I'm currently sick. It started out as allergic reactions earlier today, but has progressed into a full-blown cold. Phlegm everywhere, people. Please stand back.

Yesterday, through my new job, I helped with our annual Distinguished Lecture Series. Dr. Howard Frumkin talked about the environmental and public health aspects of urban sprawl to an audience of fifty people, showing how it has led to respiratory and cardiac problems, road rage, loss of community, obesity, and toxic levels of pollution. It was a fascinating lecture; Frumkin was witty, concise, interesting, and funny. I'm glad I got to sit in.

Last night after dinner, Janet and I headed to the Cup O'Joe near campus. She brought a book to read, and I wrote in one of my moleskine notebooks, putting down about six pages (I'm not sure what that is in word count) worth of a new story. It's number four on this list, a fast paced tale about a modern day Mercutio, linking him to the Trickster archetype. It has a very Dave Eggers feel so far (which isn't suprising, seeing as I'm reading You Shall Know Our Velocity right now), which is different from what I'm used to. It's fun experiementing with a new style. And just because I can, here's an excerpt from the beginning:

Sometimes I'll be driving the Z3 on the highway and will imagine my brakes cut, unexpectedly, unexplainably. And the gas pedal will get stuck, maybe with superglue, like in that Blues Brothers movie, and the speed, the odometer keeps rising, past ninety, one-twenty, one-seventy, and the cars I'm racing past are just blurs, streaks of color which barely register before they're gone, and the fluid for the steering wheel has evaporated and I'm careening now, careering across lanes, across the median, and I'm heading straight for an 18-wheeler, knowing when I hit that there'll be nothing left of me to identify, no fingerprints, no teeth, just a liquefied mass that used to be a person, knowing all this but completely helpless, unable to do anything about—

But of course none of that happens. It's a fantasy. When you're immortal, all you can think about is death.

Not bad, eh?

This afternoon was spent over in Carrboro with the always fascinating company of Jamie and Steffi. We ate lunch at this wonderful hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant (which Jamie recently blogged about, but I'm too lazy from the sickness to revisit his archives), where the burritos were piping hot and bigger than my head. Needless to say, all four of us packed up half of our lunches today in the provided styrofoam boxes. Big damn burritos. Then we drove around to a triptych of antique stores, browsing and wandering. I didn't last long, with the years of built-in dust inherent in those places. We didn't find any antiques, but Janet and I found two books that cost, in total, two whole dollars.

We came back to Jamie and Steffi's place and sat around for a while talking and drinking basil tea (like iced tea but made with basil leaves and seeds instead of tea leaves). We walked around the apt complex looking at people's gardens and paying a visit to two little kittens that seemed to be the hit of the complex. We talked about literature, politics, knitting, photography, mat-cutting, and movies. Very fun time, as usual. I wish we could get together with them on a more regular basis.

***

Link time:

Lydia Davis interview, where she talks about the fantastic in mainstream literature.

Jonathan Carroll's WP review of José Saramago's The Double, in which he rails at literary writers who think that fantastic elements and exciting plots are beneath them.

Jon Stewart's recent appearance on Crossfire, where he calls the co-hosts "partisan hacks" and illustrates all the reasons how their style (and much of cable-news media) of political reportage is hurting this country.

Audio of Wil Wheaton's performance at Gnomedex 4.0, in which he reads portions of his books Dancing Barefoot and Just a Geek, and shows the world how unbelievably cool and geeky he is.

Janet's cousin Jon's updated website, where he proves just what a virtuoso he is behind the camera. I so wish we'd gotten him to photograph our wedding instead of the folks we used.

Now Reading:
You Shall Know Our Velocity by Dave Eggers

Stories Out to Publishers:
10

Books Read This Year:
56

Zines/Graphic Novels/Fiction Mags Read This Year:
30