Friday, December 30, 2005

Gifts I received over break (in no order whatsoever):

1. Bookends
2. Books: Dahlberg's Leafless American*, Alan Dugan's Selected*, Simic's Aunt Lettuce* and Noiseless Entourage, Rohrer's Satellite, Noah Eli Gordon and Sara Veglahn's That We Come To A Consensus, Michael Earl Craig's Can You Relax in My House, Aaron Kiely's Best of My Love, Martel's Life of Pi, and p. inman's at.least*
3: Music: Superchunk's No Pocky for Kitty, Matt Pond PA' s Several Arrows Later*, Superdrag's Regretfully Yours*, The Plus Ones*, and Maritime's Glass Floor.
4. Another subscription to Ugly Duckling
5. Investment $ for Octopus #8 (print)
6. Tuxedo t-shirt
7. Buddy Holly Costume glasses and a fake bendable party mustache*
8. A repaired exhaust pipe on my falling apart vehicle
9. A Nebraska hooded sweatshirt and cornhusker victory over Michigan
10. Candy cigarettes
11. A bottle of good wine
12. 2 power ties, a sweater, 2 dress shirts, shoes* and socks*
13. A lovely trip to San Fran and all the kicks derived from that*
14. Bookends

*Gifts I bought for myself over the break.

Monday, December 26, 2005

Museum of Modern Art. Chuck Close exhibit. Some shopping around Russian Hill. Lots of pizza. Good night's sleep. Missed a plane and hung out for while, stranded, in the Oakland airport on Christmas Eve. A good story for another time.

Friday, December 23, 2005

Slept all morning. A long hilly walk to Fisherman's Wharf in a rain storm. Even my undergarments and socks were wet (?). Fish and chips. Sea Lions. White hot chocolate. A boat trip to, and audio tour of Alcatraz. Very interesting. Spent a few seconds in the hole. Can't imagine what a few years would feel like (note to self: cancel plans of going on bloody killing spree). I want to learn more about the Birdman. Dinner at Mona Lisa's in Little Italy with A, M, and P. Then more drinking a Coppola's wine bar down the street. I'm becoming a lover of port. Then P and I broke off, went to Bigfoot tavern for more drinking. The room, today, still has some spin to it.

Thursday, December 22, 2005

A bagel with A and M after a morning walk. A lovely afternoon hanging with Graham Foust: Blue Bottle Coffee, a long city hike to Green Apple Books: Simic's Aunt Lettuce, Edward Dahlberg's Leafless American (thanks T for the recommendation), Alan Dugan's Selected (thanks Graham for the recommendation). This Dugan book is brilliant. It may change my poetry life. Sushi with Graham. For the first time I had eel and mackerel. An hour nap amidst city sounds. Video games. Thai for dinner.

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Napa Valley. Way too much wine. Bistro Jeanty: creamy tomato soup on a rainy day mmm. Curvy roads at night, bad defroster, belly full of vino. Golden Gate Bridge. College Football 2006 on Nintendo--haven't played video games for a handful of years mmm. Egg sandwich.

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Chinatown. Dim sum. Fortune cookie factory. Chinese Christmas CD. Uptown shopping. Virgin: Matt Pond PA. Fake bendable mustache. City Lights Books: Simic's Noiseless Entourage, Rohrer's Satellite. Tost's Invisible Bride was in the "U's" and I moved it back into alphabetical position (you're welcome T). My first cable car ride. Cheese pizza delivered. Guitar Hero.

Monday, December 19, 2005

San Fransisco is painfully beautiful. I need a month, at least. Chinatown today, among other things. Postcards. Christmas gifts. I want to walk around until my legs fall off.

Saturday, December 17, 2005

A and I are off to SF tomorrow for a little R & R. Very excited about this. I'll be blogging from there if M lets me use her computer. A may get a pedicure. I may have a little lunchypoo with Graham Foust. Alcatraz, City Lights, etc. If you're in the area, come find me. I'll be rocking my vintage Green Day tee all friggin' week. See you there.

Friday, December 16, 2005
















I need a haircut.

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Whew. Air. I just crawled from underneath a pile of student papers. Got the grades in. Other administrative stuff. Ok. What next? A haircut. Pack some stuff. Octopus. Reviews for Cutbank.

Mathias gave me some CDs, including Regina Spektor's Soviet Kitsch. Spinning it right now. The jury is still out, but most of them have their thumbs up.

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

I'm back, with a new perspective, from a difficult weekend in Norfolk. A lot of papers to grade by yesterday. A lot of correspondence to catch up on before our trek to San Fran, leaves on the flat roof to rake and bag (yes, that is what I said), reviews to write, a magazine issue to put out.

A big thank you to Ugly Duckling for sending me Aaron Kiely's The Best of My Love. I've only flipped through it--it looks like a refreshingly odd little duck so far.

Sunday, December 11, 2005

A great weekend spent with M and J--got some holiday shopping done, played some board games, etc. It is always good to see them. While shopping, I thought of a few addendums for my onw list:

a. Matt Pond PA's Several Arrows Later
b. A new exhaust pipe
c. A 12-pack of fake teeth

Going to Norfolk for a few days. When I get back, it is catch-up time.

Friday, December 09, 2005


A good Mathias.

Joey Lynch is talking to Michael Busk. Joey is the artist who is responsible for the terrific wall candy. Michael is a budding fiction writer at UNL.

Michael Dumanis is talking to Hadara Bar-Nadav. Two of the most important and fascinating po-bizzers in all of the mid-west.

Anthony's hands (right) selling his chapbook, Afield, to a fan.


Amanda. I vote for this for her book jacket photo. Anybody agree?


Anthony.
The second Clean Part went swimmingly. So many poetry fans (about 50-60) braved the cold to see Amanda Nadelberg and Anthony Hawley read. Joey Lynch's screen prints made for terrific wall candy. All the chairs filled up and a standing room gallery was formed at the back. Amanda and Anthony were wildly entertaining and engaging. The fans were laughing and striking thoughtful poses at all the terrific banter and lovely words.

Amanda stayed with A and I and she was a terrific guest--good firelight conversationalist, clean and tighty, etc, and she came bearing gifts: peanut butter and chocolate spread, hibiscus sugar, and blackberry perserves. She also brought be Michael Earl Craig's Can You Relax in my House, so I can cross that off my list. I had quite a few additional opportunities to spend some time with her talking po-biz. I'm excited about the projects she's got in the cooker. And she's given me a few ideas and reasons for writing poems. A thank you to her.


Some pics:




Denny (the one that is pissed) is pissed. He won Anthony Hawley's book, Afield, in a raffle. Apparently, he didn't care for it.


Terrific artist and 1/3 of Tugboat's propreitorship, Jake Gillespie, is telling Amanda he thought her poems were good.


Anthony is telling clean jokes.


Clean parters, getting comfortable with each other.


Amanda reading.


Anthony reading.

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

If you guys aren't doing anything tomorrow night, maybe you could come to the Clean Part at 7 in Lincoln, NE. It should be a good time. Amanda Nadelberg and Anthony Hawley will be reading. There'll be free peanuts that you can shell onto the floor, Texas roadhouse style. The poetry will be top-notch. You could win a pie.

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

They like me

Parakeet thinks I'm good enough for a pushcart and have nominated one of my poems. They're alright in my book. A big thanks. I'm itching for that issue to come out--promises to be pretty killer.

Monday, December 05, 2005

The manny was flirting with Krupskaya and apparently it came pretty close. Thanks to Kevin Killian for the close read and the very encouraging note (sigh). He said things like: "I love it, but I'm not in love with it," and "It's my press, not your manuscript."

Saturday, December 03, 2005

Friday evening, A and I burned the night like a Christmas light.


Zach cutting down the ideal balsam fir in the middle of the forest. He hunted for hours. "That ain't a tree. This here. This heersa tree."


A preparing the tree skirt that she spent all week knitting. At this moment we were listening to Kenny and Dolly's Christmas LP. My god that is a beautiful album. I can't hold back the tears anytime Dolly's stirring "Hard Candy Christmas" comes on.


Our stockings. The fire place was on. We drank hot chocolate.


A happy holidays card from D and B. And a happy holidays to them right back.

Friday, December 02, 2005

Holiday Wish List

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1. OBERIU: An Anthology of Russian Absurdism by Eugene Ostashevsky*
2. Ryan Murphy’s Down with the Ship from Seismicity Editions*
3. Can You Relax in My House by Michael Earl Craig
4. Richard Siken's Crush
5. Tony Tost's World Jelly**
6. Charles Simic's Aunt Lettuce and/or My Noiseless Entourage
7. Subscription to Ugly Duckling Presse
8. Stanley Kubrick boxset including in Dr. Strangelove, but not Full Metal Jacket.***
9. A Tuxedo t-shirt****
10. Gift $ for an Octopus print project
11. An ipod, of some variety, maybe.
12. A night-time mouthguard
13. A carton or two of candy cigarettes


*these are not available yet. I might be jumping the gun. Preorder?
**I'll be buying this regardless, so.
***not including Full Metal Jacket because it is the only thing of Kubrick's I already own. And all this talk about Peter Sellers has got me salivating.
****this is a hold-over from last year. I will not give up.
Note: Look for addendums to this list in the coming weeks.