NOON
Pomo Jukebox
Pomo Jukebox is a new music blog I’m contributing to. Go have a look.
Phoenix 1901
If you haven’t listened to Phoenix, I urge you to go buy their music immediately and be overjoyed.
Phoenix – 1901 – A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.
Blake Butler’s Scorch Atlas
I just now got around to reading Blake Butler’s smashing book Scorch Atlas. This is so good. I love Blake’s wild style, everything he’s doing with language and imagery here. I highly recommend going over to Featherproof and buying a copy.
Buy Scorch Atlas here.
Happy Christmas, Clusterflock!
I’m snowed in from this terrible blizzard. Hmm..should I drink wine or Sam Adams this Christmas Eve?
Diane Williams will teach this fall
For the writer with the courage to produce his or her own most vehement voice.
The Mercantile Library Center for Fiction is pleased to present another writing workshop with author, Diane Williams this September and October. Fine-grained attention to the drama of the sentence is offered — as well as to the drama of the whole text. First look to NOON or to Williams’s own fiction to consider if you share the aesthetic values represented.
8 Sessions
Tuesdays: September 15th through November 3rd
6:30pm–8:30pm
$500; Special financial needs considered
For more information, please call
212-755-6710 or email info@mercantilelibrary.org
Diane Williams’ most recent book is IT WAS LIKE MY TRYING TO HAVE A TENDER-HEARTED NATURE. Her fiction appears frequently in a variety of magazines including, Harper’s Magazine, Bomb, Conjunctions, McSweeney’s, and The Brooklyn Rail. She is the editor of the acclaimed, prize-winning literary annual NOON which she founded in 2000. She was co-editor of StoryQuarterly for twelve years. She is considered the foremost advocate of the genre dubbed flash fiction and has been called by Jonathan Franzen “…one of the true living heroes of the American avant-garde.” Winner of three Pushcart Prizes, she has taught creative writing at both Bard College and Syracuse University and has been an invited reader at colleges and universities nationwide.
Dear Clusterflock
Is rock-n-roll dead?
Salinger Sues Again
60 Years Later: coming Through the Rye by John David California. Who? Not sure what to think about this book.Read the story here.
thought
At what point in time did people stop verbally threatening with knuckle sandwiches?
Lit. Journal Auction
Whoa. The complete set of Lish’s The Quarterly is up for auction at Ebay, along with issues 4-8 of NOON, 3rd Bed, and more. Worth taking a look here.
Dear Clusterflock
Are you afraid of mice?
*note: this post comes nervously, as last night I saw a rather creepy looking mouse run behind the computer desk and I did a sort of really neat full body shake all the way into the living room.
**further note: how does one overcome the fear?
Heard on NPR today
I heard Canadian rocker Sam Roberts interviewed on NPR this morning after recently purchasing the cd Love at the End of the World. The cd, if you haven’t checked out, is just terrific, and I highly recommend you go have a listen. Here’s the website.
New NY Tyrant?
The new issue of NY Tyrant is available! Cooper and Daryl, why didn’t you tell me how good this issue is? You won’t believe the lineup–this looks like the best issue yet! Check it out.
Review of NOON
Dawn Raffell at MORE Magazine gave a nice review of the new issue of NOON. Read it here:
NOON 9
The newest issue of NOON is now out with my stories “Somewhere,” “We’re Safe Now,” and “Gas Station.” Also included are stories by Kim Chinquee, Deb Olin Unferth, Gary Lutz, Christine Schutt, Tao Lin, Rebecca Curtis, translations by Lydia Davis, and more.
I’ve decided…
I’ll begin working on my Ph.D in English starting next fall. After this school year I won’t be teaching 7th graders anymore so I can focus on the work. I got a teaching assistantship and will be making way less money. This is scary but somehow feels right.
NOON 10th Anniversary Edition
The 10th anniversary edition of NOON is due out soon with three short fictions by yours truly.
Noon
READING & PARTY
friday, april 17th at 7PM
REBECCA CURTIS
CLANCY MARTIN
CHRISTINE SCHUTT
The Mercantile Library
17 East 47th Street
Review of The Levitationist
A nice review of The Levitationist was posted over at HTML Giant: “How the Divine Manifests: a Discussion of The Levitationist by Brandon Hobson and the music of A.A. Bondy”
Read it here.
Buddy Boy–a review
The film Buddy Boy apparently came out in 1999, and I don’t know how I’ve missed seeing it. I watched it on IFC’s On Demand over the weekend. This film is fucking great. The storyline involves a lonely introvert named Francis, played by Aidan Gillen (maybe you remember him in Queer as Folk), who works at a photo processing store and cares for his ailing stepmother who apparently has fistula. Read more
EVER by Blake Butler
Blake Butler’s EVER is published by Calamari Press, which is owned and operated by fellow flocker Derek White. Blake sent along a CD with “EVER” written on it for me to listen to. As I read, it turned out to be a very strange and cool experience, a lot like watching a David Lynch film. I enjoyed this feeling very much! The music somehow made me want to lie down on the floor and sliver. I’m not sure why. When I told my wife this she asked if I’d taken my medication (which I had). But the book is great even without the music. Here’s a sentence about halfway through the book: “[I could hear the room above me moving—something in it—someone. I could hear them inside me, also echoed, jostling around. They were moving things and using hammers, screws and scissors, saws with teeth.” Butler’s use of brackets [[[ ]]] adds only to the surreal quality of the book in that they draw attention to such small details and give the book a feeling of confinement: “[The next room had a tiny doorman who murmured in my ear.]]” This is a fine, challenging book. Butler’s prose is beguilingly odd, he has a strong command on language, and I highly recommend it. You can order it here.
from Elvis on youtube
“You don’t need a weatherman to know which way Sarah Palin blows.”
–Elvis Costello, right before his new song From Sulphur to Sugarcane, a very, very fine song indeed.
Overheard in class today
from a 7th grade boy: “It would be weird if two twins were conjoined by the tongue.”
new issue of the Believer
The new issue of the Believer has a nice article online from Gary Lutz, and there’s also an interview with the amazing Gordon Lish. Think I’ll go out and buy a copy. You can read the full Lutz speech online:
The Believer
I Just Want to Say
…that when I think about the people I have to work with, and how everyone is so serious about work and life, and all that other sort of shit, the people who make me feel better and make me smile are the people right here at clusterflock. Thank you for making me feel better.