A Frolic of My Own

Jazz, Books, Food, and the Writing Life

Blogging from New Orleans, La

11 February 2009

In the Times-Picayune, book editor Susan Larson has a wonderful interview with Dan Baum about his book Nine Lives:

“Living in New Orleans, taught me a lot about the paucity of life outside New Orleans,” he said. “It’s different out here. We’re richer out here. We have more stuff, and we drive newer cars. It sounds corny, but life means something in New Orleans. Day-to-day living in New Orleans matters in a way it doesn’t out here, and you pay a price for that. It’s scary and stressful to live in New Orleans, but I don’t have to tell you that. Now we talk about coming back, and we’re trying to figure out how we can spend part of each year there.”

…

“I’d never really been to New Orleans before the flood,” he said. But he’s ready to accept the role of spokesman and defender of the city. “There’s still a lot of good will about New Orleans. And, of course, I’m counting on it in a mercenary way. But everybody in the U.S. understands that New Orleans got screwed. This beautiful, benighted poor little city is really like the cute cousin of the family who isn’t all that serious but everybody just loves. And everybody understands that she got beaten up and left for dead.”

I can’t wait to read this book.

Posted by Todd at 1:54 pm | Comments (1)

The fine writer Dan Baum, formerly of the New Yorker and the author of Nine Lives, has a blog that’s required reading for freelancers. He talks shop with advice on everything from paying the bills to making people speak:

Here’s the little secret they taught me at The Wall Street Journal: Whenever someone offers to tell you something “off the record,” they really want to tell you. So if you decline their conditions — can’t attribute it, can’t use it — they’re going to end up telling you anyway. They can’t resist. So it’s best to refuse the conditions and just be patient for a few minutes.

After reading a few posts, I already feel like a better writer.

Posted by Todd at 10:36 am | Comments (1)

10 February 2009

The always interesting Roy Clark presents a list of “25 Non-Random Things About Writing Short.” Here are a random items from his non-random list:


  • Keep a journal where you practice short writing.
  • Obey Strunk & White: “Omit needless words.”
  • Beware: The infinite space on the Internet creates aerated prose.
  • Obey Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch: “Murder your darlings.”
  • That said, every short passage should contain one gold coin, a reward for the reader.
  • Obey Donald Murray: “Brevity comes from selection, not compression.”
  • The more powerful the message, the shorter the sentence: “Jesus wept.”
  • The best place for an important word in a short passage is at the END.
  • Begin the story as close to the end as possible.
  • Treat all short forms of journalism –- headline, caption, blurb, blog post –- as literary genres.

Blogs have shown that anyone can write 1,500 words. A lot of people can do it well. Saying something smart in 500 words, though, seems to be rare skill.

Posted by Todd at 2:15 pm | No Comments

My friend Alex Rawls has a gripe about the Grammy’s:

… and seriously - is the only way New Orleans musicians can get on the Grammys is as Katrina victims? Lil Wayne had the top selling album of the year and won Grammys for “Lollipop” and “A Milli,” but instead he performs the middling, Katrina-themed “Tie My Hands” as part of a medley with Allen Toussaint and the Dirty Dozen with Terence Blanchard. As it went on, the backdrop showed pictures of flooding, as if the waters just receded and we’re still just drying out. We’re not Jerry’s Kids, and the implication that we’re only of interest as the survivors of a catastrophe is really insulting. And if they’re going to treat us as poor, wounded souls, show our actual damage as it exists today.

He’s right. Our food, our music, our culture is strong. It doesn’t need pity.

Last week I turned in a piece that didn’t once mention Katrina. Not so long ago, I couldn’t imagine a story that wouldn’t touch on the storm. That’s progress. Small progress, but progress.

Posted by Todd at 2:04 pm | No Comments