Warm-Up

(NOTE - repost. something funky was happening with the video)

After thundering through long form writing for a few weeks, I found I ... well rewired is the wrong word, but it was incredibly difficult to think in blog post length again. Transitioning from "this has got to be perfect and fit the exact meta-structure and pacing ..." back to what Warren here calls "Burst Culture" proved to be difficult. There are definitely different mental muscles at work. I wonder how he dealt with it while working on his novel and pilot?

I begin to understand why some longform writers or journalists have a genuinely hard time respecting or liking blogs -- there's a moment when the release of intent feels fundamentally wrong. Even sentence and paragraph length, the silent metronome of personal style, changes.

This was compounded by an eerie emotional quiescence I experienced during my first weeks in Canada. I caught myself thinking: "Is this apathy ... or is this just what being relaxed actually feels like?" I just wasn't so angry. But anger, of course is part of what fuels the typing.

Lovely Wife developed an excellent theory. The coffee at Tim Horton's, Canada's ubiquitous coffee chain, is heavily drugged. Canada would be a non-stop raging 28 Days Later apocalypse if not for the fact we're kept sedated. She's working on the screenplay now.

Two days back in LA though, and I find the cobwebs shaking off. You know you're in LA when you stop your car in the middle of traffic to let jaywalkers cross, and the bastards SLOW DOWN to a STROLL, now that they're not in danger. Attempting to capture the spirit of a city in a single image is folly, but LA does its level best to help you: "Look, John, a young mother pushing her stroller ... while wearing short-shorts and black high heels. Welcome back."

In the spirit of such cultural anthropology, I present the following video of a videocamera perched on a conveyor belt at a Tokyo sushi place. Thanks to BeaucoupKevin for the link. Why? Because it brings me a bit of joy, and that may be what blog-length is for -- transmitting bursts of thought rather than full ideas, but those bursts still have the rough edges of raw passion. Your mistakes are your style, I once had an old writer say to me. Blogs are where we can throw down some of the filters and gift more of our mistakes to strangers.

Normal transmissions now resuming.