33rd Annual New Year's Day Marathon Reading

Monday, January 1, 2007, 2:00 pm – some ridiculous hour of Tuesday, January 2, 2007 33rd Annual New Year's Day Marathon Reading

$16 general admission / $12 students & seniors / $10 Poetry Project members. Doors open at 1:30pm. Readings begin promptly at 2!

with Douglas Dunn, Maggie Estep, John Coletti, Tracey McTague Erica Kaufman, Jenny Smith, Dael Orlandersmith, Edwin Torres, Christopher Martin, Anne Tardos, Rebecca Moore, Nina Karacosta, Bob Hershon, Filip Marinovic, Wanda Phipps, Shanxing Wang, John Giorno, Jen Benka, Tim Peterson, Michael Scharf, R. Erica Doyle, Corrine Fitzpatrick, Duriel Harris, Simone White, Joanna Fuhrman, Frank Sherlock, Todd Colby, Ed Friedman, Eliot Katz, Michael Cirelli, Steve Earle, Chris Rael, Joshua Clover, Lenny Kaye, Lytle Shaw, Donna Brook, Dale Sherrard, Murat Nemet-Nejat, John S. Hall, Eve Packer, Steven Hall, Brenda Bordofsky, CA Conrad, Patti Smith, Maggie Dubris, Evan Kennedy, Susan Briante, Simon Pettet, Merry Fortune, Nathaniel Siegel, Rodrigo Toscano, Stephanie Gray, Dan Machlin, Stacy Szymaszek, Anselm Berrigan, Stefania Iryne Marthakis, Elinor Nauen, David Cameron, David Vogen, Urayoan Noel, Patricia Spears Jones, Carol Mirakove, Farid Matuk, Tracie Morris, Barbara Blatner, Elliott Sharp, Tisa Bryant, Jim Carroll, Brenda Coultas, Mónica de la Torre, Kimiko Hahn, Tony Hoffman, Amy King, Rachel Levitsky, Eileen Myles, Lee Ranaldo, Gillian McCain, Erika Recordon, Evelyn Reilly, Keith Roach, Renato Rosaldo, Lauren Russell, Brian Kim Stefans, Anne Waldman, Brendan Lorber, John Sinclair, Christopher Stackhouse, Dustin Williamson, Marisol Limon Martinez, Lourdes Vazquez, Judith Malina and Hanon Reznikov, Bruce Weber, Tony Towle, Janet Hamill, Billy Lamont, Jeffrey Jullich, Vicki Hudspith, Michael Lydon and Ellen Mandel, Guillermo Castro, Nada Gordon and Gary Sullivan, Peter Bushyeager, Cliff Fyman, Samantha Barrow, Kimberly Lyons, Arlo Quint, Regie Cabico, Ted Greenwald, Bill Kushner, Susan Landers, Bob Rosenthal, Thomas Savage, Harris Schiff, Jacqueline Waters, Max Blagg, Taylor Mead, Jim Behrle, Nicole Blackman, Tao Lin, Eric Bogosian, Robert Dunn, Mitch Highfill, Kazim Ali, Adeena Karasick, Edmund Berrigan, Jess Fiorini, Greg Fuchs, MacGregor Card, Drew Gardner, Bob Holman, Martha Oatis, Tonya Foster, Marcella Durand, Steve Cannon, Adam DeGraff, Karen Weiser, Prageeta Sharma, Yoshiko Chuma, Stephen Paul Miller, David Henderson, Jim Neu, Jordan Davis, Emily XYZ, Bill Berkson, Rich O'Russa, Sharon Mesmer, Don Yorty, Citizen Reno, Hal Sirowitz, Geoffrey Cruickshank-Hagenbuckle, Paul Vazquez, Marty Ehrlich, Erica Hunt, Dana Bryant, Philip Glass, Bethany Spiers, Brenda Iijima, Stephan Smith, Penny Arcade, Katie Degentesh, Paolo Javier and that's that!

The Poetry Project is located at St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery
131 East 10th Street at Second Avenue
New York City 10003
Trains: 6, F, N, R, and L.
info@poetryproject.com
www.poetryproject.com

For more info call 212-674-0910.

F.S.U.

Fake Reading

On the subway and in coffee shops I've been mastering the ability to FAKE READ so that I can listen to what people say around me while seeming interested in my book. One becomes a non-entity with a book in one's hand, reading it with a certain mildly theatrical interest--it disarms people--makes them think you're "elsewhere." To really master this it might be necessary to videotape oneself while FAKE READING in order to study the tape for signs of being unconvincing or inauthentic.

It's very easy to tell when someone is trying to feign interest in a book. Watch a person's eyes and see the artificial movements back and forth over the page. Their eyes lack the rhythmic, almost metronomic movements necessary to create the illusion of being lost in a book. The slightest bit of wandering outside the narrow confines of the printed page should set off alarm bells that you are actually being observed by a FAKE READER. It's like trying to fake sleeping and not blinking, even with the eyes closed. It's an art.

Red or Mulberry

During a cough access that can last more than a minute, the man can put itself red or mulberry.

Living a Life in a Large American City

I came into contact with some information. The information was appealing because it was meaty. So long as the heart beats, the super friends, these super things: delicate rain, delicate cold, mistakes are all forgiven, memory is not a mistake, good things for people who wait, good things for people who make things happen, good things in the many forms, I made sense of that.

An actual friend is on my mind. The rough patches, the patch of living a life in a large American city. A sure and simple life. A list of things to do and another of things done. Doing them in the light, the warm light where we all gather to be told the thing is a yawning gap, my breath, the sound of my feet hitting the ground, you know, those kinds of things.

Greeting the friend with a warm hand, a soft touch, making the friend feel less numb. Making a life live itself with ease for the time being. No regrets, no decline, a sure and simple life, where we all gather to move, to move through the morning light with grace with ease with calm. Now that's the shit.

It's what in the world you've been waiting for:

If I could just get my body to relax I could get some blood in my wings.

Two Pages

Here are two pages from a from a waterlogged journal that somehow survived the fire we had in '03. It was wonderful to discover (just today) that it survived, but sad as hell to see how much damage water can do. Happy holidays.

Captain Beefheart "Ashtray Heart" (1980)

I first saw this when I was a kid and it changed me forever. "Each pillow is counted like a rock. The mother-father figure. Somebody's had too much to think. Send your mother home your navel." Right on!

Captain Beefheart "Hot Head" (1980)

This one put the icing on my teenage musical cake. "She's a hobo wire toaster." It's like Clark Coolidge and Howlin' Wolf got together and decided to make a dream come true. Dig it!

Mary Margaret O'Hara (1989)

One of the most mesmerizing and unsettling performers ever. She's a ball of inspired and divine energy with the voice of an actual nervous angel.

Very Very Bird

Alice Notley

I just received Alice Notley's Grave of Light: New and Selected Poems 1970-2005 and Alma, or The Dead Women. I'm going to enjoy this evening very much.

Arthur Russell (click)

What better way to spend a late night than listening to fellow Iowan Arthur Russell.

Emilio Estevez & Scott Baio T-Shirts by Me

Ambergris

Little creatures hyperventilate when I enter
the room. Who's there? A crappy chair and some red
sugar from a cookie.

End your lines with "the." Sink your teeth into
the pale morning light. Who's there? A curdled milk
mustache on your punk ass face.

Walking along Court Street motioning towards
the gleeful visitors. Who's there? Petrified whale vomit
all the way from Waterloo to Montauk.

Delay won't seek reflection.

Psychic Ills

Good to see the NY Times picked up on Psychic Ills. Trippy trance explorations via VU and Spacemen 3. "I Knew My Name" is a good place to begin listening. i-tunes has 'em. Oh yeah, they're at the Knitting Factory tomorrow night.

Arm Flower, Flash Face and Red Light Balls

What can be done with various strains of dawn on the body

1) Scaling Mt. Mercy.
2) King alto saxophone with mother-of-pearl-keys.
3) High School book reports by Thelonius Monk.
4) I get anxious whenever I read Plato's "Parmenides."
5) I opened the door and stood on the landing as the sun came up.
6) Not to get out of the circle but to get in it in the right way.
7) I'm not really going to let you panic just yet.
8) Consistency trumps intensity.
9) I don't aim to break the crowds, I aim to sip nectar from their gingery palms (hippie shit).
10) More death, more abductions, more worry, more doubt.

More Ridiculous Celebrity T-Shirts by Todd Colby

Today John needed something a little more exciting than a simple white t-shirt so I did my artistic duty with an on-the-spot Ridiculous Celebrity T-Shirt.

"This Instant" by David Lantow (painting) and Todd Colby (words)

I went over to David Lantow's studio this morning before work with my rubber stamp kit to add the last touch to our "Instant Series." It's been an on-going project for several years. There are five paintings in the series. This photograph doesn't do it justice, but I only had a shitty digital camera to document the painting with. For the past 21 years (and hundreds of collaborations) I've loved working with David. We've already started planning a new project, so that's exciting.

Eddie Berrigan holding Brendan Lorber's Stickers

Dear Glee Farm Attendee:

You'll calm down as soon as the air strike happens. Until then, use the slow solvent to etch distress signals into the green wall in the lobby. It should reveal a combo of space junk and pubic hair, so don't sweat it when the authorities ask, just tell them that's the way it comes out of the bottle. Blinky the porker is available to help you with any harsh combing or jacking, just ask.

Please let us know about any of your prior commitments or achievements so that we may dash them in lemon oil and old summer dogs.

By the way, have you ever spent time on the island of good beings? We had that crushed and powdered so you can only use it as an inhalant or body powder. We may send you elsewhere with a 4.0 mega pixel camera so you can snap away at your achievements until your memory is gone and then you're all ours.

You'll be okay. You can't complete anything we give you to do anyway (or do it right) so our expectations for you are rationally low.

Let us know if we can offer you relief in the form of fire or clothing--we'll try to do what we can, even if we use old curtains from the mansion for your pajamas--at least you'll have something to burn from us.

Best,
The Todd Colby Glee Farm Corporation

An Emphatic Lungfull Reading!

There were many words spoken and spiced up by emphatic gestures last night at the Lungfull (issue 15 is out now!) reading at Zinc Bar. What follows is a mere sampling of the magical night (emphasis mine). For recent and past issues, subscriptions, more photos, etc visit www.lungfull.org.

Helen Vendler in today's NY Times Book Review

This is just so wrong:

"Today Vendler seldom reviews poets under 50, since their “frames of reference,” she says, are alien to her. “They’re writing about the television cartoons they saw when they were growing up. And that’s fine. It’s as good a resource of imagery as orchards. Only I’ve seen orchards and I didn’t watch these cartoons,” she said. “So I don’t feel I’m the best reader for most of the young ones.”

Could you imagine an art, drama, dance, or music critic saying such a thing?

Slowtwitch

I had an episode while they were pressing on me after they took out the "banana" and the "boomerang." My stomach is blue (from them cleaining me).

Good luck with this one:

Stretch fishnet bandage/wound retention material....

Uneasy Heaven

I never wanted to discourage
you from coming home.
My intentions were far from that.
I invested in a chest trap
and safety cones, nose water
and a red light filter
with some glazed meat
for your concentration.
I even purchased a crystal pedestrian
warning bell and some denim
iron-on patches with wolverine logos
for your flight jacket.
I guess it never occurred
to you that these things
cost cash money
and that eventually
they'd all have to be
returned in their original
packaging with the proper
receipts, of course.

Friend Today

Inland Empire (click here)

David Lynch's new film "Inland Empire" got a spot on review in the NY Times today. It's a three hour mind fuck of a film. And a very good one at that. It's artful cinema in the very best sense of the word. My dear friend Justin Theroux is in it (and he does a great job, but I'm a little biased) along with some, ahem, other people. It's showing at IFC in Manhattan. Oh yeah, Laura Dern deserves an Oscar. Really.

A Streamlined Attempt

Eat pink sky in folds of pink and still, pink
ache beans in the area of love. A timeline of errors.
Windows open while the muscle of paper calms us.
Our eating is a calm memorial to this multiple axe.
To cave-in to my or "my ours." Eating face,
eating a glance (try eating that). A streamlined attempt.
I only volunteer my pink balloons
for the streak of your white porcelain.
I wish you an apparition. A soft invention.
An edgy motor has come into the soft calm.
My love for her has evolved purely into this:
a brown table, a light!

W.G. Sebald

"The more images I gathered from the past , I said, the more unlikely it seemed to me that the past had actually happened in this or that way, for nothing about it could be called normal: most of it was absurd, and if not absurd, then appalling." W.G. Sebald from "Vertigo" page 212

Unrest (click here)

Monday, I'm listening to Unrest.
Oh! Imperial f.f.r.r.
and your decade plus
of aural pleasure!
Mark Robinson
makes me smile
every time.



Yep.

More Ridiculous Celebrity T-Shirts

This is what Elizabeth will be wearing tonight to the premier of David Lynch's new film "Inland Empire." If you want a t-shirt (hand-drawn with permanent laundry marker by me) let me know. They make great gifts. Yay.

James Schuyler in a Letter to Frank O'Hara 10/8/54

"I never like to write letters after 6 in the evening (it's just 6)--I'm so afraid I may describe the sunset, or mention my aspirations." -JS

Spirit of the Staircase

Friendship is power, knowledge is love.