--DON'T WORRY; I WON'T TELL ANYONE

…I have a new micro, "The Trader" up at Troubadour 21 and also here under "Words In Print."
The piece is very small. In a three day span I wrote twenty different micros--"Brother," "Daughter", "Thief," "The Drunk," The Trader"--about labels we attach to people in order to compartmentalize them. I wanted to just scratch below the surface of the label and hit at a nerve, at the thing that makes them real.
I wrote these over two years ago and packaged them as a chapbook, "People You Know By Heart" but never did anything with it.
That's where the title of this blog came from.
The notion is: we think we know these people--even those closest to us--but do we really? How many people on this planet are you completely, utterly honest with?

…Today I didn't plan this, but I wrote 10 tiny pieces for Nailpolish Stories and did an extensive interview, replete with a flash story, for Michelle Reale and Flash Fiction Chronicles.
I still have to write two stories for Jennifer Tomaloff, which I am excited about.

…I saw "Moneyball" with Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill. Phillip Seymour Hoffman even makes an appearance as a bad baseball manager with a bathtub gut. It was a different role for him, but not much of a stretch for his fine acting chops.
Brad was good, as was Jonah. Being a true story made it that much more powerful. I'd give it a solid "B".

…The Ryan Adams concert on Friday night was sensational.
It was just him on stage. He had two guitars he switched off playing and a piano.
He was funny, witty, quick on the draw and engaging with a crowd that was boisterous yet referential.
He also revealed himself to be quite the nerd.
But talented, that guy is. He played for over two and a half hours.

…On Saturday it was a double bill: The Head and The Heart opening for Death Cab For Cutie.
Head and Heart were so much fun! I'd seen them a year ago at a smaller venue, their first Seattle appearance. Here they were playing in front of 35,000 people, prancing on stage like a bunch of giddy pirates.
It was just a treat. I knew almost all the lyrics.
Death Cab had so much energy. Their recordings don't do them justice. Ben Gibbard was a fiend on stage, flying around, whipping his hair (Willow Smith would have been impressed) and chatting up the audience.
Fun times at Ridgemont.

…Here are some things I like at the start of the week:

"This is perhaps the supreme offering of the short story, the reader’s feeling that some proof has been submitted that life, long or short, funny or tragic, is simple. The short story is the loaves and fishes run in reverse: many things have gone into it and mysteriously become few." Valerie Trueblood

“When you hold resentment toward another, you are bound to that person or condition by an emotional link that is stronger than steel. Forgiveness is the only way to dissolve that link and get free.” Catherine Ponder

"Language is a cracked kettle on which we beat out tunes for bears to dance to, while all the time we long to move the stars to pity." Gustav Flaubert

"Whatever else can be said about sex, it cannot be called a dignified performance." Helen Lawrenson

"The greatest pleasure I know is to do a good action by stealth, and to have it found out by accident." Charles Lamb


"Which yellow bird fills its nest with lemons?
Why don't they train helicopters to suck honey from the sunlight?
Tell me, is the rose naked or is that her only dress?
Is there anything in the world sadder than a train standing in the rain?
Why do clouds cry so much, growing hapier and happier?
Why do leaves commit suicide when they feel yellow?
Why doesn't Thursday talk itself into becoming Friday?
Who shouted with glee when the color blue was born?
Is it true that sadness is thick and melancholy thin?
Why do the waves ask me the same question I ask them?
And why do they strike the rock with so much wasted passion?
Don't they get tired of repeating their declaration to the sand?
If all rivers are sweet where does the sea get its salt?
How do the seasons know they must change their shirt?
"Does he who is always waiting suffer more than he who's never waited for anyone?" --all from Pablo Neruda, "The Book of Questions."

"The life that conquers is the life that moves with a steady resolution and persistence toward a predetermined goal. Those who succeed are those who have thoroughly learned the immense importance of plan in life, and the tragic brevity of time." W.J. Davison

"What you don't know is you're going to be 18 for the rest of your life." --"Six Feet Under"

"Perhaps when we find ourselves wanting everything, it is because we are dangerously close to wanting nothing." Sylvia Plath