(no subject)

Whoo hoo! I got a call from someone looking for a freelance proofreader/copyeditor for a book-length project, and it looks like it will work out for me to do it! Something about Civil War stories. I don't actually know much about the Civil War, but I won't have to. It's kind of cool the way academic editing works--you consider yourself an advocate for the reader, and it's more about making sure things are logical and comprehensible than checking out the author's work. So, fingers crossed! I just have to look at a couple of chapters to make sure it's not completely beyond me, and she's going to make sure everything's kosher with getting me paid--I guess it's grant money, which probably shouldn't make any difference.

(no subject)

You all should say hi to my coolio dkt2! He's my 17-year-old cousin from Jacksonville, FL. Very sharp cat, and quite the handsome young player. I'm really close to him and his sister and parents, but I was just thinking that we haven't seen each other since Sarah's wedding over two years ago! We'll have to remedy that soon; I hope we can be in Mississippi at the same time, maybe for the reunion. Anyway, props to the new kid on the block!

(no subject)

Oh, man, this is good: examples of bad writing taken from manuscripts before they were edited here. You'd be astounded at how many highly intelligent people can't write.

Real quotes from real YUP books (before--usually--editing):

Girls raised in working-class families were more likely to have premarital intercourse as adolescents than girls in middle- and upper-class families because they were more likely to marry at an earlier age, and premarital sex typically preceded marriage.

Probably one of the most immediate causes of adolescent births is intercourse itself.

But he [Tennesee Williams] emphasized his ignorance of his own intentions while writing. Something inside him seemed to be struggling blindly for release and, by getting furious, making itself clumsier.

In the final scene [of A Streetcar Named Desire] Blanche fantasizes about dying at sea after eating an unwashed grape.

The genocide of whole populations.

The voices of Brooks's <"Gay Chaps at the Bar" express their hostility toward the girls left behind--sweethearts, pianists, unfaithful correspondents.

Those who have lived up to [fidelity] are genitally inhibited, obsessional, or given to magic gestures.

Coming to the United States seems to have liberated [Horney's] expansiveness.

Through the New School, [Horney] enlarged her circle of friends, which already included many well-known refugees and social scientists.

Silliman had the good fortune to be a family friend of Yale's President, Timothy Dwight, so that despite the fact that he knew no chemistry whatsoever, when, in 1801, Yale's Corporation voted to establish a Professorship of Chemistry and Natural History, Dwight happened to meet Silliman on the street in front of the college buildings and, on the spur of the moment and on the spot, offered the Professorship to Silliman. Silliman was surprised, embarrassed by what he understandably viewed as his obvious inadequacy, and, of course, elated. President Dwight noted all this and responded.

Because detached people are likely to entertain the attitudes of the subordinated solutions, their values are highly contradictory.

This is one way of distinguishing between self-effacing people and perfectionists, who share many values and sometimes look alike.

I must have been depressed by disappointment. There are some non-barking dog pieces of negative evidence for this.

( some of the later ones are much better )

damn being right-handed. damn that.

Oh, I almost forgot! Today I was stopped at a green light. Yes, stopped at a green light because idiots in this town don't know that you aren't supposed to block the freaking intersection. So I'm sitting there, and finally the traffic moves so the guy can move on. And as soon as he does, another car shoots under the red light and blocks it again! So I had absolutely no choice. I grabbed the tennis ball I found last night on the street (wonder if it was one of mine?), leaned out the window, and fucking WHIZZED it at the poor, stupid loser. But I'm not left-handed, so my control isn't the best. In fact, I never even saw the damned thing. I think I sort of lost it as my hand was at the top of its arc, and the ball must have gone flying straight up in the air, or maybe way out to the side. It must have been quite a sight, 'cuz I'm telling you, I threw it HARD. And it was a crazy swirl of activity--cars moving every direction, people on the sidewalk, everything. I wish I'd been able to catch the looks on some people's faces, but I was in a hurry and had to get the hell out of there. I got places to be, ya know. That's why I pack heat.

bad music for bad people

Fishbone's Truth and Soul has entered my top five of the moment. I've been listening to that album for a good 11-12 years, and it never ceases to amaze me. Incredible songwriting, playing, and RANGE. It's all over the map, but in a totally good way--there's never any doubt it's Fishbone. For some reason, though, I've never gotten into much other Fishbone. The Reality of My Surroundings was good too, but the other is my favorite. And those are the only ones I've had. *shamed* What others should I get? The first one, I guess. The reviews I heard of the post-Reality discs weren't too great. Not that that necessarily means anything.

Now I'm listening to Faith No More. Jim Martin is a god. In fact they were almost a perfect band there for a while. Every bass, guitar, drum, and vocal part on The Real Thing and Angel Dust is just so tasty. I wonder what ever happened to Jim Martin. The only thing I've heard of him doing since he left FNM is a guest thing on one song from Primus's last album.

I remember watching Faith No More get really popular, and it was so weird. We were into The Real Thing many months before "Epic" started hitting. And all of a sudden MTV started playing it like crazy, and people loved it. And before ya know it, FNM's on Saturday Night Live. It was just weird to watch, because at the time that music sounded so fucked up to me, and I couldn't imagine it finding mainstream success. And I guess it is a little out there to some people, but of course I've been listening to it for so long that I've lost the perspective I had when it was new. I particularly remember being at a Skeleton Crew show (local band I mentioned some time back) and hearing FNM's cover of "War Pigs" come on. And all the teenaged Starkville chicks were singing along to it because they knew it from The Real Thing! And this was at a time when Black Sabbath was just DEAD as far as having any hipster value. For a metalhead in 1990 Starkville, that was just wild to see--especially from the chicks who looked at me and my friends as freaks for some of the other shit we listened to.

Of course, it was downhill for FNM after that, at least in terms of record sales and all that. Angel Dust was a commercial failure, at least next to The Real Thing. But it's a great album. It has the cohesion that I've mentioned before--start to finish, a great collection of songs that complement each other, not just a bunch of random tracks.

I really should start reading Circus and Hit Parader again. No I shouldn't--they're probably writing about Korn and Limp Bizkit, and that ain't gonna work, my friend. Oh, and Rip! Anyone remember that magazine? It ruled when it first came out. I remember reading about Jane's Addiction for the first time in Rip. And they had articles on the Cramps and the Misfits and the Circle Jerks, along with metal stuff like Slayer and Metallica and whatever. They ended up going in too much of a hair-metal direction (as did the world), and I guess they probably fizzled out altogether when that all became passe.

This has been your handy-dandy rock and roll update from WFLE. Send me your requests, kids, and I'll try to get 'em on. And don't forget to stay in school.