In the Absence of Poetry: a Game of Tag

GreenyFlower, whose blog is much better-written and -read than mine (deservedly so), has tagged her friends with a "getting to know you" questions game that I figured I may as well participate in until the block is lifted. The game is "4 things," in which the respondents give a list of four responses to various questions. Though my favorite version of this particular enterprise is still "I Have Never," what the hell. ;) Read 'em all on the jump.


Four jobs I have had or currently have:

1. Music Store Clerk--part time summers when I was in college, I'd run the register at the revered Boyd's Music Store in Little Rock. I used the downtime during the week to learn the rudiments of drumming and how to play "Crazy Train" on the mandolin.

2. Graduate Teaching Assistant--taught Freshman Comp and liked it pretty well. My students thought I was harsh but fair. I used to read a poem of the day at the beginning of class, and at the end of the semester often had students tell me it was a motivating factor for them to show up. Which was nice.

3. Systems Administrator for a Computer Network of Dentists--a self-declared "visionary" orthodontist hired me to do hardware and software support for his brainchild of a networked chain of interdisciplinary dental excellence. I spent most of my time driving to a periodontist or general dentist's office to "fix" a computer monitor that wasn't powered on. Learned through experience that dentists as a group are just as megalomaniacal and insecure about being respected ("I'm a DOCTOR, dammit!") as they are in caricatures of them.

4. Fiction Editor for a Horror Magazine--City Slab in Seattle. Thanks to the wonders of the internet I can do this from Little Rock. It's great to discover fun, scary fiction, but it's also great to discover stuff so amazingly bad I have to consciously keep my mouth closed while I read. I have a collection of such stuff. Ask me about it.


Four countries I have been to:

England, France, Italy, and Germany. All during my junior year abroad, which I spent at Cambridge. Love the Eurail.


Four places I would rather be right now:

England, France, Italy... No, just kidding.

1. Fayetteville, Arkansas--where I went to college, met my wife, had my first child, and looked forward to building a life. I love Little Rock, but if I'd had my druthers (thanks, Stephen), I would have stood up there.

2. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston--went there with my best buddy a couple of times while visiting him. Wonderful, for all the usual reasons.

3. With the Aforementioned Best Friend. I miss you, Mark.

4. Rome. 'Cause, you know.


Four foods I like to eat:

Chicken vindaloo. Tempura and Brown Noodles. Pesto. And every now and then, a big greasy cheeseburger.


Four heroes, past or present:

1. Jack Butler--a poet and novelist from Mississippi who spent a lot of time in Arkansas and who I met just at the time I decided I wanted to be a writer. Wonderful, wonderful poet, criminally under-read. His novel Living in Little Rock with Miss Little Rock was nominated for all the big prizes. It's been my honor to correspond with him in recent years, and he's one of four or five people who've read my novel.

2. Mary Vancura--my high school English teacher who pushed me to do a lot more than I would have done on my own, and remains a huge influence and friend. Wouldn't have gone to Europe without her help. Made me feel I was special when I really needed to feel that way and didn't. Now she's retired and travelling the world, enjoying life (I hope) in a way I hope to do, if not now, then one day.

3. Donald Harington--another criminally under-read writer from the South, his books are absolutely wonderful and magical and dense and funny and amazing. Do yourself a favor and go get some from the library, especially his Stay More books. Start with the earliest you can find and work your way up. You'll thank me.

4. Anybody with the courage to leap off a cliff into the unknown for the chance to do what they've always wanted, rather than staying on the edge out of fear and the desire for certainty.

*Sigh*


Four books I have read or am currently reading:

My most recent reads:

1. Memoirs of a Wolfman by Paul Naschy. 70s Spanish horror actor/screenwriter/director who made some of the most outrageous and fun b-movies I've ever seen. I love Paul Naschy. I love his movies, his enthusiasm, and his huge pectoral muscles. If you don't, we can't be friends.

2. McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories (ed. Michael Chabon) Hit and miss, like any anthology. Made me realize that I used to think I loved Joyce Carol Oates's stories, and now I think that maybe I really don't.

3. The Ghastly One: the Sex-Gore Netherworld of Andy Milligan by Jimmy McDonough. Another filmmaker biography, this one much darker than Naschy's. Milligan was a playwright and artist around 42nd Street in NY and had a hand in starting the off-off-Broadway movement. Later he became a filmmaker, creating some truly strange and venom-filled flicks out of spit and tape. A really disturbed, horrible, and strangely fascinating figure, not the kind of guy you'd want to meet anywhere. McDonough's biography is so gripping that even if you've never seen a Milligan film, you'd be hard pressed to put it down.

4. Tremor of Intent by Anthony Burgess. I figured this would be dated as a Cold War spy novel, but I was gripped and entertained and made to think throughout. Sex, food, intrigue, philosophy, and a lot more sex. Great stuff. That Burgess, he was pretty good.

There you go, Greeny. Now you know. :)