Short Review

I talk about Matt Bell's fantastic, The Collectors, HERE

Day 7

The fire department was doing a training exercise on my way to work. A former gas station and Mexican restaurant smoldered as I passed. A few flames still licked what was left of the walls. There was a small crowd watching on one side. On the other the fireman were sitting on a curb looking defeated.

On the 7th Day (Day 7 alternate post)

He said burn the mutha down...

Day 5 of a 12-Day Work Week

Old fashioned filing system

Song Obsession

"Perfect Fit" by Clues is flipping fantastic. Clues is bound to be one of the best albums of 2009 that you didn't hear about.

What's the happening...

There's things happening here.




Places where things were not happening:

The dentist office (I swear the restaurant across the freeway was called Muggers?!)

The mechanic's (I can read five months worth of TIME while my oil is changed)




I am going to have a short poem in Anemone Sidecar, Chapter 5, I believe. The poem is called "When I'm Sad I Eat, When I'm Happy, Too." I'll let you know when that goes down.

RIP Jay Bennett

Thanks are especially due for your contributions to one of the greatest albums ever recorded. And for your solo song, "My Little Wicked One."

Cell Phone Photo Essay

good morning, store

old fashioned files

where are you, customers?

time to read

shh, that's private

lunch

what keeps me sane

still no customers? time to people watch

is it 5 yet?

Self Portrait?

New Cartoon


&


News

Bring On The Kids

You may not know it, but we're in the midst of Children's Book Week. I didn't really take kids books seriously until I started managing my mother-in-law's children's book store a little over a year ago. Since then I've been thinking "Why the hell don't grown-up books get illustrations?" So, in honor of Children's Book Week I thought I would write about some fantastic books for kids that you should check out whether you have kids or not.

The Three Questions, by Jon J. Muth

A picture book adaptation of a Tolstoy story. Enough said.

Forever Young, by Bod Dylan, illustrations by Paul Rogers

Dylan's lyrics, which were written for his sons, with great illustrations. This is certainly somewhat of a guilty pleasure for a big Dylan fan such as myself.

Anything by Jonah Winter (especially Frida, Barack, and You Never Heard of Sandy Koufax?!)

Winter works with a lot of different illustrators, and comes from great children's lit pedigree, Jeanette Winter. He's written a few different books about baseball, which is always a plus.

The Composer is Dead, by Lemony Snickett, illustrations by Carson Ellis

Even without the hype that comes with the name Lemony Snickett, this book is more than worth it for the artwork from Ellis, known for the work she does for The Decemberists.

We are the Ship, by Kadir Nelson

This book is a fantastic history of Negro League baseball, with exquisite paintings and a foreword from Hammerin' Hank Aaron. Just seeing the cover of this book every day stirs something in me.

Gettysburg: The Graphic Novel, by C.M. Butzer

I think the title alone sells this one.

The Gettysburg Address, illustrations by Michael McCurdy

Lincoln's words set to stunning artwork.

Lincoln Shot, by Barry Denenberg, illustrations by Christopher Bing

Okay, so there's a pattern forming with these last three... This book has a horrible title, but is a fantastic book. It's done up like a special issue of a newspaper from after Lincoln's assassination, thus the headline-esque title. A poignant work.

The Arrival, by Shaun Tan

A wordless graphic novel about the experience of an immigrant. Striking.

Big Fat Little Lit, edited by Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly

This is a collection of comics written and illustrated by various artists, including Neil Gaiman, Lemony Snicket, Maurice Sendak, and David Sedaris.

Mommy!, by Maurice Sendak

Sendak's first pop-up. That's all you need to know.

Don Quixote, retold by Martin Jenkins, illustrations by Chris Riddell

A fantastic volume. Riddell has quickly become one of my favorite artists, and his illustrations here are superb.



There are so many. And there's always all the classics, but these are ones that definitely stand out to me on a daily basis.

Now Shuffle

The constant inspiration that is Molly Gaudry has done it again, this time with a collage poem made up of lines/links from various blogs. Check it out.


Also, has anyone ever made a literary journal that came in a Chinese food take-out box?

Slow Day + Weird Mood =

I'm somewhat disappointed that blogsplotch.blogspot.com is taken. Even more, I'm annoyed it's not being put to good use.


also,

The Celebrity Apprentice was so rigged. In honor, here's a poem:

Down with Joan Rivers

I'm talkin'
down and not
in a jive way,
like in that psycho's
got to go,

as in,
there's more
crazy there
than at
a republican
convention

as in,
lady, how does it
feel to have
survived
the stone age?
as in she must
be keeping the
formaldehyde
industry in business.

HAPPY MOTHER's DAY!

Something Short

Possibly the shortest poem I've written (and the longest title), "The Teacher said Titles shouldn't be Longer than Poems and I was like, is that a Challenge?" has been accepted by PANK for publication in issue #4, planned for January 2010. Color me stoked.

Here's the deal...

Another baseball player is in trouble for steroids. Manny being Manny has a whole new connotation.

I read a frustratingly ridiculous article suggesting grownups should be able to take steroids if they want to. And that we should allow professional athletes to take them. After all, "it's not cheating." Just thinking about it boils my blood.

Here's what I'd like to see:

Take every player who has tested positive for steroids in the past, all those who test positive in the present and future, send them away. To Mexico. Anywhere. Start up an all-steroid league. Let them talk about how awesome they all are while flexing their pecks that will one day morph into man-breasts.

There's nothing I want to see more in baseball than a league void of steroid use. Seriously. I think I hate steroids more than I hate the Yankees, which is, like, a lot.

If the players who take steroids or have in the past think they belong anywhere near the same history books as Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and countless other greats they might look into the effects of steroids on intellectual capabilities, because it will be one more area they are failing themselves.

Goodbye Barry Bonds, goodbye Mark McGwire, goodbye A-Roid, goodbye Roger Clemens, goodbye Manny-Being-Manny, goodbye Miguel Tejada, goodbye all the rest. We don't need you. And it breaks my heart, several of you used to be long-time favorites of mine.

Oddities

A truly weird story of mine called "Saturn Face" will appear in the forthcoming print issue of Tulip. I am excited. Could this story really be any weirder than a story called "The Sad Giraffe Demographic"? Quite Possibly.

Then again, I just finished a new flash story that is pretty much soft-core Tinkerbell porn...



There's really nothing I can do to explain...

Brilliant

I'm reading Paul Di Filippo's latest collection, Harsh Oases. The second story in, "A Game of Go," has one of the most brilliant opening lines, "That was the year all the women were dressing like Robin Hood"


My thesis is printed, copies have been sent off to be bound in their fancy thesis volumes. Good times. I'm almost finished with my "critical introduction" which I've titled, "Career Masochism and the Quest for a Story." That should look good in the schedule.

Holy Smokes, 2.0

My thesis manuscript is finished. Now to have it printed, etc. These are easily the best five stories I've ever written, and I can't wait for more people to get a chance to read them.

Holy Smokes

Read.


BUY:



Be thankful.