Friday, March 28, 2014

Sports Distraction: So Long MJD & Thanks for all the Squish!

According to like news and stuff, the Jaguars "star by default" Maurice Jones-Drew, after becoming a free agent 2.5 weeks ago, is now headed to the Raiders. Good Riddance.

"Oh but like he rushed for several yards!" Yeah. As the only person on the Jags who got the ball. Blech. I don't love real-pro ball, preferring faux-pro ball (i.e. college) but if I'm going to live in a town with a pro team, I'd at least like us to suck less.

MJD leaving will help that.

Okay, back to music, TV, and poetry!

What I'm Listening To: Virginia Woolf by Indigo Girls

Virginia Woolf took an endless bath 73 years ago today.

Emily Saliers wrote a song about her 22 years ago.

Here it is!


"The apathy of time laughs in my face."

Dang, Emily.

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Poem! Olyver Currant: January at Burlesque Press

Olyver Currant is a poem of 12 double sestinas, one for each month of the narrator's "annus horribilis."
"January" is the first one.

Airplanes rip bright white wounds across the sky,
heartless, drained of color, silent and cold,
rending the frozen air miles above me
shivering below lying on the ground,
praying for the rains that I know will not come,
snow or rain or something to change this land,
mark these dry trees, and remake this new year
beautiful with crystal white rose ice
hanging immobile off of everything,
reigning in clear white silence over all,
covering every door that our hands will touch;
blinding the world so I can not see you.

Criticism! & What I'm Watching: Selling Mad Men at Trop Magazine

Check out my popcrit of Mad Men (aka the best TV show ever) over at Trop Magazine:

"If you haven’t been watching Mad Men I can’t say I blame you. With 3,666 critically acclaimed minutes under wraps already, jumping in just before the final season is daunting. However, there are two full weeks until the premiere of season 7, so a few hours of TV a day to catch up won’t hurt. Much."

Read the rest at Trop!

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

What I'm Listening To: The Mountain Goats Tiny Desk Concert

So I'm thinking about writing a popcrit piece on the Tiny Desk series.

Wanna read it?

While you're thinking about it, here's some Mountain Goats:


Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Around the Internet: 10 Rules (of teaching) from Berty Russell

Not just a guy who loved communism & sleeping with people's wives!

1: Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.

2: Do not think it worth while to proceed by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.

3: Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed.

4: When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavor to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.

5: Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found.

6: Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.

7: Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.

8: Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.

9: Be scrupulously truthful, even if the truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.

10: Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool’s paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness.



stolen from Brainpickings who stole it from the New York Times.

What I'm Reading: Richer Entanglements by Gregory Orr

I'm in the middle of Orr's great series on poetry, Richer Entanglements. The jist is that poets are pattern-makers who work in four separate modes, balancing order and disorder.

It's a fascinating argument and I look forward to writing a full review when I'm finished. Keep an eye out!


Monday, March 24, 2014

What I'm Listening To: The Rat by The Walkmen

On today's installment of the highest and best use of Facebook (a music sharing group I'm part of), someone posted "The Rat" by The Walkmen as a great driving song.

Besides being right, they introduced me to a lovely new band.


I'm sure I'm just the last person in the world to have heard of these guys but that's what it is, right?

Find more about them at their website.

Enjoy!

Poem! Leaves at Burlesque Press

Leaves

I, for you, am nothing: silent, profane,
trying to rise to your sacred language
above myself, above this vulgar light,
like the falling leaves that have only now
just arrived, this first cold night in November.

Poem! I Look for Love in Loss at E-Verse Radio

I Look for Love in Loss

When my daughter died,
I could have
frozen up inside;
it was a close shave.

Poem! After the Ruin at Burlesque Press

After the Ruin

“Weather’s getting colder tonight,
better bundle up against the wind.
Take your hat and the scarf I knitted.
See you soon.”

Poem! Sarah at Burlesque Press

Sarah

My life wide open
I dive into the ocean
of her dreams.

Poem! Alba Longa at Burlesque Press

Alba Longa

Our argus stole the desired chance,
our second to embrace the dance
played in the music of our eyes,
for through her camera lens she spied
this picture they can’t see.

Poem! Been Here at Burlesque Press

Been Here

Full fathom five thy martyr lies
buried by uncaring hands;
his corpse an unrewarded prize
cradled by black and nameless sands.