Practice of the Future Magazine

After a long, long period of time, I'm going to be associated with a publication again; Practice of the Future will be launching soon! Well, the digital version is available already, but it's the printed copy I can't wait to get my hands on next week... I do some of the writing, and most of the proofreading/copyediting, for this quarterly healthcare-oriented magazine, and I've got to say I'm quite pleased with what my colleagues and I have achieved. Of course, this kind of thing isn't exactly new to me...

26 years ago today, August 18, 1995, I met up with some fellow 'zinesters at the second annual Underground Press Conference at DePaul University in Chicago during my all-too-brief stint as publisher and editor-in-chief of the Extreme. Disillusionment with the conference itself and the feuds I saw boiling over, coupled with a flood of submissions but a dearth of subscriptions, led me to unceremoniously pull the plug on the venture shortly thereafter, only eight issues in, and I still regret it...

Before that, I proofread and edited The Voyage of the SS Jeremiah O'Brien: San Francisco to Normandy 1994, a book by Coleman "Coke" Schneider about the Liberty Ship he was assigned to as a Merchant Marine deck cadet for its maiden voyage in 1944, and on which he traveled again 50 years later for the D-Day anniversary. Coke was a great man with a fascinating history, and I'm proud to have both known him and helped him with the book.

Before that? Well, in 1991 there was my semi-legendary stint as "underground journalist" and literary editor/propagandist of the Underground Giraffe. Met initially with amused tolerance by the management of the Toys "R" Us store where graphic editor Steve Augulis and I worked, the irreverent newsmagazine subtitled "Something to read while you're in the bathroom" found its way up a corporate level or two, and our comic and crass rants were eventually suppressed after five issues that year. I then released two final issues in 1992 as a gift to my co-workers when I resigned. I'm not saying that UG had anything to do with T"R"U filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2017 and closing all its US stores the following year... but I'm not not saying it, either.

And before that? I suppose my interest in journalism and writing and editing/proofreading began in high school. In my junior year, I was a member of the editorial committee of John F. Kennedy H.S.' school newspaper, The Torch; the next year, I was literary editor of our yearbook, The Knight. The proofreading bug has been with me ever since, and even when I'm reading for news or for pleasure, part of me is on the hunt for errors. Beware my red pen!

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!

I do still enjoy writing, too, and though the work I do in my capacity as marketing manager for Microwize Technology and senior editor for Practice of the Future shows barely a trace of my trademark snark and outrage, I'm proud of it. Of course, the turns of phrase, the alliteration, the portmanteaus and double entendres I sprinkle throughout my song lyrics and short fiction and personal 'blog posts are nearer and dearer to my heart. I have fun with words when I can.

Kudos to my PotF teammates on a terrific first issue together! And, who knows... I just might be inspired to try my hand at the 'zine thing again...

I need a vacation.

I really, really need a vacation. Fortunately, I'll soon be taking something for that: a vacation. This Saturday, I'm flying to Fort Lauderdale, and spending half a week with my cousins and half a week with my friends. It will be great to see them all, and it will be wonderful to feel Florida weather. I think I'll be dragging the Traveler guitar along, too.

Not that I haven't been keeping busy as the New Jersey winter lingered on and on this March... I saw Tania Stavreva and some of her piano students play at Steinway Hall; enjoyed Stephanie's last performance with the Dessoff Choirs at Symphony Space; laughed and reminisced as Serious Pilgrim's Martin Rivas, Pete Bavaro, and Tom McGivney performed together in public for the first time in nearly two decades at Rockwood Music Hall; watched the off-Broadway show "Nevermore: The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe" with Laryssa; and did a bit of birdwatching in the Meadowlands with Barbara.

I've also been working on some music. While Greta's Unmentionables has yet to get to Hellhound Studios this year, Jon and I did start piecing together a new Not An Exit song, "No Looking Back," and I've recorded about half of my own tune, "I'll Live," written in 2006 but only just coming to life now.

I've been preparing to overhaul the Web site, too. The last major renovation to AndersenSilva.com left it only slightly clunky, but also partially broken, and there was some content (like all the old Vitriol columns and the Frequently Asked Questions) that was left by the wayside; I plan to restore that. I'm bringing back a cleaner, simpler interface, trimming some fat, adding a few old short stories and poems I've recently rediscovered, and slowly but surely getting thousands more pictures added (though that process won't be done anytime soon).

I've also found two stories I'd started writing years ago, that I would like to complete, and then there's my unfinished NaNoWriMo novels, and ideas for a new short story and a new poem I came up with last month... A light bulb went off over my head this morning. I'd thought the left bulb above the medicine cabinet had burned out two weeks ago, and I just haven't gotten around to replacing it, but it seems to be OK again now.

Hopefully, the new site will be up by the end of the month, but for now you can get a taste at http://www.andersensilva.com/music.html; only the Gallery... of Death! menu links are live for the moment. Please let me know what you think, and I'll see you after I've absorbed some Florida sun! That reminds me, I need to start packing...