Make Readers, Not War

Interesting article today by Laura Miller at Salon.com, who argues that instead of devoting a month to encouraging writers - with the argument that those who are really and truly determined to write a novel will write it, in November or no - we should be doing more to encourage readers. While I essentially agree with Caroline Kellogg over at LATimes.com, who calls Miller's admonishment "smallhearted," I think Miller has a point. Writers gon' write. But what can we do to encourage readers? Is it even possible to do anything in our attention deficient age?

When I was a kid my (evil) brothers called me "Billie Jean Reads a Book" and "Bookworm" because my way of escaping was to bury myself in literature. But it was second nature to me - I don't know if it's part of my genetic makeup or what, but I just didn't need much nudging to pick up a paperback. I think some people do learn to enjoy it over time, but while I haven't done any actual research to confirm or deny this hunch, I have to assume that fewer kids are being introduced to the joys of long form prose. There are just too many youtube videos and blog posts (ahem) and video games to contend with. I'm not such a naysayer as to suppose that literature is dying - I think if anything, it's just evolving - but I do worry a little about it staying relevant. There's just too much beauty out there that I want others to see and love as much as I do.

So here's my suggestion - I think it's high time someone did a modern, virally equipped update to the "Books: Feed Your Head" campaign that ran in the 90s. Remember this video on MTV, which starred a foxy Sherilyn Fenn reading some naughty bits? It was good. It was memorable. It was compelling. It was sexy without being lewd. And it may even have made some people dig into Kafka and D.H. Lawrence. 

MTV, where you at? 

 

 

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A Good Cover is Worth...Well, a Lot

I came across a cover of AA Bondy's "Witness Blues" by Matt Vasquez, the lead singer of Delta Spirit, a band from San Diego that I like OK but haven't really given much thought to. I only discovered Bondy earlier this year, and his voice and music crept into my consciousness over time. His "American Hearts" record accompanied me to Japan, and I'll always associate it with the day I wandered through the Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto, which consists of thousands of vermillion torii lined up for visitors to walk through. Listening to a haunting piece of music in a haunted atmosphere made for a memorable day.

But back to the cover, since I'm probably one of the only people in the world who still listens to albums beginning to end, I missed "Witness Blues," or at least failed to appreciate it fully, because it’s the second to last song. And hearing Vasquez’s version gave me a whole new appreciation for the original.

How gorgeous is this lyric?
"Once you heard a choir while you were dreaming/and you wish you could remember it today"

Two things: 1) I like Vasquez much more now for choosing to cover a great song by an under appreciated artist, so I’ll probably give Delta Spirit another shot, and 2) I love it when a cover gives me a whole new appreciation for an old song in general. Wins all around.

MP3: A.A. Bondy, "Witness Blues"

  
Download now or listen on posterous

11_Witness_Blues.mp3 (3683 KB)

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How not to fail at NaNoWriMo

Just decide not to do it. I'm not suggesting anyone follow my lead, but this is an easy way to get off on a technicality.

Writing a novel in the span of a month is an amazing feat, and a worthy endeavor, but I just don't think I'm ready. I attempted it, sort of, last year - realized it was happening a few days into the month, and since I wasn't working at the time, figured I should give it a shot. But then I waffled and I couldn't decide what to write about and the idea of writing 1000 words a day did my head in, so I abandoned ship. I had other things I was working on, head wise, and I didn't feel confident that I could commit to doing it without regularly beating myself up about not really doing it. It was a decision to be nice to myself, and patient.

Fast forward a year, and I'm taking another pass. My head is much better, but my obligations have increased. At the highest level, I'm trying to get my freelance career off the ground while orchestrating a cross country move, and I just know it's not gonna fit into my list of priorities. To say nothing of the fact that I still don't really know what my novel would be about.

So instead, I'm instituting a one blog post a day rule. This here's my stake in the ground. What should I call it? National Blogging Month? National Aspiring Writers Who Haven't Quite Gotten to the Noveling Stage but are Still Trying to Be Productive Month? Copout November? Whatevs.

One year, I will do NaNoWriMo. It's on the list.

Unrelated: Here's a great picture I took on a hike last month outside of Sun Valley, Idaho. It's not terribly indicative of the incredible scenery, but the light turned out pretty cool.

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How to have a total change of heart in 24 hours

Is it possible to have a total change of heart in 24 hours?

I did after I wrote that last post. I woke up the next day and thought, wait, I don't want to leave LA. I like it here still, despite many, many issues. There will probably be a time - a time in the not so distant future - when I am forced to leave for economic reasons, but that time is not here yet. And I have a life and friends and a great apartment and a whole professional network here that I am going to need to tap into if I want to make this next phase of my career work.

Big decisions are always like this for me. Usually what happens is that I start to feel like I need to make a change, and I convince myself I need to do something. (Like move to ATL, for example.) Then I ponder that for a while and come up with a whole list of reasons why it is imperative that I do that, and why it makes the most sense and is the best possible course of action, and so on and so on. And then, like a good girl, I zoom out and try to look at it from a holistic perspective and be as objective as possible about the whole thing, often even making a list of pros and cons for each side. It is during this point when I vacillate wildly between the two choices, and drive my friends nuts with declarations that change on an hour to hour basis. 

And ultimately, I arrive at a decision that is some combination of reason and gut feeling, and usually I just go with it and everything is fine. But then occasionally, like with this decision, I get a clear sign that I picked the wrong side and have to reverse course. In this instance I just woke up feeling completely differently even though I had resolved the matter and started making plans to pack up my apartment and sublease my room. Sometimes it's a little more dramatic, though. 

Case in point: when I was 28, I decided I'd had enough of New York, and I went back to my parents' house in ATL to figure out what was next. I was thinking of either staying there or moving to LA, and was looking for jobs in both places. Odds were totally against LA - although I had friends and family out there, I had very little money and no real job leads, as opposed to a whole mess of resources I had in ATL. It didn't make a whole lot of sense in strictly logical terms. I ended up getting an offer - a really good offer - from a PR firm in ATL one Friday, and told them I would get back to them on Monday. I spent the weekend going through the process detailed above, and landed on the decision to accept the job and stay in LA. I went to bed on Sunday night with the plan to wake up the next morning and call to accept the job. 

And then I woke up nauseous on Monday morning at the thought of staying in Atlanta. 

I left for LA the next week.

My new favorite cafe/dance studio - Paper or Plastik

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10 O'Clock and All's Well

In the three months since I last posted, I got a job in PR, worked at it for approximately four weeks, and then resigned without a single regret. I'm currently working out my last week.

So much for going back to PR. It was a good idea in theory - get some money coming in, get health insurance, get back into the working world until I can figure out a way to work for myself full time - but the actual job I had was a disaster. Boss was a cretin (albeit a well-meaning one), underling appeared competent at first but was later discovered to (bizarrely) have no capacity for critical thought, clients were a disorganized and neglected mess, firm was overall just sort of cheap and JV. All in all, a total fail.

But I learned things. And one of the things that I learned was that I am really not sure I can go back to the corporate lifestyle for anything less than a stellar situation - I'm somewhere between incapable and just disinterested, and for me that is no way to live. Two weeks in I was buckling under the stress and trying to figure out how long I could last, and desperately looking forward to the weekend. Again, no way to live. So now I'm at the point where I'm preparing to take some pretty drastic measures to be able to go in a different direction for a while.

And it looks like my life in LA is on the chopping block.

Not that I don't like LA and my friends here, but the reality is I can't support myself financially with a reasonable degree of comfort while I go through this transition. And I'm pretty much unwilling to live again like a poor city urchin in one of the wealthiest cities in the world. It's just too difficult, and I'm too old. Been there, done that.

So for now, the plan is to relocate to more affordable (and humid) climes. LA, I'll miss you and your golden light.

 

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Weird fishes

Yes, that's a Radiohead reference, and no, it has nothing to do with this post. At least not yet.

I'm in a weird spot. Here I am, nine months into my sabbatical, and I feel like I'm yet again at a crossroads. Because the reality is, I gotta go back to doing PR. At least for a while. Things with the start up are still chugging along, though we are really struggling with what our actual start up costs will be, as well as how much we even need to raise. We're dead set on creating this company, but despite all the things we have figured out, it's very confusing to try to figure out how to take the first steps. I hope this paralysis is temporary, but the phrase "it's all in the execution" is taking on even more meaning.

And in the meantime, I'm going kind of nuts. As constructive as I've tried to be with my time, and as much as I feel like I've gotten to do and see, I need to get back to work full time. And part of that is because I need to interact with other living humans during the day, something that is not really part of the work I'm doing on the startup. So I'm applying to a few things here and there, and luckily I can afford to be somewhat selective. At least for now.

But as much as I am angsty about going back to the profession for obvious reasons, I also wonder how much of my burnout was due to stress from other factors. Like the fact that I was depressed. And still mending from a broken heart. And just exhausted from trying to cope given both of those facts and a big job. I don't know what the answer will be. I guess I'll find out soon enough.

 

 

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What I Did on My Twitter Vacation

So, I took a break from Twitter for about three months, and inadvertantly took a break from Jane Donuts in general during that time. While I can't say I totally crushed it, I did get some shit done. Here are the highlights:

• I went to Japan. My friend had a three day stay in Tokyo on her way back from China, and invited me to come keep her company while she decompressed from Guangzhou and did some shopping/trend research for her job as a product line manager for a big sportswear brand that rhymes with Likey. I obliged and spent a few days eatin, drinking, ogling, walking, butchering Japanese phrases, and shopping for truly amazing things in what is without question the most intense city I've ever visited. (Photo below is of my cohorts in Daikanyama, Tokyo.) Fascinating and so foreign, and absolutely amazing. I then went to stay with my cousin and his charming Japanese wife and two daughters in Kyoto, the former imperial capital. Another magical place full of Shinto shrines and Zen gardens and a palpable sense of a rich and exotic history, right up there with Paris and Florence. I would love to go back when it's not winter.
• I took a great screenwriting workshop and made some pretty significant headway on my first script. After mapping out the entire thing and writing about half of it, I've fallen out of love with the concept, but will be playing around with it until I feel it's a little stronger. I now feel like I can and will actually complete something. Whether it will be something in any way viable is another story.
• I found my new signature perfume, Lumiere Noire by Francis Kurkdjian. Sounds trivial maybe, but this is huge for me, as I don't ever feel truly dressed without the right scent. I've been looking for something for the last two years and have gone through at least five scents that, while lovely, were just not right. So now I found something that is the right mixture of sophisticated and delicious and unusual and it basically reminds me of the woman I aspire to be. I'm not wearing a lot of beautiful clothes these days, mostly living in jeans, leggings, t-shirts and cardigans, so this as a wardrobe addition is, as they say, pretty major.
• I went to Portland, Oregon and Atlanta, Georgia. Saw my people. Played with lots of babies.
• And, most importantly, I started a business with one of my oldest and smartest friends. More to come on this, but it's a line of clothing and accessories geared at musicians and their fans. And I am so excited about it! It makes perfect sense, it's a timely concept, and I think we can sell the shit out of it. This is what's taking up most of my time these days, and I couldn't be happier about it. Now I just gotta hustle and get some money for this thing.
• I got kicked out of my apartment. Well, not literally, but I got my notice. 45 days and counting til I gotta move, and I'm annoyed but also excited. Onward and upward, I hope.

So, lots happening, and the total instability of my life continues. I didn't miss Twitter, I have to say. I did miss blogging. And I do enjoy shouting into the void, so here I am, back again.

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