My Pit
Wednesday, September 8, 2010 at 3:00AM in Robert Gregory Browne by Rob the Slob
Photos of our workspace, huh? Be careful what you wish for. Just click on the thumbnails to see the full-sized photos.
;)
MAN STYStealing blatantly from my hero, William Goldman (whose book you'll see prominently displayed), this is what I refer to as my pit. And, believe me, it really is a pit. My wife calls it my Man Sty.
I'm not known as Rob the Slob for nothing.
This is where I sit every single day and most of the night. I must be spending twelve or more hours a day in this chair lately, including weekends.
My ass is sore.
As you can see, I write on an iMac. I've long been a PC guy, but I love my iMac. On the right is a screen that at the flip of a switch is a secondary Mac display or a Windows 7 monitor. Depends on my mood. I've got a PC under the desk.
The thing with all the knobs on the left is my newly acquired Mackie Oynx 1640i firewire mixer. I write and record music and this helps me do that.
;)
THE LEFT SIDE OF HEAVENThis area is directly to my left as I sit at my desk. I like the bookshelf there so that I can reach over, grab a book at random and get inspiration from my favorite authors. When I'm low on writing energy, there's nothing better than reading someone else's work.
I probably could have cleaned up and made everything pretty, but let's face it. Most writers are slobs. We're right brainers, so what do you expect? I'm looking at some free time late in October and I plan to rip everything out of here and completely redesign this space into something resembling a real office—and recording studio.
;)
MY BELOVED CHILDRENHere we have an old Fender Bullet Strat that's worth about ten bucks, which I bought during the Fender CBS years (I worked for CBS at the time as a script typist). The black one is a Gibson Les Paul, which is on loan from my daughter. And to the right of that is my new Paul Reed Smith Tremonti, which I absolutely love.
You'll note the piles of Gold Medal books in the b.g. My "collection." Turns out I collect more dust than books.
I'd show you a wider shot of the room, but you're already disgusted enough. You do not want to see any more than this. Trust me.
;)
LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT HEAD!This is a reverse shot—and what I look like most of the time I'm writing. Spiffy glasses, eh?
And finally...
;)
MY BRAIN ON DRUGSThis is my real pit. Where I keep all of my files, all of my notes, all of my ideas... It's my portable office. I try to carry it with me wherever I go.
Sometimes I forget to bring it.
Hilarity ensues.
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JT's INSPIRATIONOkay, this shot is for JT, who insisted. If I got embarrassed easily, I'd be very red-faced right now. Because, let's face it, I'm really baring my soul here.
Reader Comments (37)
You have a great space in which to get creative, that's for sure.
Nice brain - I usually keep mine in a box under the bed...
Love the guitars. I always wanted a carbon-fibre backed Ovation, but never got around to it. Maybe one day...
I just purchased my plane tickets for Bouchercon this morning. No turning back now. :)
What kind of music do you write? And is that a ukulele hiding in there?
Noticed the Dr Who, excellent. I think everyone should have a Tartis, not for time travel, just some place bigger on the inside than the out. Think of all that bookshelf space.
Glad that’s your brain. I thought it was a Rorschach test and I’d flunked.
I'm loving this look at everyone's space, and totally identify with the "glue your butt in the chair" idea. It's the only way, isn't it?
I obviously don't. Otherwise I probably wouldn't have used the expression "encountered you in the flesh."
I will stop talking now.
Ahhh, memories.
I think all the iMacs are either i3 or i5's this year.
As for music, I write all kinds. Getting time to record it is the hard part.
And yes, I'd love to have my own TARDIS. For both the space AND the time travel. If you like Doctor Who, I strongly recommend the Big Finish audio adventures. They're great for long car rides and walks.
I need to write twenty pages today? No problem. I'll start after I play guitar for a—ooo, I don't remember buying that book. I wonder if it's any—THERE's that DVD!
Three hours and no pages later....
Oh, and as for Alzheimer's—I wouldn't be surprised.
But knowing you as I do, you probably cleaned everything up so it looks nice and tidy. Lined up all the pens and post it notes, made your work table pretty, cleaned the surrounding area, so that everyone will get the impression that you have no distractions...
But I know better... :)
Your post makes me feel sooo much better. I look like a clean-nik.
But all those books and guitars? Pure inspiration.
And Alex, how DID you not know that?
My classical guitar inspired me to write the short story, "Classical Revenge," about a guitar shop where they sell a special type of guitar strings. Let's just say they're not CATgut. Of course, nobody uses catgut anymore, which was really sheep gut. These days the strings are made of nylon---except in my story. ;)
A friend who I went to uni with had the type of man sty that was a risk to any who entered. We would be working on a project on his computer and you'd be afraid to breathe. Mostly because a pile of stuff might teeter and engulf bystanders and you just knew no one would be able to tell that anything had changed from the doorway view...and if you couldn't reach the technology to get a message out, you'd be there forever trapped in the uber-sty.
That's better - I love it. It's very you - and not as messy as you depicted. Your books are wonderful!
Wow - I didn't know the meaning of Rati either - that's totally cool! We're all just channeling anyway, right?
Debbie - I think you just made Alex's day.
I wonder if this trend to embrace chaos theory as an interior design motif is going to continue. If so, I guess I ‘m not one of the cool kids, as I’m a bit OCD about my work space.
Control yourself ;-]