Where most of the daily action is....

https://twitter.com/josephpatchen

Organizing and Planning

Since TWITTER is the actual newsfeed for the internet blogs have become blobs with less and less relevance. But I like my blog and I want to use it more.

Really.

As I venture back out of the wilderness I have been doing a lot of thinking. And with some big news pending I can only do one of two things: 1. Close this blog or  2. Get off my ever expanding butt and get back to work.

What choice is there? The only thing to do is to re-immerse and do what our gut tells us. As other blogs and e-zines go by the wayside destiny is calling.

My plan is to bring reviews of classic works, both in literature and film. Classic works being the older stuff many of you millennial types may have not heard of. Classic works, the foundation upon we are built which may explain much of the muck and crap we have to trudge through today to find that gem.

It's time.

#Hiroshima GIVE ME A BREAK

As you are I also on Twitter and came across this gem. In this thread swarms of moon-bats are declaring Harry Truman's decision as 'the greatest act of terrorism ever'. What this string clearly demonstrates is a total lack of intelligence and complete naivety into human nature.

Do you want to measure a public school education? Read this thread and realize no ruler will be required.

And by the way there is no mention of Pearl Harbor or World War II or the atrocities brought by Japan in the far east.

AND finally, I have a bet those posting have no clue who Harry Truman was. I added him.

We haven't forgotten you or forgotten to post

Just dealing with life, moving from city to city and dealing with a divorce. We are still here and will be going forward. Catch us on Twitter too @josephjpatchen 

Check us out on TWITTER

where we riff.....

https://twitter.com/josephpatchen

Are We Becoming Obsolete In Our Time?

For the most part it seems that, as far as platforms are concerned, that websites were replaced by Facebook and blogs have been replaced by Twitter. Just recently I was invited to enter a contest where the story could only fit in a comment box.

While I am a great fan of brevity, my fear is that we have fallen out of love with the written word. That the emotions we seek to evoke will become as impersonal as a post it note.

While it is true that the art of writing lies in finding the right word, that simple word shouldn't shield the reader from the greater, broader experience.

If we continue in this trend a symbol will someday replace language. If you think I am crazy just look at signs on your local road.

Words shouldn't be spared but embraced; but embraced in a natural flow and rhythm that can only evoke emotion in the reader be it love, hate and/or comfort.

We Are On Twitter A Lot

@josephpatchen

I am tweeting a lot. Its like a return to my stand up days. Okay I try to be funny and timely... I try

Tweeting and Twittering and if I play any more with these words it will probably sound obscene

You can follow me on Twitter @josephpatchen or @josephjpatchen

So we tweeted about Link Wray

And I was stunned by the reception in one way but not in another way.

My tweet was why isn't Link Wray in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

Well, why?

It seems to me that innovators are punished these days; ignored and even shunned in favor of the shiny, the bland and the new.

Literature and music are very much intertwined the same way typing and noise are. To those who are true artists, and true means you are an artist by birth, as opposed to having a degree saying you are an artist; art is innate and spiritual; art is internal and visceral and true art changes those who come after.

Link Wray did that.

So why isn't he in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

This one bothers me.

Heaven Help Us We Are On TWITTER

The ultimate unfiltered platform now has the ultimate unfiltered brain. Yes we are on. I will behave I am just trying to spread my words. We are @josephpatchen thanks.   

Standards of Intelligence Are Actually For The Misguided

Collectively we tend to demarcate certain measures where those in the same vocation are to assess themselves. So-called 'standard bearers' are there to quantify our own talents and our own competence in relation to or colleagues.

Yet it seems to me this waste of competition is nonsensical and that every time I run across one of these yardsticks it falls short from the start.

For news it is always the  'New York Times'. For a paper that wins awards, and therein lies the problem, it seems it has always had difficulty in getting the to and out the truth out. Whether its the Spanish-American War, the existence of Concentration Camps in Germany, and a celebrated wunderkind writer who paints tales of being overseas while chomping on pizza in his Manhattan loft; I can't it seriously.

And while we are in Gotham, what about those cartoons in 'The New Yorker'? The vague insipid caricatures that Seinfeld's show so successfully slew with sarcasm. I actually had a friend from the City tell me she knew whether or not to pursue a romantic relationship with someone depending upon that person's reaction to the 'joke' from that issue's cartoons.

Really? Really.

What brings me to this point is a recent editor I spoke with in connection with a new set of classes I am going to teach told me the sure sign of writing excellence and overall talent is possessed in the simple test of brevity. Those who can write a story in less than two hundred characters is a true story teller; in other words embrace the 'twitter-verse' the future of fiction. If you can't, then he told me, you can't write.

Right? Right.

When writing consider the editor who is going to chose. Prizes, awards, degrees and  punch-less statements  may seem clever to some, but if someone believes he is clever he isn't and its best you stay away from those who look to mold you and constrict you.

To be an artist, a true artist, is to expand and experiment but also push for more. One line stories and twitter tales are cute exercises and exercises only; in the same way flawless jumping jacks may look impressive, but will never win a game at any sport. 

"Gloomy Gus' realization the 'self-control' is what WAS missing in his life came ironically too late as his car flipped over the cliff."

In days prior this would be first line to a story now it is the story. We are missing a lot in our writing these days.

To Twitter or Not to Twitter

Our dear friend Anonymous-9 heaped some heavy praise on yours truly this morning throughout the blogosphere for my writing style on the latest Noir review on Lurid-lit. I am grateful to her for her kind words. She did raise a question though that perhaps we should consider. When she retweeted her statements to her six hundred followers on Twitter the question arose----should we be there too? For those who know me, technologically I'm as big an idiot as I am a big idiot, however would the technology serve our writing? I never thought of it before. I always thought Twitter was used for either short inciteful statements or unabomber rants parcelled out a sentence at a time. While I don't see myself as inciteful I can certainly do the latter since I do live under a bridge and am usually found walking around Milford Connecticut carrying a large heavy bag and a broken badminton raquet. Now I just have to get over the idea of saying, with a straight face, "I'm going to Tweet you." To be continued....

Book Review Posted on Luridlit NOW!!!

James Hutchings "Two-Fisted Tweets" gets my look on this installment of Luridlit.com. These are horror, sleaze, and science fiction tales told in a simple tweet. Forty of them in all. Take a peek or give a tweet.