Why Blog? and Pictures of Bombs

That was the question posed the other day in a Daily Link over at the always excellent House Next Door. The link led to this article, in which Girish Shambu ruminates over the events and reasons that led to his entry into the blogosphere. Reading through it served as a reminder for me to take a step back and look at why I continue to "blog" (albeit a bit more sporadically that I used to).

When I first started Whiskey for the Monkey I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it. My exact words, from June 2005:

"Haven't come up with a purpose for this thing at all. It just seems like lately there's so much turbulence (eventually I'll get away from all these hokey literary devices) in my life I feel like there's no time for anything. Even when I take the time to do something to get my mind off of everything - read a book, watch a movie, engage in, well, activities with the missus - there's always something I feel I'm ignoring, something begging for release. So I figure I can use one of these things to blow off some steam, maybe find out what things I need to change to make life a little nicer."

Besides the now-awkward and (hopefully) unintentional references to sex (e.g. blow off steam, begging for release...jeesh, sounds like I was 16 when I wrote this), the gist was that I would use the blog to figure out what I wanted to do with the blog. Looking back over the approximately three years of writing, "what I wanted to do" turned out to be a lot of structured pieces on movies, books and music, countless lists, and a number of less structured but more heartfelt personal stories and records of my life.

So why do I blog? I suppose for two reasons that work together as polar opposites: to get closer to some things, and to distance myself from others. Keeping this has allowed me to examine and solidify thoughts, beliefs, and issues that have nagged me to the point of frustration. It's allowed me to track some of the most difficult and rewarding moments in my life, and at the same time give me some distance from those things that were in danger of becoming too overwhelming. It's introduced me to a host of incredible writers who in many instances turned out to be incredible people and who, although I may never meet or even really know, affected me for the better and continue to inspire me to chase, rope and wrangle the things I'm interested in writing about. It was probably late in coming, but I think every once in a while we need to answer the question of why we do this: for me there's a definite danger of running on autopilot, and simply writing to put something down was never my goal in keeping a blog.

On a brief side note, I also came across the following image from The House Next Door:

I don't know what film this is taken from; the picture accompanied an article about falling asleep at the movies and the 10th Annual Sarasota Film Festival. But the juxtaposition of the child and the bomb is certainly striking, and reminded me of the following images from THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE:

Which brings up an interesting question: what images resound with you? Strike a chord? And specifically with film images, when taken out of the context of the film can they mean something else? If I can find or think of others I'll post them here; feel free to list your own in the comments (with a link) and I'll post them as well.

Oh, and apologies for the abrupt change in topics on this - both ideas came to me at roughly the same time. Blame The House Next Door for their varied and wonderful posts.

Book #17: On the Road: The Original Scroll

You may not have the same experience, but reading On the Road: The Original Scroll when you've already read the classic 1957 published version feels a little like brainwashing - as I read it I felt it replacing everything I remembered about the older version. Calling it longer doesn't do the work justice. What you get is a more expansive, free-wheeling and loose-lipped poetic version of the classic "road" novel. Gone are Dean Moriarty and Sal Paradise: back are Neal Cassidy and Jack Kerouac, along with William Burroughs, Allen Ginsburg, and a host of other real life characters, filled with jazz music, make out sessions, drugs and alcohol, and a yearning for experience in all its forms: a search for God in the highways and bi-ways of an America that will give a guy an honest chance and where a tank of gas will cost you less than five dollars.

The story of Kerouac's original version of the novel - a single sprawling manuscript comprised of rolls of paper taped together, with no breaks or paragraphs - is by now legend. What is less known is just how readable the novel is in this format. The lack of breaks of the novel constantly propels you forward into the numerous travels Jack takes, whether alone or with his famous friends. The gift of Kerouac, and the reason On the Road is one of my Shelf of Fame books, is his ability to grab you by the collar and swing you along as an integral part, rather than a mere observer, of his adventures. He has a presence as an Everyman, a quality I always he shared in his writing with Nelson Algren, whose prose also belied a sort of poetry of the down and out (although less optimistic that Kerouac).

The fact that the novel does away with the fake names brings a sense of history and immediacy that the original published version lacked. The sense of poetry inherent in the new (or old, I guess) format, along with some a key change in the opening line of the novel, make this new version of On the Road definitive and, in my eyes, a modern masterpiece.

New Recruit

More viral marketing courtesy of THE DARK KNIGHT, this time on April Fool's Day. If you're the type of person who's into this sort of thing, you can check it out at:

http://clowntravelagency.com

You have to go through a few short hoops, and then go to a site where you'll have to enter in, among other things, your actual phone number. Literally a split second after you hit ENTER you'll get a phone call from 000-000-0000. As soon as you pick up the phone say the word "needle."

No, I'm not kidding.

I have high hopes for the movie, and even though this was really hokey (a lot of people were hoping for the latest trailer), I got a kick out what I heard on the phone and what popped up on my computer:

Head Music Updated

Finally updated the Head Music sidebar thing with the music that's been playing around the house, the car and the office lately. A noticeable lack of metal and of new music, with the exception of the last pick, Witch's new album Paralyzed. I don't have much of an opinion on it yet. J Mascis, the voice and guitar behind Dinosaur jr. (a band I only recently discovered) ditches the six-string and moves to the drum stool where he pounds it out in the vein of mid 70's psych and doom rock. If your thing is retro rock like Wolfmother, Priestess or Witchcraft (my personal favorite) maybe this will be up your alley.

Anyway, if I was going to make a recommendation from anywhere on the list, and you don;t mind spending a little dough, then you could do a lot worse then picking up the 3-CD Complete Savoy and Dial Master Takes of Charlie Parker. This is a great overview of his work, and besides the genius sax playing you also get little known musicians Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie in the mix. There are some jazz musicians (Coltrane and Davis) where I tend to be a completist, and there are some where all I want is a comprehensive overview. Parker falls into the latter, and this set serves nicely.

Final note: U2's "Trip Through Your Wires" is so wonderful it's now my Spring Anthem.

Final FINAL note: I just realized this is my 350th post. Hooray for me!