Mental Protuberance

A writing post and thanks

David McLendon is one of the most generous, big-hearted editors I've come across. He posted my story, "Scouts," to Unsaid's website. Please read it here. Brian Kubarycz, Factotum, (as stated on Unsaid's masthead)is also a positive force.

This leads me to my second item. "Contuse" was accepted by Folio (American University) after their managing editor solicited me-- after she read "Scouts." Big thanks to them and to Unsaid, and to the Baltimore people that heard a rough draft of the story when I read it at the 510.

Also-- I was asked to contribute to The Rotating History Project's spring show, The Same River Twice. The piece had to relate to the Jones Falls River in some way. I enjoyed researching the river and its history. I settled on creating a fake scientific paper based on real facts. It's all about clam guts, etc. The piece will be published in a hard-bound book, along with other writers and visual artists, as part of Baltimore's Green Week. I look forward to seeing the show and also hearing about how other people relate to the urban river.
The American woodcock is a chunky bird with a long, flexible, sensitive bill. It also used to live on the banks of the Falls.

An Electric Eye Fell Into My Lap

How exciting! My mother-in-law's neighbor was getting rid of his 8 mm camera. He wanted to know if she could use it. She said yes and gave it to me. I can't wait to try to figure it out.

THE GREAT ENERGY SUCK!

THE GREAT WATER SUCK!

AN EXAMPLE OF MAN'S ARROGANCE (AND IGNORANCE AND BRILLIANCE)!

LAS VEGAS!

So, I'm going there.

To renew my vows.

We will rent a car and drive deep into the Valley of Fire, into Red Rock Canyon, beyond the Mars rocks, into Utah, into mountains and ancient marine protein, to call our marriage into being once again, to say to something big, something like, like,

HEY! We have love here!

Apamin-sensitive K+ channels mediate an endotheliumdependent hyperpolarization in rabbit mesenteric arteries

In other words, I did not contribute to this season's NPR pledge drive. I was asked, repeatedly, to imagine a world without NPR-- a world where the government did not fund public radio. I was asked to give money so it wouldn't matter if the GOP made those cuts.

I decided to take NPR up on that-- to imagine a world without it. I will not turn it on. Not in the morning while I have coffee. Not on the drive to work. Not on the drive home or while I chop seasonally appropriate vegetables. I will not listen to hosts murder phrases, like "Big Fat" Tuesday instead of Big "Fat Tuesday." The pause is slight but very meaningful. Padgett Powell might agree with me.

He also happens to like buffalo:

"I like them because they seem gently wild, as opposed to violently wild, and they have the huge rump-like hump, the giant head, the eyeball the size of a billiard ball. What is not to like? We killed them all."

The man also knows his dogs.

Bees, A Plant LOVE Connection, the essentials...

Bee-keeping at Oregon Ridge, call 410 562-3464 and talk to Jerry to sign up for the (super) cheap class.

Putty Hill is at The Charles this weekend! I'm very excited to see this film.

Pre-planting love, match making:

corn and cukes in the same bed (Allow the cukes to climb up the corn! It keeps them both warmer and happy)

Jury Duty, huh? Watching boot-legged VHS copies of The Sandlot? Nope, buried my nose in a book for eight hours, drank coffee and ate too many choco chip cookies, made myself feel ill-- but finished REVOLUTION.

Hoping for focus this weekend, a bit of hard work, a return to my book.

REVOLUTION!

I was going to wait to buy this at the 510, but I couldn't hold out. Here is my favorite paragraph so far:

"That man, that typical drunk gringo in Guatemala, had emerged from the bar, sobering in the light, brushing off his shirt, waving away his comrades, and had taken a new walk-- not the one he took with me, that was just more of the same, minus the drinking-- but the one after ours, a walk he would never return from, not really, not because he didn't want to and not because he wasn't allowed to, but because he couldn't. A typical man is capable of that."

It demonstrates everything that I enjoy about Deb Olin Unferth's style-- the rhythm of the sentences, the way they build something and still hold something back. It's just beautiful.

BMA's new photography exhibit, "Seeing Now"

Here is my favorite image from the show:

It is by Kenji Nakahashi. Strangely,I can't find much info on him online.I did find this second image-
It wasn't in the show, but it compliments the first image so well that I wanted to share it. It helps to show what I like about "Time -(B)" as well, the way he has fun with abstract concepts. The second photo is titled, "Difference in Time." The small print on it shows that the clocks are one foot apart, and thus, .00067 seconds apart. Time is on different planes, has different weights, has different measurements. I laughed out loud in the gallery-- he resonated with me in such an authentic way.

The show could have done more overall, though. It could have been... more diverse? I seem to always leave the BMA wishing that they took more risks. But, I think things are changing in a good direction (and I do go see each new show, that says something). Take this, for example:

Text Message/Poetry + Fiction
Saturdays, March 19–April 16 2–3:30 p.m.
$75 Members
$100 non-Members

Led by Baltimore writer Justin Sirois, this class will encourage experimentation, invite failure, and help writers of all stages refine their poetry and fiction. Activities are inspired by Seeing Now: Photography Since 1960, pop culture, video games, commercials, comedy, and film. To register, call 443-573-1832 or e-mail programs@artbma.org.

I'm also very interested in this:

Watching You: Surveillance Exposed
Sunday, April 3, 2 p.m.
FREE (space is limited*)

Learn about the role of photography in surveillance—from artists’ subversions of street cameras to exhaustive self-surveillance on the Internet—and explore the local and global impact of this topical issue during a panel discussion organized by award-winning Baltimore photographer and MICA faculty member Nate Larson. Program includes the culmination of a spring 2011 project involving MICA students.

*Tickets are required and available in-person at the BMA Box Office one hour prior to start time. Limit one ticket per person on a first come, first served basis. Reservations not accepted.

Rick Bass, yes.

"So there are salmon in our trees, and salmon on our rocks, hidden for centuries at a time beneath the history of our lichen. We do not want ghost salmon, but there they are, beneath our feet and in the air, in the smoke of the cedar we burn in winter... We must live with those ghosts, and, as ghosts do, they both haunt and sustain us."