Yes, but wait--from Warren Wilson  

Posted by Mariano in , ,


I spent Sunday at my parents house, with the rest of the family, and at around 6:30 p.m., while we were watching a movie, I missed a surprising call that led to a more surprising bit of news. I got home well past 10:00 p.m. and saw "new message" shinning on my cellphone screen. When I saw the number of the caller, I realized that it was an area code from which I've never received a call before. My heart skipped a beat. I dialed my inbox and there were three messages. A "got-there-safely" message from the misus, a coworker asking for a favor, and then a new voice. A message riddled with excruciating pauses, um's, and errs' framing a baritone-tenor timbre and delaying the meat in the message. "...We'd like to offer you...um...a...uh, place in admission at the Warren Wilson Writer's Workshop."
  It was all I could do to contain an audible cheer, though I pumped my fist in the solitude of my bedroom. Then I calmly walked downstairs, put the phone on speaker and played it. She ran in place and threw her arms around me. I called the family to let them know and, since it was too late to call Warren Wilson back, we just poured a Kentucky Breakfast Stout into a snifter and shared a beer and a blessing on the living room sofa. 
  This morning I called the faculty member back and received something I did not expect. Yes, I'm in, accepted into the program. But, somewhere between my application being turned in literally at the last minute, and an extraordinarily large applicant pool, the positions they wanted to offer are more than the positions they have available. So, I've been accepted, to the January 2010 term. Apparently, they liked one of the stories in my application package enough to hold a spot for me next term even though I all but missed the summer term. If, however, someone opts out or differs their application, I'd be starting July 2, 2009. So, while I'm waiting for Boston and Bennington, I have the security of an MFA in my future...Lord willing. 

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Virtual Rejection-unconfirmed  

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   As I sat in my study cleaning my new Aztec 700, which I decided to call Cuauh, something burned in me...no it was not the enchiladas. I couldn't handle the silence, the anxious wait, the impotent desire of figuring out if I did or did not get into one of the three MFA programs. Bennington, Boston and Warren-Wilson alike, promised to contact applicants within two to six weeks. It is no secret that they contact accepted applicants first and usually via phone. Well, I gave them four weeks to reach the frozen chosen and figure that weeks five and six are for the unelected, unreached, unwanted. 
    So, tonight I turned to a blog called Suburban Ecstasies, which on top of offering good poetry, it tracks the dates in which schools notify applicants. So, as the 2009 numbers appeared on the right column and there, in blue lettering it appeared that Bennington has already notified its fiction applicants on March 12, 2009. I'm assuming they are done notifying their elect by now, so I'm counting this as a definite MISS, and hoping for two out of three to come back with a positive response. Boston has already notified its Poetry applicants but no word on fiction yet--so I'm still hoping and praying and wishing and thinking, planning and dreaming each night of their halls, which gets me no closer at all....a bit for the doo wop humor. 
  Well, the wait continues and we can safely assume that I'm not buying any tickets to Vermont any time soon. One down...
A picture of Cuauh:


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King Beer is Here (Kentucky Breakfast Stout)  

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On Saturday night, Founders held a party to mark the release of their most exclusive beer, and my estimation of what water will taste like in heaven: the Kentucky Breakfast Stout. The production is so limited that when I went to a liquor store to buy some, I was only allowed one four-pack and said pack was $22. I also found out that the owners randomly sign a bottle here and there (not every four-pack gets a signed bottle), and mine just happens to have one--which made me pretty happy when I realized it. Naturally, as soon as I got back in the car, my wife went in and bought another four-pack. I'll be stocking up in the next few days. If you love beer, GO BUY IT NOW. By the end of the year, you'll be lucky to get one beer on ebay for $40.   

   A formal review of the beer will appear as soon as I work up the courage to crack one open. Or when I go to founders with my friend Brian who writes Five Branch Tree. Below are some pictures for the uninitiated and for those unfortunate many who don't live in West Michigan, and below that my description of how I took the pix. 

Kentucky Breakfast Stout-Signature
This is obviously the label with the lucky signatures.

Kentucky Breakfast Stout-bottleKentucky Breakfast Stout-neck

That's what this handsome bottle looks like. 

Camera: Canon 30D
Lens: 100 mm macro
ISO: 100
SS: 1/60
f14
I used two SB800 with remote flash.
The front one was a 1.5 ft away and 3 ft. off the ground on a stand, bounced off a reflective umbrella, front right, @ full blast. The second was a foot behind and to the left @ 1/4 with a diffuser card and a black flag to keep the light from washing out the front of the bottle.

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Posted by Mariano in , ,

Disclaimer
I gave pencasting a try on Sunday. I wrote about turning 31, which I did last Wednesday. So, below is the actual page from my 13x21cm Moleskine, and below that is a digital rendition. I've been told that sometimes my handwriting is hard to read. So if it looks like Sanskrit, don't worry, it's in 12pt. Georgia font below the scan.


Thirty First & Thirty Second
 This week I turned thirty one and I'm cool with that. No, I have not written a literary masterpiece or saved the world from war and hunger. Still, I'm blessed to be healthy, employed, creative, but above all, loved. I think the realization of the importance of  meaningful relationships was God's gift to me at the start of my thirty second year of life. I have a beautiful wife who loves me and with whom I am in love; I come from a family that has an increasingly rare mix of stability, support, faith and integrity; I have friends and neighbors who make time to hang out with me, often on short notice, despite their busy schedules. All this through God's loving grace. Even if I could explain such a wonderful life apart from my faith, I wouldn't want to. 
   Looking ahead a year thirty two, I actually see a clear path towards a clear goal. I want an MFA so that I can tell the collection of stories I've hunted and gathered over three decades. Meanwhile, I'll continue to write from 5 p.m. to midnight on weekdays and voraciously on weekends. I also have the advantage of having a multi-media job that requires writing for the eye, the ear, the young, the old, etc. So, I'll use iron to sharpen iron, so to speak, and somewhere in between find breath and space enough to pen, type write and post moments of the upcoming days in year thirty two. 

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Boston University received my application  

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So, with a few mistakes and some awkward word separation at the end of some lines, here is a typed out version of Boston University's receipt-of-application letter. They're just slightly wordier than Bennington. So, that's two out of three and Warren Wilson is still notably silent. 



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Calvin & Me--Beer and Faith  

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Why Calvinus Matters
Back from one of his many trips, my father brought with him a beer of which I knew nothing before. Calvinus is a tribute to Protestant father of Reformed thinking, John Calvin. Their website has a fun little intro. Anyhow, being as this is the 500th anniversary of the birth of said reformer, it seems only suitable that this be the year to try the beer named after him. 
  So what? -you might say. Well, it just so happens that I'm a graduate of Calvin College, a part-time student at Calvin Seminary, and overall agree with most of what the man proposed. Of course there was that incident with Miguel Serveto, which is not only lamentable, but also plainly wrong. 
The Beer
Back to the beer. Since there is only one bottle in the family, and since it does not belong to me, I decided to photograph it next to one of Calvin's biblical commentaries for memory's sake. The beer itself, as I understand it, is a Belgian White (whitbier) with lots of citrus and wheat to the flavor. Click here for a review. So, here are pictures of the beer itself. Below the pix I wrote the specs on how I took them and the equipment I used.  


  
 I know you can see my umbrella on the bottle. Sorry it was a quick setup in my parent's living room. 
The pic on the left was taken on a piece of laminated cardboard using a Canon 30D.
Left: 17-85 mm lense| iso 100| shutter speed 1/160| f 18|  two speedlite SB800s: the upper left one on an umbrella stand with swivel bracket| behind a shoot-through umbrella 2ft away and 3 ft off the ground| set at 1/4 power| another SB800 was about a foot away from the book| on the ground with the diffuser card| at 1/64.  

Right: 100mm macro| ISO 1000| 1/40| f 2.8 -no flash
Both pix below have the same specs as the pic on the right.




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One Week Later, The Basics Sound Great  

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I'm about one week from having submitted my applications and now my days are filled with ordinary language. Below is my reflection about leaving a world dominated by standards set by the greats of literature and judged by committees, and returning to a world of the most basic language learning which I have not visited in well past a decade.  



I used one of the 1,00o sheets of  yellow Luster Duplex onion skin-paper that I also rescued from certain demise or recycle. What was that? It's two sheets of fused or laminated into a single sheet of paper, that has one sheen side one mat side, and is very thin. It was great for making fancy carbon copies with typewriters back in the day. 

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It Begins-signs of life  

Posted by Mariano in , ,

Is it the waiting or the not knowing, or not knowing while you wait? What's worse? Well, to help the wait along, Bennington was the first of the three MFA programs to which I applied, that showed signs of life. It's an email, which posed a dilemma: digital or anablog? Because it's short and is also the only excuse I have for typing today, here it is. So, if you're at all curious about how these letters go, here is an example. Holy student loans Batman, I'm going for broke.


From Left to Write
Written on my Smith-Corona Super Sterling

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Stamps  

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The Idea

Once upon a former life as a journalist, I reviewed spas and restaurants. Yes, I still wonder why I left that job---oh, yeah: it paid a pittance. Now I'm doing it for free. How?

Cards and Stamps
A fun way to tell people about a place, event or product, is to show labels, ticket stubs, tags, etc.  So, I'm going to physically glue said things of what I want to review onto cards that I salvaged from a dumpster. The cards say STAMPS, so all these posts will follow suit.

The Legend
From one to five $ signifies cost. From one to five * signifies rating.

NOTE: The actual review is below the STAMPS



The makers of what are probably the best microbrewed ales in the country, these guys just happen to be local to Grand Rapids, where I live. Expect me to review each of their ales and stouts--not all at once though. The tag above is the bottleneck sticker to the Dirty Bastard, my third favorite beer in the world. It's a rich beer, with a bitter top note and a sweat yet peaty finish that lingers in your mouth with little hints of hops and I'd almost say dark chocolate. It is an aggressive beer and apparently their flagship. Worth noting is an 8.5% alcohol content and 50 IBU's. This is the little brother to the Backwoods Bastard which is liquid ecstasy aged in whisky barrels, a real kick in the pants. Neither is for the Corona crowd, this is the real deal. 

The Omelette Shoppe (sorry no website)
I went there for breakfast today with a buddy of mine. It seems to be local to Grand Rapids but I'm not sure. O don't think they even have a site. I didn't have their specialty, I had a standard breakfast. I ordered two eggs, sunny side up, rye toast and a short stack of pancakes. Eggs are eggs and you have to be pretty dense to mess them up, but they were pretty good. Their rye is served buttered and toasted. I love the mixed pumpernickel with regular flour--the swirly-looking type.

    

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My First Typecast  

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   I've submitted applications to my Spring round of MFAs. Regardless of results, I learned oodles and buckets about how tough fiction-writing is. With round one behind me, here is my shout-out to all the typecasters that inspired me, with their NaNoWriMo efforts, to try my hand at mechanical composition. 
   While my typewriter is not a particularly interesting piece, I think the paper is. See the purplish stains on it? That's because it is written on Polyester Film Carbon paper by Spirit (circa 1980). It is so old that the purple carbon seeped through the 6 lb. sheet between it and the master. So, this is my first, of hopefully many typecasts. Enjoy!


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