A woman who greatly influenced my writing is gone. We were not acquaintances. I seem to recall seeing her speak once, but I might have been remembering a video I watched in a Bruce Taylor poetry workshop long ago. Her work is on my bookshelf, and – if she would allow me to say so – between the lines of my own pages.
Some of her work is here. Hear the power of her reading here. [Sometimes that audio link doesn't work. Here's the text of the poem she's reading.]
We are told that the new Long Beds album has been officially added to the jukebox at The Joynt.
Everything else is gravy.
I’m going to hit the road around Wisconsin (and over into Minnesota) in mid-March with my books and my band. We’ll be posting specifics soon.
In the meantime, the new album is available for pre-order over at Amble Down Records. If you place your pre-order now, within 24 hours the record company will send you a code so you can download and listen to the entire album immediately. Then on March 1(15 days prior to the official release) they’ll mail you the physical album (featuring 3 bonus tracks, dedications, humorous credits, and a full-color poster-sized insert including lyrics and song notes on one side and a captioned photo album on the other).
Click here and look for the “Pre-Order” button.
A special thank you to those of you who have already pre-ordered. Amble Down Records says you have set a new, umm…record.
LATE ANNOUNCEMENT: Amble Down Records has reached an agreement to make Tiny Pilot available at many of your favorite independent bookstores throughout the midwest…stay tuned for details. We wanted to do this because those bookstores have been so supportive of Mike from the get-go, and also because there are threads between the music and the books.
Just came across these photos sent to me months ago. They were taken at Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park, Washington, during the Coop hardcover tour. Photos like this always remind me how beautifully strange this life can be…a couple of hours in a bookstore, laughing and sharing stories with readers, then it’s back on the horse and on to the next spot, and suddenly a year has passed. But when I revisit these photos and see the smiles and heartwarming connections (note two women, one wearing a UW-Eau Claire shirt and another a Point Beer shirt) (specific Cheesehead signals) it only reinforces my feeling that the fleeting nature of the moment makes it all the more precious. This is why I always offer the blanket thank-you to anyone who makes the effort to attend any of my/our events.
A special thanks to the family posed in the last photo with me. They are members of the faith in which I was raised and wrote about in Coop. I cherished our conversation and their willingness to attend.
Thank you to Jim Fleming and Wisconsin Public Radio for the gracious reading of Coop. It’s a humbling honor to hear that coming out of the radio. And for two weeks I’ve been running into folks who’ve caught a listen. One of those things a guy never expected…and as a lifelong cheesehead, even more meaningful.
They’re reading a chapter of Coop on Wisconsin Public Radio every day from now until February 12. If you missed a segment, the five most recent chapters are available here: http://wpr.org/webcasting/audioarchives_display.cfm?Code=cad&repeats=no (not sure for how long).
In the process of researching the history of my hometown (New Auburn, Wisconsin) (now Population: 562) (urban sprawl!) for the book Population 485, I discovered that the town’s founder David Cartwright had written a bestselling book in 1875. I tracked down an actual copy of the book, but it took some doing. This morning a reader sent me a Tweet with a link showing me that along with everything else in the world the book has now been scanned into Google and you can read it here.
Here’s a portion of how I described the book in Population 485:
I have never seen any photographs of Cartwright, but the title page of Western Wild Animals is faced by an engraving tagged with the caption, “David’s Return to Camp.” He wears a white beard and a flat cap, and he is striding down a wooded trail, a rifle in his right hand and a dead deer balanced over his left shoulder. In short, he looks like a forbidding version of the Quaker Oats man. A selection from the preface seems a continuation of the furrow in his brow:
He is…not a professional book maker, and he knows that it is only by practice that there comes any great degree of perfection in any art or trade. What he gives you, he puts upon the basis of an experience of forty years, and gives it with that assurance that he believes should come of practical knowledge, as opposed to any hypothetical and visionary trash.
No dancing ‘round the campfire with patchouli and rain sticks, then. All well and good. But here’s where my ears really pricked:
Since the author of this book claims for himself an incompetency to the task of putting it into shape, and the more exact wording of its pages, and has placed that part of the work into the hands of another, it is due to him to say that…
Just a cotton-pickin’ minute. Back to the title page. Western Wild Animals, etc, and etc. By David W. Cartwright. In much smaller print: Written by Mary F. Bailey. Turns out David W. had a ghostwriter.
Thanks to nanaze for the note.
Pursuant to this post, someone asked me how I record interviews. In just the past year I switched to a Livescribe pen. It has so far been nothing short of amazing and worth every penny. Quite literally a magic wand. Pen and ink, paper and electrons, all talking to each other. However: when they released the most recent software update they removed the ability to use keystrokes to control the player. When transcribing the recording, I often toggle back and forth between a Word document and the Livescribe Desktop page. Previously, when I would toggle to the Livescribe page I could get the audio to back up and start over just by hitting the Enter key (rather than having to move hand from keyboard position, grab the mouse, move the cursor over the arrow, and click) (sounds like nothing much but when you’re transcribing hours and hours of interviews it quite literally adds up to hours of delay). After updating the Livescribe, I now find I can no longer use keystrokes as shortcuts.
Why do software/equipment makers remove things like this? It was a fundamentally useful option. Without the keystroke ability, transcription takes twice as long. When I contacted customer service, they said:
We are aware of this issue, and hope to have it resolved in a future release but do not have a timeframe for when this will be fixed.
I’m not yelling at anyone, just honestly baffled by any process in which an “upgrade” includes removing a fundamentally useful capability.
Snow plow operators: They go out at all hours of the day and night, they get phone calls, they get unsolicited advice, they get ignored…but they get the snow off the road. We’re especially grateful to them this year, as a road re-design has complicated our hill climb. The local snowplows have redoubled their efforts and dropped enough sand to remake Daytona Beach. So give them room to work and don’t forget to wave. Thanks.
At many of my events I perform a piece called “The Perfect Cow.” It’s just a description of a Holstein. I do go a tad overboard. The piece is included in the current issure of Rosebud magazine.
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