Quickster and calumny

you son of a gun sad sack
you cap gun Corona

get me a girlfriend, go for it
don't say "done and done"

for shame fucker
I hate when my friends say
"for shame"

I just noticed I have two gray chest hairs

fucking kewl

I'm wearing green underwear

11. More Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark- Alvin Schwartz w/ illustrations by Stephen Gammell
Harper Collins

tattoo based on Stephen Gammell illustration

and another one

I'm not a fan of Paul McCartney.

I had a dream that Zoe B. was being sued for libel by the estate of Paul McCartney.

cut to real life

Before playing Temporary Secretary by Paul McCartney on her Tuesday afternoon KALX show, Zoe B. had stated that the song "was one McCartney's best from his coked out phase...".

And then I had a dream that Zoe B. was paying for that statement.

cut to dream

Zoe B. called me in a panic explaining the situation, she was worried for her job, worried for the station, worried she was ruined. I tried to make light of the situation and replied "you're chopped and screwed."

I'm no longer enamored with the black jean.

10. Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark- Alvin Schwartz w/ illustrations by Stephen Gammell
Harper Collins

This book has been in my family for generations, or like 25 years.
Did you know that they recently republished SSTTITD without Gammell's illustrations? A minor travesty...

In truth, this book mostly sucks, at least as a book of stories. The tales are poorly written (or, retold) and nonsensical. Rather than bering folkloric (as claimed by the author), I honestly believe that Alvin Schwartz probably just made the majority of them up.

Where it doesn't disappoint is in Gammell's illustrations, still just as morbid, deformed, grotesque and absolutely bleak as I remember as a kid. Thinking back now, Gammell's SSTTITD illustrations were my earliest and profoundest experience (nay communion) with horror as a genre.

And if you owned this book as a kid it's a testament to the awesomeness of your parents, you should thank them, I'd go so far as to say that you are probably not a pussy because your parents exposed you to this book.

But  Harper Collins went and replaced the classic, surreal, ghoulish, indelible, nightmarish Gammell illustrations with pablum; soft, cutesy, non threatening pablum. 

A minor travesty...pussies. 

9. A Tale Of Two Cities- Charles Dickens 
Dover Thrift Editions

I had no fucking idea what was going on for the first 130 pages or so. I mean, I had a very vague idea of what was going on, there were people doing things in both France and England, in both the past and present, mostly these people were indistinguishable to me, I couldn't tell who was who or where was where and what, nor did I care. I don't mean to be cruel, but it was like reading 130 pages of a Jackson Mac Low prose poem, my eyes were registering sentences on the page but I was getting absolutely nothing from the experience. Sorry Jackson! 

The second half was better. 

I bought this book from a Barnes And Noble store in Concord in 1998.

Summer 2013, BBQ +me +me +me

8. The Holy Forest Collected Poems Of Robin Blaser- Robin Blaser
UC Press

I have the "pentimento 2" broadside framed, "did he, did she look everywhere/ for the contentment/ of the word God—/ among puzzled faces/ herding the red cows—"

I have no idea why I skipped the big SF State event.

I can't remember if I bought this or if LRS gave it to me while he was working at UC Press. No, I remember now, I bought this along with Imperial San Francisco in one of those big UC Press online sales.

At Naropa's 2004 Summer Writing Program I had Robin sign my Black Sparrow edition of The Collected Books Of Jack Spicer, he autographed his essay The Practice Of The Outside. Later that day he gave a lecture called Language Is Love, after concluding his talk he then serenaded the audience with a rendition of Wind Beneath My Wings.

That was the same year Joanne Kyger signed my skateboard with a sharpie marker "hello from BO"...

holy cow, I just spotted a bat in my belfry, NARDS!

Summer 2013, Debating Religion With A Masonic Puppet

the audacity of hope

the audacity of calling a razor blade a "Mach 3"

I'm sick of these Jack Purcell's

just Gerolsteiner on your back all day

7. Batman Year One- Frank Miller/ David Mazzucchelli
DC Comics

There is a scene in this comic where Bruce Wayne is training in the yard in front of Wayne Manor, in this scene he side kicks a tree in half, not a baby tree but a gigantor full grown tree with winter-hardened branches. I wrote a WCWesque poem about it on May 15th:

Year One

I didn't like the part
where the Batman
kicked the tree
in half

I was expecting The Dark Night Returns (fabs fabs), not even close though (sads sads). Batman shouldn't be kicking trees in half, Frank Miller should've known better, DC comics should've known better, I'm at a loss to explain this one. 

Oh here, I just found the panel...you be the judge:

...not good I says, not good.

6. A Storm Of Swords- George R.R. Martin (A Song Of Ice And Fire, Book 3)
 Bantam Books

Last night I dreamt that Susan Gevirtz told me that Tracy Morris used to write rap lyrics for Cypress Hill. I'm going for a run in Concord today. The word "doppelganger" had some poignancy last night as well.  I ate half a watermelon and watched two episodes of Star Trek. I spent Sunday afternoon at Heart And Dagger talking about ad trafficking with Ali James's. It's only annoying when someone else cracks their knuckles. Rocky II is not a very good movie, I'm only just now seeing that. That guy from Gasland isn't very good at playing the ukelele. 

Pisha + Johnny, 1996/ 2013

1996

what is that famous Lorraine Niedecker quote?
"I've never seen a good biopic, condensory..."

in other news, Orange Is The New Black is a tad overrated doncha think?
girls be gaga for that show though.

I watched the Star Trek episode The Trouble With Tribbles last night, Trekkers be gaga for that episode, I didn't think it was all that, Kirk is kind of cute and flippant in it, playing against character, I get it, I always loved when Mulder and Scully played the fools. But I much prefer The City On The Edge Of Forever from Season 1, written by Harlan Ellison, maybe my favorite episode thus far.

sometimes I hate the word "episode." it sounds so wasteful and cloying.

driving to work this morning while listening to DJ Jesse Luscious on KALX I realized that I hate the word "luscious." it's a disgusting word, the way the tongue moves around in your mouth while enunciating it, making all those saucy sibilant sounds, indecent. it conjures images of snails slithering all over a plastic bag full of rotting squished figs. I also hate that ridiculous impossibility of a word, "comptroller."

oh boy The Knife just came on!

 

 

my pal Zoe is DJing a happy hour at Ruby Room, she'll be laying down the metal bro.

another celebrity/ animation doppelganger thingy...

Joffrey Baratheon (Game Of Thrones)

AND

 Jack Frost (Rise Of The Guardians)

90's Hip Hop suffered from a serious case of the excessive skits...

RIP The Wax Museum At Fisherman's Wharf.

I don't truck with experimental fiction.

Summer 2013, Los Angeles

Summer 2013, Los Angeles

Summer 2013, LA

Summer 2013, LA

Summer 2013, LA

Summer 2013, LA

Summer 2013, Eel River

photos by Stian Rasmussen

Summer 2013, Dude Brunch Crew, Fairyland

what's wrong with this smoothie?

did you forget the banana base?

...banana base.

God I hate activists.

My back hurts on a tractor.

Like when I sing I swallow my pride.

This land is not your land,
it's a friendly urban farm.

But by all means
raise Cain
and round and round we go

I'm like the Kelsey Grammer of the poetry scene.

I acknowledge homeless people in Oakland more than I do in San Francisco.

people in the Bay Area talk about the weather like people in LA talk about traffic.

Summer 2013, Eel River