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Dispatches from Tanganyika
The Online Journal of Billy Martin, formerly Poppy Z. Brite
Paid Account, Created on 14 March 2003 (#948997), Last updated on 18 May 2013 [Gift]
- Name:
- Billy Martin
- Birthdate:
- 25 May 1967
- Location:
- New Orleans, Louisiana, Tanzania
- Website:
- poppyzbrite.com
- Interests: (95)
- alan moore, amsterdam, architecture, architeuthis, art, australia, bad music, basketball, beatles, billy joel, birds, birdwatching, bourbon, candy, cannabis, carnival, carson mccullers, catholicism, cats, central city, collage, colors, donald roller wilson, dorothy parker, earl long, f2m, fishing, food, football, forensics, fruit, ftm, gardening, gay, genderqueer, gin, graham greene, grand isle, gulf of mexico, guns, harlan ellison, herons, history, horror, hunter s. thompson, joe orton, john kennedy toole, john lennon, kenneth halliwell, liquor, louisiana, louisiana politics, lynda barry, mardi gras, michael connelly, mortuary science, mourning jewelry, neil gaiman, new orleans, new orleans saints, organic gardening, oriental shorthairs, painting, paul theroux, pelicans, peter straub, pigments, plants, privacy, r. crumb, ramsey campbell, rap, ray bradbury, rebuilding new orleans, rebuilding south louisiana, restaurants, roseate spoonbills, shirley jackson, shooting, siamese cats, snakes, st. bernard parish, st. joseph, stephen king, subgenius, succulents, testosterone, texas, textures, tom waits, trans, transgender, transsexuality, underground comics, v.s. naipaul
- Bio
- (Formerly the journal of Poppy Z. Brite. Trying on a new name for size.)
"Dispatches from Tanganyika" is a reference to one of the incomprehensible editorial letters John Kennedy Toole received when he was trying to sell A Confederacy of Dunces (my favorite book of all time). "[W]hen someone like yourself is living off from the center of cultural-business activities, with only a thin lifeline to that center, through vague and solitary contacts, everything gets disproportionate, difficult to analyze, to give the proper weight to. It is like those odd people who turn up in New Zealand or Tanganyika or Finland, writing or painting masterpieces –- they have their own power, but they read or look as if the artist has had to discover the form for himself. They don’t have the assurance of worldliness and mutual interest and energy with others." I'm not sure the editor realized New Orleans was, in fact, part of the United States. (I'm not sure New Orleans is, in fact, part of the United States.) Ever since I read this, the word "Tanganyika" has been linked in my mind with the attempt to write fiction about the New Orleans that really exists, rather than perpetuating the fantasy.
Check out my Amazon page for an Amazon-linked bibliography, wish list, and more. I'm also on Twitter and Facebook (Billy Martin in New Orleans, in case that link doesn't work for you). Feel free to friend me. For the more visually oriented, I have a Flickr account.
Anyone is welcome to "friend" me. However, while I occasionally use LJ-cuts, I won't do so simply because an entry is long. If this bothers you, you may not want me on your friends list.
You can e-mail me at funkyegret (at) yahoo (dot) com, but please be advised that I hardly ever answer e-mail, not to be snobby, but simply because my chronic back pain and sciatica have worsened over the years to the point where I can scarcely find enough energy to do even the things that keep body and soul together. This is also why I stopped doing public appearances (book signings, cons, and such) in 2007.
Aside from the quotes below and occasional ones from other writers in my entries (which you'll find credited as such), all contents of "Dispatches From Tanganyika" © 2012 by Poppy Z. Brite.
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"Personally, I never let myself get low," Patrolman Mancuso lied.
-- John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces
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As I have earlier said, the thing I love about New Orleans is that it tends to be deserted, and there you may find peace. It is in the quietude, the deserted streets, the green and eccentric palms. Shortly after five o'clock the business district is deserted, and you won't find a person on the streets, except for one fellow in a seersucker suit. He will be walking slowly down Gravier Street, smoking a cigar. Tending his own garden.
-- Nancy Lemann, The Ritz of the Bayou
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It's very interesting sharing a house with a group of people who obviously see things, hear things, think about things in a vastly different way.
-- Edward Gorey, on living with cats
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You gotta know what your left hand's doing to your right hand, and your top foot, and your bottom foot, and everything.
-- Buddy Diliberto