I doubt CNN will recount exactly how the Coalition responded to the lynching. No networks within the US have and they probably never will.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/03/31/blackwater.falluja.anniversary/index.html
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
5th anniversry of the Blackwater lynching in Fallujah
I doubt CNN will recount exactly how the Coalition responded to the lynching. No networks within the US have and they probably never will.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/03/31/blackwater.falluja.anniversary/index.html
Mini-vacation, Weekend report
The long drive begins, abandoned hospital, Honey’s in Philly, disappointed by the book arts, creepy Quay Brothers, traffic, escape to Texas, one big h(m)otel room, a thoughtful crit of Falcons from Daniel Lazar, a few cigars, Raven Books, so many homeless people, feed the frog, swordfish, trample stamped, finally saw Matt Rumain’s Moving Up episode, some coasters, ampersand for Phu, S.L.U.G., you read Berrigan? BESOS in my Moleskine, brilliant curry, sharks! she writes in 2 pt font, paper from 1600 (repaired!), Iron-Hand Mary threw herself in the lake, more driving, the quest for burger shots, home.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Review of Secondary Sound (book)
Here's a new review of Secondary Sound in Mud Luscious:
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Thank you, J.A. Tylor.
Labels:
reviews
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
MLKNG SCKLS
My short collection of Salim Abid's deleted Word docs. is finished. These are all first-person accounts of Salim and Khalil's walk up the Euphrates from Fallujah to Ramadi -- scenes that could have been included in Falcons on the Floor. An excerpt will be published in Blake Butler's Lamination Colony sometime soon.
Labels:
MLKNG SCKLS,
writing
Northampton
Off to Northampton for four days with Phu. She's taking some great paper and book conservation courses at Smith College. Ah, Northhampton. An uber famous musician lives there. An alright memoirist calls it home. There's good beer apparently... and hiking. And yes, it's the birthplace of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. God, it's painful typing that out. Teenage? Why did they have to stick that in the title -- it's a little redundant, right? Aren't teenagers already mutants? I'll acknowledge that I owe Eastman and Laird for turning me into a drawing/doodling/sketching freak and showing me how bazaar indie comic books could be. At 30, I'm still the guy hunched over his desk (or airplane folding tray) with a pen and sketch book. Now, 20 something years after their debut, the Turtles are going strong. That makes me smile.
No matter how hammered we get on that local IPA, we're not going to hunt down the farmhouse where Casey Jones and April make out. I swear. Really.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Body of War - MUST SEE
"Body of War is an intimate and transformational feature documentary about the true face of war today. Meet Tomas Young, 25 years old, paralyzed from a bullet to his spine - wounded after serving in Iraq for less than a week.
Body of War is Tomas' coming home story as he evolves into a new person, coming to terms with his disability and finding his own unique and passionate voice against the war. The film is produced and directed by Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro, and features two original songs by Eddie Vedder. Body of War is a naked and honest portrayal of what it's like inside the body, heart and soul of this extraordinary and heroic young man."
High-spirited and courageously committed -- Tomas Young is amazing.
bodyofwar.com
Gina Myers - A Model Year
Not sure if I'm breaking client privileges or anything like that, but I wanted to give a shout out to Gina Myers. I'm helping her get her Coconut book together (just the guts). Her new full-length collection of bright-poems-in-dark-times ends with a ten page piece named for the title of the book and it's one tough and heartbreaking bastard.
American should be rebuild with stacks of these books.
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Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Horrifying?
C'mon. Is horrifying the right word to describe this image?
I was too scared to hit play at work (NSFW?).
Yikes!
Monday, March 23, 2009
Weekend Report
Why do you close at 9 on Friday night? Thai instead, J. Patrick’s, boys and their firearms, a book for a beer, ripping up the yards of ivy for the garden, nachos! Leni Zumas’ Farewell Navigator, Deb Olin-Unferth’s turtle, Joe Cashiola’s head wound, told you we’d be back, Karaoke: Bender and Journey, no more Beam, Motorin’, Bonnie Jones has a beautiful voice, thickest bacon ever, Calvin Klein suede shoes for 75% off, three hours of editing the ie Reader, innovative, groundbreaking? C'mon! Choke was boring, made a little fire.
Friday, March 20, 2009
something short for 60 Writers 60 Minutes
Michael Kimball asked me to participate in his new film, 60 Writers 60 Minutes. I think I'm going to read this:
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.....The driver’s side tires thumped over the thing – no time to swerve – and the tire gave in like the under-skin of his own bare foot. The suspension squeaked weakly. A roll of nickels kicked his heel before retreating back under the seat.
.....Ok, he thought, and then he offered the engine a little more, ok.
.....He squinted at the blackening thing in the rearview, pinching the brim of his ball cap into focus. No time to stop.
.....Emily’s nose sank into the headrest. Her eyes were slugs all scared up, all welling down. He turned to study the dimple that punctuated her cheek every time he’d done something really right or something really fucking wrong.
.....Spurred backwards, she’d kept her seatbelt on.
.....Ok, he thought, and then he offered the engine a little more, ok.
.....He squinted at the blackening thing in the rearview, pinching the brim of his ball cap into focus. No time to stop.
.....Emily’s nose sank into the headrest. Her eyes were slugs all scared up, all welling down. He turned to study the dimple that punctuated her cheek every time he’d done something really right or something really fucking wrong.
.....Spurred backwards, she’d kept her seatbelt on.
Chris Mason - Airs of Air
The humble chapbook, Airs of Air, is comprised of five movements: Terracubes, 6 boxes of Arcs, Mirrored Hyperbolas, Ripples, and Pinwheels. Each slithering composition invites the reader to travel through the pieces in a number of different ways – a technique many writers have attempted, but haven't achieved the success found here. These poems actually look fun to read and once you do read them, you’re smiling at how kind they are to you. And I really do mean kind.
There's a sweetness to Chris Mason's lyrical geometries, a sweetness I've never found in any other writing. But it's also conceptual, and that combination is striking. How many artists or writers are both sweet and smart and employ that into their work?
There's a sweetness to Chris Mason's lyrical geometries, a sweetness I've never found in any other writing. But it's also conceptual, and that combination is striking. How many artists or writers are both sweet and smart and employ that into their work?
I often call Mason the Gandalf of Baltimore. In a city filled with mystics and wizards, both good and bad, he's casting the right spells to make people care about the poetic tradition of experimentation.
Chris Mason of Old Songs.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
(late and long) Weekend Report
PLMT by Chris Nealon is in my mailbox (very pleased), Shaun Preston has a new gig at Abercrombie, meat pile at the Owl Bar, Bob Evan’s: this coffee tastes like cat’s paw!, Romeo y Julieta, In Watermelon Sugar the deeds were done, it’s a shame that the designer(s) of Duclaw use a tribal tattoo as a point of departure in everything they create – but the food and IPA is great, 48 HOURS IN LA: Warring Forever!, four portraits, meet me at the Sky Mall, impossible to photograph planes flying over LAX with a cell phone, Roscoe’s Fried Chicken and Waffles, late night at the printer, Texas Hold’m app. is alright, two more portraits, get me off this smelly, hollow rocket! HOME: more Duclaw ‘cause I feel like it, Salts tore the house apart, you now when you envision a project in your mind and try to create that project and it just turns out like a giant pile of poop-crap? – well, my patio is the exact opposite of that ('cause I only designed it and didn't actually get my hands dirty), big ups to Tony:
http://www.tonyslawnandgarden.com/
Monday, March 16, 2009
Friday, March 13, 2009
PLMT dropped
Edge Books released Chris Nealon's PLUMMET. I'm very excited to check my mail when I get home today. This is the best looking book I've designed, yet:
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Thursday, March 12, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Arbouretum Video
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Not sure what I think about the vaguely condescending description Pitch Fork wrote.
I think I might be in there somewhere in that nowhere.
Labels:
things I've done
Shrine of Sufi Poet Destroyed (by Taliban?)
The shrine and grave of Sufi poet Rahman Baba, located outside the northwestern Pakistan city of Peshawar, were bombed on Thursday, and according to local authorities, members of the Taliban are suspected of the attack. The early morning blast left the poet's marble mausoleum badly damaged, but resulted in no injuries or casualties.
Rahman Baba, who wrote in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, is one of the most widely read poets in Pashto-speaking regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan, known for his message of tolerance and "passion for God in a Sufi way," the BBC News reported. His shrine received thousands of visitors, according to the Hindu newspaper, many of whom would gather at the site to sing his poetry.
More:
http://www.pw.org/content/shrine_sufi_poet_destroyed
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Monday, March 9, 2009
Weekend Report
Refining the outline for Falcons, pineapple and feta pizza, poker at Michael Kimball’s: multiple hats - great advice, I keep standing in the middle of my patio with my arms crossed – staring at the boulder, more refining, Romen & Juliette (cigar) Lauren Bender’s homage to Will’s flat file, amputees, 80% of people prefer chips to poetry (Raworth), Let Me Tell You About My Uterus – By Dudes, Phillip K. Dick ate B vitamins, your dog is from Sesame Street, I don’t think you’re going to like the Watchmen… Chinasaurs!, planetarium, beautiful day, Bender edits, Kimball edits, early night.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Thursday, March 5, 2009
chapbook - Jolan or Milking Sickles
I'm trying to decide what to title my new chapbook of short stories that Newlights Press is publishing. Avoiding alliteration might be a good idea; I'm doing too much of that. I'm leaning towards Jolan. It feels good. And people might have to Google it to find out what it means. Or Milking Sickles.
Anyway.
The collection will consist of deleted scenes from Falcons on the Floor - laptop entries written in first-person by Salim, the main character. Some are less than one page, some are a bit longer. Lamination Colony is publishing the first bit sometime this month. Advanced thanks to Michael Kimball for the blurb. Here's a sample (of a shorty):
Khalil’s tracksuit pants and t-shirt hang from a branch like the tree’s trying them on. The roots of the tree want to slip on his repulsive socks. It holds both of his Adedas up, sunshine blazing through the sole. But Khalil doesn’t care what the tree does with his off-brand sneakers.
He swims.
Every time we stop walking he’s in the river.
He was born with gills and his father took engine oil, and hovering over the crib, slicked Khalil’s neck every night with his mechanic hands until baby Khalil learned how to breathe human air. But Khalil never forgot the water or how to swim.
I want to join him.
The half-dressed tree watches with envy.
He swims.
Every time we stop walking he’s in the river.
He was born with gills and his father took engine oil, and hovering over the crib, slicked Khalil’s neck every night with his mechanic hands until baby Khalil learned how to breathe human air. But Khalil never forgot the water or how to swim.
I want to join him.
The half-dressed tree watches with envy.
Labels:
writing
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Rooz on the cover of Art in America
I hope this means he can still draw the cover of Falcons on the Floor for me. Awe!
MARFA
"The best little festival I've ever attended." Randal Roberts, LA Weekly.
There:
http://www.marfafilmfestival.org/
2008 w/ Joe and Ross Cashiola
Labels:
Marfa
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
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