Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Catching the Caught

Strangely I don't know what's going on this week- poetry-wise. Do you? I've gotten so many emails that I can't seem to keep them straight anymore. I'm off work today and tomorrow so I plan on catching up with all that. Hell, I might even write a poem. Maybe that's just crazy talk! I have book reviews to write- which means I have books to read/reread. I have two of the books now & the other three are in the mail.

Did anyone go to the Lit crawl over the weekend? Or any of the zillion readings on Friday?

I watched the debate.

Saturday I walked in the drizzling rain with a friend. Best day I've had in ages. Seriously. One of those days were life seems tangibly beautiful.

Went to the Submercer lounge Saturday night. One of those "you have to know the party-promoter name" deals, then industrial elevator two floors below ground level, dark hallways dimly lit, random lefts at boiler rooms and wine bottles, then, naturally, a right through the red door. It's ALWAYS a red door, isn't it? I'm not a club person, but for a club it seemed pretty chill- like a dirty martini.

Sunday I saw the American String Quartet which was amazing. The crowd was hootin' and hollerin' more raucous than a rock concert. Went to a lovely reception afterwards were I ate my fill of delicious cheeses + walked away with some swiss chocolate.

Then went to a going away party for a friend in Fort Greene.

Continued to pour liquid down my throat and exchanged laughs and yawns with friends.

I saw the Dodos last night. That was a good show, but so damn hot I felt gross afterwards. And here we are. French pressed into Tuesday.

Does anyone know about Petrichord? They have two chapbooks that I want to read. The Catherine Meng one I blogged about last week and now another one by Geoffrey Olsen.

Friday, September 26, 2008

Update

The wind power/art opening reception has been canceled for tomorrow and rescheduled for next weekend, October 4th.
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Here's an article that explores both the pros & cons to writers in academia:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/magazine/21writingprof-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&th&emc=th

Thursday, September 25, 2008

More Friday & Saturday Rumblings

Friday, there's supposed to be a debate & there's Earshot:

EARSHOT!

Five emerging talents read for YOU at The Lucky Cat in Williamsburg, Brooklyn!

Friday, September 26 @ 8 PM
Hosted by Nicole Steinberg


Featuring:
Irina Reyn (author of What Happened to Anna K.)
Jackie Corley (author of The Suburban Swindle)
Quressa Robinson (Columbia University)
Caledonia Kearns (Hunter College)
Greg Santos (The New School)

Admission is a mere $5 plus one free drink (beer, wine or well drinks only)!

The Lucky Cat is located at 245 Grand Street in Brooklyn, between Driggs and Roebling. Visit their website for directions:
http://www.theluckycat.com.

EARSHOT is a bi-monthly reading series, dedicated to featuring new and emerging literary talent in the NYC area. Visit http://www.earshotnyc.com for more information or e-mail Nicole Steinberg at earshotnyc@gmail.com.
--
EARSHOT!
http://www.earshotnyc.com
http://myspace.com/earshotnyc
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Saturday looks like this:
Eiten Ohsiro, Shiho Yamamoto, & Siori Kiatjima for the DUMBO Art Festival
25 Washington St. #546 11am-7pm


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Aeolian Electric
Opening Reception - Saturday, September 27th, 6:00-10:00pm
Work on display - September 27th & 28th, 10:00am - 6:00pm
East 23rd Street at the East River bank, New York City
_____________________________________________________________________

AEOLIAN ELECTRIC | Wind Power Exploration Project

Renewable energy technologies are being heavily researched and have made great gains in efficiency as a result. Despite these advances, renewables have yet to gain popular acceptance in the United States. Aeolian Electric is the result of a group of artist's explorations into wind powered systems in an effort to provoke thought, capture the imagination, and build a connection between energy sources and energy users.

Aeolian Electric features work by Eric Forman, Elliott Montgomery, Dominic Muren, Cade Peterson, Benjamin Renneberg, Dustyn Roberts, Joshua Space and Garth Zeglin, and is curated by Elliott Montgomery. The artists' work will be on display on the grounds of Solar One.

Opening Reception - Saturday, September 27th, 6:00-10:00pm
Work on vdisplay - September 27th & 28th, 10:00am - 6:00pm
East 23rd Street at the East River bank, New York City

Sponsored by Toyota and O2NYC

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THE ENCLAVE XV: THE FESTIVAL OF THE MESS

FEATURING: MOLLY ROSEN & DOROTHEA LASKY

Saturday, September 27th @ 4 PM
Kenny's Castaways, 157 Bleecker Street, 212-979-9762
For updates and more info go to: www.myspace.com/enclavianmatter
Free and open to the public

MOLLY ROSEN's novel "She's Dead I'm Not I'm Yours" will be published
by Grove/Black Cat in the Fall of '09.

DOROTHEA LASKY is the author of AWE (Wave Books, 2007). Currently,
she studies creativity at the University of Pennsylvania.








#10.4 - Grizzly bear - The Knife

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

What's Left of This Week's Death Match

Readings on Chrystie Street
Wednesday, Sept 24
7pm SHARP!

Come hear the dulcet tones of Amy Lawless and Jon Woodward at Home Sweet Home, 121 Chrystie St, on Wednesday Sept. 24th!! Also, take the opportunity to buy each of these fine poet's books, Amy Lawless' Noctis Licentia by Black Maze Books, and Jon Woodward's Mister Goodbye Easter Island by Alice James Books! And they'll be reading PROMPTLY AT SEVEN so be on time!!

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How about an evening of food & wine?
Thursday, Sept. 25, 7 PM
Lit Mag Series: Diner Journal
With editors Anna Dunn and Mercedez Singleton
And contributors TBA
Diner Journal is the quarterly food magazine of Brooklyn restaurant Marlow and Sons. This evening contributors will read excerpts, key players in the birth of the magazine will talk about how it came to be, and local cheeses and some wines chosen by the restaurant's wine buyer will be served.

McNally Jackson Bookstore
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September 23, 2008

Thursday, September 25th, 7:00PM
Gala Launch Reading
The New School
Tischman Auditorium
66 West 12th Street
New York, NY
Featuring readings by John Ashbery, Charles Bernstein,Ciaran Berry, Laura Cronk, Richard Howard, Dennis Nurske, Meghan O'Rourke, Lee Upton.
Series Editor David Lehman will moderate
.

Books will be for sale.

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This Friday, September 26th, at 7pm

Doctors Cecily Iddings, Brett Price, Cynthia Arrieu-King & Linda Bamber Are In!

Cecily Iddings received an MA from the University of Georgia and an MFA in poetry from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Her poems and reviews have appeared in Harvard Review, jubilat, Meridian, Pleiades, Spinning Jenny, Verse, and Verse Daily, among other places. She is working on the second issue of The Blue Letter with Chris Hosea and is a former managing editor of Slope Editions.

Brett Price is an assistant editor of Forklift, Ohio: A Journal of Poetry, Cooking, and Light Industrial Safety. He is working toward an MFA at Bard College. His writing can be found in such journals as H_NGM_N, Octopus, The Incliner, and Milkmoney. He lives in Brooklyn.

Cynthia Arrieu-King is assistant professor of creative writing at Stockton College in New Jersey. Her work has or will appear in Prairie Schooner, Black Warrior Review, New Orleans Review, Jacket, Diagram, Octopus Magazine, Forklift Ohio, and elsewhere.

Linda Bamber was born in Washington, D.C. and grew up both there and abroad. She teaches literature and creative writing in the Tufts English Department. Her essay "Reading as a Buddhist," included in Buddha Mind in Contemporary Art, came out of her participation in a multi-year consortium on Buddhism in the arts. Her poems, stories, essays and reviews have appeared in The Harvard Review, The Kenyon Review, Tikkun, The Nation, and Ploughshares, which awarded her the Ploughshares Prize for her story, "The Time-to-Teach-Jane-Eyre-Again Blues." She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Only at Pete's Candy Store
709 Lorimer Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
(718) 302-3770

"L" to Lorimer, "G" to Metropolitan.

FREE!

Visit http://www.multifariousarray.blogspot.com/ for links to their
work and email me for more information.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Stain Bar, Friday September 26th 7pm
766 Grand Street, Brooklyn, NY

Arpine Konyalian Grenier is a poet turned scientist and musician. Her work has appeared in How2, Columbia Poetry Review, The Iowa Review, Phoebe, Big Bridge, diode and elsewhere, including several anthologies. Part, Part Euphrates (NeO Pepper Press, 2007) is her latest publication.
~~~~
Kristi Maxwell currently lives and writes in Cincinnati. She's the author of Realm Sixty-Four (Ahsahta, 2008), Elsewhere & Wise (Dancing Girl Press, 2008), and Hush Sessions (Saturnalia, forthcoming in 2009).
~~~
Alan Bajandas was picked up hitchhiking two days ago by a pain pill-popping Italian-American bounty hunter named Jason. Jason—a self-professed Wiccan, former Marine sniper, 23-year mixed martial arts master, widower, and lover of transsexual women—was on his way to
Knoxville, TN to persuade his drunk-driving father back to rehab by means of "a very large firearm." Jason had a heart of pure fucking gold and bought Alan a Smart Water. Alan was born and raised in Texas and will soon return to Brooklyn where he now resides. He is editor of The Open Face Sandwich, a print annual of uncommon and unpublishable prose.
~~~~
Ariana Reines is the author of The Cow (Alberta Prize, FenceBooks 2006) and Coeur de Lion (Mal-O-Mar 2007). Two volumes of translation will appear in 2009: My Heart Laid Bare by Charles Baudelaire, for Mal-O-Mar, and Carnet de bal d'une courtisane by Griselidis Real, for
Semiotext(e). She is under commission with The Foundry Theatre in New York, making a play that will premiere in January 2009.
~~~~
Larissa Shmailo's new chapbook is A Cure for Suicide (Cervena Barva Press 2008), and new poetry CD is Exorcism (SongCrew 2008). Larissa has been published in Fulcrum, Rattapallax, Drunken Boat, MiPoesias, and other publications. Larissa translated the Russian Futurist opera
Victory over the Sun by A. Kruchenych; a DVD of the original English-language production is part of the collection of the New York Museum of Modern Art. She also contributed translations to the anthology Contemporary Russian Poetry published by Dalkey Archive Press. Larissa Shmailo is a director of TWiN Poetry, an informal international collective of recording poets and their listeners and a public coordinator for the annual Fulcrum. Her first poetry CD, The No-Net World (SongCrew 2006) has been heard on radio and Internet broadcasts across the U.S. and the U.K. Larissa is listed in the Poetry Kit Who's Who in poetry.
~~~~
Erin Virgil is an MFA student at Naropa University. For money she writes the greetings in campy greeting cards and moonlights as a bad secretary. Besides the front page in a Steve McQueen calendar, she has not published any writing lately.
~~~~
stain
766 grand street
brooklyn, ny 11211
(L train to Grand Street,
1 block west)
718/387-7840
open daily @ 5 p.m.
~~~~
Hosted by Amy King and Ana Bozicevic


Still Gots Mad Love For The Loveless

Last night I went to the Roseland Ballroom to see My Bloody Valentine. 16 years of waiting to see a band that put out an album that changed your life tends to put a lot of pressure on the band and fill your head with a lot of expectations. I had heard mixed reviews of their ATP show. The Roseland was packed in that annoying way with lots of drunk people recklessly pushing and colliding against your body 'cause they just didn't give a fuck. The 2 opening acts were yawners. I grew tired. I yawned. I might have felt guilty about not grading papers. or reading poetry. or writing poems. or just lounging in my neighbors apartment watching the season premiere of Heroes. Still. I waited. I had good company- my friend, Cyra, who had seen them back in '91. We hadn't seen each other since spring. We caught up. Then the audience went electric. MBV took the stage. A few notes. Then blam! 5 seconds into the first song I already knew that this was going to be one of the best shows I'd ever see. Honestly, it was more than I could have hoped for. For once, the NY crowd was loved and returned the love. MBV was loud and fierce and relentless. I've now seen/heard Loveless in every format. Cassette tape. CD. LP. Live. Awesome. The only other bands I can almost say that about is The Cure's Disintegration and Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation- although I've never seen either abulm almost completely replicated live-- which brings me to this, when bands are asked to play one seminal album live (I know SY did Daydream Nation this summer) how long will it take before the Cure and Smiths jump the bandwagon?

If you're curious they are some good photos of MBV at ATP on Brooklyn Vegan.

What records changed the way you heard or felt or thought about music?

Monday, September 22, 2008

Met By Intelligent Machines

Let me propose a thought experiment that might dissuade those who speak of self-choice as the ultimate value. Suppose it were possible, through some sort of instantaneous genetic engineering, to change any aspect of your nature, so that you could have any combination of capacities that has ever been within the range of human possibility: you could have Michael Jordan's fade-away shot, Mozart's musicality, Groucho Marx's comic gifts, Proust's delicate way with language. Suppose you could put these together with any desires you wanted--homo- or hetero-, a taste for Wagner or Eminem. (You might saunter into the metamorphosis chamber whistling the overture to Die Meistersinger and strut out murmuring "Will the Real Slim Shady Please Stand Up?) Suppose, further, that there were no careers or professions in this world because all material needs and services were met by intelligent machines. Far from being a utopia, so it seems to me, this would be a kind of hell. There would be no reason to choose any of these options, because there would be no achievement in putting together a life. One way of this life would be meaningless comes from Nietzche:

One thing is needful.-- To "give style" to one's character-- a great and rare art! It is practiced by those who survey all the strengths and weaknesses of their nature and then fit them into an artistic plan until every one of them appears as art and reason and even weaknesses delight the eye. Here a large mass of second nature has been added; there a piece of orginal nature has been removed-- both times through long practice and daily work at it. Here the ugly that could not be removed is concealed; there it has been reinterpreted and made sublime.

--Kwame Anthony Appiah from The Ethics of Identity

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Boog City or 440 or maybe a little of both

Today I'll head over to Unnameable Books to support my friends, Julia, Meghan, Mathias, and Chris. You should come too! Or if you don't fancy spending a beautiful day in a bookstore basement you should head over to 440 Gallery and check out Steve Roberts.

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 21, 1:00 P.M.

Unnameable Books
456 Bergen St.
Brooklyn

Free


1:00 p.m.-Julia Cohen
1:15 p.m.-Tisa Bryant
1:30 p.m.-Ana Božičević
1:45 p.m.-Yoko Kikuchi (music)
2:05 p.m.-Corrine Fitzpatrick
2:20 p.m.-Nick Piombino
2:35 p.m.-Stacy Szymaszek

2:50 p.m.-3:00-break

3:00 p.m.- Race and Poetry: Integrating the Experimental

Amy King (curator and moderator)
Tisa Bryant
Jennifer Firestone
Timothy Liu
Mendi Obadike
Meghan Punschke
Christopher Stackhouse
Mathias Svalina

4:30 p.m.-4:40-break

4:40 p.m.-Yoko Kikuchi (music)
5:00 p.m.-Lee Ann Brown
5:15 p.m.-John Coletti
5:30 p.m.-Rachel Levitsky
5:45 p.m.-Eileen Myles
6:00 p.m.-Yoko Kikuchi (music)
6:20 p.m.-Edward Foster
in conversation with Simon Pettet
6:50 p.m.-Simon Pettet
7:10 p.m.-Edward Foster


Directions: 2, 3 to Bergen St.; 2, 3, 4, 5, M, N, Q, W, R, B, D to Atlantic Ave./Pacific St.; C to Lafayette Ave.
Venue is bet. 5th/Flatbush aves.

=======================================================

COME TO A READING AT PARK SLOPE'S 440 GALLERY!

Three fine, fine poets! And and an artist talk!
Ian Dreiblatt, Lauren Ireland, Steve Roberts, Karen Gibbons

WHEN: Sunday, September 21th from 4:30-6:00 pm

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

CONTACT: Dan Magers at daniel.magers@gmail.com
Admission Free


Ian Dreiblatt is a poet, translator, & musician. he is the author, with Kerry Downey, of hoc me fefecit / image, a collaborative book of art & poetry, and has published translations of Mandelstam &, most recently, Tolstoy's The Death Of Ivan Ilich. the poet Robert Kelly has said, "listening to Ian's poems, because he has that magic intuition that all poetry is language poetry... you can feel a tremendous upwelling of words in other languages, other englishes within the english." he writes a sonnet every day & lives with Lauren near the c & g trains.

Lauren Ireland
is a poet & an editor at Lungfull! Magazine. She co-curates The Reading at Chrystie Street with Steve Roberts. Lauren has published in The Black Warrior Review, jubilat, Bateau, Conduit, & other magazines. She lives in Brooklyn with Ian Dreiblatt & makes her living writing ads for Vogue Magazine.

Is Steve Roberts a poet? Well, yes indeed. He has been writing poems since 1996, and some of them are actually good. He has attended the College of Santa Fe and the New School where he got two meaningless degrees and made some friends. Does he have poems printed in magazines? Aren't you a curious little fellow! He has had work published in RealPoetik, Sink Review, the tiny, the Dick Pig Review and Red China magazine, to name a few. When not writing or complaining, he teaches English. He's pretty tall.

Karen Gibbons is a life-long artist. Currently she has been making primarily sculpture and drawings, as well as paintings that contain aspects of both. She is the mother of three children. She is a writer/poet; author of a book of drawings and poems with Rebecca Aidlin called Goldfish and Pumpkin Vines. She and her husband, Peter Reich renovated an old Victorian and ran a bed and breakfast on the banks of the Upper Delaware River. She is a registered yoga instructor, teaching classes and workshops. She is also a board certified creative arts therapist, working with children in an elementary school.

About 440 Gallery
: Park Slope's only artist-run gallery, a jewel box space offering an alternative venue for 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


Thursday, September 18, 2008

Turn Your Love Into A Light & Let Your Love Shine Through

I ate chaat last night and could eat it again right now except I'm only at the drinking french press part of my day. No classes at LaGuardia today so no work for me-YES!
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I need to get paid 'cause 2 poets I really love have new (chap)books out. Matthew Rohrer's They All Seemed Asleep (Octopus 2008)- check it out here.

& Catherine Meng's Dokument (Petrichord, 2008) here. I was a huge fan of her book, Tonight's the Night and I'm hoping to do a review of it for Coldfront or elsewhere.

Speaking of Cold Front Magazine, they now have a drop menu where you can read bios and see pictures of the reviewers. I don't think I'm on it yet 'cause one of the editors emailed me and told me he'd lost my bio, as well as, two of my reviews for some Dusie chaps. Dutifully I resent all requested thises and thats.
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So in some music-related news, Noah and the Whale are playing a free mini-show tonight at the Sidewalk Cafe- I shall saunter over. Tomorrow an aquaintance of mine is doing this (also free)

Just a reminder-my performance DIASPORA CROSSINGS is this Friday, Sept
19!
Hope you can make it! your friday is all perfectly planned out...
park(ing) then diaspora then cara's dj-night!

Friday September 19, 2008, 7.30pm-9pm
Caffe Vivaldi
32 Jones Street, Manhattan
(Off Bleecker Street, near 7th Avenue)
Tel. 212-691-7538www.caffevivaldi.com

Trains: 1, A, B, C, D, E, F, V

No cover - just tips for musicians
Serves great food (Indian/Italian i think) and drinks!

A squealing jazz saxophone meets thunderous taiko drums meets virtuoso
piano; and the singing cello intertwines with sweet bamboo flute.
Diaspora Crossings brings these unique sounds to birth. Come and enjoy
the passions of traditions, and the festivities created when these
musician-composers from very different backgrounds cross paths.

Featuring musicians from Japan and Poland:

Nobuko Miyazaki - flute & shinobue
Bartosz Smoragiewicz - sax & clarinet
Margo Staniszewska - vocal
Izabela Buchowska - cello
Shogo Samata - piano
Yoko "Laiyo" Nakahashi - taiko drums
For more info visit:www.myspace.com/diasporacrossings


who's this cara you may ask? a friend of mine who goes by dj miss bliss & you can get yer groove on to her here:

the brooklyn street raga association 8 pm
pg six 9 pm
zachary cale &friends10 pm
this frontier needs heroes 11pm

dj miss bliss starts at 7 pm and will play before after and in between sets


dam stuhltrager gallery
corner of hope and marcy
williamsburg

8 pm / $5 admission / $3 beer

myspace.com/bradlauretti
myspace.com/zacharycale
myspace.com/pgsixband
myspace.com/thebrooklynstreetragaassociation
www.djmissbliss.com

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Monday I'll check out My Bloody Valentine at the Roseland!
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Did you know that there's a three day Boog City poetry festival going on? I'm definitely attending the Race panel and Julia Cohen's reading (same place at one pm) but for a complete break-down of the events check out Mathias' blog!




Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Looking ahead to Sunday at Unnameable Books

I know it's tiny, but click on it and it becomes B.I.G.

I am trying to hold the book open with my big toe so I can type this

According To Cloud Formations I Will Spend This Day
in memory of P.M.

lit by crows wherein thinking for a long minute I think
ideas in and out like clouds. As likened to a flight pattern.
That cloud looks like a crow. That cloud looks like an idea.
Yesterday I had to try harder to appreciate everything. I
wondered where the time goes. Tucked in a date book.
Every day gone when it can't be stopped. My going hands
distract; they are papery crows. They would turn every
corner into a neat month of edible days. As likened to a
flight pattern. Clouds pad the sky, are slow. Regally, they
can take any shape, such as of something alive. Real crows
swoop, a lot of little animals must die. It doesn't seem
exactly right. They lived their little animal lives. A clean
towel is a good morning. Coffee with milk. Here are the
ideas: a thick smog of gone days. Please. Lying on a hill
without bitterness. Some free sugar in a bowl. A secret
pity for crows. Our pretty walk before dark. To cloud.
To be clouded. To dissipate. Yesterday I had to try harder
to appreciate everything. It wasn't seeming exactly right.
I had to really want to stay.

by Paula Cisewski from Upon Arrival (Black Ocean 2006)

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Some of this Some of that

Friday night I did double duty by attending the Salon to see Tim Petersen read then went to Earshot and caught Justin Marks and Rauan Klassnik (I just finished his book, Holy Land the other day). Afterwards, Dan Magers piled Julia, Mathias, Rauan, Starkweather, and myself into a mini-taxi-van back to his apartment.

Long night/Late morning.

Saturday I went to a joint bday party for two of my friends. There's a ton of photos of it here.
I lucked out and only pop up twice- of course in one of them I look fairly ridiculous, but Deep Disco aka roommate is in the foreground and she looks damn good. The second one I'm partially obscured by my ex (the symbolism of this causes me to chuckle softly).

Sunday was a sweaty affair. I met up with Czar Hohl and his wife, Jazzamatat Cambell, at the BK fest. We were hot and went searching for lemonade. No lemonade. We stood in a long line and got tickets for the Moore/McKaye talk. I tried to get extra tickets for my friend Julia and her bf- no go.

The talk veered off topic almost immediately. Ian Mackaye was his usual anti question everything self and Thurston played smart alek absurdist- in other words, to watch these two interact and talk was pretty damn good and I walked away wanting a lot more.

I taught on Monday, then met up with Veronica to catch the Dali exhibit at MOMA. Did I mention it was the last day of the exhibit? There were a ton of people all leaning over each other to look at some tiny paintings. Still we had fun.

I should have graded papers Sunday night, but I didn't. So I had to skip the Kevin Young reading at KGB last night to grade like 30 papers. That made me very tired.

Today I did the usual Long Island City to Staten Island thing. Now I'm back in Manhattan hoping it doesn't rain since I have to go and pick up the CSA in a half an hour. It looks like rain. I may leave sooner than later and bring an umbrella.

Get Yo Poem On!

Nicole Steinberg here

Becca Klaver here

How about Brooklyn Copeland's e-chap here

or Hugh Behm-Steinberg's Book of Days here

Finally, how about a poet caught dancing?

Saturday, September 13, 2008

BK Book Fest



The Brooklyn Book Festival will kick into gear tomorrow, Sunday the 14th. Mathea Harvey and Kevin Young are two of the poets definitely worth checking out. I've seen both of them read before so I might not get over there early enough, but for those early birds I know A Public Space, Litmus Press, and Academy of American Poetry will all have goods for free at their booths.

I plan on just stretching my legs, saying hi to friends, and then catching the reading with Thurston Moore and Ian Mackaye (yeah as in Sonic Youth & Fugazi = A.W.E.S.O.M.E!)

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

No Matter How High You Can Not Ride All Of These Rides

Friday is stacked to be a heavy-hitting reading/poetry entertainment kinda of night!

There's the poetry brothel which promises costumes,
Valzhyna Mort, and absinithe cocktails. Here are the details:

The Poetry Brothel
Friday, September 12th, 9pm-2am
Papa B Studios
907 Broadway @ Arion Place
J/M/Z to Myrtle Ave.
$10 includes a free absinthe cocktail and private reading

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There's also a reading a Pete's Candy Store:

It is Another Season of the Multifarious Array!


This Friday! September 12th! At 7pm!

with Amy King, Leslie Anne Mcilroy with guitarist Don Bertschman &
Nellie Bridge!

Our Fate is in Their Hands!


Amy King is the author of I'm the Man Who Loves You and Antidotes for
an Alibi, both from Blazevox Books, and most recently, Kiss Me with
the Mouth of Your Country (Dusie Press). She is the moderator for the
Poetics List and the Women's Poetry Listserv, and teaches English and
Creative Writing at Nassau Community College. She is currently editing
an anthology, The Urban Poetic, forthcoming from Factory School.

Leslie Anne Mcilroy won the 2001 Word Press Poetry Prize for her
full-length collection Rare Space and the 1997 Slipstream Poetry
Chapbook Prize for her chapbook Gravel. Her second full-length book,
Liquid Like This, was published by Word Press in July 2008. Leslie's
daughter, Silas, is a poetic six. Don Bertschman is a musician and
writer who studied with Coleman Barks at the University of Georgia.
Leslie and Don live in Pittsburgh, PA where they work as copywriters.

Nellie Bridge grew up in Washington State, and has lived in New York
for the last seven years. Her poems have appeared in Rattapallax,
KNOCK, Painted Bride Quarterly, New Delta Review, and other places.
She lives in Brooklyn and works at the Authors Guild.

Only at Pete's Candy Store
709 Lorimer Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
(718) 302-3770

"L" to Lorimer, "G" to Metropolitan.

FREE!

Visit http://www.multifariousarray.blogspot.com/ for links to their
work and email me for more information.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
or there's my old stomping ground:

Michael Dumanis will be reading at Teachers & Writers Collaborative (520 Eighth Avenue (between 36th and 37th Streets), 20th Floor) with the fiction writer Martha Southgate and Soft Targets editor Brian Kalkbrenner at 7pm (doors open and mingling commences @ 6:30) this Friday, September 12th.
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or there's the Salon (where I read last month) which has a nice spread of cheese and wine, and a beautiful view + private roof:

Sept 12th, we have the fabulous Tim Peterson

Tim Peterson is the author of SINCE I MOVED IN, which received the Gil Ott Award from Chax Press. He lives in Brooklyn and edits EOAGH: A Journal of the Arts.

And Sabrina Chapadjiev–

SABRINA CHAPADJIEV is a playwright, spoken word
artist, and singer-songwriter originally from the
suburbs of Chicago. She is the editor of the zine
Cliterature: 18 Interviews with Women Writers, which
has been featured on the International Museum of
Women's on-line exhibition. Her plays,including
perhaps merely quiet, have been produced in the United
States and Europe.

About the Book
In a collection of original stories, essays, artwork,
and photography, Nan Goldin, Eileen Myles, bell hooks,
and other cutting-edge artists explore their use of
art to survive madness, abuse, incest, depression, and
the impulse toward self-destruction manifest in eating
disorders, cutting, addiction, and contemplation of
suicide. The book confronts the brutality many women
and girls encounter in the world around them, and
bravely takes as its subject the often misunderstood
violence they at times inflict upon themselves.
The diverse array of contributors here—novelists,
poets, cartoonists, dancers, photographers,
playwrights, burlesque performers—traverse the pains
and passions that can both motivate and destroy women
artists
and mark a path for survival. Together they
show that creative women are not destined to the fate
of lost visionaries such as Woolf, Sexton, Arbus, and
Plath. Live Through This is a fearless exploration of
women's silent rage, the power that can come from
internal struggle, and the possibility of transforming
this burning force into fierce and enlightened work.
on SEVEN STORIES PRESS
With contributions by Nan Goldin, bell hooks, Patricia
Smith
, Cristy Road, Carol Queen, Annie Sprinkle,
Elizabeth Stephens, Carolyn Gage, Eileen Myles, Fly,
Diane DiMassa, Bonfire Madigan, Inga Muscio, Kate
Bornstein
, Toni Blackman, Nicole Blackman, Silas
Howard, Daphne Gottlieb, and Stephanie Howell.

We will also have music
And third reader TBA

Open mike drinks, and food
No spiked shoes please
Four dollars donation

7:30 doors open start at 8 pm promptly
85-101 N. 3rd St #508
between wythe and berry
off the L Bedford stop
347-563-2060

my goal is to hear Tim read then head over to THIS!


Earshot Reading
Friday, September 12 @ 8 PM*

Featuring:
Rauan Klassnik, author of Holy Land
& Justin Marks, author of [Summer insular] & You Being You by Proxy

Admission is a mere $5
The Lucky Cat is located at 245 Grand Street


VerseWaveBeckmanZapruder

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6593356.html?industryid=47144



http://www.omnivoracious.com/2008/09/politics-meet-p.html

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

440- Wednesday edition

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

WHEN: Wednesday, September 10th from 7-9 pm

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

CONTACT: Brooke Shaffner at brshaffner@hotmail.com

Admission Free

WHO:

Bryan Charles is the author of the novel Grab On to Me Tightly as if I Knew the Way. He's working on a book about the Pavement album Wowee Zowee for Continuum's 33 1/3 series, as well as a memoir about working in the World Trade Center and surviving the September 11 attacks.

Filip Marinovich is a poet living in New York. His first full-length book, ZERO READERSHIP, is just out from Ugly Duckling Presse. Filip also performs and makes paintings and plays.

Liza Monroy, the daughter of a U.S. Foreign Service officer, spent her high school years attending an international school in Mexico City. Her articles and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, Newsweek, The Village Voice, Time Out New York, Jane, and other publications, and she was recently awarded a residency by the Kerouac Project of Orlando. She lives in New York City.

About 440 Gallery: Park Slope's only artist-run gallery, a jewel box space offering an alternative venue for 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.

Monday, September 8, 2008

You Know Its Time We Grow Old & Do Some Shit (Broken Social Scene & Not Prince Po Just In Case You Don't Know)

Wow, I'm tired. This is going to be a hectic week. I'm listening to Prince Po and sipping on some Knob Creek (courstey of Deep Disco).
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I received my contributor copy(ies) of Eleven Eleven- it's quite good & it has some Spicer poems in it. I'll blog about it more later. I'm also reading another beautiful journal, Taiga. I'll attempt to photograph them soon.
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Have you ever wonder what was going through an editors mind? Read here.
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How about a poem I read on the train this morning? Yeah? Awesome!

Islands In The Black Night

My conversation with the axe-murderer at the Jenkins'
party was really quite awkward. I made excuses for my
unchecked curiosity, asked about her victims and her
preference for the axe. She wouldn't talk. She was missing
an entire arm. With some remaining important fingers she
rolled the stem on her glass of wine. It soon felt like an
interrogation and she returned to the couch with the other
axe-murderers. They laughed it up.

By the indoor hot tub was a group of scantily clad Chinese
water torturers reminiscing. Some suicide bombers walked
to the bathroom together. They talked about later maybe
getting together for a game of volleyball.

I went to the kitchen and got a handful of party mix,
pretzel sticks and peanuts mostly, and stood there by
myself in the center of the room and discreetly transformed
into my impression of Frankenstein. Everyone got a real
kick out of that and their laughter grew steadily, fed off of
itself, then closed in from all sides and swallowed me
whole.

from The Man Suit by Zachary Schomburg

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Mondays at KGB!

KGB Monday Night Poetry Reading Series—FALL 2008

Hosted by Michael Quattrone, Laura Cronk

With original hosts Star Black & David Lehman

Mondays @ 7:30 PM

Admission is FREE

September 15 Janice Erlbaum & Kevin Young

September 22 Caroline Knox & Danielle Pafunda

September 29 Nicole Cooley & Kimiko Hahn

October 6 Michael Lally & Terence Winch

October 13 The Why And Later anthology reading, with Jan Beatty, Laure-Anne Bosselaar, Teresa Carson, Harriet Levin, Amanda McGuire, Erin Murphy, Kiely Sweatt, and editor Carly Sachs

October 20 Jordan Davis & Katy Lederer

October 27 Rick Barot & CAConrad

November 3 Jill Bialosky & D. Nurkse

November 10 Jim Cummins & David Lehman

November 17 Brenda Shaughnessy & John Yau

November 24 Paul Muldoon & Jim Richardson

December 1 Star Black & Dan Nester

December 8 Heather Christle & Maurice Manning

KGB Bar • 85 East 4th Street • New York, NY 10003 • (212) 505-3360 • www.kgbbar.com

Near the NW corner of Second Avenue and Fourth Street

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Books, Coffee, Readings, Whatevers



Craig Santos Perez has out a chapbook on Corollary Press and a new book on Tinfish Press. I realized I haven't read much of his poetry, but I have read a lot of his reviews. I asked him to send a copy of his new book to Cold Front Magazine. I don't think any books from Tinfish have been reviewed on the site.
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Thursday I went to the Wave Books reading at NYU. It was good and Tao Lin's poem was definitely a stand-out. I hung out with former and present New Schoolers Steve and Ben. We talked about how NYU has much better wine than the New School. What? Did you think we'd talk about saving the world or counting strophes?
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Yesterday I went to Meghan's book release party/fundraiser at KGB. No where near as packed as I expected. It was a good reading with an excellent raffle for which yours truly was (for a change) amongst the winners. Here's the book bounty I won:

Stratification- Meghan Punschke (BlazeVox Books)
The Heart is a Quarter Pounder- Jeffrey Miller (farfalla press/ McMillan & Parrish)
Upon Arrival- Paula Cisewski (Black Ocean)
The Man Suit- Zachary Schomburg (Black Ocean)
Holy Land- Rauan Klassnik (Black Ocean)
Simply Rocket- Matt Hart (lame house press)

Afterwards, Dan, Meghan, Sylvia, and myself went out to dinner for a little Thai and converation. Somehow we were all very very funny. We laughed a lot and saited our collective hungers. Dan went home, Sylvia went home or elsewheres, Meghan & I both living in Chinatown stood on the corner of Hester and Chrsytie talking until the first drops of rain began to fall. Home we went.
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This morning I bought coffee beans from Gimme! Coffee- the roast is entitled Leftist- I'm left-handed so that's an easy bias! I also lived on the Left Coast for a while-- speaking of the Left Coast, I have a poem in Eleven Eleven which is out of California College of the Arts (CCA). I haven't seen issue 5 yet as I just sent my address in to the editors(oops & sorry) but I'm excited to see it when it arrives in the mailbox. I'm also reviewing two books for Dusie so can't wait for those to come too- but I think they are coming from Sweden so I shan't hold my breath.

Lastly, I had a poem accepted in Barrow Street for their 10th anniversary issue. Pretty awesome. Okay I'm hungry and tired of listening to Blonde Redhead. I am now leaving my apartment (again).

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Reading Radar

The NYU Creative Writing Program and Wave Books present

State of the Union: a Poetry Reading with Voter Registration
Thursday, September 4th, 7 p.m.
Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House, 58 West 10th Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues), New York, New York

with readings from State of the Union: 50 Political Poems, an anthology edited by Joshua Beckman and Matthew Zapruder --- featuring readings by Matthea Harvey, Noelle Kocot, Katy Lederer, Tao Lin, Eileen Myles, Matthew Rohrer, Tracy K. Smith, Edwin Torres, Rebecca Wolff and Rachel Zucker, with an introduction by Joshua Beckman.

The reading is free. By subway: Take the F, V, B, D, A, C, E to West 4th Street / Washington Square; Take the Q, R, W to 8th Street / NYU. For more information call 212-998-8816, or visit http://cwp.fas.nyu.edu

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NYU Creative Writing Program: http://cwp.fas.nyu.edu
Wave Books: www.wavepoetry.com
State of the Union: 50 Political Poems: http://www.wavepoetry.com/catalog/66
Visit the Wave Books Calendar for regularly updated readings and events, including forthcoming State of the Union readings in Berkeley, Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.: www.wavepoetry.com/calendar
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Poetry Reading/ Book Release/ Leukemia Fundraiser
September 5th
7pm at KGB Bar (85 E. 4th St., New York, NY 10003)
Readers will be:
David Lehman
Meghan Punschke
Amy King
Ana Božičević
With Raffles for Baskets of Books/ Goodies, Book Sales, Special gifts for $20+ Donors, and a GRAND PRIZE WINNER!!!
Free to get in - $5 Raffle tix - Drinks at the bar
This Book Release Party for Meghan Punschke's new collection of poetry, Stratification, will double as a fundraising event for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS). Other readers that night will include, David Lehman, Amy King, and Ana Božičević.There will be a raffle for prizes, which will include poetry books, anthologies and other poetry related items from several small presses including BlazeVOX Books, No Tell Books, Coconut Books, Goss 183, Ahsahta Press, Octopus Books, Black Ocean Books and Lame House. The Grand Prize winner will be awarded books from many of the above, plus the 30" x 40" acrylic on canvas painting that appears on the cover of Stratification. Prizes total in excess of $2000, and each raffle ticket will be sold for $5 with all of the proceeds going directly to LLS. Some of the evening's book sales to the charity, and there will be special prizes for those who donate more than $20.

David Lehman
is a poet, writer, and editor. His seven books of poetry include When a Woman Loves a Man (2005). In 1996 he began writing a poem a day as an experiment. The practice continued for five years, and two books resulted: The Daily Mirror (2000) and The Evening Sun (2002), both from Scribner. Lehman's prose books include The Perfect Murder and Signs of the Times. He is the series editor of The Best American Poetry, which he launched in 1988. He has also edited the latest edition of The Oxford Book of American Poetry (2006), The Best American Erotic Poems (2008), and Great American Prose Poems (2003), among other books. He heads the poetry division of the New School's graduate writing program, in which he has taught since the program's inception in 1996.

Meghan Punschke is the author of Stratification (BlazeVOX Books, 2008). She resides in New York City, and has an MFA in Poetry from the New School. She is the curator and host of Word ofMouth, a reading series dedicated to poets and fiction writers. She is also the Managing Editor for the literary journal Oranges & Sardines. Her poetry was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2007. Please visit www.megpunschke.com for more info.

Amy King
is the author of I'm the Man Who Loves You and Antidotes for an Alibi, both from Blazevox Books, and most recently, Kiss Me With the Mouth of Your Country (Dusie Press). She is the moderator for the Poetics List and the Women's Poetry Listserv, and teaches English and Creative Writing at Nassau Community College. She is currently editing an anthology, The Urban Poetic, forthcoming from Factory School. Please visit www.amyking.org for more.

Ana Božičević
emigrated to NYC from Croatia in 1997. She's the author of chapbooks Document (Octopus Books, 2007) and Morning News (Kitchen Press, 2006). Look for her recent work in Denver Quarterly, Hotel Amerika, Bat City Review, absent, typo, fou and elsewhere. With Amy King, she is currently editing an anthology, The Urban Poetic (Factory School, forthcoming). Ana works at The Center for the Humanities at the Graduate Center, CUNY.
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POLESTAR #2

Sunday, September 7, 2008 at 5 pm

JENNIFER KNOX. ADA LIMON.
TOM HAUSHALTER.

Downstairs at CAKESHOP
152 Ludlow
(between Stanton & Rivington)

Trains to:
Delancey-Essex Sts (F, J, M, Z)
2nd Ave-Houston St (F, V)
Grand St (B, D)

ABOUT THE POETS

Jennifer L. Knox has two books of poems in English, Drunk by Noon and A Gringo Like Me—both available from Bloof Books. Her poems have appeared in Best American Poetry 1997, 2003 and 2006, Best American Erotic Poems, Great American Prose Poems: From Poet to Present, and Free Radicals: American Poets Before Their First Books. Jennifer was born in Lancaster, California— crystal meth capitol of the nation, and home to Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart and the Space Shuttle.

Ada Limón’s first book, lucky wreck, was the winner of the Autumn House Poetry Prize and her second book, This Big Fake World, was the winner of the Pearl Poetry Prize. She’s won the Chicago Literary Award and fellowships from the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center and the New York Foundation for the Arts. She is the Creative Director for Travel + Leisure Magazine and teaches a Master Class for Columbia University. Her third book of poems Sharks in the Rivers, will be published by Milkweed Editions in 2010. She also sings in a band called Lucky Wreck.

Tom Haushalter, born of sturdy Midwestern stock, left the country for the city. Since the honor of an MFA from Columbia University, he has published poems in Greensboro Review, New Orleans Review, Harpur Palate, Slice Magazine and Perihelion. In the fall of 2006, Tom toured the American heartland with fellow poet Emmett Tracy, leaving them high on verse from Oberlin to Wheeling. Now he works in book publishing, and lives in Brooklyn with his bride.

INCOMING!

Sunday, October 5
Jennifer Michael Hecht
Craig Morgan Teicher
Ryan Davidson

Sunday, November 2
Jason Schneiderman
Michael Broder
Leanna Petronella

Sunday, December 7
Cate Marvin
Eve Grubin
Kathleen Ossip


www.polestarpoetry.com

I Like Gillian Conoley

Semi-Annual Tabloid of Literature

Announcing the first issue of Graduate Writing OR icon, a semi-annual tabloid of poetry, fiction, essays, statements, provocations & other extensions of the whole art. Featuring new English translations of Adonis, Jorge Amado, Ahmed Barakat, Mohammed Dib, Horace, Ko Un, Giovanna Sandri, as well as a report on “The Position of Things,” the March 2008 celebration in Los Angeles, honoring the life and work of Italian poet, editor and critic Adriano Spatola. Also featured is new work by Amiri Baraka, Art Beck, Guy Bennett, Brian Blanchfield, Neeli Cherkovski, Gillian Conoley, Ray DiPalma, Peter Gadol, Marco Giovenle, Owen Hill, Lewis MacAdams, Barabara Maloutas, Ken McCullough, Douglas Messerli, Laura Moriarty, Yann Perreau, Dennis Phillips, Nick Piombino, Martha Ronk, Iris Smyles, Domenic Stansbery, Frederic Tuten, William Xerra and more.

Free-of-charge and distributed nationally, Graduate Writing OR icon is a publishing project of Otis College of Art and Design’s Graduate Writing program, replacing the critically acclaimed New Review of Literature, which published ten issue from 2003-2008. To be on our list of free subscribers, or to contact us, write to the editor, Paul Vangelisti: pvangel@otis.edu.

Monday, September 1, 2008

Singaporean Slingers Give You a Soft Blow/ New At No Tell & Some Greenstreet Awesomeness

Softblow featuring Sid Miller, Jackie Clark, Gloria Vando, Daren Shiau, Reid Mitchell, & Maria Freij

New poems up on No Tell Motel

Kate Greenstreet here