tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30220292012-02-08T01:35:12.266-08:00Follow the Lighted PromenadeThe fringe is a long, long way from the center. But things are brighter there.Dannoreply@blogger.comBlogger1981100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-70057303349937475762011-01-13T13:11:00.000-08:002011-01-13T13:19:30.564-08:00I should write here more. I was just reading through my old posts, marveling at them; they instantly bring me back to wherever I was at the time I wrote them.I am well now, though a bit worried about writing my thesis. I must use it as a learning experience: I feel about this like my students must feel about their work. I can work on my empathy.Much is going on here in the dead of winter. Dannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-83745221388619327912010-06-04T10:45:00.000-07:002010-06-04T11:58:20.467-07:00My annual end of year post...My eighth year of teaching done. I'd like to say it's been a fun, productive year, but it really has not. The environment at Calumet is, to put it lightly, positively cancerous - and there are people actively working to make things more so. It's the type of place (now) where one is judged not on what they do in their classroom (nor on how they do it) but rather on Dannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-32264933147958786212010-04-16T06:00:00.001-07:002010-04-16T06:00:26.732-07:00Mornings like this are why I love Spring in the Midwest: a glowing sky, filled with orange light yet threatening rain, o'erspreading the new green trees...it makes up for the fact that I had an absolutely ICY shower this morning.The sky is wide through my windows. (I'm sad I shal'n't have this room next year.) It makes me think of/ pine for travel.Below are a few pictures from my recent trip toDannoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-16719969710631630942010-04-16T05:24:00.000-07:002010-04-16T06:00:10.602-07:00Dannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-41266281491542313332009-12-02T13:14:00.000-08:002009-12-02T13:15:13.830-08:00Dannoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-85072406037821598242009-12-02T05:50:00.000-08:002009-12-02T13:17:16.187-08:00R.I.P. Lavinia Brugioni. Go forth in peace and light, dear friend.Dannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-78696214750952733992009-06-05T11:42:00.001-07:002009-06-16T11:04:51.577-07:00Once again, the last day of the year is upon me. Though not unhappy, I'm sort of limping into summer this time around. I've been so terribly busy and want nothing more than to just be for a spell, but I shalln't get that chance. Jeremy and I are speeding off on Sunday to conquer the Buffalo National Scenic River (backpacking) and then I'll get home just in time to start the Northwest Indiana Dannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-2861914045776994012009-04-12T19:57:00.000-07:002009-04-12T20:31:01.817-07:00Say goodbye to Alexandria leaving...Sitting in a cafe on a balmy Easter night...I am established at a hotel, prepared to embark tomorrow morning on a solo exploration of Louisiana's longest trail. Being down in the Deep South is like visiting a very good friend, like a homecoming. There is something about the Springtime here, especially in central Louisiana, where I came four long years ago to Dannoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-12890931981914937372009-01-28T09:51:00.001-08:002009-01-28T09:51:52.112-08:00"Little do men perceive what solitude is, and how far it extendeth. For a crowd is not company, and faces are but a gallery of pictures, and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love." - Francis BaconDannoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-65901468008321839552008-11-05T06:38:00.000-08:002008-11-05T07:13:01.977-08:00Four years ago, on the day after election day, I quoted Bob Marley's "Natural Mystic" to sum up what I felt:"Did you hear the first trumpet?Might as well be the last.Many more will have to die.Many more will have to cry.Don't ask me why."Last night, as Patricia and I moved through the massive crowd in Grant Park, through throngs of revelers, still basking in the afterglow of Barack Obama's Dannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-54241382580123608382008-10-10T05:37:00.000-07:002008-10-10T05:53:10.728-07:00I just thought this was cool - my first review.From the Internet Review of Science Fiction: (Reviewed by Lois Tilton)"Roaring Seraph, Singing Thunder" by Daniel BrugioniThe narrator and his wife once promised each other that they would never forego any opportunity to travel. Thus they found themselves accepting the offer of the Reverend Benjamin Garza to be his companions in his Equatorial AfricaDannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-29517801672065679892008-09-04T09:08:00.000-07:002008-09-04T09:14:16.867-07:00Rain DreamIt's so lovely outside, so rainy and beautiful. I'm trying to find a core of peace. Having sat through the duration of the Guiliani/ Palin speeches last night, I felt, as one writer put it, that I had eaten something rotten. Patricia, who is liberal but not very political, summed it all up perfectly: "It's just mean, and it's not true."If anyone wants me to, I'll go through Palin's Dannoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-90702245339620193532008-06-04T10:52:00.000-07:002008-06-04T11:45:15.060-07:00It's the last day of the school year, again, my sixth, and I am in a high place and filled with light. Good and big things afoot.Barack Obama, despite facing six months of vehement rhetoric and underhanded machine-candidate opposition, is the nominee of the Democratic Party. Though last night was somewhat anticlimactic (I feel he actually clinched it on May 6), I was able to enjoy it. Can one Dannoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-64622468264103620082008-05-05T11:03:00.000-07:002008-05-05T12:22:11.294-07:00An Indiana Teacher's Opinion on the Democratic PrimaryI felt the need to write this after learning of the AFT’s endorsement of Hillary Clinton, and, essentially, hearing only one side of the story. She has come out (in several speeches) against the No Child Left Behind Act, something I find very commendable, but I wonder if anyone is looking more deeply at the issues of this campaign.After Dannoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-59188677624625219192008-03-18T16:20:00.000-07:002008-03-18T16:21:10.849-07:00The east wind sighs, the fine rains come."Brutus, thou sleeps’t. Awake. Brutus, thou sleeps’t. Awake." - William ShakespeareThe above comes from an anonymous letter (actually written by Cassius) to Brutus, in the play Julius Caesar, warning him of the dangers of his obliviousness in a time of great political turmoil. The same might be addressed to us, now. You are sleeping. Awake. A certainDannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1188179350339051972008-02-29T11:52:00.000-08:002008-02-29T12:03:13.125-08:00The last words of the dying, or the first of the dead.Thought for the day:"The snow has gone from Chung-nan; spring is almost come.Lovely in the distance its blue colors, against the brown of the streets.A thousand coaches, ten thousand horsemen pass down the Nine Roads;Turns his head and looks at the mountains,--not one man!" - Po Chü-i (772-846)That poem stirs something deeply within me. One Dannoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-67272995952927567032008-01-15T14:38:00.000-08:002008-01-15T14:45:29.631-08:00Sitting in the computer lab at Purdue Calumet, about to begin my first class in nearly six years...Is that possible? I'm happy to say I don't wonder where the time has gone, for I've been fully aware of its passing, though six years does seem a bit much. Have you seen Salad Fingers? I think it's rather brilliant actually!G'day! It's twilight, and the light that falls in the high windows is Dannoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-6732950307344947142007-12-15T14:02:00.000-08:002007-12-15T14:06:19.815-08:00What a fun show last night! I've never had such fun playing live. Thanks to everyone who came!I've linked this site to the new Raintowers site - there is nothing on it yet, but check back for updates.It's snowing!Dannoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-260488525856395872007-12-14T11:15:00.000-08:002007-12-14T11:18:12.502-08:00This song conjures such beautiful images...the images themselves are music.This is why I write. Africa is still here, a very desperate love...Ismael Lo, "Jammu Africa."Dannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-14986499892583040142007-12-11T14:22:00.000-08:002007-12-11T14:29:29.911-08:00Below are some random pictures from our honeymoon - in no particular order.Sorry about the date in the corner, by the way. Click on the pictures - they get wicked huge. :)From top, down.1. Patricia and I at a bus stop in Halifax, Nova Scotia2. Contemplating the rain, Halifax.3. The best picture we have ever taken? Halifax.4. Fountain, Quebec City.5. Ghost in the footlights, Quebec City.6. Dannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-30228515650119402532007-12-11T14:01:00.000-08:002008-12-11T03:25:57.653-08:00Dannoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-20046056499086426932007-12-06T13:54:00.001-08:002007-12-06T13:59:38.336-08:00Storm clouds roll in. Set me free fortuna. It's late and I can't find my friends...Brazzaville.Just thought I'd stop by for a glad hello. I'm going to Chris's tonight to watch the Bears. I've been preparing for the live show next Friday (do come) and writing a bit, and coughing a lot - really interesting things, the size of medicine balls. :)I'm off to the snowy twilight.One cloud, fixed like Dannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-23100254332018937342007-11-09T14:15:00.000-08:002007-11-09T14:32:51.736-08:00Into the mysterious, the heart of light, the silence...I've often pondered on the fact that I've not found my niche in Chicago. I always long to be with the crowds I see flowing past my window, for they look so beautiful and vibrant, yet when I go to them, I find that I have nothing to say, that I'm awkward, that I speak a different language.Wednesday night, after immersing myself in the editing Dannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-61050649159167643192007-10-31T13:10:00.000-07:002007-10-31T13:24:00.270-07:00"October's poplars are flaming torches, lighting the way to winter." - Nova BairIt's the end of the day, an expansive twilight.News:Bo and I are playing a show on December 14th (a Friday) at the Coffee Fixx Bar in Chicago (Sheffield Ave., right by Belmont's Red Line stop). It's very easy to find, and a great place to sit and drink and watch a straight-as-tassel snowfall. So, come enjoy a night inDannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-31983035634810339812007-10-24T12:48:00.000-07:002007-10-24T12:50:04.763-07:00I just found out I had a story published! "Roaring Seraph, Singing Thunder" is coming out in the summer of '08 in Zahir Tales, one of my favorite magazines. I feel so happy!Dannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-26561722170236652912007-10-23T05:30:00.000-07:002007-10-23T05:37:04.672-07:00From the editor: Yesterday's post made me seem altogether more ambitious and fruitful than I actually am. In reality, I feel frazzled and uncertain. I apologize for any misunderstanding. :)The new radiohead album is very, very pretty and warm. Moving and autumnal.Dannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-50361829100936903682007-10-22T10:31:00.000-07:002007-10-22T10:49:23.820-07:00Follow the lighted promendade...Just thought I'd stop in and say hello while I drink coffee, put off grading papers, and look out over breathtaking autumn skies.I feel a bit crunched because the papers have accumulated faster than I can grade them. I'm teaching three different classes for the first time ever, and have just returned from a trip to rural Oregon (Kurt and Betty's wedding) and a Dannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-100293591282818002007-06-06T12:23:00.000-07:002007-06-06T12:29:01.598-07:00It's the last day of the year...again. The summer looms with less definition than in previous years, but the theme of this summer is to be open. I am open. This is going to be wonderful.I've been teaching for five years now. Wow. Twenty six to go. :)(That's a picture of the Polo Grounds in New York, btw, which was torn down in 1964.)Dannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-68110198388333743622007-06-06T08:19:00.000-07:002007-06-06T08:20:58.261-07:00I compiled this list - I'm not even sure if it's fully comprehensive, but I still feel accomplished.Short Stories1. Ascension2. Autonomy3. Ballad of Justin Grim, The4. Baseball Clown5. Bath with George Washington, A6. Billows, The7. Blind Merchant of Logrono, The8. Bloated and Pontifical9. Bone Valley10. Brin’s Woods 11. Brown Hour, The12. By the River’s Dark13. Correspondence Story14. Corydon15Dannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-86456608277399609072007-03-30T12:13:00.000-07:002007-03-30T12:45:03.138-07:00It's Friday, and I'm feeling expansive...Though I have wanderlust so badly that it makes me feel achey.Big things are here, and breathing, waiting.Two years ago today: In Mandeville, Louisiana, I wrote in a ghostly motel room..."A Slow Gin Fizz" is still one of my favorite stories.Read this ----->Article!Dannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-3706623365264221202007-03-26T06:54:00.000-07:002007-03-26T06:56:12.117-07:00Do yourself a favor. Rent Idiocracy - the Mike Judge film. It's stupid, witty, and hilarious, and blazingly satirical.Peace.Dannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-21712328478836991822007-03-20T06:27:00.000-07:002007-03-20T06:28:26.064-07:00Preach it, brotherman:"On writing, William Faulkner remarked, 'Let the writer take up surgery or bricklaying if he is interested in technique. There is no mechanical way to get the writing done, no shortcut. The young writer would be a fool to follow a theory. Teach yourself by your own mistakes; people learn only by error. The good artist believes that nobody is good enough to give him advice. Dannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-14020894264881613082007-01-29T12:03:00.000-08:002007-01-29T12:04:35.323-08:00I'm sorry for my lack of recent posts. I've rather enjoyed being reclusive. I've been reading Aku Aku by Thor Heyerdahl, and am more on Easter Island than I am here.Anyway, I've posted a few pictures from our trip to Key West below. I didnt know how to change the date on the digital camera...The pool and balcony are Ernest Hemingway's...I'm working on the trip account. If you want to read it, Dannoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-24070735912428720832007-01-29T11:41:00.000-08:002008-12-11T03:25:59.748-08:00Dannoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1162587871197000882006-11-03T12:53:00.000-08:002006-11-03T13:25:30.733-08:00On the way to school this morning, all the darkness that has been swirling about amalgamated into a story in my head. I scarcely remember the drive. When a story arrives like that, in a rush, I tend to get more introverted than normal; today was no exception - it was hard to keep my mind on tasks at hand.About a week or so ago, I happened upon the story of one R. Budd Dwyer, the former Treasurer Dannoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1149698732183133832006-06-07T09:25:00.000-07:002006-06-07T09:45:32.246-07:00And with a bow, I take my leave.Another end of another year. They are flowing like water now. There's a bittersweetness to this that I find ultimately very poetic.Anything to add a few lines to the book of longing.I'm leaving in a few days, and will crisscross the country listening to jazz. I've lain and ached for travel, for Patricia...but I've also been so comfortable alone, in my room, Dannoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1146588206232614702006-05-02T09:31:00.000-07:002006-05-02T09:43:26.243-07:00Reasons I am hopeful:Stephen Colbert. Did you see him go right at the President? He may be our Edward Murrow, and is sure one ballsey SOB.Neil Young. Living With War rocks! I've not been so moved politically since the demise of Rage Against the Machine.Patricia Ornett. I am so glad that I know her - she is unrelenting in her commitment to decency and ending human suffering. I love her so Dannoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1146254922280317102006-04-28T13:06:00.000-07:002006-04-28T13:08:42.293-07:00Living With War is just fucking incredible. Beuatiful, joyus and angry. This is moving, moving stuff.Listen: www.neilyoung.comI'm actually a little teary right now, but in a good way. There is hope.Dannoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1146165825413337892006-04-27T12:12:00.000-07:002006-04-27T12:23:45.423-07:00Here, are the lyrics to Neil Young’s "Let’s Impeach the President" from his new album Living With War:Let’s impeach the president for lyingAnd leading our country into warAbusing all the power that we gave himAnd shipping all our money out the doorHe’s the man who hired all the criminalsThe White House shadows who hide behind closed doorsAnd bend the facts to fit with their new storiesOf why we Dannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1139864354128401812006-02-13T12:48:00.000-08:002006-02-13T12:59:14.146-08:00Saturday night, I took my dusty copy of Flaubert's Madame Bovary and rode the trains to the far north of Chicago, alone, to see the Handsome Family. There's something fitting in that - it's been so long since I've done something alone, and their music is so echoey and lonely and aching, that it added to the mood. I felt far from lonely, especially since I had a nice conversation with both Dannoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1139518083607923562006-02-09T12:33:00.000-08:002006-02-09T12:48:03.616-08:00I am quite convinced that The Handsome Family may well be the best band in the world. And, I am going to see them on Saturday (at the Old Town School of Folk Music)...and, I just finished a story inspired by one of their songs, and I asked Rennie Sparks (of said Handsome Family) if she wanted to read it - and she said yes. So I shipped all 19,000 words of it to her.There's something draining inDannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1138998543616233282006-02-03T12:27:00.000-08:002006-02-03T12:29:03.630-08:00I can't believe I haven't linked this. My pal Randy made loner.blogspot.com T-shirts, and you can buy them here: Fight Maturity.And is anyone else looking at the sky - it's like the beginning of a story. :)My name is Daniel and I love clouds. (Hello Daniel).Dannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1138904007187191642006-02-02T09:53:00.000-08:002006-02-03T08:05:06.026-08:00I just started a book called Kon Tiki that Jeremy bought me more than a year ago for Christmas. I can't wait to raft along with Thor Heyerdalh and his men, across the wide, windy sweep of the Pacific. I've mentioned that one of the things I love most about winter is that it allows an expansion of thought, departures to the great other. Spring, Fall, and Summer are jealous seasons; they make you Dannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1137178149861217152006-01-13T10:48:00.000-08:002006-01-13T10:49:09.863-08:00Is this the same person? The bottom picture was taken just a year ago. (I look more benevolent now - and less squinty!)Dannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1137176565451216212006-01-13T10:07:00.000-08:002006-01-13T10:47:41.416-08:00Dannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1136841831777464752006-01-09T13:19:00.000-08:002006-01-09T13:23:51.786-08:00Christmas, 2005. My beard took control shortly after this picture was taken.Dannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1133209168718566952005-11-28T12:10:00.000-08:002005-11-28T12:23:33.656-08:00Here's a picture of me from February of 2001 (playing a song at Becky and George's wedding)...interesting how time seems to circle back on itself. :)Tonight I'm going to start work on another story - I love when ideas come my way rapid-fire; this one came to me on a long hike at the Dunes State Park (though the air was chilly, the sky looked tropical and my mind moved accordingly).And now, for Dannoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1132768633614210402005-11-23T09:40:00.000-08:002005-11-23T10:01:41.146-08:00Lit lamps at teatime. I think there will be a thunderstorm later in the afternoon. See how the clouds build to the west? I think there will be a storm.I awoke to snow and felt instantly happy - last winter was so awful, I just wanted it to die quickly and get warm and stormy, but now, I am ready for it. I love the way the days turn blue at twilight and the way I long for warmth when I'm out Dannoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1132077688492443972005-11-15T09:43:00.000-08:002005-11-15T12:20:35.003-08:00Way over yonder in the minor key -It's raining on my windows, and I am drinking coffee (remnants of my lunch break). Just thought I'd say hello to the online community (Hey yerself, Colleen!) and gather my far-flung thoughts together.Patricia came to visit earlier this month, and she got to meet many of my jackass friends. We stayed in the Allegro in Chicago again, and went to Navy Pier, and ate Dannoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1131573176767078552005-11-09T13:51:00.000-08:002005-11-09T13:52:56.770-08:00Here's Patricia, whom I miss. (I'm not sure why she's with me, so quit asking!) :)Dannoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1131573028789774932005-11-09T13:49:00.000-08:002005-11-09T13:50:28.800-08:00Patricia and her caveman boyfriend.Dannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1130244065012113562005-10-25T05:38:00.000-07:002005-10-25T08:00:34.710-07:00(I actually wrote this Monday, but my computer was being a jerk.)My heart has begun to long for Madagascar again. Yesterday, on a long walk through the new-blazing trees, I caught the leeward edge of a fantastic image…I was wearing my Blu Blockers (which make everything look somehow both old and profound) and gazing up through sunshafts to huge towering thunderclouds, marveling at how such a Dannoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1129322433563834762005-10-14T13:12:00.000-07:002005-10-14T13:40:33.570-07:00On the cusp of morning, I dreamt of the lowforests.Friday. Tired. Tonight I shall sleep for a long, long time.Last night, I rode my bike to the train station in East Chicago, took the train to the city, walked around downtown, ate at Elephant and Castle, saw the Art Institute and the changing trees of Millenium Park, took the train back to my bike, rode home, talked to Patricia until one, slept,Dannoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1128543641671081432005-10-05T13:05:00.000-07:002005-10-05T13:22:55.976-07:00Light rises high over darkened hills/ Ghosts of summer flit and flicker still.Just a quick update. I have to ride home, eat, and then ride back to school to judge the homecoming parade.I had a fantastic weekend with Patricia. We stayed in a four star hotel (the Allegro) in the heart of the Loop Friday night, and walked around Michigan Ave. in the wee hour hush of Saturday morning. The next day weDannoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1127161037469324762005-09-19T12:56:00.000-07:002005-09-19T13:17:17.476-07:00We're not living in our heads, but on the shore of muddy rivers.Let's see if I can, for the moment, get out of my head and write something. It's been a day of creative introversion, but it's not been bad at all. I'm just a bit tired. I went to Farm Aid yesterday with Chris and Herbie and had an all around marvelous time. I went to hear Wilco and Neil Young, both of whom played gorgeous yet Dannoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1126819361600158312005-09-15T13:57:00.000-07:002005-09-15T14:22:41.606-07:00I'm immersed in such a desperate, melancholic beauty right now. The sky is cloudy and profound, so lovely and sad that it makes my heart ache. I'm listening to the soundtrack from The Village, looking ahead to the dawning of autumn, the season of light, a time of camping and gloaming hikes, of Glo Balls and cabins, of profundity, of magic so great it can't really be pinpointed, only felt. I Dannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1126126834672382912005-09-07T13:28:00.000-07:002005-09-07T14:04:31.823-07:00Passed out in an asteroid field...I'm sitting here, in my sweltering classroom, listening to Hastings Street by Brazzaville, perhaps the most beautiful album I have ever heard. My, has it been an intense time!I have been riding every day. I hate the idea of funding the oil companies, the greedy fucks - 4th quarter profits of 35 billion dollars for Exxon-Mobile alone and they raise gas prices in aDannoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1125001768178414332005-08-25T13:22:00.000-07:002005-08-25T13:29:28.183-07:00For those of you wondering, I am still alive - I've just been busy. As soon as I can catch my breath, I'll tell you all about my happy, wonderful, exhausting life as of late. It's kinda been my best time.I feel like dusk in Embarcadero. A wandering fog that glows in the dark.Dannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1123397888052951482005-08-06T23:35:00.000-07:002005-08-06T23:58:08.060-07:00"You climbed a twilight mountain and you sang about the view."Greetings from Sunnyvale, California. I just finished a lemon sorbet, a perfect end to a day spent hiking in the redwoods. I saw a tree that was 330 feet tall, and another that was over 2,000 years old. It's been a wonderful trip, though the driving has thrown me for a loop; this is a seriously huge country.The highlights of my Dannoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1120594246311151352005-07-05T12:59:00.000-07:002005-07-05T13:10:46.316-07:00Am I odd for getting choked up seeing Roger Waters play with Pink Floyd again? I don't think so. Their separation was so grievous, so acrimonious, yet they looked so happy. When Gilmour and Waters harmonized on "Wish You Were Here," I teared up, despite the fact that Chris, Amy, Adam and Herbie were there with me. I've watched the tape several times, and each time I've felt this surge of Dannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1118721790510252952005-06-13T20:59:00.000-07:002005-06-13T21:05:08.680-07:00Oh my God!!!Roger Waters is reuniting with Pink Floyd!!! I really can't believe it.LinkDannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1118257845691167342005-06-08T11:22:00.000-07:002005-06-08T12:32:56.283-07:00Off we go...I am done! Summer is upon me. I am looking ahead to almost three months with none of the structure that has marked the winter and spring. I am resolved to make the most of things.I've been down these past few days...still am, but I've more of an eye for the happy things today.Yesterday I had a moment of deep loss amidst the towers of a thunderstorm. I listened to radiohead with the Dannoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1118087087727903492005-06-06T12:14:00.000-07:002005-06-06T13:01:43.496-07:00"I can watch but not take part/ where I end and where you start." - RadioheadI feel a little lonely today, and I'm wondering how much of this is self imposed. I find myself shutting off in situations where I used to be wide open - granted, that's natural after going through a breakup, but it's just not me. I've been able to connect with certain people (Chris, Adam, Amy, Jeremy, amongst others) Dannoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1117567398158963422005-05-31T11:58:00.000-07:002005-05-31T12:23:18.163-07:00Cafes at midnight, toasts to old suffering, a volley of music from the Maseru slums.I laughed a lot this weekend, which is exactly what I needed. I finished another story and it just hums - it is pretty damn weird, but I like the direction that my writing is taking. My late night ramblings have led me on some scintillating journeys, into some gorgeous places, down dirt-track roads into small, Dannoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1117078759055636292005-05-25T20:29:00.000-07:002005-05-25T20:39:19.060-07:00I have shown myself capabale of suffering for the irrefutibilty of truth. I have taken a step I have put off for far too long, and though I am hurting, it is a necessary evil.I don't want to carry my burden into the summer. So tonight I faced my fears head on and came out shaken but resolved.I've been holding on to nothing, and tonight I began to finally let it go.Dannoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1116532630522812322005-05-19T12:55:00.000-07:002005-05-19T12:57:10.526-07:00(This is the song I opened with at the Muse in March. I just found the lyrics and thought they were blog-worthy. Enjoy!)When I first caught your eyesYou were dancing through the treesThe rivers rolled and sighedAnd gurgled to the seaYou floated like a ghostUpon the morning’s mistYou were rainfall on the coastYou were lips that should be kissedLay me down on this hill and sing to me of stormsOn Dannoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1116259290249894762005-05-16T08:57:00.000-07:002005-05-16T09:01:30.253-07:00One of my favorite singer/ songwriters, David Brown from Brazzaville, actually read one of my stories, "Sleeping and Waking" and told me that I was a very talented writer with a very natural style. He has inspired much of my writing over the past six months, so this means a lot to me.I am going on one hour of sleep. Gawd, am I tired.Dannoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1115933304323772092005-05-12T14:16:00.000-07:002005-05-12T14:37:37.680-07:00Green Flash (another A-minor masterpiece!)She said meet me on the shoalWhere the red moonlight lingersWhere hot wind whispers on the bolesBright waters glowing with green flashShe led me down to the banks of MbiniShe said my friend you’re so cold and deadShe wrapped me in her silence and then began to singWhile the shadows fell on my riverbedWe’ll lean on the soft machinesAnd make up rhymes to Dannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1115837250646729802005-05-11T11:39:00.000-07:002005-05-11T11:47:30.656-07:00I was talking to Herbie the other night, about looking forward to the summer with both excitement and apprehension. I told him that I love the freedom that I feel, that sense of new beginnings and all that, but I told him that I was still trying to fill my emptiness. He looked at me and said, "We all are." That made me feel a lot better and a whole lot less alone. My friends, you have such Dannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1115411794136443092005-05-06T13:31:00.000-07:002005-05-06T13:38:17.570-07:00Moments of Zen:The Secret Machines rock - check them out! I have become obsessed!K-Os (a Canadian Hip Hop outfit, in the same vein as Outkast) is also amazing.Troll 2 is the greatest movie ever!!!I'm feeling a little better. There is humidity, heat, the promise of storms.There is a weekend and the promise of sleep.Dannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1115140389320836442005-05-03T10:04:00.000-07:002005-05-03T10:13:09.320-07:00I've come all unfocused. There has been laughter lately, as much as ever, but my mood these last few days reminds me of a P.T. Anderson movie, where the seemingly lighthearted events are underscored by a tense and ominous musical tone.I've lost connection with the bigger things. I feel a little lost, period. I feel like I don't matter very much, though I know I do. I just have to keep moving, Dannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1115059858690779532005-05-02T11:14:00.000-07:002005-05-02T11:50:58.690-07:00Thank you, good evening, welcome!I’ve been a sad, mopey little guy these last few days. Things feel better today, though, so that’s good. And it’s May!Let’s see: Friday, I went with Adam and Chris to a Japanese restaurant and blew my nose about four thousand times. I slept for ten hours.Saturday, Sophia, Adam and I went to the Tandoor (oh, how I had missed that place, that waystation of Dannoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1114793953285813392005-04-29T09:47:00.000-07:002005-04-29T09:59:13.286-07:00I said I can't open my eyes/I said I'm hot and river blind/I've lain through the echoing evening/In dim purgatorial musings...I have been sick for five straight days; I think I've lost hold with reality! I went to the movies last night with Paulie and Sophia and had a good time, but then I went home and coughed until three in the morning. I've averaged about three hours of sleep over the Dannoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1114024854806195482005-04-20T12:12:00.000-07:002005-04-20T12:20:54.806-07:00"God is alive. Magic is afoot." - Leonard CohenI've got the impetus for a story, involving shanties, rivers, madness and storms. Everything feels big right now. I can feel the knotted coils unravelling. I am even thinking of my novel again, "The Lamplighter," which I so cruelly abandoned in lieu of other endeavors. It's waited patiently - easily the best and oddest thing I've written.The Dannoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1113505168761533752005-04-14T11:55:00.000-07:002005-04-14T11:59:28.763-07:00"Dominated by the need to feel safe, we lose our ability to venture and our world gradually becomes smaller and smaller . . . and so do we."I'm not sure who said that, but it's awesome. I shall venture on, my world continually expanding...I talked with Rhonda last night, the busiest of my friends. We got to discussing the big changes we’ve each made in our lives and how difficult they’ve been (Dannoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1113244850617153122005-04-11T11:18:00.000-07:002005-04-11T11:40:50.616-07:00It will be rain tonight…(Then let it come down!)I feel languid, sluggish and slow-moving. I never sleep well on Sundays. I’m attuned to the weekend’s clock, and 5:51 hits me in the face every Monday morning.But what a cool weekend! Adam is back from San Diego and Chris and Amy are back from Michigan – the writing group has reunited. We all met up at Aladdin Pita Saturday to discuss my story, Dannoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1112986531656047332005-04-08T11:55:00.000-07:002005-04-08T11:55:31.656-07:00Something big is gonna happen...Dannoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1112877857841859782005-04-07T05:43:00.000-07:002005-04-07T05:44:17.843-07:00A long dormant voice now speaks of trips half taken. I leave the safety of numbers for the mystery of the trail.I read a quote somewhere which said that anyone who reads a person’s diary gets exactly what they deserve. I find blogs all to be vaguely pretentious – except for mine, which is exceedingly pretentious. These are the words of a man pulling himself up out of a long dark.I heard the Dannoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1112626580036181612005-04-04T07:52:00.000-07:002005-04-04T08:09:29.663-07:00Kindness will find you when darkness has fallen ...My, my do I feel so much better after my pilgrimmage! Things are explosive. There is a nice balance between happiness and melancholy. I feel I am standing at the edge of a great mystery, poised on the cusp of a new awareness. Yesterday, I tried (vainly) to articulate what I was feeling to poor Heather, and though it was a relief to speak what Dannoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1112568605263364132005-04-03T15:47:00.000-07:002005-04-03T15:50:05.263-07:00I am back, typing at Heather's...this is the fist time I've talked with anyone that I know in nearly ten days, and though it feels good to be back, I'm sad that the trip is over. It was so beautiful, so spiritual...I've certainly been changed by Louisiana, which I suppose was the whole reason for going.I feel down, but, as Gibran said, who can separate himself from his sorrow or solitude withoutDannoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1112211489725816222005-03-30T11:19:00.000-08:002005-03-30T11:38:09.726-08:00I bask in equatorial haze...I made it down to Grand Isle, an island at the far southeastern tip of Louisiana, where I am typing and looking out over the ocean. I had planned to stay another night, but beyond fishing, drinking, and eating fish there isn't anything to do here, and my hotel afforded no view and was a poorish value at almost 7o dollars a night. So I shall head north, listening to Dannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1112126748912415172005-03-29T11:49:00.000-08:002005-03-30T11:17:54.823-08:00Greetings from Ville Platte, LA...Where it's 76 degrees and feels hotter. I've been backpacking the last three days - alone! - and just got out of the woods this morning. I smell like I've been backpacking for three days, so me thinks I'll get a hotel room tonight (somewhere on the coast) shower, eat a pizza, and write until little pieces of bone are sticking through my fingertips. The muse is Dannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1111693816975917712005-03-24T11:20:00.000-08:002005-03-24T12:21:57.110-08:00"Solitude has soft, silky hands, but with strong fingers it grasps the heart and makes it ache with sorrow. Solitude is the ally of sorrow as well as a companion of spiritual exaltation." Kahlil Gibran.That quote moved me profoundly today.I've not slept well, nor have I been able to rise above the pall that has descended over me in previous days. I think that my sickness, coupled with anxiety Dannoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1111611222390446912005-03-23T12:41:00.000-08:002005-03-23T12:53:42.390-08:00In frigid purgatorial fires...Tomorrow I leave for the Gulf Coast - I've got a massive story to finish, so I'll spend at least a few nights in cheap motels. I want to find my Indian name, but that may be hard since I'll neither fast nor smoke peyote. Perhaps I'll just hold my breath until a vision comes.I'm sick but on the mend. Heather and I declared a new holiday yesterday: Suck Day, the Dannoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1111524821837311892005-03-22T12:50:00.000-08:002005-03-22T12:53:41.836-08:00There is more here...Dannoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1101751728288161072004-11-29T10:06:00.000-08:002004-11-29T10:08:48.290-08:00 Let me set a scene for you:
There is a round bed in the far right corner of a room. The bedclothes are in disarray. There is a door just to the left of the bed in the far wall and it opens upon the sea.
It is cloudy but the sun’s ghost lingers in the clouds’ confluent ripples. The sea is the color of winter skin, though alive and vibrant, murky, promising kept Dannoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1101241975257583712004-11-23T12:24:00.000-08:002004-11-23T12:32:55.256-08:00The wind blew me back, via Chicago, in the middle of the night.
I'm enjoying a necessary melancholy, awaiting either the catalyst or the renewal. Bitter searching of the heart, alone and pensive, I've ringed my room with lights.
I went to a cabin with Chris and Amy and Adam and Sarah over the weekend. I loved it so much that it hurt me when I left it. I was able to take a breath, enjoy the Dannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1099529027958658662004-11-03T16:42:00.000-08:002004-11-03T16:46:16.176-08:00Did you hear the first trumpet?
Might as well be the last.
Many more will have to die.
Many more will have to cry.
Don't ask me why.
-Bob Marley
November 2, 2004: The Day of the Dead.
Dannoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1097607477510281002004-10-12T11:48:00.000-07:002004-10-12T11:57:57.510-07:00I have a cheesy song in my head: "If you leave me now, you'll take away the biggest part of me/ Whoo-hoo-hoo." I heard it in Shaun of the Dead. That's the funniest movie maybe ever.
I was riding my bike through the autumnal vesper last evening, marvelling at the changing colors of the trees and the vast emptiness of the sky...and I realized that I was a modern day Ichabod Crane. I am a Dannoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1095964540191940362004-09-23T11:19:00.000-07:002004-09-23T11:35:40.190-07:00My favourite words:
thunderstorm
gloaming
equatorial
dazzling
euphonious
travel
tintinnabulation
resonance
valley
autumnal
effluvium
luminous
cumulus
hinterlands
collossal
wilderness
copse
I went camping over the weekend, to beautiful Wyalusing State Park in western Wisconsin with Sarah and Evil Lucas. It was nice to get away, though I'm really not burned out with school yet. I'm having a Dannoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1094242063839847332004-09-03T12:58:00.000-07:002004-09-03T13:07:43.840-07:00Turning parasols and skirts billowing with wind...
Just a quick hello...I am teaching again, and having a wonderful time. I've not been writing as much, but I've a vision of vineyards and a truck with no radio, and the lights of a city spilling across a valley - so I shall.
Roger Waters just released two new songs via his website, www.rogerwaters.com. Check them out - they are self-parodying Dannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1093615474086637022004-08-27T07:02:00.000-07:002004-08-27T07:04:34.086-07:00Trip: An Outlander, a Thousand Towns.
(8/15) I met Jeremy on a Sunday, at a small park miles into the starry darkness; I left for Michigan, alone, on a Sunday night – there is no greater freedom than going somewhere alone on a Sunday night.
The fall crept in from the north, and peered from the crimsoning ridges – our fire was low and filled with steam and wet hissing; I slept Dannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1092961252047278192004-08-19T17:11:00.000-07:002004-08-19T17:20:52.046-07:00Is the same moon that I'm seeing
The one that throws your shadow down?
Is the same air that I'm breathing
The air that fills your fields with silver sound?
I know that I've not seen you
Or felt your lips' caress
Since a thousand moons have sunk down
Into a thousand beds
But do you recall
The broken winds of fall?
The hills that stretched forever
Beneath their blazing pall?
Working on a song inDannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1090314198982194752004-07-20T01:46:00.000-07:002004-07-20T23:54:25.030-07:00The moon casts an odd glow tonight. I feel far from home and untogether. Unread and underproductive. Loud and distorted.
Alone with dreams at two in the morning.
Full of thoughts too big.
I love my friends and feel thankful - despite everything, I'm never alone.
I am a teacher and I live what I do.
I am a writer, though sometimes I wonder where it all comes from and where it all goes, Dannoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1079709301074714402004-03-19T07:15:00.000-08:002004-03-20T14:17:44.640-08:00Bush Lied!
Today marks the one year anniversary of the day ignorance reigned supreme and life was lost. King Dubya launched his "preemptive" strike against Iraq (to stop their production of nuclear weap...Ahem...weapons of mass...Ahem...evil) and showed the world the wonders of his bloated military budget and ego. I nearly cried when I saw a live picture of Baghdad (just before Shock and Awe) Dannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1079536741069432652004-03-17T07:19:00.000-08:002004-03-17T07:22:15.513-08:00It's been a long time since I've posted here. It certainly has been an interesting time - not boring at all; it's just that I express myself more eloquently in my stories and most of my creativity goes there.
I've been a loner again. It's really hard for an introvert to be a teacher and usually I am just overcome at the end of the day. I'll take a nap, eat dinner in front of the Simpsons, Dannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1067958384950160802003-11-04T07:06:00.000-08:002003-11-04T07:06:40.936-08:00Tonight's the Night
I can feel that the magic is out there - but I cant quite touch it. I have very little to give. I guess I need to be selfish, but I feel that that's all I've been lately.
I'm writing a World War One story because I like the forgotten desolation of that war. I hope to capture the mood. I feel happiness swim to the surface of the ice and then retreat. I want to be Dannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1067534370956951492003-10-30T09:19:00.000-08:002003-10-30T09:19:29.046-08:00"A pioneer should have imagination, should be able to enjoy the idea of things more than the things themselves." - Willa Cather, O' Pioneers
Seldom have I come across a quote that has so clearly defined my approach to everything. I have a lot to say. My mind is too hummy right now. I'll get back to you later.
Suffice to say that I am writing again - a lot. Kudos to my friends who have takenDannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1066329548088090342003-10-16T11:39:00.000-07:002003-10-16T11:39:07.640-07:00Tuesday for me was devastation. Wednesday was an ache, a resignation. Tuesday we choked. Sunday and Wednesday we were simply outplayed and there is no harm in that. I grieved on Tuesday, grieved for Ronnie, for Steve Bartman, for Ernie Banks, for what might have been. By Wednesday I was tapped out. I still had hope but was acquiescent with the fact that it was not meant to be.
Today I am Dannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3022029.post-1062188385708986632003-08-29T13:19:00.000-07:002003-08-29T13:19:45.700-07:00I need something loud. I'm only good when I write with passion.
I awake to scattering, fantastic dreams, to the sound of the crickets, shuffle to the bath boneworn, ride to work under looming, low skies that would be beautiful.
Are you passionate? Are you living like you talked?
Got Neil's newest, Greendale, a wonderfully flawed epic, beautiful, simple, hokey enough to avoid that Andrew Dannoreply@blogger.com0