My friend Louise and I have been talking all summer about trying to set up some kind of bi-weekly time and place where people could come and talk about writing, or read things, or listen to other people read things. I refuse to use the word "workshop" for what I'm talking about, because that sounds like school and the academy can stay up on that hill all summer long thank you very much. This would be something with snacks and maybe beer afterwards--not another reading, but maybe a place where people could e-mail something to everyone before the snacks and then everyone could talk about it. Lawrence is full of talented writers like Andy, Chloe, Rob, Gabe, Sasha, Cote, Elliott, Mark, Mickey, Dennis, Roboman, Natalie, Josh, Drew, Maria, Kari, Reehan, Nedra and hundreds of others I'm sure I've forgotten to mention.
I'm an old man and cocoon in my apartment until everything is nice and still. I don't like going out to write somewhere unless it feels "neutral" and not like I'm "on display." I think too many places in town feel like that. Also, I have horrible phone anxiety from my government job where I used to have to say things like "you have cancer in your medical records, but our office is denying you any money because it might get better", so I don't answer the phone and frequently stomp around when it rings, cursing it, and my wife also worked at the same job, so no, we don't like phones, which makes it difficult for anyone to get a hold of us or organize anything like this, or to meet new people. I would like for all of those things to happen, though. I'm putting my faith in the intranet SUPERHIGHWAY. When I used to have a radio-show in Idaho on this station, we had a promo where someone with a southern drawl would say "You can also reach us on the INTRA-net...SUPERHIGHWAY!" It was my favorite promo. I got in trouble once for playing the entire audio of the film of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas over the radio, which broke a lot of copyrights, I think, and i didn't want to interrupt the film with promos, so I just played the SUPERHIGHWAY one at the end, a bunch of times in a row.
Some of the writers I mentioned above also have amazing writer friends I've never met, but whose writing I enjoy on their blogs, like Stephen Lewis. I am too old and too much inside books, probably, for these younger people to want to hang out with me at something like the gathering I'm talking about... but. Wait, that's a lie. Actually, it's rhetoric. I don't think the writers whose blogs I read would feel that way at all, or be prejudiced about something silly like age. I think I just posted that to try and lure some of those good writers I don't know into considering visiting the thing Louise and I are trying to plan. I'm sorry good writers I don't know. I didn't mean it. I think it's probably okay, though, since most of you won't read thi..DAMN IT. I'm doing it again. Wow, I need to stop that.
This post has gone on too long. I need to work on my new poems for my reading on Friday (6/6/08) at Edesia's Cafe in Manhattan, KS. The reading is hosted by Little League. Little League should be supported by everyone. There are two fine writers--Sam Nelson and Matt Groneman, whom I'll be reading with. They should also be supported by everyone. The reading was Sam's idea and I think that Edesia is Sam's brother's coffeeshop. Everyone should support Edesia's. The Nelsons are like some kind of super-family, or like the Fantastic Four. Sam's parents own a gallery in Manhattan and frequently host amazing poetry readings there.
I want Matt to read his James Brown poem very much, but I think he said he doesn't have his kneepads any more. That's too bad. It's a very vigorous poem, and I think if people like Robert J. Baumann heard it they would fall in love with Matt instantly. I often think people like Robert J. Baumann would be better friends with the old me, the five years ago me, rather than the me now. That me used to read poems with a megaphone and get the audience to chant. I distrust the new me. I don't know what the new me is doing most of the time. Part of the reason I'm going to China is to kill the new me and maybe force my mind back into the old me's body. Something like that happens in the book The World of Null-A, which I just read for my summer class with James Gunn. Everyone should also support James Gunn. And Science Fiction in general. My Science Fiction stories are maybe very bad. I wonder if I can somehow fuse the new me with that old me? I think the old me would write better Science Fiction stories. I'm going to try.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
ben i never told you that i like the way your blog looks and i am jealous.
also, you should try to make a new new you because that would be better, even, than the old you, who i didn't know but i think that you are a person who will keep getting better so that when you are very old no one you know will ever want you to die. please take that as a compliment. i said it funny.
robert I like this idea of a new new me. I want more new new things. "the new new poetry" "the new new summer" "the new new country". The best of all would be the "new new letter-writing." I have historically been very bad at writing letters to people, but the new new ben will write new new letters to many people in a new new way. I will send new new letters to you when I am in China, my new new country. I have already told Erin on two or three different days about new new things that I want to send you when we are in the new new country. I have said things to Erin like "Do you think if I sent Robert J. Baumann one of those Maoist hats that look like Greek fisherman hats that he would wear it?" She said yes. Also, I want to send you maoist lighters that are shaped like the Red Book that play the Chinese National Anthem when you strike them, but I think that might encourage you to smoke. The new new me is worried about your lungs, robert. The new new me doesn't want people to die from smoking. also, thank you for the nice compliments I think they were very nice and said in the right way, not in a funny way.
Post a Comment