So I just had my B-Day yesterday. It was a whole mess of fun. Valerie organized the whole thing because she totally loves me and she is three kinds of awesomeness, if not four. My buddies from high school who now live in New York, Chris and Zach, came. Annie and Ben Howington brought the fun and their awesome kid, Jack. And Val's cousin Sophie and work colleague/friend Caitlyn came.
We had Hawaiian haystacks which I dig to the Nth degree and Zach brought over a video of high school shenanigans. Zach has promised to post this thing on Youtube and when he does I will put up a link. You will be able to see my sweet mop hair(that looks like it still had color in it from the bleaching) and my awesome Gadzooks apparel type shirt. Basically, since me and my friends (who weren't Mormon by the way) didn't drink or do any drugs according to our communal beliefs at that time, we were very angsty, antsy teenagers with needs for release. So destruction became our past time.
The first part of the video shows us crashing this sophmore party where everyone was getting
smashed. We drove up Ben's truck, unloaded a bunch old appliances, and started smashing them with bats, axes, bowling balls. An exercise bike was used as a weapon at one point. The racket was so loud that it brought the cops but we escaped in time and went down the street to watch all these sophmore kids get busted. We watched from my best friend Ben's house as kids were crying, being written MIPs (Minor in Possession). Why? Because we enjoyed havoc.So this brings me to the current situation. Looking into my past and trying to divine a future. I've been thinking about goals. Sometimes throwing out into the open gives me further responsibility to accomplish them because of the possible shame-facedness of not.
IN THE NEXT YEAR
Pitch my cartoon to Adult Swim
Have half of the poems gathered for my book
See Conan O'Brien
Start a Brooklyn kickball team
Go see Roller Derby
Write in my blog at least once a week
Get a job I like (mostly)
Read the books of 30 poets I don't know
Get poems published 5 times in different journals
Commit myself to becoming a freelance essayist/journalist
Start to like running
Eat Cuban food
Watch 20 movies from the AFI list
Write a mess of songs with my buddy, Jon
Finish one-man show for Brady
Finish one-woman show for Valerie
Swim at Coney Island
And here's the big one, which I don't dare utter but I announced it last night. This is my most ambitious wish to date. But I guess we need ambitious goals.
BY THE TIME I'M 35
Win the Yale Younger Poet's Prize
I've never been much of a goal setter. But I'm going to try it this year. And go back and check these. Oh, plans!
i want to see this destruction of which you speak.
ReplyDeleteyou would have made a cunning addition to the Estranged Brothers of the Rebellion (EBR).
I don't need to hype you up on your goals. You know you're badass.
james, you hooligan.
ReplyDeleteand you have my vote for poet of the year.
I'll help you with the cartoon as needed. Good luck with the other crap. I will not help you with those, but... good luck anyway.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the encouragement. When I do post this video, everyone will hear my awful Mexican accent and know that I actually never knew one Mexican person until my 20th year.
ReplyDeleteI didn't post my nerdiest goal but I want to write a spec script for Lucas's Star Wars tv series. Oh man, what a dork I am.
Hey James! may the force be with you...NERD
ReplyDeleteActually that is quite cool, but i have been known to enjoy the nerdier things in life.
well played
hey, here's a hot tip for the Lucas script:
ReplyDeletebe sure to include cute characters like Bubble Vader and Luke Pillow Powder. Also put a whole lotta gawdawful CGI Jabbas/Jawas everywhere, and little computers that blip and bleep and blurp in the cutest and most whimsical of ways, cause as we know, Lucas has been feasting heartily from that table lately.
lol...Luke Pillow Powder! mighty fine work Joe. it would do James well to listen to your ideas.
ReplyDeleteJames, you might also want to add a scene at the end of each episode where Jedi's stop children from lighting fireworks in a dry field, and from taking candy from older men with windowless vans, and then teach them why such activities are bad, and they will never be a Jedi if they follow such foolish activities down road of the dark side. Then the Jedi's will look in the camera and say: Knowing the ways of the force is half the battle.
Or something like that.
If you are still taking requests for the Star Wars TV series script, can you work in a part with a rancor beast stampede? You can throw Jedi riders on them, or vestigial wings, or whatever it takes to sell the scene.
ReplyDeleteThere is a handsome reward if you succeed.
Or Sarlac finally gets a girl.
ReplyDeleteI reflected on my own past yesterday and realized that there was a definite change in my love for poetry/fiction/creative writing right around the time I loaded an old Rixida in my computer and read "Why I hate Novembers" for the first time. I don't remember liking poetry much before, and I don't remember not liking it afterwards.
ReplyDeleteBest of luck James.
What about two Sarlacs sucking face? Or some Rancors taking their rancor kids to the park? Or one of those snow beasts crying over some fallen ice cream. There's just a lot of unexplored species development in this franchise.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Steven. That was a nice comment. It made me smile. It lifted my spirits for the day.
Joe,
What is this EBR you speak of? I want to know more.