Another blog connection

[carlos]

I have decided to revive some of my old blog posts--in a new site. I'll also be posting some new stuff as it occurs to me. The old site ['Stanton Street Blog'--not to be confused with the similarly named blogs of an internet company in the Southwest or a synagogue in New York City] was named for the street around the corner from me in Portland. This one 'West Branch of the Bantam' is named for a small stream near where I grew up in Connecticut--so there may be more emphasis on the historical. bantamriverwest.blogspot.com

[Suzy]

That's very good news, Carlos. Please post here when it's up! Looking forward to reading it very much!

[carlos]

Dec 1, 2014 3:28:29 GMT -5 Suzy said:

That's very good news, Carlos. Please post here when it's up! Looking forward to reading it very much!

Hmmm... the The West Bank of the Bantam URL is correct. I don't know why it didn't make a link.

[Pru Freda]

It works fine, Carlos, and thanks for a fascinating peek into your family history.

[carlos]

Thanks, Lynda. I am now struggling with recovering a photo from the deleted blog to post on the renewed blog. As so often in my life, I wish I had left well enough alone.

[carlos]

Here's a new blog post, celebrating poets, and memory, and literary fame. bantamriverwest.blogspot.com/

[carlos]

Suzy reminded me of a silly 'biography' I wrote several years ago--the premise of it being that it wasn't my real biography, but the biography of the miscarried child who would have been me, if he had survived, or at least he would have had my name, and I would have been somebody else, if at all.

www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8711992290656399492&pli=1#editor/target=post;postID=818166285921999298;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=0;src=postname

[carlos]

Yet another old blog, having to do with how narrative, which is 'non-random', is ultimately more important than reality which is merely random. bantamriverwest.blogspot.com/2015/01/beginnings-endsand-stuff-in-middle.html

[Suzy]

excellent! I love the look of your new blog, Carlos.

[carlos]

You are such a kind reviewer, Suzy--I should never write for any one else. In fact, I don't.

[Suzy]

You mean you're my PW? As in Personal Writer?

[carlos]

Jan 22, 2015 2:59:54 GMT -5 Suzy said:

You mean you're my PW? As in Personal Writer?

Yes--a Scrivener, or possibly an Amanuensis. Just tell me what you want written and I will write it, at very reasonable rates. Just for a demo, I have added a few more pages to the 'Fauxtobiography' on my so-called blog.   bantamriverwest.blogspot.com/2015/01/a-further-excerpt-from-fauxtobiography.html

[carlos]

With this post the old nonsense bantamriverwest.blogspot.com/2015/01/a-third-and-for-moment-final.html is finally out of the way. I hope soon to move on to new and greater nonsense. Excelsior!

[carlos]

Perhaps "My Excuse" is not quite the right title--but this post partly explains why I never became a 'real' writer.

bantamriverwest.blogspot.com/

[carlos]

Here is an anticipatory review, in case the author meets an (undoubtedly timely, but nevertheless unfortunate) end before reaching the end of RAQUEL.

bantamriverwest.blogspot.com/2015/02/notes-for-possible-book-review.html

[Suzy]

Loved both pieces, Carlos. Maybe you should put all your posts together into a book?

[carlos]

Thanks Suzy--what we really need is an app that reads all our stuff (not your stuff--I meant my stuff) and automatically sorts it into categories like: "um...O.K" "not so bad" "bad" and "horrible" then the reader could dial up exactly what she feels in the mood for. "Hmmm... I think I could go for a little 'horrible' today." And Presto! there it is. No need to waste 99 pence on a bunch of extraneous words you are not in the mood for.

[carlos]

For anyone who has not been to Portland in the last thirty years I have added a picture of the goddess to my current blog-post. There is a TV show "Portlandia" -- which is quirky and (sometimes) funny--but the real reference is to the city's tutelary goddess--a river sprite who holds a trident. We're not sure what that's all about--but it is part of the city's "seal" (where she is depicted standing) and in Raymond Kaskey's statue on the first setback of the Portland Building--a post-modern horror that houses various city and county offices (What were they thinking?) The statue is loved in inverse proportion to the building--but the sculptor has decreed that they are bound in a perpetual linkage--no statue without the building for which it was created.

Regrettably, both the architect (Michael Graves) and the sculptor were from out of town--so they didn't appreciate that the goddess would have preferred being on the opposite side of the building where she could watch the sun rise over her river and the intervening park. As it is, she looks down on a sidewalk cafe--where my POV character likes to sit while drinking his morning coffee and struggling with a novel he hopes will make women laugh. The goddess likes Jack, but she knows he doesn't have what it takes to accomplish such an absurdly ambitious goal. She decides it is time for him to take up farming.

[carlos]

OK. I've already given one excuse for not writing--here is another:   bantamriverwest.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-education-of-anthony-barker.html?spref=fb

[carlos]

The Infinities

By: John Banville
Alfred A. Knopf, 2009
273 Pages

A book review I posted on the review site "Booksquawk" some time ago. bantamriverwest.blogspot.com/