Let’s Paint, Exercise and Make Blended Drinks!
DEAR FRIENDS -STOP- I HAVE ARRIVED IN SPARTANBURG -STOP- WEATHER IS WARM AND WONDERFUL -STOP- HAVING A GOOD TIME SO FAR -STOP- THE TRAINS SEEM ANGRY
so, i’m here. it’s taken me about a week to get settled in, but the house plants have finally been hung and i actually feel like i live in this amazing space. i live about 200 yards from the train tracks and frankly, the extent of their late-night whistling seems a little unreasonable.
but my living room is large enough to pitch a tent in and do ninja kicks:
in short, this week’s highlights have been . . .
acquisition of a vintage typewriter:
the reprinted 1953 Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook:
the view from my living room window:
and, of course, driving down here with marshall:
EXCITEMENT.
In terms of actually getting work done, I’m working on some poetry but I’m also hoping to complete some nonfiction essays as well as a few audio pieces with Nicholas - hopefully some place-based oral histories. A large part of my time will be spent compiling and editing an anthology of regional poetry for Hub City Writers Project - a task I am very excited about. Aside from that I’ll probably be in Derya’s apartment laughing at YouTube videos. For all of you who haven’t seen the “Let’s Paint, Exercise and Make Blended Drinks” make sure you check it out on Arielle’s blog. I can’t say I’ve ever found anything to spark my creativity process quite like it.
This week I’ve been reading: Embryoyo by Dean Young, A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit and in preparation for a backpacking trip, Hiking Trails of the Smokies. I’ve been watching: Junebug, My Own Private Idaho and Half Nelson, all of which I enjoyed even in spite of a general dislike for Gus Van Sant.
Stay tuned for another blog-stallment later this week. I hope to have some regular columns, including periodical interviews with Southern writers, as well as a section that I plan to title “Notes That I Will Never Send to People I Don’t Know.” Dean Young, you’re next.
Posted in Blog
June 15th, 2007 at 3:20 am
Can I comment here? am I the first? I feel so special. You’re apartment looks amazing. Ninja kicks and a tent, what more could a girl ask for? I think you would enjoy the fact that I am in an internet bar in china right now where 13 year old girls are talking to older men in other countries on video phones, 16 year old boys are playing video games, and everyone is watching porn and smoking cigarettes.
June 15th, 2007 at 11:39 am
Rachel, I’ll have to talk to you some more about your oral history idea. The Spartanburg County Historical Association has an oral history collection and is happy to accept and (before long) collect more.
Sara and I also live right by the tracks… listen for the grinding noises the trains make against the tracks. so creepy/beautiful.
June 15th, 2007 at 11:47 am
love the ninja kicks! that’s great.
June 15th, 2007 at 3:13 pm
Where did you acquire that vintage typewriter, and for what purpose? It’s super badass. I’m a little jealous, though it would likely take me several months and much wasted paper to draft a poem on such a thing.
June 25th, 2007 at 9:23 am
The trains aren’t angry, they’re just frustrated by the lack of proper lubrication and affordable childcare.
June 26th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
hi- met you outside at the opening thingie, sorry i was such a dork… the wit always comes later than needed… wanted to hear you read, but i am terrified of strangers and large groups when i’m alone, and anyways, hope your stay is mighty fruitful. hope the faucet says on. wish mine would, it cuts off in the middle of things.
keep the fire going, etc.