AudioBoo: Moths

One touch easy recording, that's what an Audio Boo claims to be. So I had to try it out on my new shiny toy. This is a poem that's supposed to be appearing in a magazine at some point but that was about a year ago that they said so, thus I wonder if it will ever come to be (impatient? I don't know what you mean!). So here's a lovely Atlas Moth photographed by my pal Ayub at the Butterfly World Project (which I'll be seeing this spring!).






Alert readers may recognise the opening line swiped from a news story headline (thanks again, Mark H-J, for bringing it to my attention) that also appeared in another, somewhat more serious, poem "Lullaby" that appeared in Chronogram last summer:

Moths drink the tears of sleeping birds;
Mothers hear the sound of unspoken words;
Fathers know the wishes in your heart;
The magic of love is the only true art.

Massively busy this week: and Bertie's coming to visit next week. Much to be done, yet there is still time for the idle creation of memes:

BitchBuzz: The Whiteboard Meme

My latest column on this week's internet wildfire:

Why the "White Board Girl" Meme Was So Popular

By K.A. Laity

The link that launched a million laughs has, perhaps predictably, been exposed as a hoax. The Gawker gleefully "exposed" the pranksters and a lot of #HOPA tweets were predictably misogynist in their tone as they slapped down a woman who was presumably too ready to declare herself attractive (how dare she!).

This focus on the pranking and suckering misses the point: why it spread like wildfire across the world. It spread so fast that traditional social media trend watchers were way behind the dozens of women (repeated globally) who all sent it to each other...

Read the rest: http://news.bitchbuzz.com/why-the-white-board-girl-meme-was-so-popular.html#ixzz0wQKXyKNm

I'm off to North Carolina tomorrow morning for some r-n-r with Susan and Mildred -- and Ron and Birdie and all the kitties. Well, not quite all the kitties: Susan lost Chelsea this week. She was nearly nineteen. Her health had just became too frail. I think many of you know the pain of losing these little friends who are such a big part of our lives. I will miss her. My heart goes out to Susan.

Crazy Haste

The next interview will be up later today; naturally, I have all the interviews at home while I'm here on campus and running like mad today, because I plan to head down to Bard to hear Liz Hand read between my classes. I will be announcing a new writing gig later this week. I just got interviewed by the Schenectady Daily Gazette regarding Watchmen, which I suspect will NOT result in a quote because I can't seem to learn to talk in sound bytes (work on it, work on it). There's a new podcast interview with Moore by the folks at Disinformation. Gotta run --

UPDATE: Gaah -- too much snow. Didn't go to Bard, waah!

Have you? (AKA 99 Things to Do)

Meme picked up from Marja-Leena (thanks!):
Bold the ones you have done.

1. Started my own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped (never!)
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea (does Lake Michigan count?)
14. Taught myself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty (despite living in NY)
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France (maybe next time)
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb (piglets!)
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of my ancestors (in Finland)
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal in a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris (midway, it was closed)
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma (can't)
65. Gone sky diving (no way!)
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square (repeatedly)
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London (going to London for 28 years but no)
77. Broken a bone (toe)
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had my picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible (does the Douay-Rheims count? Well, still haven't read it all)
86. Visited the White House (outside)
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake

97. Been involved in a lawsuit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

Odd list -- I would add things like "fallen in love" or "betrayed someone" or "walked in a desert (or rainforest or glacier)" or "climbed Macchu Picchu" or "stayed up all night" -- I don't know. It's very Euro-centric -- what about "been to India, Egypt, New Zealand or Australia" or "experienced a hurricane" or "seen a dead body not in a coffin" or "kept a secret for more than a year."

A lot of these, who cares? But it's interesting to see what adds up to the experiences of our lives.

Repetition

What is it about repetition? My need to repeat things over and over? At least three times I repeat a thing! I like to blame genetics -- we did always run a joke into the ground when we were kids. There's a series of jokes one group of friends knows so well that we just give the punchlines ("Terrible!" "Dung!" "Tang!" "A stick!" although the order can vary).

I brought up the Crane quote three different times in the last twenty-four hours. I used an offhand comment from yesterday at least three times (or maybe four), the last time in a piece I sent off to an editor a little while ago (the Crane quote got in there, too -- amazing what you can cram into 500 words!). Slightly different nuances in each iteration -- maybe all the repetition is about trying to get it right. That's it -- it's just revision!

We're off to Miss Wendy's for Rosh Hashanah dinner tomorrow afternoon. We'll be stopping by Rein's to pick up the challah and looking forward to seeing some friends around the table.

Writing Whuffie

In the wake of David Foster Wallace's suicide, there has been an outpouring of reminiscences and grief, as one might expect in the wake of a celebrated writer's precipitous exit. In the mainstream media, most of it has been from men about his age who found in him a kindred spirit, although I have to admit it's kind of depressing that for all the loosening of the cannon, according to these writers it's still mostly white and mostly male writers who are perceived as being "the best of their generation" (as defined by mostly white male writers).

What's a woman got to write to get some whuffie? My whuffie's going to go down simply for mentioning it, but then I just came from a department meeting which tends to make a dent in my whuffie anyway. I have to admit the current climate in gender politics has made me lose any optimism I might have once held. It reminds me of being back at Harvard Med where male candidates were hired over female candidates in a smokescreen of vague terminology, and where the Joint Committee on the Status of Women at Harvard Medical and Dental Schools met in the grim conference room at Countway, surrounded by paintings of the school's patriarchs and wondered why the climate was so hostile to women.

It's true that writing is a slippery thing at the best of times: trends come and go, writers fall out of favor, or get romanticized out of all proportion according to seemingly random coincidences. Once that happens, everyone follows that new model -- which means it's already too late for that model (maybe DFW's death will mean an end to the overly-precious footnote-laden fiction and essays, but I doubt it).

There is that tendency to want to emulate such romantic figures, leading to the problems which Dent writes about in the piece linked above: "It really worries me when mental ill health is equated with artistic and literary genius." The film class I taught last spring, Writers in Motion, highlighted this tendency. I suppose in part it's a distancing effect -- people can eschew pursuing creativity if it has such a cost. Who wants to risk their life, relationships and sanity just for a few words on the page?

The truth is that all writing requires is not a wild sex life, drunken oblivion, or a larger than life personality, but writing, simply writing words down, sending them out to risk rejection, and then writing some more.

But why would you believe me? My whuffie is too low.

8 Things & 8 Tags

It's meme-o-rific time! Thanks to Pádraig, who tagged me.

RULES:
* 1. Post these rules.
* 2. Each tagged person must post 8 things about themself on their journal.
* 3. At the end, you have to choose and tag 8 people
* 4. Go to their pages and send a message saying you tagged them.
* 5. No tag-backs

ABOUT ME: (trying to come up with things folks may not know)

1. I did not take a job with the State Dept in the late 1980s despite passing all the necessary tests.
2. I had an office around the corner from the famous crowbar skull when I worked at Harvard Medical School.
3. My favorite city in the world is London (okay, everyone knows that -- um, my favorite spot in London is either the secret garden in Regent's Park, or the Tate Modern, or sitting in front of Les grandes baigneuses in the National Gallery, hearing Pete and Dud in my head).
4. I have kept journals since I was about ten -- and have them all.
5. I have trod the boards only once: at the Globe Theatre in London in 1999. I played Cinna the poet in Julius Caesar, so I got to die, too. I was unremarkable: crippling self-consciousness does not facilitate an acting career.
6. I have not had a thyroid since 1987.
7. Great British comedy is my primary anti-depressant (thus I genuflect before Peter Cook).
8. I have a bottomless ambition when it comes to my writing (yet so little tangible success...)

Well, how very interesting, eh? In turn let me tag a random set of folks across different platforms, some of whom seem to need an excuse to post: the Queen, James, Wendy, Susan, Jenise, Catherine, Crispinus, and oh, let's say, Kelly.