Update

Hi Bill, I'm laughing too!

It's been over a month since I've written and here's why:

- taking another writing workshop with Sackett Street
- running another writing workshop in Crown Heights
- teaching English to immigrants in Bushwick
- working a day job
- working on my novel
- submitting stories to journal

I'll also receive training to become a workshop leader for the New York Writers' Coalition, a wonderful literary nonprofit that runs creative writing workshops for at-risk youth, prisoners, cancer patients, the homeless, the elderly, and other marginalized social groups.

Random thoughts:

I didn't watch the Oscars, but I watched Colin Firth's speech.  He is humble, intelligent, and funny.

Thoughts on Black Swan: *spoiler alert*
I didn't like Black Swan as much as I gather others did.  The glowing red eyes towards the end?  A little hokey.  The disturbing images and hallucinations of pain - these were interesting.  I've hard some people rail against Aronofsky's portrayals of women.  I don't remember too much about Requiem for a Dream (mostly being really depressed and disturbed after the movie ended), but I heard someone say Aronofsky thinks women have to choose between the black and white swan.  We don't have the ability to embrace both.  I think this is an interesting take: after all, Nina dies in the end when she finally embraces the Black Swan.  She couldn't have been successful and passionate, a perfectionist and completely open to pain and her less socially acceptable desires.  We see part of her struggle between the black and white swan tendencies through out the film, but I do wonder why Nina had to die.  This seems so extreme, and almost like avoiding a more complex resolution of letting the character continue to struggle - as humans really do.

I started Bill Bryson's The Lost Continent.  My god, who else reads this amazing travel writer?  Or am I the only one who hadn't heard of him until now?  I first discovered Bryson in a collection of essays edited by Ira Glass, The New Kings of Nonfiction.  Bryson wrote about interviewing some English football fans during one of the major matches (can't remember which one).  His hilarious and frightening account, plus his excellent writing, won me over.  About a year later, I visited a wonderful exhibition on maps in Katonah, NY and saw The Lost Continent for sale at the museum front desk.  In their own manner of supporting journeys and the transmission of artifacts, the museum had bought a few travel and map-related books off E-bay and were selling them for next to nothing.  Bryson is absolutely hilarious - so much that I'm hesitant to read this book on the subway in the morning because every other paragraph makes me laugh out loud (my laugh is a little annoying).  His satirical commentary on the Midwest in this book is biting and honest, and he can get away with it because he's from there.  If you haven't checked him out, I highly recommend you do.

Happy end of February, all.  Can you believe 1/6 of the year is over?