New From Post Apocalyptic Presses

Having given up acting & singing, with no push-back from the universe, I am searching for new adventures in artistic expression. I have been warmed by comments on my little spot on the Internet- Post Apocalyptic Bohemia with appreciation for my way with words & my awesome array of astonishing applications of alliteration. I don't think of my posts on this site as writing, but more like graffiti. I have been challenging myself to really attempt to be a true writer- An Author.

The Husband has been doing sketches for projects. I snuck a look at some work going on in his studio & I was reminded what a first rate drawer he is. It struck me! We could collaborate on series of Children's Books. My stylish but simple prose, paired with his illustrations... I am smelling sweet success.

So, The Husband & I are choosing a new fork in the road of life, & have started on the first of what I hope will be a series of books for very young children & witless adults.

The first offering of 3 slim volumes, fully illustrated, in their own special hand made Boys' Fort box will be: Daddy Drinks Because You Cry, Daddy's New Wife- Robert, & Daddy's Pills Taste Like Candy.

Born On This Day- December 31st... Canadian Polymath Douglas Coupland

I certainly love our neighbors to the north. Margaret Atwood, Kurt Browning, Michael Bublé, Raymond Burr, Kim Cattrall, John Candy, Andrea Martin, Catherine O'Hara, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, k d lang, who would want a world without Canadians? The Husband & I were married in Vancouver BC on our 25th anniversary of couplehood.

I first came upon Vancouver B.C.’s Douglas Coupland when the vacation home he shares with his husband was featured in the NY Times. The article revealed that the couple’s second home was directly behind their primary residence. In Seattle, The Husband & I had a second home, a 150 square foot barge on Lake Union, that was within walking distance of our 700 square foot cottage in the Wallingford neighborhood. I knew that I would dig around & get to know this Coupland fellow.

Coupland’s first novel- Generation X was published in 1991. I guess the title had some impact on our culture, giving a name to the post-Boomers & the term McJobs. In the next 2 decades, he wrote 13 novels, a collection of short stories, 8 volumes of nonfiction, the official guide to the Vancouver Olympics, stage plays, & screenplays.

It isn’t enough that he has created books & scripts, Coupland is a visual artist. Recently he designed the Monument to the War of 1812 in Toronto, iconic sculptures in Canoe Landing Park in downtown Toronto. His tribute to Canada's fallen firefighters in Ottawa is unveiled in March, 2012. Coupland, in collaboration with Roots, designed a popular collection of summer streetwear.

Hornet Nest 1 & 2

Downy Bottle #1

Blocks

Coupland claims to work 7 days a week & to never have taken a vacation.

Coupland has written a series of suggestions for surviving the future. Here are a few that I have taken to heart:

“It's going to get worse .No silver linings & no lemonade. The elevator only goes down. The bright note is that the elevator will, at some point, stop.”

“The middle class is over. It's not coming back. Remember travel agents? Remember how they just kind of vanished one day? That's where all the other jobs that once made us middle-class are going – to that same, magical, class-killing, job-sucking wormhole into which travel-agency jobs vanished, never to return. However, this won't stop people from self-identifying as middle-class, & as the years pass we'll be entering a replay of the antebellum South, when people defined themselves by the social status of their ancestors 3 generations back. Enjoy the new monoclass!”

“North America can easily fragment quickly as did the Eastern Bloc in 1989. Quebec will decide to quietly & quite pleasantly leave Canada. California contemplates splitting into 2 states, fiscal & non-fiscal. Cuba becomes a Club Med with weapons. The Hate States will form a coalition.”

“Your sense of time will continue to shred. Years will feel like hours.

“It is going to become much easier to explain why you are the way you are. Much of what we now consider “personality” will be explained away as structural & chemical functions of the brain.”

“You're going to miss the 1990s more than you ever thought.”

“Stupid people will be in charge, only to be replaced by ever-stupider people. You will live in a world without kings, only princes in whom our faith is shattered.”

“IKEA will become an ever-more-spiritual sanctuary.”

“Dreams will get better”

“Being alone will become easier”

“Expect less… Not zero, just less.”