Thanks I needed that

I just heard back this week that I've been accepted to present a selection of my poetry and a paper of mine on Jack Kerouac's prose structure and bebop at the Sigma Tau Delta conference in Louisville, KY. I needed that. All this waiting around for graduate program info has been starting to whittle away at my confidence and general sense of well being. Between this period and the GRE, I am really starting to wonder why anyone bothers with graduate school. I guess you really have to want to go. Regardless, I'm looking forward to heading off to Louisville in March and hope to get more out of this conference than I did last year's in Pittsburgh. Now, I just have to find the money ...

Basketbrawl of the Wild - One Last Time

I believe that twelfth night served as a perfect final Cat-Griz game for me last night. The Cat's embarrassed the "all-so-mighty" University of Montana Grizzlies in the second half of the match last night. I don't think I've seen defense as tight the Bobcats played in the second half since the 1989-90 Detroit Pistons. It was a fantastic light to see my final installment of this cross-state rivalry in. I will always have a special attachment to the athletics department out here, mainly because I spend a lot of time covering them over my two year tenure as a sports writer for the old Exponent. It is still very important to point out the differences between the two Exponents, primarily because the "New" ASMSU Exponent is one of the worst disgraces to student journalism I've seen. It's pretty bad when the English department distances itself from it. But I digress. Congrads Bobcats on a long deserved victory last night.

Writing and Over Writing: The Hemmingway Hangover

Ok, so my bias should be be quite obviously stated here. That much of the "writing" world in America has been far too influenced by the prose style of Hemmingway. It almost seems to be a shield that many people hold up in lieu of having any semblence of real talent. I speak more out of conversations with a English department that on the overall. lacks any talent or insight into teaching the craft of writing. There are a small number of very gifted writers in the faculty of the department but their voices and influence seem muted in face of the prevailing guard in power. Small rant, sorry.
In terms of Hemmingway the man was brilliant in pushing meaning into compact sentences. Yes, it is a difficult style to replicate. But it is simply a style. And style is a personal matter. Writing at its heart in an individual's voice, and as such we must consider multiple ways of expression. Hemmingway's style was brilliant, but we must not lean exclusively on it. As a writer, I often look towards Hemmingway's craft for inspiration. But inspiration and style are two different things. As much as my style is from his or anyone elses.
So the question still stands: Do I overwrite? I've heard it once or twice in regards to some of my prose writing. But I've learned my style from listening to the richly textured structures of jazz. I'm very sure that I'm not the only writer to hear "You should dumb down what you're doing, write more like Hemmingway." Statements such as this always worry because it illustrates fundamental flaws in writing and understanding. Writing like Hemmingway is not dumbing one's work done, nor is it better one's style. Writing under such premises creates a mimic rather a true voice in the discourse of literature. Is that what we as a society and teachers should be pushing for?
So, returning again to the question of do I overwrite. I'm still not sure. This is more of a rambling dialogue about the process of writing and the occasional stiflling effect of close minded instruction.

Some thoughts on Hockey and the Great Eastern Life

Watching the Winter Classic on the first day of the new year, I was quickly reminded of my more youthful days back in Michigan. The sport of hockey has always been a fairly important facet of my life. It filled many evenings of fall, winter, and spring back then. I used to travel around just to watch junior hockey and experienced some of my more memoriable experiences during, before and after those games. It was actually during a trip on my 25 birthday weekend that I decided to move to the US. It was a 3 games in 4 night trip with stops in East Lansing, MI, Erie, PA and Brampton, ON. I know I needed a change and this movement across the American landscape provided me with the first insight into an idea of a different type of lifestyle. Hockey was critical to my movements then and it is something that I found myself longing for out here in Bozeman.
When I first moved out here we had the Icedogs. They were a lower level hockey franchise coached by the brother of American hockey great Pat LaFontaine. After just one year as a season ticket holder the owner sold the arena to a beer distribution company. The Valley Ice Gardens now serves as a warehouse to tasteless malted beverages from St. Louis. Since then, there has been a clear hole opened in my experience. Without a team here (and mind you now there is a Junior C franchise playing in an old horse barn) I feel there is little in the way of connection to the valley. I miss the real Icedogs in Bozeman and fundamentally believe that their absence has been a real detriment in my forging a bond with my temporary home.
We are heading East again in a few months. The change is exciting, clearly. And heading back towards the land of Oglethorpe and ole tyme hockey things will change, connections will be forged, and life will move on.

Ramblings on New Year's Eve 2008

Winter has been a snowy one thus far in the great mountain of Bozeman. It somehow seems very appropriate from my final winter beneath the Bridgers and Hyalites and will undoubtedly help to cast a fuzzy warm glow on my memories of this place. The break has thus far been a fairly mundane affair. I can say that I'm quite pleased to be done with the vast majority of my graduate school applications. This basically means I now have the opportunity to work more on my novel project. I'm only about 12,000 words into writing it. But at least I can say the tentatively titled work, "The Gates of Limestone" has been a fun way to incorporate my ideas of jazz, the American Dream, and movement into one work. In the end I think it may be a good way to incorporate all the things I've learned out here with all the experiences I have had since moving to the US. I still have two other ideas for novels on the backburner: 1) about the life of Andre Lapine (Canadian Painter) and 2)Sci-Fi novel based upon Beowulf and the works of HST. However, admist the boomsticks and fireworks of Gallatin Valley I believe it is time to retire to my chamber for some well needed rest. To all of you, good luck in this newest of years, 2008.