{"id":3135,"date":"2008-12-29T08:22:55","date_gmt":"2008-12-29T13:22:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=3135"},"modified":"2008-12-29T09:49:09","modified_gmt":"2008-12-29T14:49:09","slug":"what-it-is-122908","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/what-it-is-122908","title":{"rendered":"What It Is: 12\/29\/08"},"content":{"rendered":"

What I’m reading:<\/em> Re-read The Great Gatsby<\/a>\"\" on the flight down to New Orleans, then started Kurt Andersen<\/a>‘s second novel, Heyday<\/a>\"\". It’s a fun novel, rolling across America in 1848-9, but it makes the exact same idiotic decision as Michael Clayton (and a bazillion other books and movies): Part 1 opens in April 1848, and then flashes back 2 months and spends the next hundred or so pages catching up to that opening scene. And here’s the kicker: there’s nothing<\/em> about that scene that necessitated putting it at the front of book. DON’T USE FLASHBACK UNLESS IT’S INTEGRAL TO THE STRUCTURE OF THE STORY!<\/em><\/p>\n

What I’m listening to:<\/em> Boxer<\/a>\"\", by The National and the eponymous debut of The Good, The Bad and The Queen<\/a>\"\".<\/p>\n

What I’m watching:<\/em> A bunch of Bowl games, and some Cajun cooking shows.<\/p>\n

What I’m drinking:<\/em> Nothing until my last night in Louisiana, when Amy & I met up with her cousin Wade<\/a> & his wife Robin for dinner at Restaurant August<\/a> in New Orleans. Then I rocked a Hendrick’s & tonic.<\/p>\n

What Rufus is up to:<\/em> Being a perfect houseguest with my pals Jay & Kristy and their two greys, Ruby & Willow.<\/p>\n

Where I’m going:<\/em> Nowhere! Not even the office!<\/p>\n

What I’m happy about:<\/em> Being home. And not having any snow to shovel.<\/p>\n

What I’m sad about:<\/em> Oh, another year, etc. . . .<\/p>\n

What I’m pondering:<\/em> Whether my GPS unit has a “no ghettoes” setting for calculating routes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What I’m reading: Re-read The Great Gatsby on the flight down to New Orleans, then started Kurt Andersen‘s second novel, Heyday. It’s a fun novel, rolling across America in 1848-9, but it makes the exact same idiotic decision as Michael Clayton (and a bazillion other books and movies): Part 1 opens in April 1848, and … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “What It Is: 12\/29\/08”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[34,4],"tags":[493],"class_list":["post-3135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventures-in-gin","category-literature","tag-kurt-andersen"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-Oz","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5778,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-december-3-2010","url_meta":{"origin":3135,"position":0},"title":"Unrequired Reading: December 3, 2010","author":"Gil","date":"December 3, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"It's our Hanukkah edition of Unrequired Reading! Lots of Jewish posts for you to check out! Jewp it up! * * * Zarkov, tell me more about this man,\u00c2\u00a0Jewdini. * * * Everyone farts. Even Jews. * * * Jewcheology! (with the added bonus of the line, \"As Eilat Mazar\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "basketball"","block_context":{"text":"basketball","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/sports\/basketball"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":476,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/good-news-for-people-who-like-bad-news","url_meta":{"origin":3135,"position":1},"title":"Good news for people who like bad news","author":"Gil","date":"February 16, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"I didn't like Kurt Andersen's novel, but he wrote a pretty good piece in this week's New York magazine, about the conflict between liberal ideology and honesty in New York City:If partisanship makes us abandon intellectual honesty, if we oppose what our opponents say or do simply because they are\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13753,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-390-kurt-andersen","url_meta":{"origin":3135,"position":2},"title":"Episode 390 – Kurt Andersen","author":"Gil","date":"August 11, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 390: Kurt Andersen \"Almost all of the things that I say the evil geniuses did \u2014 discredit the idea of government, discredit the idea of progress, disbelieve science, make short-term profits and stock prices the lodestar of American society \u2014 all of that we see in how\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/andersencomp.jpg?fit=1198%2C800&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/andersencomp.jpg?fit=1198%2C800&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/andersencomp.jpg?fit=1198%2C800&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/andersencomp.jpg?fit=1198%2C800&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/andersencomp.jpg?fit=1198%2C800&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12173,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-313-nathan-englander","url_meta":{"origin":3135,"position":3},"title":"Episode 313 – Nathan Englander","author":"Gil","date":"March 25, 2019","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 313: Nathan Englander \"Why I like writing is: it always feels like the first book.\" On the eve of his fifth book, the wonderful kaddish.com: A novel (Knopf), Nathan Englander looks back on 20 years of publishing. We get into how he wrote this novel at a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/nathansolo.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/nathansolo.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/nathansolo.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/nathansolo.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/nathansolo.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11322,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-263-jonathan-ames","url_meta":{"origin":3135,"position":4},"title":"Episode 263 – Jonathan Ames","author":"Gil","date":"April 2, 2018","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 263: Jonathan Ames \"For me, all writing -- scripts, essays, novels -- it comes down to enjoying writing a sentence.\" On the eve of the premiere of You Were Never Really Here, writer Jonathan Ames returns to his stomping grounds of northern NJ to talk about crime\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_9145.jpg?fit=1200%2C1055&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_9145.jpg?fit=1200%2C1055&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_9145.jpg?fit=1200%2C1055&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_9145.jpg?fit=1200%2C1055&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_9145.jpg?fit=1200%2C1055&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13664,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-383-everett-glenn","url_meta":{"origin":3135,"position":5},"title":"Episode 383 – Everett Glenn","author":"Gil","date":"July 14, 2020","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 383: Everett Glenn \"My motivation? Kinda cookie-cutter: Desperate person doesn't want to die of alcoholism, writes instead. That's the blurb.\" Artist, cartoonist, and clotheshorse Everett Glenn joins the show from Berlin to talk about how narrating his life as a story helped him make (some) sense of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/everettglenncomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C549&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/everettglenncomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C549&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/everettglenncomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C549&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/everettglenncomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C549&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/everettglenncomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C549&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3135"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3138,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3135\/revisions\/3138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}