Blog Awards
I am giving out awards for blogs because that’s the power that comes with being a contributor here, and I’m bored at work. The following awards are only for blogs, not websites. There have been complaints that we are too self-referential — and I guess this isn’t helping. Fortunately, I have a 50 dollar bottle of scotch at home waiting for me and I’m not that concerned with stuff.
…and the whiners are
HTMLGRINCH: the internet literature __________ of the future
There are so many cool gifts coming through. I sort of wish now that I had somehow rigged this to make everyone send the gifts to me so I could pretend to send the gifts to everyone else.
Oh, Mean Monday…
Anyhow, last minute reminder: you have a few more days to send out your Secret Santa gifts (I am also late on this; I am not setting a good example here).
Another participant, Bernadette Geyer, posted a thank you at her blog.
Literature Map: Fun for 5 minutes
I don’t know how scientific this is, but the results keep on moving and makes me feel it’s alive. Put in an author’s name and poof!
I put in Rick Moody (that Moody guy), Gore Vidal (that old guy), and Mishima (that guy who stabbed himself the Japanese way) and I was like, “Yah, seems about right.”
Then I put in “your mom,” and was like, “what the fuck.”
Barrelhouse Posts Holiday Guide, Wants Submissions on Office Life
not dave housley
The pop flotsam and cultural jetsam never ceases. Good thing Barrelhouse is around to clean up the mess.
Two things of note from those crazy bastards:
1) Barrelhouse is now reading for their Office Life Invitational. What do they want? Well, it’s pretty simple:
The Office is a TV show that has earned commercial and critical success. It is also the setting of your miserable life for at least 40 hours a week, and no one can take that away from you. Unfortunately. But doesn’t art flourish through misery?
Barrelhouse has decided to test that theory by inviting you cubicle drones to submit your fiction, essays, and poems about the highest highs and lowest lows of the disproportionate amount of time you spend in an Office Of Some Sort.
They even have a memo and a powerpoint presentation to clarify a few things for you.
2) In my Facebook inbox was the following Barrelhouse-y holiday guide (for those of you wanting to support indie lit this Christmas):
Hey Barrelhouse People,
We know you’ve been thinking, “I wonder what that one internet group that I joined, the one from the weird literary magazine that’s obsessed with Patrick Swayze, I wonder what they think I should buy my smart, smartass literary friends this year?”
Well, you, facebook friend, are in luck. Here’s your shopping list for this year. Amaze your friends at your literary awesomeness! Marvel at Mary Miller’s ability to put out two books of short stories at once! Buy stuff or download it for free! Whatever you do, here’s a great list of stuff from Barrelhouse friends and contributors (sorry if we missed some of you; we’re sure we did).
Bozipede
Bozipede: a type of famous, old-guard internet literary magazine insect, commonly called a “pindle” or a “pindle bozz.” The bozipede is also called a “pin del dee boz” by the brave, a “pee bozz” by people who spend too much time on their hair, and a “pin diddily boss” by the same people who think it’s funny to mix Kool-Aid and hydroplaning. Bozipedes are well-regarded for being interesting and awesome and spinning out six stories of varying forms, styles, and effects every couple months or so.
That’s right: a new PBoz is out.
Gawk the new fictive dreams from Digby Beaumont, Kristin Fouquet, Chelsey Flood, Tai Dong Huai, Patti Jazanoski, and Lydia Copeland.
What I’ve always liked about Pindeldyboz is how so many of the stories they publish seem small at first–scenes, Christmas muzak, malls, mice, lunch, a few teetering emotions–but always turn irrevocably weird. This isn’t categorical: lots of stuff gets published there that has nothing to do with this feeling of mine. But I feel like Pindeldyboz has an eye for chewy realism in the way that Eyeshot does chicanery or Hobart does mathematician truck driver humor.
All of these magazines have RSS feeds to which you should subscribe, so you won’t even need me–your hot yogurt man, your lumberjack-in-the-rain–to tell you these things. Yes: what I aim for is ultimate dispensibility, also known as “the opposite of sugar” or “not the new Pindeldyboz.”
Soon I will have absolutely no $$ and more books than I can see
Dang. SPD is having a 75% off sale. I am about to call the bank and ask for a loan. ‘For what?’ ‘For more books’ ‘I thought you had books.’ ‘I have books.’ ‘Let’s do it up!’
Underground Library Needs Your Help
PH Madore has started a wikisite called the Underground Library and he needs your help. The idea is that it will grow beyond the basic project that it is and become a useful resource for all of us. If you know a thing or two, take a few minutes to add that information to an already existing article or write a new one if one doesn’t already exist. The process is fairly simple, even for a computer moron like me, so give it a shot. All contributions are welcome and all contributions to contributions are welcome.
From the Lobby:
Why We’re Here
To document, promote, and sustain the literary underground in the most grassroots way possible: relying on the knowledge of said literary underground. To give incoming generations of writers and publishers a sense of history from which they may learn and to which they can contribute. To remain balanced and factual; to bring writing back to the reader.
I’ve tried writing up a few short things for the library based on my limited knowledge (I’ll also be helping with the site when he heads off to Iraq) and so far have posted rough articles on The Cupboard, the ULA, Bear Parade, Avery Anthology, Publishing Genius, and No Colony. Please add to them or change them if you know more than I or can write it in a much clearer way.
Write your own articles too.
Do stuff.
Visit the Where to Begin page or simply type in a search term and edit an existing page/create a new one.
Typography: an analysis
The online literature world can be broken down into two groups: the ‘Bookish’ and the ‘Sophisticated.’ These groups convey their partisanship with fonts. The font world is broken down into either serif (Times New Roman, Garamond, Georgia) or sans-serif (Helvitica, Veranda, Arial). Of course, there are overlaps, but I’m talking about ethos here baby, shit. From editorial discretion to readership disposition, there is no denying font type. Below is an in depth analysis on the demographics of font-people.
I. BOOKISH
‘Bookish’ people have a lot of books on their shelves and smell like libraries. They read a lot, often dense and abstruse stuff that ‘normal Walmart people’ won’t understand. When I list serif-populated websites, you will know exactly what I’m talking about: McSweeney’s, elimae, eyeshot, Prick of the Spindle, pequin, etc. See what I mean? Now can’t you just imagine a bunch of people wearing elbow patches w/ thick-ass glasses in Cambridge reading this stuff? They are very attached to the printed word — with those lyrical cursive-esque ‘thingies.’ These people are likely to drink herbal tea in the afternoon and cry occasionally. You will find an unread copy of Mason & Dixon on their shelf. They are often pale, white, and pudgy. They have uninspired, or even ‘bad’ sex because they are always thinking about grammar.
II. SOPHISTICATED
There’s this documentary “Helvetica” which I found really annoying. It was all these Europeans who ‘went off’ on how they changed the world with that font. Helvetica (or Microsoft’s bastardized version Arial) is used everywhere (picture the Target or JC Penney logo). There’s this idea that sans-serif fonts are more modern and ‘with the times.’ Minimalism, from which sans-serif was derived, attracts cynical people. (None of the propagators were breast-fed.) Here are examples: Muumuu House, HTMLGIANT, No Posit, (most of) Bear Parade, Robot Melon, My Name is Mud, etc. See? Now can’t you just imagine a bunch of people sitting on $2000 design chairs with their German techno in the background eating freakin’ carpaccio off of square plates? These people do not believe in God.
Conclusion: The only non-annoying font-type is braille. : : . . : .
See what I mean?
Give and Take By Stona Fitch
I received Give and Take by Stona Fitch for free from Concord Free Press, which is doing this wacky experiment on “publishing and community” as they explain on their website. Now, part of the deal is I then HAVE to give the book to someone else, which is fine, as my htmlgiant secret santa will be getting it. Also you HAVE to give money away, which again is fine; this time of year I give money away anyway. But in a more general sense, my problem with all this is- I hate people telling me what to do. Nearly always, when someone tells me what to do, my eyes blur a bit and some weird rage lets lose in my brain. Once, I went to a Bikram Yoga class and it was in this heated room and the teacher started the class by saying, “even if you get really hot and feel faint and like you may barf or die and so you want to leave the room, YOU MAY NOT. You cannot leave the room! You can lay down for awhile, but you can’t leave.” Now, people, what happened was, eventually, I felt hot and shitty and I left the room! If someone says do this or you can’t do that- six and half times out of ten, I’m going to do the opposite. Every time my husband says “let’s just split desert” after we’ve had some insanely enormous dinner and we can barely move, I then order three. (One good thing is, he no longer says this for the most part. So now I mostly order two.)
But I digress. Give and Take is a book that chews on issues, a novel of ideas, and something I normally wouldn’t read. I like to read books I normally wouldn’t read, as long as I don’t have to do that twice a week, like when I worked in publishing. And Finch has a good mind, a clean prose style and moves the book along very nicely.
Bookslut Gift Ideas
Bookslut has an Indie Heartthrob Holiday Gift Guide posted. Various indie heartthrobs have kindly offered their tasty Christmas gift ideas.
Good work, Bookslut.
From the guide:
Anne Horowitz (Soft Skull Press): I’ve been checking out the beautiful books from Mark Batty Publisher. At the indie press fair a couple weekends ago, I was torn between Urban Iran by Charlotte Niruzi & Salar Abdoh and Grafitti Japan by Remo Camerota. Both books are visually pleasing as well as thorough and informative guides to their subjects, and I would be glad to see either of them underneath my Christmas tree, if I had one.
Do it, people, and goodnight.