Year-End Lists

For me, the problem with year end lists is that I don't really keep track of what I have done--what books I've read, what music I've listened to, what movies I've seen--during the past year. Especially when it comes to books, my year-end lists will always favor books that I have read recently, most likely within the last six months. With that in mind, here are ten books, listed in no particular order, I enjoyed this past year:

1.) Horse, Flower, Bird by Kate Bernheimer
2.) L.A. Liminal by Becca Klaver
3.) Dear Sandy, Hello by Ted Berrigan
4.) Just Kids by Patti Smith
5.) Richard Yates by Tao Lin
6.) The Ask by Sam Lipsyte
7.) The Irrationalist by Suzanne Buffam
8.) An Answer To an Inquiry by Robert Walser
9.) The Wonderfull Yeare by Nate Pritts
10.) Heaven by Mairead Byrne

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When it comes to music, everything old is new again and I spend most of my time listening to Sam Cooke Radio on Pandora when I am working. I also like newer acts with throwback sounds like Mayer Hawthorne, Raphael Saadiq, and Ryan Shaw, though none of those artists had new albums out in 2010 (at least I don't think they did). However, Cee-Lo had a new album come out, and I have been enjoying Lady Killer. I also picked up the new Arcade Fire, and discovered Janelle Monae, Cadillac Sky, Gaslight Anthem, and Best Coast this year, so it's been a good year for music.



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As far as movies go, it's kind of embarrassing how far out of the loop I am on this one. I can probably count on one hand how many times I went to see a movie this year, and I don't own a Netflix account. The most notable movie I saw, I received a copy of in the mail: I Will Smash You, a short documentary film by Michael Kimball and Luca Dipierro. Highly recommended. I also enjoyed Max Greenstreet's documentary My Own Eyes, which can be viewed here. One thing Saginaw this area lacks is a venue for independent film; however, my recent discovery of the film schedule at the Flint Institute of Arts should make 2011 a better movie-going year.

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The past few years have been rough for me for various reasons, and I jokingly tend to great the new year by saying, "Come on 20[whatever], do your worst." I think I am going to stop doing that. This year I lost a number of people close to me. Rest in peace Aunt Wanda, John, Mark, and Sean.

Recent Reading

Yesterday I finally got around to reading Patti Smith's Just Kids, winner of the National Book Award this year. I found Smith's prose style to be instantly engaging--I couldn't put the book down until I finished reading it. It's the story of her friendship with the artist Robert Mapplethorpe, beginning with their chance meeting in Brooklyn in 1967 and going through the various things they experienced together during their pursuit to become artists. Their shared story takes place in a New York City that no longer exists--one where artists could live (though maybe go hungry) on very little money, one where everyone at the Chelsea Hotel was somebody, one where Andy Warhol's Factory was the scene to be in, one where you could randomly bump into the likes Allen Ginsburg, Gregory Corso, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, William Burroughs, and Sam Shepard (to name a few people). I recommend it to my artist friends, music fan friends, and my New York friends.

Also, check out this video Patti Smith in conversation with Paul Holdengraber at the New York Public Library.

Saginaw Preservation

I came across this article via Facebook: "A Thing of Beauty is a Joy Forever; Rightsizing in Saginaw." It begins talking about the streets of West Saginaw, but then includes an image from East Saginaw of my favorite house (pictured above), which is in my neighborhood. Preservation is something we have never been good at here, and I think the commentators raise a lot of interesting points across the spectrum of the value of preserving these buildings. It makes me sad to see them in the condition they are in, but our economic reality is what has led them into this condition and I don't see much headway being made in this area financially. So what is there to do?

Finding Saginaw

On Sunday's All Things Considered, there was a brief story on Eric Schantz, a Saginaw-based artist, and the Paint Saginaw organization. You can listen to it here: "Finding Simon & Garfunkel's 'America' in Saginaw, Mich."

Here is a photo that I took in October 2008. This house has since been torn down.

Gathering To Bring Awareness of Peace To Saginaw

This Sunday from 11 to 12 a.m. there will be a gathering on the Saginaw County Courthouse lawn. Here is the call from the Facebook invite:

Please come and shine the light of awareness on the continuing violence that continues to plague our home. For too long now we have let others dictate the safety of our surroundings. This is not the whole answer, but it can be a spark and a start. Bring signs, energy, and warm clothes.

CW2 Board Game Drive

Communities Working 2gether (CW2) is accepting board game and puzzle donations for the holidays to give to those less fortunate in our community. You can drop new or lightly used games & puzzles off at the Saginaw Community Foundation or Shaper's Hair Salon. I found a lot of classic games--Chutes & Ladders, Candy Land, Memory, etc.--on sale for $5 each at Meijer a few weeks ago. I'm sure there are still tons of sales heading into the final week of xmas shopping.

New Reviews at NewPages

This month we had a big batch of book reviews, so we divided them into two. The first batch went up on December 1st, and the most recent went up on the 14th. In the latest update you can find:

- Vivisect by Lisa Lewis reviewed by Sima Rabinowitz
- Reliquary Fever by Beckian Fritz Goldberg reviewed by Sima Rabinowitz
- Up From the Blue by Susan Henderson reviewed by Alex Myers
- Baby & Other Stories by Paula Boomer reviewed by Elena Spagnolie
- The Sixty-Five Years of Washington by Juan Jose Saer reviewed by Olive Mullet
- Letters From the Emily Dickinson Room by Kelli Russell Agodon reviewed by Renee Emerson
- Nine Worthies by Caroline Knox reviewed by Renee Emerson
- An Invisible Rope: Portraits of Czeslaw Milosz edited by Cynthia L. Haven reviewed by Lisa Dolensky
- Birds For a Demolition by Manoel de Barros revied by Sima Rabinowitz
- Sweetgrass by Micah Lang reviewed by Chey Davis
- The Oldest Hands in the World by Daniele Pantano reviewed by Sima Rabinowitz

You can read all of the reviews here.

Getting to work

Look for a new chapbook from Lame House Press just in time for AWP 2011.

House cleaning

I just took a few minutes to click through all of the links I have in the right panel to lit bloggers and have removed any that were no longer functioning, any that had been set to private, and any that had not had any posts in 2010. I also updated blog addresses for people who have relocated. If you feel like you have been deleted in error, let me know.

Crime in Saginaw

For the past five years (or has it been six now?), the little city of Saginaw, MI, my hometown, has topped the FBI's violent crime list with the most violent crimes per capita. So far during 2010, we have been seeing a decrease in violent crime, but now we have had two homicides in the span of one week. The latest victim, a 20-year-old female, was shot last night. There are no real details of what has happened, but you can read about it here.

I've been working (mostly in my head so far) on an essay (or something) about my love/hate relationship with this city, and one of the things that I am concerned about is how segregated the city is, and how it is accepted as "normal" for there to be violent crimes on the east side of the city, while it is abnormal for it to happen on the west side of the city, which led to the media coverage and response to Sean Stennett's killing last week. I am hoping that the people who are working for peace on the east side are able to connect with the people working for peace on the west side, and vice versa, so that one day this city no longer accepts violence as the norm.

Tonight: A Candlelight Vigil for Sean and Peace in Saginaw

There is a candlelight vigil for Sean Stennett at the Courthouse tonight starting at 9 PM. Afterward, head over to the Red Eye and the 211. There will be music, raffles, and auctions. One hundred percent of all proceeds will go to Sean's family.

I have been reeling from the news of Sean's death since I first heard it, and I have a lot to say about the state of things in Saginaw, but now is not the time. It's the time to remember Sean and celebrate the wonderful person he was. Rest in peace and love.

Tonight at Court Street Gallery

Tonight at 6 p.m. please join us to celebrate the recent release of Matt Bell's How They Were Found. Matt will be present to read from his new collection, and Josh Maday will also be reading. Afterward, Traeder, who recently released a new cd, will be performing.

Here is some info about Bell:

Matt Bell is the author of How They Were Found, published by Keyhole Press in October 2010, as well as three chapbooks, Wolf Parts (Keyhole Press), The Collectors (Caketrain Press), and How the Broken Lead the Blind (Willows Wept Press). His fiction has appeared in Conjunctions, Hayden's Ferry Review, Willow Springs, Unsaid, and American Short Fiction, and has been selected for inclusion in anthologies such as Best American Mystery Stories 2010 and Best American Fantasy 2. His book reviews and critical essays have appeared in The Los Angeles Times, American Book Review, and The Quarterly Conversation.

He is also the editor of The Collagist and of Dzanc's Best of the Web anthology series.

He lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with his wife Jessica.

The event starts at 6 PM and is free. Court Street Gallery is located at 417 Hancock Street in Old Town Saginaw, Michigan.

New Book Reviews at NewPages

I have not been doing a good job of announcing things here, but I am going to try to be a little better about it...

Anyhow, the big news today is that we received so many book reviews this month at NewPages that we have decided to split the reviews in two--so half of them went up today, and the other half will go live on December 14th. In today's update you can find the following:

- Alex Myers reviews Pirate Talk or Mermalade by Terese Svoboda
- Elena Spagnolie reviews The Creative Writer's Survival Guide by John McNally
- H.V. Cramond reviews Muted Lines From Someone Else's Memory by Seth Berg
- Olive Mullet reviews God on the Rocks by Jane Gardam
- Sima Rabinowitz reviews Indexical Elegies by John Paul Fiorentino & Velleity's Shade by Star Black and Bill Knott
- Tessa Mellas reviews The Patterns of Paper Monsters by Emma Rathbone
- C.J. Opperthauser reviews Skin, Inc. by Thomas Sayers Ellis
- Renee Emerson reviews Present Tense by Anna Rabinowitz
- Carold Dorf reviews Sonnets by Camille Martin
& I review Please Take Me Off the Guest List by Nick Zinner, Zachary Lipez and Stacy Wakefield

You can read all the reviews here.