Notes From the cabin

Hello friends and family and random readers,

1.

My real post is coming tomorrow, but I wanted to remind those of you in LA to please come tonight and listen to some great stories in a cool space in Frogtown and say hello. Both

Anna Schott

and

Tommy Swerdlow

are great writers whose work you can find on Substack (as well as other places) Jervey Tervalon is a novelist, teacher and storyteller from LA. And most importantly, Me, with copies of my book, so I hope to see you there.

2.

I was thinking of the show Ripley from a few months back and the way there were objects that were characters within that story: winding stone stairs, heavy billowy clouds, angled hallways. One of the starring side characters was Ripley’s fountain pen, what a beauty. Curved like a shiny vintage car, everything about it was sexy, the way you’d have to turn the lid and gently pull it off, the closeup of fingers wrapped around it and the scratchy sound across the page. You couldn’t take your eyes off that pen! The ashtray too, solid heavy glass, Murano, alluring and deadly. No one could walk by it without noticing.

It made me think of the secondary characters in my own life, my computer and coffee cup for example, my bedroom door knob made of porcelain, the bottle of perfume on my dresser. Gestures and sounds can be included as guest stars too. I am thinking now specifically of my grandfather’s sigh. What a release of air! Like a punctured tire! I wish I had a reel of all his sighs. Back to back to back. How could such agita give me joy. Nothing better described the sound of not just disgust and disappointment and impatience, but the jangly, operatic combination of all three. All followed by Eh Mannaggia! It was a 3-act show that sigh. You wanted the person who made that sound on your team because it meant that he cared.

3.

I am lifting this video from

Nick Hornby

whose toast to Prince you can read about but this gave me so much joy, I had to share it too.