Oh my god I love this video:
Where do I start? The clothes? the WIGS?! The total lax attitude like they’re three guys practicing and reliving the old days? The coughing and auguring at the end?
The other videos in the series are awesome, especially because I don’t speak a word of Japanese.
Ray Bradbury is one of my all-time favorite writers. The guy’s written some of the most amazing works in the English language. I disagree with him on a few things in this such as his dislike of John Irving (I love Irving but found the dis hilarious nonetheless).
Paris Review – The Art of Fiction No. 203, Ray Bradbury.
So I was reading Bruce Sterling’s Schismatrix book and came across this in the foreword:
“When I began work on the Sharper/Mechanist pieces, I had learned how to stop reading quite so much science fiction. By that time I was already brimful.”
This statement stopped me in my tracks so much so that the book I was reading (something SF) was immediately dropped and I started reading mysteries instead.
It got me thinking about whether or not the amount of SF I read – which is most of what I read – was perhaps too much. And was it affecting my work in an undue manner? Was it overly influencing what I write perhaps – a deathly fear of mine – to the point of plagiarism?
I decided to ask some professionals what they though on the subject.
I emailed John Scalzi but I think his dog ate it so I never heard back. 
I emailed another writer who said they read anything and everything they could get their hands on (who also declined to be quoted for this missive).
I emailed Cat Valente and this is what she said:
It’s hard for me, yeah. Harder than when I just inhaled everything. But I do still read. I just find that I’m way more impatient if the book doesn’t grab me and if I’m not liking it I just stop–which I never used to do. I do think you MUST read SFF if you’re writing it, or you won’t know what’s been done and what hasn’t, and you’ll miss out on a lot of inspiration–and a lot of good books. I hate people who write but don’t read–if you’re not reading it, why should anyone read yours?
Then I was reading Ray Bradbury being interviewed in The Paris Review and this is what he said:
INTERVIEWER
Do you read your science-fiction contemporaries?
BRADBURY
I’ve always believed that you should do very little reading in your own field once you’re into it. But at the start it’s good to know what everyone’s doing. When I was seventeen I read everything by Robert Heinlein and Arthur Clarke, and the early writings of Theodore Sturgeon and Van Vogt—all the people who appeared in Astounding Science Fiction—but my big science-fiction influences are H. G. Wells and Jules Verne. I’ve found that I’m a lot like Verne—a writer of moral fables, an instructor in the humanities. He believes the human being is in a strange situation in a very strange world, and he believes that we can triumph by behaving morally. His hero Nemo—who in a way is the flip side of Melville’s madman, Ahab—goes about the world taking weapons away from people to instruct them toward peace.
INTERVIEWER
How about writers younger than you?
BRADBURY
I prefer not to read the younger writers in the field. Quite often you can be depressed by discovering they’ve happened onto an idea you yourself are working on. What you want is simply to get on with your own work.
So there you have a wide range of opinions on the subject. But it doesn’t leave the matter resolved for me, necessarily. I love science fiction. It’s the fiction of ideas as Bradbury says and it’s the fiction of the future and the promise of things to come from utopia to dystopia to everything in between.
One wouldn’t ask an artist if they closed their eyes at museums or musicians if they plugged their ears at concerts. But there’s something insidious about the looming specter of plagiarism over music and writing mores than art (though it’s in that field as well).
This hasn’t stopped me from reading SF but merely paused to consider how I absorb what I read and what I do with it.
Your thoughts?
Damn! And right after I posted about how awesome SOUL TRAIN was. Crying shame. Thanks, Don!
Don Cornelius, “Soul Train,” creator dead at age 75 – Click Track – The Washington Post.
So it goes.
The other day this came up on the iPod the other day and my daughter was in the car with me:
My daughter thought it was caucasoids making fun of Japanese so we got to talking about YMO and how important they are to music in Japan as well as the States. I told her about this video in particular:
Amazing. the only thing better would have been Kraftwerk on Soul Train. Floarian Schneider vs. Don Cornelius.
If you’re some kind of recluse, SOUL TRAIN was one of the most important music shows EVER. To whit:
Google or wikipedia that sh*t if you need more info.
Of course, YMO didn’t write “Tighten Up.” These guys did (the audio sucks, is crackly but check out the clothes! the hair! The band!):
I spent Sunday hanging with home piece Jay just sitting around and playing music for the first time in years. My mind is blown with a lot of new stuff from him. May show up next week.
Stay warm, homies. It’s coooold outside!
Dude.
I’ve been finding myself frustrated of late. I can’t really find any forward momentum on the stories I’m working on (I know, I know. Poor me. Poor white male). It may be a seasonal thing or it may be a hint of a letdown from the wahoo of Christmas. Plus a little depression.
All in a days work for a Chang.
But it truly has been a trial to get the words out lately. Who knows why? Maybe it’s working on two novels at the same time in combination with running a business and trying to be a conscious husband/father/teacher/individual? I’m not sure. In my yoga practice I’m learning to stop, breathe and be with whatever is going on. Easier said than done sometimes – OK, most of the time. Especially in the writing arts where word count and progress are often the higher ideals than content, crafting and general maintenance.
Back in the 90’s (sad how it seems like yesterday. but it ain’t!) I was giving the musical life a shot after I quite writing in 1996). I would work hard on songs, crank on them, bang away on them and constantly work at them. I was a hopeless Autechre fan (now I’m just a fan) and would constantly try and compare my work to theirs: did it sound like them? Would they like it? Was I working their ideas that I heard into my own work? Was it enough? Was it good? Was it this was it that?
My wife had to sit through this and I can’t imagine why (for good insight into this phenomenon see Mrs. Stross’s post on the sufferings one takes at being the wife of a writer/musician/artist). Finally at one point she grabbed the bag of rune stones we had and made me draw a couple out. In this form of divination – you atheists and scoffers in the back can stfu right now – you draw three stones, each with a different symbol on them. These are then read and intercepted according to the lore.
I forget the actual combination of stones I drew but what my wife read from the book after she perused them went something like this:
“When the seas are rough the fishermen do not go out for fear of getting lost at sea. Rough seas and stormy weather are a cause to stay on the docks and mend the nets and attend to other matters.”
Well that about said it all.
I forget what I did in that moment but the concept has stuck with me ever since then. Throughout the years when I’ve found my nose against the glass, fogging it up and slobbering on it while the work – whatever it is – goes unfinished at some point I wise up, step back from the glass and reorganize. It’s been an amazing help. It gets me centered, re-focused and more importantly gives me a chance to recharge and get some perspective on what I’m doing. I throw this advice out to people a lot more than I employ it for myself ( for isn’t that the nature of advice giving?) but when I do employ it I find it has a huge impact on where the works goes and its quality.
So flash forward to now. As I’ve been watching wordcounts and interest dwindle I’ve come to realize that it’s time to stay on the docks, light my pipe and get out my needle and twine.
“All this line there’s gotta be a theme here somewhere.”
And of course I suddenly feel much better doing this. A lot of pressure goes off the shoulders and I can focus again.
What does this mean for the WIP’s? Well, the two most in the forefront now – A Garden Galactic & Tribal Malfunctions – kinda get the same treatment in a lot of ways. But then they are also different.
AGG needs a lot more help though due to being written longhand. There’s a certain amount of forensic work to it as I have mentioned and this means I have to sit and type out what’s been written and then stop every so often and interpret what I wrote because occasionally I seem to write in Cryrillic or Linear B (I’m fantastic like that). Along the way I end up editing the story here and there, moving it along. Which is good because the damn thing needs it. I’ve been writing it since winter 2009 and inconsistent about my days here I stop to type up what I’ve written. This is key as there are tons of loose ends which can get kind of scary.
“Ahh! Which one of you dumb motherfucker’s let that idea about sentient bugs loose! It just took out my eye!”
AGG’s got boatloads of loose ends and things I jotted in the margins along the way which most of the time I understand and sometimes I wonder what I was thinking/smoking/drinking. Right now though I have a backlog of about 50 odd pages to get through. I’m doing about 1,000-1,800 words a day on it and that seems to be chipping away at the backlog. Once that’s done I’ll get back to a regular write two days type one schedule. It works best for me as typing up all these pages is daunting and seems to mess with the continuity (I’m wondering what it’s doing to my writing in general as this has been one long experiment to help me see if my writing style/abilities have changed since I went from longhand in 1987 to writing exclusively on a Mac).
Guess I got some typing to do, yo!
TRIBAL’s got different issues but nothing too crazy. It needs some help shoring up the rough edges and loose elements. It also needs me to figure out what the hell and where the hell it’s going. Right now it’s still in the young stages where the youthful story’s boundless enthusiasm leads to a surplus of ideas jammed in. I wonder, as with many new works, how many of those will see the light of day when this bastard is done. For now, though, Tri-Mal is just getting the love it needs before I pick up where I left off.
So that’s the state of the writer as of Jan. 25, 2012.
Where are you at? What’re you up to? Tell a Chang in the comments.
Peace out, cubscout!
Yo.
Migraine put me off the music tip the last couple of days but I’m getting back to my mind and music right about now. So let’s dig in, shall we?
RUFUS THOMAS
Oh, Rufus is the king! I got this Best Of comp from iTunes and it’s alight. I first heard Rufus when DJ Africa Islam sampled him on LGBNAF by Ice T. But this song got played about 17 times in a row at my house yesterday while i was doing dishes and getting my house in order. ”Funky all around the clock” indeed!
Next…
Shriekback is one of my all-time favorite bands. I may have heard of them from Nemesis and then worked my way back but something in the dim fog bound recess of my memory tell me I picked JAM SCIENCE first and then worked my way up. Yep! Now I remember. I love this album fro the lyrics printed out on the sleeves in the amazing techno/phonetic font that I wish someone would make today. They are one of the few bands who make me long for the big vinyl sleeves of yore that could if a band was forthcoming, dispense a ton of information. Shriekback had this great sound which I think hit its apex with Oil & Gold the album this track comes from. It was sexy, shiny and tres funky from the slithery bass-lines Dave Allen slapped and popped out. I tend to overlook him as one of my favorite bassists for this and of course his work with Gang of Four. WHen slapping became all the rage after Flea became well-known I always felt kind of sad because not only did people go, “DUDE! FLEA! CAN U SLAPP LIKE HIMN, DUDE?!” no one bothered to go back and check Dave Allen out – and he produced their first album, too. Damn. Such is the life of a music snob.
Shall we move on?
MOBY
I gotta admit I really like his early techno stuff but he lost me when he went all punk. Except for “We’re All Made of Stars” because that song is dope and is all about science and shit. But it’s got the same progression as a lot of his others tracks.
GIRLS ON TOP/RICHARD X (MASHUPS)
Check it:
I had this on a CD from way back ad I’m so glad I found it because I love the shit out of this track. Just amazing! I don’t like too many mashups because they all seem forced and kitschy, as if the producer is winking at you and nudging you saying, “Oi! Check it! I mashed up X with Y. Isn’t it keen? Isn’t it the funniest wittiest thing ever?
No. It isn’t.
But this one is just sublime. I mean, I don’t feel anything for Whintey Houston first off. The track never did much for me. But the edits in this? And the specific Kraftwerk samples they used? I can honestly imagine Whitney Houston and Kraftwerk on stage doing this. And no, I ain’t been dipping into her stash. It’s just that good (check out the other videos for this and the hilarious Whitney/Mensch Maschine album cover parody).
THE FIELD
Continuing on a wee techno tip we have this ditty. I have no idea how I even got this track or album. But it’s a good one with a nice mix of electronic stuff and guitars. Not your usual bit of (groan) post-rock band tries out new electronics stuff.
YES
Then there’s this song with the same name.
This came out in the heyday of MTV around 1984-85 or so. I remember there were 10,000 versions of this video which all in all is pretty boring. The effects are hilariously dated though I’m sure the video cost a million dollars to make. I love this album because it was produced by Trevor Horn and has tons of trace elements of Art of Noise which was his other big group at the time (Frankie Goes To Hollywood, too, right?). I know it’s heresy to like YEs at this period especially without Steve Howe (winner of “Ugliest Man Behind A Guitar” 1971-79). But I do. It’s a pretty funky song all told.
Not nearly as funky as Rufus Thomas, though.
SLADE
And by the power of YouTube I invoke this utter shitebomb on your eyes and ears:
Oh, God what utter dreck! Still I catch myself humming this a lot. The dude rocking the leopard pants and the guitar with 900 knobs on it? Sick. Those were the real 80′s son, when the glam rockers suddenly had to wise up and try to drew like kids to pick up young girls. Never underestimate the power of sex to make men do weird things with their clothes and to their music.
Rock on!
The Architect, The “It” Girl And The Toy Pistol That Wasn’t | The Awl.
Heh. I started reading for the name of a distant relative (Albert Payson Terhune) and stayed for the lurid details! I’ve read about Stanford White’s peculiarities, including pederasty and “buggery” as the kids called it back then in an excellent article in the NEw Yorker a few years back.
A good read and a foundation fro many of our modern media frenzies.
