Timing

Timing is everything. Early in my writing career, I was in the right place at the right time doing the right kind of work (according to the grant givers), i.e. in the 1970s-80s I received no less than 12 grants supporting my work. Found this on my resume. Forgotten it had been so many, though I did live on grants through most of the 1970s and 1980s. Far better for creative work than the freelance work I did later. The latter became so stressful I ended up going back to teaching for financial security in mid 1990s.

Writing Grants and Fellowships

 Shubert Playwriting Fellowship, 1971

 Maryland Committee for the Humanities, 1976

 Metropolitan Arts Commission, 1979, 1981, 1984

 Oregon Committee for the Humanities, 1980, 1984 (3)

 Actors Theatre of Louisville, 1981

 Oregon Arts Commission Fellow, 1981 (fiction), 1988 (drama)

 Distinguished Writer-in-residence, 1988, The Catlin Gabel School

 Distinguished Scholar-in-residence, 1989, The Catlin Gabel School

The last slow dance

I love listening to baseball on the radio. Very comforting. Brings back memories of youth, I suppose.

In today's world, baseball almost seems unAmerican, it is so slow, that's how much the country has changed.

An early piece on baseball: The Last Slow Dance.

The therapeutic value of baseball is that it is slow.  SLOW!  This is significant.  Why, baseball may be the last slow dance left in America!  Consider the pitcher's deliver: for three or four seconds the pitcher contemplates the signal from the catcher, for a few more seconds his arms slowly begin the windup, then one leg lifts, the upper body leans back for leverage and comes forward again, the pitching arm whipping the ball to the plate, a sequence which takes another several seconds to complete.  It takes the pitcher some ten seconds to throw the ball, which more often than not is taken by the batter for a ball or strike.  This, baseball fans, is the most action you'll see in the net half-minute or more.

Which is baseball's advantage!  Where else can one daydream for minutes on end and very likely miss none of the action?  The answer, of course, is when watching television, which has become baseball's greatest rival.  But the television set is at home, garrison also of the telephone.  And telephones ring!  Baseball, in contrast, provides unique relief from speedy technologyland.  Baseball is a vacation close to home, a trout stream in the city, an inexpensive psychotherapy.

Mariners

Won their opener against a good Indians team. Onward.

Came through

A very productive hour on the novel. Earlier, a ton of chores and shopping, all done before 9 a.m.  So already it is a very productive day. I like feeling this way mid morning. Reminds me of the obsessive writing days of yore. Done by 11 a.m. 

Enough is enough

Enough brooding. Time to start writing.

Headline of the day

Majority of Americans don’t see Trump tax cuts in paychecks

What a shocker ha ha. Duh. Con number ... well, lost count.

Since when?

Does democracy mean that the lowest common denominator prevails? This is not what the Founding Fathers had in mind. They were, ahem, cough cough, lest we forget ... they were INTELLECTUALS.

When the United States began its national existence, the relationship between intellect and power was not a problem. The leaders were the intellectuals. … It is ironic that the United States should have been founded by intellectuals; for throughout most of our political history, the intellectual has been for the most part either an outsider, a servant, or a scapegoat.

Richard Hofstadter, Anti-Intellectualism in American Life

Jazz, bread, habit

Baking bread this afternoon. To west coast jazz, the usual background. Brooding about my novel.

No literal progress since introducing the new character but I am close to writing again. The old man rhythm is still new to me and such a far cry from my earlier obsessive rhythm, it's like a new occupation entirely. Moreover, I have lost the faith, so to speak, and no longer feel I am making any significant contribution to culture, literature, or anything but my own satisfaction. Writing has become very isolated. It's not that I want popularity. It's that I want evidence that literature actually mattes in the United States, the way I find evidence in Europe and overseas.

I spent most of my adult life sheltered in academia, a far cry from the citizens that H. L. Mencken knew so well and ridiculed constantly. Well, he was right, and we see where that got us.

Lots of loose ends to tie this week. Get Harriet's driver's license in order, an annual requirement. See our tax man this week, curious to see what is different from the year before, what with Trump tax law and Harriet not selling any paintings. Our 20th anniversary is tomorrow! I think Harriet will probably forget, so I won't make too big a deal of it, which would make her feel bad. Out to eat or some such.

Cool jazz is the last sure thing left. Has not lost any of its appeal to me, not a nudge. Music of the gods.

News and glamour

Over the years I've noticed, with minor disgust, how as soon as a female news reporter reaches a certain level of success, she is chosen for a makeover to make her appear more glamorous. The most recent victim is a highly regarded international reporter at CNN. To my bohemian eye, they never come out looking more attractive, just less trustworthy, more like magazine models than investigators. The makeover never fails, so entrenched are certain ridiculous standards of female glamour. Needless to say, men never partake of this corporate ritual.

Oregon

Well, the ladies were competitive anyway, led at half, lost by ten, but clearly not quite ready for the Majors. Final four are all #1 seeds, one of the things I don't like about women's basketball. Far fewer upsets.

Last hope

Beavers lose by 33. Bruins lose by 16. Pac 12 v #1 seeds not nice to the west. Oregon, today, the last hope for conference respectability, making the game competitive against Notre Dame.

Reality check

Louisville crushed Oregon State by 33 points. It would have been worse if Louisville was on its game in the first half offensively. OSU scored only 8 in the first period and never could deal with the pressure defense thrown at them. Pac 12 didn't impress anyone.

UCLA is next.

Family

I'm getting my DNA checked. Curiosity of an old man with little sense of family. I hope something exotic shows up. 

Staying power

Well, the last Big Movement was the Occupy Movement, we're the 99% and all that, which fizzled out from its own lack of a specific agenda. The advantage of the current March For Our Lives movement is that it embraces some specific goals, like banning assault weapons, which gives it more coherence than recent callings to the streets. The movement is helped by the imbeciles at the NRA, who dismissed everyone as puppets of Hollywood elitists, and such stupidity will help the kids, surely.

So we'll see what happens.

Here we go

Oregon, Oregon State and UCLA are in the elite eight but next play a number one seed (each of them!), tomorrow and Monday. A major hurdle to the final four and each will be an underdog. Be fun to watch, starting at 9 a.m. tomorrow, when Oregon State faces Louisville. Go Beavers. Go Ducks. Go Bruins.

Elite Eight

UCLA and Oregon State made it yesterday. Oregon plays this afternoon. Stanford lost. But 3 Pac 12 teams could be in final eight at women's dance. Impressive.

Still dragging heels. Old age lack of energy. And back hurt like hell yesterday, not eager to concentrate on anything. Better today.

Changing Key: a hyperdrama

More ways to watch.

Treading water

Slow week so far. Have intro'd character, now to deal with him. First meeting important. Brooding about it.

Ah, long gone are the obsessive 24/7 writing rhythms of my youth! As an old writer, I hobble along. The theory is, Eventually I get there. We'll see.

Sweet 16

Oregon State makes history

OSU women handed favorite Tennessee their first home court loss ever in tournament play and advances to the Sweet 16. U of O gets a chance to join them tonight.

Progress on novel, finally introducing the new character who will become so important.

Basketball ballet

Does any team, men's or women's, play with more precision than UConn women?

UConn won 140-52, setting all kinds of records along the way, including most points in a tournament game. The score was 94-31 at halftime, marking the most points scored by a team in any half in the history of women’s basketball.

Most points were from two and three pass layins. A ballet.

1998 women's bracket

Screaming bias

The historic UMBC win, a 16 over a 1 seed, is a first for the MEN'S dance, not the NCAA! The women did it long ago, Harvard over Stanford. The bias against women's sports is showing a lot now. Too bad. Both wins are historic and the women were first!

University of Maryland, Baltimore County - or UMBC - made history Friday night when it stunningly upset Virginia, becoming the first No. 16 seed to take down a No. 1.

But this new mark in the college hoops history books actually comes with an asterisk: The Retrievers are the first men's team to do it. But two decades ago, Harvard's women's basketball team became the first men's or women's team to accomplish the unlikely feat, when it knocked off Stanford.

So when UMBC pulled off the unexpected upset over the Cavaliers, Harvard offered its congratulations in the best way possible.

Harvard WBasketball@HarvardWBB

Welcome to the club @UMBCAthletics! #SixteenOverOne https://twitter.com/harvardwbb/status/973942369128210434 …

8:33 PM - Mar 16, 2018

16 seed finally wins (men)

#16 Univ Maryland Balt Cty (ranked 5th academically) defeats #1, and overall #1, Virginia by 20 pts! Extraordinary. One for the record books. And yesterday I complained about no upsets. And this wasn't the only one today, Marshall also won. And others to a lesser degree. The dance goes on.

Years ago, at the women's dance. Harvard beat Stanford in Palo Alto as a 16 seed.

Outrageous ... oops

ESPN is not showing the Oregon State game in Oregon. Boise State. Amazing.

LATER. All games on ESPN3.. Ok, sorry ESPN.

Beavers and Ducks

Beavers play this morning, Ducks this afternoon. Hoping both advance.

Disappointing men's dance, only two upsets, but one was major, Buffalo creaming Arizona. Pac 12 embarrassed itself, all three teams losing first game.

Much more interested in women's dance now but will continue to root for upsets in other. 

March madness

Into it today. And moreso tomorrow with women and both Oregon universities in hunt.

Influences

When I started playing guitar and singing in the 50s and 60s, my early influences were Big Bill Broonzy and Brownie McGhee, later Ramblin' Jack Elliott.

Learning curve

Lemongrass and sticky rice today's subjects, learning to use them, in fact using them. Great fun.

Headline of the day

100-year-old's secret to a long life? Beer and potato chips

Trip

To Moab, Utah, motel, explore Canyonlands and Arches state parks
Down to Bluff, motel, explore Goosenecks State park
Home, total trip 14 days.
Doable! Late spring or early summer.
Food for thought.

Chicken livers!

Picked up on sale, breakfast this morning ... tender, melt in your mouth good, with eggs, first rate. Harriet will be pleased when she gets up.

Old dog, new tricks

Enjoying my exploration of basic Thai cooking, using spices I never used before, like curry paste and lemongrass and coconut milk. So far, so good, very tasty stuff.

I don't do authentic cooking. I explore the basics and then adjust for my own palette and, sometimes, convenience. Hence my wonderful Korean marinade. Learned exploring Korean cuisine but then personalized, Same will happen with Thai, I am sure.

Extreme mellow

One of those continuing moments this morning when I marvel at my own survival. Good timing had much to do with it: beginning my writing career when grants were plentiful, so that the burden of  being commercial was greatly diminished; and becoming obsessed with hyperdrama at the very time the World Wide Web developed, so that I could find the overseas markets when so few existed at home. Circumstances made it easier to focus on inside-out writing, rather than commercial outside-in writing. I got to do things my way with less difficulty than if the special circumstances had been "normal." And even quitting a wilder lifestyle when I did, in my early 50s, a decision without which surely I'd have been long gone by now.

All of these components strike me as more accidental than a result of any right decisions on my part. I think I went with the flow but the flow itself was particularly helpful to encouraging my artistic work. I was in the right place at the right time.

And here I am, approaching 80, and still hanging in.

Tom Lehrer

Woke up singing Lehrer songs to myself. Hell of a deal.



Bought his first ten inch album in high school. In 1958 saw incredible early concert at Stanford. In mid 80s had long phone conversation with him, getting permission to use songs in play.

Once played The Vatican Rag for my aunt who had converted to Catholicism. She laughed so hard, red in face, I thought she was going to have a stroke.

Mark Russell was later imitator but had only half or less of Lehrer's wit.

Best satirist since Jonathan Swift, hands down.

Fantastic morning

Moving ahead on the novel.

Red pen

Without a doubt, the most fun, the most rewarding, the most important part of the entire writing process is rewriting. I like to do it with a red pen. I printed out the first 30 pages of the new novel for the first time, will go over them carefully for focus and tone, get it right, and then with great energy and anticipation move forward through the story, which remains clear. The story has always been clear. Tone is what I've been struggling with.

Saturday cooking

Turned in a big kitchen day.

Chicken in Korean marinade, vegies in garlic oil marinade, for later roasting.

Baking bread, 16 grains today, pumpernickel in the wings.

Also marinading some hard boiled eggs.

Waiting for my spices to give Thai cooking a try.

Plan to print novel pages, get serious, later today as well.

West coast jazz setting the mood. Sun shining outside. Everybody asleep here but me.

New challenge

Going to try some basic Thai cooking. Something new.

Taxes in. A relief. Now to focus on the novel. Will print out what I have, wave the red pen over it, and get into high gear.

Sketch got me up earlier than I would prefer, but I stayed up.

Unusually good weather in the NW. We are missing the storms. We got them last year.

Feeling pretty good. Arthritis not as bad as it has been, no pain pills necessary. Comes and goes.

I think my driving days are limited. Been thinking of our spring trip. Rather than driving a lot, maybe go somewhere close and park ourselves. Cannon Beach before the season, maybe. Actually haven't been there in years.

Or up the Washington peninsula. Feel like the ocean, though. And someplace we can walk to shops and eats.

Dragging

Sketch woke me at 3 a.m. to go out. Never did get back to sleep soundly. Consequently, a very low energy morning.

Hence cooking. Scotch eggs, marinaded party wings, breakfast country spuds and eggs. Might be a long day.

Headline of the day

Children’s Climate Lawsuit Heads to Trial: Court Rejects Trump Attempt to Block It

In the landmark case, 21 youths claim the U.S. government violated their constitutional rights by failing to take action on climate change.

***

More power to them.

Smooth sailing ahead?

I finished the taxes, I believe, that is, gathering the info our accountant needs to do them. Need to deliver them across town, which might as well become a lunch trip in the old neighborhood some day this week. This should be the last distraction from the novel for a while, other than daily chore stuff, so I expect to crank into high gear soon and make some progress. Still hoping for a draft by summer.

CJ Brooding is a great addition, serving a function similar to a monologue in a play, what's on the guy's mind at vital moments. Short and sweet.

I am pretty sure CJ will still be alive at the end of the story.

Remembering the arts in Portland

Last January ArtsWatch Senior Editor Bob Hicks talked about "Portland Arts: Covering More With Less" at the Breakfast Forum at Terwilliger Plaza. " From that talk:

When I started writing about theater in Portland, a few people were doing original shows. Ric Young and others were creating new works, some of them quite splendid, at Storefront Theatre. Charles Deemer was writing interesting, usually Oregon-set plays for a variety of companies. Sam Shepard was still in San Francisco, and people here were producing his vivid new American plays almost as soon as they were available. The New Vaudeville movement was in full flower, adding circus skills and acrobatics and mime and juggling and puppetry and countercultural politics to the performance scene. But the emphasis was on revivals (sometimes very good ones) of European and American classics.

This would be the 1980s, by and large. Hicks has followed my work in Portland pretty much from the beginning, usually complimentary, always fair. In a website he had before ArtsWatch, he reviewed several of my novels and a book of poetry, he remembered the 25th anniversary of my best known play, and he supported my digital filmmaking. In one film, I gave him a cameo role as a, what else?, arts scene critic. Having him around has given my artistic life more visibility than I would have had without him. I am grateful for the good fortune.

Very productive

Great morning of writing! New insert material, CJ Brooding, gets into his head along the way. Discarded several devices from earlier draft as irrelevant now. This will work better.

Very slow progress on this, compared to my usual pace in younger days, but the pace is giving room for major changes that I like. No complaints.

It still feels like a novella. 30+ pages in now. Onward.

A little progress

Tracked down Harriet's medical expenses. Enough for today. Maybe finish tomorrow.

Want to print out first 25 page for the red pen, then move forward.

Made Scotch eggs. Baking bread this afternoon.

Harriet doing women's circle at Vineyard next door.

Nice jazz. Mellow afternoon.

March Madness

I am getting the itch!

U of O women

Basketball team won both conference and tournament and will go into March Madness with higher hopes than any past teams, I expect. How far can they go? I'd like to see them make the final four but frankly, Connecticut looks to me like a team in a different universe, so I will be shocked if the Huskies don't go all the way. Again. In women's MM, there are fewer upsets historically, less of a run by a Cinderella  team. But I hope U of O and UCLA women go deep. We'll see.

SEATTLE — The Oregon women's basketball team followed up its regular-season Pac-12 title by winning the Pac-12 Tournament in dominant fashion Sunday, getting a title-game record 36 points from conference player of the yearSabrina Ionescu and knocking off perennial Pac-12 power Stanford, 77-57, in KeyArena.

The sixth-ranked and top-seeded Ducks (30-4) avenged one of their only two conference losses this season, and turned into into a rout after squandering a halftime lead against the Cardinal in the regular season. Oregon seems all but assured of earning at least a No. 2 seed into the NCAA Tournament when pairings are announced March 12, and of hosting the first two rounds of tournament play the following weekend.

Is "Best Picture" a rip off?

Everything to Know About the Shape of Water Plagiarism Controversy

I am a great fan of the playwright and the plot similarities, down to some details, strike me as too similar to be coincidental. At least very strange.

Facts and the Internet

With so many now going to the Internet for information, it is important to remember how often that information can be wrong. For example, I have direct experience of two whoppers.

In an obit for my ex Polly, you learn that we had a daughter, Kate. This is false. On the contrary, it was during my marriage to Polly that I got a vasectomy (on V Day!). When she came out gay, she later connected with a woman who had a daughter, Kate, whom Polly co-parented. The obit writer learned she had a daughter and assumed I was the father, apparently.

As recently posted, a website identifies a rue Charles Deemer in Brussels. How nice to think a street might be named after you! Alas, ends up it's a typo for rue Charles Demeer, according to a Brussels street map. Boo hoo.

The trouble with these falsehoods is that they apparently are there forever, recirculating and growing, and we all pay the consequences in a world where facts have less and less authority. Perfect for the autocrat, of course. Just perfect.

But maybe I'll let that street lie go its own way for a while ha ha. 

Too bad

Found a street map of Brussels. The solution is a typo! It is not rue Charles Deemer but rue Charles Demeer. Too bad! Maybe I won't tell anyone.

Coincidence or ... ?

From a website:

Au 5 rue Charles Deemer dans le Nord de Bruxelles, un bâtiment en briques rouges attire le regard. Au fond d’une petite cour, une pancarte : « Cours Florent ». Depuis novembre 2013, la célèbre école de théâtre parisienne exerce son art au cœur de la capitale européenne. « Il y a à Bruxelles une proposition artistique très importante », explique le directeur du Cours Frédéric Montfort, « et je crois que nous avions vraiment notre place ici ». (Reference)

Which Google translates as

 At 5 rue Charles Deemer in the north of Brussels, a red brick building catches the eye. At the bottom of a small courtyard, a sign: "Cours Florent". Since November 2013, the famous Parisian theater school has been working in the heart of the European capital. "There is a very important artistic proposal in Brussels," explains course director Frédéric Montfort, "and I think we really had our place here".

OK, so there is a Charles Deemer Street on which is a "famous Parisian theater school" ... so how many CDs in theater are there in the world, and if this is yours truly, why in hell is a street named after me in Brussels? It's likely my hyperdrama reputation is active there, as it is in small theater scenes throughout Europe, and maybe this is a connection. But it is quite baffling.

PS OK, if this actually is yours truly, then what we have is a situation where I get a street named after me in Brussels but can't get the time of day in Portland any more. A perfect summary of my career.

Oscars

Not terribly excited, but I'll watch. I saw several over-hyped movies, Three Billboards being the latest. I did like The Post. But I didn't see many new films this past year. Streaming older one, and old favorites, instead.

Facing tax prep, need to finish this weekend so I can get on with other things, like the novel. Nearing a breakout point, and I am eager to move there.

Good bb game tonight, women, UCLA v. Oregon.

Old age can be very weird.

Better late than never

Considering how long scrapple has been a favorite of mine, over half a century, how strange that I just now discovered a scrapple omelette. Breakfast. First rate.

No birthday

Tomorrow would be my brother's 73rd birthday if he were around to celebrate it. But he isn't. He disappeared without a trace, which is how some folks define death these days. No fanfare, no notices, nothing. I guess I'm lucky to have found out at all from his widow. Very unsettling.

Antiques

"Midcentury chair could sell for thousands" declares a headline in the morning paper. Brings to mind a verse from my talkin' blues THE WEST MEETS EAST TALKIN' MISERY BLUES, a show stopper in my performance days.

Now what he had in mind was a chair / I said, Look man, I've been everywhere / I don't plan to sit, I plan to leave / He said, But this chair's 17th century! / I had to laugh. How dumb he think I am, buy an old chair. If I need a chair, I go to Sears & Roebucks. 

I told him that, he just made a face / Said, This chair's broke in the original place! / I said, I don't get the joke / You're trying to sell me a chair and it's broke? / He said, but this chair was broke 300 years ago! I said, Well, we have some slow moving hombres out west but I do believe we'd'a had her fixed by now.

An insult to banana republics

On Trump.

Any other president who displayed such cavalier disregard for previous policy positions and total ignorance of basic facts would have provoked an uproar. Trump barely gets a shrug. Nobody expects him to be consistent. Nobody expects him to know anything about anything. He is defining the presidency down in a way that we must not tolerate.

I spent years as a foreign correspondent in Latin America. To say we are being governed like a banana republic is an insult to banana republics. It’s that bad, and no one should pretend otherwise. --Eugene Robinson

Mariners

Play ball! Every season I subscribe to the MLB audio only service, all games, both broadcasts (home, visitor), pre and post and full season, no blackouts, for twenty bucks. A great deal in my book. So presently as I work I listen to the Mariners and KC spring game, getting back in the mood of the last slow dance in America, which was the title of a baseball piece I wrote in the 1960s for NW Magazine. Play ball!