vectoring

2008 was a suck-ass year but it also was at times very good. some of the very good things is hanging with geof huth last summer and publishing a new chap. i'm not much for summing up things tho but i have a conceit. that conceit would be that time is not linear but rather fluid. the human species necessity for classifications is what signifies one year from the next. but we can call the years anything. anything at all. and my conception of time, refracted thru my own limitations as a man, likes to round things off. my experience with time is quite different. i live in a continuous present. i can look forward to the future and remember the past but the days i occupy, live and think in is the right now.

but that doesn't mean i can't think and plan. i've been a homebuddy for some time now. i've not traveled much at all. i've been thinking of travel recently and how i'd like to do a bit more in the new year. my sense of geography is rather skewed and i can't vector worth a damn but let me take now an imaginary journey. i'll hop in my honda pilot, put it in drive and see where it'll take me. since money and time off work is no consideration and also i can drive my car over the atlantic i want this journey to be a visit with that lot of you. why not. so here goes:

first i drive east and head toward new mexico where i'd pull up in front of alex gildzen's house and surprise him with a set of the thin man dvds because i think william powell is hilarious and myrna loy such a babe. we'll sit and watch a couple of the flicks then have a long leisurely lunch filled with talk of poetry, stars and movies.

then after a long lovely visit i get back into the pilot and head further east, up north a bit to michigan where i'd find gina myers in saginaw. we'd drink a bunch of beers, compare notes of the world of poetry and poets, show off tattoos and talk of our shared love of cult cinema.

i'd stick in michigan where i drive to grand rapids to visit with my good friend robert vander molen. this visit might take longer as i'd suspect bob would like to show me his cabin in the upper peninsula where we'd sit by lamplight, he drinking beer and whisky and me drinking beers, and the discussions will meander everywhere.

after that i head down south a bit and backtrack[i'm not looking at a map so i'm not sure how close saginaw is to grand rapids and so on. this however is an imaginary trip, so sticklers of geo accuracy, calm down] to ohio. specifically kent where i surprise tom beckett just as he is leaving his office after a long day at work. we have so much to catch up on. poetry, comedy, the text of sex and vice versa. tom is one helluva a storyteller and i think i might've broken a rib from all the laughter.

however, i recover and move toward kansas and find jim mccrary's house. mccrary might be a bit tired after working but he perks up and takes me on a tour of his beloved lawrence. he shows me where he used to trip on lsd and where he drove a cab way back when. he shows me william burrough's house. and he shows me the places where filmmaker herk harvey filmed his classic carnival of lost souls. we end our visit over beers and reading our poems together.

then i move to ny where i meet up with steve caratzas. i'm overjoyed with this visit as steve and i think are like two peas. he shows me around nyc, a place i've never been before, and times square which is so cleaned up and respectable i am rather disgusted. conversations, laughter, music and poetry meld into one.

then i stay in ny and head north to visit steve tills who simply dazzles me with his erudition and his passion.

then i move to schenactady where i see geof huth and we pick up where we left off.

then it's up north toward toronto to visit daniel f bradley and his family. daniel and i are nearly the same age and are fathers to children who are also nearly the same age. we also share a love of punk and exploitation movies. he shows me around the toronto scene and we talk about movies and life and our dayjobs and poetry and our children.

then i head south again to philadelphia to hang with the bros. eckes, ryan and brandon. ryan introduces me to the philly crowd, esp. caconrad who again have me laughing so hard i have to go the emergency room.

then it's off across the atlantic. that's right i can drive across the atlantic in my pilot. i drive to london to meet ernesto priego. i've called ernesto already so he expects my visit. we have so much to talk about but we round out the visit by going to his favorite tattoo shop where i get a new tat on my lower left arm cuz i simply couldn't help it.

then i drive north to sweden. i find lars palm who doesn't know me but i introduce myself. we have similar interests in music and poetry and i think we hit it off.

and because kevin thurston is living and teaching in korea i drive to his flat. again, kevin has me rolling on the floor in laughter as he describes his work and life in korea. we talk about poets and poetry, music and movies. he dares me to eat some very hot kim chee which i decline.

afterward i head way down south to australia, rockhampton really, and visit with mark young who drives me around and i tell him rockhampton really is no worse or better than rancho cordova, a city that is really a suburb of sac.

then i find derek motion and together we seek out michael farrell. we might even give a joint reading.

then back towards the atlantic and i drive across canada toward vancouver so i can hang with billy little. i've never met little but i read what i can of little and his blog and share an affinity with his humor and his attitudes, as such as i understand them, toward poetry and publishing and the role of the poet in general.

then i head to seattle and hang with mickey o'connor.

and it's back to my beloved california where i round out my visit driving to castroville to see jean vengua, then on to st. helena to visit with the divine ms eileen tabios, then over to sf where there are so many writers to see, esp. my soul brother jonathan hayes, as well as logan ryan smith, david larsen and kevin killian.

and that is the first jag of my imaginary journey of 2009 as i know in my tiredness i left a few people out and frankly i'd kick my own ass for missing them.

until the next jaunt. happy new year.