Monthly Archives: December 2009
Lynda Barry’s “Two Questions”
| December 4, 2009 | Filled under Blog |
Wednesday was the last meeting of the creative writing workshop class I took this semester. The professor handed out this comic strip by Lynda Barry as a kind of parting gesture. I’ve never read Lynda Barry (having only recently discovered the wonder of the graphic novel) but she’s on my list now.
I guess it’s because I have a thing for octopi. Barry uses the octopus as her muse image. The strip “Two Questions” is about creative innocence and how we lose it as we grow older and self-doubt takes over.
The final panel, where the octopus wraps its arms around Barry, is such a comforting image, the kind I’d like to store in a permanent place in my mind. Read the whole strip here.
Winter in summerland
| December 7, 2009 | Filled under Video |
So the big news here last weekend was that it snowed — a lot — on Friday. I don’t have to tell you this because I say it every time it snows here, but it never snows in Houston.
Think:Snow from Chase Rees on Vimeo.
Too bad it didn’t really stick, because it was coming down big and fast for a few hours. See the video above for proof. The first part reminds me of my video of the coral spawning, because that’s really what it looked like — upside down snow. (Via 29-95.)
The perils of being female in Korea
| December 7, 2009 | Filled under Blog, Internerd |
The Awl’s take on The Korea Times’ report that one in five South Korea women are starving themselves to be “beautiful.” No shit!
If you asked a South Korean woman to draw what she thought she looked like on a wall in crayon, she would FORGET THE TASK BECAUSE SHE IS SO HUNGRY.
Even I wasn’t immune to that image pressure bullshit, when boutiques only sell one size of clothing and it’s the one you don’t fit into, when most Korean women wouldn’t dare leave the house without five layers of make-up and ten of hairspray on, when it’s the year 2009 and Korea still remains a culture where a woman’s main value is how many babies she can produce and how she’s more attractive to look at than listen to. This culminates into 99.99% of what made living there so hard for me, a feminist, an opinionated, and outspoken woman trapped in something akin to 1950s America.
I voted for her. Twice.
| December 15, 2009 | Filled under Video |
Remember winter, the four hours of it we had in Houston? John Stewart thinks this is related.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| World of Warmcraft | ||||
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I remembered what it was like to work hard.
| December 23, 2009 | Filled under Internerd |
Janice Erlbaum, who has been on a deliberate self-imposed internet hiatus for the past few months, has written an interesting post about her experiences with NaNoWriMo.
I also learned how much you can write in an hour, as long as you don’t go back and reread and try to polish things. I used to think, what’s the point, I only have an hour between appointments, I’ll skip the office today. Now I know, I can write three pages in an hour. I also know that I can get up an hour earlier in the morning if I have to, that I can stay up an hour later. I remembered what it was like to work hard.
Makes me rethink boycotting the event each year.
On Barthelme and seredipity
| December 23, 2009 | Filled under Internerd |
It may be confirmation bias but I’m been reading about, hearing mentions of and getting recommendations for Donald Barthelme’s work a lot lately. It started earlier this year when I read The School for my creative writing workshop. I am ashamed to admit I had never read him before.
Over on MetaFilter, someone has linked to a 2003 copy of The Believer featuring a story on Barthelme and the reading list he assigned to students. The Believer has scanned the hand-scribbled list but you can also see a text version of the list.
His own book, 60 Stories is on my own personal reading list, but until I get around to buying it, I’m going to tide myself over with Jessamyn West’s collection of Barthelme links.
One more thing — I am currently a proud student of the fruits of Barthelme’s labor. He founded the Creative Writing Department at the University of Houston.
The Big Bend
| December 28, 2009 | Filled under Blog |
As you have no doubt surmised, I’m in vacation mode. I’m leaving this morning for a week-long Texas road trip that will culminate in Big Bend, where I’ll be spending New Year’s Eve with CLH and some friends, including the geologist who takes tequila shots with halite.
This geologist friend is the same person who was the subject, three years ago, of a Houston Press cover story wherin he kayaked down Buffalo Bayou all the way to the Houston Ship Channel, one of the most polluted bodies of water in the U.S. Who knows what kind of adventures he’ll have in store for us in Big Bend.
At first I wasn’t planning on taking my computer but I might have to do some work on the road. Stops along the way include Marfa, Terlingua and our friends’ cabin in the middle of nowhere. The rest of the nights we’re just playing it by ear.
Here’s to a new year and a new decade.
More books than time
| December 28, 2009 | Filled under Shorts |
I have frequently fretted about my to-read list, which is topping 300 books, and I can’t even manage to read a book a week. At that rate it’ll take me six years to finish the books on my list right now, which multiply exponentially as each day passes.
Right now I’m reading The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life and here is an appropriate quote from Winston Churchill on owning more books than you’ll ever be able to read:
“If they cannot be your friends, let them at any rate be your acquaintances.”
