Kanye West « Salvatore Pane

AWP 2012 Aftermath

In no particular order, I give you my 2012 AWP highlights:

1. I read at the Beauty Bar for Mud Luscious, PANK, and Annalemma. The venue itself was really neat. You could get manicures and they had seasonal beers for three dollars. I read this new flash fiction piece I’d just finished called “I am Ronald Reagan: The Game” and it seemed to go over really well with the crowd. But being the clumsy jamoke I am, I hit my head on a low-hanging ceiling on the way to the stage. I mean really clocked it. And by the time I finished reading I’d totally forgotten hitting my head in the first place and slammed the thing twice as hard right between the eyes. I staggered down into the back room where all the readers where hanging out and there was all this blood coming out of my forehead. Yes. I injured myself reading.

In the closet-sized bathroom, I wadded up some paper towels and tried to stop the bleeding. There was only one stall and inside were Ben Tanzer and Ryan Bradley doing a literary podcast. I was stuck back there for pretty much the second half of the reading. Matt Bell came by and assured me I didn’t have a concussion or need stitches, and I shook Scott McClanahan’s hand while simultaneously holding bloody paper towels to my head. The best part was when Chad Redden came in and told me he’d read the chapbook I submitted to NAP Magazine and wanted to publish it. So if you listen to Ben and Ryan’s podcast and hear some lunatic shouting with joy in the background that’s bloody face me. I’m beyond excited about the chapbook! It’s called #KanyeWestSavedFromDrowning and it should be out late 2012.

2. I was very lucky to be included on a panel called “Vampire by Vampire: Genre Writing in the Creative Writing Workshop” with Jeff Condran, Alissa Nutting, BJ Hollars, and Elizabeth Weber. It went so much better than I ever even hoped for, and I was really moved when two current undergrads said they’d been so discouraged by their own universities for producing strange fiction that they weren’t even sure if they wanted to be writers anymore. Also, I explained the speeder bike level of Battletoads to the crowd, and then BJ told us about one of my favorite movies, The Wizard. I hope this starts a trend of more Battletoads references in AWP pedagogical panels.

3. At the Stymie reading, I finally met my boy Mark Cugini who came up to me and yelled, “Internet Friends!” We shared a cab with some folks to Literature Party and talked about fantasy football and Ms. Pacman which, if you know me, covers nearly all of my interests.

4. I ate Chicago style pizza with Geoff Peck, Dave Keaton, and Amy Lueck and Dave kept calling it a “Pizza Cake”.

5. The WPA in the 21st Century Panel with Geoff and Cathy Day.

6. While in line to register at the hotel, I saw Mike Meginnis and his wife Tracy a few people in front of me. We’d never met in real life, so I yelled, “Mike!” really loud and then tried to make it seem like I didn’t yell “Mike!” so if it wasn’t him I wouldn’t look weird. It was Mike. He recognized me because I was wearing a tie which is what many, many people told me throughout the conference.

7. I went to the top of the Sears Tower with Katie Coyle and Kevin Tassini and I basically spent the entire time complaining that they had all this shit about overrated Michael Jordan and nothing about Kanye West. We then dragged Katie about a half hour away so I could buy a handful of retro games including Dragon Quest I & II, Dragon Quest V, and Dragon Quest VI for the Super Famicom.

8. Oliu got a manicure at Beauty Bar.

9. I was drinking at the hotel bar with Peck, Lauren Becker, and Erin Fitzgerald when this dude came over to us and invited us up into his room for free wine. We went and met a bunch of really nice poets. Nobody lost a kidney which was a serious concern of mine.

10. I stepped off the plane and a writer gave me her card even before I made it to the subway.

11. Dancing with xTx, Roxane Gay, Ashley Ford, and a host of other people at Literature Party to “‘Mo Money, ‘Mo Problems” or as I call it, the greatest song ever conceived by humans.

12. I was able to grab a drink with the two other creative writing faculty members at the University of Indianapolis where I’ll be a TENURE TRACK ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH CREATIVE WRITING this coming fall! Pedagogy Level Up!

13. On the last night, me and Peck were closing down the hotel bar when this woman came over and basically advised us on every aspect of our lives. I’m talking some serious Yoda shit.

14. Steve Kowalski reading “When the Browns Win the Super Bowl” and it being as good as the time he read it in Cleveland.

15. Drunkenly rambling with Paul Morris about Nextwave, DC’s new 52, The Authority, and a host of other nerdy comic awesomeness.

16. Tim Kinsella is the Tim Kinsella from Cap’n Jazz.

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September 27, 2011

I AM LIVE TWEETING EVERYTHING

Hey, guys. My life is pretty taxing right now. Remember last October when I posted about not having time to do anything because of teaching a 3/3? THAT SHIT IS HAPPENING AGAIN! And this time I’m writing stuff for HTMLGIANT (I got comic book and creative writing pedagogy posts appearing next month) and a One Note on Smalldoggies (it’s about my boy Grant Morrison’s Supergods) and an interview for Patasola Press and a review for The Rumpus. Also, I’m writing a second novel. Most of the time I just want to retreat home and monkishly work on the book which involves characters like Jimmy Hoffa the Battle Wombat and Mecha-Hitler and Dr. Wilhelm von Triumph and a scene where Davy Jones descends from Heaven as an angel. And because of all these responsibilities in tandem, something had to give. That something was the amount of time I had for this blog.

But fear not. Because I have decided that from now on, I’m going to live tweet EVERYTHING.

First up: sports. Guys. I am having a rough month. The Dolphins’ season is pretty much over and it’s not even October yet. The NBA is probably going to be locked out all year. And Pitt’s football team needs a lot of time to work out the kinks of Todd Graham’s “high octane” offense before limping off to the ACC. So what’s a guy to do?

WATCH LALA’S FULL COURT LIFE!

Let me educate you on this shit. Lala is Carmelo Anthony’s wife. ‘Melo is a recent addition to my one and only New York Knicks. Sure, my favorite of the current Knickerbockers (my boy, Amar’e Stoudemire) is spending the Lockout writing a YA series, but ‘Melo is starring in a reality show with his wife, former MTV VJ Lala. I’ve only seen one episode, but it involved Lala confronting Chauncey Billups’ wife in a scene that would not be out of place on Laguna Beach. This show comes on every Monday at 10. My official hashtag is #MamaThereGoesThatWoman. CATCH THE EXCITEMENT, KNICKS FANS!

Second thing I’m livetweeting: 2 Broke Girls! You guys see this shit? There’s a laugh track! And a horse living in Brooklyn! And racist stereotypes galore! I don’t exactly know what the deal is with CBS and why they’re still pumping out three camera sitcoms (like, is this for real for real?), but Kat Dennings is on the show. KAT “DID HE SAY MEOW MEOW” DENNINGS. This week’s installment involved “the girls” trying to get horseshit out of a white dress. BUT GUESS WHAT! The water had been turned off in a conveniently foreshadowed plot point! See you at #KatDenningsDeservesBetter.

Oh, you don’t like TV? NO PROBLEM. I’m covering all the hijinx of being a low level adjunct in the go-go world of 21st century academia! Curious how many times I reference Kanye West in class? Want to know how much time I spend wondering what it would be like if Lorrie Moore was my girlfriend? Think I listen to DJ Khaled on repeat while grading papers? Then find out on #proflife.

So join me, my friends. Let’s live tweet everything.

August 9, 2011

My Review of Watch the Throne

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June 9, 2011

Novel Playlist

As I mentioned here, I’m working on a new novel. It’s been maybe 7 or 8 weeks now, and there’s been some significant progress. I’m a quick drafter, and the majority of my work always comes in revision. And I’m extremely excited because this weekend I’m taking my first ever writing-related research trip. I’ll be returning to Washington, DC (I was there for AWP this past year where I initially began to form the idea that would become the book) to check out Georgetown and a few surrounding towns, Woodbridge, Arlington, and Canova mostly. Also, I’m heading down with my pal Robert and his sister, and we’re going to party with millionaires in a country club tomorrow night. So, you know, shit’s going to be hard.

One distressing element of working on a larger project is the way you have to kind of shut yourself off from the outside world. I’ve been pretty much a hermit which was mostly the case when I was drafting out Last Call in the City of Bridges two summers ago. I wake up early and write with three fans aimed squarely at my face. I try to go to bed early so as not to disturb that schedule. This weekend will be my first significant time away from the book since I started. One thing that’s been extremely helpful during this process is the music playlist I’ve been kind of unintentionally putting together. I don’t like to listen to music when I write. I’ve never been able to do it, and I don’t think I ever will. But when I get stuck, or before I begin while drinking coffee, I do like to listen to something that can put me in the head space of the book. So, that being said, below are some of the songs I’ve been listening to a ton while working the past two months or so.

One of the characters in the book is obsessed with the Monkees movie Head. Have you ever seen this movie? After their TV show was cancelled, the band made this anti-war, anti-consumerism movie with Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson. It’s incredibly bizarre, darting from one random set piece to another, very few of which make any sense. But the album is actually pretty good, and “Circle Sky” is one of my favorite, if not the favorite, Monkees songs. My mom used to play their records full blast when I was growing up. When I think of Americana, I think of the Monkees.

Ok. Are you ready to think I’m the lamest person of all time? I never heard this song until I saw the opening credits of Kevin Smith’s Clerks II in a movie theater all by myself in Ocean City, New Jersey. Yes. I know. I am the worst. But I still love this song and have since come to really enjoy the Talking Heads. “Nothing But Flowers” always puts me in this really positive, post-apocalyptic mood which is the kind of strange juxtaposition that I love.

I don’t claim to know much, if anything, about rap. But I really like Kid Cudi, and I really like this song. The electronic hum of the thing. The silly introspection. The earnest confusion about living well in the world. When I get really stuck or anxious, this one tempers me.

I’m really into Kanye West. This album and this track especially. The over-the-top choir and the lyrics pairing class mobility/longing with playful wordplay and absurd production values. This song sounds like it was recorded in the future and sent back to us from aliens. Whenever I’m trying to write something absurd and feel the tug and pull and no you can’t do that sentiment of my very rigid domestic realism background, I listen to this song.

Speaking of domestic drama… You want that shit? I sure do. BOOM! This song is so dark it’s kind of amusing. And I’m not just saying that because “No Children” was used to end a season of Moral Orel on Adult Swim. Unlike Talking Heads, I was listening to the Mountain Goats before all that. Anyway, if you’re looking to put yourself in the mood to write tense relationship drama, look no further than pretty much any MG album.

My second favorite song from Head. There’s just something about the tired lyrics combined with the upbeat sixties pop/rock that really gets to me. There’s something here right under the surface, although I’m not exactly sure what it is or if it’s positive or not. Good song regardless.

This is the favorite song of one of my characters. Because he is 90 years old. My friends know my secret fantasy is to become a turn of the century industrialist wearing a top hat and monocle while working my immigrant employees to the bone. This is as close as I can come.

My favorite parts of Head are the Davy Jones scenes. I’ve seen Davy perform live before, and I actually met him a few years back when he judged a film festival I was part of. He called my entry “the end of Western Civilization.” Anyway, what I like about his scenes in the movie is that it’s so clear he wants to just make a regular wacky Monkees episode and the other band members won’t let him. Look at how ridiculous this scene is! Cheesy earnestness run amok. So amazing. Whenever I’m trying to get at a really dense but well-intentioned character, I play this.

I’m always writing about death.

This is my all-time favorite video game song from one of my all time favorite video games. Like the Monkees, Nintendo Entertainment System games are always going to be tied up with childhood and Americana for me. And when I think of the future, I think of this: a capitalist duck on the moon murdering aliens and duck astronauts with his cane for pure, undiluted profit. This is America.

March 11, 2011

The Novel The Novel The Novel

I’ve been digging around through my writing notebooks recently and came upon something (relatively) interesting. A timestamp. March 11, 2009. It’s the day I started writing my novel. It was two years ago today.

I’m not Amy Whipple or Katie Coyle. They’re always running around bursting forth with their feelings. They have feelings on all sorts of subjects, and they are always insightful and intelligent. I usually try and bury most of my feelings and instead think about Kanye West or the New York Knicks or Spider-Man. But really, I think this novel has been kind of the outlet for all my thoughts and ideas and (ugh, I guess) feelings about the world and my existence for the past two years.

Cathy Day used to tell us in writing workshops that most writers are either sprinters or long distance runners (short story writers or novelists), and I’ve always felt more at home in the second camp (the only way I can even write flash fiction is to imagine a novel existing in my head and writing the four or five most interesting scenes). And it’s been so, so comforting over the last two years to be able to return to this novel, this world, these characters, over and over again. No matter what changed in my life (MFA graduation, relationship hyjinx, first year teaching anxiety, family members battling cancer, friends leaving my life, friends entering my life) the novel was always there, fluid, waiting for me to come home. Over time, the characters within started to seem more real to me than actual people I know in my everyday life. I can see these people more clearly, understand them more. I feel guilty when they have to go through pain.

For two years so much of my thinking has been wrapped up in this novel. I wrote a lot of stories during the second year while taking breaks from editing, but always in the back of my mind was the novel, the novel, the novel, even though when people asked me what it was about I would stutter and stare and cough (It’s about Facebook. No, it’s about this guy. And it’s set against the backdrop of the Obama campaign. But, it’s not really about that. It’s about digital stuff? It’s a love story? Kanye shows up? It’s a novel. I don’t know what I’m going to call it. What do you think I should call it?).

There’s just something reassuring to have that world waiting for me at the desk each and every day. And I’ve never been good at ending anything in my life, but I know this relationship’s almost over, that I have changed and the novel has changed and I’m not the same person I was when I started writing it and that’s ok and for the best and now it’s time to put this thing away even though it will always be there to be revisited. But I’m so drawn to that feeling, of world building, of having that other existence and set of people you can slip inside of that I honestly can’t imagine not having some version of this. And already, I’ve bought a new notebook, have already begun scribbling new notes, new characters, new outlines, random items that will hopefully add up to something more. And I guess that’s all I can really do.

Mostly, I’m aware of how lucky I’ve been and continue to be. My agent, Jenni Ferrari-Adler, is the best. She’s so generous and smart with manuscripts and she also represents Emma Straub who I love, love, love. I turned in my revision of the book this week and will probably do another light one before all is said and done. But I think the major, all-consuming work is done. It’s done. It’s done. And it really hasn’t hit me yet, but the feelings I’m most cognizant of are relief and gratitude.

That I wrote it. That I was allowed to write.

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Salvatore Pane

Tag: Kanye West

March 5, 2012