Introduction: Why here, why now, and
the title of this project.
It is not exactly public knowledge yet,
but my time here in Portland, OR is limited. I suppose my time on
Earth, like everyone's time, is limited. Truth is, no matter how
much we'd like to think otherwise, we don't every know exactly how
limited our time really is. For me, and I'm not going to tell
exactly when, I know precisely how limited my time in Portland really
is.
It's with a bit of mixed feelings this
eminent parting with Portland. As many of you know, I have lived
here on a few different occasions. I was here in the late 1990s and
the early 2000s. Janice and I moved up here from Denver in late
2010. All said, Portland has been good to me, the first go around
and certainly the second. I like the air here. I like the view out
the window. I like how not part of the place I feel here. I would
say that no one knows me here, but that is just not true. I know
plenty of people. But the people I know here, know me, and they
don't. For instance, in the years since I've been here, I have not
sought out any creative project with others, and no one has sought me
out. Conversely, in Denver, I worked magazines, websites, made film
both writing and acting, I participated in rogue art projects. I do
not feel bad about either situation. Truth is, I've rather enjoyed
my time here and I've rather preferred not being busy in group
projects and creative parties.
But, I can't shake the feeling about
how much I love Portland, OR. Hell, most of my novels are set here.
I know I will miss the place. I cannot imagine the exact feeling
I'll have when the place is in my rear view mirror, so to speak.
Travel Stories? Portland, OR?
I think the why here portion of this
project is clear enough. I will not be here for much longer. And I
want to write a few “travel” pieces before I go because of how
fresh it all is in my mind. Anyone who has spent some time here in
Oregon gets it. It's weird here, and not because people want it that
way. It's just straight up odd. It's an odd collection of people,
an odd collection of businesses, and the city itself is, well, odd.
So, here we are, here I am.
It's come to my forethought in recent
moments, this idea of travel writing. Much of it started with Bruce Chatwin's What Am I Doing Here,
and some of it began with my series, Writing Nonfiction Worthy of the Literary Magazine.
People travel. People do research before they go to places. Some
people don't travel. It doesn't mean too much. After all, writing
about a specific place has drawbacks if it's a travel piece or not.
In many ways writing a travel piece that involves a specific place is
a froze snapshot of that place and that time as seen by a writer.
Places change. Cities change. Prices change, restaurants and hotels
fold, reopen and fold again. Nothing is static anywhere, especially
in a city. And this is to say nothing of the lens of nostalgia a
given writer may or may not have. So, there it is.
My
background as a writer is fiction. I've written a few screenplays.
I write this blog. In recent months I have worked the Nonfiction
desk at Umbrella Factory Magazine
and this too has given me a few things to think about. I will not
claim to be nor have I ever been a writer of nonfiction. I have not
really endeavored to do anything other than fiction and dialogue. In
fact, as I think about it, I wrote a few travel essays in college,
that's good ol' Metro State back in 1996, in a advanced composition
class. That's a lot of water. I wrote a few “travel” pieces
when we first got to Oregon back in early 2011. The pieces I wrote
then were for a project I had then called Catfish
Burps.
I'm taking this travel writing thing somewhat seriously this time.
I've been reading a few articles, a few web pages and watching a
YouTube video or two. Now, as I always believe, is as
good a time as it will ever be.
Tentatively, Sultry Nights, Paltry
Days and Bliss of Urban Decay gets
the title of the project because I've been thinking about these
things for months. I came to the title back in November. I thought
it might be a great title for a collaborative project. Initially, I
saw a few writers, a photographer and maybe a filmmaker working on
this project together. But, alas, this is me and this Portland, OR.
I have been carrying the name and the idea with me for months. And
anyone who followed the Short Stories and Snap Shots
series will undoubtedly know that I followed these ideas of Sultry
Nights, Paltry Days and Bliss of Urban Decay with
me and my camera. Also, from that series, I am not afraid to tinker
with other genres, or in the case of Short Stories and
Snap Shots, other art forms.
Why here? I love
it here, and I think it's an odd place. And my time here is limited.
Why now? It's time
to stretch and try something new: Travel Writing. And my time here is
limited.
The title? My
confines.
Let's see what
happens.
Next:
1-Elements of
travel writing
2-Crafting a pieces
of literature
3-Vignettes and
barroom stories inside a narrative
4-Making something
tangible.
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