It's late and titles elude me...

1. Mother called to inform that my Aunt N (her youngest sister and only remaining sister, her older sister died in 2000 at the age of 59) has a series of benign tumors on her heart valves. This resulted in a minor stroke. She informed my mother that talking felt like having cotton in her mouth. My Aunt is around 76? She's five years younger than mother. Mother is worried about her. There's nothing I can do for her, so am I putting it out of my head.

2. Listening to Jami Attenburg's Advice for Writers - 1000 words a day - a writer's guide to staying creative, focused and productive all year round with Wisdom and Inspiration from more than 50 writers.

I've kind of done everything they mention? I've written in long hand, then typed it, put it in a computer, etc. But I'm an intuitive writer? Not a planner? The story flows, and I don't always know the theme or where it is going until I get there. The first draft is me telling myself a story.

"Do not jump off the ship, do not apply to law school until you reach the end of your book."

Sigh, I did apply to law school before I completed the journey. Also completed the book.

Oh, and 1000 words is about four and a half pages of writing. (This is not a problem for me. I have 275,277 words in my current novel that I'm writing by the way. I think I wrote 1000 words this morning in long-hand in a journal on the way to work.)

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Writing Prompt: "Think about Winter and how it impacts your character directly, or how you think about your childhood during winter."

Hmm.

There's a discussion about racism and a hope for a color blind America by Coleman Hughes. (Author of "The End of Race Politics - Arguments for a Colorblind America, and the ideal of anti-racism in America by Coleman Hughes". One's a condemnation of White Fragility, and How to be an Anti-Racist by Khandi. His beef with neo-racist philosphy, rather agree with the view that race is only skin deep and we're ultimately one family not defined by skin color, instead it states that race is indelibly part of our psyche and who we are, and ingrained, and we need to accept it and go from there. ( Read more... )

3. Still making my way through the Striesand Memoir. Have an hour and forty-seven minutes left. I got a chapter on her Back-to-Brooklyn Concert, where she sings with her son, Jason Gould (who apparently is a painter, a singer, a musician, an amateur architect, gardner, and writer/poet). She also gets upset that Sondheim wouldn't sign off on her doing a film version of Gypsey Rose Lee (I didn't know Sonheim was one of the authors of that musical?). To do it - she needed all the authors of it to sign off on it. Almost got to do it with Arthur Laurents - but he changed his mind, then died (at 95). She wanted to direct and play the role of Mama Rose at the age of 70 something. Sondeheim said she could do it - but she had to pick, not do both. So, alas, it didn't happen. (I think there was a television version? I don't know - I really don't like the musical - it irritates me.)

I warned Babs off of it yesterday. ( sigh politics - Babs is a staunch old school Republican, and Streisand is well...not? )

This isn't actually off-topic - the Streisand book is very political in places. But mainly it's about how great Streisand is. She's very good at promoting herself. She spends time explaining the Streisand Effect - she didn't want a photo of her house on the internet. No wait, she didn't mind the house being on the internet, she minded that it was labeled Barbra Streisand's house. (Can't say I blame her - I wouldn't want that either.) So she sued. It was a non-profit group (I've no idea why they decided to put the pictures of celebrity houses on their site - maybe to get traffic? She didn't appear to know either?) She lost. It's the internet. Privacy doesn't exist. We're all on it. Her buddy Lawrence Tribe told her that he wished she'd consulted him prior to suing - and he'd have told her that. (Yes, that Lawrence Tribe - apparently she audited one of his classes on Constitutional Law at Harvard, and they became fast friends.)

My take-away from the Streisand book is that if you are uber-talented, uber- successful, uber-rich (due to being uber-talented and successful) and uber-famous (due to the first three)- the sky's the limit. You get to meet literally everybody. (And she does. In spades.) She does get told no a lot though...so it's not all roses and lollipops. She wasn't allowed to direct and star in The Normal Heart or Gypsey Rose Lee. Also, there's something to be said for persistence coupled with support. You also get a lot of accolades, adoration, etc. Helped by the fact that Streisand hated performing on stage - and has only done 89 concerts in her lifetime. 89 separate concerts. So, if you saw her perform live - you are among the rare few and far between.

I don't recommend it. Wait for the abridged version - assuming it is ever available. I ended up fast-forwarding in places. (One can only listen to so many rave reviews about the author...we have equivalent of 20 hours of nothing but positive reviews on everything she does.)

I picked up Tina Brown's Vanity Fair Dairies for a follow-up, although may listen to fiction next. We'll see.

4. Union

They didn't ratify the union contract. ( Read more... )

5. Been having digestive issues today. ( Read more... )

6. Morning writing:

I remember an art teacher telling me at one point that - the best selling artists were often the worst. ( Read more... )

7. Good news - my niece got into her environmental conservation graduate Masters/Doctorate program at the University of Montana. ( Read more... )