Its a good thing I don't choose all the books for book club

I went to the library booksale and picked up some books that I am pretty excited about: books by PD James, Haruki Mirakami, and Rick Moody. I read The Ice Storm by Rick Moody when I was in junior high and it was crass, but I couldn't put it down. I'd like to read it again. Other authors I liked at the time included Vladimir Nabokov and Charles Bukowski. I must have been obsessed with reading about dysfunctional sexual relationships. Of course, now I am reading Wuthering Heights, so maybe I haven't grown out of that phase.
I would also like to read Oil! by Upton Sinclair. There is a film adaptation that is coming out. It claims to be about family, money, greed and religion in Texas in the turn of the last century. I don't expect that it will relate in any way to the current political atmosphere.

proportion

I have been thinking lately that a great part of writing or creating anything is manipulating proportion. I usually focus on magnifying things, but maybe I could write a poem where I minimized things.

I saw one of my favorite musicians perform on TV last night and it totally sucked. Professional musicians shouldn't play the autoharp in public. Every time I see someone play the autoharp for money, I feel like it is some kind of trick. Like, what are you paying for? Anyone can do this. I know we played the autoharp in fifth grade. Its really fun.

I just realized there is an option on here to edit my posts. I could go back and change everything I've said. Which is a great option for when I change my mind. I could have been saying the same thing all along.

Also, I am feeling really inspired right now because of William Carlos Williams and a new album I heard. Life is good. I should do some writing so that I have something in my chapbook.

We're through, John Berryman

Because I decided a long time ago that you're not invited into my head. Because you always bring around those fucked up dead dudes and your mad as hell father and those dismembered women. And I am just happy to be through with your impotent poetry because now I don't have to undo you anymore.

wuthering heights

So, I decided to read Wuthering Heights. I am not very far into it. It's crazy. There are rabid dogs in the first scene. The different voices employed by Bronte to tell the story are each so unique. And it is supposed to be one of the greatest love stories ever told. I do enjoy love stories. But this one is violent and fucked up.

I had a dream that I remembered for the first time in a long time. I used to remember my dreams every morning. This one was about Halloween. I was really drunk with my cousin and we were at our old elementary school. She is coming home from college soon. And Halloween is soon. Perhaps it is an omen.

Its true that I was hit over the head by falling wookie mug.

And then it broke and I felt a small sense of justice. But I've had a headache ever since. I guess there were a number of things that I wanted to write about in this blog this week.

I saw a documentary about a crazy violinist - Nadja Solema Sonnenberg. She wasn't cool. She had a lot of ego, but she reminded me of the discussion we had about becoming too entangled in your work. She couldn't step away from the emotions she had to use on stage. Ultimately, she didn't have much of a life because she was too intense to deal with other people.

But they talked about something else which I thought was interesting. A critic of hers was talking about how he was upset that she struggles with the composer instead of becoming a speaker for the composer. I wonder if attitudes like this are the reason that nobody cares about classical music anymore. How does a young woman living in New York today become the true interpretor for Tchaikovsky or Ravel? If people go to see a symphony perform a static version of a piece played exactly the way a composer notated it, then why have the artists at all? Just get computers to play the parts. They are advanced enough, and that would eliminate all the pesky ideas and emotions that an artist brings with themselves into a piece.

And also, I don't like people who try to play honest and revealing music while wearing costumes. But an old friend of mine sent my band her music and she has a song that takes place about the time she and I were close. Its really strange to hear her intimate version of a story that I was there to see. My version is completely different.