Manic Frustration “If I do not write to empty my mind, I go mad.” ~Lord Byron

The doors of the Hilton opened to the street and out I went into the slight bustle of traffic with a tinge of Jack and Coke resting on my mind. Sun shone off the tan bricks as it set, warming everything around me. It was a beautiful day. It wasn't even Spring yet. It was the end of my first full week as a Scranton resident.

It's a new beginning.

Walking along the street, I felt peaceful. I didn't even know I was smiling until I stopped to look at the light filtering through the buildings between Adams and Washington before casting an array of warmth over the courthouse.

It's amazing what a change of scenery can do for the mind. How the longer days filled with sun and brilliance can lift you up. For too long, I've felt burdened. Burdened by stresses, some I brought on myself, and unhappiness with my situation. Now that I've taken the time to change it and get serious about turning new corners and opening new doors, I've never felt better.

My inspiration to write had been lacking. My inspiration to do anything had been lacking. Maybe the change of season has a lot to do with it, but I cannot deny how the other changes have turned things around for me. I feel energized. I feel lighter.

I feel...excited.

Though I'm still settling in and the search for a new job continues, I already feel at home.

It feels good to be home.

           In the world.
             
                             In myself.

Photo by Thorsten

Big things are happening. Big things that are keeping me from the pen, the pages, and various other whims lately. There are boxes strewn about the house waiting to be hauled to my new location in Scranton. The move has been long overdue, but it's finally a reality.

At January's Prose in Pubs, Gale Martin read from her recently published book Don Juan in Hankey, PA. That night, she elicited boisterous laughter and applause from her all-too hysterical characterization of Leandro Vasquez, the chauvinistic gaucho-turned-opera-star and hope of  the floundering Hankey opera house.

As Martin read, I was rolling with every instance of humor and wit. It was unfortunate, then, when the book did not live up to my expectations.

There is a great story within Don Juan and some incredibly interesting characters, but the problems I encountered with the book detracted so much from the good that I found it hard to read at points and, at other times, slow and plodding.

What I believe suffers Don Juan the most is premature publishing. It seems that very little time was spent revising and editing the manuscript to tighten it up. Just when the flow of the story becomes comfortable and you settle into the world of Hankey and its opera house misfits, the writing becomes profuse. Martin has a tendency, throughout the book, to over-explain for the reader. A small example:

"He's a major talent," Oriane said brightly, like a piccolo introducing a lively motif to advance the drama at a faster pace." (p.72)

Describing Oriane's voice by comparing it to the piccolo could have been beautiful. A perfect image of the small, chirping voice I had already imagined the character to posses. Instead, the image is smudged with direct instructions of what a piccolo does. This is the type of writing which constantly pulled me from the pages and the world of Hankey. I kept asking myself, "Why did she tell me this?"

For me, the overwriting outweighed my enjoyment of the book. It had me skimming at times, something I've rarely done. There were also a few discrepencies in the story line which confused me, prompting a reread of certain areas to see if I had, initially, read them wrong. Again, it is simply due to the fact that things were not tightened up prior to publishing and this, for me, significantly tarnished the novel for me.

It's not that I experienced no enjoyment while reading Don Juan. On the contrary. If you clean away the loose passages and overwriting, you're left with a good story which lends wit and whimsy to the world of opera, a form of art and expression more often associated with stuffy, upperclass blue-hairs. Martin's characters are all interesting in their own regard and you get quite a sense of who they are without the extra explanations throughout.

Simply put, I wanted to really enjoy Don Juan. I wanted to laugh through the entire book. I thought I would be following Martin's reading at Prose in Pubs. But it just fell short. And disappointingly so.

There are laughs. There are great passages throughout the book and the premise of the story is a great one (though I could do without the ghost angle) and, for that, I congratulate Gale Martin. Hindsight is 20/20 and suggesting to tighten up the manuscript is a bit of a moot point now, but it's what I wish Martin had done.

Maybe I should simply place a significant burden of blame on Toddie Downs's editing, or lack there of. Here's to hoping that Ms. Martin will find an alternate editor for her planned follow up to Don Juan, Ms. Manon in Hankey, PA.

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Don Juan in Hankey, PA is available in both paperback and Kindle editions from Amazon.com. You can read more about Gale Martin at galemartin.me.

There's one thing that every "news" team has gotten right: there's a lot of bullshit in the news. What they all fail to realize, however, is that it's spread around on all sides. Left-wing, right-wing, and everything in between. Today, I had a delightful reminder of all of this and an incredible look into irony and complete jackassery.

A close friend of mine had pointed out VP of Business and Culture for Media Research Center Dan Gainor's Twitter account. The MRC is an organization founded by conservative activist L. Brent Bozell III. Its goal is to "prove — through sound scientific research — that liberal bias in the media does exist and undermines traditional American values, but also to neutralize its impact on the American political scene."

You can click on his name above to get the full scoop on Mr. Gainor from the MRC's site, but it does state that he has had almost two decades of experience in print and online media editing for multiple papers and magazines as well as contributing to the Fox Business Network and the Fox Forum.

At the time my friend brought him to my attention, though, he was lashing out at a gay individual who happened to be a Christian. Apparently, in Mr. Gainor's eyes, this made the individual a "pretend" Christian.

Planned Parenthood 2009-2010 Annual Report

Planned Parenthood 2009-2010 Annual Report

By the time of the adoption of the Constitution, our history shows that there was widespread awareness among many Americans of the dangers of a union of Church and State. These people knew, some of them from bitter personal experience, that one of the greatest dangers to the freedom of the individual to worship in his own way lay in the Government’s placing its official stamp of approval upon one particular kind of prayer or one particular form of religious services... The Constitution was intended to avert a part of this danger by leaving the government of this country in the hands of the people rather than in the hands of any monarch. But this safeguard was not enough. Our Founders were no more willing to let the content of their prayers and their privilege of praying whenever they pleased be influenced by the ballot box than they were to let these vital matters of personal conscience depend upon the succession of monarchs. (source)

We are not, as many seem to believe with searing intensity, a "Christian" nation. Even if the Forefathers were Christian themselves (This is hotly debated. Many were believed to be, at best, Deists. Much of the evidence in their writing and lives suggests this.), it would not make this nation a "Christian" nation anymore than a meal prepared by Richard Dawkins would be an Atheistic dinner.

We are a nation of many beliefs or lack there of. And we all are granted the right, by our Constitution, to practice whichever beliefs we hold free of persecution. It's one of the main reasons we came to this hunk of land in the first place.

The representatives in Harrisburg have crossed a line. They have committed a crime against the U.S. Constitution and against their constituents. There is no reason for this to be taken lightly. Regardless of your religious beliefs, the Constitution and all of the rights it guarantees to the citizens of this country must be upheld. House Resolution No. 535 is a slippery and sickening glimpse into the thought process of those in Harrisburg and it should not go unnoticed.

Religion is a personal choice and an individual's concern alone. And when government dips their pens into the inkwell of faith and personal belief, they breach a wall constructed to keep them out of it for their own good and for our own personal safety. This is not the "Year of the Bible". And this is not the time for any of you sitting in Harrisburg or in Washington to be concerning yourselves with topics that, constitutionally, do not concern you.

The U.S. is hungry. We want to work. We want proper educational systems for our children. We want safety. And we want to know that you're doing everything possible to provide these things for this country using our tax dollars that we fork over every paycheck. The Church does not pay your salary, we do.