© by Gerald So | geraldso.blogspot.com | 4:00 A.M.
This week's panel question at 7 Criminal Minds is, "Which would you choose, fame or fortune?"
It's got me thinking. While I'd love to make enough money to support myself and my extended family, I didn't pursue writing, particularly poetry, to make a fortune. I know many writers who began in poetry but largely gave it up when their work in other genres took off. Discovering my talent at 13, I began in fiction because it seemed safer footing than poetry.
In 2001, teaching at Hofstra University, I befriended poet Robert Plath. He wanted to create a faculty poetry website but didn't know how to code HTML. In helping Rob with the code, I read the submitted poetry with an editor's eye and got into writing some myself. My first print acceptance was not a story but the poem "Night School", originally in the Spring 2003 issue of Long Island Quarterly, reprinted on the Web in Red Fez.
Remembering that, I've consciously chosen to keep writing poetry along with whatever else I can. Every kind of writing feeds its own kind of creativity. Poetry, moreso than prose, approaches subjects from surprising, instantly personal angles, letting the poet's voice through unfiltered by narrative expectations.
Fame or fortune? I choose fame in the sense that I'd like to be known for my work. If I make a fortune in writing or elsewhere, I'll keep writing.
Friday, July 22, 2016
Friday, July 15, 2016
Not Nice
© by Gerald So | geraldso.blogspot.com | 7:00 A.M.
We don't expect terror
to be so clear as
to drive a truck through
roadblocks and people
in a bid to
be remembered
over Bastille Day.
It's just as clear
we should fight
memory with memory.
We don't expect terror
to be so clear as
to drive a truck through
roadblocks and people
in a bid to
be remembered
over Bastille Day.
It's just as clear
we should fight
memory with memory.
Friday, July 08, 2016
Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place
© by Gerald So | geraldso.blogspot.com | 7:00 P.M.
Last Tuesday, Shout! Factory released the 11-DVD complete series set of Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place. The main characters navigated grad school and the job search at roughly the same time I did, and while the cast went on to bigger and better projects, this is where I discovered almost all of them.
I had seen Traylor Howard on NBC's shorter-lived, similarly-set Anthony Clark sitcom Boston Common. On Two Guys... she played the shrewd, tomboyish Sharon Carter, her best friends fellow Tufts grads brilliant slacker Michael "Berg" Bergen (Ryan Reynolds) and idealistic Pete Dunville (Richard Ruccolo).
In Season 1, the three friends each pursued professional and romantic fulfillment, Pete most idealistically pursuing "the one" girl he's meant to be with. Season 2 brought in Nathan Fillion as handyman Johnny Donnelly, whom Sharon dates seriously and eventually marries, and Suzanne Cryer as Ashley Walker, who rivals Berg for smarts and sarcasm. By the end of Season 2, Pete developed romantic feelings for Sharon, but they weren't reciprocated, after which I lost most interest.
Having refreshed my memory of the series this week, I'm glad to see the characters went on to deeper relationships, particularly Ashley with Pete. Ashley was a very driven, abrasive character. As she was fleshed out, viewers got to see, as tough as she was, she was often lonely. Her arc with Pete went from utter dislike to the kind of connection they had always wanted.
As much development as four seasons offered, as Sharon, Berg, Pete, and Ashley were often unsure about work and love, the show never seemed that sure of itself. Original pizza place regulars Juliis Carry, David Ogden Stiers, and Jennifer Westfeldt were gone after Season 1; in the course of the series, Berg's dad was played by Howard Hesseman and Steve Landesberg, his mother by Cheryl Ladd and Bo Derek; Pete changed careers from architect to cosmetics executive to fireman. There were musical episodes, speculative Halloween episodes, an episode without dialogue, and the de facto series finale, of which viewers chose the ending via Internet vote. Can you say, "Ratings ploy?"
Still, my best memories are pleasantly intact. Shout! Factory's set hits the soft spot I have for the show.
Last Tuesday, Shout! Factory released the 11-DVD complete series set of Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place. The main characters navigated grad school and the job search at roughly the same time I did, and while the cast went on to bigger and better projects, this is where I discovered almost all of them.I had seen Traylor Howard on NBC's shorter-lived, similarly-set Anthony Clark sitcom Boston Common. On Two Guys... she played the shrewd, tomboyish Sharon Carter, her best friends fellow Tufts grads brilliant slacker Michael "Berg" Bergen (Ryan Reynolds) and idealistic Pete Dunville (Richard Ruccolo).
In Season 1, the three friends each pursued professional and romantic fulfillment, Pete most idealistically pursuing "the one" girl he's meant to be with. Season 2 brought in Nathan Fillion as handyman Johnny Donnelly, whom Sharon dates seriously and eventually marries, and Suzanne Cryer as Ashley Walker, who rivals Berg for smarts and sarcasm. By the end of Season 2, Pete developed romantic feelings for Sharon, but they weren't reciprocated, after which I lost most interest.
Having refreshed my memory of the series this week, I'm glad to see the characters went on to deeper relationships, particularly Ashley with Pete. Ashley was a very driven, abrasive character. As she was fleshed out, viewers got to see, as tough as she was, she was often lonely. Her arc with Pete went from utter dislike to the kind of connection they had always wanted.
As much development as four seasons offered, as Sharon, Berg, Pete, and Ashley were often unsure about work and love, the show never seemed that sure of itself. Original pizza place regulars Juliis Carry, David Ogden Stiers, and Jennifer Westfeldt were gone after Season 1; in the course of the series, Berg's dad was played by Howard Hesseman and Steve Landesberg, his mother by Cheryl Ladd and Bo Derek; Pete changed careers from architect to cosmetics executive to fireman. There were musical episodes, speculative Halloween episodes, an episode without dialogue, and the de facto series finale, of which viewers chose the ending via Internet vote. Can you say, "Ratings ploy?"
Still, my best memories are pleasantly intact. Shout! Factory's set hits the soft spot I have for the show.
Monday, July 04, 2016
Independence Day, 1976
© by Gerald So | geraldso.blogspot.com | 5:00 A.M.
I originally performed this poem for Episode 55 of Seth Harwood's CrimeWAV podcast. You can order a copy of The Lineup #3 from Lulu.com.
I originally performed this poem for Episode 55 of Seth Harwood's CrimeWAV podcast. You can order a copy of The Lineup #3 from Lulu.com.
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