Yesterday’s creative writing experiment

Beaten to the punch by that Asimov bitch

My friend Luke pointed out that sci-fi superstar Isaac Asimov has already written a short story about how Genesis was written called How It Happened. That’s the downside to living in the early 21st century: most of the really good ideas — fire, the wheel, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ratemygasmask.com — have already been thought up.

Still, as different writers, we take different tacks. Asimov has Moses fully aware of the scientific explanation of the origins of the universe; in the story, he and his brother Aaron wrote Genesis that way simply to save paper. I imagined mine as a skit with Moses having the scientific knowledge of his time — estimated by some Bible scholars to be around 1280 B.C. (or B.C.E.) — and God and Jesus as having a rather bent sense of humour (namely, mine).

Asimov has an edge over me because he’s one of the best-known names in science fiction. He’s written some of the most-loved books in the genre as well as some non sci-fi. Thanks to concepts of his such as the Laws of Robotics, he will influence not only writers but possibly even computer programmers and cyberneticists for generations to come. As for me, my blog was in Blogger’s “Blogs of Note” for about two months and my best-known story is the one where I got picked up by a limo full of cute women.

Hmm…

Joey 1, Asimov 0. Heh, heh, heh.

Other commentary

Prentiss Riddle e-mailed me, saying he liked Sacrelicious so much that he sent the URL to the puppet theatre troupe of his local Unitarian church. I feel like Arthur Miller.

Dan read the story and told me that Buddhism is non-deist. Well, Tibetan Buddhism isn’t, but Chinese and Japanese Buddhism are. In Sacrelicious, God is the enlightenment that Siddartha Gautama is trying to find. Don’t be so literal, Dan. I can picture you having Goldilocks and the Three Bears read to you as a kid: “Bears don’t live in houses! They most certainly do not sleep in beds! The don’t eat porridge! And how can they make porridge, anyway?! They don’t even have opposable thumbs!”

Besides, why would Jesus use a Gantt chart, something that we all know is a tool of the devil?

I’ve kidded him with this zinger before: you can’t spell “pedantic” without “dan”.

Chicks Dig It

As I wrote earlier, Chicks Dig It has moved to a new venue, The Apothecary at Adelaide and Peter Streets. The indoor section of the Apothecary is about half the size of the Temple Bar and it doesn’t have Temple Bar’s high ceilings, either. Unfortunately, that means that the place is much much smokier — so smoky that Rob decided to leave shortly after entering. Still, I’m glad that Chicks Dig It has a venue, and once the weather warms up, they’ll be able to open the patio, giving us open-air dancing and a place to escape the smoke.

And really, kids, you should kick that vile and expensive tobacco habit.

Minutes after Rob left, the sound system went dead for about ten minutes. While the DJs tooled checked the amps and wiring, I strapped on the accordion and the two African drum players and I played some Lee “Scratch” Perry-esque dub until the sound came back on while people in the room clapped. When the DJ music was restored, the bartender walked up to me and said “What do you drink? I’m buying you one,” followed by other club-goers who did the same. I drank free all night. At the end of the night, DJs Dahlia and Chocloate gave me a good-bye hug; Chocolate said “Please come back every Monday, Accordion Guy.”

Damn, I love this instrument.