(some of) Mark Sanford’s (old) emails to “Maria”
Not pictured: Argentine sex kitten.
[Hat tip to my friend Pete for the link.] Well kids, another day, and another Republican turns out to be a lyin’ cheatin’ AWOL SOB. But I give the presumably-soon-to-be-ex-Governor credit for one thing–he’s a pretty decent prose stylist. He’s erotic, but not too trashy, and he’s upfront about his emotions and his mixed feelings, but you never get the impression he’s at loose ends. Check out this passage, from July 8 of last year.
[…] I went out and ran the excavator with lights until the sun came up. To me, and I suspect no one else on earth, there is something wonderful about listening to country music playing in the cab, air conditioner running, the hum of a huge diesel engine in the back ground, the tranquillity that comes with being in a virtual wilderness of trees and marsh, the day breaking and vibrant pink coming alive in the morning clouds – and getting to build something with each scoop of dirt.
Fuckin’ poetry, man. As I was just saying to Jeremy Schmall in gchat, if I was sleeping with this guy, and he was writing me letters like this, I’d totes be sticking around to see how things panned out. Read all they’ve got up so far (they promise more to come) here.
RELATED (in a sense): Greta Christina’s classic essay, “Are We Having Sex Now Or What?” (via Susie & Aretha Bright at Jezebel)
Justin Taylor—
Hot stuff! In another commerce-related newsbreak, I just learned that Michaelangelo Antonioni’s Zabriskie Point is finally available on US-formatted DVD. Have I mentioned that my birthday is June 29th? Just sayin’.
Slavoj Žižek gives capitalism a shot
Lamenting the 21st Century? There's an ap for that.
pr—
Hey, do you guys know this site called ireadashortstorytoday.com? I was thinking of starting a site called ireadashortstorttodaytoomotherfucker.com. Maybe because the dude wrote a bad review of one of my stories? Nah.
Exclusive(ish) Report: Is Your Creativity Quietly Dying?
Over on the New York Time’s Papercuts blog, they do this thing called Stray Questions, where they ask different authors the same three questions: what are you working on right now, what are you reading right now, and how does the internet help or hinder your work? Simple enough. Writers can blabber on and on about whateverthehell they’re reading at the moment, and some are willing to talk about their brilliant but unfinished novels, but it’s that last question that gets me. I like Geoff Dyer’s answer the best. Here it is:
It helps in all the obvious ways but mainly it hinders. Where it used to gnaw and nibble away at my ability to concentrate, now it is taking huge great chomps and I fear that soon I will have absolutely no ability to concentrate on anything, will be floundering in a state of endless distraction for the rest of my days and will never accomplish anything again READ MORE >
Blake Butler—
Good lord man! New ‘abstract comic’ themed Action Yes; new Harp & Altar (w/ Kate Greenstreet, Joanna Ruocco, Lisa Jarnot, Eileen Myles); new Memorious (w/ Aaron Burch, Thomas Cooper, Xu Xi). We’ve got some reading to do.
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Justin Taylor—
New York dwellers, get ’em while they’re hot: Yesterday I was up at BookCulture (formerly Labyrinth Books) on 112th and Broadway, where they always have tons of blowout-priced remainder specials, but yesterday’s findings were so exciting I just can’t keep them to myself: The Collected Poems of Kenneth Koch, in hardback, for $10– marked down from the original jacket price of $40 (!!!). Now keep in mind that this doesn’t include KK’s longer poems, which comprise a volume of approximately equal size and price…oh wait. What? The Collected Longer Poems is sitting right there on that same table, also in hardback, and also just ten bucks. They’ve also got big discounts (I think half off) on handsome hardback first-editions of Notes from the Air (Ashbery’s selected later poems), and Hiding Man, Tracy Daugherty’s ass-kicking biography of Donald Barthelme. Plus like 100 other things, but any one of the above-mentioned is already reason enough to drag yourself uptown.