My upcoming book of short short stories, Shake Away These Constant Days, originated as a project called Our Band Could Be Your Lit, in which I wrote a story under 1000 words every week. To generate this much content, I based the stories on songs suggested my musicians and writers from around the world. The original idea was 100 songs, 100 stories: find the creative common ground between two mediums and cultivating the virtue found therein.
Until September 25th, I'll be doing a blog post a day about the stories in the book. After that, it's all up to you.
"On To You" by The Constantines, as suggested by musician Kevin J. Frank of Haymarket Riot, was he inspiration behind the story "Refund"
Originally OBCBYL #38. The romance in strippers is usually either in the idea of rescuing them or banging them. I’ve often wondered if I’m the type of person who could have a relationship with a stripper or a porn star. To do so, I think I would have to rise above those two original notions, that the woman is not by default a damsel in distress or a public depository.
Of course, I’m totally not that good of a person. As a far more righteous surrogate, Rob in this story is hooked up on a date with a stripper and is already beyond caring about what she does.
At the time, I was kind of obsessed with Marisa Tomei’s character in The Wrestler. The parallels—and differences—in the redemption stories of her character and Mickey Rourke’s character are obvious and many. But, as endearing as Randy the Ram is, he proves in the end that, above all else, he’s a wrestler, an identity that transcends being a human being. The same cannot be said for his female counterpart, who is “merely” a human being who strips.
I obviously didn’t have the space to do the same sort of development as a full-length film, and with that being my most solid reference point, I’m not sure if I did the right thing with the female character, as she comes off as any other nineteen year old girl with problems. On the other hand, it’s possible that that’s exactly why it may have worked.
Tomorrow: A story named "Things That Are Glacial, Things That Are Gone" that is based on the piece of music Adagio For Strings by Samuel Barber. Suggested by writer/nuisance Stephanie Momot.
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