Brew Tour and Buzz Time

Well, sorry I didn’t get around to anyone’s blogs yesterday, and only to a few today. My writing discipline mostly fell apart on Saturday after drinking all day. Lana and I took a tour of the Abita Springs Brewery with some friends and all that free beer was too much for me to say no too. And after scoring a good buzz there, I knew I might as well tie one on because the writing day was shot anyway. Sunday I was recovering but was just too lazy to do any writing. I also had a moment to realize that I’d let quite a few school related things pile up, so Monday and this morning had to be catch up time. Even in the summer, the IRB committee that I’m on can generate labor. I did go to my Borders writing group Monday night and it was fun, especially since my friend Elora was back with us after a few weeks off for health reasons. It was good to see her.

Some Odds and Ends:

Lana and I watched Gran Torino Sunday and it was a pretty good movie. The ending surprised me and wasn’t quite the expected Clint Eastwood finale.
I’m reading two short story western collections, The Fatal Frontier and Best of the West II.

Fatal Frontier has been a bit hit and miss for me so far, although I’m not very far into it. There’s a great story early on by Marcia Muller called “The Time of the Wolves,” but unfortunately I’d already read it and it isn’t the kind you’d likely forget. There’s also a very fine story by our own James Reasoner called “Hacendado,” which I hadn’t read before. There’s also just a really, really weak story by John Jakes called “The Woman at Apache Wells.” This one started out to be one type of story, changed to another type of story, and ended as a third type. It contradicted itself throughout, and the main character and the ‘woman’ of the title were totally unbelievable. The tale might have been included for marketing reasons since Jakes’ name was listed first and prominently on the cover.

In regards to the other collection, all I can say is: “James Warner Bellah, where have you been all my life? Man this dude can write. I don’t remember ever reading anything by him before. Apparently he wrote mostly short stories, although quite a few of his tales were turned into movies by John Ford, including “Fort Apache,” and “She wore a Yellow Ribbon,” and “Rio Grande.” Bellah wrote mostly stories about the Cavalry fighting Indians it appears, and man he slams you down on the saddle with the column and you smell the leather and feel the hot wind. I’m gonna try to find out more about this guy.

That’s it for now. I should be back on track with visiting blogs tomorrow.
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