And just like that, it’s Week 2. It’s been fun to see so many people diving in. I can report that this is now, by far, our biggest DM to date. Promising news for the magnet industry!
So OK, you’ve bought the book and you’ve read a few chapters. Which is awesome. But don’t get overconfident. I agree (so far) with the ‘marchers who’ve said this is more of a treat than a slog. Book 2 in particular started to downright zip along. But could it be that the very enjoyability of the read (so far) turns out to be the thing that gets you to let your guard down? to put the book aside for a day, then two? Be vigilant, ‘march-mates! There’s a long road ahead with tens of thousands of pages left for us to read (collectively) afore we’re through.
On a less overwhelming note, there’ve been a few questions about how to know when the next thread is up. And I can report that it’ll always be Wednesday, usually (hopefully) by 2 pm PST. Some other tips:
* if you want to jump straight to the deathmarch page to see where things are at (rather than going to the site’s home page) you can find that here.
* If you use an RSS reader you can also subscribe to the site here to see when the latest post has gone live.
* I also announce each week’s post in my poem-of-the-not-quite-every-day mailing list, which features short poetry by Levertov, Snyder, Brautigan, Li Po, Oppen, and other swell poetry-folks. If that interests ya, just send me a note.
Looking forward to the next stretch of the trail. Merry ‘marching all…
-Cecil
Next Wednesday: Let’s meet up at the end of Book Three, Chapter 5, where I’m told “there will be no horror.”
(which is to say: please use this Week 2 thread for comments on pages 0-122; aim to finish reading that section and shout out here by end o’ day Tuesday)
xx-temp-files
The Brothers Karamazov Deathmarch, Week 1
Welcome to the launch of “The Brothers Karamazov Deathmarch” — a collective exploration of the Fyodorovich family and their tale told in four parts over twelve books that are really two novels, plus: an epilogue. And did I mention it was originally written in another language?!
Based on last week’s comments, this could be the largest literary deathmarch we’ve launched. I’m really curious how many folks will make it through. But I have no doubts about you — I can tell you’re the sort of person who successfully completes literary deathmarches. That’s part of your charm and you don’t have to feel bad about it. Some people are born with laser vision.
Here’s a brief recap of how this thing works:
Everyone’s welcome to join — this is the official start, so if you didn’t post last week, not to worry — feel free to jump in here. Each Wednesday I’ll post a new entry (Week 1, Week 2, Week 3…) with our page count target (in the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation
Comment on each week’s post, make it through to the end, and you’ve qualified for your very own “I Survived the Brothers Karamazov Deathmarch” magnet, complete with ferromagnetic attractors. Comments can be profound. Or less so. You can comment before you read that week’s section as a “here I go!” or after you’re done, as a sort of after-meal mint. Believe it or not, “I’m 200 pages behind and I lost my book!” counts as a comment. I know. Crazy.
You might be tempted to read past the target but try not to get too far down the road — part of the fun is the slow-go. If you’ve zipped ahead, be sure not to get past that week’s reading in your comments.
And that’s the whole shpiel. Barkeep, if you could get me one of those extra-Russian Russian tea cookies in a to-go bag? I’ll see ya on the trail….
-Cecil
Next Wednesday: Let’s meet up at the end of Book Two, Chapter 4, where Aloyosha appears to be “right, very right.”
(which is to say: please use this Week 1 thread for comments on pages 0-59; aim to finish reading that section and shout out here by end o’ day Tuesday)
The Brothers Karamazov Deathmarch: Your Very Personal Exhortation
Life goes better with Russian lit and magnets. To prove that point, on 2/18 a group of us are kicking off “The Brothers Karamazov Deathmarch.” And this, right here, is your personal exhortation to join in.
A bit of history
About four years ago, a gaggle of ‘marchers tackled Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow, a book I was so scared of, the sight of an actual rainbow could make me weep.
But we made it through. Dizzy from the experience, we followed up with Pale Fire, Don Quixote, To the Lighthouse, At Swim-Two-Birds, and Against the Day. Then we stopped for a bit, and not too long after that the economy tanked.
Now we’re switching the DM machine back on for a book that an inebriated friend recently promised “contains the answers to all life’s questions.” And that’s gotta be true. Because he promised.
How it works + FAQ
Starting 2/18, I’ll post here every Wednesday morning with the 50-60 page target for the week (digestible bites designed for rich-mulling). Comment on each week’s post and make it through, and you get a custom-designed “I Survived ‘The Brothers Karamazov Deathmarch'” magnet.
Which version? We picked the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation
OK to re-read? Sure — just be kind and avoid pre-commenting or taunting first-timers like me.
Should comments be well thought out theses or monosyllabic bleats? The machine gratefully accepts all kinds. Wisdom is swell, but not required. And no points allocated for character count.
What next? Pick the book up and hold off reading till the starting post on 2/18 shouts out the page target for Week 1….
We’d love to have you along — the more the marchier. If you plan on diving in, take a sec to shout out in the comments. Any questions, drop me a note. And please feel free to help spread the word via modern “tweet/blog/FB” technology.
Looking forward to the march. Seems like a great season to spend time with something a little bit timeless.
An Interview with the Exploratorium’s Adam Tobin, Part Two
In which Tobin talks about mechanical art and what makes for a great toy, and shares ruminations from a Muppet colloquium.
Welcome to the second part of this interview with toy inventor/Director of Exhibit Development Adam Tobin. If you haven’t already, be sure to also check out Part One.
On the Web: The Exploratorium; Wordle preview
Cecil Vortex: I read that you also create mechanical art. What’s that work like?
Adam Tobin: After I sold the first toy company, I had a few larger-scale projects I’d always wanted to pursue. The first thing I wanted to make was a clock that told time with rolling marbles. I’d wanted to make it since I was a kid. And I started making it and ended up making a few other contraption-type pieces. It was just such a joy for me, after years of designing things to be mass produced to say, “I’m just going to make one, and I’m not as concerned about how you can make 10,000 of these.” In essence, they were very large one-of-a-kind toys.
CV: Do you still work on those projects?
An Interview with the Exploratorium’s Adam Tobin, Part One
In which Tobin talks about growing up as a child-inventor, the Exploratorium workflow, and the challenges of summoning an “ah-ha!” moment on a deadline.
Bio: Adam Tobin is the Director of Exhibit Development at San Francisco’s famed Exploratorium. Before that he was an entrepreneur and an award-winning toy inventor whose creations included Frigits, Getups, Tub Tunes Water Flutes and Drums, and SuperFort. His creations are sold around the world and have been featured in New York Magazine, Discover Magazine, CBS Morning News, Fox News, CNN, Regis and Kelly Ripa, and the New York Times.
This is the first half of a two-part interview. Jump here for the second half.
On the Web: The Exploratorium; Wordle preview
Cecil Vortex: Do you remember your first invention?
Adam Tobin: I started as an electronics tinkerer. I made a burglar alarm to keep my sister out of my room. I took an old car radio that had been abandoned from one of the old family cars and got inside it and wired up quadraphonic sound in my bedroom. I began making wooden toys when I was young as well, like whirligig and rolling marble toys.
CV: Were you raised in a family of inventors, or was it something you got into on your own?
AT: I don’t know where it came from. My father can’t pick up a hammer…. For some reason, with me, I was just a tinkerer from the get-go.
CV: How did your parents respond?
Virtual LP: Time After Time
I’ve fallen back in love with the piano. In particular, I can’t stop playing one of my very favorite songs — “Time After Time” by the unbeatable Cahn and Styne. Holy cow could those fellows write a tune. There are incredible versions of this out there by the likes of Sinatra and Chet Baker. A personal favorite is by Alex Chilton, off Cliches (highly recommended).
I took a crack at recording a cover of this beautiful song this evening. As with pretty much all the tracks on the Virtual LP, this is a relatively short number — a smidge over 60 seconds. Just piano and vocals. I even resisted my usual urge to overtreat the voice. A fun Sunday night project. The house was warm, the way houses get when it’s snowing outside. Only, no snow…. Hope you enjoy it, and thanks for listening,
-Cecil
time: 1:06 seconds; specs: 1.6M
Press Play to play.
An Interview with Dana Reinhardt
Photo credit: Chelsea Hadley.
In which Reinhardt talks about why she rarely uses her notebook, how her first book may have been the easiest to write, and getting a sixteen-year-old to translate into IM.
Dana Reinhardt is the author of three novels for young adults. Her most recent book, How to Build a House (Random/Lamb, 2008), tells the story of a resilient teen who leaves her split family and life on the coast for a summer in Tennessee. Reinhardt’s pre-novel-writing experience includes working in the foster care system, fact-checking for a movie magazine, working for PBS’ Frontline, and time spent as a reader for a young adult line at a mass-market paperback house.
We chatted by phone eons ago (she’s very patient). I read through the conversation last month while simultaneously attempting to tackle a novel during NaNoWriMo, and her words rang so true — there’s great advice here for artists of all stripes, and especially for writers.
Dana Reinhardt on the web: danareinhardt.net
Cecil Vortex: Do you have a writing routine you hold to?
Dana Reinhardt: I do. I try my best to stick to writing every workday. It’s a bonus if I do any writing on a weekend. I try to write Monday through Friday as if I had a real job. My goal for each day can change but in general, my rule is that my workday’s not done until I have three pages, which is roughly 1,000 words, maybe a little less. So it’s somewhere in there. I generally don’t let myself off the hook until I’ve done that. And sometimes I can do that in 40 minutes, and sometimes it takes me ten hours. But I try to have that done every single day.
CV: Is there an outline you work off?
DR: I don’t work with outlines. I know a lot of people do, but I don’t. I mean, I know where I’m headed, usually. Before each book so far that I’ve written, I know generally the arc of the story and how I want it to end. And sometimes I’ll have certain things I have an idea that I want to have happen halfway through. But in general, for me, the fun about writing is finding out what happens between the beginning and the end of the story.
CV: Do you try to get a first draft out and then go back and revise? Or do you tend to polish as you go?
Bad words
Meatballs (the movie) caused me to explain slurs to my kids the other day. Looking for a less-than-awful example, I stumbled on this lost memory:
As noted else-blog, I lived in Holland for a stretch while growing up. There I was, getting taller, all surrounded by Dutch stuff.
The American and Dutch kids went (mostly) to different schools, but we lived next door to each other, listening to our older brothers’ copies of “Sheer Heart Attack” by Queen.
Sometimes we played together. For those times when we fought, we created our own slurs. “Dutchies!” we’d call the Dutch kids. Which sounds to me now like a matched-set of collectable mob bosses. Or were we really just saying “Dutch cheese”? That would be an odd thing to call someone, even in anger.
“Cray-shee Amerikahnsies!” they’d call us. And OK — that was fair. We were crazy. Crazy about rock n roll!
Even as we launched our half-hearted catapaults, we couldn’t take it too seriously. How angry could you be listening to a band whose lead guitarist had hair what looked like this?
Brian May kept the peace.
Virtual LP: Lullaby
Here’s a sleepy little tune-let to add to the Virtual LP. I’ve been messing around with these changes for a few days now and wanted to see tonight whether I could get a few takes recorded around the margins of a work eve.
One program note: following Shonny Vortex’s recent vocal debut, Lullaby marks the Virtual LP premiere for Power Vortex, here on backup vocals. He did in two takes. Quite the pro, that Power.
Thanks for listening and nighty night,
-Cecil
update: new version uploaded Saturday with a vocal fix, guitar, and a rousing coda.
time: 1:29 seconds; specs: 1.3M
Press Play to play.
“Shaved My Beard” — the movie
A while back, I wrote a little thang called “Shaved My Beard”. And, you know, there was a lot of hullabaloo. I remember, I got a letter from Shaquille O’Neil about it, which really surprised me. I wouldn’t have thought he’d have the time.
Shaq hasn’t written in a while. So this weekend, with help from Veronica Vortex, iMovie, and a Flip cam, I revisited that piece, moving picture stylee. Herewith:
Shaved My Beard from Cecil Vortex on Vimeo.