Words so far: 9331 (37 pages)
Words to go: 40669 (163 pages)

Days of writing: 9
Days without writing : 5
Avg words/day: 1037 (productive days) / 667 (total days)

Most productive day: 2054 (8 pages)

Don't see how I can meet the 50,000 word goal, but the productivity has been great.

Hmmmm, the sun isn't up yet, but I think I'm done sleeping. Well, hey, waking up before dawn sounds cool to me.

Let's see, I went to sleep about 9pm and feel fully rested. If I had 8 hours of sleep then it must be about 5am, right? Not bad. Get a good start on the day.

What time is it exactly? Check the clock... 12:45am ???

Oh, well. Might as well get up anyway.

 

The Nightsound Show is a veritable cornucopia of local and independent music, literature, philosophy, spirituality, culture, comedy, and politics. It is a magazine for your ears, fueled by your submissions. And in this open forum we will delve into the unknown and the mundane with as much geeky and entertaining over-analysis as unpretentiously as possible.


Submit your music, literature, and opinions to radio@nightsound.com.

 
Show More Subscription Options   

 One of the nice things about being a bachelor -- having no partner to attend to, no children or pets to care for -- is the freedom to pick up and go wherever, whenever, for however long.  When I worked at the MicKimmon Center, I looked forward to out-of-town projects.  They included a paid-for hotel stay and reimbursed food and gas.  I was happy to volunteer for whatever came, each was like a mini-vacation for me.

My joblessness has freed up my weeks as well as my weekends, adding even greater flexibility.  So when Nikki asked if I would like to house-sit for her and her household in Greensboro, it sounded like a lot of fun.  My parents have been great about giving me my privacy, but there is still something about having a whole space to yourself -- even if you share that space with 1 dog, 4 cats, 2 fish, 2 hedgehogs, and 4 chickens.  That was one of the selling points Nikki offered.  "Trust me,  These are the freshest eggs you've ever had."  I didn't really need to be sold on the idea though.  I wanted it from the first word, just had to make sure logistics were straight.

So, I find myself back in the town where I went to college, though it seems like things have changed some.  After cleaning up some of the massage parlors, city planners went to work revitalizing the downtown area.  When I was here, the city center died after dark.  Campus cleared out on weekends as those that could either went home or at least down to Chapel Hill to enjoy the nightlife on Franklin St.  Those who remained had to find ways to make their own fun.  I think many of my classmates got really, really high just because if you have nothing to do but stare at the wall anyway, may as well make that wall as interesting as possible.  Even with the creative solutions that my own friends found to fill time, it was hard not to feel the downward pull.  One even theorized that somewhere in town there had opened a psychic vortex slowly sucking all our souls to oblivion (creativity + ennui = angst).

But such seems to no longer be the case.  The vortex has been exorcised or maybe some civic-minded shaman plugged it up to make a flower planter.  Either way, it sounds like the town is now overflowing with activity and that the happy denizens actually get out and enjoy it.  I've been told about an Irish pub that sounds promising, newly arranged parks here and downtown, and a baseball stadium within walking distance that features $2 microbrews for "Thirsty Thursday" at this week's game.  On top of all that, I'm looking forward to doing a bit of walking.  I've lamented the lack of decent sidewalks around my parents' house before.  Here there is plenty of ground for me to cover and a dog who I have been told will be grateful to join me.

I couldn't ask for nicer accommodations during my stay.  Nikki lives in a beautiful, historic home.  It even has a plaque out front that reads "House of Mendenhall Established November 28, 1890."  It stands on the corner of Mendenhall Street, so I guess it's got some roots in the history of Greensboro.  Inside the elegant angles of its Old South structure, this house has been furnished with a lot of love and creativity.  Beautiful blown glass baubles catch sunlight in the window. Shiny guitars hang on the wall of the office.  Sturdy, soft furniture sits under framed images that depict such sights as a child would dream of. Already this home makes me wax rhapsodic, and there is so much more to say, so many trinkets and artifacts to tease and delight imagination.

I think I'm going to do some good writing here.

Last night, something strange happened.  I was bored.  I'm not usually bored.  Usually I'm rushing from one project to another, never feeling like I have enough time for any of them, and stealing time to just be mindless in between.  If I am free to be bored, that means I'm enjoying turning my mind off.

I'm realizing though that the fact that I was bored is actually a bad thing from good causes.  This week I've gotten more done than usual -- more exercise, more writing, more letters written.  I also think I've eaten more, though that's not a good thing.  The point is that I felt like I had more free time than I'm used to.  I know that's funny having been 6 months unemployed, but even that was something I've done more work on than normal.  I've sent out dozens of resumes and Tuesday I got to interview with a temp agency.  So I was left feeling there wasn't a lot that needed doing.

The other part is that I guess my mind didn't feel like turning off.  Instead of wanting to collapse in a puddle of blah, it still had some juice left in it.  I realize that means I should have used the time to do something else productive, but out of habit I kept trying to "relax," and my mind just wasn't having it.  Like a child you are trying to force to nap, it wanted to work while I wanted it to chill out.

And maybe it sounds odd to talk about my mind as some "thing," like a pet with a mind of it's own (a mind with a mind of it's own), but that's often what it feels like -- running away with this idea or that, refusing to work when I tell it to, going back to bad habits I keep begging it to let go of.  Maybe that's even a more effective way of thinking of it.  Maybe the techniques for getting a dog to stop peeing on carpet work better for changing a mind than sheer force of will.

If we don't walk my sister's dog a couple of times a day, we run a risk of finding a spot on the floor.  There is no point in yelling at the dog.  It's not her fault.  It's her nature.  If we don't let her let her urges out in a good way, she'll let them out in a bad.  So I guess if I am lucky enough to find myself bored again, I should take my mind out for a bit of exercise.

While driving back from Chris's bandmate's 30th birthday gig in Chapel Hill Saturday night, I was talking with Brian about what makes a person fall in love.  You find someone visually appealing, try talking and discover you can hold a conversation, have similar interests.  But really, that's only friendship plus sexual compatability.  Is that all there is to the feeling of being in love.

So I was saying that it takes something extra, that you have to be compelled by the idea of a person.  They come to mean something more, to represent something.  I'm not saying you put them up on a pedestal, giving them idealized qualities, just that the actual qualities they have hold special importance for you.  Sometimes it can be a role that person fills -- like a someone to protect you, to listen to you, to comfort you.   Brian said that sort of thing tends to key off with some core idea you have about yourself.  What you see about their nature might mirror something important about yours.  

However, he said that what a lot of this role fulfillment can be self-serving.  What he sees as better is when you appreciate someone's qualities not for how they benefit you, but for their own sake.  For instance, admiring a person's patience not because you need someone to give you patience, just because you find it beautiful to behold.  I definitely agree with him on that.  Part of loving someone is being awed by who he or she is outside of your relationship.

Sunday, on the way to Jenn's Vampire game, I stopped at Trader Joe's to pick up some snacks for the group.  Right inside the door, I ran into Jenny and Brian doing the same and compared notes.  "Get some brie," Jenny said, so I made my way back to the cheese section.

One of the brie wedges looked enticingly soft.  Already its creamy interior was starting to ooze out, giving it pillowy bulges where the others had straight-cut edges.  I checked the price and saw its expiration date right beside -- Aug 5, only 3 days away.  It was the oldest of the brie I saw there, ripe and ready.  It's sensuous bulges were just begging to be eaten.  

If I'm making this brie sound slutty, that's only because it was.  It was a slutty cheese.  I needed to have it.

At the register, the cashier also noticed the expiration date as she rang up my brie.  "Looks like this one here is just about to expire.  You want to get another?"  I thanked her for her thoughtfulness but assured her that I wanted exactly that piece of cheese.  I wanted it because it was about to expire.

When I unwrapped the cheese at Jenn's house, a few people commented on an odd smell.  Jenny tried it but said it was too pungent for her.  I had the slutty cheese all to myself, ate half then and brought the rest back home.  I didn't refrigerate it right away.  In fact I think it sat in my room overnight in a Ziploc bag.

Wednesday night I remembered I still had that cheese.  Erin had prepared a large salad with canellini beans.  I topped mine with the cheese.  It was its expiring day, and the "odd smell" of Sunday had transformed into a rich bouquet of funk.  Mom squealed.  I lit a match and shot Febreeze around the kitchen.

Although it made me a sort of temporary dairy pariah, I loved my stinky brie salad.  My mouth thanked me for it.  Meanwhile, I feel like I accidentally turned Welch's grape juice into Cabernet-Sauvignon.  Yes, the smell is strong, but sometimes things that smell bad taste great.

Today is my actual birthday, but Tuesdays aren't great nights for festivities, so last Saturday I celebrated with friends.

I started the evening with a smaller group at The Pit, a high-end NC barbecue restaurant. It isn't like they do any silly gourmet tricks like arranging pulled pork and slaw in a cube and calling it a "deconstructed sandwich." They just offered damn good food, traditional recipes cooked in a way to make you cry.

They did have some interesting art though. I get having playful pig people -- pig is what's on the menu -- but we could not figure out why they had three arms...



They offer an enticing array of Southern themed beverages. It being my birthday, I wanted to sample several. Scupperdine Sangria started the evening. The John Daly followed. I think my favorite was the Carolina Julep though. Sadly, I didn't make it to the Carolina Cablecar or the Southern Belle. Just more reasons to go back.



You think it looked like I had a drinking problem?

( Read more... )

Birthday pics are coming, as are more pics from Adam & Danielle's wedding. For now though, I just had my second London-themed dream in a week.

The first was on the whimsical side. I was going for a walk in Westminster, coming down those park blocks on the north side of Buckingham Palace. A Cockney tramp with greasy, long gray hair was hawking newspapers aggressively but charmingly. I think it must have been my brain translating something like "Big Issue" salesmen, a magazine made specifically for the homeless to sell so they can make money on the streets without begging.

A fierce wind tore down the sidewalk and it kept unwrapping my scarf from my neck. I tried physically turning my body as I walked in order to use the wind to re-wrap it. A white, knit lady's hat came tumbling past me. I scooped it up to return to the owner and found myself facing HRM Queen Elizabeth II. She said, "Thank you, young man. Could you help me with my mobile?"

She was trying to call her friend Natasha -- maybe a Russian ambassador? -- but couldn't find where she had saved the number. The phone was too complicated for her. It was too complicated for me in fact. Seemed like it had way more buttons than necessary. By the time I woke up, I still hadn't found the number.

Last night offered more sober fare. I was leaving again. It wasn't heartbreaking, mainly because I'm just that hardcore, but it was aggravating just having to move again, having to pack all my stuff. Yes, I dreamed about packing and preparing flights and all that. I wasn't in a panic either. I had all the resources I needed -- still a pain in the ass.

It was like I never left though, so my brain was trying to reconcile recent memories of hanging out with friends. It's answer: they had come to see me. Jenny, Brian, and Joss had actually moved to London themselves, which was the explanation for my memories of hanging out at their place.

At dinner Saturday night, Christine said, "People have been asking if you're going back." Maybe that put it on my mind.

All of us performers, artists, and entertainers, whatever our medium, are pretty much motivated by a need for attention when it comes right down to it. Couch it in whatever pleasant terms you like, but it boils down to, "Hey, guys! Look at me!" and the emotional gratification we receive. In the pursuit of said gratification, we build upon whatever talent we may possess and try to make our craft -- and therefore ourselves -- more engaging. Now and then, though, we get the opportunity to take that craft that we have developed and turn it towards someone's benefit other than our own -- benefit concerts, raising awareness, that sort of thing.

There have been sometimes where, as a performer, the greatest satisfaction I received was knowing that I was able to help someone make an event that was special to them all the moreso. When I got to be the Fairy Godfather for an 80th birthday, even though I was the one "on stage," I felt like I had received a special invitation to witness something meaningful. They were laughing at my jokes, but I felt like I was the one receiving something. My favorite part of several Christmases have been the Santa gigs I got to do.

When Danielle asked me to serve in the place of an officiant at her and Adam's wedding, I knew it was going to be another one of those awesome occasions. Now, I have no legal certification to marry anyway, but that wasn't what she wanted. They were planning to be married in the courthouse in the morning and then afterwards have a really fun ceremony for friends and family. She wanted Chris to play some rock and roll and she and the groom were going to come boogying out, and then I was going to "marry" them.

She described my role as something between Rowan Atkinson from Four Weddings and a Funeral and Peter Cook from The Princess Bride ("Mawwiage. Mawwiage is wot bwings us to-gevah to-day..."). Then they were going to give their vows, which would be taken from rock lyrics. The whole thing would have a rock concert theme. They even made "concert tour" t-shirts for everyone who came.

I was so honored to be asked -- there's that artist's ego that I mentioned. After a couple of different ideas in other directions, I finally pieced together a script for my part that I thought would fulfill the role of officiant while maintaining the zany and irreverent tone Adam and Danielle had established. It was a stretch for me. I don't have so much experience giving comic monologues. Mostly when I'm funny it's in the context of a story.

Two days before the wedding, I emailed my speech to Danielle for approval. She said she and Adam loved it. I knew that was the important thing, regardless of whatever laughs I did or didn't get.

 

The Nightsound Show is a veritable cornucopia of local and independent music, literature, philosophy, spirituality, culture, comedy, and politics. It is a magazine for your ears, fueled by your submissions. And in this open forum we will delve into the unknown and the mundane with as much geeky and entertaining over-analysis as unpretentiously as possible.

Episode 151: Deep-Rooted Man-Stupid
To download, click HERE.

In this episode:

• Sweet gay robot love.
• Chris practices the magic of Mind Screw!
• Can laws protect high school kids from bullies?
• Flashback to our 2005 interview with Amy Glaser.
• "Oh, Girl!"
• Cat and Cthulhu: Wake The Dead (Part One). 
• For more Cat & Cthulhu, click HERE!
• Andy reads the first chapter of his novel.

Featuring music from:

• "Perjury" by Hi Ho Silver Oh
  
• "Don't Change" by Tripp
• "Witching Hour" by Red Collar
• "Til My Voice is Gone" by The Old Ceremony
• "Sunshine" by The Pneurotics 
• "Wheelbarrow Blues" by Emil McGloin
• "When I Get Over You" by Chris Wimberley
• "The Traveler" by Sarah Goss
• Featuring "Power and Energy" by Dan Datiles.

This month's Lyrics Junkie Charity Challenge: 
 

I don't know where I am, but I know I don't like it. Open my mouth, and out pops something spiteful. Words are so cheap, but they can turn out expensive...

Send in the title and artist, and we'll donate $25 to the charity of your choice!

Submit your music, literature, and opinions to radio@nightsound.com.

 
Show More Subscription Options    

For the past 6 months I have had too much time on my hands and no sense of direction.  I didn't know what job I might get, how I would get to said job, or how long I would stay in NC.  The fact that I won't be able to go back simplifies things, which is good because the uncertainty has been distracting me from working on the novel.  

My circumstances may be a blessing in disguise.  On top of feeding and sheltering me, both my parents are very supportive of me finishing the novel I started last year and taking a serious step towards becoming a published novelist.  So, since I have not been able to find another job, I need to treat that like my job -- in the hopes that it some day will be.

I have set myself a goal of writing 5 pages a day, 5 days a week, which is ambitious but should be doable since I have few other demands on my time.  Right now I am re-writing what I have written so far from the beginning, editing in new material and including adjustments to plot, character, and pacing.  So although I have written 119 pages (36,376) words, I only count the first 12 pages (3904) words as complete.  Those are pages that I feel are ready to be seen by the agents expressed interest in my novel after the Oct 1 reading last year.

Between now and Oct 1 of this year, there are 12 weeks.  At the pace I am setting, that should give me time to produce 300 pages.  I don't know that the novel will end up quite that long, but I believe that I will have a completed manuscript by that time.  After over a year of planning and making notes and receiving peer commentary on excerpts, I know the direction I want to take it in and I am confident in my choices.  Now all I have to do is do it, and I think it is a fitting goal to begin contacting agents about my novel on the 1-year anniversary of receiving such encouraging responses.

Recently, I've been looking at my situation and accepting that, since I have not been able to secure steady employment in the past 6 months, I will not be able to save up the money that I would need in time to meet the visa requirements to return to the UK.  It looks like I am staying here.  

I am also expecting to be with my parents for some time.  Whenever I do get a significant income, I will have to save up at least as much money as going back to the UK would have cost me, possibly more, in order to buy a car and move into a place of my own. So last week I turned my room into a space I could call my own, rather than just somewhere I sleep, a space that I can do some writing in.

 

The Nightsound Show is a veritable cornucopia of local and independent music, literature, philosophy, spirituality, culture, comedy, and politics. It is a magazine for your ears, fueled by your submissions. And in this open forum we will delve into the unknown and the mundane with as much geeky and entertaining over-analysis as unpretentiously as possible.

Episode 150: Mom's Milk of Amnesia
To download, click HERE.

In this episode:

• The first show from our new time slot -- will it change a f**king thing?
• Community Badass Chris Frank helps us with the FCC.
• Chris Wimberley presents "Cat Hospital"
• Go behind the scenes of Nightsound Show comedy. 
• Where is Lost Harold?
• Viewer mail from Jennifer, Josh, Danielle, Quinton and Richard!
• "Eat the Children."

Featuring music from:

• "Space" by Rachel Keil
  
• "What I Thought" by Dylan Sneed
• "Out of Here" by Lauren Mulderrig
• "Globe Stomp" by Crash
• "I Predicted the Future Once" by Hi Ho Silver Oh
• "Robots vs. Dinosaurs" by Sam Ortallano
• "Reptiliana" by Jessica Hiltabidle
• "Mojo Hand" by Stranger Spirits
• "Just Like Bruce Campbell Did" by Joe Hero
• "Spencer" by Harmute
• "Mumbo Jumbo" by Davis Coen
• "All Dressed Up" by Joe Romeo and the Orange County Volunteers
• Featuring "Power and Energy" by Dan Datiles.

This month's Lyrics Junkie Charity Challenge was won by WCOM DJ Matt Welborn! He correctly identified the following lyrics from Iron Maiden's "Two Minutes to Midnight":
 

The glamor, the fortune, the pain
Go to war again, blood is freedom's stain
But don't you pray for my soul anymore.

At his request, $25 has been donated to Student Action with Farmworkers (SAF)!

Join us Friday July 17th, 8pm for Live Episode 151!

Submit your music, literature, and opinions to radio@nightsound.com.

 
Show More Subscription Options    

 

No, your eyes do not deceive you. The good folks at WCOM have decreed that after over 3 years on the mic, The Nightsound Show is now ready for prime time! And this is not just a one-time deal From here on out, The Nightsound Show will air on Friday nights from 8pm-10pm EST.

Wherever in the world you may be at the time, if you are by a computer, just click this link to listen!!
http://audio-mp3.ibiblio.org:8000/wcom-hifi.mp3.m3u

For those of you who are used to waking up early in the morning, now you can listen without staying up late! For those of you used to going out on a Friday night, now you have a chance to listen before you head out on the town!

West coast listeners, we'll be on from 5pm-7pm your time. Stay late and listen at the office, and make your boss think you are putting in overtime!

UK listeners, we'll be on from 1am-3am your time. Turn us on when you get back after the clubs close, and listen while enjoying a well-deserved curry!

This still means that we will produce the episodic podcast of The Nightsound Show only once a month, and we will continue to let you know when these air. However, now ever week we will bring you Nightsound Radio. So when we aren't doing the big show, you will still get to hear at least one of the voices of The Nightsound Show playing music and maybe even some of the comedy from The Nighsound Show.

We are so damn excited about this, we just don't know what to do with ourselves. But we know what you should do with yourselves -- LISTEN LIVE THIS FRIDAY NIGHT!!!