THE GREAT GADFLY:

Hijinx and Hullaballoo

MixTape Project Update

So I'm nearly done putting together a mix CD to send out to the first wave of lucky/brave participants in the mix-tape project. I was a little unhappy with a couple of choices I made near the end, but I'm having second thoughts about my second thoughts and I've pretty much figured what I want to include in the last few minutes (thanks in no small part to the charitable intervention of the lovely and talented Jonno), and after that it's all about making copies, designing a purty little CD jacket/booklet thingie, and shipping the suckers off. It's interesting making a CD compilation without a particular person in mind - at first I felt like it was a very sterile exercise, like putting together a collection of sound effects for the Smithsonian or something (which, don't get me wrong, would be fun, though perhaps not exactly something that would make someone shout "RAWWWK!!!"). Then I got into it. I started playing show-and-tell with my music collection. I got into the mindset of, "What do I have that I love that everyone should hear but nobody gets exposed to? What do I have that should be dragged back out of the retro lovin' closet for a second spin? What music evokes the coolest feelings in me?" I'm not sure how much of that internal zeitgeist has been captured on my disc, but at least I'm moving forward on the project. I know the rules are a bit confusing and seat-of-my-pants-ish, but I promise you, once it gets moving along, we'll all "get it". Honest.

National Write A Novel Month Update

I don't mind telling you, I'm more than just a little nervous about this. Tomorrow, I start writing a novel. Cold feet much? Sigh. I'm tortured already and I haven't even started.

The Self-Published Book Thing Update

I had an idea on the way to work this morning. I was thinking about this chapbook thing and how much I'd love to put it together and make lotsa copies and distribute it all over the place and gosh oh golly, how fun that would be; but then I started thinking about how completely the opposite of solvent I am right now, and how daunting the idea of publishing what is at this point a 54-page "book", in fact, is. THEN I thought about it THIS way: why don't I make a pamphlet/tract-kind of thing for each of the stories I've chosen for this project, do each one up with lots of cut and paste goodness, and sneak 'em around to hipster hotspots for folks to pick up for free? I love a good agenda-free artsy fartsy zine-pamphlet. I'd be Johnny Crappleseed or something. Who knows where this will go. Back burner, baby. Back burner.

Haikus

Next month's Gadfly diary entries might be overrun with haiku. I'm just warning you now. I have ideas.