a random encounter with an old buddy

Had a random meeting with Bobb Cotter this morning, just ran into him at the store. He's the author of the book "The Mexican Masked Wrestler and Monster Filmography" which, in this age of the film "Nacho Libre" should be going gangbusters (if he lived in a larger media market, he'd be gold, let's face it). Bobb and I go way back to when he was the back-up artist on my pulp magazine "Vengeance and the Death Squad".

We both had concerns about the narrow focus of the local media market and want to give it one last, insane try before washing our hands of our hometown as homebase. I know that the allure of LA will not be lost on me when I step onto Venice Boulevard, have some rose ice cream and walk into the high desert at Joshua Tree to bathe in the ions and sharp sands of the Santa Ana Winds, E.J. has it on even money that I don't even get on the plane to come back. I refuse to take that bet, I'm no fool.

Of course, we're both overlooking the obvious; that in these days, you can homebase anywhere if you exploit the web...and while most of my books are sold elsewhere, most of my subscribers to my newsletter and my podcasts never have even been to Morgantown, it still is crippling to not have a vibrant and dynamic arts community locally for moral support.

Reading circles are no substitute for the Algonquin circle of writers. When I hear the members of local writers' groups discussing books they've read rather than books they are writing, I wonder if they know what writers do...

Add to that the sense on the part of local media that "nothing good can come out of Nazareth" so artists, musicians and writers with a local connection are discounted.

Time to flex some muscle.