Summa Apologia

I have a few writing projects going right now.  Well.  A lot, really.  Getting started has never been a problem for me, but finishing is always the toughest part.  I've always intended to finish an analysis of Gone With the Wind I wrote for Dr. Dukes for my final MFA class.  It was a Buddhist read of the story.  I have since started an analysis of The Road.  I've collected most of the source quotes, but can't find the motivation.  Where does one send critical analysis, anyway, and who cares what I think of a book more people have read than... well most other books?

I have a few new short pieces in the works... same problem.  One's about the Second Coming of Christ, one's about a guy that can't stop vomiting.  Can't find a way out of either, but I like them too much to quit.

I still haven't given up on my novel either.  I'm redrafting the whole thing in the first person.  Finished with the first few chapters.  But now, I have to go back and re-do the second chapter because I got an idea that won't go away.  Winter is affording me some extra time.  For one, we've been off school for a few days, but between blowing snow, pulling Wyatt on the sled, grading, reading Middlesex (which has been the first book to hold my attention in a long time), I don't have a ton of time to devote to my writing.  With the new baby on the way, I don't see my schedule opening up any time soon.  How do I prioritize my writing life?

Some good news is that I have a piece of flash fiction appearing here.  Maybe the answer is flash fiction.  Who knows?

Times They Are A Changin'

This is my buddy's 1978 camper van.  He sold it a few years back when he found out he was having a child.  They still drive a van, but it's a *sigh* mini-van.  I can't blame the guy for selling it, it just makes me sad.  We had a lot of great times in that bus.  I remember actually camping in it (this is way before any of us actually had children).  We were such idiots that the only provision we brought was a case of beer.  And our wives didn't even care!  They thought it was kind of funny.  Camping with our children is an impossibility these days: they're too young, I think.  Our wives are pregnant again, so they wouldn't be up for it in the first place (can't say I blame them), and we'd have to haul a trailer full of provisions for the wee ones.  Things just ain't like they used to be, man. 

I remember when the starter was on the fritz, and we had to push it down the road, and then drop in the clutch to get it running.  There was a real sense of teamwork; a few of us pushing while the driver cheered us on from his captain's seat.  Every car should require that kind of teamwork to get going.  Maybe it's just a case of winter-bah-humbugs, but everything seems extraordinarily bleak.  Oh, hell.  I probably just need a decent cup of coffee.

Really though, I remember sitting there and listening to music like Buckethead and having a blast.  Nowadays I couldn't even pick up a Buckethead album without worrying that the sentinels of good taste might be peering over my shoulder and shaking their heads with disapproval.  In fact, I think I know what I need, plus a cup of coffee.  I need to make an obnoxious mix CD full of music that the "wrong kind of white people" might like.

Here's how it goes in no particular order:

"Twist" Korn
"Jowls" Buckethead
"Thrust!" White Zombie
"Bounce" System of a Down
"Bruises" Skindread
"Wollt Ihr Das Bett In Flammen Sehen" Rammstein
"Automatic" Powerman 5000
"Mouth for War" Pantera
"Blue Monday" Orgy
"Dr. Feelgood" Motley Crue
"Eye of the Beholder" Metallica
"Snake Eyes and Sissies" Marilyn Manson
Anything off Riddlebox by ICP
"Healing to Suffer Again" Hatebreed
"Decay of Grandeur" Gwar

I like the idea of a mix like this, full of music that I used to think was really neat-o.  I guess other people might call music like this a guilty pleasure.  Maybe I should have, but I never felt guilty popping in that ICP album I got off a kid I used to work with...  at the go-kart track.  Yeah, I used to listen to ICP and work on go-karts.  You got a problem with that?