television show i watch – writer i could imagine as show runner in a parallel universe

• “the hills” – raymond carver
• “weeds” – lorrie moore
• “big love” – jeffrey eugenides
• “rock of love with bret michaels” – norman mailer
• “californication” – bukowski (phillip roth if you want to be generous)
• “big brother” – walter benjamin
• “the sopranos” – don delillo (leaning heavily on ‘libra’ with a dash of ‘underworld’)
• “the flavor of love” – percival everett (circa ‘erasure’)
• “flight of the conchords” – aimee bender
• “hey paula” – joan didion
• “entourage” – john cheever
• “the office” – nicholson baker
• “lost” – thomas pynchon

jealous husband returns in form of…jealous ex husband (zing!)

http://gawker.com/news/money-changes-everything/elizabeth-dewberry-left-robert-olen-butler-to-join-ted-turners-collection-284346.php

what a bizarre story. i had a friend who saw ted turner at the tallahassee mall once, eating a cinnabon, but it never felt like he was actually present in the area. i am happy that the jokes about “yearning” and “white hot centers,” long mainstays of the FSU creative writing department which had really gotten kind of tired even if, as i understood it, they were necessary to maintain your sanity while taking one of his classes, will soon be reinvigorated with all this new material. he is not a bad writer mostly but he is so dogmatic about his method and so absolutely superior as to be pretty insufferable.  i am honored that once i was able to annoy him in person. he was wearing a black leather jacket and made me leave the classroom.