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.
Controversy at Helix!!!!! And the Invention of Transcriptase!
I'm singing "Controversy" right now in my kitchen.
Opium’s Network of Writers Experiment
The “Opium’s Network of Writers Experiment” is seeking quotes about writing one writer passes along to another. The latter writer is to submit the quote to Opium. (I don’t think either writer needs to be ‘famous,’ though I may be wrong.)
The Lost Generation had Paris, we have the internet. Short of any idealistic ‘organic’ ‘philosophizing over absinthe’ process, I think it would be most effective to streamline this son of a bitch by posting a comment about writing – as an open submission of sorts – for anyone to pick-off and relay to Opium if they wish. The deadline is March 3.
So, two things will be done: 1) leave a comment about writing (with full-name as you wish to be cited), and/or 2) pick a quote you like and submit it to Opium.
Here are examples provided by Opium (which seem a little stuffy and pedantic to me, so let’s show those kids how it’s really done):
“Writing a book is a marathon, not a sprint. Write around 700 words a day and then stop.” –Mieke Eerkens was told by Vikram Chandra.
“You shouldn’t write a novel unless you have an idea for one.” –Jamey Genna was told by Lewis Buzbee.
Submit appropriated quotes here: opiumwritersexperiment@gmail.com
In narcissistic delight, here’s my quote, if any of you want:
“No double-spaces or cramps after the period.”
God damn I’m subtle.
Shaman Drum
From Dan Wickett:
Shaman Drum is not doing well these days. There have been articles in the Ann Arbor papers recently and owner, Karl Pohrt, just sent out an open letter trying to explain, to those questioning the articles, just how the store has fallen into financial difficulties.
Having had the pleasure of getting to know Karl a bit over the past year and a half, I can say that his open letter didn’t contain much surprising material – he’s known where things were headed and has been trying to combat it in various ways. He, along with his lawyer, financial team, and others in the Ann Arbor area are pretty desperately trying to figure out the means to make the store still be a viable part of Ann Arbor’s just off-campus business district.
This is to take up Karl Pohrt’s and Dan Wickett’s call for help. If you’re thinking of buying a book soon, why not skip Amazon and order from Shaman Drum? You’ll have to do it special order and their email system appears to be currently disabled, so that means maybe a little bit of time on the telephone. But that can’t hurt, right?
This reminds me also of the 5$ Powell’s Gift Card giveaway that I posted the other week. I’d like to award that gift card to Michael, who posted a story in the comments about finding a draft of the foreword to Djuna Barnes Ladies Almanac tucked inside his Harper&Bros first edition of the book, complete with revision marks allegedly by Barnes. Michael, if you’re still reading, please email your mailing address to htmlgiant [at] gmail [dot] com so I can send you this card.
And finally, take a look at this bookstore finder from Indie Bound to see if you can find any stores near you worth checking out.
Updates
This post simply brings to your attention things worthy of attention, with extremely light commentary from me.
- Ellen Kennedy’s new book Sometimes my heart pushes my ribs is available from Muumuu house. This is probably widely known, but I wanted to officially note it here. Ellen Kennedy feels like a Dorothy Parker who doesn’t have enough energy to rhyme.
- Chelsea Martin’s new book Everything was fine until whatever will be released March 2009 by Future Tense Books. Watch her read this piece. The ingrown logic and breath-taking/sigh-inducing excess of each subsequent line reminds me of Tao Lin’s ‘the next night we ate whale,’ except each line is different.
- The prolific J.A. Tyler redesigned Mud Luscious archives and ML Press, and his entire site. He would scare me if he wasn’t so nice. His obscene publication list is prone to make one feel like a slacker.
- Juked No. 6 is out. Check out the contents and order. Juked is one of the oldest literary websites out there. It makes me feel good that they are so consistent and devoted.
- Robot Melon Issue Seven is live, including J.A. Tyler, Crispin Best, yours truly [gag], Ryan Manning’s ode to Sam Pink, and one of my personal favorite online writers, Krammer Abrahams. I really like the ‘head trauma at night in the woods’ design.
So those are my updates. I could not find a picture that embodied this post. [*UPDATE: Ryan Manning sent me a picture to post for this post. The 4 colors do not match the 5 updates. He was no doubt driven conceptually.] Thank you for supporting online literature.
Where is my Oscar?
Zach Plague, author of boring boring boring boring boring boring boring, coeditor/designer of featherproof books, and mastermind behind Bleached Whale Design, said fun things about HTMLGIANT at Poets&Writers.
They call it ‘the internet literature magazine blog of the future,’ and I’ve decided joking or not, I think they’re right.
Thanks, Zach Plague, for the good words.
Narrative Magazine (‘the gold standard of online publications’) wants $20 to read your short-short
Reporting live from the Narrative Magazine offices, my man Russell Jones, AKA ‘The Only Black God’ AKA Osiris AKA Big Baby Jesus:
WalMart’s down the street, son.
But I mean really…
SCUMBAG HYPOCRITE ALERT: Maureen Mullarkey loves painting the Gay Pride Parade, but she hates everything it stands for, and all the people in it–and probably you as well
Maureen Mullarkey, the art critic and artist well-known to the gay community for her iconic portraits of drag queens and gay pride parades, was yesterday revealed by the NY Daily News to have contributed $1000 to Proposition 8. […] When asked how she could have donated money to fight gay marriage after making money from her depictions of gays, she just said, “So? If you write that story, I’ll sue you.”
(h/t to Joe.My.God)
A quick trip over to Campaignmoney.com reveals that the person in questions–Mrs. Maureen Mullarkey of Chappaqua, NY–ALSO gave nearly $1000 to different arms of McCain/Palin ’08.
Blogger of the Weekend Award
Leigh Stein posted some hysterically great stuff this weekend, and so I am giving her the “First Semi-Annual HTMLgiant Blogger of the Weekend Award.”
Check out this video of a sock puppet reciting a poem of hers, and also this excerpt from a Will Eno play. Additionally, all the posts she puts up about the kids in her musical theater class are awesome, so put her on your Google Reader. Enjoy.
$5 For You!
So, I’ve got here in my wallet a gift card to Powell’s Books, a gift card that I did not realize I had. It has $5 dollars on it. I would like to mail it to someone as a giveaway, but that someone has to earn it. Basically, what I’m interested in hearing is a story about someone’s experience at a bookstore, any bookstore, good or bad experience, and so on. I will judge what story I like the best and then get that person’s mailing address somehow. I will announce whose story I liked on Wednesday morning, and then whoever told that story will be the winner, if that makes sense.
Okay, my lame story is this: I first went to Powell’s a few years ago while I was at the Tin House conference. A bunch of us took the bus into town, missed our stop, and then had to walk a lot of blocks back over some bridge to the store. In Powell’s, I felt overwhelmed. The shelves were very very tall. I could not reach certain shelves. I walked back and forth through the shelves and gawked at the amount of books that were on the shelves. I am someone who is only familiar with Barnes & Nobles, so yeah. Then, maybe about ten minutes before we were to leave, I found the ‘independent’ shelves. These shelves were on a back wall and next to them I found the ‘literary journals.’ On the literary journal shelves I found the 2005 and 2006 issues of NOON and Pindeldyboz #3. I bought the two issues of NOON but left the Pboz. I regret that decision. I think about it all the time. I regret it. I should have bought all three. Somewhere out there is a Pboz #3 that I did not purchase. I suppose I could go to the website and order one of the five issues that are left, but I sometimes think I’d rather just whine about the whole thing instead.
Anyhow, post your bookstore stories in the comments section, if you’d like. Or, if you want, you may email them to our HTMLGIANT email address.