Drunkin' Post #1

Let's see how this goes. I am many G n' Ts and countless PBRs in, so I have no idea if this will make any sense.

B-Star. Man, have they ever gotten better! The first 3rd of the show was plagued by bad sound. Michi's violin (fiddle, whatever) kept goin' in and out and Sleuth's turntables weren't going through at all. But once it all kicked in? Damn! As a band they just drive me forward, get me off my ass and jumpin'! Now that the socialist thing has been pushed back a bit, they're just frickin' fun. Nothin' wrong with socialism... it just does'tt say "dance." It's how I felt at ska shows in the late 80's / early 90's.

Good crowd. Go listen to "How I Could Just Kill A Man" on their website (see Link-A-Dinks). Tell me that is not the shiznit.

What's a shiznit? I don't know, but B-Star is it.

So, anywhozits, I am off to try my hand at a bit of drunken novel writing. We'll see how it goes. Characters still knockin' Vegas, so it should fit.

Love ya all,
Six Sider

Okay, I'm not a shut-in

I get out. I really do.

Had a very nice date on Wednesday.

And tonight, B-Star at Hanks Saloon on Atlantic in Brooklyn! Country! Hip-Hop! Cheap beer! Friends! Free home-made cookies!

And tomorrow Lonesome Jack plays the Pussy Cat Lounge at midnight. If The Pogues and early Greenday had a love child that was raised by early Might Might Bosstones and They Might Be Giants in rural Kentucky...Lonesome Jack is his cousin.

My two current favorite bands, back to back. Can't hate that.

Brooklyn, Burning Man, Las Vegas and Back Again

The novel plugs on. WriMos talk of the second week slump. The first week you are excited and happy and thrilled. Week two hits like a wall when you realize how far you have to go. The lack of sleep starts to creep up on you. All the things you put of the first week (cleaning, shopping, etc.) suddenly start to loom larger. Coffee starts to taste funny.

I can't say that has been the case with me. I am well ahead on word count (if slightly behind on schedule to get the novel to it's final chapter by the 30th). Yeah, the house is dusty and I need to do laundry, but I've been there for a lot worse reasons.

But I did hit a wall, but on I knew was coming since day one. The main character as had his life change dramatically in chapter 7 & 8. To help with the transition (both for him and me), I send the five main characters on a road trip. Seemed like a good idea when I was doing the outline.

But getting them from Brooklyn to Burning Man in any concise way while still being interesting was a chore of tight structure. Then Burning Man had to be just as concise but a totally different tone and feel. And I've never been there. I've heard about it, read about it, viewed countless photos. But it is not the sort of event I should be writing about without having experienced it. If I had only known, I would have gone this September. But no one was kind enough to tell me that I'd be writing a novel with one chapter set there. Damn you all!

Anyway, I got through that. Totally switched up my writing style (even my punctuation and how I handle dialogue). I'm quite happy with it. It's light and surreal, full of import and signs. It is what it needed.

Then they took off for Vegas, for a chapter of wacky adventure and for me to ease back into normality. And now Vegas is kicking my ass. I think I'm struggling with writing from four year old memory and wanting to be funnier than I am right now and needing to get my main character back being active instead of just reacting or just observing, as he has for these last two chapters.

Get on with your life, MC! Get on with the story, Chris!

Sidenote: I have just fallen guiltily love... with FreshDirect. Shut-in status here I come!

Too many threads

Okay, I'll admit it. I have become a full fledged internet addict.

I suppose that was obvious when I started a blog. But I sat down this morning and tried to quickly hit all my big sites and such before getting in at least a page on the novel. I'm sure everyone has this realization at some point.

I hit Google News for my USA Today version of the news. I hit Fark. I hit AICN. I hit Gizmodo. I hit my forums. There NaNo, there's good ol' B.net to see if I've been blacklisted again. There's the Lost forum. I hit 3 sepeate NYC art job listing sites. I have to view my hotmail account and my gmail account (both of which usually have me off to other sites.). I hit here and a few friend's blogs. I hit Friendster. I hit Nerve.

Yeah.

I was quite pleased with the 100 Words on Love Project I initiated on the Nerve Blogs. I will say MollyO. impressed me the most.

I really need more time. I am honestly at the edge of how many 'new' things I can juggle. I wish it weren't so. But I need things to settle before I dive any deeper. But there are so many cool things/people out there.

But I have hit the 2nd Week slump in NaNo. Not a slump but a grind. Writing about Burning Man drained me and now I have Las Vegas. I've been telling myself that it will get easier again when we get back to Brooklyn, but a tiny shred of doubt has slipped in. I have moved beyond the REVEAL and I realize that I can't just be 'witty' anymore. I have to be 'smart.' 'Smart' is so much harder than 'witty.'

Sigh.

NaNo count: 33,344

The Met, My Docent and Me

Today I had to get out of the house for a big chunk, so I headed over to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to do some research. A beautiful day to be out in the City, but I still managed to make the worst of my timing. I arrived the 86th street subway station at the same time as hundreds of folks arrived there for the marathon.

This happens every year. I just somehow miss the fact that the marathon is coming. It just kind of appears out of nowhere. I suppose if I was a runner it would be different. I am amazed at people who run the marathon. Not the professionals, but one's who sign up in April just so they can say, "I ran the New York Marathon!" Those are some crazy kids.

I like the Met but I am usually annoyed by its coldness. It normally doesn't move me. But today I had a great time all by my lonesome! I had some very specific things I was looking (Temple of Denur, mainly) but then I started to look for things as "color" and I went crazy. It's nice when you know your characters so well that you know exactly what they will respond to. And it will all fit very nicely, thematically.

(I had a perfect surprise/inspiration in the Arms & Armor Hall. I walked in and it was an Oh, Wow! moment. If they made a movie of my story, it would be one of those perfect scenes where fiction and real world just cross.)

I did get frustrated in the Painting halls. I decided I wanted a painting with a specific mood and pretty specific content, but had a hard time finding what I wanted. So I hijacked a docent (is that a crime?) and dragged her around for half an hour. She actually got excited with the project and I felt very author-ish.

Eventually she knew exactly what I wanted, but it's not at the Met. It's not in New York as far as I know. But we (my docent and me... which is an interesting title) decided that the wood engraving could be in a traveling collection being displayed at the Met. At least in my story.

So not ALL of start aligned, but good enough for goldfish swallowing.

NaNo Word Count: 18,596