In Omaha, riding in the 'Stang.

3 things I want to tell you:

(1) At Powell's Bookstore yesterday there was a little girl who climbed all the way to the top of this ladder employees use to shelve books up high. She was standing there on the top rung and it looked dangerous. The mother spanked her and said, "You do not climb on other people's ladders." I thought maybe she was missing the point. (2) I think I may be becoming addicted to Q-tips. (3) My vehicle reached 111,111 miles on the odometer on my way to class this morning. I watched it happen. There it was, for a whole minute or so, just all ones. 

Happy 2oth Birthday, Sister.

EKF has a poem in the Oregonian, which will be read by every body in Oregon except inner city Portland hipsters. 

Tuned Droves got some attention over at Oranges and Sardines. 

I just sent off the third draft of my Ph.D. comp exams to my readers. Here are the titles of my two essays: "The Real Phantom Limb: The Poetics of Absence in the Surrealism of Breton, Reverdy, and Eluard" and "Virtually Sincere: Flarf, the New Sincerity, and the Post-avant"

记住。

Today I will finish up this latest draft of my Ph.D. Comprehensive exams. I will buy a present/card for my sister and send it to her in the mail so that it arrives in time for her birthday. She will turn 20. I am now 32. I had a dream last night about Mathias. He was in the pain zone but I was too busy saving cats in the closet. I have to grade my students' portfolios this weekend. I have to grade my other students' film analyses this weekend. I have been writing a very long prose poem lately. I have a painting in my head that I want to paint and maybe I will do that next week after I get my grading done. Last night EKF and I went on a walk to get ice cream but we ended up getting tacos instead. It was sunny out for a while but now it is cloudy. I have been reading about 5-10 poetry manuscripts (which were submitted to Octopus Books) every night before I go to bed. Today I will both take a shower and eat cheap sushi for lunch, but not at the same time. Sometimes I feel a little like that picture at the top of this post, like now. 

I walked around Portland today.

I graded some papers in the park during a little league baseball game.

I returned She's Gotta Have It to Movie Madness. 

I took Order and Adventure in Post-Romantic French Poetry back to the county library.

I deposited $30 into my bank account.

I listened to a few new albums at Jackpot Records, but I didn't buy anything. 

The Black Hole. This seemed to be the fan favorite of my poem-films at my poem-film reading last night. 

Someone in the neighborhood has three phone numbers, and has lost a hen. 

My top 10 favorite beverages: 

1. Water

2. Diet Soda

3. Beer

4. Juice

5. Lemonade

6. Iced Tea

7. Mocha

8. Chocolate Milk

9. Milk 

10. Frozen Margarita

Honorable Mentions: Smoothie, soy milk, hot tea

As of today, my fantasy baseball team, The Mendoza Lions, is in first place (out of 19 teams) in my poetry-nerd league, ahead of this guy, this one, this one, this one, this one...

I think the Big Hunk is my new favorite candy bar. I'm eating one right now. It kinda makes my teeth hurt, but in a way I can endure. Sometimes I look at the packaging and think I see Big Chunk, but it's Big Hunk. 

Next Tuesday night, I'll be showing some of my poem-films over at the new Portland living room poetry reading series, If Not for Kidnap. I'll ask you some questions and you can ask me some questions. Then we'll eat some chips. 

Here are some pictures I took in Portland of things that say things.

Octopus Books is getting some attention over at Micro-Review Mondays on the Black Ocean blog. See? See? One of those books (Julie Doxsee's) is not sold out and can be purchased here or here or even here, if you must. 

I got the first issue of Tammy in the mail yesterday. Tammy is very Canary-inspired. Some parts of my long poem 1977-2050 are in it, including the very first part. 

I recently read the first two chapbooks from Cinematheque Press, Until the Lantern's Shaky Song by Joshua Marie Wilkinson and Little Visceral Carnival by Philip Jenks and Simone Muench. They both made me very excited about poetry for the week. Speaking of JMW, you should also get his The Book of Whispering in the Projector Booth, if you know what is good for you, just out from Tupelo. And while you're in there, you should get GC Waldrep's Archicembalo. And speaking of Cinematheque, EKF and I will have a little collaborative chap forthcoming called Team Sad. It's kinda emo. 

Check out the new issue of Glitterpony. I have four poems from a new manuscript called 1977-2050 in it.

I ate a sourdough pancake in front of Jake and Alisa. I went to a Jicks show Friday night and determined that Janet Weiss is one of the 5 best drummers I've ever seen live. I ate a donut with Patrick deWitt and Kevin Sampsell. I am going to go buy a new couch cover. Happy Mother's Day, Mom. 

I got some new glasses. Then I looked at myself in front of Mac Photo Booth for a half hour.

I've been working with Denny on the cover for Scary, No Scary, which is a process that makes me very happy. Book covers are very important. It's not true to say that they're not important. They're something I'll think about if I can't get to sleep at night, or something I'll think about when I wake up. I've also decided I hate about 90% of most poetry book covers. Why haven't they caught up with the cover design of contemporary fiction? Why are they glossy? This is unacceptable. 

This Sunday: Eric Baus, Cathy Park Hong, Karla Kelsey, Keith Newton & music by Snowblink :: Sunday in Brooklyn: 5:30pm

This Sunday: Eric Baus, Cathy Park Hong, Karla Kelsey, Keith Newton & music by Snowblink :: Sunday in Brooklyn: 5:30pm

Book Party to Celebrate the Release of Eric Baus' Tuned Droves

featuring readings from 
Eric Baus
Cathy Park Hong
Karla Kelsey 
& Keith Newton

music from 
Snowblink

location: 267 douglass st, brooklyn, ny
from Union St (R / M trains): walk north three blocks on 4th Ave & turn left on Douglass
from Atlantic / Pacific: walk south on 4th Ave for seven blocks & turn right on Douglass

Eric Baus was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1975. His publications include Tuned Droves (Octopus Books, 2009), The To Sound (Verse Press, 2004; Winner of the 2002 Verse Press, selected by Forrest Gander), and the chapbooks The Space Between Magnets (Diaeresis), A Swarm In The Aperture (Margin to Margin), and Something Else The Music Was (Braincase Press). He edits Minus House chapbooks, and currently lives in Denver.

Karla Kelsey is the author of Knowledge, Forms, the Aviary, which was selected by Carolyn Forche for the 2005 Sawtooth Poetry Prize. Little Dividing Doors in the Mind, a chapbook, was published by Noemi Press in 2005. Her recently completed manuscript, Iteration Nets, is forthcoming from Ahsahta Press. Work from this book can be found in journals such as Denver Quarterly, the New Review of Literature, and Bird Dog. In addition, poems from this manuscript are included in the anthology Joyful Noise: An Anthology of American Spiritual Poetry. Karla was born and raised in Southern California & is now on the creative writing faculty at Susquehanna University in Pennsylvania.

Cathy Park Hong's first book, Translating Mo'um was published in 2002 by Hanging Loose Press. Her second collection, Dance Dance Revolution, was chosen for the Barnard Women Poets Prize & was published in 2007 by WW Norton. Hong is the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship & a Village Voice Fellowship for Minority Reporters. Her poems have been published in A Public Space, Paris Review, Poetry, American Letters & Commentary, Denver Quarterly, Jubilat, & other journals. She now lives in New York City & is an Assistant Professor at Sarah Lawrence College. 
 

Keith Newton edits the online magazine Harp & Altar. His poems & essays have recently appeared in Harvard Review, Cannibal & Octopus, among other journals. His chapbook Sent Forth to Die in a Happy City was published this year from Cannibal Books. He lives in Brooklyn.

The first incarnation of Snowblink in 2005 included MGMT as boy back-up singers/percussionists/whisperers. Since then, Daniela Gesundheit has trained over a dozen fellas across the US and Canada to join her when circumstances permit. She spent the last three years living in San Francisco, where she assisted the folks of Ribbons Publications putting on outdoor music gatherings in the Bay Area. Her most recent release is Long Live. Gesundheit currently lives in Toronto.