Sassistas! Our dish on the social soup.

New Friend

Last week, on Ash Wednesday, Flannista made her daily call to Jerseysista a little later than usual. First thing Jersey asked was where Flann had been. Flann confessed that she had spent the last hour and a half at the office store picking out a new journal.  Seems like the one she had been keeping since June 14, 2004 (thick, black-leather-bound, 600 pages, bottom above) was finally full.

"It took you THAT long to find a new journal?" asked Jersey.

"Of course," responded Flann. "For one thing, it had to be lighter.  I can't carry around a heavy journal anymore.  Plus it had to be leather bound with graph paper inside -- my arthritis needs the guidance.  And it had to lie flat and have a ribbon marker and a pocket folder.  Took me a while."

Pictured on top of her old journal is Flann's new journal. A perfect size -- 240 pages -- complete with graph paper, ribbon marker and pocket folder.  It was sad to depart with her old friend of more than five and a half years, but Flann is happy to have a new friend with whom she can travel. She's been traveling with these friends since 1973 (see photo below).

How about the rest of you?  Do you keep a journal or writing tablet?  Are you fussy about the paper and the binding?  How about the pen you write with?  If so, why?  Please share so Flann doesn't feel like such a picky broad.

Readings

Yesterday marked the beginning of the 7th week of the year.  In January I read that most New Year's resolutions don't last beyond the first six weeks of the year.  I'm happy to report that I'm still sticking with my one small resolution which was to read the daily Bible lessons in the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer.

Every day, the Prayer Book assigns an Old Testament, New Testament and Gospel reading along with a couple of Psalms.  During the first six weeks of this year, I read the first 29 chapters of Genesis, Colossians and Hebrews and the first seven chapters of the Gospel of John.  My intention has been to read the assigned lessons the way I read any short story or poem: purely as literature.  Here's what I've learned:

• Genesis is filled with stories of people who deceive and/or are deceived. From the Garden of Eden to The Great Flood to Sodom and Gomorrah to Abraham and Sarah to Esau and Jacob -- chicanery and pretense abound.  Makes me feel a lot better about myself.  Also, in the past, I've given the Old Testament God a pretty bad rap, but during the past six weeks, She's struck me as more than patient. Never in my life would I have called the OT God tolerant.
• Hebrews is boring.  I didn't read the introduction to the book provided in my Bible, but Hebrews is all about Jesus being the High Priest for all or something.  Frankly, I forget.  But Chapters 11 and 12 really soared.  I don't have the Bible open in front of me, but I remember feeling comforted that I was surrounded by "a great cloud of witnesses" who somehow helped me run the race set before me (or something like that).  I felt like I wasn't duking out life alone. Also, the overwhelming message seeping through the New Testament seems to be about putting others before yourself. Does the thought of loving even strangers make you tired?  Don't read the New Testament.
• Jesus seems extraordinarily self-actualized.  He's always clear about who he is and doesn't make a big deal about it. He doesn't talk a whole lot, and seems to measure what he says.  He waits for his moment, and then usually makes it about what he can do for another person. He sets the bar very high which at times, made me not want to read any further.  Too much work, that love thing.
• The Psalms are some of the most beautiful poetry ever written. A nice bonus is that many of them contain verses you can say out loud to diss folks who are really pissing you off and you sound lordly while dissing them:  "Yes, let all who hope in You be not shamed.  Let the treacherous be shamed, empty-handed (Psalm 25:3)."  Right on.

Sometimes I scrawl a particularly interesting verse into my journal. Then I try and sit still, let it soak in, do its thing.  Most of the time, I pick up the binoculars on my desk and watch the birds at the feeders. I end by reading a poem or two in a couple books of poetry.  Here's the poem I read yesterday:

SOLUTION by Franz Wright

What is the meaning of kindness?

Speak and listen to others from now on,

as if they had recently died.

At the core the seen and unseen worlds are one.

Beautiful, wise words that I scrawled into my journal.

So how are the rest of you doing with your New Year's Resolutions?  And if you didn't make any, what book are you reading right now and/or what quote did you come across recently that gave you pause?  Gave you a clue about the meaning of kindness?

Looking Back

About the first decade of the 21st century, this TIME magazine cover says it all.  So does this excerpt from an accompanying essay by Andy Serwer:

Bookended by 9/11 at the start and a financial wipeout at the end, the first 10 years of this century will very likely go down as the most dispiriting and disillusioning decade Americans have lived through in the post-World War II era . . . . Call it the Decade from Hell, or the Reckoning, or the Decade of Broken Dreams, or the Lost Decade.  Call it whatever you want -- just give thanks that it is nearly over.

Thank you, Jesus.

Among the worst things of the decade cited by TIME are the contested presidential election of 2000, declaring war on Iraq, the Sumatra tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, the market meltdown and Guantanamo. 

The most defining moment of the decade, however, was the 9/11 terror attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C. which redefined global politics and made most Americans question the security they had previously taken for granted.  If for no other reason, the Sassistas! are thankful to say good riddance to all that, though global terror has hardly diminished.

Aside from these jaw-dropping and life-ending moments of the decade, consider the following: ten years ago, there was no Google, no Facebook, no Twitter.  A Blackberry was a two-way pager.  The iPhone?  Not to be found.  Huffington Post?  Nope.  There were, however, newspapers and magazines and . . . what are those things called, again? You know, those things with covers and pages with words printed on them?  Oh, yeah . . . books. 

Took only a decade, but we don't seem to read anymore.  We just scan.  We aren't in touch with reality anymore, only "reality" as it is shoved down our throats by television.  We don't think.  We just swallow.  Ten years ago, we didn't have the fantasy of celebrity culture 24/7, 24/7, 24/7, 24/7 as we do today.  It is a culture designed not simply to entertain, but also to keep us from fighting back.  Style and story, not content and fact, inform mass politics, mass media, mass everything.  Let's not CLARIFY an issue.  Let's PERSONALIZE it.  Let's MORALIZE it.

In one decade, thanks largely to pervasive technology and 24/7 celebrity news, we have come to prefer personality over character. Ten years ago, we honored hard work, integrity and courage.  Today's consumption-oriented culture honors charm, fascination, and likeability.  It thrives on happy thoughts, manipulated emotions and trust in the beneficence of power.  We either sing along or are voted off the island like losers.

Let's stop singing that happy tune.  Life's a bitch and then you live.  We've got work to do.

So turn off your computers.  Turn off your cellphones.  Turn off your TV. 

Get up.

The Sassistas! want all of you to get up out of your chairs. We want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell:  "I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"   Things have got to change.  But first, you've gotta get mad! . . . You've got to say, "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore! Then we'll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it: "I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"

Now onto the next decade.

Best of 2009

Following are the Sassistas! choices for the Best of Whatever in 2009.  Like last year, at the time of this post, we have not seen all of the movies considered to be major Oscar contenders for 2010, but will post our choices for Oscar winners closer to the actual awards ceremony.  Please post your own choices for Best (or Worst) of Whatever in 2009!

BEST MOVIES (NOTE:  all lists are in alphabetical order)

(500) Days of Summer

Adventureland

Anvil: The Story of Anvil

Avatar

The Cove

District 9

Let the Right One In

Star Trek

Up

MOST OVER-RATED MOVIES

Drag Me to Hell

The Road

A Serious Man

BEST MOVIE RENTALS

City Lights

Nobody Knows

Woodstock (documentary)

BEST TV

30 Rock

Better Off Ted

Dexter

Glee

In Treatment

Nurse Jackie

Rachel Maddow

Rescue Me

The Tudors

WORST TV

Balloon Boy

Michael Jackson

Reality TV, period.

Tiger Woods

BEST FICTION BOOK

A Gate at the Stairs -- Lorrie Moore

BEST NON-FICTION BOOK

Lit -- Mary Karr

BEST HYPED BOOK

Going Rogue -- Sarah Palin

BEST ROCK ALBUMS

21 Guns -- Green Day

The Hazards of Love -- The Decemberists

BEST CLASSICAL ALBUM

Requiem -- Conspirare

BEST THEATER

Next to Normal (musical)

BEST POETRY COLLECTIONS

All-American Poem -- Matthew Dickman

The End of the West -- Michael Dickman

Inseminating the Elephant -- Lucia Perillo

Stupid Hope -- Jason Shinder

A Village Life -- Louise Gluck

Wheeling Motel -- Franz Wright

BEST ART EXHIBIT

Anne Truitt -- Perception and Reflection (Hirshhorn Museum)

BEST DISCOVERY

Professional bull riding (it rocks!)

WORST DISCOVERY

Jerseysista has eight whisks and seven cooking thermometers

TOMORROW -- BEST AND WORST OF THE DECADE!

NaNoWriMo Anyone?

The Sassistas! would like to acknowledge and thank half-a-sista who dished today's sass.

Have you ever wanted to write a novel but lacked a reason or the encouragement to do it? I have a solution:  NaNoWriMo.

National Novel Writing Month began in 1999 with 21 participants. The goal was to complete a novel of at least 50,000 words during the month of November. The idea proved very popular.  By 2008, 119,031 adults from all over the world participated. 21,683 of them “won” a certificate for writing 50,000 words or more during the month of November. And the best thing? It’s free.

The organization collects tax-deductible contributions to cover costs and to fund specific programs like NaNoWriMo, the Young Writers Program (YWP) and Script Frenzy. YWP offers young writers (17 and under) a place to set reasonable goals for writing during the month and to receive support and advice on writing which has been tailored to their needs. Participants from ages 13-17 can also sign up for NaNoWriMo and the goal of 50,000 words. Script Frenzy is about writing a script in the month of April. To date 4.8% of the Wrimos (event participants) have contributed $418,010. With 6 days left (a countdown clock on the web site ticks away the seconds), the collective word count is over 1.6 billion words.

For the third year I joined. I have written 73,147 words and will reach 100,000 by today, November 30.

The first year I wrote a novel about compassion and reconciliation, a modern day story of Job. Year Two I wrote a novel about a drag queen who becomes the earthly incarnation of the Blessed Virgin. I’m working on revisions and edits and hope to have it to an agent by the end of March 2010, or sooner.

This year I worked on four pieces:  the vampire novel (24,962 words), a story of revenge (12,879 words), a novel about a woman who decides the only way out of her marriage is to die a natural death (10,156 words), and the memoir of the last five years of my mother’s life (16,461 words). I write on one story until I get bored or can’t think of what to write next and then work on another piece. I’ll have over 50,000 on vampires by the end of the month and maybe over 50,000 on the memoir.

Maybe you’d like to join next year? For more information on the organization, check out the website (linked above) and take a look at what it offers.  Have you ever participated in NaNoWriMo?  Have you ever wanted to write a novel, a memoir, or anything else?  Please share!  Write on!

Bloodsuckers

It's the next big fang!

Over the weekend, the vampire  romance, "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" sucked up $140.7 million in its first three days and pulled in a total of $258.8 million worldwide.  That's more than twice the $69.6 million haul over the same weekend last year for "Twilight," the first in the franchise based on Stephanie Meyer's novels.  To read the Washington Post review of the film, click here (there's also a link to a trailer of the movie, the ending of which made Flannista LOL).

Why are so many caught up in the bloody phenomenon of vampires?  What's behind the current vamp vogue?  In addition to the Twilight series, there are also the Blue Bloods series by Melissa de la Cruz, the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris (the inspiration for HBO's True Blood) and the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series by Laurell K. Hamilton.

Then there are the vampire movies.  Last night, the Sassistas! and Momista (here for Thanksgiving) watched "Twilight."  A lot of alabaster skin, pouting lips, tortured gazes and teens flying around here and there.  Seemed to break a lot of vampire etiquette, too -- for example, you could see the reflection of the vampires in mirrors.  We gave it two stars out of four. 

Who is your favorite vampire and/or vampire movie and why? 

PREPARE TO TUNE IN TOMORROW WHEN WE OPEN THE SASSOSPHERE FOR MORE FAVORITE THANKSGIVING RECIPES!

O Palin

 

Okay, we admit it.  The Sassistas! watched.  The whole damn thing.  "The Interview"!  "The World Exclusive"!  As Oprah said when she opened her show, "You've been waiting.  I've been waiting.  And she's finally here!"

Yep, The Big O's interview with Sarah Palin aired yesterday, the eve of the release of Palin's book, Going Rogue -- already a best-seller and available at Amazon for a measly nine bucks (the list price is $28.99).  The Sassistas! watched because we were kind of hoping that O might ask SP a question, say, about the struggling economy?  Or Afghanistan?  Or same-sex marriage?  Or SOMETHING WORTHWHILE?

Nope.  It was the "Meeting of the Egos."  The Sassistas! knew it from The O's opening question to SP: "Did I snub you last year?"  Of course O did, but Sarah would never admit it, though to her credit, SP responded, "You weren't the center of my universe a year ago."  That stupid question out of the way, let's get down to the struggling economy.  Nope, let's talk about Bristol and her baby.  "I was naive to think that reporters would leave my family alone," confessed SP.  Nine minutes into the interview, we must, of course, go to a commercial break.

Next, SP talked about how McCain's handlers insisted that she ahd her entire family endure "a complete makeover" for the convention, including what clothes to wear, etc.  Okay, how about the struggling economy?  Nope, another commercial break.

We're back, and it's time to dump on Katie Couric, "the perky one," according to SP.  SP claims that it was Katie's "agenda not to show me in the best light."  When asked by O why she didn't name some books and/or magazines she read when Katie asked her that question, SP said, "I was irritated."

Tell us about it.  Another commercial break, and by this time, there's only about 15 minutes left in the show, so let's hear what SP has to say about . . . emerging China?  Nope, we have to sit through Levi Johnston questions (he's the airhead who impregnated Bristol).  "Pray for Levi," says SP.  We're praying that this stupid interview is over REAL soon.  But not before we watch SP work out at the Fitness Center and then take her kids trick or treating.

Finally, there's seven minutes left and O finally asks an interesting question:  "How could you manage the responsibilities of Vice President and those of being a mother?  Isn't that a lot of work?"  "You can have it all," responds SP, if you have a "strong support system" of "many aunties and uncles."  Well, good for you, SP.  But bad for most other women in America who have a job, plus kids, plus no strong support system.

Okay, two minutes left.  O asks SP if she's considering a run for President in 2012.  SP deflects the question, of course.  "As my dad says, 'I'm not retreating, I'm reloading,'" says SP.

Good, O and SP.  Reload and then shoot us, please, and put us out of our misery.

Write and Die

"Write and die."

This was the response best-selling memoirist and poet Mary Karr made to writer Don Delillo, who -- after learning that Karr was in a stuck place about her working manuscript Lit -- wrote her a postcard that said, "Write or die."  Karr threw out all but 120 pages of the 590 she had written.

Last evening the Sassistas! and Jerseysista went to Politics & Prose, a famous Washington, D.C. bookstore, to hear Mary Karr speak about Lit, the third volume of her memoir, released on Tuesday. Lit is a redemptive, painfully funny story about Karr's checkered life after high school. It describes her alcoholism (she became sober at 31), her stay in a mental hospital ("The Mental Marriott"), her near-suicide and divorce.

She also deals with how she became a published poet and memoirist, raised a son (now 23 and an aspiring film director) and made peace with her eccentric mother, whose new-found sobriety coincided with Karr's own descent into uncontrollable drinking.

Following are excerpts from her remarks and responses to questions last evening:

• "Some members of families go to law school or medical school.  We went to rehab."
• About writing:  "I love having written.  It is like a conversation with the gods.  Inscribing the words with yourself is putting yourself in a conversation with Shakespeare."
• About Updike's statement that "the purpose of art is to heal a wound": "My students are not a cheerful bunch.  We are a dour group. There is no Richard Simmons among us."
• About converting to Catholicism and its disapproval of homosexuality:  "I like the people in the pews more than I like the dogma.  The Pope is the Catholic Church as much as George Bush is America. I don't think anyone should let you become Catholic until you're in menopause."
• About faith:  "Knowing about faith by reading about it is like knowing about pussy by reading porn."
• About the accuracy of memoir:  "I wouldn't write about anything that I didn't know happened.  There is a clear difference between fiction and non-fiction."
• About family members, such as her older sister, remembering certain events differently: "She can write her own damn book."

About the raw violence of her childhood: "You never want to write in a way that makes the reader feel sorry for you.  If the purpose of writing your story is to expose that you got the biggest ass-kicking ever, then only Holocaust survivors should write their stories.  It's not about who suffered the most.  And you simply can't lay it all out there without reassuring the reader.  That's why I Introduce humor, to relieve the discomfort of the reader so the reader has a full-bodied experience.  I never want to be a figure of pity."

To listen to her NPR interview, aired Tuesday, click here.  That's Karr on the left, by the way, signing for the sixth time, Flannista's copy of The Liars' Club.

Ayn of the Times

She's back!  Just when you think you had finally outgrown her, Ayn (rhymes with "sign") Rand is back and more popular than ever.  A new biography, Ayn Rand and the World She Made was the cover review in this week's New York Times Book Review and was the most emailed article for two days (yesterday, it had fallen to the second most emailed article).

What gives?  Once a year, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas hosts a party where special invitees watch the movie version of Rand's most popular novel, The Fountainhead.  The book itself, along with Rand's next book, Atlas Shrugged are required reading for all of Thomas' clerks.  Alan Greenspan issues the same requirement for his employees. Glenn Beck has begun daily readings from Ayn Rand.  Rush Limbaugh also quotes frequently from her these days. 

Not too long ago, the conservative right was embracing Jesus and the cross to save the country from going to hell. But in the age of Obama things have gotten much, much worse.  This country isn't going to hell.  It's going to unfettered socialism.  Forget the cross.  We need the Dollar Sign!  We need individual rights!  Laissez-faire capitalism!  Limited government!  Ethical egoism!  We need Ayn Rand!  Fie on the "moochers" (Rand's term) -- the tired, the poor, yearning to be free!  Down with altruism!  In fact, screw God and Jesus!  We are our own gods!!!

Oops, sorry.  Flannista got a little carried away. 

When I was in 11th grade, a student teacher handed me The Fountainhead and said, "You need to read this to know who you are."  I was immediately hooked and used babysitting money to purchase other Rand books.  I began to subscribe to Rand's newsletter, "The Objectivist."  I memorized Rand quotes: "The question isn't who is going to let me.  The question is who is going to stop me?"  "In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit."  "Unless and until you discover that money is the root of all good, you ask for your own destruction."

Interestingly, conservatives back in the Fifties -- when Rand first published her books -- found her writings "remarkably silly."  "Bumptious."  Click here to read Whittaker Chambers withering review of Atlas Shrugged published in The National Review on December 28, 1957.  In a letter to a friend, Flannery O'Connor opined that "Ayn Rand makes Mickey Spillane look like Dostojevski."

But that was back then.  Today, Ayn and her philosophy of vehement individualism are back in fashion for conservatives.  Of course they have to overlook the fact that she did not believe in God.  Or that the protagonist in The Fountainhead openly rapes the main female character -- and the woman enjoys it. Or that Rand had a tempestuous affair with her young married protege, insisting that both their spouses be kept fully apprised of what was going on.  Or that she oversaw "The Collective," a group of Ayn Rand followers who quoted Rand characters like many conservatives quote scripture.

I should know.  At one time, I was a Rand groupie, reading and re-reading all things Rand; that is, until the day my mother read a newspaper article about Rand's atheism and gathered my Rand books and newsletters and ceremoniously burned them in front of me in the back yard trash barrel.  So much for individualism.

The irony is that today, I find Rand's writing tedious and heartless (though I wouldn't burn my copies of Rand's books which I replaced the day after I was kicked out of my mother's home).  Rand was heavily influenced by Nietzsche which undoubtedly explains the Nazi storm trooper uniform Glenn Beck has been donning lately.  Worse, she does not believe in charity.  I thought of Rand yesterday while driving past a home in the middle of repossession.  A woman was sobbing while sorting through personal belongings in large garbage bags in front of what was once her family's home. Her three children were sitting on top of the dining room table next to the curb.

Guess they asked for their own destruction.

Writing Rules!

William Safire, a speechwriter for Nixon and a Pulitzer Prize-winning conservative political columnist for the New York Times, died yesterday.  Click here for his New York Times obituary. 

Flannista was a devotee of Safire's weekly, "On Language" column in the New York Times magazine.  In addition, he compiled and published a stellar collection of speeches to which Flann often refers when writing speeches for her clients.  Last, he put together a hilarious and unforgettable list of "Rules for Writing" that Flann uses in her writing workshops for corporate clients:

• Remember to never split an infinitive.
• The passive voice should never be used.
• Do not put statements in the negative form.
• Verbs have to agree with their subjects.
• Proofread carefully to see if you words out.
• If you reread your work, you can find on rereading a great deal of repetition can be avoided by rereading and editing.
• A writer must not shift your point of view.
• And don't start a sentence with a conjunction. (Remember, too, a preposition is a terrible word to end a sentence with.)
• Don't overuse exclamation marks!!!!
• Place pronouns as close as possible, especially in long sentences, as of 10 or more words, to their antecedents.
• Writing carefully, dangling participles must be avoided.
• If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.
• Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing metaphors.
• Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.
• Everyone should be careful to use a singular pronoun with singular nouns in their writing.
• Always pick on the correct idiom.
• The adverb always follows the verb.
• Last but not least, avoid cliches like the plague; seek viable alternatives.

What Flannista loves about this list of rules is that each rule exemplifies the rule.  (Hmmm . . . that statement seems awkward.  Did Flann break a writing rule?)

There are several very accomplished writers in the sassosphere.  What are your rules for writing?  Do you follow the rules of any particular writing teacher?  Who and why?  Have you established your own writing rules and discipline?  What works and/or doesn't work?  Please share.

Rest in peace, William Safire.