THE DOC’S DILEMMA

In LA it’s hot as a motherfucker – 90 degrees and unnaturally humid, and I’m wondering what the hell I’m doing here. Maybe Doc40 should have made like a New York Italian bakery and just closed up shop until September. Not that I’m exactly on vacation, quite the reverse, in fact. The truth is – to quote the good Captain Willard who I’ve quoted many times before – the shit is piling up so fast that I need wings to stay above it. Not that the shit is bad. My no means. It’s just that it keeps coming at me and I find myself slipping back, leaving mail unanswered, and all the other things that people complain about, plus the technological overhaul that I’ve been promising myself for months only advances in fits and starts and is still in phase where it continues to prove an inconvenience and I have yet to reap many labor-saving benefits.

At the root of the dilemma are books.  (Although yesterday I taped a segment for a TV show about Motorhead.)

First problem is that I’ve once again started writing one. And not just any book, part two of the whole big-ass alternate-history fantasy epic called Conflagration, that is the sequel to Kindling (see Funtopia) and Kindling is just about published in the USA (Tor Books). Thus a large portion of what brain I have left is taken up with breaking the creative inertia and getting that monster underway. I even reached the point of having to stop scaring the shit out of myself that the reelection of George Bush will mean hideous apocalypse. Of course, I still believe that, but I had to cool the obsession, and, anyway, Michael Moore is holding down the fort pretty damn well.

If you had all read Kindling, the blog prospect would be much easier to handle. I could write sidebar blogs all about plot points and the creative process, and you’d all know what i was talking about, but since most of you haven’t, you won’t and I can’t. And such insight is lost to world. Ah well. Do I now make myself completely clear?

And Kindling isn’t the only book being published. The UK, sometime about now, the Do Not Press are publishing a small format monogram o’mine called Gene Vincent – There’s One in Every Town. And I feel I have to spend a whole lot of time worrying about the response to these two items, and whether I’ll have a career or die in Van Gogh-style poverty.

So what do I do?

If Doc40 merely suspends operations for a while you’ll all hate me worse than you do now and never come back. If we had a proper bulletin board you could probably fight among yourselves until well into the fall, but we don’t, so again we’re screwed.

My best shot, neighbors, let me leave you with a check list.

Buy a copy of Kindling.

Buy a copy of Gene Vincent.

Keep on visiting Doc40, because the shit will be there, but maybe not everyday. But if their ain't nothing new, puruse the achives or read Slide On The Run on Funtopia. 

Keep those letters and cards coming.

Keep beating on Bush until the bastard goes away.

Give the Anarchist a valium.

But, meanwhile, the current LA, I have some comments on John Kerry...
http://lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=1061&IssueNum=58

And here's a funny/scary Jon Stewart breakdown of the Way It Works that comes via some girl

THE PROCESS
 
Thursday, July 15, 2004 - Jon Stewart - The Daily Show - Comedy Central

Talking Points: Keeping up with current events

Jon Stewart: "It's not easy keeping up with current events. As soon as you catch up, more happens. That's where conventional wisdom fits in. Conventional wisdom is the agreed upon understanding of an event or person. John Kerry is a flip flopper. George Bush has sincere heartland values and is stupid. What matters is not that the designation be true just that it be agreed upon by the media so that no further thought has to be put into it. So how is conventional wisdom arrived at? For instance, let's take the example of the addition of John Edwards to the Democratic ticket. I don't know how to feel about that. I don't know what it means. Here's how I will."

CNN: "This is 28 pages from the Republican National Committee. It says, "Who is Edwards? It starts off by saying a disingenuous, unaccomplished liberal." We also saw from the Bush-Cheney camp they released talking points to their supporters."

Jon Stewart: "Talking points. That's how we learn things. But how will I absorb a talking point like "Edwards and Kerry are out of the mainstream" unless I get it jack hammered into my skull? That's where television lends a hand."

Fox News: "He stands way out of the main stream."

CNN - Terry Holt, Spokesman for Bush Camp: "way out of the main stream."

CNN - Communication Director, Bush-Cheney: "He stands so far out of the main stream."

CNN - Lynn Cheney: "He's so out of the main stream."

CNN - Terry Holt: "They're out of the main stream."

CNN - Frank Donatelli, GOP Strategist: "well out of the main stream.

Jon Stewart: I'm getting a feeling. I think, I think they're out of the main stream. But, what if I wonder why?

CNN - Frank Donatelli: "two of the foremost liberal senators of the US Senate."

CNN - Crossfire: "two of the four most liberal senators of the US Senate."

MSNBC - Ed Gillespie: "the most liberal rated senator in the US Senate."

Hardball - Lynn Cheney: "the most liberal senator of the Senate."

Fox News: "who was rated as the number 1 liberal in the US Senate."

Fox News - Elizabeth Dole: "the number 1 most liberal senator in the US Senate."

Jon Stewart: Wow! Those guys are liberals!! In fact, if I didn't know better, I'd say they're the first and fourth most liberal in the whole Senate. Wow! And while we don't have any idea what that means and where those rankings come from and how they were arrived at or whether it's even true, I don't like the sounds of it. And it's certainly not something for the media to question. As a matter of fact, I would imagine people like that, liberal and out of the main stream, hang out in some pretty extreme places.

ABC - This Week - Lindsey Graham: "talking about the hatefest."

CNN: "Hollywood hatefest."

Fox News: "last Thursday night's hatefest."

Pat Boone: "Radio City Music Hall hatefest"

Jon Stewart: "Yeah. See, out of the main stream, liberals, and hatefest. Keeping up with current events is easier than you thing. Talking points – they're true because they're said a lot."

CRYPTIQUE – It should be, but it ain’t.