s k y p i l l a r

fun scribble

2010-10-30T19:22:00.001-07:00

linked from Scholars and Rogues:a visual essay from this British person who has appeared in other blogs.http://www.scholarsandrogues.com/2010/10/29/education-shifting-paradigms/

complex

2010-10-27T11:01:00.000-07:00

With an emphasis on the first syllable, not the latter as it may denote then a labyrinthine incongruity, or to split the emphatic in two, then ascribing to a subject an inner conflict or condition not appropriately expressing itself - in the eyes of a 'majority.'

two 'sheng' galleries

2010-10-19T11:17:00.000-07:00

EDIT: technically, the word 'shen' usually translates as 'spirit', but sometimes as 'God'http://www.shensgallery.comhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Susana_Field_Laboratory'ling:'http://www.reiki.net.au/pdf/LingL.pdfhttps://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1794/5582/Pound_era_by_hugh_kenner.pdf?sequence=1...They say, among the many things they say, that some thousandyears before

louis

2010-09-26T20:38:00.000-07:00

http://dangutstein.blogspot.com/2010/09/am-pluto-waterly-yours.htmlMore clever banter from the blog of Dan Gutstein. Why can't we have a Louis making music today? Or if there is a Louis, I don't know where he is.

iawtm

2010-09-25T17:38:00.000-07:00

i agree with this mostly

prescott AZ

2010-08-19T13:17:00.001-07:00

while driving north in search of trees we happen to arrive upon the lovely town of prescott arizona where all able beings coalesce midday upon half a dozen or so clean and spacious central streets along with tourists such as ourselves given to occasional snacking or random photography of local events like period reenactment of ok corral in tombstone itself much further south by the way with men

Jacket 40

2010-08-18T13:47:00.001-07:00

My review of Aaron Belz' new book, Lovely, Raspberry, is now available for viewing in Jacket, issue 40.http://jacketmagazine.com/40/r-belz-rb-belcher.shtmlSpecial thanks to John Tranter, and also Aaron Belz!His blog, if you haven't seen it before, is here:http://www.belz.net

The Center of the Room

2010-06-08T12:30:00.001-07:00

or, more of the kind of behavior I'd prefer to see:Directions:Thank someone for being that one. Then, while singing a song, walk with that one to the center of the room and back again. Burn something.-Senecafrom Shaking the Pumpkin, Traditional Poetry of the Indian North Americasedited with commentaries by Jerome Rothenberg, 1972.

Both art and history

2010-05-09T20:27:00.000-07:00

Nero Magazinehttp://www.neromagazine.it/n/Art, photos and journalism from Italy. Both in Italian and English. The way the photos give you something to look at in the span of time it takes to load the next one, it gives the magazine a sense of velocity.Also interesting is the conversation with Alighiero e Boetti, of whom I really know nothing.Linguistic study can be valuable, I suppose, if it can

light as element in construction

2010-04-22T12:17:00.000-07:00

"In the Bay Area, the light, despite and even in the fog, is bright, strong and bounded; it separates and maintains objects, as if it were the source of their discreteness and their finitude, and makes the contrast between an object and its shadow definite and resolute. Meanwhile in Leningrad light and object merge; everything lifts in the light, drifts, is transformed, returns. The light comes

Beckett

2010-04-15T23:01:00.000-07:00

http://poemsandpoetics.blogspot.com/2010/04/christine-wertheim-infestation-of.html I didn't know people still had an interest in Beckett. Though Beckett didn't like Eliot, I find him and Eliot about equally boring. With both of them, the criticism on them has stepped in front of the writing, with the result being that you no longer have to read their work to get an understanding of what they're

right now, I love Rabbit Velvet

2010-04-12T23:13:00.001-07:00

http://www.scholarsandrogues.com/2010/04/10/saturday-video-roundup-rabbit-velvet/I often enjoy the Video Roundup selection from Scholars and Rogues.Just kidding about George Clinton. Well, kind of.

in the beginning

2010-03-25T22:39:00.000-07:00

was the snake, and the snake was with God and the snake was God.http://poemsandpoetics.blogspot.com/2010/03/christine-wertheim-infestation-of.htmlhmmm

preferred furniture

2010-02-22T23:17:00.000-08:00

Now that Ched has moved to Flagstaff, all is much quieter around the house. More time for reading and stuff.For example, Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen. I find her style very soothing. Maybe I will quote passages from it here shortly. Also digitizing some old documents, time-intensive project. Trying to ascertain if a certain influence was positive or negative. No one you would know.

suitable reminder

2010-02-20T17:29:00.000-08:00

about separation of church and state, founding fathers, indians..from the blog of "J"http://contingenciesblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/fundies.html

Interesting spin on Eliot

2010-02-01T20:26:00.000-08:00

by Vanessa Place at Les Figues http://lesfigues.blogspot.com/

dinotopia

2010-01-15T18:07:00.000-08:00

by James Gurney. Not a fan of fantasy generally, but this is endearing.Man and beast together in harmony. Colorful. And who hasn't thought - why aren't there more public statues or sculptures?http://www.dinotopia.com

Valis

2009-12-23T17:30:00.000-08:00

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/entertainment/books/20091122_Philip_K__Dick_s_deconstruction_of_madness.htmlI'm less interested in PKD than I was once, but still interested enough to wish to maintain an interpretation of his work that may actually serve it, or the fans.First of all, the book is not about madness, drugs and death. Valis is about gnosticism, religious experience, and grieving.

powderpunk

2009-11-06T18:36:00.001-08:00

indians. frontier. tea. taxes. revolution. laws. punishment. capital punishment. ben franklin. inventions. original sin. deism. chattels. status. slaves. gunpowder. powder.powdered wigs. portraits. empathy. monarchy. rights of man. tight clothing. individualism. novels. autonomy. salons. agriculture. ocean exploration. debt. scurvy. sugar. trade. louis xvi. monarchy. hessians. kant. self-evidence

California story

2009-10-31T13:19:00.000-07:00

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1931582,00.htmlIt's good to see an optimistic article about the economy of California. Trouble is, these are all nascent industries (that are supposed to "lead the pack"). Any question I have of someone saying they are spearheading the future out there, or something similar is: are you hiring?How many jobs is the guy with the taco truck really

sometimes I'm boring

2009-10-15T23:26:00.001-07:00

and think of boring things, like brass:http://www.brass.org/and now, a brassy poem:does the brass of embodimentlead to the commodification of the brass?because brass continually rubs up against itthat is, the jumbo spring systemand if it does, what does that mean for the brassmen?removes shine and possibly lusterbecause brassism was already entuba-fiedtoday they avoid all doorknobs and

Baudelaire

2009-10-13T13:56:00.000-07:00

Baudelaire, today:"Correspondences"In Nature's temple living pillars rise,and words are murmured none have understoodand man must wander through a tangled woodof Symbols watching him with friendly eyes.As long-drawn echoes heard far off and dimmingle to one deep sound and fade away;vast as the night and brilliant as the daycolour and sound and perfume speak to himSome perfumes are as fragrant as

Responses

2009-09-17T23:15:00.001-07:00

don't fish the stick-ups. metaphors are one thing, upgrading one's software is another. open to discussions on practicality. on all levels. oh hai - didn't see you there. i'm here to tell you that in the future, there will be future. he's sleeping it off. this is the common response to problems. i can't because i have to take care of people even more selfish than me. when one is responsible with

Ingloriousness

2009-09-09T20:38:00.000-07:00

Didn't care for Tarantino's new movie, Inglourious Basterds. His shtick is just getting old - all the thoroughly-measured conversations, the lengthy dueling set-ups, the sullen yet determined femme fatales (was Uma Thurman busy?), and then punching the audience in the face. Then the soundtrack steps in to carry us through exterior scenes - ooo was that mariachi horns we just heard sound over the

On the Enjoyment of Unpleasant Places

2009-08-20T19:17:00.000-07:00

by Robert L. Stevenson.I happened to enjoy this essay, and the website, and did not find them at all unpleasant.http://essays.quotidiana.org/stevenson/enjoyment_of_unpleasant/

The World is Curved, by D. Smick

2009-08-09T19:55:00.000-07:00

http://fora.tv/2008/11/06/David_Smick_The_World_is_Curvedhttp://www.theworldiscurved.comA very interesting read for people who wish to examine the financial situation, and how it got that way. Most informative are the chapters that discuss the effects of Sarbanes-Oxley on New York and London, and of the Basel Standards in general.An excerpt from p. 34:"the world today is moving away from

good idea

2009-07-26T17:47:00.000-07:00

-more pronouns-yiou, thwe, etchttp://www.cipa.ulg.ac.be/intervalles4/21_duplessis.pdf

dictated by Time Magazine (monster vision)

2009-07-18T19:17:00.000-07:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090718/us_time/08599191151700All I need to write for Time Magazine is the ability to construct sentences such as this:Or was it something insidious and, perhaps, even carnivorous like the man-eating jello from the old Steve McQueen movie that inspired the Alaskan phenomenon's nickname?Yeah, MAY-BE, bro...

Les Fleurs du Mal

2009-06-27T18:32:00.001-07:00

Very much enjoying, this weekend, The Flowers of Evil by Baudelaire. Outstanding miniatures, far ahead of his time.

the moment before

2009-06-19T22:24:00.000-07:00

In theatre, you can choose to direct with something in mind called The Moment Before. This was developed as a "guidepost" out of the experience of the Broadway casting director Michael Shurtleff.His book Audition, first published in 1978, wherein he explains his theory of the guideposts, and for the purpose of this treatment his concept of The Moment Before:In the audition situation most actors

Out

2009-06-13T12:58:00.001-07:00

I've had to withdraw from the June production of theatrical fun at Lemon Grove, due to mostly casting and logistical problems. I'm still getting a minor credit.

Law

2009-06-04T20:24:00.001-07:00

Today I mistrust Agamben's writing also, because when I read it I have to reference the law, and when you reference the law you encounter things that divide. Its kind of like the problem with islamic sharia - when I look at differences in their law in comparison to ours I find things that are divisive, but if I look at arab architecture instead, now there's something I can work with in terms of

San Diego post

2009-06-01T18:54:00.000-07:00

Well, you can't beat the weather.

A Vampire is not an everyday occurrence

2009-05-31T20:42:00.000-07:00

http://www.metamute.org/en/content/uncommon_bestiaryInitially I had a lot of thoughts on this, but now just digesting it. Overall glad there is someone pursuing these topics. Enjoyable, but it strikes me as flawed in this regard: if we can't make the private sector safe for democracy, we likely cannot make democracy safe for the private sector. Lack of safety is the point, but how can you sell a

apocalypse mall

2009-05-27T19:27:00.001-07:00

the tendency, when confronted with bad news in every direction, to go shopping.

Readings

2009-05-23T19:13:00.001-07:00

In general lately I have been reading less poetry and more fiction and nonfiction. But I have read some works lately of Sharon Olds, d.a.levy and Clayton Eshleman. Also, in longer-form I've read some of Dostoevsky and Isak Dinesen. I read Harry, Revised by Mark Sarvas.

Disobedience

2009-05-18T20:53:00.001-07:00

by Alice Notleyhttp://epc.buffalo.edu/authors/notley/disob.htmlI like this a lot. Don't you know who you sound like? yeah I've heard that in many writers groups. It might be a resemblance to Grover C. Anderson maybe? Which is worse, that, or when someone says with just a glance: 'you don't sound like anyone I know and therefore I'm scared of you. are you a muslim or something?'

Japan revisited

2009-05-15T18:58:00.000-07:00

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/64917/robert-madsen-richard-katz/comparing-crisesIn which Madsen and Katz write on the economic situation and its parallels, or lack thereof. (in Foreign Affairs)

Feminism and writing

2009-05-15T18:57:00.000-07:00

Glad to see new thoughts on this (in various places)Here, mostly:http://delirioushem.blogspot.com/I don't have any conclusions to draw for now, other than that.

One Year and Thanks for the Readers

2009-05-08T17:37:00.000-07:00

Hello readers of skyplumber/pillar.I've noticed recently this blog has been in existence for over a year now and the profile has received just over 1,400 views. I want to thank my readership and let you know there is more in store for this next -fiscal so to speak- year of this blog. I especially want to thank the wish-to-remain anonymous individuals who sent me gifts and have encouraged me to

more on Sun Ra

2009-04-20T19:13:00.000-07:00

http://www.ethnomusic.ucla.edu/staff/martinelli/Sun%20Ra.htm

the rose

2009-04-17T16:47:00.000-07:00

hooray for roses, and Williams.http://ronsilliman.blogspot.com/2009/04/and-then-of-course-there-is-this-what.htmldon't you wish you could write like that? I do. This kind of thing inspires one to seek out new modes of expression. Someday I think I can do vaudeville and power chords until I'm blue in the face, but there is more.a rose is a rose is a rose is a rosethe yellow rose of texasode to a

Picasso's dream of Franco

2009-04-14T20:07:00.000-07:00

linked from Jerome Rothenberg:http://poemsandpoetics.blogspot.com/2009/04/picassos-dream-and-lie-of-franco-poem.html*nods*Also, I was reminded of this:Luke 11:24-36An Unclean Spirit Returns 24 “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ 25 And when he comes, he finds it swept and put

Spring & All

2009-04-03T18:54:00.001-07:00

oh yeah, thatI have in fact read some things out of Spring & All, just pieces of it, never the whole thing.And always liked this poem by Williams, which has been analyzed oodles of times.'poem'As the catClimbed overThe top of The jamclosetFirst the rightForefoot Carefully then the hindStepped downInto the pit ofThe emptyFlowerpot

Japan pt III

2009-04-01T17:48:00.000-07:00

how did they do it?banking laws relaxed, credit bubblekind of like nowwe don't have the duality in our culture that he mentions however, we have a plurality.http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1884815,00.html

Williams: edited on Sunday

2009-03-28T14:53:00.000-07:00

Once again considering the latest from Ron's fabulous blog:http://ronsilliman.blogspot.comThis time it is a passage from Williams, whose Spring and All I haven't read:(W)e are beginning to discover the truth that in great works of the imagination A CREATIVE FORCE IS SHOWN AT WORK MAKING OBJECTS WHICH ALONE COMPLETE SCIENCE AND ALLOW INTELLIGENCE TO SURVIVE or When in the condition of

Great Books meme

2009-03-17T18:59:00.000-07:00

Look at the list and put an 'x' after those you have read but didn't finish. Put a big X by those you read and finished.1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen ( x)2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien (x )3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte ( x )4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (x )5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (X)6 The Bible - ( X, yeah I've probably read every book at least once)7 Wuthering

CNBC has the story

2009-03-14T12:50:00.000-07:00

http://www.hulu.com/watch/54312/cnbc-originals-marijuana-inc#x-0,vepisode,1Not news to me. But I wonder if sometimes the state thinks its more cost-effective to just let everyone do their thing than to intervene with enforcement. Maybe they just look for spikes in activity then, which would conceivably be the same thing the renegades look for.Technology goes one way, the security system goes the

Stumble upon

2009-03-11T09:38:00.000-07:00

a terrific review of Peter Cole's Things on Which I've Stumbled, by Philip Metres.linked from Ron once again.http://gentlyread.wordpress.com/2009/03/01/toward-a-poetics-of-coexistence-a-review-of-peter-cole%25E2%2580%2599s-things-on-which-i%25E2%2580%2599ve-stumbled-by-philip-metres/

"Have secrets" - Michael Ventura

2009-03-08T20:55:00.000-07:00

right.

45 million Chinese quit the party

2009-03-07T11:04:00.000-08:00

http://www.ninecommentaries.com/

Tul

2009-03-04T09:24:00.000-08:00

this is funnyhttp://tul.com/

Anarchist and Detective

2009-02-20T01:02:00.000-08:00

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+anarchist+and+the+detective:+the+science+of+detection+and+the...-a0190150260links to a review of a lesser-known H.G. Wells story about an anarchist foiling a rational detective, pre-turn of the century, when it appears Wells and Conan Doyle had something of a rivalry going on. Usefully illustrates Wells' point about irrationality prevailing in a criminal

a recent dream

2009-02-16T20:45:00.000-08:00

in the Annandale Dream GazetteThanks to Lynn Behrendt!http://annandaledreamgazetteonline.blogspot.com/search/label/Douglas%20Belcher

Plays

2009-02-15T17:14:00.000-08:00

I have material in a theatrical show appearing in June, in the nearby city of Lemon Grove.2 comedy plays, 10-min plays, and I may also direct a one-act in this show, we'll see.This is a new theater, they don't have a website up yet, so for now I'll just link to the Lemon Grove City Hall website.more details to come

Big Sister is watching

2009-02-10T16:04:00.001-08:00

.This photo of Drew Barrymore done up to look like Marlene Dietrich is on the wall of the local Red Robin.

Agitprop

2009-02-08T08:19:00.000-08:00

An enjoyable reading last night in San Diego, featuring the highly-successful women of Les Figues Press. Standing room only.

hermeneutics

2009-02-05T19:55:00.000-08:00

Another link from HCP, hermeneutics and 'speculative grammar'http://henrycorbinproject.blogspot.com/2009/02/corbin-luther-heidegger-thomas-of.htmlwhew-wipes brow- a lot of names in there, many people I haven't read.I've often thought speculative grammar, just by itself, can give us ways to 'think around' the constraints that we may perceive to be binding or limiting us, or just because its funny

war against imagination, linked from HCP

2009-02-04T19:13:00.000-08:00

This is linked from the Henry Corbin Project:http://henrycorbinproject.blogspot.com/2009/02/war-against-imagination-and-battle-for.htmlI remember reading this DiPrima piece aloud at a reading in Oakland - 02 I think,and it got a mixed response. Part of the problem was that the event organizers, I learned later, were losing the warehouse where they were keeping everyones paintings, and where

Trees Matter

2009-01-27T21:51:00.001-08:00

reading again on Ron's the post on trees, the jacaranda poem of Mrs. Armentrouthttp://ronsilliman.blogspot.com/its a nice poem, yeah the trees make a difference in the creative culture too. I'm not sure how much - I wouldn't say the ideal San Diego person is 'beautiful, but not serious' isn't that more of the ideal L.A. person? Yep. But in L.A. there are palms everywhere. In L.A. then people are

Omnitopia & Borges

2009-01-26T21:42:00.001-08:00

from a reader emailthank you!(thinks to my-self: wondering how omnitopia can be thought of as narrative or non-narrative - the aleph as a "happening" or maybe more of a cosmological constant, or as just a shorthand for understanding a phenomenon, like the Nietzschean "abyss")http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/wooda/omninode/

End of History

2009-01-14T09:18:00.001-08:00

Still relevant? I think so.http://www.wesjones.com/eoh.htm

Donnie Darko

2009-01-12T10:14:00.001-08:00

This film was recommended to me by a relative, and I can after viewing it see why it has a cult following. It's a teen movie, but it's smart enough for adults; it's a paranormal science fiction piece, kind of a souped-up Twilight Zone. Jake Gyllenhaal performs the role of Donnie with considerable skill, there are also highly enjoyable performances from Drew Barrymore as an earnest English

On Poetics

2008-12-29T21:11:00.000-08:00

After some reflection, I have to conclude that not every exciting experience that occurs to us is suitable for poetic treatment. Some things are just beyond words to describe. I don't look at the process of writing very romantically, more so in the utilitarian sense. What right do I have to take the reader's time? some writer asked that of his own work. In the 90s I recall learning about '

caveat emporium

2008-12-18T10:02:00.000-08:00

Noticed I've had some exotic readers.I hope there's no author that feels maligned in any way by something I've written. I'm not vain enough to consider that what I write in my interest is also necessarily in the interest of the public, the blog is more for me than everyone 'out there' in other words.And I do like the rhetorical flair, because much of the world, and writing, is boring to me -

Review: Things on Which I've Stumbled

2008-12-01T00:26:00.000-08:00

Peter Cole's Things on Which I've Stumbled presents to the reader explorations of spiritual activity in the state in which this activity normally occupies the believer, which is of an individual learning how to embrace their own attributes of confusion and ambiguity. Reading these poems one not imagines in the author a sense of guilt, or penitence necessarily, instead something more akin to

post-coyote

2008-11-15T00:29:00.000-08:00

I like this idea. Re-reading some things that have appeared on Ron Silliman's train of knowledge.Sounds like it resonates with my experience of the last few years. Life post-2003 that is. Yes, there was life after entertainment. Hm..one can forget. Except that I'm not learning a foreign language currently, for shame.http://www.longhousepoetry.com/andrewschelling.html#anchor88739The term "

Shelley as or as not the author of Frankenstein

2008-11-14T18:36:00.000-08:00

http://chronicle.com/free/v55/i11/11b01201.htmlinked from Bill Ectric's bloghttp://billectric.wordpress.com/

transcend!

2008-11-05T20:51:00.001-08:00

EDIT: well I think this guy's rendition is cool. Whenever I've heard this piece the last 40 seconds are always varied, the pianist's personality seems to emerge at the end for some reason.

this is never finished

2008-11-03T07:37:00.000-08:00

Fascinating latest entry in the journal - Eyelight - by Richard Taylor of NZhttp://richardinfinitex.blogspot.com/subjects covered include: Strindberg, the Maoris, bears, creatures of the sea, the Gettsyburg Address, Ashbery

Happy Halloween

2008-10-31T10:30:00.000-07:00

I'll go ahead and add some commentary to this tambien:I love the direction of this, the choices they made with the angles, the music, the shadows. It works even if you watch it with the sound off or don't know Spanish. Having the antagonists - the mice - have no lines adds a good tension. When you're watching this at age 8 and see that ghost coming through the window it puts a chill through your

Zizek at Powell's in Oregon

2008-10-28T17:56:00.000-07:00

part 1 of 10, the rest of this is available adjacent to the clip that's here.Impressions/Feedback:minute 6: we live in a post-ideological era - no. Ideology matters more than ever. This would be like being in a relationship and someone says "now that we love each other, we don't have to discuss our feelings any more."min. 8: Culture Wars emphasize tolerance, and we have to move beyond a

"Returno-Tech" a dark rockabilly fantasy

2008-10-21T18:03:00.001-07:00

This time I'm directing in the Vaudeville Festival; this play was written by a local author. The ghost really is in the machine as an inventor brings a strange device to the studio of a local Home Shopping Channel. A slapstick, this play features a theme of invigorating human ceremony over the cold pall of technology, and then what happens after. We throw in some choreography and sound effects

The Boy Who Liked Me - a play

2008-10-07T09:13:00.001-07:00

This Friday and Saturday the North Park Vaudeville of San Diego will be producing a play that I wrote, The Boy Who Liked Me, along with 6 other short plays of various genre in conjunction with their annual North Park Playwright Festival.The festival began last weekend and runs through the 25th of October. Mostly there are comedies showing but also some relationship stories and political drama.

Poets Against War

2008-10-03T21:51:00.000-07:00

Ah, yes, I was in that too. Not in the shortened collection that came later, but I sent in a poem among the 22,000. Basically I was trying to write a Rage Against the Machine song, or at least enough lyrics to inspire one. I don't think you can find it by searching, you'd have to ask them directly. I've read it so many times it has no more effect, especially since the war happened anyway. If I

monologue notes

2008-09-25T15:18:00.000-07:00

http://www.monologueaudition.com/top_monologues.htm

85 billion needed to continue blogging!

2008-09-19T11:19:00.001-07:00

I suppose all of you are wondering why I've called you here today. Recent ennervations, permutations, palpitations and cosmosymphonic cyberlacerations have compelled the cyborg CEOs of this company, James Artorius Theobald Heavenski and the mysterious techno-guru known only as SeaPlumber - some of you may have cc'd him in an email recently - to scale back our Caribbean operations and dissolve the

checking in with Denise Levertov

2008-09-14T20:52:00.000-07:00

"Journeyings", by Denise LevertovMajestic insects buzz through the skybearing us pompously from love to love,grief to grief,expensively,motes in the gaze of that unblinking eye.Our threads of life are sewn into dark cloth,a sleeve that hangs down overa sinister wrist. All of us.It must be Time whose pale fingersdangle beneath the hem...Solemn filaments, our journeyingswind through the overcast.*

n plus one magazine

2008-09-11T18:50:00.000-07:00

This stirs some thoughts as I ruminate on 9/11.http://nplusonemag.com/over-my-dead-body

A party

2008-09-02T09:07:00.001-07:00

Wanted to note that I had a very enjoyable time at a party this Sunday, hosted by Mark Wallaceand Lorraine Graham. Also at this event: Michael Davidson the UCSD professor and co-author of Leningrad. Jerome Rothenberg was there, and his wife. Also Rae Armentrout - who doesn't have a blog to my knowledge but this link may suffice just to identify her, and her -friend? Chuck.How great to meet so

DNC

2008-08-28T10:58:00.001-07:00

check out coverage of the DNC at Scholars and Rogueshttp://www.scholarsandrogues.com

Shantaram

2008-08-25T15:29:00.001-07:00

Since this book has already been reviewed in several places, I'm going to dispense a bit with the bio that accompanies it in these reviews, which is also available on the website.http://www.shantaram.com/A few things about genre, instead: this is an adventure novel, one could even call it an epic. It's been described as "sprawling", "swashbuckling", "picaresque" and it is being made into a movie

Zizek pt III

2008-08-24T10:41:00.001-07:00

Something I've been troubled about regarding the philosophy of Zizek - how can we be 'imminent' and yet socialist at the same time? In his answer to Levinas, Zizek invokes Spinoza and writes that our presence is not at the expense of the world, but a full acceptance of being part of the world, 'my assertion of the wider reality within which I can only thrive.'But if we fully assert ourselves

The Moment Before

2008-08-21T11:28:00.000-07:00

In theater, you can choose to direct with something in mind called The Moment Before. This was developed as a "guidepost" out of the experience of the casting director Michael Shurtleff.In his book Audition, first published in 1978, wherein he explains his theory of the guideposts, he writes:In the audition situation most actors come onstage to read for a role with very little moment before. The

we'll have colored shirts

2008-08-19T09:40:00.000-07:00

but what color? :)

Border Disturbance (what I mean)

2008-08-14T21:55:00.000-07:00

(a non-comprehensive example)Gosh, their clothes are nice, but do I feel guilty shopping there? Is it just not indie enough?Well those rich models, they suck. But, I have a body like that. I can boogie. Hm. I like that technological music, but the black man, he doesn't need all that technology to be cool, does he?Launch myself into space, or outfit my benevolent local dominion?perplexing..

As for Poets by Gary Snyder

2008-08-13T10:27:00.000-07:00

*As for poetsThe Earth Poetswho write small poemsneed help from no man.*The Air Poetsplay out the swiftest galesand sometimes loll in the eddiespoem after poem,curling back on the same thrust.*At fifty belowFuel oil won't flowand propane stays in the tank.Fire PoetsBurn at Absolute ZeroFossil love pumped back up.*The firstWater Poetstayed down six years.He was covered with seaweed.The life in his

Vaudeville

2008-08-13T08:29:00.000-07:00

I have a short play appearing in this October's 10-minute play fest, at the North Park Vaudeville in San Diego. It's a comedy called The Boy Who Liked Me, and its about high school "love." Also, I'm directing a farce there as well, on another night. Should be great. If you're in the area, check it out.More later on the show, when things are a little further along.http://

Zone 9 - Critical Regionalism

2008-08-05T09:07:00.000-07:00

all out of the Constructivist Moment, by Barrett Watten:The discourses of the modern and postmodern call for a critical regionalism..p.339briefly, Zone 8, Detroit..." remains a moment of negativity to the postmodern fantasy built in Los Angeles...(there is) the tradition in postmodern critical theory that has tended to universalize Los Angeles as the site for the postmodern..."back to zone 9: "

Recommended - Havana Style

2008-07-31T13:51:00.000-07:00

The book is called Havana Style, by Christiane Reiter, edited by Angelika Taschen, published by Taschen Press. It is mostly vivid photography of Havana, Cuba, a place in the world that I have long been fascinated with. Not everything we read needs to knock our socks off with its progressiveness and grandeur. Sometimes you just need a good coffee-table book to help inspire conversation at a summer

The Dark Knight - movie review

2008-07-23T15:59:00.000-07:00

An enjoyable bit of entertainment. Worth seeing. A bit long. I was impressed with how chilling and forensic it was (more on that later) in comparison to the earlier films, and even Christian Bale's other performance in the role in Batman Begins. The direction was brisk and everyone seemed well-cast. What they did with Lt. Gordon was a surprise, and a very interesting choice.The film gets by with

Fascinating essay on Borges

2008-07-17T23:42:00.000-07:00

from a scholar and teacher:http://www.susanamedina.net/modules/articles/article.php?id=28And, excerpts:...in a talk called ‘My prose’, Borges referred to the Aleph as the transformation of the scholastic idea of eternity as an instant, into its spatial equivalent: ‘I had read in the theologians that eternity is not the sum of yesterday, today and tomorrow, but an instant, an infinite instant, in

The Zeez

2008-07-14T06:08:00.000-07:00

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3751/the_ambiguous_legacy_of_68/The Zeez, a contemporary philosopher I admire, always gives you something to chew on, allow me:In 1968 Paris, one of the best-known graffiti messages on the city’s walls was “Structures do not walk on the streets!” In other words, the massive student and workers demonstrations of ‘68 could not be explained in the terms of

Nabokov

2008-07-09T14:30:00.000-07:00

was on another level"poshlust"something for every writer, especially myself, to keep in mindhttp://www.theparisreview.com/viewinterview.php/prmMID/4310

Theatah

2008-07-08T18:51:00.000-07:00

This week - reading plays.An opportunity to direct in a local festival may soon present itself.Also, I submitted a play to the festival. But, no one's picked it yet. (I have hope - its kind of coarse, but still charming) What I'd like to do is a comedy or light romance. Details will come, if things pan out. The producer was impressed with my promptbook from a previous play. A good sign.

An article published

2008-06-26T16:01:00.001-07:00

in Scholars and Rogues today, with generous editorial assistance. Probably my favorite collaborative webzine going.A review of the media theory presented in The Anarchist in the Library. *link fixed*http://www.scholarsandrogues.com/2008/06/26/wordsday-the-anarchist-in-the-library/

Recommended Book

2008-06-18T21:36:00.000-07:00

Decided to include a 'recommended book' feature.This first time it will be The Misread City, edited by Scott Timberg and Dana Gioia, 2003.This book, as I mentioned below, was supposedly prompted by Dana Gioia's charge that California letters lacked critical support. What he and Mr. Timberg produced out of that imperative was this terrific series of essays on the literary life of the southland.

two poems that got my attention this week

2008-06-14T09:28:00.000-07:00

The Danger of Writing Defiant Verse by Dorothy ParkerAnd now I have another lad!No longer need you tellHow all my nights are slow and sadFor loving you too well.His ways are not your wicked ways,He's not the like of you.He treads his path of reckoned days,A sober man, and true.They'll never see him in the town,Another on his knee.He'd cut his laden orchards down,If that would pleasure me.He'd

the Dana Gioia correspondence

2008-06-11T18:07:00.000-07:00

This is from May of last year, thought I'd revisit it, in case anyone from this new neighborhood would be interested in the topic. I followed the "Fallen Western Star" debate in the Bay Area when it came out, as usual I seemed to wind up with the less popular view that criticism matters. If there's any point we can take from the career of Dana Gioia, that would be it, I think. The other side

Note on Previous Publications

2008-06-07T18:33:00.001-07:00

I realize that the links to my work are, in most cases, expired or not directly referential. This is because most of my publications are from 1999- 2001. From 03-06 I mostly blogged, some of that material I still have, but some has been lost to the sands of Time. Within the boundary of the Mediterranean Scrub of Time are some of this earlier material.In order of appearance, then, a note