Team Filthy

Possession of Mr. Cave by Matt Haig

2009-04-24T21:01:52Z

I read this book a while ago and loved it. Glad to see the NY Times give it a positive review. It's the best kind of horror writing, the external expression of some sort of deeply internal fear. Have corresponded with Matt a little in the past, and he was always great to talk to.

Been Gone for a While

2009-03-29T22:30:22Z

Been busy, haven't posted for a while, spending most of my internet time on Twitter and Google Reader...Timmy and I just finished the latest draft of "This World was Made for Ending" - seems like we have some character work to do still but the foundation is there. Sorting out how to juggle the other projects now - need to do more work on "Vernon Mount", need to revise my book, and may attempt to write a play because I have an idea that, I think, is pretty theatrical.

That's all I gots for now. Stay up, everybody. If you're reading this from Ohio, I miss you!

Twitter

2009-03-04T08:55:16Z

Blogs + Books

2009-02-27T06:20:04Z

So. . .I'm procrastinating my decision on what to do for the rest of the night, but at this point (which is prior to the point in which I'm writing this), I'm messing around on the internet, in Google Reader, reading my musical friend KiD CuDi's blog while holding my Kindle in my left hand, open to location 1172 in American Lion Jon Meacham's book about my Presidential friend Andrew Jackson, the people's President, Mr. I was Born for the Storm and a Calm Does Not Suit Me himself. I read CuDi's blog - the latest was a prayer - and it's written in all caps LIKE THIS AND IS KINDA/SORTA STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS and CuDi is my favorite new artist, but Cudder, the blog is - and you'd admit this - not on par with the historical writing of an accomplished author like Jon Meacham. I finish CuDi's blog and I flip down my laptop and go over to my Kindle, and I cannot at all read the book because in my head my brain is still acting like it's reading the internet, and I'm only sort of focusing, and only sort of paying attention, I'm reading with speed not precision, and I realize that blogs have momentarily destroyed my ability to read.

Kids, please separate the blogs from the books - but please read both.

Also www.twitter.com/onemikey for all of my fans that will exist one day.

Scurvy Goonda

2009-02-23T07:06:32Z

YA by Chris McCoy, my boy. Pre-order here

Dark Was the Night - $9.99 @ Amazon

2009-02-17T09:22:12Z

NBA

2009-02-16T07:25:27Z

For the hell of it, I'm going to write about the NBA. The trade deadline is this Thursday at noon pacific, and if I remember properly, the days before the deadline were more or less wasted days for me as I kept refreshing Cleveland Cavaliers' beat writer Brian Windhorst's blog (now @ www.cleveland.com/cavsbeat) looking for updates instead of writing. So this year I assume it will be no different despite the fact that the Cavs may be lesser players in the trade market (let's hope Steve Kerr owes Danny Ferry something).

But the real subject of this post is ESPN "analyst" Jalen Rose, who went on the air tonight with the following information regarding trades:

The Celtics need bench scoring.

The Spurs need a young athletic big man and someone who can score from the wing.

Look for both of these teams to make a deal.

Okay, now I am not paid to watch the NBA, nor am I paid to write or talk about it, but this information is beyond useless. Everyone on the planet knows that the Celtics need bench scoring, but - and this is the key - they have no tradeable assets, which is why they were and maybe still are considering signing Stephon Marbury if he gets bought out by the Knicks. It's a desperation move.

When it comes to San Antonio we can all agree that they, and pretty much everyone else in the league, would like a young athletic big man. The problem is that the teams that have these guys don't want to give them up or the guys are marginal players at best that would never fit in on a team like San Antonio (e.g. Tyrus Thomas). Secondly, why do the Spurs need someone to score from the wing? Last I checked Ginobli and Roger Mason were doing a pretty good job of that.

Now, Rasheed Wallace...that's a different story.

Ultimately, my point is that we should all be more skeptical of "experts" than we probably are. Oh, and hire my ass, ESPN.

Google Reader

2009-02-04T21:02:27Z

For "Brock"

2009-02-04T17:47:16Z

Now that I've finished the first draft of my manuscript, I'm prepared to start reading again - fiction, primarily, but also some non-fiction. With that said, here is a list of books I need to begin and then bury:

Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson; Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth; The Night of the Gun by David Carr; Snowball by Alice Schroeder; American Lion by John Meacham; The Forever War by Dexter Filkins

I'd like to believe Tree of Smoke will be first, but I'm not sure I have a lot of faith in that actually happening.

Update

2009-01-07T19:20:28Z

As if anyone cares, I haven't been updating because I've been in a pretty intensive writing process for the past couple weeks that is going to continue for at least the next 2-3 weeks.

I'll be back and I'll post, but no one will read.

Happy New Year

Cleveland Cavs Coach Mike Brown Loves My Recommendation

2008-12-06T00:13:13Z

Me and Coach Brown -

Playing Off the Ball

2008-11-28T06:20:26Z

One thing that I've gotten increasingly better at, which consequently has raised its importance in my mind is "playing off the ball." What I mean by this is that I now do a lot of writing when I'm not actually sitting in front of the computer typing. It's mainly about keeping my brain active creatively - sometimes by reading, being perceptive - so that I have a general openness to ideas when and if they come. This allows me to accomplish a lot, in a better, less pressurized way I think, when it seems like I'm not really doing anything at all. What happens then is that I end up building concepts and scenes and themes and characters naturally over the course of several days; nothing is forced. And "Happy Thanksgiving" to the 8 or 9 spammers who are reading this.

Radiohead - A Wolf at the Door

2008-11-20T01:19:42Z

Kid Cudi

2008-11-13T18:30:25Z

I woke up about an hour and fifteen minutes ago and, for some unknown reason, I had it in my head that I needed to post about Cleveland post-hip-hop artist Kid Cudi. The image above is from his single "Day-N-Nite" which is avail on iTunes. More info @ www.kidcudi.com He's signed to G.O.O.D. music, Kanye's label and makes a couple of appearances on 808's & Heartbreak.

Attention to Detail

2008-10-28T05:53:34Z

I happened to be reading a movie, and I got to a scene in which a man in his late 20s or early 30s was packing his bags and preparing to go on vacation. The action described him zipping up his bag and then taking his airline ticket off the desk and putting it in the outside pocket of the suitcase. When was the last time you flew without an e-ticket? At that point, I was done. I knew I wasn't in the hands of a storyteller who thought first about reality and then about the conventions of the movie screen, i.e. all those recycled movie moments that are deeply embedded in our brain. One of your first jobs as a writer is to become aware of the fact that those moments exist inside your head. Your second job is to make sure they go into the trash can and not onto the page. Reality, not cinema, is king.