Taking a road trip to NE after work tonight, 11 in the pm. Looking forward to it. A long overnight drive through Montana and Wyoming is pretty romantic. No other cars, almost literally, and the sunrise. Got B to feed A and M. Got my fantasy baseball lineup set for the week. Got two books in my back pack Andrea Baker's Like Wind Loves a Window and Ryan Murphy's The Gales (TT do you have this?). Lots of biznass to take care of there, and lots when I return.

Anonymous comment Darcie asked about Bozeman and its community, artistic and otherwise (are you planning a move here, ACD?), so I will oblige. Bozeman is a terrific little nook in the mountains. Small and scenic. So very clean and I didn't realize how breathable and light the air is up here 5400-some feet until I visited the heavy wet air of my old home in Arkansas a few weeks back. There is a college here, Montana State. There is a symphony (unheard of for such a small population (30-40 K) and live theatre, two one screen movie theaters downtown, one that shows traveling indie films. But the community is really geared more toward the out of doors: the hiking, skiing, floating, hunting, fishing (oh, the world-famous fishing!), running, healthy vegetarian type crowd. Everybody has a backpack, a dog, a ponytail, nice calves, and a Subaru with a kayak strapped on top. There is NO poetry scene and NO music scene. A real zero on the scale. The college is a science and technobabble one--the MFAs are up in Missoula at the U of M. I've enjoyed my time and Bozeman has been so so good to A and I, but looks like we'll be moving away from it all here in a month. Going back to Lincoln, NE. To the scene (to concerts, to the readings!). Where the houses are affordable (Bozeman is a joke in terms of cost of living. You got to be rich coming in, because you're not going to catch up here). Here are the Lincoln houses I want from a aesthetic urge, not a practical one:

 

 

Some good books that have found themselves in my mailbox in the past few weeks.  

Some new issues you should visit: Pettycoat Relaxer, Electronic Poetry Review, Gutcult and Tarpaulin Sky. Typo 6 drops Friday, ya'll.

Counting down the days until Octopus #6 drops (40 is about right). In a tight race with Typo, but I'm thinking they'll have us beat. #6, though, ain't like any other we've put together. It's one of them special issues. The poetry will be at its very freshest from poets you ain't never NEVER seen before. And don't forget to start writing your poems now for our August submission period. We're not gonna take any of that old stale stuff you've been sitting on since Kwanzaa.

Tough tough day at work. Wow. Need to relax now. Al is at Crow. I got a beer and a bag of microwaveable kettle popcorn. Got an idea for a poem.

Today was a good mail day. Got the 2 following items: the first issue of The Tiny and Standard Schaefer's Water and Power (Agincourt).

I can't wait to tear right into these. I'll let you know what I think. Look for a review of Water and Power in Octopus 6.

Top 3 fav po-books I've read in the past 3 weeks:

6x7 by Dan Machlin
External Combustion Engine by Michael Ives
The Thorn by David Larsen


You should read them too.

Have the day off tomorrow. Working on finances. Working on special issue #6 (the things coming in are wow). Cubs v Marlins on in the afternoon--have a block of time reserved.

Earlier this week, I got a chance to visit A at her little cottage on the Crow Reservation (she is working there through the summer as part of her internship). It was quite an eye-opening experience. I had the frightening opportunity to be a minority for a few days. It felt like I was intruding, that I didn't belong and perhaps wasn't welcome. It probably didn't help that I was taking pictures of everything. And the two 12 year old boys (at the oldest) following me in the pickup truck at every turn didn't help put me at ease. Very very poor area. A 3rd world county. A is doing terrific work and I am proud of her. The land is absolutely beautiful--I could really feel a sense of sacredness while I was there. And the people are so proud.

We had the chance to spend an afternoon together also, and we drove down to the site of the Battle of Little Big Horn (Custer's Last Stand). That was super cool. That elementary History text book came alive after all these years!

Where A stays.  

Junkyard nearby. 

The house next door. 

I took all my showers here. Only $2! 

This is the actual hill--that famous hill (there really is an actual historical hill!)--where General Custer made his last stand. The exact point where he fell is marked by the black grave stone. This is where the Sioux and Cheyenne and others finally met up with Custer while Custer and his men were trying to capture the Sioux and Cheyenne warriors for leaving their reservations in the Black Hills and disobeying (and battling) the soldiers. The Crow actually took sides with Custer, mostly because Custer and his men promised protection from the Crow's enemy (Sioux and Cheyenne). Throughout this tour, and my walk through the museum nearby, I got the creepy sense that the Crow were honoring the many soliders that died here, and not the warriors, Crazy Horse, and Sitting Bull. I guess I wasn't exactly expecting that. I don't know exactly how I feel about all that.

Mass grave where a bunch of Custer's soldiers, and parts of Custer's soldiers were buried after the massacre.  

Mass grave from the west.  

South of the hill. It felt so good to stand out there, in the middle of absolutely nowhere, with that room-tempature light pre-storm breeze. 

Where two of Custer's men fell.