Last Month in Orlando
I am leaving at the end of the month, and if you happen to be in the Central Florida area, and you happen to know me, and you want to say goodbye, please please e-mail my girlfriend, the lovely Becky, light of my fire, lighthouse of my soul, at
rebekah.lane@gmail.com
for there is apparently a thing going on where I get to see all of you. And I really want to. I'm already missing Central Florida buckets, getting ready finally to leave, and so--well, what can I say? Anyway, you are much missed.
There is a hamster item in The Onion this week. It should surprise no one that it involves potential serious injury to a rodent. Because it is funny. And because hamsters are the Michael Jackson, the squeaky shopping cart wheel, of the small animal world.
Good morning.
Also: I'm trying to get in contact with Roy, Matt, and Keith (who know who they are), but cannot find any of their info. Roy & Matt are good and dear friends, and they were our hosts when in New York, and I kept meaning to write and say hello and of course put it off for forever.
Also: Keith! Hello, man! How's Braden? How are you? How go things? E-mail me!
*
Also: completely forgot to mention this:
http://www.myspace.com/fulmerford
Everyone has one!
I am leaving at the end of the month, and if you happen to be in the Central Florida area, and you happen to know me, and you want to say goodbye, please please e-mail my girlfriend, the lovely Becky, light of my fire, lighthouse of my soul, at
rebekah.lane@gmail.com
for there is apparently a thing going on where I get to see all of you. And I really want to. I'm already missing Central Florida buckets, getting ready finally to leave, and so--well, what can I say? Anyway, you are much missed.
There is a hamster item in The Onion this week. It should surprise no one that it involves potential serious injury to a rodent. Because it is funny. And because hamsters are the Michael Jackson, the squeaky shopping cart wheel, of the small animal world.
Good morning.
Also: I'm trying to get in contact with Roy, Matt, and Keith (who know who they are), but cannot find any of their info. Roy & Matt are good and dear friends, and they were our hosts when in New York, and I kept meaning to write and say hello and of course put it off for forever.
Also: Keith! Hello, man! How's Braden? How are you? How go things? E-mail me!
Also: completely forgot to mention this:
http://www.myspace.com/fulmerford
Everyone has one!
Like a Summer Rain
So I am flying to Vegas on the 28th, moving for good, leaving Orlando, and still trying to negotiate the logistics.
I'll be flying with a hamster, in a hamster- and FAA-approved portable carrier. Because apparently this doesn't work.
There is the matter of finding a cheap studio apartment near UNLV, since I don't drive, or to find a roommate who is okay with only a semester-long commitment. (I really do want to find a place that's both affordable and where the family and the girlfriend can feel free to visit at any point, at the drop of a hat, at a moment's notice, and it doesn't seem fair to do so to a roommate.) So. Do you know Las Vegas? Can you recommend a cheap place? Do you know of someone. Sometime soon I will put a plea on the Nabokov site.
Teaching, classes--hell, everything--begins at the end of August, so if you know of things worth checking out in the Vegas area, please share. The girlfriend and I will have some downtime and would love to get acquainted with the city. And with you. If you are around and are in the Vegas area.
So I am flying to Vegas on the 28th, moving for good, leaving Orlando, and still trying to negotiate the logistics.
I'll be flying with a hamster, in a hamster- and FAA-approved portable carrier. Because apparently this doesn't work.
There is the matter of finding a cheap studio apartment near UNLV, since I don't drive, or to find a roommate who is okay with only a semester-long commitment. (I really do want to find a place that's both affordable and where the family and the girlfriend can feel free to visit at any point, at the drop of a hat, at a moment's notice, and it doesn't seem fair to do so to a roommate.) So. Do you know Las Vegas? Can you recommend a cheap place? Do you know of someone. Sometime soon I will put a plea on the Nabokov site.
Teaching, classes--hell, everything--begins at the end of August, so if you know of things worth checking out in the Vegas area, please share. The girlfriend and I will have some downtime and would love to get acquainted with the city. And with you. If you are around and are in the Vegas area.
A Convergence of Hamsters
My girlfriend gave me hamster as a graduation present a year and half ago. We have named her Molly, because we thought he was a she (he is not but, giant testes aside, who cares? so he is a she) and while I have not really done much in service of this blog, writing only the occassional jumbled missive while rattling from one class to the other, but never really doing justice to the pet as people on the web should. Because what is the web for if not for recording in detail--painstaking, painful detail--the day-to-day activities of one's pets?
The hamster topic surfaced because I read a Bentley Little novel, The Association, that while flawed, contained several inspired passages, equal parts horror and absurd, culminating in the protagonist entering a lair wherein he could make out
In 2002, I wrote a static, unsuccesful story that, purely by way of setting the scene, mentioned a hamster-centric show--this was at least two years before I fell in love, a time when I had no inkling that there were women with formidable voices who would hold you very close, who would give you, as a graduation present, a hamster.
*
You were wondering, naturally, if there are hamster-related quotes by brilliant if difficult directors. There is this:
My girlfriend gave me hamster as a graduation present a year and half ago. We have named her Molly, because we thought he was a she (he is not but, giant testes aside, who cares? so he is a she) and while I have not really done much in service of this blog, writing only the occassional jumbled missive while rattling from one class to the other, but never really doing justice to the pet as people on the web should. Because what is the web for if not for recording in detail--painstaking, painful detail--the day-to-day activities of one's pets?
The hamster topic surfaced because I read a Bentley Little novel, The Association, that while flawed, contained several inspired passages, equal parts horror and absurd, culminating in the protagonist entering a lair wherein he could make out
a dusty display case containing the stuffed bodies of cats and dogs, parrots, and hamsters--the pets outlawed by the association.And, a few weeks later, in the 25 April issue of the New Yorker I ran across Ian Frazier's "Invaders," where we learn about Mongols:
Marco Polo, who travelled amont them in the years 1275-1292, wrote that they ate hamsters, which were plentiful in the steppes.And the man writing about the geese? He, a few years back, wrote about a Japanese show where the constenstants dress like hamsters. And let us not forget Jim Finn, who is actually dealing w/ gerbils, but so what.
In 2002, I wrote a static, unsuccesful story that, purely by way of setting the scene, mentioned a hamster-centric show--this was at least two years before I fell in love, a time when I had no inkling that there were women with formidable voices who would hold you very close, who would give you, as a graduation present, a hamster.
You were wondering, naturally, if there are hamster-related quotes by brilliant if difficult directors. There is this:
Men love women, women love children, and children love hamsters.The movie also contains memorable, non hamster-related quotes.
So.
So I taught my last class at UCF and will be teaching my next-to-the-last class at Valencia, and found myself realizing that I will be missing my students, and that I for the most part enjoyed the experience, all of which is pretty unexpected. B/c mostly I am ready to go.
Which as it turns out is what I'll be doing in a few months. I've been accepted places, and have made an official commitment to one. I'd be specific but figure it's worth waiting for all the paperwork to come through before really shouting stuff out to the world.
But it boils down to a generous assistantship, a respected department, and major geographical upheavals. And a goodbye to Orlando, my town since 1996, land of retention ponds & poor public transit. (& all sorts of other things, all dear & all to be missed, and so what can I say? I am torn up and itching to leave and pretty much in that happy/sad twilight so beloved of shoegazing bands and, well, whatever.)
In preparation, I am reading Getting What you Came For--a book I should have read prior to earning my MA. Funny and useful. And so preparing.
And wistful.
And but so what--the semester isn't over, and the students, the ones I'll miss? I'm seeing them all again for their final presentation, which has to involve sock puppets. So all the missing is far too premature.
*
So Clonus is featured in the Onion AV Club's Films that Times Forgot section, where deservedly obscure movies are lovingly, if snarkily, summarized & dissected & boiled down. Clonus, the AV Club tells us, teaches us to
So.
*
Also: please find Jim Finn's Wüstenspringmaus, the funniest gerbil-related three minutes you will likely experience in your near future. My college library carried it in an anthology from this company, but I understand it also appears elsewhere.
*
So what was I saying?
So I taught my last class at UCF and will be teaching my next-to-the-last class at Valencia, and found myself realizing that I will be missing my students, and that I for the most part enjoyed the experience, all of which is pretty unexpected. B/c mostly I am ready to go.
Which as it turns out is what I'll be doing in a few months. I've been accepted places, and have made an official commitment to one. I'd be specific but figure it's worth waiting for all the paperwork to come through before really shouting stuff out to the world.
But it boils down to a generous assistantship, a respected department, and major geographical upheavals. And a goodbye to Orlando, my town since 1996, land of retention ponds & poor public transit. (& all sorts of other things, all dear & all to be missed, and so what can I say? I am torn up and itching to leave and pretty much in that happy/sad twilight so beloved of shoegazing bands and, well, whatever.)
In preparation, I am reading Getting What you Came For--a book I should have read prior to earning my MA. Funny and useful. And so preparing.
And wistful.
And but so what--the semester isn't over, and the students, the ones I'll miss? I'm seeing them all again for their final presentation, which has to involve sock puppets. So all the missing is far too premature.
So Clonus is featured in the Onion AV Club's Films that Times Forgot section, where deservedly obscure movies are lovingly, if snarkily, summarized & dissected & boiled down. Clonus, the AV Club tells us, teaches us to
always maintain a healthy level of skepticism, as a promised glorious future might in fact be a clone-farm holding container.The New York Times is more reverent, and feels that Clonus is overlooked and that, morever
The film has a stripped-down, functional style that suggests an educational or industrial film of the period, a low-budget limitation that Mr. Fiveson turns into an expressive asset. A genuine sleeper, accompanied by a 40-minute interview with Mr. Fiveson, who seems understandably baffled that he was never allowed to make another feature film.This is all from a March 29 review by Dave Kehr, and the film also finds itself in the august company of Kazuo Ishiguro and Caryl Churchill in this NY Times article, where we are told that, for all its flaws,
the movie is amazing in the way it anticipates motifs that run through newer thrillers and serious works...So this is all to say that it's weird to find the Onion treating a relatively slight DVD reissue with due flippancy while at the same time finding a serious publication taking the same movie far more seriously. It should be the other way around. And was. The Onion's talented staff has sometimes made more of fluff than the fluff deserved. And the Times has sometimes treated pop culture material less seriously than the material warranted.
So.
Also: please find Jim Finn's Wüstenspringmaus, the funniest gerbil-related three minutes you will likely experience in your near future. My college library carried it in an anthology from this company, but I understand it also appears elsewhere.
So what was I saying?
Tift is a fine musician, a tiny woman with a big voice, a charmer, a whirlwind, and it was a hoot to watch her run through the songs--they were beautiful if over-polished in the albums and far more energetic and tight, maybe tighter, live. She is going to NYC on April 12, from whence I just returned.
So. New York. Wow.
And--ugh--gotta go. More work looms. But at the very least there's the quality of street-cart coffee, which is mind-bogglingly good and consistent throughout, and the sheer density and focus of the town's energy--it is a place bristling with purpose--and the friendliness of the place as a whole. Not to mention the friendliness and courtesy of Roy and Matt, our hosts, and so what can I say? What a place.
So. New York. Wow.
And--ugh--gotta go. More work looms. But at the very least there's the quality of street-cart coffee, which is mind-bogglingly good and consistent throughout, and the sheer density and focus of the town's energy--it is a place bristling with purpose--and the friendliness of the place as a whole. Not to mention the friendliness and courtesy of Roy and Matt, our hosts, and so what can I say? What a place.
Leaning on an ElDorado Just to See How it Feels
The girlfriend and I will be going to see Tift Merritt (Tambourine is a fine album, but I am a bigger fan of the first) at Orlando's Social, which is also where we'll be listening to OK Go a few weeks later. In-between, we're flying to NYC, where we will be pointing at tall structures and ooh-ing and ah-ing, and visiting Places of Interest, and behaving like Tourists.
So yes. Hello. (And hello specially if you're in NYC from April 7-10... Are you? If so, drop me a line. We should meet up. Or you should recommend stuff to do.)
What else? I'm waiting on word from three schools, but have heard from one. (They have said nay.) The hope is that, very soon, I'll be in a PhD program for creative writing somewhere that is not Orlando. We will see.
Teaching six classes is a joy and a pain. The students are by and large a great lot, but the amount of work involved is a time drain, and has monkeyed with my reading strategy: I'm reading all sorts of things all at once, but in small dribbles. It is buckets of fun.
Which, speaking of: Hello, Melted Men!
And hello, Wagner & Doc, both of whom I had the privilege to meet in person as they made their way through the land, in a van.
The girlfriend and I will be going to see Tift Merritt (Tambourine is a fine album, but I am a bigger fan of the first) at Orlando's Social, which is also where we'll be listening to OK Go a few weeks later. In-between, we're flying to NYC, where we will be pointing at tall structures and ooh-ing and ah-ing, and visiting Places of Interest, and behaving like Tourists.
So yes. Hello. (And hello specially if you're in NYC from April 7-10... Are you? If so, drop me a line. We should meet up. Or you should recommend stuff to do.)
What else? I'm waiting on word from three schools, but have heard from one. (They have said nay.) The hope is that, very soon, I'll be in a PhD program for creative writing somewhere that is not Orlando. We will see.
Teaching six classes is a joy and a pain. The students are by and large a great lot, but the amount of work involved is a time drain, and has monkeyed with my reading strategy: I'm reading all sorts of things all at once, but in small dribbles. It is buckets of fun.
Which, speaking of: Hello, Melted Men!
And hello, Wagner & Doc, both of whom I had the privilege to meet in person as they made their way through the land, in a van.
Hello hello hello hello!
So it's been a while, no? Apologies. I'm teaching four classes, which is both buckets of fun and a big time drain, and also applying to Ph.D. programs, also a bit of a consuming task, and so yes.
One of my stories is out in the Fall 2004 issue of The Santa Monica Review.
So it's been a while, no? Apologies. I'm teaching four classes, which is both buckets of fun and a big time drain, and also applying to Ph.D. programs, also a bit of a consuming task, and so yes.
One of my stories is out in the Fall 2004 issue of The Santa Monica Review.
The Spine
I am bothered by the very uneven responses to the latest Giants album. Their stuff made me really care about music, and I've picked up every release b/c every one, so far, has had songs that have made me giddy & happy to have ears, and for all that I'll be the first to admit that the best time to really enjoy a TMBG song is when you're a young and angsty (but not terribly messed up) adolescent. Rock'n'roll w/ all the smarts & all the hooks and none of the posseur nihilism. Happy-sounding songs that are clever and way dark--but clever in their darkness.
In other news: I'm preparing to teach creative writing in the fall and setting up a messy blog to list short stories to include in the reading list. Feel free to contribute any ideas. I'm trying to find stories that are a) not sucky, b) not overly polite (though i am a fan of those introspective-small-domestic-drama-Chekovian-end-w/-a-weather-description stories, but students seem to get many of those, and not enough of other, weirder strains of fiction), c) the other, the weird, the wonderful, the very funny or the very sad or both.
I am bothered by the very uneven responses to the latest Giants album. Their stuff made me really care about music, and I've picked up every release b/c every one, so far, has had songs that have made me giddy & happy to have ears, and for all that I'll be the first to admit that the best time to really enjoy a TMBG song is when you're a young and angsty (but not terribly messed up) adolescent. Rock'n'roll w/ all the smarts & all the hooks and none of the posseur nihilism. Happy-sounding songs that are clever and way dark--but clever in their darkness.
In other news: I'm preparing to teach creative writing in the fall and setting up a messy blog to list short stories to include in the reading list. Feel free to contribute any ideas. I'm trying to find stories that are a) not sucky, b) not overly polite (though i am a fan of those introspective-small-domestic-drama-Chekovian-end-w/-a-weather-description stories, but students seem to get many of those, and not enough of other, weirder strains of fiction), c) the other, the weird, the wonderful, the very funny or the very sad or both.
Way to Go, OK Go!
On getting rid of Bush, written by rock people of great chops & well worth reading. Hello!
On getting rid of Bush, written by rock people of great chops & well worth reading. Hello!
This is not my country, chum. Please, please Take Your Country Back.
With many thanks to the Rabbit.
With many thanks to the Rabbit.
Mariam's Memoirs are way few right now but hopefully there will be more, soon. Mariam is a wonderful person, a terrific writer, a heck of an environmental engineer student (her thesis director was also my father's), and a fantastic and frequent visitor to the Writing Center. Oh, and she's going to med school.
Out Ridin' Fences
We watched In America the night before last. I already returned the DVD and didn't think to check the director's commentary, but here's the thing: the girl singing "Desperado"--surely that's a nod to the Langley Schools Music Project, no? Jim Sheridan is, I'm sure, enough of a good man (not to mention a hell of a talented director--b/c how can you spend half the movie bawling your eyes out, and even have that hoariest of cliches, the saintly African-American martyred so that someone from a fairer clime may live (see also: The Green Mile, The Talisman, several other Stephen King works whose names escape me--not to mention others from other writers/directors whose names also escape me) and still produce a movie that is emotionally honest, and fun, and just plain good?) to not have done an outright ripoff.
But still. The singing-of-"Desperado"-by-a-small-child scene is in not way distinguishable from the beautiful, ravishing reading of same song in the CD.
Which may explain why said song was removed from the In America soundtrack. So as to give Langley a leg up.
We watched In America the night before last. I already returned the DVD and didn't think to check the director's commentary, but here's the thing: the girl singing "Desperado"--surely that's a nod to the Langley Schools Music Project, no? Jim Sheridan is, I'm sure, enough of a good man (not to mention a hell of a talented director--b/c how can you spend half the movie bawling your eyes out, and even have that hoariest of cliches, the saintly African-American martyred so that someone from a fairer clime may live (see also: The Green Mile, The Talisman, several other Stephen King works whose names escape me--not to mention others from other writers/directors whose names also escape me) and still produce a movie that is emotionally honest, and fun, and just plain good?) to not have done an outright ripoff.
But still. The singing-of-"Desperado"-by-a-small-child scene is in not way distinguishable from the beautiful, ravishing reading of same song in the CD.
Which may explain why said song was removed from the In America soundtrack. So as to give Langley a leg up.
Reading in Cutting Edge about Breton's tendency to jump into and out of theaters at random, to which Hawkins assigns a really neat reading, about the importance of disruption & the danger of passive viewings, though passive viewers, Hawkins does note, were probably really peeved off at someone barging in at odd moments--
--but anyway, it reminded me of a friend, someone I don't see often, who works w/ printers & other heavy hardware and mostly stays out of reach of people & has, as a consequence, grown progressively more intolerant of human annoyances & foibles, to the point where he says he canno--absolutely cannot--go to the movies b/c people are talking w/ each other, or on cell phones, or at the movie screen or being otherwise disruptive & annoying. To which I answered that that was my favorite part of the experience.
w/r/t which, i watched Sam Raimi's Spiderman in the theaters, and the movie was bland & boring & mostly uninteresting. The only saving grace if the experience was a five-year-old girl in the row ahead of us, whose running commentary on the film ("why is he [w. defoe] talking to the mask?" "so when is he [t. maguire] becoming spiderman?") provided the saving grace.
*
So yes! I'm teaching two sections of creative writing in the fall, as well as one composition course, and I am of course excited as all get-out. Still waiting for news from another job that pays in buckets and has benefits, but which amazingly does not interfere w/ the other teaching schedule. We'll see what happens.
--but anyway, it reminded me of a friend, someone I don't see often, who works w/ printers & other heavy hardware and mostly stays out of reach of people & has, as a consequence, grown progressively more intolerant of human annoyances & foibles, to the point where he says he canno--absolutely cannot--go to the movies b/c people are talking w/ each other, or on cell phones, or at the movie screen or being otherwise disruptive & annoying. To which I answered that that was my favorite part of the experience.
w/r/t which, i watched Sam Raimi's Spiderman in the theaters, and the movie was bland & boring & mostly uninteresting. The only saving grace if the experience was a five-year-old girl in the row ahead of us, whose running commentary on the film ("why is he [w. defoe] talking to the mask?" "so when is he [t. maguire] becoming spiderman?") provided the saving grace.
So yes! I'm teaching two sections of creative writing in the fall, as well as one composition course, and I am of course excited as all get-out. Still waiting for news from another job that pays in buckets and has benefits, but which amazingly does not interfere w/ the other teaching schedule. We'll see what happens.
The end of the semester
Reading a fellow instructor's livejournal and listening to the Met broadcasting Wagner.
So there is this much for not quite knowing what you're doing next semester: You can spend the better part of morning watching La Dolce Vita, working out, coming back home and typing away at one's journal.
Here's the frustration/fun part: It looks as though I'll be teaching, for sure--that much, at least, is taken care of.
* * *
The Trollope article has, if nothing else, increased Trollope's sales by one.
Reading a fellow instructor's livejournal and listening to the Met broadcasting Wagner.
So there is this much for not quite knowing what you're doing next semester: You can spend the better part of morning watching La Dolce Vita, working out, coming back home and typing away at one's journal.
Here's the frustration/fun part: It looks as though I'll be teaching, for sure--that much, at least, is taken care of.
The Trollope article has, if nothing else, increased Trollope's sales by one.
Morning!
So there are massive updates to the Nabokov site, plus an essay on Hobbledehoydom for The Morning News from yours truly, referring to the trials & tribulations of a pre-Becky existence.
So there are massive updates to the Nabokov site, plus an essay on Hobbledehoydom for The Morning News from yours truly, referring to the trials & tribulations of a pre-Becky existence.
The defense went well! All's well in the world of Colombians getting Master of Arts degrees in creative writing at the University of Central Florida.
Hello!
Hello!
Vanishing by Degrees!
In case you can make it:
In case you can make it:
Announcing the Final Examination of Mr. Juan Martinez for the degree of Master of Arts in English, Creative Writing
Date: March 24, 2004
Time: 1:00 pm
Room: CNH 306E
Dissertation Title: Minutes from Pragma
Minutes from Pragma is a collection of twelve pieces—a memoir, five short stories, and six short-shorts—exploring ways in which estranged characters may find refuge from chaos and entropy.
These stories attempt to deal with bleakness and despair through playfulness and humor. In "Enterprise Carolina: A Capsule Review," time has stopped, but somehow everyday life goes on as usual. In "Errands," children work in razorblade factories. In "Roadblock," the narrator lives with a relative who repeatedly sets his possessions on fire.
The collection concentrates on hardship and alienation, but suggests ways in which characters may confront and endure hard times. Characters' attempts to connect with others sometimes fail, but the characters themselves persevere—they read, hold hands, even treat one other kindly. In these ways, they fashion temporary shelters from the frustrations and horrors of the world.
Outline of Studies:
Major: Creative Writing
Educational Career:
B.A. 2000, English, University of Central Florida
Committee in Charge:
Ms. Susan Hubbard, English Department
Dr. Ivonne Lamazares, English Department
Ms. Jeanne Leiby, English Department
Approved for distribution by Professor Susan Hubbard, Committee Chair, on March 5, 2004.
The public is welcome to attend.
VN is Ungoogable.
That is all.
Oh, also, hello! Long time no hear. All is well here: I'm typing away at my thesis like a mad thesis monkey. I have used up all my words, and now must resort to other monkeys' words.
Also: goodbye! I am off to run on the treadmill like some kind of small, furry, highly athletic animal.
That is all.
Oh, also, hello! Long time no hear. All is well here: I'm typing away at my thesis like a mad thesis monkey. I have used up all my words, and now must resort to other monkeys' words.
Also: goodbye! I am off to run on the treadmill like some kind of small, furry, highly athletic animal.