One Down, One Up

Working. Getting ready for trial. What have I not been up to? Writing. Reading. Listening to music. The good new - less than a month and one-half and I get my life back.

If I told you I have a tape of - A Gorilla Reads A Poem - Who do you think the poet would be? http://www.laist.com/archives/2006/08/17/a_gorilla_reads_a_bukowski_poem.php Why are people writing haiku about "Snakes on a Plane?" And why do they all seem to include the word "motherf-----?" http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/15302305.htm

Words Without Borders: The Online Magazine For International Literature presents their second "noir" issue. TEMPERS AND TEMPERATURES RISE August 2006 In the murderous summer heat—when, to quote Raymond Chandler, "Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks"—we invite you to chill with the icy killers, con men, and cops of our second noir issue. Giampiero Rigosi's hustlers board the "Night Bus" in Bologna, and Leonardo Padura's burned-out Cuban policeman confronts Hurricane Felix and his own tropical depression in "Havana Black." Tonino Benacquista' s Parisian gallery worker wrestles modern art and a modern art thief in "Framed," Gianrico Carofiglio's weary Italan lawyer tries to stop smoking and go straight in "A Walk in the Dark," and Marek Krajewski's laconic inspector finds corpses in walls and ghosts everywhere in "End of the World in B...

Hey, I made the list of Cleveland's noted poets. The proof's here: Criminals At Large Steven B. Smith's Farewell Artcrimes Is His Best Ever Free Times http://www.freetimes.com/story/562 ...many of the area's best poets claim a page or two. Maj Ragain, Daniel Gray-Kontar, Chris Franke, Michael Salinger, Amy Sparks, Ben Gulyas, John Byrum, John Stickney, Ray McNiece, Jim Lang, Peter Leon and many others add extraordinary works, often sandwiched between vapid, puerile — crap. Or, when I awaken from my butterfly dream, will I discover that - I am the vapid, puerile - crap betwen the extraordinary once mistakenly overlooked poets?

Missed out on tickets for Tom Waits Akron show. Saw him twice way back in the late 70's. Great showman. Last Sunday's NYT had an article on Smokey Hormel (his grandfather invented Spam - the meat sub not the computer meat message). Here's what he said about his time with Mr.Waits - Mr. Hormel’s tenure with Beck proved useful during the next phase of his career, when he had to learn to adapt, fast, to unusual requests. In 1999 he was hired by Mr. Waits: “He said to the drummer, ‘You’re the plumbing.’ To the bass player he said, ‘You’re the electrical.’ And to me said, ‘And Smokey, you’re the drywall.’ I’m thinking, ‘O.K.’ ” The drywall, cool.

My story "Reading the Footnotes" is live on Thug Lit, Issue #8. http://www.thuglit.com/home.html#

A Fed economist in the NYT http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/23/weekinreview/23scott.html?ex=1311307200&en=8bb8262bb5f7be11&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss "Firefighters who want to live in high-priced cities can work two jobs, said W. Michael Cox, chief economist for the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. “I think it’s great,” he said. “It gives you portfolio diversification in your income.”" Three jobs and your income portfolio will be boffo! YOYO - You're On Your Own

I took off work for this sorry assed crap? Is this the end of Bruce Arena? Time for a change. Maybe Landon should have stayed in the German league and had some real world experience.

World Cup, baby, we're moving on. Actually this is pre-game. Don't make me out to be a liar.

Spent Saturday at the Q watching LeBron & the Cavs spank the Wizards. Hope it is an on-going thing, a quick finish to this series without injuries so we can rest up for our best of seven beating by Detroit. It is my father's 83rd birthday Monday. We're celebrating it today. Listening to: The Greatest by Cat Power Finally a record by Chan Marshall that lives up to the hype. Bluesnik by Jackie McLean Another Blue Note reissue, McLean died last month, a fierce sax player who worked his way out of the shadow of Bird. Tauhid by Pharoah Sanders One of my favorite songs by Pharoah is on session - Upper Egypt, Lower Egypt - saw Pharoah play Fat Glenn's once - while we were standing in line a car pulled up and a blissed out Pharoah and four other musicians (including vocalist Leon Thomas) emerged along with a cloud of thick sweet smelling smoke - hash or MaryJane? - it was a question we debated while waiting to enter. The Band: A Musical History I wonder if The ...

Big fan of Bukowski, eh? Well then you'd probably be interested in - BUKOWSICAL (aka Bukowski the Musical). Yep, here's an article about the musical based on the poems of Charles Bukowski. http://www.calendarlive.com/stage/cl-et-stage24mar24,0,312450.story?coll=cl-stage-utility-right Wait, there's more. A link to the music: http://feeds.feedburner.com/bukowsical Still waiting for word on my recent story submissions. Listening to: Robert Glasper - Canvas - some good updated piano jazz from Blue Note Finis Tasby - Jump Children! - Tasby is the vocalist, Larry Taylor the bassist, Rick Holstrom is the mfing guitarist - polished, urban blues The Best of Linda Ronstandt - the Columbia years - a two disc set - I met Linda back when this music was being released, she played as the warm-up act for Arlo Guthrie. Someone knew someone from the back-up band and we ended up at the hotel room party. I was in high school, busy trying to keep the members of Ronstandt's back-up band (w...

And while you at it - Give Chesterland back to the Amish! To celebrate the day I'm wearing the green - a Cleveland State University polo shirt under a green nub sweater. I took Pirate, our Irish Jack Russell puppy (the breed is the shorty version of the Jack Russell family), for an hour walk through the neighborhood. He marked every tree, post, brush, pole and clumped outcropping of weeds that he found. He tried to pick fights with anything bigger we encountered - a Whippet, a Golden Retiever and a mail box, and he offered his sexual favors to a female terrier. He chased & treed every squirrel. In other words, short of the green beer, he celebrated in the way I once celebrated this holiday. But for me it wasn't always a terrier. My plans - I will be consuming corn beef & cabbage and some Smithwick's or Conway's Irish Ale or some other non-green Irish brew before seeing V for Vendetta.

What the hell was I thinking? Listening to: Allen Toussaint - The Complete 'Tousan - get yourself some Nwalins funk Seu Jorge - The life aquatic studio sessions - David Bowie songs acoustic in Portuguese - the only way to listen to Bowie Soundtrack - Dusk 'till Dawn - some border blues Alan Broadbent - Round Midnight - piano trio jazz standards Terry Reid - Superlungs - Reid was hot stuff back in the day - Page wanted him to be the vocalist for Led Zepplin - stuff from the late 60's early 70's with a few remixed - solid Bad Plus - Suspicious - a non-traditional piano trio outing Susan Tedeschi - Hope and Desire - from the Bonnie Riatt school of thought The Bop Singers - Eddie Jefferson & King Pleasure - doesn't get any better

Finished and sent my Border story, finished and sent another to Murdaland Thinking about a PI story. Have three other stories to finish up first. Listening to: I Believe to My Soul Session 01 - a collection with vocals and songs by Ann Peebles, Billy Preston, Mavis Stables, Irma Thomas and Allen Toussaint - grest voices. The Magic Numbers - has a 60's pop feel Beautiful Dreamer - the songs of Stephen Foster - again some wonderful voices Ray Barretto - Time Was - Time Is - Latin Jazz - the alto sax is a little shrill

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/26/nyregion/26muse.html?_r=1&oref=login From the New York Times: February 26, 2006 Emilie Muse, 98, Daredevil Who Dared Not Discuss Past, Dies By DOUGLAS MARTIN Emilie Neumann Muse, who as a young woman exemplified the crazy, flamboyant competitiveness of the 20's and 30's by swimming in treacherous waters, wrestling alligators, jumping out of airplanes and being buried alive, died on Jan. 23 in East Patchogue, N.Y. She was 98. The cause was complications of a stroke, her granddaughter Loretta Muse Dill said. In later decades, Mrs. Muse was a dedicated homemaker whose interests included beekeeping and gardening. Her husband, Fred, did not want their children to know of her daredevil past for fear it might prove overly inspirational, and she herself did not share her stories until they were adults. But the young Miss Neumann (pronounced NOY-man) exuberantly followed in the footsteps of Gertrude Ederle, also a longtime Bronx ...

I've posted some stuff up at Mystery Circus http://www.mysterycircus.com/ - under the topics - Texas Cheney Saw Massacre and Noir in Translation. The Cheney stuff includes a link to a self-styled CSI invest of the shotgun incident. My sister-in-law recently served on a Criminal Trial Jury. It was a drug case, the defendant was a mule, they had her on tape setting up a meet, they had eye witness testimony, photgraphs, other stuff. In the deliberations the jury members wondered why there was no finger-prints/hair samples/fiber samples taken. CSI-Cleveland is on the case. Listening to: Smoking at the Half Note - Wes Montgomery w Wynton Kelly - I really like the way Kelly plays - has that gospel jazz feel down. Bill Frisell - Blues Dreams Ry Cooder - Chicken Skin Music Jackie McClean -Prestige Profile Bireli Lagrene - Move Shout Out Louds - Howl Howl Gaff Gaff Broken Social Scene Aimee Mann - The Forgotten Arm Rough Guide to Brazilian Hip Hop Reading - Caught Stealing - Charlie Husto...

Colder that a witch’s thorax. Here’s what is new – just about done with Sean Dolittle’s Rain Dogs – also reading No Country for Old Men and Parker’s School Days. Listening to S Kings book on writing on tape, Dr John’s Sippiana Hurricane, Music from Broken Flowers, Howl Howl Gaff Gaff by the Shout Out Louds, Bettye LaVette’s I’ve Got my own Hell to Raise. Working on a short story for the border issue of Hardluck Stories. Have two other in mind for the same issue if I have the time. Shame about Arrested Development. Shame about the President – either no one bothered to tell him about the levy in New Orleans or he just didn’t pay them no mind. Either way, he stayed on vacation while US Citizens drowned. Will all those folks who defended FEMA & Brown now attack him? Will all those folks forget that the President appointed Brownie? I’d put money on it.

Terrific first novel - terrific novel. A 371 page turner, the last forty pages a bit of a letdown, almost as if the author had to find a way out.

Been a while, busy with my day job and life. Finished Lee Goldberg's Man with the Ironed on Badge - really enjoyed it, clever, funny but tightly written. Finished the William Campbell Gault - Come Die With Me . I want to read more of Gault. The Cleveland Public Library has four other Brock (the Rock) Callahan novels. Next up - have to start & finish The Kite Runner for my Dim Sum Book Club before next Saturday. Then JD Rhoades and Dolittle's Rain Dogs. Listening: Hurrican Relief - Come Together Now - it is a benefit album. Ernest Ranglin - Surfin' Freddie Hubbard - The Artist Selects (Blue Note) Bob Marley & The Wailers - Africa Unite Devendra Banhart - Cripple Crow Sounds Eclectic 3 I know, really boring post.

The winners have been announced for the armor car/kid clothing blog story event at http://paulguyot.blogs.com/inkslinger/ I finished out of the money meaning no t-shirt for me. Still, even among such distinguished company I'm happy to say my story GOD BLESS US garnered some votes. To anyone who read the story and wants to give me some feedback, I'd love to hear from you.

Come Die With Me, a Brock (the Rock) Callahan PI novel c1959 by William Campbell Gault I've been the above for a few weeks, along side three other novels and a few short story collections - sort of wetting my beak with this one from time to time - and it struck me how much Callahan probably influenced my first PI favorite Ross McDonald's Lew Archer. Made me want to read all of the Callahan stuff, search out Gault's other PI Joe Puma and begin rereading the Archer books. So much to read, there's always more than can reasonably fit in the on deck circle. Have to start and finish The Kite Runner for my Dim Sum Book Club in Feb.. Have to finish The Man with the Ironed on Badge. Have to finish that JD Rhoades - Devil's Right Hand. Have two current war memoirs I'm slogging through. and more...

My story is up at Hardluck Stories: http://www.hardluckstories.com/fall2005/Home-Stickney.htm

The Official Ink Slinger Blog Armored Car/Kids Clothing Story Contest I enterd Paul Guyot's blog story contest. The above link should take you to the stories, read the entries and vote for the three best by Tuesday, January 24. http://paulguyot.blogs.com/bogarmoredcarstory/