THE FISHERY: a diary of the Loose-Fish Project

This is the serial number to Mike’s Kindle:

Those Artificials are everywhere.

I found out today that “The Good Captain” has been invited to be exhibited at the International Symposium on Electronic Art 2008, as an Artist’s Presentation.
The ISEA is a biannual conference devoted to academic and artistic developments in digital and interactive media.  The previous conference was held in San Jose in 2006, and here are some of the people who participated.

I’m honored and somewhat staggered to be included in such company.  Now I just have to figure out if I can get to Singapore in July.

We’ve had Alternate Reality Games. Now there’s a new Social Reality Game (SRG):

Nowheremen

Check out a new online fiction project:  Shadow Unit, written by an impressive roster of authors -  Elizabeth Bear, Sarah Monette, Emma Bull & Will Shetterly.

As we get ready for the start of the fifth and final season of The Wire, I think it’s fitting to say a few words about just how much this show, and much of David Simon’s work, has had an impact on me.

Chuck Palahniuk, writing about Amy Hempel says:

When you study Minimalism in the novelist Tom Spanbauer’s workshop, the first story you read is Amy Hempel’s The Harvest. After that, you’re ruined… every other book you ever read will suck.

This is how I feel about The Wire.  It makes me hate most every other show on TV.  It makes me cringe at easy resolutions, dumbed-down problems, and any character who isn’t simultaneously a saint and a bastard.   It makes me furious at a nation of stroy consumers who havbeen and continue to be trained to accept simple explanations to their infinitely complex world.
I recently rewatched the first four seasons in preparation.  They are so dense and satisfying I could watch them all over again from the beginning.

Bawlmor slang has crept into my everyday vocabulary, and I find myself calling people “Bunk” and “Shitbird.”

There are several people in the building where I work who have Emmy Awards, and every time I see one, I’m tempted to snatch it and hand deliver it to Andre Royo.

Simon and his collaborators have been doing this to be for years.  I was a devoted fan of the show Homicide, and its brilliant performances - particularly Andre Braugher, Jon Polito and especially the seven-year journey into the heart of darkness undergone by Kyle Secor’s character Tim Bayliss.  (Sadly, I’ve been rewatching the early episodes of this show, and next to the Wire, they look forced, unreal, positively quaint.)

The book and later miniseries of The Corner is so unsettling, that years later I get chills just thinking about it.

Behind all of these, Simon’s first book - Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets - stands as one of the three of four best books I’ve read in my lifetime.  I was raised in a staunchly liberal/lefty do-gooder home.   One of the things I picked up along the way was a complete distrust of anyone wearing a police uniform, and the unhealthy attitude that anybody in a position of authority was solely and simply a tool of the powerful.  Simon’s book obliterated that notion, and forced me to try to look past my prejudice towards people who I perceived to be on the opposite side of my interests, or at least recognize and be uncomfortable when I don’t.  I’ve carried that lesson with me.

I’ve seen the first two episodes of the final season of The Wire, and I’m greedy for the rest, even though I know there will be no more.  There’s a moment in the beginning on the second episode (not a spoiler, don’t worry), in which Bubbles walks to the front of a group of people.  The light through the window is gleaming, brilliant, and for a second as he walks into it, it looks as if he’ll be bathed in its healing glow.  But then the light overpowers him, leaving him an island of darkness, emphasizing the shadows which cling to his body.  It’s one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen on a television screen.

Thank you, David Simon - the Great Shitbird of the Galaxy.

A happy New Year to you all.

While this space has been quiet, things behind the scenes at the Fishery continue at a brisk pace.

The Good Captain continues along, and I’ve gotten some lovely feedback from some readers.  I encourage you to post your reactions, plaudits, brickbats and queries on the Comment Thread.

While the intrepid Captain Lockham continues to plumb the mysteries of Captain Dziga’s ship, I’ve been immersing myself in work for our second project.  Spoon River Anthology is a book that most people know only though high-school reading assignments.  But as I’ve delved deeper into the work, I’m finding it to be an incredible rich, profound, heartbreaking, funny and profane piece of work.  My adaptation concept has changed about a half-dozen times as I pass through more and more layers of this complex world created by the fascinating E.L. Masters.

One invaluable resources has been the great Definitive Online Edition of Spoon River Anthology, assembled by Paul Houle. Go over there and check it out - you’ll find some of my comments.

After Spoon River, there are two more projects I’m laying groundwork for.  More detail as they get closer to fruition.

We’re aiming to make 2008 a year of exciting and challenging stories.  Stay tuned for much more.