Number 1.
I have often, perhaps more then is particularly healthy, gone into detail about my admiration…and more…for Tim Powers. Today, during a discussion among members of the Tim Powers Yahoo Group (why not join, everyone needs more reasons to waste time on the interwebz, right?), Powers recounted a story that I’ve heard him tell before…

once I was on a panel in which a woman said, “_Dracula_ is actually about the plight of 19th century women.” And I said, “No, it’s about a guy who lives forever by drinking other people’s blood. Don’t take my word for it, check it out.”

See? DO YOU SEE?!

The fact that I agree with that down to the very essence of my being means something…I’m not sure what, exactly, but my inclination is that it may not bode well for my (hopefully) one day career as a literature professor.

Number 2.
Middlemarch is well written. I get that. And I understand that the essential assumptions that fiction writers of George Eliot’s time were making are markedly different then the assumptions made by fiction writers of today. But even with that in mind, I’m finding her writing slow and overly verbose when held up in comparison to, say, Jane Austen or Charles Dickens.

Number 3.
Tonight, while trying in vain to get my 22 month old daughter out of the bath, one of my life’s truly great accomplishments was achieved by way of the following conversation:

Daughter: Peter Pan flies!
Me: Where does Peter Pan fly to?
Daughter: Neva land!

MWAHAHA

For those who don’t know, Peter Pan has been the most influential story (prose, film, comic, or otherwise) in my life. The Phantom Tollbooth was my first real introduction to fantasy literature, and Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman collectively (my personal HOLY TRINITY) were responsible for my desire to be a writer. But Peter Pan, more then any other work, is where my love of stories was first cemeted. To this day it remains one of my favorite stories, and now it is one of my daughter’s favorite stories. Sure, she’s very young, so it’s entirely possible that she’ll grow out of it. But at this moment, Peter, Wendy, Captain Hook and the rest have a special place in her imagination.

Number 4.
I’m not exactly sure how Weezer go about writing songs. It has to be unlike just about every other band out there, doesn’t it? I mean, the songs they write are so unlike everyone else, but then again, when I listen to this new album I think, “why didn’t someone else write these songs already?” They’re so basic, in a lot of ways, but maybe that’s where the genius comes from, the simplicity.

Number 5.
The Raconteurs are playing in LA in September…ON A MONDAY NIGHT! WTF is up with bands playing non-Friday and Saturday shows. This is Southern California people…can’t we leave the school night gigs for places like Wichita?

Number 6.
Is anyone else concerned about Gilgrim’s most recent twitter?

Shout Out Louds - You Are Dreaming

Tags: gilgrim, Middlemarch, Peter Pan, Stupid Concert Scheduling, Tim Powers, Weezer

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008 at 10:50 pm and is filed under Miscellaneous, Parenthood, Post, Writers, Authors, Various Wordsmiths. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.