Mark W Tiedemann

Category: Whimsy

A Week’s Worth of Stuff

Posted on By Mark Tiedemann

This past week some things have moved forward which please me.  The Missouri Center for the Book is about it have a new Facebook page.  I made the decision to put it up now, in advance of the total website make-over, because I think it will be necessary to get the upcoming Celebration promoted more efficiently.  That event will be October 23rd, again in Columbia.  Barring other avenues of advertising, I think this one will be essential.

It’s happening.  Also, the new website design is coming along quickly and when that is up there will be regular blog posts, and a special section from the state poet laureate. …

Read more

A Moment of Celebrity Type Stuff

Posted on By Mark Tiedemann

A friend of mine, the estimable Erich Veith, came by my home a bit over a year ago and we recorded a long interview.  Erich has finally gotten around to editing it and has begun posting segments on YouTube.  Here’s the first one.  (I still haven’t figured out how to embed videos here, so bear with me.)

Erich runs the website  Dangerous Intersection, where I post opinionated blatherings from time to time and Erich graciously allows me to hold forth in my own idiosyncratic manner.  Why he thought people would also enjoy watching and hearing me as well, I can’t say, but I enjoyed the process and from the looks of the first three (which are up at Dangerous Intersection) I don’t think I came off too badly.…

Read more

Radio Markets and Discontent

Posted on By Mark Tiedemann

Personal gripe time.  This is one of those instances where I believe The Market is a hydrocephalic moron and people who put their undying faith in get what they deserve.

Shortly after the 4th of July just past, a St. Louis radio station changed hands.  KFUO 99.1 FM had, for sixty-plus years, been our commercial classical station.  Before the first Gulf War, our local NPR affiliate, KWMU, was largely a classical music broadcaster, but after that first foray into Mid east adventurism they became pretty much All Talk All Day.  Mind you, I like some of what they offer—Fresh Air, Talk of the Nation, Diane Rheem—but I am a lover of music. …

Read more

Test Flight

Posted on By Mark Tiedemann

Last night we did something in this house we’ve not done in years.

We broiled steaks.

Oh, yes, we like our new stove.  We filled the manse with the aroma of good things to eat and lo, they were good to eat.  Our taste buds did happy dances while we feasted.  I assume our guests likewise experienced satori, possibly with each bite.

Steak, asparagus, rice, sour dough rye bread, salad…we did it up royally.  Two excellent bottles of wine.  (My mother, by the way, would be amazed that I’d eaten asparagus willingly.  As a child I was most decidedly anti-vegetable.  I’m still less interested in them than in meat, but since I’ve learned what some of them taste like when properly prepared…)

Yes, I am a carnivore. …

Read more

The Great Kitchen Update

Posted on By Mark Tiedemann

When we bought our house, it came well-equipped.  Two bathrooms, a refrigerator, central air, a garage…and a stove.  This one, in fact.

old-stove.jpg
I have no idea how old that thing is.  It’s a Fridgidaire all-electric, 40 inches wide.  Side-by-side ovens, self-cleaning, for its day no doubt state-of-the-art.

And Donna couldn’t wait to get rid of it.  She wanted a gas range.  Well and good.  Of course, having just shelled out money to buy the house, we didn’t have a lot left over to start replacing appliances.  We did get a new refrigerator and over the years we’ve updated things as needed. …

Read more

A Few More Memories

Posted on By Mark Tiedemann

I thought I’d post a handful of photographs from Clarion ’88.  Just a few.  The temptation to try to do humorous captions is great, but I decided to simply be informative.  Enjoy.

owen-hall.JPG

The entrance to Owen Hall, the dorm building
van-hoosen.JPG

Van Hoosen, where the workshops were conducted

tim-powers.JPG

Tim Powers, our first week writer-in-residence, in session

pizza-in-van-hoosen.JPG

Pizza with Powers

daryls-rp.JPG

Daryl Gregory, doing his Tim Powers “I Got No Story” Clarion Blues

kelley-on-crutches.JPG

Kelley Eskridge arrived already injured, with sprained ankle, but as optimistic as the rest of us

picnic.JPG

One of many outdoor meals held in the courtyard of Van Hoosen.  Lisa Goldstein, second week instructor, is in the midst of students here

beggars-banquet.jpg

One of the other eateries in East Lansing frequented by Clarionites

chip.JPG

Chip Delany, third week instructor

nicola.JPG

Nicola Griffith

workshop-cool.JPG

Andy Tisbert, Me (attempting inscrutability), and Kimberly Rufer-Bach during a workshop

kate-stan-damon.JPG

Kate Wilhelm, Kim Stanley Robinson (fourth week instructor), and Damon Knight. …

Read more

New Look

Posted on By Mark Tiedemann

Not for the blog.  For the house.  Today we are having painting done in the bedroom and the downstairs bathroom (gosh, that makes the house sound huge, doesn’t it?)  We’d intended to do the painting some time ago, after we bought our new bed.  But just as we were lining all that up, our stove blew up.  (Not massively—it’s an electric stove, so the blow-up was a very large white spark and then complete inertness for the mass of metal).  Well, a new stove was on the menu for a long time.  The one that died was here when we bought the house. …

Read more

Resume du jour

Posted on By Mark Tiedemann

It’s June.  A smidgen over a year ago (May 29th, 2009) Advance Photographics closed its doors and I have been unemployed since.

In that time I have written half of the sequel to my alternate history novel, Orleans, and a complete new novel, a murder mystery called  The Drowned Doll.  I’ve written blog posts for both here and Dangerous Intersection and occasionally for my MySpace page (which is getting more and more neglected in favor of Facebook, through which I can stream this blog).  I wrote book reviews for a good chunk of 2009 until two of my review outlets basically dried up and went away.…

Read more

It Was Thirty Years Ago (Plus One)…

Posted on By Mark Tiedemann

Not that I think anyone is especially interested in me as subject for biography, but once in a while I stumble on something that brings back a flood of memory and I feel compelled to say something about it.  Recently a friend of mine wrote in his blog about the Twenties being the most painful time of life, at least of his life, and it got me thinking.  All pain is relative and certain periods possess character, and characteristic pain.  The Twenties are painful insofar as most of us assume—and have it assumed on our behalf—that we know what we want, know how to get it, and, most importantly of all, that we know who we are. …

Read more

Myself As Antique

Posted on By Mark Tiedemann

We started cleaning the garage this weekend past.  Made a lot of headway.  We tackled boxes which we haven’t touched since we moved in, almost 19 years ago.  Time flies when you have other things to do.

This morning I continued.  There were a few boxes of assorted odds and ends that I needed to cull through.  In doing so, I found this photograph.mark-1977.JPG

Donna has only seen me without a beard once.  She didn’t like the effect, mainly because int he years during which I’d had a beard I somehow misplaced my chin.  Anyway.  This was back when I was a trim young fella on the make, as it were.…

Read more
Page generated in 7.304 seconds. Stats plugin by www.blog.ca