michael

Fe-WHAT?

Femail. FEMAIL??!! What in … was wrong with me? I know, or is it, was it knew better than that. I did not catch the error until I was proofing my typing when I had it in the computer. Who was it here that was berating himself for whatever niggling, small error he made? Oh my. Oh my my.

In the InCoWriMo world, I have started receiving responses from overseas. Australia, India, Mexico, and Belgium being the most recent. The one from Mexico was postmarked on February 26. The writer from Australia said he had arrived on March 13, when it was mailed on February 7. Out postmaster general is saying delivery times will slow down, we cannot expect mail to be delivered as quickly as they used to do so. We have no more expectation of it working anymore. Whine whine moan moan. We need to send more physical mail so they know there is more to delivery than the spammy collection of insurance and invitations to credit cards and come hither come-ons from banks. Well, at least a letter from Albuquerque was posted on “23 Mar 2021” showing that they can deliver mail in a timely manner.

Side note: I had written to the man in Mexico in Spanish. He responded in Spanish. I understand a few bits of it. Whew, I have some work to do.

On Topic Note: I have not reread this page yet. I never do. 1 type, I photograph it, I send it off to Daniel. What corrections you see I feel as I type and correct them, most of the time. But things like female/femail slip through unknown to me. Does that bother you?

Question for All: Do the misspellings and other bits of bad typing habits bother you?

Hopefully, tomorrow will feature a page of prose shared with you. Not like todays and the prior pages of sharing life with all of you.

Femail? Oh my.

— MichaelRpdx
mlr:ih3k

Memories

A couple of weeks ago a Boulder City Council unanimously passed a ban on assault weapons, high capacity weapons, bump stock … and immediately a gun rights organization took them to court on the basis that only the state could implement such a law and a state judge agreed. Boulder was banned from enforcing their waw. Less than two weeks before the shooting. Unanimous decision on the part of the City Council.

At last word, Kent was passing through Havre, Montana, and trying to get his One Typed Page submittenéd. Not great WiFi along all of the Empire Builder 1 ine. I do not have much hope for the North Dakota section of the line either. I also think he needed to get a Spot Tracker so we could know where he was, just like he did on the Great Mountain Bike Race. I am sure he is typing a page a day, if not more, and we will hear more from him when his connectivity is restored.

“Writers on Writing” aires from 9:00 to 10:00, Soucks, I should have checked on that earlier. Well, next week will be here soon enough.

Oh, memories! The lead page yesterday referred to Idaho in the mid-seventies, I was living there then. In the first halfway between Boise and Spokane, almost to the mile. The second half in the Treasure Valley, from Caldwell to Boise in my case. I intend to get back there again. Boise and Grangeville. There are friends and relatives in both areas. Boise no longer has Desmond and Mollies, a bar that was formative for me. I added “Wait for me here. – Godot” as a bit of graffiti. Responses to it covered three walls in length. I watched belly dancing including a woman who vowed to be the ”first female CEO of Idaho Power. And beers for a quarter. Those days just are not anymore. On the other hand, there is Pengilly’s which does still exist. I turned 21 there. I intended to return after 40 years. Instead, I spent the time in the start of a long hospital stay. I think I will go off and have some other memories.

— MichaelRpdx
mlr:rknm

To Do / Not Do

Carlos Villa taught, along with other things, Beginning Drawing. One of the exercises was speed drawing. Fifteen seconds to get whatever it was. A model or two, a charcoal stick, a stack of typing paper, and time. There was a guy in the class that could not do it. We would start. He would wave his hand in the air and then stop. Other people would put down a line or two. But something. There was no expectation of “good” drawing. There was a hint that you would scribble something down on the page. We did learn about essences. Then we would do the same thing, but with descending timed drawing. A three minute, a two minute, a one minute, thirty seconds, fifteen seconds and catch your breath.

It is dark outside, I am trying to keep going here and we will continue

Maybe 20 seconds is too short for writing. But I nee need to keep going so here I am with a timer.

The car is backed into the driveeway. It is there for some reason.

I went to Cosco todayk, got things that are, were too heavey to carry.

That was 4×20 seconds. Anything I could type. And so I did. I think the next set will be 5×60. With 10 seconds to “rest” between each set. We will see.

— MichaelRpdx mlr:ih3k

Hrmmm, it seems I have lots of room left on the paper to continue. Now if I could just think of oh, yeah, I just did. Don’t give yourself too much time. Sit down, start to type. One word leads to another. Like these words. Well, I think. I have not given them much though yet. Yeah well, there we are for today. I am no longer going to type more tonight.

Disclaimer/Waring

I did, just last night, talk about Vicki Hendricks and her novel Iguana Love. You should be aware that in addition to being the Queen of Noir She also writes erotica. And Iguana Love is full of it. Lots. You are forwarned.

And back to my normal, um what?

On the distinctions between Noir and other types of things to read, there is Hard-Boiled Crime. And a lot of people lump the two together. Me included. I need to watch it again or read it again since both types are here for consideration. That thing to re-read No Country for Old Men. My only memory of it involves killing and mysteries and it was a damn fine movie and I read the book as a result. Cormac McCarthy is the author. And the movie, you will like this, was done by Ethan and Joel Coen, a fine pair of directors. So fine I think I need to arrange a bunch of their films and have a mini film festival right here. Yes, that would be a great way to finish out the pandemic cooped-up time.

23 Years? What a run from Barbara. And still going strong. ((I do not name names bere. Yes, we have a celebrity in our midst. So I really did not name a name.)) Now, about memories, umm I do not remember how I found Writers on Writing or you or whatever. I explored, I found. That is how I find things. And, as to podcasts, podcasts, and podcasting, all of that word dates back to 2004. This I know how I found it, I went to Wikipedia and read up on it. Although it was suggested by Ben Hammersley of The Guardian I imagine it was a couple of years before the term got into use. And, yes there is a section on History, But I don’t really care enough to check or read it.
Barbara: When did you switch from weekly radio programs to podcasts?

When we are not in the mood for Noir one of the niches of things to watch are whatever comes out of Australia and New Zealand. Such small countries, such nice video/movies/series. Lately, we have been watching The Strange Calls. It involves a new cop living in a caravan (trailer) and is in charge of taking calls overnight. They are strange. Very strange. We get access via Acorn TV, which supplies BBC type, well all the non-United States English speaking countries and Spain and Mexican TV series and movies. I am going to watch another episode, it is fun.

— MichaelRpdx

Books

Books. We have a bunch of them. Stacked up in rooms. In boxes in the basement and attic. And still, we get books from the library. So many to read. Including the two I cannot find. Two from the library. If you know of an incantation to find books, please tell.

On the subject of Noir, if you have not seen Touch of Evil you should. If nothing else the opening sequence. A long shot as you watch a car with a bomb in the trunk snacking through the town, a border town in Mexico, three and a quarter minute waiting, waiting as the camera follows it to a newlywed couple’s kiss and the bomb goes off. Ahhm what a shot. Watch it. It gets better from there.

We did talk about Noir movies. So many of them were based on books. Jim Thompson, to name one. I discovered another one today. Vicki Hendricks. I have started with Iguana Love, something I could get as a Kindle thing. I found out about her on “Writers on Writing” a weekly podcast and scrolling back through the history and found this, well it, a Hendricks interview from January 20, 2021. I started listening and as my wife put it, “you were in Michael land” when it was over I looked down to discover a package next to me —- I was totally unaware that absorbed by the interview. Damm it was good. There are hundreds (thousands??) more to listen to. And, Hendricks is called the “Queen of Noir” If you are off riding a train across the country or have time to listen to it, or I am sure others, check em out, “Writers on Writing”

I am off to wonder and hopefully find my two books for the library. They are here someplace, among all the other books.

-— MichaelRpdx

Why A Typewriter

Almost here. The days and more importantly the nights are warming. Equinox happens today. After I type this, as, perhaps, you read this we will pass into longer days than nights. At last! We have the warm days upon us every day. Equinox! Hooray!

Why do I use a typewriter?

Long habits, I was typing some 45 years ago. My only lapse was when Steve Jobs decreed that there would be no typewriters at Apple. And while I have never been an Apple or a Mac user the logic of his statement held for my new to computing “yes!” enthusiasm. So I ditched typewriters. And I lost the sound of it – keeping it for years with the keyboards that clicked. Keyboards that kept the depth of keypresses and a sound, not THE sound but a sound.

Odd, getting keyboards that most replicate the characteristics of a typewriter. But I came back. Which echos the question, Why?

I do like the sounds of typewriting, when it is going well, when I am typing something and in the flow and making things on the paper. When I don’t the sound is faltering, going silent for batches. Sometimes for reflection sometimes for searching out the words I am after. On an enjoyable day, I like the sounds of the typewriter. The rhythm of the keys echoing my pressing fingers. Echoing my movement of fingers to create whatever it is.

In recent years the typewriter does not interfere with my thinking and writing with autocorrect or red lines indicating when I have typed something that other people will not. Am I mistyping? Is it some mistake or is it a word twisted to amplify the meaning. Please get out of my way, just like a typewriter does. Every time all the time.

It waits for me and my thoughts and my right or wrong text for me to read later it waits patiently.

And sometimes I feel poetic, and only a typewriter can fill that void,

— MichaelRpdx :: rkmm

Noir, A Favoirte, Hah

So Barbara (and William?) are asking about our favorite Noir movie. Favorite? A singular answer? I don’t have one. There are So Many at the top of my head. So here is a list.

the Big Sleep with Bogart with the girl that cannot find his lap to sit on, Martha Vickers who has other problems with guys who have drugs and cameras. Great pacing and plotting.

For a much longer form, Berlin Babylon set in the late 20s Berlin and a deceptive attempting to get his drug habit under control and several other issues, like the rise of Nazis. The multiple sub-themes keep it going.

In other recent years, we had The Killer Inside Me, a Jim Thompson novel made into a movie in 2010. I did not expect such a good Noir in 2010, but there it was. Or from 1987, Angle Heart FROM New York to New Orleans. It received mixed reviews and a poor box office showing. Too bad as people missed out on it.

Vertigo anyone? Blade Runner? Pulp Fiction? House of Games? Dial M for Murder? Bullets or Ballots? The Usual Suspects? Devil in a Blue Dress? Double Indemnity? Sin City? The Glass Key? You Only Live Once? (Fill in the bland by any Jim Thompson)?

Yes, there are so many titles to choose from. Depends on your mood, the weather the ones I have forgotten and will be going “what about?” series. Now I have a bunch of holds at the library.

— MichealRpdx :: rkmm

Oops, I forgot to send this last night. cest la ca ca

Questions Anyone?

Kent Asked a question, and I will try to answer it, or is it them, here. “What’s your OTP routine?” Routine? That kind of implies that I am organized, or regular, enough to have a routine. There is the reading routine and the writing one. I open it up after my Morning Pages writing. OTP is usually here by then. I search out my favorite authors and read them. Then back to the top to read most of them. At the most, or least, involved or well, I scan them. It takes me half an hour to read them all. I am also working on my speed of reading. It has been slow for the last two years. One Typed Page is the first of what I read in my morning batch of emails. And at times, there are other things calling for attention. Now, writing, the writing part of the One Typed Page portion of the OTP routine, that comes in the late afternoon or early evening. I start with date, place, and typewriter. Put those things down and indented at the top. That is my warm-up. And sometimes I wander off and return hours later to continue and get something typed up. I am lucky in that if my wife has gone to bed I can type. She finds the sound relaxing. Very lucky!

One thing I do while reading the One Typed Page of the day is looking for patterns among the sequencing of the pieces. I am convinced that Daniel tries to put some order to the group. I know they are not just ordered by the time they arrive. So he reads them all and then orders them. What is his method for choosing the sequence? This is fun for me. So I do not ask him about it. I look at them and wonder about them and what they have in common and what goes first and all of that kind of thing.

Figuring out the sequence of things is a habit I grew up on in doing photography. Sequencing is important. Poets have the same concern to worry about. Studying Spanish and Latin had me very aware of sequencing. In Spanish, you have a house small and white, in contrast to a small white house in English. In Latin it is SOV, Subject-Object-Verb, nearly they can be changed around some for poetic reasons. By the way, a lot of Latin is great fun to learn due to the roots of our language. It makes learning most vocabulary easier. Well mostly. They still have conjunction lost in English.

— MichaelRpdx :: hr

Kent Peterson

This typewriter came to me from Kent Peterson. I have not used it in a while but today is special from that perspective. It will be the last time I will see him for years. I drove down to Eugene to visit with him today. We had a great visit. With a long dialog on the subject of memory and memories. (more on that) Maybe we should have had a pizza. This typewriter came to Kent from Venezuela in a pizza box. Instead, we drank tea. and talked and talked until Kent needed to pick up a box to pack a bike into. I continued my bad influence of giving him a ride. Kent does not use cars very often. I seem to get him into cars every other trip. ??

On the subject of memories – one of which Kent told me. He swore that I had been told the story. I do not have a glimmer of any type about it. Have you had that experience? This is not like amnesia, though come to think of it, hrmmm But I have forgotten a lot after my stroke (my?? stroke? like I own this particular experience? note to self: consider the ownership thing here) So back to memories, We had both failed, gotten an F, in a grade school class. He used his F to organize classmates to … well you will have to wait and hear it from Kent as it is his Story. But for me I went on to get an A in every class because they made the classes interesting. But that, those, are not the point of this digression. Because the doctors that treat strokes do not get enough recognition. “Vascular Neurologist” just does not roll off the tongue like cardiologist. Where was I going with this segment? Damn memories. I will come up with that and report back sometime. If I remember it.

“Figure out the food thing.” That was an early piece of advice from Kent on the subject of a sport that I was amazingly unsuited for but kept going at it for years. Randonneuring. Give it a whirl sometime if you like to ride a bicycle. It is remarkably satisfying, to ride 200 kilometers in a day (well 13.5 hours) and if you keep it up you will find that a 50 or 60-mile ride is just time out enjoying the day. I hope to return to that level.

There was a point to something here. But instead I will ramble on no more tonight. Instead, I will remember things with Kent’s voice guiding me as I went out and tried.

— MichaelRpdx :: hr

Do You Re-read Novels?

Barbara asked two questions in her One Typed Page yesterday. In reverse order for answering, “does anyone here read noir?” I cannot answer Yes. My answer is Hell Yes. Oh god hell yes. I am just now restarting on Thompson – in Spanish, It is for my literacy. It is tough too.

Yes “I have also reread novels”, With a bit of a twist here. After my stroke (September 2018) it was extremely difficult to read. It still is, I cannot read as quickly as I used to. I am still working on it. The first re-reading of this time period (this epoch?) was “84, Charing Cross Road”, it has small chapters enabling me to read it. The most recent, I believe, rereading was “Emil and The Detectives”, which I loved due to the protagonist going on about mac and cheese. I asked my aunt for it. Ahem, so much for no digressions. Did I reread “Cat’s Cradle” somewhere in there? I do have three books on my TBR list, “Years of Rice and Salt”, “If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler”, and “A Moveable Feast” three favorites of all time. (can you tell I am trying to distract you from the book that I reread the most recently?)

A digression that really is not: I have had problems with recalling words. “mac and cheese” in the previous paragraph, as an example. This has led me to lots of synonyms and other bits of wordplay. I mentioned this issue to my doctor. (early-onset late age issues anyone?) He had two observations. 1) it is normally nouns. I am checking on that, and 2) It can be due to a lack of Vitamin B-12. That was included in my bloo& work. and…lo and behold I am deficient in it. So if you are having troubles with remembering things that you know you should get it checked.

Hey Readers: On YouTube there is “Developing Literacy, Developing Language, with Stephen Krashen (MAT-TESOL Master Class I)” Dr. Krashen talks for about 90 minutes followed by a Q&A session. In the section, he states that reading for pleasure is the #1 way to foreign language acquisition, and it is just plain good for people. Read for pleasure and it will do you good, or even great. There are stats cited if you are interested.

I think I need to go read for some time now. As in it is time to read.

-— Michael Rpdx :: rkmm