CHRIS ARVIDSON

words and art
 

Many of you might be wondering why, why Chris? why have I said not word 1 about the fact that this week pitchers and catchers reported for Spring Training. Believe me, I've been asking myself the same question. That's why I changed the background theme of this-here website to "turf." I needed some reminding.

 

The truth is I'm covered over with the details, minute and global, of the March 10 opening of the "Evolution of Words & Art" exhibit which I am managing at the Charlotte Art League AND like a complete dumbass, the simultaneous opening of my own show "Painting Words" the same night in the same place at the samd GD time. It seemed like such a good idea... two ekphrastic shows can compliment one another...one is upfront, the other in the back on the "featured artist" wall...blah blah blah. But seriously? What was I thinking? 

 

It's all OK. Things are on schedule. My paintings are ready...ok some need to dry a bit more. But I've gotten to the point where I'm waking up at 3:00 a.m. routinely thinking about stuff like, periods after middle initials on the writer's list, D-rings on the backs of some of my paintings, a wholesale rethink on which poems to produce/print... you get the idea. 

 

So, I think a trip to the store to find a Faygo Red Pop, some hot dogs, and then a look at the MLB TV Spring Training broadcast schedule is in order. I need to PLAY BALL!

The box came today. It is THRILLING. The book looks beautiful. Thank you Finishing Line Press for publishing my work, and for putting my painting on the cover. 

 

Now, if you've pre-ordered, yu should be getting your copies in the next week or so. Please take a picture of yourself with the book and post in on Facebook, or Instagram, or here on this blog!

 

You can order the book directly from the publisher at www.finishinglinepress.com. I'm working on getting it into bookstores (you can ask for it at your local bookseller and they can order it for you), and it's available on Amazon as well. 

Lots of fun this week in the snow, with very cold temperatures, and seeing friends. Back when I lived up here in the Traverse City Michigan area, I worked at the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy, with rhe smartest and most dedicated crew ever. 

 

I met up with Birgit and Glen at the 240-acre site of the new conservancy center, a rennovation of an old golf club in town. After spending 20 years above a grocery store, an office that was too small 15 years ago when I worked there, seeing the conservancy's new home was positively thrilling. In a happy quirk of fate, the Oleson family, above whose store we worked, funded the $1.2 million acquisition of the Mitchell Creek Golf Club. In addition to offices, they'll be a volunteer center/barn, and horticulture/greenhouse facilities. Oh, and they'll be goats. 

 

Painting with my sister, Lorie, is also on tap this week. You can see a painting I did today, from a picture I took out at the new conservancy home yesterday, at the top left.  It's called Fairway No Mo.

Tonight is the opener for the Charlotte Knights, the Chicago White Sox AAA team and my neighborhood baseball. Six blocks down the street I'll enter through the gate by the outfield. Hopefully, the regular off-duty cop will be there directing traffic at that Mint Street entrance. He's a nice guy. Hope he's been doing OK through the pandemic. It will still be light out, since sunset won't be until a bit after 8. The setting will make the skyline glow. There'll be no programs to fiddle with before the national anthem - they are a Covid safety causualty. Instead we'll be able to pull one up on our phones. I'm planning for the usual 3rd inning hot dogs and 7th inning ice cream. We'll see if there are other ballpark treats to celebrate with on this special night. The last Knights' game was August 2019. I've missed it so. Pictures to follow.

I am finding it almost impossible to write about the events of this week. Perhaps it's because it all feels so personal to me. I've worked on Capitol Hill, walked those halls... in the faces of the rioters, the cult members, and the President of the United States, I have seen none of the respect, reverance, honor, duty, or commitment I felt when I worked there. None. You are the very opposite of patriotic.

 

All I think I can say is this: If you believe in ridiculous conspiracy theories, that the election was stolen, or that Covid isn't a pandemic and killing thousands of Americans every day, I am truly sorry for you. You are a member of a death cult.

 

But my sorrow does not let you off the hook. I hold you accountable for the disgraceful violence at our Capitol, the death and injury that took place. You are responsible for the growing numbers of dead from a very real virus. If you are an elected official and you have cynically thrown in your lot with the rightwing disinformation machine in order to further your own ambitions, you are responsbile, directly, for what happened this week. And, if you do not do every possible thing in your power to stop this lying, reprehensible President from doing further damage to our country in the next 12 days, you should plan on finding new jobs. 

 

We the people are watching. We see you. We hear you. We are taking names.

 

 

What fun! Wednesday morning I had a great talk with The Creative Nonfiction Podcast guy, Brendan O'Meara. He puts together podcast conversations with writers about craft and their passions and their favorite books and just everything words.

Click on the link to the left of this column to hear the podcast that I'm on. All of my writer friends should definitely be subscribers!

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Listen to my talk with DG Martin on his Chapel Hill radio station show!

http://chapelboro.com/wchl/weekend-shows/whos-talking/october-14-2017-6

We've already got some great book signing and reading events set up for The Love of Baseball. Here they are so far:

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7 -- the big local premiere! 5-7:00 p.m. at the Ashe County Arts Council. Reading, signing, wine and snacks -- don't miss it!

NEW! Saturday, September 16 - 6:30 p.m. EST -- I will be on KNBR in the Bay Area, the flagship station for the San Francisco Giants. (KNBR.com)

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 -- Pittsburgh Release Party. City Books, Northside, 908 Galveston, Pittsburgh, PA. Time is TBA. Join Editor Diana Nelson Jones and Pittsburgh area contributors.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 -- Olivet College, Homecoming Saturday, 12 noon - 2:00 p.m. Klock Commons. Editor Chris Arvidson will be there to sign and sell books.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7 -- Scuppernong Books and Cafe, Greensboro, NC. 3-5:00 p.m. It's a wonderful downtown bookshop. Join Editor Chris Arvidson and area contributors for a reading and signing.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21 -- Home of Carol Eickert & Michael Fraioli, Chevy Chase, MD. 2-5:00 p.m. RSVP to Chris Arvidson (chrisarvidson.com). Books, food and fun with area contributors. Read More 

On Tuesday this week I turned in the baseball anthology that Diana Nelson Jones and I have been working on for the last year. (I should like it to be noted that it was delivered one day ahead of schedule.) And then I promptly went down with a heinous cold/flu crap and lay around in bed and on the couch for the next couple of days. But I'm back in the saddle again and looking forward to sharing news of the book with everyone as we work through the publishing process.

Once we have a title from the publisher (McFarland & Company), I'll set up a separate book website, but for now, I'll keep everyone posted here on my own blog page. And, to get you ready to be excited, here's just a small, tiny, smidgen, of what you'll be able to see in the coming 8-10 months or so. Hope it makes you want to get the book!

EXCERPT from the essay "Nothing Else Like It"

The regular season powered to a close and the Tigers continued their record-breaking ways. Things were also heating up at work -- big elections, late nights, crazy times. But the Tigers were never off my mind. In mid-September, with the pennant clinched, I was anticipating the World Series. I thought “Oh my god. It is really going to happen.”

And remember, in 1984, you couldn’t just flip a cable channel on or subscribe to MLB TV. You had to do this thing called reading the box scores in newspapers the next day. Maybe sometimes, if you got lucky and the wind and atmosphere were right, you could pick up a late night few minutes of Ernie Harwell on AM radio from WJR in Detroit. I was looking forward to seeing my Tigers on television for the World Series.

Then the unthinkable happened. A few days before the series was to begin my boss gave me some potentially thrilling news. Our chairman would, naturally, have access to World Series tickets. And while the California tickets would be quickly dispersed since that was his home state, there might, possibly, small chance, be a possibility that there wouldn’t be enough “important people” who wanted to go to Detroit, and if that might, possibly, small chance did in fact happen, I, Chris Arvidson, would get the tickets.

But I still had problems to fix -- I needed to see if I could get myself, last minute, to Detroit on my own. The game tickets were free, but not the plane, and I wouldn’t know if I had the tickets until the day before. Did I want to take dibs on this maybe, possibly, small chance deal? Oh hell yes.
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What a wonderful week. The Literary Festival here in West Jefferson was truly a blast. Attendance was fantastic. All of the authors were super non-divas and, I think, enjoyed themselves as much as the attendees.

I found it very inspirational. The workshops were especially good this year and I'm at work following up what I learned, relearned, thought about, and was inspired by from the week.

Darnell Arnoult has me on a poem a day, which is kind of a strange exercise for me... I've never much thought about being a poet, but it's really kind of working and it's inspiring the work on my novel. Jeremy had me writing two scenes...one of which is definitely going to find its way into the novel somewhere.

Then, to top it all off, the NEXT DAY after the Festival we headed off to Nashville for a recording session at Omni Studios. Henry's first single with Lamon Records is now "in the can" as they say and ready to be mixed. We expect it out within a month. How can that not be exciting? And it's wonderful to watch pros at their work in general. Great musicians, a fabulous studio, it's all kind of overwhelming but I'll try my best to get over it.

Not to get any dust on me, we start The Cotswold Way on Monday. Seven days of hiking 103 miles. Then in Bath we meet up with all our UK friends for five days of hilarity, confusion, talk, eating, etc. That is if I can get it together to get packed...  Read More