Worth Reposting
MSF posted this on
Babies: Vinnie Wilhelm
interviewing Daniel Alarcon. It's pretty funny, and like MSF, I could use some funny.
This should also put an end to the spurious rumors that I *am* Vinnie. Not that we all don't want to be, but I'm not.
Who all is in Iowa City still, btw? Because I will shortly be returning for
NonfictioNOW, the writing conference.
The Quills
The Quill Awards!The winners aren't exactly big surprises, but more readers are always better, right? I for one will watch this on TV when it airs.
Did y'all get the most recent New Yorker? Truman Capote fiction!
-Viz
Alas, no Englander Q and A
Remember the incomparable Jennifer Vanderbes, spring semester '04 guest star and leader of such workshops as "It's called a comma, Manaster" and "It's best when things happen before page twelve, Manaster"? We sandpeople lucky enough to live in New York have a chance to jog our memories. Jen will be reading Friday, October 21 @ KGB Bar. 7-9, 85 E 4th* street. It's free. Jen's fabulous. Surely there are enough of us in the area (or in road tripping moods) to form our very own mob of screaming fans. I'll be the weepy one in the third row, trying to muster the courage to fling my bra on stage.
Anyone up for drinks after (or before, I'm not picky) let me know. Alcohol, I'm told, helps with the courage.
* F at Second Ave.; 6 at Astor Pl. Cross Streets Between Second Avenue and Third Avenue
Escaping from Bureaucracy
I'll start with the positives: my short story "Abyssinia" was selected by Robert Olen Butler as one of the finalists in that World's Best Short Short Story Contest, and will be in the next issue of Southeast Review.
Now on to the bureaucracy. Today's lesson was one in how far removed we are from the days when we could just walk into Connie's office or steal a cigarette from Deb and say, "How do I fix this?"
So I got an email a while back from the Florida State registrar saying that because they had never received official transcripts from me, I could not register for the spring semester. Keep in mind that registering here at a university of something like a billion graduate students (there are more than 100 folks in the English department alone) involves something more than filling out a few pieces of paper and hoping Connie puts them in the right pile. Naturally, I called the registrar and said, "I was admitted. I sent them with my application. The English Department has the copies that were sent AT THE SAME TIME AS YOUR COPIES. So why don't you have yours?"
REGISTRAR: "Um, I dunno. But you can't register."
SK: "Well what do I need to do?"
REGISTRAR: "We need official transcripts. By Wednesday."
(SOUND OF SK MUTTERING, THEN SOBBING)
SK: "Which transcripts do you have?"
REGISTRAR: "William and Mary (BA), Johns Hopkins (MA), University of Iowa (MFA)"
SK: "Those are all I've got."
REGISTRAR:"Actually it says on your William and Mary transcript that you took a sociology class at a community college in 1985."
Filling in the blanks here, basically this class was an attempt to placate my mom, so I wouldn't be sitting around all summer drinking beer and going to the beach (which is what I did anyway) and it never counted for anything as William and Mary won't accept transfer credits unless there are extraordinary circumstances.
But the best part is that this community college has no record of my existence.
From Paula Morris
An e-mail from Paula Morris, one of the bloggers on
Babies are Fireproof:
"My second novel, Hibiscus Coast, was published by Penguin New Zealand this week. It's a literary thriller about art forgery set in Auckland and Shanghai."
Paula adds that the book is available through these fine websites... Go Kiwis...
www.timeout.co.nzwww.womenbookshop.co.nzwww.booksnz.com
Look Who!
Over the Shoulder, Over the TopRecognize anyone in this story? Yup, it's Nina Collins copping to dropping $1,000 on a handbag!
-Viz
Leaves
It's October and the leaves and the sudden twenty-degree drops and I have been watching cable television. Ruthlessly. All these shows. I do one a day, minimum. I've seen Surface, which involves glowing oceanic alien parts and bad parents, from what I can gather. And I've seen Crossing Jordan, with its hot crossover potential on that Vegas show. Body parts all over the place and a ghoulish Brit. I saw Lost. They said the premiere raised even more questions and I wouldn't know, having had only two stations (at most) for the past ten years. Here's what I thought: going into a dark hole is a primally terrifying thing. Also terrifying? You're on a log in the middle of the ocean. Inside, outside. Scary, scary. Nip/Tuck: scandalous in that bawdy boring pot-smoking grandparent kind of way, but I like the slash. HBO's new Rome: real big. Authentic seeming hair-cuts, fairly unwatchable. Law & Order: SVU. Better investigating than interrogating and Jane Mansfield's daughter is on that show. Desperate Housewives: they've got this tuba sounding synth for the funny moments, deflates the humor, but something mysterious is in the basement. Alias: I do like the idea of a pregnant spy Ninja chopping.
I haven't found a show to be my show in all these shows, which is the thing (I think) you're supposed to want to find. And then you bond and then you make a little note in your mind to be there next week when it's on. I feel capable of bonding. What's good, people? You more savvy of watchers. I want to hear from you.
And, okay, in an effort towards redeeming myself, here's this new song. Catch Clap if they come your way:
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
