Monday, August 31, 2009

Haunted






Hi everyone! Working on a new project with a title I've stolen from an old poem: How To Own and Operate A Haunted House. Here's the first paragraph. Back at you tomorrow.

We were convinced someone had died in Melissa's room since her parents had bought the Costello. We loved the big house on the farm with the gothic chandeliers and creaky stairs, and we sat upstairs in the small bedroom and told stories about how Mrs. Costello had died, how she had chosen to live the last few years of her life without leaving the bed, how her ghost watched us while we burned our cheap grocery store incense and played with the Ouija board, trying to add drama to our lives. I'm not the kind of person who feels like knowing an ending spoils a story. Ours ends with despair, with betrayal, with the last room before you leave the haunted house, the one that really scares you because you know whatever is out there is real, not manufactured for your terror.

Michelle's Spell of the Day
"If you're going through hell, keep going." Winston Churchill

Cocktail Hour
Drinking television suggestion: The finale of Hung is upon us in two weeks. Analysis: Favorite show in a long, long time!

Benedictions and Maledictions
Thanks for the thoughtful comments on the "Save the Whales" post. I think the subject of how we view weight is endlessly fascinating and agree completely with Will that the health-care industry is warped on this subject. I honestly find the PETA ad really sad and low even by their own press-whoring standards. While I find Whitnoise's interpretation more heartening than my own and agree that we as Americans overconsume, this ad was expressly directed at overweight women, touting vegetarianism as a weight loss device in addition to their usual party line about it being the morally superior position. The ad's image of a very large women in a tiny bikini with the Save the Whales tagline is super fat-shaming, much like when the ever so mature lifeguards at Mineral Wells Pool used to yell Shamu when a larger woman stepped in the water. And a special hello to Chris -- glad to have you on the comment board again!

4 comments:

the walking man said...

Letting yourself go simply means giving yourself permission to be as you will be.

Fuck Madison Ave and PETA if that ain't good enough for them. PETA by the by did pull the billboard in Jacksonville.

We do over consume in this country have been since the turn of the 20th century and now that over consumption is coming home to roost in just about every aspect of society. Yet no one wants their ox to be gored, no one wants to give up their shit.

Would PETA pay to house a few hundred homeless people? Doubt it they are too busy with advertising and collecting money and euthanizing most of the animals that come under their care to give a rats ass about people.

Will them that speed like hell slow the fuck down to save a gallon of gasoline, oh hell no that's someone elses problem.

Will someone who has much share with someone who has little? Nope that ain't in the cards either because them who have little are welfare cases draining society and them who have much want to keep that "much"

It's all good though because at the end of the party the fiddler is going to want his pay and regardless of whether anyone wants to pony up or not, the fiddler will collect his due.

This is a decent start on the new project Michelle.

Charles Gramlich said...

An intersting take on "revealing the ending." I've gotta think about books where revealing the ending would have or not have affected my feelings for the story.

jodi said...

Dearest Michelley, can't wait to read the whole project! I LOVED Hung and it's nod to Detroit. Thomas James is such a hottie, with all that confidence and such...

Anonymous said...

much like when the ever so mature lifeguards at Mineral Wells Pool used to yell Shamu when a larger woman stepped in the water.

Ah, to be back in the glory days of the The Baker Hotel, swimming in the Olympic-sized indoor swimming pool with Ethel Merman, George Gershwin and the boys from Company C! The larger the better in those days!