What Is A Writer?

What would you say if you were asked this question? While going through a box of junk and stuff I found these two short answers to this question people ask from time to time.

What is a Writer?

A writer writes.
A dancer dances.
Romantics like to live romances.
A fighter fights.
A singer sings.
A player plays.
A stringer strings.
A skater skates.
And maters mate.
A rater rates and daters date.

Performers like to put on shows
and pray no dozers are there to doze.

A painter paints.
A saint, he saints.
(Though some, I've noticed, really ain't.)

A thriller thrills.
A killer kills.
(And when he's your neighbor it gives you chills.)

A cook cooks.
A looker looks.
A bookworm plows through piles of books.
A cock crows.
A crow crawks.
A rose is a rose, it isn't rocks.

What is a writer?
I know you knows.
A writer writes.
That's how it goes.

* * * *

What is a Writer?

We know that satirists satirize,
that theorists tend to theorize.
A speciliast tends to specialize
and a publicist will publicize.
Eulogists verbosely eulogize
while economists economize.
Does  galvanist galvanize?
A Calvinist calvinize?
What happens when socialists socialize?
How do botanists botanize?
Just what does a pianist pianize?
In what manner do botanists botanize?
What do realists realize?
And what do idealists idealize?
You seldom see chemists chemize,
though makers of idols oft idoliz.

As for writers, I dunno...
When they're fertile they tend to grow.

* * * *

Dylan's Concert For One

If you're a regular follower of the Never Ending Tour, then this is old news... but it was fun to find that last month in Philadelphia Dylan assembled his team to do a concert for one. It seems our man Bob is determined to continuously confound. Who would have thunk he'd do a Super Bowl commercial? We've known he was an artist but who expected a sculpture show? A radio hour, books of his paintings, and other surprises seem to pop up in unexpected ways.

That's what makes sites like ExpectingRain.com so much fun to visit. The contributors are committed to sharing the never ending story.

For the concert in Philadelphia on the afternoon of November 23 only one ticket got sold. There were plenty of seats, but a very thin audience. That lucky patron was a Swedish fan, Fredrik Wikingsson who has a television show there... in Sweden, not Philadelphia.

Here's a video about the event, Experiment Ensam, contributed by Egil Mosbron.

Or if you prefer the music alone, here's another source.... now being shared by popular demand. Yes, he's still the king of cool.

The set list that afternoon went like this:

1. Heartbeat (song by Buddy Holly)
2. Blueberry Hill (song by Fats Domino)
3. You're Too Late (song by Lefty Frizzell and Hank Williams)
4. Key To The Highway (song by Charles Segar)

Historical classics and tributes, and none of his own songs. Maybe this is in part prelude to his own upcoming album in which he does Frank Sinatra covers, though this Forbes story claims that Dylan is not really doing covers, but rather is "lifting them out of the grave and bringing them into the light of day."

I began checking out the lyrics to these songs and found something else they have in common. Or thought I had. Fats Domino's classic begins, "I found my thrill on Blueberry Hill." It's just a line nearly everyone is familiar with.  The Buddy Holly tune Dylan began with also had the word "thrill" in it.  "I know that new love thrills me..." he sang.

This got me thinking I'd found something. So I checked out the lyrics to You're Too Late.

If I had someone that's true
It would thrill me through and through

There, it's another thrill. When I finally scanned Key to the Highway, my investigation broke down and I realized I'd been overthinking it.

Anyways, the concert must have been a thrill, even in its brevity.

Keep on truckin'.

Dylan the Elder Statesman painting by ennyman.

No Country for Old Men

Cormac McCarthy's book No Country for Old Men is an incredible story so very well told. I listen to audio books and this one made me want to keep driving. I could hardly wait for the morrow's commute.

It's one of the classic thriller story lines. An ordinary person accidentally gets caught up in extraordinary circumstances. Dustin Hoffman in Marathon Man is a nail-biter example of this genre. A Simple Plan, with Bill Paxton and Billy Bob Thornton, is another.

And like any exceptional story, No Country has memorable characters. Llewelyn Moss is the unfortunate man who while hunting comes across a dope deal gone bad in the expansive back country of South Texas, and ends up with a satchel containing two million dollars in cash. There's a lesson here, though it is never stated as such: if you ever find a couple million dollars that are not yours, it's best to just stay out of it. Even though everyone involved in the transaction appears shot up and pretty much finished off, Moss knows that there will likely be others coming for the money. Little does he know how bad one of these others is.

NOTE: This Review Contains Spoilers

The guy who keeps you sitting straight up in your seat, and may keep you awake at night after, is Javier Bardem as Anton Chiguhr. Think sugar and chigger, and you have this pathological, human version of The Terminator, relentless in pursuit and seemingly indestructible. Nothing sweet about this man whose conscience is dead and determination unstoppable. Your heart rate increases every time he's on the screen.

No Country for Old Men has been receiving fabulous reviews. The Coen brothers (Fargo, O Brother, Where Art Thou?) wrote the screenplay and directed this first rate film. Like another current book adaptation, Charlie Wilson's War, there is much that has to be sifted out and only hinted at, lest we have something tiresome to watch after a while. The Coens were successful at creating the emotional tension that is generated by the book.

How did they do it? One noteworthy item is the total absence of a music soundtrack. They deserve high praise for avoiding the commercial temptation to make a music bed that would generate additional revenues afterward. Instead, they went the direct opposite way with this film. No music, no sound at all in the opening or closing credits. No fake strings section to tip viewers off that something bad is coming. The tension is created totally by the intersection of characters and circumstances. And it does get intense.

In terms of execution the film was flawless. Congrats to the Coens for their ability to bring everyone together and pull off this kind of feat.

But there were a number of problems for me with this film adaptation. First, Tommy Lee Jones as Sheriff Ed Tom Bell. I mean, I just couldn't get past that this was Tommy Lee Jones playing a caricature of himself. He has been in too many movies where he's this hard boiled veteran whose seen too much of life. It is through his eyes that we see the story unfold. As a central character he plays this role well, but I know him as an actor from The Fugitive to Men In Black and, gosh, couldn't we find anyone else to do this? Sorry, guys. That's how it was for me.

Second, some have criticized the short amount of time Woody Harrelson is onscreen. Yep. He is a more important character in the book. Like William Hurt's brief appearance in Syriana, it was not necessary to have such star power here. O.K., it maybe sells more tickets at the box office? I really liked this character in the book, and Harrelson does play Carson Wells the bounty hunter very well, but I just don't know.

I consider both of these criticisms relatively minor compared to my one major criticism. It simply ended too fast in too confusing of a manner. I think a tight, fast ending is usually great in films so that they do not drag on after the final rush. The problem here is a tight, fast and confusing ending. If I had not read the book, I would not have known what happened. And I am not talking about the scene where Chiguhr is hit by the car. I'm referring to the preceding homicides that end the cat-and-mouse drama.

The reason this is a problem is that, in my opinion, the last emotion one should have after this kind of a thrill ride is that same relief you get when the roller coaster slams back into the station and they unlatch the mechanisms that keep you in the car. Relief. Catch your breath. Instead of a big "wow," I left the theater perplexed and disappointed, with jumbled thoughts. Instead of being in awe at the way they created such a fabulous film, I walked out baffled, dampened by the lack of clarity in the films last scenes. This should not have happened.

I still think it a powerful film and worth seeing if you like this kind of story. It will put you on the edge of your seat.