Thursday, August 31, 2006

Philadelphia Here I Come

I spent 18 years in Philadelphia and now I know no one here-or at least not well enough to drop by. I am tempted to go see Duane at the City Paper although he has no idea who I am...I've only been here an hour but I already had a cheesesteak at the Reading Terminal and I am on the hunt for Tasty Cakes for my parents--all right for me, too.

Reading Cornelia Read's Fields of Darkness and I am mighty impressed. She has the kind of "voice" that makes you willing to follow her anywhere.

Still can't get Grey Gardens out of my head. I watched the interviews on the DVD, which were haunting. Did Little Edie ever find any happiness. The most haunting thing was in an later interview where she said the best thing about the doc. was her dancing. Truly, she couldn't dance at all.

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Grey Gardens

We watched Grey Gardens on DVD last night. It was a doc. made in 1976, documenting the life of the Beales, mother and daughter who lived in the Hamptons and were related to Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onasis. It was The Glass Menagerie all over. Tennesses got it exactly right. My husband felt it was almost wrong to watch it, they were too pathetic. And they probably had no idea how crazy and sad they looked in their ruined house, with their menagerie of animals, endlessly going back over their lives and what might have been. Is it wrong to be a voyeur? That said, it was riveting, scary and heart-breaking. How many movies offer that? But they were being used, no doubt about it.

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

I'm Linked

Now that I've asked Tribe to link me to his blog, I hope I can live up to it.
I'm trying to think of something meaningful to say, trying....trying...
Here's a question. Why didn't the Boulder prosecutors get a DNA sample in Thailand and prevent themselves from looking dumber than ever? I know they claim it was to prevent him from engaging in more pediphilia, but come on.
Reading Pelecanos' The Night Gardener. He does something I rarely do--well, besides writing fantastic novels instead of mediocre stories--he describes his characters physically in great depth. I rarely write physical descriptions, but maybe I should. Perhaps in a 5000 word story, you don't need to.

Monday, August 28, 2006

Demolished but not agented

Another agent said no. Likes the writing but it doesn't speak to her. I guess I've got to send it out again. Demolition took a story. "The Old Ice Down the Back Stunt.' Three stories in zines and one print in the fall. I'm working hard but the novel thing eludes me. I hate sustained writing on one project. Five thousand words and I want to be out of there. Nobody interests me past that. Am I the oldest short attention span person in the country?

Sunday, August 27, 2006

The Illusionist

Finally a movie to like. The Illusionist. And a romance to boot. When was the last time you saw a romance without laughs. I can't remember. Acting was superior from the three male leads. The female lead was weak but fetching. Beautifully put together.

Redid two short stories and I like the endings better than the originals. Where to send them is more problematic. I still find myself thinking of print journals as superior, even though I have never met a soul save two agents who read my stories in print.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Brick

We watched Brick, which was semi-successful in creating teenage noir. Its main problem was there can't be such a thing unless new devices substitute for rather than replicate the ones in adult noir. The conventions of adult noir seem feigned when used by children. Still it had some good acting and good moments.

Reading Three Junes, which was highly recommended to me. Still the best book of late is Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell. It submitted a story today to Identity Theory. Also sent a copy of the novel to the Iowa Writers Contest. Haha.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Lonseome Dove my eye.

I'm supposed to be reading Lonesome Dove for my book group. Why am I so resistant to reading assigned books? Because in this case it's 847 pages about cowboys. I read the first page and threw it on the floor. I start about ten times the number of books I finish. Is this normal?

I finish almost every movie though. Almost.

Story "Hole in the Wall" accepted in Hardluck Stories' Psycho noir issue. That means three in the fall: Murdaland (The Scarecrow), The Spinetinger (Roundabout) and now this. Perhaps one in Detroit Noir too (The Snakecharmer). Perhaps.

Monday, August 21, 2006

John Mark Karr

Is it just me or are too many people getting their kicks from whaling on this guy? Chances are he's some nut but much of the criticism is about his looks. Have you ever seen anyone being hauled away in cuffs who didn't look off.
Since when is it acceptable to make fun of the mentally ill.
here we go again.