'Living The Writing Life'
Michael Dare
Michael Dare
It started out as one of those standard e-mails you get: Hi, I'm Mark Robert Waldman, I'm doing
a book called "The Spirit of Writing," I'd like to include something by you, we can't afford to
pay but we'll send you copies, blah blah blah, heard it all before. The book sounded cool though,
an anthology of "Classic and Contemporary Essays Celebrating the Writing Life." Us struggling
artists are supposed to hold out for the big bucks. We're supposed to say no to these sort of
things. I looked around at all the other offers I had to re-publish an obscure piece of mine
from a five-year-old WGA magazine. I said yes.
My two copies just arrived. Not obscure at all. A beautiful book published by Tarcher/Putnam on
the New Consciousness Reader label, edited by Mark Robert Waldman who did an amazing job.
From the back cover: "Renowned authors reflect on the joys and frustrations of the writing life.
A rare glimpse into the inner world of the writer. Here is a wealth of insight on matters both
practical and emotional. Mark Robert Waldman has gathered sixty essays that reveal the daily
struggles--and rewards-- that novelists, journalists, poets, and other writers face. These
elegant meditations offer comfort and inspiration for the countless people for whom writing is a way of life."
Open to the table of contents and you'll find "How to Write Like Tom Robbins" listed as story
number nine in a long list. It's an interesting list to see yourself on: Annie Dillard, Stephen
King, Henry Miller, Joseph Conrad, Sylvia Plath, Octavio Paz, Robert Pinsky, Erica Jong, Mark
Twain, O. Henry, Anais Nin, and Michael Dare.
There are raves from Publishers Weekly and Library Journal up at Amazon.
Order one at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1585421278/darenet-20
and I might actually get paid.
Thanks,
MD
Holy Canoli! Michael sure is hanging with the A-List writers!
Buy this book - KORESH! - just look at the names - lots of great reading, and you'll be able to say
'I remember when....', too.
Here's a link to Michael Dare's site - http://home.earthlink.net/~dare2b -
(Enter At Your Own Risk - LOL). : )
Weekly Review
from Harper's Magazine
WEEKLY REVIEW
President George W. Bush signed an executive order that will allow him to block the release of
68,000 pages of Ronald Reagan's presidential papers and to retain control of his own documents,
which are supposed to be released 12 years after he leaves office; there was speculation
that the president wishes to avoid embarrassing his father and other former Reagan officials
who work in the current administration.
Robert S. Mueller III, director of the FBI, admitted that he had no idea who was sending anthrax
through the mail and appealed to ordinary Americans to help figure it out: "If you know somebody
is doing different things with anthrax than they should be and it's somewhat suspicious, we're
asking you to let us know."
Consensus was beginning to form that the anthrax was not only the same strain used in American
bioweapons programs (the "Ames strain") but that the spores were prepared using the top-secret
American "weaponization" recipe.
After the CIA's "threat matrix" showed a "big and credible" threat, Attorney General John
Ashcroft warned Americans that a new attack could be imminent.
Manolo Blahnik removed a pair of titanium-heeled sandals from his fall collection because
they have 3.5 inch heels that narrow to a point so sharp that they damage floors and could
be used as a terrorist weapon on an airplane.
Congress continued to debate whether to nationalize airport security; antigovernment Republicans,
including President Bush, oppose the plan as an unwarranted expansion of federal power.
Democrats and Republican moderates said they were more concerned about preventing terrorist attacks.
Fog, 100-mile-per-hour sandstorms, and freezing weather slowed the deployment of 100 American
Special Forces "stealth" troops to the front lines in Afghanistan. The Air Force was planning
to deploy more of its Predator surveillance drones in Afghanistan even though an internal
Pentagon report recently concluded that the drone doesn't perform well at night or in cold or
rainy weather.
Northern Alliance soldiers, initially pleased by the spectacular explosions produced by American
B-52s, soon began to complain that the big stratofortresses were not very accurate: "The
American bombs were the biggest I have seen in my life," one fighter said. "But they missed the Taliban."
United States forces were suffering from an "intelligence vacuum," officials said.
( continued at Weekly Review )
--Roger D. Hodge
In The Chaos Household
Last Night's TV
Started out with 'Buffy', on UPN, but jumped ship at the bottom of the hour
to catch 'The Simpsons' on Faux. Wonder why they didn't play with the names of
the crew as they have in years past.
'Frasier' on NBC was one of their 'feel good' episodes, with Frasier & his
Dad at each other's throats. Next week is their 200th episode, and the guest star
is Bill Gates.
Caught most of 'Scrubs' on NBC because I like Sean Hayes ('Jack' on 'Will
& Grace').
Tonight, CBS turns primetime over to the 'Country Music Awards' (CMA).
ABC has 2 hours of sitcoms, followed by 20/20. The newly cancelled 'Bob
Patterson' is listed, but I wonder if it will air.
NBC has 'Ed', 'The West Wing', and 'Law & Order', with all
fresh episodes. Gary Busey guests on 'Law & Order'.
Faux has 2 hours of 'Temptation Island', the first is a wedding/reunion show, where
a couple from the original series marry. The 2nd hour is the season premiere with all new
fornicators.
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
'Love Ride 18'
Jay Leno And .....
Once again, Jay Leno will lead a pack of over 20,000 motorcyclists in Love Ride 18, the largest
motorcycle fundraising event in the world, on Sunday, November 11, 2001.
Grand Marshal Leno will be joined by honorary Grand Marshals Peter Fonda, Robert Patrick (X-Files,
Terminator 2), and Lorenzo Lamas.
The 50-mile caravan from Harley-Davidson of Glendale to Castaic Lake will feature a Tony Roma's
barbecue, motorcycle trade show, and concert (performers yet to be announced).
The Love Ride is expected to raise over $1 million for the Los Angeles Times' "Reading By 9"
literacy initiative, the Muscular Dystrophy Association, and other charities. In 17 years, the
Love Ride has raised almost $14 million.
Celebrity participants this year include Billy Idol, Larry Hagman, Pat Boone (singing National
Anthem), Janice Pennington (Price Is Right), Dan Haggerty, Robert Blake, Willie G. Davidson,
The Nelsons (Matthew & Gunnar), Zach Ward (Titus), Robert Duncan McNeil (Star Trek Voyager),
Robert Beltran (Star Trek Voyager), Roxann Dawson (Star Trek Voyager), Branscombe Richmond,
Molly Culver (VIP), Francesco Quinn, Dennis Haskins (Saved By The Bell), Jonathon Haze
(Little Shop Of Horrors).
Previous Love Ride concerts have featured Bruce Springsteen, The Steve Miller Band, Sammy
Hagar, Dwight Yoakam, The Doobie Brothers, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Billy Idol, Jackson Browne,
George Thorogood, Los Lobos, Little Feat, Eric Burdon, Robbie Krieger, Credence Clearwater
Revisited, John Kay & Steppenwolf, David Lindley, and others.
You can visit the Love Ride on the internet at www.loveride.org.
Audio Files From BC
Bonus Page Link
Here are some MP3 files from BC
There's A Freud A-Brewing
Clooney Vs. O'Reilly
There's a feud brewing between George Clooney and Fox News Channel's tough-talking Bill O'Reilly.
O'Reilly stirred up a perfect storm in Hollywood last week when he attacked celebs like Julia
Roberts, Tom Hanks and Brad Pitt for not coming on his The O'Reilly Factor and defending themselves
from various news reports that money they helped to raise through such events as the Tribute to
Heroes telethon and The Concert for New York wasn't going to the victims of September 11.
"When a telethon to help the victims' families is presented, the stars clamor to be a part of
it. Same thing with those rock concerts. Those fundraisers bring the stars great publicity,"
O'Reilly said on his October 31 show. Two days later, he told the New York Post, "[These stars]
get a lot of positive publicity when they do these events, but when it's time to take some
responsibility, they are MIA." He called the tight-lipped celebs "weasels."
That's when Clooney, one of the driving forces behind the all-star telethon, stepped in. The
former ER star--who has quickly become Tinseltown's premier letter-writer (over the past few
years he's fired off angry missives to Entertainment Tonight, Elle and the Screen Actors Guild)--broke
out his trusty pen and wrote an angry response to O'Reilly, calling the conservative TV host's
remarks "nothing short of a lie" and defending how the United Way handled disbursements of the
September 11 Fund, which the telethon benefited.
"What is not important is your attack of the performers...What is important is your accusation that
the fund is being mishandled and misused. That, sir, as you know, is nothing short of a lie.
"The fund is intact and has already handed out some $36 million to victims' families (15,000 checks),
with over $230 million more to be allocated as the United Way sorts through the complicated process of
who is in the most need," Clooney writes in his letter, a copy of which was obtained by E! Online. "To
have given out all of the money only six weeks after it was raised, would truly be irresponsible. If
you were a journalist, you would have known that.
"It took one phone call to find information. One phone call you did not make. But hey, it's the first
week of sweeps and you need to run a hard-hitting exposé of irresponsible, pampered performers and try
to bait them on your show with inflammatory statements. I'm sure it must have been frustrating for
you that not one person took the bait."
"People are coming up to me and asking if it's true that the telethon was a fraud. That means the next
time we try to raise money, like when the CD [and DVDs] from the telethon comes out this month, fewer
people will participate," Clooney writes. "Because of your unsubstantiated, untrue statements about the
September 11 Fund, you, Mr. O'Reilly, will be taking money away from people who need it...and all because
it's first week of sweeps."
George Clooney vs. Bill O'Reilly
New! Updated!
(6 Nov, 2001)
The official BartCop Astrologer, Geneva, has provided another eye-opening set of charts!
A brief excerpt: " "The influence of the opposition across the 3rd/9th axis may indicate
we have more to fear from domestic terrorism than a foreign entity. Sagittarius on the cusp
of the foreign 9th house, with ruler Jupiter in Cancer, the sign most closely associated with
home and country, in the home 4th, shows the source of anthrax and other bio-chemical threats
are more likely from within our own borders; by a home grown group of domestic terrorists. The
recent wave of breast beating, chest thumping, and flag waving can be attributed to the most
excessive planet (Jupiter) transiting the most exorbitantly patriotic and jingoistic sign (Cancer).
Jupiter also has jurisdiction over religion, so the source of these dreadful bio-terrorist attacks
could very well be a group with a strongly opinionated religious axe to grind. "
Very interesting reading!
Baby News
Esme Annabelle Fox
Michael J. Fox isn't letting Parkinson's disease get in the way of fatherhood.
The actor, already proud papa of a son and twin daughters, has welcomed a fourth child,
as wife Tracy Pollan gave birth Saturday to a girl. Esme Annabelle Fox was born at 12:06 p.m.
in a New York hospital and weighed in at 7 pounds, 6 ounces.
Esme joins 6-year-old twin siblings Aquinnah Kathleen and Schuyler Francis, and 12-year-old son Sam Michael.
Pollan and Fox have been married since July 1988, but their relationship dates back to
the Family Ties days, when Pollan played Ellen, the girlfriend of Fox's Alex P. Keaton.
The children are no doubt keeping Fox's hands full after he departed from his full-time
job on ABC's Spin City last year to focus on his battle with Parkinson's disease,
which he first revealed in 1998.
Of course, the 40-year-old actor hasn't completely ditched Hollywood. Fox just returned
to Spin City for a special guest spot, he's playing the voice of Stuart Little for its
upcoming sequel and he lent his voice to this year's Disney animated flick Atlantis: The Lost Empire.
Esme Annabelle Fox
A Wedding In The Future
Paul McCartney & Heather Mills
Paul McCartney confessed that he cried every day for the first six months he went out with
Heather Mills because he was still grieving for his wife, Linda.
McCartney, who plans to marry Mills next year, said he was unsure if he would ever be able
to love again after Linda died of breast cancer in 1998.
The former Beatle, now 59, said of his affair with the 33-year-old Mills, ``For the first
six months of our relationship, I was pretty much crying every day. She was very supportive.
``But she was like, 'No, I understand what you're going through,''' McCartney told the
Sun tabloid. ``That pretty much cemented our relationship. Otherwise it wouldn't have worked.''
He said they were getting married next year and the date had been decided. ``But we are
not telling anyone so no one has to lie and we don't have to shoot them,'' he said.
McCartney said, ``You can't help when you fall in love. When it happens, it happens. When
I first started with Linda, John Lennon like a lot of people, said, 'I'm surprised by your
choice -- are you sure?'
``And I said 'Yes, I'm surprised by yours too' and we both had a little laugh.''
Paul & Heather & Linda
Reduction Of Workforce
PBS Lays Off 10%
Facing tough economic times, the Public Broadcasting Corp. on Monday announced it will
reduce its 565-person workforce by 10% and close its Midwest programming office.
PBS president-CEO Pat Mitchell said the network regretted having to cut jobs, but that the
move was necessary to preserve programming integrity.
``Those factors, sadly, have led us to some difficult staffing decisions, and as we have been
working toward this reorganization for several months, a high percentage of those reductions
are accounted for in vacancies that will not be filled,'' Mitchell said.
Mitchell said the various changes were, in large measure, the result of a yearlong internal review.
Updated!
BartCop TV!
Visit the site at BC TV
The 'Vidiot' never seems to rest - and doesn't let little things like laundry or
housekeeping get in the way!
Damn near every show on TV must is listed - days & days worth of great reading.
For an amazing variety of information on an awesome array of tv programs check out
BC TV!
International Artists Pay Tribute to a Legend
Vincent Van Gogh
Seventy works by artists including Jasper Johns, David Hockney, Robert Rauschenberg,
and Roy Lichtenstein will go on display at the Appleton Museum of Art in an
``Homage to Van Gogh: International Artists Pay Tribute to a Legend.''
The exhibit, which honors Vincent van Gogh's artistic activity in Arles, France,
opens Thursday and is scheduled to run through Dec. 24.
``They are actually artists reacting to van Gogh and they are creating things based
on their own reaction and their own experiences of van Gogh,'' said Keith Wemm,
curator of public programs.
``They have to almost take their own experience and do everything in their power to go
beyond it,'' Wemm said. ``It's more about trying to relate the impact of van Gogh on
our contemporary world.''
Honoring Vincent Van Gogh
Coming Tribute At The Playboy Mansion
Arthur C. Clarke
Arthur C. Clarke said Tuesday he won't travel to Los Angeles for a gala where awards
for film and television excellence named for him will be announced.
``I will miss many of my old friends, but long travel for me is close to impossible now,''
said the 83-year-old science fiction writer, who uses a wheelchair because of complications
from a 1959 polio attack.
``I have decided to keep a low profile so that I get enough time to listen to music and
play a game of pingpong,'' Clarke said in an interview with The Associated Press. ``Sometimes
I think I am doing too much work.''
A series of annual Arthur C. Clarke awards will be announced at the Nov. 15 dinner at the
Playboy Mansion. Organizers with the Space Frontier Foundation have said that actor Tom
Hanks and movie director James Cameron will serve as co-chairmen, and astronauts Buzz
Aldrin and Jim Lovell may attend.
Clarke, who co-wrote the screenplay for the 1968 film ``2001: A Space Odyssey'' with Stanley
Kubrick, said he may be hooked up by satellite for a two-way conversation during the event.
Arthur C. Clarke Tribute
And Here's To You, Mrs. Robinson
'The Graduate' Broadway Bound
Mrs. Robinson is coming to Broadway.
Kathleen Turner will play the seductive older woman in a stage version of ``The Graduate'' adapted by Terry Johnson from the cult novel by Charles Webb and the hit 1967 movie that starred Anne Bancroft and Dustin Hoffman.
Jason Biggs of ``American Pie'' fame will portray Benjamin Braddock, the young man she seduces. Alicia Silverstone co-stars as Mrs. Robinson's daughter, Elaine, the role played in the movie by Katharine Ross.
The stage production will begin a pre-Broadway tour in Baltimore in January before moving to Toronto, Ontario, and Boston. ``The Graduate'' begins preview performances in New York March 15 with an opening set for April 4 at a theater to be announced.
Turner, star of such movies as ``Body Heat'' and ``Peggy Sue Got Married,'' originated the role of Mrs. Robinson in the London production of ``The Graduate,'' which opened in April 2000 and is still running. In England, the show has gone through a variety of Mrs. Robinsons including Jerry Hall, Amanda Donohoe and Anne Archer. It now stars Linda Gray, best-known as Sue Ellen Ewing of television's ``Dallas.''
'The Graduate' Is Going To Broadway
New!
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
To check out 'Train Station Chicken', and more (like 'Cranberry Autumn Tea'),
In The Kitchen With BartCop
George Handel & Jimi Hendrix?
London Museum
The 18th-century house where George Frideric Handel composed ``Messiah'' and other great
works has become the first museum in London devoted to a composer.
Restorers have converted the upper floors at 25 Brook Street in the smart Mayfair district
to its condition when Handel lived there for 36 years until his death.
To get details of the building and fabrics right, the restorers worked from Handel's
will, an inventory of his house after his death and other houses in Brook Street
built at the same time, 1717-26.
Beginning Thursday, visitors can wander through the main rooms of his house, which
are quite small, and see where he composed operas, oratorios, concertos, the coronation
anthems and music for the royal fireworks.
They can see Handel's bedroom, paintings, prints and memorabilia associated with him
and his friends and more in the house next door, No. 23, where Jimi Hendrix lived in
1968-69. The Handel House Trust also acquired it for exhibition space and educational activities.
``It's taken a long time, this museum, but it's been done at last,'' said Jacqueline Riding,
the museum director. ``It honors Handel and will promote knowledge of his contribution to
British and international cultural life. We will have students and musicians rehearsing
and practicing his music.''
Riding described the house as ``very middle class, a classic example of the building of a
speculative developer. It has a simple interior and is a real bachelor pad.''
To celebrate the relationships and diversity between Handel and Hendrix, one of the museum's
first educational ventures is a composition project for schools in Hackney, a deprived inner London district.
Handel was born in Halle, Germany, in 1685, and there is a large museum dedicated to him on
the site of his birthplace. He settled in London in 1711, moving to Brook Street in 1723 at
age 38. He remained there, unmarried, until his death at age 74 in 1759.
Handel's House Now A Museum
http://gfhandel.org/handelhouse
Universal, Motown & The R & B Foundation
Financial Assistance For Artists
The Universal Music Group, the world's largest music company, Tuesday said it donated $2 million
to the R&B Foundation to establish the Motown/Universal Music Group Fund.
The fund will provide financial assistance for health, welfare and medical purposes for R&B
recording artists or surviving spouses formerly affiliated with Universal or any of its
labels in the form of monetary grants
Universal, a unit of Vivendi Universal, established the fund two days prior to the R&B
Foundation's annual Pioneer Awards ceremony in New York Thursday.
``This extraordinary endowment gift will enable the foundation to continue for a long time
its funding of financial assistance programs for needy R&B and Motown artists of the '40s,
'50s, '60s and '70s,'' said Jerry Butler, chairman of the R&B Foundation's board of directors.
The Motown/Universal Music Group Fund & The R & B Foundation
Disney News
Buh-Bye 'Mr. Showbiz'
The Walt Disney Co. has laid off more staff at its Internet operations and shuttered
entertainment Web site Mr. Showbiz, as planned, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.
The job cuts come as Disney continues to restructure its Web unit after announcing
last January that it would shutter its Go.com Internet Portal and slash 400 jobs.
The Disney spokeswoman would not say exactly how many jobs were cut as a result of the
latest move, which affected staff at the Disney Internet Group and the ABCNews.com Web site.
Message boards on the Web put the number of jobs cut at ABCNews.com at 26, and Disney
Internet Group at 125 .
Disney said the layoffs were part of ongoing efforts to restructure its Web operations.
The ABCnews.com jobs were trimmed because that site has more tightly integrated itself
with overall ABC news operations, the spokeswoman said.
Disney had previously said it would shutter the Mr. Showbiz site, which was one of the
Web's earliest providers of entertainment and celebrity news and information.
On Tuesday, the site had a message thanking users and saying ``After six years ... Mr.
Showbiz has retired.'' Users are now linked to ABCNews.com.
Disney, which was one of the biggest Web players early on, has had a difficult time,
like many media companies, figuring out how to make money off the Web. Disney early
on had acquired search engine Infoseek and attempted to transform it into its own
search portal, called the Go Network.
When that failed, it tried to restructure the portal, Go.com, to focus on entertainment,
lifestyle and leisure topics, but that also failed.
Disney shuttered Go.com in January and shifted its focus to individual Web sites for its
various divisions, such as ABC.com for the broadcast television network, ESPN.com for the
cable TV network, and Disney.com for the overall company.
More Disney Lay-Offs & Closures
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Still Really Like This One....
"Boondocks" (9 Oct 01)
Gonna let it ride for awhile.
Still MISSING
Marc Chagall's "Study for 'Over Vitebsk'"
