Jimmy Chen—
Jean-Paul Sartre deserves photoshop corrective eye surgery. Being and Nothingness can now finally feel normal, without the half-gaze of genius ripping your mind apart.
19
It is Friday: Go Right Ahead
Not usually this early in the morning, but as a mild laxative.
Go easy on the beer. And lay off the hard liquor until I get back.
Honey, drinking is war.
Surprised?
Drinking is a way of ending the day.
Got tight last night on absinthe and did knife tricks.
Are you stiff?
Don’t try to make a mystery of it.
Do I know you?
Was the young mechanic drunk?
You’re very glum. My sore throat is over. Let’s swim now.
Cream Pies
In Meeting People is Easy, that boring-as-hell documentary about Radiohead from back when Radiohead was an important rock band, Thom Yorke goes to a fancy restaurant but can’t get in. (A maitre’ d with taste!) As he’s walking away, one of the meatheads in line goes, “Hey Radiohead, write a song about it!”
I love heckling, and I love getting heckled. Probably the funniest jab at me came when I was playing an Elvis Costello song at an open-mic when a soggy guy at the back of the bar yelled, “Hey, do you know any Elvis Costello?”
Alexis Orgera—
There are some very cool poems by Sophie Klahr up at the new issue of Strange Machine, particularly pond poem and the folding bird-like poem.
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Blake Butler—
At Vice, a text/image collaboration between Brian Evenson and John Sellekaers, excerpted from a book length work.
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What do you think about book trailers?
Over at Salon.com, Laura Miller has a piece called “Never coming to a screen near you: Why promoting books with movie-style trailers is a silly idea.” Here’s a snippet of her argument:
Alas, Web videos are even more numerous than books, and as with books, the vast majority of them go unwatched and uncelebrated. A few manage to command that most mysterious of all magical powers, word of mouth, and become sensations, but that kind of success is as impossible to force as an “Oprah” booking. In the meantime, an author’s energies have been funneled into a project that’s unlikely to yield many results.
Here is an example:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1chqggKw_Ds&feature=player_embedded
Justin Taylor—
NYC Area Alert: The launch party for LIT #17 (the journal of the New School graduate writing program) is tonight at Housing Works bookstore & cafe. Sasha Fletcher, Phillip Gardner, Anne Ray, and the inimitable Jennifer L. Knox will be rendering their readerly services. The facebook page claims that space is limited and so you need to RSVP if you’re going, but my bet is that if you show up, they’ll figure out a way to get you in. I am very excited about this and planning to attend, so think about your desire to hear these readers, weigh it against your desire to potentially interact with me, and plan your evening accordingly.