Fighting Pose

Once you start posting cat videos, there's no going back, but I promise to post only the best ones. For example...



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 Japan TV

The deeper you dig, the weirder it gets.



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.

Stuck Outside of Phoenix, the Movie and more for 2011

Here's my 2011 newsletter, which just went out to my email list this past weekend.

So much going on in my neck o' the woods in 2011.

First, I've finished my third novel, which is called Badge, which you can read the blurb of here. Badge is out at a few places right now, and I hope to have some good news for you soon. (Where would we be without hope of good news soon?)

Second, I just finished the screenplay adaptation of my first novel Stuck Outside of Phoenix, which will be made into a feature film by Nico Holthaus. Nico is best known for directing the movies Mill Avenue Inc., Beneath the Beauty and the very recent DVD project with Krist Novoselic, Ralph Nader, and other world leaders in Direct Democracy. I've always liked and sympathized with Nico's films, which is why I approached him in 2010 with the idea of Stuck the Movie. Nico can be trusted with Stuck because he lived and breathed the Tempe music scene in the early 1990s, which is where and when the story takes place, and because he can talk Dungeons & Dragons until the cows come home, which has nothing to do with the project but, you know, is kind of cool. When will the movie be ready for you? Let's let Nico do his thing, but know it's being shot this spring, and know it will kick booty. Think Singles but better.

Also, to celebrate the coming film, I've reduced the price of the ebook version of Stuck Outside of Phoenix to $2.99. That's right. For less than the cost of a trip to Starbucks you can be read and enjoy the hell out of Stuck on your fav ebook reading device, or on your computer! Get a head start on the movie. Try it here.

Third, the latest incarnation of my Rock and Roll Writing Course at the Basement Writing Workshop is set to launch! March 28th is the start date. If you follow the publishing industry at all, you'll recognize a lot more noise coming from the rock lit camp these days. (And here's to Jennifer Egan for winning the National Book Critics Circle Award this past week for her rock novel A Visit from the Goon Squad, which beat out Jonathan Franzen's Freedom for the honor). Do you want to be part of the rock lit revolution? Well, it can only happen if you write well, and that's what this class is all about. Click here to sign up.

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.

Totally Insane Butter Making

Something tells me that butter isn't the only totally insane product of this farm.



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 Thousand Maniacs "Like the Weather"

Betty Draper as brunette lead singer.



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.

More than a Feeling

I always imagine this song as the theme song of the movie version of a novel that I have yet to write.



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: The Movie

So I watched ABBA: The Movie last night.



Anyone who follows my Facebook page knows my fondness for the 70s Swedish mega-sensation. I was at just the right age when ABBA started coming on the radio, and as a kid I combed Target's music section for anything by them. I came home with Gold, a greatest hits collection, and a little later Super Trouper, which really solidified their presence at the top of the American radio play heap. Spending a Friday night watching this movie sounded like a good time to me.

If you've seen similar rock-themed movies from the 70s (Kiss Meets the Phantom, Rock 'n' Roll High School), you'll have some idea how stilted the plot of this movie is. A radio DJ follows ABBA around on their Australian tour, trying to get that "exclusive up-close interview" with the band his boss is demanding from him. In many unfortunate twists of fate, he can't get the interview, leading to various attempts at subterfuge and run-ins with the tour manager. It's a completely lame storyline, even by rock movie standards, and the narrative portions of the movie are tolerated only to get to the nuggets of ABBA's live shows, which were recorded in places like Sydney, Perth, Melbourne and Adelaide in 1976.

These live segments evoked so much for me. They reminded me how great some of ABBA's music is. I'd all but forgotten about "Fernando," which, like all great but forgotten music, hit me more powerfully for having forgotten it. The live segments also reminded me of a time when watching band members perform could produce mystique. I wanted to know more about the individual members. What were their relationships like? Is Agetha a prima donna? Is Frida the jealous type? Having been in a few bands myself, I'd become jaded about this kind of gossip, expecting I knew the ins and outs. This inter-married, intermingling foursome re-opened mysteries I'd long ago thought solved.

The live segments also made me miss the days when everyone and their brother couldn't participate in the music industry. I've said on countless occasions that our current music climate is much better than the one from ABBA's day, when megalomaniacs or, worse, corporations controlled which artists got heard. Thank goodness these interests no longer dominate music. You can record whatever you want, sell it on iTunes, and if people buy it, you've succeeded in the music business.

Still, that doesn't mean we haven't given up something, and that something is the sense that when listening to music we're participating in something larger than ourselves. In the movie, I watched the kids in the audience at the concerts, and I recognized myself as a seven year old, and a little bit of myself of today. We all love ABBA in the same way, and that makes us feel less alone.

And loving ABBA doesn't make me greedy to keep the band to myself, the way I would later feel about bands like the Replacements. It's pure, and better in its way. If people halfway around the world loved ABBA--or U2, or Metallica--people halfway around the world couldn't be that bad. As much as I love the Shins, I don't get the impression the world is singing along to "New Slang" with me.

That's what we've lost with the downfall of the music business, that sense that we're enjoying music en masse. Maybe someday music will be vital again at that level. Until then, we have our favorite hip-pocket bands, and our memories.

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.