Books Read 2011

6. The Daily Mirror- David Lehman

I once wrote a pretty terrible book called Quotidian. I once titled a pretty terrible book a pretty terrible title, "Quotidian." I can't remember if it was David Lehman or Bernadette Mayer who inspired me to write this terrible book. I'm pretty sure it was Mayer's 3:15 Experiment (a book I wanted to like a lot more than I did when I got around to reading it), though it could have been The Daily Mirror. That being said, The Daily Mirror was better than The Last Avante-Garde, but maybe equally horribly titled. Currently listening to !!! Louden Up Now.

7. Tract- Jon Leon

Jon used to edit a magazine called Wherever We Put Our Hats. I believe we traded a copy of BOTH BOTH for a copy of WWPOH back in the day. I was living in Boulder while Jon was living in SF. When I moved back to SF Jon moved to Georgia (maybe). I think Tract is from the first Dusie Kollectiv, of which I was also a participant. I don't think this is the book with the extremely-large-though-natural-looking-breasts-70s-porn woman on the cover. I believe Jon runs a marketing company for chapbook presses. Somebody recently mentioned Jon's name while formulating ideas around the "Boyesque." I should say that I like Jon's writing a lot. Last I heard Jon was working in the fashion industry in New York City.

8. Combo #6

Tod McCarty never aired my King Lear vs. Boom Bip mix on KGNU 88.5FM.

9. Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy And Its Consequences- John Allen Paulos

I think I borrowed this book from my Dad in the 80s. There are roughly 5 billion people living today, every person has around 1 gallon of blood (women and children less), (5 x 10 to the 9th) = 5 billion gallons of blood. 7.5 gallons per cubic foot, so we get 6.7 x 10 to the 8th cubic feet of blood. The cube root of 6.7 x 10 to the 8th is 870. Thus, all the blood in the world would fit into a cube 870 feet on a side. And here's where it gets cool, "Central Park in New York has an area of 840 acres. If a wall were built around it, ALL THE BLOOD IN THE WORLD would cover the park to a depth of something under 20 feet." Don't try using this "all the blood in the world" business in a poem, I've already done it...

10. Visions Of The Daughters Of Albion- William Blake/ edited by Robert N. Essick

When I moved back to SF Brandon Brown asked me what it was about Blake that I liked so much. I think I said something about Cosmology, Contrariness, Politics, Myth, I might have mentioned something about the illuminated plates. In other words, I had a really hard time articulating what I loved about Blake. I have a hard time talking about anything I really like though. I can go on and on about how silly hats look on girls, or about how much I hate "street art" but ask me why I love George Oppen and I'm suddenly tongue tied. I was thinking of getting a Daughters Of Albion tattoo for a while, but realized that the piece would probably turn out looking like a pastel colored smear more than anything else...