Drinking and Writing

Should a lowly blogger quibble with the editor of the Claremont Review of Books?

Clearly, Joseph Tartakovsky knows his stuff. His column in the Los Angeles Times about writers and boozin’ cited many examples, from Cratinus to Norman Mailer. Keats, Pope, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Kerouac—all were there to toast Tartakovsky’s thesis, that “Intoxication, if not the source of literary creation, creates a cerebral aura congenial to it.”

Wow. That’s why I don’t have a contract yet—I’m not writing drunk!

Seriously, with 1,500 years and hundreds of well known writers to choose from, you are going to find some drunks. But to claim, as Tartakovsky does, that “Wherever you find the pen and ink set, drink is an emblem of vivacity and wit,” is misleading, silly, and insulting.

In no particular order, here are a few writers that come to mind who were not drunks, did not start each day by getting sloshed, and in spite of that, managed to produced some fairly decent prose: Abelard and Heloise, Boethius, Thoreau, Ben Franklin, Nietzsche, Asimov, Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, Agatha Christie, Dante, Stephen King (now), Lovecraft, J. K. Rowling, Tolkien and his buddy C. S. Lewis, Anne Rice, Ray Bradbury, Michener, Conan Doyle, Rudyard Kipling, George Orwell, T.S. Eliot, Henry James, Mark Twain, Gore Vidal, David McCullough, Isabel Allende, John Stuart Mill, Maya Angelou, Garcia Marquez, Melville, Orson Scott Card, Ursula Leguin, L. Frank Baum, William Golding, Jane Austen, Rex Stout, Dorothy L. Sayers, Harlan Ellison, H. G. Wells, Terry Pratchett, Daphne du Maurier, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Solzhenitsyn, Cormac McCarthy . . .

Some of these writers (Nietzsche, for instance) were teetotalers, others drank socially, but none, I’m pretty sure, needed a drink to (quoting again) “soothe anxiety and other stultifiers of reflection.” Or to “thaw the thoughts frozen in timidity.”

Does Dr. Tartakovsky have issues?

Getty Images

Apparently I jumped the gun in an earlier post, announcing that Getty Images was partnering to make free pictures available. Presumably, that could still happen, but the latest news is that Getty Images has been bought by Hellman & Freidman, a private equity firm--for $2.4 billion. Details at Unbeige, which seems to be part of Mediabistro.

Don't know where that leaves the partnership with PicScout and free pix deal--hopefully, still viable. Because, blog posts are nothing without pictures, but starving writers can't afford royalties for most of them! They won't sue me for using a logo, will they?

Plaza that Predates Stonehenge Found in Peru

A circular plaza built of rocks and adobe bricks has been found in Peru, north of Lima. Why is that important? The plaza dating back 5,500 years! It was found under the ruins called Sechin Bajo.

This picture comes from Science News and is credited to EPA/El Comercio newspaper. Their story further id's the spot as at a coastal zone and mountain range in the Casma region, in northern Ancash.

The Science News story (apparently taken from El Comercio) says that a relief on one of the walls shows an executioner holding a knife in his right hand and a serpent in his left. The figure has feline teeth.

"'Peruvian archeology now finds itself for the first time with a representation of a figure that endured 3,000 years, until the end of the Moche culture, which is when the figure disappeared, although it almost certainly remained in the minds of the Andean peoples for a long time afterward,' said Jesus Briceno, scientific advisor to the Sechin Bajo project. "

A few miles away is Caral, some 5,000 years old. Caral, according to the Reuters' story, is one of five places in the world where humans began living in cities around the same time. The other sites are Egypt, India, Mesopotamia, and China.

Do-You-Still-Beat-Your-Wife Journalism

Remember that song from the Music Man about gossip? "Pick a little, talk a little, peck a little, talk a little, cheep cheep cheep! Talk a lot, pick a little more."

Is it OK to print nasty rumors about a public person--say, oh, I dunno. . . say a candidate for president--as long as your newspaper story clearly says that the rumors are unsubstantiated?

The New York Times seems to think so. Hey, is it their fault that the top story on my Yahoo screen is "Cindy McCain, like others, stands by man" ? I mean, gee, they said it was an unsubstantiated rumor.

The Poynter Institutes "Everyday Ethics" column has choice words for the Times; the title of today's column is "Repeating what you don't report." Unless you're a journalist or an ethicist, though, here's the bottom line: the New York Times says John McCain was carrying on with a hot DC lobbyist a few years ago. OOOOOOHHHHHH!

As a bleeding heart liberal who is usually rather gleeful when Republican candidates gag on thier own self-righteousness, I have to say this makes me ill. Shame on the NY Times. Glad I've never been a subscriber.

7000 Year Old Village, and Opportunistic Archaeology

Remains of a Neolithic village in Egypt are being excavated and studied. The village dates back at least 7,000 years, which puts it way before the Pharoahs and makes it the oldest village found in that area. People there harvested barley and emmer wheat, kept pigs as well as herd animals like sheep, and traded for shell ornaments.

The site is about 50 miles SW of Cairo, at the Fayiem depression.

"It's clear that this was not a bare existence that people had here. They made a pretty good life for themselves," says one of the researchers (Willeke Wendrich of UCLA) according to the National Geographic story. More pictures (also courtesy of National Geographic, which funded the dig) are here.

"Farming probably occurred much earlier in Egypt, experts agree, but those first settlements would most likely have been along the banks of the Nile River and would have been obliterated by the periodic flooding and course changes of the river." (from a Los Angeles Times story by Thomas Maugh.)

The story is exciting by itself, but it also points out the opportunistic nature of archaeology. We can't find everything. We only find, by sheer luck, bits and pieces that survive.

No one is rewriting the book on Egyptian history, because of course there were villages in Egypt before the rise of the Pharoahs. Historians were sure of it. But to actually find the remains of one is extraordinary. Fayiem will be studied and we'll know a lot more about how people lived--and lived well--7,000 years ago.

My favorite quote on this topic is from Stuart Piggott's book, The Druids: "Archaeological evidence in itself consists of the accidentally durable..."

Accidentally. If trained PhD's find the site and make careful records, the best they can do is say "We found this, and we think it implies this."

That's the best case. But what often happens is that looters dig up a pot or arrowhead, sell it to someone who fakes a document, and so the guesses made later about "this implies this" are even shakier. Sad, huh?

Gainfully Employed Writers

The writers' strike is settled; we can all go back to vegeing in front of the plasma screen, confident that we will now have quality entertainment rather than a plethora of reality shows featuring people even more stupid than we are (maybe . . . Come to think of it, we're the watchers. Doesn't that make us . . . never mind.)

To celebrate, the Los Angeles Times asked writers to pen Op-Ed pieces for the Feb. 13, 2008 edition. No one wrote anything serious, thankfully, which made the Op-Ed page much more readable that usual. No link--the Times doesn't keep articles up for more than a week or two. But here's a sampling.

Tim Long, writer and Executive Producer of The Simpsons:

I began the strike with lofty plans to write a novel, which soon turned into a novella, which then turned into 13 solid weeks of playing "Guitar Hero III" in my underpants.

Ken Levine, writer for Mash, Cheers, and Frazier:

The great American novel that I started four strikes ago is almost done. I figure one more strike, two at the most . . . So I've got a target date of 2014, but I'm close. Really close. I can feel it.

Frank Pierson, who wrote Dog Day Afternoon:

Write an Op-Ed piece? Sure. Haiku-like
They'll change it
Cut my heart out
Old story.

I'm so glad they're back at work. I want those literary agents free to deal with ME.

going green

A friend sends me an announcement about a big scirptwriting contest: Scriptopalooza. Win a ten thousand dollar prize!

Well, I don't write scripts but this caught my eye: The Scriptopalooza Contest is going green. They even have a logo! How does it go green? The contest is now accepting email entries.

Some might call that joining the twenty-first century, rather than going green.

They really do award $10,000, btw.

Archaeology, Los Angeles

Here's a post link to my other blog, about Native American remains in Los Angeles County.

Not to repeat it all here, but during the construction of a pricy condo development, bodies of the Tongva people were found--a cemetery full. There are still people who belong to this tribe--the Tongva are often called Gabrielinos. Rather than turn over the bodies for reburial, the "authorities" (whatever that means) have stored and studied them and apparently wanted to hold on to them a while longer, because. . . um. . . . I dunno.

Read further, if you like. Most Los Angeles folks have never heard of Tongva, but Los Angeles itself is pretty poor at preserving or celebrating its history.

Free Pictures!

Whee! According to Journalism.co.uk, Getty Images is partnering with PicScout to make millions of pictures available for posting on blogs like this! Read the Press Release for details.

I always try to use pictures from free sites (like MorgueFile), but honestly, for many subjects the pickings are slim. So yes, I use pictures from websites and online archives, hoping that the fact that I fully credit the source will spare me from legal consequences. After all, it's just a blog. Really.

But I've used Getty Images for a paid gig and their collection is in-effing-credible. So I will be eagerly monitoring PicApp.com, which is currently in Beta, waiting for them to give me the enchanted entree to The Mystical Archive Palace. My tail is switching back and forth. . . .

Ernie Pyle at Peace

It may be stretching the point to call a photo of WW2 journalist Ernie Pyle "archaeology" but it definitely falls under the freelance writing heading of this blog.

Pyle wrote dispatches from the battlefronts of World War 2 that touch the heartstrings in a hundred ways. He was killed in 1945, and only now--63 years later--has a copy of a photo of him surfaced, taken just after he died. No gaping wound, just a rather peaceful photo.

Right to the point, here's a link to the USA Today story, that reprints the photo. The photos of D-Day and the Normandy coast here are from the Library of Congress' Prints & Photo Collection, online.

And here is a link to several of Ernie Pyle's wartime dispatches. My particular favorite is "A Long, Thin Line" written from the beaches just after the Normandy invasion in June, 1944. It begins like this:

NORMANDY BEACHHEAD, June 17, 1944 - In the preceding column we told about the D-day wreckage among our machines of war that were expended in taking one of the Normandy beaches.

But there is another and more human litter. It extends in a thin little line, just like a high-water mark, for miles along the beach. This is the strewn personal gear, gear that will never be needed again, of those who fought and died to give us our entrance into Europe.

Here in a jumbled row for mile on mile are soldiers' packs. Here are socks and shoe polish, sewing kits, diaries, Bibles and hand grenades. Here are the latest letters from home, with the address on each one neatly razored out - one of the security precautions enforced before the boys embarked.

Here are toothbrushes and razors, and snapshots of families back home staring up at you from the sand. Here are pocketbooks, metal mirrors, extra trousers, and bloody, abandoned shoes. Here are broken-handled shovels, and portable radios smashed almost beyond recognition, and mine detectors twisted and ruined.

Here are torn pistol belts and canvas water buckets, first-aid kits and jumbled heaps of lifebelts. I picked up a pocket Bible with a soldier's name in it, and put it in my jacket. I carried it half a mile or so and then put it back down on the beach. I don't know why I picked it up, or why I put it back down.

That last line: "I don't know why I picked it up, or why I put it back down." strikes me as the most profound ever written.

African American National Biography

I'm in a publication I can't even afford to buy. How cool is that?

The African American National Biography: 8-Volume Set costs $795. I'll autograph your copy if you buy a set. I wrote the bio's on Andres Pico and Stephen Spencer Hill, if anyone is interested.

The glowing write-up in the Los Angeles Times talks about why the book is written and what it covers, but it isn't a review. It's actually a reprint of an article that ran in the Washington Post. Another piece about the series is in the Library Journal. Here's one from the History News Network.

In addition, here's the Oxford University page on AANB, but it can be bought through Amazon as well.

Neolithic Allee Couverte

The Allee Couverte Du Mouhau Bihan sits on private property in Finisterre Dept., Brittany, France. It wasn't put up by Celts (or Gauls), but by the Neolithic people that preceded them.

It's about 5,000 years old, and you get a sense of its size by the children climbing on the far end. The entrance is lined up with the north.

Some of the stones are carved inside with what could be spearheads, or shepherd's crooks...or may mean something else entirely.

Brittany is full of megalithic structures--from the rows of stones at Carnac to single menhirs, to allees couvertes like this. Legend says it was once the grave of a giant.

Very few guidebooks tell much about these archaeological wonders and I can't understand why; what could be more fascinating than to touch and enter a structure raised and carved 5,000 years ago? I've found one, priceless, thoroughly researched guide, though--not on the travel shelves, but something to request from academic libraries

The Archaeology of Brittany, Normandy and the Channel Islands: An Introduction and Guide by Barbara Bender. Only problem is that it's now 22 years old.

Writers and Paychecks

Every freelancer has probably been stiffed for work delivered, and even published. I recall two small magazines that went out of business right after September 11th. Neither was in New York, but the problem was advertisers. They pulled out and cut back, so magazines that had been on precarious footing just crumbled.

Writers and other creditors went unpaid. Does this happen so regularly in other industries? I think not.

These were small operations--one person, the owner, put in 16 hour days editing (badly), schmoozing, selling ads, and distributing the magazine. That person probably lost their proverbial shirt when forced to fold, so the $50 or $75 owed to little ol' me seems too trite to complain about.

I'm less sympathetic when I read about the woes of OverTime, a glossy that, as far as I can tell, is still soliciting work from writers even though it owes over $100,000 in unpaid fees to freelancers and others who've rendered services. This publication's fiscal woes are documented in a MediaBistro article here.

Do owners of magazines assume that freelancers must have day jobs, and therefore don't need the money? Or are all freelancers pictured as vagabonds with no strings, crashing on friends' sofas between gigs?

We need a real union. It's disgusting, ridiculous, and entirely inappropriate that people of real talent are abused this way. Most of us would make more money if we joined the line of men loitering outside the lawnmower-rental shop, hoping for day jobs.

I root for the WGA, even though I've never had the slightest inclination to pen a screenplay. At least some writers are getting respect. They have had and will eventually get a fair deal and a decent paycheck. The rest of us cling to the hope that--in our long-range plans--a miracle will occur.

Looting Archaeological Sites: It's Not Just for Breakfast Anymore

A front page story in the Los Angeles Times of Jan. 22, 2008 (where this photo appeared) tells of the looting going on at nearly 12,000 sites in Iraq.

What do the looters get? According to the times, "coins, jewelry and fragile clay tablets etched in wedge-like cuneiform script, recording myths, decrees, business transactions and other details of Mesopotamian life."

Professor Elizabeth Stone of SUNY estimates that looters have torn up 167 million square feet.

It's not my country, and I am more upset about the loss of life in Iraq than the looting--or I try to be. Still, this is appalling. 4000-year-old remains and detritus do not grow on trees.

Once dug up, the context is loss. Most of what we could have learned is destroyed. The vase/statue/seal/pot sat there for 4000 years, but some poor schmuck who keeps a shop by day digs a pit, takes what he can, and it's gone, along with the chance to know more.

Doris Lessing and Reading

Doris Lessing didn't travel to Sweden last December to personally accept her Nobel Prize for Literature, but her acceptance lecture was delivered and can be found online.

It's lengthy, but reads like scenes from her novels. She begins with a trip to Zimbabwe in the 80's, where students (some who were adults) begged for books--they had none. She contrasts that with an immediate visit to a British boys school, very elite, where she learns that most of the students don't use the library and rarely read. Here's a quote:

"We are in a fragmenting culture, where our certainties of even a few decades ago are questioned and where it is common for young men and women who have had years of education, to know nothing about the world, to have read nothing, knowing only some speciality or other, for instance, computers."

I've worked with so many engineers and scientists--most with PhDs--who never, ever picked up a book for fun. Not all, of course--there were many who loved scifi or poetry, etc. But the idea of large numbers of well-educated men and women who never learned to enjoy reading, who use it only as a tool when information is necessary, is disheartening.

There's reason for optimism, though. Let's all kiss the ground J.K. Rowling walks on for getting kids (and some adults!) to read again. And how many people tackled Lord of the Rings because they couldn't wait for movies 2 and 3, after being entranced by the first film?

Mediabistro Plug

Argh . . . just learned you have to be a member to see the entire article referenced in the previous post. Sorry!

IMHO, the money spent for a Mediabistro membership is well-invested for any part or full-time writer--though I admit I live a major city where I can take advantage of their classes and get-togethers (including a short-lived bowling league). Check them out; they have dozens of in-depth "How to Pitch" guidelines for magazines and agents, as well as online how-to's, a job board, daily industry news, etc.

The article, btw, is full of advice from experienced, full-time writers whose work appears in major glossies and newspapers. The advice is about growing your business, marketing through both slow and busy times, diversifying, work discipline, and timing your pitches. That last covers two topics: both when to pitch (Christmas vacation? August? Should I avoid Monday mornings?) and how much lead time to allow on a pitch (6 months to a year for most magazines).

Good Freelance Advice

Mediabistro.com just epublished an excellent article on the boom-and-bust cycles of freelancing, and how to weather them. The piece (by Jenny Cromie) is titled "More Flow, Less Ebb: Breaking the Feast-or-Famine Freelance Cycle."

And there you have it. Ebb and flo, feast or famine, boom and bust. The three major cliches that describe freelancing, the US economy, and the California housing market, all in one.

Nothing else needs to be said, so I'll shut up.

The State of Journalism

What We Call the News | Funny Jokes at JibJab

One Friend's Humor is Another's Spam

I used to love getting email jokes, links, slideshows--as long as I hadn't seen them twice already.

Now my inbox is filled with emails beginning with the characters "FW: Funny. . . " because I just don't have time to read jokes. There may be some delightfully weird and unique gems in there--but I JUST DON'T HAVE TIME!

Why is that?

I suspect that such emails used to serve as a subversive break from my paid job. Now I don't have a paid job. There is no "man" to stick it to. No corporate Big Brother to sneak around. No fatuous stuffed shirt to hear "Take this job and shove it!"

There's just me and my PC.

This wise photo is from morguefile.com, courtesy of Scottliddell.net. A good reminder that not all my work ties me to my PC!

My world seems to have a tri-part division these days. There's work I love, work I'm not so crazy about, and there's looking for work.

If I take time from any of these, I have to pay it back or I may not have money for gas next month. Accurate or not, that's become my mindset.

People will warn you, when you go freelance, not to waste too much time or take too many days off. Yes, that's a real temptation, and a dangerous one.

The opposite can happen too: when you work at home, you never really clock out.

Winning the lottery would solve so many of these low-level problems. . . . I really should buy a ticket once in a while.

If Margaret Mitchell Wrote the Harry Potter Books. . .

If Margaret Mitchell (who wrote Gone With the Wind) had written Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Book 1)the first line would be:

"Angelina Spinnet was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm as the Weasley twins were.”

This is an email waiting to be created and flue'd through the ethereal world of spam jokes.

Someone take up the torch! Someone who can imitate Papa Hemingway, Robert James Waller (Bridges of Madison County), and all those writers with distinctive, stylized, unique voices.