Yankee Pot Roast: One-line lists
Tomorrow I will post a collaborative One-line lists on Yankee Pot Roast, which, as mentioned, I’m guest editing thru Monday. I invite anyone to submit in the comment section. YPR is a humor site, so it should be ‘funny’ — though keep in mind I have a twisted sense of humor. I don’t mean gross (Sam Pink), just twisted. Barry Graham and Matthew Simmons are already in it.
Here’s an example of a one-line ‘humorous’ list:
What I thought carried salmonella
Salmon
Ok, not hilarious, but at least interesting right? Ok. Fuck you too.
If you want to be cited properly, please include your full name spelled correctly. And no offense if/when I don’t pick your entry. I have limited space.
The piece will go up on Yankee Pot Roast Saturday.
Uncategorized / 15 Comments
December 12th, 2008 / 7:31 pm
December 12th, 2008 / 7:31 pm
Scott Wrobel
Like A.S. King, who I wrote about last week, Scott Wrobel’s online fiction moved me to contact him to say, “I really love your stories.” Certain writers evoke such compassion from me that it is a “love” that I feel as opposed to a drier kind of admiration or a gleeful joy. I appreciate the many different experiences that fiction can offer me, but it is possible that the feeling I most desire is that deep sort of compassion that Wrobel brings out in my reading experience. In his story “Peckers” in Night Train, his characters try so hard to make everything OK, truly wish for everything to be OK, but of course it’s not possible. He has equally hilarious and soulful work on Identity Theory and The Rake and elsewhere. His humor is meaningful in that it is a necessary tool in handling the pain and sorrow that take up quite a bit of our short time on this planet. I love his depth – I love his bravery. Check out his website here for more links and enjoy the opening to “Peckers” after the jump:
Home Video Review of Books, Vol 1, Issue 2 now live!
by Julia Cohen & Mathias Svalina. This issue has home video reviews of:
Kim Hyesoon’s Mommy Must Be a Fountain of Feathers
Lisa Jarnot’s Night Scenes
Dan Machlin’s Dear Body
Brett Price’s Trouble with Mapping
John Taggart’s There are Birds
Ara Shirinyan’s Your Country Is Great
Brandon Shimoda’s The Alps
Joel Chace’s Matter No Matter
Jon Godfrey’s City of Corners
Jen Tynes’s Heron / Girlfriend
Anne Heide’s Wiving
Anne Boyer’s Art is War
Darcie Dennigan’s Corinna A-Maying the Apocalypse
Allison Carter’s Shadows are Weather
Mark Cunningham’s Body Language
Chesticles Friday: Tawainese Smooth
This is my friend Wen. He owns a print business. He makes some sweet shirts. I tricked Wen and took this picture of his boob.
This is not juvenile. This is fun.
Uncategorized / 11 Comments
December 12th, 2008 / 3:36 pm
December 12th, 2008 / 3:36 pm
i 1/2 like CAMUS a lot
i have read THE FALL and THE MYTH OF SISYPHUS and i liked THE FALL but not THE MYTH OF SISYPHUS. THE FALL makes me uncomfortable to read. i like it when i feel uncomfortable. when reading THE FALL, i often think things like, “if this person were real, i would be annoyed but probably not say anything because i wouldn’t know what to say and i would just sit there and listen, like i am doing with this book.” THE FALL does that “here is a really thinly disguised book of philosophy outlined in a social situation” thing but i didn’t feel aggravation or even like i should accidentally spill something on it so i would not have to read it anymore. i did not enjoy reading THE MYTH OF SISYPHUS but i will not say anything else because if Camus finds out he will blog in a mean way about me and htmlgiant will fire me and spit on me all at once (that’s how htmlgiant fires people at meetings, a group spitting). in conclusion, Camus = 1/2 awesome.
Orange Alert Holiday Guide
not alicia pernell or ben segal
From Ben Segal:
Dear HTML Giant,
I admit a bit of self-promotion here, because I wouldn’t have found out about this probably if they hadn’t included my book, but I thought you might be interested in knowing about this:
What to Wear During an Orange Alert, which as you know interviews and writes about a lot of the people regularly contributing/featured here, just released their ‘Holiday Guide.’ It has a nice little write up of Sam Pink, plus also 4 other emerging writers, plus a list of the favorite 10 books of the year, 10 small presses doing cool things, and a bunch of art/music/random recommendations as well. It’s a nicely laid out guide to a lot of very exciting small press/general independent media releases from the last year and I thought that it might be of use to Secret Santas and also public Santas and Jews like myself who never actually do Secret Santas because they only make purchases for ex- and/or possible future girlfriends, but still like to buy those gifts from small presses.
Best,
Ben
I downloaded the ‘Holiday Guide’ last night (took me about ten minutes or so), and I’m slowly picking through the PDF file. Lots of recommendations for those looking for gift ideas and for those just interested in seeing what’s new.
Take a look.
Thanks to Alicia Pernell of Yippee Magazine for the tip as well.
Some of our favorite Weaklings: Recent highlights from Dennis Cooper’s blog
Today is “DC’s obscure porn search and rescue mission #8: Suck Cock America! (1972)
Every picture in this post except for this one came from this funny-creepy instructional website about activities for kids that I found while looking for "newspaper hat" pictures for the Pound post earlier. Instead of using MS Paint, why didn't they just give the kids emo haircuts?
The Tree of No by Sandy Florian
from Action Books:
The Tree of No, Sandy Florian’s second book, is now up for sale actionbooks.org. We are not officially releasing it until February, but to celebrate the end of the Year of the Squealing Pig and the start of the Year of Lemurs (All Over Our Bodies) we are starting to sell the books early on our website only.
Here’s an excerpt:
I become pregnant with a hole. Scoop it out and the void comes down on its head. Then give it thanks and sing into the pit. For he is mindful of me. For he is manful on me. I make a beast of him like I make a beast of the bird, like I make a beast of fish, like I make a beast of the sea scrolling under my feet.
This looks amazing. I have already ordered. Action Books is very on point.
While you’re at it, may I recommend Lara Glenum’s THE HOUNDS OF NO, Aase Berg’s REMAINLAND, and Tao Lin’s book if you don’t have it: all three of these I own and love. I also just ordered: MOMMY MUST BE A MOUNTAIN OF FEATHERS. How can you not want a book with that title?
What Ever Happened to Contemporary Press?
I loved the raw noir books that Contemporary Press published, for example, the two Danger City anthologies as well as Tony O’Neill’s Digging the Vein (fantastic junkie lit) and Mike Segretto’s The Bride of Trash. But then, they stopped putting out new books! I decided to contact some of the people and find out what was up. Jeffrey Dinsmore informed me that many of their titles are still available and they hope to publish more books in the future. So, according to him, they are only on haitus. I highly recommend buying some of thier books– which you can find out more about here— if you like funny, dark, inappropriate crime books- think an updated Jim Thompson on meth and the occasional speedball or as GQ said, “books for people who like to drink while they read”. Dinsmore said you also can still get many of their titles from Amazon and other large booksellers, too. And Mike Segretto is putting out his own novel, Curse of The Tarantula, and it will be as over the top and entertaining as his other Contemporary Press work. Here’s what Mike Segretto had to say about the short life (that is not quite over necessarily!) of Contemporary Press:
How Hated Is Jonathan Safran Foer?
The Guardian just released an article about how much shit talking is being directed at Jonathan Safran Foer. Having never read his work, does he really suck that bad?
All I know is that he’s a young successful writer. And from New York. And wears glasses. Wait, I’m looking at his bio photos…I think I hate him…No…Hmm…
From the Guardian comments section:
I always presumed Foer would be exactly the kind of author I would hate. He writes long, self-important books that fill 3 for 2 sections of chain bookstores, marketed perfectly as the clever read for stupid people.
Nice. Read the Guardian article HERE.