February Birthday Photo Round-Up

Photos from my birthday earlier this month



Deepali and me opening a gift while at Cafe el Portal

Ai and Agelique at Cafe el Portal

Amyjoy, Elliot, and Adam at the Belgium Beer Bar

January Birthday Photo Round-Up

Here are some photos from Sandy's birthday back in January



Amyjoy and Sandy at Barrio Chino




Then we went to Good World for more drinks.

From Left to Right: Cara, Monica, Me, Julia, and the Clark sisters, Amyjoy and Angelique


Birthday Girl, Francis, and Katy

Suck City + 215

2020 VISIONS: LEVI RUBECK, PAUL HLAVA, AND NICK FLYNNFebruary 29 – 6:30 PM

Levi Rubeck is a poet and charmer from the gray grasses of Wyoming, where his favorite animals Thor and Seabass still yearn for freedom from terror. He is currently a MFA candidate at New York University, writing poems about everything except Wyoming. He has eaten rattlesnake but does not necessarily recommend it.

Paul Hlava was raised in southern California, where it does not snow; however, sometimes ash falls from the sky from a nearby fire. He graduated from the University of California, Riverside, where he worked as the nonfiction editor for the school’s art and literary journal, the Mosaic. He is now in the creative writing program at New York University.

Nick Flynn’s Another Bullshit Night in Suck City (Norton, 2004) won the PEN/Martha Albrand Award, was short-listed for France’s Prix Femina, and has been translated into 13 languages. He is also the author of two books of poetry, Some Ether (Graywolf, 2000) and Blind Huber (Graywolf, 2002), for which he received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Library of Congress. Flynn’s poems, essays, and nonfiction have appeared in the New Yorker, the Paris Review, and the New York Times Book Review, and been heard on National Public Radio’s This American Life. His film credits include “field poet” and artistic collaborator on Darwin’s Nightmare, which was nominated for a 2006 Academy Award as best feature documentary. Flynn teaches at the University of Houston.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I, seemingly like everyone else, dig Nick Flynn but I won't be able to make this reading.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

CA Conrand & other 215ers ( my birthplace yo) will be invading Alphabet City on Saturday in the name of peace which is cool since the city of brotherly love is completely oxymoronic but I definitely feel their collected anti-gangsta & if I don't die moving this Saturday- then I'll try and ring that liberty bell

Thom Donovan's PEACE ON A has invited PhillySound http://PhillySound.blogspot.com

BE THERE FOR A GREAT NIGHT OF POETRY!
Saturday, MARCH 1st 8pm 166 Avenue A (btwn 10th & 11th) APARTMENT #2

PhillySound READERS WILL BE:

CAConrad
Mytili Jagannathan
Dorothea Lasky
Chris McCreary
Frank Sherlock
Kevin Varrone
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Contest Minded?

Due tomorrow:

Third Coast- Judge: James Tate
Cut Bank- Judge: Michele Glazer (who enough peeps just don't read 'tis a shame)
Summer Literary Seminar- Judge: Robert Hass

Digression begins here:

(I've been offered measly peasly stipends every time I've entered this contest (never actually hitting gold) except for the last time Bob Hass was judge- that time I didn't even rate- 'tis okay 'cause you know that Thomas Sayer Ellis' poem "All Their Stanzas Look Alike" well Hass' books recently have all looked alike... which isn't to say that I don't absolutely love his early work... just think we are at opposite ends of aesthetics but naturally I'd love to break bread with him in Kenya, (although the political climate in Kenya is absolutely heart-breaking right now)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

& what's up with the negativity towards my boy, Obama, in traditional garb- um those comments are trying to respell implicit racism as patriotism- in other words to those dissing & hating Obama FUCK YOU & YOURS!

There's Only One Sun (2007, Wong Kar Wai)

He calls it their stage, which echoes our first misrecognition of unity. Instances/ of false unity, he calls the imaginary, and he locates in them sites of her dreams,/out of which she is able to want him. The way stage lighting can be a story by itself, now/ she makes time for a story, not coming from her or her coming from her story, but both from before, /… Remembering what I heard you say and fixing my desire for you simultaneously, a meaning/ of instability, not hesitance, holds you and the swans accountable for making the desire, / although the meaning of desire existed prior to being desired.

“The Swan,” Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge

Friday Morning Snippets

Last night I saw J.Mae Barizo play piano as part of a piano/tuba chamber music performance. 'Twas amazing- rarely does this happen to me but I was left a bit transfixed. But music (like painting) has a way of tapping into emotions where words fail or too concisely narrarate. If you get a chance to see her play just do it-- to appropriate a corporate slogan/mantra/lifestyle/cultural directive... or is it a sympton ala Zizek via Marx's Commodity Fetish?

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I'ts snowing.

I often don't look back longingly on being a kid-- but today I could be young again-- today I could use a snow day.

Very few people are at work today. Que up Raidohead's No Surprises

I've eaten an everything bagel. I really wanted to snazz it up aka Pacific Northwest style: tofutti, sprouts, cucumbers, & tomatoe.

Instead: low-grade cream cheese & cheap coffee.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I'm going to pack this weekend, work on some contest submissions, & challenge my ghost(s) to a snowball fight.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I might get another bagel.
I might eat a kiwi.
I might read a poem.
I might just stare out the window and watch the flurries fall.

Which Way Is Whichever

Dead Prez Day

I feel like no one is working today, except me. What a drag!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Weekend was good. Went to Cafe el Portal for bday dinner then the Belgium Beer Bar for um beer. Left that and sauntered over to the Press Body Press party. Ran into Alex Smith and he told me that a dirtydittypoem of mine will be forth-coming in the next ish of Dick Pig Review. Cool.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Didn't manage to make it to any of the readings on Sunday, nor did I rewrite that Dear John poem. Damn. I did send out one, a as in uno, submission on Saturday so not completely unproductive.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

For lunch I ate a TastyBites meal- sauted spinach and soy beans. I ate this with garlic naan. If not for the naan this dish was bland & boring. Damn won't buy that one again. Shoulda stuck with palek paneer.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Tonight I'm going to see my friend (who's also an amazing poet) perform at Carnegie Hall. This, I'm so looking forward to!

Ten minutes to 5 so let the count-down begin.

Sunday's Main Attractions

JOIN US FOR A READING AT PARK SLOPE’S 440 GALLERY!

WHEN: Sunday, February 17th from 4:30-6:00 pm

WHERE: 440 Gallery, 440 Sixth Avenue (at 9th St., F to 7th Ave.)

CONTACT: Brooke Shaffner at brshaffner@hotmail.com

Admission Free

WHO:

JOSHUA HARMON

Joshua Harmon is the author of Quinnehtukqut, a novel. His fiction, nonfiction, and poems have appeared in many journals, and he has received fellowships in fiction from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts. He teaches at Vassar College.

RICHARD SCHEIWE

Richard Scheiwe received his MFA from the New School in 2005. His poetry and criticism have appeared in Poet Lore, Verse, Octopus, and his chapbook, The Dry Moon Dialogue, was published in early 2008 by Fields Press. He is an adjunct professor of English composition and literature at CUNY and co-edits Sink Review.

MICHAEL SPIES

Michael Spies graduated from the University of Vermont in 2006, where he received the Albee Award for outstanding prose and composition. He has published two feature articles in The Village Voice, and is working toward an MFA in creative nonfiction at Columbia.

About 440 Gallery: Park Slope’s only artist-run gallery, a jewel box space offering an alternative venue for 13 Brooklyn artists. 440 Gallery seeks to present surprising, unexpected art to the community through exhibitions, talks, readings and events centered around direct contact with the artist. Open Thursdays and Fridays from 4-7 pm, and Saturdays and Sundays from 12-6 pm, or by appointment.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++



Noelle Kocot and Matthew Zapruder

The Zinc Bar, 90 W. Houston (at LaGuardia Place)

Sunday February 17th, 7pm

broken social scene - anthems for a 17-year-old girl

Poem

16 february


Linda, your birthday was the worst one. I awoke
with your name on my lips but the room was already
tilting and spinning. noxema cold waving hot skin
my hands two red paws radiating violet threads ribs
peeling intestine shuddering room rising and swell-
ing. One tender moment the fever lifts the overhead
fan a white propeller shifts spraying shadows across
whitewashed walls shells my left arm and I drift. A
child holds on to a snowflake candles illuminate
your trusting face. happy birthday my sister, syr-
upy hairs stick to my cheek purple spine merging
plastic sheet. happy birthday sister, I reach relief my
burnoose yards of cheesecloth cocoon to roll up in
water a distant pitcher liquid streaming golden
stars so aware of teeth and temples and the heat
avenging moving in like squatter laughing with
huge white teeth like tombstone and so aware of the
temple on he hill surrounded by jackangels.

hotel internacional mexico
16.2.74

Patti Smith from Early Work 1970-1979

To You & Yours

Happy Valentine!

Hmmmm

I find myself staring out the window, counting down the hours until I can leave work.

I'm considering whether or not I'm going to eat this apple. Red Delicious. Not my favorite. Big Bruise. Yet. Still. It. Has. Allure. Earlier I ate pizza- not good nyc/bk pizza but gross Weschester pizza, earlier than that I ate cheese enchiladas (ala Trader Joes) so eating an apple seems like a healthly act of attempting some balance.

Too bad its Red (Un)Delicious...

My tax papers got mailed to my new address (oh I'm moving-March 1st) so I'm going to meet my soon-to-be-roommate for a beverage somewhere in BK Heights (where she tutors), retrieve the tax forms and drop them in the mail tomorrow morning.

I took off Friday 'cause I thought I'd be in London but that's not going to happen so I'll be spending my bday in NY. Will do dinner, drinks, then maybe go to this caberat called Shanghai Mermaid- yeah what a name, right? It's in Dumbo just one stop away from my stop in Cobble Hill, but Saturday is too far away so who really knows what I'll do.

Right now, I'm going to stop burning these Boeing Manual cds and wash off that nasty apple.

CHOMP CHOMP CHUMP

Snow/Falling/Touched/Am/Me/Melancholy/

TONIGHT I CAN WRITE

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

Write, for example, `The night is starry
and the stars are blue and shiver in the distance.'

The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

Through nights like this one I held her in my arms.
I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.

She loved me, sometimes I loved her too.
How could one not have loved her great still eyes.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her.

To hear the immense night, still more immense without her.
And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.

What does it matter that my love could not keep her.
The night is starry and she is not with me.

This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance.
My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

My sight tries to find her as though to bring her closer.
My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.

The same night, whitening the same trees.
We, of that time, are no longer the same.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but how I loved her.
My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.

Another's. She will be another's. As she was before my kisses.
Her voice, her bright body. Her infinite eyes.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but maybe I love her.
Love is so short, forgetting is so long.

Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms
my soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

Though this be the last pain she makes me suffer
and these the last verses that I write for her.

Pablo Neruda
(translated by W. S. Merwin)

Them Columbia Boys VS New Wavers

Columbia Alums David Lehman & Paul Violi + da crew take on DJM.

The Best American Erotic Poems New York City Book Launch Readings:

Monday, February 11, 2008 - 7:00 P.M. FREE
Editor David Lehman with Sarah Arvio, Star Black, Laura Cronk, Michael Quattrone, Paul Violi, and Maggie Wells.
The Museum of Sex
233 Fifth Avenue @ 27^th Street
New York, NY
General Information: (212) 689-6337

OR

Please join us Monday February 11 at Reading Between A & B as we celebrate the the publication of Dara Wier's new collection, Remnants of Hannah from Wave Books! We're also thrilled to be hosting the extraordinary poet Juliet Patterson, winner of the 2004 Nightboat Prize for her collection The Truant Lover, and the incredibly talented former curator and Reading Between A&B Executive Editor Mary Donnelly.

Dara Wier
Juliet Patterson
Mary Donnelly

Monday February 11, 7:30 PM
11th Street Bar, 510 E. 11th Street
Between Avenues A & B.
Closest subway stops are the L at 1st Ave.; other close stops include the L at 3rd Ave. and the 4/5/6/N/R/Q/W at Union Square.
Detailed directions can be found here: http://www.readab.com/directions.html

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Hopeless Romantic that I am Valentines used to be one of my favorite holidays. But just like last year I have no idea what I am doing this year... that being said maybe you want to have poetry mouth sweet everythings into your ear

Thursday, February 11, 2008 – 7:00 P.M. FreeValentines Day Reading with David Lehman, Billy Collins, Deborah Landau, Noah Michaelson, Honor Moore, Molly Peacock, and Mark Strand.New York University, Hemmerdinger Hall, Silver Center100 Washington Square East (212) 998-8816

or

There's the Poetry Brothel. Go here for all the info.

My Bloody Valentine, Only Shallow

Got Bechtal Swagger?

Teachers & Writers Collaborative awards the Bechtel Prize annually in recognition of an exemplary article or essay related to:

Creative writing education,
Literary studies, and/or
The profession of writing.

The winning essay appears in Teachers & Writers magazine, and the author receives a $2,500 honorarium. Honoraria totaling $1,000 are shared by the authors of entries selected as finalists for the Bechtel Prize, which may also be published in Teachers & Writers.

Possible topics for Bechtel Prize submissions include contemporary issues in classroom teaching, innovative approaches to teaching literary forms and genres, and the intersection between literature and imaginative writing. The previous winners of the Bechtel Prize can be found at www.twc.org/publications/bechtel-prize/Bechtel-prize-winners.

Prospective entrants for the Bechtel Prize are encouraged to review a sample issue of Teachers & Writers to familiarize themselves with the magazine’s style. Go to
www.twc.org/publications/magazine to order a sample issue of the magazine for $5.00.

The submission deadline for the 2008 Bechtel Prize is 5:00 PM (Eastern), Monday, June 30, 2008. Please refer to the submission guidelines below for additional information.

Support for the Bechtel Prize
To make a contribution to support the Bechtel Prize or Teachers & Writers magazine, please contact Loyal Miles, T&W director of development and marketing, at 212-691-6590, lmiles@twc.org.

2008 Bechtel Prize Submission Guidelines

· Submissions should relate to creative writing education, literary studies, and/or the profession of writing.
· Submissions must be previously unpublished and under 5,000 words in length.
· Submissions must be typed, paginated, and double-spaced.
· Submissions will be judged anonymously. The author’s name and address must not appear anywhere on the essay/article.
· Two copies of the entry must be submitted. One copy should include a cover page with the following information: the author’s name, mailing address, e-mail address, telephone number, the title of the submission, and where the author learned about the Bechtel Prize. The other copy should include a cover page with only the title.
· Authors of the Bechtel Prize winner and finalists must permit Teachers & Writers Collaborative to publish their submissions in Teachers & Writers. Teachers & Writers Collaborative reserves the right to edit the submissions for publication.

Teachers & Writers 2020 Visions Podcast

T&W Podcasts are now up!

The list of readers are Brian Kim Stefans, Eric Baus, Prageeta Sharma, Jared Hohl, Frederic Tuten, myself, Matthew Zapruder, David Lehman, and many many more!

Check it out here

BAP Peeps Blogging

Check out The Best American Poetry blog here for these guest bloggers:

February 7th: Jim Cummins
February 8th: Denise Duhamel
February 9th: Lisa Williams
February 10th: Jill Alexander Essbaum
February 11th: Catherine Bowman
February 12th: Ross Martin
February 13th: Jenny Factor
February 14th: Sarah Manguso

If You Live in New York

Remember to VOTE!!!!!!

Spiritualized - Broken Heart (live on Later with Jools) !!!

Over/Out/AWP

awp has finally wrapped up so i thought it might be fitting to collect some of the highlights- i saw jill alexander essbaum three consecutive days and let me tell you the chocolate she brings back from switzerland just doesn't get old! she also took the crown at the poetry pageant!

another highlight of the pageant was meeting sueyeun juliette lee (i know her step-sister, eunice ((who helped me contact mr. baus for the t&w reading i curated)). sjl has a new chapbook out on octopus which i'm really looking forward to reading.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

found out hugh behm-steinberg and his wife are in an experimental band.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

at the book fair i met tracy from litmus press and told her about my forthcoming review of 4 from japan (next month in coldfrontmag, i believe) its always nice meeting the faces behind the press.

on that note, didn't meet monica from wave books, whom has been invaluable to me in getting me review copies and email addresses when i was a curator. matthew zapruder did introduce me to dorthea laskey who's mini-tours on youtube both reb livingston and i are addictied too. dorthea told me there are 3 new ones coming soon!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
picked up a cool temp tattoo from from the fishhouse which has a some really good stuff from sarah gambito on their website

the georgia review had free pocket-sized blank notebooks

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

ran into coldfronters graeme and john. john gave me a copy of his new chapbook fresh out on dusie called "toadous" a lavish spectacle. hells yeah!

jubilat had yr subscriptions for $2- um yeah i signed up for that!

i bought a copy of st. petersburg review for $5.00/ also bought a sing economy from film forum press for $5.00

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

& i picked up all of the following for free:

subtropics, third coast, potomac review, agni, santa clara review, gargoyle, saltgrass, the saint ann's review, roger, sycamore review, practice: new writing + art

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

i may have won a subscription to cutbank too!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

also found out about packingtown review which is seeking submissions for its inaugural issue. they aim to publish poetry, fiction, essays, criticism, theory (cultural, political) and rhetorical studies. the journal will be published by university of illinois at chicago

maybe i'll dust off my critical thesis and get at 'em- you should too