by john | Feb 28, 2010 | Uncategorized
So I had this weird idea this morning after seeing a friend’s FaceBook profile pic. It looked like she’d taped over her mouth and written something on the tape. And I thought “what a cool statement about the power of words, that maybe this is one word that she can’t bring herself to say, so she wrote it and took a picture of it to prove that she owns the word, and the word doesn’t own her. Or maybe it’s her favorite word, or an overused word, or something neat like that.”
For the record, this person is an artist, so it wouldn’t be too out of line for these thought to occur to her and for her to have done that very thing. But she didn’t. She had drawn a fake moustache on a piece of paper and taped it over her mouth. Which is also funny, but not at all the same idea. And I might need new glasses.
But regardless, I thought it would be cool to get all types of people to send me pictures of themselves wearing words. Their favorite words, their least favorite words, words that make them cry, words that make them laugh. Then I’ll put all the pics into some kind of montage and make something cool out of it. Because words are important. And I think it will be an interesting experiment to see what words people think are important and what words people are interested in putting on themselves somehow.
So here are the rules – I want no more than three pictures from people. You can send me one, two or three. But there can be only one word per pic. I don’t care how you transmit the word – it can be on a T-shirt, a tattoo, a piece of paper stuck to your forehead, written on your tits in Sharpie, sprinkled on your junk and written in glitter. I don’t care. But make it be an important word to YOU. I don’t give a shit if “spaniel” means a dog to everyone else, but if it’s what your mom whispered to you when a thunderstorm was coming and it made you feel better, then “spaniel” is important to you. I’d love it if there was a brief explanation of the word and its significance, but that’s optional. I don’t care if we see your face. I will not edit photos, so don’t put anything in the pic that you don’t want on the interwebs.
Think of it as performance art. Your chance to be part of a Karen Finley show without the dry cleaning bill. Email all the photos to john AT johnhartness.com. And pass it along. I think it would be cool if I got pictures from strangers telling me why “mouse” is their least favorite word in the world.
Update – Here’s the first one, and it’s a great blend of image and word. It has begun, keep it going!
by john | Feb 26, 2010 | Music, Real Life, Travel
Not really, although it kinda feels like I’m back from the dead. I realize that I’ve neglected this little piece of the interwebs for a while, but that’s what happens when real life gets in the way. And speaking of real life getting in the way, that’s what today’s whine is all about. You see, a whole bunch of my friends are getting together next weekend in Greenville to play cards, drink like college kids and generally behave very poorly in a celebration of Neanderthalism known as Mastodon Weekend. I was there for the events last year, and can honestly say that it was one of the best weekends of the year. Note that I said “my friends” will be there next weekend. I, unfortunately, will not.
Every year since 1994, I have been in attendance at the Southeastern Theatre Conference annual convention. Since 1996, this has been part of my job, to go to the show and drum up business. This year I’m teaching three workshops, hosting a reception and will generally behave only moderately badly while on the company’s nickel. Typically this is the trade show I get the most joy out of attending, as it’s more a gathering of several hundred old friends than a work outing. And we get a bunch of business out of the show, which doesn’t hurt my feelings. So this year my love for SETC will be tempered a little by the party I’m missing in Greenville. Both events have some similar appeal – these are groups of disparate individuals brought together by a love of either poker or theatre, and I only get to see the attendees once or twice a year. It just sucks that this year the two events that are the brightest parts of my spring overlap. Oh well, drink one for me in G-Vegas, and I’ll drink one for y’all in Lexington.
Anybody wanna join me & Suzy in New Orleans for Memorial Day Weekend? A friend of hers from high school will be down there at that time, and I’ve got a shitload of Marriott points burning a hole in my account, so I’m gonna eat up about a week of vacation time and travel to NOLA. Lemme know if you will or can be anywhere close and we’ll hang.
And in other upcoming ridiculous news – the week of March 9 may be the sickest concert lineup I’ve ever done that didn’t involve a festival. If you’ve got the chops, you oughta just hitch a ride with me for the week. Tuesday night in Atlanta I’m going to see Reckless Kelly and Cross Canadian Ragweed on a double bill at the Variety Playhouse. Then Wednesday I’m driving back to Charlotte to see They Might Be Giants at the Visulite (it’s the 20th anniversary of Flood). Then Thursday night I’m going to see Robert Earl Keen at the Neighborhood Theatre. I’ll probably take Friday night off, but if I can drag my ass out, Acoustic Syndicate is playing Friday at the Visulite. Then Saturday night is Southern Culture on the Skids.
Then Sunday I try to recover. Merlefest is around the corner, with a killer lineup, so get your ticekts or be a big fat loser!
by john | Feb 18, 2010 | Poetry, Poker, Theatre
So I’m not counting running one of my own poems in Red Dirt Review as an acceptance, since I happen to be the editor, but you should go over there and check it out regardless. There are some great writers from all over featured this month, and as long as I can stay relatively sober I’ll publish that one a quarterly basis.
But I have had another poem run in The Deuce Coupe this week, and I’m really glad they picked it up, because I felt like I really nailed this one. Sometimes I feel really good about something I’ve written, and sometimes I’m just “meh” about it. This one I really liked right off the bat, but I knew because of some of the imagery I’d have issues getting it picked up. So I was really pleased when it found a home so quickly.
Tonight it’s off to dinner and then Reservoir Dogs, directed by a friend of mine and featuring several others. I’m reviewing it, so I’ll let you know when the review runs. And I had a great recording session last night with Special K, we got two more episodes of the Gambling Tales Podcast in the can and ready to go, so now we can take our time planning the next few. It’s picking up steam, but slowly, so spread the word!
by john | Feb 17, 2010 | Writing
So the first issue of the Red Dirt Review is ready to go! I’ve got some great contributions from poets, storytellers and photographers all around the US and even Canada for our first issue, and I’m pretty excited about it. I did decide to go ahead and print a few copies to give to the contributors, because why not, if folks are going to send me the fruits of their creativity, and I’m gonna go to the trouble of making a print-ready copy anyway, then I may as well buy a few and give them to the contributors. Everybody else that wants a hard copy can buy one, either from the RDR site or using this link on Lulu. I think when it’s all said and done you’ll get it a buck or so cheaper buying it off my site, but you’ll get it faster buying it from Lulu, ’cause I’m not going to place the order for hard copies until I proof one, which won’t happen until late next week. I should still have them in hand by March 1, which was my goal all along.
Why the change of heart? Because I like to read on the crapper, and these turned out to be about the perfect size to put on the back of the crapper. And the poems and stories are short enough to work out to about the right amount of time for a good sitting session, if you get my drift. So head on over to RDR and download a copy for free, or order one for $10.
by john | Feb 15, 2010 | Poetry, Writing
So since I’m closing submission to the first issue of Red Dirt Review today, I figured I would be spending my evenings this week working on that project. Then Special K reminded me that it’s time to do another recording session for The Gambling Tales Podcast, so that’ll fill in one evening. Then I checked my calendar and saw that there’s a meeting of the Charlotte Writer’s Club Tuesday night, so that’s another evening. And Reservior Dogs opens Thursday, and I’m reviewing it for Charlotte Viewpoint, so another evening is occupied. Just Do It is taking place this Friday at Theatre Charlotte, so that night’s full as well. And there’s a poker game Saturday night. And I’m driving to Atlanta Sunday to get there in time to cover the Sunday Warm-Up for the PokerStars Blog.
Yup, life’s getting pretty much back to normal, which means I’m busier than a one-armed paperhanger. I did manage to get some submissions of my work ready this weekend, and sent a bunch of stuff out. I’ve been using Duotrope’s Digest to search through a bajillion places online that accept poetry, and I’ve started limiting myself a bit. As I get rejections (and a few acceptances) I’ve decided to start only sending out the stuff I feel the best about. I know that seems like a no-brainer, but in the rush to get submissions going, the temptation to send out mediocre product is pretty overwhelming. But that dilutes the brand, and since I am my brand, I need to make every effort not to have stuff out on the world that isn’t my best work. Unless it’s here, because it’s almost acceptable to be mediocre on your own blog. Almost.
So as I clear my current round of submissions, I’m going to focus on sending out fewer packets and making them stronger submissions. I’ve found that when I send out stuff that I feel really good about, it’s just a matter of finding the right market for them. For example, two poems that I wrote and got rejected from their initial 2-3 submissions I still felt were really good poems, so I kept slinging them out there until I found a place where they would stick. Dancing with Fireflies was picked up by Victorian Violet Press, along with a reprint of Gingham, from Returning the Favor.Those should run in their May issue. Now I might be the last person you’d expect to have a poem in something called the Victorian Violet Press, but the stuff they run makes them a very good fit for those particular pieces. And Deuce Coupe has picked up another of my poems, called Death of a Small-Town Sports Hero, which I really like because I think I got the imagery right in there. I’m not sure when it’s running, but it’ll be soon. Their turnaround time on responses and publication is pretty super-fast.
Now both of these poems had been initially rejected by the places I first sent them to, but I really felt good about the pieces, so I kept on plugging. But as I received a few rejection letters this weekend, I started to realize that I had submitted some things that even I didn’t like! So no wonder they weren’t getting picked up. So I created another sub-folder in my Writing folder, labeled “Meh,” for stuff that I’m done with, but I’m just not crazy about.
Oh yeah, folders. That’s how I work on stuff. I tend to hand-write my first drafts, because it just feels better to do it that way, a little more visceral. Then I type it into Word (I save everything as a .doc because some folks can’t open .docx, and it just saves me a step) and put it into a folder labelled Work in Progress. Then I typically let it stew for a day or week or whatever, until I get on an editing binge, and go back over and tweak things. Very, very few pieces do I consider ready to send out after just the second draft. The typing bit always turns into a revision phase as well as a transcription phase, which is probably another subconscious reason for creating the process that way. Even the pieces that I do think are finished after the second revision usually go through one or two passes in that draft.
So once I’ve gone back to a piece in the Work in Progress folder, and polished that turd until it shines, I move it into a folder labeled Ready for Prime Time, which in my head means it’s ready to be submitted. Once it’s submitted, if it’s sent to a place that allows simultaneous submissions (and unless the venue is typically very cool or very fast, I only submit to sim/sub venues) it goes into a folder that reflects that. If I send it to a venue that doesn’t accept sim/subs, it goes into another folder. Then I log the submission into an excel spreadsheet with the title, venue and date submitted. Once I get a response, I update that info and date into the spreadsheet.
If a piece is rejected, I take a look at it again to see if I think it needs more polish, and if I don’t think so, it goes back into the submit file. If it’s accepted, it goes into the Accepted folder. So this whole process takes some time to manage, and sometimes I get carried away in the whirlwind of that mess and forget to write and polish. So I’m going to cut down on my volume of submissions to no more than three submissions per week, and focus on only sending out work that is a solid representation of what I want out in the world with my name on it. After all, I have a blog to post drivel on, right?
But still, if my unspoken goal for the year was to have one piece accepted each month, and I’ve had seven acceptance letters by mid-February, I think we might be doing okay on our plan.
