not drinking for a week is amazing. i've lost 5 pounds, my skin is dewy, my mood is out of sight, my mind is multi-tracked, my girlfriend got hit on by a neo-nazi on the bus and i didn't even flinch, i'm feeling alright.

dreamt that CA Conrad and Tony Hawk were reading together in Chicago via Top Chef's Michael Voltaggio who might be Hawk's doppelwhat...

dreamt that Suzanne Stein had a beautiful book of translations published by Ugly Duckling Presse via seeing Matvei read for Artifact last Friday night...

ate lemon chicken, buttered yams, fresh string beans and rice pilaf for dinner last night...ate 3 mini-apple pies w/ some pecan ice cream for desert...

watched the Top Chef Las Vegas marathon w/ my sister. all caught up but fell asleep during the Natalie Portman "i'm a vegetarian" episode...it's hard for me to stay awake past 10:30pm if i'm not drinking...what's the point? shows should be on earlier for the detox demographic.

spent a lovely last Saturday-day hoping around the hood with C. first Amoeba for hella records, then i was rude to C. and said something mean about her sun glasses, then American Apparel shoegaze, then the army surplus store for a beanie, then the walk back down to the LH for unloading of goods at my place, then a nice day old sushi lunch provided by ORTH, then saddling back up and out the door headed to CC Rider on Divis for clothes shopping, but the store is as big as my office (small) and the store clerk/owner was folding clothes in front of the men's sweatshirts so it was awkward so we just left, then over to The Other Store for neato junk shop browsing, i bought my mom a Christmas gift, then back down Divis for dollar sidewalk beers at Beanbag...and then the sun went down...then back to my place to get warmer...then C. leaving to go meet up with her friends for dinner and me getting dropped off at Brandon's house, bye C.!, then Brandon and ORTH and Lindsey backyard beer imbibes, i think they had already had 3 dozen beers by the time i got there, everyone looked haggard and beautiful at the same time, then Brandon takes it upstairs for the all too predictable Miley Cyrus "dance party," retch..., then Ellen emerges from her room, then i spot a naked lady with a sexy s-curve (like the bridge!) across the courtyard, so i stand outside smoking and leering and then Ellen comes out and then Brandon and we're all staring but then the sexy girl moves a little bit and we realize it's actually a non-sexy dude standing in his boxer shorts...weird shadows made dude look like a sexy naked lady s-curve...damn...and then Brandon got the hic ups and i attacked everybody in sight...i got Brandon on the bed and crushed him, i crushed Brandon against the living room wall, i poked ORTH in the throat and then went for Mathew, oh yeah, Matthew showed up as well...so then i went for Matthew but he put up a pretty good fight in the kitchen...and then i think i sat on Lindsey but ORTH gave me the stink eye so i got up real quick...and then they all made me go buy more beer...woke up the next day with The Shame so i texted everybody that i had The Shame...but everybody got back to me and said "why...you ALWAYS do that...it's funny..."...so my Shame went away.

4 HORROR MOVIES 4 NIGHTS

things i'm doing...

Area Sneaks Issue 2

Area Sneaks is a Los Angeles-based journal edited by Joseph Mosconi & Rita Gonzalez which seeks to encourage dialogue between the worlds of visual art and poetry.

The Bay Area launch of Area Sneaks 2 will include:

A video presentation by artist Hillary Mushkin
A screening of Marie Jager's short film The Purple Cloud
Readings by Therese Bachand, Mathew Timmons & Ara Shirinyan
Poetry by Demosthenes Agrafiotis read (and translated) by John Sakkis

...and possibly even more surprises!

The second issue features interviews with artists Edgar Arceneaux and Analia Saban; portfolios by artists Jody Zellen and Demosthenes Agrafiotis; a forum on Visual Poetry conducted by K. Lorraine Graham that includes contributions by Robert Grenier, Johanna Drucker, Peter Ciccariello, Jessica Smith, William R. Howe and Derek Beaulieu; poetry by Aaron Kunin, Elissa Gabbert, Kathleen Rooney, Will Alexander, Richard Kostelanetz, Ara Shirinyan, Mathew Timmons, Doug Nufer, Franklin Bruno, Harold Abramowitz and Amanda Ackerman; and artist-poet collaborations between Jen Hofer & Hillary Mushkin as well as Nick Moudry & Kerry Tribe.

recently read...

1. The Wasteland And Other Poems- T.S. Eliot

2. Night Palace- ed. Micah Ballard/ Julian Porier

3. George Oppen A Radical Practice- Susan Thackery

4. Easy Eden- Micah Ballard/ Patrick James Dunagan

5. Forms Of Heaven- Clive Barker

6. Like A Velvet Glove Cast In Iron- Daniel Clowes

7. Congregations- David Highsmith

8. Disposable A History Of Skateboard Art- Sean Cliver

9. The New American Poetry 1945-1960- ed. Donald Allen

10. Rules For Drinking Forties- Rodney Koeneke

11. After the Sinews- Patrick James Dunagan

12. The Grand Piano part 7

13. It- Stephen King

14. Hinge A BOAS Anthology

15. Superman Archives Vol. 1- Jerry Siegal/ Joe Shuster

16. 26 #A

17. A Serial Biography- Tom Raworth

18. Aufgabe #2

FEMALE BEATS FOR HALLOWEEN? WHICH PHOTO DOESN'T BELONG?

i eat day old sushi 3 times a week. michael cross was born at kaiser in walnut creek and so was i. lindsey boldt's mom likes vanitas. i like watching the west wing when it's cold outside. ca conrad does the prayer pose mostly. friday's are better to take off than monday's. konrad steiner is a very nice person to talk to. julia cohen includes the word "press" in all of her blog posts. lykkle li is gorgeous. jocelyn saidenberg drives a mini cooper. my face turns red when i don't shower. target is releasing a mad men inspired collection for women. lindsey boldt threw up in my apartment a couple nights ago. i think dexter and rescue me are almost unwatchable. logan ryan smith knows a lot about baseball. andrew kenower owns a stealers jersey. some people have ugly doppelgangers so i won't post them. poets in their early 20's are better looking nowadays than they were when i was in my early 20's. jason morris works at the gold cane. patrick dunagan is a good skateboarder. joseph mosconi isn't easily provoked. i'd rather watch the giants at home than the ballpark. tan lin's book heath has an extremely boring cover. brent cunningham is taller than me. sunnylin thbx is a bigger stealers fan than micah ballard. brandon brown sends me an email once a week asking me what's up. nada gordon is so small and cute. i pretend that i'm a lot nicer than i actually am. benjamin hollander hurt my feelings by not blurbing my book. if i was older i would date susan gevirtz. steve dickison was the first real poet i met in san francisco. i paid $250 for a workshop with larry kearney. i'd rather clean the bathroom than do laundry. i over tip cab drivers because i can't do the math under pressure. rob halpern has a great neck. cassie smith has a sexy voice. i still get nervous around kevin killian depending on how many drinks i've had. i would love to have cocktails with rusty morrison. i think dale smith makes some good points. i used to misspell laura's name moriarity. i want stephen vincent to do a haptic of my reading but he's never there. i can't talk to david highsmith without wanting to tickle him. cynthia sailers' new haircut frames her face beautifully. i used to know how to correctly use "effect" "affect" better than i do now. i'm a bit of a name dropper. i've never heard steve orth fart. my girlfriend has only heard me fart once. sometimes i wake up and feel like a beer but i don't have one. i worry about not bonding with my sister as much as we used to. i have martyr fantasies. i talk to myself a lot. i think poets who don't capitalize their names are pretentious. i kiss maxine chernoff on the cheek when i see her. gina myers is pretty. i used to think rae armantrout was a dude. i thought linh dinh was a chick. i prefer to eat my leftovers cold. i cut my own hair. i understand what "forest for the trees" means i just don't know why it means that.

"boredom, your days are numbered!"

ATHENS POETRY SLAM

Ανία, οι μέρες σου είναι μετρημένες!

Το Poetry Slam είναι ένας διαγωνισμός ποίησης, στον οποίο οι συμμετέχοντες απαγγέλουν την πρωτότυπη δουλειά τους, δραματοποιώντας την ταυτόχρονα. Η παράσταση αυτή είναι περιορισμένης διάρκειας (μάξιμουμ 3 λεπτά) και λαμβάνει χώρα ενώπιον τριμελούς κριτικής επιτροπής και του κοινού.

25 χρόνια μετά την πρώτη παράσταση Slam στο Σικάγο, η Eλλάδα με το ATHENES POETRY SLAM μπαίνει στον χορό οργάνωσης και διεξαγωγής τέτοιων παραστάσεων και στις 7:30 το βράδυ

τη Δευτέρα 2 Νοεμβρίου 2009 στο Barbara’s Food Company, γωνία Μπενάκη και Μεταξά,

την Τρίτη, 3 Νοεμβρίου στο Café Dasein, Σολωμού 12 και

την Τετάρτη 4 Νοεμβρίου στο Café Floral-Books+Coffee, Θεμιστοκλέους 80

διοργανώνεται το πρώτο Poetry Slam, με στόχο να προκαλέσει την ανία και να οδηγήσει την ποίηση πιο πέρα, αναζητώντας νέα μορφή έκφρασης για τους Έλληνες ποιητές.

(translation by a. sakkis)

"Boredom, your days are numbered!

The Poetry slam is a poetry competition, in which the participants read their own original work, while at the same time dramatizing it [acting it out]. This performance has a time limit (3 minutes maximum) and takes place in front of a 3-person judging committee and the general public.

25 years after the first Slam performance in Chicago, Greece with Athens Poetry Slam enters the process of setting up and engaging in such performances and at 7:30 pm

on Monday, Nov. 2, ’09, at Barbara Food Company, corner of Benaki and Metaxa

Tuesday, Nov. 3, ’09, at Café Dasein, Solomou 12 and

Wednesday, Nov. 4, ’09, at Café Floral-Books+Coffee, Themistokleous 80

the first Poetry Slam will take place, with aim to challenge boredom and to guide poetry farther, searching for a new form of expression for Greek poets."

went home to Concord last night...visit my parents eat some food.

slept well under a heated blanket full of my mom's lamb, bbq'd eggplant, Greek potatoes, corn, Greek salad and spanakopita...yogurt for desert.

finished Stephen King's IT yesterday afternoon...a really big disappointment...and by big i mean 1,091 page disappointment...just wasn't scary at all...like the movie, Pennywise as GIANT SPIDER is about as anti climactic as you can get...i liked the dead-lights in the macrouniverse stuff a lot...with King had done more with that...but what i really wanted, and kept waiting for...was a history of Bob Gray/ Pennywise The Dancing Clown...i was super interested in that story, and with more than 1000 pages to tell it i though for sure King would get to it...seemed like he HAD to get to it...seemed integral to the story, still does...damnit...i want more Bob Gray...and then the weird pre-pubescent gangbang scene where an 11 year old Bev Marsh takes on all of the guys (11 year olds) in a sewer pipe under The Barrons was just weird...

and now i'm moving onto the Bitches Of All Seasons (BOAS) anthology...bought this in 2002? i'm thinking maybe it would be good create new rule for the order...maybe read 5 books of poetry for every book of prose...not counting the bathroom reading which is mostly going to be giant books of poetry that i otherwise don't really want to read but know are good for me, e.g. The Maximus Poems, The Cantos, The New American Poetry, Post Modern American Poetry: A Norton Anthology, anthologies in general et. al...and then graphic novels reserved for savory on-the-pot-weekend reading...

going to work the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association (NCIBA) trade show on Saturday...come by the SPD booth and flirt with me...

C. took her NCIBQ exam...not to be confused with the NCIBA trade show...so yeah, she's done, and now she's making lists of things she wants to do with her free time/life, which strikes me as a totally female thing to do, in a good way...i don't know, all the girls i've ever known (absolutism!) have been obsessive list makers...it's cute, or attractive or something...and now that C. some post-exam relief she's all over it...she's also making lists of things for me and her to do together...ruh rorh...i kid.

you ever heard of that band Zola Jesus? lo-fi Goth music...i love it...here, enjoy...



(never mind the dumb video)

had a nice Sunday with C. watching the 99ers game drinking beers under a blanket...then we watched another game and drank more beers...then we ate cold left over pizza and had some more beers...then we went to The Page and had more beers...then we went to KK Cafe and ordered bacon cheeseburgers w/ grilled onions and the works...then we went home and ate burgers and watched the end of Sin City...then madeout some and then went to bed.

had a nice Sunday the Sunday before last...watched the 99ers lose to the Vikings...then got a text from Micah saying they were at Black Magic Voodoo Lounge...never heard of it so i yelped it...apparently it's the place to go if you're Creole or Cajun or like the Stealers or are just from Louisiana...an ex-pat bar that Micah and THBX go to every Sunday to watch their/her beloved football club...decided it was a nice enough day to skate all the to Lombard and Van Ness...that's really far from the Lower Haight...but it really was beautiful out...so, 45 minutes later i'm there...and i think i spot Andrew Kenower...but i didn't know he was a Stealers fan...and if it wasn't Kenower then it was his straight up doppel-whatwhat...i didn't say hi...Stealers won...me and Micah and THBX decide to walk back to the hood...but me and Micah end up taking turns on my board block to block all the way up Van Ness...Micah was kind of perked but was busting shit all over the place...i was mostly trying to manual a city block. that was really fun...and then to Toronado for after games/ walk/ skate-sesh beers...and then to my brother's stoop for stoop BBQ, holy shit this was a really fun Sunday huh? and then lot's of meat and beers and visiting...and then Lauren came by...and then C. came by looking at cute and stuff...and by now it's full on foggy SF Indian Summer freezing...so me and C. bounce back to my place and ORTH is up listening to records so we do that for a while and then hit the hay...and then i wake up in the middle of the night with huge stomach pangs...crippling stomach pangs...i'm keeled over barfing...so, food poisoning, boo...it was either the chicken, the sausage, the lamb or the cheeseburgers that did it...i'm going with the chicken. i always blame it on the chicken...

and then last Saturday was great...cleaned house while C. was taking her NCIBQ (remember?), worked on poems for a new project, was really happy with the work, met up with Matthew at Delirium and then blah blah...came home and made a video of myself reading a Rodney Koeneke poem over and over again but i got cold feet after sending Rodney the link and deleted it...

in the meantime...going to be reading some Agrafiotis translations at David Buuck's house for the Area Sneaks release party...it'll be good to see Joseph Mosconi...haven't seen dude since we were bunk mates on Paros a couple years back...and then Neil Morgan's solo record release party is going on at Blue Six Gallery on the 22nd...and then a bunch of great stuff that i'll be at at SPT...and then me and L. Boldt might be heading down to LA late November to read at the Poetic Research Bureau (PRB), a fun road trip...

another anime character/ robotic pillow-girlfriend doppelganger thingy...

Miyazaki's No Face



and

Funktionide "emotional robot"

Funktionide Part II from eltopo on Vimeo.

another celebrity/ bestfriend doppelganger thingy...

Christian "The Machinist" BALE



AND

Billy JACKS