in LA till Friday

process shots for the City Sages cover design - City Lit Press

The final images will be reversed on the cover.

Weekend Report

Pool at the OttoBar with Michal Kimball, Joe Young, Adam Robinson, and Jamie GP, three ball betting, I can only grapple, no one wants see the Meat Puppets, Lindy at the Wind-Up, lunch with Bender, pastries with Bender, Borderlands is massively addicting, taking a break from the story (regrouping really), A Serious Man, falcon comb, Shaun Preston bought us a round, buying books out of a trunk looks a little suspicious, you are seriously beautiful, packing for LA, cigar, more Borderlands, Narrow House meeting, Golden West for whiskey, reading at The Baltimore Hostel, amazing building, Joe Young nailed it, Q&A between micro fictions, Royer’s metronome, Linda’s googled hilarity, some sorta fancy sports bar, surrounded by flat screens, free Jager bombs, this is not a cheese steak.

Iraq photo of the day

V. Perritano

Monday with McLuhan

"An administrator in a bureaucratic world is a man who can feel big by merging his non-entity in an abstraction. A real person in touch with real things inspires terror in him."

Iraq photo of the day

Connor Willumsen cover for MLKNG SCKLS

Connor Willumsen illustrated the new cover for the 2nd printing of MLKNG SCKLS. The man is brilliant. Check out his bleak and existential comics here and buy a few here before they are sold out.

Iraq photo of the day

Thanksgiving Day

The Road with Adam Robinson.
Book edits on Adam Robison.
Dinner at Greg and Bethany's.

(update)

great get together at the Narrow House, fire pit was so hot it was melting shoes, Lindy from Austin, Jaimie from NYC, new friends, Adam signing and guitaring, roasted pumpkin, what am I going to do with all this cider? quick breakfast, The Road was pretty damn good, I cried a little, bourbon with Dug, man... this guy can talk, Greg's Thanksgiving dinner was over the top awesome, pumpkin cheesecake bliss, early to bed, City Sages (Baltimore) cover design in the morning.

Iraq photo of the day

I wrote this about two years ago for Emily Johnson's erotic poetry book that has yet to be published. I must have just gotten back from Boston because I remember seeing this illustration of a pilgrim hat in a taxi and couldn't get the image out of my head. Needless to say, the whole erotic poem thing isn't something I write very much... at all. Emily's going to scan a drawing she did for the book in response to the poem.

.

.

CDFT&OH


a man ashamed of his fetishes fancies discretion more than sex. I’ll be honest. I used to want just The Pilgrim Girl, but now it’s far more multinational, more languages than I care to learn – it’s the Pilgrim Girl & something unattainable & obscure, like a pile of catalogues waiting for recycle or the arousing properties of a plasma

watch over me, Pilgrim Girl & attached yourself to rebellion’s principle – wear nothing but your father’s black Pilgrim hat with the shiny buckle in the front. In the moonlight, walk around like a Puritan commando, climbing the bristlecone pines to masturbate, as wet as

there’s a boy in the colony who unlaces her shoes at night &; sucks on those laces

there’s a man who hung himself in the community center to stave the desire

there’s me, satisfied by allegory & binoculars

have you ever been on an airplane, Pilgrim Girl? I always mean to patron the duty free shop, but never do. In the concourse, teach me to feed you without reaching too far, collapsing your mighty substructure & the unsuspecting traffic above. Come down from there & onto here
learn yourself & pass it on

at MICA - Lettering & Type release party

Thanks & Giving

You know, I'm really not a fetish kinda guy. Really. I'm not. Cute feet? Yeah, they're cool and all, but whatevers. Role playing? Hmmm... my life rules already. Bondage? Yikes. No, Thank you! But man, I'll tell ya, around the holiday season I'm reminded of how much I love pilgrim hats -- the tall black ones the Puritans used to wear. I think they kept popcorn and bibles in them and walked around the forest singing hymns.

Is my pilgim hat fetish weird? I've never asked anyone to actually wear one for me. I just like them. A lot.

Iraq photo of the day

news

Connor Willumsen is illustrating the cover of the 2nd printing of MLKNG SCKLS.

I am crazy, crazy excited.

.

Buy his work and/ or comics here before they're sold out.

NOW.

Last Sunday, Last Rights reading

Justin Sirois, Linda Franklin, Ric Royer, and Joseph Young

SUNDAY 29th November 2009

The Baltimore Hostel
17 West Mulberry Street
Baltimore MD

Starts at 7pm

More here.

Iraq photo of the day

60 Writers/60 Places in NYC (2 places)

If you live in NYC, go check out this great film I participated in. You've got 2 chances to see it.

BLASTER AL ACKERMAN :: RAHNE ALEXANDER :: KEN BAUMANN :: LAUREN BENDER :: KATE BLACKWELL :: JESSICA ANYA BLAU :: BLAKE BUTLER :: MAUD CASEY :: TITA CHICO :: KIM CHINQUEE :: KANDICE CHUH :: LUCA DIPIERRO :: GIANCARLO DITRAPANO :: WILL ENO :: BRIAN EVENSON :: JENNIFER FIRESTONE :: JAMIE GAUGHRAN-PEREZ :: COLBY GREEN :: PIOTR GWIAZDA :: MICHAEL HEARST :: JOANNA HOWARD :: FELIX JACOB :: BONNIE JONES :: MICHAEL KIMBALL :: JIM KNIPFEL :: ELIZABETH KOCH :: BRIAN KUBARYCZ :: EUGENE LIM :: TAO LIN :: SAM LIPSYTE :: ROBERT LOPEZ :: GARY LUTZ :: FIONA MAAZEL :: EUGENE MARTEN :: DANIELLE MCCLAMMY :: JEN MICHALSKI :: LESLIE F. MILLER :: RICK MOODY :: ELLEN MOYNIHAN :: EILEEN MYLES :: LEIGH NEWMAN :: ZITA NUNES :: WILLIE PERDOMO :: CARLA PETERSON :: DAWN RAFFEL :: NELLY REIFLER :: ADAM ROBINSON :: RACHEL SHERMAN :: JUSTIN SIROIS :: RON TANNER :: JUSTIN TAYLOR :: CHRIS TOLL :: RANDOLPH TRUMBACH :: DEB OLIN UNFERTH :: JOSH WEIL :: LAURA WEXLER :: RUPERT WONDOLOWSKI :: JAMES YEH :: JOSEPH YOUNG :: LENI ZUMAS ::

Monday with McLuhan

"A point of view can be a dangerous luxury when substituted for insight and understanding."

good morning, facebook

via thisisnthappiness, via design you trust

Weekend Report

Passing out copies of the i.e. Reader to the contributors (finally) feels amazing, why do you always wrap things in plastic grocery bags? Michael Kimball’s I Will Smash You is a hit, I ran out of Sweat Pants – but I love Sweat Pants (the band), Jason Willett brings it, feeling like the oldest ex-printmaker in Baltimore, oh… you’re totally not straight, pushing leaves around, burning some leaves around, 5:10, Josh Weil gave one of the best readings of the series, pool: six balls in a row, playing Kill/One night stand/Marry with Adam, Aaron, Joe and Meghan and some other guy, break neck boggle, Uno, why are we playing board games at Golden West? the meaning of life is to give it meaning… really, my brain is cooked, Borderlands is madness, comfort food and the fire pit, whiskey by the fire with Jamie, wood smoke is the best colonge, thinking I’m pretty excited about this week and some other things.

Iraq photo of the day

Iraq photo of the day

V. Perritano

Iraq photo of the day

V. Perritano

North Pole Diet

I caught the tail end of this (tail end meaning stumbling over the band as they loaded out) last night because I was caught in a movie theatre. I wish I had caught the whole thing, but I was lucky enough to get a book.

The fusion of food and literature doesn't happen often enough, and this well executed collection made me grin all the way through. Like, really. This is delightful and how often is poetry allowed to be delightful? Hope there's more of this to come. Maybe a blog with short cooking how-to videos and chefs reading poems? Instant success.

.

From the editor's notes,

.
"I solicited poems from diverse local and regional writers, required that they adhere to the following guidelines: 1) Cook a meal with friends or alone; 2) document the experience with photos; 3) list the ingredients in italics; and 4) launch into a poem inspired by the experience.

..............................................................- Jared T. Fischer.

.

featuring:

Hanna Badalova

Jared T. Fischer

Jennifer H. Fortin

Chuck Green

Becky Hunter

Anna Louise Joingco

Ashlie Kauffman

Timmy Reed

Stephen Reichert

Brian Schmukler

it's Friday - hold yr head up

via thisisnthappiness

i.e. Reader on Good Reads

Iraq photo of the day

إن شاء الله

Haneen

and her father

might be visiting

the States.

Iraq photo of the day

V. Perritano

at the Baltimore Book Festival

ripped this from John & Ginny's Flickr.

i.e. Reader release party

Please join Narrow House and Michael Ball of the i.e. reading series for the launch of the i.e. Reader at Dionysus on Saturday December 19th, 8pm. There will be short sets by the writers (as there are a lot of us) and live music and/or a DJ that will make you thrash/dance until the early morn.
Dionysus

8 E Preston St

Baltimore, MD 21202

(410) 244-1020

www.myspace.com/dionysusbar

preorder the i.e. Reader Full Length Collection $16

within US $16.00 anywhere else $22.00

Iraq photo of the day

V. Perritano

well,

that

makes

me

smile.

you there?

Iraq photo of the day

V. Perritano

SCKLS & Falcons interview on Big Other

"I read Justin Sirois’ book MLKNG SCKLS (Publishing Genius) last week on the subway, and it’s amazing. The short book tells the story of an Iraqi guy named Salim and his traveling partner, Khalil, fleeing Fallujah, and it’s comprised of “deleted scenes” from Justin’s other, yet unpublished book, Falcons on the Floor. The books were written in collaboration with an Iraqi woman named Haneen Alshujairy. I was very curious about how this process took place so I sent Justin some questions which he very kindly answered."

More.

Iraq photo of the day

V. Perritano

Weekend Report

Cam shorts at the Creative Alliance, missed Dear Everybody, fun film noir, Dio, fun Poe short film, ran into Steve the Dome, Max Tundra completely, and I mean completely blew my mind – favorite music anything right now, even bought an LP, sorta too forward with a friend, oops, 5:10, Joe and Kate and I create the new terror alert system color codes: Midnight – Burnt Umber –Oxblood – Sienna – Sea Foam – a Daylight, missed the Hot Party, bummed, I am 30, he is 35, Times New Viking was hot, Dana oh Dana, beautiful afternoon, that damn handle on that damn car, Gillo Pontecorvo in common, Ennio Morricone, what do we know? lets keep each other a bit existential, but not too existential.

Iraq photo of the day

V. Perritano

Iraq video of the day

The Penguin Archive

More here.
Q & A with David Pearson.

Iraq photo of the day

(c) Eros Hoagland

the constant feeling

of always working

is a lot of work.

But that's ok

we're ok

we're ok

I feel obliged to blog this because Jamie and I met Alyce Santoro at the (very small) farmer's market in Marfa, TX. Uncrate.com just found her. Beautiful work, both conceptually and aesthetically; I wish I were more of a tie guy.

mirror, mirror

Iraq photo of the day

Iraq photo of the day

on Warhol

I like you because you understand the difference between:

Take my picture, Andy.

and

Andy, take my picture.

Weekend Report

Bubble cursive and trapped overnight on your 14th birthday at a house you don't want to sleep in (this scene sums up so much loneliness so simply that it makes me actually think it happened to me), Los Solos, Grande Spectator card which gets me into the Lof/t for free for life, your boss is Dan Gutstein? Marshall McLuhan – hot & cold media (we get it!), Thai flavored salad and assholes Florentine, fire (pit?) in the Weber, flakes in your dark hair, oh Adam, Medium Cool, writing marathon, why oh why did I got o Long John Silvers? burning witches with Mina in which we lanced almost dry leaves with the fire poker and roasted them while screaming, eeeeee! bought some bourbon, i.e. Reading series, Ric Royer is wearing my L.L. Bean sweater, dipped out, ragging with ole Jamie – Talisker, big eyes, Baltimore wasn’t always this beautiful, no sir, late waking, no fire, expensive evening doing irresponsible things, and now that presentation that got rescheduled for today just got rescheduled for next week.

Iraq photo of the day

Iraq photo of the day