A somewhat disorderly pictoral narrative of the wonderful Clean Part weekend with Ana Bozicevic-Bowling, Julia Cohen, and Ken Rumble as it took place at the following locales: Elisabeth Reinkordt's family's farm, the Sheldon auditorium, Yia Yias.

How happy are we?

Avishay Artsy, a freelance writer, perhaps my very favorite NET voice, and recently consistent Clean Part attendee, wrote a thoughtful piece for Omaha's The Reader this week on Mathias and I. If you can't get enough background information on The Clean Part, or Octopus, or our poetry, the things we do and how we do them, then this article might quench. If you get an actual copy of The Reader, you'll see a picture of M looking goofy and me looking foolish in front of a brick wall. We're so punk.

And so you know, since the article has been published, we have decided to bring the pie raffle back. Poof: pie raffle. Come to the Part Saturday night friends, if you're feeling pie-ish and lucky.

The Clean Part Reading Series Presents:

Ana Bozicevic-Bowling, Julia Cohen & Ken Rumble

7PM. Saturday Oct 27th. Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery. 12th & R Streets.

You will be gifted a free fox mask! You may win a pie!

This is what I'm doing tonight.

My sister, K, came over tonight. It seems like we may make Monday night a regular thing. She's 18. We watched an hour of The Hills together. K doesn't like Spencer. I don't think I like any of them.

This is what I've been listening to lately:

The Teacups - This Will Come Back to Haunt You
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - Etiquette

Richard Buckner - Devotion and Doubt

Red House Painters - Red House Painters II

DiskothiQ - Sad Truths

Envy - A Dead Sinking Story

Kissing Book - Lines and Color

Palace Brothers - Days in the Wake

Neutral Milk Hotel - When it all Caved In

Promise Ring - 30 degrees Everywhere

Washington Phillips - The Key to the Kingdom

O Denver,

I miss Jon Pack Approves. I have all these things in my head I need approved or disapproved, but alas.

And check out these broadsides. I want to collect all three but don't have $45. Do you want to buy them for me?

Scratch that: we're leaving tonight! Tonight! NEG taught the Suit in his classes this week so I have to go break 'em off something.

Mathias and I are fleeing this town on Thursday morn to drive toward Denver for the Denver Mint Poetry Festival. O how we will have such good times. Do you like Denver? You should go.

After Margaret Atwood

I fit into you
like a peg into a hole

a tent peg
a donut hole

-

I went to the Graham Foust reading last night. It was this invigorating banter-less assault of beautiful and consise poetry, complex and playful. Graham Foust poems are one of the reasons I want to spend so much of my time writing poems, and Graham Foust poems are the only reason I want to spend so much of my time trying to write like Graham Foust.

One of my very favorite poets in the world(and one of my very favorite po-people)(this is not hyperbole) will be reading this coming Monday at Wesleyan. 7 pm. I'm probably going to go to the Q/A session too. I have a heart sticker with a GF! next to it on my calendar. It is a sticker meant to remind me to give my dog heart medicine, but I used it for Graham's reading reminder. His reading will be like medicine for my dog. Also: If you don't go, maybe we can't be friends anymore.

Good news, I think. Apparently I didn't get published in the Winter 2005 issue of The Futility Review.

I miss Denny. M and I collab'd a poem in which 'I miss Denny' was the final line. I think it was a poem about the water cycle. Denny lives in Tulsa with his growing and beautiful family. And thankfully D has adopted a different approach to his website. He's updating often, blog-style. So now I can see what he's up to (along with all his killer new poster designs). One of the things he's up to is designing a book cover for one of Octopus' two full-length poetry titles to be published this winter. We haven't officially announced this book yet, so I'll say no more. But we'll tell you all about it next week probably. Anyway, you can see how hard Denny works. That's him probably working on the book cover right now. This is a live camera feed, so you can see how busy he is. And how consistent and relentless he is. He never takes breaks. Check back later and see for yourself.

Why do you look so sad? Try this: the new Alice Blue Review. Read the poems in this order: the Frey/Bartlett, the Cunningham, then the Ware. Then don't ever stop.

It is Sunday. I am in the library. I am in a little corner of the library where nobody goes. It is very quiet. The closest book to me is an October 1984 volume of import/export stuff bla in Yugoslavia bla. I just bored myself writing that sentence. I am grading papers. I am not exactly grading papers right now though. I am making little tally marks in ink on my inner forearm.

Nice hat,
thanks.

If you haven't checked out Jake Gillespie's Alphabet Series at Sheldon Connections yet, you should. And you should do it soon, because it'll only be up for two more weeks. I like Jake. Jake and I are friends. I like Jake's paintings. Jake and I may be working on a little poem/painting collab soon.

Erik Campbell tonight! Callen Conference Room at Nebraska Wesleyan. 7:00 pm sharp (7:05).

I got 5th place in my fantasy baseball league. I'm content with that. It's respectable. There were 19 very capable managers. But 5th-ish place is becoming pretty standard for me. Not the best of the best, but just better than the rest. I got to taste first place for an entire month mid-summer--maybe thats why I'm slightly disappointed, because my stock dropped to fifth instead of rose to fifth. And I was outpaced by Tony, again, but at least I beat Matt and Jim.

Anyway, Go Cubs! Go Tribe!

I got Ivan Blatny translations The Drug of Art, edited by Veronika Tuckerova, in the mail the other day and I'm pretty sure it has become my new frontrunner for best books of the year. I've had it two days and it's already bent out of shape and has had coffee (Mathias') spilled all over it. When I look for a book of poetry, this is what I'm looking for. Weird, funny, fragile. Some of the poems are multi-lingual. And I like that the existence of this book depended on so many talented editors, translators, and poets. The Introduction was fascinating. I've rarely so quickly wanted to become a total fan of a poet, to give so much of my focus over to one poet. I'm considering putting this book on my comps list (a focus on 20th century Eastern European translations) despite the fact that the list has already been signed. It is so worth the paperwork mess that move will cause.

Neighboring office colleage Emily Danforth on office-mate Dave Madden.