Sunday, June 28, 2009

52 books in 52 weeks (?) 
It's been a while since I posted a 52 books list so here's what I've read over the past 2 semesters (I can't count in years anymore - too set in my academic ways)

1. Zoe Wicomb/Playing in the Light
2. Amitav Ghosh/The Shadow Lines
3. Alison Bechdel/Fun Home: a Family Traigcomic
4. Judith Butler/Antigone's Claim: Kinship Between Life & Death
5. Leslie Marmon Silko/Ceremony
6. Giorgio Agamben/The Open
7. Thomas Pynchon/The Crying of Lot 49
8. Ralph Ellison/Invisible Man
9. Jack Kerouac/On the Road
10. Ann Cvetkovich/An Archive of Feelings
11. Maurice Blanchot/The Instant of My Death; Derrida/Demeure: Fiction & Testimony
12. The Essential Acker: Selected Writings of Kathy Acker
13. Linda Williams: Screening Sex
14. Anne Carson/Autobiography of Red
15. Gopinath/ Impossible Desires
16. Agamben/Homo Sacer
17. Woolf/Women & Writing
18. In a Queer Time & Place
19. Popular Culture: a reader
20. Toni Morrison/Beloved
21. Sherman Alexie/Reservation Blues (2nd/3rd? read)
22. Winterson/Written on the Body (2nd read)
23. Neil Gaiman/The Graveyard Book
24. Bill Bryson/Notes from a Small Island
25. Watchmen (reread)
26. Philip Roth/The Human Stain
27. Maryse Conde/I, Tituba
28. Breslaw/Titube, Reluctant Witch of Salem
29. Jakobsen & Pelligrini/Love the Sin
30. Kerber/No Constitutional Right to be Ladies
31. Harriet Jacobs/Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
32. Hartman/Scenes of Subjection: Terror, Slavery, and Self-making in 19th C. America
33. Johnson/The oxherding tale
34. Ida B. Wells/Southern Horros & Other Writings
35. Bederman/Manliness & Civilization
36. R. Zamora Linmark/Rolling the Rrrrs
37. Alice Echols/Daring to be Bad
38. Lisa Duggan & Nan Hunter/Sex Wars
39. Grewal/Transnational Feminisms
40. Freud/Beyond the Pleasure Principle
41. Derrida/On Cosmopolitanism & Forgiveness
42. La Capra/Writing History, writing Trauma
43. Joseph Conrad/Under western Eyes (2nd read)
44. Jean Rhys/Voyage in the Dark
45. George Lamming/The Emigrants
46. Zoe Wicomb/David's Story
47. J.M. Coetzee/Disgrace
48. Ngugi wa Thiong'o/Petals of blood
49. Caruth/Unclaimed Experience
50. Woolf/to the Lighthouse (reread)
51. Sophocles/Antigone
52. Bronte/Wuthering Heights

more...
53. Jaime Hernandez/Dicks & Deedees
54. Munoz/Disidentifications: Queers of Color & the Performance of Politics


watching "young guns" after finishing a (hopefully) final draft of a paper on Sherman Alexie's "Reservation Blues"...irony?...last night was LIT magazine's launch party for the 10th anniversary double issue. It was @ Lolita Bar - a cool little space south of Delancey.  I wasn't so much about the music (all Michael Jackson all the time) but the readings were great - especially my Tin House workshop friend Casey Haymes who read his wonderful story featuring none other than George Bailey & his lovely wife Mary...post-readings there was much reminiscing w/LIT staff types, fellow MFA alums, etc. After that, went to dinner @ one of the new jack "Indian" restaurants on 6th Street - bland curry, instant white rice, and chapati bread that tasted like glue.  Service was great (albeit somewhat confused) and the atmosphere nice enough. Think I'll stick to Haveli on 2nd ave. I miss Rose of India :(  

Monday, June 22, 2009

News/photos hitting the web re: Tim Burton's Alice. Some coverage here and some here.
Sooo looking forward to this one.
falling behind on the posts again...went to see MOON this weekend. It was jam packed so we had to sit too close. Good, slow-moving, worth seeing. Sam Rockwell was awesome as was Kevin Spacey as the "helpful" robot. The ending felt rushed though & oddly hopeful (read: not necessary). Back at work where they seem to think we need to be kept below 50 degrees (?). This weekend was also the "Write Makes Might Marathon" NYWC reading. 5 of my workshop participants read & they were SO good...makes getting up at the crack of every Sat morning for the past year & more well worth it. The reading was 4 hours long (ouch!) and 90% of the readers were truly wonderful...I guess some people went to the Mermaid Parade despite the weather. Just wouldn't seem the same to me now what with all my favorite mermaids moved away or out of touch. Sunday I did my schoolwork - read all of Philip Roth's "The Human Stain" ... not sure what I'm going to write about that mess. Ack. Yes, I get why it's an important book. Yes, I get why he wins awards. No, I couldn't read it without throwing it across the room at least twice.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

I want to be here right now please...http://www.oceancrestresort.com/
another week already...big news for me: the prof. I wanted for my MA Thesis Advisor agreed to work with me...this means nothing to those of you not in school but those who are/have been will get why it's a big deal. I remain tired and yet, elated. Some other things...went to CLMP's "Periodically Speaking" at NYPL and 1 out of 3 writers was good. He read a story about sex, cancer, and Elvis - not necessarily in that order. I loved it. He has a novel apparently. I hope it's as good as his story. Someone twittered (tweeted?) that Nick Cave has a new book out this fall. He'll be at B&N Union Square on 9/14. I'm already ready to go stand in line (or as some say, "on line")...No movies I want to see this weekend except MOON but that can wait until next week. Instead, I'll be going to the NY PHIL to see a performance of Britten's "War Requiem." for really cheap. Sometimes? I love going to NYU. Trying to catch up on Sherman Alexie's latest stuff since B&N says they shipped me the book & yet, somehow, it never arrived. F**kers. Here's a good new Alexie poem you should read called "Missed Connections." Some of the others I've read online aren't as good as I'd hoped but still better than much of what passes for poetry these days.
After the NYPL/CLMP reading, I went with 2 writer friends to get a drink at the Algonquin. $16 for a REALLY GOOD vodka gimlet but still...$16? Then we went somewhere much more low rent for one more & the off home. Still recovering from my weekend at Yale. I sometimes wish I had been born into a wealthy family. Money would be nice. Money for college would be even nicer. Money for college and a family yacht? even nicer.
But now, back to the dayjob. sigh.

Friday, June 05, 2009

recipes that are actually entertaining as opposed to all those crappy, pretentious "oh I only eat quail eggs" kind of recipes...if you don't know who Warren Ellis is, I'll think you're an idiot most likely but you can learn about him here or just follow him on Twitter...that's all. just the recipes. have a nice weekend everyone. I'm off to New Haven (accent on the "New" apparently) to spend "quality time" with my parents.

newport, RI

another day another 40 cents to the dollar (?)...it's raining again - very hard - which means I somehow have to do all of my errands on Monday or Tuesday since I'll be going to the Yale University Reunion Weekend all weekend. And no, I didn't go to Yale but my dad did because he's definitely smarter than me. Just finished my reading for school last night - Leslie Marmon Silko's "Ceremony" which is, another one of those "I get why it's so important" books and while most of it's really good? it really really made me feel bad for being white. I guess that's the point, right? And yet, the protagonist is half-white which seems to disappear from the book at some point or maybe I'm not reading it right which is quite possible...the headache persists. I had dreams all night involving the ocean, standing in the ocean, walking on the beach barefoot by the ocean, listening to the ocean while I slept in some nice little house most definitely not anywhere I've been before. And then I woke up to the sound of rain on the roof. I'm spending far too much time on Twitter lately which is really pathetic considering the amount of work I have to get done. I notice that a lot of writers (actually published writers with successful books out and everything) spend a lot of time on there (unless they actually just make some poor research assistant post all their tweets for them)...how do they actually get any writing done? Or maybe they just don't have lives so they spend their time online and posting tweets and still get writing done? Or maybe they sleep less than I do. Or maybe...I'm really spending too much time worrying about this, aren't I? when I really should be re-drafting my thesis proposal & finishing off a couple of stories & sending them out into the world & running on the treadmill (because only an idiot would run on the street in NYC) & cleaning the apartment & drafting my final paper proposal for my class (which is neary almost over?!?) & all that other stuff I have to do.

Thursday, June 04, 2009

Coraline's been extended & Theatermania has tickets cheaper than the regular price.
Go here for info on the stage show & for info on the cheaper tickets (not cheap, cheaper) do this: call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200 Use code CLTM
one of my NYU professor's has a cool website: http://www.ahistoryofnewyork.com/
first Exene has M.S. and now The Grasshopper offs himself? the world is a sad & troubling place sometimes...
in happier news, it's still rainy & grey & cold outside which is making me happy although this blinding headache I've had for 3 days (?) is still doing JUST FINE...I missed not one but TWO readings I wanted to go to because of this. Of course, it's given me lots of time to do my homework, ponder my existence, rewrite & send off a story, lots of other useful stuff. Maybe if I spent less time under flourescent lights? or less time staring a computer screen? or less time squinting at a printed page?
and then there's this nonsense about cats & strings wherein some human scientists try to prove that cats don't understand Cause & Effect...as if. Since when have humans understood Cause & Effect? And we all know that cats are certainly smarter than humans. please people, get a life and go study something worthwhile like the mating habits of gerbils.

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

so sad..

Alex Smith is reading tonight @ Revival. You should go. I stole this from Amy Lawless's site since it was easier than stealing from Facebook:

Alex Smith: Shameless

Alex Smith is reading on Tuesday night at REVIVAL near Union Square
Date: Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm
Location: Revival
Street: 129 E 15th St

Amy will be introducing him and also roasting him slightly. This party is for the release of his AMAZING book LUX. LUX is one of my favorite books. Amazing poems.
a couple weeks ago, my friend MES and I saw Zinn at an uber-fancy place on Bond Street (I could only afford a water & an appetizer). She, of course, recognized him. I, of course, did not.

“There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.”
Howard Zinn

go save some elephants now!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNSQBZIlpyI
The fabulous writer/musician Matt(e) has a show next week. You should all go.

Cloud Chamber has a show at a place called Googie's, in Manhattan, coming up
on Thursday June 11.
Location deets below. Admission: free! (w/ 1-drink minimum, sorry)
Googie's is a small venue above the Living Room, a sort of spawning ground
for the larger venue below.
We hope you can make it out to see us at the amazingly grown up time of 7:30
pm!
We'll have new songs, a fresh, upbeat, yet surly attitude, and Anne will be
playing a real grand piano the place happens to have!
Hoping to see you there!
-Matt

• Googie's Lounge (Upstairs at The Living Room)
154 Ludlow (btwn Stanton & Rivington)
NYC 10002
212 533 7235 or 212 533 7237 (bar when open)
www.livingroomny.com

*Subway*
From Penn Station
- Take the A, C, or E downtown to West 4th St. and transfer to the F or V
downtown to the 2nd Ave. Station
- Go east until you reach Ludlow St. and make a right down towards Stanton,
keep walking if you pass Rivington, you’ve gone too far.

*Parking*
-Indoor -Essex between Rivington and Delancy.
-Street -Parking after 7pm.
Warren Ellis quote of the day (from Twitter): "It remains important to note that, cane or no, I can still kill you simply by the power of my Englishness alone."
maybe I should get this for my niece's b'day?
http://www.delilahnoir.com/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=404

back from hiatus (a/k/a the library)

okay...so I've been neglecting my blog. See, there's this thing called "life" and this other thing called "school" and they've just been keeping me too busy. And then I just felt like I was too far behind and so I couldn't possibly post or ever catch up but that's just lame so...here I am back again.
I think I'm going to stop posting all of the announcements of Armed Forces casualties - not because I don't still believe that we should ALL pay more attention & give these men & women the respect they deserve but...because I'm lame and just can't catch up. Who knows...maybe I'll end up posting once in a while but for now, just can't do it. And yes, I know, I'm lame...Onwards...so, I've finished the MFA (eek) and the first full draft of the novel (double eek) and have since left it neglected & started working on other things. Some stories going out this week. One appeared in the last (?) Raleigh Quarterly. That being "If I were a Carpenter" a/k/a "the hammer story." It's also going to be in the Brooklyn Writers' Space anthology which was supposed to come out in December but isn't yet out. um...okay. Lots of other stories & poems out there in the ether waiting to be accepted or rejected or ignored. * I'm continuing my work towards a Master's in Humanities & Social Thought at the truly wonderful & demanding NYU. Although it's putting me even deeper in the poor house (is that one word or two??), I'm learning SO much and, I think, it's been very good for my writing and my brain. This summer I'm taking a class with CK Patell wherein we're reading Kerouac, Ellison, Pynchon, Silko, Roth (bleh), Morrison, and a couple others. I could do with more women writers or at least less of the old white guy variety but I guess I have to study this stuff sometime. It's a short course and I somehow have to come up with a topic for my paper & write it over the next few weeks. (whee!) After that, I'm taking a British Fiction course and then? I'll be DONE DONE DONE...except of course for that 50K word Master's Thesis. And the Ph.D. program applications. Ack. The day job calls. again. More later.