I'm finally getting around to reading books that I meant to read over a year ago (which seems to happen often with current fiction for me). I just finished Thomas Pynchon's Inherent Vice, which was a fun read--incredibly entertaining, mysterious, and funny. Set in Los Angeles at the end of the 1960s, the novel follows Doc Sportello, a private investigator who is always high, as he investigates the apparent kidnapping of a real estate mogul. This features a wonderfully strange cast of characters, and portrays a deeply fragmented America where everyone is paranoid, especially in light of the recent Manson family murders. I am by no means a Pynchon expert, though I have always loved The Crying of Lot 49, and Inherent Vice ranks right up there for me. I have heard that someone has optioned the movie rights, which could be interesting. I remember the Rolling Stone review of the book compared Sportello to Jeff Bridges's Lebowski from The Big Lebowski.
Now I am reading Jonathan Lethem's Chronic City. I have barely started it, but it is giving me a Paul Auster feel early on. At this rate, I'll get around to reading The Pale King in 2013...
I also have been reading a lot of poetry including Claire Becker's Where We Think It Should Go, James Meetze's Dayglo, Stephanie Anderson's The Nightyard, Kate Greenstreet's Called, Noelle Kocot's The Bigger World (of which I have a review forthcoming at NewPages), and the split book Your Trouble Is Ballooning by Amber Nelson and Arousing Notoriety by A. Minetta Gould. And re-reading Oppen.
Yesterday I had a 9 1/2 hour drive to make and I occupied some of that time listening to the cd the accompanies All Poets Welcome, which made me wonder why I don't listen to more poetry cds while driving. Beyond All Poets Welcome and the Narrow House cds, I don't really have any poetry cds. Can anyone out there recommend some?
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Binge Press Instant-Mini Tour
A few months ago, JodiAnn Stevenson of Binge Press published a series of instant chapbooks and mini broadsides, including one by me. She's now taking the poets from the first series on the road. Here are the dates, locations, and times where you can catch JodiAnn, Robin Brox, Ashley Niedzwiecki, and myself, though unfortunately due to a work obligation I will not be at the reading in Buffalo tonight:
Thursday, 5/12, Rustbelt Books in Buffalo, NY at 7:30pm
Friday, 5/13, The Shop in Port Huron, MI at 7:30pm
Saturday 5/14, AJ's Music Cafe in Ferndale, MI at 7:30pm
Sunday 5/15, The Red Eye in Saginaw, MI at 7:30pm
Thursday, 5/12, Rustbelt Books in Buffalo, NY at 7:30pm
Friday, 5/13, The Shop in Port Huron, MI at 7:30pm
Saturday 5/14, AJ's Music Cafe in Ferndale, MI at 7:30pm
Sunday 5/15, The Red Eye in Saginaw, MI at 7:30pm
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Stone Rollin'
Raphael Saadiq's Stone Rollin' came out yesterday, as did my review of it at Frontier Psychiatrist. You can read it here.
Tuesday, May 03, 2011
Recent Media Consumption
Us by Michael Kimball
Tyrant Books, forthcoming May 10, 2011
A few years ago, I taught Michael Kimball's Dear Everybody in a comp class, and I had a number of students who thought it was nonfiction become really angry when they discovered it was fiction. (I was not being deceptive about it at all--we were in the middle of a section on fiction...) I imagine that same group of students would become angry with/confused by Kimball's newest book, Us, with its multiple perspectives and its narrator who seems to be none other than Michael Kimball. In Us, the writing of the book is made visible to us, the readers. A grandson imagines what his grandparents lives were like towards their ends--the immense love that they had between them relayed in the details. The straight-forward sentences delivered from Kimball's grandfather's perspective tenderly show a life that only knows how to exist in relation to someone else, his wife, and what happens to that life when the center that was holding it together is no longer there. A quick read. Definitely recommended.
Super Size Me
When Super Size Me first came out in 2004, I remember reading about it, and certainly since then enough people have written about it or have discussed it to the point where I really had no real need to see it--I knew what happened. Some guy eats McDonald's for 30 days and gets really sick. However, I recently watched the documentary for myself, and I am glad that I did. There wasn't anything life-changing about it for me, but I did find some things surprising, like the fact that there is sugar in the salads at McDonald's and also the damage that fat caused to Morgan Spurlock's liver. I also hadn't been aware of the walking restraint Spurlock placed on himself. Personally, I have always been bothered by how little I walk in a given day compared to what I did when I lived in New York. Having actual numbers to quantify things certainly illustrated for me how significant of a difference it really is. Overall, entertaining and interesting. Perhaps something to watch in Comp II this summer.
The hour cop drama
I have been sick for a few weeks now, which has given me a lot of time to spend with Hulu. I don't know that it is a "guilty" pleasure--it may just be a pleasure--whatever the case, I love the hour cop drama and its variations. They all have a simple formula: catch a case at the start of the hour and solve it by the end. Sometimes there might be two cases in a given episode. The show does not even have to be about cops for it to fit this--it could be FBI agents, medical examiners, experts on human behavior, etc. New shows like this crop up all the time, and it seems like more and more they are all following similar character choices: there is always one person who is unlikable (but who we like for just that reason), and there are always quirky assistants/minor characters who act as foils to the main characters. Recently I've watched episodes of Bones, Lie to Me, Detroit 1-8-7, The Chicago Code, and Body of Proof. (Geez, I've been watching a lot of tv lately!) Right now The Chicago Code is probably the most "complex" of those listed. Even though it has the case-per-episode thing going on, it also has a long-term narrative arc: a target for corruption on a politician. And in this sense, the show somewhat resembles my all-time favorite tv shows, The Wire and Twin Peaks. Though The Wire and Twin Peaks each involve crime, their story arcs last for several episodes (or seasons). I don't think The Chicago Code is anywhere near as good as The Wire or Twin Peaks, but I'm enjoying it for now.
David Shapiro Reading
I also recently watched this reading of David Shapiro at CCA from November 3, 2009. I can't embed the video, but you can view it here. Enjoy!
Tyrant Books, forthcoming May 10, 2011
A few years ago, I taught Michael Kimball's Dear Everybody in a comp class, and I had a number of students who thought it was nonfiction become really angry when they discovered it was fiction. (I was not being deceptive about it at all--we were in the middle of a section on fiction...) I imagine that same group of students would become angry with/confused by Kimball's newest book, Us, with its multiple perspectives and its narrator who seems to be none other than Michael Kimball. In Us, the writing of the book is made visible to us, the readers. A grandson imagines what his grandparents lives were like towards their ends--the immense love that they had between them relayed in the details. The straight-forward sentences delivered from Kimball's grandfather's perspective tenderly show a life that only knows how to exist in relation to someone else, his wife, and what happens to that life when the center that was holding it together is no longer there. A quick read. Definitely recommended.
Super Size Me
When Super Size Me first came out in 2004, I remember reading about it, and certainly since then enough people have written about it or have discussed it to the point where I really had no real need to see it--I knew what happened. Some guy eats McDonald's for 30 days and gets really sick. However, I recently watched the documentary for myself, and I am glad that I did. There wasn't anything life-changing about it for me, but I did find some things surprising, like the fact that there is sugar in the salads at McDonald's and also the damage that fat caused to Morgan Spurlock's liver. I also hadn't been aware of the walking restraint Spurlock placed on himself. Personally, I have always been bothered by how little I walk in a given day compared to what I did when I lived in New York. Having actual numbers to quantify things certainly illustrated for me how significant of a difference it really is. Overall, entertaining and interesting. Perhaps something to watch in Comp II this summer.
The hour cop drama
I have been sick for a few weeks now, which has given me a lot of time to spend with Hulu. I don't know that it is a "guilty" pleasure--it may just be a pleasure--whatever the case, I love the hour cop drama and its variations. They all have a simple formula: catch a case at the start of the hour and solve it by the end. Sometimes there might be two cases in a given episode. The show does not even have to be about cops for it to fit this--it could be FBI agents, medical examiners, experts on human behavior, etc. New shows like this crop up all the time, and it seems like more and more they are all following similar character choices: there is always one person who is unlikable (but who we like for just that reason), and there are always quirky assistants/minor characters who act as foils to the main characters. Recently I've watched episodes of Bones, Lie to Me, Detroit 1-8-7, The Chicago Code, and Body of Proof. (Geez, I've been watching a lot of tv lately!) Right now The Chicago Code is probably the most "complex" of those listed. Even though it has the case-per-episode thing going on, it also has a long-term narrative arc: a target for corruption on a politician. And in this sense, the show somewhat resembles my all-time favorite tv shows, The Wire and Twin Peaks. Though The Wire and Twin Peaks each involve crime, their story arcs last for several episodes (or seasons). I don't think The Chicago Code is anywhere near as good as The Wire or Twin Peaks, but I'm enjoying it for now.
David Shapiro Reading
I also recently watched this reading of David Shapiro at CCA from November 3, 2009. I can't embed the video, but you can view it here. Enjoy!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
