Doing Pet Psychic Radio is ok.  It’s easy to do.  “On security tapes, Chelmsford looks so sad.”  “Tomato peed down the a/c vent again!”  Easy, till Veeranjane.
You’re no house cat!  With a head full of star charts, and your augmented military biotech body!
“To explain”, he purred, “would certainly exceed your 55 words”.

by – Doug Mathewson

The intense young composer told us “my work is based on Milton’s Paradise Lost.”
“This electronic landscape depicts Satan’s escape from hell.”  He played his synthesizer.  I closed my eyes to imagine the lush, flowing verse.
It sounded like a circus parade calliope.  Who knew Satan escaped from hell hidden in a Good Humor truck?

by – Doug Mathewson

“Write what you know”, she said.
City  still refuses to honor native son.
Local author does not get huge advance. Again.
Twenty-two quarters will do laundry, but not if you buy cat food first.
Returnable can and bottles are not recognized by lending institutions as an “income source”.
My head hurts, I know too much.

by – Doug Mathewson

I know a good idea when I see one. Or in this case an idea whose time had come for a second time. The Smithsonian shows in its costume collection Victorian gloves. Women’s kid-skin gloves with a map of London circa 1885 discretely worked into the leather. They were to be purchased in custom fitted sets. Each pair with map of a different European capital. Quite a travel convenience for the well-to-do when on holiday.

Later I saw another version. These were men’s gloves for the business traveler showing Montreal. The streets of the city above on the right hand, the underground city below on the left. They were labeled in French, but English versions could be ordered, if you had the audacity to ask.
Where would I find a home in today’s cellphone-pda-gps-text messaging world for this lovely old concept? Disaster personnel were interested, but did not have the lead time to make them practical. Manufacturers of snowboarding and skiing wear crowded so much advertising on the gloves, that the trail maps were lost. Motorcyclists were to face the challenge of reading a map that wound around chrome skulls and past eagle logos while their hands vibrated on the handlebars. Bicyclists wanted electronic displays, but not the added weight.

Finally the answer I should have seen from the first emerged. Disney. A perfect match. On sale now, at all Disney theme parks: Three fingered Mouse gloves with blinking LEDs indicating restroom and ATM locations. One aspect remains the same. At Euro-Disney they raise an eyebrow and pretend not to understand if you ask how to set your pair to display in anything but French.

by – Doug Mathewson

Dad said I could help at work on Valentines Day. I just turned twelve and was so excited and proud. New Years and Valentines were always busy, but girls were so much better at “following through for Cupid.” I screwed the silence on my Hello Kitty nine millimeter and smiled. Today would be so special.

by Doug Mathewson

Often news stories describing art gallery openings or artists receptions are about the venue and the attendees. Who wore what, who was escorted by whom, the band, the cheese and crackers, the gallery owners, but rarely it seems about the artists or their work. Most sound like “red carpet” interviews. The author never seems to actually go inside. Look at what passes for entertainment news. Which film grossed highest over the weekend. That is business news. Read the Los Angles Times for a closer look at the production and promotion side of movie industry.
Reading artistic mission statements is always fun. They make great poems. Make one up and read it aloud. But surely there is a journalistic balance that would be interesting and informative. Personally to see the art and the artist together helps me to understand them both so much better.
At a recent i-park Open Studio program I met two exceptional artists. Art and the whole creative process continues to fascinate me.
Claudia Borgna is an international art gypsy (gypsy in the romantic American sense, not the sometimes derogatory European sense) who travels the world making art with her recycled plastic bags. This is far more exciting than it sounds. The impact her outdoor installations is really impressive. She keeps expanding farther and farther on natural themes with unnatural (man made) materials creating hyper-natural environments.
Dhanur Goyal www.penandinkcreations.com is a relaxed soft spoken man until the topic becomes art. Both he and his pen and ink drawings are as fierce as the bengal tigers of his homeland. Work from his show “Lost in a Lost World” is incredible. To me there are elements of Sgt. Peppers and Salvador Dali in Dhanur’s powerful images. He depicts human nature so strongly. He showed an image of two people sharing a single face. He explained that two people become one person when they argue. The more I stare at his work, the more intrigued I become.

by – Doug Mathewson

Welcome to our friends at Creative Soup. Please visit them often via provided link or go there now www.creativesoup.org They are a creative and imaginative group of local artists who always seem to have something going on. There is much to explore here. Creative writing is most in evidence. Contributors offer their own work as well as participate in group projects. Join their mailing list to be included in what may be described “art missions”. Their upcoming writing project sounds fascinating and should be of interest to anyone who likes very short fiction. The conspiratorial aspect of these projects  has tremendous appeal. Also I have had the pleasure of watching Martha Link Walsh as she creates her art and it is amazing.

Doug Mathewson

Please see images on site. We are not seeing “eye to eye” with Flickr uploader at this time.

Recently I was reminded what an incredible writer Jonathan Lethem is. The New Yorker magazine ran a short story of his a week or two back called “The King of Sentences”.  The story is amazing and points out how talented and versatile the author is. In short fiction I find I like at least three out of five of his stories. There are only a few other people I can honestly say that about.  Also in novella format he is strong. For example read “As She Climbed Across The Table”. Just right as a short novel.
I have heard people say they had trouble getting into “The Fortress Of Solitude” which is his biggest and best work. It to be one of the most memorable books I ever read, but I can understand it is not for everybody, or perhaps just not for all occasions. This book changed how I regarded fiction. I think back to my favorite parts often, but I can see that many readers would be more comfortable with “Motherless Brooklyn”. The ease with which he tells a story is elegant, his characters vivid and unique, but not caricatures  in any way, though odd characters they certainly may be.
Jonathan Lethem makes for good read-aloud material also. Hearing his sentences, his words aloud lets the listen hear how perfectly matched and balanced the language of the stories actually is. Which is your favorite?

by – Doug Mathewson

I completely love music. Music provides incredible secret worlds in which to imagine. It is so interesting to see how musically talented people creates such beauty . While I enjoy music very much I do not write about it. While it is dear to me, all I can offer is fan opinion. “I like to drive fast when I listen to this” or “it makes me sad and romantic when I listen to that”. ” I love listening to The White Stripes, Amy Winehouse, Archade Fire and others, but so do a lot of people. It is not news. I have nothing intelligent or interesting to add. Nothing insightful to say.
Let me now make an exception. Please listen to Rasputina. Info at www.rasputina.com also see their www.wikipedia.com entry. As the bands website states it is all about cellos and corsets. They are loud, musically aggressive, discordant, punk in spirt, and lovely. Their musical style matches their “steam punk” appearance. Over the edge Victorian without the vampire campiness. They seem to arrive from the worlds of Paul D’Filippo. They could well be in opening act in favorite story of his “Little Worker”.
Buy Rasputina’s music, visit them online, look at their images, see if they have a recital scheduled near you. They are a must have for anyone who love cello music, but finds classical too limiting in structure.

by – Doug Mathewson