More Random Thoughts

I heard a joke once that the definition of insanity is performing the same actions over and over again but expecting a different result each time. I've decided that my personal definition of neurosis is performing the same actions over and over again, knowing one will get the same result each time, but doing it anyway.

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My friend Mark was visiting from Amsterdam this week and he brought copies of the newspaper he edits there, called TED. It's aimed at a youth market, with a focus on world culture and politics, less on entertainment and gossip. After reading my entry on this blog about Brokeback Mountain, Mark asked if I would be willing to work up a five hundred word version of it for his newspaper. Last March it was published in TED, and I finally got to see a copy of it this week. I'm a published writer. In Dutch. This cracks me up. I guess I have to admit I didn't entirely believe it had really gone to press. Why Mark would want to pay me for an article he never intended to use, I have no idea, but that's just the way my brain works sometimes.

It's funny looking at the page. There's my old black and white headshot on one side then the article, then a picture from the movie of Jack and Ennis leaning up against the old truck. Next to my name, in bold, it says "Patrick Lacey, een gay acteur uit New York, legt uit waarom Brokeback Mountain hem persoonlijk diep raakte. De film is de eerst mainstream Hollywood film die het leven van homo's in beeld brengt."

How true.

Looking at the article is lots of fun. Of course I don't speak a word of Dutch, so looking at it is more like looking at images than words. You know the experience: Indecipherable, indecipherable, lots of words with double aa's, double ee's, indecipherable, Jack en Ennis, indecipherable, gay cowboys, indecipherable, an impressive number of z's, for some reason my eye catches the words begreep and herkende, just because they seem like they'd be fun to say, indecipherable, alcohol, indecipherable, oh wait, can I guess what kinderen means? How about claustrofobie? Zit? No, probably not that one... dood is fun... 300 Hectares, gotta good guess there, indecipherable, indecipherable "normaal", sure, (quotation marks included), lots of words ending in lfde and jk, just can't get over the number of z's, or j's and k's for that matter, indecipherable, oh Jack en Ennis again, of course gays and Brokeback Mountain one more time each, Ik herkende shows up a lot, which makes me think it means "I recognized" since I used that phrase a lot, indecipherable, indecipherable... and that pretty much sums up my experience of the article. Only my complete faith in Mark keeps me from wondering if the article makes me sound like an utter moron, or is actually a recipe for kugel. My first experience as a paid writer. I don't think I'm gonna quite the day job or the (presently theoretical) career to become a Dutch columnist, but it's a lot of fun to think about this going all around Holland last year.