Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Rethinking the Piano Man
You know, maybe it's just me, some short circuit somewhere in my brain, but I find this story more interesting now that I know it's a hoax -- or at least not what it was built into for the last couple months. It's much more interesting than Shine now that the wolf has blown the house down.It reminds me of a movie -- I don't remember the title -- in which a man shows up at a seafront town wanting to commit suicide and gets the royal treatment from the town's citizens. When the man decides to go on living instead, the townspeople are disappointed that he's not living up to his end of the deal.
This piano man story is a sad reflection of our own obsession with cuteness and sentimentality. Why do we love these Forest Gump characters? What is it with us? And am I alone in thinking that it has no value whatsoever? The more interesting story is not of the it, but of why we want the it to exist in the first place.
Eh. Whatever. I guess it would just make me smile if I later learned that this lanky bastard was actually a performance artist or a grad student studying mass media.
About Me
-
- Name: Matthew Shindell
- Location: San Diego, California, United States
Matthew Shindell used to live and write in Phoenix, Arizona. He now lives and writes in La Jolla, California.
The Poetry Postcard Project:
Stay tuned to this blog for updates on the status of the Poetry Postcard Project.
Go to the Poetry Postcard Project website to see the project and find out how to participate.
My Vocabulary Radio Show:
Find out about My Vocabulary, the weekly poetry radio show hosted by Matthew Shindell and James Meetze.
Where are my poems?
Read a PDF of my chapbook, Were something to happen it would be both funny and interesting. Copies of this limited edition chapbook are no longer available.American Letters and Commentary (Coming Soon) - "Hoo Ta Ta, Hoo Ta"
American Poetry Review July/August 2004 - "It sounds like a saxophone tugging across a field"
Black Warrior Review v30n2 - "Sidekick"
FENCE v6n2 - "Drinking with the Ventriloquist's Dummy" & "Parable of the Boy inside the Deer"
Hayden's Ferry Review #25 - "The Willow"
Hayden's Ferry Review #35 - "The Monkey's Skull: Where Do Good Newsmen Come From?" & "Made Easy"
Jubilat 7 - "But Emerson Says, 'The body is a metre. The eye appreciates finer differences than art can expose."
The Melic Review - "In Short, a Pleasant Day :: The Man Arrives, Hooray!" "The Same Words :: Order of Harpoons," & "A Birdâs Head Rolls Into Two Baskets :: Walkie-Talkie"
No Tell Motel - "Order of Harpoons :: Digitalia :: Dobre Vecher" 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Read my discussion of the poem here.
Northwest Review - "Clink" & "Bear-Caught"
Octopus 4 - "About the Author," "Four Star General" &
"The Day :: Born :: The Red Door"
Pleiades 24:2 - "Speech of Artificio, a Character in My New Play" & "Inc."
Tarpaulin Sky v2n2&3 -
"Two Jokes About Bears"
Unpleasant Event Schedule - "He Called Her Forest (or was it Forest?)" & "The Brain Full of Bourbon (concerning the doctor and the simulation of Switzerland)"
Listen to my Pandora station? Why not?
Online Poetry Magazines
B A L A K L A V ACan we have our ball back?
Castagraf
Conjunctions
Double Change
Drunken Boat
Ducky
Failbetter
Gut Cult
HOW2
H_NGM_N
Jacket
La Petite Zine
LVNG
Mark(s)
Moria
No Tell Motel
Octopus
Piplit
PomPom
Puppyflowers
Shampoo
Slope
Tarpaulin Sky
The Canary
Typo
Unpleasant Event Schedule
Word For/ Word
Archives
02/06/2005 - 02/13/2005
02/13/2005 - 02/20/2005
02/20/2005 - 02/27/2005
02/27/2005 - 03/06/2005
03/06/2005 - 03/13/2005
03/13/2005 - 03/20/2005
03/20/2005 - 03/27/2005
03/27/2005 - 04/03/2005
04/03/2005 - 04/10/2005
04/10/2005 - 04/17/2005
04/17/2005 - 04/24/2005
04/24/2005 - 05/01/2005
05/01/2005 - 05/08/2005
05/08/2005 - 05/15/2005
05/22/2005 - 05/29/2005
05/29/2005 - 06/05/2005
06/05/2005 - 06/12/2005
06/12/2005 - 06/19/2005
06/19/2005 - 06/26/2005
06/26/2005 - 07/03/2005
07/10/2005 - 07/17/2005
07/17/2005 - 07/24/2005
07/24/2005 - 07/31/2005
07/31/2005 - 08/07/2005
08/07/2005 - 08/14/2005
08/14/2005 - 08/21/2005
08/21/2005 - 08/28/2005
08/28/2005 - 09/04/2005
09/04/2005 - 09/11/2005
09/11/2005 - 09/18/2005
09/18/2005 - 09/25/2005
10/02/2005 - 10/09/2005
10/09/2005 - 10/16/2005
10/16/2005 - 10/23/2005
11/06/2005 - 11/13/2005
11/20/2005 - 11/27/2005
11/27/2005 - 12/04/2005
12/04/2005 - 12/11/2005
12/11/2005 - 12/18/2005
12/18/2005 - 12/25/2005
01/01/2006 - 01/08/2006
01/15/2006 - 01/22/2006
01/22/2006 - 01/29/2006
03/12/2006 - 03/19/2006
05/21/2006 - 05/28/2006
06/11/2006 - 06/18/2006
07/02/2006 - 07/09/2006
07/16/2006 - 07/23/2006
07/23/2006 - 07/30/2006
09/10/2006 - 09/17/2006
12/10/2006 - 12/17/2006
02/11/2007 - 02/18/2007
09/02/2007 - 09/09/2007
Blogroll Me!
visits since March 30, 2004.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home