Waste Book Maintenance

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These days, your WASTE BOOK is as likely to be on your phone as not; there are many cromulent apps that you can use to record your thoughts on the go. However, although I use my phone for quick to-do’s, I’m still firmly in the paper-and-pencil camp when it comes to WASTE BOOKS.

As I say in the book, by the time I’ve taken my phone out, gotten past the security code, opened the app, and typed in what I need to say, I could have already whipped out my trusty Field Notes Brand WASTE BOOK, scribbled a thought, and put it away. This is probably because I am old.

Another aspect of paper-and-pencil WASTE BOOKS is that 1) you can keep them (like Beethoven and Lichtenberg himself did); and 2) before you shelve them, you can go through them to see if you’ve left anything behind.

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In my most recent WASTE BOOK, for example, here are some items that I scribbled down, and since WASTE BOOKS are wild patches of garden where you throw all the seeds of ideas without any concern about which ones will ever bloom, some these are already ABANDONED.

  • a note for burn planning: RVs must be parked at the rear of a camp

  • a weird plot engine for a sci-fi novel/movie involving the Confederate carving on the side of Stone Mountain (GA) and aliens.

  • notes for a letter I was writing

  • a sketch for the cover of the sketchbook I did for the Brooklyn Art Library Sketchbook Project

  • a letter to the widow of one of my best friends, a member of my burn theme camp

  • dichotomies we looked at for As You Like It during the workshop last October

  • some kind of dialog for Twitter?

  • a poem about the labyrinth

  • notes on local gins in Quebec

  • something about theme camps recording their volunteer hours for placement purposes?

  • Lichtenbergian postcard quotes

  • a note to keep the side entrances cut into the proscenium walls at the theatre

  • something about a “cueing chart” for AYLI? an actor thing?

  • arborio rice: who discovered this?

  • Hearts of Space, program 750, ≈6:46–8:00

  • What?

    • Do like my wife does—put it on vibrate

    • “regifted #mypillows”

    • “one-legged dog on a bullet train”

    • drones form Xmas symbol

  • Notes for an exploration journal on Temporary Autonomous Zones (AYLI)

  • Notes for Shakespeare Boot Camp

  • Five things about me (AYLI intros)

  • Pain diary (for my ankle injury)

  • things to print for rehearsal

  • notes on GarageBand instruments for the entrance of Hymen in Act V of AYLI

  • notes on scripts for the Backstreet database

  • a scribbled note during a recent funeral in which the pastor delivering the eulogy was doing a Trump-level garbled mess: HERITAGE/LEGACY >> DRINK!

So for this WASTE BOOK, there wasn’t anything that I wrote down and forgot to take care of (except maybe the Hearts of Space thing). Whew! It can go on the shelf for my biographers to pore over later.

On to the next one!

Field Notes “Vignette” edition WASTE BOOK with Assistive Feline™

Field Notes “Vignette” edition WASTE BOOK with Assistive Feline™