Friday, January 30, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
Friday, January 16, 2009
Bye bye, Bushie, Goodbye.
Keith Olbermann's "Bush presidency:eight years in eight minutes"
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Monday, January 12, 2009
From Cupid's arrow with speed.
Derek Fenner (the protagonist)Taking in the air of room #731.
Not sure why the fools at Bootstrap want me up on here, but I’ve never turned down a soapbox before. The world is terrible and I’m in it. I guess you can say things have been pretty bad for me lately. I’m outgrowing the motel room I’m living in and I’m not ready to. The time isn’t right. I’m in love with a lover who won’t love me. Not yet. (Oh Katie won’t you tell me straight, how much longer do I have to wait?) So when the publishers of, I NO LONGER BELIEVE IN THE SUN: LOVE LETTERS TO KATIE COURIC, got in touch with me, I knew it was a sign that the world is ready to listen to the cries I have been screaming from rooftops and alleys. I’ll write when I get a spare moment from all the praying and planning.
In the meantime, I’m here to answer any questions you may have or to offer you spiritual advice. Pawpaw always said I’d be a healer or was it a peeler? Ehhh, either way I’m working on getting another track phone and when I do you’ll be able to give me a buzz and we can talk in person. For now though you can reach me at derekfennertheprotagonist@gmail.com or through the publishers.
Let’s celebrate this strange triumph with auspicious, proud and elaborate pomp, with inconceivable joy and voluptuous amusement, until we feel the pricking darts painfully sticking into our scarred hearts, the target of Cupid’s frequent arrows.
I am without in room #731.
Derek Fenner (the protagonist)
This post is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and events are imaginary. If the names seem to correspond to real people, places, or things, be assured they do not. They are fictitious. Any and all resemblances are coincidental, and where the names or actions of real people, places or things seem to occur, you can rest assured they have been used in imaginary ways, which is to say they are not real, even though in your heart of hearts, you think they are. But they are not real. It is fiction. Every last bit. Only the red thong is real.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Wartime Reading Notes--January 2009
GET YA SOME!!!!
“Lie dead Hector.
I will face my own fate
When Zeus and all the other gods
Show up to bring it on.”
ILIAD Book XXII trans. Lisa Jarnot
-----------------------------
"When I think of the dreams
I had as a youth
failed
for the instant’s easy promises
led to wasted effort
and the dream died
What good is there in going on
still the hope remains
that love might come
and memory stays on
to dull the wounds
of time’s easy stabs."
John Wieners (from forthcoming, A NEW BOOK FROM ROME)
Happy belated winter ya’ll…
Colonel DF
“Lie dead Hector.
I will face my own fate
When Zeus and all the other gods
Show up to bring it on.”
ILIAD Book XXII trans. Lisa Jarnot
Not since Herzog’s Cobra Verde has action been so great as in Lisa Jarnot’s fantastic translation of THE ILIAD Book XXII. You can find her wonderful version of this wartime staple up North at Book Thug. While you are there pick up her book of poems, REPTILE HOUSE, filled to the brim with pleasure and delight. And if you just can’t get enough of Homer, you should head on over to North Atlantic Books and snap up Charles Stein’s complete translation of the ODYSSEY. Why not complete the roundhouse kick and buy Ryan Gallagher’s translation of CATULLUS from us at the strap.
SECRET DEAL: Get a brand new copy of George Herms’ THE SECRET ARCHIVES for less than half price. I’m surprised there are still copies available since I’ve purchase at least four over the last couple of years. It’s a catalog of his 1992 exhibition at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery and contains loads of ephemera (23 separate objects) in a white cardboard portfolio with a string-and-button tie. I have one on the shelf and one to use in correspondence and for decoration of the home. Herms is an assemblage beast, of whom D. Meltzer said, “ The song is you / dark optimism / retrieving the ruined, the cast-aways (the cast of thousands) / multiplying in trash heaps and dumps), the refuse (the refused, / the exiled)”
THE CHANSONNIERS by Patrick Dunagan arrived via post two days ago and the bell of existence rings deep in its poems. Mr. Dunagan really stole some fire from heaven in these poems of earthly life that swells and breaks. I’m sure you can dig it up over at the ever-badass Blue Press.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t send you to get a copy of Baudelaire’s LITTLE POEMS IN PROSE, still available in a fine edition at Weiser Antiquarian Books. This book is “sure to break the chaos of mud and snow.”
Also reading this week, AGE OF SINATRA (Ohle), SERPENT BOX (Carrella), PORTRAITS/JEFFERSON'S BIRTHDAY (Higgins), & THE VISIONARY STATE (Davis).
Listening to The Gonzo Tapes, Is it the Sea?, Tell Tale Signs, Henry's Dream, and Two Steps from the Blues.
---------------------------------
The new John Wieners ms. is coming along nicely. We are in a semi-lengthy pre-press process for this tome, entitled A NEW BOOK FROM ROME. Bootstrap is deep in the red right now, so we’ve slowed production on all titles in queue. One could hope to see this journal out by the spring thaw if sales pick up or another angel swoops in. We’ll get some sneak peaks up here as time permits.
In other news, Bootstrap is hitting the road in February with a visit to Boulder, CO (arriving 2/15 & departing 2/18) and San Francisco, CA (arriving 2/18 & departing 2/21). Give us a shout if you want to shoot a beer or something. We’ll let you know our reading/lecture plans if and when they develop.
SECRET DEAL: Get a brand new copy of George Herms’ THE SECRET ARCHIVES for less than half price. I’m surprised there are still copies available since I’ve purchase at least four over the last couple of years. It’s a catalog of his 1992 exhibition at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery and contains loads of ephemera (23 separate objects) in a white cardboard portfolio with a string-and-button tie. I have one on the shelf and one to use in correspondence and for decoration of the home. Herms is an assemblage beast, of whom D. Meltzer said, “ The song is you / dark optimism / retrieving the ruined, the cast-aways (the cast of thousands) / multiplying in trash heaps and dumps), the refuse (the refused, / the exiled)”
THE CHANSONNIERS by Patrick Dunagan arrived via post two days ago and the bell of existence rings deep in its poems. Mr. Dunagan really stole some fire from heaven in these poems of earthly life that swells and breaks. I’m sure you can dig it up over at the ever-badass Blue Press.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t send you to get a copy of Baudelaire’s LITTLE POEMS IN PROSE, still available in a fine edition at Weiser Antiquarian Books. This book is “sure to break the chaos of mud and snow.”
Also reading this week, AGE OF SINATRA (Ohle), SERPENT BOX (Carrella), PORTRAITS/JEFFERSON'S BIRTHDAY (Higgins), & THE VISIONARY STATE (Davis).
Listening to The Gonzo Tapes, Is it the Sea?, Tell Tale Signs, Henry's Dream, and Two Steps from the Blues.
---------------------------------
The new John Wieners ms. is coming along nicely. We are in a semi-lengthy pre-press process for this tome, entitled A NEW BOOK FROM ROME. Bootstrap is deep in the red right now, so we’ve slowed production on all titles in queue. One could hope to see this journal out by the spring thaw if sales pick up or another angel swoops in. We’ll get some sneak peaks up here as time permits.
In other news, Bootstrap is hitting the road in February with a visit to Boulder, CO (arriving 2/15 & departing 2/18) and San Francisco, CA (arriving 2/18 & departing 2/21). Give us a shout if you want to shoot a beer or something. We’ll let you know our reading/lecture plans if and when they develop.
-----------------------------
"When I think of the dreams
I had as a youth
failed
for the instant’s easy promises
led to wasted effort
and the dream died
What good is there in going on
still the hope remains
that love might come
and memory stays on
to dull the wounds
of time’s easy stabs."
John Wieners (from forthcoming, A NEW BOOK FROM ROME)
Happy belated winter ya’ll…
Colonel DF