More good writing advice: Don’t talk your story away.

June 29, 2019 Paul CervantesAdvice, Confidence, John-Boy Walton, Talking, The Literary Man, The Waltons, Writing, Writing adviceLeave a comment

Don’t think it away, either.

I have to admit I got this one from an episode of The Waltons called The Literary Man from Season One.

A older writer named A.J. Covington passes through Walton’s Mountain and regales John-Boy with tales of his travels and the stories he planned to write. Late in the episode, the old writer confessed to John-Boy that he didn’t really write any more.

He had made the mistake of talking his stories away.

I never heard of that, but it made sense immediately.

There’s something about the rhythm and crackle of decent writing that needs to come to existence on the page, not the tongue.

Once we speak it, we might compromise it somehow.

I don’t tend to talk my work away but I do have a tendency to think about my ideas too much. I try to avoid that kind of thought, though I don’t always succeed.

Instead, once I get an idea about a direction to take or a scene to tackle I try to get right at it; words on paper as quickly as possible.

TRUE Linkswear Sensei: The Irreplaceable Golf Shoe

June 22, 2019 Paul CervantesEbay, Foot Pain, Golf, Golf shoes, Minimalist Golf Shoes, Minimalist Shoes, Plantar Fasciitis, TRUE LinkswearLeave a comment

I have two pair of the the ugliest golf shoes ever made.

On the other hand, they’re also the best & most comfortable golf shoe ever made, at least for my feet.

It’s hard for me to imagine why TRUE Linkswear stopped making them, but they did.

So now what?

Well, anticipating the inevitable demise of my first pair I bought a second (used) pair on Ebay. Because the shoes have such low profile soles (perfect for SoCal golf and its typically dry conditions) they’re actually very durable. Heck, I drive to the course wearing them and keep them on right through dinner and the drive home. They take an occasional trip through the washer (medium water temp, air dry) and they seem to tolerate the procedure without injury.

Who cares how they look?

Snapseed Come on, they don’t look that bad!

I know. TRUE is still in the game but the Sensei are gone and I don’t know why.

I’m happy to try TRUE’s new offerings but I’ll be surprised if they measure up to these babies.

Sometimes progress isn’t progress.

Here’s hoping this time it is.

Is the Apple HomePod a genuine threat to high end audio?

June 12, 2019June 20, 2019 Paul CervantesAirPlay, AirPlay2, Apple, Apple HomePod, AppleMusic, Dire Straits, iTunes, Pandora, Sonos, Soundfreaq, Spotify, Telegraph Road, Wi-Fi SpeakersLeave a comment

Yes, it is.

No, it’s not a real high end product.

No, you won’t be replacing your real system, assuming you still have one, with a HomePod.

Yes, you will be impressed by how fundamentally musical it is.

HomePod

The Apple HomePod is the first mass-market product, designed by a company with real engineering wallop, that was actually designed by people who wanted it to sound good and that fact should put existential fear into every high end company that’s still on the right side of the grass.

Let’s talk about setup. It’s OK, but like all new Apple products it entails a few more steps than it should and Apple’s Home app is kludgy. Bummer, that, but once you’re done with it you’re done with it, or so it seems so far.

On the operational front I’ve observed that Pandora skips momentarily about every ten to fifteen minutes. The funny thing is that it never skips on my iPhone or when I’m using my Air Pods.

What the?

That problem gave me the chance to test Spotify.

Odd, no skipping whatsoever.

Who knows what’s up there but I’m willing to blame Pandora until and unless it starts to happen with other sources. Not surprisingly, playback from iTunes / Music is just dandy.

What the folks at Apple have done here is to swing a big, heavy hammer at what should be an easy target, and for them it was. The HomePod is a technically and acoustically complex product. They’ve crammed a bunch of drivers into that little pod. If a high end company, or a lesser tech company, tried to do what Apple has done the result would have been a sonic or functional mess and probably both.

The HomePod sounds remarkable coherent from top to bottom. Even though I’m using it as what would be regarded as a monophonic speaker the result is quite natural from a spatial perspective. Remember, stereo is a trick. This kind of mono is simply another kind of trick, and it works because Apple figured out how to make it work.

But wait, let me talk about why I felt I needed a better speaker in my office than my beloved Soundfreaq Sound Spot Wood + White. There are two reasons, really. The first is that I need a speaker in my bedroom, and the Sound Spot is perfect for that. The second and more important reason flows from the damn book I’m writing. This whole book-writing thing entails seemingly endless hours of ass sitting, which I already hate. I’m actually thinking of hiring a personal trainer so that all this extra time sitting doesn’t knock too much time off my life expectancy.

The HomePod’s fundamental listenability and (comparatively) full range presentation brings just enough music into my office that I’m not constantly driven to get up and change the record or put in another CD or whatever. I can turn it up to annoyingly high levels when the music or mood calls for it or turn it down to the edge of silence when I’m trying desperately to think and it stays musically convincing.

The Pod simply sounds good. Yes, it takes some liberties and creates a sould-warming upper-bass hump so you won’t notice the lack of mid and lower bass. And, yes, all those drivers lead to an occasional if surprisingly minor megaphone effect that’s especially noticeable on female vocals.

But then, something will come on that will catch your attention. Right now that’s Telegraph Road from Dire Straits. The cut has a lot of electronically generated space and a fairly high dynamic range for a rock recording. But, the Pod pulls it off. Somehow, especially at rational volumes, the musical presentation holds together is the exact way you need to draw your attention into the music.

Wow.

$250?

I cannot think of a $500 pair of stereo speakers from any high end manufacturer of any era that can match the Apple HomePod’s essential musicality.

That fact, all by itself, is why I regard the HomePod and all of the amazing stuff that will surely come after it such a threat to what’s left of the high end.

In closing, I’m trying to imagine what would be involved in streaming to the HomePod from an analog turntable. Obviously, a really good phono preamp (got one) and a really good DAC (ditto). Then, all I have to do is trick AirPlay2 into streaming the resulting data at full resolution to the HomePod.

Hmmm…

Who knows? Maybe this will be possible by the time I’m working on the sequel to the sequel.

All you high end audio folks should have heard this kind of product coming and from this kind of company because it’s already too late for you to get out of the way.

The Apple HomePod is simply good.

Best writing advice ever!

June 10, 2019June 11, 2019 Paul CervantesCalifornia Typewriter, Cottonwood, Craft Beer, Creative Writing, Doug Nichols, Hiking, IPA, Robert Pirsig, Sam Shepard, Writer's block, Writing, Writing adviceLeave a comment

I’m in deep into the sequel to my first novel, John J. McDermott & the 1971 U.S. Open.

The working title (and my bet the final title) of the sequel is Cottonwood.

I am dedicated to moving the narrative along at a rapid clip. I hike fast. I play golf fast. I speak fast and I write fast, until I take a break, which I did too often with JJM.

That’s a mistake I will not make again. In fact, I’ve put a serious time limit on writing the narrative to the sequel. I want to finish the narrative by the end of 2019. It’ll take another three to five months to edit and format the dang thing, so it’s really not all that fast compared to other writers.

Anyway, I wanted to pass along the best writing advice I ever heard. The advice is in Doug Nichol’s 2016 film, California Typewriter and it came from the late Sam Shepard.

I’ll paraphrase the advice:

Never quit when you’re stuck. When you start up again you’ll still be stuck.

Now the funny thing is that I rarely consider myself to be struck. If I fail to work on my book it’s nearly always because I’ve been distracted by lesser things like work. But, there’s still a lot of wisdom and usefulness to what Shepard said. Since I heard his admonition I try to quit when I’m on a roll I know I can keep it going later. In fact, a lot of times the momentum of the roll is actually enhanced by the renewed energy that comes from taking a break to go on a hike or drink a fine IPA.

When I do nudge up against stuckness (to borrow a word made up by Robert Pirsig) I dedicate myself to the kind of written thrashing about that, if I’m lucky, gets a few more words and hopefully good ideas onto the page. The small success of getting those kinds of difficult words down blunts the sharpness of feeling a little stuck and replaces it with the confidence that a way forward can be found with a bit more effort.

Anyway, think about what Sam said the next time you find yourself stuck.