by my green candle

INSIGHTFUL INFORMATION FORTHCOMING

2008-11-18T22:04:00.000-08:00

...

BEAUTIFUL INFORMATION FORTHCOMING

2008-11-18T21:32:00.000-08:00

...

I refer to: being alive, or, issue 2 of Seth Landman's Invisible Ear.

Check out the Jazz Within: pic 1 Marie Buck, pic 2 Brad Flis, pic 3 Lawrence Giffin.

Recall, these are just selections, visual appetizers, hors d'oeuvres, such as a spicy meat, fish or cheese on a cracker, served as the only food at a gathering with drinks--you're going to want to eat a meal, like, fuckin' sometime. Oh, so since the blog Seth has listed doesn't exist, you better email him if you want one: inv.ear@gmail.com or seth.landman@gmail.com. Go!

mmmm acid ummm hi china white

2008-10-31T01:16:00.000-07:00

candy flip

2008-10-27T21:19:00.000-07:00

sky

adidas & seth rogen

2008-10-26T22:22:00.000-07:00

*<<**>>*

Emerging Theme Causes Intricate Answers (Obama)

2008-10-25T23:58:00.000-07:00

;;;;;;;;;;;

bunny dead

2008-10-15T04:54:00.000-07:00

andy jesus

2008-10-14T05:26:00.000-07:00

...

Away like Batman/An ampersand for Judas/Batman

2008-07-31T18:51:00.000-07:00

[a transformer's puzzle, completed on my coffee table<

Kathy Acker selections, two books I didn't have + a cheap signed 1st pristine HC Pussy, King of the Pirates:

The perfunctory tone of the crooked, unadorned signature has it's own charm. This was her last novel, from 1996.

The design of the book by Grove is elegantly cheeky, from the graphic marbly end papers to the hot pink flaps, to Kathy's attractive author photo.

These two volumes couldn't be more different, though both are fun (the Patterns of Symmetry is somewhat valuable). Lust Damned, an original Midnight Reader, was the best title out of stacks that all featured the same style of contents & design. Patterns of Symmetry, out of UMass, 1977, ties for coolest book of the haul, & deserves its own post sometime.

The back ad of Lust Damned speaks for itself:

Inside Lust Damned:

Then the beloved books on books. Kraus' A Rare Book Saga adjacent English Books 1475- 1900, a signpost for collectors. Both are A++.

A snapshot of the snapshots at the center of the Kraus:

Obligatory poetry volumes, affordably had. Both coincidentally U of California P products. All Poets Welcome comes w/ a CD of pretty much everyone New York in the 60s, including John Wieners' classic "Poem for Cocksuckers", Ted Berrigan reading a handful of sonnets, & a Clark Coolidge audio file I've not heard before, "Machinations Calcite".

A further selection of 1-handed reading. Robert Duncan approves!

Lastly from this haul, the livre du grand gidouille grand, & the fifth U of California P item displayed in this post (2 more are below):

These next three were AWP acquisitions, yet haven't made it home until now. Stein Mac Low Moriarty. They are rescued. It shouldn't be news to anyone, but Thing of Beauty is one of the best realized books of recent years, from production to contents. Kudos to Anne Tardos in conjunction with U of California P.

Inside a Thing of Beauty:

The selection from perhaps my favorite Mac Low book, Pieces o' Six:

A spread from the Laura Moriarty volume A Semblance, recently out from Omnidawn:

& a signature:

(*) (*) (*) (*) (*) (*)

Now, a pictorial tour around Sawyer & Darton's 2-volume English Books, 1475-1900, printed in 2000 sets in '27. Undoubtedly the items I've spent the most time with since acquisition.

Snapshots of My Childs

2008-07-01T23:07:00.000-07:00

I was walking around in my library the other day, cam in hand, & decided to take a few snaps of what was there. For one, so I could continue my new trend of letting the pics do the talkin on this blog, for two, to document what was standing next to what--because it remains, except for a few small sections, entirely unorganized since I last unpacked it more than 6 months ago.

Such a status has rendered it almost useless several times, as you search through the whole fucker looking for the one single book. But, as all collectors know, the fruitless search becomes the pleasure, as you find something else usually more interesting & forget about the initial target. Then, a few days later, you look up & right in front of your face, the book you couldn't find come hell or high water before is looking right at you.

So many of these pics are both random in my selection to photograph them (as opposed to some other section) & random in their arrangement. Somewhere between 5 to 10% of the whole is accounted for in the following photos. The amount of prose versus poesie is an interesting outcome, but then again there was an entire alley of the collection that was too narrow to photograph properly, kicking those stacks out of the extravaganza that follows. The final pic is a single glimpse into the 'money shelves'--this level shows some signed Hubert Aquin adjacent a ton of choice Atlas Press stuff adjacent some signed Zizeks.

Spoonbill + Jess

2008-06-30T23:53:00.000-07:00

Surveying the latest damage, we have a visit to Spoonbill & Sugartown, that guaranteed moneytaker of Williamsburg, followed by, at the end, pictures taken from the current Jess exhibit at the Tibor de Nagy gallery. I've seen few solo exhibitions anywhere that are as interesting & various as Jess @ TdN, where you can see quintessential demonstrations of the artist's famed collage style adjacent work in several other equally impressive modes. One of which is a puzzle, though never that simple, as it is at least two slightly different puzzles of the same image. In some works, the paint is as thick & sculpted as cake icing, seeming to rise up inches off the plane. Then, in others, the collage style is present, though seemingly painted over, or is it, simply, painted? My phone died almost exactly when I decided to take pics in the first place; Tibor has 9 examples on its website, some overlapping my work; at the gallery, many of the approximately 30 pieces were for sale, ranging from 8 to 650k (which, in a sense, is still quite a deal). But I had made a fatal error, & left my checkbook at home.

From S 'n' S:

5 Frenchies follow'd by Stephen Farmer, which is a '99 Krupskaya tome:

Raymond Queneau, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Antonin Artaud, Andre Breton, Tristan Tzara:

* * *

!!!Jess!!!

Don't Go Chasin' Waterfallz

2008-06-29T04:20:00.000-07:00

Sometime back in '07, I made my first major acquisition of items from the College de 'Pataphysique. The hodgepodge collection features upwards of 60 items, spanning an array of the regular series & various individual volumes throughout each decade of the College's activities. I haven't mentioned the collection before because I never typed up the complete bibliographical info; for whatever reason, I found this necessary if I wanted to properly document the purchase. Of course this is not the case. Furthermore, I shall let the camera do most of the talking, instead of trying to point out various details, which would leave me typing into tomorrow. Many of the more recent items are in amazing condition, but several other of the items are in poor shape & deteriorate a little bit more each time I peruse them.

The longview of a purchase of this size & variety is that it handcuffs you when you want to complete a series of the individual journals. To continue one must either try the difficult task of tracking down the remaining specific numbers in a pricey & limited market or face the reality of having a fair number of duplicates. As I've continued to collect items from the College, this later outcome has won out so far, & now I have several handfuls of duplications. At the same time, the acquisition of the set helped galvanize & clarify the College's bibliography to me somewhat, prior to which I found largely confounding.

Various issues from the series of journals, including Subsidia Pataphysica, Monitoires & Organographes (only a few issues from the earlier Cahiers & Dossiers were included):

Subsidia:

Organographes:

Monitoires:

An exemplaire from the Dossiers, followed by several photos of its contents, including centerforld:

Various individual items:

Front & Back of Promptuaire Duplications, one of which has a stamp on the verso w/ a Chicago address, followed with a glance at some contents, offering a sculpture by Boris Vian:

A survey of Ferry:

More Ferry: more than 30 loose leaves kept in a fragile folder w/ a Vian sheet laid in: the biggest item in the collection:

The littlest item in the collection, from Opach:

Additional variety:

A smallish Ferry treat with a neon center:

From the closest to a Queen He ever got (except we are all queens):

* * *

If you thought that was good, rezip your pants. The three items that follow all contain various folded this-or-that lurking within, revealing marvels of a scale unexplored in the previous items.

Innocent-seeming from the outside:

The contents:

[It is unclear if the 2nd piece is an actual part of this volume or rather a separate item simply tipped in for safekeeping.]

Numero deux. Some tipped in items followed by the larger foldout:

The followup to the piece just above:

(Verso of preceding photo:)

Rounding out today's survey, the helpful issue of Evergreen Review dedicated to the College along with two, seemingly entirely unassociated volumes that somehow found their way into the bin:

By way of P.S. simply a reminder that all above images are clickable so as to see a much larger version.

I'll Take Jeopardy for $200

2008-06-24T04:26:00.000-07:00

God blesses things, such as forgiveness, sashimi, & St Mark's Books. On a trip there, you can purchase an array of fine items. The poetry section overall was slacking a little, but other areas of the Mart delivered.

The Dialectics of Seeing: WB & the Arcades Project par Susan Buck-Morss, followed by Bruce Andrews' Co, which is collaborations with Yedda Morisson, Kim Rosenfield, Jessica Grim, Jesse Freeman & Barbara Cole.

These are followed by Denis Johnson's recent big one, Tree of Smoke, itself flanked by a Raymond Chandler compendium: The Lady in the Lake, The Little Sister, The Long Goodbye, & Playback:

They arrived adjacent to these: a dual work from Samuel R. Delany, Babel-17/Empire Star, & yet another WWII historo-espio-thriller from Alan Furst, Dark Voyage. Yeah, another one of them.

A few magazines:

Finally, a bit more poesie: New Shit from Lisa Jarnot, Night Scenes, rubbing spines with fresh Tao Lin spear Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy.

The Tao Lin is advertised as signed, but Tao does you one better, & draws you a little picture w/ a word or two, each one different. After checking them all out, I went with "Choad Deluxe":

A Book

2008-06-23T16:27:00.000-07:00

In recent days arrived the final piece to the exquisite Cahiers du College de 'Pataphysique series. In the photo above, an authentic copy sits alongside a prepared facsimile. The true copy is the greenish, the false the bluish, wrapped.

The slim publication (tho certainly not the College's slimmest), titled Blanchissage, features three main items: an aphorism by Julien Torma on Jarry, an announcement from the College, & one of Jarry's laundry lists. The remainder of the issue features several ad announcements for re-subscribing to the College's next series, which would be the Dossiers.

On the left, Jarry's laundry list, a most precious note indeed. Facing that reproduction, an announcement: in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Jarry's death, the College was to head underground, & cease all public activities. This wouldn't occur, however, until '75--a period of occultation that lasted a full quarter century, repealed in line with the symmetry of the millennium.

In pleasant fashion, the false copy I previously obtained contains an additional insert, while the original lacks any such ornamentation.

The message, to all subscribers, is simply "pay up!"

British Imperialists IN YOUR ASS (Still) Pt 1

2008-06-22T19:05:00.000-07:00

Since times are hard (ha) & Nibiru is still a few years away, here's a couple more odds & ends. The first, the material claimed from the recent Caroline Bergvall/Mario Diaz de Leon event at the Hispanic Society of America.

This tasty chap--an especially fine production from well-known Belladonna Books--limits itself to 75 copies. Though, as can be seen below, the colophon announces them as all signed, which they are not (or, at least this copy; I did not examine the others).

If there are any of these treats left for sale, I most highly recommend the pick-up. I believe the people hawking them were the ones associated with Unnameable Books, the mecca of the Brooklyn book world.

A taste from early in the poem:

Hi all Im Alyson,
some people call me Al.
I'm many theyngs to many,
a few thyinge to some &
nothing but an irritant
to socialites and othire
glossing troglodytes
Just don't call me Alice
I dig conversation
but the only rabbit I ever liked
is rabbit in prunes of Agen
sauted in duck fat
or a conys in Hoggepotte.
It's been a long time, quod she,
some & six hundred.
Everything was different
yet pretty much the same.
Godabove ruled all
& the Franks the rest.
Womenfolk were owned ne trafficked
nor ghosted, and so were
most workfolk enserfed.
Sunsets were redder then,
legs a little shorter.
In my time I made my bed
a stretch a streowen
for many leien in hoo we did!

You can also catch Caroline reading on a recent episode of Estefan's Ceptuetics. In the half hour program she discusses some of the mechanics of the piece, which I shan't spoil. Also let's hope someone recorded the event with Mario Diaz de Leon--it was a dynamic collaboration.

Bonus pic of The Knight outside the Hispanic Society :

Note the gidouilles flanking the stairs leading to the Errant.

Hijinks of the Rreal: Roundup of the VVeek: Monday

2008-06-16T16:54:00.000-07:00

One week ago today, Rob Fitterman read with Jen Bervin in a windowless Brooklyn artist's space. The reading was well hydrated, with choice Mexican brew, chilled white wine, lemonade & iced tea among the options. Yes, hydration is important.

The event was in celebration of the release of two books, Bervin's massively extravagant The Desert, along Fitterman's new trilogy from No Press featuring himself & Nayland Blake, a set of works sprung from the undry well of Ernest Hemingway: The Sun Also Also Rises, My Sun Also Rises, & Blake's Also Also Also Rises the Sun. Underpromoted & certainly not air-conditioned, the crowd nevertheless filled the room, & the readings were short but good.

Reading along with Rob were Nayland Blake & Steve Clay, publisher of Granary Books. They selected short concurrent chapters from each volume, & read each in succession--allowing the reader to elucidate, recall & compare the treatments given to each separate volume. From Rob, a distillation of Hemingway's text to the sentences beginning only with 'I' followed by a skewed autobiographical duplication. Steve read the Hemingway, Rob the Rob, & Nayland the Nayland--his third volume an especially minimal distillation encircling selected parts of speech--a hyperextension of Fitterman's original concept.

Having read the volumes in advance, tho I read them whole, one after another, instead of all three simultaneously, I noticed new structural commonalities beyond the more obvious ones, which made the reading quite pleasant, despite the obvious nuisance of the temperature.

Jen's reading was brief but just as striking. Chances are you are familiar with her Nets, minimal distillations of Shakespeare's Sonnets, since it is in it's fourth printing. Her new project, The Desert, is the application of a similar process, tho rendered on an infinitely larger scale--book & pricewise--Nets was $10, The Desert $4000.

Like her work in Nets, seen below, she does not simply use erasure as a technique to acquire new substance. Instead, she uses it to a voluminous extreme, which delivers incredibly minimal poems--only a handful of words per page. The immense casket of the remainder is always visible: in Nets, rather like a spider's web, in The Desert, more industrial & performative.

A pic of the affordable one:

A selected page of Nets:

Samples of The Desert are visible at the Granary site, linked above.

Roundup Pt 2.1: Hot Shots pt Deux Pt 2

2008-06-14T12:02:00.000-07:00

Another yesterday arrival was Bill Pearlman's Inzorbital. At first glance this is an innocent-enough volume of poems put out by Duende in 1974, but the volume curates some interesting associations, to be explored below.

First, the book itself contains several interesting modifications. The envoy on the colophon "For Gus & Felice" is a good start to a good copy. This doesn't seem to be from either the stated 26 signed copies or the special 9 signed copies with an additional poem written in, but the inscription isn't bad, to say the least.

Where things get interesting is the back cover. I know absolutely nothing about graphology & it's uses, but there seems to be another inscription on the back cover in the same hand & pen. Of course, this could be featured on all copies of the book but my instinct is that it is unique. Very few letters from either selection are used in the same way in both sequences, but the capital G's from "Gus" & "Garden" seem rather unique & the lower-case t's throughout are dead on.

It's an interesting challenge to figure out exactly how to read this final, touching phrase, reminiscent perhaps of Melville's Army of Shadows:

I have decided
to Run before
the Shooting Starts.
You are invited
to the Spirit Garden
Opening Night --

Marilyn Kennedy

Then there is the name, Marilyn Kennedy, which could range from any number of real people to the humorous combination of Marilyn Monroe & JFK--Marilyn's would-be married name if she & JFK were to get hitched. The possibilities of what exactly all this indicates, if indeterminate, remains quite interesting. The phrase itself does not seem to appear anywhere via google.

VVhat attracted me to the Pearlman in the first place is that the front matter lists Inzorbital as issue 5 of Fervent Valley, a magazine that I had thought only had 4 numbers from Spring of '72 thru the Summer of '74. I thought I had completed the series a while ago, only to recently find out about this phantom 5th issue.

Fervent Valley issues 1, 2 & 3:

Fervent Valley, though technically short-lived, was as exciting & well-edited as any of the early 70s zines that are probably more famous. Each issue, including the fifth, inhabits a different size & style of binding. Issue one was edited by the conglomerate of Stephen Rodefer, Larry Goodell, Charlie Vermont, Bill Pearlman & Lenore Schwartz. Inside there is work from Allen Ginsberg, Ken Irby, Tom Clark, Bukowski, Fielding Dawson & Andrei Codrescu, along with the editors. Number 2 finds only Rodefer, Goodell & Pearlman at the helm but adds work by Burroughs, Lewis MacAdams & Summer Brenner along with another appearance from Bukowski & more work from the editors. By the time bright pink issue 3 rolls into town (Spring '73) Larry Goodell & Gus Blaisdell edit along with Lenore Schwartz (now) Goodell. Editors past & present are again represented but added to the mix are Tom McGrath, Tom Raworth & Larry Eigner. Removable artwork by Brian Leo is tipped into the rear, perhaps to get a fuller grasp of the piece, perhaps due to stapling oversight.

Issue 4:

The fourth issue features one of the better covers of the mimeograph era, designed by George Grosz. The issue is solely edited by Rodefer. The contents are perhaps the most star-laden. The issue is led by Charles Olson, followed shortly by a Frank O'Hara/Bill Berkson piece "Reverdy". Rodefer puts his own work between these two deceased heroes (Berkson is obviously alive) to round out the first three entries. Soon follow Phil Whalen, Anne Waldman, T.S. Eliot, Groucho Marx, Gregory Corso, Ford Madox Ford, Robert Creeley, Marcel "Duchamps", Michael McClure & Allen Ginsberg. Slightly less household contributors include names such as Valentino, (G) Young, Hirschman, Malanga, Mead, Leavitt, (S) Ortiz & the usual suspects of Rodefer, Goodell, Pearlman, Vermont.

Overall, issue four presents the best synthesis of editorial selection & jokiness to be seen in any of the issues of Fervent Valley, perhaps pointing to the editorial genius that informs Rodefer's Villon, issued a few years later.

* * *

The fun, however, is far from over. I cannot, at the moment, relocate where I read about the following dual-item. It was somewhere online digging through google searches of Rodefer, or perhaps somewhere else entirely. Surely there are other (potential) readers who might be able to square up the history, but I won't dally.

What follows below is both the official copy of the Winter-Spring 1969 double issue of the New Mexico Quarterly & the fugitive 'censored' mimeograph response, the New Mexico Quarter. Rodefer appears in both issues, "Susan's Stone Shoes" & "The Electrified World" in the official copy, "Ode to the University of New Mexico President and the Santa Fe Legislature" in the samizdat.

The verso of "The Quarter":

Without the details of the history to refer to, exactly what was censored from the main issue, & why, remains difficult to parse. For instance, the Michael McClure poem below, "Plume Ode," featuring the phrases "they spray from the dark cunt & cock" & "TO THE HUGE PICTURE OF CUNT AND FOOD" appears in both issues. One other McClure item, "On Beginning Romeo and Juliet" appears in the official number, while two others, "Hummingbird Ode" & "Me Raphael" surface in the censored copy. Interestingly, the most traditionally vulgar material in any of the McClure items was that listed above, from the poem appearing in both issues--seemingly not the reason for the season, so to speak. Along with Rodefer & McClure, Robert Creeley also appears in both numbers: "For A Valentine" in the friendly copy, "The Hole" in the after midnight version.

What we can learn in "General Editor" George Arms intro to what he describes as the last issue of NMQ (perhaps Rodefer killed it) is that the "special editor, Gene Frumkin, poet and teacher of creative writing at the University, has brought together a group of poems, stories, and critical essays that happily climax the long career of the magazine." Thus, the name of Stephen Rodefer is never attached in any of the issues to any sort of editorship. The 'censored' issue contains no editorial information whatsoever.

Things are partially illuminated by Rodefer's entry in the Quarter, "Ode to the University of New Mexico President and the Santa Fe Legislature." A closeup of the epigraph follows:

Here is the full poem, which you should be able to click on, as with many of my blog photos, in order to enlarge:

So I think it's safe to guess that this poem might be the crux of the whole issue. It would be hard to believe that the page excerpt from the last episode of Ulysses, part of Molly's glorious monologue, would have been cause for war in 1969--she jacks off a sailor into a handkerchief & keeps it. & it seems probable that Stephen retitled this work after the incident, whatever it was. But these are only some introductory details surrounding this interesting publication.

* * *

Bonus Pic: Robert Creeley's "The Hole" from the New Mexico Quarter:

You can hear Bob read this one thru the decades at PennSound, including twice in October of '66. It is clear that he thinks highly of the poem, from the fact that it shows up several times in several decades. Also, his placement of the work in his set list--once third to last, once last. At least one version seems to have another small page of text, making for yet another curious detail to today's explorations.

Roundup Pt 2: Hot Shots pt Deux Pt. 1

2008-06-13T22:00:00.000-07:00

Just today several new things arrived, giving me pause in my daily vveekend roundup series, just launched. One of the headlining items was a package of vintage items from the generous Buck Downs.

It featured both excellent this & excellent that, including an 8 1/2 x 11 book Office Products, a 1995 issue of Washington Review (along with a promo postcard) & finally a white greeting card envelope which contained a 6-leaf chapbook handsewn into a greeting card called Full Spoon. Office Products is a 1991 publication, Full Spoon 1992.

The issue of Washington Review features a cover interview with Downs, Rod Smith, and Mark Wallace by Ross Taylor. The contents of the issue are interesting overall, featuring an early appearance of Rodrigo Toscano's "Circular No 7" from The Disparities & a review of Fitterman's early volume Ameresque, published by Buck Downs Books in 1994, all along with the feature interview.

Bonus Photo Inside: of Downs & Smith having a laugh at Mark Wallace's expense:

The Toscano:

* * *

Four years prior to the Washington Review feature, Office Products was released by joie d'beavre.

The inside back cover info tells us that 200 copies of el producto were produced in April of 1991.

The first poem in the book, "Form Letter" features a hot conceptual bop in a rarely seen style from Downs, couplets.

But Buck's true swagger is imminently concretized by just the second poem, "Blue Sort of Orange" which hails from a different time zone entirely...

Blue Sort of Orange

Candy Apple Taupe
skies of infinite dessert,
radio mayhem and bridges
caught flat-foot.
Live at the scene we turned
that TV on and it became
a little party all of its own.
The fire lynx sat twinkling
in his house of bushes
and slept.
.....................A puddled mile
of face and whine don't care,
nervous skies belly full
of sliding water lack. One fresh
dose of sink brings on this face
dozing from dreams, cool
noseful of sleep, dirt, and hands.
To get up ain't on the boat
any more, let out some little
bevy, passengers, and from
the crow perch serene
eye nest and sway.

* * *

The delectable Full Spoon was published by the same press, the elegantly-named joie d'beavre, only a year later, in '92. This amazing object predates several I've received from Buck, handmade items whose form inhabits whatever finds them, instead of the forceful organization of a behind-closed-doors production. Buck's tact produces works that return to the world instead of simply arriving in it.

This one is a greeting card featuring an image from Albert Pinkham Ryder's Children Playing with a Rabbit; inside, five pages of poems precede the signed colophon, signaling the edition size of 40, of which this is copy 10.

* * *

Basically current with the arrival of these items has come news that Buck has just made available many of his working notebooks on the p=o=d service Lulu. No fewer than 7 volumes are already available.

Hijinks of the Rreal: Roundup of the VVeek: Sunday

2008-06-13T00:18:00.000-07:00

Earlier this vveek, I met Dirk Rountree & Jean Foos at steamy Dexter Sinister, which hosted a dual book release party for A Fair to Meddling Story and A Couple Thousand Short Films About Glenn Gould.

Downstairs, you could enjoy a freshly prepared gin+tonic while listening to records having to do with a Cory Arcangel/Paul Morley/Steven Bode/Dexter Sinister joint production titled A Couple Thousand Short Films About Glenn Gould. The music came from Cory Arcangel "who will play records mentioned in the text as JD SALINGER" and the book was on sale for an attractive $15.

The book sports all sorts of interesting features, including a unique tipped in photograph, the table of contents being listed on the back, and a zero printed in the corner of the first page. On the inside, Paul Morley's first, long section REPRODUCTION, comprises the main chunk of text, which makes an excessive & distinctive use of white space.

The Zero:

Inside the front cover:

Outside the back cover:

Meanwhile, upstairs, a different sort of thing was happening. Everyone was drenched in their own, but many looked on as a human played choppy piano while a large TV played video on the far side of the instrument. When we walked past to attain the back room, John Kerry was on the TV screen, giving a speech. This was the performance attached to the release of A Fair To Meddling Story by Ken Okiishi and Nick Mauss. The book was for sale in the back, & they had bottled water & Bud Heavy in big metal tubs, on ice.

I haven't taken the book out of the package, yet.

Coach Steve

2008-06-12T23:21:00.001-07:00

Check out 3 minutes of video of Steven Zultanski reading at the Zinc Bar! He gets about halfway through his poem "My Best Friends".

Steven Zultanski <3 Kevin Thurston

2008-05-24T23:44:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow evening, Steven Zultanski will read from his poems at the Zinc Bar, located 90 West Houston, at 6:30. He will be reading along with Dorothea Lasky, so attend if you like these pics of Steve 'n' Kevin Thurston.

Rodefer Pictures

2008-05-23T21:24:00.000-07:00

How better decorate your hot Brooklyn pad than with the badassery of one of the best poets of like 3 or 4 generations? My first Rodefer book was his entry in the Tuumba series--#36 Plane Debris. That title was also one of the first I acquired in my quest to complete the entire Tuumba publications. The format of the series changed to the classic style at issue 12; it historically hit its stride with editor Lyn Hejinian's second entry, Gesualdo, which was issue 15. The only other formal anomaly is Rodefer's entry, featuring delightfully oversized wraps, more than 2 inches wider than the other pamphlets, as if it's protruding place on the bookshelf constantly reminds you how extravagant & great the contents are.

About a year ago I bought some of Rodefer's "language pictures" from Greg Fuchs, a fact I've previously documented here. Never, though, have I provided photos of the framed jobs hanging on my walls.

These two flank the fireplace in my living room. The quote from the item above, which I call to myself "23," is reprinted as an epigraph to the poem "Brief to Butterick," found both in the pamphlet Leaving & the larger collection Left Under A Cloud. It reads,

Yes, the tooth of time is black to the root
I have done all I could do
To appear mirthful

This second piece, which I call to myself "The Order," is a most pleasant collage of artist Mathew Barney over one of those September 11th remembrance name-lists. The item was created on December 20th in the year of its happening. It is most interesting in the context of the other, linguisto-minimalist pieces, & is striking as a somewhat more conceptual texture than any of the other items.

The final picture, which I call to myself "Fuck Death," follows below. It is a variation on one of the items Rodefer displayed at the Bowery Poetry Club in February of 2007. It hangs above the fireplace in my bedroom. This one isn't on paper, but rather a rollable burlap sack, with a painted sheet of paper towel between the two words.

SxSw 2: A Shit Phylum

2008-05-22T08:42:00.000-07:00

Then, like now, life forms begat others. Conversely, condensations beget themselves. Drinking this water, I arrive at new photos of new acquisitions, photos in which you will find various 'pataphysical items, most of which are officially sanctioned by the College de 'Pataphysique. This new set, the initial series of the College's external publications, dates back in excess of 50 years, the first issue appearing as early as 1950. The Cahiers, compared to the Subsidia Pataphysica, are more fragile, less bright, but no less magnificent. Now housed in a protective wax paper, they appear even more faded, yet examination yields the truth of their beauty. Of course, I could have just as easily said the beauty of their truth. There, I have said.

Below, an array of issues 1 thru 10. Issue 2 has a smaller trimsize than any of the other numbers. It also lacks a gidouille above the globe at the top of the cover illustration. Beginning with numero 10, a title is included at the top of each cover. Issues 1 thru 9 lack titles. Issue 10 carries the title "expojarrysition." Also with the 10th issue begins the practice of including a bit of text at the very bottom of the cover. Issue 10 announces an exposition at the Galerie Jean Loize. Many of the quotes that follow are from Jarry or his texts.

Signs of age are especially intelligible in numbers 5-6 & 7 above, or number 12 below, the gray edges encroaching on a once brightly colored display. The 7th issue must have been a beautiful pastel purple at one time, though it remains exceptional today, perhaps moreso, for it's endurance.

Titles of issues 11 thru 17-18:

11 La Sagesse Des Nations

12 Devoir de Vacance

13-14 Rabelais Pataphysicien

15 Jarry Pantagrueliste

16 Vacance du Devoir

17-18 Allais-Rimbaud

Numero eleven features this at the bottom of its cover: "LES CLICHES SONT L'ARMATURE DE L'ABSOLU (Alfred JARRY)". 12: "Le coeur peut-il être, même chez les grandes personnes, au-dessous de la ceinture ? (Alfred Jarry, le Surmale). 17-18: "J'ai mon fémur ! J'ai mon fémur ! J'ai mon fémur ! C'est cela que depuis quarante ans je bistourne" R i m b a u d.

For numbers 19 thru 21, I elected to remove the protective paper, so as to better reveal the colors & designs. 19 is especially striking, a purple on brown combination. Some wear, such as that visible on numero 20, is to be expected with items of such age. Though worn, never is anything diminished.

Titles of issues 19 thru 21:

19 L'Avenir Futur ou Non

20 Ubu Encore et Toujours

21 De la Morale

19: LE PROGRES DU FUTUR SOLIDE ENLACAIT LE CORPS EN SPIRALE (Faustroll, 36)

or

20: Le Naturel et le Surnaturel sont à ses ordres et pour un laps de vie, Dieu lui a cédé sa place de Synthèse

Rounding out the program, the last five issues feature titles such as

22-23 Navigation de Faustroll

24 Droit de Vacance

25 La Syzygie des Mots

26-27 ___________

28 Blanchissage

At the bottom of the cover of issue 24: S'IL N'Y AVAIT PAS DE POLOGNE, IL N'Y AURAIT PAS DE POLONAIS____UBU ROI

25: FAIRE DANS LA ROUTE DES PHRASES UN CARREFOUR DE TOUS LES MOTS. (A. JARRY)

Volume 26-27 is, somewhat like issue two, an anomaly (in 'pataphysical terms, clinamen) as it features no title & a slightly different cover color scheme. Issue 28 above is actually a facsimile of the original, though its length measures only 2 leaves. Never one for such games, a bonafide copy is in the mail, heading my way.

SxSW: Roundup pt 1

2008-05-21T20:49:00.000-07:00

Items are piling up in my crib. In my crib, items are piling. Please join me on a brief tour of recent acquisitions. First, a survey of a small but notable haul at a recent book fair featuring the likes of Roof, The Figures, Cuneiform, Bootstrap, Portable Y0-Yo etc, & Ugly Duckies.

The Weiners I had been after for what seemed like a full year, though I don't think it's been out that long. Deals were to be had at this event--publishers, bookfair visitors, take note, always have a deal. People want them. Some of the most interesting items though were some special things from Geoff Young. On his table were paperback copies of Clark Coolidge's Space, published long ago in 1970 by Harper and Row. When I lamented to Geoff that I had a hardback signed copy that was somewhat beat up, he produced a lavishly new HC copy from his bag behind the table. My eyes were so wide I saw Fuji. That, along with a copy from a recently-discovered handful of Kenneth Goldsmith's No 111, marked the true finds of the day.

What follows documents various sorts & sites of acquisition. For the most part, this will be only a general pictorial survey, as there is still more yet to come. The careful voyeur may notice the 'pataphysical jets destinationally aflame, for very good reason. Those goodies to be depicted in part 2 of this post.

The Clark Coolidge/Glen Baxter collab, out from Arc Publications, a UK outfit, is the first edition of work originally from 1974, & it is something similar to Ted Berrigan's picture-drawing-texts featured in the Aaron Fischer bibliography Granary put out. The Stephen Rodefer item is from Equipage, in what is almost a totally Tuumba-inspired design, replete with oversize wraps with too-easily bumped corners. The copy is signed. The early Rod Smith title The Boy Poems is my 2nd copy of this book but it was up for grabs for cheap at his recent Zinc bar reading so I grabbed. Of the Atlas stuff, the Peret is especially choice, a 1986 title that is among the most elusive of the early Atlas product.

In this series of items, the Benjamin Friedlander pieces are of special note. The first is the premier issue of Jimmy & Lucy's House of K, a small-run mag of the mid-80s west coast scene. Friedlander co-edited the journal along with Andrew Schelling. It is similar to L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E in the sense that it is 99% prose, but on the whole seems less militantly critical, tending occasionally toward biography & remembrance. The first issue for instance opens with Stephen Rodefer on Ted Berrigan's then-recent passing, & ends with Barry Lane on filmmaker Hollis Frampton, who had just died also. In surveying issue one, particular note should go to Nancy May's giraffe artwork, featured throughout the issue, which is a nice formal touch, as opposed to featuring it in one's own separate section. By issue six of Jimmy & Lucy's House of K, a survey of Tuumba press which I've previously owned for a while, a similar interactivity between pieces is achieved by allowing the different pieces to end & begin on the same page, much like L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E.

The second Friedlander-related item is a tiny, rare, visually interesting collab with Rodefer, which was "originally published in March 1984 on the occasion of a reading...This new and revised edition of 200 copies printed Spring 1987 and assigned to the reader," published by Phraseology, entitled Oriflamme Day. By total coincidence, the innards of this one highly resemble the Baxter/Coolidge collab, featuring visually random bits of collaged image & text heading in all directions.

Also totally by coincidence, I recently pounced on what was then my second copy of Kenny Goldsmith's No 111. The only copy for sale online was going for over $200, so when I saw one for a much more reasonable price, I stepped on the gas. The pristine copy arrived, &, much to my pleasure, bore a nice stamp & signature from Goldsmith--a detail that was not included in the description of the book when I bought it. So now I have three copies of the book.

Who New?

2008-05-19T15:38:00.000-07:00

Who knew that Library of America's somewhat recently released Four Novels of the 60s (I just got it) from Philip K Dick would be followed by Five Novels of the 60s and 70s, shortly available this July? This was probably the plan the whole time, but the forthcoming release is nonetheless quite exciting.

The first volume includes:

The Man in the High Castle • The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch • Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? • Ubik

While the second includes:

Martian Time-Slip • Dr. Bloodmoney • Now Wait for Last Year • Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said • A Scanner Darkly

Reading the first volume is a rich experience, not only for the work but for the format of the book itself. The book is simply bible-esque, with extremely thin pages (the 800 page book is about as wide as a standard 400 page volume) & a built in bookmark, making it impossible to ignore the exponential trajectory of the design & production of PKD's books throughout his career (an exhaustive number of these are on view here). From mass market paperbacks to the extensive, consistent Vintage editions, now on to the Royal Treatment. Welcome to the canon, Phil. For one, when did LoA get such good taste, & who is spearheading these releases? Kudos & surprise abound.

Living Alone

2008-05-18T22:38:00.000-07:00

Recently, @ Spoonbill & Sugartown, a store founded using Bob's invulnerable Troubadour books of Hadley, MA as liftoff, a store which has since fully embraced the modern sophistication of it's Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, America, location, featuring all sorts of hipster-friendly varieties of shit (art books, Baudrillard), while still remaining good enough to spend $300 dedans. The above is from Max Ernst's The Hundred Headless Woman, of which there is more below.

Geoffrey Gatza's Dreadful Quietude, a 9-11 fueled Superman Extravaganja, adjacent Dot Dot Dot 15.

Badiou's Handbook of Inaesthetics, Ranciere's The Ignorant Schoolmaster, Planet of Slums from Mike Davis.

Notice the Double Stuf Oreos! Visible in several of the sequence's photos.

The Frenchies: Ponge, Ernst, Queneau.

Douglas Cockerell, Adrian Wilson, & Johannes Pedersen. Also, my love interest tells me Sumner Stone is famous.

Bargain Bin treats: Bimbos of the Death Sun is an adventure tale completed by a protagonist who uses his Dungeons & Dragons superskills to outwit the fembot adversary!

Finally, some selections from the Ernst:

Every Liftoff Has Its Landing

2008-04-16T20:44:00.001-07:00

When a collector misses an item, has something in effect taken from their grasp, the only real remedy is to splurge on something bigger & better to make up for the miss. Recently, I turned the unfortunate occurrence of a Big Miss into a Grand Slam. What was waiting for me at the UPS Store where I get my mail when I got back into town this afternoon makes me think the disappointment is surely worth it, as long as it spurs you forth.

Before me I have a complete set of the Subsidia Pataphysica series of journals from the College de 'Pataphysique, issues 0-28. Subsidia was the third series of journals put forth from the College--these issues stretching a full decade, '65 to '75, following the previous Cahiers ('50-'57) & Dossiers ('57 to '65).

Numero Zero is on the left, followed by issues 1-6. There are 7 double-issues, making for 22 total volumes in the complete set. The front cover of issue one is consistent with each following number, the beautiful gidouilles abounding. The verso of the main issues, which is featured on the front of issue Zero, & vice versa, depicts what appears to be a single house but with very different trimmings--one version featuring all sorts of 'pataphysical amusements, the other a dog.

Numero Zero:

No's 7-17, followed by #16-17 individually:

Finally, 18 thru 27-28, which is an index for all previous issues of the Cahiers, Dossiers & the Subsidia.

The contents of each issue is wildly various, as it seems that as the College has continued to progress, throughout years & various formats of participation with the public, things have naturally gotten more & more various.

The centenary Issue #18, for instance, includes pieces titled "La Fin du Monde" & "Alcohol" & features illustrated knots & nooses as placeholders in the text.

* * *

The few following details, things I noticed only browsing through the set very briefly for the first time, may indicate some of the pleasures of collecting items from the College. About a third of the issues are stamped inside the front cover, in various inks of blue, green, or purple. The exact term for the snail-stamp, along with what it means to have an issue stamped or not are beyond the limits of my knowledge, but they are beautiful.

Issue Zero is stamped & numbered:

Perhaps the stamp indicates an attendance of some sort? Probably something else entirely. One issue, the very last, is double-stamped.

* * *

Finally, one of the benefits of collecting items from the College is the ephemera that tends to be laid in to this-or-that. Usually these are small catalogs, ads, letters or what-have-you. Tipped into Numero Zero are two items of interest, one a solicitation for subscription to the new series, the second a "Souvenir de l'Election de Sa Magnificence Opach." For the moment, they are the perfect finishing touches to an initial exploration of a major acquisition.

Turned over,

Naughty Monkey (3.5 Inch Heels) (Size 8.5)

2008-04-11T19:58:00.001-07:00

Here at team Lovelace, on vacay in sunny Washington DC, only the receipt of a newly framed, extravagant Kenny Goldsmith piece to report. This is a promo poster for No 111, itself one of Kenny's rarest books (there is one copy for sale online right now for $230). I've heard that some of the lead-up material to the book, published in chapbooks, actually wasn't included in the final text, but even though I haven't actually located this passage in the book itself, I'm almost certain it is there, at least in some way, shape, or form. Like most things I own, I have been waiting for a good reason to take a closer look at the item in question, & in this instance, an appropriate framing job is reason enough.

Hence, this glorious text:

Eat more shit more. Shit more eat more. Meat more shit

more. Shit more meat more. Heat more shit more. Shit more

heat more. Heat more burn more shit more. Burn more shit

more heat more. Shit more heat more burn more. Learn

more shit more. Shit more learn more. Earn more shit more.

Shit more earn more. Learn more earn more shit more.

Earn more shit more learn more. Shit more earn more learn

more. Earn more burn more shit more. Burn more shit

more earn more. Shit more earn more burn more. More shit

to earn more shit to burn. More shit to learn more shit to

earn. More shit to earn more shit to burn more. More shit to

learn more shit to earn more. More shit to earn more shit to

burn more shit to learn. More shit to learn more shit to earn

more shit to burn. More shit to earn more shit to burn more

shit to learn more. More shit to learn more shit to earn more

shit to burn more. more shit to learn more shit to yearn for.

More shit to learn more shit to earn more shit to yearn for.

More shit to learn more shit to earn more shit to yearn more

shit to burn. More shit to learn more shit to earn more shit

to yearn more shit to burn more. More shit to earn more shit

to bore. More shit to earn more shit to bore more shit to

burn. More shit more bore. More shit more bore more

abhor. More abhor more shit more bore. Abhor bore. More

abhor bore. More abhor shitty bore. meet more shitty bore.

More meet shitty bore more abhor. More abhor more meet

shitty bore. Shitty meet. Shitty meet shitty bore. Bore meet.

Shitty bore meet. Shitty boar meat. Meat more shitty board.

Eat more shitty boar. Eat more shit boar. Eat boar shit boar.

Shit boar eat boar. Shit more eat more. Eat more shit more.

The newsprint is delightfully faded in places, the black becoming gray, the red pink; in the bottom right hand corner, Kenny has signed the poster. He said that, in promotion of the book, he plastered these up all over town. The book is also, interestingly, blurbed by Marjorie Perloff, a blurb which was hotly pursued near the beginning of Goldsmith's Soliloquy, to humorous effect. The text trundles & bounces along delivering to you whatever it desires, though the constraint continually maintains a strong familiarity, a beautifully grounded counterpoint. Overall, a delightful piece, that I can't wait to hang on my wall.

Grenier (Rob) & Digicams Make Wii Sneeze

2008-04-05T00:01:00.000-07:00

In truth, everything makes me sneeze. But, Ron Silliman was kind enough, yesterday, to link to this very blog's last entry--of course, that Hejinian title is that good. He was also kind enough to point out that the book in question--A Thought Is The Bride of What Thinking--is not in fact Lyn's first. I was going by the biblio listed in the front of her A Border Comedy, but if you are wise enough to tickle your way over to Lyn's EPC Page, you'll find that her well-titled a gRReat adventure was self-published in '72, four years before the inaugural issue from Tuumba. Of course, this detail is hardly all that important given that my overall goal was never Lyn's first book, but rather the first from Tuumba, lured in by the pleasures of collecting the series & now so close to the end. Still many thanks to Ron both for the link & the correction.

The Hejinian addition fresh on my mind, however, leads me to several interesting items from Robert Grenier: first, the book-as-poster Cambridge M'ass, also issued from Tuumba, which I recently got framed, along with what seems to be his first major collection in Dusk Road Games, Poems 1960-1966, from Pym-Randall Press in 1967, another recent arrival. Finally, I also present a neat piece of ephemera from the Tuumba series that I've had for a while which features 2 Grenier poems along w/ one from Hejinian, simply titled, in pencil on the front cover, Unnumbered in The Tuumba Series.

[[['*']]]

Cambridge M'ass is a huge, 41x49 object, much bigger than anything that the word 'poster' might indicate. The work resembles the minimalist pieces Grenier seems most known for, akin (for example) to the stuff that comprises the majority of Series (This, 1978), & what I can only assume the maximally-elusive Sentences resembles--I've never seen a copy of this one.

You can see Grenier begin to play with the standards of the book format in Dusk Road Games, however slightly in comparison to the explosion that is Cambridge. For one, the front cover image is exactly duplicated on the back, only in reverse. Then, the flap copy reads:

Robert Grenier was born in Minne-
apolis in 1941. He has studied at

Harvard and the State University of
Iowa. Currently he and his wife, the

Emily of the poems, are reconciled,
living in England on an Amy Lowell

Travelling Fellowship and expecting
a first child. Some influences on his

work are Robert Creeley, William
Carlos Williams, Pound, Wyatt,

Campion, Robert Bly and, most
recently, John Ashbery. He has

learned also from translating Georg
Trakl and from reading under

Robert Lowell.

typo included. Finally, necessarily unique to the signed, limited copies of this book, of which there were 50 (of a total edition of 1000 featuring 350 HC & 650 in wrappers) is the plain print of his signature, seen below.

All together, these are an interesting lead-in to what Grenier would do with the Tuumba poster, which features text in white blocks floating in the black background--sometimes the blocks have the traditional Grenier TITLE in all caps (though sometimes the title comes after the work, or within the work), other sections float alone, never quite matching up with this or that specific preceding chunk, opening up the directions in which the 'book' can be read.

[[['*']]]

Some examples:

ANNA

somebody's name

I dunno

ask it

say it

LATE NIGHT TRUCKING OF THE EARTH TO BE SOLD

it must have been the letters that I wrote her

NEW SPAIN

breeze the

look outs

MOON

calls to moon how more desirable & unfortunate

THREE STORIES

see a building everybody home

ACH

we are by the new gravel

Finally, some snapshots of the 2-leaf Grenier/Hejinian hors series mini-issue, an item I've heard nothing about in any forum before or after I acquired it. Perhaps someone in the know can shed some light about this item.

[[['*']]]

The two Grenier pieces read

ANYONE

up
for a second
walk around
the cemetery

*

HALLOWEEN

time
for a change

while the Hejinian reads

THAT SEA

those ripples multiplies
those tides goes out
that sea stop
*
don't talk on the telephone in the tub gloomy

it's sound a little out of it

the thing is, I do want to share that, you

I don't know how to know ---
who's to learn

you have to take the cat out; you let the door in

I don't do feel like helping but I can

amazing the responsibility now

a little dreamy

*
le coffee le hat
the beach
the perfect day except for Monday's next

Barack Obama Tests Positive (+) for Crack/Cocaine (Urban Drug)

2008-04-01T19:59:00.000-07:00

The backlog here at team Lovelace is like, seriously backlogged. Always intimidated by size, I plan to truck one mile marker at a time. It has been a time of guests & travels--acquisitions seem to have slowed--though in reality, there's as much as ever, too much. I recently visited the New Left Forum here in NYC, amateur that I am, peeking Tariq Ali dropping science on those Pakistans. In Buffalo, NY, there was a book fair: I returned with Books, Photographs & Knowledge. Oh yeah, the files from the reading at St Marks a while ago. & several visitations to St Marx Books...

Um, why not check this out instead? Today's arrivals! On the left, is a totally fucking pristine copy of Bruce Andrews' Jeopardy, a sturdy chap out in '80 from Awede (?) in an edition of 375. The text is a hotness of single-word alphabetical & modular arrangement, such as his recent, huge vernacular pieces available from ubu editions, though the text here isn't totally sequential. It comprises what seems to be one single sentence, one word per line, & out fell a 22-caliber bullet. Good book!

The real prize above, & I cannot underestimate the extent of the word prize, is Lyn Hejinian's first book, A Thought Is The Bride Of What Thinking, the first volume in the classic Tuumba series, released in '76. A week ago I only lacked, of the series of 50 total books & numerous extravagant pieces of ephemera, numbers one & two, which include this title & Susan Howe's The Western Borders. I had thought I was about to purchase the Howe, but somehow came up with the extensively-more-elusive Hejinian title. Whoops. Along with all my hot hot Tuumba ephemera, this title finds a cozy home in an antique glass protective case, waiting patiently for the Howe title. In 17 years of high volume business, the seller I acquired these books from has had this title a total of once. As in, this once.

The first 11 Tuumba titles aren't as plagued by the size situations of the covers as the core (almost exclusively Langpo) rest of the series that almost always have bumped corners & other iffy shit like that. As such, this one has held up quite well for 30 years. I don't know where you've been, but you're here now. Phew.

Late Enough 2B Drunk Enuff

2008-03-04T15:38:00.000-08:00

Hello, again.

I'm pleased to forward the announcement that on Friday, March 7th, at 10 PM, Lil' Norton will host a knockout evening of poetry at St. Mark's Poetry Project.

Poets:

Anne Tardos
Seth Landman
Kareem Estefan
Patrick Lovelace
Laura Elrick
Kevin Thurston
Eddie Hopely
Diana Hamilton

See you there!

How Many of You Believe 9/11 Was an Inside Job?

2008-02-27T08:27:00.000-08:00

Hello! I recently visited St Mark's Bookshop, with the thought of picking up a thing or two, but of course found several tasty items. Steven Zultanski is featured amongst bona-fide dinosaurs of mostly renowned stature in the newest issue of Shiny. In what is perhaps the highest-profile Lil'Norton appearance to date (feel free to correct me on this, anyone) Steve shines among favorites such as Steve Benson, Lyn Hejinian, Lisa Jarnot, Clark Coolidge, Michael Gizzi & Stephen Rodefer.

from Peaces

Bentley
Rolls
BMW
all over you

*

Touch the magic eye
book cover. Hold
it up to your face.

*

Skip class
and go
to the open mic.

*

Riven
coos
women
love Riven
play
Riven

Riven

*

Peace or Battle
PC or Mac

*

American Radicalism,
etc.

*

State Repression,
etc.

*

Movies
I've seen half of

Dune

The poem continues, getting even better in the second half, featuring mentions of both Patch Adams AND Waterworld. The Coolidge work seems to fall right in line with the recently published Counting on Planet Zero from Fewer & Further Press, tho the 4 poems in this issue of Shiny are dated like so much of his other work--a simultaneous minor/major feature to Coolidge's work foregrounding the improvisational qualities. These works feature a style similar to the two On the Nameways volumes (of which there are thousands of unpublished poems) with several key differences, namely one of style which usually finds a tab-sized gap in the middle of each of many lines, which complicates the idea of how many units of language we are encountering, or how they fit together, which is all an interesting counterpart to the relative accessibility of the newer work. There are fewer pronouns than ever, along with some nice 1 (or 2) liners & puns: "come back you/gas eater", "oh hell/a lumbertruck", "a room with a screw" & "franks and brains". It's always interesting to see where Coolidge goes, so seeing these 'new' works, almost 2 years old themselves, is a nice treat for those still following Clark closely, which frankly should be more readers, but what's new.

The Rodefer piece is sadly one that has been available on his website for a while, Lang Gaz Verlangen, though it is nice to see the work, as expected, in print. The rest of the issue is undoubtedly as rich as the portions I've already read, so far just a glance at the favorites. Friedman continues to deliver what is probably the best magazine at the moment.

Another excerpt, then followed by a list, to end this before it gets way too long. When I saw a new edition of Apollinaire's Les Onze Mille Verges I was definitely going to get it, but who knew what insane joys awaited inside? Glancing at this, the first uncensored version in English, for the first time, I randomly opened to p.32:

--Go on, shit! cried Mony.
Soon a small fragment of crap appeared, pointed and insignificant, which showed its head and immediately returned to its cavern. After that it reappeared, followed slowly and majestically by the rest of the sausage which constituted one of the fines turds a large intestine ever produced.
The shit slid unctuous and uninterrupted, ran out unruffled as a ship's cable. It dangled gracefully between the pretty buttocks which were spreading wider and wider. Soon it was swinging more markedly. The arse dilated still more, shook itself a bit and the shit fell, all hot and reeking, into Mony's hands which were held out to receive it. Then he cried: 'Stay like that!' and, leaning over, he licked her arsehole thoroughly while rolling he turd in his hands. Next he squeezed it voluptuously and smeared it all over his body. Culculine was undressing, following the example of Alexine who was stark naked and showing Mony the fat, transparent arse of a blonde. 'Shit on me!' he cried to Alexine, stretching himself out on the floor. She squatted above him, but not wholly, so he could enjoy the spectacle presented by her backside. Her first efforts resulted in forcing out a small quantity of spunk Mony had put there; then came the shit, yellow and soft, which fell in several instalments and, while she was laughing and wriggling, the shit was falling here and there all over the body of Mony, whose belly was soon adorned with several of these odoriferous slugs.

So the book entirely earns it's "For Adult Readers Only" tagline, at first glance: one-handed reading indeed. Later, a mute gets a cigarette extinguished on her nipple. The impression that I get is that, while Apollinaire is totally joking, there is joy in it, something beyond the condescension of simply writing a pornobook for dough. A must-read.

Other acquisitions include the following items:

The Sienese Shredder #2 (no need for this to be $35, btw: $25 was already plenty)
Postmodernism, or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, by Fredric Jameson, published by Duke
Swoon Noir, from Bruce Andrews, published by Chax, 2007
glad stone children from Edmund Berrigan, from farfalla press, 2008 (a signed copy)
An Air Force, by Laura Moriarty, a cute chap from hooke press, 2007
A Test of Poetry, Louis Zukofsky, Wesleyan (not really sure why I didn't already have this)

Oh Shit, Robbe-Grillet is dead

2008-02-18T20:24:00.000-08:00

August 1922, February 2008

Just the other week I saw Last Year at Marienbad for the first time--& while it was great to internalize the fact that the man behind the scenario for this 1961 film, along with many extremely dynamite novels & critical works of the previous six decades, was in fact still among the living in this our 2008--that joy is no longer available. So, at this moment, Le voyeur begs to be reingestited--Les gommes pleads consumption--La jalousie wants you to buy it in American translation in a duo pack w/ Dans le labyrinthe, published by Grove Press.

Everything really, given his remarkable age, has, ultracomplex already, taken on a new complexity. Not necessarily one of renewed profundity or complication, but rather, one of serious loss, whereas previously we were treated with unimaginable & comprehensive, renewable presence.

Fuck You, New Post

2008-02-10T00:24:00.000-08:00

No, not you, loyal reader, but the person you were standing next to at, like, 4.15 this afternoon. Today, after catching a few Chelsea gallery spots with Dirk Rowntree & Rob Fitterman, Dirk & I visited Printed Matter. Of course, I've had no difficulties spending hundreds of buxx there in the past, but my energies were almost always drawn toward the great old stock type shit they have--such as early Kathy Acker pamphlets when she was going by The Black Tarantula, or various Something Else Press sundries. It's great to visit such a store with someone like Dirk, as thorough, informed, & aware as anyone, ever. The journal Dot Dot Dot had come up in discussion earlier, & we were lucky enough to be able to dig out numbers 8, 12, & 13, which I succeeded in purchasing. Other finds include Robert Ashley's Perfect Lives, a nice large HC feel-good acquisition, since I recently saw him w/ Kenny Goldsmith @ Poetry Project but left w/ no swag--my mind was on giant otters, as they say. Perhaps the best blurb ever accompanies this one: "What about the Bible? And the Koran? It doesn't matter: We have Perfect Lives," from John Cage. Another pickup was the well-known UDP release of Aram Saroyan's Complete Minimal Poems, a book that's been out for a while & speaks for itself. Add to this rich feast I See/You Mean, a novel by Lucy R Lippard, an affordable, purple thing described thus: "I See/You Mean is an experimental novel about mirrors, maps, relationships, about the ocean, elusive success & possible happiness. Through a collage of verbal photgraphs, overhead dialogue, sexual encounters, found material & self-identification devices (astrology, the I Ching, palmistry, Tarot), it charts from past to future the changing currents between two women & two men--a writer, a model/stockbroker/maybe dictator, a photographer, & an actor." Written in 1970.

Following this comes two titles from Lawrence Weiner: NYC MANHOLE COVERS PUBLIC ART FUND IN COLLABORATION WITH CON EDISON & ROMAN STONE, a small beautiful chaplet that deserves it's own separate post, so I won't even get into it here sortof thing, followed by an entry from the Between Artists series released by A.R.T. Press, this one a convo between Weiner & Liam Gillick. The treasure of the experience is a signed copy of the large exceptional The Collections of Barbara Bloom, from ICP*/STEIDL.

This is where seduction begins. It's fucked up how cool this book is, just flipping through it for the first time. There is included a centerfold, though even better (bigger) than the Playboy variety--4 pages instead of 3, yet when it's folded in other works are (re)aligned & appreciable. This is the one to get, if you get any, from the Printed Matter store this February. At $65, it is still a steal. Reading on the PM website I see that there is an exhibition of her work currently--I actually didn't notice this, as the store was rather packed, but I'm excited enough about the prospect of specialized Bloomstuff that I'll probably go back.

So then I go to pay for all this & I see a gleaming set of drumsticks with Considering utility - JMF018 www.jarrodfowler.com impressed upon them, within the glass case at the checkout, which of course I have to buy. It's the same when I see a rare or soon-to-be-rare book by a friend that I already have a copy or two of, that I just have to get, knowing full well I'm keeping someone, perhaps uninitiated, from the potential discovery. That struck this time, & now the sticks are mine.

This was all before Rob's reading, which was among several at the Mathew Marks Gallery. Rob's first work was of a very plodding pace, one word spoken at a time with several seconds, usually two or three, in between. This set us up for his upbeat poet/rock ballad configurations, which he sung to riotous laughter & on more than one occasion, intermediate applause--you know if you get claps during, you're doing well, or at least people are having fun. The event, unfortunately swagless, was quite well-attended, pointing to the benefit of hosting an evening in such a place, tho the sound was quite shit. Afterwards, Rob & Kim bought me a steak, & asked about my life: ways into my heart. Coco was in attendance as well, representing fully. At one point, during the reading, Kim asked me very neutrally if I wore mascara.

*wicked version

Nude Arrivals

2007-12-18T00:01:00.000-08:00

Today's new arrivals consist primarily of two volumes from bookartist Keith Smith, Text in the Book Format & Structure of the Visual Book. I had originally seen these at the Book Art Book Fair but as so many vendors were dealing only in cash, I had to prioritize, especially since these can be ordered very easily from Keith's website. They are hefty, beautiful tomes, even though they are paperbacks. Interestingly, you could also order these as folded & gathered sheets in addition to the Smythe-sewn paperback. I haven't had much time to dive in, but my immediate impression is that these will become indispensable. Part instruction manual, part history lesson, all riveting, it makes me wonder why it took me so long to find Keith Smith, but really I'm just glad now that I have.

Also, aPlod issue 2 made it's way into my hands, along with a couple appropriately selected pogs. This one, edited by Brad Flis, features work from Ray Hsu, Marie Buck & Brad himself along with some truly hot shit from Jon Link. I have met Jon before but didn't know his work very well at all, so was excited to see his inclusion, which delivered in every way. Brad has such a keen sense of design, & handles the task of design so deftly, packing in a maximum of material without ever once approaching discomfort for the recipient. The little booklet is a pleasure to hold in the hands.

Ron Silliman's post about issue 1 of President's Choice reminds me yet again that I have failed to record a great literary event on this blog. For some reason, a few of my favorite nights since coming here in January haven't gotten the treatment, who knows why. The reading at MOMA in March where I met Rob Fitterman, Caroline Bergvall, Kenneth Goldsmith & Kareem Estefan all in one night. The utterly badass Joel Kuszai/Wiston Curnow fully catered event at Saatchi & Saatchi. Back on Nov 3 there was a Prez Choice release party at Bar 169. The lineup was insanely good--definitely the best I'd ever been to in one place, & a perfect combination of deserving friends & bona-fide great poets. Friends such as Lauren Spohrer, Lawrence Giffin & Kareem Estefan read alongside sports heroes such as Rodrigo Toscano, Kim Rosenfield, Rob Fitterman & Brian Kim Stefans, who has a couple interesting books available on lulu right now. All of this MC'd by editor Steve Zultanski, with the perfect number of interludes. A few individual works remain in the fore of my mind, including Kareem's excellent, frantic Instant Message poem & Rob Fitterman's voyage through the nonpoetic asides & sayings of a poetry reading. You know, the shit they say before & between the poems. It was truly hilarious, & it didn't hurt that it was happy hour, which was of the buy-one-get-one variety. At one point, a bartender said to another that Fitterman's reading was unbearable, that he couldn't wait for it to be over. Then, Rob culminated with a sudden, moving, totally normal short pastoral poem, from what source if any I don't know. The effect was quite like Kenny Goldsmith at the end of a reading of Traffic, with Rob's version perhaps the more seamless. Finishing up the evening, bearded, perfect Lawrence Giffin totally won my heart as he does each & every time I engage with one of his works (I haven't figured out exactly how he continually accomplishes this). All these readings culminated with (I think) Vietnamese food & me being something of a beer hero.

* * *

Shed like Swatch

Asimov credits us with eras of concomitance
Happy to resolve the freight of having acted
Out of character, unless one were to budget
Sheer words over a week's length, what would we
Move from Ground Zero to Ground One?

He would have been more assertive in our calling
The injustices of institutions our little ones
So that life might continue

To pillory the sham of inexpugnable rewards.
Sadly enough, it is through these self-same theses
That you and I together, caught in our egg and spoon
Battalion, would hardly be at a loss of words
To describe the health of the economy.

Could it not then be said that a pencil sketch
Approximating the take down of a giraffe
By a pride of hungry lions in the bush, dragging
By its legs the carnivorous which it is feeding
Would be but one way to communicate

Our democratic presentiments?

----Bradley Flis

Bowery Whiskey Reading

2007-12-08T09:47:00.000-08:00

The readers for the Single Malt Whiskey Poetry Sampling are:

Mary Jo Bang
Monica de la Torre
Diana Hamilton
Bob Holman
Patrick Lovelace

+ special guests

Sunday, 12/9, 5-7 PM @ Bowery Poetry Club

$20 / 5 whiskies ($15 w/ copy of this email invitation)
$5 without whiskey

Nov. Recap 1: Halpern/Brady

2007-12-03T08:29:00.000-08:00

The new Taylor Brady/Rob Halpern title out from Atticus/Finch, Snow Sensitive Skin, billed as a chapbook, is hardly so. Of the wide variety of items I purchased in November, this, at a modest $10, remains the most luscious title inside & out. The book is perfectbound, not stapled, with a nearly-removable, beautiful dustjacket over the paperback, which features thick, unpaginated leaves within. Like the recent Mel Nichols chapbook out from Edge, the slightest negative arises with just how susceptible the cover material is to wear. Within 15 or so minutes (& yes this is my fault) my copy was irrevocably smeared with some sort of table gunk, perhaps syrup. But the nice crusty stain really isn't all that bad, I just have to buy another copy or two. It is that good of a book, wonderfully conceived & delivered by Michael Cross, the 11th in the Atticus/Finch series. Of course the collaboration of Brady & Halpern delivers as well--the book, broken into 7 sections (with titles such as "Theater of Mortal Terror" & "Lines Against The Blades") presents, among other things, strong meditations on world & war status in the Middle East. The book is thus timely but not gaudily so, more "Lebanon" than "Iraq" though never limited to either. Front matter contextualizes the inspirations & sources & directions of the book. Sometimes boxes surround somewhat large pieces of text. Prevalent throughout, small pieces of italicized text break up, comment upon, & extend the discussion presented in the core stanzas.

NOW ALL THAT'S alien to what the time commands
Miming in the breaks, what plays the disruption
Being the continuity of measure, death becoming

..............-- audible, as if for the first time

......................Sonic identity of the mechanized war machine itself --

......................................................................................'Get in line'

The ensemble is elements
Falling out where fallout was
Once a stolen march on time
Lapsed dream of the graceful
Arch, double dutch or this
Step skipped to bridge

............................-- as if a stone

............................Producing incremental units
............................Shorter intervals
............................Until there's nothing

.......................................-- opposed to what's immeasurable

Robbin' Mel

2007-10-28T20:47:00.000-07:00

I finally caught a ride on this season's Segue train with the Mel Nichols/Rob Fitterman reading yesterday afternoon. Mel was a very nice surprise, since I was only slightly aware of her work, which is rich & excellent & funny (naughty). She had a chapbook put out by Edge a couple years ago, Day Poems, the cover of which resembles the crossroads of the cosmos rendered as poo-streaked pubes. But to be totally serious, Mel rocked. [Then Rob rocked, reading from the forthcoming Sprawl.] Day Poems was not available for purchase, but a new, even better thing was, The Beginning of Beauty, Part I: hottest new ringtones, mnichol6. This thing is so great I had to buy 3 copies. First of all, it is limited to 150 copies. Then, there are many various photo covers to choose from. There were a few of the same, but at least 8 or 10 different ones, perhaps more. The fun is far from over: each copy has a piece of trash, such as a gum wrapper, squished into a transparant envelope which is bound into the back matter, & a handwritten title-label of the photograph also laid/bound in. One is "It's a Small World After All"--the cover photo is of a small balled up blue piece of paper, maybe tape, maybe dense with paint...maybe the cover photo corresponds to the unique trash selection in the back?. The only problem, though it is not entirely negative, is that the transparant material which encases the book is quite susceptible to finger prints & hand damage.

Rob read from Sprawl, which is the first time I'd heard exclusively from this forthcoming text, though some bits had been included in his momentous MOMA reading from earlier in the year. He had previously described Sprawl as maybe being part of the Metropolis series & maybe not, but word is that it is, in my opinion rightfully so, as it corresponds to & extends that series nicely. There were no new Fitterman book items for sale, though I think I dreamed of a strange chapbook last night, which I can't recall the name of. There were, though, ultra glitzy photos on slideshow behind Rob as he read, accompanied with full soundtrack, replete with occasional & repeated artificial applause.

Afterwards there was a gathering at James Sherry's nearby pad, & good fun was had by all. I had a nice little convo with James about my forthcoming publishing efforts, hung out with new friend Kareem Estefan, & chatted several times with Dirk Rowntree about design prospects. I shook hands with Gary Sullivan, & met Rodrigo Toscano & Laura Elrick. Mel Nichols signed each copy of her magnificent book, I met Rod Smith & told him about attacking Bridge Street, & Julie Patton told me I shouldn't really go with Kenny Goldsmith's name for my press, but should go with something more personal. A digital, Mac Low-esque search using the old name as the seed returned Packed Rat--which could be the answer after all. But aren't I supposed to just know? Isn't it supposed to be love at first sight? I bought a bag of Brach's Mellowcreme Pumpkins, along with a toothbrush, toothpaste & mouthwash earlier. My hotel room smells like popcorn, but there isn't any.

bpNichol

2007-10-17T07:30:00.000-07:00

The Alphabet Game

Doin Thangs

2007-10-16T10:52:00.000-07:00

Atlas Press has just announced new publications:

WAR FOR CHRISTMAS! Our version of Guy Debord's "Game of War" is now published. £17 until the end of November. Apologies for the postal charges on this book, which is a substantial item.

Likewise, Konrad Bayer's the sixth sense is also now available, the signed edition will be ready in November.

Imminently available (and we are accepting orders for these):

Michel Leiris Mirror of Tauromachy.

Alfred Jarry Three Early Novels (Absolute Love, Days and Nights, Exploits and Opinions of Doctor Faustroll, Pataphysician).
This is volume II of the Collected Works.

And from the LIP to mark the centenary of Alfred Jarry's death on 1 November:
Alfred Jarry Necrologies, texts by Apollinaire, Rachilde, Saltas and his doctor: first-hand accounts of his last days.

Looking back, this has been quite an active year for Atlas, whose productivity should be applauded. Support is in order, whether for the interactive Debord title (which is similar to several College de 'Pataphysique items I recently acquired) or the more fundamental & essential volume of Jarry's early novels.

Cortazar: Autonauts of the Cosmoroute

2007-10-13T13:10:00.000-07:00

There is a new Cortazar title to be released this month from the excellent Archipelago Books, providers of recent titles from Duras, Musil, Michaux, among myriad others. Archipelago also released Cortazar's slim Diary of Andres Fava in 2005, which is a companion-book to Final Exam, somewhat similar to the way 62: A Model Kit functions in relation to Hopscotch. This new book, Autonauts of the Cosmoroute, is described as "a love story, an irreverent travelogue of elaborate tales and snapshots detailing Julio Cortázar and Carol Dunlop’s thirty-three-day voyage on the Paris-Marseilles freeway in 1982." The most exciting detail here is that the book clocks in at 350 pages, which is quite a gift to Cortazar readers operating only in English. It seems like Autonauts may resemble the hodgepodge style of Around the World in 80 Days, though it will probably be more unified, given the format of that volume. Anne McLean handles the translation here, continuing her earlier work on Diary of Andres Fava; McLean's other major work of translation was partial duty on Ignacio Padilla's novel Shadow Without a Name. Another appealing detail of the description is that this book was written under two years before Cortazar's death, & insight into this later portion of his life & career is welcome, given the rumors, sensationalism & nastiness that has tended to surround the accounts & commentary of that era.

Triune, Troika, Ternion

2007-10-11T20:45:00.000-07:00

President's Choice #1 has landed. Featuring new work from Marie Buck, Craig Dworkin, Rob Fitterman, Rodrigo Toscano, Bhanu Kapil, Laura Elrick, & Paper Rad. Edited by Steven Zultanski. One of the great features of the magazine is that ample space is given to all contributors, sometimes up to 10 pages of work, in the case of Ms Buck. Marie's poems here range from somewhat controlled pieces (from a work called Whole Foods) such as "Cheese," "Authenticity," & "The Seaweed That Thickens" to some really exciting, all-over-the-page works like "Starlet Bang" & "19 I Just Pissed Out Disaster". This last one is especially great, ending with a stanza-sea of celeb names ("Jen's Katie Tom Corey Abdul Holmes Jennifer Paula Aniston...") followed by another of stray numbers & pieces of punctuation ("32 - 32 -- 36 ! 38 ? 40 ! -- ! ://. :-/;....").

Toscano's first work, "Great Awakening", is probably my favorite of his, since it so reminds me of the most convoluted portions of Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman, replete with cop-on-civilian tongue-&-brain twisters.

A: Average poetry readings reveal much.

B: I Improve...when the content is based on some other kind of--contract.

A: Respect for The Lord! Respect for Cable Coppersmooth, Cinnamon Face,
and all verifiable accomplishments, in tow.

B: The local is pushed out. Amen?

A: Amen! This re-flavoring of certain...distinctions. Other bitterness's applied lightly to the rippled surface. Property mud bars for the whole family!

B: Audit the flow--incoming. Admit the lord. You're were about to This Very
Moaning In Private Seems Necessary. What's the immediate effect?

A: Piety, double-digit snide, "bilk bilk".

B: What's the immediat goal?

A: Light up the mall.

B: And the lonely shark around the cage?

A: Amen. The people are--poking back--at it.

Craig Dworkin turns things even more conceptual, entering perhaps into Goldsmith territory. His first piece, "Noun Compound Roman Numeral period" begins "In the sentence 'Write the book that pleases you best,' what is the subject of 'pleases?' Perhaps you may ask the question in the usual way, 'What pleases?' Answer, 'the book.' But this is not right. marks of quotation Noun marks of quotation present tense third person singular appositive verb definite article Noun genitive pronoun marks of quotation noun period marks of quotation" & happily continues thus. Laura Elrick's "Diagram (III)" is perhaps the best single work in the issue, clocking in at 6 pages. It begins:

At a dinner party or forum I rip hair out of my leg with a special machine.
At a dinner party (or forum) I rip hair out of my leg with a special machine.
At a dinner party or forum I - RIP - IT - OUT with a special machine.
At reception: opening their suits a dress collapsing shoes turn up at odds, strange.
And walking says it would be drinks and eats its head of their legs with a
Special machine.

It is a work that is simultaneously elusive & highly visible, a formula that makes for enthralling reading.

Next comes Bhanu Kapil, someone I'm entirely unfamiliar with. Bhanu's work (from "Humanimal") features numbered paragraphs, some of which have a slightly larger font size. For some reason I find the work almost indescribable, though there are elements of magic, mystery, narrative & a folkloric sense throughout. I cannot get past how pleasing the syntax of this phrase, near the beginning of the work, is to me: "When it started to rain, the banyan tree outside the girl's room, where she lay in a profound coma, shook."

Next comes Paper Rad. Though I had known of their visual work prior, I wasn't aware that they also worked in text. The work is full of jokes & eschews capitals. All but one of the works features a clash in the title, such as "DJ Cyber Knife vs Cool Cafe" or "Jim Morrison vs Poetry," which commences

god is like love, love is like god
what is this? AARP card?
don't say a word
that's what she said
who said that?
beyonce?

The last feature in the magazine belongs to Robert Fitterman. Here we get two works from the upcoming Sprawl: "Big Box (Category Killer)" & "BISQUICKMARK, an afterward." Fitterman is firing on all cylinders here, the first work featuring a straightforward form of prose-stanza-blocks that Rob is able to make surprising despite their simplicty of form. The work is similar to some of his Metropolis series, focusing on combinations of corporate language, tv language, family language, advertising language. His 2nd & the final piece in the magazine quilts the present & history of Bisquick (originally intended for making biscuits very quickly) with the history/legend of Otto von Bismarck, that Prussia/Germany dude, to delightful effect.

The issue itself is immaculately put together. There is, correctly, no contributor's notes. There are few adornments, next to no info on the title pages, thus the look & contents are allowed to speak for themselves. There is, in the end, only one flaw, which is that the cover paper is of such quality that it retains your grubby fingerprints, should you, like me, take your reading in a more interactive manner: meals, subways, journeys.

Thus the threesome is consummated: Model Homes, The Physical Poets, President's Choice.

Speech with Humans

2007-10-10T21:28:00.000-07:00

There is a new Coolidge title out from Arc Publications, situated in the UK. From the description here, it seems like the project is similar to the Coolidge/Philip Guston book Baffling Means. There is also something reminiscent (I'm judging by the cover) of Ted Berrigan's work with George Schneeman. 80 pages. Exchange rate blows, but probably worth it.

Coolidge, Depositions

2007-10-10T19:13:00.000-07:00

I recently acquired this interesting Coolidge piece, Smithsonian Depositions & Subject to a Film, a dual book published in 1980 by Vehicle Editions (Annabel Levitt). It is a beautiful, smallish book, noteworthy for several reasons. The most overt being that the second piece, Subject to a Film, is ostensibly a poem about the movie Jaws. While such a concept is pretty interesting in & of itself, it makes for an especially interesting move from Coolidge, given his marked move toward using films as sources in his work from the 90s, mostly collected in the On the Nameways volumes. It is also quite unlike any other of his works I've read, featuring significantly less surface pomp than the major works of the time [between Own Face & Mine: The One That Enters The Stories]. So, where exactly did this Jaws-poem surface from?

I haven't familiarized myself as much with the first section of the book, Smithsonian Depositions, but the interesting thing there is that while the text is more similar to the above-mentioned major works of the era, Coolidge feels compelled to list his sources. The list includes some potentially expected names such as William Carlos Williams, Jack Kerouac, Bernadette Mayer, Alain Robbe-Grillet, JG Ballard, Arthur Conan Doyle. But there are others which perhaps warrant further investigation, including Yvon Chouinard, Don Judd, Raymond Ditmars, Frederick A Lucas, Frederick Law Olmstead. Do all of these writers (& the books listed) even exist?

The copy in & of itself is special as well: it is signed twice by Coolidge, once on the title page, once on the FFEP. Also, there is a notecard laid in with a quote from Beckett, seemingly in Coolidge's hand: "The task of the artist now is to find a form to accommodate the mess." Coolidge in fact uses this quote, though the order of the phrases is reversed, in several of his works. It surfaces in his section (From Notebooks 1976-1982) of the Code of Signals anthology edited by Michael Palmer, & also in his talk "Arrangement" from the Talking Poetics from Naropa Institute (1978) volume.

YJABGAVTRFYCJUBCUTUVAJ,

2007-09-30T14:13:00.000-07:00

A complete google image voyage, to explicate & celebrate the arrival of the reprint of d.a.levy's ukanhavyrfuckinciti bak. in a new edition of 400, from Russell Salamon:

NYArtBookFair

2007-09-29T22:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday (Friday) I took in the first day of this year's NYArtBookFair with pal Lawrence Giffin. The thing is like a high-end, poopless AWP. The rate of interesting people per square foot is also significantly higher than that of AWP (which is in turn way higher than any ol' place). I ran into friend Thomas Evans & chatted nicely while looking at a one-of-a-kind Ian Hamilton Finlay piece. Thomas mentioned that he had heard about a long lost (or something like that) Clark Coolidge piece that featured pages rolled up inside of a shoe. At the Information as Material booth, I met both Nick Thurston & Jarrod Fowler, picking up Thurston's lastest, Historia Abscondita, a treatment of a certain portion of Nietzsche's The Gay Science. Jarrod alerted me that there may be a possible reprint on the way to get the cover colors just right, which may make the version I scooped rare in the future, which tickles me all over. At another table I scored Partially Built Woodshed, which is an attractive, smallish volume on Robert Smithson printed on blue, uncut pages. The fetching operator of the Semiotext(e)/Autonomedia booth had to be told twice that I was a pushover & would buy anything recommended me. I emerged with a Science Fiction anthology with a mechanical peepee flipbook built in to the lower edges of each page, a work from the Midnight Notes Collective entitled Midnight Oil: Work, Energy, War 1973-1992, Richard Kempton's Provo: Amsterdam's Anarchist Revolt, along with the Critical Art Ensemble's Flesh Machine: Cyborgs, Designer Babies, and New Eugenic Consciousness & finally Pure War from Virilio & Lotringer.

Other finds include Jeremy Shaw's DMT art/experiment/experience book-o'-the-substance courtesy of the Presentation House Gallery & Projectile Publishing. The book is all black & (mostly) white & I can already see the future fingersmudgeprints that will decorate it's covers & pages. Rounding out the acquisitions are Scott McCarney's Index to The Encyclopedia, a handsome red-leathery, gold-stampy thing from Smart Books, & a small colorful duct-tape-bound volume State of the Union also by McCarney. The edition of 100 accompanies anagrams of its title along with close-up still images of the speaker, from the 2003 address.

After the fair promptly ended at 7 (there were suited men with walkie talkies telling us to scram) Lawrence & I accompanied Jarrod, Nick, Rob Fitterman & new friends Karriem & Ammiel (sorry, no last names for now) for Korean dindin & then we were joined by Kenny Goldsmith for drinks at a posh place called Keens Chophouse. Rob told us that it was at Keens where Abe Lincoln hung out a day or two before he caught a bad one.

Latinos need not be frightened by the canyon

2007-09-29T16:27:00.000-07:00

Everyone is happy & swimming buh-cause a new Rodefer item found it's way home, this a three way joint project (similar to Writing Out of Character) with Geoff Ward & Ian Patterson. Translations of Rilke. Elegies. It is limited to 200 copies & curiously features no binding. It seems ripe for staples but I must say that I applaud the nude decision.

The first is by Geoff, the fourth by Ian, the sixth by Stephen. Published by Peter Riley, printed by Michael Coles.

New VS: EoD

2007-09-10T23:55:00.000-07:00

Happily, there is a new Viktor Shklovsky title out from Dalky Archive: Energy of Delusion. & while it is true that not each of Viktor's works is as magically affective as Third Factory, this volume seems more than a little promising, as Dalkey reports that V worked on it for about, oh, three decades, a timeframe similar to William Gass's magnum The Tunnel.

This is, like Theory of Prose, a critical work, but the Dalkey description uses the good phrase "writing that roams" when describing the book, which should turn any Shklovsky fan on something nice. This is the first time the book will be published in English; it is somewhat confounding but not-that-confounding when you realize that a sizable chunk of VS' work has yet to make it out of the mothertongue. The text focuses of the works of Tolstoy, but if we're lucky that will be only half the battle, & Viktor shall shine like the halogen of the future he never saw. Also, perhaps this new publication indicates that Dalkey is on track after all, despite the recent Review of Contemporary Fiction hijinks.

Massacre @ Bridge Street Books

2007-08-19T20:47:00.000-07:00

Today, for the first time in my life, I visited Bridge Street Books, which is located in Washington, DC. The store is affiliated with Rod Smith, who the clerk said was the manager; Rod is no doubt responsible for what is probably the best poetry section in any new book store I've ever seen. Not surprisingly many of the best finds feature DC-affiliated poets & publishers such as Mark Wallace, Buck Downs, Tom Orange, a super Greg Fuchs find, & Smith himself, along with an entire shelf dedicated to Edge books.

Tho it took longer to checkout than to pull the books off the shelves (they practically jumped), the experience on the whole was supremely pleasant in every way. From new things like the spanking Torres title that marks the 29th volume in the Atelos series to 2 massive subpress titles to random unforeseen fun gem-items like a pair of titles from Object Editions/poetscoop from the mid 90s--much fun was had by all. Special thank to my shopping companion, whose first day of school is tomorrow.

A photo of the bounty:

Some closer-ups:

& the list:

Xing Ron Silliman, Meow Press, 1996 [1st printing]
Technology/art: 20 Brief Proposals for Seminars on Art & Technology Andrews, Bernstein & Sherry, July 1984, Factory School, 2001 [reprint]
Agreement Peter Seaton, Asylum's Press, 1978
The Weather Kenneth Goldsmith, Make Now, 2005 [signed]
A Self-Guided Walk Kimberly J. Rosenfield, Object Editions/poetscoop, 1996
Adversities of Outerlife Judith Goldman, Object Editions, poetscoop, 1996
The 60s and 70s from 'The Theory of Subjectivity in Moby Dick' Deborah Meadows, Tinfish Press, 2003
Portraits and Maps Diane Ward & Michal C McMillen, NLF editions, 2000 [signed]
Black Dog Songs Lisa Jarnot, Flood Editions, 2003
Memory Play Carla Harryman, O Books, 1994
Reptile House Lisa Jarnot, Bookthug, 2005 [first edition]
Libretto marin Lisa Jarnot, Format Americain, 2000 [signed]
c.c. Tyrone Williams, krupskaya, 2002
25 poems Tom Orange, interrupting the cow, 2004 [100 signed copies]
The Monstrous Failure of Contemplation/Aquifer Mark Wallace & Kaia Sand, "a subpoetics project", 2001
The Lawless Man Mark Wallace, UPPER LIMIT MUSIC lower limit speech, 1996 [signed]
Cipher/Civilian Leslie Bumstead, Edge Books, 2005
Let's Eat Red for Fun/Pax Americana Hoa Nguyen & Dale Smith, Boog Literature, 2000 [100 copies]
Uma Ternura/nuno pontes Greg Fuchs, Canvas & Companhia, ???? [600 copies]
Complications From Standing In A Circle Mark Wallace, leavebooks, 1993 [signed]
Day Poems Mel Nichols, Edge Books, 2005
Nothing Happened and Besides I Wasn't There Mark Wallace, Edge Books, 1997 [signed]
Once Upon a Neoliberal Rocket Badge Jules Boykoff, Edge Books, 2006
Every Day Is Most of My Time Mark Wallace, Texture Chapbook Series #15, 1994 [signed]
Crow ed Leslie Bumstead & Rod Smith, Edge Books, 20001
on your knees citizen: a collection of prayers for the public [schools] ed Rod Smith, Lee Ann Brown, & Mark Wallace, Edge Books, 1996
Tinfish 14 ed Susan M Schultz, 2004
fear the sky Rod Smith, Narrow House Recordings, 2005 [CD]
Poems from Ring of Fire Lisa Jarnot, 136-32 Productions/Bootstrap Productions, 2001 [CD]
The 3:15 Experiment Bernadette Mayer, Danika Dinsmore, Jen Hofer, Lee Anne Brown, The Owl Press, 2001
Give Em Enough Rope Bruce Andrews, Sun & Moon, 1987
Moebius Bruce Andrews, GENERATOR Press, 1993
Ex Why Zee Bruce Andrews, Roof, 1995
The Champagne of Concrete Kit Robinson, Potes & Poets, 1991
Furtherance JH Prynne, The Figures, 2004
Ted Berrigan On the Level Everyday: selected talks on poetry and the art of living ed Joel Lewis, Talisman, 1997
A Certain Slant of Sunlight, Ted Berrigan, O Books, 1988
A Poetics Charles Bernstein, Harvard, 1992 [signed]
World on Fire Charles Bernstein, Nomados, 2004 [signed]
With Strings Charles Bernstein, U of Chicago P, 2001 [signed]
Islets/Irritations Charles Bernstein, Roof, 1992 [signed]
The Church--The School--The Beer Cris Cheek, Critical Documents, 2007
Office for Soft Architecture Lisa Robertson, Clear Cut Press, 2003
Temporary Worker Rides a Subway Mark Wallace, Green Integer, 2004
My Year 2005: Terrifying Times Douglas Messerli, Green Integer, 2006
Shadowtime Charles Bernstein, Green Integer, 2005 [signed]
Threadsuns Paul Celan, Green Integer, 2005
the PoPedology of an Ambient Language Edwin Torres, Atelos, 2007
Deer Head Nation K Silem Mohammad, tougher disguises, 2003
Zygal bpNichol, Coach House, 1985
The Middle Room Jennifer Moxley, subpress, 2007
Of Poems & their antecedents Sherry Brennan, subpress, 2004
Loss Benjamin Friedlander, Pressed Wafer, 2003
Down Time Jeff Derkson, Talonbooks, 1990

Notes:

Of course the proliferation of signed books is especially pleasant, the Wallace & Bernstein titles in particular, but for me the fact that I was able to pick up several first editions of books that I know to be in later editions now, for example Silliman's Xing from Meow, was the best perk of a fine shopping experience. Lisa Jarnot's Reptile House is another example of this. In each case, there were several copies of each title available, only one of which was a first. Several of the signed copies were of the same good fortune...there being multiple copies in normal state. My companion purchased an issue of Model Homes magazine, the first I have seen in a retail store (they had at least one other copy). It was fun to see a copy out in the world.

A Death

2007-08-01T21:00:00.000-07:00

So I have just now heard that on the same day Ingmar Bergman died, so went Antonioni. Though I am not all that familiar with the entirety of either director's work, Antonioni's BlowUp has always been interesting for me, given my early & formative interest in Julio Cortazar. The film purports itself to be based on a story in Cortazar's volume End of the Game and other stories (which was later renamed to Blow Up and other stories following the success of the film), but in reality the two works have very little in common. There is a basic thematic concurrance, & the two stories do contain the physical act of enlarging a photograph in order to more acutely contemplate its contents, but on the whole they have as much in common as The Bourne Identity & any James Bond picture of your choice. On the one hand, the lack of a more faithful film representation of Cortazar's masterpiece is regretful. But, thinking about it a few day's after Antonioni's death at 94 (the film was released in '66), it is an encouraging example of one work inspiring an entirely, conclusively separate other-genre work; also, Cortazar's story is so beyond perfect that it needs no film counterpart: it transcends genre, language, civilization. It indicates a mountain of speculative horror without offering an ounce of certainty or solid ground. In a handful of pages, the world crumbles. In Antonioni's film, the outcome is far less apocalyptic, yet entirely as metaphysical. The world appears to crumble, yet the protagonist adjusts. Still, the film is no less of a masterpiece, regardless of the fact that it might take several viewings for die-hard fans of Cortazar's story to appreciate, given the fundamental difference between the two works. Though it is perhaps cliche to do so whenever someone dies, it is time to head to the movie store, or netflix, & catch up.

The Phenomenon

2007-07-22T16:15:00.000-07:00

There is a new publication, of particular merit, out of Northampton, MA: the first volume of The Physical Poets series, helmed by Lawrence Giffin. This first volume is titled "The Neo-liberal American Poetry" & it is a total & complete success. Given the price of the item, of a mere $5, it could justly be described as perfect. The singular, handsome booklet features the work of Steve Zultanski, Marie Buck, Brad Flis, & Lawrence Giffin. Some discussion of the luscious contents may be found here, which mentions the lovely Suri Cruise piece in Marie Buck's section, which opens the book. The poem in its entirety can be read at the above physpo link. Also mentioned at the Pioneer Valley link are Brad Flis' Digital Underground riffs, which, along with his other work, are equally not to be missed. Steve Zultanski's piece, "Previously on the O.C." is worth noting as well. It is an unbroken nine-page juggernaut featuring bits such as:

"What do you think about Newport?"
"I think I could get in less trouble where I'm from."
"You have no idea."
"Shouldn't her boyfriend be doing this?"
"Sure they're not doing anything we didn't do, heh huh."
"My dad's not here."
"It's just a thing with a client."
"Put him down!"
"Hey Ryan."
"Ugh."
"Welcome to the OC, bitch."

Which leaves us with the editor & helmsman Lawrence Giffin. His "A Bourgeois Interior" is a multifarious, pleasurable prose work. The section "The Touch, the Feel, of Cotton" begins thusly:

The valuables cramming the homes of the very rich cry out helplessly for the museum; yet there the meaning of sculpture and paintings, as Valery perceived, is destroyed, only architecture, their mother, showing them their rightful place. But kept by force in the houses of people with whom they have no ties, they are an open affront to the mode of existence which private property has now adopted.

The section ends, about a page later, with a nice bit of song-verse, which I will not spoil. The excerpt is indicative of the quasi-informational inexhaustable Giffinesque style that will be well known & imitated in the coming years. I highly recommend getting on board now with this excellent, highly various new item, which is one of my favorite new books, despite all the high-dollar stuff I tend to buy.

You go looking

2007-07-19T13:26:00.000-07:00

for the new John Wieners, A Book of Prophecies, put out by Bootstrap Productions, but St Marx books does not have it in stock. As Prophecies is a little bit, sortof, definitely, the Book-o-the-Moment, you are letdown, BUT there await other booktreats, including new Robert Walser, so you allow life to continue.

from St Marx:

The Assistant Robert Walser, New Directions, 2007
Before Night Falls Reinaldo Arenas, Penguin, 1993
Singing from the Well, Reinaldo Arenas, Penguin, 1987
Snow Part Paul Celan, The Sheep Meadow Press, 2007
Being & Event Alain Badiou, Continuum, 2006

Other odd-end acquisitions of recent times:

Heliogabalus Antonin Artaud, Creation Books, 2003
Ulysses Annotated Don Gifford with Robert J Seidman, U of California P, 1988
Unsung Rod Mengham, Folio/Salt, 1996
Personae Ezra Pound, Liveright, 1926 [fifth printing: 1938]

Also, there was a little visit to the Strand, with the following purchases:

You've Always Been Wrong Rene Daumal, Nebraska, 1995
Standards of Bibliographical Descriptions Buhler, McManaway, Wroth, U of Pennsylvania P, 1949
The Review of Contemporary Fiction Dalkey Archive Annual 1, ed John O'Brien, Spring 2007
Encyclopedia of Unusual Sex Practices Brenda Love, Barricade Books, 1988

Notes:

The Pound edition is particularly handsome. It was purchased in MA along with the Mengham, which proves to be one of the earlier titles from Salt (1996), when it was located only in Australia. Since, Salt has become one of the more interesting presses in the UK, though they are guilty of putting out a few too many books, a rare fault indeed. I'd always wanted one of the Gifford Ulysses Annotated & was lucky to find a copy at Alabaster Books, which is having a nice 30% off sale. The book is fun to read even without looking at the text. Would it not be interesting if all of the books on Joyce survived into the future but by some quirk none of the primary texts made it? What would the world think of Joyce then? Maybe they'd put his face on some of their currency, which is not to say this shouldn't be done currently, & in this country. New titles from a bunch of modern-era chaps are ultra welcome: Celan, Artaud, Walser, & Daumal, who had close ties to the 'pataphysical realm.

The new issue of the Review of Contemporary Fiction is something of an oddity. Dalkey Archive was particularly formitive in my early reading & book buying career so it is strange to see an issue of all reprints, especially one that arrives after what seemed like a delay in the regular production of the magazine. The issue in itself is valuable, but I'm not totally convinced that its arrival doesn't indicate some sort of problem at Dalkey HQ. They recently moved, I believe, so perhaps the state of the new issue has something to do with that. Or of course the issue could indicate none of this, but I am worried. RCF has always been a great resource for in-depth info on neglected & interesting writers, the format of the magazine being one of it's strongest aspects: usually three 50-page articles on various writers followed by several dozen reviews of recent books of note. In this issue, however, excerpts are provided from Dalkey's back catalog, & it functions something like a greatest hits. There is the standard O'Brien rant-intro against the state of publishing quality work in this country, which is good to see as always. But then the reviews themselves seem dated, all featuring books from last year, in addition to one from 2005, & none from 2007. In each instance that an interesting book was reviewed, I found that not only had I already heard about it, but in many cases I'd already bought it & read it. Given that the review section of the RCF has always been a showcase for new things to buy & read, this is something of a letdown. Exactly if the fault lies with me acquiring things too fast or with Dalkey being too slow, I cannot say for sure either way. But I am concerned about RCF with this latest move. With hope they will be back to normal functioning status with the next issue. If not we may be in the process of losing one of our more necessary sources for excellent literary information.

The Daumal acquisition was a nice prelude to the 'pataphysical deluge that was to follow, one that I am still sorting out, & will report on soon.

Rivals (Coolidge)

2007-07-18T21:09:00.000-07:00

New arrivals are many, various, picayune & juggernauts. Some is accounted for & more must first be sorted through. In the meantime, a single book is worth drawing attention to, the new Clark Coolidge book, Counting on Planet Zero, which has just arrived in limited edition from Fewer & Further Press, helmed by Jess Mynes in western MA. The book has been out for a few weeks at least, if not more. I saw a preliminary copy of it when Jess read along with several Fewer & Further authors at David Kirschenbaum's ACA Galleries a while back. The book is all the more pleasant to hold in one's hands as a finished product; like all of Jess' work, it is both immediately attractive & designed well overall. There is an mp3 available on the F&F site, where one can hear Clark read several of the poems. Though I've had the file for months & listened to it continually, reading the work off the page for the first time is one of the more pleasant reading experiences I've recently had. Perhaps because of the mp3, Clark's voice is already imbued in the text. & though the book is only a chapbook, there are by my count 30 poems, to read it in one sitting is wholly fulfilling. Another winner from Fewer & Further, & another winner from Clark Coolidge, neither of which are surprises.

ON A PLATINUM FORCEP

This isn't the present this is a hospital
women will want to know you get well
the rest is all isinglass under christmas bulbs
mind if I sneak back to the animal barn?
the cheating ball? smart arms is
what you have to have to narrow in on
the to-do in Hovenweep its feelers
the tree's very bones outrageous nipples
but the picture in the pocket is of my office
the French became active after that
very well done thank you then the
smart ones cream the restroom squad
but I'll tell you what's in there the bird
conked someone on the head with it so
I describe this as the End As A Species
but just to hit on the idea of seriously
being crazy that's a hook and a half
sixteen sundays from sauerbraten
they say the sailors got over the snow
it grew all around their cabin like a brain
the aliens' bible is called Go Insane

United Artists: Explorations

2007-07-05T20:44:00.000-07:00

Investigation of the complete run of United Artists magazine, Bernadette Mayer & Lewis Warsh's magazine that ran from the late 70s thru the early 80s--18 issues in all--has begun. Today I made a talley of how many times people appeared in the mag, & though they're just notes at this point, there are many interesting facets to the contributors & life of United Artists. For instance, Hannah Weiner only appears one time, in a late issue. Anne Waldman doesn't appear in the magazine herself until the last few issues, where she has 3 appearances in addition to a collaboration with Edwin Denby.

Not surprisingly, Bernadette & Lewis led the way in appearances, Mayer tallying 19 while Warsh totals 18 (there is one collaboration between the two in addition). The next most popular contributor is somewhat surprising--Clark Coolidge. Perhaps it's the MA connection, as that was where the magazine was located, & Clark as well at the time. Nevertheless, he appears 13 times. The first six issues all feature consecutive appearances from Coolidge all from the same work, Weathers, also referred to as "the long prose", which is said to number something like 1000 pages, & remains unpublished.

Next is less surprising: Alice Notley & Ted Berrigan. My count for Notley is at 10 while Berrigan appeared 9 times as an individual; Berrigan also had a collaboration with Tom Clark & another with Allen Ginsberg. Also, there is a neer total paucity of L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets: excluding Coolidge, who was as much a precursor to as he was a participant in the movement, & who inhabited neither SF nor NYC, there are only two appearances by Langpos, Ted Greenwald in a later issue preceeded by Barret Watten nearer to the beginning of the mag's run, in a collaboration with Bill Berkson (Berkson appears 7 times individually).

There are also some appearances by notable prose writers of the time, including Russell Banks & Paul Metcalf, who were each given substantial room in the magazine--the former appearing 6 times, the latter, 3. I know Metcalf & Coolidge exchanged letters in the early part of Clark's career (if not continually), & that they lived in the same area, so perhaps that was Metcalf's connection to the magazine. Or, perhaps he was known enough on his own, & didn't need an in. I don't know enough about Russell Banks to comment on his inclusion, but it is reminiscent of Bernadette's work with Vito Acconci in 0 To 9, which they ran before United Artists had its run. 0 To 9 featured more than a fair amount of prose within its pages, with particular attention to various Native songs & myths, work that is not unlike, say, Amos Tutuola.

Also warranting attention are the unknown names &/or the names that appear only once--Susan Keith Noel, Reed Bye, John Koethe, Gary Lenhart, Helena Hughes (who actually has another appearance, a collab with James Schuyler, in the same issue).

2 New Friends

2007-07-05T19:20:00.000-07:00

Today, some new friends made it home for the very first time. First, we have Ron Silliman's Sitting Up, Standing, Taking Steps, which was published as Tuumba 17 in 1978. This addition brings my Tuumba total to a staggering 47 out of 50; lacking are Silliman's other title, ABC, along with the very first two issues, Hejinian's A Thought Is The Bride Of What Thinking & Susan Howe's The Western Borders.

Clark Coolidge & Larry Fagin's On The Pumice Of Morons also found its way home. Pumice was put out by The Figures in 1993, in an edition of 300. This copy is signed by both authors to Bernadette Mayer. Some interesting information follows the collaboration:

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Larry Fagin & Clark Coolidge have written such stories as Whatever Became of Agnes Mason?, The Governor, Third Down and God To Go, and I Navigated a Donut Across Twelve Miles of Colombian Coffee.
Their other works include Great White Coast Jazz Suicides, Living Marimbas, Tonto Lavoris, and The Atmosphere of the Other Guy.

I'm not sure if any of these works have appeared anywhere--there must be a fairly good chance that some of it is in some mimeo mags from the 70s--but it certainly seems like there is a fair amount of Coolidge/Fagin work out there, perhaps enough to fill an entire book, which is an interesting idea.

Model Homes Debut

2007-07-04T00:42:00.000-07:00

This evening I saw my work in print for the very first time. Though I found it necessary to deem my writing "classless" to a friend, I am quite proud of the presentation & company surrounding my poems. Also, I am continually flattered to read the work of the other poets featured in the issue, as I got a bit of a sneak preview a few weeks ago & was able to read a little more of it tonight. For what it's worth, one can 2nd guess oneself all night, but an editor should never be questioned. I know I will field all future attacks against my editorial decisions with furious expletives & aggressive dekes, if not the summoning of henchmen.

Check out the first issue of Model Homes here.

New Arrivals: July

2007-07-02T21:49:00.000-07:00

Today, many interesting items arrived in the mail. Included are some recent Coolidge items, my interest in collecting Clark's books renewed by my recent acquisitions. Also a very nifty bibliography of Joyce. When the bibliography alone is in the triple-digits pricewise, you know you are on to something. Also: two different four-item sets, along with random various items.

Suite V Clark Coolidge, Adventures in Poetry, 1973 [signed; one of 200 copies]
A Geology Clark Coolidge, Potes & Poets, 1981 [signed; one of 300 copies]
for kurt cobain Clark Coolidge, The Figures, 1995 [one of 250 copies]
A Reading 1-7 Beverly Dahlen, Momo's Press, 1985 [copy W of 26 signed lettered copies]
A Bibliography of James Joyce John J. Slocum & Herbert Cahoon, Yale UP, 1953
The Good House Rod Smith, Spectacular Books, 2001 [signed]

items from the book thug:

Apostrophe Bill Kennedy & Darren Wershler-Henry, ECW Press
the tapeworm foundry Darren Wershler-Henry, Anansi, 2000
Thimking of You Dan Farrell, Tsunami Editions, 1994
Open Letter ed Lori Emerson & Barbara Cole, 12th Series Number 7: Fall 2005 ["Kenneth Goldsmith and Conceptual Poetics"]
The Etc BBQ Gustave Morin, Book Thug, 2006
Air Pressure David Fujino, Book Thug, 2006

including four handsewn books from housepress:

[READING] Rob Fitterman, housepress, 2002 [#36/60]
Ten Out of Ten or Why Poetry Criticism Sucks in 2003 Darren Wershler-Henry, housepress, 2003 [1 of 50 copies]
The Apostrophe Engine Darren Wershley-Henry, housepress, 2002 [#11/60]
Poem Formerly Known As "Terrorism" Brian Kim Stefans, housepress, [#42/70]

and finally, issues 1-4 of Fervent Valley, edited by Stephen Rodefer. Issue one is from the Spring of '72, issue two from Summer of '72, issue three the Spring of '73, & issue four, which has one of the best covers I've ever seen, from the Summer of '74. All of the covers are quite different, & the dimensions are only the same for issues 3 & 4, where the magazine shoots up to the full-size of the NY mags of the mimeograph revolution. Issue three has a neon pink cover; issue one, the smallest, has a bright yellow cover, & is perfectbound.

Massacre @ Troubadour Books

2007-06-27T21:40:00.000-07:00

Superstar Steve Zultanski, whose incredible, affordable Homoem ranks among the best deals on the internet, alerted me several weeks back that Troubadour Books had just acquired a box of interesting things from Bernadette Mayer, including bunches of mimeo mags, rare books & a variety of Clark Coolidge items, even the possibility of unpublished manuscripts. I needed only half as much prodding to make the trip up to Western Mass as soon as I could. A few days after Steve's kind notification, I visited Troubadour & had perhaps my personal best single haul of all time.

[acquisitions associated with Bernadette:]

books:

The Desire of Mothers to Please Others in Letters Bernadette Mayer, Hard Press, 1994
The Fast Hannah Weiner, United Artists, 1992
Spoke Hannah Weiner, Sun & Moon Press, 1984
Little Books/Indians Hannah Weiner, Roof, 1980
Clairvoyant Journal Hannah Weiner, Angel Hair, 1978
The Soft Room Summer Brenner, The Figures, 1978 [inscribed to Bernadette]
Asylum Poems John Wieners, Angel Hair, 1969 [one of 300 copies, 2nd edition]

periodicals:

Best & Company ed Bill Berkson, 1969
Unnatural Acts II "published by ed friedman and bernadette mayer, general managers, at the st.marks poetry project. copyright unnatural acts nineteen seventy two"; "each issue of unnatural acts magazine will be a collaborative writing experiment. this issue was written on november 11,1972 by joe ceravolo, rosemary ceravolo, peggy decoursey, ed friedman, yancy gerber, john giorno, kevin kerr, bernadette mayer, ann powell, anne waldman & hannah weiner"
United Artists ed Bernadette Mayer & Lewis Warsh, Issues 1-18 [complete run], in vg+ condition, Nov '77 thru Dec '83

Coolidge-related items:

ING Clark Coolidge, Angel Hair, 1968 [2 copies]
Subject to a Film manuscript, dated 30IX75, 34 pages [facsimile]
Friction 7 ed Randy Roark, 1984
Stations #5 A Symposium on Clark Coolidge Edited by Ron Silliman, Winter 1978
Poetic Briefs 18 (The Clark Colidge Issue) eds Elizabeth Burns & Jefferson Hansen, December 1994
Tottel's 11 [Clark Coolidge, OFLENGTHS] ed Ron Silliman, Fall 1973
To Obtain the Value of the Cake Measure from Zero, a play by Tom Veitch & Clark Coolidge, Pants Press, 1970 [#112 of 150 copies]
BERNADETTE manuscript, dated 26VIII71, signed by Clark, 21 pages [unpublished]

[general acquisitions:]

HOT BIRD MFG Michael Gizzi issue, Vol II No 3 June, 1993, ed Ray DiPalma
DC Poetry Anthology 1999-2000 ed Allison Cobb & Jennifer Coleman
My Father's Golden Eye Tom Veitch, Adventures In Poetry 1970 [300 total copies, of which 25 are signed by the author. But instead of signing them himself, Veitch solicited his friends. Bob, the proprietor of Troubadour Books, has seen a copy signed by Tom Clark. This copy is signed by Ted Berrigan]
Malpertuis Jean Ray, @las Press, 1998
Stomping the Goyim Michael Disend, Green Integer [#56], 2002
Chamber Music James Joyce, Grossman [Cape Editions #48], 1971[?]
Saw Steve Katz, Knopf, 1972
Creamy & Delicious Steve Katz, Random House, 1970

The above is the complete bounty of Day 1, after which I was more exhausted from bookshopping than I've ever felt. Perhaps because I am a pervert, when the opportunity arose to visit Troubadour again a few days later, I went again. I emerged with a slightly lighter load, consisting of the following:

Bibliomania 1999-2000 Simon Morris & Helen Sacoor [related to Information as Material]
Conjunctions 8 ed Bradford Morrow, 1985
The Amorous Exploits of a Young Rakehell Guillaume Apollinaire, Book-of-the-Month Club, 1994
The Boundary of Blur Nick Piombino, Roof, 1993
A Conversation with David Antin David Antin & Charles Bernstein, Granary Books, 2002
Paterson (Book Five) William Carlos Williams, Nude Erections, 1958

True book-pervs are never done. Just this evening I saw another interesting item listed on ABEbooks by Troubadour, a dual-signed copy of Clark Coolidge & Larry Fagin's On the Pumice of Morons. With haste I added it to my basket & checked out, with hope completing this exhausting, glorious haul from Troubadour Books.

Buck Downs @ St Marx

2007-06-27T19:45:00.000-07:00

[begun June 7 07]

Last nite Buck Downs read with David Kirschenbaum @ famed St Marx Church. Kirsch, of Boog City fame, was the first reader. He is a purveyor of a sort of personal verse--he described his recent project as writing a poem at the end of the day about whatever went on that day. He then went back through these pieces, & seizing upon the common thread of references to the tv show The Gilmore Girls, read the makeshift sequence, to frequently hilarious effect. Unashamed of bearing the personal--not just emotion, but habit as well--his poems centering on the aforementioned show were particularly unique & interesting. This was preceded by a horseracing history longpoem that he described was in response to Elizabeth Willis mentioning Seabiscuit in one of her works (at the height of that horse's moviestardom). This poem, though it dipped into the personal, recalling instances & events from years past, worked much differently than the Gilmore Girls work, almost as if it were an ESPN retrospective of the finer nuances of that sport, where people seem to watch the big 3 races almost perfunctorily but rarely seem to really get. Kirsch not only gets it, but was able to convey the feeling & meaning to tv-less, generally horserace-less me, which I qualify as an affirmed success.

Buck was nice enough to meet with me before the reading for about an hour over coffee, talking mostly about the DC scene & his history as publisher of Buck Downs Books, with plenty of advice for my fledgling activities thrown in. Though he has given me several books over the past few months, & added In Memoriam D Thompson to that list before the reading, I went ahead & purchased two I hadn't come across before, including a dual book with Chris Toll called Recreational Vehicle/Be Light & a recent chapbook from Edge, Ladies Love Outlaws . The most notable of these is In Memoriam, as it is a beautiful, apparantly limited edition book (I think Buck said there are 250 copies). The rectangular covers are all white, the only decoration a light circular stamp on the bottom left corner on the front cover, indicating author & title.

From the front matter:

In Memory D Thompson is a series composed of rubbings taken from headstones in Congressional Cemetery, Washington, DC. Each sequence was created by starting from a random point in the cemetery and proceeding, to discover each next word as the site and my ability to perceive it would disclose. It is a kind of erasure operating in reverse upon a text dominated by the names of the dead, pointing to some practical geomancy in which the materials on the earth are always only waiting to be activated.

The book is named for David E. Thompson (1939-1996), aka Davi Det Hompson, whose works in typography, sculpture, performance, etc., alone or with many collaborators, continue to remind me that the prevailing conditions of the area are always compelling reasons to work, and that living there an adequate principle to organize the results.

The insides of the book fulfills the promise of the cover & front matter. Averaging about a word per page, the poem, which is actually quite short, is stretched to extreme limits, as if the sentences were being read under a magnifying glass, or some similar mechanism. Each page is presented as a copy of the original rubbing, such as the following:

More examples of the text can be found on fascicle's website.

Buck is an animated & skilled reader. He was introduced by Greg Fuchs, who was nice enough to give me a little palm-sized book he recently put out along with a demo copy of a film he is working on. Much to my pleasure, Buck's accent came out in full force during his reading. Along with the way he held onto & swung the mic stand around like a rockstar, well he pretty much became a rock star for the duration of his set, as he read through several clusters of his patented postcard poems, even dipping into a backup group.

Though I'm more than happy to receive a lot of the great stuff Buck puts out & sends himself, the work he read indicated pretty clearly that he's due for another full-length book given the full treatment by a quality press. Perhaps Edge will deliver thus unto us? His Marijuana Soft Drink was put out in '99. Eight years hence, it's nigh time for another high-profile, far-reaching collection.

Afterwards some poets went out for drinks & invited me along, which allowed for good chat with Buck, Greg, & the poet John McNally, who has a book, Exes for Eyes, on subpress. Apparantly John doesn't make it into town very often so we were lucky to have him among us; & lucky for me he is a collector-type so we had a lot to talk about all night. Even after leaving the bar John & I ambled around the neighborhood for a while. Many thanks to him, & also to Buck & Greg.

..........................power dookie.

the limits of the leash
............and the living
............with the law
..on serial anonymous
replay............another kind
............of independent
............surrealist-blues
in the sweat equity

....sons of the Hill
..........in the Fall
..August is the motherfucker
or at least it is
this fiscal year

[from Ladies Love Outlaws]

SPD +1

2007-06-05T12:09:00.000-07:00

New Books from SPD

The Transformation Juliana Spahr, Atelos, 2007
Nijoles House Hannah Weiner, Potes & Poets, 1981, 1999 [2nd printing]
The Anger Scale Katie Degentesh, Combo Books, 2006
Hannah Weiner's Open House Hannah Weiner, Kenning Editions, 2007
The Missing Occasion of Saying Yes Benjamin Friedlander, subpress, 2007
All Around What Empties Out Linh Dinh, subpress, 2003
Half Angel Half Lunch Sharon Mesmer, Hard Press, 1998
Poem on a Train Jordan Davis, Barque Books, 1998
Rouge State Rodney Koeneke, Pavement Saw Press, 2003
Million Poems Journal Jordan Davis, Faux Press, 2003

*^*^*^*^*

Now these are all neat & fun, don't get me wrong, but the true gem of the day is Caroline Bergvall's Eclat, published by Sound & Language in 1996. There is an ebook version of it on ubu. Otherwise paper copies of it are rarely available & tend to be pricey. It is not fair to the SPD books because this has stolen all of my attention away from them (besides Nijoles House).

It is similar to War, the musical (Fitterman & Rowntree) in the inventiveness of the presentation of the text. Ubu lists the book as a collaboration with the designer Marit Muenzberg. More books need to take advantage of this sort of collaboration between author & artist/designer. "Regular" books seem lacking after reading texts like these. But it doesn't hurt that Bergvall is one of the best poets in the world.

Was a Sally a Sally pushing the out of mine inside-out for
closer fit Item by item flash out a Jill's eye More trouble
in the rubblebubble

ROUNDUP: St Marx [Books], Rob F, Printed Matter, The Streets

2007-06-03T21:09:00.000-07:00

Many bokes, many places.

From St Marx Books, early last week:

How to Proceed In the Arts Gary Sullivan, Faux Press, 2001
Fuck You-Aloha-I Love You Juliana Spahr, Wesleyan, 2001
Un Poco Low Coup Amiri Baraka, Ishmael Reed Publishing Co, 2004
Anti Kody Vaclav Havel, [publisher unknown], 1997[?][bilingual text in Czech & Chinese]
Ripple Effect Elaine Equi, Coffee House, 2007 [signed]
Selections Miyazawa Kenji, U of California P, 2007 [poets for the millennium #5]
Somebody Blew Up America Amiri Baraka, House of Nehesi, 2003
things of each possible relation hashing against one another, Juliana Spahr, Palm Press, 2003
Infinite Recursor of The Bride of DJ Spinoza Ostashevsky & Timerman, Studioradia & UDP, 2005
Conjunctions 48: Faces of Desire, Bard, 2007
The Way It Wasn't James Laughlin, Nude Erections, 2006[*purchased elsewhere]

*^*^*^*^*

Books found on the Brooklyn streets include

Joyce's Dubliners, de Tocqueville's Democracy in America & The Old Regime & The French Revolution, The Vintage Mencken, Gass' In the Heart of the Heart of the Country, a book of Chomsky interviews Keeping the Rabble In Line, Kierkegaard's Attack Upon Christendom, Jules Michelet's Satanism & Witchcraft, Brains Machines & Mathematics by Michael A Arbib, & an odd journal/catalog of computer[?]art pieces Conceptual Illustration [1989]. Thank you.

*^*^*^*^*

From Alabaster Books: Greg strikes again!

A Little Gold Book Jordan Davis, Golden Books, 1995 [signed, to Greg]
More Winnowed Fragments Simon Pettet, Talisman House, 2005 [signed, to Greg]
Sooner Margaret Christakos, Coach House Books, 2005
Midwinter Day Bernadette Mayer, Turtle Island Foundation, 1982
Yann Andrea Steiner Marguerite Duras, Archipelago, 2006

There were several other [at least 4] books in stock signed by Greg. I'm not sure who this Greg is, but his loss is my gain, I guess.

*^*^*^*^*

Fun Gifts from Rob F.

One day last week, I think Tuesday, Marie Buck & I visited Rob Fitterman. He gave me several of his own books that I lacked copies of, along with turning the two of us loose on a pile of duplicate copies of other things he had. I emerged with the following loot:

1-800-FLOWERS Robert Fitterman, porci con le ali, 2005 [cutest book]
Among the Cynics Robert Fitterman, Singing Horse Press, 1989
Metropolis 16-20 Robert Fitterman, Edge, 1998
Metropolis 4-12 Robert Fitterman, Potes & Poets, 1994 [limited to 30 signed copies, #19]
Torque #5 & Object #8, eds Fitterman & Fodaski, 1998
The Inveterate Life Jessica Grim, O Books, 1990
No. 111 2.7.93-10.20.96 Kenneth Goldsmith, The Figures, 1997
Free Space Comix Brian Kim Stefans, Roof, 1998
Kildare Stacy Doris, Roof, 1994
Sun Rock Man Cid Corman, Nude Erections, 1970
Black Watch Steven Hall, Intermezzo, 1990
April Galleons John Ashbery, Penguin, 1988
Sadly William Fuller, Flood Editions, 2003
Human Ceiling Diane Ward, Roof, 2005
Errata 5uite Joan Retallack, Edge, 1993

*^*^*^*^*

Rob, among his other kindnesses (such as introducing me to his dog Walter, & to Dirk Rowntree @ the neo Benshi event @ St Marx), also directed us to Printed Matter, a high-end bookstore I'd never visited before. There I acquired:

Re-Writing Freud Simon Morris, Information as Material, 2005
Reading The Remove of Literature Nick Thurston, Information as Material, 2006
Don Quixote Gareth Long, [no publisher], 2006 [#22/100 signed copies]
Guy Debord and the Situationist International ed Tom McDonough, MIT, 2004
Bio-Music Manford L Eaton, Something Else Press, 1973
There's a little ambiguity over there among the bluebells Ruth Krauss, Something Else Press, 1968
I've Left: a manifesto and a testament of science & art Bern Porter, Something Else Press, 1971
The Book of Hours and Constellations Eugen Gomringer, Something Else Press, 1968

*^*^*^*^*

* :)

Lost Nz 3: Here Comes E

2007-05-26T07:33:00.001-07:00

Continuing the trend of filling in, the above anthology of interviews edited by Lance Phillips w/ Geoffrey Gatza (on BlazeVox) was the subject of a lot of discussion/controversy a few weeks ago, but while all the hullabaloo over who moaned & got the big shit cancelled & why & so on went on, I sought to seek out a copy. I haven't heard how many of these may have gotten out there, maybe just a few or maybe more like a few hundred,* but I know BlazeVox is operating in the print-on-demand mode, so I thought there was a good chance of tracking one down. & on about day two of the hoopla one show'd up on ABEbooks. At $25, the volume is far from cheap, but it is huge (742 pages) & the cancelled status made it nigh mandatory as far as collecting goes. I have secret plans to get both Eds to sign it then sell it for $1,000,000 in thirty years. But in case this doesn't go off, the big honking thing is a lot fun to read. The volume includes interviews from about 150 authors, but the interesting part is that each writer is asked the same 10 questions. While this tactic has its downfalls, as the questions are pretty broad (some word associations, first poem you loved, etc) & thus not specified to the poet at hand, it makes for extremely interesting comparison work. Once the reader becomes familiar with the questions & answer types, flipping around in the book, seeing how this or that poet tends to answer, becomes quite revealing, & in a way that I have not yet encountered elsewhere. Thus it more than totally sucks that the book got cancelled, especially given the fact that a good majority of the poets included are less than well-known. Creeley & Ron Silliman are there, but along with them are Simon Perchik, Kaia Sand, Jonathan Skinner, Joseph Lease, Sarah Manguso, Dan Beachy, Ton Van't Hof, Barbara Tran & on & on & on. So the culmination of the ingenius format along with the fact that the majority of the poets are not (yet) famous makes the book's short life quite disappointing. The interviews are still available online though, but the unique & informative phenomenon of this specific book has been unnecessarily lost.

*a search of the usual online places reveals only 1 copy for sale at $75, from Revaluation Books located in the UK

Lost Nz 2: Something Trustworthy Dipped in Honey

2007-05-26T07:00:00.000-07:00

Continuing the recovery/rectumifying my omissions: St Marx a long time ago (April), seeing Alli Warren & Brandon Brown (who are married (to each other)) read one after the other one. Was it Alli went first, or Brandon? It has been that long that I have meant to write of them. Thru SPD, I had conversed with Alli a few times (about book orders) so when I saw her name on the Karl Marx Readin' Docket I knew I was so totally there. Somewhat mystifyingly (I could say so after the reading) there are no major works out by either quite capable author--a handful of short-run chapbooks, only the latest of which are still available. & though I only had a few bucks on me, not enough to afford the trifecta of livres (2BB, 1AW) I sortof begged my way into paying less & getting them all. Was it my SPD connection, my beard, my blue eyes, my pathetic cashlessness? They were great yet I was the winner that day. The best parts of their works are similar in this general way: really funny, really smart, sometimes pervy, well-shaped stuff. Some of Brandon's work was historically based; this turned out to be from his 908-1078 volume, while other, more general work featured treats like

"[.........................&]
how I transform Genitals
into ropes of theoretical polypleasures"

along with other winners such as

"I have tons of friends"

while Alli conceals such weapons as

"Son he said don't let them enter your mouth".

Me, & a good looking girlwoman sitting next to me, seemed to laugh at all the right (dirty) parts. Why I said nothing to her, flirted none, I am no longer certain, though still ashamed. I happily held in my hands, however, the following:

Cousins Alli Warren, Lame House Press, 2006 [#36/100, second printing]
908-1078 Brandon Brown, Transmission Press, 2006
Memoires of My Nervous Illness Brandon Brown, Cy Press, 2006 [#68/200, with neat shimmery endpapers]

I can't wait for either poet's first big (perfectbound) collection. Each should come out before I have a chance to get around to it, but if the situation hasn't been rectified & my new press is off the ground 'n' flying high, I will certainly solicit these young, superb, attractive talents. & ask them for books.

Lost Nz 1

2007-05-24T22:50:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the blurry. Above is Jess Mynes, the publisher of Fewer & Further Press, which is based in Western Mass & just released a new Clark Coolidge book Counting On Planet Zero. A while back now (May 3) I attended an exciting reading at ACA Galleries, which is somewhere, where several authors from Anchorite & Fewer & Further read. Some police disturbance event at the Canal St subway caused me massive lateness but it turned out I didn't miss very much. There was popcorn & white wine galore (yum), & it was nice to meet Jess, who I'd been emailing some for a while. He introduced me to others like Andrew Mr & Aaron Tieger (who gifted some Carve), who were very nice in talking to young unknown me, along with some other people like Brenda Iijima of Yo-Yo Labs, & I'd like to keep in touch with all of them. After the reading we all went out for a big fun drink mealy at some spanish joint, where I predictably ordered chicken & rice & predictably ate about 1/3 of what was put in front of me.

F&F books are never not beautiful & are never the same; I have things to glean & learn from the above man, who is also a librarian, which I need to get around to before too long if I ever plan on making money. But maybe there's no dough there either. With hope, that's the case. Jess was nice enough to gift me two past editions of asterisk, which is sortof like a magazine but more like a folded broadside & is designed very well, throwing a nice kink into the author-poem (dis)connection. With hope, more of these little zine treats are on the way, as I think only 2 have come out. Everyone who read that night was pretty entertaining, but Jess totally stole the show at the end, reading from In(ex)teriors, put out by Anchorite in an edition of only 75 (WTF?) that are long gone. I plan on lobbying with the Anchorite fellow (Rizzo) for a 2nd (bigger) edition, because more people need to get their mits on this one, including myself.

ISO Tan Lin

2007-05-13T18:44:00.000-07:00

Tonight was the last night of the experimental text event at Sir Richard Foreman's ontological theater thing at St Marx. I had planned on attending, but the event was sold out. So in memoriam of my feelings I decided to go on a Tan Lin binge. I read a significant chunk of his superb Blipsoak01, number 18 in the Atelos series. I love huge poetry books (like Bruce Andrews I Don't Have Any Paper So Shut Up) & this one is very much that--over 330 pages. The layout is excellent, like nothing I've ever seen: for the most part, the work is in couplet form, but frequently the long lines carry over to the next page instead of dropping down, a solution I've never encountered before, which makes for immense expanses of white space on the odd-numbered pages, opposite the near-uniform couplets of the even-numbered pages. As a soon-to-be publisher, I relished this choice throughout the duration of my reading. Lin prides himself on being bland & boring, but the result is usually quite beautiful, & utterly unique. Quite the paradox. His only earlier book was put out by Sun & Moon a long time ago, titled Lotion Bullwhip Giraffe. It is also a winner, & is worth tracking down even though it is somewhat rare & may cost $20 or more.

There are several of his works available online, most recently a diary/blog/poem piece in the May issue of The Brooklyn Rail. Like someone you don't love crapping in your hand while you sleep, the Rail folk have made it impossible to copy/paste the work & thus print it out. Shame on them for this trespass, given that my computer freezes up when I go to print out the page as it is. Printer-friendly work can be found here & here, from lingo magazine & the Boston Review respectively. Other work can be found in issues 35, 38, & 42 of Conjunctions. & there are a decent amount of audio files available on Pennsound, along with a couple interesting electronic works at ubu.

The real find to look out for is Seven Controlled Vocabularies (the name on the spine is THE JOY OF COOKING), which is yet unreleased but is available from lulu.com. The book, described as [AIRPORT NOVEL MUSICAL POEM PAINTING THEORY FILM PHOTO HALLUCINATION LANDSCAPE] is a superintriguing read, as it seems like it might be incomplete, but it's hard to figure out if, or where, or how exactly this may be true. For example, the opening section is titled A Field Guide to American Painting w/ 13 plates, but the plates are not there. Later in the book there are all sorts of pictures & objects, many of them somewhat fascinating, as they interact with Lin's patented bland text in the same oddly beautiful yet hard-to-pin-down way that the text itself works. My favorite is a matchbook the inside of which reads

FISH BONES OR OTHER ACCIDENTAL
BONES ARE TAKEN BETWEEN
FINGER AND THUMB AND
REMOVED BETWEEN COMPRESSED
LIPS PITS AND SEEDS MUST BE
EATEN QUITE BARE AND CLEAN IN
THE MOUTH AND DROPPED INTO
THE CUPPED FIST AND THEN ONTO
THE PLATE THE PITS OF STEWED
PRUNES OR CHERRIES THAT ARE
EATEN WITH A SPOON ARE MADE
AS CLEAN AS POSSIBLE IN THE
MOUTH (WITH THE TONGUE AND
TEETH) AND THEN DROPPED INTO
THE SPOON WITH WHICH YOU ARE
EATING AND CONVEYED TO THE
EDGE OF THE PLATE BUT IT IS
HORRID TO SEE ANYONE SPIT
SKINS OR PITS INTO A SPOON OR
INTO THE PLATE UNLESS REALLY
DRY AND WITH LIPS COMPRESSED

Indeed. How does this bit of goodness relate to the adjacent text, which is mostly about a run-down Mercedes? I have no idea, but I'm enjoying myself, so I'll happily continue. Which is sortof how the mechanisms of Tan Lin's works work, eschewing the flashy for something so consistent & sneaky, the reader would be hard pressed to illuminate or explicate the text, yet the reading experience is as pleasant as any around. For those who think that Tan Lin's 2 officially available books are far too few, this print-on-demand edition of what appears to be a nearly (or mostly) complete work-in-progress is an under-the-radar delight.

Zizek in the City

2007-05-11T20:41:00.000-07:00

I learned too late on the 18th of last month that Zizek himself was to be at the MOMA introducing Sophie Fiennes' doc The Pervert's Guide to Cinema, a film which features the philosopher discoursing on penis-vagina relations in classic films from Hitchcock, Lynch, Kieslowski, Kubrik, the Marx Bros, etc. & then I was headed south for what turned out to be a week & missed the entire 5-day run of the movie. All was not lost, though, in the Zizek realm for this young collector. For I had visited the McNally & Robinson bookstore for the first time a little while before--on a wink & promise from R. Silliman('s blog) that the poetry stock was nigh decent. & it was & it wasn't--there were some great small(er) press publications from little guys such as BookThug & UDP, & I discovered the great Effing Press that very night (Hoa Nguyen, Kent Johnson (Araki Yasusada), Tony Tost (best name everr))--yet these were not the cakes to take (tho I bought a bunch of that shit). [A side note against Mc&Son: they had 1 title combined from the following publishers: krupskaya, atelos, subpress, the figures, factory school, roof & so on.] No, the cakes to take numbered four, they were books penned by the above-pictured man, & they were all signed by the above-pictured man. These include pb&j copies of Interrogating the Real & Slavoj Zizek Live Theory by Rex Butler (Zeez signed it anyway) & HC copies of The Universal Exception and The Parallax View. All but the latter put out by Continuum, while Parallax is an MIT production.

The Zizek treats do not end there, as I also recently acquired the Back to School 2003 issue of Abercrombie & Fitch Quarterly: The Sex Ed Issue, which features some critical explorations by the philosopher mixed in with the tits & boy butts. Every few pages of the opening section of this 280-page tome, which is the naked picture section, features snippets of commentary by Zizek superimposed over the images. The prose is mostly Zizek Jr, but there are of course some gems within: THE ONLY SUCCESSFUL SEXUAL RELATIONSHIP OCCURS WHEN THE FANTASIES OF THE TWO PARTNERS OVERLAP. IF THE MAN FANTASIZES THAT MAKING LOVE IS LIKE RIDING A BIKE...AND THE WOMAN WANTS TO BE PENETRATED BY A STUD, THEN WHAT TRULY GOES ON WHEN THEY MAKE LOVE IS THAT A HORSE IS RIDING A BIKE...WITH A FANTASY LIKE THAT, WHO NEEDS A PERSONALITY? The magazine itself is the true interesting artifact--I had been entirely unaware of the A&F print phenomenon until I bought this issue. What I said above is a pretty accurate description, boy butts & girl butts & girl tits & boy tits are the main focus, usually construed in intimate and/or suggestive poses, even with a few good pieces of problematizing guy-guy-girl & mega-orgy imagery thrown in on occasion. What the magazine as a whole really needs is Zizek Sr to explicate it--it's truly an odd object to contemplate. I'm sure it's been discussed in depth elsewhere, I mean, it has to have been at some point. The first (provocative) section is atypical as far as catalogs go--there are pictures but not one mention of clothes, price, description, anything. & when you do finally get to the clothes with prices, there are no models whatsoever, & plain white backgrounds. There are interesting details there, too, like how the clothes are all wrinkled, rarely flat, straight, anything--suggesting use. But what else? That's where we need Slavoj to make heads or tails of it beyond my amateur sleuthing attempts.

The issue even comes in a slipcase--the collector in me had to find this version, not just the issue itself, suggesting in yet another way that it's much more like a book than a catalog. After the clothing section, where the actual products are displayed, there is a little more content, in a magazine-style. So in the end it's a hybrid of book, magazine, catalog, with all sorts of luscious boy butts. Apparantly (unfortunately) A&F were forced by the xtianz to cease this type of publication--I'm sure they still put out something, but I'm not sure what. I'm proud of them for putting out this type stuff for as long as they did, as it is all quite odd & quite interesting, & the guys & gals are all knockouts.

FUCK DEATH\\\RODEFER PAINTINGS

2007-05-08T03:45:00.000-07:00

A while back I met up with Greg Fuchs & purchased a few Stephen Rodefer paintings. They had them on the wall at the BPC & I had lusted after them in person, & tried to buy one, but no one got back to me until they had been taken down. I was flummoxed, pissed off, on, etc, until Greg Fuchs emailed me bluely a few days afterwards, saying he was storing the paintings in the meantime & I might stop by to take a look. It was a rainy floody day but I went up to the Bronx anyway. I got a total of 3, two of which can be seen in this photo: a September 11th piece (just to the right of Stephen's left shoulder, see a better picture below), & the one that looks like it has the number 23 (I'll call it the Michael Jordan piece) beyond Stephen's left toe. [The text reads: "Yes the tooth of time is black to the root...I have done all I could do... to appear mirthful"] The third piece I got is a variation of FUCK DEATH, which surrounds Roddy's head. Mine is larger, not on paper or cardboard but more like a rollable burlap sack, with a strange blackwhite centerpiece between the text., seemingly made from papertowel. Though I love them all, this FUCK DEATH variation is probably my favorite.

Meeting with Greg Fuchs was entirely excellent, as he gifted me a few Buck Downs Books I didn't have, along with at least one I didn't even know about: Hoa Nguyen's Hood. He also popped my Open24Hours cherry, giving me a few of the books recently produced there. Everything from the Rodefer to the company to the setting of his office, out in the middle of some river (my geography is no good)--was totally great. I hope there can be more visits with Greg in the future. His wife even used to teach, oddly enough, at C of C.

Harry Mathews & Doug Nufer @ St Marx

2007-05-07T19:54:00.000-07:00

Freshly back from seeing Harry Mathews & Doug Nufer read at St Marx. I wasn't familiar with Nufer, though he was totally great, & the books he had for sale seemed truly interesting & attractive, but I had to pass for lack of cash. Nufur ended his reading with a great splice-song combination of the Noel Noel xmas thing & The Star Spangled Banner. One of my finest ever moments as an American came when someone who was waiting in line with me to get a Mathews autograph who had missed the Nufer part of the evening asked me for a recap, & I totally blanked on the name of the song, saying something about the "Noel thing" & then totally bumbling on the home of the brave shit. I was impressed with myself. Harry signed two books of mine that I brought along for the occasion, The Way Home put out by Atlas & Burning Deck's Country Cooking & other stories. The title story from the Burning Deck is actually in both volumes, & Harry said that the Atlas version is the "correct" one. I haven't compared the two closely, but certainly will. Whatever copy you may happen to come across is worth checking out though, as the story is quite hilarious & incredibly well-done. Both volumes are actually pretty interesting, as the other things included vary greatly in style & content but are always great, & frequently funny. "Singular Pleasures" is included in the Atlas volume, & is also available separately from Dalkey Archive; it's a collection of one-page stories of all types of people masturbating in all sorts of ways. While it's plenty funny, it's pretty sexy as well, always causing one of those should-this-be-awkward moments of aroused reading. Yes, when I read the book I can't help but nurture a nice stiffy, but I can say that I've never finished myself off after completing the book, which would seem to be the ultimate reading of the text. Next time I shall rectify this oversight. With hope, Harry would approve.