July 2009

Curious: when you are published in a magazine, how often do you read the whole issue when it arrives, or even most of it, eventually, over time? How often do you read only your thing and maybe 1-2 things by people you know or have heard of? How often do you just put it on the shelf or blog the link and not read anything in the magazine at all after looking at your own pages, and perhaps reading the bios in the back? Why?

ATLANTIC CITY DOGGY STYLE

dogz flyer 2

the full line_up after the break…

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July 28th, 2009 / 2:24 pm

Via my homeboy Jamie, here’s news on a consignment chapbook store freshly opened in St. Louis: Stirrup Pants. It’s only open on Saturdays, but that’s cool because, as the article says, “The store’s Saturday-only hours give Ginesta [the proprietor] a chance to read through the new chapbooks during the week so she’ll be able to discuss them with her customers.”

What could be better?

Field Report from the Hong Kong Book Fair: A photo-essay

The 20th annual Hong Kong International Book Fair was held July 22-28, at the Hong Kong convention center on the Victoria Harbour waterfront, which I believe is the round building in the lower right corner of this photograph, which was shot at the top of the IFC tower. The book fair attracted massive crowds–you’ll see the line to get in just below–and was open daily from morning till midnight. Midnight! Admission cost $25HK, which is about three dollars US. After the jump, you get a dozen and change photos I took to document my brief foray into the exciting world of literature I can’t read.

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July 28th, 2009 / 11:30 am

Cover to Cover: Electric Literature, No. 1

I’m still in the Dominican Republic, recuperating after climbing Pico Duarte, with a giddy love of modern plumbing dominating my emotional core. Earlier last week, I read the entire Electric Literature, No. 1 which consists of only five short stories. At first, the green smoke of envy blew out my nostrils because every single one of the f ive authors- EVERY SINGLE ONE- has had multiple books published. I mean, couldn’t they publish just one up and comer? Pretend they care about new talent? Hm. Guess not.

 Anyway, the cover of Electric Literature is a tripped out, fantastic portrait of a woman with multiple eyes and ears, blood dripping on her face, muscle tissue showing and weird space-age shit going on, done by Fred Tomaselli. So, I expect something unconventional inside, from both the coverart and the title, something truly “electric”. What instead I found, were five, solidly good short stories. And this is no small feat. In fact, it was one of the most satisfying journal reading experiences I’ve had in a while. READ MORE >

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July 28th, 2009 / 10:49 am

“The Planet Trillaphon…” by David Wallace

DavidWallacePerhaps this is old news for some, but Tin House has republished an early David Foster Wallace story, which was, according to Rob Spillman, only previously available in Wallace’s college literary magazine, The Amherst Review. The story is titled “The Planet Trillaphon As It Stands In Relation To The Bad Thing” and is available online in various PDF forms (though I hadn’t even known of its existence until I saw this issue of Tin House).

I’m happy to have discovered the story.

Here’s the first paragraph:

I’ve been on antidepressants for, what, about a year now, and I suppose I feel as if I’m pretty qualified to tell what they’re like. They’re fine, really, but they’re fine in the same way that, say, living on another planet that was warm and comfortable and had food and fresh water would be fine: it would be fine, but it wouldn’t be good old Earth, obviously. I haven’t been on Earth now for almost a year, because I wasn’t doing very well on Earth. I’ve been doing somewhat better here where I am now, on the planet Trillaphon, which I suppose is good news for everyone involved.

You can read the rest of the story by clicking over to this PDF file.

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July 27th, 2009 / 11:02 pm

David Ohle’s Boons + The Camp

Ohle_Boons_cover_600

Coming very soon from Calamari Press is a double sided book containing two new works from the magical David Ohle, Boons & The Camp. Anyone familiar with Ohle already will know this is an event to be excited for, and those who don’t, well, it’s about time you ordered Motorman.

In anticipation of the book object, Derek White presents two video trailers, and a sneak peek of the gorgeous book covers, as well as further art from inside the book and on and on. I, for one, am quite excited:

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Presses / 10 Comments
July 27th, 2009 / 10:22 pm

Hey check it out! That literary tattoo project I posted about the other day got blogged at the LA Times.

Um, EVER, Scorch Atlas, Lamination Colony, No Colony (w/ Ken Baumann), HTMLGIANT (et al.) — and now Year of the Liquidator (w/ Shane Jones), please where is my elephant tranquilliser gun? I need to shoot someone.

Diet tips

Do tricks. Get fed.

Do tricks. Get fed.

Speaking as a recently rehabilitated lover of Pop Tarts and Easy Mac, I have recently (the last year or two) actually started to wonder about where my food comes from, and what the process was that brought it before me. There are plenty of books out there now for the curious (Fast Food Nation, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, etc), but I, for one, am only interested in taking nutritional advice from a reclusive, bearded old Japanese farmer—specifically, The One-Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka (recently rereleased by the NYRB). In this wonderful little book, Fukuoka lays down the details of his unique practice of sustainable, “do-nothing” farming, and speculates on the not-so-awesome ramifications of industrial agriculture and your typical food consumers disassociation from their hunter-gatherer forebears. Fukuoka died last summer, at the ripe, wrinkly age of 95, so I think it’s safe to say that his methods worked.

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July 27th, 2009 / 1:24 pm