FINDING ONESELF IN THE MOST UNEXPECTED OF PLACES

I am not feeling particularly writerly today, for, I must admit, I am tired and have much driving to do tomorrow. You see, the wife and I are heading off on an expedition to visit a dear friend and family tomorrow. Hence, I shall be sporadically posting for the next week or so, but promise a frenzy of activity – both studio and writerly – upon return.

But, today, I offer you something I found by accident online this morning. I was looking for a mentor of mine from a past epoch, and while doing so I ran across a review of one of my pieces from a show I was part of in Nashville – a pleasant thing to unexpectedly encounter, at least when the review is good. The review is from Nashville Scene, a weekly alternative paper.

The sense of being out of place takes its most outraged form in a tightly constructed rant by Thomas Knauer in which he wrote out 16 rules for living in America on yellow legal pads. They include things like “Don’t be gay,” or be afraid of Americans because they like shooting stuff. The rules come with explanations, sometimes sidebars, some digressions and little bits of collage added for emphasis. Knauer lined up the sheets and took clear photographs of them in a neutral, scientific setting very different from the bar where he composed them. The results are entertaining, with enough self-ridicule to go with the indignation.

So, I shall leave you with A Not So Simple Guide to Surviving in America As Devised While Drinking Third-Rate Whiskey in a Seedy Bar Downtown, and I shall pack my bags and prepare for the night’s sleep in preparation for the journeys in front of me.


[click image above to view entire project ]

Addendum: Two days later.
This appears to be the week of The Guide. I just learned that an online journal - Meat: A Journal of Materiality & Writing is planning to publish The Guide in their next issue. It may be a small journal, but I am pleased that the effort to cross back and forth between art and journals is moving forward.

Huzzah!