Category: Writing

Short Post About Being Away And Coming Home

On By Robert Freeman WexlerIn Life, Music, Readings, Writing3 Comments

wexler-littleitalyBeing true to the spirit of this blog, I should just say, I’m back, with, at most, a photographic accompaniment, and let the reader infer that I must have been somewhere. Instead, I’ll amble along for a few more words, perhaps even an entire paragraph. (And, are there partial paragraphs, isn’t any group of words followed by a line break considered to be a paragraph? But I digress.)

I went to New York and read a section of my roughly-completed short novel, The Silverberg Business, at the New York Review of Science Fiction reading series on March 11, and the next night I appeared on WBAI’s Hour of the Wolf radio program, with host and elocutionist Jim Freund. That bit of fun was in the 1–3am time-slot (not my favorite time to be awake). I read a classic Wexlerian story, “Tales of the Golden Legend,” available on my website here.

The NYRSF event was with Chandler Klang Smith, author of Goldenland Past Dark, which I’m looking forward to reading. She read from a cool-sounding novel-in-progress. It was a fun time, attended by a good-sized group that included old friends and a lot of strangers.

My reading was on the third anniversary of Jack Hardy’s death, so on the show the next night Jim played a couple of his songs and “Jack of Hearts,” a tribute song by Tim Robinson. The Hour of the Wolf show is archived and stream-able for two weeks from the date of the show (March 13).

Aside from reading, I ate. That shouldn’t be surprising. Ate brilliantly-spicy stuff at a newish place called Hot Kitchen, and also Xi’an Famous Food, and others.

I walked a lot. I bought bagels to take home. I saw friends. I didn’t see one friend because I went to the wrong place and didn’t have his phone number, didn’t even know if he had a phone (I blame that on being exhausted by staying up late for the radio show.).

I also found out after it happened, that my friend Mike Laureanno came in from Providence to perform at the same time as my reading. There’s a video of it here.

And came home.

(note: I selected writing as one of the tags for this post because whenever I use that tag I get multiple likes by people who appear magically and probably don’t read the post or have any idea who I am.)

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Stepan Chapman

On By Robert Freeman WexlerIn Art, Books, Life, WritingLeave a comment

Stepan Chapman died. I knew him only briefly and not very well. His novel, The Troika, was an amazing piece of wacky and thoughtful weirdness. I hadn’t seen him in several years. He had a starring role in the The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric and Discredited Diseases, a book put together by Jeff VanderMeer & Mark Roberts. Writers were asked to create a story built around a fake disease. I wrote a letter (as Dr. Wexler) to the fictional Dr. Lambshead begging him not to publish the Pocket Guide. Stepan incorporated my letter into the history of the Pocket Guide, treating Dr. Wexler as the villain, always stealing Dr. Lambshead’s research, etc. We did some readings together (I couldn’t see him, but was told that when I read my Dr. Wexler letter, he would make silly faces to the audience to mock me).

I’m at work, listening to “Sensorium” an episode from Flotsam Beach, a series of podcasts that Stepan did. I’ve only just discovered them. In which he reads from Guy Murchie’s The Seven Mysteries of Life, interwoven with a variety of sounds.

“In this sequel to Leeuwenhoek’s Lenses, Stepan reads more pages from Guy Murchie’s The Seven Mysteries of Life, in order to explore the sensory apparatus of the animal world.

Background choir of aquatic insect larvae provided by David Dunn. Zoological interlude music provided by Marc Hollander of France, Lars Hollmer of Sweden, Kimpereli of Switzerland, and Fred Frith of Britain.

Protoplasm. Did we discover it? Or did it discover us?

After a year of imaginary broadcasting, Flotsam Beach is still asking The Big Questions.”

The combination of his reading style and material, plus background music works to make listening to the program oddly stimulating and soothing. Plus, it’s nice to hear his voice.

Big Boys Reissue

On By Robert Freeman WexlerIn Life, Music, WritingLeave a comment

There’s a great piece on the NPR website about a reissue of one of the Big Boys’ records (article + video interview with surviving founding members Tim Kerr and Chris Gates). From March. Which is when I meant to post something about. People often overlook the March-like quality of July.

I don’t know if there was anything on the radio. NPR does stand for National Public Radio, not website with video. But that’s okay. It’s not like I ever heard their music on the radio.

Available from Light in the Attic Records.

I’ve written about the Big Boys before. And maybe I will again.

Fanciful Flight

On By Robert Freeman WexlerIn Art, Reasearch, WritingLeave a comment

Some time ago (maybe April 2012, because that’s the date on the web page), Liz Hand posted a link to an article about a friend of hers at the Smithsonian who has made models based on pictures of fanciful flying machines.

Looking at the models gave me ideas…I wanted to try making some myself, and wanted to use them in fiction.  I filed the article away for the future. And have since used one of the aircraft and its artist in “Untitled Western Novella.” The story is set on the gulf coast of Texas in 1888. One of the artists profiled in the Smithsonian article, Charles Dellschau, was a German-born butcher who ended up in Houston, TX; he created his art-and-tales about flying machines around the time of my story.

I’ve modified his life to fit the story: his exploits were supposed to have occurred a number of years earlier than 1888.

Another Dellschau sighting occurred last week. My friend Doug Lain, he of the intriguing-sounding forthcoming novel Billy Moon, posted a link to an article on a neat blog called Messy Nessy Chic. There’s also a new book about him.

Monday Song Link

On By Robert Freeman WexlerIn Music, WritingLeave a comment

Here’s a great song by the Minutemen about being the Minutemen (and about life, art, writing, performing). It’s an acoustic version, so to get the full impact of Mike Watt’s bass you’ll have to buy the CD (or one of those downloadable digital formats). ”The typewriter’s on but my head is empty and to really find me I’ve got to look inside me.” is a situation I’m familiar with (metaphorically or course—I haven’t actually used a typewriter in a very very long time).

And here’s a site called Corndogs, with some Minutemen information, other videos, and concert downloads. Mike Watt’s website is linked on the right.

For An Insurance Agent

On By Robert Freeman WexlerIn Life, WritingLeave a comment

fancy_sports_carEvery few weeks, I’ve been getting a letter from a nice insurance agent extolling the benefits of his company’s product. He says: “The difference between auto insurers is often just a few dollars. However, the difference between the protection you get can be much bigger.” It’s very nice of him to let me know about such important issues. I wonder if many people get in touch with him after receiving his letters. Although I don’t need to change my insurance, I thought I would check in with him to see if perhaps he would like to buy some books. I sent him the following email, which I am also duplicating here.

Hi (Agent),

Thanks for the letters you’ve been sending me every month letting me know how important it is to save on my car insurance. At present, I’m happy enough with my provider but I will certainly let you know if that changes.

Meanwhile, I thought I’d let you know that I have several books available. I’m sure that you, like many other intelligent people, enjoy reading strange, thought-provoking fiction. Here are some links to places where you can purchase my books.

In Springdale Town. This was my first book. Unfortunately, it is out of print, but you can find used copies. For example, on ebay. Or, if you like modern ways to read, it’s available as an ebook. This is the publisher’s website, which has buying links to Amazon and other places.

Circus of the Grand Design. Technically still in print, but I haven’t seen a royalty from the publisher in many years, so you might want to look for a used copy someplace like half.com. Or ebook.

Psychological Methods To Sell Should Be Destroyed. Available from the publisher here.

The Painting and the City. Available from the publisher here in either slipcased edition or regular hardback. Or, you can get it as a downloadable audiobook from audible. Or even in French!

Best,
Robert