Feb 4 2010

Sea, Snow & State Troopers

by Constantine Markides
posted in Video
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**There will be no March post. Next one April 4th**

*NOTE: I’m returning to my pre-May 2009 schedule of posting monthly every 4th (this means no more 14th or 24th posts).

The following footage was filmed over New Year’s in coastal Maine, primarily Monhegan Island, but also Port Clyde and Thomaston (the filming there coming on the tail end of a night at Billy’s Tavern, which explains any slurring in the second to last video clip). The video mostly consists of seas, snowfall, granite, evergreens, lobsterboats and (+/- plow) trucks, the aggregate of which comprises something essential about Maine that demographics and other state statistics fail to account for, something that anyone who’s formerly lived in Maine always misses. It’s why even the most jaded ex-residents of Maine, except perhaps for the nouveau riche variety who’ve embraced parochial urbanism, upon crossing New Hampshire’s Memorial Bridge and reading the words ‘The Way Life Should Be’ on the big blue Welcome to Maine sign, will nod in agreement rather than glance shotgun and snigger.

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Jan 24 2010

Fourth Fiction Bloopers & Outtakes

by Constantine Markides
posted in Fourth Fiction
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The Fourth Fiction bloopers and outtakes videos (scroll down to see Part II):

PART I

PART II

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Jan 13 2010

From Mind Games to Tiger Woods

by Constantine Markides
posted in Fourth Fiction
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A few days ago, the unsleeping lodestar of the publishing universe, Debbie Stier, sent me a link to a recent podcast of This American Life called “Mind Games” She sent it to me with Fourth Fiction in mind.

I thought I’d do the same and share the link. After all the recent Decade-in-Reviews and reflections on the so-called aughts or naughts or naughties or naughty aughties or, to use the most inspired contender for the title, the ohs, consider it as an oblique retrospective on Fourth Fiction, which also closed with the decade (coincidentally, “Mind Games” first aired on December 4th). You can listen to the episode HERE. It’s worth the hour.

For a political and less sympathetic take on the same subject, read the December 19th New York Times OpEd by Frank Rich, Tiger Woods: Person of the Year.

Upon going through my Fourth Fiction video footage over the last half year, I concluded it’s hopeless separating the Extras from the Bloopers so a combined “Bloopers and Outtakes” Video is coming on January 24th.

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Jan 5 2010

The Twelve Cryptograms of Christmas

by Constantine Markides
posted in Fourth Fiction
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“Another experimental form in which [Joyce’s] literary urge took … consisted in the noting of what he called ‘epiphanies’; – manifestations or revelations.  Jim always had a contempt for secrecy, and these notes were in the beginning ironical observations of slips, and little errors and gestures – mere straws in the wind – by which people betrayed the very things they were most careful to conceal.”
-Stanislaus Joyce writing about his brother James. Continue reading

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Dec 24 2009

Fourth Fiction: The Complete Season

by Constantine Markides
posted in Fourth Fiction
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Fourth Fiction was a blog-based literary reality show in which 12 contestants, writing pseudonymously, each began a novella. Readers eliminated them, one by one, along the way, until one winner completed his or her novella. I (Host) delivered a literary challenge and announced the eliminated contestant in a YouTube video at the beginning of each round. Watch the introductory video for an overview. For more details, see the About page.

What follows is Fourth Fiction in its entirety* from Round 1 to Round 12, which features the winning post. (To read the contestants’ writings from the pre-competition month on Twitter, scroll to the bottom of this page. Links to the polls are also listed at the end.) Continue reading

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Dec 13 2009

Radio Interview about Fourth Fiction

by Constantine Markides
posted in Fourth Fiction
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Cyrus Webb of Conversations LIVE! Radio interviewed me about Fourth Fiction on Monday, Dec. 14th. You can listen to the full one-hour interview HERE. (Don’t ask what I was getting at in my first response…) Continue reading

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Dec 8 2009

Protected: COCO 12 (Part II)

by Coco
posted in Coco, Round 12
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*This post is password protected. To get the password, read COCO 12 (Part I)

Enter password below.


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Dec 8 2009

COCO 12 (Part I)

by Constantine Markides
posted in Coco, Round 12
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Round 12 Challenge: [for reader to discover in the text]

Grand mother always told me to look into my heart for answers when too much confusion come. She also told me man who give you his heart too quickly is either too stupid or too clever. Either way trouble for you. She was wise woman babushka.

While I look at memory key I notice businessman near by is staring over his newspaper. I push pieces of heart back together and put inside my blousa but he keep glancing over. I say to myself Don’t be crazy. Man is looking because its what man do. They look at woman.

I say this to myself but I begin to have paranoia because he keep looking down where necklace is. I think Don’t be stupid Ivana. Man is looking at your breast not heart. Its nothing new to you this. Continue reading

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Dec 7 2009

Stephen Fry Congratulates Winner

by Constantine Markides
posted in Coco, Fourth Fiction, Round 12, Trivial
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British actor, comedian and writer Stephen Fry congratulates Coco, the Fourth Fiction winner, at a book signing of his latest book “Stephen Fry in America” at Idlewild Books, NYC, on December 7th, 2009.

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Dec 4 2009

UTAH – Farewell Statement

by Utah
posted in Farewells, Fourth Fiction, Round 12
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Harvest has ended. Disappointed as I am to bow out so near the end, I take some consolation in my Fourth Fiction run coming to a close along with the crop season. Coco deserved to win as much as anyone else; in fact my better half is glad the winner is someone whose primary language is not English. It may have cost her in votes along the way, but it goes to show that what readers most value isn’t technical competence but compelling narrative. Continue reading

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