“COGITATE COGITATE COGITATE COGITATE COGITATE…” So ran one of the many “found sounds” (today called “samples”) on the pass-around tape collages that were a fringe benefit of membership in the Neo-Pagan Society of Diablo Valley College in the early-to-mid-1980s. (Accent…
Tag: creating
Making stuff: up, real, and nicely.
The Zine Scene
A LONG TIME AGO, IN the faraway 1990s, our downtown post-office box was fraught with wonder and excitement. In those cultural Dark Ages of pre-public Internet access, creative folk could communicate through the medium of “zines” – homegrown/amateur magazines, usually…
Points of Honor, Literary and Otherwise
– STUFFING SENTENCES TO CARRYING CAPACITY. – Never starting a blog post (or sermon) with “I.” – Punctuality. – Creative segues. – Repeating verbatim whatever someone wants said to another. – That only what I actually heard appears inside quotation…
Let’s Get Real
ON THIS DAY EIGHT YEARS ago, I stepped out from under the shadow of a decades-long cannabis addiction. And I haven’t been the same man since. Thank God. What brought me to that point was twofold: I decided that 1)…
Word to Bring Back: “Fastuous”
– Definition: adj. 1. haughty, arrogant 2. ostentatious, showy – Used in a sentence: The fastuous have taken their first steps down the rabbit-hole of militant mediocrity. – Why: It sounds similar to “fatuous” — silly and pointless — and…
Word to Bring Back: “Privacy”
– Definition: n. the quality or state of being apart from company or observation – Used in a sentence: American culture’s “instant celebrity” fixation is playing hob with the basic concept of privacy. – Why: Duh.
Regarding ChatGPT (or, Cassandra’s Got Nothing On Me)
BE CAREFUL PLAYING WITH THE shiny new toy — the shiny new toy may decide to play with you.
Too Bad
“WE PASSED THROUGH SEVERAL HUNDRED media-transmission shells on our way in,” the communications officer said. “Of course, we were eager to see who had made them.” By the pale light of a flickering viewscreen, the captain’s expression was thoughtful. “I…
Words To Bring Back: “Perfervid”
– Definition: adj. intense and impassioned – Used in a sentence: The perfervid activists had trouble with their blood pressure. – Why: There is something attractive about a three-syllable word replacing a three-word phrase. (Maybe it’s the concisifier in me.)
Word to Bring Back: “Prig”
– Definition: noun a self-righteously moralistic person who behaves as if superior to others. – Used in a sentence: Scratch a prig, find a hypocrite. – Why: To name a thing is to control it — either by voting it…
Words to Bring Back: “Shambolic”
– Definition: adj.; chiefly British chaotic, disorganized, or mismanaged. – Used in a sentence: Our political and cultural landscapes have become shambolic as all get-out. – Why: Because we need a more polite (and adjectival) descriptor than… those in current…
The Writer’s Vital Question:
“WHAT’S THE MOST ENTERTAINING THING I can do for the reader next?“