writing by flashlight

earlier today anna & I watched bits & pieces of a harry potter movie marathon as we did our weekly chores

my distraction to the potter films was not so great but I was watching enough of the movies to gather a few thoughts about the art of watching films

by which I mean the viewer helps construct the story as the storyteller creates the movie

I remember a great pleasure I had as a kid going to the Sac 6 drive in theater I would often turn my head to the movies playing on the other screens

I could see the films but I couldn't hear them so I would make my own stories to go along with the action on the screens

this kind of storytelling married quite well within the imagination of a working class northern Californian kid who loved watching movies at the drive ins most of all

often it was on a warm summer night & the night air smelled of gravel car exhaust & popcorn 

wouldn't matter what the hell the scenes of the films were actually about for I would turn my head to the next screen

it was like writing by flashlight deep in the summer night as I created tales that carried forth what I was witnessing on the screen

but what about watching these harry potter movies put in mind the Sac 6 drive ins was two-fold

first it was a very hot late summer day

second my attention often wavered toward my set chores so that often I was moving thru the room as the action happened on the TV without my hearing the movie

& I started to make my own stories silly as they are to the movie

I don't recall what film or what narrative I made up as I cleaned & vacuumed & so on 

I just remembered my love of making up stories at the Sac 6 when I was a kid & the magic of being at the drive in theater

my new laptop arrived this afternoon.  I just set it up.  easier it was than last time I bought a laptop.  still learning the device.  I notice too that the Microsoft program I am using capitalizes my lowercase I.  what's a poet to do!

I should be back in the usual swing of things in a day or two.  that's the thing about technology.  it's getting simpler to use as it is getting more sophisticated in its applications.  indeed, the set up to this new laptop was via voice activation.  of course I'm a writer so I said, fuck that!  let me type my commands!

i'll leave the capitalized personal eye in this post.  i'm tired & I don't have the energy to fuck with it .  what the hell?!  the eye was not capitalized in a couple of spots in the previous two sentences!  

what else...

the wildfires are very bad.  we came home from our annual beach house retreat to smoky skies & ash on everything outdoors.  we watched the lightning storm off the coast.  beautiful.  blue, orange lightning, sideways, up, down, double & triple pronged.  we were watching a fireworks show.  but it occurred to me that if that lightning made landfall fires would occur.    

I had no idea that the lightning storms were happening all over northern California.  indeed, one of the roads, Old Creek Road, we use to get to & from cayucos, was on fire. 

holy shit...

I am so tired I can't see straight.  anyway, I got my laptop.  I can write.  I will have plenty more to say.  in the meantime, in between time, let me see if I can post this video that I discovered as I did my best beach bum style in the little beach town that time forgot, cayucos, & that I find extraordinary moving based as it is by a great Elton John song.  

peace & love

all i need from my boat is that it floats

as anna observed this morning when i was walking around all grumpy & shit is that i am a simple man.  a little food & i am suddenly a-ok [including other simple bodily pleasures/necessities/whatevers too].  no great angst.  no existential despair.  no spiritual longing.  i am a physical being in a physical world [a la madonna, right?!], but also wallace stevens who observed that the greatest poverty is to not live in a physical world.  

as for things & equipment i don't need no fanciness.  all i want from my boat is that it floats.  all i need from my vehicle is that it stops & starts when i need it to.  all i require from my airplane is that it stays aloft during the flight & it takes off & lands safely.  i don't need anything more.  

my laptop is an older [say around 10+ years] dell.  if you saw it you'd think, whoa! early 2000s.  it's been my reliable companion & tool.  now it is showing its age.  the hard drive & software are fine.  i think!  but the physical thing, the place where the screen & the body meet, is coming apart.  & there is nothing more frustrating than when your longtime companion is falling into pieces. 

i tried duct tape but it is a small fix.  eventually the monitor will go one way while the keyboard & guts stay put.  i''ll eventually get a new laptop.  i have to.  because it is a tool & companion that is necessary in my kind of lifework.  i have a phone & i do a lot with it.  but my laptop is where i do most of my writing.  i use my phone, yes, but often i fire up my laptop, watch or read, stare off into space, then open a file, or my blog, & begin the process of composition. 

i must warn ye.  should this blog go quiet, say after 2 weeks, it is because this laptop gave up the ghost & i haven't purchased a newer version.

nick is a very bright kid & a wiz with electronics.  he told me that he will see what he can do to keep my old dell going.  i still have some files that need to be transferred & archived.  

but nick agreed with me that nothing is more frustrating than not if your tools, & companions, don't work.  & yes, it may seem odd that i continue to refer to my laptop as my companion.  but it is.  the internet, & the tools we use to access the internet, are no longer luxury items.  they are necessary tools to live, love & work in our 21st C.  i've been a DIY blogger/poet for over 16 years.  for me, it is essential to have a space where i can write & publish directly.   

i don't need fancy equipment.  i need to be able to rely on my tools, & companions.  all i need from my boat is that it stays afloat.  

 

poetry as extreme sport

 

watching videos of skateboarders bail & crash

revising their techniques to learn new tricks

like the revision of a poem

crossing out lines & words

i recall showing some pics of my old man

at the drop zone suited up & ready

for a long day of skydiving 

to alex g who said 

i'd rather dive head first in to the OED

 75 years ago today the U.S. dropped the bomb

when i was a kid i got annoyed by the old who told me to slow down enjoy life & savor your youth because it evaporates like water on a hot day but now that i'm old i annoy the young by telling them [if they listened!] slow down & enjoy life & savor your youth because it disappears faster than a beer on a hot day