kevin weidner

A Map of All the Trees in America

2012-01-19T17:31:00.001-06:00

And here's a link to the article about it.

New year, new work

2012-01-08T07:49:00.004-06:00

Here's what's happened:

My lyric essay "Here Is a Story of There" is in Super Arrow #5

Two poems from my Jesse James series are in the Country Dog Review #7

My short story "Tavern Bluff" is in Midwestern Gothic #4

Jesse James strikes Country Dog Review

2011-12-28T18:57:00.003-06:00

Two poems from my Jesse James series will be in the Spring/Summer 2012 issue of Country Dog Review

Here Is a Story of There

2011-11-26T13:55:00.003-06:00

One of my lyric essays, "Here Is a Story of There," will be in the next issue of Super Arrow

Tavern Bluff

2011-11-15T06:56:00.001-06:00

One of my stories, "Tavern Bluff," will be in the next issue of Midwestern Gothic

Jesse James strikes PANK

2011-11-05T15:23:00.005-05:00

Two poems from my Jesse James series are in the newest issue of PANK, along with work by fellow Alabamans Rachel Adams and Matthew Mahaney. Will be released sometime in January.

751 MAGAZINE ISSUE FIVE is LIVE

2011-10-23T10:43:00.001-05:00

What the Mail Brought

2011-09-28T09:27:00.002-05:00

Brad Watson's Last Days of the Dog-Men.

Richard Ford's Rock Springs.

Poems in storySouth

2011-09-21T13:14:00.002-05:00

Two excerpts from my Jesse James series in storySouth #32.

Crimes in Southern Indiana

2011-09-13T12:44:00.003-05:00

Started reading Frank Bill's Crimes in Southern Indiana, which was just released by Farrar, Straus and Giroux on August 30th.

So far so good.

Hoping to write a review of it when I finish.

The Name of the Nearest River

2011-09-09T16:56:00.002-05:00

I just finished reading Alex Taylor's first collection of stories, The Name of the Nearest River, and I highly recommend it.

It was put out last year by Sarabande, that fantastic Louisville press.

Go order it.

from Alabama

2011-09-01T13:14:00.003-05:00

1. [THE PROBLEM CENTERS HERE], a poem by AB Gorham in DIAGRAM.

from Alabama

2011-08-27T12:52:00.002-05:00

1. "Oxbow," a short piece / long sentence of creative nonfiction by Betsy Seymour in Matter Press' Journal of Compressed Creative Arts.

Jesse James strikes storySouth

2011-08-22T10:44:00.002-05:00

Two poems from my "Jesse James" manuscript are forthcoming in storySouth.

First Aid Kit

2011-08-06T13:04:00.001-05:00

been listening nonstop to First Aid Kit's album "The Big Black & the Blue."

so good.

Ruth Lilly

2011-08-05T14:15:00.003-05:00

I'm honored to be a finalist for the 2011 Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship.

Winners announced by September 1st.

RTR.

My Newport Folk Fest Lineup 2011 (Saturday)

2011-07-27T00:47:00.001-05:00

Saturday

Sallie Ford & the Sound Outside

The Felice Brothers

Freelance Whales

and then somehow I need to decide between Pokey LaFarge and Earl Scruggs? Leaning towards Pokey (StL represent).

and unfortunately I've got to sacrifice The Devil Makes Three for Gillian Welch (oh my sweet goodness).

and screw the Decemberists. Ramblin' Jack is on the Harbor Stage.

Trek, Trace [a new blog project]

2011-07-24T01:24:00.003-05:00

Annie and I have started a blog called "Trek, Trace" to document our visits to strange & neat places we hear about and explore, places we seek out, and places we stumble upon accidentally.

Our first entry is on Tavern Rock Cave in Missouri.

2011-07-10T02:12:00.002-05:00

This is where I am.

View Larger Map

And this, thanks to Trey, is what I'm listening to.

Messages from Alabama

2011-07-06T10:41:00.003-05:00

Roadside on US-231 (I think) on the Alabama side of the Florida border (I think).

Taken by Annie on our spring break drive to the panhandle.

The Civil Wars

2011-07-01T13:30:00.002-05:00

I've begun doing my Newport Folk Fest research (sampling bands on the lineup while sipping whiskeyed-coffee in a hunting cabin outside Tuscaloosa), and so far this is who I'm most looking forward to.

from Alabama

2011-06-29T10:13:00.003-05:00

BJ Hollars' new book, Thirteen Loops: Race, Violence, and the Last Lynching in America is forthcoming from University of Alabama Press.

Pre-order it here.

I think that the river is a strong brown god

2011-06-22T13:00:00.002-05:00

I do not know much about gods; but I think that the river
Is a strong brown god —- sullen, untamed and intractable,
Patient to some degree, at first recognised as a frontier;
Useful, untrustworthy, as a conveyor of commerce;
Then only a problem confronting the builder of bridges.
The problem once solved, the brown god is almost forgotten
By the dwellers in cities—ever, however, implacable.
Keeping his seasons and rages, destroyer, reminder
Of what men choose to forget. Unhonoured, unpropitiated
By worshippers of the machine, but waiting, watching and waiting.
His rhythm was present in the nursery bedroom,
In the rank ailanthus of the April dooryard,
In the smell of grapes on the autumn table,
And the evening circle in the winter gaslight.

- T.S. Eliot (from "The Dry Salvages" (part 3 of "Four Quartets"))

Benefit Reading in Memphis

2011-06-17T08:33:00.003-05:00

This coming Thursday I'll be reading in Memphis along with Michael Martone, Brian Oliu, Danilo Thomas, Barrett Hathcock, and others.

Here's an article on the event.

from Alabama

2011-06-16T13:14:00.002-05:00

1. Two poems by J. Kirk Maynard in issue 4 of Arch Literary Journal.

751 magazine open reading period

2011-06-15T11:19:00.002-05:00

751 magazine is accepting unsolicited submissions until September 1st.

Note that we are now looking for nonfiction & book/chapbook reviews, in addition to poetry & short fiction.

Spread word & feel free to get in contact with me, especially if you have suggestions for books that need/want reviewing.

from Alabama

2011-06-13T19:02:00.005-05:00

1. "So You Know It's Me" by Brian Oliu, published by Tiny Hardcore Press. A book of Missed Connections that were posted to the Tuscaloosa Craiglist last summer and, in accordance with Craiglist policy, automatically erased after 45 days.

2. Three "stories" by Joshua R. Helms in PANK magazine.

Jesse James strikes again

2011-06-06T09:52:00.005-05:00

Two poems from my "Jesse James" series got picked up by PANK, and will appear in their 6th print issue. Many thanks to Roxane Gay and the other editors over there.

from Alabama

2011-06-05T11:31:00.003-05:00

1. David Andrews' short essay "Variations on a Home Depot Paint Sample," featured in Brevity 36.

William James, Newport, St Louis

2011-06-04T22:17:00.002-05:00

connections I have so far made:

William James studied painting in Newport, RI with William Morris Hunt (who painted "Landscape at Newport") ---> William's brother was Richard Morris Hunt, the famed architect who worked much in Newport, notably conducting renovations on Beechwood, the Astor mansion ---> The first prominent Astor, John Jacob, was a merchant and fur trader who worked for a time in St Louis.

currently reading for my project on bodies of water: "Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America." So far so good.

holler.

751magazine.com

2011-06-02T15:38:00.002-05:00

751 magazine has moved to its own site. The first four issues will still be hosted by Wordpress, with direct access from the new site. New issues will be entirely on 751magazine.com.

Speaking of which: the reading period for Issue Five will be open from June 15th to September 1st.

Also notable: We are now looking for nonfiction submissions and reviews.

Spread word through the hollers and hills.

from Alabama

2011-06-02T08:32:00.003-05:00

1. "You Know the Mind Is Interesting" by Joshua R Helms

2. "Why I Have Been So Silent: A Letter" by Laurence Ross

* * * * *

Also, I've begun transferring past issues of 751 magazine off of Wordpress to its own domain. You can check it out, though right now the home page just redirects to Wordpress. But, it's coming, slowly, slowly, slowly.

Hayden's Ferry Review / Tuscaloosa Runs This

2011-05-13T17:11:00.003-05:00

I've got a poem from "Jesse James" in Issue 48 of Hayden's Ferry Review, which was just released. It's got beautiful cover art by Christian Houge and a piece in response to the art by Alabama's own Jeremy Allan Hawkins. I'm sitting down now to peruse the rest of the contents.

Also, this ebook is worth reading. Titled "Tuscaloosa Runs This" (the foreword explains the title), it is an anthology of Tuscaloosa writers compiled by Brian Oliu in an effort to raise awareness and encourage participation in tornado relief efforts.

We like to party

2011-05-09T19:46:00.001-05:00

A glimpse of the tornado's destruction

2011-05-08T19:04:00.000-05:00

Alabama Tornado Damage from Filmbox Studios on Vimeo.

Help Bama

2011-05-03T15:57:00.002-05:00

"Alabama Taking Careful Toll of Casualties from Storms" (NYT article published today)

Help is needed now and will be needed for a while. Here are two links that provide information on where to direct your financial support and also provide volunteer opportunities:

Tuscaloosa Tornado Relief Efforts (thanks to Legislative Barbie)

UA Disaster Relief for Alabama

OED usages

2011-04-18T19:46:00.002-05:00

from New York medical journal (1900):

In short, a Hill-Billie is a free and untrammelled white citizen of Alabama, who lives in the hills, has no means to speak of, dresses as he can, talks as he pleases, drinks whiskey when he gets it, and fires off his revolver as the fancy takes him.

Seems they don't make it sound all that bad.

Stagolee the bad motherfucker

2011-04-11T15:50:00.004-05:00

Tuscaloosa, I'm reading Wednesday night at the Green Bar for the penultimate Pure Products Reading, along with Wendy Rawlings, Nikhil Bilwakesh, Scott McWaters, John Wingard, & Eric Weisbard.

The plan is to break up the prose storm with a long poem on Stagolee / Stagger Lee / Stack O' Lee. Please come, but only if you want to. Leave yr .44 & Stetson at home so nothin gets ugly.

* * *

& 2 books I recommend after using them for some research on the tales/toasts/myths/ballads of Stagolee:

Newport Summer

2011-03-30T09:53:00.002-05:00

The lineup for the 2011 Newport Folk Festival has been posted and it's goddamn killer. Thank god tomorrow is payday and tickets are relatively cheap.

The full lineup is HERE.

I'ma get the all overs hearing Gillian Welch, Emmylou Harris and Ramblin Jack Elliott.

& Emmylou was just on Tiny Desk:

from Alabama

2011-03-01T15:29:00.005-06:00

1. "Blast Furnace" by Danilo Thomas (in Precipitate). HERE

2. "The Blind Prophets of Easter Island" by Tessa Fontaine (in Brevity). HERE

3. "Rene Renee" by Tom Cotsonas (in Web Conjunctions). HERE

issue FOUR of 751

2011-02-01T14:32:00.004-06:00

has risen from the dawnlight and is waiting in the valley for you and your trusty steelquick steed.

Click on the couch:

751 magazine

"The Stories of Breece D'J Pancake"

2010-08-28T16:12:00.003-05:00

I *highly* recommend purchasing this book, which was recommended me by Danilo.

The stories are a powerful rendering of West Virginia and an investigation of place, with a focus on the inability to escape.

Get it from AbeBooks.

Newport Folk Festival

2010-07-29T16:40:00.004-05:00

I leave early morning for the Newport Folk Festival in Newport, Rhode Island.

The festival is held in Fort Adams State Park (the tip of land on the west side of the harbor). One of the stages faces Narragansett Bay with a killer view of the water and the bridge.

My planned lineup, with some decisions still to be made:

SATURDAY
Nneka
A.A. Bondy (hootin' from Birmingham)
Brandi Carlile
Horse Feathers
Doc Watson and David Holt
John Prine

SUNDAY
David Wax Museum
Punch Brothers /or/ April Smith
Avett Brothers /or/ Pokey LaFarge
/a completely undecided slot/
Swell Season
The Levon Helm Band's Ramble on the Road

Should be a hollerin' wave crashin' time. I'm staying on Spring Street with a feller I met on CouchSurfing. I'm in town 'til Tuesday just to bum around and take it in, and then I'm off to St Louis to get my Missouri kick for a few days.

Pictures to come.

A Very Brief Review of The Hold Steady's "Heaven is Whenever"

2010-05-17T18:19:00.004-05:00

I enjoy this new album quite a bit, but (for what it's worth) it more than anything just makes me want to listen to their previous four.

Grade: B -

How to Have a Picnic

2010-05-07T03:33:00.004-05:00

First find family or friends who would like to have a picnic with you. Technically you can have a picnic by yourself, but don't do that, okay?

This is an example family, but feel free to adjust accordingly:

These are friends, but feel free to not be a bear:

Next you should pick a day to have your picnic. Good days for picnics include Monday-Sunday, excluding holidays and rainy days because the parks will be crowded on holidays because businesspeople like to have picnics and on rainy days you can't picnic. Don't have a picnic on crowded or rainy days, okay?

This is a crowded inside day:

This is a nice day outside to have a picnic:

Everything else is so easy to have a picnic. Get food and put it in a basket and carry it with your family or friends out to a field and lay it out on a blanket and sit around and eat.

Like this:

Have fun, okay? Just don't be a bear.

Letter to an Outlaw #1

2010-05-07T03:08:00.003-05:00

Dear Outlaw,

If I knew your name I would address you properly. Unfortunately-like you are as much a mystery to me as to the Sheriff, who stopped by the house yesterday to inquire as to your whereabouts. What did I tell him? I told him I don't even know his name much less his whereabouts. What do you know about him? he said politely, shifting his belt and then wiping his brow in quite an impolite manner. Having only heard the things I've heard, I said, well, he dresses as a man of business, perhaps an oil-man, as an oil-man would, and he carries a cane and affects a slight limp as a type of disguise in town among the townsfolk, but beware, Sheriff, because underneath his crisp black jacket are two revolvers of different makes and in his hands he holds the tendered will to empty a chamber into a man's vitals should his own vitality be claimed by another.

Friends, it is HERE.

2010-05-04T16:49:00.000-05:00

751 magazine Issue Three is LIVE.

Remember past days and younger days, sunny days in the sun, summer days in the summer, when, equipped with only a glass jar, holes poked in the lid, you would venture into the wilds of your front and backyard, the untamed tangles of the woods at the end of the street, as explorer and naturalist to collect and study all specimens of the insect order?

Remember creating in your jar, or perhaps a shoebox once you returned to the safety and cool of your home, a miniature world of sticks and leaves, a diverse ecosystem of ladybugs and rolypolys and ants and daddy longlegs?

Remember when your parents realized what was in your shoebox and commanded you to release your dear pets back into their natural environment?

Remember when you opened the top of whatever container you had chosen and inside was not a bustling town of ladybugs and rolypolys and ants and daddy longlegs, but a fantastic, giant, Transformer-style beast with red wings, a hard silver shell, the strength of four full grown queen ants, and thirty-six long spindly legs?

This is what we have on our hands, folks: a diverse ecosystem of individually impressive pieces by impressive individuals, combined into a fantastic beast of a creature, a feast featuring fantastic writing by stellar writers.

So, check it out. Give it oxygen and sunlight. Cradle it. Love it.

http://751magazine.wordpress.com/

Love,
Kevin & Tony

Henry goes camping

2010-03-28T20:57:00.010-05:00

Henry and I went camping in Talladega National Forest (Oakmulgee District) down south an hour or so. The weather was perfect and I would like to live there for a while. Henry loved it, and also loved when a few days before we went to Cheaha State Park, at the southern end of the Appalachians. He swam, and hiked, and felled many trees, like Paul Bunyan. Henry is an outside dog, and I am an outside boy. We get along great. We saw a young'n bald eagle, red-shouldered hawks, and an adorable little southern devil scorpion. Oh, Betsy came too and took these pictures (at Oakmulgee):

And this I stole from Betsy's blog (the Cheaha trip):

And this is part of the view from Cheaha:

And this is just out back:

2010-03-26T02:17:00.000-05:00

I miss Anuj. He's great.

Jesse James

2010-03-26T00:36:00.003-05:00

Jesse James was murdered on April 3, 1882.

In the spirit of memorial, we shall dress as outlaws. We shall go to the dollar store and get plastic fake six-shooters and bandanas. We shall buy sheriff badges and make the people we don't like to wear them, and we shall call them cowards and swine. We shall drink moonshine brewed in Missouri and we shall get drunk and kill all the cowards and the swine.

Keep on ridin', Jesse. Keep on and ride.

Acts

2010-03-12T23:40:00.001-06:00

"Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he could see again."

Goodnight Irene

2010-03-11T11:26:00.000-06:00

Our Roles as Animals

2010-03-07T15:38:00.003-06:00

I think sometime soon you and I should go to the Arts & Crafts store and buy many many things.

Things we might buy include much felt and fabric, colorful pipe cleaners, needles and threads, glitter and shiny sparklies, glue and yarn, and construction paper. These are only some of the things.

Then we can carry all these things back to wherever it is we came from. We can put on fun music, like maybe The Go! Team, turn on indirect lighting like floor lamps or table lamps, maybe have some wine or fruity fun drinks, and begin our Craft Night.

We can maybe dance if a song comes on that we really like to dance to, but mostly we will focus on our crafts and the jokes we know how to tell.

Then at the end of the night we can definitely dance around in the costumes we've made ourselves, and we can wear the costumes until they fall apart, walking around town and drinking at the bars and dancing as giant, people-sized animals, and people will see us and think to themselves things like "Where is that bear dancing to?" or "I wonder who introduced the tiger to the goose and it looks like they're wonderful friends."

Book Project

2010-03-04T12:55:00.002-06:00

A children's book, to be precise, so be excited 'cause there's PIRATES and PARADES and SHIPS and MOLLYMAWKS and perhaps some LOLLIPOP TREES and POTIONS and ELIXIRS!

So shimmy the mast and open your scope! This is the crow's nest and this boat is yours, so tell me, CAPTAIN, how far to go?

Bird Time

2010-03-02T11:03:00.002-06:00

It's time, I think, to make feeders so that my yard this summer is an Extreme Avian Carnival, Playground, Get-Away, and Mating Site.

This is my resource: Bird Watcher's Digest.

This will always be my favorite: Northern Cardinal.

Also, I've been wasting time listening to bird calls, and Henry loves it.

Slash Pine Press

2010-02-27T16:50:00.002-06:00

will be reading chapbook manuscripts until May 1st.

Just a heads-up and attempt to scatter the news.

For DETAILS, check out the site: www.slashpinepress.com/submissions.

The Weakerthans

2010-02-18T00:21:00.001-06:00

A revisitation thanks to Miss Seymour. Hello early high school and hello aphorisms and hello things I wish I'd written and hello FANTASTIC.

Friends, it is TIME

2010-02-16T11:59:00.000-06:00

Valentine's Day has passed and hopefully you are no longer under the influence of chocolate and wine and pink. Hopefully you have discarded the poem you wrote about roses and violets and blue (which was, hopefully, a sonnet) and you have reclaimed your place in "The World." Hopefully you have reconnected with your "Muse" (which, I suppose, could very well be chocolate or wine or pink) and have recorded, for generations to come, some wickedly devastating syntactical structures.

This is all to say, my friends, that "The Time" has come. The reading period for Issue #3 of 751 magazine has begun, and we have opened our arms and our Gmail account to your poems and your prose (or whatever came out when you casually yet confidently tossed both into the particle accelerator).

So send your work and spread the word. We look forward to reading whatever high-energy particles you beam our way.

(And I know it's only speculation at this point, but I am worried still, so please don't send any black holes you've somehow managed to produce.)

Check the site for the first two issues and submission guidelines.

The deadline for submission is APRIL 15th.
(Remember: poetry and prose. No tax forms, please.)

All best!
Kevin & Tony

above Aboljacarmegus Falls in "The Maine Woods"

2010-02-13T11:15:00.002-06:00

from "Ktaadn":

As we poled up a swift rapid for half a mile above Aboljacarmegus Falls, some of the party read their own marks on the huge logs which lay piled up high and dry on the rocks on either hand, the relics probably of a jam which had taken place here in the Great Freshet in the spring. Many of these would have to wait for another great freshet, perchance, if they lasted so long, before they could be got off. It was singular enough to meet with property of theirs which they had never seen, and where they had never been before, thus detained by freshets and rocks when on its way to them. Methinks that must be where all my property lies, cast up on the rocks on some distant and unexplored stream, and waiting for an unheard-of freshet to fetch it down. O make haste, ye gods, with your winds and rains, and start the jam before it rots!

Happy! Birthday! HENRY!!

2010-02-08T10:21:00.008-06:00

Henry is a big ONE-YEAR-OLD now.

AAAND some oldies:

(The beach in Chicago)

(The bed in Chicago)

(The homestead in Maine. Henry, formerly Paws, is on the right with black collar.)

MFA "LIFE"

2010-02-06T18:27:00.003-06:00

Betsy keeps capturing small little pieces of our "SOULS" in a really "FANTASTIC" way. The devil's gadget makes glorious pretty things. "FUN-DOCUMENTS" of the fun we had and "HOPE-DOCUMENTS" for the fun to be had.

Go "GET" with it:

Memory and memory and memory and forgetting

2010-02-06T17:39:00.006-06:00

One of my favorite of John Berryman's early poems, from The Dispossessed (1948):

The Moon and the Night and the Men

On the night of the Belgian surrender the moon rose
Late, a delayed moon, and a violent moon
For the English or the American beholder;
The French beholder. It was a cold night,
People put on their wraps, the troops were cold
No doubt, despite the calendar, no doubt
Numbers of refugees coughed, and the sight
Or sound of some killed others. A cold night.

On Outer Drive there was an accident:
A stupid well-intentioned man turned sharp
Right and abruptly he became an angel
Fingering an unfamiliar harp,
Or screamed in hell, or was nothing at all.
Do not imagine this is unimportant.
He was a part of the night, part of the land,
Part of the bitter and exhausted ground
Out of which memory grows.

Michael and I
Stared at each other over chess, and spoke
As little as possible, and drank and played.
The chessmen caught in the European eye,
Neither of us I think had a free look
Although the game was fair. The move one made
It was difficult at last to keep one's mind on.
'Hurt and unhappy' said the man in London.
We said to each other, The time is coming near
when none shall have books or music, none his dear,
And only a fool will speak aloud his mind.
History is approaching a sightless end,
As Henry Adams said. Adams was right.

All this occurred on the night when Leopold
Fulfilled the treachery four years before
Begun--or was he well-intentioned, more
Roadmaker to hell than king? At any rate,
The moon came up late and the night was cold,
Many men died--although we know the fate
Of none, nor of anyone, and the war
Goes on, and the moon in the breast of man is cold.

Slash Pine Poetry Festival 2010

2010-02-05T15:04:00.003-06:00

The schedule for Slash Pine's Fest come April has been posted.

I read Friday for a small little bit alongside some wicked cool cats.

And Saturday will be "EPIC."

Check the site.

The Maine Woods (Thoreau)

2010-01-31T21:40:00.005-06:00

Finally getting around to reading these essays, which I've been meaning to do for a year or two. I'm reading it with my state map handy and it's been very pleasant so far.

Here's Thoreau on George McCauslin (who the annotation says was the first white settler in the area now known as East Millinocket) while stopping in, surprise, East Millinocket:

He entertained us a day or two with true Scotch hospitality, and would accept no recompense for it. A man of a dry wit and shrewdness, and a general intelligence which I had not looked for in the backwoods. In fact, the deeper you penetrate into the woods, the more intelligent, and, in one sense, less countrified do you find the inhabitants; for always the pioneer has been a traveller, and, to some extent, a man of the world; and, as the distances with which he is familiar are greater, so is his information more general and far reaching than the villager's. If I were to look for a narrow, uninformed, countrified mind, as opposed to the intelligence and refinement which are thought to emanate from cities, it would be among the rusty inhabitants of an old-settled country, on farms all run out and gone to seed with life-everlasting, in the towns about Boston, even on the high road in Concord, and not in the backwoods of Maine. (19)

Solicitations already?

2010-01-31T15:23:00.005-06:00

Beginning to compile my list of poets to solicit for the next issue of 751, and putting Tony in gear to do the same with fictioneers (he's been cruising in neutral for a while).

Suggestions for work I should check out / people to possibly get in contact with?

The reading period begins February 15. So instead of love-making or loneliness on Valentine's Day you should be writing oh so many poems.

New RLM

2010-01-21T17:57:00.004-06:00

1) New episode of Rabbit Light Movies.

Resolution

2010-01-18T21:49:00.009-06:00

My new year begins on January 18, apparently.

Redirecting emotional energies onto something new. To explain:

Society of Elkicorn Enthusiasts

2010-01-16T17:34:00.002-06:00

The poster for the MFA reading last night with Danilo Thomas, Tessa Fontaine, Josh Helms, and me.

And I don't even know where you are

2010-01-12T01:20:00.000-06:00

And I don't believe in you
like I so wanted to

I hope you're asking the heavens above
to forgive all the damage you've done

And if I didn't teach you anything at all
I hope that you learn how to love

Please see for me

2010-01-10T22:11:00.002-06:00

Please see for me if her hair hangs long,
If it rolls and flows all down her breast.
Please see for me if her hair hangs long,
That's the way I remember her best.

I'm a-wonderin' if she remembers me at all.
Many times I've often prayed
In the darkness of my night,
In the brightness of my day.

The "Tell Her" Songs

2010-01-09T23:29:00.002-06:00

Tell her that I'm happy and I've moved on
I'm better than I've ever been
Just don't tell her that you saw me drowning in this bottle
Trying to make her disappear
Tell her that I'm anywhere but here

The Hold Steady - Ask Her for Some Adderall
The Gaslight Anthem - Here's Looking at You, Kid
Chris Cagle - Anywhere but Here

Job Market / Academia / Humanities

2010-01-09T13:42:00.003-06:00

These two articles were passed along to me today. They focus on the job market for graduate students in the humanities, the decline in job listings, and the move away from tenure track positions. Fantastic.

At Colleges, Humanities Job Outlook Gets Bleaker (NYT)

Graduate School in the Humanities: Just Don't Go (Chronicle)

But if you'd prefer not to hear the bad news, here's a picture to look at.

Hello Rose Bowl. We're Home.

2010-01-07T15:38:00.001-06:00

Saw this picture posted on Facebook. Thought it worth sharing.

Give up the Ghost

2010-01-05T23:23:00.002-06:00

Just gave Brandi Carlile's new album a listen. I'm still partial to her self-titled debut, I think.

But, that said, this is really freaking good. Definitely worth acquiring, through whatever legal or legally-questionable channels you prefer.

Here's a video of my favorite song, piano-ed.

And listen to the whole album on Lala.

Cheerio.

I am four years old

2010-01-04T13:09:00.004-06:00

Ways I treat myself like a child:

1. I do not fill my cups all the way because I expect myself to spill.

2. Before I put on a piece of clothing I ask myself where I found it and if it is clean.

3. After I tell myself that yes, the shirt is clean, I smell it to see if I was lying.

4. I give myself small rewards for jobs well done, like a piece of cake or a beer.

5. I do not answer calls from numbers I don't recognize, because I shouldn't risk talking to strangers.

6. I make myself eat everything on my plate at meals, even after I insist I'm full, because I need to grow strong.

7. I tell myself to pay attention and think harder because I get distracted too easily from lists and stuff like this.

Most Played Songs

2010-01-04T02:00:00.003-06:00

Note: I often skip to the next song before iTunes counts the play. The play counts are so low because I had to start my library from scratch after Henry crashed my last computer. And, finally, I like sad songs.

Chris Cagle

2010-01-03T16:06:00.002-06:00

Tell her I'm in Mobile, Alabama, gettin' back on my feet.

(Tell her I'm anywhere but here.)

Anywhere But Here - Chris Cagl...

Let's get drunk & Let's pretend

2010-01-02T11:44:00.002-06:00

I've apparently become obsessed because this is the second or third time I've posted Serena Ryder.

blown like the wind at night -...

Old Milwaukee

2009-12-27T21:17:00.002-06:00

I love this beer.

Mead

2009-12-26T17:21:00.002-06:00

Reading Julie Carr's "Mead: An Epithalamion."

I enjoy this heavy-handedness, from "Hair: A Metaphor":

A tree can be full of flowers. Differently, a cup can be full of tea.

Elsewise, the human, full of only itself,
feels empty.

Gonzo

2009-12-20T21:46:00.003-06:00

I just watched "Gonzo," a documentary on the life of Hunter S. Thompson. I thoroughly enjoyed it and strongly recommend viewing it. It's an instant-view on NetFlix, if you have those means. But it's also completely worth paying to rent it.

My new favorite?

2009-12-20T14:33:00.001-06:00

Taco Bell's cheesy bean & rice burrito.

Just saying.

Thanks, Trey

2009-12-19T16:02:00.004-06:00

because he pointed me to these:

1. Get Tube, with which you can (surprise!) extract audio (as .mp3 or .mp4) from videos on The YouTube. The implications of this? I can now listen on iTunes to all the live versions of songs that I love on YouTube! Neat.

2. LaLa, where you can listen to tons of music, whole albums and discographies and things. Also neat.

And, in other news, I really like this picture by Betsy.

And here is my house in relation to St. Louis and the Mississippi River:

View Larger Map

In a dream last night

2009-12-18T20:11:00.003-06:00

I am running around a campus, what looks like a very nice, respectable university campus. I am in a group of other running people. We are all wearing black SWAT attire. We all have guns. I do not know if we are running away from something, or chasing something. We run to the El stop, which is a strange leap in location. We have to sneak our guns onto the train without other armed people noticing. These must be guards. We sit quietly to avoid attracting attention to our uniformed, armored selves. I feel stressed and worried but I do not know why. This only makes me stress and worry more. Luckily, Henry kicks me in the face as he rolls over and stretches, and I forget the dream until now.

To recap:
1)

2)

3)

4)

The End.

Jill Barber

2009-12-18T15:35:00.002-06:00

I stumbled upon Jill Barber on Last.fm, which describes her style as "drawing on influences from old-time jazz standards, folk balladry and traditional country." So naturally I had to listen. She's been somewhat difficult to find on LimeWire, but there are videos on the YouTube and full tracks on Last.fm.

Here's the video for "Oh My My" off her most recent album, "Chances." And below that, a wicked fun live version.

Cheers.

Come Grammy time,

2009-12-14T19:14:00.003-06:00

Taylor Swift better go home with Album of the Year.

I'm just saying.

I am in St Louis

2009-12-12T15:36:00.004-06:00

and I can't find anyplace that sells the NYT. At least the West County community seems fine sticking to the Post-Dispatch, which I recently discovered is very much a small-town paper, despite representing a city with a metropolitan population of almost 3 million. Small-town as in, the majority of cover stories are feel-good local reports, reminding me very much of the Sun Journal in Lewiston, Maine, where many a day reported on ski mountains and local fishing accomplishments.

Also, I will unfortunately be back in Alabama by January 23rd, and will miss this fantastic Burning Chair reading. (Adam Clay and MC Hyland are in the most recent issue of 751.)

All who will still be around the St Louis parts should attend:
***January 23rd, 8pm***
featuring Stephanie Anderson, Tom Andes, Adam Clay, Julie Dill, M.C. Hyland, Alison Palmer, Nate Slawson, Joseph Wood
(more info here)

And now that classes have finished, I've had more time to read through "12X12", the collection of interviews/essays compiled by Christina Mengert and Joshua Marie Wilkinson.

This particular passage struck me especially (from the conversation between Sabrina Orah Mark and Claudia Rankine):

SOM: "...The Jewish Messianic idea of creation relies on that same kind of paradoxical topography the carriage/coffin [from Nabokov's Speak, Memory] sets up: the Kabbalists understood that there were these "vessels" or garbs that once held a divine light that the creator had to exile himself out of in order to effect creation. I am currently buried under the Kabbalistic concept called Tsim Tsum (or that creation cannot happen without the creator's departure from the creator's creation). It calls the poetics of responsibility back home for a closer look, does it not? At the end (or more accurately, at the beginning) the vessels can't hold the light, burst, and light is scattered everywhere. We then spend the rest of our lives gathering up the shards that claim at their center decay and transcience, ruin and repair." (48).

Onward.

2ND ISSUE of 751

2009-12-09T12:30:00.003-06:00

The 2ND ISSUE of 751 is LIVE!

Go read it. Love it. Cuddle it. Share it.

Serena Ryder

2009-12-01T19:34:00.002-06:00

(wish I coulda stopped you before you left
it was a lesson that you left behind instead)

***

the studio version (with accompaniment) is also stellar.

Library

2009-11-22T12:37:00.002-06:00

Books from the library to read this week:

12x12: Conversations in 21st-Century Poetry and Poetics (Mengert & Wilkinson)
Dear Ra (a story in flinches) (Goransson)
Recyclopedia: Trimmings, S*PeRM**K*T, and Muse & Drudge (Mullen)
The To Sound (Baus)
Mulberry (Beachy-Quick)
Mead (Carr)
Novel Pictorial Noise (Gordon)

Ask her for some adderall

2009-10-28T01:07:00.002-05:00

& now Holly won't say hi to me
'cause I'm in love with my anxiety.

---

if she asks, just tell her that we're too far gone to deal.
she should know exactly how that feels.

Oh no!

2009-10-26T15:29:00.002-05:00

It's been so long!

Anyways, been reading a lot for this batch of 751. Getting it narrowed down finally, sending out rejections. Stumbled upon some old journals and manuscripts buried in the bottom of a schoolwork box. The oldest dates to 2004, I believe. (O high school what were you?) Read some old essays I'd written in undergrad as well. I'm missing film studies, but in light of my current circumstances I suppose I can't complain.

Also, revisiting some old tunes:

(Everything burns bright when it's new!)

2009-10-19T15:50:00.002-05:00

Because I've been missing Anuj.

http://www.myspace.com/anujgango

Listen to "Oh my silhouette sighs".

Love it. Share it.

Comfort, finally

2009-10-18T03:38:00.003-05:00

So cry, why not? We all do.
And turn to the ones you love.
And smile a smile that lights up all the room.
And follow your dreams into every out-door.
It seems that's what we're here for.
And when you can't remember a better time,
you can have mine, little one.

In days to come, when your heart feels undone,
may you always find an open hand.
And take comfort, there is comfort,
take comfort wherever you can,
you can,
you can.

Mail order

2009-10-17T17:57:00.003-05:00

Books I got in the mail:

With Deer (Aase Berg, trans. Johannes Goransson)
The Holy Forest: Collected Poems of Robin Blaser (Blaser, duh)

It's far too cold for my liking. I had to dig through my closet and unpack my winter box, which I didn't think I'd have to touch. Winter vest, scarf, and beanie should not be necessary. I thought this was Alabama.

I think going to see Where the Wild Things Are tonight.

Listening to a lot of Deb Talan.

Everybody leaves

2009-10-17T04:01:00.002-05:00

Podcasts

2009-10-14T16:22:00.000-05:00

I currently subscribe to:
NPR 7am News Summary
ABC World News (video)
CBS Evening News (video)
NBC Nightly News (video)
O'Reilly's Talking Points

I'd like suggestions on podcasts worth listening to, news or otherwise. Preferably ones that are published daily or pretty regularly.

========

Also, Emily Wells:

2 o'clock

2009-10-11T06:21:00.000-05:00

I'm in love with Kaki King. No one else. Just Kaki King.

There's no need to be so terrible when you know I would do anything for you. This is so laughable, what ever happened to knowing that this was forever?

File off the sharpness of feeling so I'll be protected from all of your evil. When you come 'round, my love, I'll be gone, finally done, never to come to your rescue.

Puppy updates

2009-10-07T16:24:00.000-05:00

Henry is shedding so much that I'm less annoyed than amazed.
Henry loves ice after playing outside.
Henry chewed his purple leash in half.
Probably because the other kids were laughing at him for having a purple leash. (He's at that age.)
Henry now has a red leash to go with his Crimson Tide collar. (Roll Tide, by the way.)
Henry is terrified of the vacuum cleaner. Even when it's off.
Also of my bicycle.
Henry eats mostly big boy food now.
Henry will still tear apart and/or eat most anything if he has the opportunity.
Luckily Henry does not eat poop.
Except for duck poop.
Luckily I have not seen many ducks here.
Henry tore up my copy of the Communist Manifesto.
Henry is a capitalist. (We're working on that.)
Henry is big.
This is Henry:

It's crazy

2009-10-05T20:24:00.000-05:00

Another twelve pack night and f you ep.

Grace Potter & the Nocturnals. Saw them in Skowhegan, Maine in a town hall auditorium. Pretty. The sutures & bruises are none of yr business.