Category: WRITING

“The Rite of Spring” and Story Research

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When I was still delivering newspapers (er, okay, fliers) for pocket money, I discovered Stravinsky’s masterpiece, Le Sacre de Printemps, known in English as The Rite of Spring. I immediately found the music somehow bizarrely familiar and comfortable, despite its dissonance, its extremity, the unnatural use of the instruments, and so on. This is hardly surprising, of course: anyone who watches a lot of film knows how influential this ballet by Stravinsky has proven to be on the work of film score composers, and some of what Stravinsky did even entered the common language of orchestral music afterwards. The premiere …

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Another Draft Down, And Diagnosis of Stories

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I’ve just put the finishing touches on another story draft: “Moura,” a piece I got a rewrite request on about a year ago, but which I really couldn’t quite make work. The things I wanted ambiguous, people seemed to think weren’t clear enough; that was the main complaint, besides that it’s kind of slow and sometimes (in the earlier draft) felt like nothing happened in parts. Some of that is addressed, though in rereading the story at a great remove, I still didn’t see what was wrong with it… not until I started reworking it. Then, I realized, the whole …

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The Traneumentary, Shooting for Trane, and Pound/Trane in Comparison

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This entry is part 3 of 60 in the series Blogging Pound's The Cantos

First of all: if you’re interested in John Coltrane, there’s a wonderful podcast series (titled The Traneumentary) which has now concluded, but which is worth working your way through — the segments are brief but contain interviews with all kinds of jazz musicians, producers, and other folks, as well as discussions of specific tracks in voiceover on the tracks themselves.  For more on the origins of the project, see here. It’s wonderful, and full of bite-sized chunks, and very professional — and for those Trane fanatics out there whose significant others or friends ask, “So, why Trane?” I think it …

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David Amram on John Coltrane and Albert Einstein

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Not long ago, I mentioned John Coltrane’s youthful interest in SF and pulp zines. But he was apparently also quite interested in science itself, something I’d suspected but don’t remember seeing confirmed as clearly as in this anecdote from David Amram, a French horn-playing jazz man who knew Trane in New York in the 1950s, and ran into him just outside a club, where Amram had just finished playing a set with Charlie Mingus. Coltrane was eating  a slice of pie, and: [Trane] said, “How are you?” I [Amram] said, “Everything’s fine.” And then he said to me, “What do …

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“Empty of Words, The Page” Coming in Black Static 27!

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… that is, if you’re a reader of the fine UK magazine Black Static. (And if you’re not–and you like dark fiction–then you should be.) My tale “Empty of Words, The Page” is appearing in issue #27 of that fine periodical, with lovely art and all. Here’s the snippet excerpted at the magazine’s webpage: Smoke and burnt paper and scorched glue: John Whitney stank of all of them, of those hideous pseudo-murders, as he slid down on his haunches until his backside thumped against the chilly floor of the Gare Central. His shivering worsened as a frigid gust from outdoors slapped …

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Ezra Poundings – The Reboot

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This entry is part 1 of 60 in the series Blogging Pound's The Cantos

Years ago — seven years ago this fall — I started a study group, with whom I started working my way through Ezra Pound’s classic poem, The Cantos. When I say “classic poem” it probably makes you think of a single page of sparse text, which is understandable if you haven’t read the Cantos. So think more like a late James Joyce novel, but in poetical form. Think about a bunch of different languages, including not only various forms of English, but also old Occitan, French, Italian, Latin, Greek, Egyptian hieroglyphics, Chinese ideograms. Think references to obscure historical and literary …

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A Bit of Doggerel

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I’m currently trawling through my old drafts of poetry for a project I won’t talk about for now, but one thing I’ll say is that the project doesn’t involve much doggerel. But I figure, since it’ll never see the light of day anywhere else, I might as well post this thing here. Warning: for those who’ve spent too much time at poetry readings, this may provoke flashbacks, either of crass poetry or of poets trying to read stuff that isn’t crass to audiences used to it. (I’ll admit, when I was young I was perhaps as crass a poetry listener …

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Talking Through Bigotry

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Miss Jiwaku and I have an acquaintance, a Korean fellow we know, though I won’t say how we know him. (Anonymity will allow me to speak more honestly.) He is a fine sort of fellow, in general, quite professional and creative, easy enough to work with and even at times funny; she and I have learned many things from him, and I hope likewise he has learned a thing or two from us as well. However, there’s one thing that makes it hard for me to get along with him, something it’s hard to put my finger on exactly because, …

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Listen to “Improperly Prepared Blowfish”

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Well, one of the first stories I sold professionally has finally been podcast over at Machine of Death. Download/listen to it here, and my thoughts and reflections about the story here. Brett Donnelly did a great narration, and I’m pleased with it! For those who missed the news, I also have a story forthcoming in the next volume of the series, though I’ve no idea when that’s coming out…

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John Coltrane and the Pulp Connection

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Arguably one of the most significant musicians in American history (and unarguably one of the most significant saxophonists and jazz musicians ever), John Coltrane grew up in High Point, North Carolina. It might be a weird thing to bring up —  where he grew up, that is — except that, when we think about major artists, we so often imagine them having sprung into being fully-formed, if not in technique or approach, then at least in their essential selfhood. This is also often how we tell their stories: for example, in Coltrane: Story of a Sound (a book I’ve just …

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