I was in a shitty corporate hotel room this summer for work & happened upon a true crime show where Mia’s murder was the topic & it hurt my brain. Looking forward to this book.
I also suffer from the write it til it’s perfect mentality and I’m trying to shake it. The messiness is better, and more important, than the preciousness. It’s funny-I often wonder ‘how does Martha do it?’
Usually I do it by not writing for days on end while telling myself it doesn't matter, no one gives a shit, until I get so bored of listening to this narrative in my head that I realize that hey! nobody gives a shit! and that frees me to spit something out and press send without proofreading. Or a least that's my current "process." xo
Thank you for this! I've loved the Gits and now I cant wait to read Steve's book. Mia and guys were such a gift. That band was incredible - so talented. Mia's writing and visual art was so powerful, it always blew me away. My favorite song of all time is "Second Skin". I believe it just might be the greatest rock song ever written. I pull out the "Second Skin" 45 often and play it really loud!
a) I seem to remember watching a film about Mia at SIFF--at least ten years ago. I was in Montana for the 70s-90s and missed stuff (poor radio for a long time, young kids)--my own kids got me onto PJ fairly early. Anyway, if you don't know the film, see if you can dig it up?
b) I'm reading a book by Liz Riggs about the indie scene in Nashville--narrator works the door at a club, fairly recent time setting, LO-FI; a great deal of, let's say, intemperate behavior--maybe not the highest of art but engaging and page-turn-y, plus, a number of times throughout she slips in 10-plus song playlists [which I've started to assemble, for the hell of it, on Spotify] . . . I may not be her target audience, but what the hell. When you're my age, it's of course fun to see the the young abusing themselves--a statement that's both untrue and true.
c) The Comet. Well, I missed that scene, too, but I had student in Missoula from Seattle who said it was her dive bar of choice so I made it my business to know it once I moved here at the very end of the last millennium.
d) In the 1980s, I came in second/third two years running in a contest the prize of which was book publication. After grinding my teeth a while, I sent the book to UIL Press and it became one of their short fiction series: HOME FIRES (1982). I later worked with Ann Weir/Lowry for a number of years vetting mss. for them. That series had a design element that linked the covers: A big picture of the author's face. Thus, if I want to confront my first book of fiction I'm obliged to see how I looked then--the photo was from lilac season, 1979--I know that because the uncropped pic was all lilacs, and I have a beard and I shaved it off later that summer on the last day of being an extra on HEAVEN'S GATE. Anyway, it's a situation akin to comparing the cover of, say, SWEET BABY JAMES with a shot of SBJ today. Sigh.
e) So, hey, you unleashed a torrent this morning. Love the Stack.
I loved every bit of this.
Oh thank you so much!
I was in a shitty corporate hotel room this summer for work & happened upon a true crime show where Mia’s murder was the topic & it hurt my brain. Looking forward to this book.
I also suffer from the write it til it’s perfect mentality and I’m trying to shake it. The messiness is better, and more important, than the preciousness. It’s funny-I often wonder ‘how does Martha do it?’
Usually I do it by not writing for days on end while telling myself it doesn't matter, no one gives a shit, until I get so bored of listening to this narrative in my head that I realize that hey! nobody gives a shit! and that frees me to spit something out and press send without proofreading. Or a least that's my current "process." xo
Thank you for this! I've loved the Gits and now I cant wait to read Steve's book. Mia and guys were such a gift. That band was incredible - so talented. Mia's writing and visual art was so powerful, it always blew me away. My favorite song of all time is "Second Skin". I believe it just might be the greatest rock song ever written. I pull out the "Second Skin" 45 often and play it really loud!
"Second Skin" is an INCREDIBLE song. Blows me away every time. Thanks for reading!
So much to respond to here.
a) I seem to remember watching a film about Mia at SIFF--at least ten years ago. I was in Montana for the 70s-90s and missed stuff (poor radio for a long time, young kids)--my own kids got me onto PJ fairly early. Anyway, if you don't know the film, see if you can dig it up?
b) I'm reading a book by Liz Riggs about the indie scene in Nashville--narrator works the door at a club, fairly recent time setting, LO-FI; a great deal of, let's say, intemperate behavior--maybe not the highest of art but engaging and page-turn-y, plus, a number of times throughout she slips in 10-plus song playlists [which I've started to assemble, for the hell of it, on Spotify] . . . I may not be her target audience, but what the hell. When you're my age, it's of course fun to see the the young abusing themselves--a statement that's both untrue and true.
c) The Comet. Well, I missed that scene, too, but I had student in Missoula from Seattle who said it was her dive bar of choice so I made it my business to know it once I moved here at the very end of the last millennium.
d) In the 1980s, I came in second/third two years running in a contest the prize of which was book publication. After grinding my teeth a while, I sent the book to UIL Press and it became one of their short fiction series: HOME FIRES (1982). I later worked with Ann Weir/Lowry for a number of years vetting mss. for them. That series had a design element that linked the covers: A big picture of the author's face. Thus, if I want to confront my first book of fiction I'm obliged to see how I looked then--the photo was from lilac season, 1979--I know that because the uncropped pic was all lilacs, and I have a beard and I shaved it off later that summer on the last day of being an extra on HEAVEN'S GATE. Anyway, it's a situation akin to comparing the cover of, say, SWEET BABY JAMES with a shot of SBJ today. Sigh.
e) So, hey, you unleashed a torrent this morning. Love the Stack.