Running from a Standing Start

I spent the afternoon chastising my National Writing Project  (NWP) friends for not writing more.

This of course makes me a 100% grade A hypocrite.

My intentions are always pure.  I last wrote here in July, and I’ve thought about returning at least once a day since then.  ”I’ve done some okay writing on blogs over the years,” I’d think.  ”I should really get back to that.”

And then I’d proceed to play Dead Island for two hours, or watch that Arrested Development marathon on IFC.  I manage to squeeze in 15 or 20 minutes of writing a day – even if it’s just the 15 minutes I take with my students at the beginning of class – but it never feels like I’m accomplishing what I should.

“Teachers of writing are writers themselves,” I say.  And then I put on a record and check my email.

Enough.

Today I shared this blog with my NWP friends, which is what I should be aspiring to.  I made promises – or commitments, at the very least – when I first made the switch from the old blog to the new.  Music, movies, and books.  Politics.  Some personal stuff.  An ambitious plan to view and write about all of Woody Allen’s movies.  All of that got shelved because I’m lazy, and because it’s easier to talk about writing than it is to do it.

So here I go again.

What’s the over/under on how long I keep it up?

*****

Current listening:

Youth Lagoon – The Year of Hibernation (2011)

Current reading:

Augusten Burroughs – Magical Thinking ( 2004)

Suzanne Collins – Catching Fire (2009)

Last movie seen:

Frozen (2010; Adam Green, dir.)

It’s Beginning to and Back Again

At this point, the news that I’m starting a new blog should be greeted with the kind of annoyed sigh usually reserved for Sarah Palin’s latest Facebook post. There will be probably be eye-rolling in there, too.  And rightfully so.

I first started blogging in 2003, when Blogger was Blogspot.  I switched over to LiveJournal in early 2004 and kept that one faithfully for over two years, until I headed to grad school.  Then, because I’m a free spirit (albeit a free spirit whose free spiritedness only manifests itself in decidedly sedentary ways), I bounced back and forth between Blogger and WordPress for the next several years, interspersing periods of vast productivity with longer and longer periods of not giving a shit.

The problem – lately, anyway – is that I like the idea of keeping a blog more than I actually like keeping one.  I start with the best of intentions, but sooner or later it starts to feel like a homework assignment.  It’s why I’ve never been good at keeping a journal of any kind – anything I feel obligated to do I eventually rebel against.  And my rebellion usually takes the shape of me just throwing up my hands in disgust and taking a nap. So people who know me – or who know my last blog, Three Seconds of Dead Air – should rightfully be skeptical of my latest online attempt at rambling about things in a semi-amusing way.

There’s a difference this time around, though, that seemed to necessitate starting from scratch, rather than simply stumbling along at my previous spot, and doing so with more resolve than usual. In short, 2011 feels like a year during which I should be writing.  My mom died two months ago – more on that in posts to come, I’m sure – and in two more months I’m getting married.  Less personally, there’s an absolute wealth of movies, music, TV, and books worth talking about, and the increasing lunacy of the right-wing – which will only get worse as we ramp up to the 2012 election – is a constant source of entertainment. There’s a lot to say about a lot of things, and it felt like I should turn the page in order to do this already-momentous year justice.

So once again, I, Monty, your faithful narrator, am pledging faithfulness, constancy, and, with any luck, not a little amusement.  As always, comments are welcome.  More to come.

Current listening:

Girls Names – Dead to Me (2011)

Current reading:

Jeffrey Eugenides – Middlesex (2002)

Mary E. Pearson – The Adoration of Jenna Fox (2008)

Last movie seen:

Source Code (2011; Duncan Jones, dir.)