These days I generally try not to run my mouth about subjects that I don’t know anything about. This wasn’t always the case. On many occasions I was cowed by those with superior intellect or simply greater knowledge about the tasks or materials at hand. Indeed an acknowledgement of my own limited experience, intelligence and knowledge led me to largely abandon writing consistent opinion pieces. It seemed vulgar and crass to assume that I, at the age of 22 had anything to say that had not already been conceived of by someone else. I never stopped writing film and television reviews but those have mostly been relegated to the film group I joined over a decade ago, The Spoiler Room, but it’s been a hot minute since I was writing anything but fictional narratives with any degree of seriousness. I think that I had fundamentally become afraid that no one gave a shit what I thought and that it was generally just a waste of my time. That might be true, but I did not give a fuck fifteen years ago and I’m endeavouring to remember that crucial creative skill again now. Still I wanted to make an acknowledgement that in the subject matter I’ll be writing about, I’m not just pulling this stuff out of thin air. The choice to make a return to writing in this form is to convey the knowledge I’ve gained in my respective interests as well as a place to meditate and contemplate lessons learned over time.

The Restaurant, food and beverage service, industry is something I have a lot of experience in and because I can write, I want to write about it. My first job was at an A&W at the age of 14. I worked in the restaurant industry in Vancouver from 2007-2019, in pretty much every role at one time or another, although I’m best known as a bartender. I want to write about what’s changed in the industry and how I feel about the evolution of dining and service. I want to tell admirational stories of the great folks I worked with over the years, as well as admonish some of the people I encountered, as well as recount scenarios I was placed in by managers or ne’er do wells. I want to conjure the misty memories of integrating into Vancouver by carousing in bars and talking to strangers. I also want to highlight the pitfalls, challenges and methods that go along with such high profile loitering and boozery. I was never truly elite when it came to the always preposterous world of mixology, having laughed at the term for as long as I can remember. Don’t get me wrong, I like nice things, high quality things, hell I can even like flashy things – what I don’t like is self indulgent wanking and grandstanding. There are far more intricate and complex skills to know in order to be a great bartender than how to make drinks, and if I’m being honest I think that’s the least complicated part. I cooked for a short period of time alongside some of my heroes, and in that time I learned some of the most valuable lessons that I use in my day to day life constantly. I’d be a fucking liar of I attempted to claim that Anthony Bourdain had no influence on my life or that now that he’s passed I think he was rote hack – but after a few years of soul searching and reading a few books about him that came out after his death, I want to examine some of the lesser known parts of the man’s life and try to connect that to the near complete ven diagram of the population to whom he appealed. I want to write about how cooking and restaurants are presented on television and where the seemingly lab created cheddar goblin that is Matty Matheson was designed. I spent a considerable amount of my adult life behind bars, so the people I could tell you about? But I’ll get there.

Over the past ten years I’ve written and self published 5 novels, and while none of them are best sellers or even widely acknowledged? I still like to think that I know a thing or two about how to write and tell stories. I’m still doing it today, although until some publishing house backs up a truck of money, I’ve decided to abandon the act of writing novels. I also want to talk about what went wrong, what I could have done better and how I would do it again given the chance. I’ll get into my process and really break down the functional aspects of writing, not just the indulgence in one’s imagination or intentional typographical diarrhea. I’m going to offer my critique of the publishing industry as well as the ideologies and trends that seem to pervade the culture and stunt the growth of literacy. I’m going to talk about my experiences with bookstores, book sellers, and other authors. I want to write about my intentions in writing and analyze what certain pieces were designed to do and whether or not I hit the mark with those. I’d like to get to writing about the absolute soul crushing lows that can come with sinking all your time and energy into something that you eventually realize that few, if any, people are going to read. I want to write about taste, style and class in writing, as well as commanding the grace and intelligence to handle dicey, potentially offensive subject matter, with a deft hand and a skilled tongue. I’d like to get to addressing the classist exclusive nature of academic writing communities. I like poetry well enough, but it’s consistently tiring to watch books of poetry getting published so their writers can masquerade as real authors. I want to lament that it can’t be like it was in the 60’s and 70’s for fiction, where all I’d need to be able to do is write a novel a year to get paid enough to afford a nice house in the suburbs. I want to address some of what I think are myths within the world of writing and writers. I want to write about collaborative writing vs solitary writing. The various methods used to connect with the collective unconscious. I will of course analyze and deconstruct my own novels.

There is so much media not only out there but accessible to us at all times. I like thinking about how the media we process, whether it’s books, or movies, tv, music, visual arts – they all have their own industry and world and story and although I enjoy all those things very much I can often find the story of their creation more fascinating. Learning how a movie was made, who made it, paid for it, and distributed it is fascinating to me. So I’ll probably write about that in addition to my own reviews of the media itself. I love the films of William Friedkin so I’m sure I’ll get into that in a bit. Or maybe I’ll write my shamefully apologetic defense of Nickelback? Get into the painfully underused theme of sky pirates as featured prominently in the 90’s Disney animated series TailSpin? Write about why Rick and Morty went into decline? Shit I could write about Dan Harmon. Perhaps muse on why I think Ryan Reynolds is a successful mogul? Break down why Mad Max: Fury Road is A. The greatest action film of all time and B. a fascinating blueprint for both radicalizing young men, but also de-radicalizing them. Maybe I’ll get into Ayn Rand, spice it up with some actual analysis of Atlas Shrugged or something? There’s still lots of Werner Herzog movies I haven’t watched. I can write on end about my favorite author of crime novels Richard Stark (aka Donald Westlake) and his seminal series about no bullshit criminal protagonist: Parker. The Parker books masterfully display thrift in word, economy in ideas and a seasoned professional’s execution of construction. I’ve probably read more comics than most people, maybe I’ll get into doing in depth analysis of series I haven’t tackled in years? 100 Bullets, Y-The Last Man, Transmetropolitan, Preacher, Sandman, Strangers in Paradise. Wax poetic about golden age comics and the near perfect form of a four panel daily comic strip.

All these things, but not limited to them, are what I plan on writing about. I’ve spent enough time thinking about them.