The Ernest Hemingway Collection is made up mostly of loafers…

Then of course I looked online for other writers and their shoes. Not that I have a foot fetish or anything (not that there’s anything wrong with that). I feel like somewhere I’ve seen a picture of either Kerouac or Ginsberg in a pair of high top sneakers, Chuck Taylors or Converse.  Has anyone out there seen that picture? Or maybe it’s someone else wearing them?

The closest I could find online was a Jonas Brother– Nick Jonas?– in a pair.

Anyone who knows me knows that I wear my Converse All-Stars all the time. I have lots of pairs of shoes but for some reason I’m most comfortable in my Converse. So when they do the magazine spread of me it will feature me in my Converse.

Speaking of Chuck Taylors: Threadless Tshirts has the most awesomest T-shirt yet, called Woodchucks.

All shirts are on sale– $5, $10, $15. Can’t wait to get it.

WS Merwin is such a sweet, spiritual man–a Buddhist and Environmentalist– who lives in Hawaii. (pic from Univ. of Arkansas Daily Headlines).

And, he’s 82!

Today NPR interviewed him (click to listen) for just a couple of minutes and he read this poem, so tiny and beautiful:

Separation

by W. S. Merwin

W. S. Merwin, “Separation” from The Second Four Books of Poems (Port Townsend, Washington: Copper Canyon Press, 1993).

And here’s a pic of the young WS Merwin (photo from Univ. of Arizona Poetry Center).

OK, and shameless plug for a new T-Shirt, but it is writing inspired. It’s called, INKSpiration, and it’s

ONLY $10 and I love it. I just bought one. It’s from Threadless and you can buy it, for $10, HERE.

(cute guy not included–or I’m assuming). There are also many other shirts for $10 without a Pen on it.

You can buy it here.

Language is a

cracked kettle on

which we

beat out tunes for

bears to dance

to, while all the time we long to

move the stars to pity.

~Gustave Flaubert

Look! Even Preston Sturges, famous writer and director, wore T-shirts!

Anyway,

Threadless is having another sale: $5, $10, and $15 T-shirts. Tons of ‘em!

$5!!

Here are two of my $5 faves:

The Scr-Emo

and

Napoleon (who looks kind of like Adam Ant)

The third one is a $10 Tee, still a bargain for Cowboy and My Pretty Pony fans!

The last two nights when I was driving home at 7pm The Writer’s Almanac on NPR played the same show–which was about Augusten Burroughs (author of Running With Scissors, Dry, A Wolf at the Table…duh). It felt kind of like that movie, Groundhog Day, in fact, I had to check my cell phone to see if it was still the same day. Weird.

Anyway, Happy Birthday Mr. Burroughs, born October 23, 1965.(photo by Brad Harris, courtesy of New York Magazine).

I’ve never met you (though Ted and I did see you at BEA in LA in 2003; you walked past us down a long hallway heading to an event), but I admire your tenacity and drive, your prolificacy, and your taste in art and artists (as seen on his splashy new website), and most recently–your tattoos! Nice ink.

There is even an official Augusten Burroughs T-shirt, designed by the awesome James Anthony (whose handprinted T-shirts,  featuring illustrations, engravings and woodcuts from the late 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, i’ve oogled on Etsy for a while). He’s got a great sale going on now, too. Check him out. I’m going to have to get one myself, I think. (photo courtesy of augusten.com)

Oh, but back to Augusten Burroughs. There was an interesting article/interview with him in New York Magazine back in April, called The Memory Addict about writing memoirs. The quote before the article is intriguing:

Memory is the same as imagination.
—Giambattista Vico, New Science, 1725

Speaking of quotes, here’s one from Mr. Burroughs himself, on writing in general:

“The secret to being a writer is that you have to write. It’s not enough to think about writing or to study literature or plan a future life as an author. You really have to lock yourself away, alone, and get to work.”

It’s called The Average Bear.

Buy it here.

Well, Threadless, which is a little cooler than Sears, is having a back-to-school sale,  and many of the shirts are just $12. I haven’t bought a T-shirt in ages (actually it’s probably been just a couple of months).

Editors Note–This Just In!!

Threadless has actually reduced prices for 140 of their funnest shirts to as low as $9.

Get them now!!

Here are some of my faves:

This one is extra cool– the flames and blood vessels only show up in sunlight! Kind of like those shirts from the 80s that would change colors with your body temperature.

The second one reminds me of my friend Laurel.

Buy it NOW!!!

The last one is a pic of me in Carmel, in one of my own Threadless shirts (and one that still draws attention wherever I wear it):

And, I can’t believe that includes one of the Ts i’ve been lusting over.

Remember the game Clue, and the fabulously campy movie starring Madeline Kahn, Eileen Brennan, Tim Curry, Leslie Ann Warren, Christopher Lloyd, et al?

Uh, yeah, well check out this T-Shirt. Only $5. That’s FIVE DOLLARS.

And the second one is pretty cool, too:

it’s a T-shirt full of movie Spoilers.

I must have died and gone to T-shirt heaven.

That’s how many words I wrote today! On my Spring Break! (who needs Daytona Beach, eh?)

I wrote 12 pages.

12

That’s probably more writing than i’ve done in the last month.

I am, as Eduardo puts it: En Fuego. (which I think means on fire?)

It was such a good day of writing.

And then I read for a bit, a new book: Me and Orson Welles by Robert Kaplow– which tells the (based on actual events) story of a young boy who gets swept up into the world of theater for one week, taking a bit part in “Julius Ceasar,” directed by (and starring) Orson Welles in 1937. The book is a nostalgic blast, full of theater in-jokes, and impeccable period details about NYC. What I also love is that Kaplow includes cameos by famous people– frazzled Brit John Houseman, a horny Joseph Cotten, and, of course, an egomaniac Welles.

Some great lines from the book:

“…By the way, if anybody asks, you’re an Equity Junior Member. And you’re getting twenty-five dollars a week.”

“Swell!”

“No, you’re not getting twenty-five dollars a week. You’re not getting anything, except the opportunity to get sprayed on by Orson’s spit, but we’ve got enough Leftos in the company to start a demonstration if they find out you’re not being paid.”

The film of the book is currently in production with Zac Efron as the young boy and Claire Danes as the older woman he falls in love with (the one who is talking in the above quote).

Great fun.

Oh, and speaking of fun, Threadless is having a $9 T-shirt Sale!

They’ve reprinted the T-shirt Ted has/loves:

Meat is Murder. Tasty, tasty murder.

and this one:

Video games ruined my life. Good thing I have two extra lives.

as well as many others, all for only $9!! Check ‘em out! Buy yours today! Buy two!