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N. Frank Daniels of Bakersfield-based Noveltown talks about the frustrations artists feel when in boxed into the mainstream (Daniels resides in Atlanta):

LEVELING: Shitting or Getting Off the Pot - by N. Frank Daniels

It's a beautiful day in suburban Atlanta. The wind is gentle, the temperature is in the mid-70's. I look out the window at my back yard and marvel that this place really is mine, my family's own little piece of heaven on earth.

But it isn't enough. I have been on and off at least five different medications for anxiety in the past three years. Three others for depression. I used to chalk these problems up to my frustration with my stagnating writing career but it's more than that, I'm beginning to realize. I am starting to have the sneaking suspicion that I'd have these same issues even if it were I and not that asshole Dan Brown who'd written the DaVinci Code. Of course, it is much easier to avoid such realizations if one can jet off to a Caribbean island at a moment's notice and then buy said Caribbean island at one's pleasure. But we can't escape what's inside. That stuff in there like one of those chest-bursting aliens from that one Sigourney Weaver movie I can't remember the name of right this minute. Eventually it's going to come out, despite how nice a time it seems you're having at your all-white post-trauma dinner engagement.

Yesterday I realized I had to make a choice about the direction in which I need to steer my life. For years now—ever since I got myself clean and started giving a shit about the impact I was having on those around me—I have operated on the assumption that I have very little time, and have gone around slamming my head against a wall like the clichéd chicken sans head, trying to make something BIG happen that would justify the small amount of time I have.

(Read the full article and leave a comment)
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www.noveltown.net/blog

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HOW TO WIN THE CLAW AND FRIDAY GAME TICKETS:

Winning is easy. Just quickly write what you would do for FOUR Condor playoff tickets and a Condor claw and send to nick@noveltown.net. The best answers will win. If you do win, we will announce on the site and you just pick up tickets at the will call window at the Rabobank Arena this Friday night. If you win the claw, you'll have to pick it up from Dirty Spanglish outside the arena before the game. Oh yeah, Dirty Spanglish performs at 5:30PM. Winners will be announced TONIGHT.

Noveltown will have a table inside on the concourse. And don't forget to see the cool Condor commercial promoting the Bakersfield Hockey CD. They even play snippets from the album during the game...

Now read about JUSTIN FAHSBENDER and FRESNO FANS.

- n.l.