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Left Coast Proper

Greetings from the other side! After nearly 10 (grueling) years in New York, I’ve moved to San Francisco, land of the homeless and the hoodied.

The biggest adjustment so far has been the pace. People don’t seem to like jaywalking. They say hello in elevators (they even want to push the buttons for you, which…?). Everyone wants to chat all the time. I’m thinking I’ll have to slow my physical self down quite a lot.  I’m also expecting a bit of brain adjusting. Honoring the balance between working and playing seems to be much more of a priority (thank the lord jesus) and I’m going to have to power down my habits of eating breakfast, lunch and dinner at my desk. Or just being at my desk in general.

This will allow more time for writing, which is, as we know, a high priority. Perhaps I’ll even start working on some shorter pieces and do that whole thing where you rack up credentials and “get your name out there” by publishing in journals. You know, instead of grinding out novels and then pitching agents for….ever.

In any case, I think big changes are on the horizon. At least, when I can see the horizon over the hills.

Quit Grabbing My T-Shirt

 

One of the nicest and most terrible things about life is that each time I think I’m truly at the point where I’ve gotten overloaded and I’m starting to hate all my commitments, something comes along that I truly want to add to the stack. Writing this piece of flash fiction was like that.

It’s my second work for that magical site, The RS 500, the place where writers address each of Rolling Stone‘s Top 500 Albums of All Time with a poem or essay.

This month, I had the honor – and I’m saying that with a true heart – of writing about Eminem’s Slim Shady LP. Although let’s not talk about when it was released because sweet lord, high school was a long time ago when you look at the numbers).

Eminem was a violent genius, furious at his world and lit up by his own tenderness. He felt disconnected from reality and seeing this disconnect when others didn’t made it that much worse. I write about this album, and those feelings, in the context of a long-distance relationship between two lovers – one of whom is deployed overseas.

Check it out: http://www.thers500.com/albums/275-eminem-the-slim-shady-lp-1999/