Birthday present reminder notice: 1. Take day off work 2. Take a shower 3. Take a walk 4. Piss off LitPark 5. Give chingpea shot… - by N.L. Belardes

I just want you readers to know how much I appreciate you. I appreciate the supportive, the haters, the aggressors, the timid, the rowdy, the lovers, the artists, the theatre freaks, the punk rockers, the parents, the emo screamos, the media lurkers, the lit lovers, and so on…

Why am I being so nice?

First off, why not, it’s my birthday. I took the day off work (even though I heard there was a cupcake placed on my desk that no one better touch). Yes, I did take a shower. I plan to take a walk on the bluffs, and at lunchtime, give chingpea the experimental cocktail shot into her abdomen that keeps her pretty and rowdy, walking on two legs, and able to crush her punching bag every night after work.

Thanks Delano area farms, pesticides and cancer clusters! We love you!

Right.

I have to say, I did get in trouble on my birthday already. I know. I stay home from work and I'm still somehow mucking up something.

Yet, getting in trouble made me realize that I’m doing the right thing here on Paperback Writer. Paperback Writer is about people, community, change, artists, news, music, theatre, Bakersfield, literature, the Central Valley, California, culture, points of view, and your conversations with each other.

What I love about this blog is that people like you, DW, chingpea, matildakay, 100 different anonymous, Kayk, Mel, ET, Kaitlin, Madam LaRue, (does she know there’s a song called Cookie LaRue?), Les, Gwen, and so on all don’t just talk to me.

You talk to each other. That’s a conversation.

So I was on LitPark reading about obsessions.

Now don’t get me wrong. LitPark is a great blog. It's East Coast. This blog is West Coast. Susan Henderson works hard, kicks ass, and knows the literary world like a prize fighter knows an opponent’s weaknesses. She came into the blogosphere swinging and isn’t about to stop.

But I was a little dismayed with reader comments on her obsessions entry.

Too many times I’m finding lit blogs where lots of folks comment, but they’re not having a conversation with each other. Hey, at least they’re commenting, right? It’s tough to get people to read, let alone, comment.

Well, OK, yes, I admit I wanted to start some trouble on her blog. I wanted to help fire up the readers a bit to talk to each other. After reading comments regarding her obsession blog, I felt folks just weren't listing their true obsessions. Maybe they were skirting the issue. Maybe they wanted to appear normal (Shhh, writers are not normal).

So, yes, I sorta kinda called them chicken shits.

Who would have thought I was pissing off the editors of certain leading magazines?

I apologized on the LitPark site.

And I sincerely meant it. No need to cause all their readers to vacate the site because I tried to get people to talk to each other in a riotous sort of way. Yes, I did write:

Jordan: Your obsession reads like a bad zombie movie. I don’t think you really obsess over TV. I think those shows represent real people who you aren’t telling us about…

Oops. Too rough? I have readers tell me a lot worse than that. Maybe this is just our rough-and-tumble Bakersfield Old West culture. We draw guns and make blogs into an OK corral. Last man standing sort of thing.

I recommended that LitPark turn on comment moderation and delete unwelcome comments like mine.

I have to say, I even appreciate the comments I reject, and the comments I go to battle with. I do learn from them. I just don’t want people pulling out virtual reality knives and guns.

For the most part, I allow people to say what they want, especially to each other. It’s a conversation. Remember media guru Howard Owens and me battling? Conversation journalism. Damn it I hate that he was right. You were right, Howard.

Aren’t blog comments a free for all? If you don’t like a comment, just say so. And LitPark did. Ouch.

n.l. n.l. n.l. - I’m happy to see someone help to push our limits as writers, but not in an antagonistic way and not in a way that makes people afraid to speak up or be themselves. Maybe, until we all know you better, you can keep your comments related to your own writing and your own process, rather than commenting on how everyone else should do it, all right?

Oops again.

I love the rowdiness of the comments on Paperback Writer. It’s not unlike a Bakersfield Condors hockey game: beat each other to a pulp and shake hands after the game.

Or maybe this blog is more like your family. Say what you feel as long as it doesn’t get too out of control. Call your sister a slut. Why not? If she is one, she’s family, she can take it. But she will get mad, and hopefully get over it. And it’s entertaining to the rest of the family to watch. Who never had little brothers laughing at them while they were red in the face, screaming about a ten o’clock curfew being unfair?

Feathers get ruffled on this site all the time. Mine, yours, the Starbucks corporation.

Did I say that?

So thank you readers for being you.

I mean it. Now onward… LitPark did have a great subject…

Speaking of obsessions. I listed my obsession with an ex-girlfriend. I gave the type of no frills blog response on LitPark you would see on this site. Here’s what I wrote:

Obsessions?

But I’m still in denial.

I’m in Robin’s boat. Though I would take a step further and suggest just like Susan is being chicken, folks on here won’t even be partially nude about their obsessions. They want to appear normal.

If you’re a writer, you’re not normal.

And don’t even try to justify, because I will just scream denial.

I am still obsessed with an ex-girlfriend. And I think she’s obsessed with me. We live thousands of miles apart and haven’t seen each other in 5-6 years. Yet we talk all the time. We talk like we’re lovers, but we’re not–though maybe in our heads. I’ll have to ask her. She’ll probably laugh at me.

The rest of you including Susan are chicken shit. I’ll send my kids directly to this blog. Why not let them see one of my obsessions?

Maybe they can relate.

So what’s your obsession?


My ex-girlfriend has obsession denial.

I called her this morning and she said, “A girl would never tell a boy if they’re obsessed with them… and besides, you don’t call me every five minutes, so you’re really not obsessed.”

Double slam!

I guess lucky #2 isn’t lucky today.

Now write your obsessions. Let's see what you west coasters do with this topic.

This entry was posted by N.L. Belardes, on Wednesday, October 04, 2006. You can leave your response.