Carnage continues at Burning Man

Before 10 a.m. Wednesday, medical supervisor Jonathan Washko already had seen one Burning Man participant whisked away by helicopter in critical condition, another with a broken left arm, another with a face burn from a fire accident, half a dozen people overcome by dehydration, and a stream of Burners with bloodied knees, stubbed toes and sunburned noses.

In 2006, medics transported 20 people with severe and possibly life-threatening injuries by helicopter to Reno, and 32 people left Black Rock City by ambulance.

The majority of last year's patients incurred soft-tissue injuries, such as knee scrapes from tripping over generators at night and falling down on the salty desert floor. Burning Man staff also treated 262 festival-goers with dehydration, 167 with open wounds, broken bones or dislocated limbs, 20 with a variety of burns, 19 for drug overdoses, five for seizures, eight for vehicle accidents, 71 with urinary tract infections and 12 debilitated by extreme heat or sunburn.

If this year's medical tent is as busy as last year's, workers can expect to treat about 1,800 patients, according to the medical agency.

-- Chronicle article

At Burning Man, everything's art

A man who hung himself in "a two-story tent" at Burning Man swayed there for two solid hours before people realized he was dead. His friends thought he was doing performance art. (Via SFist)

In publishing, everyone knows you're a dog

Yesterday I received a preliminary verdict from my agent about the book I finished writing in June: she's not too crazy about it. The success of Steve Martin's novel "Shopgirl" notwithstanding, I wonder if there's a problem with a middle-aged man writing a book about a woman half his age.

Then I saw this article in the Boston Phoenix (courtesy Publisher's Marketplace) about how publishing is no different than anything else: it sure doesn't hurt to be young and pretty. Sample quote:

"It's easier in life to be attractive. That's reductive but true," says HarperCollins editor Gail Winston. "On the other hand, a brilliant book by an author who is not young and not attractive isn't going to fail. It's just, I think that those other books -- for those reasons, those authors maybe get a little bit of an advantage."

Oh, good! At least "a brilliant book is not going to fail." A ringing endorsement.

Frankly, my book is probably not brilliant. It probably does need tightenting -- as does my abdomen, come to think of it.

technorati: publishing

Haggard's molester buddy: I had no idea

The Colorado Springs Gazette finally caught up to the story on Haggard's fundraising letter, interviewing Paul Huberty -- the registered sex offender whose organization Families with a Mission Haggard said would collect donations to him "if you want a tax deduction" for supporting the disgraced minister. According to Huberty, he had no agreement with Haggard to collect funds for him.

It gets better. The head of the "Dream Center" halfway house in downtown Phoenix said Haggard will not be working there, contrary to his letter. The Associated Press quotes a minister associated with the church that runs the halfway house: "That was premature. That is not part of his restoration plan. I think he visited the Dream Center saw it was a good place for people to rehab and got excited."

Now that's a disturbing image.

Makes you wonder what Haggard was on when he sent that fundraising appeal, which you can read in its entirety here. And Dan Savage, who has been covering the latest news with relish, posts updates.

technorati: Ted Haggard, fundamentalists, closet cases

More on Haggard: His new buddy is a registered sex offender

Courtesy Colorado Confidential, a posting from Stranger columnist Dan Savage that follows up on the story I posted about yesterday. It seems the person heading the organization Haggard is asking followers to send money to is actually a registered sex offender. Read the details.

Some of my favorite blog entries on the story:

• A 32-year-old MySpace user "Religious Heather," whose page is named "sinnersmustdie," says "Do not support this sinner!!! Why doesn't he try to get a REAL job like the rest of us and not be bitter about being a religious hypocrite? I mean, if you're going to be holy, then don't fudge-pack male prostitutes. Atleast go to a gay bar like a lot of closet married men and get it for free. Nevermind -- I've seen what he looks like. No wonder he has to pay for it!"


• A blog named "Revolution" says "I have three words for this jerk-off who is responsible for giving pastors everywhere a bad name and setting us back, yet again, to the Swaggart-Baker era: GET A JOB!"

Haggard, after raking in six figures, begs followers for money

Showing that a televangelist's greatest asset is his email database, disgraced fundie pastor Ted Haggard has sent followers a letter begging for money despite having made more than $300,000 since the beginning of 2006. Haggard's religious "overseers" sound pissed that he did something like this without asking them, but the really great thing in the story is how he's moving his whole family, including his two boys who are aged something like 9 and 12, into a halfway house in downtown Phoenix with former convicts, drug dealers, prostitutes and "street kids."

I'm sure that's the kind of terrific judgment he's going to show once he gets his degree in "counseling" from the University of Phoenix. How'd you like to have him as your shrink?

technorati: Ted Haggard, fundamentalists, televangelists

In tune with the zeitgeist

Have you seen "Man Men," the television series on the cable channel AMC? It's the big new thang this summer. The entire staff of the New York Times' Arts and Culture department is creaming over it; now that "The Sopranos" is over, they have to have something to lionize, and naturally the focus of their fandom is something as close as possible to the culture of the New York Times itself: white, waspy, privileged, and set in Manhattan. Yesterday's article-of-the-week, A Return To That Drop-Dead Year, 1960, beatifies the show's attention to period detail.

None of this is lost on me, as my (unpublished) novel Make Nice is also set in 1960. As Cris as I were watching last night's "Mad Men" episode, I muttered, "If my novel had been published this year, I would have looked like a fucking genius" for anticipating the interest in that watershed year. Oh well.

technorati: 1960, Mad Men, New York Times

Strange are the ways of the mind

From today's New York Times:

Dr. Manikam recalled a 9-month-old brought from South America who would bottle-feed only under a bizarre set of circumstances. She had to be held over an adult's shoulder, on the edge of sleep, and fed by a second adult from behind, with the sound of a vacuum cleaner in the background. The baby had lived in a neonatal intensive-care unit whose nurses had noticed that she seemed to eat more when the cleaning crews were in the area; her frantic parents made a recording and carried it around with them.

The weather was beautiful, I hear

I'm not taking much advantage of the weather, but it's been extraordinary in SF just about all week long, and this weekend really took the prize -- sunny, warm, not too breezy, not too hot.

Of course, every chance I get, I'm in my underwater-green office, where the window won't even open, working on my book. You can see the progress at right, but for the sake of posterity:
- 9 work sessions over 3 weeks
- 17,011 word total to date
- I'm about 2/3 of the way through chapter 3

I'm particularly pleased that I have been able to average more than two work sessions per week. That'll really help in the long run.

In unrelated news, I ran across a family group photo from 1955, the year before I was born. Readers who have no reason to enjoy my family photos might still enjoy the period costumes, the details of which you can enjoy by clicking "All sizes."

Happily trundling onward

As you can see from the "New Novel Progress Meter" on the top right side of this blog, I am making progress. I worked for a short while today and pushed into chapter 3, with the word count over 14,000. This is not the same thing as being 15% done. As I know from my previous novel-writing projects, the first 20 or 22 thousand words are the easiest. After that I have to stop and look around and figure out where I am and where to go next.

Still -- progress.

Litquake is coming

I noticed last night that Litquake, the annual festival of Bay Area authors that rocks the town every mid-October, is putting the finishing touches on its website for this year. Schedules of events and who's reading where are still to come, but you can already mark your calendar for the big finish, Litcrawl in the Mission, on Saturday, Oct. 13.

Previously:
My nights reading at LitCrawl in 2004, 2005, and last year; with more on last year's festival.

technorati: Litquake

Borders shops for new authors among staff

This Galleycat post says Borders is holding a contest for the best manuscript(s) written by its 30,000 employees, "anticipating multiple winners and hop[ing] to publish fictional works ranging from mysteries and thrillers to romance and historical novels" in its house imprint.

I'm sure they'll find some winners. But if I were one of them, I sure would make sure a qualified agent or lawyer looked at the contract being offered. What are the chances it will contain unusually explotative terms -- and that employees might feel too intimidated to object?

technorati: publishing, bookstores

You bring the brains, I'll bring the guts

President Bush and French President Nicolas Sarkoszy had lunch yesterday at the Bush compound in Maine. Sarkoszy brought the brains. You don't believe it? Read for yourself:

Q Mr. President, could you say something in French?

PRESIDENT BUSH: No, I can't. I can barely speak English. (Laughter.)

Q Mr. President, what kind of lunch are you going to have?

PRESIDENT BUSH: We're going to give him a hamburger or hot dog, his choice. (Laughter.)

MRS. BUSH: A traditional family lunch --

Q Mustard or catsup?

PRESIDENT BUSH: It's up to him. We got it all laid out in there. He's got some baked beans, if he'd like some baked beans we've got that, as well.

MRS. BUSH: Native Maine corn.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Corn on the cob, real fresh this time of year.

MRS. BUSH: -- salad, fresh tomatoes.

PRESIDENT BUSH: If he feels like it, he can have him a piece of blueberry pie -- fresh blueberries up here in Maine.

Q Do you think he's bringing cheese?

PRESIDENT BUSH: I think he's bringing goodwill. He's bringing a good brain, good vision and goodwill.

I like that Barbara Bush is taking credit for the corn. She probably thinks her Mayflower ancestors gave it to the Indians.

Headline of the month

I saw this on Salon.com in their "From the Wires" section of news reports. I didn't click on it -- the headline itself is too sublime and my mental image of what the story is actually about cannot be improved by mere facts. Behold:

Accused says he was just milking goat

I happen to have Marshall McLuhan right here

The meaning of a story should go on expanding for the reader the more he thinks about it, but meaning cannot be captured in an interpretation. If teachers are in the habit of approaching a story as if it were a research problem for which any answer is believable so long as it is not obvious, then I think students will never learn to enjoy fiction. Too much interpretation is certainly worse than too little, and where feeling for a story is absent, theory will not supply it.

-- Flannery O'Connor,
rejecting a wild interpretation of her story "A Good Man is Hard to Find,"
from a letter dated 28 March 1961,
in "The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O'Connor"

This reminded me of an incident from my college days. I was a film criticism major, and being an undergraduate was much vexed by the grad students who tended to throw their weight around.

Two of them particularly annoyed me, Greg B. and Louis B. The latter once offered an interpretation of a classic film, whose director I later had the opportunity to speak to in person. When I described Louis' interpretation to him, he dismissed it and said there was nothing like that at all the scene. I dutifully reported this back to Louis, who scornfully said: "Well, you can talk about intentionality all you want, but..."

Louis is the main reason I wanted never to become a grad student.

technorati: Flannery O'Connor, literary theory

Publishing and politics

Nothing's simple in the modern world of overlapping media ownership, politics, personae and publicity. From a Washington Post article:

Former senator John Edwards, who has been throwing punches at Rupert Murdoch and his Fox News Channel, demanded yesterday that the other Democratic presidential candidates return contributions from Murdoch's media conglomerate. "John Edwards will never ask Rupert Murdoch for money -- he won't accept his money," said a statement e-mailed to supporters.

Not so fast, Murdoch's people say. His publishing unit, HarperCollins, paid Edwards a $500,000 advance -- and $300,000 in expenses -- for his 2006 book Home: The Blueprints of Our Lives. "We assume the senator is going to give back the money from his advance," News Corp. spokesman Brian Lewis said.

Edwards spokesman Eric Schultz said his boss donated the book payments to charity and that the expense money went to staffers and vendors.

Courtesy MediaBistro. What appeals to me about this little rock fight is how Edwards, as the underdog in the Presidential race, has once again put himself in a no-lose situation. The more he slams Fox News and its owner, megalo-titan Rupert Murdoch, the more Fox News attacks him, resulting in free publicity. Edwards can then send out more mail to his supporters depicting himself as a victim of right-wing attacks, resulting in more donations.

I was thinking yesterday of that old ploy by abortion clinic defenders of organizing pro-choice people to pledge donations to Planned Parenthood for each anti-abortion protester who showed up at a clinic, thereby de-motivating the protesters. It would be nice if there were some kind of similar process for, say, Ann Coulter: Every time she opens her mouth, more money is donated to the Democratic National Committee or, even more fitting, Code Pink, whose Medea Benjamin is simply the far-left photographic negative of Coulter.

technorati: John Edwards, Rupert Murdoch, Fox News, Ann Coulter, Medea Benjamin

Elton John: Kill the internet

Courtesy BoingBoing: Elton John suggests:

Let's get out in the streets and march and protest instead of sitting at home and blogging. I do think it would be an incredible experiment to shut down the whole internet for five years and see what sort of art is produced over that span... Hopefully the next movement in music will tear down the internet.

That's some music I'd like to hear.

Reminded me of Alex Chee's post a couple weeks ago, Delete Your Blog.

technorati: Elton John, internet, new music

You sit there

It is my considered opinion that one reason you are not writing is that you are allowing yourself to read in the time set aside to write. You ought to set aside three hours every morning in which you write or do nothing else; no reading, no talking, no cooking, no nothing, but you sit there. If you write all right and if you don't all right, but you do not read; whether you start something different every day and finish nothing makes no difference; you sit there. It's the only way, I'm telling you. If inspiration comes you are there to receive it, you are not reading. And don't write letters during that time. If you won't write, don't do anything else. And get in a room by yourself. If there are two rooms in that house, get in the one where nobody else is.

-- Flannery O'Connor
in a letter to Cecil Dawkins dated 12 November 1960,
in "The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O'Connor"

This is a rule I have been breaking lately, to good effect. I want to get in my mind a certain voice and I am stealing it from someone else. I know there is really no chance I will end up sounding like that other famous writer. I merely want to be charged by his energy.

But as for the advice to just sit there, that's good advice. And I would even say: Tell yourself that you're just going to sit there. Your mind will get bored pretty quickly and start singing like a 10-year-old in the principal's office.

Or if not -- the technique I most often use is to make notes on what I want to write, asking myself questions about the characters and the action. Sometimes all it takes is half a page of this, done in a separate Notes file, before I realize I actually do know how to get myself going.

But what struck me about O'Connor's advice was how close she is to describing meditation: you just sit there.

technorati: Flannery O'Connor, writing, writing techniques, meditation

What does it mean to leave Iraq?

There are nearly 50,000 "security contractors" in Iraq, reports the Guardian (U.K.). So even if the U.S. "pulls out its forces," tens of thousands of mercenaries would remain in some capacity; their numbers might even grow, as the war is "outsourced even more.

technorati: