January 2010

SURFING FOR WRITERS

riding giants

So last night while I was under hypnosis, my hypnotherapist, who is also a friend from school, was trying to return me to the memory of being in a mental & physical place where I could write with intense focus and without distractions.  And something fairly strange happened.
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Craft Notes & Random / 82 Comments
January 12th, 2010 / 11:37 am

Barry Graham shoutout at Chicago Now. He’ll be reading tonight at Quickies! (along with others who glow like tongue-cannons)

When you wake up this morning, before you start in on eating your greasy sausage, start your day by eating a poem at No Tell Motel. They feature one poet each week, one poem posted each work day.

Check out the future contributors below,  plan a year of healthy mornings.

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Uncategorized / 4 Comments
January 12th, 2010 / 2:46 am

A Note from the Tyrant

The Tyrant Giancarlo Ditrapano sends a word:

Hullo. The New York Tyrant has opened submissions again. I know, I know. It’s been awhile, but hold off on giving me shit before I have a chance to explain. See, I have this huge fear of submissions readers. Besides pieces suggested from friends, I am the only reader I have. That’s a bad idea, I know. The reason why I won’t take on any readers is due to the fear that they might pass over something good. I mean, I know I don’t have magic eyes or anything but what if something really great got passed up? To avoid this I’ve always had a small submissions window in order to not get too bogged down and forced to make hasty decisions. I mean, staring down a pile of slush and saying, “I’m fixing to end you, you mother,” and then going at it and throwing them so fast into the rejection pile that you never really have a chance to read their name, well, it ain’t so fair. You’d be lucky if I even got past your title. Sometimes even the first name is as far as I’d get (“There is no way I am publishing another fucking Thomas this year, sorry!”). That would be terrible. Then I would be at the bar later on, drunk, doing drugs in the bathroom with someone I don’t even like and I’d be telling them, “Yeah, I went through like 200 submissions today.” And he’d be, “That’s impossible.” And I’d be, “No, it isn’t, I’ll show you. How much of that is left? Let’s go back to mine and I’ll show you.” And we’d go back to mine and I’d say, “See!” and he’d say the slush pile looks like I didn’t really go through it but just kind of moved it to the side a bit. And he’d be right. And I’d be sad. And you’d be cheated.

But I met someone though. I took a class on plumbing this summer and met someone I think I can trust. Luke Goebel. He’ll be handling the direct submissions for now. Great guy. Plus, he lives a magical kind of life. The other day he was swimming with dolphins in fucking Hawaii (sounds cheesy but you just know it isn’t cheesy at all once you’re doing it) and an hour later was rejecting submissions for me. I need that kind of sunny extension of myself because I’m a fucking mess. It’s freezing cold in New York, my apartment is getting smaller (it really is!), and I am almost done smoking all of the non-menthol cigarettes in Hell’s Kitchen. I can no longer read the labels on my prescriptions (“Wait, is that even my name?”) and I’m thinking about shaving my head. I need a man in Havana (nonsense). I need a Marlow (not nonsense).

So, you still mad? Cool. Submissions are open. Please put it inside me. submissions@nytyrant.com

P.S. Check our submissions page first. There are only like two rules.

P.P.S. Disregard the cash prize thing on postcard. Shit’s old.

Uncategorized / 17 Comments
January 12th, 2010 / 12:26 am

“I am more proud of the books I have read than the books I have written.”   Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevdeo

A Failed Entertainment

Guess I gotta start making plans again to go back to NY:

The Gallery at the LeRoy Neiman Center for Print Studies Presents:

A FAILED ENTERTAINMENT
Selections from the filmography of James O. Incandenza
Exhibition Dates: Jan 29 – Feb 19th
Opening Reception: Friday, Jan 29th, 6-8 pm
Film Screening to take place during opening reception.

Included as a footnote in Wallace’s novel is the Complete filmography of James O. Incandenza, a detailed list of over 70 industrial, documentary, conceptual, advertorial, technical, parodic, dramatic non-commercial, and non-dramatic commercial works. The LeRoy Neiman Gallery has commissioned artists and filmmakers to re-create seminal works from Incandenza’s filmography.

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Film / 31 Comments
January 11th, 2010 / 5:44 pm

Poeteevee is a new online poetry video series curated by A. Lee Abelson. First two readers are the magnificent CAConrad and the legendary Eileen Myles. Check it out.

Boooring

I’ve been to a lot of readings. Most of them are incredibly boring.

I’ve also been to some shows. Whereas the bands aren’t always good, I’d rarely categorize them as “boring.”

I’ve also been to some art openings. Sure, there are usually obnoxiously pretentious people there, but again, not “boring.”

So what makes going to readings boring? The way I see it, almost anything can make a reading be a complete failure: you could be a bad reader (read too fast, too slow, too soft, too loud, etc.); you could be reading a bad reading piece (because let’s be honest: not everything written sounds good out loud); the room could be unamenable (too loud, too quiet, too bright, etc. etc.); the list could go on.

But what makes a good reading? What makes a reading NOT boring?

I’ve got some readings coming up over the next few months, and I’d prefer not to be a boring reader.

Also, when you go to readings, what is it that you want to hear? Would you rather hear something published, something forthcoming, or something brand spanking new?

Random / 73 Comments
January 11th, 2010 / 5:00 pm

Inside Willie Wonka’s Chocolate Factory: McSweeney’s 33—Panorama

I’ve always likened McSweeney’s to Willie Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. Behind their magical doors are editors (OOMPA LOOMPA) who get to publish a quarterly literary magazine with a different, wildly imaginative concept each and every time and they have the means and reach to do almost anything they want. An issue as a direct mail concern? If you please. An issue as a box of cards? No problem. A hard cover book? Easy. A ridiculously large 8.5 lb. broadside? Why yes. Of course.

Leading up to its publication, there was a great deal of hype about McSweeney’s San Francisco Panorama—a- literary magazine cum newspaper printed in full color, that would offer a new perspective on the potential and possibilities afforded by the beleaguered newspaper. I ordered my copy of Panorama (a whopping $16 so not at all like a newspaper) and it arrived recently.

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Uncategorized / 28 Comments
January 11th, 2010 / 4:35 pm