Hear the amazing, mostly made up story of how I got my copy of Joe Meno’s How the Hula Girl Sings signed by the author during the 2004 Association of Writers and Writing Projects conference in Chicago, IL. You’ll hear the first-hand account of how I knew Meno as a musician first and an author second, why I should be more sensitive to Hula throat issues, and why Joe Meno owes me a royalty check.
I’ve never hidden my love for the work of Brian Evenson. In fact, overly enthusiastic may be a good way to describe my infatuation. His stories are like none other, both in concept and execution. So, know that this review of Windeye, Evenson’s latest story collection, comes to you with a deep history of appreciation. You aren’t getting a first-time reader here. You are getting a fan’s true perspective. With that being said, WHAT A DAMN FINE BOOK!
As I get more and more into this YouTube channel thing, I’m starting to understand more about the YouTube community. One thing I’ve noticed is that when channels hit subscriber milestones (100 subscribers, 500 subscribers, etc.) they do something special as a way to say thank you. So, I’m going to do just that.
I currently have 75 subscribers. Once I hit 100 subscribers I am going to give something away to one randomly chosen subscriber. What will that giveaway be? Not sure yet, but I promise it will be good and it will be made by my very own hands. I generally err on the side of handmade slipcases and a copy of one of my books, but who knows, maybe I’ll do more.
Here’s how it will work:
I anticipate item #2 above will go something like this: If you are a subscriber AND you comment on the giveaway video, I’ll assign a number to your comment and use a random number generator to do the ugly work for me. Then I’ll reach out to you with the good news.
Considering I’ll have only about 100 subscribers during the contest, your chances are damn good that you will win. Many channels with 500+ subscribers do giveaways, too.
Also, don’t think of this as charity for me. You’ll be subscribing to get amazing weekly(ish) videos containing book reviews, book skits, and other bookish buffoonery.
Subscribe here: http://www.youtube.com/user/calebjross
And PLEASE, share on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and all the rest if you feel so compelled.
Hear the amazing, 100% true(ish) story of how I got my copy of Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom signed by the author during an author reading in Kansas City on September 22, 2010. You’ll hear the first-hand account of my bravery in the face of an elderly security guard, the strength of punches needed to take babies down, and why I’m glad Franzen is an author rather than a professional investment broker.
I’ve realized during my few months of video-making, along with my previous couple of years making podcasts, that I tend to break apart my speech with ums, uhs, ers, ahhs, and every other sort of cerebral flatus out there. A desire to break away from so many speech errors is one of the reasons I picked up Michael Erard’s book Um: Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders and What They Mean. My thinking was that if I could understand why I flub my words, then I could eventually eradicate those flubs.
I’m likely beyond help, but at least this book did teach me that speech blunders are perhaps less something that needs to be cleaned away, and more something that we all need to approach differently. Speech errors aren’t, by themselves, errors at all. Instead, what’s important is measuring speech disfluency from a baseline. Think of reading ums and uhs as similar to reading a lie-detector test; we’re all our own level of nervous even without being hooked up to a spooky machine. The trick is to measure how much more nervous we get when asked potentially compromising questions.
Among the questions addressed in Um: Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders and What They Mean are
Many theories have been created to explain the meaning of a speech error including ones from Viennese professor Rudolph Meringer who supposed that language is like a living organism whose evolution is responsible for our collective blunders; Yale psychologist George Mahl who chalks speech errors up to anxiety; and the famous Sigmund Freud who felt that speech errors were windows into the speaker’s subconscious.
Click here to watch the video review of Um: Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders and What They Mean (or click the image above). DON’T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE TO MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL!
I anticipate some reactions to this video book review will be negative. Of those negative reviews, I anticipate 3 response types:
Those of you in this last group, please, please, please help me understand what I must have missed. I want to like this book. I really do. I want to believe that Danielewski’s verse writing is just an awkward trend (I didn’t like Only Revolutions, either, if you must know).
The Fifty Year Sword will be re-issued in October 2012 should any of you decided to read this book.