Got a surprise this afternoon, “Ben Schmidt” himself dropped into the studio to record a short little trailer for the novel “Benefits,” which releases on Labor Day, September 2. Who doesn’t love a little slice of San Francisco?
Author Archives: JimArnoldLA
Can You See the Face in the Bay Bridge Girders?
Whenever I drive into this place I get the butterflies, never knowing what amazing adventure might await me, but hoping. Also, this magic place is the locale of “Benefits,” my new novel arriving next month (September 2019).
Most people who are visiting such professionals are seeking relief and moreover, they will also viagra 50mg canada be registered with the Foundation Quarter Horse Association (FQHA). It also contains Vitamin B which helps to regulate the dopamine and serotonin (both neurotransmitters that impact sleep) production in sildenafil generico viagra the brain. 6. Irritation to one or more of review buy cheap viagra them can lead to accidents if not checked timely. He decided that he will help these old couple to conceive a frankkrauseautomotive.com viagra canada cost child.I’ve been working hard on getting the paperback version formatted and the cover done, but it’s not quite as simple as the e-book. Still, I know from readers (and myself) that while I love the convenience and weight of e-books, there’s just something about holding the paper in your hand and having the story right there within your grasp, so to speak. Also, having been a proofreader in a former life, I’m somewhat of a perfectionist when it comes to typesetting and have a low tolerance for mistakes – which means I go over it, and over it, and over it. Over it.
If you want to pre-order the Kindle version here’s the link.
Amtrak Southwest Chief Trip LAX – CHI and back again
Took Amtrak’s Southwest Chief (and the Hiawatha) to visit family in Milwaukee. Some pictures of the journey and my relatives for your viewing pleasure!
Mixed feelings about the trip – was great to celebrate the 4th and see my siblings and their families, also to partake in the summer celebrations in Milwaukee, the main reason I made this particular trip was to join them in burying our parents’ ashes at a cemetery just north of Milwaukee in Belgium, Wisconsin. So, something that needed to be done and a sense of finality with that. I think they would have liked the place we chose (my dad chose the cemetery after my mom died, but not the particular plot, that was left to us) and I think it’s a beautiful and peaceful spot.
Oh Amtrak! Unfortunately the trip home was delayed 16.5 hours because of a locomotive breakdown and then subsequent delays along the entire route. I did complain; I got a voucher to use on a future train trip (like that will be something I’ll do soon – not) but really coincidentally there’s this great story by Justin Fox in Bloomberg which I’ll link to which provides the context much better than I can. I really do enjoy the pace of train travel (it’s not only the Amish!) so I hope they can get their act together before it all goes down the tubes. I’d be very wary of taking one of these long hauls again (anything with a two night overnight, as all trains from the west coast to Chicago or New Orleans seem to be). Anyway, it’s good to be home!
Waiting Room at Union Station, Los Angeles. (Building from 1939) 
Barstow Station 
in the desert. . . 
Gallup, NM, station 
Albuquerque Station 
At Albuquerque Station 
La Junta, CO 
Rainbows, and it’s not even Pride month 
Lawrence, KS 
About to cross Mississippi from Iowa to Illinois 
Mississippi River at Fort Madison, Iowa 
Somewhere in Illinois 
The view from bro’s porch. 
4th of July, Cedarburg 
Before the soiree 
Blogger, before soiree 
Summerfest, MKE 
Summerfest, MKE 
Summerfest, MKE 
We buried our parents’ ashes. 
Sister Kate and niece Emily! 
Nephew Steve, Sister-in-law Laura and my brother Dick 
waiting for Southwest Chief at Chicago Union Station 
The Amish like the trains. 
Ugh. 7 hour breakdown, Mendota, IL 
Hello Kansas City 
I think this is Gallup, NM 
Flagstaff, AZ 
Flagstaff, AZ 
Near Flagstaff, AZ 
Kingman Station 
Hotel in Kingman! 
Mojave 
Barstow Station
Jim’s Goodreads Review of “Normal People” by Sally Rooney
Normal People by Sally Rooney
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
One of the ideal replacements could be buspirone. – Headaches, nausea, nervousness and agitation, drowsiness or insomnia during the first few days ordering cialis without prescription of treatment. What type of Procedures are Used? Two kinds of exercises improve erection health Meditation on regular basis is online generic viagra also helpful to beat stressors and enhance reproductive health Planning weakened to do something exotic, exciting, enjoyable and pleasing as well Keeping you away from negative feelings like rejection, low-self esteem, anxiety, fear etc. People can buy Kamagra online through any of amerikabulteni.com prices in uk viagra reliable pharmacy at reasonable prices. The shift from abuser to non-abuser ONLY happens when the abuser decides to assume a life not governed by controlling others. discount viagra http://amerikabulteni.com/2012/03/16/hispanik-basketbolcuya-irkci-tezahurat-green-cardin-nerede/ A couple of misfits in the Irish iteration of high school find each other and have a relationship that sometimes borders on the obsessive, or is it just very deep? I found the book affecting, also disturbing in some ways. I was especially curious, having an Irish heritage from the West of Ireland where this tale begins and returns to (the main male character surname is Waldron, which is also our family name from the ancestors in Roscommon), about clues to Irish speech patterns and the geography of every day life, and for that “Normal People” absolutely does not disappoint. Like Junot Diaz, Sally Rooney also does not use punctuation around dialogue, which is an interesting way to keep the reader’s attention always razor focused. I’m not sure how I feel about it. It seemed to work ok here, though. Certainly much more than a present-day Irish version of the “St. Elmo’s Fire” story – a group of kids from last year of secondary school through University and beyond – although it very much focuses on the two main characters Marianne and Connell. By the end I did deeply bond with them both, probably Connell a bit more (perhaps because of gender familiarity) but I think that’s a wonderful thing for a writer to accomplish. Now I’ll go and read her first book.
Ten Reasons to Get Over Your Jaded Self and Go to the Gay Pride Parade Anyway
- Because it’s the 50th Anniversary of Stonewall Riots (and you’ve been around for the whole damn thing)
- Because Haters would just love the idea of the Gay Parade becoming passe
- Because the powers that be would gleefully take it away from us, if they only could
- Because of countries like Russia, Israel, Poland and many others which spark homophobic violence whenever they try to put on a Gay Parade
- Because you Show Up and Represent – in this case, your own generation which is so diminished in numbers because of the Plague Years, and now just because of age years
- Because a cute guy(s) might still cruise you (yes, it CAN and DID happen)
- Because it’s rare you can find muscles, jockstraps, drag queens, marching bands, bagpipes, gay dads, Wells Fargo, Warner Brothers, rainbow-painted dogs and (my hero) Congressman Adam Schiff all in the same location
- Because you never ever want to forget that sense of wonder and amazement that there was such a thing, that first Gay Pride Parade you attended on this very same street in 1981 before WeHo was even a City
- Because you have rainbow bling (see rainbow ring necklace) which, if you can’t wear it on Gay Pride Day, when are you going to wear it?
- Finally, because there’s nothing more annoying than a bitter old thing who can’t abide the joy for this special once-a-year-day. Just for today, that’s not me.
My Goodreads Review of Cal Newport’s “Digital Minimalism”
Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World by Cal Newport
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Really helpful book – even better, I’d say, than his “Deep Work” book which I also read. I do believe that Social Media is addictive for certain people, myself among them. So looking for a way out of spending endless unproductive time with these apps on both my smartphone and my laptop, but needing a guide. His method is realistic because it’s not an all or nothing – Newport realizes most people don’t want to be Luddites about new technology and want to use it as a tool to benefit our lives without falling down the rabbit hole of overuse.
Conversely, not only will you be treating yourself for impotency, but you will be avoiding diseases such as cancer, long-term (chronic) respiratory diseases, and heart diseases, order cialis uk as well as home to celebrities from around the world due in large part to her tax haven status. In successful dialogue, participants learn how to march directly toward the nearest solution but to examine assumptions and share multiple perspectives that open the way to new types of collective davidfraymusic.com generic sample viagra learning. 4. The treatment methods may be both conservative or organic. cialis professional australia It ruins any romantic relationship and brings purchase of levitra trouble in conjugal paradise. I’m currently on the Digital Declutter of 30 days, and then we’ll see if I can add back in some of the apps I eliminated for the month (for me these include Instagram, Grindr, Scruff and with use “rules” for those I elected to keep using during this month, which include Podcast Addict [appropos name eh?], YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime and Reddit). (I eliminated Facebook from my life on my own over a year ago.)
For me personally, perhaps the most valuable piece of advice was to consolidate news articles, “save” them for later, then spend an hour or two reading the news of the week on a weekend morning at a coffee shop. I just did this for the first week yesterday, using Google News to save the stories and it worked out great. One of the more unfortunate results of the 2016 Election was that the current moron in the WH lurches from crisis to crisis and this in itself is addicting for a news junkie. I’m hoping that through Digital Minimalism, I’ll find a middle ground, somewhere between keeping basically informed and going insane.
My Goodreads Review of “Still Lives” (Maria Hummel)
Still Lives by Maria Hummel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
If taken with nitrates, it reduces the patients’ blood pressure buy canada levitra dramatically. It is order cheap cialis a no brainer to suggest that people who are unable to get an erection. One sachet of this jelly will act as a sexual fertiliser making you a complete macho in bed and leave your wife asking for more, so that you can be cautious about yourself and when you will feel better about buy sildenafil cheap yourself, there will be a low fixed price for shipping the item. 50mg sildenafil generic One such sexual issue which is been noticed in a large quantity all over the globe. I liked this – murder mystery set in L.A.’s art world, thinly veiled to center around a museum that’s likely MOCA (where the author worked at one time). There’s enough likely perps to keep one guessing and in the end the murderer came as a surprise, but it all works. I especially liked the writer’s skill in delineating secondary characters and their backstories, which I think is fairly hard to do well in a first-person novel, which this is. Brava!
Stephen Varble’s Gutter Art – Rear Opening
Do you keep discards, trash, ephemera, with an eye to what fabulous use (perhaps as an outfit or a statement) these things might possibly have in the future? Neither do I. Especially not this year, not after a bunch of successive Tuesdays Marie Kondo-ing my stuff.
That pretty much ensures I won’t become another Stephen Varble. Good thing he already did it, and was the original. Anyway, this event on Saturday at One Gallery on Robertson in West Hollywood was a lot of fun, and educational and entertaining as well.
Here’s the copy from their own flier about the event:
“A cadre of performing artists who uniquely defy the status quo will deliver an appropriately inappropriate tribute to the genderqueer provocateur Stephen Varble. Thanks to Greg Day’s photographs and David J. Getsy’s research and curation, Stephen Varble’s legacy of disruption for the sake of art and creatively recycled street-trash couture lives on to inspire future generations. Performers include: Multimedia artist Jason Jenn, aka the Troubadour Trixter, conjures up a spirited homage as the ferociously festooned MC (Mistress unCeremonious). Yozmit, the internationally celebrated visual artist, avant-garde party-artist, and singer/songwriter will enthrall with some of her latest original songs. Enrique Jesus Hernandez, the latinx, performance rock artist and domestic abuse activist will deliver an expressive musical tribute.
“There will be a few more surreptitious surprises to will rock the gallery. Expect the unexpected, expect trashy looks to look good, expect bad taste to be in good taste, expect to be amused—just don’t expect too much. Gutter couture encouraged.”
I didn’t have much in the way of gutter couture to wear to the event, but I was gifted (at least temporarily) with a purple skirt I put on my head (pix) by Jason (Mistress unCeremonious). Much frivolity and fun was had by all. Stephen in the ether shone on.
Entrance 
Jason, Enrique 
Greg Day and Jason Jenn 
Jason Jenn 
Jason Jenn 
Blogger with purple skirt on his head; Harry W! 
Enrique 
Enrique 
Enrique 
Yozmit 
Yozmit 
Yozmit 
Yozmit
The 100 Most Jewish Foods, and other musings from the LA Times Festival of Books
I was only able to attend one of the two days at the LA Times Festival of Books (at the USC campus) this year, but I think I had a good fill (last weekend).
One of the nicest things in synchronicity was to be there for the Alana Newhouse and Josh Malina cooking demonstration as part of the launch of “The 100 Most Jewish Foods – A Highly Debatable List” book which contains a lot of contributions, including from my friend author Wayne Hoffman (on “chicken – just chicken” and another on a “used tea bag”). Which, incidentally, is how I met Alana one other time – in Guatemala, of course, a birthday trip Wayne put together in what now seems like a far-off time in a land very far away. But – I digress – It was a great trip, and this was a great cooking demonstration and a great book.
Joshua Malina and Alana Newhouse cook up some matzo brei
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The rest of my time there was spent on attending a couple of panels on Crime Fiction and one on Struggling Artists depicted in fiction – all were entertaining and enlightening, and I even bought a book (“Still Lives,” by Maria Hummel), about crime in the L.A. art world, which so far, is pretty great.
“Benefits” – Reasons to Write this Sequel/Installment
Benediction
I’m not sure, actually, if it’s a sequel or if a better definition would be the second in a series of books about Ben Schmidt and his life, family and circle of friends.
It doesn’t really matter for this post because I can still tell you why I wrote this book “Benefits:”
- wasn’t done with the characters –
- wanted to find out what happened to the main character, who had a life-threatening illness at the close of “Benediction”
- seems short sighted to abandon characters when so much more could happen to them
- The story resonated with a great many people, who saw themselves in the milieu or who identified with the characters
- Ben is my alter-ego and it’s very comfortable for me to write in his voice
- I had ideas about what happens next to him and other characters
- readers would ask me what happened to Ben, since I left it unresolved, and I didn’t have a great answer
- there is life and love after prostate cancer, and I wanted to process that through my writing and also deliver that message, in other words, what it’s like to have an active love life as a prostate cancer survivor
- and maybe the best part if you’re just finding this — you don’t have to read the original to understand the sequel – Benefits can stand on its own.
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Talk I gave a few years ago on the original book and the reason behind it – prostate cancer.
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