Impressionists Exhibit

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On Saturday I went with my wife and some friends to the newest exhibit of Impressionist artwork on display at the San Francisco De Young museum. Needless to day, it was a great treat to see all of these spectacular paintings up-close-and-personal without having to make the journey to France to see them. We saw masters such as Pissarro, Sisley, Manet, Degas, Cezanne, and, of course, Monet. The museum had so much great art on display from so many artists that I’d need an entire page just to list them all.

Some of my favorites definitely included Monet’s work. I’ve been a big fan since I visited his home in Giverny about five years ago. In addition, however, I was pleasantly surprised by artists such as Sisley and even Pissarro who I had previously not known much about. What really intrigues me about the Impressionist artists is their break from the traditional, pre-photographic era paintings that sought to simply duplicate reality or provide an idealized form of mythological beasts or holy angels. The focus on everyday life and the feelings and intuitions that go into it are hallmarks of Impressionist art. 

Ironically enough, the term “Impressionist” originated with an art critic at the time who meant the word disparagingly when describing this new form of painting. Not losing a beat, the new artists took up the name with defiance, labeling themselves gladly with a term that was originally mean to be derogatory. There are so many wondrous facets of art to enjoy and imbibe, and it would take me hours to merely go into the basics of it. So, I suggest you go check it out for yourself, either at the De Young Museum or if you are further afield, checkout what art is nearest to you. Whether in Paris, France or Paris, Texas there’s plenty of good art out there to go around.      

Randomness

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Ok, it’s Friday, and with my head filling of thoughts of the weekend my musings tend to grow more random by the moment. But bear with me, I have a random idea just for you. I’ve been writing some poetry lately just for kicks (trust me, novels are still my forte and after a week or two of writing poems it becomes self-evident even to me). But I keep toying with an idea for poetry based on a mix of ancient Greek lyric poetry, Japanese Haikus, and the Western Imagist movement of the early 20^th century.

I thought of poems from archaic writers, like Sappho and Archilochus, and how their poetry has such a fresh, modern bent to it, but part of this is due to the fact that what little of their work we have survives in fragments. So, in a way, time and fate has made their poems more terse and to the point than they probably were originally. But I thought to myself, what if you did this to a poem intentionally, i.e. purposely made it fragmented, as though portions were missing.  

For instance, something like “Autumn woods…wines stains…on the bone moon.” Something that not only keeps to a minimum of words, but implies a loss of meaning as well in the open spaces. I’m probably not the first person to think about this concept, so if anyone wiser than me (and there are many of you) would care to enlighten me on the subject I’d greatly appreciate it. Anyway, just some more ponderings from my mind as we get into the weekend. Have a good one! 

Journaling

My wife recently started journaling again and, frankly, it’s an ability I wish I had. Keeping a journal has something of a mystique to me, probably because everyone from famous writers to ordinary citizens turn into introspective artists and keen social critics as they detail their daily musings. It’s a place for simple and true writing, without the categories or constraints imposed on most other forms of writing, such as novels, poems, plays, etc. You can even draw pictures and sketch in your journal!

Needless to say, I’m not very good at journaling. I’ve tried. I really have. Okay, well maybe just a bit over the years. I usually get distracted or completely forget about it in a few days and that rather defeats the point of keeping a journal. Oddly enough, however, I really like the concept of journaling in terms of fictional narratives. I like reading the journals of characters in stories probably more than I do “real” people. Of course there are some great travel journals out there as well, from modern day authors all the way down to the time of Melville or Homer.

I’m trying to decide whether it’s worth taking up the torch again to trying journaling myself. I’m not out to publish any of it, like Virginia Woolf, but at the same time I’m not sure what to put down. Diaries and journals are so private and everything I write always has an audience in mind. Is it a good idea or would I just be talking to myself? Food for thought.

Tense?

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Nope, I’m not asking about your stress levels here. Instead, today I’m bringing up tense in writing, particularly with regards to fiction. Why do we always seem to write in the past tense? Sometimes people employ the present tense in short-stories, although I’ve rarely even heard of using future tense. But it begs the question, why do we choose the tenses that we do?

I’ve experimented myself, particularly with using present tense in writing and I have found that I like it quiet a bit. It adds an instant tension by bringing things into the here and now. The only drawbacks I found was that with the historical fiction I write a past tense tends to give a better vibe as the events portrayed often happened long ago. Also, for better or worse, the publishing market seems to frown on present tense (at least as far as I can tell). As much as I like experimenting, it seems that that type of experimentation definitely isn’t rewarded in the marketplace. 

But let’s forget about all that money mumbo jumbo for a moment and concentrate just on the pure love of art. What do you think about utilizing tenses on the written page? Should everything always be in the past tense? Do the present or event future tenses have a place in fiction? I ask sincerely because I’m trying to get at the heart of this matter myself. So, what do you think?  

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

It’s Friday! Which means the weekend and hanging out and movies and no work (hopefully). Last weekend I saw the new film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and if you haven’t seen this film yet, this weekend is your turn to go and check it out. Now, I will warn you, it may take a bit for you to get the kind of humor in this film, but if you give it a chance I promise you won’t be disappointed.

When I saw it, I admit that for the first twenty minutes or so I wasn’t quiet sure what to make of it. But its mixture of comedy and creativeness really shines through as the film progresses. What I particularly found intriguing about this movie was its creativity, both cinematically and in terms of its revolutionary script. Like the Matrix, I can’t quiet explain to you what this movie is about…you simply have to go see it for yourself.

Definitely more geared towards couples and movie nights with friends, I would suggest this for anyone who likes pushing the boundaries of film, but also likes to just watch something fun and have a good time. Mainly, I want you to go see this film just to swap jokes with you from the movie (I’d do it now, but I don’t want to spoil anything for you). So if you haven’t seen this cool new flick head out to the theatres tonight or this weekend and let it put a smile on your face. Ciao!

Haikus are Hard

Okay maybe simply writing a few phrases and calling them a poem isn’t too hard, but I’m finding that making a decent haiku isn’t exactly a piece of cake. Why am I trying to create a piece of Japanese poetry? Well, it all has to do with a contest a fellow blogger of mine is conducting on her site.

Haikus have a rich and varied history, ranging from ancient Japan all the way to modern day poets and authors. Jack Kerouac, for instance wrote a famous haiku back in his San Francisco beat writer days:

Snow in my shoe

Abandoned

Sparrow's nest

I don’t intend to wow anyone with my poem, but I’d still like to take a good crack at it. Fellow blogger and author, Stephanie Thorton, will be accepting submissions from other writers and bloggers and will post the best haiku on her blog in early September. You can join her contest at http://hatshepsutnovel.blogspot.com/. Enjoy!

Getting the Band Back Together

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This weekend I jammed for the first time in a long while with my good friend and former bass player of my old college garage band. Seeing as I cleaned out the garage in my house for the first time in a while it seemed like a good excuse to get the band back together. We’ve come a long way from teenagers toying with rock star fantasies, and now play for fun and for the thrill of making music together.

Although songwriting and crafting a novel may not necessarily seem like the same thing, I do feel that they are related. Most of my creative endeavors go straight into writing books nowadays, but I feel it’s important to always keep as many facets of art in one’s life as possible. Much of the material we play comes from what we wrote in college rather than now, but it’s the continued act of collaborating together that makes music a nice addition to the other passions in my life.

Right now my bass player and I are attempting to convince our awesome drummer to buy a new set again and setup shop in my garage. After all, just because we had to “grow-up” and get jobs doesn’t mean we still can’t have fun. Aside from this core trio of our group, we’ve also had some great instrumentalists come and go over the years, especially a good guitarist friend of ours living down in L.A. right now. Although I write with the pen/computer more now than a guitar, my Fender Stratocaster and my bass player’s Danelectro still offer a creative outlet in which to expand our mind and enrich our lives. Who knows, maybe someday (in its own way), playing in a band will be something worth writing about in a story.