Where has everyone been?
You may be wondering, and you’d be right to do so–especially after all of my assertions that the way to build a sustainable web presence is to post regularly, even when you can’t post interestingly.
Well, Monday was my birthday, and I spent the whole day being taken out to meals. So, that was nice.
I am also still unemployed. I’m not sure if this is related to the downturned economy–I know that my company was actually bought out last year, and they replaced the old leadership right between Thanksgiving and December, which is a time when no one likes to fire anyone. This is why we all dread January. In any case, I think they’d been itching to fire me.
The last laugh is on them, though, for two reasons: first, because they let me go thinking I’d be the cheapest to fire–since I was relatively new, I had the lowest severance benefits. What they forgot is that they have to pay me for all my personal time off, and I never took a vacation day. They ended up paying me for an extra three weeks. So, haha. The second thing, of course, is because I knew where all the files were, and they had literally locked me out of the computer by the time I got back to my desk to clean it out.
If you hire a guy who has the job of making sure the salespeople don’t need to know where the files are, what happens? The salespeople don’t learn where all the files are. And then you fire him, and what? Now no one can do anything. Good thinking, guys. Behold–synergy!
Anyway, whatever. I’m looking for new work now, but I’m going to take the opportunity to do some writing. I mean, technically at least three weeks of this unemployment period is vacation anyway, so I’d be foolish not to use it.
I have two more plays to write–one is a play about the breakdown of symbolic meaning in a city where all the clocks stop. The other is still…nascent. I’ve been aware of the fact that I don’t, in my plays, write a lot of parts for women, or write them especially well, so I’m going to make a specific, concerted effort to do it. It’s entirely possible that this will fail, utterly, but I don’t care. Failure is just as useful in development as success. What great writer never wrote a big piece of crap?
Anyway, I’ve also got to write a new novel. I am puzzling out some ideas now, and think I have enough to break ground. Probably, I’m going to “officially” start work on the first of March.
When that happens, I guess you can expect to see a lot of weird snippets from me about crazy ideas that I have, as I find excuses not to actually write.
February 26, 2009 at 9:36 am
You…you never took a day off? In some ways you and I are very different people, Chris.
For my part, as detailed yesterday, I’ve been sidetracked by a headcold and a truly intimidating stack of comic books. But I’ve also been promoted to my own newsletter at work, which means learning a whole new subject (nonprofits funding – this is apparently known as the “hippy liberal do-gooder” publication) and going out of town to work with off-site editors. (And yes, it also means more money and power. Mwa-ha-haaaa.)
I’ll be back to full power by next week, I imagine.
February 26, 2009 at 5:06 pm
And when Holland is back to full power… watch out!
February 26, 2009 at 10:12 pm
Your “questioning the significance of time theme” (should that be in quotes? I wonder) is very awesome. Would like to read crumbles of it on here.
February 26, 2009 at 10:55 pm
It’s probably not going to be questioning the significance of time, so much as it’s going to use the clocks as a metaphor for semantic breakdown–like, semantics are important, because what the hell is time if we can’t measure it? Parts of it will, I’m sure, turn up here.
I’m playing with a couple ideas regarding time and structure, though, that I’m still trying to puzzle out (inspired by a genuinely excellent bit in the RSC’s last production of The Tempest), but even if I get them figured, they won’t really be perceptible here, because you’d have to see the whole play.
I will no doubt hold forth on the subject though, don’t worry.
February 27, 2009 at 10:32 am
So, Braak, when you write this play include a scene with only two women on stage (more than two would be silly) and have them talk about something other than men. I’m not sure what, probably shoes.
Chicks really dig shoes. It’s all they ever talk to me about.
February 27, 2009 at 11:04 am
Oh, man, there’s going to be some serious women-not-talking-about-dudes in the next book.
I’m actually very excited about this.
February 27, 2009 at 5:36 pm
Semantics of time keeping/recording/reading. I meant that.
Hsiang; women also talk about other things, like making-over stuff–people, places, little animals–as well as the effectiveness of feminine care products. We’re also glad that makeup doesn’t contain as much lead as it used to but we’d really like to see whalebone corsets make a comeback. And crinolines. As I recall, nothing more convenient than a crinoline. You could whip those things around and knock people out. Maybe the above could be written into a storyline. Women talking about feminine care products and their compatibility with crinolines? Now, that would be entertaining for all audiences and very informative.
February 27, 2009 at 7:15 pm
Huhm. What kind of feminine care products did they have in the 19th century? I know that was about when those eggbeater-vibrators were popular, but something tells me that masturbation is slightly too-pleasurable activity to be found in Trowth.
February 27, 2009 at 11:44 pm
I was suggesting that something be developed addressing modern women’s goods and their incompatibility with crinolines. Maybe two hours of characters talking about menstruation, feminine products and how, despite performing femininity in all its materialistic glory, the path leads to insignificance and societal oblivion in any era; sort of like a cross-hatch of “Vagina Monologues” and “Death of a Salesman” type fare. This would all be set against a monochromatic, negative/positive backdrop and the continuous tick-tocking of a clock and whir of a pedalled sewing machine (symbolizing the passing of time and fertility, a perpetual state of involuntary servitude)? How relevant and popular–dare I say, fun–would that piece be?
Pie-crimper contests were actually covers for other contests, those that honored the raunchier creative renderings of whaling town ladies of the 19th century. Afterall, their husbands were away at sea for 2-8 years at a pop.