Random Stephen King quote from Danse Macabre for consideration:

I think that writers are made, not born or created out of dreams or childhood trauma-that becoming a writer (or a painter, actor, director, dancer, and so on) is a direct result of conscious will. Of course there has to be some talent involved, but talent is a dreadfully cheap commodity, cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work and study; a constant process of honing. Talent is a dull knife that will cut nothing unless it is wielded with great force-a force so great that the knife is not really cutting at all but bludgeoning and breaking (and after two or three of these gargantuan swipes it may succeed in breaking itself . . . which may be what happened to such disparate writers as Ross Lockridge and Robert E. Howard). Discipline and constant work are the whetstones upon which the dull knife of talent is honed until it becomes sharp enough, hopefully, to cut through even the toughest meat and gristle. No writer, painter, or actor-no artist-is ever handed a sharp knife (although a few people are handed almighty big ones; the name we give to the artist with the big knife is "genius"), and we hone with varying degrees of zeal and aptitude.

That reminds me, it's time for my annual re-reading of Danse Macabre. It's my favorite book by him, and I wish he'd do an updated version.

Yeah, it's a re-read every few years for me, too. I learned so much from that book. I was SO let down that "On Writing" sucked.

It's my favorite book by him, and I wish he'd do an updated version.

It is an interesting mash of stuff, including all his biographical remembrances.

What's fascinating too is that it was written in 1981 when viewing something like Tourneur's The Cat People was really difficult to do. And movies like Freaks were apocryphal. There was no complete print in anything like circulation, just the chopped up roadshow versions.

Back in the days when you'd get your TV listings and immediately turn to the movies section and have to plan to stay up until 2am to watch some obscurity you wanted desperately to see.

I'm getting some of the same thing with Skaal's The Monster Show (another great book on horror), which was written in the mid-nineties and so many key works were still unavailable on video, waiting rediscovery.

Reminds me of my record hunting days where I literally spent over ten years looking for certain LPs I'd only read about.

Incidentally I downloaded a txt version of Danse Macabre right off the intertubes so you could probably nab a copy for your Kindle or iPhone.

I used Danse Macabre, along with The Stand, Carrie, and Dead Zone, for my first big English research paper in 8th grade. Loved that I could write a paper on someone as modern as Stephen King in the early 1980s.

Incidentally I downloaded a txt version of Danse Macabre right off the intertubes so you could probably nab a copy for your Kindle or iPhone.

Reeeaaaly? Because I was about to search for a version I could read on the iPhone.

Reeeaaaly? Because I was about to search for a version I could read on the iPhone.

Well, the text version is now in your inbox.

Btw, did you get The Divine Comedy's song "The Happy Goth" I sent?

As much as I love how many movies are now available for order (either for rental or to buy) via the interwebs, I do miss that staying-up-late-to-catch-that-obscurity (and the theater-going equivalent). I've still got a ton of stuff on VHS of that kind where I taped the movie instead of watching it, and who knows if I'll ever get around to that.

Same with the hunt for music, although there's still a lot of stuff that's never made it to CD. Which reminds me, I really need to get a new turntable. Mine works, but it's getting creaky soundy when it's on. I'm debatin whether I should get one of the ones that can be hooked in to a computer so I can start converting stuff, but I fear even if I got one I'd never get around to doing much of that (says the guy who still hasn't bothered figuring out how to download photos from his digital camera - there are still pictures from the Atlanta and Seattle F2F on there, as well as the Providence mini)

Although there's still a lot of stuff that's never made it to CD.

Yeah, but most of that has been digitally ripped and posted on a music blog somewhere. I've found some incredibly rare vinyl items online.

But I concur, there are things I miss about that shared experience of going to a rare showing on a big screen, or even indulging in the grey market (which is what I did to catch up with Buffy before the full seasons came out).

Which is weird to think of about BtVS because it seems to have a syndication life sort of like MASH once did. It cycled through multiple times on FX and now its on Logo.