Saturday, January 31, 2009
Friday, January 30, 2009
I'll try to come up with 25 newer random things...
...because I feel like I've done this (or something similar) a few times before. :) I've tagged you back, Steve. But so many people have been tagged at this point, I think I'll just leave it open for whoever else on my friends list feels like responding.
1. For breakfast I had a mango/banana/peach/orange/spinach concoction, having recently joined the Cult of the Green Smoothie.
2. I'm a vegan.
3. I'm probably older than you think I am.
4. I read a lot of science fiction & "speculative" fiction.
5. I also read a lot of nonfiction, lately mostly science/technology, nutrition and food politics.
6. I haven't read much poetry in the last 6 months or so, but it's a phase. I feel it coming to an end.
7. Which also means I haven't written much poetry lately. (Though I've been writing prose.)
8. I can (hand)write with both hands, but their styles are different.
9. I generally write with my right hand though, which is slightly dominant. Many other things I do with my left.
10. I read lips, because my hearing is, shall we say, ROTTEN. But I am not yet willing to spring for 3K hearing aids. (Why, oh why, aren't hearing aids covered by health insurance? They're sure as hell not cosmetic.)
11. At one point I was enrolled in culinary school, but dropped out before my first semester. I love to cook, but didn't really want to be a professional chef. I'm too indolent.
12. In college, my minor was Religious Studies, which I changed to Philosophy because I believed none of it.
13. Most of the rest of my family is very religious. My grandfather was a preacher, and so is my brother-in-law.
14. I'm 5' 11".
15. I've never met a vegetable I didn't like. But I'm a supertaster of onions, so I usually cut them way down in recipes and can only abide scallions or red onion raw.
16. I have a high tolerance for chile peppers.
17. Seventeen is my favorite number (but was not, by any means, my favorite age).
18. I wish I had more time to sew. In high school I designed many of my own clothes, including my prom dresses. My grandmother worked as a sewist, and my mom & aunt are also excellent. I tend to buy fabric, make sketches, and collect vintage patterns, but let them sit in a box in the closet.
19. I began working at 15, to help my single mother with expenses. I worked full time to put myself through both college and grad school (along with the extremely welcome help of fellowships, scholarships & loans each time). I have only been without a job for approximately 6 nonconsecutive months since then, and I'm likely to have more than one job at a time.
20. This is because I hate money. I feel afraid when I don't have any, and guilty when I do.
21. A brief history of my (paying) jobs: restaurant jobs at Whataburger, Alvin Ords Sandwich Shop, Mazzio's Pizza, and Las Casas Mexican Cantina; perfume girl at Dillard's; paving crew for a construction company (at the same time as the perfume job--quite a double life); record store employee, then manager; bookstore employee, then manager; publicity and editorial assistant for a division of Random House; fashion copywriter for J.Crew, Banana Republic & Macy's catalogs and websites (at different times); publicity director/editor/associate publisher for Soft Skull Press; freelance writer; freelance editor; freelance copywriter; freelance book designer. (Most of the poetry-related work I've done has been unpaid.)
22. This list is taking alot of time. I need to get to the gym and then work on a book design assignment, #21 reminds me!
23. I love being outside, but hate crowds and need lots of privacy and quiet. As many things as I love about NYC, living in Brooklyn 12 years was actually quite a struggle for me! I'm happier out here (with the trees!) in NJ, but within pretty easy commuting distance.
24. My favorite color to wear (right now) is purple.
25. I enjoy reading other people's lists, so I hope you make one too.
1. For breakfast I had a mango/banana/peach/orange/spinach concoction, having recently joined the Cult of the Green Smoothie.
2. I'm a vegan.
3. I'm probably older than you think I am.
4. I read a lot of science fiction & "speculative" fiction.
5. I also read a lot of nonfiction, lately mostly science/technology, nutrition and food politics.
6. I haven't read much poetry in the last 6 months or so, but it's a phase. I feel it coming to an end.
7. Which also means I haven't written much poetry lately. (Though I've been writing prose.)
8. I can (hand)write with both hands, but their styles are different.
9. I generally write with my right hand though, which is slightly dominant. Many other things I do with my left.
10. I read lips, because my hearing is, shall we say, ROTTEN. But I am not yet willing to spring for 3K hearing aids. (Why, oh why, aren't hearing aids covered by health insurance? They're sure as hell not cosmetic.)
11. At one point I was enrolled in culinary school, but dropped out before my first semester. I love to cook, but didn't really want to be a professional chef. I'm too indolent.
12. In college, my minor was Religious Studies, which I changed to Philosophy because I believed none of it.
13. Most of the rest of my family is very religious. My grandfather was a preacher, and so is my brother-in-law.
14. I'm 5' 11".
15. I've never met a vegetable I didn't like. But I'm a supertaster of onions, so I usually cut them way down in recipes and can only abide scallions or red onion raw.
16. I have a high tolerance for chile peppers.
17. Seventeen is my favorite number (but was not, by any means, my favorite age).
18. I wish I had more time to sew. In high school I designed many of my own clothes, including my prom dresses. My grandmother worked as a sewist, and my mom & aunt are also excellent. I tend to buy fabric, make sketches, and collect vintage patterns, but let them sit in a box in the closet.
19. I began working at 15, to help my single mother with expenses. I worked full time to put myself through both college and grad school (along with the extremely welcome help of fellowships, scholarships & loans each time). I have only been without a job for approximately 6 nonconsecutive months since then, and I'm likely to have more than one job at a time.
20. This is because I hate money. I feel afraid when I don't have any, and guilty when I do.
21. A brief history of my (paying) jobs: restaurant jobs at Whataburger, Alvin Ords Sandwich Shop, Mazzio's Pizza, and Las Casas Mexican Cantina; perfume girl at Dillard's; paving crew for a construction company (at the same time as the perfume job--quite a double life); record store employee, then manager; bookstore employee, then manager; publicity and editorial assistant for a division of Random House; fashion copywriter for J.Crew, Banana Republic & Macy's catalogs and websites (at different times); publicity director/editor/associate publisher for Soft Skull Press; freelance writer; freelance editor; freelance copywriter; freelance book designer. (Most of the poetry-related work I've done has been unpaid.)
22. This list is taking alot of time. I need to get to the gym and then work on a book design assignment, #21 reminds me!
23. I love being outside, but hate crowds and need lots of privacy and quiet. As many things as I love about NYC, living in Brooklyn 12 years was actually quite a struggle for me! I'm happier out here (with the trees!) in NJ, but within pretty easy commuting distance.
24. My favorite color to wear (right now) is purple.
25. I enjoy reading other people's lists, so I hope you make one too.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
& then next week, there is this
Anne Boyer & Stephanie Strickland
Wednesday, February 4 at 8:00 pm
The Poetry Project at St. Marks Church
131 E. 10th St.
New York NY
Anne Boyer is the author of The Romance of Happy Workers (Coffee House, 2008), Art is War (Mitzvah Chaps 2008), Selected Dreams with a Note on Phrenology (Dusie 2007), and Anne Boyer's Good Apocalypse (Effing Press 2006). She lives in Kansas and teaches at the Kansas City Art Institute.
Stephanie Strickland’s fifth book of poems, Zone : Zero (book + CD), was just published by Ahsahta Press. Her latest collaborative hypermedia work, which she will read from, was introduced in Paris and shown at the Zaoem poetry festival in Ghent. She teaches experimental poetry and e-lit at many colleges and universities, most recently the University of Utah, and is working on a book-length sequence of poems, “Huracan’s Harp.”
All events are $8, $7 for students and seniors, $5 for members and begin at 8pm unless otherwise noted. The Poetry Project is wheelchair accessible with assistance and advance notice. Schedule subject to change. The Poetry Project is located in St. Mark's Church at the corner of 2nd Ave and 10th St in Manhattan.
Call (212) 674-0910 for more information.
Wednesday, February 4 at 8:00 pm
The Poetry Project at St. Marks Church
131 E. 10th St.
New York NY
Anne Boyer is the author of The Romance of Happy Workers (Coffee House, 2008), Art is War (Mitzvah Chaps 2008), Selected Dreams with a Note on Phrenology (Dusie 2007), and Anne Boyer's Good Apocalypse (Effing Press 2006). She lives in Kansas and teaches at the Kansas City Art Institute.
Stephanie Strickland’s fifth book of poems, Zone : Zero (book + CD), was just published by Ahsahta Press. Her latest collaborative hypermedia work, which she will read from, was introduced in Paris and shown at the Zaoem poetry festival in Ghent. She teaches experimental poetry and e-lit at many colleges and universities, most recently the University of Utah, and is working on a book-length sequence of poems, “Huracan’s Harp.”
All events are $8, $7 for students and seniors, $5 for members and begin at 8pm unless otherwise noted. The Poetry Project is wheelchair accessible with assistance and advance notice. Schedule subject to change. The Poetry Project is located in St. Mark's Church at the corner of 2nd Ave and 10th St in Manhattan.
Call (212) 674-0910 for more information.
Monday, January 26, 2009
THE BOOK OF FRANK
I'm just gonna go ahead and plan your life
Tomorrow night, I will be here, and you should probably also go so you are not regretting afterward that you did not:
27 JAN 09 * 6 pm
Ahsahta Press Reading
Kate Greenstreet
Paige Ackerson-Kiely
Susan Briante
Kathleen Jesme
Kristi Maxwell
Stephanie Strickland
d.a. levy lives series
hosted by Boog City
(music, wine, food, free!)
ACA Galleries
529 West 20th St.
5th floor
NYC 10011
212.206.8080
27 JAN 09 * 6 pm
Ahsahta Press Reading
Kate Greenstreet
Paige Ackerson-Kiely
Susan Briante
Kathleen Jesme
Kristi Maxwell
Stephanie Strickland
d.a. levy lives series
hosted by Boog City
(music, wine, food, free!)
ACA Galleries
529 West 20th St.
5th floor
NYC 10011
212.206.8080
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
Good thing I make my own peanut butter.
It's just crushed nuts, you know. Got a blender or food processor? You too can be fancy and save several dollars a jar. Anyway, I don't like sugar or salt in mine.
You'd hardly know it from the reports, but Salmonella is fecal-borne. (I just wanted to say that.) It's not like inherent to the peanuts. The problem is cross-contamination, probably mice or something in the production facility. That's also what happened with the spinach, and jalapenos before. Contaminated water and/or wild boar hooves. The boogies are of always animal origin. These reporters should consult some kind of reference book occasionally.
There are peanut-specific contaminants though, notably a kind of mold that is a powerful carcinogen. Yum!
Food reporting is fascinating, but in a way that kind of makes my stomach hurt. I'm now officially a food-politics & nutrition wonk.
You'd hardly know it from the reports, but Salmonella is fecal-borne. (I just wanted to say that.) It's not like inherent to the peanuts. The problem is cross-contamination, probably mice or something in the production facility. That's also what happened with the spinach, and jalapenos before. Contaminated water and/or wild boar hooves. The boogies are of always animal origin. These reporters should consult some kind of reference book occasionally.
There are peanut-specific contaminants though, notably a kind of mold that is a powerful carcinogen. Yum!
Food reporting is fascinating, but in a way that kind of makes my stomach hurt. I'm now officially a food-politics & nutrition wonk.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
OK so like I got three immediate emails
Let me explain. No, I did not lose all of my jobs, or even a whole job. My hours just got cut a bit at my main job. But since I have a partner and no children and my partner has a job too I am fine. In fact, I am more than fine and I am really really really really not only aware of this state of things but simultaneously extremely grateful and also kind of ashamed in a way that is so difficult to explain. My only poverty is the fear that sometime I might be poor again. Once you have been poor it never seems very far away, even if it really is!
Letterpressing
In 2009 if I do not lose the rest of my job, I would like to take another letterpress class, an advanced one or maybe a digital one where we make the polymer plates from computer layouts and press with those. But it is impractical for me to take another class in Manhattan or Brooklyn on the days that I work and commuting is too far/expensive if I am not being paid. So maybe there is a lettepress studio in NJ somewhere around here or even in Philadelphia would be closer. Do you know of any? I will start looking. Just in case.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
Said the Perfume Man on the Corner:
Everything you see here must GO!
Tomorrow is a special day, so
we're doing an Obama special.
Go on, go on, go on...
smell nice for the new president!
Tomorrow is a special day, so
we're doing an Obama special.
Go on, go on, go on...
smell nice for the new president!
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
V. Joshua Adams on Katie Degentesh's The Anger Scale
(From the latest Chicago Review)
A thoughtful critique; i.e. one in which the writer is reading the poems in conjunction with a discussion of their formal constraints, rather than merely going on about their (usually misapprehended) methods. Awesome. But I'd add this one qualification: "This bricolage identifies her as a member of the Flarfist collective, a group that [sometimes] exploits Google as an aid to writing." Definitely not always. Maybe not even most of the time. Flarf is not "Google sculpting" or "bricolage"--though as with pretty much every other device or topic or vocabulary or subject-position, it sees no earthly reason to exclude them should they come in handy.
Anyway, get a copy already. (I wrote about it here.)
A thoughtful critique; i.e. one in which the writer is reading the poems in conjunction with a discussion of their formal constraints, rather than merely going on about their (usually misapprehended) methods. Awesome. But I'd add this one qualification: "This bricolage identifies her as a member of the Flarfist collective, a group that [sometimes] exploits Google as an aid to writing." Definitely not always. Maybe not even most of the time. Flarf is not "Google sculpting" or "bricolage"--though as with pretty much every other device or topic or vocabulary or subject-position, it sees no earthly reason to exclude them should they come in handy.
Anyway, get a copy already. (I wrote about it here.)
Monday, January 12, 2009
A box
It's coming on a truck, apparently. Full of photographs I haven't seen in years. Some of places (& people) I, in all honesty, remember only hazily despite enduring them for years. A moth-eaten, a thankgoodness of blank space. Or is it that some things just get crowded out.
Friday, January 9, 2009
A long pause so far makes up the day, a tofu scramble with red peppers & spinach, mailing labels, the luxury of a second cup. In a little while run a couple miles, count the geese in the field, wash and rinse and wash and fold and make up a spare bed for sister.
I hope I write more in 2009. I feel guilty about it, and about not being able to offer any poems when asked.
Reminder: A lot of people are wonderful.
I hope I write more in 2009. I feel guilty about it, and about not being able to offer any poems when asked.
Reminder: A lot of people are wonderful.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
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