel new and scrubbed and ready for anything.
1. Why do you write? How did you know you were going to be a writer?
I write to eventually (hopefully) create a book that--had I forgotten its provenance--I would love to pick up and read.
I didn't know that I was going to be a writer. I still don't. If I had a decent singing voice and wasn't as shy as I am, I would have gone into a band. If I had the requisite talent and again, wasn't as shy, as excrutiatingly self-conscious, I'd love to go into film or television. My only claim to being a writer is that I do love to read--that reading is the one activity that I return to daily, compulsively, and which totally nourishes me and infuses me with unalloyed pleasure. Writing, on the other hand, feels like a series of small failures that I keep returning to, fixing, and hoping people will not hate too much.
1. What is your favorite book of all time?
Nabokov's Pale Fire--funny, sad, teeming with riffs on literature and love and death, and so beautifully constructed it can read like a thriller or a murder mystery or a meditation on the metafictive properties of life or like pure slapstick comedy. All at once.
My favorite novel published in the last few years has been Alice Sebold's _The Lovely Bones_.
1. Who has had the biggest influence in your life as a writer?
It changes, though George Saunders has been a pretty steady guiding light for the last few years--his stories seem to be doing all the things I wish I could do. Alice Munro is also terrific. And I've always felt that Garrison Keillor has been unjustly ignored as a stylist. His sentence structure is worth stealing, and _Love Me_, his last novel, is gorgeous. Vladimir Nabokov is my favorite writer of all time, but I have done my best (these last few years) to avoid doing anything that Nabokov already did--because he's inimitable.
1. Do you consider yourself a writer? Student? Teacher? All of the above?
I am primarily a student, and one of my biggest realizations of the past few years is that I'll always be lagging behind, that I have so much to learn that I'll never not be a student. But I do love teaching, and much as I hate to write I always sit down--every day, pretty much--and write. So (d) All of the above.
1. What was your major at UCF? When did you graduate?
I got my BA in creative writing with a minor in applied computer science in 2000.
1. Did you go to graduate school at UCF?
Yes!
1. If so, why did you choose to go to UCF for graduate school?
Laziness. I didn't want to move, I was an international student and so needed to be in school to stay in the States, and I had a pretty good job working as a computer lab manager. So it was, you know, well, why not? I'm here already. Which I know sounds awful but hold on, because what started as a way to keep my visa turned into a legitimate, life-transforming, wonderful experience.
1. What degrees did you earn at UCF?
An MA in creative writing.
1. What experiences enriched your life at UCF?
The writing center and the academic computing support labs were both terrific places to work at--you could not ask for better managers and co-workers.
My thesis director, Susan Hubbard, showed me that there were viable professions for committed writers--that if you kept at it and did so with a good deal of humor and understanding you could make small advances. Susan, Jeanne Leiby, Judith Hermschmeyer were terrific: supportive, engaging, and willing to show you what worked and what didn't. I really haven't answered the question, but it's hard to pin down the specific experience.
OK. So what did it was the shift from undergrad to grad, where you are in a room full of people whose commitment to writing is real and--maybe more importantly---a little more realistic. You realize that it's not like you're going to write this brilliant novel that's going to bring you instant fame and a movie adaptation. Instead, you dive into journals you had hardly ever heard of, you read them (and if you do a little digging, you realize that your not knowing these magazines has lots to do with your own massive ignorance and not with any flaw of the journals themselves; these are the places that discovered Flannery O'Connor and Tom Perrotta and anyone worth reading), you submit, you get rejected, you get rejected a couple more times, and you keep submitting.
The biggest, most revelatory experience at UCF was having these wonderful professors, these wonderful classmates, and slowly discovering the etiquette and rigor of the writing life. That it's work. That you can't really half-ass it.
1. How do you remember UCF ? how was your graduate experience here?
Fondly. I'm having a wonderful experience right now as well, and it's matching the MA, though the UCF individuals themselves are missed like nobody's business. What amazes me is the energy generated by the friends you make in the program--you end up writing for them. You are writing for an actual specific audience. And the trick is that, while you may write for them, your primary responsibility is to do so while keeping true to whatever blurry, half-understood impulses triggered the story in the first place: you want your story to be satisfying as a story. You're not writing for yourself while writing for yourself. You're doing both simultaneously: writing with an audience in mind while doing your own thing.
1. What were some of your favorite courses at UCF? The most memorable ones.
Dr. Omans' Shakespeare class as an undergrad. Professor Hermschmeyer's undergraduate poetry class, where we wrote sonnets and other forms and which infused me with a deep respect for a genre that is not my own--plus professor Thaxton's workshops, and professor Hubbard's.
The graduate courses were all fabulous, and to list the most memorable ones would pretty much just devolve into a listing of my transcript. So let me just repeat that the entire experience was a revelation. And that it provided me with a wide range of material--all those literature courses, all those workshops.
1. I know you taught a few course at UCF ? how was that experience?
Terrific. And to anyone who might be doing it, I recommend the Faculty Center for Teaching & Learning's semester-long course, which is as good an introduction to the practice and theory of pedagogy as you'll find, everything from the basics on preparing a lesson plan to dealing with plagiarism to structuring things so that students don't fall asleep on you.
1.
2. How has graduating from the UCF English department helped you get where you are today?
It's helped a great deal in both making me aware of what to expect, how to submit, and why literary journals matter so much. What's most important, however, is that it's introduced me to all sorts of truly fantastic people. I'm terrible at connecting with people, so the investment made--the tuition and the time and the tradeoff (because you could make more money doing just about anything else)--is significantly repaid in not just knowledge but in finding a circle of similarly inclined colleagues.
1. Where are you working now? What are you doing there?
I'm a GTA at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where I'm pursuing a PhD in literature and teaching a couple of introductory courses--last semester it was all composition and this semester it's world literature.
1. You are being published in the anthology Dr. Milan?s is editing, as well as in Glimmer Train ? where else have you been (or will be) published?
Right now the goal is to get at least a few critical essays published, and there are two under review, though one of the two needs a lot more work. I just presented a paper at Stetson for the Southern Conference for Foreign Languages and Literature. Some of my stuff has appeared in the online versions of McSweeney's, Pindeldyboz, and the Morning News. The Milanes story originally appeared in the Santa Monica Review, and I'm recycling it (for the third time) into a novel chapter.
1. The article we?re writing is about honoring you and letting others know how much of an exemplary alumnus you are? can you give us a timeline of your accomplishments since leaving UCF?
I've been away from UCF for nearly a year, and in that time I've managed to watch far too much reality tv. I have gone to Freemont street and consumed 50% of a deep-fried Twinkie. I have met a number of very accomplished magicians. I have gambled $2.35 and come out roughly even.
1. What factors have shaped your life and led you to where you are today?
My wonderful, supportive, understanding parents are at the heart of it all.
1. Where would you like to be in five years? Ten years?
This is the question that breaks your heart when you open a brittle copy of the newsletter thirty years from now, and you're a nightshift manager at a Denny's, and your apartment is all stacks of crap piled high. The problem with this question is that it's terrible to get it wrong--to see one's unspeakable ambitions unrealized, unmet, and unacknowledged--and it's equally terrible to find confirmation. (The 7Up documentaries offer plenty of both, though the biggest epiphany from these films is in knowing that we are all swimming in time, that the current's fast, and that it pulls us swiftly, so it's important to keep moving.) I'm hoping, all the same, for more of what's preceded this moment: bliss, tranquility, plus physical and mental rigor. And access to a well-stocked library.
1. Anything else you would like to add? Any advice for future graduates?
My advice is to read and read and read--to keep up with a couple of standard canonical book-review periodicals (the New York Times and the New York Review of Books, for starters), a couple of good literary sites ( MaudNewton.com and themorningnews.org), and to read a wide range of novels, articles, and short stories outside of whatever's assigned. And to set up a half-decent web site where you've linked your writing. It's good to have at least a CV somewhere, and it doesn't cost much.
Speaking of which: feel free to visit my web site, drop me a line, all of that. You can find me at http://www.fulmerford.com/
What else? There are no squirrels at the UNLV campus. The UCF squirrels are missed.
The Bear-Trap of a Warm Embrace
There is far too much to do & so forgive this incredibly cursory, likely mispelled post, but I figured if you're here & you're reading you are--God knows why--curious as to what's been going on. So what's been going on is this: I've been writing up a storm, and reading buckets, and doing all sorts of things to keep up with the PhD, which is both a thrill and a treat and a privilege.
UNLV is generous with travel funds, so I was able to attend my first conference, and present my first conference paper, at Stetson University's Conference on Foreign Languages and Literature early this month (March 2-4). I'll be presenting the same paper, "Translating an Affair: A Comparison of the Two Spanish Lolitas," for UNLV's Graduate and Professional Student Association's research forum tomorrow (March 24).
Also, "Roadblock," a short story I wrote, was published this month in the unequivocably terrific Glimmer Train. It appears in issue #58 (Spring 2006) and is available at your Barnes and Noble or Borders. So buy a copy.
I'm writing a number of things, and having a ball teaching world lit, and it's all a big happy glowing orb of goodness. I hope you're well. You're missed.
Also: the Nabokov site has not been updated in a while, but that will change soon. There are massive additions to Nabokovilia. And there's at least one or two for Nabopop. Yar.
There is far too much to do & so forgive this incredibly cursory, likely mispelled post, but I figured if you're here & you're reading you are--God knows why--curious as to what's been going on. So what's been going on is this: I've been writing up a storm, and reading buckets, and doing all sorts of things to keep up with the PhD, which is both a thrill and a treat and a privilege.
UNLV is generous with travel funds, so I was able to attend my first conference, and present my first conference paper, at Stetson University's Conference on Foreign Languages and Literature early this month (March 2-4). I'll be presenting the same paper, "Translating an Affair: A Comparison of the Two Spanish Lolitas," for UNLV's Graduate and Professional Student Association's research forum tomorrow (March 24).
Also, "Roadblock," a short story I wrote, was published this month in the unequivocably terrific Glimmer Train. It appears in issue #58 (Spring 2006) and is available at your Barnes and Noble or Borders. So buy a copy.
I'm writing a number of things, and having a ball teaching world lit, and it's all a big happy glowing orb of goodness. I hope you're well. You're missed.
Also: the Nabokov site has not been updated in a while, but that will change soon. There are massive additions to Nabokovilia. And there's at least one or two for Nabopop. Yar.
Dmitri Nabokov, Vladimir Nabokov's son, has a blog. Your excitement over this event may be proportional to your Nabokov fixation, though clearly mine is pretty significant, so that any Nabokov- and Nabokov-family-related news is cause for celebration.
Why I Love the Gilmore Girls
Because the tambourine dude from Dig! just popped in for a cameo. And also for Lorelai and Rory. For inappropriate reasons. (Also some approriate ones.)
I'm flying to Orlando! To see the girlfriend! Tomorrow! The plane takes off from Las Vegas, lands in Chicago, and then I run run run to another plane that will eventually land in Orlando. Woo!
Because the tambourine dude from Dig! just popped in for a cameo. And also for Lorelai and Rory. For inappropriate reasons. (Also some approriate ones.)
I'm flying to Orlando! To see the girlfriend! Tomorrow! The plane takes off from Las Vegas, lands in Chicago, and then I run run run to another plane that will eventually land in Orlando. Woo!
On
Tod Goldberg on Las Vegas. (Also: 5 Rules. 5 Rules Redux.)
Gleaner on Las Vegas.
Paolini (in KNPR) on Las Vegas. (See also We All Live in Las Vegas, available via Amazon.)
Michael Dear on Las Vegas (11/9).
Michael Chabon on Las Vegas.
Fez in Las Vegas.
Tod Goldberg on Las Vegas. (Also: 5 Rules. 5 Rules Redux.)
Gleaner on Las Vegas.
Paolini (in KNPR) on Las Vegas. (See also We All Live in Las Vegas, available via Amazon.)
Michael Dear on Las Vegas (11/9).
Michael Chabon on Las Vegas.
Fez in Las Vegas.
Last Month in Orlando
I am leaving at the end of the month, and if you happen to be in the Central Florida area, and you happen to know me, and you want to say goodbye, please please e-mail my girlfriend, the lovely Becky, light of my fire, lighthouse of my soul, at
rebekah.lane@gmail.com
for there is apparently a thing going on where I get to see all of you. And I really want to. I'm already missing Central Florida buckets, getting ready finally to leave, and so--well, what can I say? Anyway, you are much missed.
There is a hamster item in The Onion this week. It should surprise no one that it involves potential serious injury to a rodent. Because it is funny. And because hamsters are the Michael Jackson, the squeaky shopping cart wheel, of the small animal world.
Good morning.
Also: I'm trying to get in contact with Roy, Matt, and Keith (who know who they are), but cannot find any of their info. Roy & Matt are good and dear friends, and they were our hosts when in New York, and I kept meaning to write and say hello and of course put it off for forever.
Also: Keith! Hello, man! How's Braden? How are you? How go things? E-mail me!
*
Also: completely forgot to mention this:
http://www.myspace.com/fulmerford
Everyone has one!
I am leaving at the end of the month, and if you happen to be in the Central Florida area, and you happen to know me, and you want to say goodbye, please please e-mail my girlfriend, the lovely Becky, light of my fire, lighthouse of my soul, at
rebekah.lane@gmail.com
for there is apparently a thing going on where I get to see all of you. And I really want to. I'm already missing Central Florida buckets, getting ready finally to leave, and so--well, what can I say? Anyway, you are much missed.
There is a hamster item in The Onion this week. It should surprise no one that it involves potential serious injury to a rodent. Because it is funny. And because hamsters are the Michael Jackson, the squeaky shopping cart wheel, of the small animal world.
Good morning.
Also: I'm trying to get in contact with Roy, Matt, and Keith (who know who they are), but cannot find any of their info. Roy & Matt are good and dear friends, and they were our hosts when in New York, and I kept meaning to write and say hello and of course put it off for forever.
Also: Keith! Hello, man! How's Braden? How are you? How go things? E-mail me!
Also: completely forgot to mention this:
http://www.myspace.com/fulmerford
Everyone has one!
Like a Summer Rain
So I am flying to Vegas on the 28th, moving for good, leaving Orlando, and still trying to negotiate the logistics.
I'll be flying with a hamster, in a hamster- and FAA-approved portable carrier. Because apparently this doesn't work.
There is the matter of finding a cheap studio apartment near UNLV, since I don't drive, or to find a roommate who is okay with only a semester-long commitment. (I really do want to find a place that's both affordable and where the family and the girlfriend can feel free to visit at any point, at the drop of a hat, at a moment's notice, and it doesn't seem fair to do so to a roommate.) So. Do you know Las Vegas? Can you recommend a cheap place? Do you know of someone. Sometime soon I will put a plea on the Nabokov site.
Teaching, classes--hell, everything--begins at the end of August, so if you know of things worth checking out in the Vegas area, please share. The girlfriend and I will have some downtime and would love to get acquainted with the city. And with you. If you are around and are in the Vegas area.
So I am flying to Vegas on the 28th, moving for good, leaving Orlando, and still trying to negotiate the logistics.
I'll be flying with a hamster, in a hamster- and FAA-approved portable carrier. Because apparently this doesn't work.
There is the matter of finding a cheap studio apartment near UNLV, since I don't drive, or to find a roommate who is okay with only a semester-long commitment. (I really do want to find a place that's both affordable and where the family and the girlfriend can feel free to visit at any point, at the drop of a hat, at a moment's notice, and it doesn't seem fair to do so to a roommate.) So. Do you know Las Vegas? Can you recommend a cheap place? Do you know of someone. Sometime soon I will put a plea on the Nabokov site.
Teaching, classes--hell, everything--begins at the end of August, so if you know of things worth checking out in the Vegas area, please share. The girlfriend and I will have some downtime and would love to get acquainted with the city. And with you. If you are around and are in the Vegas area.
A Convergence of Hamsters
My girlfriend gave me hamster as a graduation present a year and half ago. We have named her Molly, because we thought he was a she (he is not but, giant testes aside, who cares? so he is a she) and while I have not really done much in service of this blog, writing only the occassional jumbled missive while rattling from one class to the other, but never really doing justice to the pet as people on the web should. Because what is the web for if not for recording in detail--painstaking, painful detail--the day-to-day activities of one's pets?
The hamster topic surfaced because I read a Bentley Little novel, The Association, that while flawed, contained several inspired passages, equal parts horror and absurd, culminating in the protagonist entering a lair wherein he could make out
In 2002, I wrote a static, unsuccesful story that, purely by way of setting the scene, mentioned a hamster-centric show--this was at least two years before I fell in love, a time when I had no inkling that there were women with formidable voices who would hold you very close, who would give you, as a graduation present, a hamster.
*
You were wondering, naturally, if there are hamster-related quotes by brilliant if difficult directors. There is this:
My girlfriend gave me hamster as a graduation present a year and half ago. We have named her Molly, because we thought he was a she (he is not but, giant testes aside, who cares? so he is a she) and while I have not really done much in service of this blog, writing only the occassional jumbled missive while rattling from one class to the other, but never really doing justice to the pet as people on the web should. Because what is the web for if not for recording in detail--painstaking, painful detail--the day-to-day activities of one's pets?
The hamster topic surfaced because I read a Bentley Little novel, The Association, that while flawed, contained several inspired passages, equal parts horror and absurd, culminating in the protagonist entering a lair wherein he could make out
a dusty display case containing the stuffed bodies of cats and dogs, parrots, and hamsters--the pets outlawed by the association.And, a few weeks later, in the 25 April issue of the New Yorker I ran across Ian Frazier's "Invaders," where we learn about Mongols:
Marco Polo, who travelled amont them in the years 1275-1292, wrote that they ate hamsters, which were plentiful in the steppes.And the man writing about the geese? He, a few years back, wrote about a Japanese show where the constenstants dress like hamsters. And let us not forget Jim Finn, who is actually dealing w/ gerbils, but so what.
In 2002, I wrote a static, unsuccesful story that, purely by way of setting the scene, mentioned a hamster-centric show--this was at least two years before I fell in love, a time when I had no inkling that there were women with formidable voices who would hold you very close, who would give you, as a graduation present, a hamster.
You were wondering, naturally, if there are hamster-related quotes by brilliant if difficult directors. There is this:
Men love women, women love children, and children love hamsters.The movie also contains memorable, non hamster-related quotes.
So.
So I taught my last class at UCF and will be teaching my next-to-the-last class at Valencia, and found myself realizing that I will be missing my students, and that I for the most part enjoyed the experience, all of which is pretty unexpected. B/c mostly I am ready to go.
Which as it turns out is what I'll be doing in a few months. I've been accepted places, and have made an official commitment to one. I'd be specific but figure it's worth waiting for all the paperwork to come through before really shouting stuff out to the world.
But it boils down to a generous assistantship, a respected department, and major geographical upheavals. And a goodbye to Orlando, my town since 1996, land of retention ponds & poor public transit. (& all sorts of other things, all dear & all to be missed, and so what can I say? I am torn up and itching to leave and pretty much in that happy/sad twilight so beloved of shoegazing bands and, well, whatever.)
In preparation, I am reading Getting What you Came For--a book I should have read prior to earning my MA. Funny and useful. And so preparing.
And wistful.
And but so what--the semester isn't over, and the students, the ones I'll miss? I'm seeing them all again for their final presentation, which has to involve sock puppets. So all the missing is far too premature.
*
So Clonus is featured in the Onion AV Club's Films that Times Forgot section, where deservedly obscure movies are lovingly, if snarkily, summarized & dissected & boiled down. Clonus, the AV Club tells us, teaches us to
So.
*
Also: please find Jim Finn's Wüstenspringmaus, the funniest gerbil-related three minutes you will likely experience in your near future. My college library carried it in an anthology from this company, but I understand it also appears elsewhere.
*
So what was I saying?
So I taught my last class at UCF and will be teaching my next-to-the-last class at Valencia, and found myself realizing that I will be missing my students, and that I for the most part enjoyed the experience, all of which is pretty unexpected. B/c mostly I am ready to go.
Which as it turns out is what I'll be doing in a few months. I've been accepted places, and have made an official commitment to one. I'd be specific but figure it's worth waiting for all the paperwork to come through before really shouting stuff out to the world.
But it boils down to a generous assistantship, a respected department, and major geographical upheavals. And a goodbye to Orlando, my town since 1996, land of retention ponds & poor public transit. (& all sorts of other things, all dear & all to be missed, and so what can I say? I am torn up and itching to leave and pretty much in that happy/sad twilight so beloved of shoegazing bands and, well, whatever.)
In preparation, I am reading Getting What you Came For--a book I should have read prior to earning my MA. Funny and useful. And so preparing.
And wistful.
And but so what--the semester isn't over, and the students, the ones I'll miss? I'm seeing them all again for their final presentation, which has to involve sock puppets. So all the missing is far too premature.
So Clonus is featured in the Onion AV Club's Films that Times Forgot section, where deservedly obscure movies are lovingly, if snarkily, summarized & dissected & boiled down. Clonus, the AV Club tells us, teaches us to
always maintain a healthy level of skepticism, as a promised glorious future might in fact be a clone-farm holding container.The New York Times is more reverent, and feels that Clonus is overlooked and that, morever
The film has a stripped-down, functional style that suggests an educational or industrial film of the period, a low-budget limitation that Mr. Fiveson turns into an expressive asset. A genuine sleeper, accompanied by a 40-minute interview with Mr. Fiveson, who seems understandably baffled that he was never allowed to make another feature film.This is all from a March 29 review by Dave Kehr, and the film also finds itself in the august company of Kazuo Ishiguro and Caryl Churchill in this NY Times article, where we are told that, for all its flaws,
the movie is amazing in the way it anticipates motifs that run through newer thrillers and serious works...So this is all to say that it's weird to find the Onion treating a relatively slight DVD reissue with due flippancy while at the same time finding a serious publication taking the same movie far more seriously. It should be the other way around. And was. The Onion's talented staff has sometimes made more of fluff than the fluff deserved. And the Times has sometimes treated pop culture material less seriously than the material warranted.
So.
Also: please find Jim Finn's Wüstenspringmaus, the funniest gerbil-related three minutes you will likely experience in your near future. My college library carried it in an anthology from this company, but I understand it also appears elsewhere.
So what was I saying?
Tift is a fine musician, a tiny woman with a big voice, a charmer, a whirlwind, and it was a hoot to watch her run through the songs--they were beautiful if over-polished in the albums and far more energetic and tight, maybe tighter, live. She is going to NYC on April 12, from whence I just returned.
So. New York. Wow.
And--ugh--gotta go. More work looms. But at the very least there's the quality of street-cart coffee, which is mind-bogglingly good and consistent throughout, and the sheer density and focus of the town's energy--it is a place bristling with purpose--and the friendliness of the place as a whole. Not to mention the friendliness and courtesy of Roy and Matt, our hosts, and so what can I say? What a place.
So. New York. Wow.
And--ugh--gotta go. More work looms. But at the very least there's the quality of street-cart coffee, which is mind-bogglingly good and consistent throughout, and the sheer density and focus of the town's energy--it is a place bristling with purpose--and the friendliness of the place as a whole. Not to mention the friendliness and courtesy of Roy and Matt, our hosts, and so what can I say? What a place.
Leaning on an ElDorado Just to See How it Feels
The girlfriend and I will be going to see Tift Merritt (Tambourine is a fine album, but I am a bigger fan of the first) at Orlando's Social, which is also where we'll be listening to OK Go a few weeks later. In-between, we're flying to NYC, where we will be pointing at tall structures and ooh-ing and ah-ing, and visiting Places of Interest, and behaving like Tourists.
So yes. Hello. (And hello specially if you're in NYC from April 7-10... Are you? If so, drop me a line. We should meet up. Or you should recommend stuff to do.)
What else? I'm waiting on word from three schools, but have heard from one. (They have said nay.) The hope is that, very soon, I'll be in a PhD program for creative writing somewhere that is not Orlando. We will see.
Teaching six classes is a joy and a pain. The students are by and large a great lot, but the amount of work involved is a time drain, and has monkeyed with my reading strategy: I'm reading all sorts of things all at once, but in small dribbles. It is buckets of fun.
Which, speaking of: Hello, Melted Men!
And hello, Wagner & Doc, both of whom I had the privilege to meet in person as they made their way through the land, in a van.
The girlfriend and I will be going to see Tift Merritt (Tambourine is a fine album, but I am a bigger fan of the first) at Orlando's Social, which is also where we'll be listening to OK Go a few weeks later. In-between, we're flying to NYC, where we will be pointing at tall structures and ooh-ing and ah-ing, and visiting Places of Interest, and behaving like Tourists.
So yes. Hello. (And hello specially if you're in NYC from April 7-10... Are you? If so, drop me a line. We should meet up. Or you should recommend stuff to do.)
What else? I'm waiting on word from three schools, but have heard from one. (They have said nay.) The hope is that, very soon, I'll be in a PhD program for creative writing somewhere that is not Orlando. We will see.
Teaching six classes is a joy and a pain. The students are by and large a great lot, but the amount of work involved is a time drain, and has monkeyed with my reading strategy: I'm reading all sorts of things all at once, but in small dribbles. It is buckets of fun.
Which, speaking of: Hello, Melted Men!
And hello, Wagner & Doc, both of whom I had the privilege to meet in person as they made their way through the land, in a van.
Hello hello hello hello!
So it's been a while, no? Apologies. I'm teaching four classes, which is both buckets of fun and a big time drain, and also applying to Ph.D. programs, also a bit of a consuming task, and so yes.
One of my stories is out in the Fall 2004 issue of The Santa Monica Review.
So it's been a while, no? Apologies. I'm teaching four classes, which is both buckets of fun and a big time drain, and also applying to Ph.D. programs, also a bit of a consuming task, and so yes.
One of my stories is out in the Fall 2004 issue of The Santa Monica Review.
The Spine
I am bothered by the very uneven responses to the latest Giants album. Their stuff made me really care about music, and I've picked up every release b/c every one, so far, has had songs that have made me giddy & happy to have ears, and for all that I'll be the first to admit that the best time to really enjoy a TMBG song is when you're a young and angsty (but not terribly messed up) adolescent. Rock'n'roll w/ all the smarts & all the hooks and none of the posseur nihilism. Happy-sounding songs that are clever and way dark--but clever in their darkness.
In other news: I'm preparing to teach creative writing in the fall and setting up a messy blog to list short stories to include in the reading list. Feel free to contribute any ideas. I'm trying to find stories that are a) not sucky, b) not overly polite (though i am a fan of those introspective-small-domestic-drama-Chekovian-end-w/-a-weather-description stories, but students seem to get many of those, and not enough of other, weirder strains of fiction), c) the other, the weird, the wonderful, the very funny or the very sad or both.
I am bothered by the very uneven responses to the latest Giants album. Their stuff made me really care about music, and I've picked up every release b/c every one, so far, has had songs that have made me giddy & happy to have ears, and for all that I'll be the first to admit that the best time to really enjoy a TMBG song is when you're a young and angsty (but not terribly messed up) adolescent. Rock'n'roll w/ all the smarts & all the hooks and none of the posseur nihilism. Happy-sounding songs that are clever and way dark--but clever in their darkness.
In other news: I'm preparing to teach creative writing in the fall and setting up a messy blog to list short stories to include in the reading list. Feel free to contribute any ideas. I'm trying to find stories that are a) not sucky, b) not overly polite (though i am a fan of those introspective-small-domestic-drama-Chekovian-end-w/-a-weather-description stories, but students seem to get many of those, and not enough of other, weirder strains of fiction), c) the other, the weird, the wonderful, the very funny or the very sad or both.
Way to Go, OK Go!
On getting rid of Bush, written by rock people of great chops & well worth reading. Hello!
On getting rid of Bush, written by rock people of great chops & well worth reading. Hello!