I’m Not Dead! (+A RAP VIDEO THAT’S RIGHT)

Couldn't think of a picture, so here's my "quotepic" of "The Beat Goes On" by Beady Eye!

Couldn’t think of a picture, so here’s my “quotepic” of “The Beat Goes On” by Beady Eye!

Good grief, how long’s it been? One, two, three, four, five… six months? I couldn’t blame you if you jumped ship on this blog after that long–in this fast-paced age, I probably would’ve moved on to greener pastures of soft-focus nature photography and motivational fitness posts myself. Shoot, Tumblr really did get the better of me!

Well, that and law school — because yes, I am still clinging on for dear professional life at Cornell Law! Since last September, I’ve celebrated my first birthday without a proper family party, cleared the first semester with a 4.9 GPA, loved, lost, hovered somewhere uncomfortably in-between, and got on the fast track to study international law at the Sorbonne in Paris this summer. Regrettably, my writing’s slowed to a crawl since then, but (often, I fear, to my detriment) I never stop thinking and consequently taking notes on ideas for plots, quotes, general philosophical musings, and the occasional rap lyric. Also, Tumblr’s fun, but I owe it to myself to have a dedicated site for my writing work, how few and far apart it may appear — if only so y’all who bought my book don’t feel shortchanged for abiding by my advice to “stay updated” at Notes & Sketches!

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So on that note, I’d like to present a candid–albeit regrettably slightly truncated–video of me performing my slam/rap poem “Dour Number One” (link to the old PDF post) at Cornell Law’s 2014 “Cabaret,” a miniature festival of art, auctions, and alcohol put on annually by the school’s Public Interest Law Union. I’d performed it before, but never with a crowd this big — even knowing it by heart with some new tweaks, I got pretty shaky up there, so I apologize for losing the mic a few times!

Dour Number One – LIVE

“Above” (NEW STORY(S) OH COOL)

The Towers

Oh hey, my iPod took a decent picture for once!

After breaking back into a pattern of regular updates this January, I must confess it’s been a time since my last e-contribution. Two weeks, in internet-years… that’s what, a decade? But no matter! New material is here, and well as new news. A brief diversion before the “main course”:

–The latest issue of the University of Washington‘s premiere speculative fiction journal AU is revving up for their seventh volume, “Chronos,” where time (travel) stories are the name of the game! Fittingly/fortunately enough, the deadline traveled into the future a full seven days last week, allowing me much-needed time to put the finishing touches on my submission, “Until,” last night. It’s a (hopefully) thought-provoking piece adapted from a lighthearted word-doodle I produced for “Write Away!” a year ago, and it also has this opening line:

“One day, I woke up, and it was the future. Not just for me, though. For everybody.”

The rest is a little rough in spots, though, so I’m going to hold off on posting any further samples until I hear whether it’s been accepted or not–and if so, what the editing team has to offer!

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So yes, back to business: I’ve shared work from my poetry class, but not prose! That’d be ENGL 384 on “literary portraiture,” in which we read the works of authors with a distinct style and then try to imitate their style in a piece of our own. The below story was initially my shot at imitating the tone and texture of Mary Gaitskill’s “The Other Place,” though I kicked it up a notch with illustrations (as inspired by the experimental elements of Carole Maso’s The Art Lover and W.G. Sebald’s The Emigrants) for a more recent “longer short fiction piece,” along with overall revision. Enjoy!

Above