Sunday, April 27, 2008

kse...

new work by Adrian Manning and Bill Shute over at KSE.

right hand pointing...

I have one poem in the latest issue. the whole thing is a good read.

check it out.

them Noot boys...

the Noot freakshow is hitting its stride and recently backed Sleepy Brown on a track (he did the hook for Big Boi's "The Way You Move," if ya didn't know...).

funky. you can listen to Livin' The Life here.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

wonderful!...

keep on consuming everyone! everything is limitless with no consequences! don't bother paying attention to what you eat! don't do the slightest bit of research into what you give your goddamn kids (and partake of yourself every day in some fashion)! ignore any evidence that the dollar might be in some kind of trouble! drive on with your big trucks! enjoy your credit cards! america is the land of the free!

and etc.

Monday, April 21, 2008

small press poets take note...

"...if you put a musician in a place where he has to do something different from what he does all the time, then he can do that - but he's got to think differently in order to do it. He has to use his imagination, be more creative, more innovative; he's got to take risks. He's got to play above what he knows - far above it - and... what that might lead to might take him above that! So he'll be freer, will expect things differently, he will anticipate and know something different is coming down. Play above what you know, then anything can happen, and that's where great art and music happens..." - Miles Davis

good advice. what's the function of art after all? is it just to get our feelings out? I thought that's why people had diaries. I mean, when does the graduation occur from 'my kid could paint that' writing to something larger, to something that strives to really explore the possibilities of poetry written in simple but musical language? it's a problem of personal ambition and a lack of real passion for the artform as a means of deeper expression, I think. and also a surplus of self-satisfaction with less than one's best effort.

Miles never looked back, couldn't stand to repeat himself in his search for a way "in." I mean, I think I've read that poem that continues to be writ these days more than enough, and, really, isn't there anything else to say? hell, even that bullshit flarf is more interesting than hearing folks' journal entries again and again and again. and also: who cares how tough some poet thinks they are if their poems aren't saying anything? it's just silly romanticism at some point, no?

anyway, I suppose it's no different from staying at a job you hate or in a relationship you can no longer tolerate or in a town you've long ago grown sick of simply because it's comfortable. people keep writing the same poetry because it's comfortable. easy. no fear of rejection or mistakes. better the monster you know, right?

bah, of course it's all moot if our economy continues to collapse. then we'll all be writing poems about what it's like to live in a world where we all work just so we can afford to put gas in the car to get to work to put gas in the car while an endless War On TehRoar offshores the rest of our treasury. maybe we'll have time to write poems while standing in line for food?

just saying...

Friday, April 18, 2008

almost gone...

david at sunnyoutside says that Flowers In The Shadow Of The Storm is nearly sold out, so if any of you six readers are lacking that title, now's the time to pick one up.

hey, it's perfect for your spring break reading or as a nice drink coaster for beers by the pool. and later this summer, you can get Hosho's sunnyoutside book to replace it when the damn thing gets all soggy and gross.

oh yes: and it'll be good reading in your bunker for when martial law is declared after whatever is on the way happens and Our Leader doesn't leave office so that we are all safe and warm and protected. otherwise, I am voting for this guy:

"I got next."

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

featured...

Hosho McCreesh and Caleb Puckett's edition of KSE's Next Exit series is featured in Orange Alert's "Spotlight."

if you don't have it, there are only about 15 copies left and I suggest you get off yer ass and buy one, kids. as Jason at OA notes, Hosho is a "...legend in the small press..." and this book is gonna sell out soon.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

poethound interview...

with yours truly.

check it out, it's a short read.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

lit shiz...

bill shute at KSE has asked me to boil up some wine, turn on some excellent Ennio Morricone, and wring some poems out of the thick, greasy midnight for his Sound Library series. we'll see what comes of this experiment; the release is slated for mid summer...

funny...

nate graziano posted this on his blog and it's very white to repost it on my blog. I guess I too am a white person in many ways...

and this makes me laugh, no matter how many times I click it much to the chagrin of the missus, who thinks I'm stupid.

I don't get out often...

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

bob dylan...

hosho mccreesh...

succinct...

Thursday, April 03, 2008

sweet...

bill roberts at Bottle of Smoke Press recently began introducing limited run hardback versions of his publications, such as Father Luke's book and the upcoming book by Hosho McCreesh, to accompany the larger print run. they are gorgeous and sell out in minutes after being announced. lucky me, big bill decided he wanted a hardback version of my BOSP book; in the mail today I found one of two copies of And Still The Night Left To Go handbound in red cloth boards with the watercolor typewriter painting fixed upon it. I tell you what: for all the talk of online vs. print in the poetry/lit world, for all the talk of readers and hits and such, nothing and I mean NOTHING compares to holding a work of art like this. I mean, assembled by hand, people. a real live motherfucking book. I say: fuck Kindle and etc. you can't hold a candle to an actual book (heh, seriously, don't) and you can't beat the exacting perfection of a true craftsman who loves his work.

and hell, what happens when the trucks stop moving thru the intertubes? whatcha gonna read then? where's your news coming from? your literature? where are your online mags now? I mean, ease and low cost and visibility is dandy, but it is just so fleeting, so illusory. now, don't get me wrong, online is fine for some things, no question, even up to and including publishing poetry. I do it. I sometimes send work to online mags. here is my blog. I use it ravenously for news and information, for communication. I think the internet is one of the greatest inventions the military industrial complex has generated (especially as it constantly bites them in the ass, no matter how easy it is to track our every move and record the minutae of our lives in an NSA database) it's much like the CIA testing under the MK Ultra program in the sixties yielding culture transforming open minds like ken kesey and robert hunter; sometimes the genie won't go back in the bottle. so it's how you use the tools that matters, I suppose, and what you're trying to accomplish. if you want the cave painting that endures and informs whomever may come after us, if you're leaving it behind to rot for maybe one person to find, if it's a record of our passing like a weathered photograph in an old album you're after, you're gonna need a book. words carved into paper with ink sitting on a shelf gathering dust. no question, the internet is great for getting readers of those words, for helping book makers sell their works of art so they can keep doing it, etc. and if the end goal of most writing is communication on some level, then what a perfect tool.

but in the end, you can't beat items like this:


sorry there are only two of em, folks (click the picture; you can almost feel the cloth under your fingers). but you can get on the list to get McCreesh's hardback edition of Marching Unabashed Into The Weeping, Searing Sun... due out very soon (with original painting). there are only going to be 26 of em I believe [oops, see comments for UPDATE on availability from bill himself]...

fuck...

Yoo.
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