"Urban"

I was recently browsing the shelves in the Barnes & Noble at Yale and was intrigued by a sign for section called "Urban Fiction". Now, since I consider myself to be an urban artist, painting scenes of city life, I was a little excited to think that maybe there was a larger trend going on, that authors as well as artists were exploring life in cities.

I was disappointed when I took a glance at the books in that section. "Urban" seemed to be a code word for African American trashy novels. As if the only African American experience is that of the city, and as if only African Americans live in cities.

I've done some research since then, and I see that there is a decades-old history behind this literary genre, and that there are some good novels within the genre, but something about it still doesn't seem right.

It seems like there is a sort of segregation going on in the literary world. Take, for example, one of my favorite authors, Tananarive Due. I have not read all of her books yet, but the ones that I have read are clearly of the horror/suspense genre. Try to find her books in the horror, or thriller, or even mystery or fantasy sections of a bookstore and you'll be out of luck. Her books are always in the African American section. Why? Because she and many (but not all) of her characters are African American.

I guess I'll have to stick it all in the category of things that don't make sense to me. My image of "Urban" includes everyone, of every color and nationality, because that is what cities actually are--a place where everyone comes together. Cities are the melting pot of the world.

Well, Crap!

I was really hoping to be able to work on my painting at Goldsmith's tomorrow, but I have to go to Jury Duty instead. There's always the off-chance that I'll be dismissed early in the day, in which case I'll go paint, but I'm prepared to spend the day at the courthouse instead. I've printed out all my notes and draft for my next article in The Observer to work on, and I've got a novel (Tears of the Giraffe) to finish, so I guess it won't be all bad.

sigh...

Summer Summary

Had lunch with my favorite uncle today--we caught each other up on what we've been doing. I realized that this has been a very eventful summer for me (and I hope it's done being eventful now!).

I replaced my roof, which was scary, climbing up that high on a ladder.

I got bit by Kodos, an unvaccinated cat, and very quickly learned an awful lot about rabies in cats (he's fine, I'm fine, and he instantly learned that biting is a very very bad idea--SMACK DOWN!!!).

I had the vet cut off my cat Tyger's leg.

My car got smashed by a total jerk at the bottom of Walnut Street in April and had to get a new front bumper, hood and side panel.

I finally had my house-warming party, one year late.

I started a very cool new job and had to quit the teaching job I've had for five or six years.

Last weekend I did some creative driving with my car, and now it's getting a new rear suspension, rear bumper cover, antenna, tires and a few side panels.

I think those are all the major highlights. Like I said, I hope that's all there is this year.

But, you know, as I think about it, for the past three years, there's been big stuff happening pretty regularly. Mostly good stuff, but still big stuff. My life is not quiet. I love the quiet days, though. I love being able to spend three days in a row doing nothing but reading in the sun or sleeping late on a rainy day. On the other hand, I get bored without new challenges, and life is for living!