johnny

yep, i think we actually have a couple duckpin places in the city. i'd been to this particular place as a kid but never thought about it till now. we (my dad, who was in town for the night, my fiance and i) had dinner at this great rooftop place down on the southside of the city in one of the sketchy arts districts, and the duckpin bowling happens to be in the same building. dad was the one who suggested, and while i'd normally shy away from any sort of bowling, i thought "what the hell." pulled of my big ole boots and slapped on some stinky bowling shoes. i actually have a birth defect in my right arm which makes regular bowling painful sometimes, but this didn't hurt at all - except my fingertips because of the way i threw the ball. so we played our last game all left-handed and i did so much better. funny what you find out...

anyway, quite worth it if you can find a place near you. just to do something different. or, when all else fails, go swinging on some forgotten swing set!

eh well, it's good news i guess. the not-so-good part is... i was really excited for the reaction when the group i wrote about first saw the article, but it turns out the stupid photography intern who did their photo shoot gave them a copy of my rough draft! i've never taken a journalism class in my life, but i kind of thought that went against common sense.

sigh.

i have to say, i'm not sure what my feelings are on Dada. i suppose you have to give them credit for figuring out a way to subvert the subversive... though, in the end, they subverted themselves right into nice big shiny museums.

you know, we had to memorize a 20ish-line poem in eighth grade and i chose "A Dream Within a Dream." i would never argue that it's his best, certainly is one of the most simple. but every time i recite it (of course i still remember every word), i learn a little something new from it. i have always wanted to memorize The Raven, and though it's decidedly intimidating, i bet it would feel like water on my tongue. lines like mine and the one you mentioned...

what bugged me a lot in college is discovering that no one really teaches Poe. i get the feeling he is sort of brushed off as kind of amateur or pop-ish. he's simply not mentioned, or if he is, it's a polite nod toward his fiction as the precursor to modern murder/mystery stuff. he was a poet first class! incredible handle on our language even if a lot of it involves morose-type words rarely found outside of funeral homes.

i haven't been around, so i don't know if you've been around either. just thought i'd say hello anyhow. hope your new project has gotten wings!

thanks for the nice long message AND comment! i understand that home trumps the priorities of naked ladies you've never met, so don't feel bad. i agree that rocky patches make the water more interesting to look at, but i do hope things settle for you soon.

it's funny about the poem you sent... well, not funny and i'm sure this is the most obvious thing to state, but the best part is how you offer these lovely testaments to your feelings for the "you" and then continuously jerk them back. of course all of those things are unreasonable to offer someone, but that doesn't stop half the world from making vague and ridiculous promises. guess love can make us feel superhuman, too....

and thanks for the compliments, but i'll let my pups take all the credit.

hmmm, time for a new post. i was going to leave you a comment since i don't have the time or the awakeness (operating on 3 hours of sleep plus a full day of both jobs) to respond to your message... but i guess this wil have to suffice.

The fall of the house of usher is my favorite poe tale... behind it is the Gold Bug. I think it's excellent that you're essentially living and breathing poe. I'd do that too if I could, but I can't act. Plus, directing from the creative standpoints of modern art movements is pretty bad ass!