Excerpts from the past couple days

2.

I must keep up with West of Here by Jonathan Evison. It’s this great novel about a fictional town of Port Bonita in Northwest Washington. It follows an ensemble of characters from the late 1800s who are out to tame the land and manifest their destinies. Then, Evison mixes it up with the folks who live in it during 2006—complete with shattered hopes and a general sense of “I’m stuck and haven’t done anything with my life.”

4.

Got a LOT of notes from yesterday’s run of An Enemy of the People. To be honest, I got upset by the sheer quantity, but they are detailed and will only make the performance better. I intend to review them a couple times before Sunday’s run. It’s all about telling a clearer, more compelling story. It’s not personal.

7.

The Hunger Games book is on my nightstand. I cannot crack it open for fear that is all I will do for the entire day.

10.

This entry is inspired by David Shields’s book Reality Hunger, which is a collection of quotes and writing about paving the wave for a new genre of literature. It’s post-post modernism / fusion reality (I made that up) that is so strange. I expect to write more about this. But he is fascinated with the idea of reality, memoir, and form. It’s a call to arms. He has no qualms about plagiarism. In fact, I think much of the book are actually quotes from other sources. He didn’t want to attribute them, but I think his publishers made him write a list of sources in the very back.

11.

I don’t know what to make of the book just yet, but it’s fresh, and promises to say quite a bit about social networking and reality television. I’m trying not to race through it (and I’m also trying to stay with West of Here).

12.

I’m not saying that West of Here is a bad read or anything like that. What I am trying to say is this: I want to keep my intake of media/culture/art/what have you more contained. So that means NOT having a bookmark in 5 different books at the same time.

15.

I was tempted to go to the Cities this weekend. There are some great events going on. But I’m glad I opted for staying in town and laying low. This means, yes, I’m still in bed at 2 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon. I did get up for coffee and some cereal.

17.

Today’s inbox was quite full, for a Saturday. Most of them were comments on Facebook for a fan page I moderate. But another one was from the head of a graduate acting program. But it was a cryptic message. I didn’t even want to write about this, but obviously, it’s on my mind. I can say that it wasn’t an offer, but it wasn’t a rejection either.

19.

Say what you will, but I think Anne Hathaway is stunning and quite a good actor.

20.

Say what you will, but James Franco is amusing.

21.

I am, however, upset about his Ph.D. in Literature stint.