have a great weekend...bros before ho's...

he looks exactly like a nightmare...

P O E T S B A S K E T B A L L T O M O R R O W F O R D E E P O A K L A N D

Stephanie Young organizes via David Harrison Horton

"City of Oakland Parks-Recreation: F M Smith
1969 Park Blvd
Oakland, CA 94606
(510) 238-7742
Link:
<http://maps.google.com/maps?oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&q=fm+smith+park+oakland&fb=1&split=1&gl=us&cid=0,0,9624347200705542113&ei=prkeSonEJJe-tAOx68CNCg&ll=37.801375,-122.249036&spn=0.008732,0.020342&z=16&iwloc=A

Here's the latest team lists, I think it's time to start thinking about position:

TEAM SF:
John Sakkis
Lindsey Boldt
Jocelyn Saidenberg
Morgan Levy
Logan Ryan Smith
Zack Tuck
Francis Luong
Manjula Martin

EBAY:
Dillon Westbrook
Cat Meng
Brent Cunningham
Chris Chen
Rebecca Van de Voort
Charlie Legere
Dan Fisher (arrives @ 1)
Sara Larsen
Lauren Levin (mebbes!)

CHEER SQUAD:
Lara Durback
Samantha
Bill I'm wondering if noon is just way too early for you now?
Clive Worsley

CRAFT SERVICES, BOOM, CAMERA, FIRST AID:
that's moi

We shd be done in time for folks to head back over for buuck's thing, or around the corner to baggy's for drinks. Also there is a great pho place nearby. And donuts.

!

stephanie"

on Monday night at Amber a drunk Irish witch (her words sans "drunk") began hitting on me and then decided that she had to give me a palm reading because he grandfather had passed away a month ago and he told her to "never reveal certain things" but that she spotted me from across the bar and that she "had to reveal things" to me...whatever.

so i gave her my right hand which she proceeded to caress and then she said "you're going to live a very very long time" which is, you know, fair enough...and then she got to the juicy reveal'y stuff...she said (imagine this being said in drunk Irish accent) "your father...he married...your father married a little girl...and (caressing hand) and your two little cousins, i shouldn't be telling you this...you have two little cousins...and the little girl your father married...she's looking for you..."

to which i said "wow, okay, you have a safe night..."

to which she winked at me and replied "i will if you WANT me to...hehe"

RUSSIAN RIVER 2009 YALL

10 things i love...

1. the smell of comic books

2. cracking other peoples fingers

3. sweating when appropriate

4. canned pineapples

5. salt at the end of a bag of Wheat Thins

6. putting things in order

7. healthy bowel movement

8. wearing shoes out, e.g., those shoes are worn out

9. watching UFO videos on YouTube

10. everyday synchronicity

10 things i hate...

1. more than 1 poop in a day

2. saying goodbye at parties

3. talking on the phone for more than 4 minutes

4. joke tellers

5. sun dried tomatoes

6. Twitter

7. going out to dinner

8. Turtle, from Entourage (e.g, "sneaker collectors" and all that entails)

9. I-80 West routine

10. porn as the norm (e.g., 11 year olds "sexting" each other)

woke up this morning singing

"i'm a barbarous man from the Barbary Coast

with barbarous smile at the Barbary roast

hunk of barbarous meat for the Barbary ghost

green fog on the brow of my barbarous host"

recently read...

1. Tweaky Village- Kevin Killian

2. The Front Matter Dead Souls- Leslie Scalapino

3. Work #10

4. By The Waters Of Manhattan- Charles Reznikoff

5. The Sandman The Kindly Ones- Neil Gaiman

6. On The Road- Jack Kerouac

7. Work #12

8. A Sequence For Cinematic History- Michael Slosek

9. from Stare- Steven Trull

10. Try- Sept 08

11. Try- Oct 08

12. Headpress #20

13. Big Baby- Charles Burns

14. In Your Fish Helmet- Sarah Menefee

15. Cerulean Towers- Charlie Thomas

16. Spirit Guest- Patrick Dunagan

17. Collected Sonnets- Edna St. Vincent Millay

18. Our Insalvageable- Thom Donovan

19. The Grand Piano Part 6

20. Priest- Andrew Rippeon

21. Try- Jan 09

22. Try- Feb 09

23. Rabbit Butoh Bunny Butoh- Bhanu Kapil

24. Try- March 09

25. Giscome Road- CS Giscombe

26. Headpress #21

and then suddenly "White Zombie" doesn't sound like a band anymore...it sounds like "white" and "zombie"...

like if you take the De Niro out of "Robert De Niro" you're left with "Robert"...i mean shit, people call him "Robert"...how weird is that?

the De Niro example is actually not what i'm trying to say at all...

what i'm trying to say is that "White Zombie" doesn't sound like a band name anymore...no one has talked about them for so long that i've forgotten how to say White Zombie and mean the band...to me, it just sounds like i'm saying "white" and "zombie"...

GREEK FEST 2009

i really love traveling with Brandon because he's so enabling...

like, it's 11:37am at a breakfast cafe in Munich and he's all "dude, are you going to order a beer? i'm going to order a beer..."

free tickets!

hey beautifuls...SPD's annual Bee-In is this Monday and guess what? i have 4 free tickets for the first 4 people to comment or back channel me (merkoneus@yahoo.com)...it's a super fun event...plus i'll be bartending plus Susie Bright's going to be there! it usually costs $30 donation/admission but i'm a really sweet guy and i want to give away 4 tickets to 4 homies (homie (n)- anyone who reads this blog)

so holler!

JOIN US!

Tickets are selling fast for the third annual BEE-IN, A Spelling Bee to Benefit Small Press Distribution. Don't miss your chance to attend this exciting event!

DRINKS, NIBBLES & SPELLING

THE BEE-IN is an old-fashioned spelling bee but with alcohol and more fun! Cocktails are courtesy of Craft Distillers, pouring Hangar One Vodka. Thank you to Crown Point Gallery for providing the beautiful setting for this event. Proceeds support the work of SPD, the nation's only remaining non-profit distributor of literary small press books.

Doors open at 6:30 (Bee starts at 7:30 and lasts for about an hour)

Emcee: Josh Kornbluth, TV personality & Host of the Josh Kornbluth Show.
Judge: Berkeley arts activist & cultural leader Penny Cooper.

Dolores P tonight for kickball and beers and movie...

(addendum: Rodney's house has nothing to do with tonight)

ROBIN BLASER

an INTERVIEW WITH ROBIN BLASER i originally did for The Poker...

i remember the night before the interview (and the night before he was to give his talk "Language Is Love" at Naropa (2005)) i went back to Naropa's Sangha House dorms and devoured Blaser's Nomados chapbook The Irreparable, reread The Practice Of The Outside (in the photo below Blaser is signing his essay in my copy of The Collected Books of Jack Spicer) and speed reread parts of The Holy Forest...i was nervous and i wanted to be as prepared as possible for the interview...and after he agreed to talk the last thing i wanted was to waste Robin's time...i probably prepared a bit too much as reflected in the stiffness of some of the questions (esp. at the beginning)...but Blaser went ahead and riffed anyways...i'd done interviews with poets before, but had never experienced anything like the very tangible buzz i experienced with Blaser sitting in that little cottage classroom at Naropa on a warm Saturday morning...for the brief time i knew him he had such a large presence, his energy was singular and addictive: the gravely timbre of his voice, his deep infectious laugh, his beautiful clothes (seriously! the man could dress...), his deep commitment to history and lineage, his complete generosity, i don't know, as corny as it might be to say, he truly sparkled like no one else and i feel extremely lucky to have met him...we ended up talking for at least an hour and half, with David patiently waiting outside for us to finish...the interview linked isn't quite reflective of the conversation we actually had...in editing i tried to make it as linear as i could...but our conversation was anything but linear...i probably had to edit out 20% just to make it publishable (it was un-publishable in a rhizomatic, meandering and chatty GOOD way...but not for a magazine with limited space)...but i think that was Robin, he wasn't really interested in doing an interview, rather he made me feel like he was really interested in having a conversation...and it meant the world to me.

after the interview had been published Robin told me that he was very happy with the way it came out...that i'd done a good job of putting shape to our conversation...i felt good about that...that made me happy.

you'll be dearly missed Robin, Rest In Peace...

Robin Blaser May 18 1925 - May 7 2009 Rest In Peace

mid-bender a few weeks ago...i think this girl's name was Nora...she wanted to talk about her life...it's probably 3:30pm at this point.

photo by Brandon...

IAN WHITMORE

these are the people i hung out with this weekend...





and this is the lunch i made on Saturday...

tonight actually...

w/ (had to bite it Boldt)

tonight

Brandon Brown is a poet from Kansas City, Missouri. His friends published the chapbooks Memoirs Of My Nervous Illness (Cy Press, 2006), 908-1078 (Transmission Press, 2006), Camels! (TAXT, 2008) and the forthcoming Wondrous Things I Have Seen (Mitzvah, 2009). He co-curates the (New) Reading Series at 21 Grand and wears pink socks.

n a t h a n a e l f . t r i m b o l i is a multi-talented artist, musician and videographer. Trimboli, a former Chief Designer with PBS, has made his mark by examining life through the lens of his community. As a professional editor, the South Bend Regional Museum of Art hired him to teach classes on expanding abstract thought through video. His art installations have been incorporated as set-design for fashion shows as well as traditionally viewed multi-media graphic documentary, and are always backed by community causes. Recently Nate has landed in Oakland, a new community with new artistic challenges and a multitude of exciting possibilities. Nate is currently filming a documentary for the Community Coalition for Haiti.

Farrah Field's poems have appeared in many publications including the Mississippi Review, Pool, Typo, Harp & Altar, 42Opus, La Petite Zine, Pebble Lake Review, and Fulcrum, among others. Rising won Four Way Books' 2007 Levis Prize and is her first book of poetry. She lives in Brooklyn and blogs at adultish.blogspot.com.

Doors open @ 7
readings start by 730

your donations are appreciated for entry and wines! Many thank yous to all the people who donate dollars every month to keep the series free for others.