Does that title suck or what? Todays first item in the mosylikelysoontoberenamedcolumn Dispatches From The Abyss; I need a new name for this column.
I grew up reading Herb Caen… One of the all-time great newspaper columnists, though I am obviously prejudiced. How can I resist trying out a column format now that I have a place where we can write anything we want? Herb was known as the father of three dot journalism….
Those who know my style(s) can see his influence there. Though I tend to use the three dots differently…I like the rhythm they give. I have no idea where all the exclamations points come from…except the desire to see peoples heads esplode when I use way too many exclamation points. But to me they signal a rising upbeat tone at the end of a sentence…and I like that!!!
One of the many fascinating things to me about writing is thinking about and trying to figure out how other people perceive/read what I write. Are they hearing the voice I am trying to project inside their head the way I am trying to project it? Is that why people seem to like my writing? Or are they hearing it in a completely different tone and tenor and emphasis etc. than I am trying to convey and I am just lucky enough to be misinterpreted well?
We will never really know, because I don’t think that can be communicated. So anyways…I am going to occasionally write a column…like this. But I need a good name. You can suggest one if you want…that works sometimes. There is a sports writer in SF (Nevious?) who has a weekend column called Cheap Shots, Deep Thoughts and Bon Mots (or something close). I want to steal that, but that would be wrong!
In this column of random buhdyisms there will occasionally also be Meat.
But not today.
Today all I have are thoughts on what a beautiful planet we live on. Everywhere I have ever been the Earth itself has been pretty amazing. Even in spite of everything Humankind has done to make it as ugly as possible. Recently Hurricane Henriette blew through this part of Baja and dumped the best gift a desert can get….which leads to….A Sade Break!!!
It’s 75Km from my little town down to Cabo, with the ocean on the right. All the way down, an explosion of life….a cacaphony of verdancy all around….relatively speaking. In Hawaii, there was Too Much Life. The jungle overgrew everything, rot and mold was everywhere. Mosquitos. Loud frogs singing at night…..A volcano. Life, activity, unceasing dynamism.
Moving from there to a very desert environment in my first stop in Mexico was…well I am not sure what it was! Saying it was different or a contrast just doesn’t do it justice. The desert there wasn’t even what we tend to think of as desert from the movies, rolling Sahara dunes. There is plenty of life there. But it is not as busy. You can’t HEAR things growing. The silence was amazingly refreshing. I loved HI, but I think I am more of a type that resonates to the stillness of the desert.
My new town is Lifey-er. Still desert sagebrush, but a flowing stream as well that feeds the palm trees and makes things green and a little moist.It is a noticeably cooler here as well., the sun doesn’t seem as unrelenting or as fierce, a really, really nice compromise. I’ll try to remember to take the camera next time and get some pics before everything dries out again. The desert after a rain is my new standard of earthly beauty. At least until I move again! Like I say, I have never seen a part of the earth that wasn’t somehow…in its own unique way beautiful.
Have you?
Other people have bad hair days, I have bad satellite days. (it helps not having much hair!) Today is one of them and I am running at WELL below dial-up speeds. Hopefully it will clear up later, but for now it will take me a lllllllllllooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggggggggggg time to respond to comments. I have been trying to do some research on the costs of the war and on what kind of coverage the STRIKE! is getting, but I am pulling my hair out at the sloooooowness of it. Which of course, helps avoid bad hair days!
Todays Abyss Report: Still there, still yawning.
I sure do wish the Democrats would stop poking it with sticks and could somehow get the Armageddonist Republicants to stop throwing things at it and taunting it.
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“The Proctoscope… Or The View From Here”?
… this is my favorite post of yours, buhdy.
Can’t wait to see the pics.
catchy title you could go with:
on dit,
(French.)
1. they say; it is said.
2. a piece of gossip; report.
Ex. I thought it was a mere on dit (Benjamin Disraeli).
I know it is a very old term, but pretty concise and covers a good deal of territory.
Usually when I am reading somebody I really like, I start out thinking Yes, yes, this is great I can do something as good as this!!!! I am just like that little train that could. Then by the time I get to the end of a very enjoyable piece of writing, I think wow, that was great, there is no fucking way I can write like this.
In general, I am brilliant inside my own head, and less so when it all comes out. In my head there is a glorious opera, and then when it comes out: alley cats singing outside window at three o’clock in the am.
something a little different, from time to time, and, I think, good for the psyche, as well.
I enjoy hearing of your “relationship” with the environment and your surroundings here and there — there is always beauty to be found!
is the 1’s that sneak in with your row of !!!!!’s when youre REALLY excited about something.
and i dont hear your voice when i read your writing….
i have to think on title suggestions, though.
Meanderings: Away from the Abyss!
and oddly enough… I tend to use the three dots and !!! a lot in my conversational, blog comment writing too. I wonder if there is indeed a connection? I sure never thought of it before.
I really like the title as is and am glad you will make it a regular speil. Nicely done.
I also agree about the difference between the tropics in HI and the still dryness of the desert. I got real tired of having everything I put on the floor be green with mold in the morning when I lived on the Big Isld.
The desert is intense, but it is stunning in its beauty, espcecially when you pay attention to how life survives in these extreme temperatures… lessons we will all have to heed before long.
SF Chron’s great jazz and general scene critic of yore.
It would appear buhdydharma, that by odd coincidence, we occupy the same abyss. That is to say, i too have a place in Baja Sur, although somewhat more North. What is the name of this village of which you speak? Mine is Santa Rosalia
a practice frowned upon by the grammarians among us.
I like the ( …) …cause it makes writing more conversation-like. If you ever do public speaking from a written speech, the practice of using the ellipses does much to slow you down….. to maintain a conversational pace …to help to convey thoughts that modify a previous sentence and/or set the stage for the next points to be made…. a good technique for me …one that I continue to use even though some have pointed out to me, with great intensity, the grammatical wrongs that I am committing.
Here are the rules from my grammar bible (The Business Writers Handbook):
I got around these grammar “bible” verses by denying that I use ellipses’ but instead use a series of dots as I see fit.
Screw the grammarians. If they were so hot, they would be best-selling authors.
News from the Void
Messages from the Ether
Instances of Eternity
Voices from Nowhere
Electrons take Form