Hi All,

So, one more quick mini-update. Hopefully the link works.

First, one of the sites I check every day is www.nytimes.com . Great movie section, great books and TV section, too. Most of it is free, too, with registration---also free.

Anyway, today I was looking in the style section and came across this article:

www.nytimes.com/2007/05/20/fashion/20boite.html?_r=1&ref=fashion&oref=slogin

... which is a piece on the Friday Night Fights series that's been going on in NY's Hell's Kitchen. The same series that'll be hosting my own fight. Usually at the Church St. Gym, although Jonathan and I's tilt will take place along the Hudson river. But it's a cool fight series, obviously, and lots of people are jazzed about boxing in NY City, so all in all a cool article.

I hope the link works for you. It works for me, but that may be because I've signed up for the NY Times site.

All best, Craig.
Craig Davidson on 05.19.07 @ 07:05 PM EST [link]

Off on a Trip

Hi All,

This is where, were I a really really scrupulous blog updater, I'd say, "Sorry you won't be getting any updates for awhile." But, as I'm not a scrupulous blog updater, I'll just say, "You won't be getting any updates for awhile. I'm not sorry." Well, okay, a bit sorry.









Craig Davidson on 05.17.07 @ 05:49 PM EST [more..]

KIRKUS REVIEW (DEBUT FICTION ISSUE)

Hi all,

So this comes from Kirkus Reviews, sort of a sneak-peek issue of the books coming out this summer. I also saw Vincent Lam's collection there, and CONSUMPTION by Kevin Patterson. Those previews aren't posted here, I'm afraid, but nice to see lots of Canucks with books coming out this summer.

All best, Craig.
Craig Davidson on 05.12.07 @ 10:26 PM EST [more..]

Ranking the Food Network Hosts

Hi All,

Didn't I say awhile back I'd like to do a post on the Food Network hosts? I did, yes indeed.

Everyone got a TV channel that, when they're just aimlessly surfing about, they switch to first. Or a sort of a "elevator music" channel that you half-watch when you're puttering around the house. Okay, so I don't "putter" myself; in fact, I don't even really know what is encapsulated under such a verb as "putter," although my Mom might be an example of a putterer: she sort of flits from one area of the house to the other, hummingbird-like, addressing this or that, cleaning up what she calls "clutter," and which, to the best of my understanding, includes anything of value that anyone is foolish enough to leave out in plain sight when she goes on one of her "de-cluttering" binges.

I recall when I stayed at my folks's house after returning from Iowa, before the renters had left my house, Mom went on a anti-cluttering jihad and managed to de-clutter my car keys, my sneakers, and most every important piece of paper---including novel notes, receipts, and my living will---de-clutter it all out of existence. She'd have de-cluttered the clothes off my back if I'd happened to have found myself sucked into the vortex of her voracious puttering. When I confronted her about the whereabout of all my stuff, the following conversation ensued:

ME: Where in holy old hell is are all my belongings? My car keys, for starters?

MOM: I cleaned up. They were in the way.

ME: Where---the counter? That's in the way?

MOM: I may have recycled them.

Now I can understand Mom's need for a clutter-free house, partially because she's a neat freak---they have a maid, Beata, come over bi-weekly, and my Mom, God bless her, is the sort of person who cleans up for the maid; she's Q-tipping the garburator blades mortified that the maid is going to think her a slob; meanwhile Beata must be thinking she's got the cushiest job in town, seeing as she's nothing to do. It's like a guy spending Sunday afternoon washing his car in the driveway then driving it down to the Spray-N-Wash and telling the attendant, "I know, it's filthy; do what you can." Actually, Beata ends up feeling so distressed at not earning her paycheck she re-cleans, DOUBLE-cleans, everything my Mom's already cleaned; they're going to have to re-shellack the hardwood floors, as they've been worn down to unvarnished wood from all the double moppings and scrubbings.

But as I said, I understand, because my father---as I suspect most men---localizes his movements to the general vincinity of the couch and environs and yet still manages, without ever expending much energy or in fact even movement at all, to create a whole disaster-zone of clutter. I think men emit clutter without consciously realizing they're doing so; we're clutter magnets and the iron filings, embodied in beer cans and newspapers and empty envelopes and accrued dirts and debris, are so drawn to our persons that people like Mom cannot help but embark on de-cluttering missions every so often.

Where the hell was I? Oh, yes: my father watches the Business Channel. Don't ask me how I arrived at that point---circuitous, I know. That's his "elevator music" channel. A lot of people it's a sports channel or all-news. Mine is the Food Network.
Craig Davidson on 05.09.07 @ 09:36 PM EST [more..]