Compulsively Aimless

Update -- my book will be released November 7. You can pre-order with a 30% discount code crayon30 through the distributor's site . It works best on a PC not on mobile devices. Color Capital of the World tells the story of the crayon and about growing up with the legacy of a crayon factory in the Midwest. It's had some early positive reviews. If you're interested, pre-orders are available through independent bookstores listed in the right side of the page and through the sites below:     University of Akron Press Bookshop.org Indiebound                  and of course the big guys Barnes & Noble Books A Million Hudson Amazon   I'm scheduling book events for November and into Winter and Spring 2023.  Details to follow.  

I  just happen to hear Water Song by Hot Tuna on my streaming service this evening. This prompted me to think of how much we associate certain  songs and music with a time and place. During my time at Denison I made a  lot of strong associations with songs (some I don’t  necessarily like.) I was lucky enough to work at WDUB as a DJ and it exposed me to lots of music. Here's a handful of Dension-Song associations: *The  Rolling Stones - Honky-Tonk Woman . The afternoon I moved into my dorm freshman year at Curtis East, I distinctly remember hearing the clinks of a cowbell and then the crash of Charlie Watts's drums. The dorm mate one floor below had just hooked up his stereo and was turning it up to “11”.  It seemed to say this is freedom. I’ll always associate that song  with my first day at Denison. *U2 - I Will Follow. On a brisk October night I walked into the basement of  Blair Knapp Hall and for the first time into the WDUB studio. There was...

 COMING NOVEMBER 7...

  Over the years, I tallied up the number of references to Ohio in movies and television shows. If a TV show wants to portray the average middle-of-the-road American setting Ohio seems to be the default. Alternatively, Ohio is used as an unsophisticated foil to the glamorous setting of the coastal elite. My hometown of Sandusky seems to get more than its fair share of references. Satirist P.J. O'Rourke's comical short story, The King of Sandusky uses the plain settings of north central Ohio towns and landmarks as a contrast for his plot of medieval intrigue. I once met him at a book signing and asked him, "why Sandusky?" He said it was because he couldn't use hometown of Toledo and Sandusky was his next best stand-in. Here’s a partial list of my tally of TVs and movies set in Ohio. There's plenty more out there, feel free to add your own. Television Shows Family Ties - suburban Columbus, OH. A 1980s sitcom starring Meredith Baxter, Michael Gross, Michael J. ...

    Storm Spiders   At night after the storm  broken branches litter the road  like giant tarantulas.   My Grandfather's Gun I have my grandfather's gun, a .32 caliber Smith & Wesson revolver. I don't know if he ever fired it. I also have my other grandfather's gold deputy sheriff's badge for Kent County, Michigan. Both enlisted in the Army in WWI. By WWII, they were in their 40s. As the younger men went off to war, both served as volunteer Deputy Sheriffs. Both had John in their name. Named after their fathers.    Reading About Jack Kerouac All the life put into him: the books, the trips, the loves, the seasons. And then one moment. like everyone else, it's gone.   Expiration Date   Time arrives in crates from a far off distributor unloaded in the back room and sold retail.   The Optimist Creed The green light is always waiting for you at the busy intersection.

An all time favorite travel writer, Patrick Leigh Fermor, who wrote among other things, a trilogy of books about his walk from the hook of Holland to Constantinople. He was 18 at the time and crossed through Europe in 1933-4 as it was slowly moving toward a war footing. Fermor is a favorite because of his gift with language -- his travel narratives descriptions are more like poetry than prose. Later, he fought in WWII in a British commando force conducting raids in Germany occupied Crete, including the kidnapping of a German General. He was later knighted for his services. Fermor's writing is truly one of a kind by combining adventure and his gift for language, he keeps you turning the page to see what person or village he would encounter next. I even wrote a Cento poem derived from the first book, A Time of Gifts that was published. Sharing a random sample of some phrases I like (this is about a tenth of what I underlined): I was abroad at last, far from my familiar habitat and se...

Every few months I clean out miscellaneous scraps from my journal and set them on the back porch. Offering these up on Black Friday for your minor amusement.    World Travel   If I'm sitting at my local coffee shop it's everday. If a person from Mongolia is sitting at my local coffee shop it's world travel.   Band Name Generator   The Papal Snoods The Terrible Suggestions The Eckington Dump Leper's Squints Popskull [19thC slang for cheap whisky]   Shopping Blahs   Low fat  this and that   Memory Climate   The cold ember  of a hot memory Cento from The Third Coast, Thomas Dyja It was a voluntary madhouse a museum of expired vices a final cry  for ruined lives.   Night Time   Sometimes midnight is not  late enough for midnight thoughts Maybe 3am or thereabouts When I can hear the flag rustling  in the cold wind.    Memorable Names from the book, Journey to a War, W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwoo...