Charles D'Ambrosio's "Up North"

I just found a link to this tremendous short story by Charles D'Ambrosio that was in a February edition of The New Yorker:

http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/content/?050214fi_fiction

He read part of "Up North" at the Tin House Summer Writers' Workshop in Portland a few weeks ago. Here's an excerpt:

"Moving against a low sea current of snow, a turkey, its narrow neck bent, came toward us, following the call. Lindy grabbed a spotting scope from one of the packs, adjusting the focus. “It’s got a beard and a half,” he said, passing me the scope. I slipped off my mittens. Steve worked the wooden slat in a new rhythm, as if mating the tempo to his excitement, locating the music of his desire. I looked through the scope and saw the turkey, its long straggling beard and chocolate-brown feathers and beady black eyes, narrowed in a heavy-lidded squint against the blowing snow. I passed the scope to Mr. Jansen and he slid the gun into my hand."

I believe his next book of short stories "The Dead Fish Museum" is coming out later this year or in early 2006. His story "The High Divide" was selected for the 2005 O. Henry Prize Stories. He also has a previous book of stories called "The Point" and the title story of that collection is not to be missed. I'm mentioning all of this just to share my enthusiasm. I predict "The Dead Fish Museum" will be considered an instant classic once it is released.

Link

Owen Wilson, Mad Genius?

Once again Slate.com has come up with an article that I should have thought of, but didn't (click on title above for link to article). It's about how Owen Wilson, who we may sometimes think is merely a goofy yet charismatic comic actor that likes to hang out at the Playboy Mansion, is perhaps really quite a shrewd filmmaker who contributed handsomely to director Wes Anderson's initial success (they co-wrote the screenplays of Anderson's first three films together) by balancing out Anderson's more bookish tendencies with Wilson's own brand of middle-brow humor and worldliness. Like the author of the Slate article, Field Maloney, I also recently watched the DVDs "Bottle Rocket" and "Rushmore" again--with the audio commentary--and I too noticed that Wilson makes many very astute comments throughout these viewings. I also saw "Wedding Crashers" last weekend and thought to myself, "Too bad Wes Anderson didn't direct this picture from a screenplay he co-wrote with Owen Wilson, because then it might have been interesting instead of standard, safe Hollywood drivel with no art whatsoever that plays like another SNL skit gone on too long, except that at least it is almost saved perhaps by the comic timing of Wilson and Vince Vaughn, who do have their moments." That's what I thought, I swear.

Link

MIKE DAISEY is Back (at Berkeley Rep)

Last night I went to see Mike Daisey's new monologue "The Ugly American" at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. He first made a name for himself in the world of monologists with his brilliant tale of dot-com woe called "21 Dog Years: Doing Time at Amazon.com." I worked on the same small "Biz Dev" team with Mr. Daisey at Amazon back in the days when their stock price still soared (up and down) on the NASDAQ like a Hot Wheels track, so he's been kind enough to give me complimentary tickets to his shows ever since. "The Ugly American" is a fun show with plenty of laughs and absolutely no message whatsoever except something akin to that line in "It's A Wonderful Life" where the old man on the porch says to Jimmy Stewart's character: "Ah, youth is wasted on the wrong people." I highly recommend it for anybody living in the Bay Area. The show is about his college term abroad in London where he studied acting and fell rather blindly into a relationship with a fellow thespian who also turned out to be, well, a prostitute. These things happen when we're young, right?

He also has an entertaining blog (http://www.mikedaisey.com) and apparently he appears regularly on NPR. My favorite moment was his appearance on David Letterman's show a few years ago. I was channel surfing late one night and stopped on Letterman long enough to hear Dave cut to commercial with the announcement (roughly), "Mike Daisey will be out after these messages." I thought, did I hear him right? Could that be the Mike Daisey that I know? And it was, and he looked pretty nervous when he came out, but Mike did a great job, got a few laughs from Dave and the audience, and some kind of TV history was made.

Link

Wolff Story and More

Tobias Wolff has a genuinely bold new story in The New Yorker that offers a glimpse at the life of a gay U.S. career soldier who has been stationed in Iraq.

http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/

Here's a brief excerpt:

"Morse knew that he belonged where he was, yet he had often put himself in danger of scandal and discharge through risky attachments. Just before his tour in Iraq, there’d been the Cuban waiter he met in a restaurant downtown; the waiter turned out to be married, and a gambling addict, and, finally, when Morse broke it off, a blackmailer. Morse would not be blackmailed. He wrote down his commanding officer’s name and telephone number. “Here,” he said, “go on, call him”—and though he didn’t think the man would actually do it, Morse spent the next few weeks inwardly hunched as if against a blow. Then he shipped out and soon came to life again, ready for the next excitement."

There's also an interesting Slate story about the 1997 Hanif Kureishi movie "My Son the Fanatic" (which also originated as a story in The New Yorker, incidentally) and how it might be able to tell us something regarding the following question: "How could apparently assimilated, British-born Muslims end up stuffing bombs into their backpacks and murdering dozens of their compatriots in the Tube and on a London double-decker bus?" I hadn't realized it until this article, but we in the U.S. have 9/11 and the Brits now have 7/7. What this means, I do not know.

http://slate.com/id/2122935/

Link

Rockridge Table Tennis Champ

Rockridge Table Tennis Champ
Originally uploaded by franksutter.

Playing on a mixture of clay and grass, table tennis wizard Tim Devaney climbed to the top of the heap in the first annual Rockridge Table Tennis Championships last Sunday in Oakland, CA. Tim took home the 50-cent piece as his trophy, reportedly proudly displaying it on his coffee table, under some junk mail.

Honoring the Lost SEALs

My old friend Virginia Delegate Chris Saxman (R) sent along the following info regarding a way to honor the Navy SEALs recently killed in Afghanistan. The events today in London during morning rush hour remind us that this is a very real war with no clear boundary lines, and we must support those who risk (and sacrifice) their lives to protect us. I'll just quote Sax from here on out:

"I have recently learned from a friend closely associated with the SEAL community that there is a very appropriate way to honor the SEALs recently lost in combat in Afghanistan.

The Navy Special Warfare Foundation is collecting funds that can be used to either assist in the cost of the Memorial Service for these fine men, or, funds which can be used to assist the families of these men. The Memorial Service, to be held this Friday, is expected to draw close to 3,000 people...

Please take action today, right now, so that on Friday those families will know that we really do support those fighting on the front lines. Tax deductible contributions can be mailed to:

Naval Special Warfare Foundation
P.O. Box 5965
Virginia Beach, VA 23471
757-460-1435

Attn: Operation Red Wing Memorial Service
or
Attn: Support for Families of Fallen
(Please make note on your check which support you are providing)

Contributions can also be made online at: www.nswfoundation.org

Please follow your online contribution up with a note to info@nswfoundation.org expressing whether you would like your contribution to go to assist in the cost of the memorial service for the fallen SEALs from operation Red Wing or if you would like your contribution to be used toward the assistance of the families of fallen SEALs and the furtherance of the Foundation's overall mission of supporting this worthy community of fighting men."

Link

Bush Bike Accident

Perhaps proving once and for all that you CAN forget how to ride a bike (at least if you're George Bush), our esteemed President collided on his bicycle today with a police officer in Scotland, sending the poor officer to the hospital "as a precaution" for a minor ankle injury. Meanwhile Lance Armstrong, a fellow Texan, is tearing it up at the Tour de France in his bid for a seventh consecutive victory, so all is not lost in the world of cycling.

Link

Movie Reviews Galore

OK, well, I've seen a bunch of films lately and it seemed worth mentioning a few. First of all, "Batman Begins" is pretty good if you enjoy that kind of action/superhero movie. Christian Bale does a fine job as Bruce Wayne/Batman, perhaps second only to Michael Keaton in recent history (sorry Val Kilmer and George Clooney, but you know it's true). Director Christopher Nolan did Batman right, I'd say.

I also saw "Me and You and Everyone We Know" (http://www.meandyoumovie.com/) which was written, directed, and starred in by Miranda July, an artist who collaborated with my friend Harrell Fletcher on this web site project that made it into the Whitney Biennial last year:
http://www.learningtoloveyoumore.com/
Anyway, I highly recommend seeing the movie (and participating on the web site project). It's a hard movie to talk about, I realize. I think of it as feature-length video art, in some ways, with interesting cinematography and a focus on the beauty of the mundane in everyday life. The kid actors in it do a great job, and every character in the storyline is treated with dignity.

I rented "Be Cool" on DVD and just thought it stunk like a city dump in every way. Some critics said "The Rock" was the only good thing in the movie, but I wouldn't even go that far. He was no worse than anyone else, but every aspect of the movie was bad and dumb and didn't work. And I liked "Get Shorty" OK--I even read the Elmore Leonard novel. "Be Cool" though was very self-conscious of itself as a big "Hollywood" movie from the opening with James Woods in the car with John Travolta to Uma Thurman trying to pretend to be a widowed record producer to Harvey Keitel in one of the most mediocre roles of his entire career. Yuck, yuck, yuck. Vince Vaughn is almost funny at times, along with Andre 3000, but even when you do laugh it is almost in spite of yourself.

Link

Kick the Ball Already!

Kick the Ball Already!
Originally uploaded by franksutter.

Pop-Eye Is Bored

Pop-Eye Is Bored
Originally uploaded by franksutter.