The Lexicon Artists

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? (Just to give you an idea, Proust’s reply was “To be separated from Mama.”) That dark corner where any opportunity for hope is extinguished. Where would you like to live? Somewhere where the green outweighs the gray. What is your idea of earthly happiness? A cocktail of my child's laughter, a nice, sunny 65 degree day, my wife's luxurious hair in the wind, and a book that is light in my hand but heavy on my mind. To what faults do you feel most indulgent? The kind that one pushes aside in hope that the universe will take care of them, which ultimately it does...but by throwing them back in your face. Who are your favorite heroes of fiction? Tyrone Slothrop, Septimus Smith, The Reader from Calvino's Si Una Notte, Jimmy Corrigan Who are your favorite characters in history? Robert Anton Wilson, John F. Kennedy, Aristotle, and Lao Tzu Who are your favorite heroines in real life? Hippolyta, Virginia Woolf, Amelia E...

Queen Bee Trilogy I - Proboscis "What are the bees doing, daddy?" his daughter asks, poking a small yellow and black carcass with a L-shaped twig. On the concrete slab by the kitchen sliding door, there are about six dead bees lying around. The father guesses that they must have spent the night smashing into the glass, feebly exhausting themselves in attempt to get to the kitchen night light. Weighing the options of his answer, the father says, "They're sleeping, love, but be careful because they still have stingers." He is not really sure if the stinger can actually work after death, but one never knows. "Oh," the child replies, still poking the insect, really unconvinced by the explanation. She knows that there is something wrong with it, that there is a problem with the word "sleeping." A person can be roused from sleep, shaken awake from their dreams. The father knows that his answer is tricky, too. "She's too young fo...

100 Pages In - The Lost Books of the Odyssey by Zachary Mason Almost having Classics as my "third" major in college, my heart skipped a beat when I received a Google Alert about a new novel that revisits Homer's protagonist with a perspective similar to Calvino and Borges. Personally, I like revisionist history, partly because it nourishes my belief that history is more narrative than fact, mainly because it's just out right fun. For me, the stories I read did remind me of a cocktail of the Homer's Odyssey, Borges's A Garden of Forking Path, and Calvino's Invisible Cities, successfully decontextualizing, a la postmodernism, the Homeric tradition. So, as I approach The Lost Books of the Odyssey at 100 pages in, I am thoroughly entertained and find myself carefully, pleasantly navigating the Scylla and Charybdis of stories that composes Mason's book. While most of what I've read is great, not all of the stories hit their mark. Some stories end just...

Lent 2010 This year instead of giving up one of my nagging vices , I'm giving up a debilitating behavior, procrastination . So, for Lent I'll write something a day, be it a haiku, flash fiction, or minimalist play. Let's see how I do this year. 1. Teeth working slower than tongue shoveling it all down trying to fill a bottomless pit 2. swaying back and forth between leathery creases and vacant screens that separate the East from the West 3. Dialectical Dialogue - Lent Litanies Adam: You only go where your lust takes you... Lilith: And that's why you'll love me until the end of time...hating yourself every pristine, endless second. 4. How to win her back... Dig for the puzzle pieces that will help you win her back, Find a frame to help you start understanding what when wrong, where you failed, Crumble bit by bit as the puzzle begins to take form piece by piece 5. Stages of Man - II Big black book, small hands Twain's prose sharpened the speartip of my budd...

Fav Film: UP Fav On-Going TV Show: Flashfoward Fav TV Mini-Series: Torchwood-Children of Earth Fav. Helene Quote: "Dad, you so silly!" Fav. Martha Quote: "..." with raised eyebrow over beautiful blue eyes Fav Book: The Road by Cormac McCarthy Fav. Late Night Snack: Spoonful of Peanut Butter Fav. On-Going Comic Series: The Walking Dead Fav. Comic Mini-Series: Blackest Night Fav Song: You're Ex-Lover is Dead by Star Fav PS3 Game: Uncharted 2 Fav PSP Game: Final Fantasy Dissidia Fav DS Game: Retro Game Challenge Fav PC Game: Captain Forever Fav Ipod Touch App: Spider Fav. Thing to Watch at 5AM: The Prisoner (1960) Fav Family Event: NC trip in the summer Fav Tech Development: The Dawn of the Net-Lets (netbooks meet tablets) Fav Starbucks: 49th street and 16th in Hialeah Fav Online Troup: Mega64 Fav Podcast: Tie - 1UP Yours and Rebel FM Fav Late-to-the-Party Moment: Discovering how great Fallout 3 is... Fav ...

Seven Stages of Man according to Shakespeare All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players, They have their exits and entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages. At first the infant, Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms. Then, the whining schoolboy with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping like snail Unwillingly to school. And then the lover, Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier, Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard, Jealous in honour, sudden, and quick in quarrel, Seeking the bubble reputation Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice In fair round belly, with good capon lin'd, With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut, Full of wise saws, and modern instances, And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon, With spectacles on nose, and pouch on side, His youthful hose well sav'd, a w...

This is a confession of sorts. My daughter Helene loves Ice Age. She watches it repeatedly, ad infinitum, without any indication of ever tiring. All of this is fine, a whim that most parents indulge, but the problem is that she hasn't really seen Ice Age...well, not completely. What she has seen is our abridged, edited version. If you're familiar with the movie, there is a scene where the saber-toothed tigers attack the village, and the mother flees with the baby, eventually sacrificing herself for the baby. This scene, which is a critical plot point that illuminates one of the main characters, is conveniently, repeatedly, ad infinitum, without hesitation omitted. As parents, we have decided that it is too much, that she doesn't need to know yet that parents can, and eventually will, die. So whenever we get to that scene, we skip to a more appropriate part. I could easily hide behind the shield of trying to be a good father, one that protects his child from the h...