Orr Reviews Books from Matthew Zapruder and Rachel Wetzsteon

I don't have much to say here; Orr compliments their work and gives praise where praise is deserved. From the poetry section, April 22nd: "How Poets Achieve Their Styles"

the Lost Entry of March 18th

While spring-cleaning my phone last night, I found these notes (typed in 3/18 apparently). It was St. Patty's Day. I had taken the afternoon off to catch-up with a cousin I hadn't seen in a while. We had a few beers, traded stories, it was good. I typed parts of this into my phone while we were hanging out, and I typed the rest the next morning on the train.



Frontier Psychiatrist--
My cousin and I took an afternoon off to catch up. It's been awhile. He showed me the video for Frontier Psychiatrist (the MTV version is still floating around youtube). It brought back memories of how much fun it was to be pop-music lover during the crazy sampling days of the 90s and 00s. Pandora has a "Frontier Psychiatrist" station--not that one would ever catch that song on Pandora, but hey, the songs are fairly relevant. "You've got Maelstrom" by BlockHead on Music by Cavelight. The samples here include voice-work from a comic-book record--one of the Marvel or DC super-hero stories by a Power Records released in the 70s. I'm sure of it.

You know what, let's just do a running list of what I'm listening to. Bees on Mars now. Good stuff from TM Juke's album Forward. Then again, heroin can be good stuff too. So is a bottle of scotch. A pitcher of White Russian is good stuff too. DJ Shadow now.

There is a firm new way of being in the world now--the personal movie soundtrack. After 35 years (let's begin with the sony walk-man), it's easy now, almost expected that at certain times, all of us will want to have a clear helmet of music descend around our heads, and the sidewalks and streets turn into a backdrop--a landscape of faces only inches from us, but filtered through the soundscape of another planet.

I've been living this way for about two months now. I'm not sure there's anything wrong with this. Unless, of course, one doesn't know when to turn off the music and live more presently in the world.

Yes.

Deltron 3030.

Our Story Begins

I'm reading Tobias Wolff's 2008 collectionOur Story Begins. It opens with "In the Garden of the North American Martyrs." What a great story. The metaphor about higher education's glass ceiling's ability to cut/to hurt/to destroy is brilliantly delivered. It should be required reading for those in academe. Considering how I was exposed to it, perhaps it already is. And, considering the recent gains of women in academia, perhaps the use of the word Garden to describe academia is no longer a darkly ironic symbol. Or at least, not as dark.

"Bullet in the Brain" is also in here. Perhaps the most innovative way to develop a character, ever.

Eight Weeks

The past eight weeks have been some of the most exhausting of my life. So this post will be short. A thank you to the Band. You all were tremendously supportive with insightful criticism and suggestions on the draft of my chapbook. Hats off to you.