tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65453672024-03-23T12:44:41.950-05:00vowel movementsAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14803769438883141848noreply@blogger.comBlogger179125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6545367.post-84279384020612037902011-10-13T14:12:00.005-05:002011-10-13T15:57:49.529-05:00National Book Award Finalists for Poetry -- 2011<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMBp5TIG7ADhNR31F0p_l11VdVvAJgPiKdrdTLmd0PRJtYxTtbr_52xeisrMGQmrPLoi1ZXcWfdUleggJzpSggZIJPQYF-dj7xcmVA4xLGAPQVZC8XHEdCmIpKD-FNhE1uWT91ZA/s1600/sneaker-shadows.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 288px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMBp5TIG7ADhNR31F0p_l11VdVvAJgPiKdrdTLmd0PRJtYxTtbr_52xeisrMGQmrPLoi1ZXcWfdUleggJzpSggZIJPQYF-dj7xcmVA4xLGAPQVZC8XHEdCmIpKD-FNhE1uWT91ZA/s320/sneaker-shadows.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5663083864969197682" /></a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Because my opinion is so <del>sought-after</del> affordable, I wrote reviews earlier in the year of <a href="http://www.stlmag.com/Blogs/Look-Listen/February-2011/Review-Carl-Phillips-039-quotDouble-Shadow-quot/">Carl Phillips' Double Shadow</a> and <a href="http://www.stlmag.com/Blogs/Look-Listen/April-2011/Review-Yusef-Komunyakaa-rsquos-quotThe-Chameleon-Couch-quot/">Yusef Komunyakaa's The Chameleon Couch</a> for St. Louis Magazine's arts blog. This is Carl's fourth nomination, and if he gets Lucci-ed again, I'm taking it as a personal insult. </div><div><br /></div><div>But really, thanks to my awesome minority bias, I'll be happy with pretty much anyone who wins this year. Good going, NBA jury! </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14803769438883141848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6545367.post-50886828796446552542010-04-07T13:46:00.003-05:002010-04-07T14:10:40.505-05:00AWP 2010--Denver<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Readings to hit: </span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><b>Wednesday</b>: </span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(128, 128, 128); font-family:'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;font-size:11px;"><h3 style="font-size: 14px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 0px; ">DoubleCross Press, Lame House Press, and Slash Pine Press</h3><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><table id="Time and Place" class="profileTable info_table" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><tbody><tr><td class="data" style="font-size: 11px; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; line-height: 13px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 1px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-left: 0px; "><div class="datawrap" style="word-wrap: break-word; ">4:00pm - 8:30pm</div>Rackhouse Pub, 208 S. Kalamath St.</td></tr></tbody></table></span></div></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Ryan Browne, Anne Shaw, francine j. harris, Matthew Henriksen, Kate Greenstreet, Adam Fell, Daniela Olszewska, Patti White, Mike Sikemma, Matt Rasmussen, Claire Becker, Jeremy Hawkins, Nate Hauke, Malachi Black, Joseph Wood, Matt Hart, Farrah Field, Chris Mink, Gina Myers and Nate Pritts, Roger Reeves, MC Hyland, Cody Todd, Kyes Stevens, Abe Smith, Dolly Lemke, Jennifer Tynes, Stacy Gnall, John Dermot Woods, Sarah Blackman, and Brian Oliu</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Thursday:</span></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Wave, Canarium, Ugly Duckling, Octopus Reading</span></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></span></div><span><span>7:30-10:00 pm</span></span><div><span><span>Benders Tavern</span></span></div><div><span><span>314 E 14th Ave</span></span></div><div><span><span></span></span><br /><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">John Beer, Heather Christle, Dorothea Lasky, Paul Killebrew, Dan Machlin, Geoffrey Nutter, Alex Stein, & Matvei Yankelevich</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;font-size:11px;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><b>Friday</b>:</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><b>Meadowlark Poetry Marathon + Disco</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">7:00 pm- ?</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Meadowlark Bar</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">2701 Larimer Street</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Rachel Loden, Kate Greenstreet, Amy King, Arielle Greenberg, Daniel Borzutsky, Amy Guth, Ana Bozicevic, Arielle Greenberg, Susan Schultz, Chad Parmenter, Katie Degentesh, Geoffrey Gatza, Janet Holmes, Tony Trigilio, Jorn Ake, Julie Dill, Steven Schroeder, Shanna Compton, and more</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;">: <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><a href="http://meadowlarkpoetry.com/"><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">http://meadowlarkpoetry.com/</span></span></span></a></span></span></span></span></span></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14803769438883141848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6545367.post-35604754585100521342010-01-24T18:04:00.005-06:002010-01-24T18:20:22.437-06:00One Packed Night<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4063/4301400869_4f72fbe431.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 333px; height: 500px;" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4063/4301400869_4f72fbe431.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><div><br /></div>An outstanding turn out last night for Cannibal Books' reading "One Hot Night," held at Stirrup Pants Chapbook Store in St. Louis. <span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:14px;">http://bit.ly/8MF1EP</span>:Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14803769438883141848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6545367.post-24392858309564433572010-01-07T09:20:00.003-06:002010-01-07T09:29:17.955-06:00Fiery Furnaces Will Have to Wait<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8fX88rwqZnqNRg6VHa7-0wRs7CeVG7i-EUsc8Z4ew_mHJOo5mdNlaloeyZ5eOoronFNctAyP3AIfakDV2GstBC-kMnfl65ezcV1Bse7-fAzadWQ4uBN6KBMAlcYqGmKbmnAUs0w/s1600-h/Stirrup+Pants+copy.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 246px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8fX88rwqZnqNRg6VHa7-0wRs7CeVG7i-EUsc8Z4ew_mHJOo5mdNlaloeyZ5eOoronFNctAyP3AIfakDV2GstBC-kMnfl65ezcV1Bse7-fAzadWQ4uBN6KBMAlcYqGmKbmnAUs0w/s320/Stirrup+Pants+copy.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5424018511654172818" /></a><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8fX88rwqZnqNRg6VHa7-0wRs7CeVG7i-EUsc8Z4ew_mHJOo5mdNlaloeyZ5eOoronFNctAyP3AIfakDV2GstBC-kMnfl65ezcV1Bse7-fAzadWQ4uBN6KBMAlcYqGmKbmnAUs0w/s1600-h/Stirrup+Pants+copy.jpg"></a>Come see Stephanie Anderson, Tom Andes, Adam Clay, MC Hyland, Alison Palmer, Nate Slawson, Joseph Wood, and oh yeah, Julie Dill on Saturday the 23rd at Stirrup Pants on Cherokee. And Matt and Katy and Adele Henriksen. Because you like nice people.<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14803769438883141848noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6545367.post-50859152945196991792009-10-29T16:01:00.008-05:002009-10-29T16:30:09.803-05:00Common Projectors<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2538/4050997359_ab170e8581.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 375px; height: 500px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2538/4050997359_ab170e8581.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Mercy, mean week is almost over.<br /><br />"When younger," said he, "I believed myself destined for some great enterprise. My feelings are profound, but I possessed a coolness of judgment that fitted me for illustrious achievements. This sentiment of the worth of my nature supported me when others would have been oppressed, for I deemed it criminal to throw away in useless grief those talents that might be useful to my fellow creatures. When I reflected on the work I had completed, no less a one than the creation of a sensitive and rational animal, I could not rank myself with the herd of common projectors. But this thought, which supported me in the commencement of my career, now serves only to plunge me lower in the dust."<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">from Mary Shelley's</span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"> Frankenstein</span>, p. 233, Vol II, Chapter 18.<br /><br /><br /><pre></pre>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14803769438883141848noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6545367.post-70554443388531038522009-09-11T07:49:00.001-05:002009-09-11T07:53:44.041-05:00Riding an Elevator into the Sky<br /> Anne Sexton<br /><br />As the fireman said:<br /> Don't book a room over the fifth floor<br /> in any hotel in New York.<br /> They have ladders that will reach further<br /> but no one will climb them.<br /> As the New York Times said:<br /> The elevator always seeks out<br /> the floor of the fire<br /> and automatically opens<br /> and won't shut.<br /> These are the warnings<br /> that you must forget<br /> if you're climbing out of yourself<br /> If you're going to smash into the sky.<br /> <br /> Many times I've gone past<br /> the fifth floor,<br /> cranking upward,<br /> but only once<br /> have I gone all the way up.<br /> Sixtieth floor:<br /> small plants and swans bending<br /> into their grave.<br /> Floor two hundred:<br /> mountains with the patience of a cat,<br /> silence wearing its sneakers.<br /> Floor five hundered:<br /> messages and letters centuries old,<br /> birds to drink,<br /> a kitchen of clouds.<br /> Floor six thousand:<br /> the stars,<br /> skeletons on fire,<br /> their arms singing.<br /> And a key,<br /> a very large key,<br /> that opens something-<br /> some useful door-<br /> somewhere-<br /> up there.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14803769438883141848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6545367.post-2241834623799804862009-08-23T09:37:00.002-05:002009-08-23T10:04:14.808-05:00malicious gossip and talking nonsenseMy friend Byron showed this to me: <a href="http://slaughterhouse90210.tumblr.com/">the best Tumblr site</a> I've ever been exposed to. The authors pair screenshots from current and/or iconic American TV shows and movies (the Buffy musical episode, for instance) with appropriate literary quotes from freakishly diverse authors--Margaret Atwood, Sarah Vowell, Ray Bradbury and Miranda July, just to name a few.<br /><br />As a quick for instance, this quote appears:<br /><blockquote>“It was SHE. Whoever has loved knows all the radiant meaning contained in the three letters of this word ‘she.’”<br />— Victor Hugo, <i>Les Misérables<br /></i></blockquote><i></i><br />beneath a screenshot of Stan from Southpark approached by a girl on whom he harbors a painful crush, but whose mere presence makes him vomit.<br /><br />And this Jane Austen quote:<br /><blockquote>"From all that I can collect by your manner of talking, you must be two of the silliest girls in the country. I have suspected it some time, but I am now convinced.”<br />— Jane Austen, <i>Pride and Prejudice<br /><blockquote></blockquote></i></blockquote><br />appears beneath a screencap of a news story about ex governor Sarah Palin and some blonde whose name and importance, it gives me great pleasure to announce, I have completely forgotten.<br /><br />The quotes are enlightening, the images are fun, but the interplay between the two offers a succinct and entertaining shortcut into the authors' personalities and opinions on art, literature, pop culture, and politics.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14803769438883141848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6545367.post-4897847454142113442009-08-18T09:52:00.002-05:002009-08-18T10:01:51.963-05:00HYP 2009 Wrap UpDuff's was stuffed by 7:15 last night. I kicked off the event, the last HYP of the season, with a reading from Mathias Svalina's chapbook, "Creation Myth" (the one with the knock knock joke). Get that book; I've made 3 people read it so far and everyone agrees it's the smartest silliness out there. A slideshow of images from all three readings is in the works, so check back later in the week.<br /><br />I'm crazy-proud of everyone who read this summer. If you or someone you know wants to be considered for the 2010 season, I just need an e-mail with a 3 line bio, 3 sample poems, and one embarrassing or unusual fact about yourself.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14803769438883141848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6545367.post-56548324056180261582009-08-18T09:23:00.003-05:002009-08-18T09:50:25.658-05:00Photog Excursion, summer 2009I got shot in the thigh by a one-eyed carnie with a BB gun, but it was totally worth it for Laine to capture these pictures.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3486/3832794139_52bd6d40dc.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 333px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3486/3832794139_52bd6d40dc.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Jesus recommends the sugar free black walnut taffy.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2480/3832795297_b071951383.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 333px; height: 500px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2480/3832795297_b071951383.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Butter young Abe Lincoln sat near the butter cow, who was kept company by an anatomically correct butter cat, complete with butter anus.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2668/3833592886_aca844f0bf.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 333px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2668/3833592886_aca844f0bf.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Innocuous as it may be, you just don't want to see President Obama hanging by his neck across the midway from the booth selling confederate flags.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3485/3833599812_46ec9bd0aa.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 333px; height: 500px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3485/3833599812_46ec9bd0aa.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />The GOD MOBILE.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14803769438883141848noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6545367.post-83132642389684910152009-08-14T11:59:00.003-05:002009-08-14T12:22:58.492-05:00NYC Missed Connections Poegle #227<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/147/342904075_796fc469fc.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 375px;" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/147/342904075_796fc469fc.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Lemon tree, very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet, but the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat.---Peter, Paul and Mary</span><br /><br />for Les Paul<br /><br />You were wearing the blue<br />and white checked toga<br />at the Queens Museum.<br /><br />I begged a second audience<br />but you were going back to Scotland,<br />and now you're on my floor.<br /><br />Six doors down and I don't<br />have the energy to call you<br />on your less-unlearned lie.<br /><br />O Queen of Scandals<br />with your Frieda Kahlo tattoo,<br />stop wishing, long shot:<br /><br />I will go to Julie and Julia<br />with you if you pay.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14803769438883141848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6545367.post-1744208862798575992009-08-12T15:50:00.005-05:002009-08-13T09:22:22.769-05:00Grody Boys and Giggly Girls in the ERA of Poetry<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH1GL1pf1lUrnK9duXOCmz67mevQxayXkYhKeKQ3XtGKzZyRr-l60Gu7Nr3uD9vEzNXYiP8HwQOmmQsa_-nhdR0rJI06YjvAlFPpptxc1F8JTnM9jNROe22muDQ31J4zyOLIEFNQ/s1600-h/rainbowbarf.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 118px; height: 118px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH1GL1pf1lUrnK9duXOCmz67mevQxayXkYhKeKQ3XtGKzZyRr-l60Gu7Nr3uD9vEzNXYiP8HwQOmmQsa_-nhdR0rJI06YjvAlFPpptxc1F8JTnM9jNROe22muDQ31J4zyOLIEFNQ/s320/rainbowbarf.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5369185499376021106" border="0" /></a><br />Had an entertaining Twitter conversation (I know, right?) regarding male:female publishing records in online and print lit mags. Nate Pritts, Anne Boyer, Elisa Gabbert, Jessica Smith, Reb Livingston and Katy Henriksen talked seriously about gender neutrality in publication while I provided provocative innuendo and lascivious snorting. Maybe it was because the girls outnumbered the boys six to one, but the debate stayed lively and cordial and no one had a cow and stormed off to cry in the ladies. Hearts and minds were changed, life-long dreams were rescued, and Nate is going to publish every female who submits to <a href="http://www.h-ngm-n.com/cur_ent-i_sue">H_ngm_n</a> from now on.<br /><br />[update: In which <a href="http://www.h-ngm-n.com/th_-gallo_s/2009/8/12/8122009-sex-ratio.html">Nate crunches numbers</a>, Reb Livingston offers comment, and Daniel Nester crosses Reb Livingston like he doesn't know she carries a switchblade in her apron pocket.]<br /><br />In other news:<br /><br /><a href="http://thegrandconspiracy.org/blog/2009/08/ode-to-an-autumnal-hangover/">A well-done poem about hangovers</a>.<br /><a href="http://shaneejones.blogspot.com/"><br />And Shane Jones' Light Boxes is picked up by Penguin</a>.<br /><br />I'm off to archivally-shrink wrap my first edition copy of the book and then huddle in a corner with the anxious notion that everything obscure and awesome will get optioned for film and widely distributed. On second thought, I have a lot more shrink wrapping to do.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14803769438883141848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6545367.post-49758268860350280322009-08-07T15:14:00.003-05:002009-08-07T15:42:24.706-05:00chapbooks never let your lips go nakedChapbook Saturday tomorrow and I'm running down to <a href="http://stirruppants.blogspot.com/">Stirrup Pants</a> to get my monthly haul. My pal Aimee Leavitt's RFT write-up on the store<a href="http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/2009/07/stirrup_pants_chapbook_store_o.php"> here</a>. I wish Maggie G. could let us know what will be there, for planning purposes, but I suppose that might keep me from buying every book I touched. They are so nice to touch.<br /><br />Tonight (Friday, August 7th) on Cherokee, from 7-11 p.m., <a href="http://www.crankyyellow.com">Cranky Yellow</a>, the host of popular shows "Crap Glued to Crap" and the Kitten Circus, features "<a href="http://killtaupe.blogspot.com/2009/03/meth-hot-dogs-artist-line-up.html">Meth and Hot Dogs</a>" for your viewing pleasure.<br /><br />Also, Monday, the 17th is the August<a href="http://www.riverstyx.org/events/hyp.htm"> Hungry Young Poets</a>--the last one of the summer. This season has been phenomenal so far, and there's no doubt August will kick ass, too. We've got Travis Mossotti, Lauren Keefer, Heath Luster, Julie Goldberg, Laura Dempsey and Annah Browning. Plus, our musical guest star, Prune! I like to think their name is a verb and not a noun, but they're pretty moving, either way. Duff's, 7:30, $3.00.<br /><br />...and now back to pondering the concept of absence in 21st Century America.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14803769438883141848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6545367.post-7757020529892144182009-07-07T12:37:00.002-05:002009-07-07T12:42:20.980-05:00OMG Poems!<a href="http://stirruppants.blogspot.com/">Stirrup Pants</a>, Your Saturday Chapbook Store, opens at 10:00 a.m. Saturday, July 18th at their devastatingly awesomesauce storefront, 2122 Cherokee Street. Live local music, saddle-stapled poems, never-before seen art. It's like the holy trilogy of indie street cred.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14803769438883141848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6545367.post-36769882646336263982009-06-19T10:15:00.000-05:002009-06-19T10:15:32.752-05:00Don't remember where this came from<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizXGddUAIg2ALgnoVCauxGryKwLvB2Cl130f-l_iIFDraI0SkJF95XpS05HQYLLY_19H64HWX3Y3qsUm3kxF7MlxmHCyj-prsLQf4lfs9_TjD9vDlJJciN5tSp3A8lS5AEgMZEsQ/s1600-h/ways+to+be+cool.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: both" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizXGddUAIg2ALgnoVCauxGryKwLvB2Cl130f-l_iIFDraI0SkJF95XpS05HQYLLY_19H64HWX3Y3qsUm3kxF7MlxmHCyj-prsLQf4lfs9_TjD9vDlJJciN5tSp3A8lS5AEgMZEsQ/s320/ways+to+be+cool.jpg" /></a><div style='clear:both; text-align:LEFT'><a href='http://picasa.google.com/blogger/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' style='border: 0px none ; padding: 0px; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial;' align='middle' border='0' /></a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14803769438883141848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6545367.post-32555148106597745152009-06-19T10:13:00.000-05:002009-06-19T10:13:26.200-05:00topical<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVUDU3rZ-xSCmzaeAFQhZHzeTKKDFXBDIvEX9sYQEbBEmsjnsW_ZyabVrbrmQc_01_lRitbKWtPjITAV1uGo4EFKZd-AW3rXWF3eqVz3yp_mL4zG2N6jRUnoGVwVgWO9FErhYiNw/s1600-h/DSC01639.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: both" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVUDU3rZ-xSCmzaeAFQhZHzeTKKDFXBDIvEX9sYQEbBEmsjnsW_ZyabVrbrmQc_01_lRitbKWtPjITAV1uGo4EFKZd-AW3rXWF3eqVz3yp_mL4zG2N6jRUnoGVwVgWO9FErhYiNw/s320/DSC01639.JPG" /></a><div style='clear:both; text-align:LEFT'><a href='http://picasa.google.com/blogger/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' style='border: 0px none ; padding: 0px; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial;' align='middle' border='0' /></a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14803769438883141848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6545367.post-73580146010561791382009-06-19T10:07:00.000-05:002009-06-19T10:07:26.525-05:00The Gentleman Auction House<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLRcHny1rkdH_k4WFZ2nKpdMhyphenhyphenywgBoCccqesWdyZO4Bu_MRkGOneuTnK2PsGVi2w-PC7vy17h2MWH48zy3VtYD54nBIUWc3sx6uzhb6xRnzGy8C4u3ApEoUGqboUz1-NEgQQPAw/s1600-h/DSC01647.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: both" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLRcHny1rkdH_k4WFZ2nKpdMhyphenhyphenywgBoCccqesWdyZO4Bu_MRkGOneuTnK2PsGVi2w-PC7vy17h2MWH48zy3VtYD54nBIUWc3sx6uzhb6xRnzGy8C4u3ApEoUGqboUz1-NEgQQPAw/s320/DSC01647.JPG" /></a><div style='clear:both; text-align:LEFT'><a href='http://picasa.google.com/blogger/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' style='border: 0px none ; padding: 0px; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial;' align='middle' border='0' /></a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14803769438883141848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6545367.post-61763191217316136222009-05-28T10:48:00.003-05:002009-05-28T22:19:10.118-05:00Shane Jones, Light Boxes<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2246/2246954794_2648df3abe.jpg?v=0"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 374px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2246/2246954794_2648df3abe.jpg?v=0" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Buy this book and read it, and protect yourself by reading it all in one sitting. I read it over a couple of weeks, reading a few pages a night right before bed, and it threw me into an impenetrable funk. Until now, I have never read a book that I immediately wanted to make 3 people read, and actually gone through with it. It's beautiful and wicked sad and it makes me feel like falling asleep in a coffin-full of dead butterflies. I don't want to give anything away. Read it, and we'll talk about it.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14803769438883141848noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6545367.post-32289630720198007792009-05-28T10:29:00.002-05:002009-05-28T10:48:16.951-05:00No on Prop 8 Moves to Federal Court System<span style="font-weight: bold;">"What is the essence of America? Finding and maintaining that perfect, delicate balance between freedom </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">to</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> and freedom </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">from</span><span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span>"--Fellow St. Louisan, Marilyn vos Savant.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14803769438883141848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6545367.post-10988503248950679752009-04-23T09:35:00.002-05:002009-04-23T09:52:28.733-05:00Birdseed and BooksSteven Felicelli (fellow parenthetical afficionado, and look: writer, no blog!) posted this list on critical mass this morning, as an antidote to an Oprah-fied great books list. In other news, the Buder Branch library is becoming my Cheers.<br /><br /><br />TOP 100 NOVELS OF ALL TIME (book-length fiction - SS collections DQ, for the most part - Borges notable exception)<br /><br />1. The Molloy Trilogy Samuel Beckett<br />2. To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf<br />3. Ulysses James Joyce<br />4. Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes<br />5. Jude the Obscure Thomas Hardy<br />6. The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner<br />7. Invisible Man Ralph Ellison<br />8. Tristram Shandy Laurence Sterne<br />9. Lolita Vladimir Nabokov<br />10. In Search of Lost Time Marcel Proust<br />11. The Waves Virginia Woolf<br />12. V. Thomas Pynchon<br />13. The Recognitions William Gaddis<br />14. Under the Volcano Malcolm Lowry<br />15. The Possessed Fyodor Dostoyevsky<br />16. Moby Dick Herman Melville<br />17. Ficciones Jorge Luis Borges<br />18. One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez<br />19. The Fall Albert Camus<br />20. The New York Trilogy Paul Auster<br />21. Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad<br />22. Beloved Toni Morrison<br />23. Pale Fire Vladimir Nabokov<br />24. Death in Venice Thomas Mann<br />25. Women in Love D.H. Lawrence<br />26. Blindness Jose Saramago<br />27. The Invention of Morel Adolfo Bioy Casares<br />28. The Woman in the Dunes Kobo Abe<br />29. Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoyevsky<br />30. American Pastoral Philip Roth<br />31. Correction Thomas Bernhard<br />32. Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte<br />33. Dead Souls Nikolai Gogol<br />34. The Trial Franz Kafka<br />35. Ada Vladimir Nabokov<br />36. Doctor Faustus Thomas Mann<br />37. Petersburg Andrei Bely<br />38. The Sheltering Sky Paul Bowles<br />39. Bleak House Charles Dickens<br />40. Monsieur Teste Paul Valery<br />41. The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea Yukio Mishima<br />42. Fathers and Sons Ivan Turgenev<br />43. Wide Sargasso Sea Jean Rhys<br />44. The Sufferings of Young Werther Johann von Goethe<br />45. The Man without Qualities Robert Musil<br />46. The Wind-up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami<br />47. Middlemarch George Eliot<br />48. The Brothers Karamazov Fyodor Dostoyevsky<br />49. The Mayor of Casterbridge Thomas Hardy<br />50. The Voyeur Alberto Moravia<br />51. The Alexandria Quartet Lawrence Durrell<br />52. Absalom, Absalom William Faulkner<br />53. Journey to the End of the Night Louis-Ferdinand Celine<br />54. Mulligan Stew Gilbert Sorrentino<br />55. Nothing Like the Sun Anthony Burgess<br />56. The Counterfeiters Andre Gide<br />57. Ethan Frome Edith Wharton<br />58. Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert<br />59. Turn of the Screw Henry James<br />60. Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter Mario Vargas Llosa<br />61. Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace<br />62. If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler Italo Calvino<br />63. Memoirs of Hadrian Marguerite Yourcenar<br />64. The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway<br />65. The Death of Virgil Hermann Broch<br />66. House of the Seven Gables Nathaniel Hawthorne<br />67. Hopscotch Julio Cortazar<br />68. The Book of Disquiet Fernando Pessoa<br />69. The Charterhouse of Parma Stendhal<br />70. Hunger Knut Hamsun<br />71. Frankenstein Mary Shelley<br />72. Zeno’s Conscience Italo Svevo<br />73. The Violent Bear it Away Flannery O’Connor<br />74. Too Loud a Solitude Bohumil Hrabal<br />75. Rat Man of Paris Paul West<br />76. The Great Gatsby F. Scot Fitzgerald<br />77. The Mustache Emmanuel Carrere<br />78. Men of Maize Miguel Asturias<br />79. The Satanic Verses Salman Rushdie<br />80. Murphy Samuel Beckett<br />81. Mrs. Dalloway Virginia Woolf<br />82. Ocean, Sea Alessandro Baricco<br />83. Christ on the Rue Jacob Severo Sarduy<br />84. Locus Solus Raymond Roussel<br />85. Pussy, King of the Pirates Kathy Acker<br />86. War and Peace Leo Tolstoy<br />87. The Man Who Loved Children Christina Stead<br />88. The Stream of Life Clarice Lispector<br />89. The English Patient Michael Ondaatje<br />90. This is not a Novel David Markson<br />91. Do You Hear Them? Nathalie Sarraute<br />92. How Late it was, How Late James Kelman<br />93. Blood Meridian Cormac McCarthy<br />94. Mansfield Park Jane Austen<br />95. The Shipyard Juan Carlos Onetti<br />96. Moll Flanders Daniel Defoe<br />97. Thomas the Obscure Maurice Blanchot<br />98. The Elementary Particles Michel Houellebecq<br />99. Vertigo W.G. Sebald<br />100. The Age of Wire and String Ben Marcus<br /><br />HONORABLE MENTION (under consideration)<br />Locos: A Comedy of Gestures Felipe Alfau<br />Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter Cesar Aira<br />Blue Voyage Conrad Aiken<br />Epitaph for a Small Winner Machado de Assis<br />Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen<br />Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen<br />Persuasion Jane Austen<br />Awaiting Oblivion Maurice Blanchot<br />The Castle Franz Kafka<br />Amerika Franz Kafka<br />Cousin Bette Honore de Balzac<br />Pere Goriot Honore de Balzac<br />Seraphita Honore de Balzac<br />Snow White Donald Barthelme<br />Watt Samuel Beckett<br />Mercier and Camier Samuel Beckett<br />Dream of Fair to Middling Women Samuel Beckett<br />How it is Samuel Beckett<br />Herzog Saul Bellow<br />The Train was on Time Heinrich Boll<br />Last Evenings on Earth Roberto Bolano<br />Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte<br />The Master and Margharita Mikhail Bulgakov<br />A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess<br />A Change of Heart Michel Butor<br />The Way of All Flesh Samuel Butler<br />Erewhon Samuel Butler<br />The Non-existent Knight Italo Calvino<br />Mr. Palomar Italo Calvino<br />The Plague Albert Camus<br />The Stranger Albert Camus<br />The Fear of Losing Eurydice Julieta Campos<br />The Book of Promethea Helene Cixous<br />The Awakening Kate Chopin<br />Briar Rose Robert Coover<br />Disgrace J.M. Coetzee<br />The Lyre of Orpheus Robertson Davies<br />The Body Artist Don Delillo<br />White Noise Don Delillo<br />Dombey and Son Charles Dickens<br />Our Mutual Friend Charles Dickens<br />Great Expectations Charles Dickens<br />Gould: A Novel in Three Novels Stephen Dixon<br />Notes from Underground Fyodor Dostoyevsky<br />The Idiot Fyodor Dostoyevsky<br />Sister Carrie Theodore Dreiser<br />Foucault’s Pendulum Umberto Eco<br />The Name of the Rose Umberto Eco<br />The Mill on the Floss George Eliot<br />Silas Marner George Eliot<br />A Fan’s Notes Fred Exley<br />As I Lay Dying William Faulkner<br />Light in August William Faulkner<br />Point and Line Thalia Field<br />The Good Soldier Ford Madox Ford<br />Tender is the Night F. Scot Fitzgerald<br />The Blue Flower Penelope Fitzgerald<br />Salammbo Gustave Flaubert<br />I Served the King of England Bohumil Hrabal<br />A Passage to India E.M. Forster<br />Inez Carlos Fuentes<br />A Frolic of his Own William Gaddis<br />Carpenter’s Gothic William Gaddis<br />The Tunnel William Gass<br />The Immoralist Andre Gide<br />Pornografia Witold Gombrowicz<br />Under the Greenwood Tree Thomas Hardy<br />The Well-beloved Thomas Hardy<br />The Return of the Native Thomas Hardy<br />The Woodlanders Thomas Hardy<br />Tess of the D’urbevilles Thomas Hardy<br />Far from the Madding Crowd Thomas Hardy<br />The Shunra and the Schmetterling Yoel Hoffman<br />The Blood Oranges John Hawkes<br />The Old Man & the Sea Ernest Hemingway<br />For Whom the Bell Tolls Ernest Hemingway<br />Steppenwolfe Herman Hesse<br />The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner James Hogg<br />Brave New World Aldous Huxley<br />Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro<br />Beasts of no Nation Uzodinma Iweala<br />The Ambassadors Henry James<br />The Golden Bowl Henry James<br />Tree of Smoke Denis Johnson<br />Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man James Joyce<br />The File on H. Ismail Kadare<br />The Old Man and the Wolves Julia Kristeva<br />Slowness Milan Kundera<br />The Unbearable Lightness of Being Milan Kundera<br />The Leopard Lampedusa<br />Sons and Lovers D.H. Lawrence<br />Lady Chatterley’s Lover D.H. Lawrence<br />The Rainbow D.H. Lawrence<br />Babbit Sinclair Lewis<br />Hero of Our Time Lermontov<br />Ultramarine Malcolm Lowry<br />Lunar Caustic Malcolm Lowry<br />Palace Walk Naguib Mahfouz<br />Magic Mountain Thomas Mann<br />A Heart so White Javier Marias<br />Vanishing Point David Markson<br />Reader’s Block David Markson<br />Going Down David Markson<br />The Giant O’Brien Hilary Mantel<br />Of Love and Other Demons Gabriel Garcia Marquez<br />Love in the Time of Cholera Gabriel Garcia Marquez<br />Ava Carole Maso<br />The Heart is a Lonely Hunter Carson McCullers<br />The Moon and Sixpence Somerset Maugham<br />Of Human Bondage Somerset Maugham<br />Tropic of Cancer Henry Miller<br />Sexus Henry Miller<br />Genoa: A Tale of Wonders Paul Metcalf<br />1934 Alberto Moravia<br />Song of Solomon Toni Morrison<br />Sula Toni Morrison<br />The Red and the Green Iris Murdoch<br />The Bell Iris Murdoch<br />The Real Life of Sebastian Knight Vladimir Nabokov<br />Bend Sinister Vladimir Nabokov<br />Invitation to a Beheading Vladimir Nabokov<br />Giraffe Marie Nimier<br />Nothing Grows by Moonlight Torborg Nedreaas<br />The Following Story Cees Nooteboom<br />At Swim, Two Birds Flan O’Brien<br />17 Kenzaburo Oe<br />1984 George Orwell<br />Cry the Beloved Country Alan Paton<br />A Werewolf Problem in Central Russia Viktor Pelevin<br />The Lives of Insects Viktor Pelevin<br />Nightmare Abbey Thomas Love Peacock<br />A Void Georges Perec<br />Life: A User's Manual Georges Perec<br />People of Paper Salvador Plascencia<br />Narrative of A. Gordon Pym Edgar Allan Poe<br />Dance to the Music of Time Anthony Powell<br />The Crying of Lot 49 Thomas Pynchon<br />Against the Day Thomas Pynchon<br />Gravity’s Rainbow Thomas Pynchon<br />Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh<br />Pierrot Mon Ami Raymond Queneau<br />The Echo Maker Richard Powers<br />Mumbo-Jumbo Ishmael Reed<br />Project for a Revolution in New York Alain Robbe-Grillet<br />Call it Sleep Henry Roth<br />Sabbath’s Theatre Philip Roth<br />Impressions of Africa Raymond Roussel<br />The God of Small Things Arundthati Roy<br />The Ground Beneath her Feet Salman Rushdie<br />Midnight’s Children Salman Rushdie<br />The Tunnel Ernesto Sabato<br />Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger<br />Nausea Jean Paul Sartre<br />Tale of the Unknown Island Jose Saramago<br />The Cave Jose Saramago<br />The Street of Crocodiles Bruno Schulz<br />What Waiting Really Means June Akers Seese<br />A Suitable Boy Vikram Seth<br />An Equal Music Vikram Seth<br />The Flanders Road Claude Simon<br />I’m Dying Laughing Christina Stead<br />The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas Gertrude Stein<br />Event Philippe Sollers<br />Death Kit Susan Sontag<br />Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck<br />The Death of the Novel Ronald Sukenick<br />The Death of Vishnu Manil Suri<br />The Hoax Italo Svevo<br />Gulliver’s Travels Jonathan Swift<br />Anihilation Piotr Szewc<br />Naomi Junichiro Tanizaki<br />The White Hotel D.M. Thomas<br />Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy<br />A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole<br />Friday Michel Tournier<br />The Way We Live Now Anthony Trollope<br />The Warden Anthony Trollope<br />The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain<br />The Ice Shirt William Vollmann<br />Candide Voltaire<br />The Color Purple Alice Walker<br />The Day of the Locust Nathanael West<br />Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde<br />The House of Mirth Edith Wharton<br />Written on the Body Jeanette Winterson<br />Between the Acts Virginia Woolf<br />Orlando Virginia Woolf<br />Day and Night Virginia Woolf<br />Jacob’s Room Virginia Woolf<br />The Years Virginia Woolf<br />Native Son Richard Wright<br />Germinal Emile Zola<br />The Masterpiece Emile ZolaAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14803769438883141848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6545367.post-48184905898871724582009-04-06T13:17:00.007-05:002009-04-06T13:35:47.778-05:00NaPoMo, 3/30<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://jalopnik.com/assets/resources/2007/10/stop_sign_chicago.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 350px; height: 450px;" src="http://jalopnik.com/assets/resources/2007/10/stop_sign_chicago.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Missed Connections, NYC #14<br /><br />I haven’t eaten since Friday<br />when your car almost hit me,<br />and you yelled, If you were<br />skinnier, I would have stopped.<br />That’s okay, I said at the time,<br />but now my mouth is too full<br />of l’esprit to fit pie or chips:<br />If you weren’t bald as baby,<br />I would drain you like a cold<br />Coke on a hot summer’s day.<br />Or if you were smart, I'd wax<br />your Ford Probe. Or if you<br />weren't so evil, I'd call you back.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14803769438883141848noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6545367.post-22996163528175328132009-04-02T10:50:00.001-05:002009-04-02T10:52:14.723-05:00NaPoMo 2/30<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://oglobo.globo.com/blogs/arquivos_upload/2008/02/216_2310-Fernando-Pessoa.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 435px; height: 472px;" src="http://oglobo.globo.com/blogs/arquivos_upload/2008/02/216_2310-Fernando-Pessoa.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><b>If Fernando Pessoa was Alive<br />and Wanted a Twitter Account</b><br /><br />He could not be @FernandoPessoaHimself<br />because Fernando Pessoa-Himself was not<br />The Real Fernando Pessoa, which is not<br />to say that anyone with such boundary<br />issues would ever be interested in Twitter.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14803769438883141848noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6545367.post-3715123661777906932009-04-01T10:54:00.003-05:002009-04-01T10:57:03.096-05:00April Fools Day, 1/30<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://web.mac.com/lubap/My_Pysanky/My_Pysanky_files/shapeimage_2.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 630px; height: 293px;" src="http://web.mac.com/lubap/My_Pysanky/My_Pysanky_files/shapeimage_2.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Poem for Spring by Canadian Cultural Deathless Ideals</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Comedy Hour's Non-Communist Host, Svetlana Pupkina</span><br /><br />In Ukraine, we have no time<br />for silly poems. We spend it<br />all on vodka, smoking,<br />bribing the government,<br />and pysanky, pysanky, pysanky.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14803769438883141848noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6545367.post-327660571786651532009-03-31T10:54:00.004-05:002009-03-31T11:14:43.658-05:00four, three, two, one...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3456/3396973962_bd9a9416b5.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 333px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3456/3396973962_bd9a9416b5.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Following on the heels of November's exciting failure of a novel writing marathon, I'm jumping into a poetry writing marathon. 30 poems in 30 days? Psh. In my sleep. Between my serious novel project (serious!) and this, I'm holding off on any serious (serious?) blog posts between now and the beginning of May. But I'll be posting a metric ass ton of embarrassing poetry, so there's that.<br /><br />Snark away. Enjoy feeling superior. Savor it. It's what I'd do if I weren't me.<br /><br /><pre><blockquote><a href="http://home.swipnet.se/%7Ew-15266/cultur/bukowski/poem09.htm">and now--<br />I know what you're<br />thinking:<br />maybe he should have<br />trashed this<br />misbegotten one<br />also.<br /><br />ha, ha, ha,</a></blockquote><blockquote><a href="http://home.swipnet.se/%7Ew-15266/cultur/bukowski/poem09.htm">ha.</a></blockquote><br /></pre>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14803769438883141848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6545367.post-88121610246602201762009-03-28T10:00:00.007-05:002009-03-28T12:56:39.134-05:00St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Carnegie Preview<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3631/3392921952_1f550153bb.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 334px; height: 500px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3631/3392921952_1f550153bb.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">Chris King of Confluence City with primary violoncellist, Danny Lee</span><br /><br />Every time I think blogging about poetry can't get any more tiresome and ridiculous, something like this happens and it totally redeems itself. The SLSO contacted me through my blog (thank you, again Eddie Silva!) and in return for blogging about the experience, I was offered two tickets to Friday night's performance, two drink tickets, a chance to meet with a symphony musician before the show, and a meet-up with other bloggers at a gastropub across the street after. I said heck yes, of course.<br /><br />So last night, Laine and I met up in the second floor Met bar at Powell Hall with Eddie, who runs the SLSO blog, among other things, and four other local bloggers, one from <a href="http://euclidrecords.blogspot.com/">Euclid Records</a>, one from the <a href="http://www.2buildings1blog.org/pulitzer/">Pulitzer Foundation</a>, one from <a href="http://stlmagblogs.typepad.com/">St. Louis Magazine</a>, and one from the eclectic St. Louis blog <a href="http://confluencecity.blogspot.com/">Confluence City</a>. And we awkwardly drank wine and cocktails with the thoroughly awesomesauce principal violoncellist <a href="http://www.slso.org/musicians/bios/bio-daniel-lee.htm">Daniel Lee</a>.<br /><br />And that wasn't even the cool part.<br /><br />I was wary of blogging about a symphony performance. My introduction to classical music came at an early age, but it was similar to being introduced to Chaucer before you learn how to read, by a teacher who doesn't know how to read either, but thought you should probably know the stuff, just in case. My younger sister was, let's call it "spirited," as a child, and to keep her out of trouble, my grandma would let her hold onto the little transistor radio she kept in the kitchen, which was always tuned to the classical music station. Grandma would tell my sister to listen to the music really closely and try to pick out all the individual instruments. It was one of my favorite early memories, and I've always avoided intellectualizing classical music because any hint of polysyllabic educated talk caused my sister to scream, "Nobody cares about your stupid brain! Speak English!" at me, and would leave in a huff, and our love of music was one of the few things we had in common. Could I even write intelligently about classical music with zero experience in it?<br /><br />Turns out, it isn't a problem at all. While my apprehension grew stronger during Wagner's Good Friday Music from <span style="font-style: italic;">Parsifal</span>, a very corporate sounding, simultaneously polished and dull piece, I was totally relieved when I realized it was just a neutral backdrop for the killer second piece, the German composer Zimmermann's <span style="font-style: italic;">Canto di speranza (Song of Hope),</span> for cello and orchestra. It was the best Modern art/Jazz cartoon soundtrack ever. I was practically hopping up and down in my seat because I'd found an in! I've been watching the comments on <a href="http://themoment.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/20/poetry-in-motion-ugly-duckling-presse/">this argument on the New York Times blog</a> all week. It's essentially a throw back to the blog-fighting of yore over the value of "avant garde" poetry (replace with post avant, flarf, experimental, "difficult" whatever).<br /><br />The SLSO's performance of the Zimmermann piece was a perfect musical representation of an avant garde poem, and while it seemed at times that a mistake had been made and each member of the orchestra was playing from the wrong sheet of music, it totally worked together when watched from above.<br /><br />And *that still* was a prim and proper backdrop to the even wilder craziness of the contemporary Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, whose 2007 piece "Mirage," as we knew from Eddie Silva, was inspired by a chant written by Mazatec medicine woman, Maria Sabina Garcia, who was tripping on psilocybin mushrooms when she wrote it. You're interested now, aren't ya?<br /><br />The soprano soloist, Karita Mattila, came out in a yellow, gauzy confection of a drapey nightdress, backlit with no slip. For those who might go see this performance at <a href="http://www.carnegiehall.org/article/box_office/events/evt_10017_pn.html?selecteddate=04042009">Carnegie Hall</a> next week, I hope she doesn't change up the wardrobe. I've never heard a soprano soloist in person before, so what a treat that was. She was riveting, and I thought any minute she was going to beat the cello soloist, Anssi Karttunen, in a tripped out fit of woman-powered rage.<br /><br />The two Sebelius pieces, <span style="font-style: italic;">Luonnotar, op. 70</span> and Symphony No. 5 in E-Flat major, op. 82, rather suffered by comparison, in my opinion.<br /><br />Which segues into my original erm, segue: The appreciation for experimental art, be it visual, musical, poetry or prose, is vital for art as a whole. Tangential work like Matthew Henriksen's chapbook <span style="font-style: italic;">Is Holy</span> and Jen Tyne's book <span style="font-style: italic;">Heron/Girlfriend</span> are monumental in their un-self conscious connection to the human imagination, unhindered by the dampening filter of linear thought. And no one could listen to the SLSO's performance of <span style="font-style: italic;">Mirage</span> and say that the composer was lazy or undisciplined or intentionally obscure. She's merely working for her audience, and if you're not getting it, then that doesn't include you, sister.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14803769438883141848noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6545367.post-41374697672651109492009-03-23T13:00:00.000-05:002009-03-23T13:00:02.060-05:00D.A. Powell Reading @ Left Bank Books Downtown Grand Opening<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3437/3375883196_047065502d.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 333px; height: 500px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3437/3375883196_047065502d.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I have a massive, stinging crush on the last two poems D.A. Powell read Saturday night. As he said, one poem undoes the other, but they both undid me. You can go read <a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=178535">corydon & alexis</a>, and <a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=178536">corydon & alexis redux</a>, but you've also got to hear him read them. He's the best reader of his own work I've ever heard.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14803769438883141848noreply@blogger.com1