It is done.

The DT Log story formerly known as “The Future Will Hold” in 1992 has been reprocessed into a 31,000 word novella.

***

As a note, I have also decided to privatize the pages on the Timebox blog until I decide what to do with this project.

If you would like to read the story, please let me know and I will send you a link to the Google document.

This is big news, because I have been working on this for two years, and the end is in sight!

I have just posted Episode 7 of Dan Touchette’s Timebox.

My original plan was to force myself to write and edit and publish every two weeks back in May 2007 – but then I learned I just don’t work that way.

So I’ve taken my time, and I think I’m more satisfied with the result.

The end of the story is coming soon!

***

In order:

1. A package arrives.

2. A simple plan.

3. Terms of service.

4. ßiography.

5. A punk’dystopia.

6. Turn me on, dead man.

And the new episode.

7. Something no one else can give her.

As always feedback is appreciated and acknowledged. I still consider the story rough,

but above all, I am writing this to be a light, fun read.  Please enjoy!

Dan

Well, I have added a CSS sheet to o, MacGuffin! and now I can present it to the world.  Sort of.

I’ve been having all sorts of problems adding blogging software.  In a perfect world, I would be able to use WordPress,

but NOOOOOOOO – you have to lay down $1100 the first month to become a VIP WordPress user in order to accept advertising.

***

o, MacGuffin! is Bronwynn and my attempt to create commercial content on the Internet to alleviate some of our expenses at home like ivory backscratchers and NFL Sunday Ticket.  Maybe we can get a few hundred dollars out of it each month, and that will help.

Well, my now less-than-world-famous goal storyboard has now been pulled down off the wall, about a week later than I promised my wife.

I have replaced it with a smaller version crafted with an Elmer’s pasteboard.

This will hopefully help me concentrate on getting things done, especially after a long day of pushing people’s film rolls through the smelly, dirty processor!

If you have read Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach, you may be familiar with the parable of  the Blue Feather.

Bookrags sums up the passage like this:

When Donald W. Shimoda challenges narrator Richard to practice “magnetizing” things to make them materialize at will, Richard chooses a blue feather. He carefully pictures every aspect of the feather for several minutes and then broods all afternoon because no blue feather appears as Shimoda assures him it will. Finally, at dinnertime, a blue feather appears as a logo on a milk carton. Shimoda explains a real feather would have appeared had Richard pictured himself holding one rather than as an abstract thing.

Because the universe of Richard Bach’s novels is a hopeful version of my own reality and truth, I decided to read more.  I found The Bridge Across Forever, a non-fiction love story, in a thrift shop.  One of my online acquaintences, Konrad, suggested I read Bach’s One.  But I couldn’t find it in the library or in any thrift store.  I didn’t want to pay for it online, knowing I would at the very least have to pay a few dollars shipping.

One warm Saturday, I ventured to the Santee Swap Meet looking for treasures.  I did get one, season five of “The Simpsons” on DVD for nine dollars.  This left me with 25 cents.

As I rounded the back of the lot, I thought of Richard Bach and his “experiment” with the Blue Feather.  Also taking a cue from Dr. Wayne Dyer, “I decided” that I would find a paperback copy of One within the next week, and I would pay 25 cents for it.

Right by the exit was a bookseller with about two hundred paperbacks on the table.  I scanned them quickly, and in short time, my jaw dropped and my soul stirred.  There it was – the novel One by Richard Bach.  I gave myself a week to find it, but it took only ten minutes!  Sure enough, the sign above the texts read: “PAPERBACKS – .25″

That day I realized I could make powerful decisions and create a little miracle.

The year 2008 was a rough one for me and my family – professionally certainly, as I still feel I need free time to pursue my desires in the arts.  My faith was thoroughly tested and I did emotionally break down at least once.

Now the fresh start of 2009 has me energized, and I answered an ad in the Cass-Crow Wing County Freecycle for a box of free books.  What the heck, I said, I might be able to fund my non-profit this year with a book sale.  Not to mention, most of Bronwynn’s and my books are still in my mother-in-law’s shed in El Cajon, including my copies of One and The Bridge Across Forever.

~

Less than a half hour ago I dropped off the money order for the rent and looked at the books.

Lo, at the bottom of the box commingled with silly romance novels, Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews and Psycho II,

there was One by Richard Bach.

My Blue Feather decided to appear in Minnesota.

Being the self-appointed layout editor of El Capitan’s school newspaper The Horizon, I absolutely newsgasmed when I could include elements a real newspaper would have, like continuing stories on another page, and in this case, adding an infobox previewing the Spring Band Concert.

***

X-Perience Rocks the Gym May 29th

[El Capitan Horizon, 1992]

“The theme is keeping your adolescent creativity and what your soul is made of,” explains Mark Stephan, who masterminded the idea of the X-Perience, a classical-rock fusion act to be performed on Friday, May 29th in El Cap’s Foster Gym as part of the band’s Spring Concert.

What is extraordinary about this concert is that this mix of classical piano composition with backing rock instrumentation was entirely realized by Mark and his crew, an eight person ensemble.  Mark plays in the concert piano and keyboards, along with keyboards by Chucki Parker, lead guitar by Troy Yasuda, saxophone and rhythm guitar by David Wiese, rhythm guitar by Jeremiah Myers, bass guitar by Christy Nunes, drums by Sean Preston, and on the trumpet, Chris Block.  There will also be a four person chorus accompaniment, which will sing along at times with the semi-improvised act.  “We will have to play by ear,” says trumpter Chris Block.  Mark adds, “Everybody adds their own improvisation, but the piano is the backbone.”

The primary song that will be played is Mark’s own “Sensual Mentality,” which existed only as a piano piece only two months ago, but now it will be backed up by other instruments as well.  “‘(Sensual Mentality)’ is about an adult who realizes what is important and what he needs to discover,” Mark explains the theme, “Instead of doing what is prudent for the time: the job, the house payment, etc.”

The theme of the show is enhanced by a small controversy concerning the original fliers: which was a print of Chucki Parker’s image of a doll with nails portruding from its head in the foreground, while a silhouette of a man was show in the background.  “People take things too seriously,” Mark said, “The first flier got a bad rap from administration because of its ‘vile content.’  They thought the doll was a baby with pins stuck in it.  Mark remarked the picture’s point was a man who was turning away from his youth, which is the ultimate source of inspiration.  “I think it would be shocking that people would oppress their adolescent creativity.”

Besides the photograph controversy, Mark explains why he attempted such a project.  “Thnis is (for most of us) our last year and we wanted to go out with a bang.  It is the perfect locale, since the audience is familiar, and there is no rent for the gym.”  The rigorous preparations for this event included three-day-a-week practice sessions, which not everybody could attend, but Mark says, “We have it down.  We’re ready.”  He adds, “I hope this encourages other musicians.”

[Spring Band Concert featuring the X-Perience Classical-Rock Fusion.  Date: Friday May 29, 1992.  Time: 7:30 pm.  Place: Foster Gym.  Prce: $3.00, on sale on the quad through Friday.

-Daniel Touchette

***

It’s a shame I couldn’t come up with a post-concert report, because the night was truly legendary.  As I recall, not only was the concert very good, being augmented by a surprise energetic Native American dance by Steve Curo,

but it ran so long over its allotted time that the power in the gym failed, ending the performance abruptly.  The musicians and the 400 spectators in attendance sat in the dark, waiting for the lights to power back on.

Of course, there were rumors that a certain vice-principal was quoted later as saying “this is my power failure.”

We never had confirmation (nor asked for it) that the veep in charge reset the circuit breaker, whether in panic or malice.  Any censorship in retrospect was ridiculous because the themes were largely innocuous.  However, the power failure has only strengthened the night as one of the most memorable in senior year.

http://dantouchette.wordpress.com/dan-touchettes-timebox-the-whole-thing-so-far/

Something I started working back in the last century (still sounds weird, doesn’t it) – my serial novella Dan Touchette’s Timebox, née “The Future Will Hold”, may actually be completed sometime this year.

It will be the longest I have ever spent on a writing project: 16 years and some change.  The problem with that first go around (besides the fact that my writing sucked at age seventeen) was that my friends who were mentioned in the draft were anticipating a very happy future in this story.

Instead I socked them over the head with a disparate dystopia where the SMM club ended up crazy and homeless on the streets of crowded Santee.  Needless to say, they hated it, episode two of a pathetic two episodes.

***

The current incarnation is still very much a rough draft work-in-progress.  I am left unsatisfied with some of the details published thus far, especially episodes 4 and 5.  I am still toying with the idea of changing the names to protect the innocence (or guilt) of my friends and acquaintences, just like Jack Kerouac.  But I must admit that I do not intention this in marketing it as a serious work of fiction – unless I can make it into a movie.

Feedback is helpful as always.  This is a work of fiction that I am writing as cool entertainment, a pleasure read.  I’ve got a couple of fans on Ozone&Shadow, and I am grateful for that.

Up next: Episode 7, Episode 8 Part I and Episode 8 Part II plus Epilogue.

I’ll see you in the future!

Bronwynn needed a cell phone, and so I went and bought her a T-Mobile.

We held out as long as we could, but she needed it for work.

The prepaid variety is so non-hassle (at least with T-Mobile) that I don’t know why other people don’t just get them.

Hello all,

Semishort notice, I know. Friday 26th August at Cheers and Beers. They failed last year to get me inebriated and well, they’ve vowed revenge. They promise me I will not remember any rendition of Fat-Bottomed Girls that I do.

Yes, it’s the annual birthday bash for poor work-at-home Dan. Sandy is watching Siobhane, everything is cool there. It is again at the hallowed Cheers and Beers, and sorry, no, the available single ladies have not gotten any better since you’ve been there last. (My apologies for that.)

You should already know where C&B is. If not, email for directions. My little brother Kody is finally eligible to attend! Yes, folks, he is 21! Come on, Kody, get in there and sing some Bizkit.

I gotta get to bed now. See you guys. Bring anyone you want or anybody I’ve forgot about.

Dan

Today I may have received among the greatest perks ever given to a message board moderator.

I am currently typing on a laptop from the media room at Chargers Park.

The powers-that-be among the NFL’s San Diego Chargers have allowed me access as a reporter. I get to live the dream I had back when I was a scant lad dreaming of writing for newspapers.

I have already seen the AM practice from the media’s vantage point and also asked questions of a few players and Coach Schottenheimer.

Here is the message board thread which I am working.