THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2003

7:48 am

Gobble-gobble. Yes, I think that every holiday I'm going to use some sort of short phrase to wish you a happy holiday, On Halloween I used "boo," and I'm sure on Xmas I'll have something equally predictable. Who knows what the hell I'll do on Arbor Day.

Anyway, hope you have a tryptophantastic Thanksgiving.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2003

3:31 pm

Michael Jackson in handcuffs. Weird. Of course, Michael Jackson out of handcuffs, just as weird.

One funny moment: FOX News described their guest Uri Geller as "levitator and friend of Michael Jackson." I guess it's better than being called "spoon-bender and friend."

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2003

9:55 am

And now, for the 4,327th time, some bullshit excuse as to why you probably haven't received your book yet. Finally got some more boxes and put the books together, so a batch of them will be going out this weekend. Thanks again for your continued patience.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2003

12:48 pm

This week I discovered something rather disturbing: I can't drive at night anymore.

I actually first noticed it about 2 years ago. I would have trouble seeing as I drove on the highway, especially during the rain, with the wet pavement reflecting everywhere. The other day I was driving back from the mall during a small rain, and it was incredibly hard to see where to go. I honestly believe that the only reason I made it home alive is because I know the twists and turns and quirks of the road. If I was driving on some highway or on the roads of some large city that I wasn't familiar with, I think I would have literally just driven off the road into a tree, a building, or a group of children.

I'd say "I need glasses" but I already wear contacts.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2003

11:01 am

Boo.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2003

8:24 pm

Sorry for the lack of blogging. Been busy with an unexpected (yet very welcome) freelance gig. Blogging resumes tomorrow.

In the meantime, a dream I had the other night. I'm watching, from a high-rise building (I think), a race car drive around a track. The car crashes, and I run down to see if the driver is OK. Actually, I don't really run down so much as just "appear" next to the car (you know how dreams are). Anyway, I open the car door, and the driver is...Bruce Willis! He isn't wearing a helmet. Instead he has on one of those wool ski hats. They take him away in an ambulance, and I go through his car and find a huge stack of Three Stooges DVDs.

I have no idea what any of this means.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2003

2:19 pm

I'm the guest editor for the month of October over at Coudal.com ("bs" in the Fresh Signals section).

MONDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2003

2:27 pm

A lot of people have asked me why I named my first book Book, With Words and Pages. And though I usually don't like to explain a lot of things about writing, finding it's always nice to have at least a little mystery about the process and the specifics, enough people have asked that I feel as if I should give a little background.

I originally had another title, which was the name of one of the essays included in the book. Then something happened. Everyone who knew I was writing a book (especially MY SISTER) kept asking, "what's the title?" "what's the title?" "what's the title?" It didn't help that she has a poor memory and asked the same question once a week for about 5 months. Finally, as a little inside joke, I just decided to name it Book, With Words and Pages. It's a book, and it has words, and it has pages. That's all you need to know til it's out! But then a funny thing happened: the name was much better than my original title, because it fit in exactly with what I was doing with the shape and size of the book, a collectible box containing the pages of the book loose (well, attached with a paper clip), and everything written in hand on the outside and inside of the box. It's one of the weird situations in life where something you do for one reason actually fits in perfectly with something else you're doing for another reason.

But please don't ask me the title of the novel I'm currently writing. I have a great title for it, and I don't want to be forced to name it Novel, With Plot and Characters.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2003

2:58 pm

This is really sad news. I was just about to send him an e-mail about an interview for PBJ.

1:56 pm

You may have heard about this article in USA Today. Go read it then come back here.

Did you have the same reaction that I did? Not to kick the guy when he's (kind of) down. But a few things:

- it says "ex-Wall St. Journal reporter." Someone at Romenesko did some checking. He last worked for them in 1977. And he quit.

- he gave up his $750 a month apartment, but now spends $400-450 at campgrounds, plus gas, storage, and eating out? And he has a cell phone?!

- with a truck, a cell phone, some smarts, some contacts, he should have gotten some sort of menial labor job.

- $25,000 in credit card debt?

- I wouldn't hire this guy as a reporter. Doesn't seem too resourceful.

- "I also learned to live without a TV..." Oh, he really, really shouldn't even have mentioned that. I think he has other concerns.

In this L.A. Times interview, he blames it on a "sour economy." That's such a cop-out. Is the economy SO bad that you can't get SOME job temporarily? There are a lot of bad stories out there, but (yup, you guessed it) this guy is about to get a book deal, an agent, and has been interviewed by several media outlets. Amazing.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2003

3:59 pm

This has to be one of the scariest food-related devices I've ever seen.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2003

10:04 pm

In this Boston Globe op-ed piece, Harold Bloom proves himself to be not only pretentious, but also one helluva scumbag. That's right, Mr. Bloom, Stephen King has never written anything worth reading, and the only novelists worth reading today are Philip Roth, Thomas Pynchon, Cormac McCarthy, and Don Delillo. Never trust anyone who says something like that. How completely out of touch and embarrassing.

9:58 pm

Oh, for God's sake. What's next?

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2003

4:34 pm

You probably know this already, but some of the links I give here will expire because publications change their URLs or put their articles in a different archive section. If that happens, you might want to search for the article on Google, since they often put a copy in their "cache."

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2003

2:50 pm

New Professor Barnhardt's Journal is up. I asked several critics and writers for their list of their favorite TV shows of all-time. A fun read.

2:46 pm

Ah, the blog returns, after a month of book-related interruptions. So...what's new with you?