Archive for January 2007
Leaving Las Vegas
I wake up surprisingly peppy, considering I’ve only managed to sleep an hour and a half. We pack, then stroll down to the lobby to check out. As we leave, I turn around and take one last look at the Trop. As fast as things change in Vegas, it’s always hard to […]
Vegas - Day Four
Sean and I elect to sleep in – it’s Sunday after all! We manage to snooze until 7 am before noise from the adjacent room and hallway forces us up. We ready for the day and then trudge down to Island Buffet for some nosh. John joins us as we finish breakfast […]
Vegas - Day Three
The high-pitched squeals of children wake Sean and I barely three hours later. Blurry-eyed and disoriented, I can’t instantly place myself, but as my brain slowly comes back on-line, I realize I’m still in Vegas. I’m in Vegas and children are waking me up with squealing. I groan, roll out of bed […]
Vegas - Day Two
Our alarm blares at 6 am and Sean and I jolt upright, hearts trip-hammering. Time to try to make 7 am sign-up at the Excalibur! We take quick showers and hustle down to the Trop’s coffee shop to meet up with the gang. The non-poker obsessed, Liz and Jim, wisely decide to […]
Vegas - Day One
After a long six month wait, the “Sean Brainiversary 2: Electric Boogaloo” Vegas trip is FINALLY here!! Although some of the Vegas regulars can’t make it this year, seven of us have booked passage on three different flights bound for Glitter Gulch, the adult entertainment capital of the world.
Sean and I arrive first, at […]Every Poet is a Thief
We talk about art being derivative. Or at least we talk that way when we do not like it. When we like a piece of art we talk about how it was inspired by others’ works. It is not imitation. I think these two reactions are emotional gut-checks on essentially the same phenomenon facing creativity. […]
The Terror
Dan Simmons has written a new book. The story hits on several elements I enjoy. Simmons tells a story of exploration. He chooses an exploration story from the 19th century: an 1840s steamboat expedition in search of a Northwest Passage that stalls in pack ice for two winters. The officers and crews of the two […]
To Janus
I do not know why January is named for the ancient Roman god of gates, Janus. He certainly seems an appropriate icon for this time: one face looking forward to a new year, one face look backward at the year past. Over the past two weeks of January, Whirl has remarked that I seemed to […]
On Writing
Whirl recommended this book to me: as it is part memoir and part seminar. Stephen King has written about writing before, most notably in the 1981 volume Danse Macabre. In that book he primarily talks about pop culture and horror– two iconic topics for him. King published On Writing in 2000, a year after […]
Physical
I picked up James McManus’ latest book based on the strength of his story of the 2000 World Series of Poker and Binion Murder trial, Positively Fifth Street. In this new book he explores not only his own health but also that of the health care system itself. He talks about the political realities […]
