LRSN animated ringer here . . .

On airplane home from Tucson this weekend, Brenda Hillman's Pieces of Air in the Epic. It has some black pages with white type!

And Tom Henighan, "Shamans, Tribes, and the Sorcerer's Apprentices: Notes on the Discovery of the Primitive of Modern Poetry."

Last week read 2x Joshua Clover's the Totality for Kids. Wanted to ask a question about names and urban space and who is allowed into the book and why. More on this book later.

The assignment was to do some art about something bought on March 1, 2006.


MARCH 1, 2006, an attempt at a partial accounting

75 mcg synthroid
.29 (actual cost; ingested but not bought on March 1)

4 500 milligrams of amoxicilline
.90 (actual cost; ingested but not bought on March 1)

1 multivitamin
.15 (actual cost; ingested but not bought on March 1)

2 500 milligram tablets of vitamin C
.11 (actual cost; ingested but not bought on March 1)

400 iu of vitamin E
.07 (actual cost; ingested but not bought on March 1)

1 slice bacon
.14 (actual cost; ingested but not bought on March 1)

2 eggs, organic
.81 (actual cost; ingested but not bought on March 1)

two tablespoons leftover red sauce
$1.50 (estimated cost; produced for dinner on February 28)

two cups of tea
.40 (estimated cost; ingested but not bought on March 1)

several glasses of tap water
unable to estimate

2 0z of vinegar potato chips
$1.19 (bought and ingested on March 1; Mills College tea shop)

two small servings of sour cream
.50 (bought and ingested on March 1; Mills College tea shop)

1 slice of bread with some sort of vegetable dip
unable to estimate (came with the meal; Ristorante Raphael; 2132 Center Street)

Melenzane alla Parmigiana (eggplant, mozzarella, tomato sauce, parmigian)
$14.95 (bought and ingested on March 1; Ristorante Raphael; 2132 Center Street)

one third bottle of red wine
$9.17 (bought and ingested on March 1; Ristorante Raphael; 2132 Center Street)

tip
$5 (Ristorante Raphael; 2132 Center Street)

1 glass of red wine
$2 (estimated; ingested but not bought on March 1)

electricity
.40 (estimated; based on daily usage for the month and divided by 3 people who live in house)

gas
.87 (estimated; based on daily usage for the month and divided by 3 people who live in house)

mortgage payment and taxes
$46.27 (divided by 3 people who live in house)

drove car 8.34 miles, used about 1/4 gallon of gas
.65 (estimated; used but not bought on March 1)

total partial costs for March 1: $85.37
(and yes, this does exceed my current daily take home)

unable to estimate:
cost of use of computer for 12 hours
cost of use of house and household appliances
cost of water for drinking and cleaning
cost of cleaning supplies, soaps, toothpaste
cost of use of car
(I’m not including costs of roads, governments, etc., all of which I used this day also.)

The highlight of seeing V was the preview for A Scanner Darkly.
I laugh whenever I see Robert Downey Jr.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405296/

Anne is right about all those problems.
I also wondered why they couldn't resist
dressing up princess amygdala
as a little baby kitty . . .

gi joe videos for your imperial cell phone

green is my favorite color.
happy st patrick's day

Jen Scappettone, "Piu mOndo i: / tUtti!": Traffics of Historicism in Contemporary Lyricism." It was on the internet at one point but no more. Generous reading of MacLow's Words nd Ends from Ez. Very helpful for getting my brain around this book.

I attempt to use the word "beef" in a poem.

Cowgirls like it.




a Salt Lick is something
where all the animals congregate.
There is something good,
something essential about it.



Lake-mex & road kill.




Alambres a la Parrilla
Tender cuts of beef steak marinated in beer and spices;
grilled and served
with rice, frijoles
and flour tortillas.
$13.95

The spices include pineapple
I think. Be a naughty
lizard.

Compulsively reading EBMUD's (I love that there is no author but the state) Plants and Landscapes for Summer Dry Gardens and Heidi Gildemeister's Mediterranean Gardening: a Waterwise Approach. Bought the last along with 11 other books, all lay studies of plants and land use, from U of California's sale. My favorite so far has been Experience the California Coast: A Guide to Beaches and Parks in Northern California. Again, no author but the "California Costal Commission." Over breakfast I've been reading Bird Brains: The Intelligence of Crows, Ravens, Magpies, and Jays by Candace Savage, also bought from the sale, which assures that the birds are very intelligent. Perfect for reading over yogurt and tea.

Then for fun, rereading Gertrude Stein's "What is English Literature?" Realized my copy has notes from undergraduate, when I wrote with fountain pen. And then another layer in red ballpoint from some time in graduate school. Then I added another now in blue rolling ball. My copy no longer has spine.

Is the island life what gets called "Empire" in the academy at turn of twentieth century?

"As the time went on to the end of the nineteenth century and Victoria was over and the Boer war it began to be a little different in England. The daily island life was less daily and the owning everything outside was less owning, and, this should be remembered, there were a great many writing but the writing was not so good." (46)

Meow.

Today U Sam Oeur reading at Berkeley. I have been wanting to see him read for ages. The reading was organized by Southeast Asian studies Department. So was on the 6th floor of a building outside the gates of the university that had huge banner that said "buy Cal tickets here." (I love a big metaphor.) The room was more or less empty. Of those there, half were older white people and the other half were young Southeast Asian majors who were not white. The demographics of the room reminded me so much of Hawai'i. U Sam Oeur read from his new memoir. And talked some about Whitman, which he has been translating into Khmer (he said he came to US to learn about free verse and to take it back to Cambodia...wanted to poke at this more because I'm interested in what US MFA scene will do to the writing of other nations but did not want to take up all the question time). Memoir seems strong and will read it soon. There was a sort of poet in New York passage and then a passage about dealing with his twin girls being killed by the Khmer Rouge. Really felt the extremes of situation. I was also struck by the little poetry that he read. Left the reading wondering about nationalism and poetry, wondering about the limits of the social dimenions of poetry. Which are sometimes really wonderful (60 people showing up to see local poet with no book and few publications just on strength of friendship) and really sad (no recognizable to me Bay Area poets showing up to see U Sam Oeur; at the Ernesto Cardenal reading earlier in the year, although it was packed unlike this reading, again the only other recognizable Bay Area poet was the friend that I met at the reading).

debbie the bloop

Reread Nationalism, Colonialism, and Literature, the Terry Eagleton, Fredric Jameson, and Edward Said book from the early 90s. Actually skipped the Eagleton.

Then Robert Kaufman's "Lyric Constellation, Poetry's Radical Privilege." His new work on Duncan.

Then last night and today, Christopher Miller's Blank Darkness: Africanist Discourse in French. Skipped last half of first chapter. But chapter on Rimbaud was super helpful.

Decent article by Michael Clune on Kevin Davies work in recent issue of No. Kevin Davies might be the poet of his "age" who has received the most academic attention so far. Which surprises me. Who knew his work would fit so well with high theory (most of the time he gets referenced with Adorno; this one begins with Davies quote and then Heidegger quote). But I think it might mean something hopeful about the academy. Clune has a really small argument about Jameson's response to Perelman in this piece. It is interesting. I have a memory of someone telling me years ago that they were doing an anthology of all the places where poets respond to these few paragraphs of Jameson's but now realize I have never seen this book.

fucking bloggers. notice the bunching and indecision.

why can't they just git along?

got drafted by the yankees.
this will upset douglass,
who hates
in order of increasing valence
language poets
shakespeare
and the yankees.
go mets.