Jamieson Ridenhour

I’ve been digging through old files. Here’s a poem I wrote ten or twelve years ago, after reading a very large amount of Seamus Heaney. It has been whittled down (a very specific form of editing) several times over the course of the intervening years. I’m not quite sure what to do with it, but I’m not quite sure I shouldn’t do something with it…

Seamus

I am singing of vagrant philosophers,
breath reeking of sour charity,
ragged coats flapping like the wing
of a broken thrush.

I am singing of field and fen,
of the swamp and leaf and blanket
of frost, the small sweet abrasions
a landscape marks on a fresh and malleable

soul. I am showing memories
that run like cinema-shows, a people divided,
a childhood restored. I am looking
at the tiny details that describe the whole.

I want to sweep myself like a burning brand
to goad the horned fall of history.

On December 19th, I’ll be performing a Victorian reading of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol at the Unitarian Church in Bismarck at 1:30pm. I guess this has officially become an annual event–three years running now.

The reading is a fundraiser for the Arlis Saxon Eco-Kids Project, with freewill donations being accepted in lieu of a cover charge. The reading runs around two hours with the intermission, and there will be food and drink available during the break and afterward.

Here’s a brochure of the event which is free and open to everyone. I love doing this reading; it’s a privilege to speak the great man’s words. See you there!

Come in, man, and know me better!

Here’s the info I have so far on the London trip in May:

I’ll be leading a series of literary walking tours in London May 11-18, sponsored by the North Dakota Humanities Council and Satrom Travel here in Bismarck. You don’t have to be a resident of Bismarck (or ND) to go–just sign up and come on. I’ll be showing you some of the best literary sights and sites in the great city, and I’ll also guide you to some of my own favorite places off the beaten tourist path. And you’ll get to experience London–one of the greatest cities in the world, and my favorite place on earth.

Here’s a PDF file of the brochure with details:

Literary London Tour

The price listed is a land package; the price of airfare from wherever you are will be added when you book. There are contact numbers included if you want more information. I always love spending time in London, but I’m especially excited to lead this tour. I hope some of you will be joining us…

Me with a group of students in front of the National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, 2007

There’s a growing trend of authors making short videos to advertise their books and then posting them to the web. The idea is like that of a movie trailer, only for books. I think it’s a pretty wonderful use of new technology in the service of literature, and an interesting response to changing times (including the oft-repeated and yet-to-be-proven maxim that “print is dead”). Cornerboys is in some way an outgrowth of this trend, though we’ve made the film be the product rather than the ad. Still, I think there’s some beautiful and funky work being made by poets and writers and animators in the service of promoting books, many of which become works of art in themselves. Poet Sandra Beasley talks about it and gives some stunning examples over on her blog. Thanks to Sarabande Books‘ twitter feed for delivering me to Sandra’s electronic door.

October was a whirlwind–making and releasing a short film in a single month was fun and furious. You’d think I’d spend November resting. Instead, I’m participating in National Novel Writing Month, wherein thousands of folks across the globe attempt to write a 50,000 word short novel in 30 days. My kids are doing it along with me, though with reduced word count goals, and so are one of my colleagues, one of my former students, and our Texan friend Isabella, who is a talented artist and poet, and now wants to add a novel to the accomplishments of her eight years on the earth.

My novel is a pastiche of a Jeeves and Wooster novel combined with an Agatha Christie style manor house murder mystery. With werewolves. The working title at this point is Reginald Spiffington, Werewolf.

I’m drinking lots of coffee, which isn’t really new. And I’m not sleeping quite as much–I tend to stay up ’til nearly midnight and then get up around five or so to squeeze in some more writing. But I’m having a blast. I had my novel mapped out in general terms before the month started, and so far I’ve been writing smoothly and with few stops or speed bumps. I’m a little behind word count; I should be at 13,000 some odd words by now, and I’m at 12,576. I plan to catch up tonight.

Which is not to say that Cornerboys is being neglected. We continue to gain new fans on Facebook (linked to your right), and the YouTube version continues to collect hits (we will break 1000 this week, more than likely). We’re also submitting the film to various independent film festivals, and will keep you posted on that front.

Talk to you soon. I must go write…

Keep up the Cornerboys love, my friends. We have right at 800 hits on YouTube after the first week, making us now the number one search result for the word “Cornerboys.” There are as of right now 115 fans on Facebook, and surely more to come. The feedback has been uniformly positive–people are raving, actually. I’ll keep you updated as we move into the next phase, you keep doing what you’re doing: watching the film and telling your friends to check it out.

We had a lovely Halloween, trick or treating with Aaron (Blind Mice’s sax player) and his family and then hanging out at Ali LaRock’s place for an hour or so. Ali’s place is always resplendent at Halloween, and this year was no exception. I went as Charles Dickens:

Hatted and waistcoated

Eva was a spy, and Ian was the Overlord, a character from the book he’s writing:

The Overlord invades your kitchen

A very serious spy

Cornerboys is now officially released, and is available on the web at YouTube and imbedded on this site on the Cornerboys page. Watch it, comment on it if you feel so moved, and please feel free to share, copy, send, and recommend to anyone who might be interested. We are very proud of it and want it seen by as many people as possible.

Last night’s debut was a fantastic event–a packed house, great response to Cornerboys and great questions during the Q&A, lots of kind comments and well-wishes after the fact. Ali and Kevin and I felt truly appreciated and quite the stars. I recommend releasing your own short film to a full audience of kind people. It’s more fun than should be legal. Ian and Eva seemed to have a blast (Ian did the drawing for the door prize) and my wife was the most stunning woman in the room. And the experience of watching Bride of Frankenstein with a lot of people was interesting and unique (at least until I do it again tonight in Minot). Thanks to everyone who came out last night, and thanks in advance to those of you who share Cornerboys with the world.

Kevin, me, and Ali with the Cornerboys book.

Just a quick update/reminder–Cornerboys will make its public debut tonight at the Mysteria Theatre in Mandan at 7pm. I’ll be there, along with my co-conspirators Ali LaRock and Kevin A. Smith. We’ll show the film, talk about it, answer questions, and then show The Bride of Frankenstein. Appetizers will be in the offing, and a cash bar is available for those of your with the years to use it. Ali’s will also be displaying some of the original artwork from the film.

Ali, Kevin, and I had dinner last night (along with Brenna Daugherty from the Humanities Council and Gwyn, Ian, Eva, and Ali’s friend Ryan) and had a private screening of the film. It looks really good–much better than I had imagined. I’ve had such a grand time putting this together, and feel really satisfied with the results.

So if you’re in the Bismarck / Mandan area, come out tonight. At the very least you should come show Kevin some Dakotan hospitality on his first trip north.

We'll be opening this tonight...