rebeccakuder

Dented Can of the Week: Hamster Hotel


I read about this place in Nantes, France, where you can pay to pretend you’re a hamster. It strikes me that this is a good way to kick off my optimistically planned, weekly column, “Dented Can of the Week.”

My friend Arden, who has developed an impressive, hilarious, and exquisitely effective argot over the decades, coined the term “Dented Can” to mean a person who was highly damaged at some point in life, and is still playing out, in highly unhealthy ways, the issues that lead to the dent/s. My interpretation of the metaphor includes the fact that a non-dented can might contact botulism from interaction with the contents of said dented can.

Can a whole concept hotel be a “Dented Can?” I guess this rodent-themed auberge is more playful than some weird places might be, but it struck me that places, as well as people, might fit into this category. Discuss…

rebeccakuder

More Nearsighted Monkey madness!

What on earth does getting this email on December 15 mean?

“We now have delivery date(s) for the order you placed on October 22 2009 (Order# 103-4260598-6558627):

Lynda Barry “Nearsighted Monkey”
Estimated arrival date: November 08 2010 – November 15 2010″

They’re testing me!

Actually, it kind of reminds me of Jim Krusoe’s novel, Erased, of which I’ve read about 60 pages so far. But in Erased, the protagonist is receiving postcards from his mother, who he believes is dead. Jim Krusoe’s novel is engrossing. But I want my Lynda Barry book!

rebeccakuder

The three layers

I am new to writing nonfiction. In working on my birth essay, I have really struggled about what should stay in, and what should not. As I mentioned here, it’s one of the hardest things I have ever written, maybe the hardest. I think I understand part of the reason why.

There seem to be at least three layers to the story:

1) The first layer is what happened. The truth. Or maybe The Truth. The Facts. The situation. The lived-experience.
2) The second layer is “Our story.” Like the details about the interpersonal relationships that were created and sustained on that day, during that prolonged moment.
3) The third, final, and possibly publishable layer: What I choose to construct so that it fits in the (hopeful) market and will be interesting to readers.

Readers might not care about the little inside jokes between my husband, my doula and me. They don’t necessarily care what the sky looked like as we drove to the hospital, and so many other textures and details that just don’t fit in the 2500 word limit.

It’s disorienting and difficult to construct something tidy from the messy, complicated, ineffable nine months, and then 36 bolded hours of my life.

rebeccakuder

Where, oh where is The Nearsighted Monkey?

I’ve been waiting for months.

I keep trying to pre-order it, but it keeps being delayed. As a fan of Lynda Barry, and monkeys, and well, not cigarettes, but you get the idea: I am eager.

WHERE IS IT? And now I read THIS and get confused. I thought it was supposed to be out in fall 2009. If you have any scoop, post here!

I adore Lynda Barry. I will wait as long as I have to, but I just got another message from the online retailer where I ordered it, informing me of a delay. This is getting really tantalizing.

Okay, of course the delay is not all about me, and I’m sure others are affected. And I suppose it would behoove me to get used to the delayed gratification of publishing…but more on that angle in another post. STAY TUNED.

rebeccakuder

Looking tough

One of my favorite movies is “Dazed and Confused” by Richard Linklater. So many reasons, but I love watching even five random minutes of it. I remember keggers like they had by the moon tower. (Well, parts of keggers.) My high school boyfriend looked and acted kinda like Sasha Jenson, who is pictured wearing overalls on the right in this photo. Sasha Jenson’s extra cool, too, because he was in the original “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” movie, which is not as good at the long-running TV series, but it still counts for something.

When I watch even five minutes of that film, it makes me feel cooler than I actually am.

This scene below seems to be haunting me these days.

Cut to: Pink with an old couple leaving the game.

OLD TIMER

How’s your Dad doing?

PINK

Er, he’s doing great.

OLD TIMER

This arm ready to throw about two thousand yards next fall?

PINK

I don’t know we’ll see.

OLD TIMER

We’re depending on you boys and let me tell you what. You’re looking good. Thirteen starters coming back. Twenty-two lettermen looking tough.

PINK

Er yeah. Well you folks take care.

OLD TIMER

Okay good to see you Randy.

Richard Linklater can teach master classes at the department of Interdisciplinary Aesthetics. Hope everyone out there is looking tough.

rebeccakuder

Home for the holidays (Oh wait, I’m already here!)


My favorite movie to watch at this time of year is “Home for the Holidays” with the fabulous Ms. Holly Hunter. That movie was one of the first films I ever decided to buy. I got it on VHS, loaned it to a friend, I think it was eaten by her VCR, so I got the DVD. I watch it before Thanksgiving because, even though my family is not crazy in the same way, and I don’t have to fly anywhere because most of my family lives here, it helps me cope with whatever craziness does bubble up within my circle.

Plus it’s just funny. Robert Downey Jr. is great; I thought I always wanted to have a brother like him, though really it would only be great if he brought me a Leo Fish. The scene where Holly Hunter comes into her parents’ house and the cat throws up something that looks like a dead vole, well, what can be better than that?

Watch it. Just ’cause. Just for scuzz.