Holy shit! I'm at 4965 posts! Ask me anything!

[smoogatz]

Some possible topics: poetry, the blues, what it's like to be alone in the house when your wife and toddler are visiting the grand'rents, what's for dinner, Wisconsin, Provincetown, writing, selling a book, memoir, atrial fibrillation, guitar gear, you name it.

[malta blue]

1. Do you like cheese? If yes - was it made in WI?

[smoogatz]

3. I do! I'm a big fan of Vermont cheddar.

My wife likes fancy French cheeses that smell like feet. The more feet-like they smell, the better she likes them. Go figure.

[malta blue]

4. Your wife and I would get along.

I love the stinky cheese too!

[Redbear]

2. How do you sell a book?

or many even more than one

[smoogatz]

5. You need an agent.

Getting an agent is actually harder than selling the book--or it was for me.

[crim son]

6. How old is your toddler? Boy or girl? Cute or heinous?

:D

[smoogatz]

12. Boy. 2-1/2. Wicked cute.

Although also very interested in testing boundaries these days, and fully capable of throwing a Sinatra-esque shitfit when he's tired and/or hungry. But there's never been a cuter, smarter kid, I'm pretty sure.

[crim son]

16. If you're sure, then I'm sure.

:hi:

[Broken_Hero]

7. What was your first guitar,

and whats your "all around" favorite guitar to fiddle with.

[smoogatz]

18. It was a Yamaha acoustic, bought new in about 1973.

My all-around favorite is my two-year-old Martin HD28V; it's hands-down the biggest-sounding acoustic I've ever picked up, and I've played literally hundreds of guitars in the last thirty years, including lots of high-end and custom numbers. I love electrics, too--especially Fender Strats and Teles.

[Broken_Hero]

21. Sweetness, I'm jealous!

my first guitar was an acoustic fender, can't remember the series name though...currently I got an acoustic/electric Norman guitar, its cherry red....Norman I believe is from Canada.

I picked up my first guitar in down town Chicago....:D

[smoogatz]

25. Yep--Normans (Normen?) are decent little guitars. I sold a ton of them

when I worked in the retail end of the biz.

[Broken_Hero]

33. its Norman,

I wanted to have an acoustic/electric, and Norman had pretty decent prices, and the sound was pretty good, imo. Sometimes, I just have to urge to plug it in, and cause my ears...to ache....:D

[Broken_Hero]

8. Did you watch Wisconsin

almost choke/lose in the tourney today?

[smoogatz]

20. No--I've been too busy to catch any of the tournament so far.

I usually wait 'til the last couple of rounds before turning it on.

[Broken_Hero]

22. I would have watched it, but for some reason

our CBS affiliate channel isn't working...out of 100 plus channels, only one channel doesn't work, the one I want to watch! Figures....:D

[smoogatz]

29. Get the hammer

and give that cable box a whack!

[Broken_Hero]

31. actually, I was going to use a

pipe wrench!



:hide:

[smoogatz]

53. That orta do-er. n/t

[Broken_Hero]

9. Have you ever heard of anyone

that passed out numerous times, just because of food poisioning?

[smoogatz]

23. You mean one instance of food poisoning, but numerous passings-out?

No. But I have heard of fainting related to food poisoning. A friend of mine got a bad vindaloo in NYC and became so dehydrated from vomitng and diahrrea that he passed out, and woke up in the ER. Yeowch.

[Broken_Hero]

27. yeah, one instance of food poisioning, with multiple

passings out...I never heard/saw anyone do that, until yesterday. My father in law was the victim of bad Braum's hamburgers. We had to take him up to the hosp last night...and it was just low elecrolyte levels, making him pass out...I just thought it was...weird.

[smoogatz]

32. It is weird.

And a bummer for the FiL. Hope he's feeling better. No doubt they've had him on glucose and B12--he probably feels great about now.

[Broken_Hero]

10. Do you live in town

or out in the country? Which do you prefer?

[smoogatz]

26. We live in a samll city of about 55,000. I'd actually rather live someplace

a tad bigger and more metropolitan--it's pretty unvaryingly white here, and not many good restaurants--but my wife and I both have good jobs and we have a nice house in a great neighborhood, So it looks like we're staying here awhile.

On edit: the country kind of gives me the creeps after awhile. Too quiet.

[Broken_Hero]

30. The country is rather quite, until

you start hearing the sounds of critters/cows and whatever else is out there....kinda spooky at first. I found out about two yrs ago, that when cow spits/coughs, they sound just like a human doing so.

[smoogatz]

34. Ew.

I got sneezed-on by a cow once. Double ew.

[Broken_Hero]

35. I've been lucky in that regard so far,

our neighbor bought about 16 cows a few months back, so now our home smells like cow patties! Yay!

[smoogatz]

37. Yark.

What part of the country are you in? Midwest?

[Broken_Hero]

40. SW Missouri,

very close to the Arkansas/Oklahoma border....otherwise known as "the middle of nowhere USA"....

[Broken_Hero]

11. The blues...

I have almost...zero love for the blues...please give me a top five list of cds/performers that I should check out...

[smoogatz]

36. Man, that's not easy.

top five, for me:

Etta James, "Blues to the Bone." If you don't like this CD, you don't like the blues.
Stevie Ray Vaughan, "Live Alive." The man was somewhere between a genius and a god, what can I say?
Charlie Musselwhite, "Stand Back!" harmonica-driven blues--not for the faint of heart.
Elmore james, "Dust My Broom," the real deal, plain and simple.
Howlin' Wolf: "His Best," (Chess Box), classic blues performances, without which the Rolling Stones, ZZ Top and most of rock 'n roll would not be possible.

[Broken_Hero]

41. Thanks, I've got this

thread bookmarked for future reference...a lot of people do a double take, when I tell them that I basically have no love for the blues...

[smoogatz]

44. You have to be in the mood for endless variation on a pretty basic theme.

It's a received form, like the sonnet. Or the mystery novel.

[Broken_Hero]

13. Do you remember

the first poem you ever wrote? Which poem of yours, impresses you the most?

[smoogatz]

39. No.

And I really don't know--there are a few that stand out as especially adventurous, daring, fealress or just plain weird. But they're all works of genius, of course. heh.

[Broken_Hero]

43. All works of genius,

I knew you were going to say that....:D

How long are these poems, just a few paragraphs, or do you put in a page or two?

[smoogatz]

45. Anywhere from 15 lines or so

to 3 or 4 pages. Depends.

[Broken_Hero]

47. I'm usually a 1-4 page man myself...

I try to write shorter ones, from time to time, but I'm to long winded...:)

[smoogatz]

50. For me, it usually depends on how overtly narrative the poem is.

I like the short lyric, too.

[Broken_Hero]

14. How was your weather today?

Down here in SW Missouri it was rather breezy, 10mph, about 58 degree's...

[smoogatz]

46. Crappy.

Cold and light snow this morning, biting wind. "Warmed up" to about 32 this afternoon.

[Broken_Hero]

15. Do you prefer, acoustic/electric guitars,

or ?

[smoogatz]

48. Love them all.

I have a particular passion for good Martin and Gibson acoustics, and Fender or Gibson electrics. Actually popped in to a Guitar Center today and palyed a number of very mediocre guitars, both acoustic and electric. Kind of a discouraging experience. I also played through a bunch of different amps, just kind of comparing to my aural memory of my amps at home. Played a Line6, briefly, among a number of Fenders and lower-end Marshalls. What a POS the Line6 was.

[Broken_Hero]

17. How many books have you sold,

or is this your first attempt?

[smoogatz]

49. I've published two books of poems and my novel is part of a two-book deal.

The second novel's due in January of '08. So, four. But I'm also working on a proposal for a memoir, which should do reasonably well once it's ready to take to market. I've published pretty much everything I've ever written, after the age of thirty. Before that, not so much.

[Broken_Hero]

51. Very good, :)

I'm in awe of people who can write good enough to sell a book, I usually peter out around page 50 or so....:D Your current novel, which genre is it in, may I ask?

[smoogatz]

52. The one I'm working on now?

It's a mystery--sequel to book one. Lots of fun to write. I feel like I kind of know what I'm doing, this time around.

[Broken_Hero]

54. mystery huh,

murder mystery type, or more grand, like a T. Clancy novel?

[smoogatz]

56. Murder mystery.

Detective and sidekick solve hideous crime. Major fun. I get to let my innrer homicidal maniac out for a run in a way that's both harmless and profitable.

[Broken_Hero]

59. Sounds interesting,

when you are finished, you should pm with the title, I'd be interested in reading a murder mystery...I haven't read one for ages. I'm more a fantasty/s. king fan....

[smoogatz]

60. I'll spam the crap out of DU when the first one comes out.

I'll make sure to hit the lounge, too.

[Broken_Hero]

19. blues vs jazz,

who wins out?

[SPKrazy]

24. Do you treat atrial fibrillation with

beta blockers, a implanted defibrillator, or some other way.

:shrug:

[smoogatz]

28. I went through every fricking medication known to man,

pretty much. They get increasingly toxic as you work your way through them, from beta blockers to digoxin to anti-arrhythmics. the last one I took was amiodarone, which made my hands and feet numb and calcified my corneas a bit before I stopped taking it. Three years ago I had RF ablation surgery--a complicated and lengthy one--at the Mayo Clinic, and that seems to have cured my a-fib, which had grown quite problematic after fifteen years or so.

[SPKrazy]

38. wow that's some refractory a fib

genetic? glad it was fixed though...

:pals:

[smoogatz]

42. Thanks.

Genetic? Who knows? Idiopathic is the word they kept tossing around, which apparently means "beats the hell out of me."

[Broken_Hero]

55. Coke, or Pespi,

or do you have another preference...for me, its beer...big surprise there, huh? :D

[smoogatz]

57. Coke.

I'm a serious addict, but I try to limit myself to two a day. I pretty much go from coffee to Coke to wine to bed, and then back again.

[Broken_Hero]

58. coke is my fave cola,

I think they must have some coke plants in Missouri, because that stuff is EVERYWHERE...you'd be hard pressed to find a pepsi/mt. dew....