M Sarki with an interesting defense (I guess) of Gordon Lish at EWN. I found the intrigue here in Sarki, not in Lish (not so riveting to revisit the Carver thing). Not sure I’ve seen such reliance on another in judging an individual work. Sarki sends his poems to Lish via mail then gets a YES, NO, or SO SO written on the poem. Sarki writes:
But after so many years of working with him I pretty much have a feel for what he’ll like and what he won’t. I get mostly a Yes these days.
What always astounds me about the Internet is the speed with which it can respond to all things new. Meet Digital Americana, the “first” literary magazine made for the Apple iPad. That’s pretty crafty, getting to the head of that line before the iPad is even available. They’re accepting submissions if you want to get in on the newness and firstness and such. In the past year, I’ve seen literary magazines for cellphones, Twitter, the Kindle and on and on and on. To simply create a magazine for readers feels kind of old-fashioned. I like old-fashioned.
“He’d say, ‘If it is familiar, it has not eaten you yet.’ ” -on cognitive fluency and disfluency.
GW: My only interest in photographing is photography. That’s really the answer. -an interview with photographer Garry Winogrand.
Yes yes yes! Bookforum editor and The Awl contributor Chris Lehmann has signed a book deal with Or Books–he’s expanding Rich People Things, a series originally for The Awl. Details here. Congratulations, Chris!
Weak human + machine + better process was superior to a strong computer alone and, more remarkably, superior to a strong human + machine + inferior process. -Garry Kasparov on chess and computers.
&
Jean-Paul Sartre deserves photoshop corrective eye surgery. Being and Nothingness can now finally feel normal, without the half-gaze of genius ripping your mind apart.
Not usually this early in the morning, but as a mild laxative.
Go easy on the beer. And lay off the hard liquor until I get back.
Honey, drinking is war.
Surprised?
Drinking is a way of ending the day.
Got tight last night on absinthe and did knife tricks.
Are you stiff?
Don’t try to make a mystery of it.
Do I know you?
Was the young mechanic drunk?
You’re very glum. My sore throat is over. Let’s swim now.
In Meeting People is Easy, that boring-as-hell documentary about Radiohead from back when Radiohead was an important rock band, Thom Yorke goes to a fancy restaurant but can’t get in. (A maitre’ d with taste!) As he’s walking away, one of the meatheads in line goes, “Hey Radiohead, write a song about it!”
I love heckling, and I love getting heckled. Probably the funniest jab at me came when I was playing an Elvis Costello song at an open-mic when a soggy guy at the back of the bar yelled, “Hey, do you know any Elvis Costello?”
There are some very cool poems by Sophie Klahr up at the new issue of Strange Machine, particularly pond poem and the folding bird-like poem.
At Vice, a text/image collaboration between Brian Evenson and John Sellekaers, excerpted from a book length work.
