…………Crispin Best………….
***
I am very pleased that Crispin Best is my 4th U.K. Spotlight. I’ve enjoyed just about everything I’ve seen or read of his. I am, simply put, a real fan. His tweets are a Ferrari. His website‘s a garage full of Lamborghini (samples of his excellent writing). And his Tumblr is one snazzy racing car after another. (what’s with all the sports car references?? — well, it’s between me and Crispin, eh!).
Crispin’s answers to my questions (my questions steeped in cutesy, showoff puffery and fluff) surprised me a bit like tender marble footsteps fit to baptize or decapitate a king and which knock (knock-knock) like a bronze Beowulf boat against his online personas which are so heroically abrasive (“hi, assholes“- etc), lovable, zany, magnetic, full of swagger and energy.
but, blah, blah, anyways,
.. here’s our interview, which you’d better enjoy! (assholes!)
***
Rauan: which would you rather be called: a “digital Ashbery” or a “Tumblr Catullus” (nothing i’m guessing with “Larkin” in it)? and what truth would there be in either ? (and plz elaborate like we’re at a party in Brooklyn, leaning against a fridge. or between two trees on a summery day in Oxford. Or in a pit. Anything.).
Crispin: i do know an old story about don barthelme telling his writers-blocked student to drink a bottle of red wine and spend all night writing imitations of ashbery, phoning at 4am to check up on them, and how that helped the student. i feel a strong, sad warmth towards don barthelme at all times, but particularly when i think about that story. i like the sound of a tumblr catullus. that seems appealing. mostly i’m happy to be alive. it’s hard and it’s hell but it’s good.
[ the Senor Frogs T-Shirt, fyi, was a shrewd $2 purchase in Tokyo ]
***
RK: beyond your excellent crude and funny persona(s) you seem able to find and show in your heart many beautiful READ MORE >
I Like What The Hell Is Going On Around Here
Ryan Ormonde (zillakiller) writes a blog called Text Messengers that I found randomly. He has discussed, in a heavily stylized form, the work of Leslie Scalapino, Ulises Carrión, Juliana Spahr, Craig Dworkin, Danielle Collobert, Jackson Mac Low, Rosmarie Waldrop, Stéphane Mallarmé, Gertrude Stein, and Samuel Beckett.
I like Crispin Best’s week of NOÖ.
I like tabs a lot a lot.
I like the idea that I am floating on a bunch of other people’s ideas and the idea that I am one of them. I like the idea that we pass these things from one to another like money from a country that doesn’t exist and has no name, or like gigantic translucent rings that arch into the sky. I like thinking that people care about other people, that’s cute. It’s cute to care and caring is sharing ideas.
Justin Taylor—
Dennis Cooper’s blog focuses on Crispin Best’s for every year project, which I did not know about at all, much less that it includes contributions from some of our own contributors and/or fellow-travelers, including Jimmy Chen, Nicolle Elizabeth, Paula Bomer, and the great long-lost Ryan Manning. So that’s cool. Then, down in the comments thread, DC directs our attention to a piece by Weaklings-regular and general purveyor of greatness David Ehrenstein’s interview with Anna Karina in LA Weekly, “Sexual Politics: Godard and Me.” How’s that for Friday afternoon?
4
Conversation with Crispin Best re: Tao Lin
I solicited Crispin Best for a >500 line chat re: Tao Lin for his grassroots promotional campaign. Tao, please contact Crispin for his mailing address and send him SFAA. Please give HTMLGIANT, a supporter of your literature, a 100-line discount to ship over seas (UK) to Crispin. Thanks. (Caveat: if you are easily irritated by Tao or me, or by this campaign, please do not click on more.)
Crispin Best Needs Stuff about 1492
Crispin Best is editing a great project called For Every Year. Here’s a bit from his first post in October of 2008, in which he introduces the site:
A story for every year since 1400.
The story just has to be in honour of that year, it doesn’t have to be set then.
So. For example. Chaucer died in 1400, so that explains that. And. The first written record of whiskey appears in 1405, so that explains that.
Pick a year since 1400.
Write a story dedicated to that year.
Uncategorized / 20 Comments
April 15th, 2009 / 5:22 pm
April 15th, 2009 / 5:22 pm
MEN: AN INTERVIEW WITH THE WRITERS OF “MEN”
it’s what we all look for on the internet: MEN. every day, i open the internet browser and search for men. i don’t always like what i find, but i did like this. it’s a new chapbook from those boys from manchester, socrates adams florou, crispin best and spiros florou. here is the first paragraph, with an interview after the break:
I want to scare children all the time.
When I walk past a school, I press my
face through the railings and stand there,
looking at the children. I wait for them to
be afraid. The children are in their school’s
playground. They feel safe. They are
having fun. I press my face through and
stand there and look at the children.