Hello, friends and readers!

I’m extremely pleased to announce the arrival of my newest book, Moods from Marbletown.  It’s a collection of short humor pieces collected from my previous writings as well as some brand-new material to make it worth the jingle.  If you’re a fan of smart, literate written comedy, you’ll enjoy the living bejesus out of this bad boy, which is brimming with hilarity from stem to stern.  Even if you’ve been following my career for a decade, which, hey there crazy stalker!, there’s enough new stuff in here that I hope you’ll take a flyer and give it a chance.

Are there stories where Greek gods try out for porn movies?  Are there love letters from robots?  Are there plentiful Shakespeare jokes?  Are there angry chess-playing computers?  Are there Dungeons & Dragons guidance counselors?  Are there vague references to Batman?  Are there mashups of James Joyce and John Hughes, David Mamet and Dante Alighieri, and Raymond Chandler and Ayn Rand?  Are there obligatory appearances by zombies and Cthulhu?  Are there a bunch of cheap lists for when you get sick of all the brainy stuff?  YOU BET YOUR SWEET ABILITY TO READ ENGLISH-LANGUAGE TEXTS THERE ARE.

All that, and a snazzy cover design by cartoonist/artist/Internet punching sensation Calamity Jon Morris, to boot!  How could you not want the living hell out of this thing?

Well, want the living hell no longer!  Moods from Marbletown is available right this chicken-picking minute as a PDF, an e-book, and a plain ol’ softcover edition made out of actual paper!  And none of ‘em will cost you any more than dinner for two at the kind of restaurant where you might get ambushed by a meth-crazed Guy Fieri.  You can buy them with maximum ease by clicking on those links, clicking the “books” link on the right hand side or the bottom of this page, clicking on the graphic icon on the front page, or visiting my author page at Hulu, right here.  It’s almost impossible not to buy this con sarned thing!

Each purchase guaranteed to purty up your bookshelf and raise at least 3.5 picachuckles.  I appreciate your custom more than I can say, and I surely thank you.

Mirrored from LEONARD PIERCE DOT COM.

http://www.moby.com/journal/2012-05-29/i-just-got-back-nyc-and-montreal-and-el.html

Hello friends, readers, and worldwide strangers!

If you’re reading these words, it’s because you’ve stopped by on the day I launch a major overhaul of my home on the Internet.  It’s the biggest, most ambitious, and most complex upgrade to the site I’ve ever made in ten years of blogging, and I hope you’ll find it to your liking.  I know these ‘hey, look, new features’ posts are the equivalent of Gov. LePetomaine handing out busted paddleballs in lieu of pay, but if you’re a regular here, you’ll know I’ve been writing a lot more lately, and you can expect that trend to continue into the future.  I can’t tell you how much I appreciate everyone who stops by to read this fevered maundering, and I want to make it worth your time.

New content comes tomorrow.  In the meantime, let me walk you through the new format:

• For the first time in over a decade of effort, I’ve finally managed to secure the rights to my own name, which, as you can see, is the new URL.  I know, it’s not a great name or anything, but it’s mine, and it’s easier to remember than the old site name.  There’s no need to replace your links or bookmarks, though; all the Ludic Live pages forward to the new leonardpierce.com replacements.
• The new layout is a modification of the Fashy theme from Premium Coding.  I think it’s quite snazz, but I’d love to hear your opinion.  New content on the front page opens up as a Flash document while remaining on the home page, but you can go directly to the hosted page by clicking on the title or by navigating via the slider, and you can always navigate back to the front page by clicking “MAIN” on the footer page.
• The slider at the top and the boxes on the front page (as well as the sidebar on all individual page entries) will take you to the most recent 15 entries, but for the first time — and in stark contrast to the last layout — you can now access all previous pages in any number of ways.  The search tool is fully functional; you can navigate via the calendar tool in the footer or the archive tool on the sidebar of individual pages; and you can sort via the categories tool on the left of the front page or the pull-down menu in the footer.  The results of searches and sorts will give you all posts, with a ‘next page’ feature at the bottom of the results page, a huge improvement over the last layout.
• Previous functionality from the site is still around:  the search box, calendar, archive, footer links, recent comments, Twitter feed, recent posts, commenting feature, and slider should all still work as before.
• But there’s new functionality like fuck!  Please take note of the new category sort, sidebar links and related posts features, which should all be running just tickety-boo at the moment.
• The new site is social networking its big fat ass off.  Below the search box and in the footer of the front page, you’ll find links to my Facebook, Twitter, Digg, and YouTube accounts, as well as a direct way of e-mailing me, something previous versions of the site have lacked.  Also, in response to a number of requests, I’ve added a new social networking functionality:  at the bottom of every individual page, you’ll find icons that allow you to post a link to that page directly to your Facebook or Twitter account, as well as a zillion other ways to bookmark or cross-post it, including Digg, Tumblr, Google+, LiveJournal, StumbleUpon, Instapaper, and a ton more that frankly I’ve never even heard of.  There’s also easy URL copying, printing, and bookmarking — just click on the plus sign.
• There are links on the front page and every page to the site’s “About Me” post;  a post listing available services offered through the site which please buy something I am begging you; a post linking you to a site where you can buy my book, If You Like the Sopranos; and a link to my curriculum vitae and portfolio, should you be interested in hiring me for freelance writing or editing, or for full-time employment.  There are also graphic links to all of these pages above the footer on the front page.
• There are also links on every static page showing you how you can visit projects I’m a part of, such as the Wasted Words podcast and the First World Problems site, and how you can buy books to which I’ve contributed, like Inventory, The Indie Cred Test, and Field Tested Books.
• Perhaps most importantly, if I might be perfectly crass, there is now a PayPal button on the Services page, so it has never been easier to purchase a tiny fraction of the nest of drunken hornets that I have instead of a brain.  If you can’t find something there that would make your life stranger for the better, you’re not the relaxed bohemian you think you are.
• Inquiries are welcome on any goods or services, and naturally, I welcome your feedback on the new look and feel of the site.

That’s it for now.  Thank you all for your patience, and to old readers for sticking with me and new readers for giving me a chance.  Look for new posts here at least every few days; I look forward to making even more big announcements in the near future about projects I’m excited to be a part of.  Meanwhile, I’ll remind you that my new monthly short story service, which gets you a brand-new piece of short fiction on the first Monday of the month for ten bucks a pop or $100 for a full year’s worth, kicks off in June, and that’s also when I’ll be releasing Moods from Marbletown, a collection of short humor and my next book.  Cheers!

Mirrored from LEONARD PIERCE DOT COM.

rachelmanija

1. If I were transported to another universe, I would immediately try to find my partner's analogue. (T/F)
   
   
2. If it was an evil mirror universe, I would still try to find my partner's analogue. (T/F)
   
   
3. I would also expect my partner's analogue to find me, even if said analogue had no way of knowing I was there. (T/F)
   
   
4. My partner and I are capable of having complete conversations using only eyebrows, shoulder punches, or awkward, shuffling silences. (T/F)
   
   
5. Other people have sometimes accused my partner and I of being telepathic. (T/F)
   
   
6. If my partner or I were to turn evil, so that we had to spend the next fifty years as mortal enemies, I would still expect us to be there for each other in times of personal crisis. (T/F)
   
   
7. I have brought my partner back from the dead, or my partner has brought me back from the dead. (T/F)
   
   
8. I have sacrificed my life, my sanity, or other people's lives to bring my partner back from the dead, or vice versa. (T/F)
   
   
9. I have remolded reality to protect my relationship. (T/F)
   
   
10. Our souls, or a representation of our souls, have merged. (T/F)
    
    
11. My partner's soul is as much my responsibility as my own. (T/F)
    
    
12. If my partner is ever grievously injured, I will violate hospital protocols, not to mention health and safety regulations, to keep a weeping bedside vigil, even during lifesaving surgery. (T/F)
    
    
13. If I am ever grievously injured, my partner is likely to quit, go catatonic, go berserk, or otherwise become a less than functional member of society. (T/F)
    
    
14. At least one improbable being (mystical creature, copy of me from another dimension, minor deity, etc.) has declared that it is my destiny to be with my partner. (T/F)
    
    
15. Basically the entire universe has declared that it is my destiny to be with my partner. (T/F)
    
    
16. I am fairly sure that if I ever leave my partner, the universe will end. (T/F)
    
    
17. My partner was at some point literally the only boy/girl/other in the world, and neither of us minded. (T/F)
    
    
18. If one of us was transformed into a vampire, that person would immediately transform the other. (T/F)

Also posted at Dreamwidth, where there are comments.

Donald Dunn, whose old man named him “Duck” when the both of them were sitting around watching cartoons in their modest house in Memphis, was touring Japan with his old friend the Colonel, backing up Eddie Lee Floyd as they’d done so many times before in the past.  After last night’s show at Tokyo’s Blue note, “Duck” headed back to the hotel, hit the hay, and that was the last we’ll see of ol’ Donald Dunn.

“Duck” was a little fella and even at the towering height of his career, when he was laying down unforgettable, implacable bass lines for some of the greatest songs of the ’60s and ’70s, sometimes seemed like he was a little kid someone had handed a grown man’s guitar.  He offset that impression by being pure salty:  his scraggly red beard and brokedown hippie clothes marked him as something of a disreputable character, and his language was full of piss and vinegar (though he managed to class up even that low mystique with the fancy pipe that often dangled from his lips, as if held in place by sheer groove).  When he was a boy, he palled around with the hulking Steve Cropper, playing football and baseball and clowning around; but their real passion play was music.

Steve (who would become “the Colonel”) and Donald fell in with the Memphis soul crowd, and their instrumentals were, well, instrumental in providing much of the flavor that made up that unforgettable stew.  Dunn tagged along with Cropper in the nightclubs and juke joints just as he had on the ball fields; unable to keep up at first with his friend’s guitar playing, he picked up the bass, and showed the intense, untraceable talent of a pure autodidact.  They played in the Royal Spades, the Mar-Keys, and finally, legendarily, the MGs along such colorful names as Jerry “Smoochy” Smith, Ronnie “Stoots” Angel, Charles “Packy” Axton, and Charlie “Red Man” Freeman.  (Why have rock bands ceded nicknaming to hip-hop?  I miss it.)

Speaking of color, Dunn helped integrate soul music without even trying.  Though later held up as a Great Example, Cropper & Dunn — who strode freely across the borders of pop and soul, blues and country, bringing what they liked from each stopping point into the Stax sound — simply loved the music, and wanted to play what they wanted to hear.  They weren’t out to make a grand statement when they helped bring rough hillbilly dirt into sweet soul grooves; they were just doing what felt right in the only environment that would allow it.  The Mar-Keys got their first record deal through a bit of nepotistic finagling (Packy Axton’s mom owned a record label), but it was raw talent that kept Dunn carrying on.  His granite-hard grooves were a hallmark of the instantly recognizable Stax signature, and his speciality was pure bottom:  filling in the empty moments of a song with a low, belly-shaking, ass-bumping roll that couldn’t be knocked over with a wrecking ball.

Dunn played on practically every Stax single that mattered and plenty that didn’t.  His booming, skipping low-end Fender Precision bass can be heard on the best songs of Wilson Pickett, William Bell, Sam & Dave, Otis Redding, and Albert King, and with the Colonel, Booker T. Jones, and Al Jackson Jr., he put out what are indisputably some of the greatest albums of instrumental rock, funk and soul the genres have ever produced.  He was, of course, a Blues Brother, and our present generation, which seems to have trouble processing any information except through a lens of joking pop-culture references, remembers him primarily, if at all, in that respect.  But Dunn never stopped working, and never let himself become a nostalgia-vending cartoon.  He was up until the day he died what he was for the majority of the time he lived:  a working professional musician, with the emphasis on professional.

Dunn appeared on dozens and dozens of tracks, many of them unexpected even to casual fans:  he lent his legendary low end to the demanding likes of Muddy Waters and Freddie King, put in his time paying bills in a pop idiom with Rod Stewart and Eric Clapton, and served exceptionally well in a long stint with Tom Petty in the late 1970s and early 1980s.  His muscly, stand-aside bass lines were almost as sought-after by hip-hop producers and beat-miners as were Clyde Stubblefield’s drum breaks.  Some of his best latter-day work was with Levon Helm, who left us only a month ago.  Looking at his vast industry credits, it can seem as if there’s almost nobody he didn’t play with:  as a session man, he appeared alongside Jerry Lee Lewis, Mavis Staples, Mitch Ryder, Bill Withers, Herbie Mann, Moms Mabley, Duane Allman, Richie Havens, John Prine, Joan Baez, Diana Ross, Natalie Merchant, Ronnie Hawkins, Stevie Nicks, Bob Dylan, Willie Dixon, Guy Sebastian.  Roy Buchanan, John Fogerty, Ray Charles, Isaac Hayes, and Elvis motherfucking Presley.

And that’s just his studio work.  As a live performer, he played every chance he got, with everyone he admired.  In 1993, Neil Young asked Booker T. & the MGs to serve as his backing band on the Harvest Moon tour; I saw them when they came through Arizona.  Young, who at that point in his career could have asked pretty much anyone to be his backup — and, indeed, would do so later that year with the still shit-hot Pearl Jam — made the right choice; Dunn was in his mid-50s, but he and the rest of the group played as if they were heedless, hyper-energetic kids in their early twenties.  Even with Young following his usual pattern of abandoning anything like a rational setlist to play whatever songs popped into his addled mind, Dunn and his comrades jumped in with both feet first, locked it down, and held it tight as a noose from first note to last.  It remains one of the finest shows I’ve ever seen, not only for the astonishing precision and skill of the band, but how seamlessly they adapted to the material, playing on their very first tour with Young as if they’d been backing him up for decades.

Booker and the Colonel soldier on.  Al Jackson, the human timekeeper, was the victim of a bizarre contract murder plot almost 40 years ago; and now Donald “Duck” Dunn is dead.  What may be the tightest band to come out of the south is now without both its anchors.  ”Duck” left behind a wife, a son, a grandchild, and some of the sweetest music you’ll ever hear, if you have an ear to lend.

Mirrored from LEONARD PIERCE DOT COM.