the mail

i hate daylight savings time. what sadist thought this up anyway? no, don't tell me, i already know. but losing an hour sucks hard. i shouldn't complain. tonight was absolutely lovely. proserpina stuck her head out and granted the trees to begin to bloom. it's warmish now, warm enough for t-shirts and shorts during daytime. the walk home was a pleasure tonight. tho i hate losing an hour having the dusk settle around 7:30 pm or so was nice. i swear people were singing in the streets.

so my mood was mighty elevated by the time i walked thru the door. it rose higher when i saw two packages waiting for me. now, i feel i've been remiss in not writing about some good things i've received in the mail lately. sure this is now a virtual, digital world but the joy of the physical object cannot be over-emphasized.

speaking of our virtual world i see our local blockbuster video store is closing up shop. i'm not one to lament the demise of a mega-conglomerate but it is the only video rental shop in downtown/midtown, and it is only two blocks from my house. isn't it ironic that the huge retailers, blockbuster and hollywood video, that made mom and pop video stores go belly-up are now floundering in this our digital age. i'd laugh but i like going to a brick and mortar store and pulling things off the shelves. and i really miss the old tower records/books/video. i really miss the old tower.

all the same, i've gotten some good shit recently. portland-based poet james yeary sent a couple of his daybooks a couple weeks ago. yeary does the text and artist nate orton does the ink. yeary wowed me when i read his text the most recent otoliths. fascinating work and i'll do a proper review soon.

also jim mccrary's got a new chap out. this is serious don't miss shit, m ental tekst. i've read it three times now and i'll also want to write a bit about it in the very close future. mccrary fucking rocks, no doubt about it and this is high-quality meta-critical post-lyric writing. go to his blog, you can find it at the bottom of my links, and leave comments asking for copies. now.

and today i received gina myer's book a model year that i've been wanting to read now for some time. myer's is a very gifted writer and i look forward to digging in to her poems.

in the mail also was two chaps from kevin opstedal's blue press, hecho en venice by opstedal, published on occassion of a recent reading he did in venice at beyond baroque with duncan mcnaughton, and poaching the king's pussy in the dover wood by mcnaughton. these are short chaps that i read while nicholas was in the bath tonight and were just what i needed to clear the clutter from my frazzled brainpan. both opstedal and mcnaughton are as clever and as naughty as two veteran bluesmen hanging out in an after-hours club. in other words, this shit is good.

to get back into the habit of writing i've begun a series of daily poems called BLAST that were meant to be exercises in minimalism but have taken a life of their own as i explore rather loosely the proserpina myth. how she entered the texts i don't know but she is welcome to stay as long as she likes and i hope that these shall become my next chap.

i've been punched in the gut re: last month but feel like i'm learning to breath again. i feel i've dropped the ball and there is a writing assignment i need to finish for a collection of poems that i'll make public when i am done. not that i mean to sound cryptic only that this is not my collection of poetry and i don't know if the publication of the book has been publicly announced. so hang on, sloopy, okay.

finally, last saturday night at the drive-in i saw what i thought an enigmatic poster for a flick called hit-girl. looked like some superhero pic, and it is, but the movie is a twist on the genre where an ordinary kid becomes a superhero by willing himself to become one. the tag-line on the poster and the movie goes like this, i can't see thru walls but i can kick your ass. the movie is not called hit-girl, she is a 13-year-old superhero who along with her father, played by nicolas cage, does kick some serious ass, but is titled kick-ass and is based on a series of comic books about a boy who becomes a superhero. looks goddamned hilarious. the girl has one seriously foul mouth. i'm looking forward to seeing this. i've watched the trailers several times now. check out the red band trailer [you might have to log in or create a user account to watch]: