Ten YouTube Videos I Can't Not Watch: Number 1-Tie-Double Rainbow Guy and Antoine Dodson

I proclaim Antoine Dodson and Double Rainbow Guy my two rock and roll heroes of 2010. Thank you both for keeping it alive.






Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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Ten YouTube Videos I Can't Not Watch: Number 2-"Double Dream Hands"

Thanks to the Rumpus for pointing me in this wonderful direction.



Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.




Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download.



Or try Ghost Notes the Ebook.

Ten YouTube Videos I Can't Not Watch: Number 3-Rachel Bloom, "Fuck me, Ray Bradbury"

Thanks for sharing, Rachel Bloom.



Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.




Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download.



Or try Ghost Notes the Ebook.

Ten YouTube Videos I Can't Not Watch: Number 4-Go Gos "Head over Heels" Live 1984

Take one megalomaniac, two certifiable hams, a mother of two from San Bernardino, and a drummer not afraid to launch a drumstick at any of them, and you got crazy mad rock and roll.



Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.




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Or try Ghost Notes the Ebook.

Ten YouTube Videos I Can't Not Watch: Number 5-Pomplamoose, "Another Day"

We have ten or twenty years of these types of bands ahead of us, and that's fine with me.



Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.




Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download.



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Art's Rock and Roll Writing Course Re-Ups for Winter 2011! Plus X-Mas Deals on Ghost Notes/Songs from Memory!

I'm finishing up the first semester of my rock and roll writing course at the Basement Writing Workshop, and I can't tell you how much fun it's been. What great projects my students have, and they're all getting better because they took this course.

It's great to be part of the rock lit revolution as it's happening.

"What rock lit revolution?" you ask.

Keith Richards's memoir Life just came out, for which Richards (and his co-writer) received a seven million dollar advance.

The last year has seen rock lit titles by renowned writers like Nick Hornby, Jennifer Egan and Steve Almond, and each has sold well. Even Jonathan Franzen's 2010 mega-blockbuster Freedom features a major character who is a rock musician.

And Patti Smith just won the National Friggin' Book Award for her Memoir Just Kids.

Sound like something you'd like to be a part of? Well, you can't just show up with your axe and expect to play Madison Square Garden. You have to work on your craft, as all of these writers (or co-writers) did. Here's how to start. Sign up for the Winter session of my online rock and roll writing course.

For my class, you can write fiction or non-fiction; as long as it's rock lit, you will have a place at the table. The class is ten weeks long, and you'll get your rock-tinged work critiqued by me and the others in the class, helping you make it the best it can be. And this all happens online, so you can take the class from the comfort of your home. Sound good? Sign up for the Winter 2011 term and get a discount!

Speaking of rock lit, who would like to read (probably) the best example of rock lit ever to be self-published? You think I'm kidding? Check out the crazy good reviews my novel Ghost Notes has received from complete strangers this year:

The Self-Publishing Review

PODBRAM

The Boogle

And here's the best news. My ridiculous deal from last Christmas is back!

You can buy a copy of Ghost Notes, or its companion piece, my solo CD Songs from Memory, from my web site for just $5!

Nowhere on the web will you find these items cheaper. Every copy of Ghost Notes comes signed by the author (he's an ornery cuss, but I can sweet talk him), and all orders of $20 or over ship for free! Would you like to get out cheap with four friends or family members this holiday season? This is the way to do it, and they'll all praise you for turning them on to such a great, rockin', outside-the-box read. Come on over to my store and save big (this book is $15 at Amazon).

I must have lost my frickin' mind to make this offer last year, and I'm certifiably insane to repeat it this year. Come take advantage of my cerebral malaise.

There's big news ahead in my neck o' the woods for 2011. It will include shopping my third novel, which is tentatively titled Good Night to the Rock and Roll Era; writing the screenplay for Stuck Outside of Phoenix; and starting a memoir project (see, if you make it all the way to the bottom of my posts you get rewarded). Much more on each of these in 2011.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.




Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download.



Or try Ghost Notes the Ebook.

Ten YouTube Videos I Can't Not Watch: Number 6-Pavement "Gold Soundz"

Why in the name of Jesus, Mary and Joseph did my band not make videos like this?



Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.




Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download.



Or try Ghost Notes the Ebook.

Ten YouTube Videos I Can't Not Watch: Number 7-Judas Priest Live

Will these stupid heavy metal gestures have a hold on me my whole life? God, I hope so.



Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.




Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download.



Or try Ghost Notes the Ebook.

Ten YouTube Videos I Can't Not Watch: Number 8-"Fucking Awesome"

Some questions in life we'd die to know that answers to. Others we'd rather not know. Still others we demand not to know. I don't know what's going on in this video, and I please don't tell me.



Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.




Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download.



Or try Ghost Notes the Ebook.

Ten YouTube Videos I Can't Not Watch: Number 9-Gangsta Goes Down Dancing the Dougie

Why this guy drifts into the street to show off his Dougie moves I'll never know, but 100,000 or so YouTube viewers are glad he did.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.




Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download.



Or try Ghost Notes the Ebook.

Ten YouTube Videos I Can't Not Watch: Number 10-Abba, "Waterloo"

Agnetha is on fire in this one.




Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.




Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download.



Or try Ghost Notes the Ebook.

Two Weeks Off

I'm in the middle of taking two weeks off of writing my novel-in-progress Good Night to the Rock and Roll Era. I normally don't take time off of writing. Taking time off of writing makes me irritable, but it became necessary as a few obligations needed my attention between now and the 15th, chief among them the painting of our house. Coupling not writing with this sort of real work is the kind of thing that, shall we say, does not bring out the best in your humble blogger, and I've been--or at least felt like--a jerk for a week.

The good news is that most of the hard part of the paint job is done, so maybe it won't be so bad from here on out. I just hope the rain lets up enough so we can get it in. If not, it might not get finished until May, which would be worse.

So wish me luck, and hopefully I won't fall off a ladder.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.




Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download.



Or try Ghost Notes the Ebook.

Abba Experiment

Watch and listen to the song below.



Now, try to quit singing it.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.




Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download.



Or try Ghost Notes the Ebook.

Two Things

Busy week here in the land where the law laid down, so not much time for the blog.

Still, you should know that this is your last week to register for my rock and roll writing course at the Basement Writers' Workshop! Who wants to write the next The Commitments, or A Visit from the Goon Squad, or High Fidelity? Yeah, me too, and I can help you. Sign up. It's going to be fun and rewarding, and it starts next Monday!

Secondly, Kel is finished reading my novel aloud to me, and while I think I have some work to do for revision, it's not an overwhelming amount. What does that mean? It means this novel is going to be ready sooner than I thought. I can see sending out query letters to a few agents by Dec. 1. I didn't expect there was any real chance of getting to this point in 2010, but there it is.

So, woo hoo for me!

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.




Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download.



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Infinite Jest

As I dropped in my last blog, I just started Infinite Jest.

Why am I starting Infinite Jest when my favorite contemporary author, Jonathan Franzen, just released his first novel in nine years?

Lots of reasons.

For one, I managed to miss entirely this book on its release in early 1996. I was kind of busy at the time.


Back then, I don't think I would've had the grace to accept that this guy had so clearly trumped me, and everyone else. He was being crowned king of something I liked to delude myself into thinking I could be king of one day, and the best my character could muster for Infinite Jest on its publication was to ignore it, to focus on my band, to grumble, "Well, once I really get going..."

That was over 14 years ago, and if I've managed anything in that time, I hope I've managed to respect--even herald--a contemporary's work when he or she does something great.

The irony of the above statement is that Infinite Jest's author, David Foster Wallace, recently took his own life after a lifelong battle with depression. Having missed the moment, I'd like to pay his memory the respect of giving his magnum opus a shot. We aren't greeted by great works of fiction of this scale very often, and I'd like to experience how great it really is.

Alas, I am a slow reader, and I will surely be reading other books as I work my way through it. I don't expect to finish Infinite Jest in 2010, but you never know.

I'm on page 50 right now, and loving it. The effort expended to notch up the writing of each of these scenes, each of these characters, each of these sentences, is pretty amazing. Now I'm curious if Wallace can sustain that kind of writerly attention throughout the novel. He might have been possessed enough to do it.

As someone who's just about finished writing a novel that's not even half the length of Infinite Jest, I can appreciate the effort.

So, think of me plugging away at Infinite Jest, and probably enjoying it, and probably letting you know how good it is at some point.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.




Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download.



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Reading Good Night to the Rock and Roll Era Aloud

I am going to reveal to you the secret to all of my writerly success.

I do everything a writer is suppose to do. I write daily. I edit what I write. I have my work critiqued by good beta readers.

I rewrite and revise.

I reconsider, and sometimes I start over.

While all of the above is important, it's only as important as this one final thing that each of my manuscripts has to go through before I can call it ready.

It has to be read aloud to me by my wife.

Nothing makes my book sing, or otherwise, like when I'm hearing it being read by Kel.

I can tell instantly what works and what doesn't.

I can tell what she likes and doesn't.

And just in case I miss it, she tells me what she likes and doesn't.

I can revise a manuscript 100 times, but it's not done until after this step. There's just something about the way it sounds coming from her that makes me know better than any other test whether the thing is ready or not.

My current novel-in-progress, Good Night to the Rock and Roll Era, is 545 pages.

We've read 139 pages aloud so far, with 406 to go. Kel's a trooper, but I can't help but feel guilty for making her read such a long book out loud. I'll try to make the next one shorter, but I can't promise.

I did just start Infinite Jest. Let's hope I don't get any crazy ideas.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.




Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download.



Or try Ghost Notes the Ebook.

Good Night to (this draft of) Good Night to the Rock and Roll Era

Yesterday, I finished and printed a draft of my current work-in-progress, my third novel Good Night to the Rock and Roll Era.

It's 545 pages, 124,000 words, longer than my first two novels combined.

With this draft in the can, I'm declaring this book almost finished.

What do I mean by that? Is it done or isn't it? Will you be able to get your hands on it soon?

Not really.

It means I think the major changes to the novel are done--the "who does what, when and what happens" are in place. I still have to fine-tune the manuscript, which means I have to make sure the characters act as much like themselves as possible at every moment, and the language sparkles throughout.

This will require another draft, but this draft will go quicker. Like, a few months.

Both of the last two drafts took eight months. That's while working on it four hours a day, five days a week. Sometimes six.

This stuff takes a long time.

It's been four years since I started this novel. I don't know how many drafts its been through. At least five. I always forget to count.

I will take a month off of it--I just need to forget about it for a while--but I will get back to it some time in October. Then I'll put in a few more months, write a query letter, and send the query letter out into the world, looking for a publisher.

All this by no later than March 1, 2011.

What happens then?

Someone buys the rights to it for a million bucks.

Okay, maybe a half-million.

(Come on. Let me dream.)

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.




Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download.



Or try Ghost Notes the Ebook.