Yassou Hellas, Tecanate Vree, See you soon endaxi?!

yup, that's right, i'm going to Greece this summer!

Susan Gevirtz invited me to Co-Orgazine the Paros Translator's Symposium this year, hell's to the yes, so i just bought my ticket...i'll be shipping out to the homeland on May 28th and returning on July 1st...

can't wait to see my Athens people!

hello Greece!!! yassou agapi!!!

Demosthenes Agrafiotis

some translations from Agrafiotis's Chinese Notebook included in the new Octopus...looks like an omnibus of an issue, very glad to be included!

OCTOPUS#10

...

i like MSNBC's Debates format more than CNN's. things felt more intimate with Tim Russert. plus Tim's questions were hypothetical off the hooks...stuff like "if China were, let's say in a year, to become a nation of marauding cannibals, would you as president consider invading The Big Red One?" or "let's say Putin is actually a Siberian moon goddess, how many hecatombs do you sacrifice to her, *if* any at all?"

entertaining.

CIndy McCain and i...

will be cozying up tonight at my place for THE DEBATES...we'd like to invite you over for beers and gangster rap music...

6pm my house...

come toast the happy couple (she's for Obama-one, shhhh...), yell at the TV and enjoy a brewski!
xo-John

...

currently hitting souls, mizous, backsides and acids on the rail in the warehouse...and sweating!

...

shame on you Whiskey Thieves for blaring the Academy Awards on 3 different tv's when Logan and i just wanted to play some pool, maybe listen to some music.

no shame on LRS for telling me outside Vesuvio's that i had a long nose hair sticking out of my left nostril...went to the bathroom and yanked that sucker out.

...today for lunch i had 2 fried eggs, 4 pieces of spanakopita, one crispy duck drumstick, a blood orange and a banana...

...currently watching Wolf "the furry faun" Blitzer and "the BEST political team on television" on CNN...on lunch.

Lauren Shufran reads today at Canessa

So it'll be post Valentine's Day & you'll have probably blown a good deal of money because of it (Valentine's day that is) & you might even be in recovery (for whatever reason(s). I can't think of a better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than to scoot over to Canessa Park, settle into that red brick space, sip some good stuff, eat some good stuff & hear some good poetry & this event will be extra special as we'll also be celebrating the arrival of Denise Newman's Wild Goods fresh from Apogee Press. SO................

Come to 708 Montgomery Street at Columbus on SUNDAY, February 24th at 3PM (& I'll love you even more if you bring a modest $3 donation)
Denise Newman is the
author of Human Forest and the newly released Wild
Goods, both published by Apogee Press. Her translation of the novel Azorno by the Danish poet Inger Christensen will be published by New
Directions in 2009. Currently, she is collaborating with the composer Kui Dong on an opera entitled "Cess," and she teaches in the MFA writing
program at CCA.
Fortuitously or not born in Buffalo, New York, Lauren Shufran moved to San Francisco five years ago to get her MFA at SFState, where she seems still to be a student and finishing her second Master's. When she's not trying to graduate, she's studying Arabic and occasionally riding the 38 Geary "just for kicks." Her most recent chapbook is Burrow, out of Hooke Press.

Some of the journals Joseph Noble’s poetry has appeared in include New American Writing, Five Fingers Review, The New Review of Literature, Hambone, Bird Dog, UrVox, and Aufgabe. His essays on the poet George Oppen have appeared in Talisman and Aufgabe. He was one of the co-editors of the poetry journal 26 for its first five issues. His book of poetry, An Ives Set, was published in November of 2006 by lyric& Press.

Hugo & Luigi Chorus

right now i can't get enough of The Cascading Voices of the Hugo & Luigi Chorus Let's Fall In Love...

i found this record in a Salvation Army in Boulder a couple years ago but i only just now got to listening to it this week...

from the back cover

"The hand-picked mixed chorus highlighted by the wordless vocalizing of the six sopranos poised above it; the easy rhythm-section accompaniment punctuated by a particular solo instrument in each selection—these are all extensions of the artistic personalities of Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore...The Songs? all evergreens—and all the way from Let Me Call You Sweetheart, which found its way out of Chicago and into every American parlor in 1910, to Can't Help Falling In Love, which found its way out of Hugo & Luigi's imagination only last year and onto one of Elvis Presley's big hit singles"

also, this is one of the original Dynagoove recordings, nice. "to solve these old and obstinate problems in disc recording, highly ingenious computers—"electronic brains"—have been introduced to audio for the first time."

i like this record a lot, i like the two people on the cover of the record a lot too, they look so happy. not bad for a 25cent buy.

SAPPHO in progress for Becky

ORTHODOX

Byzantine chanting gets to me like no other music on earth. i feel lucky to have grown up with it. i remember the amused look on my dad's face when, at the age of 13, i asked to borrow his large collection of Byzantine cassettes so i could dub them. the most coveted "souvenir" i brought back from Greece after my first visit at age 10 was a cassette of the monks of Patmos (which i wore out after a couple years of constant listening). even though i'm not a regular church goer anymore the The Divine Liturgy devastates me like nothing else. most of the men in my family are church chanters, from Oakland to Athens. if you've never been to an Orthodox service you should check it out, just for curiosity's sake, i guarantee you've never seen anything like it...the service hasn't changed in over 2000 years, every action is determined by tradition, from the lighting of a candle to the direction the priest is facing, it's a real living history. i think it's beautiful.

...

Cindy McCain and i will be celebrating Truman's birthday tonight at The Transfer...you should come by and introduce yourself!

The Transfer is at Church and Market, right around the corner from Books and Bookshelves...if you haven't been it's pretty great, it's like a coked out gay punk rock bar...

come by!

...

"You continue it the same way you continue writing poems. The impulse that informs a lyrical critique is, for me, not that far from the impulse that informs the occasion of a poem. You want to move someone in the way you were moved by the writing you read. You want to have the effect on others that the writing had on you. You will necessarily have to sound like you, as I will have to sound like me, even though you want to sound out the movements of the work that you learn from and which inhabits you. As you hear Hollander in each review, I should hear Sakkis. No doubt. It’s like any relationship: the lyric you take is equal to the lyric you make.”"

...

"Like Palmer’s analytic lyric, Hollander’s “critical music” employs a conceit of lyric implication as a function of engaging/ involving the reader with the text. Palmer’s approach might be characterized as deductive, e.g. by writing in response to the Vietnam War (The Circular Gates), as a way of addressing the interrogative capacity of the lyric. While Hollander’s approach might be characterized as inductive in concordance with Jabes’ “that’s what my struggle with writing’s about; moving from the greatest precision in order to get to the largest opening. And what I tell you of words, I could also say of each book which contains in itself other books, which opens out to other books.” (Jabes, ACTS 5, P. 11) Like Jabes, Hollander strives to explode the normative reader/writer bi-polarity into a reader/ writer—writer/ reader equality. So that “We do, because when its thinking minds us, when we are, in a word, sentenced to mind it, when our addictions to love and self and selfless love lie versed like his kind in words which order our attention to the world and him, it is not him.” (Hollander, ACTS 7, P.98) It is him and it is not him. It is Davies being written about yet is also Hollander, and all of us, being written about. It is all of us being reviewed. “We do because there is a level of trust we keep.”"

...

"This is all a matter of reading, “for example, one could—critically—think in a certain measure, as a critic could measure a text, say, feel the right to disengage oneself from the act of reading (the reading of places and things in particular) without leaving what the act of reading leaves one with in general to feel as such. So it goes: either one is forced to read in a clear and particular way, or one leaves it to be tortured about—as if given—into a critical, more generalized feel and force on things, that is why—because how to read is a question of force, who applies it and how—I have never simply lost my place there, having never found it—so I went.” (Hollander, How To Read, Too, P. 9)"

...

"In one sense Hollander’s lyric analytic is a critique on the construction of limits imposed on the construction of critique. As Leslie Scalapino writes “Benjamin Hollander makes a distinction between a poem and a work of critical analysis (which may be in the form of a poem) which reproduces the signs of the subjects work and the signs of the writer’s own work, engaging the subject’s work as a lyrical expression. He refers to the latter ‘essay’ form as ‘analytic lyric’ or ‘critical music.’” (Scalapino, O One Anthology introduction,)
For example, Hollander’s review of Alan Davies’ book Name published in ACTS 7. Hollander’s notion of the analytic lyric, that is, the lyric analytic (critical music) is seen from the get go:
“’I think I understand Alan Davies’ Name’”
NAME
Alan Davies
THIS
$5.00
If the words from the start say Name Alan Davies This, if they mean this book, if they mean it will name him by his words from the start—and they do—we start to.” (Hollander, ACTS 7 P. 98)"

...

"Palmer writes “it seems to me that poems that are useful do not simply talk about themselves, but do question their very identity as they go along (Palmer, Pavement P.7) and further, “the poem as a place for prohibited content (there’s a politics of sexuality and a politics of politics involved here), and as a place where things can be inscribed, for attending to the grammar of perception and the problematic limits of our everyday perception tends to put on what we are able to say. I think of the poem in its exploratory aspect as something that can shatter these limits and rather than address these limits and inscribe itself within those limits.” (Palmer, Pavement P. 6)"

Cindy McCain

is freaking hot...i'm totally gaga over Cindy...

the debate tonight...

i think i'm going to watch it and drink beers...go Longhorns!

anybody want to come over?

gangster rap will be bumped during commercials...

Records Listened To In The Last Three Weeks or, Thanks The Debates!

1. Rush- Hemispheres

2. Kingston Trio- Kingston Trio Encores

3. Sounds For Camp- Folkways Records FX 6112

4, The Music Of Christmas- Compilation

5. Arturo Toscanini- Tchaikosky's Nutcracker Suite

6. Janet Jackson- Alright

7. Chaka Khan- Rufus

8. Mac Davis- Song Painter

9. Joanna Newsom- The Milk-Eyed Mender

10. J. Karjalainen- Mustat Lasit "Kokoelma"

11. cLOUDDEAD- cLOUDDEAD

12. The Cars- Shake It Up

13. Gary Newman- The Fury

14. Aerosmith- Greatest Hits

15. Historic Music Of The Great West- Robert Lewis Shayon

16. The Pogues- If I Should Fall From Grace With God

17. O.C. Smith- Hickory Holler Revisited

18. Blondie- Parallel Lines

19. A Chistmas Sound Spectacular- John Klein At The Carillon Americana With Orchestra And Chorus

20. Johnny Cash- At San Quentin

21. The Jacksons- Destiny

22. Domino- Tales From The Hood

23. INXS- Listen Like Thieves

24. LL Cool J- Radio

25. Devo- 3 Ivan Ivan Remixes

26. Akacis- Akacis

27. 20 Great Artists- Hymns Of God

28. The Grateful Dead- Live/Dead

29. Crystal Gayle- We Must Believe In Magic

currently listening to The Octopus Project- Black Moth Super Rainbow

...i'll probably make some kind of messy set out of all of this to play out this Friday night...

SAPPHO

tonight! this is right down the street!

Cedar Sigo and David Larsen at Books and Bookshelves

Dear Friends,

Please come and join House Press for a reading on February 19th at 7:30 at Books and Bookshelves: 99 Sanchez Street
(between 14th St & Duboce Ave), San Francisco, CA 94114 (415) 558-9019. In support of the publication of Expensive Magic, Cedar Sigo and David Larsen will be reading. House Press books will be on sale, as well as the remarkable selection of small press titles B&B's carries. Hope to see you there!

MS

...

"is this Sex Dwarf again? or does every Soft Cell song sound the same?"

...

this song by Brooke Hogan w/ Paul Wall has been seriously stuck in my head for the last couple days...and i don't really mind...that beat! that hook!


also

aside from having the best shows on tv, Bravo really knows how to rock a weekend marathon...Project Runway has been one of my favorite shows since falling in love with the bedazzled-plunging-v-neck-shirt-wearing Santino Rice (and even though i'm not gay i got all giddy when Santino tongue n' cheekily propositioned me on myspace a couple years ago)...Beck and i even went to the Bad Boys of Runway meet and greet last year at the Castro staring Jeffrey Sibelia and Santino Rice...i digress (i hate that segue) so, i've only watched a handful of episodes this season, partly because i don't really watch tv (though i'm not a hater, i enjoy tv, i just don't watch it that much), partly because i've been really busy, partly because it's on too late...so, imagine my joy yesterday when, too hungover to move from the couch, i stumbled upon an all day Project Runway marathon on Bravo...to me, marathons are the preferable way to follow a program...maybe it's my short attention span, while i may enjoy a show it's rare that i think to myself "okay John, mark your calendar to make sure you tune in next week..."...tv is a one off thing for me, quick fix, i don't know, does anybody from Gen Y really "follow" television programing anymore?" (Netflix and baseball aside) i'm doubtful...anyway, so yesterday i made myself a giant hamburger, got my favorite blanket from the linen closet, closed the blinds, sequestered my cell phone to the charger in the kitchen and melted into the couch, for 7 hours...it was great. the whole season (except for the finale) in one afternoon, and now i'm totally caught up...so, thank you Bravo Network for catering to the "coastal demographic" (your words) and running mindnumbing yet stimulating reality television all weekend for those too hungover to leave the house...and can i just say, does anybody else think this season is pretty lame-duck? i don't know, there's something completely inert about it, just going-through-the-motions...maybe the designers are boring this season, maybe the garmets are boing this season, maybe Tim Gunn self reflixively chimming "make it work!" ad infinitum has become more off-putting than charming...maybe all of these things have something to do with it...though i love local favorite Chris March...he's so fucking SF i can't stand it, even if he now lives in NYC...

oh and much to my chagrin (i hate that phrase) Bravo's Make Me A Supermodel is pretty great too...

today i think i'm going to GG Park for BBQ and beers and baseball chucking.

update: it's too cold for GG Park, some friends are getting together at Dolores... maybe i'll go there, though i doubt it.

someone subscribed to my YouTube channel today. the first one to do so. my YouTube videos pretty much suck. i don't know what this guy was thinking.

meet HOT SEXY PITY

SIT ON MY FACE

repost, sue me...

i got a nice promotion today. i'm a manager now! yipee!

the heat, while nice, is confusing.

when i say "let's get drinks" it doesn't mean i want to date you.

currently listening to LL Cool J's Radio.

9:00 is too late for me to start drinking.

last night i dreamt about Chad Stock and skateboarding.

my brother loves food. i used to think he was showing off, but no, he just loves food.

my girlfriend is my macbook pro.

logan ryan smith gets invited to read a lot. he's a firecrotch and i still haven't met his girlfriend.

i cried today while watching the new Indiana Jones preview. i clapped too.

megan is mine.

jay slack wants a fight, i want to fight jay slack.

i'm really good at pool at Wazeima and The Page but not at Whiskey.

lot's of Irish people in my neighborhood, from Ireland Irish people.

Bhaunu Kapil is reading tomorrow at CCA. i'd go if i didn't have plans.

what do you do after you finish a book you've been working on for 4 years?

porn makes me evil.

Children of Dune are dork.

Jenner is for nuddity and my brother and Emma.

Kay and Jon eat out a lot.

still listening to LL's Radio and the hook to whatever song i'm listening to sounds like they're saying "dear/ EBAY/ DEAR EBAAY"

i burned a cig hole in my pappou's couch.

my pappou passed a year ago yesterday.

i saw a dope rollerblader (Billy O'Neil) get hit by a car going 50 mph this morning, he walked away with a couple sprained ankles. it made me sick.

i was skating around the warehouse today on breaks. i'm getting my legs back.

Michael Carr and Aaron Tieger are going to read at BOTH BOTH on April 19th. probably. i sort of booked them without talking to them.

Joseph Mosconi's Area Sneaks is just out. thanks for sending a copy J.

this has turned into a name drop post bulletin.

and further...

Suzanne Stein is still my favorite.

and i wish Brandon Brown would invite me to dinner more. i eat salami and soup mostly and Brandon never serves that stuff.

i have new needles for my tables that make it worth waking up in the morning.

Ancient Greeks are gorgeo.

my sister had pneumonia but now she's better. my best friend as a kid, Ramsey Lewis, had pneumonia that went to his heart so he went and got himself a heart transplant. my sister is okay though.

yoga balls are amazing.

just talked to Meg, she's drinking Fernet in NYC, represent!

alli warren's hair looks really cute.

brandon's tie is neato.

if i was a 50-something man angelos would be my doppelganger.

i guess that's all.

...

oh and by the way, when i say "let's get drinks..." it doesn't mean i want to date you...it just means i want to drink a beer with you.

hi.

happy valentine's day.

ugh.

"where you from? you from the county or somethin'?!!!!!"

"stop callin' me DUDE!!! a DUDE is somebody who works on a ranch!!!"

"hey you got that camera on? cause if i find myself on youtube..."

"i'm not your father...!!!"

"first of all...you better learn how to speak! i'm not "man" i'm not "DUDE!!" i'm officer Rivieri!!!"

hey babydoll...

...

Rude Girl is done.

worked on Demosthenes Agrafiotis's Now 1/3 with Angelos.

currently watching Children of Dune.

drinking a whiskey and a beer.

set up the starter rail in the warehouse today.

listened to Greek "table" music this afternoon.

skated around the LH.

counting down 3 weeks until Megan visits.

watched that video of that 6'8 highschool girl slam dunking.

thought how bad it would be to be 6'8, let alone a 6'8 girl, in highschool.

ate Gallo Italian salami and jarlsberg cheese and pistachio nuts and an apple for lunch.

will probably not eat anything for dinner, but if i do it will probably be tomato soup.

thought about going to Yelapa, Mexico with my brother and Emma.

thought about going to NYC and visiting dear friends but also reading, maybe i can read at St. Marks or your apartment or The Bowery Poetry Club? i have friends in New York, people would come, i swear.

i want to go oyster tasting/eating/shucking in Marin, thinking that Brandon and Alli should go with me.

thinking about pessimism and the Sakkis men.

dreaming about Doug Hansen and Sappho and Alcaues.

thinking that Henry Lewis is really rude so fuck off.

not seeing Armand for weeks.

not seeing Matthew for weeks except to score free drinks and how lame that is.

not seeing my brother except for whenever it happens and how lame that is.

now knowing that i hate that game Cranium and how i'd much rather play Scatorgories next time.

blogging for D-Structure will be good for my portfolio.

that blogs are pretty boring lately, i think i only read BB, Gina Myers, Massey, Silliman, LRS, Claycord, SFist, my brother, Jay Slack, Rodney, A Tonalist and HEATISCOOL. and half of those douches update like every 3 weeks...

my electric bill was $108 this month.

thinking that Silliman's link list this morning was a bit Roman. like, WAY too long.

i just gave up on Children of Dune. shit is way to George Herbert for someone who's just a fan of David Lynch.

currently listening to The Jacksons Destiny.

i probably need a girlfriend but i don't like anybody in SF.

Angelos is going to the Paros Symposium next summer.

i want to drink drinks with Rob and Lee right now.

i want to eat soft cheeses from Taylor Brady's house.

i would like to be working the warehouse in a tanktop tomorrow morning sweating.

i would like to see a UFO.

i showed Sara Larsen how to work out with a medicine ball at BOTH BOTH.

i think i slurred something to Alan Bernheimer at BOTH BOTH about translation.

i want to dream about skateboarding every night.

Wrong Turn 2 wasn't half bad for another hillbilly cannibal movie.

if i was in LA i'd go to Eli Roth's horror film fest.

Cannibal Holocaust, while groud breaking (see Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield), wasn't all that.

Juno sucked mostly.

do you think they'll include the handjob scene in the upcoming Michael Cera helmed Youth In Revolt?

yay CNN.

girls and boys

anybody want to meet me at a bar tonight? i'm desperate. not like that.

otherwise i'm just going to eat Fuji apples and 3 year aged chedder cheese and pistachio nuts and BSG episodes. b.o.r.i.n.g.

i don't have to be at work tomorrow until late, help a dude out with some debauch.

oh yeah, i'm going to start blogging for D-Structure as soon as they launch their new website. i'm going to be an official "blogger"...

...records i listened to tonight while sitting on the couch after chatting with my mom for half an hour...

1. Gary Newman- The Fury

2. Aerosmith's Greatest Hits

3. Historic Music Of The Great West

4. The Pogues- If I Should Fall From Grace With God (over and over again [ed.])

5. O.C. Smith- Hickory Holler Revisited

6. Blondie- Parallel Lines

and currently

7. A Christmas Sound Spectacular- John Klein At The Carillon Americana With Orchestra And Chorus

and big thanks to Joseph Mosconi for sending me a copy of Area Sneaks #1...it looks freaking colorful...awesome awesome.

today

THE MOVEABLE ONES

LRS told me that The Moveable Ones is almost sold out (no shit!), so go to Transmission Press to order your copy (at the bottom of the barrel malt liquor price of $3.50)...what some people have said about The Moveable Ones

"THE ONE THAT AMAZED ME THE MOST WAS JOHN SAKKIS' THE MOVEABLE ONES."
—Alan Davies

"[You] have a way of putting in the things that in other contexts would seem cheap (such as some internet lingo and such) but your poems enliven it, give it back to us in the sort of strangeness that it is. I'll be looking forward to the next thing on the Sakkis roster!"
—Michael Slosek

"i loved the first page..."
—Susan Gevirtz

"you're my fav poet!!!"
—Mom

"The highly prosodized units with broken lines in The Movable Ones really sizzle...They feel spoken, epistolary and often incredibly artful, imparting details of daily life, love, family, travel, sex and war, as well as the history of individuals and their efforts to transcend, mythologize and survive modern times. The work is careful, subtle and yet hot."
—Laura Moriarty

"Thats 7/8ths of a beer....plus, your my brother, poetic crap spills from your mout randomly like, all the time."
—James Sakkis

"cool poems"
—Carrie Hunter

"THAT'S FUCKING AWESOME! I'm gettin' me one!...I want everyone to read your new chapbook!"
—CA Conrad

"what does "exenterates" mean?"
—Angelos Sakkis

"i forget"
—John Sakkis

"The attention to the small sounds, so to speak, a la Zukofsky, is evident throughout the book--and exciting to see how clearly you can work through these...The pieces that attract me are the ones where the lines move as private narrative into each other, where names are named...It reminds me of the Zuk of late A and 80 Flowers, that even though the music of the lines are dense, they seem separated or stranded from each other...Mostly, however, the book impressed me. These pieces of yours are powerful, and your ear is attuned to the urgency of what you need to say. So, if I have not told you before, I got into reading it."
—Benjamin Hollander

BOTH BOTH RECAP

thanks to everyone who came out for the first BOTH BOTH reading. and big thanks to the readers, Alli Warren and Michael Slosek. and to the introducers Suzanne Stein and LRS. i think it's safe to say that the reading 'went off'...really didn't know what to expect, 5 people, 10 people, but no, i had a packed house! a multi-generational packed house. you guys rule!

i'm not gonna do a highlights, partly because some of the highlights are incriminating, partly because i think it may be weird to do a highlights from your own series, partly because i'm a little beat from the weekend and don't feel like 'remembering'...

look for info about the next BOTH BOTH sooner than later. already have some ideas for the next.

love,
John

is it weird writing highlights from your own reading series?

cops roll up

cop says to my brother "what's going on here, we got a noise complaint?"

brother says to cop "it's a poetry reading!"

more to come...

tonight a. warren/ m. slosek

415 Pierce St. #3, between Oak and Fell, Lower Haight.

7pm or earlier.

call me if earlier.

see you later, skaters.

BOTH BOTH retrospective...

(ARMAND C. (far left) AND THE CHI-TOWN BOYS ("little" JULIAN PAPAS AND "white" SOPHO TSANGAROPOLIS)

(from left to right: ME, MY BROTHER AND OUR FRIEND CARLOS "DA WAREHOUSE" MENDEZ W/ TINA)
(MY COUSIN MANOLI DOING SOME LAST MINUTE SHOPPING, LOL!)
(ME AND MY BROTHER MACKIN' SOME BEEZIES!)
(FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: DOUCHBAG LITTLE COUSIN NIKO SAKKIS, STAMATI SAKKIS AND SOME IRISH HONEYS, YADADAMEAN?!)

BOTH BOTH Tomorrow at 7pm

(Michael and Alli at Club Slide's Jersey Night c. 2005)


Hello Friends and Neighbors,

BOTH BOTH is no longer a magazine, BOTH BOTH is now a
house (apartment) reading series. To kick off this
periodical to live-event morphallaxis i'll be hosting
Alli Warren and Michael Slosek, both (both)
celebrating new chapbooks, on Sat. Feb 9th at 7pm for
a rockin' readin' good time. And i'd love it if
considered showing your beautiful faces.

BOTH BOTH READING SERIES!

this is a house reading, a very informal, boozery, dancery, poetryery, conversationery grand ol' time...everyone's invited! (some drank will be provided but please BYOB...and if you feel like snacking bring that too, i don't buy snacks, sorry, yay!)

PLEASE JOIN IN THE FUN AT 415 PIERCE ST. #3 (BETWEEN OAK AND FELL IN THE LOWER HAIGHT)

Alli Warren was born in Torrance, CA and raised in Northridge, CA. She has a very, very bad memory. Likes pie. Her latest work can be read in No Can Do (Duration Press).

Michael Slosek lives in the SF Bay Area and publishes books
for House Press. He was recently published in the 2nd Flim
Anthology, Spell, and a pamphlet by Katalanche Press titled
Z Formation. He is the author of Each In Neither, House
Press 2006, and Artificial Origins, forthcoming from House
Press.

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD!

recent things

lately my habit has been to come home from work and listen to Christmas records and work on Rude Girl.

tonight i think i'm done with my Christmas records thing.

i came home from work and listened to Janet Jackson and Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker, Chaka Khan and now Mac Davis. i worked on Rude Girl and drank whiskey.

this week i will talk to Henry Lewis about Sappho and Alcaeus and i will sell these DVD's: Battlestar Galactica The Miniseries, R. Kelly's Trapped In The Closet Chapters 13-22, Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic, The Office Season's 1 & 2 and the cd Epic Movie Music.

i got my hair cut today for free by Emma and Brandon at Edo, they tag teamed me. i made them a salon mix tape tonight.

a man begged me today for something, he started his thing by saying "i'm from New Orleans..."...this is the second time this has happend to me in my neighborhood.

last night i sweated a lot in my sleep. i attribute this to the apples and pistachio nuts.

Angelos and i started work on Demothenes Agrafiotis's new book Now 1/3. so far so good. we went to Fly Bar and got freaked out. that place used to be the worst but now it's unbearable.

Joseph Mosconi's new mag AREA SNEAKS #1 is hot off the press. Mosconi et al. are having a launch party at LA >< ART on Feb 16. i'd go if i was in LA.

the first BOTH BOTH Reading Series b/w Alli Warren & Michael Slosek is at my place this saturday 2/9 at 7pm. you're all invited.

watched Trekkies last night and loved it. reminded me of the quote "if you call yourself a 'nerd' you probably aren't one..."...refering to 'geek-chic' and 'weird-guy' complex...it's hip to be fringe and all that noise.

we're going to set up a rail in the warehouse, we will skate the rail on our lunch breaks.

the D-Structure Delicious Drips show last Friday was off the hook. i introduced myself to my favorite reality tv show personality, Russel Morse, from MTV's I'm From Rolling Stone...he said "hey, nice to meet you John..."


my Meg just texted me "hi baby..."

i guess i accidentally registerd as American Independent Party thinking i was registering Independent (a common mistake so i'm told by Potrero Hill on SFist) so i couldn't vote for OBAMA. i guess the old school Independent vote is now registered as Decline To State (DTS). i asked for a Dem ballot after realizing the mistake, the polling people said no, so i didn't vote for any pres candidate, i didn't recognize any AIP names. JANKY. but, i DID vote a huge NO against that retarded "let's turn Alcatraz into a Peace Center initiative"...that felt good at least.

tonight i think i might eat some apples and aged cheese and watch some BSG. you?

people who i haven't seen in a while:

Stephanie Young
Armand C.
Cesar
Steve Orth
Brent Cunningham
L-BO Hobo
Adam Venter
Deme Sakkis
Jocelyn Saidenberg
Steve Dickison
Susan Gevirtz
Benjamin Hollander
et al.

i guess that was a roll call

i haven't been playing keyboard as much as i'd like to

THIS SAT. FEB 9TH 7PM ALLI WARREN & MICHAEL SLOSEK

BOTH BOTH READING SERIES!

this is a house reading, a very informal, boozery, dancery, poetryery, conversationery grand ol' time...everyone's invited! (some drank will be provided but please BYOB...and if you feel like snacking bring that too, i don't buy snacks, sorry, yay!)

PLEASE JOIN IN THE FUN AT 415 PIERCE ST. #3 (BETWEEN OAK AND FELL IN THE LOWER HAIGHT)

Alli Warren was born in Torrance, CA and raised in Northridge, CA. She has a very, very bad memory. Likes pie. Her latest work can be read in No Can Do (Duration Press).

Michael Slosek lives in the SF Bay Area and publishes books
for House Press. He was recently published in the 2nd Flim
Anthology, Spell, and a pamphlet by Katalanche Press titled
Z Formation. He is the author of Each In Neither, House
Press 2006, and Artificial Origins, forthcoming from House
Press.

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD!

...

Cass McCombs is...

from Concord and he's my new favorite thing in the world...

MAGIE!

(eating!)

(snuggling!)


MAGIE is here, MAGIE is here!

MAGIE is like my oldest homegirl in the world...for some retarded reason she recently moved to St. Louis...but she's visiting this weekend...and i'm stoked.

MAGIE and i have been through everything together, Christ we went through puberty together and that counts for somethin' in of itself...i think i met her when she was 14 and i was 16...we've gotten into all sorts of trouble over the years...there was even a time when we hated each other, hard core hated each other (my fault!)...i've been in more fights because of MAGIE than i can remember...i don't know, we were kids, and our hormones were a' raging and i thought i was a tough guy and she thought she was a tough girl and she hung out with some dudes who thought they were tough and blah blah it led to some foul shit...like "meet me on the corner motherfucker!!!" shit...ha! so funny. idiots!

but, we've been super duper for years now...and i love her to death...and she's here!

the last time i saw her was i-don't-know-when...whenever Rock The Bells was...so, the last time i saw her was at Rock The Bells last year...a friend from Denver bought me the ticket and flew out here for the show (convention?) otherwise you couldn't have paid me to attend that silliness...anyhoo, so i'm at Rock The Bells wandering around aimlessly in the parking lot at AT&T Ballpark ("great venue dude!") getting sun raped by, uh, the sun...i'm red as hell, full on lobster mode, my VIP (vip? right, me and 6,000 other kids) drink tickets are all gone, Public Enemy is live but i can't hear anything because they're set up half a mile away...i'm standing in this weird nexus between the two stages so there's lot's trainwrecking going on...i think some granola backpack rap is going on behind me (was Josh Martinez performing?) and all i can think of is Steve Dickison talking about Charles Ives...ha!...so i'm just ready to bolt or have a nervous breakdown when somebody taps me on the shoulder, lo and effing behold it's MAGIE...we both freak out and jump all over each other, we knew that we were both going to to be at the show (convention?) but didn't expect to run into each other, i think there were 850,000 hip hoppers in attendace so...but we did, we freaking ran into each other, SO meant to be...so, i get to complaining about the show (convention?) and she's totally agreeing and i'm like "let's split!" and she's like "i'm here with friends" and i say "me too..." and she says "should we?" and i say "hell yeah, let's go...now." and we start walking, fast, towards the exit...and before we know it were in a cab in full on ditch-friends-we-came-with-who-treated-us-to-VIP-tickets mode...we're dicks and we know it! so, we end up in the Lower Haight at Molotov's and we do some catching up and beer drinking and cuddling and she has to hop on BART for the East Bay and that's the last of it...my friend who i ditched hated my guts for a while, it was a shitty thing to do and i can't believe she still talks to me...but it was MAGIE, my oldest friend in the world!

i'm going to tackle the living hell out of her when i see her...you hear that MAGIE? brace yourself!

WALK LIKE AN EGYPTIAN! (bad joke!)

neato!

Sean Penn has been hanging out in front of the store...Fillmore and Haight shooting MILK...NEATO! he's taller than i thought.

and Gus Van Sant looks a lot younger in person. NEATO!

yay movies being filmed in my hood!

yay Sean Penn as Harvy Milk!

okay, best genre ever!...props go to Brandon for hipping me.

please check out the new issue of Working Class

www.workingclassmag.com