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August 1. I do actually try not to judge a book by its cover. I understand the potential pitfall there. But a title? Totally fair game. It can take me a very long time to get around to reading a book with a daft title, no matter how much praise is being heaped on said book.
August 2. Sure, artistic taste is largely subjective, but there are some opinions that I will not tolerate because they come from a place of ignorance—the main ingredient in Bad Taste.
I’ll give you an example: Vivarium. Some movies are so insipid in both conception and execution that if you sing their praises I will forever regard your opinions with suspicion. Vivarium is such a movie.
August 5. Following the impulse to “master” a given craft requires a ton of repetition, patience, drive, resilience, humility, enthusiasm, good fortune, natural ability, sacrifice, and love of the form.
No wonder success is so rare!
August 5. The only fair thing is that we all cross the same finish line.
August 5. Retirement is the human equivalent to a fox retreating into its hole to let the dying process take hold. Ironically, it’s also the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow for most of us.
August 8. Why do great rock guitarists almost never discuss great steel-string acoustic players? You’ll sometimes hear them discuss classical players and composers, but when’s the last time you heard an electric guitar hero sing the praises of Alex De Grassi, Leo Kottke, Pierre Bensusan, or Michael Hedges?
August 9. In a crazed rush to burst forth into some vaguely perceived new Golden Age, elements in the young generations are willing, if not eager, to ignore the wisdom of the past—and there’s a lot of it, despite a poor marketing campaign. It’s almost as if TikTok were not as effective an educational tool as serious books.
Throw the baby out with the bath water at your own risk.
August 10. Here’s kind of an unsung gem from the past. I snagged it when it dropped in 2011 and only recently got around to reading it (this is too often the way with me). What a collection! I can’t believe “And Now to God the Father” was Daphne du Maurier’s first published story—at age 22, no less! So subtle and psychologically penetrating.
August 11. I love the mystery of not having a single tattoo. No one will ever know what my favorite quote was for three weeks when I was twenty-five, or that I was brave enough to have a demon inked on my flank.
August 13. Something you don’t hear about: heightened performance anxiety for male celebrities when being intimate in private life. It has to be a thing.
August 16. I see that Gena Rowlands made it to 94 before succumbing to the scythe. What an actor! I re-watched Opening Night just a couple of weeks ago. Her work with John Cassavetes was always so compelling.
August 16. The biggest hoax ever perpetrated against the television-watching public has been the selling of Barbara Walters as a serious journalist.
August 16. We take our cues from people more or less in their prime. Before they take on the conventions of adulthood, and once they wander off into the sunset of retirement or obscurity, we have little patience for their opinions. But I wonder if we’re missing some of life’s great lessons from the very young and the very old.
August 17. Things don’t need to be ranked. I don’t need to have a favorite this or that. But it can be fun to make the occasional proclamation. Today’s is that The Fisher King is one of the best-scripted movies made in my lifetime. I find myself in awe of the film’s narrative pulse every time I watch it.
There are many reasons for its greatness, but one is the fact that we enter the Robin Williams character’s life when he’s a batshit crazy homeless man. From there, Jeff Bridges’s character slowly begins his journey of discovering the value of his new acquaintance’s life. Eventually, he gets there, and it changes him. It also forges a deeply moving bond between both characters.
Let’s also take a moment to point out that the direction and casting are pitch perfect.
August 19. Many things annoy me. For today, I’ll pick just one: when people point out that a movie is based on a true story, in a manner that suggests it is therefore better than your average movie.
Lived experience doesn’t influence art in that way. It’s much more nuanced. The practice of drawing on your own experiences over time is what makes you into an artist. If you’re met with the opportunity to fictionalize a true story, it’s only going to be as good as your abilities allow—no better, no worse (the ever present luck factor notwithstanding).
This is also why there are good and bad documentaries.
August 19. We are much to each other. It may seem as though we have very little in common with some of the people we share our time with on this spinning world, but we all know so much more about what it means to be living now than anyone ever will again after we’ve gone from the stage.
August 19. How do our goals and outlooks change as we age? One generalization might be that we hope to have hung onto enough of our earlier talents and ambitions that they will carry us through our golden years, not only as sacred memories but as guides for our elderly pursuits.
August 24. An important thing to know about yourself is whether you’re above kissing ass to get ahead, or the right ass to kiss simply hasn’t come along.
Some of you are kissing ass all over town already and may disregard this public service announcement.
August 24. A truly good fiction writer isn’t sure of anything, which is why most readers have little patience for stories that are thinly veiled polemics. Writing fiction is a way of knowing when the right questions have been asked. That’s all, and it’s enough.
August 28. I’m on a deep dive into my own musical archive. I’m determined to get every acoustic guitar tune I’ve ever written (if I still care about it) into my fingers and vocal cords on a permanent basis. Eventually I’ll want to add in my favorite covers as well. The idea is to be able to sit down and play any one of my songs and compositions whenever the mood strikes. I think getting old has been a driving force in this endeavor. So much of my music will die with me. I want it to live with me as well.
September 16. There’s actually a fiction anthology out now called Fear of Clowns, which is almost as imaginative a title as yesteryear’s 19 New Tales Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe.
Were the editors/publishers afraid of their own creativity? I mean, off the top of my head, I’d consider something like Clowns Among Us and Arabesques: New Tales from the Shadow of Poe, respectively.
Coming up with titles is supposed to be part of the fun, people!
September 17. Guitarists (electric and acoustic): It’s not just about the playing. It’s also about the writing.
September 20. In Intensity, Dean Koontz takes an unflinching look at the nature of evil, the requirements of courage, and the possibility of loss. One day I’ll write an essay about this literary thriller.
September 24. The only way I’ll have any hope of living up to my own standards is if I start lowering them.
September 24. The two-headed snake that is social media teaches us to both fear one another and be bored with one another. Tragedy is amplified, but what can real people offer us that we don’t see in far greater detail on a screen?
And yet the experience is the opposite of reading, which also forces tragedy on us and shows us more intimate human details than we can absorb in the real time of daily existence. Instead of developing our brains, social media invites us to empty them.
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