Butler takes Greenpoint: a photo diary
WHAT: Blake Butler, Gary Lutz & Robert Lopez read at WORD Bookstore in Greenpoint, Brooklyn on Thursday, 3/5/09.
Sorry, I didn’t get pictures of the other two. I don’t think Gary likes to have his picture taken, actually, and I didn’t want to spook Robert by shooting with a flash without warning first. As you can see, I didn’t give a damn about spooking Blake. He’s staying on my couch while he’s in town. Camera with flash is the least of his worries.
AFTER THE READING WE WENT TO THE PENCIL FACTORY
PR IS: NSFW
This post starts after the jump. READ MORE >
Rimbaud vlog
From the Poetry Foundation blog, harriet, the Rimbaud Vlog.
The man behind the mask is Travis Nichols, whose Weird Deer blog took a short hiatus so he could concentrate on getting Obama elected. (See, poets? See what you can do if you get off the computer for a little while. Obama WAS elected. And Travis Nichols was, I’m betting, was instrumental in that election.)
The blog is slowly returning. Maybe if we all go look at it, he will feel pressured to keep the Weird Deer Hotline series going. Details in the blogs upper right hand corner.
Travis is a fellow Seattle-ite and a pretty nice guy. He has a novel called Off We Go Into the Wild Blue Yonder in the works at Coffee House Press. And writing online.
He does not like applejuice. That is another Travis Nichols.
DON’T LET THE LIGHT BLIND YOU: A Q&A with poet Alexis Orgera
I am afraid, dear illuminator,
to tell you the truth. – “Book of Hours (Two)”
Of all the sweet, sweet things I saw/met/read/drank at AWP, one of the sweeter ones was a little chapbook called Illuminatrix, by a poet named Alexis Orgera. Illuminatrix is published by Forklift, Ink, the book arm of Matt Hart & Eric Appleby’s immeasurably badass magazine Forklift, Ohio. Anyway, my magazine was sharing a booth with Forklift, and so I was able to acquire Alexis’s book and spend a bit of time with her, without having to even leave the confines of our little patch of carpeting. It was very Dorothy Gale. (I was wearing beautiful red shoes.)
Illuminatrix is a skinny, fascinating book. Light is not exactly a novel theme for poetry, but this is surely a take on it that you’ve never encountered before. Orgera isn’t interested in light which dapples birch branches or reminds the poet of his childhood home–this is anything but SoQ country, is my point–her light issues forth from the place where physics meets metaphysics; it hearkens back to a time when mathematics was a branch of philosophy, then suitably distorts that mindset so it can live in a world of electric vacuums and lamps. Orgera’s “illuminators” are characters, all sharing the same name/title and therefore distinguished only by their actions–or else the poet’s frame of mind when, as above, she addresses one of them directly. In fact they are not distinguishable from one another. It is as if they have obtained a fluidity of identity and being, or perhaps are all part of the same secret order of shining ninja monks. After the jump, I Q&A with Alexis about her book, Florida, Dean Young and Courtney Love. But first! A poem from Illuminatrix:
“Falling”
There was some wabi-sabi between them
and like cherry blossoms they fell
into bed. There’s nothing in me that’s light, she said.
He buried his head between her legs
to make her sing. But there was no song
in her. She was thinking
about the impermanence of motion.
He was thinking about the inescapable
nothingness he felt on Sunday afternoons.
How life is a series of lightbulbs nobody uses.
A series of odd delinquencies called weekends
in which the ancient wabi-sabi drools between them.
HEY YOU, STOP THINKING ABOUT THE BEST WAY TO WORD SOME LAME SHITTALK AND READ THIS FUN INTERVIEW!
yo yo yo everybody! how’s everyone doing! sweet, just trying to look less insecure by arguing on the internet!? aw yeah! well, here’s another random interview. david peak emailed me after i posted about doing interviews. we finna be democratic! keep emailing me and i will keep interviewing. (INTERVIEW AFTER BREAK Y’ALL!+BONUS HEIDEGGER REFERENCE!)
Apples and Cheese: Both in Your Mouth
Rauan Klassink’s Ringing, a new e-book from Kitchen Press. Sam Pink just interviewed Rauan a few hours ago, which means it’s almost outdated. Mercy!
PAIRS DELICIOUSLY WITH:
Leonard Cohen’s Beautiful Losers. A novel that should be as indie-revered as any you can name by Yipzeeny, Kurdledonk, or Qqqqqqqq. But people never mention it? Is it because Thomas Pynchon liked it? Is it because it’s about a bisexual love triangle and a dead Native American Catholic saint? Is it because Montreal? It is because God of? You’re like, “Is that the Hallelujah guy? Didn’t he write that cute Suzanne song?” Is it because of Charles Atlas or a mystical dildo? Are you afraid? Cohen called Beautiful Losers more of a sunstroke than a novel. People turn into movie projectors. People cancel a statue of Queen Victoria. Hey, when you get a chance, you should buy your new favorite novel:
WHEN I GROW UP I WANT TO BASH RAUAN KLASSNIK’S HEAD INTO PULP: AN INTERVIEW ABOUT RAUAN KLASSNIK
hello. i wrote something recently about liking interviews. after i wrote that rauan klassnik emailed me and asked about being interviewed. i interviewed him and here it is. also, he has a new book on the internet at this place:
http://rauanklassnikringing.com/
(interview after break)
Jean Rhys Contest
There was mention of Jean Rhys in a comment recently here at htmlgiant and it made me think of her. When I was a wee lass, like 19 to 24 or so, I was obsessed with Jean Rhys (and other stuff). I read all of her novels, (that didn’t take very long), all of her short stories, even wierd fragments, her unfinished autobiography, and then I did two sort of wierd things: read a biography of her (well, maybe that is not so wierd) and painted a painting of her from the picture of the cover of the biography, Jean Rhys: Life and Work by Carole Angier.
After that biography, I did not read another biography for maybe ten years. The experience was THAT disturbing. In fact, I vowed never to read a biography of any of my heros again. I have since relaxed that rule- I have mellowed with age, like many do–but man, what a defining moment. I was so horrified with Jean Rhys and so heartbroken at what she was really like as a human being. I felt-robbed. Now, as I’ve gotten older and more realistic as to how weak and troubled most human beings are, I feel less disturbed by Rhys. Still disturbed, but less so. To give you an idea of what I am talking about, here is an excerpt from Jean Rhys: Life and Work: READ MORE >
Pot Psychology is back! Also, Susie Bright has been hanging around Jezebel all week
Is anyone else over here in lit-land also a fan of the dynamic duo pictured above? I’m generally a fan of Jezebel, but these guys are always an extra dose of fun. If you’ve never seen it, the premise of Pot Psychology is simple- Rich and Tracie get stoned (off-camera) and then give sex advice (on-camera) to people who write in. There’s usually an episode (they run under 10 minutes) posted every Friday, but then there was a silence after 12/26/08, broken only by the terse, uninformative announcement on 1/16/09 that “FYI for those who have been wondering: Pot Psychology will be on hiatus until further notice. Sorry, folks.” So how happy was I this morning, when I saw Pot Psychology listed as a headline link at the top of Gawker this morning? Very happy. Still no explanation as to where it went, or why it’s back, or if we can expect it to be a regular feature once more–but let’s save the truth commission for another day. On this day, we are just glad it is here.
Kanye West VH1 Storytellers
Man I am so excited for VH1 STORYTELLERS! I am so excited for it I originally typed VH! STORYTELLERS! My uncle was at the MEATLOAF VH1 STORYTELLERS! He said it was awesome because Meatloaf would be all like “Well, I was wanting to do YOU KNOW *audience laughs* with some hot girl and we were in my CAR and she was like ‘No I’m a Catholic girl who likes sex after marriage not BEFORE marriage because of JESUS and you should marry me and love me until the end of time,’ and I was like OKAY because I love baseball and baseball is a metaphor for everything and I wanted to hit a HOMERUN and by HOMERUN I mean, well, you know *audience laughs* and that’s how I came up with the song ‘Objects in the Rearview Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are’ and here we goooooo” PIANO!