Pulitzer news

I was extremely pleased to learn that Cormac McCarthy has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for The Road, despite Oprah Winfrey having inexplicably associated herself with the novel. I guess that just goes to prove the adage about there being no such thing as bad publicity.

I was also very, very glad to find out that an honorary Pulitzer was awarded to Ray Bradbury, who, as far as I know, has been fortunate enough to escape the ravages of Winfrey.

Howard Hughes would if she could.

I have got to find a way to get more sleep. Recently, I've been attempting what seems the most reasonable course of action — go to bed earlier. But then I lie awake for an hour, an hour and a half.

I'm pretty sure I'm not awake right now.

Yesterday, I wrote 1,047 words on the new piece for Sirenia Digest #17.

I believe that I've just about finished uploading images to my MySpace page. There are still a couple from the early mid-90s I haven't been able to locate. But, having uploaded 71 images, the whole thing began to feel creepy. Like I'd become my own stalker. So, I think I've had enough of it. At least for now. Next week I'll probably discover a picture I absolutely have to add. Just because.

We did get in a walk yesterday, as far as the Carter Center.

The sun is bright out there. I need to open the curtain and let some of it inside.

More later, perhaps. The platypus beckons.

Addendum: Tom Waits, chimps, and subterranean dwellers.

I've been writing this new story to Tom Waits. Tom Waits and PJ Harvey. Mostly, I've been writing the new story to this song from Waits' Swordfishtrombones (1983):

Rattle Big Black Bones
in the danger zone
there's a rumblin' groan
down below
there's a big dark town
it's a place I've found
there's a world going on
UNDERGROUND
they're alive, they're awake
while the rest of the world is asleep
below the mine shaft roads
it will all unfold
there's a world going on
UNDERGROUND
all the roots hang down
swing from town to town
they are marching around
down under your boots
all the trucks unload
beyond the gopher holes
there's a world going on
UNDERGROUND

Also, a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that chimpanzees are more derived than humans, relative to their common ancestor. You can read more here: "Chimps are ahead of humans in the great evolutionary race." Of course, evolution's not actually a "race," and so no one is actually "ahead" of anyone else, and this is going to lead to all sorts of idiotic confusion, but I've learned you can only fairly expect so much of journalists.