pre-devils
All posts by eachnee
dear “i-can-see-a-parking-space” lady
the sign in front of the parking lot says: Parking Lot Full, but you don’t want to believe the sign.
so you find a choice parking space right across the street from the lot.
thanks for a great afternoon.
anyone for pooh sticks
“First you have to find a bridge overlooking water. Then each person gets a stick.” X Lime opened her hand and pointed near her wrist. “Everyone stands here, on one side, the upcurrent side of the river. Then they drop their sticks at the same time, into the water, and run to the other side to see whose stick comes out first.” X Lime moved her finger across her palm and wiggled the fingers of the open hand. “That’s how it’s supposed to work. My sticks tend to sink.
If the thumb of the right hand points in the direction of meaning, the fingers will curl in the direction of the circular lines of its manifestations…”
[from the novel A Drink With Clarity More]
chip quotes
just when there’s nothing left to say…
praise blippo bold in corel draw
thanks, aaron draplin, for a good ride. keep up the great work.
spring helix
“don’t get the straight ones. they have something wrong with them.”
basic animalism
semiotics 101
in case you weren’t sure:
topologies
my fellow watch-the-floppy-disk-fall-into-obsolescence writer Ander Monson writes often about literary topologies, which is sometimes vaguely described as the science of place. i think a better definition is the study of place over form. Monson says topology is “about electricity or water or anything that flows equally throughout a form, that moves through channels.” in other words (i think) it’s the study of looking at form as if you were water. “Place” then, is not the exact shape of something, rather the way something is put together. for example, (from wikipedia), a circle and a square can be seen as the same thing, they are both one dimensional, and both separate the plane into two parts, the inside and the outside. in a similar way, a coffee cup can easily be confused for a donut.
here, though, is an example of form over form.
dear LACMA
when the financial crisis became real late last year a poet friend of mine said to me: when the economy is booming, poets get the short shrift, and now that the economy has tanked, you wouldn’t think poets could get treated any worse…
but tonight’s reading at LACMA was proof of just how low it can go. first of all, LACMA scheduled a poetry reading to be part of a huge party. second, they put the reading in the middle of an enormous gallery space where hundreds of people (there for the beer and grilled sausages, and possibly the art) would be passing through. third, there was no mike for the first half hour—not that the mike was broken, or that there were technical difficulties, but LACMA scheduled a poetry reading without even considering the need for one.
in the meantime, LACMA’s PR staff were photographing and recording the event with great intensity. then, at exactly 10:48, in poet-mid-sentence, the videographer walked up to the podium and yanked her microphone out, packed up and left. “gotta go!”
so here’s Amy Gerstler trying to “go back to her cheerleading days” and scream some poetry at the crowd. (sated sausage eaters/Kiefer admirers in the background).
below is LACMA staff doing what it takes.
by the end of the evening, August Kleinzahler reads marvelous poetry to no one. “very John Cage” is how he will remember this evening.
ps. the sausages, especially the horseradish mustard, were very good.