 Red Room Writer Profile
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Greg Roensch's Blog
November 4, 2009
- Choosing my favorite bookstore is like choosing my favorite iguana. Like many in the Red Room, I’ve spent many hours (and many dollars) at places like A Clean Well-lighted Place, City Lights, Green Apple, Moe’s, and Cody’s. And I once spent a summer in Paris at Shakespeare & Company thumbing through used books and listening to the rants and ramblings of the ancient owner. ...
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August 25, 2009
- [This journal is pieced together from email written during a recent short trip to London.] SFO. Made it to the gate without any trouble whatsoever. The plane is even supposed to leave ten minutes early. We shall see about that. Oops. I spilled my coffee all over the floor right next to my backpack. Shihzit. I don’t think anyone saw me ... so I’ll just walk away from the mess. ...
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July 21, 2009
- I don’t have much time. I’m scrambling here at the office to finish up a couple of projects (or at least find a safe place to hide them for a few days). Tomorrow I leave for Cooperstown and the baseball Hall of Fame (aka the HOF). Before driving to Cooperstown, I’m hanging out for a couple days in New York City, where I’ll be sure to marvel at the immensity of it all and kill a few ...
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May 26, 2009
- [Continued from previous blog] Three days of recording in the books. I am happy to report the completion of six demos, and some ideas may have sprouted for a couple more tunes, too. The final hours of recording were spent with my co-conspirator in this music project. J came over and quickly nailed her vocal parts. It amazes me that someone can record a song in one take. When I record my ...
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May 25, 2009
- [Continued from previous blog] I have arrived at the final day of this three-day recording project. Yesterday I reworked some of the previously mentioned songs. Recording, as I see it, is an endless quest for perfection that never comes—like writing. It’s a slow tumble into a bottomless creative abyss. I keep tumbling away and hope I land on my feet. I worked on a tune called “Perro ...
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May 24, 2009
- [Continued from previous blog] I am not a professional musician. I write songs for fun. I record them to see if I can get them to a palatable place. Palatable for whom, you might ask? Palatable for me, I would respond. Yes, it’s mainly an exercise in self-indulgence and self-gratification. Well, that’s not entirely true. My wife enjoys my songs—some of them are even on her iPod. A few other ...
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May 23, 2009
- [Continued from previous blog] It’s been a fairly productive morning. I finished my parts for two songs. Both of these numbers feature someone else on lead vocals, so it was my job to record my guitar and background vocals. One song, called “Dark Night of the Soul,” is about insomnia and the end of the world. The other song, called “Sugar Daddy Daddy,” is about a woman who shows up for ...
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May 23, 2009
- I’ve set aside the bulk of this long weekend for recording. Usually, my little home studio is set up in a small, dark room in the back of my condo. For this three-day blast, however, I’ve moved everything to the living room. Now, during the long hours of recording and re-recording and re-re-recording, I can stare out the window and watch the world go by, or at least I can watch the fleet of ...
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April 17, 2009
- Early Midsummer Memories. We sat together on a blanket on a grassy hill and watched a play. Faeries, kings and queens, and an ass named Bottom. My First Edit. I filled a spiral notebook with newspaper clippings from the first Star Wars movie. In one of the articles Han Solo was incorrectly identified as a Wookie. I crossed out the mistake and wrote “Chewbacca” in the margin. ...
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March 11, 2009
- I went to Paris for three days and stayed for three months. I rented space in a small apartment with a Greek woman who didn’t speak English. She and her sophisticated French boyfriend made love all the time, and I learned how to pick up the phone and say “she’s not here” in French. After a month, the Greek woman left, but not before subleasing the apartment to a ...
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March 8, 2009
- I’m not sure if I’ll ever write a novel. I’m not looking for guidance or pep talks from the Red Room. Nothing of the sort. I’m just stating a cold, hard fact on a sunless Sunday morning. I’ve been reading about Raymond Chandler. He was one of those writers who dedicated a portion of every day to writing and nothing else. Even if he couldn’t think of anything to write about, he sat ...
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March 2, 2009
- More than a year has passed since I first poked my nose into La Chambre Rouge. It seems like as good a time as any to share some observations about the number of visitors who’ve clicked on my pages during that time. My number crunching begins—and pretty much ends—with the site’s Page Views feature. Added to the Red Room in mid 2008, this little stat-tracking gismo has ...
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January 27, 2009
- Does it get any better than that? And before any overly-zealous censors start affixing their asterisks to my "d*cks", please realize I'm not talking about any old "d*cks" here. No, I'm talking about that particular breed of private detective who graces the pages of Chandler and Hammett and who lives and dies in a blaze of celluloid glory on the big screens of yore. ...
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January 13, 2009
- In tribute to one of the greatest ballplayers ever, here's a portion of my book on Rickey Henderson -- elected yesterday into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Congratulations Rickey! When the A’s acquired Rickey for their playoff push in 1989, it was his second stint with the team. He had first played in Oakland from 1979 to 1984 before moving to the New York Yankees prior to the 1985 season. ...
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August 1, 2008
- My grandparents came to America from the Philippines during World War II. Occupation. Displacement. A long sea voyage. Years later, in the early 1970s, my grandfather’s work took him (and my grandmother, too) back to Manila. I was lucky enough to visit them in the summer of 1972. When my grandparents eventually returned to the United States for good, they brought a gift for me—my very own ...
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