Music

An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

When in doubt, follow Frank’s lead

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wl95eDA_uR4]

…and do it YOUR way.

ETA: Okay, I hate posts of videos with no real content, especially on a day Seth Godin challenges everyone to blog something interesting.

I woke up this morning with Sinatra’s “My Way” stuck in my head on repeat and it was a good thing. A timely reminder to clearly know what you stand for; know when to compromise, when to hold your ground and when to simply walk away.

It’s an especially timely reminder in light of the economy and the sense that having a job is the new merit raise.

It also reminds me of one of my favorite poems, one of the first “personal narratives” I wrote as I was moving past my initial ranty political phase, and the one that I most often get random emails from teachers or students about, informing me that it’s been used in a school performance.

Breathless

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Continue ReadingWhen in doubt, follow Frank’s lead
An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

The Mind Reels

With only a few days remaining for last-minute surprises, 2008 has been one for the books on so many levels — personally, professionally, globally — the mind truly does reel.

And reels, and reels, and reels… perhaps somehow what I imagine bonefishing might be like?

(h/t to one of my newfound loves of the year, Garden & Gun.)

But I digress. Kind of.

On January 1st of this year, I posted a brief recap of 2007 and a to-do list for 2008, the latter of which I predictably missed the mark on by a mile. Perhaps because 2007 had been a year defined by so much transition, my focus was more internal, and nowhere on that list is there any hint of what 2008 actually had in store, from becoming a new (first-time) homeowner to taking two huge steps forward in my career.

In the midst of it all, this blog went from an intense flurry of passionate political punditry to a, once-again somewhat unfocused and occasional mix of publishing, poetry, politics and pop culture. Plus, I attempted to add a more personal, anonymous blog to the mix to talk about our life as new homeowners which I’ve discontinued and rolled into this site. (“Bloomfield” tag will get you all of them.) I’m okay with that, though, as my primary goal for this blog has always been more selfish than anything else, a place for me to keep the creative juices flowing in the most rudimentary of ways by offering an outlet, when necessary, for whatever’s running through my head, and my intent at the beginning of the year was to consolidate my “platform” anyway.

But I’m rambling again…

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Continue ReadingThe Mind Reels
An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Things to Do

Montclair Honeybee Fest
Originally uploaded by bloomfieldguy

Last night, we were suprised to hear the sound of jazz music coming through our front window, at first thinking our neighbor might be having a party, then realizing it was LIVE music from a concert going on in Watsessing Park. According to the Essex County website, it was the Carrie Jackson Quartet, performing as part of the 2008 Essex County Free SummerMusic Concert Series, which I only know because I Googled it this morning out of curiosity.

Last month’s Dionne Warwick concert in Brookdale Park, which I first heard about the night of while having dinner at Vinnie’s, was part of the same series and while I wouldn’t have attended that one, it was a little disappointing to find out about last night’s as it was happening because we would have probably shaken the Sandy Hook sand out of our Neat Sheet, grabbed a couple of chairs and walked over to check it out. I don’t recall seeing any promotion for the concert series in The Star-Ledger (which I pick up sporadically), or Bloomfield Life (which I pick up weekly), or Baristanet (which I check daily), or even a flyer stapled to a telephone pole somewhere between the Park and the train station, but maybe I just missed it?

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

March Madness

No, it’s not the basketball tournament…it’s the one-week-late March edition of your favorite NYC-centric literary journal, Spindle Magazine!

Log on now for new poetry by Roger Bonair-Agard, Gerard Sarnat, Jeanann Verlee and Beverly Wilkinson; short fiction by Tim Clancy; and creative non-fiction by Anne Germanacos.

Plus, keep an eye out next week for our featured columns: Coffee & Brooklyn, Myers Music Machine and On the 1.

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Spindle: February ’08

Spindle Spokesbaby: Will DiazIn the midst of all the political blogging I’ve been doing lately, I had a Spindle update looming on the calendar for today and stole time here and there over the past two weeks to sift through the surprisingly steady stream of submissions that have come in since last month.

I was worried in mid-January that the aggressive “official launch” schedule I’d set up for January, posting 15 new pieces over three weeks, would deplete my inventory and leave me scraping through some marginal work to get something up this month but it all worked out nicely in the end as we have new work from Alan King, Eric Payne, Rachel L. Olivares and Julian Taub, plus new columns from Stephanie R. Myers (Myers Music Experience) and Brooke Wacha (On the 1).

Log on now and get into a New York state of mind @ http://www.spindlezine.com

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

International Delete Your Myspace Account Day

[via Bloggasm, with a hat tip to Nick Mamatas]  If you’re reading this and you’ve experienced any of the things on the list below, your account may be in need of deletion: 1. You rarely log in to Myspace except to delete spam friend requests from nude webcam girls. 2. You spend five minutes writing a wall post only to hit an error message when you try to post it because of all the website glitches. 3. You’re a girl who constantly gets marriage proposals from random men in the middle east. 4. You visit someone’s Myspace profile only to…

Continue ReadingInternational Delete Your Myspace Account Day
An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

High School Musical

Taking a break from politics for some mindless memeing… 

Go to this convenient compilation site right here http://longboredsurfer.com/charts.php and find the five years you were in high school. For each year, admit to the song that was your favorite at the time, then decide which one you now generally consider to be the best song on the list. Lastly, pick the year’s worst song, snarking optional.

1983

Favorite: It’s hard not to pick one of Prince or David Bowie’s songs, all of which I still love, and I didn’t really discover “Faithfully” until several years later, so I’ll have to go with Spandau Ballet’s “True”.

Best: Without question, it’s Prince’s “1999”

Worst: Toto’s “Africa”

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