Kyle is from Kentucky, so at some point, we decided to have a Kentucky Derby party. Never mind that neither of us had ever been to a horse race, we wanted to eat fried food. On Saturday, we invited a bunch of people over to do just that. Here’s a rundown of the day.

Guests begin to arrive:

Marcia

Chris

For food, we had delicious drinks in Laura’s Kentucky Derby glasses. I made bourbon balls and Derby Pie, but that is not enough to feed people, so we got KFC:

Yup, fried chicken, gravy, biscuits, mashed potatoes, coleslaw, and cheese curds. All food we hardly ever eat, so it went over big.

Eric (in the mirror), Justin, Stephanie, Kat, Aaron, Dustin, Kyle, and Chris

Next was the race. Did you know it lasts only two minutes or so? It does. To make things interesting, we all bet on the horses–a dollar a horse, all even odds.

Aaron, Robin and Laura watching the race

Likewise Stephanie, Kat, and Chris

No one called the winner, Street Sense. However, Aaron, Paul, and I called the 4th place winner Imawildandcrazyguy. We split the pot three ways, $5 a piece.

Afterwards, we went outside to play Horse Shoes (Get it? Horse shoes?) Justin took some pictures of that in his recap of the party. Meanwhile, I dragged Marcia and Laura to the Artist Colony to see where I’ve been writing.

Laura

Me and Marcia in the tent

Finally, we played with the hacked X-Box, which our friend helped us set up. Kyle and Stephanie are both awesome at DDR. Toward 5 p.m. or so, people started to go home. Still, more fun was to be had when Kyle and other guests started using the DDR pad as a controller for old Nintendo games. You haven’t lived until you have played PacMan with your feet.

Kyle on the second level of Mario Bros.

Good times.

I loved Calvin and Hobbes as a child. I cut all the comics out of the paper and saved them in a tinbox, and somewhere I still have all the collections. I think Bill Waterson was brilliant and even today, I sometimes wonder what he is doing with himself.
Still, I cracked up when I saw Robot Chicken’s hilariously dark clip of this beloved childhood icon:

Yesterday was much better. In the morning, I did a lot on the novel, and in the afternoon, I went to the library to read old Press Democrats from the 1930s for research. I was surprised to learn that our crappy local paper was fascinating in 1933. It was full of human-interest stories, good writers, racy serialized short stories, and people named Ione and Walter. I never read the PD now, but if it were like it was in the 1930s, I would read it every single day.

Here’s a thought: Maybe newspapers are dying because they are so damn boring. Maybe editors need to talk about crazed maniacs and use words like “cranks” and “savage” and “girlie” in their copy. Maybe criminals need better titles like “The Strolling Bandit” or the “Romeo Crime Ring.” Maybe, instead of talking about a bill in the dryest way possible, newspapers should boil them down to how they really affect the average person — “Is Prohibition Failing?” is a good headline. “Prohibition Bill Goes To Senate Committee for Vote” is not. Maybe, instead of re-printing wire stories, reporters should actually talk to local people and put their stories in the paper.

The PD made life in the 1930s seem more interesting than life today. People got in gun battles! A teenager tried to extort the mayor of Calistoga! German immigrant girls were conned out of money because gigolos promised to marry them! This was all reported in January 1933. If someone in the future reads the PD from 2007, they are going to think we were a bunch of boring business people who talked about development and drank wine and were afraid of large dogs. And editors are surprised that people don’t want to read newspapers.

Anyway, off to work. These flowers seem to inspire the bees in my garden. Maybe they will inspire you:

Day 2 of Artist Colony Week kinda sucked. It rained. I was unmotivated and cold. But today I am starting fresh. I am turning off the Internet while and the weather has improved, so things should be better.
Some links I like today:

• My friend Troy, who is a graphic designer, wrote an interesting post on what it feels like to have a lot of creative ideas all at once.
• Keri Smith wrote a blog entry that gets at what I’ve been doing lately, namely that I’m trying to stop looking at my work as a commodity and simply do the work for work’s sake.
• Finally, I like the art show Lisa Congdon is doing with her sister Stephanie Congdon at the Doe Gallery in San Francisco. The show is mixed-media art surrounding the concept of the forest, so there are stuffed animals and mushrooms, collages of trees and pine cones, things like that. It’s called “Lovely, Dark, and Deep.” Check out Lisa’s Flickr gallery of her work in the show.

Awhile back, Kyle and I had a talk about how I should be spending my time as a writer. He encouraged me not to be so held down by the idea that I should be making money instead of writing what I really want to write (fiction, essays, things that are hard to sell, etc.). So, I am celebrating this for a week by having what I call Artist Colony Week.

Remember how I came to the conclusion that I don’t need an artist colony because I can write any time and anywhere as it is? That is what I am doing this week. In a tent. In my backyard.

This week, every day, I will be in my backyard writing fiction. No phone or distractions, just me and my laptop (and the Internet still–addict!), and fiction and storyboards and the ottoman from the living room to lean against. And blankets. And my cat when he is in the mood.

I know it is a little silly to write in a tent, but it is also fun. I like sitting out there with the wind going over the tent and the birds chirping. It’s peaceful and private and inducing to concentration. And hey, the view is nice.

Top of the tent.

Front of the tent.

View when emerging from the tent last night.

Food for thought: Someone else who sat in his backyard to write.