HTMLGIANT | the internet literature magazine blog of the future | Page 488

Phone is ringing, oh my gawd, it’s a giveaway

Telephone is a new journal. Here’s their introduction:

The first issue features poems by Uljana Wolf which are translated by Mary Jo Bang, Christian Hawkey, Susan Bernofsky and more (a damn impressive list; that “more” doesn’t mean “friends of the publisher”). They all translate the same poems, so you can contrast and compare (samples here).

Paul Legault and the editorial crew of Telephone are offering 5 copies of this first issue to htmlgiant readers with a contest. Here’s the game, according to Paul:

I think it would be a good idea to get people to mis/un/dis-translate Alexander Graham Bell’s first telephone message:

‎“Watson, come here! I want to see you!”

And give 5 books to the best five, as judged by the editors.

I take that to mean: translate Bell’s first message any way you want. Do it in Spanish or Klingon or English or whatever. Translation is hip, as Lord Buckley showed Groucho Marx. **UPDATE: Entries must be posted by 12pm Eastern on Friday the 17th.**

And set your cell to vibrate this Friday at their release party:

Time: September 17 · 7:30pm
Place: 177 Livingston, Brooklyn, NY

Freaking NYC man. This looks like a great reading.

Contests / 43 Comments
September 13th, 2010 / 10:10 am

Christopher Higgs

Mud Luscious Press ‘Blind Faith’ subscription deal

Mud Luscious Press is offering a ‘Blind Faith’ subscription deal: If you are willing to trust us on the titles & authors of our 2011 catalogue without any cover takes or blurbs, then we’ll reward you by knocking the price down. So until mid-October, we’ll give you all the 2011 titles for $35, including:

GRIM TALES by Norman Lock, THE HIEROGLYPHICS by Michael Stewart, I AM A VERY PRODUCTIVE ENTREPRENEUR by Mathias Svalina, [ C. ] an mlp stamp stories anthology, plus handmade chapbook volumes from Jessica Newman, Stephen Gropp-Hess, Neila Mezynski, Kristina Marie Darling, John H. Henry, Andrew Borgstrom, Ani Smith, & others

Get in on this deal here

Uncategorized / 16 Comments
September 12th, 2010 / 11:26 pm

Reynard Seifert

Off-camera, Alfred Hitchcock says, “We’re gonna have chicken for dinner tonight.”

The posthuman is merely the subhuman that results whenever people aspire to the superhuman.
– Garret Keizer (On ‘postmen’ in this month’s Harper’s)

Dick Cavett: What psychology do you use on a seagull?

Hitchcock: Birdseed.

READ MORE >

Random / 5 Comments
September 12th, 2010 / 2:00 pm

Lily Hoang

On the extent of my errors

Forever, I thought solipsism was one’s belief that she is the center of the universe. This seemed to be a logical definition to me, “sol” after all means “sun.” Also, someone who is solipsistic is egotistical, duh. I mean: my definition made sense. To me, at least.

I started this post with something profound to say.

I was going to say: Logic would tell us that solipsism derives from ego, the inflation of self to the point that one believes she is the center of the universe, planets rotating around her; however, solipsism comes from a deep sense of insecurity and nothing else.

But I was wrong. Solipsism is not the belief that one is the center of this galaxy. Solipsism does not equate self with the sun, a star. No, solipsism is “the view or theory that self is the only object of real knowledge or the only thing really existent” (OED). It’s etymology does not come from “sol” meaning “sun” but from “solus” meaning “alone,” easy mistake, sure.

Shakedown YouTube Money

1. Tomorrow in New York, The Rumpus Summer Shakedown.

2. The YouTube Time Machine.

3. I just read the James Gendron’s Money Poems chapbook from Poor Claudia, really loved it. Occulty money mesmerism with good brainlaughs. Wonderful. Poor Claudia makes beautiful books.

Roundup / 6 Comments
September 12th, 2010 / 12:03 pm

Adam Robinson

What the hell is the world coming to?

I went to a gala of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s tonight, where they performed an exceptional program. I never saw a room of Beethoven-lovers so enchanted by fucked up avant-garde prepared shit. The whole program was amazing. A soprano, mic-less, hummed an aria, wtf. Some world-renown violinist played what I took to be a broken violin. And the first piece struck me as a cooler Philip Glass thing. It was the “Danza Final” by Alberto Ginastera. Never heard of him. I looked it up on Youtube and found it, but this one is done by those things, the squeeze box. Get a load:

Music / 14 Comments
September 11th, 2010 / 11:54 pm

Blake Butler

The Inception Trailer A Capella

[via FilmDrunk]

Film / 14 Comments
September 11th, 2010 / 1:26 pm

Blake Butler

“Source” New Work by Mike Germon & Truett Dietz

If you happen to be in Atlanta tonight, this is where you should be. Saw the opening preview last night [which Eugene Marten read at, from Firework, brutal] and it is gorgeous and exciting show. At Beep Beep Gallery 8-11. If you are not in Atlanta, you can also check out more of their work online:Mike Germon | Truett Dietz.

Here’s a video of Germon trying to build a ceiling-high tower of books, which didn’t last, and in the show is altered to a kind of book pyramid:

Events / 6 Comments
September 11th, 2010 / 12:51 pm

HTMLGIANT Features

Christopher Higgs

From The Classroom

Having just finished week three of the fall semester, I thought I’d share a list of the films I’ve screened (so far) for my “Introduction to 20th Century Experimental Short Stories” class.

I open every class session by arriving about ten minutes early and starting up an experimental film, so as students trickle into the classroom they can transition out of the ordinary and into our “unique learning environment” — which is my clever way of saying “very strange class” — plus, I like making interdisciplinary connections between the texts we’re reading and other art forms, as a way of creating and extending a wider conversation around the idea of artistic experimentation in general.

Anyway…

On the first day of class the students were met with Ryan Trecartin – P.opular S.ky (section ish) (2009), which is a really good way to blow minds right off the bat.

From there, it went like this…

People I Know Doing Things I Like What The Hell Is Going On Over Here

I met Hamilton Morris when he was in San Francisco back in early July. I met him first at a show at the Thrasher warehouse, way the hell out in Bayview, where I skinned my tailbone sliding ass first down a half-pipe. The next day I spotted him, like me, bleary-eyed trying to find the way to a rowdy Oh Sees show at the Serra Bowl in Daly City. I asked him what he was doing for the Fourth, which was the next day. He said he was going to take ecstasy with the man who popularized it, for an episode of his webshow “Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia” on VBS.TV. I said, Word, I think, or something like that. Anyway, that episode “SiHKAL: Shulgin’s I Have Known And Love” just aired. I think Hamilton probably didn’t take ecstasy with him — dude is kind of old, I dunno.