Mar 26, 2008

Recently read...

1. Ecstatic Peace #2

2. Drill #3

3. Avow #17

4. Avow #18

5. Small Town XII

6. The Grand Piano Part I

7. Sulfur #7

8. Gift Outright- Kevin Killian

9. Autoportraits- Stacy Szymaszek

10. Under A Gibbous Moon The Adventures Of Mister Funky- Larry Beresford

11. The Grand Piano Part II

12. All Of Us The Collected Poems- Raymond Carver

13. Expensive Magic- Cedar Sigo

14. The Grand Piano Part III

15. The Sandman Vol. 7 Brief Lives- Neil Gaiman

16. Preface To The Early Poems Of Robert Duncan- Robin Blaser

17. Something (even human voices) in the foreground- Kathleen Fraser

currently listening to Anne Waldman What The Police Man Told Me...

about to watch Texas Chainsaw Massacre A Family Portrait...it's a doc about the making of TCM.

Mar 25, 2008

Make Me A Supermodel...


(Emma modeling something)

yesterday i became a model...oh yes, i modeled yesterday...some hopefully not too embarrassing pictures of me sporting the new Rebel 8 (Mike Giant designs) and Able designs to come...ha!

also, they put me in snowboard pants and aimed camera's at my crotch and butt...it was weird, i was sweating...the photographer was all "okay, turn around, now arch your back, now stick out your butt...no, that's not quite right...stick out your butt further...yes, yes that's good..." i was turning red in front of a room full of apparel models...photographer's assistants were slapping my butt around to get the creases out of the pants...this was both hilarious and awkward...this was fun...

Emma was modeling clothes too...Emma is my brother's girlfriend...Emma and i did a "boyfriend/girlfriend" shot, we were wearing matching Rebel 8 zip up hoodies, my arm around her shoulders her hand in my butt pocket, i said "it's okay, she's my brother's girlfriend"...my brother might not be happy about this one...

also, they made me do a D'Angelo shot...you know, arms behind my head all stomach flexing...this could be a terrible picture...or a funny one...

and then i skated from the location, deep Downtown, back to the Lower Haight...sweating but happy that i just spent an afternoon wearing cool clothes, hanging out with fun people, not working...

and then i had to make up the hours at work that i missed, so i was at Empire until 7pm hand counting 20 boxes of t-shirts, that's approx. 2,000 tees...but i was sappin' a giant beer so all was good...

is it possible to write a post like this without sounding like an asshole? i'm not sure it is.

Mar 23, 2008

how come...



nobody ever told me that Simon and Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water is one of the greatest albums of all time? i had no idea. now i do. do you? if you don't you should..."i'd rather be a sparrow than a snail/ yes i would/ if i could/ if i could..."

i'm total "hair of the dog" right now on Anchor Steam (SanFranPsycho's best since 1896) flipping this record over and over and over...can't get enough...can anyone tell me where the intro melody on El Condor Pasa has been sampled?...i can't place it but i know i've heard it, maybe in a rap song, maybe in an Odd Nosdom beat?

i'm not wishing you a happy Easter because i'm Greek-American and it's not our Easter...ya'll a bunch of heathens (Tory! you know how the Greeks do!)...we're all about Council of Nicaea...ya heard!? but Christos Anesti if you must...

Sappho

is done! by Doug Hansen (Idle Hand, Lower Haight)...

Mar 21, 2008

poet on poet (saucy!) doppelganger thingy

Armand C.



and

Wyndham Lewis

Celebrity/ family doppelganger thingy...

(for Rodney Koeneke with love)

Marisa "cousin" Tsangaropolous



and

Tina "Marisa Tsangaropolous" Fey

Celebrity/ poet doppelganger thingy...

Armand C.



and

Raul Julia

Mar 20, 2008

celebrity/ poet doppelganger thingy...

Alli "a-dub" Warren




and

my little niece Nefeli "celebrity" Tsangaropolous



so cute!

Oaklanders...



i've been listening to Rogue Wave's Asleep At Heaven's Gate pretty exclusively for the last 3 weeks...i can't seem to move past it. i recommend you try it out. it's perfect after-work-drinking-a-beer-working-on-poetry-or-translation-or-poetry-in-translation-kind-of-music...i'm not lying.

Last Night in SF





Mar 19, 2008

bugs

some things bug for no reason at all...

Sun Kil Moon as a band name really bugs me for some reason...a lot.

or how every lesbian contestant in the history of Top Chef has sported a mid-life crises faux-hawk...actually, scratch that one, i definitely know why that bugs...

today is foggy and i welcome it.

Logan went on a drunken blogging rampage last night, i bet he welcomes the fog this morning too.

Mar 15, 2008

Rev. Wright

is this douche going to cost Obama the race? i mean, i could see it happening..."God damn America" coming from Obama's "spiritual advisor"? yikes...i'm not on the fence, i know who i'm voting for, but for the people on the fence i could see how this is a deal breaker...even though Obama has "categorically denounced" the statements he hasn't specifically addressed them...i don't know, this isn't good news, this is really bad news...a lot of people associated with both camps have been fired or asked to step away from the campaigns after playing the race card, Ferraro's "Obama's campaign is where it is today because he's black" being the latest example on the Clinton side...and while many of the firings/ resignations have been a bit reactionary (see Ferrarro) i think Obama needs to definitely "fire" Rev. Wright, quit that specific church congregation and nip this political SNAFU in the bud (it was going to be an issue sooner or later, while those viral emails going around were mostly bullshit, the church is just a little fucking weird, i've been to their website, you should too)

i guess the case could be made that because Rev. Wright has retired as pastor and leader of that particular congregation there is no need for Obama to quit the church, that distancing himself from the Reverend is enough...but, i would say take a look at those sermons they've been playing on CNN everyday this week, you can find them on YouTube...for Obama to even be associated with a church where the parishioners (on Christmas day) are standing on their feet clapping and hollering in approval of "God damn America" is a political catastrophe waiting to happen.

thoughts? Logan?


from the AP (yahoo news)

"We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye," Wright said. "We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost."

In a 2003 sermon, he said blacks should condemn the United States.

"The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme."

Mar 13, 2008

today...

a neighborhood girl showed me her right booby...

i was on a break and she was in the middle of telling me a story about how after she left the court house (she's just out of County) she was on the bus and her boob had fallen out of her shirt and she didn't realize it until she caught a Mexican guy staring at her chest and she was all "what's up dude! how you gonna be looking at my tits all hanging out?!"

...and then out of nowhere she pulls down her shirt and says to me "my titty was all like this..." and i laugh a little nervous laugh and light her cigarette and pet her pit bull and go back to work...

but i think my favorite line of hers was "shit...Google me...you know how many pages i have?...10!"

or "shiiit...how many of these skank bitches you see out her walking around with a $4000 dollar fur coat on...and hella jewelry with a perfect ass and perfect tits...?"

or "i'm a journalist...i've published hella articles...i've done billboards...n#@@#'s is jealous..."

she also told me she's suing her little sisters for defamation of character...she said she's going to sue them for $1000 and then after she wins she's going to give them their money back...she's says this is to teach them a lesson...




belated crap...

i don't know what's been up with my productivity levels lately...i haven't blogged anything for a while because i don't really have anything to report...i've gotten half way through maybe 4 blog posts then deleted them because i got bored...what's up with that? i don't know.

like i said, nothing new to report really. Megan's visit was great, we mostly stayed in bed and on the couch and drank too many beers and smoked too much and watched Season 5 of Curb Your Enthusiasm...we also left the neighborhood once to go see Why? at the Great American Music Hall. oh yeah, we had lunch at my parent's house albeit without the parents. i have some new photos on flickr, mostly taken by Meg and hijacked by me.

speaking of hijacking...a pet peeve: when people with blogs do that whole "i'm sick of the form [blog], it just doesn't do it for me, this will be my last post for a while if indefinitely, it's been fun, but i need to concentrate on my real life..." blah blah blah...and then maybe a week 1/2 later (at the most) lo and behold, a new fucking blog post about whatever the fuck...it's like those people who announce through Myspace bulletins "i'm quiting Myspace" hoping for a barrage of responses from all their friends begging them to stay...just do it! drop out and spare us the "i'm over it" rigamarole...don't post a bulletin! bulletins function as mass email pleas for new comments and messages...seriously, that's what they're for, i should know, i do them all the time...no one cares, just quit, stop fishing for attention...

David Harrison Horton is going to publish a bunch of translations from Demosthenes Agrafiotis's Chinese Notebook in his new mag WORK! ("a year long project")...i think they'll appear in issue #3...

Gary Sullivan reviews book covers...i think Gary's blog has been pretty fantastic lately, maybe the only blog (i'm linked to) worth reading of late...

i'm currently reading Sulfur #2 having just finished The Grand Piano #1...i wrote a short review of the latter on Goodreads mostly talking about how David Highsmith sold me the book and how i didn't know David Highsmith was David Highsmith at the time...i like David Highsmith...

i recently finished Raymond Carver's complete poems...don't ask why i read it, it has to do with OCD...but yeah, it took me a good 5 months to get through the 300 pages of drivel...definitely the worst book of poetry i've ever read...i also wrote a review of it on Goodreads, i'll paraphrase "this book made me hate Carver, hate is wife(s), hate his fucking children, hate his cigarette smoking epiphanies, hate his interest in fishing etc. don't read this book..." something like that...apropos, i read this book every morning on the toilet

...

my brother booked a ticket to Greece, we'll be in Greece together for about 2 weeks, i'm really excited about this...Pireaus then Athens then islands then wherever then Paros for the Symposium...we've talked about going to Greece together for as long as i can remember...me and my brother gots melanin in Hellas or, hella melanin in Greece...

i watched Gus Van Sant's Gerry last night...i didn't hate it but definitely didn't like it either...i'm not sure it was about anything more than two dudes getting lost in the dessert...i don't really buy the existential reading of the flick...if you can tell me what's existential about this movie please do..."hey man, this movie is giving me that existential feeling..."...speaking of Van Sant, he was in my neighborhood the other day shooting MILK (Haight and Fillmore)...he looks like he does on the Gerry special features DVD...bushy hair, boyish face. Sean Penn was there too, Penn is more handsome (and taller than i thought) in real life...

my sister's birthday is on Monday, my mom is making cornbeef and cabbage and carrots...my car is in the city so i'll drive there...

i forgot to mention i got busted by MUNI the other day for riding the train without a ticket...the fine is 50 bucks, the MTA dude told me that they recently reduced it from $150, why would they do that? he asked me if i would mind if he let Megan go without a ticket...i said "no, i don't mind..." why would he ask me that?

Mar 11, 2008

Mar 9, 2008

...

when did "i just threw up a little in my mouth" become annoyingly omni?

just shut up witty comment boxers...

also, stop writing "internets," as in "on the internets"...it's lame.

Mar 7, 2008

new blogging gig...

i'll be doing culture/ fashion/ neighborhood/ rolling/ media blogging for 

EMPIRE coming soon...

Mar 3, 2008

JUNK

when i think of all the girl junk that's going to be in my apartment while Megan visits i get all mushy inside...

i love girl junk in my apartment...

Meg just texted me "do you have a hair dryer...?"

and i texted back "ha! hell no...bring one!"

i'm feeling mushy...

weekend highlights...

Friday

hanging out with my brother at Molotov's

hanging out with Steve and Logan at Whiskey and The Castle

mexican food

lowlights

Armand going home to eat dinner

Saturday

playing a 7 hour set at D-Structure, from 2pm to 9pm

the New Leaf art opening at D-Struc

drinking whiskey after whiskey after whiskey

talking to this girl who i thought was my friend Casey Cox for half an hour outside the store then realizing this girl was actually a Canadian fashion designer who lives in the neighborhood...doppelwhat like crazy though...when she walked up i freaking bear hugged her, and she bear hugged back...so, not my fault...

getting the balls to talk to pretty girls

threatening to tackle Kevin

pretty girls being into me talking to them

telling a pretty girl that i think she's "adorable" (risky!) and her telling me "i think your totally adorable too..."

yay

talking about girls with Kay and Kay saying something like "you and your brother love women...every time you and your brother talk about girls you do it with tons of love and respect..."

and Jon saying "that's because he was raised by an amazing mother..."

and me saying "yeah..."

getting a number from the really pretty girl i was gaga over all night...

walking to Molotov's after the show (1:30am) with Kay and Jon and getting a text from the pretty girl that says "i expect you to call me..." with a winky emoticon...

yay

stumbling home (i never do that! for real...) and throwing on my favorite comfort food movie, The Fellowship Of The Ring, and passing out maybe 15min into it...(i've watched the first 15 minutes of LOTR probably over 300 times)

Sunday

not really being able to move from my bed

eating canned cornbeef and two eggs for lunch

watching Dead Ringers (whoa, amazing, really really!)

looking up all the literature on Dead Ringers after the movie...reading about 50 pages of a pdf book (The Twins) about the Marcus brothers whose lives the movie was loosly based on...feeling even weirder about the movie knowing that it's based on actual events...

eating pistachio nuts and raisons and an apple for dinner, detox.

learning that Everyday Caitlin might be my neighbor soon, a block down neighbor...

sleeping a natural deep sleep.

remembering my dreams this morning

knowing that Meg arrives from Brooklyn tomorrow afternoon and is staying a full glorious week with me...i can't wait to see baby.

lowlights

eating that canned cornbeef...i seriously, with no exageration, think that this stuff tastes like animal food, maybe dog food, i don't think it tastes like human food...but i'm a little poor so sometimes i eat what i scavange from my parent's house...i intentionally burned the hell out of it to try and mask the animal-like taste and texture...and then i drowned each forkfull in katsup again to try and mask the dogfood taste...it didn't work and i ate only half of it but still felt bad for wasting food...this is my "don't waste anything" Greek upbringing...