In Common with Humans

You know what? As an alumnus…I just may go to the commencement festivities this year. Even if I have to rent an academic gown.

‘Harry Potter’ creator J.K. Rowling to speak at Harvard

This is just too priceless.

Last week, the Boston Globe reported on a local taping of Howard Zinn’s book, A People’s History of the United States, with some fairly well-known performers contributing their voices, including Danny Glover, Viggo Mortensen, David Strathairn, Josh Brolin, and Marisa Tomei.

On January 11th, the Globe printed this letter from an amused Bostonian:

I was fortunate enough to be a member of the audience in Wednesday afternoon’s taping of the readings from Howard Zinn’s book “A People’s History of the United States” by some really terrific actors, among them “Lord of the Rings” star Viggo Mortensen, who comports himself completely graciously and without ego (“Actors ‘Speak’ out,” Names, Jan. 10).

Mortensen and Zinn went across the street from the theater to Dunkin’ Donuts. A woman rushed up to Zinn and started gushing about how she was a student of his 20 years ago. Zinn said that he remembered her (and he probably does), they reminisced, and then she reached into her purse, pulled out her camera, handed it to Mortensen, and asked him to take a picture of her with Zinn.

This is Boston.

It sure is…home of the bean and the cod, where university professors and authors are more highly esteemed than movie stars…and where people don’t know who Viggo Mortensen is. Poor Viggo!

Fifteen days into the new year, and I’m still wrangling with corporate bureaucracies and trying to get the services I’m paying for from the telephone company, FCHP and my bank.

venting under cut to spare bandwidth

…especially writers who are also movie buffs. 🙂

This was posted to the Broad Universe e-list.

I wasn’t going to do any more memes, but I couldn’t resist this one

For anyone who has read my novel, Mortal Touch, you can vote for it in the Preditors and Editors 2007 Reader’s Poll, from now through January 15th. Mortal Touch is in the Horror Novel category, at http://www.critters.org/predpoll/novelh.shtml. Books are listed alphabetically by title. All you need to do is select the title you’re voting for, then go to the bottom of the list and enter your name and an e-mail address for your vote to be confirmed (you’ll get an e-mail with a link to click). Thanks!

I just need to rant! (long)

SF Gate columnist Mark Morford pointed me to this one:

The Edge Annual Question — 2008

“When thinking changes your mind, that’s philosophy.
When God changes your mind, that’s faith.
When facts change your mind, that’s science.

WHAT HAVE YOU CHANGED YOUR MIND ABOUT? WHY?

Science is based on evidence. What happens when the data change? How have scientific findings or arguments changed your mind?”

165 “important” people answered the question, most of them scientists, but not all–Alan Alda is one of the respondants, for example. Mark Morford suggests reading the list (or a representative sampling)–and then answering the question yourself.

Just in case anyone was left in suspense after my post on the 25th…

personal stuff under cut to spare flists

…especially those of you who are frustrated, uncertain of yourselves, trying to find more time to write, wondering how to improve, develop or change what you do, and so on…

I have Salon.com headlines on My Yahoo, and today they featured this article: “Go Away, Can’t You See I’m Writing?” To read Salon.com for free, you usually have to sit through a little Flash commercial–after a few seconds, you can click the prompt to “go to Salon” and read the piece.

If you don’t have time for the whole thing, I’d like to point out this particular recommendation:

“So I recommend that you find a writing workshop and attend it regularly for at least one year. Ideally, it would be a group that follows the Amherst Writers and Artists method, but just make sure there is a method. If there is no suitable workshop in your area, then buy the book “Writing Alone and With Others,” follow the detailed instructions in it and create your own workshop. That is what I did.“

If you’ve had problems with writers’ workshops, classes, “support groups” and other such activities–and it wouldn’t surprise me, because finding a good one is like finding a decent therapist or the perfect mate, possible but not probable–then this may be a helpful alternative. Anyway, I’m just passing it on for interests’ sake!

(Caveat: since Cary Tennis markets her workshops for profit, her advice should be evaluated accordingly. It’s the same on the [self-publishing] Yahoo group: the editors all say you have to pay for editing, the designers all tell you that hiring a designer is mandatory, the book coaches all claim no one succeeds without a book coach…etc. But the hardest and ultimately most important skill for every writer to learn is how to honestly and accurately evaluate his or her OWN work. You can’t hire enough “pros” to substitute for that. Any “workshop” worth its salt has taught you how to outgrow the workshop by the time it’s over. JMHO!)