Writing

I pulled my first book from Amazon today. Rather, I logged in and shifted a check mark from the left-most (Active) column to the right-most (Closed) column. I thought about stopping over in the center (Suspended) for a bit but then I thought, if I’m going to do the damn thing…

Next weekend marks the six-year anniversary of All Downhill. It’s also my six-week anniversary of being in San Fransisco. As the former was totally and entirely tied to a place (both in time and geography) and the latter is totally and entirely unlinked from that, it feels appropriate to cut ’em both loose. It reminds me of something Sean Christopher Nelson said on twitter a few months ago, about Flagpole Sitta. He said he was happy people enjoyed his song but it was weird to be remembered for something he did when he was 22.

So. A bittersweet moment, but time for a change.

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/

I did a thing, or it did me

Quit Grabbing My T-Shirt