How to pay the rent

Working for Demand Studios, writing these little articles for eHow.com has actually started to pay off. I've been getting faster at them, and getting a better idea of what they're looking for. It's going well, and it's good practice. I'm lucky.
All those famous writers had to start somewhere! Who knows where my writing will take me...I could just write How To articles for the rest of my life, or not. Hard to say. Anyway, just wanted to try to post this link to my profile at eHow, so in case your incredibly bored, you can check out the thirty or so articles I've published so far.

I haven't been able to use the "post a link" button on this blog very well, so I'm just gonna have to write out the text, and you can cut and paste it into your browser.

Talk to you soon!

http://www.ehow.com/members/ds_b81b7ce9-94c7-41e0-bb27-52c123ff20c5.html

"Fix me, oil me, match me with the next best thing."

I was walking down the street in my new neighborhood this morning - we're having beautiful weather here right now - and there was this warm breeze jostling everything. Apple blossoms from a yarded tree were taking flight and I impulsively caught one as it flipped into range; I just set my hand out and it cupped right in.

I had just come from Gwen's house - she fed me a hard-boiled egg and tea while I whiled away an hour telling her the story of my most recent conversation with The Good Doctor, the current keeper of this restless heart; and whom I must begin the darling process of letting go of.

Timing - universal games - the scope of which makes me look up into the swirl and sigh, why? Our connection is sweet, apparent and completely impossible to negotiate in the midst of the insane schedule of a practicing 4th year doctor-student.

So I work to remember that I am not in charge - that given the universal scheme of things, there has to be a purpose to this current winding phase of our relationship that doesn't include a scenario that would be more "exciting," to use her word. Other words from that conversation include "disappointing," "sad" and "fucked."

But I appreciate the wisdom of the ethereal that allows me to feel sad and frustrated while also gathering the gifts that involve learning about acceptance and practicing unconditional love. Why in the world we met now....well...that's not true...we met over a year ago, a month before I left town for a year (more universal hijinks!)...why we re-met in the middle of her own consuming journey is suspect.

I'm suspicious of what brings people together in this life. I don't mean in a dastardly way, maybe curious would be a better word. But, why throw sparks, grace, goodwill and endearment only to set it all aside for the greater good - for her to be a good doctor, and for me? Well, more will be revealed as to what this is all lending to my satchel of life's revelation.

And I don't regret any of it. I question it - and then I question my need to question and then I take a walk around the blocks and revel in the fleeting beauty of flowers drifting through the morning like uncaptured stars.

But I did catch one for a second, didn't I?

id magazine launches

Hey, this will be a quick post - and those of you who are on Facebook have already seen this - but for those of you who haven't, here's a link to the new magazine I'm writing for. I've tried a couple of times to make this a direct link, but can't seem to get 'er done, so you'll just have to go to this address yourself. Sorry for my computer lameness!

www.idmagazineor.com

I have three articles in this premiere issue - which is a pretty nice start, and I'm grateful that the editorial staff used me so liberally for this first issue.

My buddy Maria Callahan hooked me up with this outfit a couple of months ago and I found myself on the ground floor of this new little venture. Pretty lucky for me. The people behind the magazine have a lot of vim and vigor for this project, so we're all keeping our fingers crossed that it does well.


We have plans to put out at least two months worth of hard copies, but will probably eventually be producing this solely as an online magazine due to printing costs.

Currently I write a monthly column on local non-profits or community-minded enterprises. I'll also be doing the occasional news piece and a short feature here and there. I'm excited to continue writing for publication, and to be writing about people and places that are doing good work out there in the world.

So...there ya go!

Here's what's happenin'

At the moment, the cat is cruising around my wreck of a room. A friend brought over this massive beanbag chair and knocked over everything in the process. I haven't bothered picking anything up yet. I should take a picture of this thing...it's taking up my entire meditation room, it's hysterical. But it's super comfy, so I'm gonna have to make space for it up here somewhere.

So, what's going on. It's Tuesday evening, I'm pretty tired from not having slept much the last couple of nights.

Sunday night I took a two hour drive with my friend Maria down to Eugene to check out the Indigo Girls concert. They are so good. I don't talk about them nearly enough on this site, but they have given me a lot of pleasure over the years in terms of their music and concerts.



There they are. That's Amy on the left, Emily on the right.

These two have known each other since elementary school, in Georgia, but didn't start playing together until they met again while both at Emory University in the early 80's. They've been steadily putting records out since 1985 - winning a Grammy in '88 for best folk recording (and also losing the Best New Artist award to Milli Vanilli that year!).

I first saw them perform in San Francisco probably around 91 or 92. They were opening up for Hothouse Flowers at the Kabuki, but I didn't really start listening to them until 1995. That was the year that I went to Nepal and trekked around for a couple of months with several other ecology students. One of the students had a guitar and ONE song under his belt...the song "Closer to Fine" which is pretty much the staple Indigo song. By the time I left Nepal I didn't want anything to do with that song or anything associated with it.

But my friend Liz from that trip told me that I would probably like the band, and so I checked 'em out, and immediately fell in love. I've been in love with them ever since.

They're a great band to be in love with because they put out a record about every year and a half, and they're pretty solid. I've never been completely disappointed by any of their work; haven't always like every song, but it's always been worth the purchase price.

But truly, it's the live performances that I've come to love so much. They're quite the little events. Not a lot of flash, just a couple of women, playing their tunes. Sometimes they have someone playing with them, but most of the time it's just the two of them. And they just bang out song after song, creating this very swoony vibe throughout the concert hall.

And their audiences love them. Know all their songs, sing along, are appreciative and not annoying...it's a love fest, and it's fun. And the Girls love their fans and put together a nice set of old and new stuff. They know that the fans know all the lyrics and will break in the middle of a song and let the audience just sing an entire verse. It's a hoot. Anyway, not everyone's cup of tea, but that's okay, it's mine.

Here's a video of one of their classic songs. I never get tired of watching Emily play this solo. I also never get tired of trying to figure out Amy's outfits. I love her any way, bless her heart.




Indigo Fun Fact:

When they're not touring or in the studio churning out records, both of the girls have their own side projects. Amy's put out three solo albums and tours a lot on her own (saw her here back in February).

And Emily, well, it seems Emily is in the soundtrack business. And just recently she got together with my little friend Renee O'Connor (if you follow this blog, you know all about Renee O'Connor - but in case you've forgotten)



Well, okay, that's Renee as Gabrielle, to be fair to her.

Anyway.

Renee now makes independent films, and she just finished writing and directing her second movie (Words Unspoken) -and guess who did the soundtrack? That's right, Emily Saliers. Seems Renee is also quite the fan of their music, and so...being in that celebrity groove, it must be nice to say, "hey...wouldja mind?"

I haven't seen the movie yet, but I'll report back to you.

Anyway...so...there you go...that's what I did Sunday night. And here I've been writing and cutting and pasting and now it's later than I thought. So...hope you enjoyed this little blog - tomorrow I'll try to catch you up on the new magazine that just launched (with three articles of mine in it). But for now, I need to try to catch up on some sleep.

Those darned planets

A friend told me yesterday that Mercury was in Retrograde, which makes perfect sense given the incredibly frustrating week I've had with all things communicative.

Everything I own right now has seemingly bitten the dust...my truck is back in the shop, this time it looks like it's pretty done for. My mechanic, who is always so optimistic about my car, even said that this time there's not much he can do for it. "I can get maybe 5-6 months out of it by doing a couple of things, but...."

So, that's fairly bad news since I'm not really in the financially stable position of buying even a used car right now. So, I'm toying with the idea of just dropping a new engine in there. $1000 vs the $3000 or so on another car. I need to think kinda fast on it, 'cause my Mendocino gig is coming up and I need reliable transport down there and back.

In other news, this little computer I'm typing on is also acting up. It's now taking about ten minutes to boot up in the morning, and having all kinds of fits throughout the day. Now that I'm using it all day for writing, I've found myself on more than one occasion wanting to chuck the whole thing out the window. So...I'm looking at that purchase as well. My buddy Colin is going to take a look at it tomorrow, but I see a new laptop in the future.

In other, better news. Remember how I just told you about those little $5.00 articles? Well, it seems those come in waves and the powers that be at the web content warehouse I'm writing for just dumped thousands of new titles into the queue - $15.00 titles that are more suited for someone like me. So..I got rid of all the $5.00 articles in my assignment pile and grabbed up a satchel of $15.00 titles. Things like, "How to make a curry sauce." and "How to cook artichokes." So much better! And, working on an article for an hour at $15.00 feels much better than $5. Obviously.

So..there you go. Talk to you soon.

Just a quick word and some pics

Hey everyone, lest you think I've been sitting around slacking, I'll let you know that we've gotten ourselves firmly established in the Big Pink House and I've settled into a new little writing routine.

I'll talk more about that in a minute...but here's some pictures of my new digs.

The kitchen:



The dining and living rooms:



The four-leggeds:







So, I'm writing for this new Portland monthly - the first issue of id magazine comes out next week - we're all pretty excited about it. I hope it takes off! I'll be writing a monthly column on local non-profits as well as one or two small feature pieces or news items. This is a paid gig, which is obviously nice. I'm also going to supplement that income with this new thing I just picked up, writing small articles for an outfit that provides web content for websites such as LIVESTRONG.com and eHOW. I don't get paid much per article, but it will keep me in practice writing tight prose, and I get to learn a bunch of random stuff to boot.

For example, today I had two articles accepted: One describing how much energy a wind turbine produces, and the other on how you can properly send packages to troops in Iraq. The online warehouse works like this: I can choose from several hundred assignments in a queue, picking up to ten at a time. I write the article and submit it. Once it's accepted, I can choose another article and so on. At this point, I'm a newbie so most of these articles only pay $5.00 a shot. Obviously you need to get good at researching and writing quickly to make money. There are also $15.00 articles, but I'm working myself up to those as many of them are out of my range of expertise (talking about Jeep Cherokee transmissions, or building a satellite dish). The pieces are small. The one about the wind turbine only requires 150 words, so the trick is going to be to write well, and write quickly.

Obviously I can't spend all my time writing $5.00 articles, so I'm also putting energy into larger stories for magazines that will pay more. The goal, of course, is to at least make my rent through putting words on a page somewhere. I'm giving myself a year.

Thank goodness there's still random jobs out there for me, and this upcoming Mendocino cooking gig will keep me in this lovely house for awhile.

Okay, that's enough for now. It's late and time for shut eye.
Talk to you all soon!

Hey, I have a good excuse

I know I said I would be posting more frequently...and truly, that's my goal. But this past week has been pretty scattered what with moving and all.

So..I'm now firmly established in my new digs. Got the internet up and running and have most of my stuff unpacked. I've been spending most of the morning trying to find work and spinning about things out of my control so I decided that instead of continuing to spin and write dramatic emails that I likely won't send...I'll write to you folks instead.

So...my friend Joan and I moved from the Big Purple House into the Big Pink House. But this house is really only big enough for two, although we do have a third room that people could stay in on their way through town. I have no pictures to show you as of yet; I could take some today, but it's gloomy and rainy outside so I'd rather show you the beautiful rooms when the sunlight hits them.



Here's a picture of a lovely Portland street though. The Cherry trees have been in full bloom, lighting up sidewalks everywhere as the blossoms fall. It feels like a magical place here in the springtime. The rain and windstorms we're having should take care of whatever blossoms are still on, but then we get to enjoy all the greenery. It's been such a long winter, I'm glad to have a break from all those bare trees.

It feels good to be out of that house. The energy never felt right, despite how lovely the house was. We had a roommate situation too that was pretty unbearable. It wasn't her fault, she has some serious mental health issues to contend with, but it made living there very difficult. If I never hear "The Wall" again, it will be too soon.

In other news, I'm still trying to scare up work. My truck is on its last legs and my computer is also showing signs of giving up the ghost. I'm trying to stay in the land of abundance, even though right now I'm in the "fake it til you make it" mode, and it's a little tough.

But, I did recently get to go down to Southern Oregon and meet Corbin's son, Zephyr - who is a very sweet baby - here's a pic of the two of them - so that was a nice respite.



Next weekend I'll be traveling (I think) to Eugene to see the Indigo Girls, which should also be respite-like. But, I do hope to continue posting, although right now my spirits are a little dulled, so I don't find I have much to say. But, I'll give it my best shot folks.