Circus Drifting
Had an uncle once that ran off to Canada and I don't really know why. I mean, there was nothing romantic or exciting about him running off. But I suspect there was something behind it more than just getting out of dodge. My uncle was the son of a circus worker. I never met his father. But he talked about him all the time. Well, not all the time. Anywho. In order to finally figure out a somewhat complex uncle, I visited him in the early 90s, flying from Eurowasteland to Seattle and then driving north in a rental car. …
Hitched
This worst-post is supposed to be an explanation of my experience with Hitch 22. But something happened as I started to write. First. I'm a big Christopher Hitchens fan. I really admire him and his work. Although I've only read five of his books so far, I plan to read many more. Second. Hitch 22 is my fourth Hitch book. And I do not like it. In fact, I've had a hard time reading it. I think I started reading it in December 2012 and it took me until March 2013 to finish it. …
Well. It's (Almost) Happening Here?
"In World War 2 the Germans lost but Fascism won."
-George Carlin
What goes around comes around?
That's sometimes how I feel when it comes to reading. Especially since I'm trying and failing to get back to reading all those old authors that I blew off when I was young because, at the time, I was preoccupied with something more titillating--and, of course, mind numbing. Hence, middle age changes things in a man. For one, titillation these days can be less mind numbing and, well, eye-mind opening.
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Grifter Nation
In The Beginning
There are two scams in the 1990 movie The Grifters that reveal everything there is to know about how things work, and not just in America but in the whole western world in general. The first scam I want to worst-write about is actually shown twice in this film. I reckon the producers wanted to make sure that this scam was very clear to the audience. The second scam, though, is a bit more complicated and you have to put some effort into the movie if you really want to get what it’s about. …
Lions and Chick-Lit
"And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail."
-Deuteronomy 28:13
This is (probably) my third foray into chick-lit. If it wasn't for the wonders of my second foray into this genre, I never would have trusted Adam Curry after he interviewed Delia Ephron here. The thing is, I dated someone that read a lot of chick lit -- and in my opinion too little romantic literature (yes, there's a difference). …
American Gomorrah
Truth is a bitch. I know for a fact that truth is a bitch. I've faced truth numerous times in my useless-eating life. Truth has beat me to a pulp every fricking time I've faced it. There are also times where I haven't faced truth and I know each one of them by heart. I will carry around my lies, dress them up and make them presentable, perfume them, and know exactly when/how they squeeze by in this world without a care, without a concern, without remorse. For they are mine, these lies. And they too are miserable because I won't let them out. Let me have the simplistic beauty of my lies. Please.
-worstwriter's mantra to conservatism that has ruined everything
Nomatter what I prologue (text above), this post ain't about me and my silly politics. This post is about a book that some people really should consider reading. Well, you should consider reading it if you've ever questioned the how/why of republican politics in the Grand United Mistakes of Amerikan't post Ronald Reagan. The book is called Republican Gomorrah and it is a seething exposé of the darkest corners of the disgusting and abhorrent republican party. …
High Finance?
Informed about the world of high finance and rob-your-soul banking? Me neither. Every class I ever took that had anything to do with business, economics or numbers, I bagged as soon as I could and went about living life as it should be lived. (Without numbers!) Anywho.
Here are three worst-writer recommendations--I think. Well, maybe this isn't really a recommendation.Whatever. Reading at least one of these books might help if you've ever wondered what a …
Lead Shot Frogs
What differentiates an artist from mere mortals? There is one thing that working stiffs of this world must never forget above and beyond that fact that they will never get their shit together so as to unite under the auspices of solidarity that they may defeat austerity and hence do something for this fucked up world that is ultimately run by hilarity. Artists, on the other hand, are artists because they have a unique ability to see through the lie of the mind. …
Crémant and Art Films
Oh, it weighed heavy on my conscience having recently gone to the cinema. It's just not something I do. It's like youth, and it's a good thing that it's gotten away from me. But I did it and there is a price to pay. Subsequently I was compelled to find something spectacular to bring me back (to reality). To pay the piper, they say. Oh, how I yearn for a world where creativity is at the forefront of every (dirty) deed - as opposed to the status quo conservative world of living in the past we are all (de)faced with now. …
Hyper Stuff
"Travels in Hyperreality" is a collection of essays by Umberto Eco. I don't know exactly when I first read this book and that's starting to bother me - even though it doesn't matter. Over the years I keep pulling this book from different book shelves where I instinctively know to find it. There is no order to my library - which means I probably can't call my book collection a library. Nomatter. …
Boomerang Them Germans
What is a boomerang and how does it apply to the problems of a world faced with replacing productivity and creativity with speculative finance? Without looking it up on Wiki, I recall a boomerang being a hunting tool. Aborigines used it to stun or deliver a debilitating injury to their prey in order to approach it and then administer the kill. Obviously there is a political underlying reality to what has facilitated the West's financial woes but that isn't best exemplified in a primitive hunting stick that returns if it misses its target and ultimately ends up becoming more a toy than a useful tool.
…
Hitch and Paine
Three Brits did a job on my head. One was a great thinker, one was a great writer and the other didn't bother to tell me, after we had done the dirty deed a whole bunch, that she was married. But I'll get to all that in a sec. As an American't I've always felt obliged to get out in the world and not spread any message but instead absorb the message. At times the message I absorbed is not hospitable. …
Afraid of Snail Shells
Prelude: Living in fear is not a natural human condition. That is a comforting thought, eh. The reason it's not natural is because it's opposite is universal and interchangeable. But what is the opposite of fear? We have a great capacity to help one another. That too must be a comforting thought. Yet. We do not do it. Why? Well. This is one of the reasons that the only thing I’m afraid of now is the stuff humanity can’t wish away and bang out of its head. …
Flatroof Expatriates
As much as I’d like to, there is no way to dramatize my expatriation. Should I try anyway? Ok. The short theatrics to my experience has been simple. Move abroad. Experience lots of bullshit. The end. That’s it. For the past twenty years that’s how I’ve seen it.
Expat = The End.
Yet. I frivolously try to at least think about my expatriation as not being just the end. I guess I’m a dreamer. …
Boomer Shame Has No End
It was shocking reading David Mamet's "The Secret Knowledge - On The Dismantling of American Culture". First, I should say this: I'm finding it hard to write anything nice about this book. Seriously. If I start reading something and I feel as though I've committed myself to reading it, I will do just that - even if I don't like it. That's how I got through those college English Lit classes. …
Creation vs. Creation
z'Germanland has a lot of religious holidays. That means they have a lot of extra days-off that coincide with their guaranteed, govt. sponsored vacation days. A lot of these religious days are either on a Thursday or Monday. That means, Das Volk have long since figured out the use of "bridge days" to turn Good Friday and Easter Monday into a friggin' vacation. If you add these off-days up and compare it to my grand (and so missed) united mistakes, it's a wonder that anything gets done in Eurowasteland. …
Fantastica Meravigliosa Ipnotizzante
One thing leads to another. So they say. Conveniently this coincides with the fact that reading, for moi, serves a single purpose. To learn. When I read something that is also entertaining, sometimes I'll get out of my chair, off the can, up from the cot and jump for joy. After I finished Baudolino by Umberto Eco and after I caught my breath from so much jumping, my jaw dropped and I just stood there in awe. …
Feuchtgebiete, Girl Things Wet
This post is NSFW.
Be warned: If you plan on reading this book when it comes out in English then you might want to steer away from this post. I’ve taken the liberty of my own English translation of some of the text which might be kinda revealing. But don’t worry, I don’t think I reveal to much.
Ironically or not, the cover of the book is pink and includes the raised image of a bandage. Underneath the bandage is the title in a dot-matrix Teutonic kind of font. …
The (Non) Shock Doctrine
(2008-01-14 17:57)
If you haven’t discerned by now, I finished Naomi Klein’s book. I'm proud to say that I read it in two days. Seriously. It has a million and a half pages, although I might have counted a few twice. Here a few bullets to ease you into my world of writing about all things worst and "The Shock Doctrine".
• Wow.
• A Wonderful, meticulously researched book.
• A great new take on the issue and/or question of the result of twentieth century mixing of all-things-politics and all-things-economic.
…
Hey Nostradamus!
Did a lot more posting last December (2006). Whoopee, eh. I was still in a blank then. After that, though, I finally got around to trying to actually write something cohesive again. You know, something not quite like this (post). It was also the time where I probably - and finally? - gave up on the playwriting dream. By the time Jan. - March 2006 rolled around I had actually written a few things. …
Rosy Crucified
As far as I'm concerned the only thing a novel needs is substance. Now put that in your hat and smoke it.
The man of the hour is Henry Miller. And with him comes a dare. Ready? Ok. Try doing what I did. Read both Tropic novels back to back and then lay down on (I hope you have one of these too) your sexy psychologist's couch and spew your new found soul all over her white blouse and black pearls. …
What Wish Were
A very silly title to a very silly post. To maintain some clarification, I do not wish I were Beckett. I only admire him for being an example that not everything the same can also be good. I do not believe Beckett to be the intellectual and/or difficult writer that so many claim of him - or that so many academics have given him. I think he’s a great example of purity and simpleness and how the two make for beautiful art... …
Lincoln In Tuscany
Subtitle: Cute Elitist Disguised As Former Teacher, Red States vs. Help, And A Few Thoughts on Gore Vidal's "Lincoln".
Nonsense from -tgs-
Character X: The world is starving for variety and things dynamic. The world requires nothing from humanity and yet things static and universal seem to rule all - simply because that's what thrills humanity?
Character Q: Why?
Character X: I'm guessing that the opposite of things static and universal might be the variation and dynamic. …
Fiction Better Than Pseudo History
See through the cult, beware of popularity, steer away from the crowd, swim up river, break through to the other side… THINK FOR YOURSELF.
It's a long journey figuring out one's environment, aka figuring out the time and space that is you. One of the conclusions I've made in this journey is this: the Christian and Anglo-Saxon world that has reared me is not something I will recommend or praise to the aliens when they finally arrive to save us from ourselves (or watch us suffer our last breath). Of course, my journey of the three D's -- discovery, destitute, and the ultimate deliverance -- has not ended, even though more than half of life is over. Therefore. Read. Read well. Read lots.
When life is fully over at least I can claim that I was able to find a cool, real world example of conspiracy theory (or the like) being out-done by reality. The reality, in this case, is a book of fiction written by the great Umberto Eco called "Foucault's Pendulum". Obviously, it is silly of me to try and compare this brilliant piece of work/art to something proclaimed to be a pseudo history…
Zypkin
Reading is still very difficult. Recently found out that one of the reasons it is so difficult is because of how I read. How not to do it is probably the same as gawking at a painting by Pollack, a time consuming endeavor. And so... every word can be an act of discovery. If it’s a good novel getting lost in the words is like those butterflies of first love.
I know, I'm being silly.
Sometimes it’s a bother that words have to be part of sentences in order to have meaning. …
