Day in the Life of an Idiot

Mason and I giggled our way through this week's MangaKast, 21: Zombies Lose Their Sh*t.  In this one, we discussed our usuals (Bleach, One Piece, and Toriko) and talked about how far Mason has gotten in Fairy Tale, the new anime I start watching (Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun), how Hourou Musuko inspired a cross-dressing dream, a shout out to our love of Bleach List Girl, and random silliness.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy, if you listen.  Mason and I had a tremendous time recording this morning even though our day started out in the crapper.  My car (alternator?) died.  Shawn was pretty mad, but honestly, it could have been so much worse.  I was able to pull the car over at the end of our block and, because we were leaving so early (practicing for Mason's school's new starting time), the tow truck came quickly and Shawn was able to hop a bus that took her directly to MHS's front door.  I can't say we were lucky, since the best luck would be for none of it have happened at all, but in the great scheme of things--well, I guess I can't complain.

We'll see if my feelings change when the bill comes.

Mason and I have produced our 12th MangaKast for your... well, I hesitate to say enjoyment, but, well, there it is: http://mangakast.wordpress.com/2014/06/04/a-dirty-dozen/

In this podcast, I also discuss a new anime that I'm watching called Yowapeda. In the podcast, I mostly talk about how it relates to Bleach (there are voice actors in common). But, here, I thought I'd take a moment to talk about how strange Japanese storytelling often is/feels for a Western viewer (or maybe just me).

For instance, here I am, about to start episode 4, and the premise of the show--an "otaku" (Japanese nerd/geek) joins a bicycle racing club--hasn't really even happened yet. We've met our hero, had many discussions about the dorkiness of his mamachari, "Mommy bike," and met a few other characters. People have mentioned the biking club in passing, BUT NO ONE HAS JOINED YET.

I think, by now, this show would have been cancelled in the U.S.

To be fair, there was an exciting race at one point, up a very steep hill, and there were many IMPLICATIONS that our otaku hero might actually be even stronger/faster than he knows. But, it kind of amazes me the extent to which speculation has fueled the "action" of this story.

I always tell my writing students that you have to start strong, lay it all out, get to the point, so that people will know what the story is about, what's at stake... basically, show why a reader should invest their time and keep reading. We spend a lot of time as writers talking about 'the hook' and how important it is to get our 'hooks' into readers so that they will be dragged deep into the story from the get-go.

There's something about this that is utterly and truly DEFIED by animes like Yowapeda. By rights, I should CARE LESS. I mean, really, all that I know that's at stake is that our anime-loving hero would really, really rather join the anime club, but it cancelled due to lack of interest. THIS SHOW SHOULD BE CANCELLED DUE TO LACK OF INTEREST, but it's in its second season (or at least 34 episodes and counting) and, frankly, I'm fairly captivated.

I wonder if it has something to do with character. Because character can be its own hook, and, honestly, our little nerd hero represents a lot of things a lot of people are and WOULD LIKE TO BE. I'm a nerd. I'm scared of sports clubs (or was, when I was in high school), and I would really, really love to be recognized for my specialness (wouldn't we all?) So, right away there's a kind of guilty pleasure watching people looking at our dork/geek hero and saying things like, "Oh, even on his Mommy bike, he does x and y like a pro!" The implication is: this guy is special. Without even having joined the biking club yet, you start to get the feeling that this little doofus is going to be critical in elevating everyone to a higher level.... and there will be cheering and trophies and heartbreak along the way.

I'm in.

Totally. Just on the IMPLIED promise alone.

If you want to listen to me (as Dylan Calish) hosting "Travels to the UnSeen World"... it is now live: http://entertheunseen.com/travels1/

People have asked me about the name, what's the deal? Well, Dylan is nearly Lyda (just mess up the letters and add a "n"). Plus when Rachel asked me if I wanted to be a sibling to her pen name, I said, "Sure, but I kind of want to be your brother." Clearly on the podcast, I can't pass as a dude, so I picked a gender-neutral(-ish) name.



We had a lot of fun with the podcast. If you give it a listen, you'll see that it's still a bit rough around the edges, but I'm quite pleased, despite all that. Particularly since, before a few days ago, I'd hardly used Audacity at _all_. I'm looking forward to doing more of these. I already put together a quick one that's meant as a language supplement episode for Halloween. Our professor reads a much larger passage in the phonetic Cuneiform and I added part of our interview with her where we discus language and gender and gender and power, the effect diminutives (like -ess on princ-ess) has on the perceived power of women. We also joked about early language as advertisements for beer (which was, of course, invented in ancient Sumer.)

My friend empty_mirrors reminded me that I should probably add a link or write a blog post soon about Inanna, since not everyone is familiar with her story. The cool thing is that we got our professor to tell us the most famous Inanna story--of her journey to the underworld--on 'tape,' as it were. So Rachel and I are talking about having a "Velveteen Demon Bedtime Stories" podcast too.

Because, damn. I just discovered audio.

Imma record EVERYTHING.

:-)

Today I'll be teaching one of the Loft's "First Pages" (a one day, drop-in, informal class) at the Nokomis Library from 2-3:30 pm on "Fan Fiction." First Pages is a neat idea. It's described as: 90 minute introductory sessions in creative writing for kids, teens, and adults. They take place at area libraries throughout Hennepin County and are free to participants.

I'll be curious to see how this goes, but I'm excited to give it a try. The only bummer is that I seem to be suffering a touch of stomach flu. I thought I was over it, having gone to bed last night at around five o'clock and slept straight through until this morning. However, the toast I tried didn't last long, as they say.

Ah, well. Other than bathroom breaks and limiting what I feel like eating, I'm otherwise doing all right.

Yesterday, I spent most of the morning recording some Sumerian phrases with an Augsburg College professor for the podcast. I think we got a lot of really good material, actually. So, now I just have to find some time (harder than you'd think with Mason home for MEA week and my work with Sofa Wolf Press starting on Monday) to do all the editing. I am hoping, however, to have something together by next week. I'll be posting about that all over the place when it's up. But, what was cool about yesterday's meeting is that the prof. talked a lot about how Sumerian works, and the various levels of meaning attached to each pictogram. We talked about the beginnings of writing, and how the very first piece of creative writing to be attributed/claimed by anyone was that of a woman. The prof. re-told the story of Inanna's descent into the underworld, which I'm hoping to clip out of the interview and maybe set up as a separate podcast, something like "Unseen Bedtime Stories."

So there's a lot going on creatively.

I just wish I felt a little better.

Even though I have not worked out any of the bugs that everyone so kindly pointed out, here's an audio file of Mason and I telling part of our nightly tradition: the story of going to sleep.  A. A. Miles style, Mason is often the hero of the story, though lately it's a rather nonsensical trip on an Amtrack train that stops a various mythological and fantastical places, like: Hundred Acre Wood, Marvel Universe, Timbucktu, Never-Never Land, the Land that Time Forgot, the Land of Giant, Man-Eating Mice, and the Land of Giant, Cat-Eating Spiders.  

Also, this one got a bit long, so apologies.  It's a  little over 10 minutes (and thus, a rather ginormous file).  It's also extremely silly, but I thought even if no one wanted to hear our goofiness, this would be nice to have recorded for posterity.

Mason's Story of Going to Sleep

As if I needed more work to do, I'm currently trying to talk my writers' group into doing a short podcast every time we meet.  Personally, I think it would be a hoot, although I'm sure it would end up being a bit of work.  I've totally volunteered to b e the worker bee for this one, but I suspect the writers are being a bit shy.  I had such a blast doing the podcast with Shaun over at Adventures in SF Publishing that I thought it'd be fun to do our/my own radio show.  Plus, it's one less piece of content I have to think up on my own for the blog.  I heard from one of you... but do people listen to these?  Personally, I think they're kind of neat, especially now that I'm wireless and it doesn't take all day for anything to download.  Anybody doing these that has advice/warnings?  I'm currently going through a podcast how-to tutorial that I found on the web and everything seems pretty straight forward, but, of course, other than being a guest, I really know jack about how these things run.

Oh, yeah, and I switched the fish.  Joe and Fergus are now in the big tank and Bob (new Bob) is now in the old 10 gallon tank.  Oh, yes, that means the ruined St. Peter's bascillica arrived.  Yes, it's very odd to have the destroyed Vatican in my fish tank.  Bob and Fergus have never been zippier.  My only concern is that there's a strong odor near their tank.  I just changed the filters hoping that will help, but it might just that on this hot day the fish water is evaporating.

And the revisions are still going. I'm not sure I've ever worked this hard on revisions before in my life.