Graphomaniacal

Thanks, Google

2011-08-21T11:56:00.002-04:00

I'm getting ready to send my novel out, with the trusty help of Google...

Politics of Friending

2011-08-14T20:32:00.002-04:00

An interesting piece on teachers' reactions to a law banning internet contact between instructors and students. I have a number of friends who are high school teachers who have wrestled with this issue in recent years, including whether it was appropriate to be friends with graduated (presumably now adult) students. One, female, is friends with many of her students (all female -- she's a dance and cheer coach). Another, male, has an absolute no-Fb contact rule.

HTML5 and the Future of Paid Content

2011-02-05T16:21:00.006-05:00

The Nieman Lab has an excellent piece on the future of HTML5 and how it will be used to create an app-like experience in your web browser. The details probably won't interest non-techies, but anyone who reads free content on the web -- in other words, everyone -- should take note of this point:

Publishers have to wonder: Is it the romance with discrete, ownable apps that consumers are willing to pay for, or is it the wider experience? We can see, in the makings of Apple’s evolving publisher subscription policies, an understanding of this dilemma. That may be why Apple is forcing news publishers to restrict browser access to news if they want to retain their direct customer relationships with readers — and continue to offer enabling apps through iTunes.

So far, apps have managed to buck the free content trend, as the article points out, largely because they are seen as "ownable" -- a file you put on your phone, much like a song or TV show, that is yours to keep forever. Of course, unlike songs and TV shows, apps aren't static -- most require software updates, access to information on servers that refresh content, etc. In that sense, they have both more value (because they're dynamic) and less value (because they fall into that "content is free" category of web news to which people are now accustomed).

So the questions really are: will people pay for an app-like experience in an HTML5 web world? Or will HTML5 kill the app marketplace with commensurate free content?

"Gone Gone Gone So Long"

2011-02-04T16:43:00.002-05:00

In these troubled times, we can all agree: Rick Moranis is awesome.

Your Face Tomorrow

2011-02-03T20:56:00.006-05:00

After a couple months of on and off reading, I finally finished Javier Marias's "Your Face Tomorrow" trilogy. It requires a lot of initial patience (and readers in search of action, look elsewhere), but it's probably the most satisfying reading experience I've had since reading Philip Roth's Zuckerman novels in succession.

After I finished, I sorted through some of the critical re-hash from the last few years and found this remarkable profile from 2005. Particularly of interest is the revelation that Marias, in Spain, serves as the kind of broadly focused public intellectual that has virtually disappeared from America:

Every week for more than a decade, he has addressed a readership of millions, on politics or art or whatever else might have caught his eye. Although such a prominent byline may help explain the success of his fiction in Spain, it doesn’t account for the five million books of his that are in print in some forty countries around the world. To an unusual degree, Marías manages to inhabit not only the popular but also the literary sphere, counting J. M. Coetzee, Salman Rushdie, and the late W. G. Sebald among his admirers.

Marias's activities as a columnist are particularly surprising considering the verbose, serpentine sentences that he unravels in his fiction. The term "Proustian" is becoming almost as ubiquitously meaningless as Kafka-esque, but still: here it applies. It's not the kind of sound-bit friendly writing that is in favor in opinion pages here, but it does reward its pursuers.

It's Still Winter

2011-02-03T20:52:00.002-05:00

In case you were wondering.

"What am I sitting on?"

2011-01-29T14:47:00.002-05:00

Bonus Post: Favorite Albums of 2010

2011-01-02T14:22:00.003-05:00

1. The Promise, Bruce Springsteen
2. The Suburbs, Arcade Fire
3. Contra, Vampire Weekend
4. The National, High Violet
5. Titus Andronicus, The Monitor

Reading List 2010

2011-01-02T14:03:00.003-05:00

Kind of a light year in volume, but it includes some heftier books (all the Javier Marias, "Mortals"; "Mating"). Asterisk denotes re-reading:

1. The Art of Fiction, Gardner
2. Reading Like a Writer, Prose
3. Pride & Prejudice, Austen *
4. The Eye in the Door, Barker
5. The Ghost Road, Barker
6. Call for the Dead, Le Carre
7. War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, Hedges
8. Austerlitz, Sebald *
9. Your Face Tomorrow, Volume I, Marias
10. The Monster in the Box, Rendell
11. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, Larsson
12. Solar, McEwan
13. Heart of Darkness, Conrad *
14. Tinkers, Harding
15. The Corrections, Franzen
16. Await Your Reply, Chaon
17. The Informers, Vasquez
18. The Mystery Guest, Bouillier
19. The Imperfectionists, Rachmann
20. Cloud Atlas, Mitchell
21. Black Swan Green, Mitchell
22. Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi, Dyer
23. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, Mitchell
24. Freedom, Franzen
25. C, McCarthy
26. Mortals, Rush
27. The Human Stain, Roth
28. The Exception, Jungersen
29. Mating, Rush
30. On Beauty, Smith
31. Sabbath's Theatre, Roth
32. Your Face Tomorrow, Volume II, Marias
33. American Pastoral, Roth

Happy Holidays

2010-11-30T00:10:00.002-05:00

Something Worth Repeating

2010-10-31T20:49:00.002-04:00

"At this stage two years before their re-elections, Presidents Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan had approval ratings that were lower than Mr Obama's now, according to the Gallup Poll; both men won a second term.

The ratings for Presidents George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter were better than Obama's; both lost."

Read more here.

Istanbul at Dusk

2010-10-31T20:43:00.001-04:00

"Sherlock"

2010-10-24T18:51:00.002-04:00

Remember how terrible the Robert Downey, Jr. "Sherlock Holmes" was? (To be fair, not his fault personally -- just awful directing, a script that lacked coherence and dramatic tension and...well, it was bad.)

The new BBC "Sherlock" is the opposite -- clever, well-paced, manages to solve the cop-show conundrum of what to do in the age of cell phones. Everyone should watch.

Westport, WA

2010-10-12T17:32:00.001-04:00

Through the fog, Fall 2010

The Social Network

2010-10-12T17:10:00.004-04:00

To its credit, I managed to watch it without thinking, "But that's just Justin Timberlake." I think the movie is right about privacy too, if a bit overly elegiacal about our anonymous past. (If anything, the privacy of the 20th century has been a historical fluke. We're back to village-living now.)

It gets one big thing wrong, though: the traditional WASP culture of Ivy League schools is now just one of a million subcultures. "The Great Gatsby" days are over.

Excuses

2010-05-22T16:44:00.003-04:00

I know, I'm a terrible blogger here. But I do write at least once a week at www.oneyearintexas.com. Please check it out.

And Now For a Little Self-Promotion...

2010-02-12T03:38:00.003-05:00

I've got a new article up at Miller-McCune.com -- check it out.

Welcome Back...

2010-01-14T00:21:00.003-05:00

After two holidays and over three thousand miles, my stuff and I have arrived in Seattle, my once and future home. I'll be updating the blog at least once a week so please don't wait to come back until the next Twilight movie comes out.

I Saw New Moon So You Don't Have To

2009-11-21T12:44:00.006-05:00

I sneaked into a matinee of New Moon in DC yesterday and the audience was surprisingly calm and small. At least before the movie started.

I guess all the serious fans went to the midnight show. This crowd was more of the curious-onlookers-without-jobs variety -- moms with little kids, a strange woman with a laptop, me, etc.

Despite the occasionally unbearable dialogue, I actually enjoyed the first Twilight movie. It had good music and a sort of charming, low-budget grittiness to it that served the teen angst well. The pacing was quick and direct, which is especially important when dealing with a story that, well, frankly doesn't make a lot of sense. But this is the material that was on offer in Stephenie Meyer's book and the director, Catherine Hardwicke, did a lot with it.

The writing was often atrocious, but Twilight, unlike so many other movies, had a very distinctive mood and palate. I think I could probably recognize almost any screen shot from the movie because the director did such a thorough job in creating a "look" for the film -- the colors, the forest, even the houses were distinctly and memorably rendered.

New Moon didn't have any of these qualities. To its credit, it forgoes the cringe-inducing montages of the first film. The dialogue, though, is even less palatable, especially in the bland, empty ambiance of the film. Robert Pattinson, who was weird but interesting in the first film, is incredibly stiff. I couldn't help but feel that he and Kristen Stewart were talking to each other from different scripts, with his baroque and creepy confessions of love and her valley girl-inflected protests.

The audience cheered when Taylor Lautner took off his shirt for the first time. And then never again. That's probably all you need to know about New Moon.

The Mystery of Young Adult Fiction

2009-11-13T19:24:00.007-05:00

The other day a friend mentioned that an acquaintance of ours was writing a YA novel. I said, "Who isn't?"

Besides me, that is. Everywhere I look, agents and publishers want YA fiction -- and not just about vampires.

I think there are a few explanations for this. One, obviously, is that YA fiction has generated a few unprecedented blockbusters in the last few years -- Harry Potter, Twilight, even Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. What these books all have in common is that they found an adult audience in addition to the teens and tweens the books were created for. A second reason for the YA boom, I suspect, is that some aspiring novelists think writing for a younger audience will be "easier": fewer big words and, in fact, fewer words over all.

This second reason seems quite flawed to me. For one, writing for a specific age group has so many pitfalls unknown to general fiction writers. How sophisticated is the average 14-year-old? Is it the average teen you're writing for, or one who is bookish and perhaps more knowing? If you are shooting for a Twilight-like success, the question becomes: does this book speak to a general audience without alienating the teen base? And, of course, is this a book parents will feel comfortable having their children read? It's a difficult balance to strike and, as someone working on a literary novel for a general audience, I can't fathom the extra work and keen sensibility that this kind of writing must take.

One of the reasons I think I struggle to understand the appeal of YA fiction is that when I was a teen, I wanted to read "real" adult fiction. I wanted to be a grown-up. I would have had none of this high-school oriented story telling.

This is not a criticism of the quality of YA fiction; it's just an explanation of my mind-set as a teen desperate to be an independent adult. A mind-set I can only imagine that a lot of bookish teens share. No doubt YA novels are more sophisticated these days than when I was young, but I can't help but feel disconnected from the genre as a whole.

Photo of the Week: Nov. 6, 2009

2009-11-06T13:04:00.002-05:00

Mammal Gift Shop at the Museum of Natural History, October 27, 2009. The giraffes look particularly lonely.

Reading List: 2009, A Race to the Finish

2009-11-04T23:32:00.006-05:00

The end of the year is almost here and, as usual, I'm in a rush to meet an arbitrary deadline set by myself. That is, finishing my to-read list for 2009. (Considering I still haven't cracked last month's book club selection, I'd say my odds aren't good...).

A couple of trends looking over my current list: lots of re-reading (unfortunately, I rarely make a habit of this), plenty of Scandinavian crime fiction, quite a few books on writing and creativity and a business book I actually learned quite a bit from. Here's what I've finished so far (* marks a re-read):

1. 2666, Roberto Bolaño
2. The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins
3. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsonn
4. Live Flesh, Ruth Rendell
5. Nothing to Be Frightened Of, Julian Barnes
6. Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison
7. Flaubert's Parrot, Julian Barnes
8. Amsterdam, Ian McEwan *
9. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, John Le Carré
10. The Quiet American, Graham Greene *
11. The Constant Gardener, John Le Carré
12. Into the Wild, John Krakauer
13. On Chesil Beach, Ian McEwan
14. Darwin Biography, V. I & II, Janet Browne
15. On Writing, Stephen King
16. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald *
17. The Creative Habit, Twyla Tharp
18. The Fifth Woman, Henning Mankell
19. Faceless Killers, Henning Mankell
20. The Birthday Present, Ruth Rendell
21. The Girl Who Played With Fire, Stieg Larsson
22. Never Eat Alone, Keith Ferrazzi
23. Netherland, Joseph O'Neill
24. Out Stealing Horses, Per Petterson
25. Youth, J.M. Coetzee *
26. Big Boy Rules, Steve Fainaru
27. Voyage in the Dark, Jean Rhys
28. The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman
29. The Lover, Marguerite Duras *
30. Dogs of War, Frederick Forsyth
31. From Doon With Death, Ruth Rendell *
32. Enduring Love, Ian McEwan *

"Sic Transit Gloria Mundi With a Vengeance"

2009-11-01T20:40:00.006-05:00

One of my summer-bleeding-into-early-fall reading projects was Janet Browne's two volume biography of Charles Darwin, a long but incredible read. The book draws significantly on Darwin's remarkable correspondence, from young layabout to scientific pillar. Indeed, as Browne points out, Darwin spent most of his life from age 30 or so onwards as a quasi-invalid cooped up in respectable suburban splendor twenty miles outside of London. He kept his books, studies, and friendships going almost entirely through the postal service, which was then expanding significantly throughout the world.

Darwin's letters are wise, but they're also often funny, peevish, angry, silly, and a whole host of other qualities that I think letter-writing must have brought out in him. I'm going to put Darwin's actual correspondence on my reading list, but for now here's my favorite excerpt from Browne's biography, sent to scientist and friend Joseph Hooker:

I quite agree how humiliating the slow progress of man is, but everyone has his own pet horror, and this slow progress or even personal annihilation sinks in my mind to insignificance compared with the idea or rather I presume certainty of the sun someday cooling and we all freezing. To think of the progress of millions of years, with every continent swarming with good and enlightened men, all ending in this, and with probably no fresh start until our planetary system has been again converted to red-hot gas. Sic transit gloria mundi with a vengeance.

You're a Male Prima Donna

2009-10-29T13:58:00.002-04:00

I love Mindy Kaling...

Photo of the Week: Oct. 29, 2009

2009-10-29T13:28:00.004-04:00

Hot house flowers at the National Botanical Gardens, October 27, 2009. Independence Avenue is behind the fogged window.

A House Is a Home

2009-10-26T23:56:00.002-04:00

Doll heads as decor. Even Apartment Therapy knows this is just creepy.

"How Do You Control a Fat Guy and a Muppet?"

2009-10-24T18:16:00.001-04:00

Ricky Gervais v. Elmo. Amazing.

Top Five Comments On My New Website

2009-10-24T01:28:00.002-04:00

You may have heard that www.keelinmcdonell.com recently launched, the second most exciting event in internet history. (By popular acclaim, number one is those videos of babies dancing to "All the Single Ladies.")

Here are the top five comments I've gotten on the site:

1. Where's the porn?
2. What is this?
3. That's not you in the picture, is it?
4. I don't care about this.
5. Can you link to my site from your site?

Thanks for all the comments! Comments are our only weapon in the war on internet indifference. Besides actual weapons, of course.

The Snowman

2009-10-24T01:16:00.000-04:00

Sure, it came out in 1982, but for my money still the best silent animated film about a snowman ever made. Ever.

A Four-Second Sugar Cube

2009-10-24T00:44:00.000-04:00

Welcome to a blog that will hopefully not bore, irritate or repel. I'll try to update at least a few times a week. I'll try to tell some jokes. I'll try to save all my best ideas for you.

The best explanation I've ever heard of the process of meeting an audience's expectations is this interview with the Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski. In the movie Blue, he has a shot of a sugar cube soaking in coffee until it becomes saturated and completely brown. He experimented several times with different sugar cubes until he decided he needed a cube that took 4-seconds -- not 8, not 6 -- to saturate. He searched and searched to find the 4-second sugar cube because he knew the audience would only tolerate watching the sugar cube for that amount of time. Any less, the shot would lose its meaning. Any more, it would become tedious.

To you too, I promise not to settle for anything less than 4-second sugar cubes.