Last week I finally turned a corner and finished a few small writing projects. Sometimes when the days whirlwind together too much, and navigating through each week seems like crossing the street in that old Frogger video game, I get a little numb in the heart and my writing gets too mechanical. I’ve got just as many half started stories and poems as I do finished ones because of this, but last week I finally broke through again and starting tying the loose ends of my thoughts and heart together to finish a blog, a story and a poem. All in one week. Moss don’t grow on a rolling stone, motherfuckers, and writing or no writing, you won’t find no fucking moss on me.
Spent a day off reading on the beach last week. Mailed some stuff out. Laid some plans for a new project and have been nibbling at some tour dates for November, although I’m more than anxious booking a 6,000 mile round trip book tour when I’ve got $40 to my name, but I’ve also been a touch more optimistic of late. So I’m going to make the plans, do the work, go to work and hope for the best.
Dan Denton 101: reading a book by the water is one of the best escapes you'll ever find in life.
Last week marks one year since I purchased my 26 foot travel trailer home ‘The Scrapes of Wrath.’ It would be about two more months before I got fully moved into it full-time, and I’m still remodeling it, but it’s home. It’s so much home that I can’t imagine living in a house again. I buy the occasional lottery ticket daydreaming about winning $100k so I can buy a small country acre to park my camper on, and have as a Midwestern home base for my drifter ways.
current condition of the Scrapes of Wrath out on the lovely Little Bryant Homestead
The week ahead? It’s fucking Pride Week in Toledo! Catch me this Saturday at the parade with my kids, my favorite they/thems in the whole world. I’ll be down there giving out free, proud Dad hugs until they’re gone, and I’ve never ran out yet. Man, Toledo Pride is always one of the happiest days and happiest places. If you’ve never been, and you need a safe friend nearby to check it out with, please feel free to come hang out with me and my little rainbow tribe.
And more writing this week. Hi, I’m Dan. I’m a writer. It’s what I do.
Books I’ve loved? Oh, man, I’ve been waiting to get to this part. That Billie Holiday book? Lady Sings the Blues it’s called. I fucking loved it so hard. Listen, I read every day all day. And a lot of what I read is cardboard in a rainstorm. It melts away into a dirty pulp, then nothing. And don’t get butt hurt when I say this shit, but not every book hits us all the same way. I’ve never understood why anyone adds Catcher in the Rye to their favorites. Maybe it’s because I grew up faster, and by Holden Caulfield’s age I knew the price of a nickel bag and how much a blow job cost across the railroad tracks. Maybe it’s because when I read it, Holden reminded me of the arrogant preps, the rich kids of my school that never acknowledged my existence because I was from the projects. I hated those kids, and I always hated Caulfield, too.
But from the time I was in kindergarten until now, the one thing that has consistently brought me the most joy and comfort in my crazy, hard life, is finding a good fucking book, and this book is amongst the best. Fuck, the life Billie Holiday lived! The things she survived, and in conditions most of us can only read about but never live, she became one of the most brilliant and influential singers in the world, and despite tragedy and harassment at every turn, she maintained an optimism that even I envy. Oh, man, there’s much to love about this book. I’ll read it again and again. You should, too.
been carrying this book around and enjoying it for two or three weeks
And I don’t want the above rave to diminish the light of this book, but Ted Jackins and I traded books a while back through the mail, and I finally got around to finishing his latest poetry collection ‘Mercury In Retrospect’ (Alien Buddha Press, 2023) It’s definitely Ted’s best poetry to date. A few poems and phrases even that made me jealous that I didn’t write them. Mostly short poems, all less than two pages, and mostly about mental health and making art and getting by, and most of the poems are good or better than that even. And once again, despite the heavy topic contents, like suicidal ideation, there’s an overall enviable optimism. Anyone in the mental health field, on both sides of the therapeutic desk, would enjoy this collection.
good book, Ted! I dig.
And here’s my newest favorite section of the newsletter. 1,001 ways to get high (yes I have future plans for that phrase. Stay tuned) I got this Glorious bubble hash infused pre roll with diamond crystals last week. These pre rolls run about $20, but with my budtender discount I decided to try one at $15, and comrades, this motherfucker is to date the strongest joint I’ve ever blazed. I tried the Crown Apple flavor, and I’ve been California sober longer than Crown Apple has been around, but drinkers swear this joint tastes like the real thing. I’ll take their word for it. It’s a good tasting smoke.
For those new to cannabis, or just curious passerby’s, hash is rated on a 1-6 scale, with 6 being the best, purest form of THC you can possibly obtain. Most of the waxes and concentrates y’all are dabbing are a 3 or a 4. Bubble hash is at least a 5 on the scale, and called such because it bubbles away to pure vapor when lit. Diamond crystals are another form of hash, where the concentrate is turned into a liquid, then heated and compressed to form diamond crystals. So basically this joint involved three different forms of cannabis in one, one gram cone. It hit like a dab joint. My girl Jess and I, both iron lunged OG smokers that think we could hang with Snoop, we both coughed our asses off and got high as fuck from this hard hitting sonofabitch.
Glorious is an artsy, high end bud company from Rochester Hills, MI. Their products are pricey, but so far have been amongst my favorite best highs when I can afford them. If you see them at your local dispensary, try one. They’ll dry yer eyes out.
this fucker kicks like a rusty 12 gauge fired in haste
Hey, it’s Monday. It’s August. It’s a full moon tonight and the Democratic National Convention kicks off in Chicago tonight. But what does any of that matter to us? We’re good people, doing our best to do good in our community. We’re looking to hope and optimism, reading, dancing and ever evolving to the love and light-full beings we aspire to be. There’s a bite to eat waiting in the fridge. Coffee steaming on the counter. Books waiting to be loved, and a dozen pre rolls smiling from our desk. Who has it better than us?
Love,
Dan
ps. the only way I could have it better is if you tell your friends to buy my books.
“Kicks like a rusty 12 gauge fired in haste.” I think I’m going to have to try that!
'Moss don’t grow on a rolling stone, motherfuckers'. How true!!! Maybe a good tattoo quote?