The Note
Dale Wisely
Here we are with the first issue of Right Hand Pointing for the calendar year 2016. This year we'll observe the 12th anniversary of this publication and we'll publish our 100th issue. Your humble Editor-in-Chief will observe the 60th anniversary of his birth. (March 25. You've got less than 100 shopping days.)
This will be the year my new screenplay, "Captain Jason Midnight, Jedi Zombie," will be rejected by several movie studies. Just like last year and the year before. These philistines are a major source of disappointment in my life.
Here's another example. As all of you know—because I believe I have called all of you by now asking you to invest—I have been working for 20 years on Funky Animus: The Musical Story of Carl Jung, Featuring the Grooves of Mr. James Brown. In addition to having to pitch the idea to "theatre" people who, frankly, are not my peers, I've had trouble casting the role of Dr. Jung, who has to be able to sing and dance like James Brown. The good news, I've found the right star.
I'm in the early stages of negotiating to hire Reese Witherspoon for the part. By "early stages," I mean her agent won't return my calls after the first couple of conversations didn't go well. Now I'm trying to talk directly to Ms. Witherspoon, which turns out to be more difficult than I would have guessed, especially with the restraining order, which I recently learned is really an order and not a suggestion.
The problem is, my project probably doesn't sound that great when I just have 15 seconds to scream the idea at Reese at a rope line. See if you can help me with a more succint version. This is what I've tried most recently: "REESE! REESE! MS. WITHERSPOON! I WANT YOU TO PLAY CARL JU— REESE! WE JUST NEED TO TRAIN YOU TO SING AND DANCE LIKE JAMES BROWN! REESE!"
Now about this issue. I'm just so proud we've been able to have Laura M Kaminski on board as associate editor. Her work has been tremendously valuable to the publication and to me. This is her second solo edit. She made the selections, picked the title, arranged the sequence of poems. Thanks to Laura and to all the poets who contributed. Enjoy issue 94: "Neptune."
Happy New Year!
Dale
