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Josie (a song!)

06.21.2021 by Greg Kemble // 2 Comments

Ad from TEAC brochure: a band with the same person as all four musicians.
“How does that Simul-sync function?”

In the early ’80s, I got my hands on my first multi-track recorder: a Teac 4-channel reel-to-reel tape recorder.

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Categories // Music, Prattle Tags // cakewalk, daw, multi-track recording, music, recording, teac

Lumpdates: the complete collection

06.20.2021 by Greg Kemble // Leave a Comment

As I wrote in Good luck and cancer, I posted a series of updates on Facebook, documenting my whirlwind encounter with cancer. I’ve collected them here, just for simplicity’s sake.

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Categories // Prattle

Good luck and cancer

06.20.2021 by Greg Kemble // Leave a Comment

Two dice in the air

I seem to be reaching the end of a mercifully brief trip to Cancer Town.

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Categories // Prattle Tags // barbara ehrenreich, bright-sided, cancer, tara brach

Positively Ehrenreich: Bright-Sided (Part II-ish, since it’s more about me than the book…) [From the Archives]

06.19.2021 by Greg Kemble // Leave a Comment

Glass of milk.

The optimist, the joke goes, sees the glass of milk and says, “It’s half full.” The pessimist sees the glass of milk and says, “It’s half empty.”

The cynic sees the glass of milk and says, “It’s probably sour.”

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Categories // Prattle Tags // barbara ehrenreich, bright-sided, calvinism, cancer, law of attraction, positive thinking, rem, rhonda byrne, the secret

Positively Ehrenreich: Bright-Sided (Part I, perhaps) [From the Archives]

06.19.2021 by Greg Kemble // Leave a Comment

Happy face balloon from the cover of Barbara Ehrenreich's Bright Sided.

When The Secret came out in 2006, I had already been dabbling in self-help lore. I was mainly interested in time management; my family and I had been through a lot of changes recently (moving, job changes, new kids), and I was trying to find strategies to make myself feel less overwhelmed. But since time management, at least in the many forms I found it, comes packaged with all the other self-help paraphernalia of goal setting and positive thinking, I had already come across variants of The Secret  and its focus, the “scientific” Law of Attraction.

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Categories // Prattle Tags // barbara ehrenreich, bright-sided, cancer, law of attraction, positive thinking, rhonda byrne, self-help, the secret

Making a difference, sometimes

03.06.2021 by Greg Kemble // Leave a Comment

Empty chairs in a classroom

In these times of isolation and distance, it’s easy to lose sight of what my work means. But in the past two days, I received two emails that have brought that into focus.

It felt good.

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Categories // Prattle Tags // gratitude, plagiarism, teaching

preramble

02.27.2021 by Greg Kemble // Leave a Comment

preramble (pree-ram-buhl, pree-ram-), noun. an aimless, lengthy, and digressive introduction or introductory statement, commonly found at the beginning of a recipe on a recipe blog.

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Categories // Diversion Tags // fictionary

Schadenfreudian

01.04.2021 by Greg Kemble // Leave a Comment

schadenfreudian (shahd-n-froi-dee-uhn), adj. of, or relating to, the pleasure derived from others’ misfortunes, especially those revealing subconscious or otherwise hidden sexual desires or practices. Ex.: I felt a schadenfreudian delight at Jerry Fallwell, Jr.’s resignation from Liberty University.

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Categories // Diversion Tags // fictionary

Imposing structure

01.01.2021 by Greg Kemble // Leave a Comment

Photo by Silvio Kundt on Unsplash

A lot of what I struggle with, in terms of work or creativity, boils down to one central tension: I need structure to get anything done, but I haven’t had much success imposing structure on myself.

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Categories // Prattle Tags // matt walker, parkinson's law, procrastination, routines, sleep, structure

RIP, Anton

12.31.2020 by Greg Kemble // Leave a Comment

Covers of Anton Strout's books

His novels aren’t among my favorites, and he wasn’t the greatest interviewer I’ve ever heard. But Anton Strout was the easily the most important author in my development as a writer.

I was sad to learn that he died yesterday.

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Categories // Prattle Tags // amber benson, anton strout, artist's way, dresden files, once and future podcast, simon canderous, urban fantasy, war of art, witches of echo park, writing

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À Propos

Greg in front of a wall sculpture at SFO
Mildly introverted.
Mostly harmless.

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