Wrap Up

Went to a fantastic reading by Rauan Klassnik & Justin Marks on Friday. Justin's new long poem, which will be coming out from Rope-A-Dope Press is his best work yet. Rauan gave me a Zimbabwean $1000000 dollar bill, which I think means I owe the Bank of Zimbabwe twenty-two American dollars. The bill is dated "On or before 30th June 2008."

Went to the Krallice, Growing, Lightning Bolt show, but it started 3 1/2 hours late & the sound was so terrible I left after Krallice. Krallice were good, but the drums were barely miked, which reduced their awesomeness by a factor of 4.

Went to the Garden Party at Katy Lederer's house, where Rick Moody, Meghan O'Rourke, Ariana Reines & Jibade-Khalil Huffman. Huffman was fantastic. I'm a big fan of his work. Reines had this neurotic-expressive thing going that I wish had gone on for like 5 hours. I need to read more of her work. Right now I'm a fan of her, but after the reading I still am not sure what her work is like.

Tonight I went to see Kevin Young Read at KGB. Got his new book Dear Darkness, which seems really similar to Jelly Roll, stylistically. What I like so much about Jelly Roll is that all the poems are so simple, but over the scope of the book, a big book for poetry, he travels so much that the whole text is a fascinating intellectual work. The small stuff is fun & easy the big stuff is culturally complex & intellectual. Also, he still hasn't given up on his goatee, even though he must be pushing 40.

Tomorrow I'll be at Bucknell University talking about poems from Destruction Myth & then that night doing a little salon reading. If you happen to be in central Pennsylvania you are invited. Give me a call for directions, my phone number is a garbanzo bean.

My friend Anders went to a Royals game this past weekend & stopped for BBQ afterward; then McCain & Palin came into the same restaurant. Weird.




Also, on Saturday I admitted publicly that I thought those photos of Palin with the american flag bikini were real. I've mostly been following the speeches on the radio since I don't get TV at my house (not in a "I do not watch television" way, but in a cable is stupid-expensive-worthless-&-I'd-watch-it-all-the-time-if-I-had-it way). Based on everything I've read & heard about her those photos seemed valid to me. Turns out they're 'shopped. Turns out I'm pretty gullible.

Robyn Schiff's new book is out. Buy it. Just buy it. I mean it.