After Mom’s funeral and the reception, I heard car doors slam in the driveway of what I should start calling Tim’s house. Since I wasn’t able to attend the service, I went over to talk with Tim, Paul, and Eric to find out how it went. There was a very expensive imported car parked in…
I like faces
November 15, 2013
Whether they’re real or not, I like faces. I see them everywhere. Years ago I planned to publish a book called Accidental Faces or something similar. I still might do it, but for now, here are some accidental, contrived, and real faces. This is a universal plug that Eric brought from the Netherlands. It represents…
The importance of not being afraid
November 6, 2013
Both my parents were afraid to die, but Dad was crippled with terror. It was simply not possible to talk to him about his death. He told me in all seriousness that until he was seventy-five, he honestly thought he’d live forever. I’ve never known anyone who thought he was immortal. The neighbors who used…
All parents die
October 31, 2013
Got an e-mail. What are you so upset about? All parents die. Indeed. All humans die. However, there are different ways of dying. Would you rather die in your sleep at the age of eighty-five, or would you rather be flayed alive at the age of thirty? I’m upset at the manner of my parents’…
Swimming at last
October 28, 2013
Dave, The Best Therapist in the World, told me that my situation was similar to a person afraid of learning to swim. It wasn’t water that scared me but emotion. Feeling deep emotions was terrifying. I was raised to think that genuine emotions were dangerous. This was a tradition on both sides of the family….
Vergangenheitsbewältigung
October 28, 2013
The Germans are great at coming up with words to describe the complexity of human existence. Schadenfreude. “The humor one feels at another’s misfortune.” Laughing when someone’s pants fall off in public, for example. Backpfeifengesicht. “A face badly in need of a fist.” Someone who’s got the kind of face you just want to smash….
Good-bye, pessimists. I’m sorry.
October 19, 2013
My father Edward Joseph Wictor was the most pessimistic person I’ve known. His favorite pronouncements were, “It’s really scary” and “Nothing’s ever gonna get better.” Here’s Dad at the age of twenty-three in 1951, serving in the U.S. Coast Guard at LORAN Station Bikati. Dad being Dad, the only thing I know about his time…
Grady Harp review of Ghosts and Ballyhoo
October 17, 2013
Grady Harp has reviewed Ghosts and Ballyhoo on Amazon. Five stars! Thank you, Grady. I was going to write a post about how Mom’s death has left me in a state of hyper-irritation. Most of what I see and hear strikes me as unbearably trivial. The radio spews out the same set-piece political bitch-fests that…
Thomas Wictor unfettered
October 15, 2013
In a recent post I said that I was now unfettered, and that people who had done bad things would be held accountable. I knew that at some point, I’d write a post like this; I just didn’t think it would happen so soon. Scott Thunes said he wished he could see me really let…
Not a chance
October 8, 2013
I got a message. You’re too young to write your memoirs. Feels like a suicide note saying, “Thank you world and fuck you.” Well, I wrote the memoir because readers forced me to. No, that’s only partially true. Readers of Talkbass.com did demand that I write a book, but the truth is that I wanted…