First Day of Unemployment

I woke up this morning and got an early breakfast (at Balthazar) with Deep Disco( aka roommate) then took Metro North out to Eos to collect my things. It was a weird and emotional scene to say the least.

Said some goodbyes, took some large sized envelopes then left.

Got back into the city, mailed off a few submissions.

Bought new coffee beans from Gimmie Coffee.

Ate left-overs (cold tofu, singaporean mai-fun) from Grand Szechuan.


I picked up the newest issue of Conduit from St. Mark's Bookstore on Saturday and I'm about to read some poems while drinking French pressed coffee.

Prageeta Sharma is back in town and I will go to her reading at KGB in a little while,

Thomas Sayers Ellis & Prageeta Sharma @ KGB

KGB Monday Night Poetry Reading Series
Hosted by Laura Cronk and Michael Quattrone
Monday, April 28, 2008, 7:30 pm
FREE

Featuring: Thomas Sayers Ellis and Prageeta Sharma

Prageeta Sharma will be making a rare NYC appearance with her good friend Thomas Sayers Ellis

Thomas Sayers Ellis' first, full collection, The Maverick Room, was published by Graywolf Press in 2005 and awarded The 2006 John C. Zacharis First Book Award. He is also the author of The Good Junk (Take Three #1, Graywolf 1996); a chapbook The Genuine Negro Hero (Kent State University Press, 2001) and the chaplet Song On (WinteRed Press 2005). An Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Sarah Lawrence College and a faculty member of The Lesley University low-residency M.F.A program (Cambridge, Massachusetts), his Breakfast and Blackfist: Notes for Black Poets is also forthcoming from the University of Michigan Press, Poets on Poetry Series.

Prageeta Sharma is the author of Bliss to Fill (Subpress Collective, 2000), The Opening Question (Fence Books, 2004. Winner of the 2004 Fence Modern Poets Prize) and Infamous Landscapes (Fence Books, 2007). She is currently an associate professor/director of creative writing at University of Montana in Missoula.

KGB Bar ● 85 East 4th Street ● New York, NY 10003 ● Phone: 212-505-3360

Timing is Everything

Turns out my timing to take a flight on Eos was pitch perfect considering that I just got a call (11:40 pm) from my manager informing me that I've been terminated since Eos has filed for bankruptcy.

I am now officially unemployed.

L/O/N/D/O/N C/A/L/L/I/N/G part 3

inside the tate modern

a cool building across from the tate modern


me on some street in some district whose name i can't recall

a fun little art instillation in a park

the flight home had these lovely pear tarts for dessert

L/O/N/D/O/N C/A/L/L/I/N/G part 2

this dizzy-eye picture is of the s & m cafe, think they serve bangers and mash? (sorry couldn't resist)












on saturday night we had dinner with poet/scholar, emily critchley and her bf (not pictured). we went to a curry house over on brick lane. this place hands-down had the weirdest ideas for wall murals. lady di herself beams down on sandy and emily.










not the best photo resolution but still had to post this pic. seriously, look at the mural behind us. scantily-clad women riding dragons... um, as if the curry wasn't spicy enough- hold back the dungeons and dragons dudes or else it could get a little weird...










on sunday we strolled around and checked out the open markets which were basically blankets filled with your grandmother's junk. old remote controls, screws, rusted metal things, beat-up sneakers, etc

L/O/N/D/O/N C/A/L/L/I/N/G part 1

early in the week i blogged about the flight to london. after arriving at the airport we took the standsted express into london. this is sandy looking wistfully out the window as we sped by rural farmlands.











what you hear is true. london often wears a gray face which is a good excuse to rock the hoodie












but london also looks like this-- all red-brick charm & hellos

















there's a cathedral obscured by this tree, see?

If You're Going To Read Your Poetry To Me

Some Nifty-ass poems by Bruce Covey

I've been casually reading Caffiene Destiny's Spring 2008 ish & have definitely been enjoying Bruce Covey's 3 poems.

Check them out http://www.caffeinedestiny.com/poetry/covey.html

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Went to see Mum last night. They were quite good.

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Got a postcard from Veronica while she was in Berlin visiting Liesel who is doing her fullbright on German poetry post Berlin Wall. 'Twas a nice surprise & damn if I gots to get to Berlin sooner than later.

Up Up Up There In The Air There

So I've been at my work for almost a year & up until this past Friday still hadn't manage to fly on the airline. For those that aren't keyed in on airlines- Eos is a luxary business-class carrier. In other words, not the usual mode of transportation for um... poets.

The flight was beyond expectations in comfort, food, and drinks. Barely did I have time to blink & boom there was a fresh new pint of beer sweating or a new glass of glenlivets beckoning for attention.

I brought the lastest ish of Poets & Writers, as well as, a Matthea Harvey book, but spent most of my time watching movies.

After watching The Diving Bell & Butterfly on the way out and Juno on the way back I needed to catch up on some sleep. Eos' seats turn into beds & you're given sleeping suits (which i sometimes rock at home but didn't indulge on the plane) & super soft pillows.

Needless to say, it could become addictive to fly luxary esp. from a comfort point of view. The plane flys to & from JFK/STN. The nice thing about being at STN is you get "fast-tracked" through security & then chill in the Club 48 lounge.

Ah, the nice life.

P/L/A/Y/O/F/F/S/

This is my last day in London- I'm listening to The Spinto Band, it's 9:17 in the a.m. & I'll be steppin' out momentarily to check out the Tate Modern. Pic, etc. forthcoming.

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I haven't seen any of the playoffs but have kept up with the results via hoopsworld & dime magazine.

1st things 1st- Go 76ers!!!!!!!!

Are the Nuggets even going to bother to make it a series? Really, with Camby, A.I. & Melo, yet they have nothing for Kobe & Gasol... c'mon already... I have to say this is got to be George Karl's last season coaching Denver, right?

Maybe it's a good sign that Houston lost... they tend to flail in the end so maybe the reverse will happen & they'll get some swagger & down the Jazz... unlikely but one can hope as I hate the Jazz

How many people want to see N.O. sweep the Maveriks? I know I do!!

xtra durty

I haven't been the best bl0gger this week. Things have been a bit out-of-control at work which has left me listless, tired, & mostly wordless.

I ate outside today & when I finished I sat on a bench beneath a flowering tree & read a coupla of Matthea Harvey poems.

I figured if it goes down today at least I'll greet it with white petals in my hair.

Either way, the flight attendants-in-training are learning how to make drinks. I already put in order in for an xxxtra durty vodka martini with 3 olives.

Ask me how I am in a half an hour- either forgetten or in the first stages of forgetting.

You Must Be This Tall Before Riding This Ride

Tonight is the first night I've had internet at the apartment in almost 2 wks.  So what have I've been doing with my nights, you ask?  Well making visual poetry of course!  On this funhouse ride Sandy has no idea I'm about to bite off her head

Blame it on Ben Lerner's Angle of Yaw but I'm feeling downright violent.  Quick someone spread the word- poetry is more corruptible than porn!

Damn straight yo! if you made it this far into the ride and haven't recited one single Ashbery line we will haunt you until you swear David Lynch's movies are nuthin' but Disney.

Did you punk out?  Me, Sandy, and Tara aka N.o.t.o.r.i.o.u.s. C.h.o.i., ECK (East Coast Kid) and Deep Disco are the new kids on da block- hanging tough.

3 Ways To Get Your Ears Filled

Thursday's can be fairly intense when it comes to attending readings- this Thursday is no different with three heavy-hitters- 2 in Manhattan & 1 in Brooklyn.

Word of Mouth April 10th at 7pm@ Bluestockings Radical Books1
72 Allen St. (Between Stanton and Rivington)

Readers will be:
TBD (poetry)
Melissa Febos (non-fiction)
John Findura (poetry)
Colie Hoffman (poetry)

Visit www.megpunschke.com/wordofmouth.html for a complete list of events.

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We hope you will join us at 7 PM on Thursday April 10th at Melville House Books for a celebration of the need for a second printing of The Agriculture Reader, a handmade arts annual. Editors Jeremy Schmall and Justin Taylor, and Ag contributor (and Melville House author) Tao Lin will read. Akashic Books editor Aaron Petrovich will perform A Kind of Madness. The spirit of the independent press will be venerated. Cans of beer will hiss when you open them. You'll be sure you've seen that guy before, but where? No, not that guy, Sarah—the one over there, by the front door, with the blonde. Maybe we went to school with him. Copies of The Agriculture Reader #2, as well as all Melville House Books, will be available for purchase at the event.
Melville House Books is located at 145 Plymouth Street in DUMBO. F to York Street.

+ Reader/performer bios

Tao Lin is the author of the books Bed, Eeeee Eee Eeee, you are a little bit happier than i am, and several e-books. His new poetry collection, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, will be published this May by Melville House. His website is http://reader-of-depressing-books.blogspot.com/

Jeremy Schmall is the editor and founder of The Agriculture Reader, a small-run, handmade art journal, and the author of a chapbook, Underneath an Obnoxious Moon, and an artist book, The Slapdown. He's been published in Hotel St. George, Pilot, Juked, and Forklift, OH: A Journal of Poetry, Cooking, & Light Industrial Safety. He lives in Brooklyn.

Justin Taylor is the editor of The Apocalypse Reader, and Come Back, Donald Barthelme. His writing has been published by NPR, Paste, YETI, and numerous other journals, magazines and websites. His essay, "Fort Smith, Arkansas: A Monologue" was an honorable mention in Best American Essays 2007. http://www.justindtaylor.net/

Aaron Petrovich is a writer of fiction and theatre. He is the editor and cofounder of Hotel St. George Press and an associate editor at Akashic Books. His theatrical works have appeared inn the Midtown International Theatre Festival, Manhattan Theatre Source, and elsewhere. His debut novella, The Session, was published by Hotel St. George in 2007. A Kind of Madness is the audio portion of Agriculture Reader #2.

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Thursday April 10, 7pm (doors open at 6)
Jimmy's No. 43, NYC7th St between 2nd and 3rd Ave

Justin Marks
Jessamyn LeeAbry Montablano
Daniel C. MetzJ
eff Paris
Matt Henriksen

Musical performance by The Acoustic Sprinkle Geni

Mark Yo Calendars

Since it is National Poetry Month are you tempted to check out this PBS special?

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& there's this:

WASHINGTON SQUARE

ANNUAL BENEFIT & LAUNCH OF THE NEWLY REDESIGNED JOURNAL

SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 7 PM


Hosted by
Matthew Rohrer
& Darin Strauss

Readings
Roger Bonair-Agard
David Booth
Nick Denney
Jared Hohl
Deb Olin Unferth

Photographs
Re-Collecting Iran
Aphrodite Désirée Navab

Music
Nerissa Campbell

Wine Reception


Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House
58 West 10th Street, New York City

$10 suggested donation / $5 for NYU students

Too Much To Do & Too Little Time

I've been pretty busy lately in the social world & I'm starting to get a little stressed out that I'm not getting enough done.

I've been re-working my ms, but have newish poems that I haven't even started re-writing/re-working + a review I just can't seem to get "started."

I have books and journals piling up waiting to be read + herbs that need to be re-potted, which means I need to buy pots. Ho-hum I might have to disappear next week although I'm kicking around going to the Ashbery reading

John Ashbery, April 15th, 6:30 pm
Wollman Hall, Eugene Lang Building, 65 West 11th Street, 5th Floor
$5.00 (free to NS alumni, students, faculty)
www.newschool.edu/publicprograms

and I definitely plan on attending the St. Mark's reading featuring Stackhouse and Hong

St. Mark’s Reading Series at Solas Bar, 232 East 9th (btwn 3rd & 2nd aves)
April 17th, 7:30pm sharp
Cathy Park Hong & Christopher Stackhouse

So much to do so much to do

Weekend Wrapped

I went to the Murakami exhibit for Brooklyn Museum's First Saturday. The show felt like maybe it was too much for the BKM staffers. I don't think the museum has had to deal with a turnout of this magnitude before and they seemed a bit disorganized, but there was a TON of stuff going on from Kamiko Hahn reading, to DJ's, to bands, to films, lectures + the actual exhibition. The scene got a bit crazy as one would expect after 9 (which is when the dj sets began). Plenty of peeps going crazy showing love and yep lotsa hipster swilling and spilling beer.

Murkami's work is what you'd expect. Some of it was amazing, some of it was his typical blurring the line btwn art and commerce ala LV, and some of it was him having fun with or further to pushing the exaggerated sexualized boundaries of anime like this sculpture of Mission Project ko2.

I got back into the city around midnight and picked up a lazy late-night snack consisting of a garden burger, fries, and an Organic Peak Pale Ale.

Sunday's weather was less exciting but managed to spend some time relaxing at Cafe Oro gchatting with my friend in Hong Kong and reworking a series of poems called Dear John, I'm thrilled to say that two of these have been accepted by Zoland Poetry and will be in the next anthology!

For dinner I ate bi bim bap at Shabu Tatsu over in the East Village. & now here it is Monday (already)

Are There Any Ladies In The House?

If you're a female, under 30 & living in NYC/BK/Queens then Poets & Writers Magazine is looking for you:

Poets & Writers Seeks Submissions

Poets & Writers is currently accepting submissions for the annual Amy Awards contest. The Amy Award is presented to women poets age 30 and under living in the New York City metropolitan area or on Long Island. Winners receive an honorarium and a reading in New York City. Submissions are now being accepted for the 2008 Amy Awards. Please send 3 lyric poems (50 lines or less), a short bio, and a SASE by June 1 to: Poets & Writers, Attn: Amy Awards,
90 Broad St., Suite 2100, New York, NY 10004

p.s. Word on the chatterwheel is that last year's submissions were a bit lacking so turn dem 'puters on and make it a competition!

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Speaking of poets, Julia Cohen has out a new chapbook collaboration with cohort poet Mathias Svalina.

It's a bit spendy but has illustrations, is letterpressed, & super-limited so get your collector fever on at http://www.smallfirespress.com/chapbooks.html

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There's a ton of reading going on including this Kimiko Hahn reading at the Brooklyn Museum which is for the BKM's First Saturdays. There's bunch of cool stuff going on 'cause of the Murakami exhibit!

Check it out here http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/visit/first_saturdays.php
or here http://brooklynbased.net/everything/beneath-the-surface/

【Live】 Mono - Yearning

This is by far one of my favorite Mono songs. There's no way you can get this song loud enough on youtube but it's still worth watching. This clip is about 10 minutes long and the actual studio version of this song clocks in at 15 minutes and 38 seconds

New online journal fa ya ears & eyes

fou magazine