Quote of the Week

These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive on the shelves.
- Gilbert Highe

Friday's Poem

Pablo Neruda's "Tonight I Can Write the Saddest Lines":

What I'm Researching, What I'm Writing

While I work on stories for Art Lies, Swindle and Touring and Tasting Magazine, I'm still trying to wrap my head around what I'm going to write about my trip to Europe I had recently. There's so many story ideas swirling around my head it's hard to pin them down.

Some rough thoughts I've had, in regards to story subjects:
Ile St. Louis in Paris.
Rotterdam's architecture (their skyline is pictured above).
The famed Rotterdam Pancake Cruise.
Pere Lachaise Cemetery.

Those are just a few of many. I'll start cracking on them soon and hopefully sell them on spec to some travel publications. I shall keep you posted.

Want to See the World's Largest Book?

View it at the National Library of Scotland.

Jack London - The Poet

Seriously. Of course, it's seriously bad poetry, but still, not everyone can be Robert Frost. And, you know, I'd like to see Mr. Frost write The Sea Wolf.

Jon's Writing in a Couple of Magazines

Go to a newsstand this weekend and you might find some magazines that have some of my work in it...



For Metro Dot Pop I did a short profile on the artist Margarita Cabrera, who created the inflatable Hummer above. Much of her artwork deals with Mexican/American relations, in particular the border crossings (she lives in El Paso).



For Fine Books and Collections, I wrote some of the small entries within their larger story "50 Top Auction Sales of 2007." They break down what was the highest selling books/manuscripts/paper ephemera throughout the year. I wrote about a couple high selling Declarations of Independence (including one that was found at a junk shop and purchased for $2.50) and also a bit on The North American Indian, by Edward S. Curtis which you can read in the link above.

Are Girls Really Better at Language Than Boys?

Yes.

The Final Days of Heath Ledger

Well, I don't know how I feel about this but the New York Times reports that Esquire Magazine has published the diaries of Heath Ledger, recording his last days. What I don't feel at all comfortable about is that it isn't his diary at all. Esquire is labeling the story a "work of reported fiction." You can find the story, written by Lisa Taddeo, here. Particularly in light of all the fake memoirs being published these days, perhaps this isn't the best timing for a story that bridges non-fiction with fiction. Even more troubling is the fact that Esquire has chosen to cash in, if you will, on the sudden death of one of Hollywood's finest young actors, with not a piece of solid fact-based reportage (which wouldn't bother me as much) but a piece of writing in that gray area of fact and fiction. There's already a huge gray area in regards to his death and how and why he died, there's no need to compound it with confusing writing.

Secret Skin - An Essay in Unitard Theory

The amazing Michael Chabon, author of one of the most amazing novels of this new century, has a fun essay in the New Yorker about superheroes and the costumes they wear.

Thou Doest Scoff at Shakespeare for Young Ones?

Nay! The New York Times has a brief story discussing how children should be introduced to Shakespeare at the age of 4, which, in some ways makes good sense. Those little ones are sponges! My daughter, in a French immersion preschool, knows more French than anyone I know. If she had gone to Paris with me recently I would have been much better off. She's also enjoyed a Shakespeare play or two in that I've been a part of, in the last couple of years, Bard in the Yard and she always finds the spectacle of spectacularly bad Shakespearean acting great. So, perhaps I'll start reading her A Midsummer Night's Dream tonight before she goes to bed. Perhaps we shall wait, however, on reading Titus Andronicus. How do you explain to a preschooler why Chiron and Demetrius have take Lavinia away and sexually ravaged her over her husband's dead body? Yes, I think I'll wait on that one.

31 Ways to Find Inspiration for Your Writing

Care of Write to Done.

Memoirs, the New Novels

Geez, what are writers thinking? A fake memoir of the Holocaust? Seriously?! That's not good, people. A fake memoir about gang life in Los Angeles? Yikes. The famed James Frey book, a fictionalized account of drug abuse? That's not good either. Slushpile takes a look at this troubling new genre and the LA Times gives a full list of memorable literary hoaxes including a Native American who wasn't, an HIV-positive former drug addict who wasn't and a covert agent for Britain's Special Air Services in Afghanistan, who, well, wasn't.

Audubon's Birds of America

The University of Pittsburgh owns one of the rare, complete sets of John James Audubon's Birds of America. It is considered the most valuable volumes in the University Library System. There's only 120 complete sets known to exist. Want to take a peak inside? They've put the entire collection online. Go nuts, bird lovers!

My Writing in Venuszine

I have a couple new pieces in Venuszine...



1) I was asked to write a piece for Venuszine's big story "The Greatest Female Guitarists of All-Time." Specifically, I wrote about the outstanding guitarist Kaki King. She was nominated for a Golden Globe for her work on Sean Penn's "Into the Wild" movie, she had a hand in the making of the music for the movie "August Rush," and her latest album, Dreaming of Revenge, is already getting critical acclaim.



2) I also did a review of Mike Doughty's, the former Soul Coughing front man, latest album Golden Delicious.



3) Oh, and check out their new Spring Issue on newsstands now. I've got a review in there as well, Mia Doi Todd's latest Gea.

The Blog Weemade

A new site showcases the artwork of kids. Pictured above - "One Eye," by Ami, age 4.

Literary Sex is Such a Turn-Off

She loved most the lusciousness of his buttocks, their dimpled circumference, as though God had created them only so she might pull him farther into herself and then muffle her rapturous pleasure as she had, only a few hours back, muffled her anguish. ... they had exhausted all the wild beasts lurking in the forests of their flesh.
- Siddharth Dhanvant Shangvi, The Last Song of Dusk

The Guardian looks at the difficulties in writing good sex scenes.

Urban and Urbane

The New Yorker in the 1930s, care of the American Studies Program at the University of Virginia.

The Charms of Wikipedia

The great Nicholson Baker reviews Wikipedia: The Missing Manual, by John Broughton in The New York Review of Books.

Twenty Science Fiction Novels...

That will change your life.

My Recent Trip to Europe - A Brief Slideshow