FreeThinker
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Posts posted by FreeThinker
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Actually, THIS story takes place in 1968, when they were still using "Come Alive." It's Dance of the Wicked Boys that is set in 1970 and the Pepsi Commercial I use in that story does use "You've Got a Lot to Live". Its a testament to Pepsi's advertising agency that we would remember that after forty-three or forty-five years!
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The correct, properly edited version is now up. Many thanks to Dude for his patience and hard work! Once again, apologies for my confusion.
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It's a sweet story and shows the wonderful life that Paul's father has provided for several VERY fortunate boys who deserve the love and stability they've been given. And, Paco's artwork is beautiful. A warm Christmas story that will make the reader wish he could join them on Christmas Eve.
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I am so horribly embarrassed! I sent the wrong copies of my story files in to be posted, the unedited versions. I kept two folders on my desktop during the editing process, one for the unedited and one for the edited. After my editor finished his work and I went over them, I turned around and sent the wrong ones in to Mike and didn't realize it until now. I am so, so sorry for such a stupid mistake and I apologize to Mike, as well. I will send him the correct copies and I apologize for making him redo the postings. I'm really not that unprofessional that I would send something in with that many mistakes. I am sorry!
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This story was a punch in the gut and a slap in the face. I've read few stories that shock one to the extent this does. It is powerful and frightening and what's so horrifying about it is that you know, you just know this is actually happening. Nigel has given us an amazing story that must be read by as many as possible. I just wish the people who need to read it could have the opportunity, though we know they never will.
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Thank you very much for your kind words. This story was actually written back in 2002 and was only the second story I had posted to the web. Prior to that, the only people who had read my writing were members of creative writing classes and a writers group back in the eighties. I think its a bit immature, but I like it and I am grateful for the postive comments. I think I grew as a writer since I first wrote this. At least, I hope I have. Thank you very much.
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I remember watching one night on the David Letterman show, Peter O'Toole appeared on stage riding a camel. He was so marvelous.
I went to the theater with my grandparents to see The Lion in Winter and not long after, Good-bye Mr. Chips, which I enjoyed more, being 12 at the time and strangely infatuated with Petula Clark. Thus, along with the BBC production of Tom Brown, began a lifetime of fantasies about English boarding schools. I saw Lawrence on television, when I was too young to understand and appreciate it, but fell in love with the movie when I saw it in college. My grandmother had The Seven Pillars of Wisdom in her library, which I read after seeing the movie. Peter O'Toole was truly beautiful in the movie, even more so than the real T.E. Lawrence.
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Two of my favorite people meet and it's... well, see for yourself.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/15/sherlock-holmes-doctor-wh_n_4449215.html
I want to bear Benedict Cumberbatch's children while having a torrid affair with Matt Smith.
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I had the privilege of reading this story in its entirety before Cole began posting it and I must say it is one of his better efforts, which is saying something when talking about Cole Parker. It has a classic Cole element, showing the growth and evolution of a protagonist, though in a different way. It is unusual for Cole to start off with a negative character and you might be surprised by this, but keep reading. It's an amazing story with the usual Cole Parker twist at the end. I will say nothing more, except that it's an amazing story.
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James, that was amazing. It horrifies me, reading this, that our country abandons so many of those who have sacrificed so much in service to us. Your story should be required reading for all citizens and all politicians.
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My favorite pop Christmas song in a moving tribute to a homeless vet on the first season of The West Wing, 1999.
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A member of a creative writing group I was in a few years ago--in the real world, not online-- said in group once that she preferred writing her first drafts in longhand on legal pads because its slower and forces her to think. Because typing on a keyboard, whether typewriter or computer, is so much faster, the process is, to her, "like vomiting up words." She finds it more deliberative to write by hand and I have to agree, to a certain extent. Back in the eighties, before I stole my stepfather's old 512k Macintosh, I wrote a number of short stories and a novel with a Flair pen and spiral notebooks from Target. It could be that I was younger and hadn't killed as many brain cells as I would later, but I think it was better. Of course, you can go back over what you write on the computer and edit seven or twelve times, but the first drafts always seemed better in my mind when written with ancient pens and paper.
I think online news sources might consider this. I've noticed that, since most news media have dispensed with copy editors as a useless waste of money, the number of skipped words, misspelled words, (at least use the Microsoft spell-check, for God's sake), and sentences that make absolutely no sense are increasing. I think younger reporters sit down and whip out a quick five hundred words and have no care whether its good, well-written, or even makes a lick of sense. An article on nytimes.com requires more thought that a Twitter fart. I don't hold myself up as a paragon of virtue in this sense. My editor can testify to what happens when I vomit up a few thousand words when I'm in a hurry, but I do think writing on paper first and then transferring to the computer results in something, for me at least, that is higher quality and more thoughtful. I just don't do it as much as I used to.
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Meanwhile, J.D. Salinger--and Generalissimo Francisco Franco-- are still dead.
After long and thoughtful thought, I have concluded the following conclusion. I agree with Merkin.
I have things I've written that I would never want anyone to read--and now they won't because I lost my thumb drive. And, there are things I've written that I wish no one had read, such as my rant in favor of beheading Confederate climate-change-deniers and denying the vote to any brothers named Koch.
A writer should feel very protective of his work and his legacy. Publishing something that wasn't, in the mind of the writer, ready for publication, something that he had decided wasn't, for whatever reason, worthy of publication, is a sin. Yes, we the readers may enjoy it, but the right of the writer-- or the write of the righter-- I think supersedes the desires--or the prurient curiosity--of the public. The prurient public must respect the writer.
Carry on.
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As a purist when it comes to television news-- I hate the two-hour-long morning gigglefests that masquerade as news on Today and Good Morning America, and the Entertainment Tonight style of the evening newscasts-- I should hate this. Nor am I a Will Farrell fan. I still pray for the resurrection of Walter Cronkite and the thousand years of peace. However....
You have to watch this. Its either a further sign of the degeneration of television news or a brilliant marketing move by the producers of Anchorman 2. Ron Burgundy last night co-anchored the evening news on KXMB in Bismark, North Dakota. He really did. The story on The Huffington Post has a link to the entire newscast or to highlights. Watch his heroic co-anchor desperately trying to keep a straight face as she struggles to remain professional! Its great.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/01/ron-burgundy-north-dakota_n_4368488.html
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An article in Vanity Fair (linked on The Huffington Post) has fascinated me and reminded me of some comments made in another thread here on Awesome Dude, discussing how poor children with no education are able to perform complex mathematical calculations by "cheating," breaking down a complicated problem into smaller bits and then combining them. This article reminded me of that.
For years, art experts have wondered how the Dutch artist Vermeer was able to achieve such a photographic realism in his art. Many had speculated that he had used a camera obscura, a combination of lenses and mirrors to achieve the spectacular effects in his work. These suggestions have been met with skepticism and even outrage. The contemporary artist, David Hockney, has written a book suggesting this, yet the opposition has remained adamant.
Enter a non-artist and tinkering genius from Texas (Bah. He would be from Texas). I shall let you read the rest:
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I have a folder of classic New Yorker covers that rotate as my desktop picture and one of them caught my fancy. Because of the affection for pussies here on AD, I thought I would share it. :-) Click on the thumbnail.
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It used to be a rite of passage and an act of rebellion for adolescents to read Catcher in the Rye. I read it in the ninth grade and didn't understand all the hub-bub. Of course, that was 1972 and things were a little different then than in the fifties...Anyway, a treasure trove of previously unknown Salinger work is being revealed and three stories have been posted online. I don't know if I approve. I want to read them, but I understand a writer not wanting certain work to see the light of day.
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I discovered Mary Renault as a teenager in the early seventies when The Persian Boy was first published--thank goodness for public libraries! I also found Fire from Heaven, the first of her three books about Alexander the Great. The Mask of Apollo, and The Charioteer soon followed, all before I graduated from high school. I learned that homosexuality was not a recent phenomenon, that people are that way by nature and not necessarily by choice, and that different societies in different eras have different ways of looking at ethics and morality and that modern ways of thinking sometimes devolve, instead of evolve--something we need to remember today as some elements of society seek to reverse gains many people have made in their search for freedom and self-respect. I was a conservative Republican Episcopalian at the time I found her, desperately trying to "free" myself of my "shameful" urges and to be a "good" boy. She helped plant the seeds of my growing realization of the way things really are and my rebellion against the coerced conformity of my family and society in Oklahoma and America as I grew older. Discovering Mary Renault was one of the most important moments in my life and one which I write of in Centennial Park.
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One of my favorite TV shows of the 90's was Nickelodeon's Pete and Pete, the story of two red-headed brothers growing up on a typical suburban street and attending a typical suburban school and how they dealt with the typical challenges of childhood and adolescence in atypical ways. The show was quite clever--and I had a crush on Michael Marona, This article on The Huffington Post describes the show's enduring popularity, much like Freaks and Geeks-- another show I enjoyed. Also, the boys have red hair and anyone who has read a story of mine knows I am constitutionally incapable of creating a protagonist who does not have red hair. Enjoy.
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I discovered Alec last year when a reader of mine suggested his videos. They are very interesting and inspirational for kids his age. Very professionally done for so low-budget an operation. i do recommend them.
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I have to suggest my obsession, Ronan Parke. Now that he's fifteen, his voice is so sexy and beautiful. I can't imagine how hot he will be when he turns eighteen. He's so much more talented than the Biebs. He came in second on Britain's Got Talent in 2011. Here is his latest video, Move, which is a really good song, and his first video, A Thousand Miles, when he was thirteen.
And yes, Les Choristes was a wonderful movie!
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I was in the fourth grade in 1967 the first time I heard the term "Baby Boom." My teacher told us we were special because our generation was the largest in history. Boomers have always felt a bit like Peter Pan, we've always had a sense of entitlement, that we are different and forever young. Our slogan used to be "Don't trust anyone over thirty," until we started turning thirty.
Well, get ready. Mick Jagger is a great-grandfather.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/mick-jagger-to-be-great-grandfather/
Pass the Geritol please.
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Darn it. I don't have BBC America on my cable subscription. I have only the basic plus package. One of these years, I'm going to have to break out the crowbar and open my wallet for the better package. As it is, I can watch British shows on PBS, but they're usually delayed a few months or years. We don't get Downton Abbey until January.
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No one is suggesting using solar energy as the only source of power, but in conjunction with many sources.They each contribute.
I admit there is a great tendency for the left to be as closed-minded as the right and to be as intolerant of differing views. I suppose I am more afraid of the right because they are more intolerant of the things I value than is the left. However, the left does its share of violating people's rights and Nick has a good point that it is unlikely that Labour, should they replace the Tories after the next UK election, as is likely, will not vigorously oppose this latest outrage to freedom of speech. There is a strong anti-porn movement within the Progressive wing of American politics, as well. I'm not defending porn, or Holocaust deniers, or neo-Nazis, or any other controversial groups or classes. But I am defending their right to express their opinion and James has a point. The Left is just as guilty as the Right in restricting the Freedom of Speech. There are a lot of things I find repugant. I think climate change deniers are ignorant pawns of the hydrocarbon industry, but they have a right to be ignorant pawns of the hydrocarbon industry. Freedom of Speech must be defended because if we give someone the power to censor someone else, what will stop them from censoring us, me, you?
Just a quick note-- I am not saying that James is an ignorant pawn of the hydrocarbon industry. I was speaking in general, albeit a little sarcastically. :-) OK, so maybe I am defending porn, just a little. Um, well, just the porn with cute twinks getting rammed by... um Yes. well... never mind. <blush>
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Innocence Lost by Freethinker
in Readers Rule!
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I loved the commercial. It brings back a lot of memories. I like watching old commercials.
As for spelling out the year, I might have been giving my readers more credit, but I thought the assassination of Bobby Kennedy and the election campaign between Nixon and Humphrey would have let the reader know it was 1968 without actually spelling it out.In Wicked Boys, the actual year isn't that important, but I researched the music and in both the original and the sequel I reference the actual hit songs that were big on the radio in late July and early August 1970. I even went to the Weather Underground web site (the meteorological organization, not the offshoot of the SDS in the sixties! LOL) to get the fact that it was raining in New York City on Monday August 3, 1970, the day the sequel begins. I try very hard to use specifics that will add verisimilitude to the story.
There is also a web site called Airchecks.com that offers tape recordings of an hour or so of actual Top 40 radio from various radio stations across the country from 1957 onward. I have made notes from the WABC files of 1970, plus KHJ in Los Angeles- the top Top 40 stations of that era, to bring authenticity to the story. Plus, I love to hear the DJ patter, the commercials, the style of radio back in the Golden Age of Top 40 radio.
Having said all that, however, I must admit that I was wrong on the Pepsi ad campaing for 1968. "Come Alive" was 1966 campaign. "Taste the Beats the Others Cold" was the 1967-68 campaign. (Man, talk about an anal-retentive conversation!) LOL Man, the guys were HOT in those commercials! Were we more sexy back then?