Caketrain #7 Now Ready for Your Grabbing

Caketrain #7 is now available for order! It features work by Nora Almeida, Arlene Ang, Jonathan Ashworth, Andrew Borgstrom, Travis Brown, Michael Burkard, Tetman Callis, Emily Carr, Roxanne M. Carter, Julie Choffel, Rob Cook, Matthew Curry, Matthew Derby, Nicolle Elizabeth, Margaret Frozena, Noah Gershman, Alina Gregorian, Ariana Hamidi, Colleen Hollister, Chanice Hughes-Greenberg, Lauren Ireland, AD Jameson, Jeff T. Johnson, Michael Jay Katz, Michael Keenan, Marc Kipniss, Darby Larson, Norman Lock, Lisa Maria Martin, Jessica Newman, Alec Niedenthal, Sarah Norek, Carol Novack, R.D. Parker, Emma Ramey, Joanna Ruocco, Zachary Schomburg, Jeanne Stauffer-Merle, Eugenia Tsutsumi, J.A. Tyler, Lesley C. Weston, John Dermot Woods, Joseph Young.

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I’m excited about the cover, which features artwork by Washington DC’s Matthew Curry, whom I met when I lived in Northern Virginia (his wife, Eugenia Tsutsumi, went to Mason with me; she also has a text in the issue, happily).

Here’s an interview with Curry at Diskusdisko. Here is Curry’s Flickr stream.

Really, people, this is my favorite Caketrain cover yet (and they’ve had some awesome covers in the past); I can’t wait to read the insides. Amanda and Joseph, congrats on another good looking issue.

Uncategorized / 14 Comments
October 31st, 2009 / 1:28 am

MWF

mwf5 READ MORE >

Craft Notes & Vicarious MFA / 57 Comments
October 30th, 2009 / 7:35 pm

Gigantic has posted a Halloween web special which, among other things, includes a conversation with Brian Evenson regarding horror films and his work.

Bye Mean Week

cute

That’s that. I had fun a little. People are crazy. Sometimes there are ideas. Thanks for playing.

This weekend is Halloween. Eat some candy? Get drunk if you have to. Wear a costume? I’m thinking of going as William Burroughs, if I go. Might need a fedora and some glasses and come stains and cat hair on a suit, that’s all. What will you be?

This weekend I am reading Thomas Bernhard’s Wittgenstein’s Nephew, which just came out in a new version from Vintage. It feels nice in another, Bernhardian kind of way.

I am also reading Heather Christle’s The Difficult Farm, which also just came out, and which we will run excerpts from and love for all next week. After Mean Week, comes Heather Christle Week. I think it will serve as a fine rainbow.

Another announcement is forthcoming. In the meantime, take your blood around, install a doorstop, and enjoy.

Mean / 33 Comments
October 30th, 2009 / 4:23 pm

I installed a doorstop today and wanted to post instructions in case anyone else needed help installing a doorstop. Email me if you have any questions or suggestions?

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Craft Notes / 36 Comments
October 30th, 2009 / 4:00 pm

Something We Can All Get Behind

Well, MEAN WEEK has been fun–and also deeply damaging, which is as it should be–but the important thing is that it’s over now. Or at least I’m over it. Not sure if it’s meant to carry through the weekend or not, but I’ve personally reached my limit of give as well as take. And so, in the name of reconciliation, I’d like to direct your attention to something that’s bound to unite, not divide-

South Carolina Republican Caught with 18-Year-Old Stripper, Sex Toys, and Viagra in Cemetery.

The best part of the video is Rick Sanchez “reporting” the story by reading user comments off CNN’s twitter page. Later, journalism! You were fun while you lasted. Same to you, MEAN WEEK!

Random / 14 Comments
October 30th, 2009 / 3:32 pm

Ambidextrous Authors and Non-Ambidextrous Authors

AMBIDEXTROUS AUTHORS

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Dorothy Parker, Toni Morrison, and Raymond Carver belong to a group of ambidextrous authors who have the facility to place both hands at the sides of their respective cheeks simultaneously. During photo shoots, they are keen on demonstrating this ability. Their adroit use of two hands at the keyboard have led to prolific and sprawling careers. Their contracts stipulate that they are “paid by the palm,” which means more gin n’ tonic for all (some pills too). Some have suggested that they misinterpret the phrase “turn the other cheek,” and are struggling to turn both at once. Jesus has nothing to do with this business; Zion is crowded as it is. The ambidextrous are witty, black, and depressed — but never at the same time.

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Mean / 19 Comments
October 30th, 2009 / 2:54 pm

2009/10/29 at 12:28pm   i feel offended by this, this seems wrong and counter-productive
2009/10/29 at 12:38pm   man this post is so dumb, i am so done with this site
2009/10/29 at 12:41pm   i hate all of you i am never coming back here again
2009/10/29 at 12:43pm   what does this mean? you are such a douchebag i can’t even believe it
2009/10/29 at 12:55pm   i saw her read one time, it was OK, i was kind of bored, i like her book it’s OK
2009/10/30 at 2:38pm     lol
2009/10/30 at 2:38pm     this is stupid, boring
2009/10/31 at 8:38am     i am never coming back here again
2009/10/31 at 9:38am     this is dumb, why are all of you so dumb

Varieties of Contempt (a guest response from Christian Lorentzen to JC)

Christian Lorentzen sends word post-occasion of Jimmy’s hipster post; via “Varieties of Contempt”:

Would I accept several thousand dollars in exchange for shooting
myself in the kneecap? Yes, and when the bald man asks for my head on
a stake, hand it to him. He didn’t earn his vulgarity, so we had to
mark him a B+. You can blame the 70s, but it was really the 60s. Much
besides your life depends on exhibiting your best behavior in that
brothel. I myself prefer polite mediocrity to rude talent, but there
are plenty of nice restaurants in this city. He’s not a great chef,
he’s a good chef who shined a great chef’s shoes for years. What’s
funny is when they release those studies that show they are reading
less. Wasn’t the first thing we learned in school the fact that
they’re mostly a silly bunch of guys? He must be stopped before I get
slapped with a health-code violation. Mother, may I have a second can
of soda today? No, it will rot your syntax. I feel lonely when I look
in the mirror but not as lonely as I feel when you are here, so just
stretch your toes into the sea. If it demonstrates form, some people
will take an axe to it. Style is the ultimate weapon, and if you can
combine it with authenticity, you’ve got a great scam going. Welcome
to my femininity, and let me tell you about the dental plan. Two
Californians walk into a bar, and a Mississippian tells them their
problem is that they didn’t first love apple pie. I construct
narrative arks, that’s what I do. The crucial hour begins at three in
the morning. He failed to turn his neck as they were coming out of the
shade, so now they’re stuck with each other. I’m sorry about your
baby. The scandal will be good for your health. Look forward to a
cleansing effect. I feel unable to connect with it, so let’s just play
it up really big and make it sell. Hold the center or it will hold
you. Summer’s surprise was a feeling of generalized hatred, like a man
standing over you and threatening your life, or someone who thanks you
for your attention and cites it as a valuable service to the
community. I called it nihilism, and he called it several forms of
negation. You like to say it’s complicated, but actually it’s simple
to the point of crudity. It’s all right, but I wish it was as big as
my ego, which will now take off his shirt. That winter, the worst ever,
all the snowflakes were identical. I gave myself to you but never got
a receipt. Now for the worst moment of your career. Go away, go away.

Random / 124 Comments
October 30th, 2009 / 1:02 pm

Who Is Justin Taylor?

facebook blankI’m not about to tell you, except for this: Justin Taylor is very dear to me, and I to him. He even dedicated his–wait for it–chapbook to me. No joke. Some days, we are engaged to be married. We’ll have an early-morning wedding, family only, with a luncheon of cold meats and fowls following. But you don’t know me too well, either, so none of that info should really affect what I’m soliciting from you.

Knowing Justin heaps better than any one of you, I always love to read all the inaccurate insults hurled at him by HTMLGiant peeps. But there haven’t been nearly enough this Mean Week, for my liking. I would like to provide one place, right here, to collect all the wild misconceptions, ad-hominem attacks, and elaborate speculations. I’m especially interested in the latter. It seems that people here have especially detailed mental images of who this man is. Please share, right here, at the end of Mean Week. Don’t hold back. It’ll be more fun than hating on Tao Lin (are they really roommates!?!?!), I promise, because Mr. Taylor is more truly our own.

Author Spotlight & Mean / 113 Comments
October 30th, 2009 / 12:41 pm