Remember "sovereignty"?

Ah, those were the days.

Please read this essay by an American Muslim of Pakistani origin. For those of you who haven't been keeping up, the Pakistani army was recently issued orders to fire upon American soldiers who cross into Pakistan. This followed many raids, bombings, missile strikes etc inside Pakistan's territory, which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Pakistani civilians. One of the latest killed something like 50 villagers, none of whom were, um, terrorists.

This little bit of brilliance puts it all in perspective.

http://crossingthecrescent.com/?p=117

On the other hand, who cares? It's just more "collateral damage" in the "war on terror"...

My favorite place on Earth

The island of Maui is made of two ancient volcanies that rose up out of the sea and more or less melted into one another. The bigger of these volcanoes is Haleakala, which means "House of the sun." It is, without question, the most breathtaking place I've ever walked through. I thought this in 1995, when Uzee and I first hiked there, and I thought this again last month, when we revisted the place.

These pictures are laughable in their attempt to convey Haleakala's scale and sheer otherworldly weirdness. This is the only volcano crater I've ever been in, and the colors, the erosion and the size of it all--it's I think twelve miles down to the bottom--are just staggering.

When I die, I would like my ashes scattered here.

Yes, I still exist.

Hello. On the off chance that you visited this blog sometime in the past five weeks--sorry, I haven't been around much. No excuses, except that I've relocated to Hawaii for the time being, and that pretty much monopolized my attention. The good news is that I'm somewhat settled in now, so maybe I can maintain this blog somewhat more regularly. Maybe...

Some heartening news

Sea turtles are coming back to Hawaii.

In 1995, Uzee and I went to Maui for a week, snorkeled 3 or 4 days and saw tons of fish, squid, coral... but no turtles. I had seen them the previous year in the Caribbean, but the word was that they had largely disappeared from Hawaii due to hunting. In the '80s, they were still being served at restaurants (ugh) and were severely overhunted and depleted. But then they were put on the protected species list, though by the mid-'90s, as I say, I still wasn't seeing any.

Cut to 2008, and Uzee and I have been back in Maui for a week, snorkeling almost every day, and have seen sea turtles on three separate occasions. In fact I've seen turtles more often than not, which is a rather boggling concept to try to comprehend. This morning I went out at about 8am and saw no fewer than four within an hour. A foot-long baby, a couple mid-size models and one monster that I would guess at about four feet long. Pretty darn impressive...

The nice folks at the info station on the beach confirmed what my eyes were telling me: that yes, the turtles are making a comeback in the islands, and over the past several years their numbers have been steadily increasing. Or as the guy put it, "Go out at seven in the morning you'll see six, eight, ten of them out there. There's more every year." This is the best news I've heard in some time.

Definitely time to get an underwater camera, I think. (I wish I could claim credit for these photos, but no, they're just snatched off the net, from letsgohawaii.com. Sorry. I did, however, see the very thing pictured here: a big ol' turtle ascending to the surface to grab a gulp of air before descending again. It's fun to pop up out of the water at the same time s/he does to catch a glimpse of the face in the sunlight.)

These are, I believe, Hawaiian Green Sea Turtles, for you classification fiends out there.

Much franticness occurring in my life just now.

It's been a fine fine few months here in western Mass., but the time has come to shuffle along. Next week sees Uzee and myself relocating to scenic yet perversely expensive Hawaii for a period of several months in our ongoing "circle the globe" tour. I'm fairly excited about it, as I think anyone would be, especially since swimming in the ocean and snorkeling are easily on my list of 5 favorite things to do. Some mild anxiety accompanies the move, in terms of "Will I be focused enough to continue writing books while living in such a beautiful place?" Only one way to find out, I guess. Wish me luck.

The annual miracle

Here's what's growing on my back porch at the moment.

I've had mixed success with growing vegetables over the years, but these tomatoes look like they're coming along nicely. Of course, I may never taste them, since Uzee and I are relocating once again and leaving the continental US, in which case my mom will inherit them. But whatever. It still amazes me that you can stick a plant in the ground, and wait a few weeks, and have food. Okay so I'm easily amazed. What can I tell you.

Ramblings

Hello, it's Monday, nothing much happening. I will be going to the library later to work on the new book. Aren't you glad you know that?

1. Went to Provincetown Mass recently and had a terrific time. May I recommend the Somerset House Inn if you're heading that way anytime soon.

2. Hillary dropped out of the presidential race, which is okay, leaving Obama (motto: "Let's bomb Pakistan!") to fight it out with McCain (motto: "Let's bomb everybody!") Excuse me if I'm not terribly excited about the election this year. Yes, we must elect Obama, but I wish he was a trifle less bloodthirsty regarding the country in which I live and about which he knows nothing.

3. David Cook won American Idol. How do I know this? Lord knows. I believe it happened while I was in Provincetown, however. (For the record, I was rooting for Syesha.)

4. Uzee and I recently watched Chinatown for the first time. Great movie. We may be going through a vintage-Jack-Nicholson phase; Five Easy Pieces is sitting on top of the TV.

5. Celtics are in the process of hosing the LA LAkers, currently ahead by 2-0 in the finals. Now I don't care a great deal for basketball, but I'm enough of a local boy to like it when the New England teams win. Tomorrow they play in LA and, hopefully, extend the streak. Go Leon Bowe!

PLEASE TAKE THE POLL AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE!

Bettye ROCKS

Okay, somehow a week has slipped by since Uzee and I drove down to Long Island to hear Bettye LaVette. (Where exactly does the time go? Please let me know when you figure it out.) Anyway, that concert was, if not the greatest I ever heard, at least one of the three greatest I ever heard. And I've been to a lot of concerts.

For the record, the other two standouts that leap to mind are

Jane's Addiction, Tucson, AZ, 1989 (following the release of Nothing's Shocking); and

Baaba Maal, Rabat, Morocco, 1996 (in an outdoor arena that his big voice completely filled).

Honorable mentions include Koko Taylor in a jammed club in Tucson; Lucinda Williams, ditto; and The Tragically Hip, ditto again. These were all in the early '90s, which is when I went to the bulk of my concerts. The Black Keys were also great, last month in Boston, as I mentioned in an earlier posting.

But Bettye... oh man that woman can rock. She also came out to the lobby after the show (in a tiny theatre, 400-odd seats) and signed CDs and called everybody "honey" and was generally adorable.

Here's another clip from YouTube, just because I can't resist, from a TV appearance a few weeks back.

Current musical obsessions

A couple weeks ago, Uzee and I slipped into Boston for a night to catch The Black Keys, a 2-piece blues/rock duo out of Akron, Ohio. I'm not ashamed to say that these people are probably my current favorite band, even if I discovered them late. I downloaded a couple songs off of download.com a couple years ago, but never saw their records in Lahore--now that I'm temporarily in Mass., I've picked up just about their whole catalog. But in concert is where they truly rock the free world, as this clip perhaps demonstrates:

That clip wasn't one I took, but it does get the idea of the show (at the Orpheum, May 17 2008) across pretty well.


Tomorrow, we're heading down to Long Island--a place I've never been to--to see the one & only Bettye LaVette, a soul singer from the '60s who's undergone a real revival over the past few years, since she's started releasing records on the intriguing Anti- label. She can holler with the best of them, and in my admitted valueless opinion she blows the competition out of the water (including the revered Aretha, who really hasn't been doing much of interest for the the past, oh, 3o years). But don't take my word for it...




Bettye was born in 1946, which means she's 62 now... I can only hope I rock half as much when I'm her age.

Comic Books

After mentioning David Hajdu's book The Ten-Cent Scare last time, I thought I would briefly discuss some comics that I'm reading these days.

I've read comic books since seventh grade, which is what, 32 or 33 years ago. I read them through high school, Marvels mainly, then stopped in college when I became (ahem) serious, then picked up again in my late twenties (around 1990) and kept up for about five years. When I left for Morocco in 1995, I stopped, and only started again recently, as I'm in Massachusetts for a few months with a couple good shops nearby.

But man--stuff has changed since Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth (Jack Kirby's Planet of the Apes riff, with talking tigers, rats and seafood as well as monkeys) or even Frank Miller's Daredevil. When I left the country, Image was the hottest publisher going, with Spawn and Savage Dragon selling in big numbers (essentially, these were superhero books with a "dark" edge and/or some supernatural content to lend them an air of gritty seriousness). Make no mistake, there are still piles of superhero comics out there, but there's loads of other stuff too. The market has fragmented hugely, much like TV. Instead of three channels plus PBS, these days there are now hundreds of cable options, and in the same way, instead of Marvel and DC and a few undergrounds, there are now loads of small, independent publishers putting out quirky books. This is, I think, great, although I wonder if there are still one or two huge titles out there that everyone reads, more or less. Probably not, just as there's no longer a TV show like MASH or The Mary Tyler Moore Show that everyone watches, more or less. (I read somewhere that the only sitcom I watch, The Office, draws something like 9 million viewers. In the 70s, this would have gotten it cancelled; today, it's in its fourth season as a huge hit.)

But, comic books.

WASTELAND is an ongoing series written by Antony Johnson and drawn by Christopher J. Mitten. It's currently at issue 16 or thereabouts. As soon as I figure out what the hell's going on, I'll let you know. We are, apparently, about 100 years after some huge cataclysm called "The Big Wet," which destroyed civilization and left everything, paradoxically, a desert. A group of people abandon their town Providens and make their way to Newbegin, a fabled city somewhere to the west. There are zombie-like ghouls out there, and mysterious wanderers called Ruin Runners who live off the land, salvaging trinkets to barter at the towns, and a group of priests--mutants maybe?--who have their own elaborate set of rituals and theology. You'll notice I've barely mentioned the story, partly because it's extremely intricate. The folks from Providens eventually make it to Newbegin, where various disasters ensue. Adding interest is the narrative strategy of concurrently telling different threads of the story from different times. This is what baffled me for a while; you'd see people X and Y doing something in Newbegin; then turn the page and there would be X talking to Z in Providens. A nifty way to restructure time and present a narrative in a nonlinear mode. But I wasn't ready for it; geez man, it's a fucking comic book.

The art is good, sometimes very good, and getting better. It's a black and white book.

NORTHLANDERS, written by Brian Wood and drawn by Davide Gianfelice, is a much more traditional book from a more traditional copany (DC/Vertigo). It's set a thousand years ago, and it's about this guy Sven who returns to his Viking home in the Orkneys or thereabouts to claim his heritage (his Dad used to run the place, now he's dead, evil uncle has stepped in, shades of Hamlet). We're 5 issues in and there's already been plenty of swordfights, moody landscapes and (gasp!) sex, and we're starting to get the lowdown on Sven's background, why he left home all those years ago and why he's come back now. There's a shape-changing witch, if I'm not mistaken, and various dark secrets from the past. It's lightweight stuff compared to Wasteland but it's a quick read with great full-color art (muted tones that well serve the twilight-y environs) and a certain endearing earnestness to it all.

PAX ROMANA, written and drawn by Jonathan Hickman, is my favorite book out there right now, maybe ever. There are only 2 issues out so run out right now and buy them. Talk about a premise: 50 years from now, the Catholic Church is in deep trouble, faced with dwindling congregations and competition from atheism and Islam. So the church does what any self-respecting religious organization would do: it invents a time machine and sends a platoon of genetically-altered Marines (good Catholics all of them) to A.D. 300, in time to prevent the split of the Holy Roman Empire, and then hang around the next several hundred years, specifically to knock off Mohammad before he can gain political influence. Any other unforeseen developments threatening to challenge the primacy of the Church are also open to intervention. Sadly for the holy fathers, the Marines sent back in time have a slightly... heterodox understanding of their mission. Once successfully transported back (with a certain amount of materiel) they do indee prevent the Empire's split. However, after that, things very quickly go to shit.

Hickman is a very text-dense writer; there's always plenty of conversation in his books, most of it well done; sometimes entire pages are devoted to type. It can taken an hour to read one of his books, a rarity these days. The artwork is killer too, and rewards lingering. If there's one book out there that demonstrates the potential of the form, as well as potential lived up to, this is it. He has another book called TRANSHUMAN, about genetic modification of human beings, which is lively too, though not quite as bleedin' warped.

Have fun, kids.

The thing about having a blog...

...is that there's a certain pressure to keep maintaining it, even if you don't have that much to say. Such is the situation in which I now find myself. I think maybe some people kepe blogs because they really really like to talk, chatter, spred the word on various things they care about, and so on; the blog is their forum, in a way. That's not really the case for me: I write all day long, more or less, so don't feel like I need a forum in which to write. The other thing is, the day-to-day life of a writer really isn't all that fascinating; you go somewhere quiet, sit around for most of the day writing stuff out in notebooks or on a computer, look at it again, write it over, type it up, write it over, set it aside, look at it later, write it over. I'm not complaining, by any stretch, just trying to explain why the lags between blog entries seems to be getting longer...

So anyway, that's what I've been doing--various projects which are now in various states of semi-done-ness, or barely-started-ness, or spilled-out-in-a-rush-ness. But there's not much I can really talk about yet, which maybe gives the impression that I'm not doing a great deal... when actually I'm doing about five things at once. Oh well.

Current read: The Ten-Cent Plague by David Hajdu. A history of early comic books, from the appearance in the early 1900s through the 1950s, when they came under increasing attack from various quarters, notably the Catholic Church and opportunistic politicians who wanted to be seen as enacting meaningful legislation agsinst social ills (juvenile delinquency paramount among them) without actually having to experience any of the side effects themselves--because none of them read comic books. It's an interesting window into 1950s America in all its McCarthyesque myopia, and the descriptions of book-burnings, orchestrated by numerous Catholic schools and presided over by the nuns, are quite chilling. (Contemporary commentators pointed out that the Nazis had orchestrated similar events 10 or 20 years earlier.) All in all it's a lively, readable book, appealing I think to anyone with any interest in this art form.

Been a while...

As my mom reminded me yesterday, it's been a while since I updated this blog. There's been plenty going on though, so allow me to update.

First, thanks to everyone who came out to Border's in Farmington on April 20. There were maybe 15 people there who came to pepper me with tough questions ("So... why was it backwards, anyway?") and I had a good time answering them. I had an even better time not reading from any of my books; reading is okay but I'd rather just have a conversation, which is what I did. People asked about movie and TV sceenwriting (which I haven't done, yet) and about my thoughts on the current state of the publishing industry... I met a gentleman who is keen to start a writing career, and another who is getting back to one he set aside in order to make some movies. Perhaps most bizarrely of all, I met a police officer named DAVID MAINE, who said he gets pages of results for me, every time he googles himself. He was kind enough to set his annoyance at this aside (I'm joking) and asked me to sign one of my books, which I did: "For the real David Maine..."

The following weekend I was in Newburyport, Mass., reading this time to a group of about 40 people who also asked interesting questions. Then I went over to listen to a cheery woman named Lauren Weinstein talk about how she makes comic books, which we're all calling "graphic novels" these days, but which are actually comic books. She's very bubbly and great fun to listen to, and her stuff is unique (take a look at Girl Stories on Amazon). In between my own reading and Lauren'd talk I met an old roommate from Oberlin College--yes, that reunion-23-years-later thing, with the formerly D'Artagnan-haired but now quite respectable-looking Eric. It was nice to see him, and to meet his partner Kim, and to sit around discussing screenplay ideas (he has a great one) and 9/11 conspiracy theories. He also inspired me to go home and put in some time on my own screenplay idea, which I've been doing since then, so thanks, Eric.

So at this point, there are no further publicity events on my horizon. This could change, so stay tuned. This could also change if someone reading this contacts me and requests an appearance somewhere... It's not guaranteed, but it's possible, especially for a festival-type event. So don't be shy.

In other news, it was 88 degrees in western Massachusetts a couple weeks ago. Yesterday it was 48. I don't know if this is global warming, or just global weirdness.

My hometown (almost) newspaper decides it loves me after all

A few years ago, when my first book The Preservationist was published, it received some very nice reviews from several unexpected quarters, including Time magazine, the Washington Post, the NY Times, and others. One place which did not give it a nice review was The Hartford Courant, the paper I grew up reading, which said, in essence, "This book blows dead bears." (I'm paraphrasing here.) Ever since, the Courant has kept its distance from my other books, which was believe me just fine as far as I was concerned...

...Until their very kind review of Monster, 1959, which I mentioned a couple of days ago. Now the paper has followed up with a brief interview of me, complete with photo. Here's the link:

http://www.courant.com/features/booksmags/hc-oneonone0417.artapr17,0,3987623.story

They were kind enough to mention the event at Border's bookstore in Farmington, next to Westfarms Mall, which is happening Sunday (April 20) from 2:00 to 3:00. Be sure to swing by if you are so inclined: I'll be happy to sign books and answer any questions you might be able to dream up. And even if you can't make it, but an extra copy or two of the Courant. They've earned it, heh.

Pressure Drop, Monkey Man, Time Tough, 54-46 Was My Number, etc.

So the other night Uzee and I went out to hear Toots and the Maytals, one of the best reggae bands of all time. Toots in fact was the guy who coined the term "reggay" in his song "Do the Reggay" from, I think, 1962 or thereabouts. As it happened, that was the first song he sang in concert, along with a pile of great songs, including many from Funky Kingston, which gets Dave's rating at The Greatest Reggae Album of All Time and If You Thought It Would be Something by Marley, You Just Haven't Been Paying Attention. He played "Time Tough," "Pomps and Pride," "Take Me Home Country Road" (yes the John Denver Song), "Pressure Drop," and "Love Is Gonna Bring Me Down"--that's half the album right there. Other highlights included "Monkey Man," "Reggae Got Soul," and a blistering hot "Hallelujah" to end the show. Plus some long groove thing called, I think, "Roots Rock Reggae," though I don't know if that's the name of the song or just all the words he could remember at the moment, as he repeated them over and over for about ten minutes. Plus a couple new songs from the album last year but you know, none of us went for that.

To get an idea of what you missed (unless you were there and didn't bother saying hi), here's a 90-second clip of "Monkey Man" taken by one other than myself. I like to call it "Dave's Earthquake-Cam." Pop a Dramamine and enjoy.

The sound quality maybe isn't so hot. What can I say, I used this tiny little digital thing. And in case you're wondering, I am definitely NOT the guy who jumps up on stage and, um, "dances" along with Toots. I've got nerve, but not that kind of nerve.

O.K.!

The fine folks at The Oklahoman newspaper have some very nice things to say about Monster, 1959. Thanks, guys.

http://newsok.com/article/3228317/1207959226

I should mention that I was in Oklahoma City for a couple of days back in, oh, 1995 I guess it was. Nice little town. I seem to recall a park with a rose garden. Or was that Austin? Oh hell, it was a long time ago... I know for sure there was a museum with lots of cowboy sculptures. Who's that guy, Remington, who does them all? Lassos and bucking broncs. The kind of stuff you see lots of in Connecticut. Or Pakistan for that matter.

Yes, I'm a sucker for this kind of stuff...

...Namely, the Magic Wings butterfly farm and semi-tropical greenhouse, up in Deerfield, Mass. What can I tell you. Uzee and I went up there last week, Thursday being a remarkably warm and sunny day, and passed a mightily pleasant couple of hours with our winged pals. Life is too short not to enjoy creatures as exquisitely beautiful as these, I think.

Newburyport update

The Newburyport Literary Festival 2008 in Newburyport, Massachusetts (in the northeast of the state, near New Hampshire and the shore) has posted its schedule on this page:

http://www.newburyportliteraryfestival.org/html/schedule_of_events.htm

I'll be reading at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, the 26th of April, at the Newburyport Public Library. Where is this, you ask? I have no idea, but how tough can it be? Don't answer that question. I'll be reading from Monster, 1959 but there will be an extensive, I hope, Q+A and of course I'll be happy to take questions about any of my books (or anybody else's books, for that matter). Plus I'll sign stuff if people would like. At first I was like, "Ten in the morning, yeah right, I can just picture the mob we'll have." But looking over the schedule, it seems like there's stuff going on all day, beginning at 8:00 a.m. (oy) and continuing through till evening. So maybe we will have a decent early-rising crowd after all, and hopefully you will be a part of it.

In case a weekend in eastern Massachusetts is not part of your immediate future, I will also be appearing at the Border's Bookstore in Farmington, Connecticut on Sunday, April 20 at 2:00 p.m. This is the Border's next to Westfarms Mall, and it follows a very nice review in the Hartford Courant (see previous post) so let's hope some people turn up for that one too. An interview in the Courant is in the works for the Thursday before.

And if anyone reads Publishers Weekly, this week's issue contains a review I wrote of Tim Winton's Breath. Winton is an Australian writer who has never broken very big in the US, but I liked this book pretty well.

ONLY 200 DAYS LEFT TO TAKE THE POLL AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE!

Hartford Courant raves; NYTBR is less convinced

Here's a link to the wildly positive review of Monster, 1959 that appears in today's Hartford Courant:

http://www.courant.com/features/booksmags/hc-monster0406.artapr06,0,6605604.story

And another one to the more reserved New York Times Book Review:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/books/review/Emmons-t.html?ref=todayspaper

Don't worry, Doctor, it's just my creative prolepsis flaring up again

So there's this guy out there named Kyle, I think he's a student, and he keeps a blog in which he apparently posts his college papers. And what do you know, he's written a paper about the two Samsons, mine and Milton's. What a riot. He says things like

"Maine’s creative prolepsis of Samson’s thoughts before destroying the temple begins, like Milton’s, with an important simile"

Well sure! Doesn't everybody's? He also says this:

"Rather than emotionally driven, Maine presents Samson as a logical person attempting to deduce the will of God through reason"

Which is, to say the least, a surprise to me...

But I shouldn't make fun of it--the guy's put some thought into my book, which I appreciate, and what the hell, I've been compared to worse people than Milton. (Although I guess he was sort of a shithead, if I'm remembering my Junior-year Milton class right. Didn't he treat his daughters like dirt?) And anyway this kind of writing puts my own academic career to shame--my college papers sounded like, "I really like Anne Sexton's poems I think they're really really good."

Anyway if you're interested, here's where you can read what the kids are saying about Dave Maine these days:

http://www.kylebrekke.com/wordpress/2008/john-miltons-samson-agonistes-vs-david-maines-the-book-of-samson-relativity-of-legitimacy/

And if you're feeling nice you can even leave a comment. But no nasty ones, okay? I can't afford to alienate my, ahem, academic fan base.

DON'T FORGET TO VOTE IN THE POLL AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE!

BUDDY GUY rules. But, you knew that already, right?

In case you never heard of him, Buddy Guy is the greatest guitar player alive right now, and probably has been for a while. Uzee and I has the chance to see him play on Saturday night, and man, he was great.

Buddy's 72 years old and has been playing since the '50s, so he has, as they say, chops. For my money, his records Stone Crazy!, Damn Right I've Got the Blues, Feels Like Rain, Slippin' In, Heavy Love and Sweet Tea are some of the best records--not just blues records--ever made. He played for about an hour and a half on Saturday night, not a very long show, but what the hell, he's a senior citizen.

He also rocked. He played any number of great songs, like "Fever," "Love Her With a Feeling" and "Drowning on Dry Land," and ended with a somewhat sloppy version of one of his prettiest songs, "Feels Like Rain" that led into Ray Charles' "What'd I Say." In between he jammed on long guitar solos and played around with his keyboard player his other guitarist and even brought some child prodigy onstage for about fifteen minutes. Oh and he sings amazingly too. Halfway through "Drowning on Dry Land," he walked off the stage and up the aisle--singing and playing the whole time--stopping to flirt with the women, then walked out of the auditorium and upstairs into the balcony, where he kept it all going. They went, needless to say, nuts.

In case you need more convincing, check out some of his pages at Amazon and listen to some clips:

http://www.amazon.com/Damn-Right-Ive-Got-Blues/dp/B0007VBF24/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1206966195&sr=8-3

Rock on, Buddy! Here's hoping you play another 50 years...