Christopher Meeks's Blog

• Sculptor Robert Graham

  January 5, 2009

  • During the 1984 Olympics, I came upon two bronze sculptures of nude and headless male and female athletes installed just outside the Los Angeles Coliseum.  Even though they stood above me, I was speechless. 

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• Comfort Food

  December 27, 2008

  • Enough of serious musings!  Do we want good writing or good food?  After all, it's still the holiday season, and agents, publishers, publicists, even printers are on vacation. And what are they doing? Eating.

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• We're All Renters

  December 23, 2008

  • Last week I returned from Minnesota, where I'd visited my mother, Sidney, in her assisted-living home.

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• "Water for Elephants" and Photos in Fiction

  December 22, 2008

  • When I flew back from Minnesota last week, I started reading Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen on the airplane.  The book is fabulous, about a 93-year-old veterinarian having a hard time

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• On the Set of NCIS

  December 21, 2008

  • I like TV. I just don't have much chance to watch it. Now that we have a DVR, however, I have it set to record 60 Minutes, Dexter, Californication, Weeds, and my big guilty pleasure, Entourage. Episodes, however, are piling up like pancakes at a fire station breakfast.

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• The Darjeeling Limited--And Aren't We All?

  December 7, 2008

  • Last night my wife came home from her part-time job as a reference librarian so worn out, even her shushing action couldn't shush. During the week, she runs a library at an all-girls high school a

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• End of Life

  November 30, 2008

  • One of my pleasures is to read Jessica Barksdale's blog here in Red Room, and the her recent blog called "Time Out" brought many comments.

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• On Being Reviewed

  November 12, 2008

  • Part of my past includes stints as a book reviewer, first at the Los Angeles Daily News, then for the now-defunct Herald-Examiner.

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• This Week On Library Thing

  November 9, 2008

  • When I wrote about Library Thing in August (http://www.redroom.com/blog/christopher-meeks/library-thing), I didn't know then that that entry would lead me to an Author Chat on the site now. 

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• WHEN AUTHORS GIVE READINGS

  November 3, 2008

  • Things to Do and Not Do if You’re the Person Up Front

    On Halloween night, I read my story "Dracula Slinks Into the Night" at Skylight Books in Los Angeles after four other authors read their short works.

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• Literary Blogs and Reviews

  October 23, 2008

  • Now that the Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review section is gone, and newspaper reviews in general are becoming fewer, the democracy of the Internet is coming to the rescue...at times.  You have to find the right places.

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• Manic Pixie Dream Girls

  October 10, 2008

  • This won't be a long blog because I'm late to class. Last night on NPR, I heard a story about an idealized female character in films, the Manic Pixie Dream Girl.  This is a woman who exists to pull a too-staid man out of the doldrums and make him realize life is great. 

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• The Top 100 New Classic Books

  October 5, 2008

  • Best lists always stun. That's because there's always something to agree with and always something that seems missing.

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• Santana, Soboba, and Time

  September 29, 2008

  • Thomas Wolfe may have said you can't go home again, but it sure seemed like one could with colored lights and Carlos Santana and band wailing though the percussive and guitar-screaming "Soul Sacrifice" in an outdoor grandstand at, of all places, the Sobaba Casino in an Indian reservation near Hemet, California.

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• Coen Brothers--"Burn After Reading" and Other Thoughts on Humor

  September 17, 2008

  • It was my birthday, so my wife let me choose the movie. She hadn't quite forgiven me from last year when I convinced her and my cousin to rush to No Country For Old Men. Not knowing anything about the movie at the time, I found the title funny, and I said, "You want to laugh, don't you? You'll love the Coen Brothers and this movie."

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