I'm fleeing the country.

We have to make a stop in St. Helena for a wedding first but, I'm heading to Mexico with my girlfriend. 

My girlfriend owes $35 to her landlord for an apartment background check they never cashed, we're not paying, we're on the lam. 

About to eat some rotisserie chicken, talk shop, get a plan going, RUN!

I really can't get enough of Connan Mockasin's Forever Dolphin Love right now. Something about this song is just so paranoid, askew and shaky handed in all the right ways. It's pleasurable in the way that synchronicity is pleasurable. I want to run away from this song, or bite into it's belly to shut it up, I feel self conscious in front of this song.

Kalimera Parea!, (friends, family, crew, girlfriend, colleagues, communities), 

I come bearing news, BlazeVOX Books has published my and Angelos's translation of Demosthenes Agrafiotis's "now 1/3" and thepoem. The book (two books in one!) is officially hot off the press as of this morning, I received the box at SPD myself. Angelos and I have been slowly but surely working on these books over the last few years, usually on a Wednesday at Small Press Distribution while on my lunch break. We've enacted the Agon, we've parsed the Politic, we've acclimated the Abstract. It has been a longish but fun few years working together to get these works into the shape they are today. We're both very proud of the final product.

If you'd like to order your very own copy of "now, 1/3 and thepoem", (you would wouldn't you?), Angelos and I would be very grateful and much indebted. Just follow the link pasted below to order from SPD's website.

http://www.spdbooks.org/Producte/9781609640507/quotnow-13quot-amp-thepoem-.aspx

Thanks so much for supporting small press poetry, small press translation, and small press poets!

So, as Demosthenes always signs off, "Egardia" (from the heart),
John + Angelos = SAKKIS
XOXOXOXO

follow me on Twitter (BAAAAAARF!)

ear flush me to paradise.

when Steve Zahn was freestyling I felt ashamed. I felt embarrassed in front of my girlfriend. So far John Goodman > Treme.

David Simon shows are a little weird. I can't tell if the horrible acting makes everything seem more authentic, or just horrible, re: Treme.

poets in bathing suits!

every time a poet uses the word "problematic" an orphan dies...

in Greek the word "potamos" means "river," while "ippos" means "horse." "hip" is an abbreviation. to be "hip" is to be a "water horse."

In Greek, the letter "chi" is represented by an "X." Xristos = Jesus. The abbreviation "X-Mas" literately translates to "Christ-mas."

"Ola Kala" means "everything's okay" in Greek. The American term "OK" come from the acronym, Omicrom and Kappa.

"skata" means "shit" in Greek. in the 1940s, Ska music was known as Ta Ska, literately translating to "The Shit"...

"philos" means "love" in Greek, "ippos" means "horses." and this is where the term Filipino comes from...

"legos" means "little" in Greek. and this is where we get the phrase "Lego Bricks" from...

I'm a rollercoaster ride enthusiast.

I collect stuffed animals.

Salsa music is gross.

royalties.

woke up this morning cradling a Tonfa, shirt drenched with sweat.

the headcheese panned out.

Glen Park, SF is like Narnia, you can only get there by not thinking about it.

not to be insensitive but Notley's The Decent Of Alette gets my vote for best potential video game adaptation.

"party poems" "pop poems" RAVE ON! poems.

after 14 years of willing myself to enjoy her music, I've come to realize I dislike Nina Simone.

is SWAG over yet?

I wish I had white eyelashes.

sometimes Portuguese sounds like Hungarian...

If I could have one super power I would choose retention.

"Theriotry, Gregoriousness, and Paganism."

there is a saying in Greece "It's all Chinese to me...".

Are there actually American humans in the world who wipe their butts from back to front? Mind Blowing.

How is "Rihanna looks like a duck" not trending?

"denim isn't human"

for KJH

Kenny Powers is a blogger

A boyfriend sweatshirt is a talisman

When I shower I scrub harder than a Chicken-Head

West Oakland is on FIRE,

I'm buying a billion Boyfriend jeans for my boyfriend

who's hotter than Matt Cain's Perfect Game on Twitter

Who are you calling a Prima donna, I just

split it, hit it, and quit it you poseurs

this Saturday, SPT Endless Summer Benefit Lineup, holy cow:

I'm going on at 2PM...I'll be reading until 2:05PM! 

PERFORMER LIST:
Aaron Shurin
Adam Fagin
Alan Bernheimer
Alli Warren
Albert Flynn DeSilva
Alex Reiser
Amber DiPietra
Andrea Quaid
Andrew Joron
Andrew Kenower
Anne Lesley Selcer
Anne McGuire
Beverly Dahlen
Brent Cunningham
Brittany Billmeyer-Finn
Carrie Hunter
Cedar Sigo
Cheena Marie Lo
Cynthia Sailers
David Buuck
David Highsmith
Del Rey Cross
Elise Ficarra
Erika Staiti
Erin Wilson
Evan Karp
Francesca Rosa
Hazel White
Hugo Garcia Manriquez
Jess Heaney
John Norton
Jill Stengel
John Sakkis
Joshua Clover
Juliana Spahr
Karla Milosevich
Kate Robinson
Katrina Rodebaugh
Kevin Killian
Kit Robinson
Lara Durback
Laura Woltag
Lindsey Boldt
Loretta Clodfelter
Margaret Tedesco
Matthew Gordon
Megan Breiseth
Melissa Benham
Melissa Eleftherion Carr
Melissa Mack
Micah Ballard
Michael Cross
Moazzam Sheik
Norma Cole
Pam Martin
Paul Ebenkamp
Ron Palmer
Samantha Giles
Sara Larsen
Sara Mumolo
Sara Wintz
Sarah Rosenthal
Sean Labrador Manzano
Sean Patrick Negus
Steffi Drews
Stephanie Young
Steve Farmer
Steve Orth
Susan Gevirtz
Susanne Dyckman
Suzanne Stein
Tanya Hollis
Taylor Brady
Tom Comitta
Yosefa Raz
Zach Houston
Zack Haber
Zack Tuck

Bobby's 30th birthday on an 85degree SF afternoon in Dolores Park in which I also look like Aphex Twin's face from Windowlicker.

It was Karina's birthday on Sunday, so her boyfriend Ghosts On Tape very sweetly organized a party bus out to Golden Gate Fields for some daytime gambling...Karina and Ghosts On Tape won $400, the rest of us didn't win anything. And then we ended up at Randall's house on Ocean Beach, played in the sand, went swimming, I lost my keys during a wrestling match, still picking sand out of my ears etc etc. (all photos by Karyn as always)...

 

Here is an old photo of my girlfriend (aged 18 I believe) getting completely gnar-buckets of blood while pool shredding over a shady-ass looking deep end pool-ladder...that's my girl! And here is the blurb that accompanied that photo in Thrasher Magazine (2002/ I think she said Jamie Thomas was on the cover?) about her "post-post-pop" cultural Fever For Da Flavor...

"KARYN IS NOT SO EASY TO DESCRIBE, but she's very hard to miss. Audacious comes to mind--tattoos, pigtails, glasses, old school shoes, and about to run you over--her skateboarding is well rounded. She likes pools and gnarly stuff, like Donald and West Linn the best, but can be occasionally found at underground street spots and techy wood parks. Her art can hit you like a ton of bricks, dissecting the most uncomfortable aspects of gender, society, religion, and politics. Or it can be about a really nice pool in the most luscious, subtle gradations of value. Her sarcastic post- post-pop culture critiques are almost inscrutable to the adult establishment but they are hilarious to the youth, and appreciated by the more discerning and provocative local curators and patrons. My favorite Karyn Shearer series is about mesh hats. Think Andy Warhol and Campbell's soup, but substitute Karyn Shearer and mesh hats. It made me happy walking into the gallery and seeing a huge mesh hat emblazoned with "BAD COP! NO DONUT." The mixture of bright colors, kind of a hick style, and a Gulf War protest slogan was, like I said, hilarious."

The new Spring issue of  BlazeVOX journal is just out...check out this special section featuring new translations from Demosthenes Agrafiotis's "now, 1/3" and thepoem...

"Presented here is a world-class issue of BlazeVOX12 featuring poetry, art, fiction, and an arresting work of creative non-fiction, written by authors from around globe. We are introducing a new section in the journal, Book Previews, which as the name describes it is a brief look at some of our new book titles. You will find work from Bobbie Louise Hawkins, Clayton Eshleman, Demosthenes Agrafiotis, Ted Greenwald, Tom Clark and many others. This is truly a special issue of BlazeVOX. And if you are so moved, please take a tour of our online bookshop. We have 300 titles of weird little books available for sale. So hurray, now get reading!"