Happy Birthday

Apparently, it's David Foster Wallace's birthday.

He's 46.  Somebody buy the boy a cookie.

Garrison Keillor said in today's Writer's Almanac that as "The son of a philosophy professor and an English professor, Wallace double-majored in these subjects and described himself as 'obscenely educated.'"

Which pretty much explains him.

Some Promotion of Self and Others

For those of you who don't know, I play music as William Wolfe.

I'd like for you to take a listen to some of my older stuff: myspace.com/wwolfe.  I'm trying to keep it from auto-playing.

If you look carefully, you'll see that the first show I'm playing with my excellent backing band, The Scandinavians, happens Sunday, Feb. 24 at the Launching Pad in Muncie.

Be forewarned:  When you put lonesome ol' folksinger me, a punk rock bass player, and my keyboard player--who, if given the choice, would listen to nothing but Daft Punk and LCD Soundsystem--in a room, for some reason, what comes out is a male version of the last two Cat Power records.  Classic soul soundz.

We're opening the show; doors open at seven.  Admission $7 for us, The Matt Lloyd Project, Good Luck Varsity, Cory Hill, and the Stereofidelics.

Hope I'll see you there.

Also, keep in mind that one of our Dear Leaders, Laura Relyea, also has a solo show next week, also at the Launching Pad.  I'll leave it to her to promote it, as she expressed mixed feelings on Monday night.

Hope I'll see you there, too.

-matthew trisler / william wolfe.

NYT Modern Love Contest

I mentioned, this week (2/11), the New York Times' Modern Love essay contest.

You can find rules here.

Hopefully, you'll actually edit your essays before you send. My mistake=your advantage.

A mouthfull.

Okay. I'd like to start by saying that the fact that I'm going to forget at least one thing we talked about last night is pretty inevitable. Once you've made your peace with that, read on:


English Theater Night is next Thursday, Feb. 21. Those in attendance will be fed, and get to see Love's Labours Lost. The cost, I believe, is five dollars and fifty cents. If you are interested, email Dr. Beach: arbeach@bsu.edu.


Laura's band, This Story, is having their last show on Saturday at the Launching Pad. She believes they will be playing between 9 and 10.


Matthew posted the details about the contest he mentioned below. Here are two more:


http://morethangalenandmile.blogspot.com is sponsoring a writing contest in which everyone pitches in $5 and the winner takes the pot. The only guideline is that the piece of writing, whatever it is, should be able to be read in two minutes. Thanks to Peter Cavanaugh for the heads up on this one.


Thoreau's Rooster, a national magazine that publishes the work of undergraduate students, is taking submissions between now and March 15. There is an editor's prize of $100, plus it is a great chance to get published. Check out the full guidelines below:

http://www.assumption.edu/programs/english/stupubs/rooster/submission.html



Okay. Here is a fairly long list of things that have been read over the past few weeks. Since I'm backlogged, they will be featured without witty comments, but look for more quick quips about each piece to return next week.

Write something today. Seriously.

Andrew



1.28.08:



2.4.08:

Rebecca Patrick - Excerpt from "Wakefield" by E.L. Doctorow.

Laura Relyea - "Preface" by Joan Didion.

Sean Orlosky - Excerpt from Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.

Garrett Cox - Three of his own, "Messages", "Balloon People", "Kiss [something], kiss [something else]".

Chris Latta - Joined us for the first time. Thanks Chris!

Sean Andres - Select passages from Sara Emma Edmonds' Diary.

Brent Royster - "The Limits of Desire" by Linda Gregg, and something he and his class were working on, called "Deception".

Joe Betz - "Mutterings Over the Crib of a Deaf Child" and "An Offering for Mr. Blue Heart" by James Wright, and a passage from Green Hills of Africa by Ernest Hemmingway.

Andrew Clark-Kennedy - "The Shrinking Lonesome Sestina" by Miller Williams and "Sherherazade" by Richard Riken.

Todd McKinney - "Viewfinder" by Raymond Carver.

Jessica Mayflower and Joseph Morris also joined us for the first time. Glad to have you!



2.11.08:

Peter Cavanaugh - An excerpt from "The Hartleys" by John Cheever.

Sarah Marty - Several "Six-word memoirs"

Garrett Cox - "Train Night" (his own) and "Dreadful Chapter Three" by Maurice Manning.

Brent Royster - "Givers and Takers" by Larissa Szporluk.

Jessica Mayflower - "The Rogue" and "Hello, Neighbor", both her own.

Sean Orlosky - Excerpt from "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee.

Laura Relyea - Passages from On Becoming a Rock Musician by H. Stitch Bennett.

Rebecca Patrick - Part of "Lilies that Fester" from They Asked for a Paper by C.S. Lewis.

Sean Andres - Sarah Morgan Bryan Piatt's "Lily of the Nile" and "If I Had Made the World".

Matthew Trisler - "(I kiss your cup)" by Frank O'Hara, part of one of his own essays.

Liz Combs-Crawley - The winner of the Bulwer-Lytton contest, 2007.

Deborah Edwards - "The Dogs Tail" by Russel Edson.

The Final two were also first-timers. Yay!