Journal: Sep 08, 2010
Past Entries: August 2004
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
I'm listening to David Bowie's online radio station on "BowieNet" and it's Marianne Faithful followed by Psychodelic Furs' "Love My Way". Wow. Takes me back a little too far.
[ Click on "Play Station" in the main graphic ]
Bowie et al are promoting it as "great music 24 hours a day! Plenty of David Bowie himself, plenty of his favorite artists and plenty of other great music too."
Monday, August 30, 2004
I actually think I salvaged this from a miserably long-winded (boring) state by some strict editing. Also new today, two haiku spin-offs from this piece.
Thank you to Zelda (and tangentially Scott Minar, poet and OU-L professor) for the imperative to "write that poem." I'd been meaning to do it anyway I swear.
Sunday, August 29, 2004
Zelda came over while I went to a party at the new dean's house. (I work for a law school.) I should have known it wasn't worth it. I drove all that way there and back and only stayed about a half hour. Then Zelda, James, and I stayed up late watching tv discussing show tunes. Apparently I like too many of them to maintain my assertion that I don't like musicals. It's good to have a friend in town again. I hope she does't move out west or south like the last seven friends we had have done.
Saturday, August 28, 2004
I keep hearing people (conservatives) refer to Kerry as "creepy" and "lurch-like" because of his looks. But I have to say, Bush is pretty creepy too. As a small, young-looking, intelligent, well-educated woman, I've seen my fair share of pig-man who underestimate, demean, and patronize me. ("Hey, there little lady. Can I hep ya, little lady.") So I've got all these alarms (call them chips on my shoulder) for when someone is being condescending. Bush sets all of them off. That attitude which seems to make others think he'd be good at a bar-b-que, makes me think him not only disingenuous, but part of the real gool-ol-boy-network-men's-club that seeks to disenfranchise minorities, women, and the already-poor.
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Friday, August 27, 2004
Today's is the result of an exercise of using random words to begin lines. I'm too distracted to write anything else today, but feel I must persist regardless.
I should add that the random words I used today weren't all that random. In other words, I picked them. They got mixed up in the final lineation, but were
Apples
Tin can
Green
BlueAnd then I just kept writing.
Thursday, August 26, 2004
I took Zelda to Writers' Block last night. It was a good night. Jason Brazwell performed a surprise feature -- surprise means Jason didn't know he was going to feature and Scott and Vernell who run the show didn't know who they're going to pick either.
There were some great pieces performed all over the spectrum. There was an admitted "Christian" poet who introduced me to a form used by "Christian" poets -- apparently Christian poets have different aesthetics, but I tend to think they might just lower the bar artistically among themselves. It sounded interesting. Comprised of 5 lines:
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Wednesday, August 25, 2004
Andy got up at 5:20 am this morning saying "Outside." I showed him that outside was still nighttime. Then he said "Dinner." Are you hungry then? "Yup." Then he said, "Pingu." He got an early breakfast. Then he got Pingu as I dozed on the couch and he sat on the tongue chair which he thinks is his. Then he climbed on the couch with me and snuggled.
Speaking Penguinese, Pingu and his family and friends are expressive and charming and gentle and cool -- icy cool. Andy knows that lobster is called "coo coo" by the penguins and seals.
For a morning that starts at 5:20 am, it wasn't so bad. Then Carrie got up. Let's just say she had trouble controlling her negative emotions this morning.
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Thus the change in color for the site.
I've really thought about randomly-chosen color schemes for this site. It wouldn't be hard to do, but I like using the same color from page to page. I could put in place a pick-your-skin-color thing. Or random-color-per-session (as opposed to page). Hmm, that might be the answer.
Monday, August 23, 2004
Since my first attempts at Flash have been wild, crazy, ugly things, I decided to go back and do very simple things. I started here:
You'll find a new section under poetry with this and future efforts: [ Flash Poetry ]
Sunday, August 22, 2004
I think I'm going to try to do something different with my home page. Up till now I've been happy leaving it as a simple landing page, but lately I don't really think that's necessary. I don't want to put the journal up there as most do because not all of my readers come here for that. Some are only after the pictures and perhaps some are only after the poetry and use those main pages as their landing page. I know my mother uses the pictures page as if it were the home page.
The thing is I don't want to maintain the home page or have rotating content or even random content. Compare with random colors on smarl. I might just design a home page companion to go with the rest of the site. I might use it to show flash-ified poems. That last is the most likely because I'm interested in producing new work for it and therefore would be motivated to update it.
Saturday, August 21, 2004
Friday, August 20, 2004
Thursday, August 19, 2004
Last night, at the last minute, I went out to the Writers' Block poetry night and poetry slam. Walking in the door, I decided to join the slam, the first I've participated in as a contestant.
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Wednesday, August 18, 2004
My anti-poetry sabbatical is supposedly over. But I have yet to start my regular lunch-time regime. Instead I have:
1. One coffee break poem" Sensation List from the Ride Home After Her Birth
2. One poem under the bed written last night. This one's for Andy -- by the way, I'm getting together a bunch of poems to send to a high-quality rag that focuses on motherhood, I have about three or four in this group.
3. One poem nearly converted into a flash presentation. ETA: tomorrow after lunch.I'm writing this so I am sure to complete projects 2 and 3. I consider item one, the coffee break poem, Sensation List from the Ride Home After Her Birth, to be finished.
Also, I'm going to miss Writers' Block tonight. Alas.
Monday, August 16, 2004
Since my self-imposed Anti-Poetry Sabbatical is now over, I thought I had to write something. Here is that something. Not a full-lunch poem, it's really a quick coffee break poem. Don't let its hackneyed theme get you down.
Computer word games -- and now online word games -- comprise my secret life: when the kids are in bed and I don't want to sleep, when I want to zone out, when I want to take a break, when I want to do something while I'm doing something else that's boring (I used to play during conference calls), when I want to sort out my thoughts, when I want to listen to the radio, when I want to think about the organization of a chapbook or manuscript (hey one of them won me the Mary Roberts Rinehart, so don't knock it), when I'm feeling competitive, that's what I do.
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Sunday, August 15, 2004
The summer Olympics have started and I haven't watched a bit of it. As a kid, I watched most of them with my siblings. We were glued to the TV. Our parents let us eat dinner in the living room and even set up the card table for us.
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Saturday, August 14, 2004
I was just thinking it seemed we were paying more taxes. And here I find this at the Washington Post via MSNBC (side note: gosh, there's so much sharing of content):
Here are a few teasers:
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Friday, August 13, 2004
Jamie told me this morning that I don't have to get him a birthday present because he bought it for himself last night. It's a Tongue Chair. This doesn't bother me very much. Our furniture and house just keep getting cooler. What gave me pause, what stopped me from breathing for a few minutes was how he came to get such a good deal on this piece of furniture. He was engaging in, ahem, "aimless bidding."
To me that sounds like going to eBay and bidding on the first thing that comes up, like $200 for that Black Sabbath t-shirt or $191.92 for that Barbie Sunshine Trailer Kit. In actuality, aimless bidding is offering a ridiculously low bid for something that you're for sure not likely to get. This is related to putting down a penny for 50 Doctor Seuss books -- someone did this to us. (The books eventually sold for a much higher price.) You never really expect to win., but there's always hope. Maybe this will encourage James to low bid everything hoping for another grand deal.
Anyway, the one we bought is a light blue shade. Very pretty, but we'll have to sell a couple 1-2-3 chairs (but not the good ones).
Tuesday, August 10, 2004
I pulled a muscle in my back Sunday while nonchalantly hoisting my daughter, then did it again this morning as I tried to leap out of bed with my usual zest for getting to work.
From me: "Oof!"
From my cherished husband, who cherishes me: "Take an Advil."Also, see yesterday's Get Fuzzy and today's Get Fuzzy. Apparently, I'm channeling a cartoon character. Glad it's someone cool!
Monday, August 9, 2004
I posted new August images. It's so hard to pick which ones to keep. I love them all, even pictures of my kids' feet.
[ See here for the most recent 2004 images ]
Sunday, August 8, 2004
Poetry ranges from all types and some of it ain't even short forms. Children's books cover a lot of these ranges. For example, see Good Night, Mr. Night by Dan Yaccarino for a beautiful poem (beatiful art too, but I'm not talking about that right now). I read all children's books now as if there were poetry and read poetry as if it's for children who happen to have adult sensibilities.
Poetry books should also come in the one poem per book format with illustrations. You know, rejuvenate the poetry scene (although slam poetry and performance art has done a great deal of rejuvenation) and get some more work going for all those graphic artists.
Friday, August 6, 2004
Late yesterday I decided to check out the Foole's Gold (FG) poetry event in town. I usually go to Writers' Block (WB) events. FG is definitely a different vibe. It starts even later (good for me), but it occurs only in the summer (bad for me) and attempts to be "beat" -- I never really know how to be "beat."
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Thursday, August 5, 2004
That is, the actor to play Voldemort is to be named. It's Ralph Fiennes, who did an excellent villian in Schindler's List.
I hope the fourth movie does a good job of handling the vast amount of content. As each book increases in scope, the movies can't possibly keep up and maintain a 2 or 3 hour version covering an entire volume. This last one (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban -- my favorite of the books) noticably condensed large areas of the story. For example, it kept cutting to Harry Potter and his professor having heart to heart talks -- it seems a little weird in the movie if you haven't read the books.
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Wednesday, August 4, 2004
Monday, August 2, 2004
How to be Creative posted by Hugh at www.gapingvoid.com.
I agree with that guy and I have for sometime. Proof: I only ever listened to myself when it comes to writing poetry (ask anybody who has been in a workshop with me) or setting up websites. Well, sometimes I listened to others about the website stuff, that's when it becomes "cash." [ See the article to explain the difference between sex and cash. ]
