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Focus on Kenneth Goldsmith October 26, 2008 in Poetry | No comments I just went on Amazon today to purchase a book by Kenneth Goldsmith. It turns out this is totally unnecessary. When I looked around to see which book might be best to buy first, I found that his EPC page has a great deal, if not all, of his published poetry in their complete forms. I found myself running into his essays and interviews in various places, and I have quoted his ideas about poetics and publishing in a few posts and essays for the Craft of Poetry class I took last year for my degree. I should have used Day or The Weather as examples of “craft,” along with the Flarf poets, but I had not read them yet. I encourage you to read about him, and especially to take truth about enzyte note of the directions he is taking poetry in. Some suggested texts/resources on Goldsmith: October 26, 2008 in Uncategorized | No comments I’ve just finished my unexpectedly involved response to the Issue 1 anthology edited by Jim Carpenter and Stephen McLaughlin. It’s posted over at my machine poetics blog, I don’t want to be judged a person!. I’ve written about Jim Carpenter and Erica T. Carter there before, which may account for the jump in hits since Oct. 3, so thanks guys! Hey, I’ve written for hours about it there, so I’m not going to spend any more time on it here. Go read it and let me know what you think. October 17, 2008 in Personal | No comments Well, I’m a third of the way towards my M.F.A. thesis and I need to start looking (already) at what I’m doing after this. I’m not as anxious as I thought I would be, but that’s probably because I’m excited at some of the possibilities of what I could do. First, I’ve had the dream for years of studying Tibetan and Buddhism more intensely, so I’m checking out some Buddhist Studies Programs with Language. There are quite a few in India and Nepal that teach in English, but I’m concerned about financing this thing, so I’m focusing more within the United States. I should be receiving info from Naropa Institute soon. Second, I’m eying the University of Buffalo Poetics program as another option. I think poetics will be where I end up either way, but I’m not certain yet if I want to focus first on Buddhist scholarship (it has long influenced my writing and thinking) so as to work on some idea of a Buddhist Poetic Methodology using digital techniques and programming as a set of tools toward this end, or if I want to jump right into studying digital poetics. These are the ideas I’m working with, but it also might end up still with me taking some years to work before moving (I think) back to academia. I’m coming to like the role of teacher and the idea of being a professor more and more now. I think it may be the place that I belong best in, in this society at least. October 1, 2008 in News / Editorial, Political | No comments This morning Congress has received a letter signed by (at my last count) about 240 economists and growing. It briefly lays out 3 “major pitfalls” of the proposed treasury bailout plan (don’t let them get away with calling it a “rescue plan”) and urges care and caution in coming up with a plan that actually makes sense. I wonder if any of these economists will show up on the 24-hour news cycles now to expand upon their disagreements. Somehow I doubt it. DemocracyNow! will probably pick that one up. September 26, 2008 in Personal, Poetry, Writing | No comments
I’m self-publishing the draft sections of my new mchain project, his&hers, as it is being written. How exciting! Three sections have been posted, so go see them yourself and leave some comments. And if you’re really bored, check out the source texts that went into its creation. They’re all linked on the right sidebar. Enjoy :) September 25, 2008 in News / Editorial, Political | No comments I’ve been trying to figure out what the deal is with this “bailout,” and it has become increasingly clear that it is another huge swindle on the part of the pirates in the executive branch and their buddies on Wall Street. Don’t expect anything good from our elected politicians, and don’t expect any useful news and reporting from the 24-hour propaganda machine, who continue to speak non-stop about the most tedious “developments” of the presidential campaign while keeping silent or inadequately skirting over the many, many crazy things going on right now at home and across the globe. It’s time to start seeking out more desperately those alternative sources of news that the internet provides us. First, let’s begin with this report from CNBC, whose anarchic coverage of this crisis does match the general mood and occasional strikes a right cord: “Bailouts Will Push US into Depression.” Second, Ralph Nader and Arun Gupta criticize the bailout and call for action on the part of taxpayers and citizens. DemocracyNow!, September 25, 2008. (Link will not work until tomorrow, 9/26 - go to front page until then.) Third, Ralph Nader’s call for Congress to show some “backbone” and prevent yet another action on the part of this administration for the billionaires and against the rest of the American people: “Who Will Show Some Backbone Against the Bailout?” Fourth, the e-mail sent out by Arun Gupta (given its own wordpress blog) to call a protest on Wall Street at 4PM of 9/25. Fifth, an international perspective on the bailout and the future of US global dominance. It highlights comments made by world leaders at the UN General Assembly currently being held in NYC. “A Bailout and a New World.” Sixth, Michael Hudson on CounterPunch calling the bailout “a giveaway”: “The Insanity of the $700 Billion Giveaway.” Seventh, the tagline to David Sarota’s “The $700 Billion Questions”: “Using the shock doctrine, Wall Street and Washington’s wrecking crew aim to get the most expensive free lunch in American history.” September 8, 2008 in Poetry | No comments Thanks to Mary Leader for pointing me to this little magazine. I’ve been writing a series of one line poems for the las few months, so I’ll definitely be submitting some of them their way. Here’s how they describe their journal: Inch is a magazine devoted to bringing you the smallest poems and the shortest fiction in a tiny package. This eight-page, 5.5″ x 4.25″ beauty ships every quarter, and each issue is only a buck. The print run for each issue is 250. I hesitate to call it a novelty item, novel as it might be. You can’t beat $1 and issue though. Well, I guess it could be free. Huh. September 8, 2008 in News / Editorial, Political | No comments I’m back, at last, from my blogging break, so here’s some more finacial crisis commentary. This interview by MIke Whitney, “The Worsening Debt Crisis: Who Got Us into This Mess and What are the Real Political Options?,” puts the whole nationalization of the housing sector issue into a better context, one that deals with a lot of the international and military complexities that NPR and CNN et. al. continue to brush aside. Hopefully I’ll post about something else sometime, mix things up a bit, you know? August 1, 2008 in Personal | 3 comments I’m getting everything ready today to go to St. Lucia for two weeks with my girlfriend. I get the guided tour of the island via her family and friends there, not just the resort tourist treatment. Ocean! Caribbean Sea! Volcano! Can you tell I’m excited? I haven’t been to a beach in at least 10 years. All I know of what we’ll be doing is walking/busing to the beach most every morning and going to a fish-fry in Denery Saturday night. And, of course, some reading will be done too. This is my first trip outside of the U.S. and my first flight anywhere. I hope there will be more to follow, finances willing. Wish me the best! July 27, 2008 in Online Journals | No comments A print anthology of web literature: makes me wonder how threatened print culture really is by the growing online publishing movement (it still is). It looks like a good way to survey some new online journals and see some great work (I hope - it’s still in the mail). It’s hard to find a lot of journals, especially as the go up and shut down so frequently. I’d be happy to see a web version of this kind of thing online for free. Maybe I’ll do something like that myself over the next year. Labor of love. |