Tourism: San Miguel de Allende

I Am Foster Jane

Today JC & I rented mountain bikes to ride around outside San Miguel. If you don't know anything about San Miguel, it's the same altitude as Denver & very hilly. Not really mountainous, per se, but intensely hilly. The bike I rented had disc breaks & in their zealousness to keep the bike oiled up the shop had greased the disc breaks. It was nearly a dangerous bidness. But then I just wiped the grease off. Seriously though, rule one is do not grease your breaks.

Here's some stuff:

An article about a film based around a book about poetry recorded on cassette tapes. Despite the snark, it's a pretty fascinating subject.

New GlitterPointy

A Eurocentric article about the future of populations from Foreign Affairs

Arda Collins: New American Poet Joining Anna Moschovakis, Joe Massey & others in a celebration of newness & poetness.

A NYRB-y article about the past & future of Afghanistan policy from NYRB.

We are heading down to San Miguel de Allende until next year.

It's snowing here. Wish us flight luck.

We're reading at the San Miguel Literary Sala on Dec 28th, so if you're in that part of Mexico you should stop in.

I'm bringing a galley copy of Joshu Cohen's Witz for the trip. I'm very excited about it.

I also downloaded the new Young Money album, Okkulte Stimmen Mediale Musik collection of paranormal recordings & the Numero Group comp Forge Your Own Chains.

I also grew a few extra arms for the trip. They turned out kind of gross.

Dec 16th

Today would have been my dad's 70th birthday.

Monday night JC, B, L & I went on a double date. Dinner at City O City, a brief retire to their place & then on to Rhinoceropolis to see Pictureplane. The opening band was Keep. They made L do this:




But I quite liked them. What I really loved about the show was that the opening band was a doom metal band & most of the crowd seemed to lean toward the metal persuasion. Yet when Pictureplan started, with his '92 techno retro thing...

for instance:





...the metal kids didn't leave to go in the back room & smoke dope they stayed out there & danced.

Or at least they tried, like this frogjumper:



Awkwardly, yes, but they danced.




In other news, here's a guy half-heartedly holding a sign up to passing traffic on S. Federal:






And here's D'Count afraid of his own reflection in a mirror:

Nathan Young & Me: "The Hospital"

Mathias Svalina's The Hospital from natenatenate on Vimeo.

This is a section of my book-length poem Above the Fold. Another section is available as the chapbook The Viral Lease from Small Anchor Press.

Best Albums of 2009 (Many of them released before 2009) in the Approximate Chronological Order in Which I First Heard Them, Beginning in January

The Clerks' Group & Edward Wickham: Ockeghem, Motets
Paola Prestini: Body Maps
NN: s/t 7”
Antlers: s/t (the Richmond band, not the Brooklyn one)
Meredith Monk: Facing North
Wavves: Wavves
V/A: Huayno Music Of Peru - Vol. 2
Black Dice: Repo
Wolves in the Throne Room: Malevolent Grain EP
Death: For The Whole World To See (reissue)
Jean Ritchie: Ballads from Her Appalachian Family Tradition
Extra Life: Secular Works
Jewish People of Uganda: Abayudaya
Akron / Family: Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free
Katie Stelmanis: Join Us
The Decemberists: The Hazards of Love
Yeah Yeah Yeahs: It’s Blitz
Ducktails: Ducktails II
Deep Listening Band / Joe Mc Phee Quartet: Unquenchable Fire
Buraka Som Sistema: Black Diamond
William Basinski: 92982
Murcof: The Versailles Sessions
Strings Of Consciousness & Angel: Strings Of Consciousness & Angel
Peste Noire: Ballade cuntre lo Anemi francor
Ata Kak: Obaa Sima
Wolves in the Throne Room: Black Cascade
Bishop Perry Tillis: In Times Like These
Cirith Ungol: King of the Dead
Omar Souleyman: Dabke 2020: Folk & Pop Sounds of Syria
Trembling Bells: Carbeth
Sun O))): Monoliths & Dimensions
Teeth Mountain: s/t
Scott Dunbar: From Lake Mary
Circulatory System: Signal Morning
Ellen Fullman: Body Music
The Pyramids: King of Kings
Elzhi: The Preface
Dusty Kid: A Raver’s Diary
Blut Aus Nord: Memoria Vetusta II Dialogue With The Stars
Willis Alan Ramsey: s/t
Pajo: Scream With Me
Pillowdriver: Sleeping Pills
Taylor DuPree: Live Mapping 1
Nightbringer: Death and the Black Work
Ariel Kalma: Osmose
Doom: Born Like This
Atavist: II: Ruined
Maxwell: Blacksummers'night
David S. Ware: Godspelized
Ceremony: Violence Violence
No Age: Losing Feeling
Ga’an: s/t cassette
Moritz Von Oswald Trio: Vertical Ascent
Georgia Anne Muldrow: Umsindo
Luke Vibert: We Hear You
Pictureplane: Dark Rift
Mount Kimble: Sketch on Glass EP
Stephan Mathieu + Taylor Deupree: Transcriptions
Zola Jesus: The Spoils
Liturgy: Renihiliation
To Kill A Petty Bourgeoisie: Malone
Anti-Pop Consortium: Florescent Black
Hildur Gudnadóttir: Without Sinking
Best Coast: Where the Boys Are
Raekwon: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx PT II
Kath Bloom: Loving Takes This Course (only the reissue disc, not the tribute)
Emeralds: s/t
V/A: Thai Pop Spectacular 1960s-1980s
Wet Hair: Dream
Battle Of Wolf 359: Death of Affect
Punch: s/t
Anton Webern (Arditti String Quartet): The Complete String Trios and Quartets
Mariah Carey: Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel
Califone: All My Friends are Funeral Singers
Domenico Scarlatti (Yevgeny Subdin): Keyboard Sonatas
Reining Sound: Love & Curses
Natural Snow Buildings: Shadow Kingdom
Ramses III: I Could Not Love You More
Anthony Hamilton: The Point of It All
Kronos Quartet: Floodplain
BLK JKS: After Robots
Lucero: 1372 Overton Park
Fabolous: Loso’s Way
Solo Andata: s/t
The Caretaker: Persistent Repetition of Phrases
Ancestors: Demo II
PS Eliot: Bike Wreck Demo
Washed Out: High Times
Pete Heat: Progress DJ Mix
Gloria Coates: Symphonies 1, 4 & 7
Alexander Mosolov (Daniele Lombardi): Russian Futurism, Vol. 1: Piano Works
Josquin Desprez: Sabat Mater, Motets
Jordi Savall / La Capella Reial de Catalunya / Montserrat Figueras: El Cant de La Sibil·la: Mallorca - Valencia 1400-1560
Hespèrion XX & Jordi Savall: William Brade: Hamburger Ratsmusik: Consort Music ~1600 / Intraden, Paduanen und Galliarden
Oxford Camerata: Gesualdo: Complete Sacred Music for Five Voices
Yoga: Megafauna
Blackbird Raum: Swidden
Electrick Red: How To Be A Lady Volume 1
Ben Frost: By the Throat
Krallice: Dimensional Bleedthrough
Kuupuu: Lumen Tädhen
Hjarnidaudi: Pain:Noise:March
Carl Friedrich Abel: The Drexel Manuscript
Clipse: Til the Casket Drops
Hatred Surge: Deconstruct

Books For the Troops

In the English Department there's a box for books that will be sent over to troops on duty in Iraq & Afghanistan. The people in the department have taken it as a chance to unload all the unwanted old textbooks & such on their shelves. I think the troops are really going to enjoy the numerous copies of Diane Hacker's Writers Reference & the old editions of the MLA Style Guide. I think it'll help them remember what they are fighting for. God bless.

That Burger King is Non-Stop: Pittsburgh Was Awesome & Buy Julia Cohen's New Chapbook Before it Sells Out

The Gist Street Reading Series is perhaps the most ideal reading environment I've ever been in. The organizers of the series, respect to Nancy Krygowski, have created a series that based on its own reputation brings in paying audience members so quickly that people were lining up at 6:15 for a 7pm doors time. In the Pittsburgh cold!

The audience trusts the organizers to bring in readers worth their $5 & they also bring food & drinks which are shared, pot-luck style, among everyone. The crowd is warm & prepared to enjoy the work & expressive. The space is James Simon’s lovely sculpture studio, which is the perfect mixture of beauty & grunge for a reading. I got to meet & hear the fantastic work of Allison Amend & look forward to

I wish I lived inside the Gist Street Reading Series.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Some Words from Brave Men Press:






Hello,


We're pleased to announce Julia Cohen's new chapbook FOR THE H IN GHOST in now for sale.


In For the H in Ghost, Julia Cohen names the blank space, representing what is and what is not with ribbons of text that run like veins in an invisible, immutable tongue.

Julia Cohen's first full length book, Triggermoon Triggermoon, is forthcoming from Black Lawrence Press. She lives in Denver and is the poetry editor of the journal, Saltgrass.

Cover is letterpressed with grey ink on white paper.
Printed in a limited edition of 83.
17 pages.
$9


***


ALSO AVAILABLE FROM BRAVE MEN PRESS


Series #7 Coinsides featuring Dan Boehl and Mike Young

Featuring Mike Young and Dan Boehl.
Actual size 2 3/8 x 4 1/8".
Each Coinside printed in a limited edition of 23.
Set of Two.

$3.50 for each, $6.50 for both
Click here to Purchase

****

Janaka Stucky's YOUR NAME IS THE ONLY FREEDOM has SOLD OUT. We will be making a second edition in January. A pre-sale will appear on the website shortly.

A limited edition chapbook from Mathias Svalina is due this spring,as well as a chapbook by Brian Foley.

--
Brave Men Press
bravemenpress.com

Prototype, by Teal Gardner

for more information

It's cold here. Tonight it's supposed to be -15 windchill. Whatever windchill really is. Walking to & from the dogpark my eyelashes froze together.

I think it's so weird that D'Count does not get cold, despite wearing only his little coat of fur.

Look how cute this is:





I want this very, very much.



This is my new favorite music blog.




Check out Richmonder Walker Allen's photo website (or as he puts it, his "still in progress" site: http://rayupontheeye.smugmug.com/Photography.



He's still taking orders for photos up until tomorrow for the thingy coming up at the end of the month.



The new issue of Blackbird has a batch of poems & an interview with Katie Ford. There is also an essay on poetics of Larry Levis & his poem "Linnets."

My Christmas List

I Need Some New Outfits:






And I Need Some Fun Things to Remind Me of the Good in the World:

Jack Rose: 1971-2009

I'm sad to hear that guitarist Jack Rose passed away. He was immensely talented, playing a solo acoustic music that was indebted to John Fahey's Appalachian raga style, but also wholly his own. I first heard him a few records in. It was immediately addictive. I never knew him personally, but his music is so entrancing & transformative that I have the kind of close feeling for him that I rarely do for a musician.

He was part of that whole wave of refried folk music that came in the wake of Devendra Banhart's popularity & at that time a lot of new fingerpickers came on the scene. A glut of them, you could say. But Rose's work was of a different level, not only in skill but in his conceptual ability to take the droning mysticism of of his music seriously without ever losing the joy & even humor of the individual moments.

If you know his music you know it sucks that he won't be making any more. Though he's also left a considerable legacy behind for being a young guy. If you haven't heard him, well, you should. Check out these sites. Buy his records. Check out the many live recordings available online. He was a truly special artist.


The VHF website for him.

His myspace.

Arthur Mag's write up, which includes a handful of videos of him playing live.

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Me

1. A poem of mine is on Poetry Daily today.

2. My book, Destruction Myth, is now available & you can order it directly from The Cleveland State University Poetry Center or the lovely & roughly-calloused-hands-ed SPD.

Even if you think my work is kind of dumb you should go to the CSU Poetry Center site, because Allison Titus's book Sum of Every Lost Ship is available there & she rules.

3. Tomorrow night I'm reading at the Gist Street Reading Series in Pittsburgh. I'm reading with Allison Amend. Pittsburgh, as Broc keeps reminding me, is a hip & handsome city.

4. For reasons that are totally beyond me, a copy of my book is being sold for $92.75 at the big book-ogre's site. My secret hope is that Blake Butler gets all whiskey-drunk & buys it. I guess it's not so secret now.

I must make of my carnage a miraculating machine: Shudder to Think, Ben Frost Live at Unsound 2008, Lifetime & Antioch Arrow

Reading reviews of the Jawbox reissue left me searching youtube for old dc shows I might have been at. I don't think i was at this one. I think I only saw them play "Take the Child" once at dc space & then at the last show for their first drummer. Start this one at 2:55 for "Take the Child," a song I loved at age 15 & still do.










I'm trying to decide what I think of the new Ben Frost album. It's been keeping my attention & I find it fascinating but there's something in my that thinks I might love it & I do not currently love it, so I'm trying to figure out if I might. here is a "podcast" of a concert of his -- I put that in quotes because it does not seem to be downloadable, thereby making it a laptopcast.


UP#01 Ben Frost - Live at Unsound 2008 by unsound







While I'm thinking of old pop-rock I like, here's my 2nd favorite lifetime song:










And here's a crappy video of Antioch Arrow that captures the energy of what I remember: