Steve and Mark have been sitting down to coffee every Thursday morning for a little over a year now. A few months ago we were joined by Dee. Steve is a budding writer who is having his first book published this summer. Mark is local minister, and Dee is a Pulitzer Prize winning art director. This morning Steve said that we ought to keep a journal of what we discuss. A blog immediately came to mind. So, here's what we covered this morning.
Dee mentioned that he has been reading some really dark material lately. The appropriately named "The Dark Place" and "Spooner" by Pete Dexter. "Spooner" is a tightly written book about a guy who can't find a break in life. Steve shared that "Rock Springs" by Richard Ford has a similar theme. The protagonist make a series of more and more desperate actions to try and protect his young daughter.
Dee says we should all put "The Late Quartet" on our DVD cue right away. The move chronicles a string quartet as they face the end of their professional life together. Their demise is caused by the diagnosis of their principal violinist of Parkinson's disease.
Mark has been reading "The Windup Girl" by Paolo Bacigalupi. In this much too easy to imagine future the world has been cursed by genetic engineered foods, humans and animals. One of the characters in the book is amazed when she sees an automobile running on fossil fuels.
Steve has to leave early because he actually works for a living. Dee ends up giving Mark a quick lesson in how to capture a vanishing perspective in drawing.
