File: Art, Life, Work

This is a post about books.

I miss writing about books, but I've put BookADay on hiatus, supposedly to get more writing done. When I manage to hurl myself out of bed early in the morning, I get writing done. Otherwise, I just get sleeping done. It's a work in progress.

I'm reading Making a Literary Life: Advice for Writers and Other Dreamers right now. I'm not very far, but one of the suggestions is to write a sweet note five times a week to someone you admire in the literary world. So, I ordered blue fold-over note stationery. I haven't received it yet, but will let you know what I think. Anyway, I decided to get ahead and think about who I would write to for the first five days. The first few are easy -- I have their works on my shelves, their words inscribed upon my heart. Jeanette Winterson, Anne Lamott, Sandra Cisneros, Nick Bantock, John Lasseter. And, writing to them scares the hell out of me. It'll be a wild ride. Once my stationery gets here.

In other book news, Dad is revising his book, Troubleshooting and Repairing Major Appliances. Buy the new one! His deadline is Christmas, which means it should come out sometime next year. The new cover was just designed. I'm attempting to upload a picture. It's pretty cool, and I'm really excited for him. Fun tidbit: I'm meeting with his editor at McGraw-Hill when Matt and I are in New York this September.

So, I finally checked out audible.com. It took me awhile because once I had found it I was so depressed I couldn't join. (That was my million-dollar idea!) I've been giving a three-month membership as part of a word-of-mouth marketing campaign headed by the BzzAgent.

BzzAgent is a pretty cool concept, by the way. People sign up to participate in campaigns -- in exchange for free stuff, you talk about what they give you and then write about what you did. The things that makes it so dynamic (and interesting for me) are the combinations of cool new stuff, talking, and writing, as well as the freedom factor. Other marketers have a specific list of things they want you to say. The same is true here (they send a packet for every campaign), but I can talk about the products/services any way I want to. If I hate something, I can tell people about it. (So far that hasn't happened. It has a secondary effect of creating brand loyalty for me to brands I never would have chosen on my own.)

Anyway, I'm part of a Bzzcampaign about audible.com. So, they signed me up for three months, and gave me three books to download at one-month increments. The sign-up was easy and quick -- the hard part was choosing which book to download. I'm normally not an audio book reader? listener? because I listened to Like Water for Chocolate years ago and hated it, hated it, hated it, but when I read the book found it to be stunning. So, I was skeptical. Audible lets you listen to snippets of books. I signed up for an audiobook at the library of a language series, but because I owe a library fine, couldn't claim it. So, I thought a language book. The one I wanted was too expensive (boo!). The site is cool because it lets you listen to snippets (most of the time, I was on a Mac, so it didn't always play for me), as well as read user comments, sort of like Amazon. They're ipod compatible, so once I settled on a book A Piece of Cake by Cupcake Brown, which is her memoir about her life on the street after being screwed by the Child Welfare System) it was easy to place on my shuffle. (It did it all for me, which was pretty cool.

The audio is pretty crisp. I don't know if this is the case of my shuffle, audible, or the audiobook format, but it doesn't have chapters, which is a pain. I can't really fast forward to other parts (the shuffle's not so great at that), but it would have been easier if it was set up like a book, with chapters. For the record, I mostly like the book. Her writing is clear and her story is moving, but she has a tendency to say things like, "And then things were looking up," and you just know that they're not. This was impactful the first few times, but now it's a bit overdone. I'm still going to listen until the end.

And, audible.com is cool (even though I'm not ready to forgive them for doing my idea better than I could have). A lot of NPR content is there. The NY Times is there (you can get it as a daily podcast for free). Their marketing blitz says that they have 27,000 abridged and unabridged titles, which sounds accurate. I think next month I'm going to download Blink, a book I've been meaning to read for awhile. You can try it, too. Here's the special offer: audible.com/bzz gets you a free download. Consider yourself bzzed.

Final work note: my boss told me the other day that we're the company responsible for putting Golden Books out of business. Golden Books! Sigh. For the record, Golden Books have since landed at Random House, so they're still publishing, but holy moly.

Ah, books.

File: Life

And here I am with my silkscreen adventure. Yeah, it reads "book smart." Because I am.

Matt found the tutorial here: http://community.livejournal.com/craftgrrl/3674467.html. We found the instructions to be straight-forward and easy-to-follow. The Modge Podge did take longer to dry than expected (more like 45 minutes rather than 15), but that may have been the way we applied the glue. The plan is to do more soon. It was fun!

File: Life

We t-shirt screened tonight. Here is Prime by Matt after our friend O.P. It looks awesome!

File: Life

This is Matt's tomato. I'm so proud of him.

File: Life

Anytime I clean the house, I feel like a rockstar. I realize how ridiculous that is, but it's true. I feel like I've just run a marathon, played for the President, conquered a culprit. So, while Matt ran 10 miles yesterday, I scrubbed the kitchen.

I had felt inspired because he did a Make blog project, turning his old Powerbook into a picture frame. It now displays our photos in a continuous slideshow. He hung it on the wall, just to see how it's going to look. It's going to be awesome.

So, I felt like I needed to do something. We both want to solve our house ugly. Our problem is that we clean in manic-like states. The house gets to be too much, then we freak out and do a marathon-cleaning. We talked about this yesterday, too. Part of the reason for this is that we're both designers. To use Matt's words, we'd rather take the time to figure out how to make something to sweep the stairs, rather than just sweeping the stairs. I put up a chore list in the kitchen. It's a weekly chore list. We decided that a week was Monday-Sunday, so I couldn’t check anything off. This was okay because I wanted to clean anyway. So, I cleaned the kitchen. Our biggest problem is the accumulation of stuff. Things just pile upon pile. But, I did it. I made it through the kitchen (and only the kitchen, following the one project at a time rule which I’m notorious for breaking), fixing things that had bugged me for awhile. (For example, we don't hang pictures for whatever reason. So, I stacked them nicely and placed them artistically throughout the kitchen and felt that I made a design choice. I created a space that we want to be in. And I feel like a superhero for that.

Our friend Karen calls cleaning “blessing the house.” I love that term because it feels so true.

Tonight, I conquer my laundry.

File: Art

I feel like a rockstar.

I did it. I revised a story. This may sound like nothing, but it's something big to me. This is my kid's book that I took out for a spin last year. I sent it to a publishing company, never heard back, so did nothing. So much for persistence (which, ironically, is what the story is about).

As part of my revised schedule, I've been working in the mornings on writing. Some mornings I actually write. But most mornings, I've been revising my work. It's hard to tear something down that I once thought was so good. I still think this story has a weak point, but I'm proud of it. I took it from a draft to a polished story.

It makes me feel amazing.

Yay!

Btw, I'm searching Chicago for a writer's group.

File: Life

And here I am Saturday afternoon.

File: Life

And some before and afters. Here I am Saturday morning.

File: Friends

Congrats to Erica and Fuzzy on their upcoming nuptials. Here they are cutting the cake at their bridal shower.

File: Friends

Everyone has things to celebrate. Congrats to Darrah on her new apartment.

File: Life

I've been back from Seattle for a few weeks now.

I've been struggling with a funk. Things are hard right now. Working through them, but they're hard.

I've been trying to establish a new routine. I kept feeling that I was cheating myself out of time; that I wasn't accomplishing anything. So, I decided to change that.

Most mornings, I get up early. I go to the gym. I write. I have a bunch of writing projects that I'm working on. Revising the screenplay. Dusting off the short stories. Figuring out how to really shop my kid's book, Voza Sings. A memoir. It sounds pretentious to even write that.

In typical Brandi style, I jumped in with both feet. I feel more creatively fulfilled, but haven't had the time and energy for my beloved blogs. Sorry about that, but I need to do this for me.

It's hard taking ownership on things. Putting a stake in the ground and saying, "Mine!" I'm learning how to do that more. I may have gone too far in the other direction because I've mostly stopped cleaning the house and the fishtank is turning greenish. It's all about balance.

File: Travel

This is Isabelle. Darrah and I joked that she and Patrick are betroved. She's been sleeping holding onto this stuffed puppy.

Behind her are the staples of our Seattle trip: Gatorade, saltines, Emetrol, Sprite, this hotel
room. Poor Darrah has been sick since Wednesday night. Hopefully, she'll be on the mend soon.

We can see downtown Seattle from our window. And an unidentified mountain that's not Mt. Rainier. The Space Needle, too. It's behind the Kmart sign.

File: Travel

I landed. This is a cute suitcase sculpture I saw. It's true you can't throw a rock without hitting a coffeeshop. Six so far and I haven't left the airport.

File: Life

Wow, it has been awhile since I've posted. Nothing bad, just busy.

Tomorrow, I leave for Seattle where I'm going to hep Darrah find an apartment and tour around the Space Needle town.

Pictures to come, maybe even some cell phone camera shots.

Cheerio!

File: Religion

Brothel ad in Germany (via BBC) is upsetting.

Like every other brothel/strip club ad, it's insulting to women. At least that's the way I feel. It has the flags of all the World Cup countries (it's that time of year over in Europe), which has brought threats of Violence from some Muslims.

They find it as an insult to Islam that the flags, bearing Islamic symbol, were used in the ad, which is the size of a tall building.

From the article:

First there were telephone threats of violence, then about 30 hooded protesters armed with knives and sticks arrived..."The situation was explosive,"

Are these people just wacko? Don't Muslims find violence to be against Islam? Have they twisted an ad into an attack? Or, are they right? (I don't think they are, but I'm getting all turned around.) Please help me answer this.

I feel like the world is getting crazier every day.

File: Blog, Art

Changed the sidebar. Added some new reads.

Spent the majority of the weekend putting together a stage reading from Anne Frank's diary that I'm doing tonight at Kol Ami. It's a bit of an emotional rollercoaster, but it was intriguing to culminate the four weeks of work I've put into it. I chose, edited, and rehearsed parts from her diary to create a 15 minute performance. Hopefully, it'll be moving and respectful.

I walked a thin line, trying to decide what to include and what to leave out. In the first half of the book, she's going through all of these awful changes that involve going into hiding and living with seven other people in a cramped space that you can never leave; however, she's still 13 when she begins writing. And so she's got all the drama that comes from being 13. She's whiny, she hates her parents, people treat her like a baby, she wants her period to come.

It's the second half of the diary that she becomes the Anne Frank that everyone wants to remember. She's insightful, she writes beautifully, and she's slightly older (14-15). The weird thing is that her writing only changes after she hears a report on the radio. There's a news story about people who keep diaries after the war. She decides she wants to publish hers as the Secret Annexe and even goes back to rewrite and edit some of her earlier entries. (She goes as far to change the names of the other housemates.) After the war, her father only decides to have the diary published because of her constant entries detailing this very same desire. (There are a lot of them.)

It's true that writing for publication changed the way that she wrote. Most people (self included) write differently when they believe that someone may be reading. Does that make it any less true? I'm not sure what I think on this one. She wanted to be seen as insightful; therefore she is. I realize that there's more to it than that, but still. One never knows that, if she lived, what she would be like, or if the diary would have been published. I'd like to think that she would have gone on to great things, like I hope to do.

I need to go back and read my own journals from 13-15. What will I find in there? Did I leave myself a message in those forgotten pages? Is there something that will give me conviction and courage? Or will I only find the "unbosomings of a schoolgirl?" (Anne Frank.)

Her writing made me think about my personal heroes: Anne Frank, Nellie Bly, Anne Lamott, my husband, my dad. These are all people who worked to change their corner of the world. Sometimes, in light of the first three, they changed more than their corner. in the case of the second two, the jury's still out on how much of the world they ahve changed. They sure changed me.

File: Life

Karen asked how the seder went last Thursday. Today's the last day of Passover, so here's my seder wrap-up.

We were lucky because some wonderfully cool people showed up. The table looked beautiful, especially because we used hand-painted plates (painted by yours truly and Matt), which was a nice touch.

As I was the only Jew, when putting together the Haggadah, I really mixed up. I wanted it to be accessible, fun, and meaningful. So, I started out with the Muppets. I found this great song online set to the Muppet show. "It's time to start the Seder..." It was so popular that it got requested at the end, too.

It was long, with people leaving around 12:15, but it awesome. Much singing, multiple plagues. I did a progressive approach. After we named the ancient plagues (which include blood and frogs), we named current plagues (AIDS, poverty). Then, we opened it up to plagues we're worried about (corporate greed was among them). It was nice. New additions to the seder plate: an orange and an olive. I thought that the orange signified the inclusion of women as Rabbis, but I read that it actually means the inclusion of all of those on the outside of Judaism, especially gays, lesbians, and transexuals. I think it also stands for those of us who chose intermarriage. The olive stands for peace in the middle east.

We told the Passover story, but we did it in our own way. There was a lot of joy at that table. And it was great. It wasn't mom's Seder, but it was the seder I've always wanted. I think we're going to make it a tradition to throw the second night seder every year.

File: Art

We have a freelancer whose book was just published. I saw it on the front table at Borders, and on a special interest table at Barnes and Noble. It’s kind of exciting, knowing an author.

I say this despite being an author myself (at least a co-ghost-author, a slightly less sexy, but more accurate title).

That said, his book is just okay. The writer is a good one, but the book is just about a certain time in his life. Publisher’s Weekly called it “juvenile,” which is a pretty accurate description, if you ask me.

Yet, I love this book because it inspires me. If this guy can write a book that someone deems worthy enough to publish, what’s stopping me? As part of the spring of stuff that scares me, it’s time. I started two different titles over the weekend.

And here’s one of them:
What Question Do You Most Want Answered? My plan is to ask people all across America (and, hopefully, the world!) this question, find out the answers, and publish them in a book.

I’m not entirely sure how to get the word out. I started on Craig’s list, and have received two questions so far. (Yippee!) As Chicago’s a pretty major market, I almost want to send out a press release, but that does seem a tad garish. Also, I need to get more things in place. Need to get the website up (a one page holder will be fine), need to get a form on the site so people can really send it anonymously, need to get a p.o. box, really need to get an agent/publisher.

Interested? Send me the question you most want answered. You can send it anonymously, or you can send me your city, state, and occupation with it. Or, if you’re a friend of mine, let me know if you want me to use your name or not. By sending me your question, you give me the right to publish your words. Help my dream while finding out the answer to your big question! Send the question you most want answered to: questionyoumostwantanswered@gmail.com.

File: Art, Life, Work

Just as I was leaving work today, Diane, a co-worker of mine, posed this question to me: If I won the billion dollar lottery, what would I do with myself? (An aside: I love that it's a billion dollar lottery, as inflation has finally won and a simple million won't cut it.)

I sort of whiffed on the question. I told her I'd keep working part time, just to keep myself on a schedule, as I'm at my best when I'm working on deadlines for others rather than myself. She countered with a follow up, "Yeah, but doing what? What industry?" My first answer was reading and books. But that quickly followed with my other loves: video, technology, theatre, writing. I'd definitely write that book.

I was thinking about it on the drive home. It's not really about medium for me. I love content. It's such a stale word, but it can describe so much, and that's why I'm using it. I love producing content, absorbing content, and almost most of all, sharing content. I'm just as happy to send a link to a cool website that's helped me, as I am to send a photograph I've taken, talk about a book I love, or recount a scene that made me laugh so hard I hyperventilated.

I like to help others.

Information sharing, especially through writing, is the method I'm best at; perhaps the only method of helping others that I really trust for myself. That said, there are so many other methods of information sharing that intrigue me. I think I would feel that I was missing something if I had to give up any one of those mediums.

Maybe it's the art school background. Communication arts, my area, exposed me to so many different playgrounds that I didn't want to choose just the slide or the swings. I just want to explore them all.

I should have said that as long as I have my hand in content creation, I'll be happy. I think a billion dollars would enable me to work smarter towards that, but I think it would also give me the opportunity to find new ways of content creation (maybe even ones that haven't been invented yet; it would be cool to invent something). I think what I'd really like from the lottery fairy is to split my winnings: some money (say, 8-12 million) and the rest in time. That's the biggest problem: I don't have the time to explore (and get really, really good at) all of the areas of content creation that pique my curiosity.

But, at least I can narrow it down. Cheesy business card here I come: Content Creator, Medium Flexible.

File: Greetings

Special hellos to Jerry, Ken, Mike, Diane, and Will.