CruelestMonth.com

Check my hilarious comment on the post below. Geez, you never know what will pop up next on the Cruelest Month. Hahahaha. Yes, I'll most likely be deleting this tomorrow morning at work. Though, I still urge you, throbbingly, to check out Mr. Beller's Neighborhood. (As I've mentioned before, links are no go-gos on my girlfriend's antique Mac, so bushwask the internet.) Maybe I won't delete this post. Time and sobriety will tell. Just kidding. I've honored my employment with a vow of ingestive chastity (nefarious substances being metaphorically equivalent to sexual activity). So I'm drive-mom-to-church sober. Nothing to see here. See you tomorrow.

Bryan Charles & co.

In case we haven't provided enough events for you to attend, Open City Books and KGB Bar will celebrate the sixth anniversary of Mr. Beller's Neighborhood tonight at KGB, 7pm.  Bryan Charles, author of Grab On to Me Tightly as if I Knew the Way, will read along with Greg Purcell and Rachel Sherman.

An excerpt from Grab:

Now I want everyone. The counter girl, I want her too. She's got the uniform. How I love a gal in uniform. Polyester on ass, the black, orthopedic-looking shoes, the tight button-up with stripes and a name tag. Teena. Teena peeks up from under her visor. She's maybe five feet tall or less. Yes Teena, climb me like a redwood, commence humping. She slides the tray over. Two Whoppers and a cup for water.

Summer's almost here and we're on our way to unbearable heat and serious stench in New York.  The lucky will flee to woods and water, but if, like me, you're not going anywhere, the first whiffs of hot trash herald an entire season of obscene perspiration and insufferable stickiness.   But have no fear--there is plenty to do in the city that requires little to no physical exertion, and will take your mind far beyond the confines of this concrete oven.  Check out these readings by Harper authors for the month of June (no poets, but we could all use a change of pace now and then).

June NYC Events for Our Authors

Thursday, June 1 - 7:30 PM - Full of Grace, Dorthea Benton Frank - B&N (Springfield, NJ)

Friday, June 2, 7:00 PM - The Pursuit of Happyness, Chris Gardner - B&N (Lincoln Center)

Friday, June 2, 7:30 PM - Full of Grace, Dorthea Benton Frank - Watchung Booksellers (Montclair, NJ)

Saturday, June 3, 11:00 AM - Keep It Seasonal, Annie Wayte - B&N (Union Square)

Saturday, June 3, 12:00 PM - Play, Mozart, Play, Peter Sis - Books of Wonder (18 West 18th Street)

Monday, June 5, 7:00 PM - But Enough About Me, Jancee Dunn - B&N (Astor Place)

Tuesday, June 6, 7:00 PM - Good Fight, Peter Beinart - Strand Bookstore (828 Broadway)

Tuesday, June 6, 7:00 PM  - Dispatches from the Edge, Anderson Cooper - B&N (Union Square)

Tuesday, June 6, 7:00 PM  - FUBAR, Sam Seder and Stephen Sherrill - B&N (Chelsea)

Wednesday, June 7, 12:30 PM - Freakonomics Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner - B&N (Citicorp)

Wednesday, June 7, 6:30 PM - Cooking from the Heart of Spain, Janet Mendel - NY Culinary Historians

Thursday, June 8, 12:00 PM - Cooking from the Heart of Spain, Janet Mendel  - 92nd Street Y

Saturday, June 10, 11:00 AM - Oscar, Amy Schwartz - B&N (East 86th St. and 2nd Ave.)

Saturday, June 10, 2:00 PM - Hot Italian Dish, Victoria Gotti - Borders (Syosset)

Tuesday, June 13, 7:00 PM - Revolution Will Be Accessorized, Aaron Hicklin - McNally Robinson (52 Prince St.)

Tuesday, June 13, 8:00 PM - But Enough About Me, Jancee Dunn - Borders (Ramsey, NJ)

Wednesday, June 14, 7:30 PM - Dizzy, Donald L. Maggin, 92nd Street Y

Thursday, June 15, 8:00 AM - Overcoming Underearning, Barbara Stanny - B&N Business Breakfast (555 Fifth Ave.)

Thursday, June 15, 6:00 PM - Challenging Nature, Lee M. Silver - NY Academy of Sciences (2 East 63rd St.)

Thursday, June 15, 7:00 PM - Leeway Cottage, Beth Gutcheon - B&N (Freehold, NJ)

Monday, June 19, 6:30 PM - Overcoming Underearning, Barbara Stanny - Gotham Hall (1356 Broadway)

Tuesday, June 20, 7:00 PM - Pale Blue Eyes, Louis Bayard - B&N (Village)

Thursday, June 22, 8:30 AM - Dispatches From the Edge, Anderson Cooper - Bergdorf's

Monday, June 26, 8:15 PM - Original Zinn, Howard Zinn - 92nd Street Y

Wednesday, June 28, 12:30 PM - No Good Deeds, Laura Lipman - Bryant Park Word for Word Series

Wednesday, June 28, 6:30 PM - No Good Deeds, Laura Lipman - Black Orchid (303 East 81st St.)

Thursday, June 29, 7:30 PM - FUBAR, Sam Seder - Strand Bookstore (828 Broadway)

Some Quick Links

The Times has an article on the website QuickMuse--where poems are forged before your very eyes.  The site's editor, Ken Gordon, explains the philosophy behind the site in an essay in Poets & Writers.  "Maybe there just isn't a good place for spontaneous expression and our nation's supreme literary talent to meet. What would such a place be like, one where the very best writers could see if their first thoughts truly were their best thoughts?"  Hit the playback option to see how the poems were written in real time. 

The inexhaustible Jeffery Yamaguchi of 52Projects.com has Simple Things You Can Do Right Now to Jumpstart Your Writing Efforts

Sentence #3 Now Available!(via Chekhov's Mistress)

Summer Fridays!

What's there to blather on about?  Dunno.  Of the sixteen robed nazgul that comrpise my supervisory body, none are today present.  They're out lurking in the mists, I suppose.  Today is the first "summer Friday," which means we get out of work at 12:45.  Yes, you heard right.  Before I head to the Xerox machine for some creative copying, let's share.

Robert Bly's latest book of poetry (and second book of what he calls "American" ghazals), My Sentence Was A Thousand Years Of Joy, is now in paperback.  In fact, I'm looking at a copy right now, and can assure you, firsthand, that it is indeed in paperback.  This book includes the already famous poem against the Iraq War, "Call and Answer": "Tell me why it is we don't lift our voices these days / And cry over what is happening."  Make the effort.

I'm reading Arthur Rimbaud's Illuminations translated by Louise Varese (New Directions 1957).  When reading for the first time a work by a poet who's every mention is accompanied by statements like the following--"the most astonishing of French geniuses," "creator of free verse," "one of the greatest poets who ever lived"--there exists a pressure to "get it."  It's like when you've got your hand stuck in a jar (third time in a week) and no matter how hard clench your fist and try to yank it out, the mouth of the jar just won't let go.  Only when you relax, unclench your fist, and lube the brim with some butter, is your hand released from the hollow prison of the jar.  Well, maybe it's not exactly like that, but only after relieving myself of the "get it" pressure, were the subtleties of Rimbaud's poems apparent.

Yikes! I gotta get back to work.

Mary Doty, Jane Hirshfield, and others remember Stanley Kunitz.  "Friends and fellow poets pay tribute to former U.S. poet laureate Stanley Kunitz, who died at the age of 100." (via poetryfoundation.org)

In recognition of Fleet Week, here's a favorite poem translated from the Old English by a favorite poet--The Seafarer by Ezra Pound

PoetryFoundation.org has a dispatch from Camille Paglia's reading “Poetry, Politics, and Popular Culture.”  Heckling contained therein.  (via Chekhov's Mistress)

Just finished In Persuasion Nation by George Saunders.  I whizzed through it but remember mostly everything.  What a book!  The stories are so varied and weird and awesome and funny.  Truth is there, hucking infants onto roofs and chasing after giant Twinkies.  I can't pick a favorite story yet, though, "CommComm" kind of glides above the rest (being the concluding story that kind of makes sense).  If you've already read the book or consider my advice garbage, do or at least check out the book's website.  It's got everything--info on the book, author, events; downloads; a photo challenge; proper punctuation; etc--though, the newsletter and buy the book options seem contrary to the point of his stories.  Maybe they're being ironic?

Good Advice

"...Mastery is elusive.  For me, every story is a whole new set of problems, expressed in a whole new language, plus my glasses are out of prescription, and its raining.  So I am a very humble writer and a very humble reader, flinchy even." 

- George Saunders

I take such pleasure out of reading about writers' struggles with their craft.  It is undeniably reassuring.  Even if they are humble about their own success (ahem, Mr. Saunders), they invariably lead me to believe that wrestling and kvetching and avoiding the mess I've made of a page, I am doing just fine.  No, more than that, I am one of the fold, a fellow noble toiler, in with the in-crowd, practically a blood relation to Philip Roth.  And feeling as warm and loved as I did three screwdrivers into my high school reunion last weekend, I am also better at understanding their sage advice.   In the case of Mr. Saunders on Konundrum Engine, though, his is so clear, so clearly useful, too, I think I'm merely trying to justify my easily inflated ego. 

And if you haven't been to Konundrum Engine recently (it's listed under Literary Journals on CM, to your right), take some time to look about--Pitchaya Sudbanthad's interview with T.C. Boyle is cheeky and informative.  There are recipes that involve camels...need I say more? It's been there for some time, so read and/or reread.

Do the same for the barely-a-month-old KGB Bar magazine: KGB BarLit.  The venue that regularly brings booze and babbling bards together for everyone's benefit has put together an impressive  journal--I've enjoyed everything I've read thus far, especially Mary Phillips-Sandy's "No Kilts: Alan Bissett and Rodge Glass."  She writes, "As young Scottish writers living and working in Glasgow, Alan and Rodge spend a lot of time explaining Scottish writing to non-Scottish people."  There's every kind of word-arrangement you might be in the mood for: fiction, non-fiction, poetry, reviews, interviews, and of course, at KGB Bar, great events on the horizon.  I may have to cancel my plans to fluff my couch pillows and avoid my computer to see Drunken! Careening! Writers! on May 25.  You never know, I might feel flattered enough to learn something.