"AN ARRIVAL AND THE NECESSITY OF IT"

My first fictions in English date to 1970 when I wrote and rewrote a novel called "How I Became Howard Johnson" and kept a fictitious journal alongside a real one. The novel was an attempt to make myself over into my new language, and I was excessively sensitive to criticism. When the three friends who read it pointed out various flaws, I rewrote the whole thing. Since I used a manual typewriter and only type with one finger, the rewriting was endless ...

... The fictitious journal was started in New York in 1969 and was continued through 1971 in California. I wrote the entries in the morning in coffee houses. They described the day as if it has already happened, noting in minute detail various adventures. In the evening I wrote the real journal, noting the day's events as they had actually happened. The idea was that, years hence, I would compare the two diaries and see how fiction held up to reality. Years hence I did that and, to my suprise, I could barely tell what was fictional and what was real. (Andrei Codrescu) (x-ref: The people are absolutely splendid ... but it has nothing to do with criticism.)

chicken nuggets & special honey || pus jewels & wreckless driving

"DRAW A FROG ASLEEP"

[Charley Jordan's "Keep It Clean"] must have been some kind of a success, because he recorded a number of sequels to it, like "Still Keepin' It Clean," "She Won't Keep It Clean," "I'm Gonna Keep It Clean," "Clean It Up," and "It Ain't Clean, That Thing Ain't Clean." (Bob Dylan)

Bert Stabler and Noah Berlatsky's "Half-Assed Palimpsest," up now at the Finch Gallery (California & Armitage), is both philosophically sharp and instantly gratifying – kinda like this was. Difference is, Bert and Noah use embroidered onesies, produce sale Salinger, an acidic Charlie Brown and the gods of death and beauty – not (for example) snails and lasers. Plus! Tastee Freeze up the street.

KOOL-WHIP IN MY COFFEE

I think the method of how we determine how successful a project is has evolved and changes depending on the project before in some ways. I don't think any of us have ever had a time when we determined the success of a project based on who showed up at the opening. (Salem Collo-Julin)


Trevor Paglen has made a book that is not intended to be read at all. It is an electronic "ghost" book that will haunt a chosen section of the building. Trevor took an old book and used it to house a motion detector, a power supply, and a small speaker. The "ghost" book will "speak" to visitors in an eerie voice as they roam the shelves. (Marc Fischer)


Before we had longer tours, like two months and a half or something. But always after one month, we started fighting. Sometimes very serious fighting. Also we felt so tired. So I decided the maximum [tour length] will be one month. It is good for keeping the band. Also we always were fighting with one member after a tour, so each time we change a member. Unfortunately this is a very good way to keep the band. (Kawabata Makoto)


. . . more booklets here.

THUMBS UP FROM GLAUCON

I want money to buy me a good story. Ikea furniture, or even walking into Ikea, makes me feel like a confused cow and sick to my stomach. It's like being in a poorly written romance novel full of flat, dowdy characters. Nothing symbolic, nothing mysterious. (Trisha Ready)

"OBSEQUIOUS TOADYING"

There were other times with music in them that year. (Oakley Hall)

Gee whiz, Matt Briggs.

THIS LAWN IS SO EMO IT CUTS ITSELF

The title is slightly misleading, in that while Baby Naughty Ivan grows up first into Big Naughty Ivan, he is, finally, after many improbable and supernatural adventures (involving a car-ride with a baron, a bizarre flight in a balloon and his rescue by a bunch of dwarves), much improved. Having politely thanked the dwarves, he returns home, never to annoy his parents again. (David Short in Pirouettes on a Postage Stamp)

Hey Mairead! What can I do with my Frequent Flier miles?
Buy magazine subscriptions.

Hey Mairead! Where can I see a .pdf of Proximity Magazine?
Over here, silly.

(Photo yoinked from the archive of Miss Alex Bush, dear friend and intern mastermind behind the Northwest Film Forum's Local Sightings Film Festival. "Local" means Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Alaska, or British Columbia. No restrictions on genre or length. Fit the bill? You've two weeks to apply!)

HEY MOM I'M HOME . . .

. . . and proud to be part of this summer reading list, which mentions Novel in Clingfilm not once, but twice. (I must have a bootleg Dubus, because Vintage isn't indy. But read him anyway. Morrissey on Rhino is still Morrissey.)

I totally forgot Hrabal, Gudding, Kane, and Julian of Norwich. Also Police Beat, and that jellyfish light book they have at Seminary Co-op. It's nice, poking through it if you're feeling nutsy.