...I heard the hum of the familiar baritone voice come to a halt and knew that he wanted me to look over at him. But I couldn't. I didn't want to let go of the floating feeling and I couldn't turn away from the light.
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Lazy lazy Sunday and loving every minute of it. Mmmmm. The sun streaming in through my window makes my room smell like the summer nights from childhood. So sweet.
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"Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on"
— Louis L'Amour
Yes, it's true. I went through a period where the pressure of even beginning to write something was too much to bear. I had all of these expectations, assumptions, binding ideals of what I wanted as an end result. But done! Enough! Turning the faucet on...letting the writing begin.
When it comes to storytelling, I'm noticing I am inspired most by the clips of passing conversations that I catch and random photos/images (like the one at the top of this post). And when I am thinking of it and when the stories burst fresh into my mind, that's the time to lasso them and reel them in....let them grow. I will write more and more and more now...even if it's "crapola" (as my dad would say)...but things can go from crap to gold, no?
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The title of this post is another Louis L'amour quote. I don't remember which book exactly...I want to say, "Ride The River"?
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Saw Cavalier Rose last night and looooooved it. Was totally into the singer's quirky, cool voice and the drummer's physical approach to, well, drumming. It kicked some serious booty. Always fun to see people rocking out and doing what they love.
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So, this is a little belated but I wanted to pay respects to Howard Zinn. Quite an incredible man, and his ideas will live, strongly, forever.
I was so intrigued and inspired way back when I first heard about Zinn that I read A People's History of The United States in just a few sittings. I was blown away. For the first time, history wasn't the same old bland, monolithic narrative of a bunch of white men crowned "hero". Zinn gave voice to the people, named the forgotten, and opened up the truth.
Not to get all literary and geeky on you, but there's a beautiful quote from Toni Morrison's "Beloved" that reminds me of Zinn's work. [and if you haven't read Beloved, go do it. NOW. For so many reasons]:
"Everybody knew what she was called, but nobody anywhere knew her name. Disremembered and unaccounted for, she cannot be lost because no one is looking for her, and even if they were, how can they call her if they don't know her name? Although she has claim, she is not claimed."
- Toni Morrison, Beloved
What Zinn did for the lost souls of history was give them a name. He penned their stories and therefore, made them a reality today.
I could go on and on and on...but for now that's enough.
Except, I also highly recommend watching You Can't Be Neutral on A Moving Train. A great documentary on Zinn and his ideas...and, just a cool fact, it was co-directed by Deb Ellis, a film instructor at University of Vermont. Woot!
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I also, of course, wanted to mention J.D. Salinger. What an icon. I'm sure he'd hate all of the attention his death has received, but.....hey.....that's what happens when you're such a great literary figure. I never knew what an influence Holden Caulfield had on my writing/thinking until after high school. It really was a milestone of a read. Some Catcher in The Rye quotes:
"What I was really hanging around for, I was trying to feel some kind of a good-by. I mean I've left schools and places I didn't even know I was leaving them. I hate that. I don't care if it's a sad good-by or a bad good-by, but when I leave a place I like to know I'm leaving it. If you don't, you feel even worse."
"I was half in love with her by the time we sat down. That's the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty, even if they're not much to look at, or even if they're sort of stupid, you fall half in love with them, and then you never know where the hell you are. Girls. Jesus Christ. They can drive you crazy. They really can. "
"If a girl looks swell when she meets you, who gives a damn if she's late? Nobody."
"Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody."
"What really knocks me out is a book, when you're all done reading it, you wished the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it."
"She was terrific to hold hands with. Most girls, if you hold hands with them, their goddam hand dies on you, or else they think they have to keep moving their hands all the time, as if they were afraid they'd bore you or something. Jane was different. We'd get into a goddam movie or something, and right away we'd start holding hands, and we won't quite till the movie was over. And without changing the position or making a deal out of it. You never even worried, with Jane, whether your hand was sweaty or not. All you knew was, you were happy. You really were."
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Swinging feels so so good. So does skipping. Skipped for a couple blocks last night from the concert to a warm little nook. Fun.
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Coverspy is a team of NYC publishing nerds who note each book cover they see during their commutes and post them to a Tumblr and Twitter page. Awesome!
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Dive into the New York Public Library’s Photostream on Flickr. Many discoveries to be had!
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I want to rock this look. Right now. Where does one get such beautiful frills?!
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“Distractivity is what you’re doing when you get distracted from what you should be doing. It’s generally what you want to do, often what you need to do, and arguably, what you’ll do best.”
- John Goodman from Distractivity
Hmm...
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Well, c'est tout pour maintenant, mes amis.
Oh yeah, superbowl? No thanks. I'd rather stay home and cook and watch cozy movies and continue this lazy Sundayness.
xo
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