This is what happens when I don't write to here for 3 months... I'm going to ramble like a motherfucker now about all sorts of shit while I watch the Met game and think about breakfast at 2pm on a hot-ass Saturday.
A lot of why I poofed away, once again, has to do with this article by Sarah Hepola. She talked about how she finally realized that her best work was being poured into a blog, when it should have been put to better use in a planned novel. And while I'm not going to go so far as to say that my best work has been on these pages (because if that's the case, I'm a pretty awful writer after all), I thought the concept was interesting. But, I've missed the outlet, and I like being here. So, I'm back. At least for now.
Sometimes, you find a band that you know damn well you should have been listening to for years but just never have. That's how I was with Leonard Cohen for a while, and now it's the same for the Pixies. I've known for years that I should have been listening, and now I'm finally catching up. I can't turn off Surfer Rosa.
At the same time, I'm rediscovering my old ska collection, and I'm remembering just how much I used to love this music when I was, say, 18-22.
If I ever decide to resurrect Inactual Size, the very first thing I'm going to post back (thereby making this line redundant) is Zach Galifianakis vs. Johnny Fairplay vs. Alcohol. Incidentally, it's so named because of the CD Patton vs. Alcohol vs. Zach vs. Patton, a small piece of genius I picked up on the Comedians of Comedy tour when it hit Irving Plaza last year.
And speaking of Zach, watch Dog Bites Man on Comedy Central before it goes away, which I suspect is soon already.
Enough about how I've been entertaining myself (or at least some of how I've been entertaining myself)... Work has been work, play (i.e. alcohol) has been play.
Dating in NYC blows, as if anyone needed to be told that. I've got a good solid rant or two on that topic stored up in my head, but I think that it deserves its own piece. Plus, I'm still not sold on dragging my entire dating escapades out into the public domain. For one thing, I read people's shit where they talk about every single detail, and it seems self-serving. And while that both appeals (since I'm a self-serving kind of guy) and repulses/frightens (because I value my privacy) me, I also think it potentilly can sabotage a date, and here's why: Don't you, at least sometimes, Google people before you date them? If someone knew my name and Googled for me, they could possibly find this, and I'm just not sure that I want them reading my innermost thoughts about them.
Meh, whatever.
I'm doing something I've never done before for a writing project: research. Seriously. It sounds like it should be something basic, but I've managed to never have to do it before. Everything else I've ever written has a mix of both "write what you know" and just a general non-need for it. I've been sitting on The Big Idea (heretoafter referred to as TBI) for a while, and I acquired a number of books late last year to help me on that research and started reading them, but it proved a little too daunting to me for the time. Plus, I think much the way Kevin Smith has talked about how he had the concept for Dogma long before he had the idea for Clerks. I think I'm just not the writer (or the man) I need to be to write TBI just yet. One day, though. In the meantime, I'm working on a project that requires some research, but nowhere near the same depth, so it's proving to be a nice warmup for me. Plus, I hate to sound like such a douche, but walking into the library and telling the clerks there that I'm doing research for a book, even though I know they hear that line 50 times a day, just feels good.
As I've been writing, the Met game has gone from 2-1 Mets in the 1st into 3-3 in the 3rd. Fucking El Duque.
I think I've prattled on enough for now. I'd like to say I'll be back soon, but I've said that shit before, and I'm just a big liar at this point.
UPDATE @ 4pm: Ok, El Duque has retired 17 straight Braves now without giving up a hit and it's 10-3. I take back my "Fucking El Duque" comment from before.
