Category: Arts & Letters

Some things I learned from the book release party

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment
The Dover Friends meetinghouse decked out for the occasion. Photo by Jeremiah Dickinson.

It was a lot of fun and had people really excited. Of course, a presenter learns a lot by doing it, too, leading to refinements.

Among the things on my list:

  • Focus on reading a section or two from the book. Save more of the chat for Q&A time.
  • Resize the photos to fit the screen. Or, for online presentations, the Zoom format.
  • Create memes, including more effective maps.
  • Pack a tall music stand to hold the script, in case a lectern or the equivalent isn’t available.
  • Don’t try to use split screen when showing slides and trying to read my script from the same laptop in a darkened room.
  • Venmo is a definite sales help, even with an older crowd.
  • Think about attire that also works in the dark.
Talking about the book itself. Photo by Maggie Fogarty.

Before hearing the sales pitch

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

my list: Desert Boots so I’ll have a very comfortable pair of shoes at the office, but it turns out that the original kind are impossible to find, and pricey but rather than being upset by that fact today, I found myself intrigued by the hunt, I’ll just keep watching and waiting a jaunty rain-repellant windbreaker to replace the decade-old one my now ex-wife gave me which I’ve never really liked, color or cut, even when it drew favorable comments, it just wasn’t me or a dressy raincoat as in a London Fog, I still wound up buying some nice, and essential, overdue items, including winter boots the old L.L. Bean muck-luck style, but fun and necessary for a New England winter now I can mud it up with the best of the locals and keep my head up and a new wallet as for the Japanese robe or pea jacket very nice cut but still more than the one at the sporting goods store), not yet a consumerist, yrs truly in comfy new wraps

Writing versus real life

~ Jnana Hodson ~ 4 Comments

There are many reasons I spend so much butt time at the keyboard, as poet/novelist Charles Bukowski once compressed the practice.

I’ve examined some of them elsewhere, but what I’m circling back to today is the necessity of bringing some kind of order to the seeming chaos of what happens to each of us in “everyday life,” at least through the lenses of my own encounters.

What emerges is hardly objective, no matter my training in objective journalism. If anything, I lean on the hopeful side of history. The side we see as progress, even in the face of the clouds of doom.

Long ago I crossed a threshold where I couldn’t move forward without drawing on so much that had accumulated before then. I think of it as turning the compost, to give it air and enrichen future crops, worms and all. Yes, those blessed red wigglers. Or wrigglers, depending on your spelling.

Am I self-deluded? Or is my practice of writing one of prayer, even in the face of so much hopelessness?

What is life, anyway, apart from what we experience subjectively?

So here we are, all the same.

Keep writing, those of you in this vein. No matter the outcome.

 

Beloved saintly Tess hear my confession

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

because I haven’t really known how to shop for myself expertly I’ve hated selecting birthday or Christmas that is, excepting books and records and a few groceries I’d like for myself you’d think spending would be a simple if you had enough cash and my dependable depression reflected insufficient variety or sassy style on the racks here but price tags on anything I desired conveyed, As I learned, kid, look, you aren’t worth anything as far as your job and life are concerned and maybe if you stole from dying widows or threw single-parent kids into the street, you’d be rich and then honestly, most men still dread shopping so what do you really want in gift wrapping?

Cutting the book’s trim size cut my royalty

~ Jnana Hodson ~ 3 Comments

You might think it’s a minor thing, deciding whether your new book should be 9-by-6 inches or the usual trade paperback 8½-by-5½ inch dimension, but the smaller trim size does look and feel more professional, even elegant.

It’s easier to retrieve from some of my bookshelves, too.

It comes at an added cost, though – an additional $1.40 or so, out of my royalty.

You wouldn’t expect that for the smaller size, would you?

At some point, that might be the swing factor in raising the cover price.

For now, I simply want this one to be just right. Besides, it will still take a lot of sales for that difference to add up, and we are dealing with the story of a small faith community which just might not have that much interest for anyone else unless this takes off like, well, something about covered bridges in Iowa.

 

Reflecting on the upcoming Met broadcast season

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

Each fall, donors to the Support the Met Broadcasts campaign receive a handsome program guide to the upcoming opera season.

I’ve kept mine, going back to 2005, and find they make a fine reference collection regarding both the plots and performers.

My own listening experience goes back to Joan Sutherland’s first role there in late 1961 or ’62. It was exciting, even through all of the AM radio static of the day.

While much of the core repertoire remains the same, there are also new productions and new or rare works, and it’s interesting to see how these are lined up.

What struck me in the new booklet is how few of the singers’ names I recognized.

When I first started listening, the leading performers were celebrities, often household names and gossip column fodder.

It was a tight circle at the top, in this country and in Europe, enhanced by handsome multidisc LP albums.

Think Pavarotti or Callas.

Well, times have changed, as has the focus. The singers are often more musically informed, and they’re required to physically to act and project their roles in sometimes demanding stagecraft. As for the sets and costumes? This is the height of theater.

The amazing thing is how many fine performers there are now, and they’re active far beyond the confines of the Met and its elite sisters.

There’s a similar shift in the conductors. I recognized only six who will be in the pit. The biggest surprise was seeing the Pittsburgh Symphony’s maestro among them, and he’s considered solid but hardly superstar. (Consider that a compliment, by the way.)

What’s significant is that one-fifth of them are women, one leading two separate operas. The cadre is growing.

What’s missing, though, is American-born conductors. They are active on the symphonic scene globally.