Areas of Unrest

13 July 1999 - Followups

This entry is mostly a matter of following up on various things I've mentioned here recently. I'll note that feeling compelled to do this is another compulsive sort of thing, the same completeness obsession that makes it virtually impossible for me to walk out of a movie in the middle or to not finish reading a book. Though I've been stuck 1/3 of the way through Thucydides for close to two years now, so maybe there is hope for me yet. On the other hand I sat through all of Disco Beaver From Outer Space, which is undoubtedly the worst movie ever made. Let's just say the plot involves gay vampires threatening New York, a giant animated beaver arriving in a spaceship to slay the vampires and a disco soundtrack. The only way to have made it any worse would have been to have given Chevy Chase a major role. (The guy was funny back in his SNL days, but he has made the most atrocious movies.)

Anyway, I am still immersed in my jigsaw puzzle. Which means that, on the plus side, the dining room table is mostly cleaned off. On the minus side, I can't actually use the table until I finish the puzzle. I also discovered that the puzzle came with a packet of puzzle glue, which raises an interesting question. We never did puzzle glue; we always took the puzzle apart so we could do it again in the future. Never mind that puzzle mania requires a fresh puzzle - you can always do it when you just need something to do. But the puzzle glue is oddly tempting. At least it's less weird than what my mother once did. She completed a puzzle that she really liked. And she liked the picture (a scene of Mt. Vesuvius) so much that she commissioned an artist to paint it for her.

I don't actually remember whether I mentioned my latest musical obsession. It's an album called Brazzaville, that is sort of reminiscent of Ken Nordine's word jazz. I finally realized that I do know something about the group from the liner notes. They mention both The Onyx Cafe and Joe Frank - so they have to be local. The Onyx used to be the only real coffeehouse in Los Angeles and was basically a dive in Silverlake. They've since moved, opened an Onyx Sequel, closed the Sequel, and fall victim to the umptyump other coffeehouses that opened during that mid-90's period when they functioned as bars for people who had quit drinking. As for Joe Frank, he did a radio show on KCRW that is hard to describe but that fits in completely with this album - jazz music and eccentric rants. Anyway, I'd like to be less obsessed with this because it is mildly embarassing to stroll down the street and realize you are singing about Deng Xiaoping, the European trade commission and the sewers of Bangkok.

While I am still on the subect of music, there are several movies opening this weekend. Yes, like everyone else I want to see The Blair Witch Project and Eyes Wide Shut and Lake Placid. But the new movie I am most looking forward to is Genghis Blues, which is about a blues musician who goes to Tuva to compete in a throat-singing contest. Not the most commercial premise to be sure, but I absolutely love the idea.

Oh, yes, my desk chair was finally delivered. So there goes my best hope of a cushy living from a disability claim.

Finally, there are two consequences of the storytelling conference. One is that I am experimenting with using a plot structure that Loren Niemi called "regression" (basically, telling the story in reverse chronological sequence) to retell an urban legend. I love urban legends but I resist telling them because I always assume they are too familiar to an audience and I am excited about this piece because I think it will really put a new perspective on the story.

And I decided to go ahead and do something about all the discussion Elizabeth Gibson and I had about a California storytelling conference. So I put out a note on storytell and already gathered a group of volunteers to help. I've started making lists of things that need to get done. This looks to be a major time commitment, but it's certainly worth doing. I have to admit that part of my reason for wanting to do it is ego, a way of getting recognition within the larger storytelling community. Which raises the whole question of how common it is for people to do good things for bad motives.

If you could save the world but somebody else would get the credit, would you?