Friday, July 09, 2004
The Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy
I am, and have been, a staunch Bush supporter viz. the War on Terror (up to and including the Iraqi campaign). When I happened across the news feed that appears now on the right pane of the site, I just couldn't resist posting it. It took all of two seconds to add.
Thursday, July 08, 2004
Meeting Cormac
I've mentioned before that I'm the Webmaster over at The Cormac McCarthy Home Pages. Few people know how that came about; here's the story.
I was fortunate to have been allowed, while in college (1989-93), to interview Shelby Foote, who came to school and spoke one morning. During the course of our chat (I was nervous, and tapes of the event betray such by my constant mmmm-hmmms and other verbal tics), I asked him who his favorite contemporary novelist was. Foote remarked that Cormac McCarthy was "very good"; in Shelby Foote's argot, that's high praise indeed.
This interview was conducted in the spring of 1992, just before All the Pretty Horses was published. Foote said he'd read the galleys and the novel was (again) "very good." I waited several months and bought All the Pretty Horses the first time I saw it for sale.
I read about half of the book and then went back and bought three more copies — I'd been something of a book collector before, but encountering McCarthy induced a case of full-blown bibliomania that's not let up from that day to this.
I also became an evangelist for McCarthy, proselytizing as I was able, giving away copies of the book (most of the rest of his work was then still out of print), and generally talking about this obscure writer McCarthy at length to anyone who would listen.
All the Pretty Horses went on to become a runaway best-seller. And the reclusive McCarthy became famous. He still didn't give interviews, though, so little information existed about his life, and no critical work existed apart from Vereen Bell's The Achievement of Cormac McCarthy and John Sepich's Notes on Blood Meridian.
It turned out that the latter book had been published on the occasion of the first McCarthy conference, which was held at Bellarmine College in Kentucky in 1992. I didn't yet know it, but I'd later meet most of the small circle of scholars and enthusiasts who were at that conference.
Papers from the First Conference were assembled into another book, edited by Edwin T. Arnold and Dianne Luce. I picked up a copy of that book upon its publication.
Then in 1994, I broke up with Psycho Homewrecker, the (now ex-) girlfriend. That left me with a lot of free time on my hands. And the second volume of The Border Trilogy, The Crossing had been published earlier that year.
Also, about this time I discovered the Internet. I had an account with the old Prodigy Service, which offered "Personal Web Pages." I got a book on HTML, taught myself, and put up a page devoted to McCarthy and his work. At the time, it was practically the only site devoted to McCarthy in existence.
I collected material about McCarthy, wrote a short biography, and made lists of available criticism and reference books. Then, one day out of the blue, I got an email from Edwin T. Arnold, who I mentioned above as having co-edited the papers from the First Conference (Perspectives on Cormac McCarthy). I was, in a word, dumbstruck. I sent Dr. Arnold an email back asking if he were The Edwin T. Arnold who'd edited Perspectives, and he said he was indeed. He and some of the folks from the First Conference were contemplating forming a Society, and lo and behold, they asked for my help. Wanted me to be their Webmaster. For this, I'd get some content for my site, my Internet access paid for a while, and a seat on the Society's Board.
And the rest, as they say, is history. I attended my first McCarthy Conference in (I believe it was) 1995, and continued to participate on a more-or-less yearly basis from then on. I presented papers, had a few articles published, and generally established myself as something of a raconteur on the subject.
Again, out of the blue, I got an email asking me if I'd contribute the entry on Cormac McCarthy for the Dictionary of Literary Biography's 20th Century American Western Writers volume. I wrote that, too.
I now know and am good friends with many of the Society folks, who continue to host conferences and now publish voluminously about Cormac McCarthy. I'm continuing my maintenance of the Web site, because McCarthy's work is endlessly fascinating to me.
In October of 2002, I flew down to Houston, where several Society folks had gathered to witness the first production of McCarthy's only play, The Stonemason. McCarthy, to the shock of all of us involved with the Society, had indicated that he'd attend. Several of us met him and talked with him. He and I discussed the weather.
He's slight-of-stature with piercing blue-gray eyes that always seem to be probing something. He talks in a warm, affable manner, and his demeanor almost belies his considerable intelligence.
And that's how I met Cormac McCarthy. Other stories exist, from other people, about how McCarthy once called them up on the phone, wrote them letters, and the like. The Society as a whole, however, has taken a hands-off view toward his personal life, preferring to honor his requests and let him live his life in peace. We admire the books.
I was fortunate to have been allowed, while in college (1989-93), to interview Shelby Foote, who came to school and spoke one morning. During the course of our chat (I was nervous, and tapes of the event betray such by my constant mmmm-hmmms and other verbal tics), I asked him who his favorite contemporary novelist was. Foote remarked that Cormac McCarthy was "very good"; in Shelby Foote's argot, that's high praise indeed.
This interview was conducted in the spring of 1992, just before All the Pretty Horses was published. Foote said he'd read the galleys and the novel was (again) "very good." I waited several months and bought All the Pretty Horses the first time I saw it for sale.
I read about half of the book and then went back and bought three more copies — I'd been something of a book collector before, but encountering McCarthy induced a case of full-blown bibliomania that's not let up from that day to this.
I also became an evangelist for McCarthy, proselytizing as I was able, giving away copies of the book (most of the rest of his work was then still out of print), and generally talking about this obscure writer McCarthy at length to anyone who would listen.
All the Pretty Horses went on to become a runaway best-seller. And the reclusive McCarthy became famous. He still didn't give interviews, though, so little information existed about his life, and no critical work existed apart from Vereen Bell's The Achievement of Cormac McCarthy and John Sepich's Notes on Blood Meridian.
It turned out that the latter book had been published on the occasion of the first McCarthy conference, which was held at Bellarmine College in Kentucky in 1992. I didn't yet know it, but I'd later meet most of the small circle of scholars and enthusiasts who were at that conference.
Papers from the First Conference were assembled into another book, edited by Edwin T. Arnold and Dianne Luce. I picked up a copy of that book upon its publication.
Then in 1994, I broke up with Psycho Homewrecker, the (now ex-) girlfriend. That left me with a lot of free time on my hands. And the second volume of The Border Trilogy, The Crossing had been published earlier that year.
Also, about this time I discovered the Internet. I had an account with the old Prodigy Service, which offered "Personal Web Pages." I got a book on HTML, taught myself, and put up a page devoted to McCarthy and his work. At the time, it was practically the only site devoted to McCarthy in existence.
I collected material about McCarthy, wrote a short biography, and made lists of available criticism and reference books. Then, one day out of the blue, I got an email from Edwin T. Arnold, who I mentioned above as having co-edited the papers from the First Conference (Perspectives on Cormac McCarthy). I was, in a word, dumbstruck. I sent Dr. Arnold an email back asking if he were The Edwin T. Arnold who'd edited Perspectives, and he said he was indeed. He and some of the folks from the First Conference were contemplating forming a Society, and lo and behold, they asked for my help. Wanted me to be their Webmaster. For this, I'd get some content for my site, my Internet access paid for a while, and a seat on the Society's Board.
And the rest, as they say, is history. I attended my first McCarthy Conference in (I believe it was) 1995, and continued to participate on a more-or-less yearly basis from then on. I presented papers, had a few articles published, and generally established myself as something of a raconteur on the subject.
Again, out of the blue, I got an email asking me if I'd contribute the entry on Cormac McCarthy for the Dictionary of Literary Biography's 20th Century American Western Writers volume. I wrote that, too.
I now know and am good friends with many of the Society folks, who continue to host conferences and now publish voluminously about Cormac McCarthy. I'm continuing my maintenance of the Web site, because McCarthy's work is endlessly fascinating to me.
In October of 2002, I flew down to Houston, where several Society folks had gathered to witness the first production of McCarthy's only play, The Stonemason. McCarthy, to the shock of all of us involved with the Society, had indicated that he'd attend. Several of us met him and talked with him. He and I discussed the weather.
He's slight-of-stature with piercing blue-gray eyes that always seem to be probing something. He talks in a warm, affable manner, and his demeanor almost belies his considerable intelligence.
And that's how I met Cormac McCarthy. Other stories exist, from other people, about how McCarthy once called them up on the phone, wrote them letters, and the like. The Society as a whole, however, has taken a hands-off view toward his personal life, preferring to honor his requests and let him live his life in peace. We admire the books.
Things I Learned from James Bond?
Upon reflection, I'm struck by the fact that around that same time, I was reading Robert Ludlum's books: The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Conspiracy, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, etc.
It's possible I could have picked up the below-mentioned tip from Robert Ludlum. But Bond's just so much cooler. Even if, as I heard once, you shouldn't shake a martini because it bruises the gin.
It's possible I could have picked up the below-mentioned tip from Robert Ludlum. But Bond's just so much cooler. Even if, as I heard once, you shouldn't shake a martini because it bruises the gin.
Things I Learned from James Bond
Or, The Doug Wamble Ramble
A few weeks ago, I went with friends to see Harry Connick, Jr. The venue was an outdoor park, and the six of us congregated there and waited for the show to start. At the last minute, the show's organizers had announced an opening act. It was to be a fellow named Doug Wamble, who plays a kind of loose acoustic jazz/blues.
One of the group I was with not only knew who Doug Wamble was, but went to high school with him. High school was a while ago, and the two of them had lost touch. But once the connection had been made, it was the topic of conversation throughout the night.
The show ended, and my friend decided that she should go find Doug Wamble. All of us had been drinking (not excessively, but enough to make all of this extremely funny), so we went with her on what's now known as the Wamble Ramble. We left our table and ventured over to where we thought Doug might be — the tour buses.
At this point, I began thinking about James Bond. When I was about twelve years old, I read all the James Bond books; those are like crack to a teenage boy. I bought all of them in paperback, and I'm quite sure I drove my parents batty by my repeated trips to the bookstore every third day or so to get another two or three books.
I now remember very little of those books, but one piece of advice they offered has stuck with me. If you don't know where you're going or what you're doing, acting like you do — walking at a determined pace and without looking like you're lost or otherwise clueless — can get you a long way. I'm not sure if the others were aware of this particular piece of advice, but that's what I was thinking about when we embarked on our little quest.
Shortly, we were stopped by security. He asked us where we were going, and the Wamble Ramble instigator spoke up for all of us. She said, "we're trying to get to our cars."
Look like you know what you're doing, I'm thinking.
She was very confident.
Security guard buys her story, and proceeds to walk us to the back gate. He doesn't know, and we don't say, that our cars are clear around on the other side of the park. He lets us out, and we mill around. Now, we're still carrying coolers full of ice, food, drinks, and the like. That stuff's starting to get heavy. And we have a long walk ahead of us.
Fortunately, the night was cool. We soon happened upon a large chain link fence.
Trouble.
There was a gate, though, and it happened to be open. The chain and padlock were there, but the gate wasn't locked. We scooted on through. Lucky for us, because if we hadn't made it through that gate, we'd have had to double back — and I'm not at all certain the security guard would have thought so much of the "getting to our cars" story the second time he heard it from us, especially since we'd then be walking in the opposite direction.
After a bit more meandering, we made it back to the cars, and the night proceeded uneventfully from there. More drink, lots of good conversation, and the recollection of being thwarted by a security man who seemed to be taking his job a little too seriously.
Coda: my friend did manage to get in touch with Wamble. She called his agent.
So that's what I learned from James Bond. Look like you know what you're doing.
It's too bad, though. One might suppose there were a lot of other more interesting things I could have picked up from 007 but didn't. Bond was always good with the ladies. Plus, he had some cool toys.
A few weeks ago, I went with friends to see Harry Connick, Jr. The venue was an outdoor park, and the six of us congregated there and waited for the show to start. At the last minute, the show's organizers had announced an opening act. It was to be a fellow named Doug Wamble, who plays a kind of loose acoustic jazz/blues.
One of the group I was with not only knew who Doug Wamble was, but went to high school with him. High school was a while ago, and the two of them had lost touch. But once the connection had been made, it was the topic of conversation throughout the night.
The show ended, and my friend decided that she should go find Doug Wamble. All of us had been drinking (not excessively, but enough to make all of this extremely funny), so we went with her on what's now known as the Wamble Ramble. We left our table and ventured over to where we thought Doug might be — the tour buses.
At this point, I began thinking about James Bond. When I was about twelve years old, I read all the James Bond books; those are like crack to a teenage boy. I bought all of them in paperback, and I'm quite sure I drove my parents batty by my repeated trips to the bookstore every third day or so to get another two or three books.
I now remember very little of those books, but one piece of advice they offered has stuck with me. If you don't know where you're going or what you're doing, acting like you do — walking at a determined pace and without looking like you're lost or otherwise clueless — can get you a long way. I'm not sure if the others were aware of this particular piece of advice, but that's what I was thinking about when we embarked on our little quest.
Shortly, we were stopped by security. He asked us where we were going, and the Wamble Ramble instigator spoke up for all of us. She said, "we're trying to get to our cars."
Look like you know what you're doing, I'm thinking.
She was very confident.
Security guard buys her story, and proceeds to walk us to the back gate. He doesn't know, and we don't say, that our cars are clear around on the other side of the park. He lets us out, and we mill around. Now, we're still carrying coolers full of ice, food, drinks, and the like. That stuff's starting to get heavy. And we have a long walk ahead of us.
Fortunately, the night was cool. We soon happened upon a large chain link fence.
Trouble.
There was a gate, though, and it happened to be open. The chain and padlock were there, but the gate wasn't locked. We scooted on through. Lucky for us, because if we hadn't made it through that gate, we'd have had to double back — and I'm not at all certain the security guard would have thought so much of the "getting to our cars" story the second time he heard it from us, especially since we'd then be walking in the opposite direction.
After a bit more meandering, we made it back to the cars, and the night proceeded uneventfully from there. More drink, lots of good conversation, and the recollection of being thwarted by a security man who seemed to be taking his job a little too seriously.
Coda: my friend did manage to get in touch with Wamble. She called his agent.
So that's what I learned from James Bond. Look like you know what you're doing.
It's too bad, though. One might suppose there were a lot of other more interesting things I could have picked up from 007 but didn't. Bond was always good with the ladies. Plus, he had some cool toys.
Tuesday, July 06, 2004
Not too Pretty, but....
Added an RSS feed to the Blog this evening.
Well — added something like one. An Atom feed (per Blogger), and a piece of script that lets me parse RSS feeds from other sites. My example, in the right pane, is the iTunes Music Store RSS.
Information about how to do this came from:
http://jade.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/feed/
More on this experiment later.
Well — added something like one. An Atom feed (per Blogger), and a piece of script that lets me parse RSS feeds from other sites. My example, in the right pane, is the iTunes Music Store RSS.
Information about how to do this came from:
http://jade.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/feed/
More on this experiment later.
Paul Simon Still Rules After All These Years
I'm buying the new huge Paul Simon CD set; I'd prefer to wait until the albums are released in SACD or DVD Audio, but I heard this track the other day, and I am for some reason completely captivated by it. It's a demo of "Homeless" that was evidently recorded prior to Simon's South African trek.
Sometimes, simplicity speaks for itself.
QuickTime
Windows Media Player
Sometimes, simplicity speaks for itself.
Monday, July 05, 2004
What The M is Reading
Last night, I started Jonathan Lethem's Motherless Brooklyn. That means I've abandoned both Gould's Book of Fish and Simon Winchester's Krakatoa, which have been sitting on my bedside table for a while now, untouched.
Lethem's book is intriguing, as the narrator has Tourette's Syndrome, so is given to sudden verbal outbursts. The Tourette's is mostly not being played for laughs, but it does make for an interesting and different read. I've had this book for several years now, have heard good things about it, and have been meaning to get to it for a while now.
I also hear that it's to be a movie next year, starring and directed by Ed Norton.
Another comment about my reading of late: I've been reading almost nothing but mysteries for the last several years now. I'm not sure when this happened, but it's definitely a trend in my reading habits.
Lethem's book is intriguing, as the narrator has Tourette's Syndrome, so is given to sudden verbal outbursts. The Tourette's is mostly not being played for laughs, but it does make for an interesting and different read. I've had this book for several years now, have heard good things about it, and have been meaning to get to it for a while now.
I also hear that it's to be a movie next year, starring and directed by Ed Norton.
Another comment about my reading of late: I've been reading almost nothing but mysteries for the last several years now. I'm not sure when this happened, but it's definitely a trend in my reading habits.
Turnabout is Fair Play
http://www.michaelmoorehatesamerica.com/
A film about a guy's trying to get an interview with Michael Moore, who apparently won't grant him one.
A film about a guy's trying to get an interview with Michael Moore, who apparently won't grant him one.
Sunday, July 04, 2004
A Strange Group of People
My family is a strange group of people.
Before the big patriotic concert, there was large family gathering. Food everywhere. My sister's in town, too, so she was there. My dad's family doesn't get together much, but when they do, it's almost always a hoot.
My dad's family is the crazy side. How crazy depends on the day. They weren't really crazy today, only moderately so. Not enough alcohol was consumed to make anybody talk too much. I did see pictures of my grandparents and great grandparents that I'd never seen before. Strange, looking at pictures of relatives that have been dead since well before I was born. These were folks from the Old Country, too.
Before the big patriotic concert, there was large family gathering. Food everywhere. My sister's in town, too, so she was there. My dad's family doesn't get together much, but when they do, it's almost always a hoot.
My dad's family is the crazy side. How crazy depends on the day. They weren't really crazy today, only moderately so. Not enough alcohol was consumed to make anybody talk too much. I did see pictures of my grandparents and great grandparents that I'd never seen before. Strange, looking at pictures of relatives that have been dead since well before I was born. These were folks from the Old Country, too.
Stranger and Stranger
The life keeps getting stranger and stranger. "The girl" has moved back here from another city, but she's dating another guy, and they're pretty serious. She and I have had our big talk, and the outcome was much like I'd expected, but not what I'd wanted. However, her moving back here has allowed us to reconnect with each other. We talk more, and actually get to see each other from time to time now, so things are good. Most people have too few friends. When you find a good one, you'd best hang on to 'em.
Another friend, an old and dear friend, recently lost her husband in a terrible tragic accident. After having been out of contact with her for ten years, we're suddenly talking again. Waking up and finding myself in that situation one morning was something I'd never expected.
Just goes to show you, you can't plan anything. Not really.
I'm trying to do what is right and good; beyond that, I don't know.
The weekly trivia team has exchanged Blog addresses. I haven't yet provided mine, because the Blog has languished so long that it needs some content before I let anyone else know its whereabouts.
In other news, attended a supposedly patriotic concert event tonight. Thought that the folks performing had mistaken the holiday. It's Independence Day, not the Fourth of July. Someone ought to shoot the producer of that show; sound was bad, too.
At the end, there were fireworks, though. So, all in all, I'm happy. There's not much that feeling the explosion from fireworks ruffling the cuffs of your pants won't make up for.
Another friend, an old and dear friend, recently lost her husband in a terrible tragic accident. After having been out of contact with her for ten years, we're suddenly talking again. Waking up and finding myself in that situation one morning was something I'd never expected.
Just goes to show you, you can't plan anything. Not really.
I'm trying to do what is right and good; beyond that, I don't know.
The weekly trivia team has exchanged Blog addresses. I haven't yet provided mine, because the Blog has languished so long that it needs some content before I let anyone else know its whereabouts.
In other news, attended a supposedly patriotic concert event tonight. Thought that the folks performing had mistaken the holiday. It's Independence Day, not the Fourth of July. Someone ought to shoot the producer of that show; sound was bad, too.
At the end, there were fireworks, though. So, all in all, I'm happy. There's not much that feeling the explosion from fireworks ruffling the cuffs of your pants won't make up for.
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