Ups & Downs & Them Arounds

Saturday was rather stunning. I went to Roosevelt Island for the first time. Lila & I had a picnic. Here's what we ate: olives, olive tapenade, a baguette, brie, mozzarella, crackers, and beer. We also flew a kite. It was my first time flying a kite. I did not grow up flying kites.

Saturday night was fun time at Farrah & Jared's apartment in DUMBO. People read poetry, drank drinks, and mingled. You can see pictures (the ones with pirate hats) here.

Sunday my sister, two nieces, and nephew came into the city via South Jersey. We walked a lot. They got tired & probably slept really well last night.

I fell asleep around 9:30 while watching Sonic Youth videos. I woke up around 9:30 this morning & looked for work. I have received a lot of emails today, but none of them have been about work or poetry or even from friends. This makes me feel weighted & a bit sweaty. I am going to rinse my face, drink some water, and try to feel as light as light.

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.

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

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!!

Underdog Done

I had a pretty quiet weekend esp. since I still don't have a computer/internet at home right now.

Watched some of the basketball games this weekend both alone and with my roommate. Really hoped Davidson would pull out the upset win. I mean when has rooting for an underdog been more fun?

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Went to Central Park on Sunday to cheer on my friend who was running the 10k Scotland run. Yep she's badass. I stood with my hoodie on, coffee in hand, and ra ra's ready to be launched.

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My Tuesday night is pretty packed but I'm hoping to ease of out work a little early to check out this reading before heading into Brooklyn so see my friend's friends' performance art gig.

Tuesday, April 1st

Poetry Society of America: Chapbook Reading

Robert Polito, moderator

6:30pm, Wollman Hall, 55 W 11th St, $10, $7 for PSA members and students. Tickets available at event.

Chapbook judges read with the poets whose manuscripts they elected for publication. Featuring Rae Armantrout with Carey McHugh, Harryette Mullen with Kate Ingold, Mark Strand with Andrew Michael Roberts, and Kevin Young with Lytton Smith.
Reception to follow, and chapbooks will be available for sale.

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So I have my eyes rolled to the high heavens (or void thereof) filling out a spread sheet for work that I lapsed on last week. Since we have two flight attendant training classes + a pilot training class I've got quite a few names to plug in. Insert y-a-w-n here.

So to keep myself from going crazy I play a little game like looking for the best name. Here's the winner: Sztawyo. That's pretty good last name, don't you think? He has a generic first name so no dbl bonus for him!

Another good name: Jagwendolyn (1st name) but she goes by Naresse so not sure if I should count it. What do you think? She's southern and knows I don't understand half of what she's saying (intentionally slurring) & neither one of us even bother to fake it. We nod. We smile. We give up. We go our own ways.

Dead Prez Day

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Another weekend slipped

as it it eased by soft fluff of whisped cloud left with expansed blue up over yes yonder
now
what comes tuesdays and

days belonging to other alphabet drolls or is that dreams? where is the i in imagination
is it you?

music music yes music is what we want want almost most much

much as quiet right before the chorus- everyone qued and rararararararararararararara

yeah rememeber that?


oh no! this is not a poem- just me babbling in stanzas. handed in me thesis today (beat my self-imposed June deadline), sent back my signed offer-sheet letter to eos airlines, watched daises (czech new wave film recommended by jared hohl) and somehow have managed to hurt my foot with all this running betwixt midtown, east village, and cobble hill. also picked up new ish of LIT + recieved poetry and crazy horse in the mail. okay, another glass of knob creek, 3 cheers of exhaustion, and some reading to be done!