Month: April 2023

  • ODDS and ENDS: Say ‘Zines, Creative Project, and Hiking

    (Closest to the price without going over…)

    One of the few writing credits to my name is a band review from like 1997 in a local DFW music ‘zine. Now, I know just about everybody pronounces it [zeen] which rhymes with “seen,” and that relates back to the word’s origin from “magazine.” I, on the other hand, can’t stop myself from pronouncing it [z’ine] which rhymes with “line.” I get shunned by people when I say this word incorrectly, though deep in my soul, I feel like I am saying it the correct way. Seriously, if you were against corporate magazines, wouldn’t you want your anti-corporate term to sound different? Think about it, man!

    I bring all of this up because a friend of mine from college who is a bottomless well of creativity and inspiration posted on their IG about a group by the name of Reciprocal Works which hosts a zine exchange. That means you send them copies of your zine, and in return, they send you copies of other people’s zines. (Please check out their site for more information, as they describe it way better than I.) This is the type of creative idea that really gets my mind churning, and it also made me feel like a kid playing “newspaper” where I would write a fake newspaper and beg my dad to make copies of it on the Xerox at his office. So, there is some childhood giddiness here, but also a healthy portion of inspiration to do something creative, just to be creative. For the past day, I have been thinking about images, words, drawings, comix and gags that I have laying around, yet I’m not sure what to do with. Why not make a limited run zine? Yeah, why not?

    This might be a good weekend to start the Hiking Campaign 2023! Dust off those boots and hope the water-wicking pants still fit, because this weekend is a good weekend to fjord a creek!

  • Rain Sounds and Rumbling Thunder

    The kid has been having issues with falling asleep lately. Polling the other parents at her school, this seems like a very common phenomenon that is occurring in many households at bedtime; kids just don’t want to go to sleep. For my daughter, her unwillingness to go to bed falls in two categories; scary dreams, and FOMO.

    When it comes to scary dreams, the wife and I have been working with the kid by reading stories and books where the hero character over comes a fear or anxiety. We also talk to her about focusing on the best parts of her day, or what she would like to do the next day. This generally works. The FOMO, on the other hand, has everything to do with mom and dad watching cool tv shows after she’s in bed. She’s already an eager fan of prestige television.

    The other night, the wife came up with an idea to help the kid fall asleep, which was to play an eight-hour track of rain sounds and rumbling thunder. The results of this addition to our nighttime routine has been wonderful, as the kid easily and quickly falls asleep. No scary dreams, no fear of missing out on what happens next to Ted Lasso. Just a calm and peaceful sleeping child and the gentle rolling of rain and thunder.

    There is another side effect of this sound addition to our home; I have discovered that I remember all the lyrics to “Riders on the Storm.” (If you know the song, you know what I am talking about.) And I can’t help myself. The second the rain sound starts in the kid’s room, I begin hearing Jerry Scheff’s bass, Ray Manzarek’s Rhodes piano, and John Densmore’s drums. Then my inner Jim Morrison comes out, and the lyrics just roll along with the thunder. It might not be the best song to sing to your kid before she goes to bed, but she doesn’t seem to mind.

  • Short Story Review: “Bowling Shoes” by Noel Streatfeild (Alison L. Fraser)

    [The short story “Bowling Shoes” by Noel Streatfeild (Alison L. Fraser) appeared in Rejection Letters on April 17th, 2023.]

    (It’s a flash fiction piece, so I will SPOIL it)

    I do miss going out and drinking on a weeknight. I don’t miss the hangover that followed the next day. Reading “Bowling Shoes” reminded me of this paradox. (Or maybe it is just cause and effect?) Either way, the story taps in on what a night out with friends feels like. There is a tangible energy here, where anything seems possible and likely; a little criminal activity, a little action, violence and sex bubble under the surface, and all could appear at any moment.

    The details and the structure of the piece is what I enjoyed most. From the first line of the narrator telling us, “I padded my stomach with Mom’s lemon and garlic roast chicken,” so we know that this is a person who knows how to drink for an evening – you need a solid protein base to slow the alcohol from absorbing too quickly in the stomach. And as the friends move from bar to bar, their actions build; stealing bowling shoes, kidnapping a friend, dancing with bros, and stumblingly out of a bar. The narrative keeps moving, never settling to long on any one detail or action.

    Where the story does slow down are in two very curious asides from the narrator about teachers from grade and high school. The first is about a teacher taking kids to a bar to learn pool because of geometry, and the second is a high school teacher saying that a screwdriver isn’t a real drink. Both are instances of authority figures doing and saying borderline inappropriate things to their students. The narrator doesn’t share any insights or feelings in the current situation with the friends, only actions are described. So, these two memories are the only true insight we have to the narrator’s mind set. There is no clear answer here why these two thoughts were shared, but that isn’t a detriment to the story. Maybe it is to show how the drunken mind works, or maybe it was to add to the climax of the story?

    What “Bowling Shoes” left me with was the feeling of both a meaningless and profound night out with friends. People being stupid, but also people out living and experiencing their life. It was honest, straightforward, and also messy and incomplete. You know, like a night out drinking with friends.

  • The Dentist

    I understand that going to the dentist is important, but I don’t spend much time thinking about the dentist. I actually spend more time thinking about the kid seeing the dentist. She’s at the tail end of losing all her baby teeth, and getting all her grown up ones. It means that braces aren’t too far away. I do spend time thinking about that.

    The kid loves going to the dentist. In fact, when I took her the other day, she told me that she didn’t want me to go back into the exam room. I guess that was something that most kids don’t request, because the kid’s technician asked her twice if that’s what she really wanted. Clearly, most kids are very nervous to see the dentist. But it’s what she wanted. She wants to do things on her own.

    The funny thing is, when I started going to the dentist, which I believe was kindergarten or first grade, I went back by myself. I don’t think there was an option for parents to join you. In fact, if your parent had to go back, it meant something went wrong. My mother stayed in the waiting room, and I was on my own. I wasn’t nervous to do this because my mom was a nurse, and I saw going to the dentist was just like seeing any other doctor. I grew up around hospitals, clinics, and medical offices. They all were there to make you feel better. Maybe I was outside the norm, but the medical profession never felt scary.

    Anyway, I was in the waiting room today, reading and passing time. In all my years of being taken to the dentist, I never once thought about my mom, and what she was doing while I was back getting my teeth picked at. Same thing with when I got braces. Getting those put on took some time, and did she sit out there, waiting? Did she take off and come back? I never asked. I just assumed that she was out there. Waiting for me.

  • ODDS and ENDS: Hair, Dogs, and My Website

    (My dog’s breath smells like shrimp…)

    I am a balding man. My brothers are balding men, and my father is a balding man as well. His father was bald, as was his father. As far as I can tell, men in my family have been bald. It’s just who we are, and I am fine with it. My uncle, who was my dad’s brother, told me to get a wife before I lose all my hair. I followed that advice, and my wife is good with a balding husband. And as my hair leaves the top of my head, I have started sprouting hair in my ears and nose. It is enough of an issue that I now have a trimmer specifically for those spots. Yet, I find myself wondering as I shave my ears and nose; why does my body grow new hair in my ears and nose? When I hit puberty, I started growing hair all over, EXCEPT for my ears and nose. So, what happened at 45 that caused my body to say, “Yeah, we need more hair at the nose and ears!” But what about keeping my brain warm? “I said EARS AND NOSE!”

    Is it odd that it costs more to board my dog for a week than it would for me to buy the dog her own airline ticket? I know that where we are going, there is no place for the dog to stay, but I feel like the dog boarding industry is pushing me to take the dog on the trip. Or they know that I’m in a situation and will pay whatever as long as my pet is taken care of.

    I’m thinking about updating my website. I am aware that this question might back fire on me, but anyone have any suggestion of how I should update/improve this site?