The “internet” is information’s answer to the ego.  We put ourselves out here with a name (“Dan Harder”, say) and find ourselves about as important as a piece of string in a very large rug.  Tant mieux, as they say.  In fact, reconsider something Herman Hesse wrote in Magister Ludi: “The hierarchic organization cherishes the ideal of anonymity, and comes very close to the realization of that ideal.”  With the internet, I think we arrive at something a bit more democratic and organic: The heuristic organization cherishes the ideal of anonymity, and comes very close to the realization of that ideal.  The paradox, of course, is that we push ourselves out here on the Net hoping to be seen, heard, known, loved -- or something.  In reality, we become just another bit (or bunch of bytes) of information that, hopefully, can be used in an open web of ever-better, more comprehensive insights. 

So… welcome to MY SITE… and I hope you find at least some of it useful, inspiring, perhaps even entertaining.

N. B.  Relatively anonymous as all of this is, I'd love, however, to get some nominal credit for the things written here.  Some of this material is, in fact, already copyrighted (fais gaffe!).  Some is not.  That which isn't... feel free to use.  That's what it's here for.  Still, outright theft isn't terribly cool, and anyway, what are ya going to write in your second act if your first act is stolen?

Links:

One of the recent reviews of Zipperz opera (with Nat Stookey):

http://sfist.com/2008/11/20/opening_the_zipperz.php

Articles in the L. A. Times:

http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/search.html

One of my photo-essay books:

http://www.amazon.com/San-Francisco-Points-Dan-Harder/dp/1558682961

Latest poetry book:

http://www.booksmith.com/askew.html

One of my kids books (the one still in print):

http://www.amazon.com/Childs-California-Dan-Harder/dp/1558685200

A zippered poem:

http://www.facets-magazine.com/Vol.%20IV,%20Iss.%203/contents.html

Academic essay about Shakespeare:

http://www.uni-tuebingen.de/connotations/harder1513.htm

Performance with Max Mathews and Ann Stoehr:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGuUOAsuYIo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvZrFGknrYY

Bio:

Dan Harder is an award-winning playwright, poet, essayist, journalist, radio commentator, children's book author, and teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area.  His books have been published by Hyperion, Graphic Arts Center, Pince-Nez Publishing, and others.  His essays have appeared in the LA Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Connotations, Saveur, etc., and his commentaries have been heard on NPR.  Dan's book Askew:  Found and Lost in the Almost South of France was reviewed and archived in the French Biblioteque Nationale de Paris by the avant garde Oulipo group.  The zipper poetry in Askew was the catalyst for "Zipperz", a modern opera (score by Nat Stookey) which premiered to good reviews with the Oakland East Bay Symphony in November, 2008.  As written on the dust jacket of Colliding With Chris, his first children's book about a boy and a bike, "Dan has a hard time finding the brakes on whatever he's riding.  Among other things, he's been a cowboy, a lumber truck driver, an owner of a restaurant (The Center Cafe, with his wife Ora Schulman), an actor, a translator, a sculptor, and a drummer."  Dan lives in San Francisco with his wife and two sons and teaches Philosophy and English at the French American International School.