I'VE BEEN TAGGED!

The great Jen Brubacher who blogs from the blog scribo ergo sum has tagged me with a bunch of fun questions. Check out her blog, it's a great portal of her own creative writing as well as musings on all things literary.

That said, with this virtual tag, I have to answer eight questions and tag five other bloggers. So here goes:

1. If you could have any superpower, what would you have? Why?

I'd would absolutely love to time travel. I'd live it up in the Jazz Age (and so many other eras) and record it all ... right here.

2. Who is your style icon?

Well... being that I'm sort of a clothes hound, I will first answer for threads and next for writing.

I've always believed that the great aspect of men's fashion is that styles really don't change. if you look at all the dapper dudes throughout the 20th century -- Fitzgerald, Gable, Cary Grant -- none of their clothes seem out of place in a modern context.

My fashion icons? Hmmm... There's a reason why men like Clooney, Sinatra, Paul Newman, Steve McQueen (pictured) and Jack Kerouac are mentioned as stylish every year in GQ or Esquire. They kept it simple and simple is timeless. A great suit. A pair of jeans or khakis, white T-shirt and a blazer. 'Nuff said.

Ok, now that that's out of the way -- writing style. Again, I love to keep it simple. I hate overwriting. Hate it with a passion. I think I gravitate towards guys like Hemingway, Raymond Carver (and obviously Bukowski) because I think the prose is accessible. They don't overwrite but I'll be goddamned if their work isn't long on meaning. Five words can do way more damage than, say, some ridiculous run on.

3. What is your favorite quote?

From the Simon and Garfunkel tune "Mrs. Robinson." ... I love the powerful subtext of :

Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?
A nation turns its lonely eyes to you
(Woo woo woo)
What's that you say, Mrs. Robinson
'Joltin Joe' has left and gone away?
(Hey hey hey - hey hey hey)

The statement longs for a better time... When this nation meant something to the world. Joe DiMaggio was more than a legendary Yankee. He stood for grace, elegance, pride and dignity. By the tumultuous '60s, that sense of "Joe DiMaggio" was all but gone... He was America when America was great and everyone wanted to be Joltin' Joe. Yep, that quote resonates.

4. What is the best compliment you've ever received?

That's a good one... I guess that I actually am quite honored that some of the flash and poems that I've put up here in Bukowski's Basement have been so well-received. As many of you know, there's always that moment when you press "save" or "publish" that the insecure writer always thinks, "Maybe I shouldn't have done that..."


5. What playlist/CD is in your CD player/iPod right now?

I tend to have really odd playlists. There's one, "HARD ROCK" that really isn't hard rock per se, but tunes that I heard while on vacation at The Hard Rock in Vegas. Another, MAIN STREET, USA" is a playlist of tunes that you may hear during the early part of the century while driving down any main drag in the country.

6. Are you a night owl or a morning person?

That's easy. Night owl. 'Nuff said.

7. Do you prefer dogs or cats?

To paraphrase the great George Carlin: I really love the shallow affection of a dog. My own pooch (now dead), used to go apeshit every time I came home -- even if I came home four times a day... didn't matter ... I was home. Even with kids, you don't get THAT kind of response. Life's hard. That goes a long way.

8. What is the meaning behind your blog name?

Bukowski's Basement grew out of another blog I started (which is now defunct). The other blog (Hemingway's Lounge) was a portal of basically regurgitated entertainment news that you could get anywhere. After a couple of years I pretty much got burnt out and the traffic wasn't faithful -- meaning people landed there through Google searches instead of loyal readers. I also needed a place to put my original writings and the more I thought about it, I needed a blog of purely creative stuff. And what better reason to theme a blog after one of the century's most colorful scribes? hence, Bukowski's Basement...

I will now tag a few scribes that would do these questions justice...

Alan W. Davidson
Cathy Webster
John Wiswell