Category: writing

Creating something every day for 365 days: the writing

Prep work (Day 184/365)

Posted on by Dale

Today was a GHP interview day, so I spent the whole day listening to myself on video and answering parent questions.

However, during those video intervals, I was able to get some work done. I began to work on the prospectus for William Blake, a document to give to our backers in May to explain what it is we’re doing and why they should foot the bill.

Also, I explored a new piece of software, you know how I cannot resist new software, that is promising for writing and being organized. It’s called Scrivener and has just been released. Check it out here.

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Some accomplishment (Day 149/365)

Posted on by Dale

Okay, so it wasn’t orchestrating Make Way, but at least I got something done.

I wrote an article to publicize the First Look on January 10. I emailed members of our little octet to see if they would like to meet more than once, as per Marc’s suggestion that we need as much practice as we can get.

And I put together a Keynote presentation of the poetry of William Blake’s Inn, with the music embedded in it. Keynote is Apple’s version of M****’s P****P**nt, only prettier. Of course.

Since the William Blake playlist (via iTunes) starts playing as soon as the presentation does, I’m going to whip up some little nothing to cover the title and Prologue pages. At some point. Between now and Jan. 9. Maybe tomorrow?

Invocation (Day 139/365)

Posted on by Dale

Still sick, but I have written…

blogding

INVOCATION

O Ed Wood,
We beseech thee,
O Edward D. Wood, Jr.:

Look over us now as we begin our new masterpiece.
Blind us to the possibility of failure.
Hide from us the improbability of our success.
Free us from our capabilities,
and strew our paths with bad ideas,
so many that we cannot help but stumble
upon a good one every now and then.

Give us the clarity of vision
to see as far as the next step before us,
but not so clear that we fail to see our own genius
rushing forth like a river and covering all about us
with an ever-rising and brilliant flood of success.

Grant us this, O Ed Wood,
now and in the hour of our rebirth.

Selah.

My week in NYC (Day 130/365)

Posted on by Dale

I meant to write this last week, but was caught up in decorating duty. And actually, if I’m going to be honest, this is actually being written on Sunday, since I was on decorating duty yesterday also. But today the Empress of Decorating has gone on an excursion, and I am free to get some other stuff done. For example, after I write yesterday’s post, I will work on something for today.

This is another entry in my “With My Lottery Winnings” series, something I haven’t done in a long while. But last Friday’s Times Arts section got to me. So let’s see what I would have been doing if I had been in New York last week. We’ll just go through the two sections page by page and see what’s up.

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A rant (Day 129/365)

Posted on by Dale

First of all, I have to compliment my readers for resisting commentary on the phrase “My father had Speedball nibs” which was nestled in yesterday’s post. Damned mature of everyone, I must say, unless Jobie hasn’t read the post yet.

Now we’re off to a hospital holiday function, but before I go, a liberal rant:

So Mary Cheney is going to have a baby. I think that is fabulous, and I wish her and Heather the best.

This is not to say that I am not watching with raised eyebrows and pursed lips the inevitable reactions from Cheney pere’s constituency. One can really not make this stuff up.

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A rant (Day 95/365)

Posted on by Dale

So is there untoward glee in my reaction to evangelical-yet-oh-so-queer Ted Haggard’s precipitous fall from his pedestal?

You bet your ass there is. I am sneering with undisguised and unmitigated delight. And here’s why: he deserves it. Not only he deserves it, but everyone linked to him, either in his Colorado Springs hellhole of conservative theocons or through his presidency of the National Association of Evangelicals or through his Republican get-out-the-vote machinery, they all deserve it.

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Sunflowers (Day 66/365)

Posted on by Dale

I didn’t think I’d get anything done today, since Thursday is not normally a working night for me, and since my father-in-law is in town for a visit (and the Shubian’s Rift premiere Saturday night), but I had some time to work, so I skipped ahead to 8. Two Sunflowers Move Into the Yellow Room.

Again, this is a bit of a cheat, since when I more or less scored it when I wrote it. Still, transferring it to GPO sounds and deciding exactly which instruments to assign where was not nothing.

Tonight’s puzzle: see if you can tell what my own questions are about how I’ve scored this. I have some, so it’s a fair question. Herewith, the piano score and the mp3 of Sunflowers.

For staging purposes, I think it’s too short, but it would be perfectly easy to insert a dance sequence between the two verses. It’s one of the loveliest pieces in the whole work, so it would be nice to hear the melody a couple of more times.

In other news, you probably need to head over to http://www.nanowrimo.org/. I mean, after all, it’s not as if it’s 365 days of commitment, you know. I’d do it, but I’m busy.

A rant (Day 62/365)

Posted on by Dale

Perhaps someone with more legal savvy than I can let me know for sure, but I’m thinking I’m right on my perceptions here.

As far as I can tell, the McCain Torture Act, which was passed last week by both the House and Senate with no substantial opposition, has given permission to George W. Bush to

  • arrest me without a warrant, as long as he considers me to be an enemy combatant or even a material supporter of one
  • throw me in a prison of his choosing, without the opportunity to call for legal counsel
  • prevent me (or anyone) from knowing why I have been arrested (the 900-year-old right of habeas corpus, for those who are keeping track)
  • use hearsay evidence or evidence extracted by “alternative examination techniques” against me, to present evidence seized without a warrant (even evidence gotten within the U.S.) and to prevent me or my lawyers (if I’m given one) from examining that evidence
  • acquire evidence from me by “alternative examination techniques” that are not overseen by the Geneva Convention and are at bottom determined by George W. Bush
  • keep me in prison without trial as long as he thinks is necessary without communication or representation
  • prevent me from appealing to any court for relief, or any court from intervening

Please understand what I’m saying: the McCain Torture Act does not specify that these abrogations of U.S. and international law are to be applied only to suspected foreign terrorists, George W. Bush is free to arrest me. And you. And any other citizen of this nation. He has permission from Congress to do so.

And before I hear that whiny conservative rebuttal that nice people don’t have anything to fear, let me point out what they have missed: the McCain Torture Act empowers the President of the U.S. not to have to care about any of that. All he has to do is say you’re an enemy combatant or a supporter of one, and the rest of the machine falls into place. Even if you were innocent, you would never escape the machine: the guarantees of our Constitution no longer apply to you.

If someone can point out where in the McCain Torture Act that these acts are prohibited, I’d be glad to publish that here.

Last week, when I was invited to go meet a visiting Chinese delegation, I used the phrase habeas corpus in discussing current events, and my dinner partner asked if I were a lawyer, because I had used a legal term. The idea that an average citizen might know this term and what it meant did not occur to this citizen of the world’s largest authoritarian society.

Less than 24 hours later, the term ceased to have any real meaning in this society either. After all, as our President said about a year ago, the Constitution is “just a goddamned piece of paper.”