a couple of things

So I did end up at a Halloween party by default. We made our way to the party after having a few cask conditioned Imperial Stouts that were divine and hi octane. There was a large screen playing Japanese monster films to an audience of what seemed like the entire town. The landscape of this place was truly extraordinary. I can't even begin to articulate the particulars of that statement.

What is it about daylight savings that is so disorienting? I feel like I've been drugged.

mention made

Thanks Kate.

miscellaneous

No Halloween parties to go to this weekend. Not certain if I'm disappointed or relieved. Halloween is by far my favorite holiday, except maybe Evacuation Day, but that is more of a regional thing. Supposed to meet with friends tonight but social motivation is low. Busy week, full book shelf and fireplace conspire to make Jess sedentary.

Opted for beef ribs last night, instead of usual pork ribs at local BBQ joint. Unusual for me to choose the cow over the pig. Oven roasted baby carrots were a delight. Nice to see good friends who braved the MLIS program together and hear what shape their personal and professional lives has taken.

Nearly all the leaves have been driven out of the trees by the insistent rainfall. This rain has been nightly music on the flat roof of the cabin. Plink. Plink. And even snow recently, a frosting, a veil. New England's five month winter (mid-November, December, January, February, March, mid April), weren't you just here. This is not summer nostalgia, I never miss summer. The fall for me please. I'm of elegies. When the leaves flower, light up what's left. I miss the birds and savor those that remain. But always the trees, their witches fingers, they keep me company.

update

Last week or what's been happening:

1. Berrigan-Raworth reading
2. Troubadour sale, bounty galore
3. Guts of Coltsfoot Insularity printed and bound, stamps made, covers this weekend...more news on that soon
4. Library instruction, library instruction, library instruction
5. Garlic planted
6. Replenished tea supplies
7. Basketball began, o my aching dogs
8. Collected Ted arrived
9. Snow
10. Fireplace/woodstove activity
11. Ribs

&tc &tc &tc

& finally

We just received this book.

Matisse

This is a worthwhile investment.

more excitment

Just ordered a copy of this for the library, let's see if the director agrees.

Bramble

This is most excellent news. Buy one today.

New Mexico

The Creeley quote below reminds me of when I was living in New Mexico a few years ago. I had a nice adobe style pad with a couple of pinon trees in the front yard. Ever anxious to make good with my only neighbor on an isolated street I would wave to him whenever I saw him in our daily routines, but he seemed to want to have nothing to do with me. He had a single large pinon in his yard near his driveway that he would seemingly take quick umbrage in when skirting out of his car. I didn't think too much about his reluctance to my overtures, as I am fairly insular and reclusive myself, but somehow I felt I needed to make some sort of benevolent acknowledgment of each others existence, so I continued my efforts. No success. Eventually I began to sour a little bit myself until finally I decided I had to approach him and get to the bottom of things. When I saw him arrive home from work, I hurried out my door and approached him, asking why he was so reluctant to my overtures. He looked at me, then my yard, then at his yard and said, "Isn't it obvious?". I looked around but wasn't sure what he was getting at, there was certainly no class distinction, no obvious divide, nothing offense on either side. When I answered that it wasn't obvious, he said, "it seems we have a difference of a pinon."

Creeley

"...I recall one night in Placitas, New Mexico. Restless, I had stepped just outside the door of our living room into a small courtyard. It must have been fall because there was a sharp odor of burning pinon in the air, and it was one of those magnificent sharp, dry, immensely clear and star-filled nights. Just back of me in the room there was a bleak argument going on, the rehearsal of a very painful and blocked sense of relation, a classic human debate which can never end except in exhaustion. But outside, less than ten feet away, was such a vast and inhuman place, so indifferent to those almost insectlike flailings I'd left. About a mile distant, up into the canyon, there was a cave which dated human habitation here some thiry thousand years into the past. All around us were the fossils from a sea which had been here long before that, fish, shells, timeless. The Hopi say, 'First came the Navajo, and then the white man.' We are a curious fact.

But it's not a diminution of humanness I wish to make, rather a scale for its diverse presence."

from Autobiography

Michael Carr and Dorothea Lasky on Katalanche Press

Could you talk about the origins of Katalanche Press? How it came about, what was the impetus for starting it, etc.?

D: Katalanche Press was a joint idea between Michael and myself. We met when I first moved to Boston and we always had a nice rapport between us. After a few conversations, we realized that we both wanted to run a press where our ideas could be seen and heard. I love book art and wanted to express this love as freely and fully as possible. Michael had done some beautiful journals on his own and I knew we would be great press partners. We have some very similar ideas about poetry and some opposing ones as well. What makes us the same also makes us different and this has led to a vibrant way of producing publications. My impetus for doing work for Katalanche Press has always been driven by my love of good poetry and good books, and primarily a love of the blend of visual beauty with text. It is my hope that Katalanche Press always produces publications of texts that are physically beautiful.

Katalanche Press is co-edited. Could you speak about how you share the responsibilities and work load – are you both involved in all facets of Katalanche or do you delineate tasks? How do you select projects for Katalanche Press – do you decide between the two of you about what manuscripts will be accepted or do you each individually decide on projects?

D: Well, at first Michael and I co-produced a journal called American Weddings and a chapbook called Poppers by Chris Jackson. After those two, we decided that we had a lot of ideas and projects that we both wanted to work on. It seemed to make sense for us to work on separate chapbook projects and so for the last two chapbook cycles (not counting Michael’s very recent releases) we have aimed at producing chapbooks around the same time, but as somewhat separate projects. That said, I think that we do bounce ideas off each other a lot and I know I, for one, have gotten inspired by something Michael is doing with a chapbook he has worked on and borrowed the idea for my own. As well, Michael is always ready to help me and does so readily and I hope the same could be said from his end.

M: With selecting manuscripts, the tendency is to solicit work from poets we admire – either from a longer familiarity with their work, being enthused by a reading, or other such circumstances. Poppers was a project we both wanted to work on after hearing Chris read these poems at the Boston Poetry Massacre – it also happened to be the right impetus to get us into doing chapbooks. Since then our working more individually has probably helped keep the press diverse and increased the number of projects we can do.

Each Katalanche publication is different from the previous, could you speak about what qualities determine the shape and direction of a project, i.e. the text, your finances, the influence of other publishers/works, and/or anything else?

M: I think that the design elements have grown out of finding the right material qualities to encase each text, as well as a sense of challenge and inspiration with each project, so it's almost inevitable that each of them has looked pretty different. It was intentional to do the Travis Nichols & Lori Lubeski ones as a pair of long narrow chapbooks since Dottie & I were aiming to release them at the same time, but in some ways they turned out to be at two different poles once we got through with the rest of the design. Sometimes also it's the borrowed ideas from other publications that get things rolling. Film Poems was definitely a case of this, where I saw an image online of a particular issue of Film Culture magazine – with the corrugated cardboard stock & the label across the top – and from there seeing how I could recreate that look and make it work as part of a new entity.

How do you fund Katalanche Press?

D: Katalanche Press is funded entirely by Michael and myself, with the occasional extremely kind donation from friends. Any profits from chapbook sales are funneled directly back for use in production. It is a labor of love and I spend way more than I make from it, but it is worth it, because it is something I believe completely in––the production of beautiful books.

Katalanche Press has also done some one time magazine publications. What is the relationship between these and the chapbooks? Will there be more of these in the future?

M: The one-off mentality of the magazines comes from the same perspective as what I said about determining a chapbook's design. It would be hard for me to think of American Weddings without Liza Minnelli on the cover, since that image was why Dottie & I decided to call the magazine by that name. Bling Bling, which was pre-Katalanche, came from wanting to see how small a poem I could get from someone but still find it marked by that poet's sense of craft – and that was more of an experiment rather than a particularly lasting concern. There also is a whole question of devoting one's publishing energy toward the magazine format rather than toward chapbooks or perfectbound books. I think, simply put, that chapbooks are what both of us currently find most compelling. There could be more magazines in the future if our interests go that way.

One of the many noteworthy things about Katalanche Press is its archival interest, you have a text out from Samuel Greenberg, could you talk about the relationship between these older works and the work you publish from contemporary poets?

M: I suppose each project I've wanted to work on offers a point in an aesthetic that gets developed across multiple publications. At this point there is still a lot of territory that could be covered, and publishing the Greenberg poems has been a chance to present something almost completely off the map. Whether your average chapbook-reading public for contemporary poetry can assimilate these poems by Greenberg I'm not really sure, but I found the work vital to my poetic sensibility and decided to see it through on that impulse. Despite the potentially scholarly aspect of printing these 90-year-old poems in newly edited versions, there was still something engaging and intimate enough about the project to make it seem right for publishing in this venue. And that Greenberg’s poems often are very strange & wonderful can hopefully come across. From the less distant past there are other poets too whose manuscripts I’d love to dig through for unpublished material (not to mention republishing small press texts that have been long unavailable), so there is always the possibility for more to print along these lines.

What are some upcoming projects for Katalanche Press? What do you foresee as the future for Katalanche Press?

D: My upcoming projects are chapbooks by Chris Carrier, Will Esposito, Eric Baus, and Monica Fambrough. In the future, we will hopefully work on collaborative pieces between visual artists and poets.

M: At some point there will be a joint-publication between CARVE Editions and Katalanche of a collaborative poem written by Aaron Tieger and myself. I want to reap the glorious benefits of self-publication.

Are there other presses or magazines whose work you find particularly engaging or would like to acknowledge?

D: I love all work by Ugly Duckling Presse. My favorite journals are 6x6, Fence, and Cabinet. Cabinet is a really beautiful periodical and every time I see it, my heart skips a beat. Seth Parker makes a journal called Skein that is really nice. I think Aaron Tieger’s journal called CARVE has a righteous aim. I love Braincase Press and Anchorite Press. Travis Nichols runs an audio journal called Weird Deer (http://www.weirddeer.blogspot.com) and it is the most amazing idea ever, because it provides an opportunity for readers of poetry to listen to what is usually only admired on the page. I think listening is really important for poetry.

M: I’m always impressed by what I see from Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs, Anchorite Press & Braincase Press. More historically, Angel Hair Books has been a great model.




Check out their wares

missed

I missed this when it came out a year ago. Just read a review of it in Library Journal. It will be difficult to convince my boss we need a copy. Has anyone read this?

shocking

I can't believe this. Was there ever any doubt? I played football, basketball, and baseball in highschool, but wasn't a jock (at least according to me). Romo is exactly the reason why I quit baseball in college, I didn't want to be anywhere near this type of guy. And that was baseball.

sale

Troubadour Books, the absolute best bookstore on the planet, is having its 35% off sale next weekend. You should go, but you shouldn't buy anything I might want. If you are interested and need directions, drop me a line. Also if you have specific needs/wants and can convince me that you're good for it, I might pick it up for you and you can reimburse me. Let me know what you are willing to pay. No promises, but I'll try.

good news

Two new chapbooks from Katalanche Press.

coolidge-creeley

Reading here. Lots of other great stuff there as well.

max

max ernst

Aaron Tieger and I have been talking Max Ernst this afternoon. On that note, Max.

wine update

This past weekend we pressed the grapes. We cleaned the press outside in a torrential downpour. Our yield was 38 gallons. My friend also purchased a French oak barrel to condition the wine in, but at the moment it is all in glass until we soak the barrel (to swell it) and determine how strong the oak flavor of the barrel is.

We may still do one more smaller batch of wine, otherwise next up is a 50 gallon batch of hard cider.

If you're in town sometime 7-12 months from now, come on by and I'll keep you lit like a Christmas tree, or we can work on our gin tans together.

oven mitts

The new issue of Drill is out and it is hot. Not topless-nubile-on-the-cover hot, but filled-with-many-stellar poems hot. Email editor Michael Slosek at mslosek@fulbrightweb.com and he'll send you one gratis. Included in Drill:
Luke Daly
William Sylvester
Eric Unger
Damian Weber
Jessica Smith Snowden
Michael Carr
Logan Ryan Smith
Jess Mynes
Aaron Tieger
George Albon
Michael Slosek
John Sakkis
Justin Sirois

aw yeah

update

I'm way behind on adding links to blogs and magazines. Blogger is still not loading from home. I'll be staying later at work this week to get up to speed, apologies to folks who should be there but aren't as yet.

stolen

From Mark
1. Alias First name?Jeff. Everyone thinks I have a lisp when I first tell them my name.
2. Were you named after anyone?Both my grandfathers: first name, middle name
3. Do you wish on stars?Well maybe the moon more so than the stars. The moon and me are tight.
4. When did you last cry?Yesterday listening to "A Drive", "You were frail like a skeleton, all you needed from me was a greater pain to soak you up." Or something like that. Nice use of one of my favorite lines from James Tate, and just the song in general is a beautiful snapshot of parallel private hells.
5. What is your favorite lunchmeat?Turkey.
6. What is your birth date?April 25th 1867.
7. What's your most embarrassing CD?I'm going to extend this to my record collection. Robin Gibbs' solo album Robin's Reign. Probably the worst album ever recorded, how anyone was ever convinced that he was the genius of the Bee Gees can't be fathomed. It is a sum of parts. People forget the early Bee Gees is really great, "To Love Somebody" is a remarkable song as is "Massachusetts".
8. If you were another person, would you be friends with you?Why not?.
9. Do you use sarcasm a lot?I think so, but I can't say for sure.
10. What are your nicknames?Chester. Dunkin' Mynes (I've got mad ups and skills on the b-ball court)
11. Would you bungee jump?Yes. Maybe.
12. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off?No.
13. Do you think that you are strong?Smelling.
14. What is your favorite ice cream flavor?Mudpie.
15. Shoe Size?9.
16. Red or pink?Red.
17. What is your least favorite thing about yourself?Where do I start?
18. Who do you miss most?Pedro Martinez circa 1998.
19. What color pants and shoes are you wearing?Black and black.
20. What are you listening to right now?Someone talking.
21. What did you eat for breakfast?Bagel sandwich.
22.If you were a crayon, what color would you be?Orange.
23. What is the weather like right now?Overcast.
24. Last person you talked to on the phone?Bill Hewitt.
25. The first things you notice about the opposite sex?Eyes, then lips.
26. Do you like the person who sent this to you?It was pilfered, not sent (see above) and yes I like Mark.
27. Favorite Drink?Oatmeal Stout.
28. Hair Color?Black when it is there.
29. Do you wear contacts?Sometimes.
30. Favorite Food?All Indian food. Ribs. Collards. Buckwheat. Ice cream. Popcorn. Etc. etc.
31. Last Movie You Watched?Rififi. Thanks for the recommend Jon.
32. Favorite Day Of The Year?Halloween.
33. Scary Movies Or Happy Endings?Neither. Film Noir.
34. Summer Or Winter?Fall.
35. Hugs or Kisses?Kisses, there is nothing better, nothing more intimate. Hugs are nice enough.
36. What Is Your Favorite Dessert?Whatever is in front of me: lemon squares, coconut cream pie, eclairs...really I'm easy.
37.Living Arrangements?I live in a flat roofed hunter's cabin with a dog and cat and whatever the cat brings me.
38. What Books Are You Reading? A Tall, Serious Girl. Bunting's Collected. Proust. Kate Greenstreet's Learning the Language. All Stars, edited by Tom Clark. Etc. etc.
39. What's On Your Mouse Pad?I have no mouse.
40. What Did You Watch Last Night on TV?Nothing.
41. Favorite Smells?Garlic, fresh cut brassica, basil, oregano, wet dog, pine, sage, curry, etc.
42. Favorite junk food?I have an embarrassing lust for combos on occasion. Otherwise I'm pretty good. Although I always go for a sausage sandwich with peppers and onions when at a ballgame.
43. Rolling Stones or Beatles?Beatles by far. Some Stones is ok, but I love the Beatles. There is some awful mostly later songs (Paul), but Rubber Soul and Hard Days Night can give me goose bumps.
44. What's the farthest you've been from home?My home travels with me, I am my home. I'm a turtle.

in case you're wondering

The Astros are my pick. What about you?

eyes were bigger than the stomach

This is surreal.

happens to the best of them

Tony I forgive you.

some assembly required

• Laughter happily ever.
• Affirming dreams last night (that sounds cheesy, I'm wearing my Alan Alda sweater today) after being tortured by the White Sox and the dentist.
• Reading binge continues: Bunting & Stanley.
• Fall is hammock weather (see previous).
• Cycled through stuff on Twombly thanks to Chris Rizzo's suggestion. Immediately bought crayons and set myself to work on some older paintings. No house paint yet.
• Will not be at Katalanche reading in NYC tomorrow evening, but you should be.
• Teaching a couple Art Research classes this week and next, as well as other per usuals.
• Friend from Brooklyn comes into town this weekend.
• Coltsfoot should be a wrap, should be a wrap, should be a wrap, or at least up to the printer soon.
• A very good friend deserves a break in a prolonged stalemate. Let's all send good thoughts his way.
• Speaking of Katalanche and Rizzo, got a copy of Chris' Claire Obscure this past weekend when visiting Michael Carr (thanks to Michael and Kat for being gracious hosts) and learning the finer points of candlepin bowling. I've been lucky enough to hear Chris read Claire (excerpt here, see how it's changed) and my enthusiasm for his work is ever growing since. The collage cover by Michael is really dynamite too, kaboom.
• Marlin Perkins in my bathroom last night: my dog, my cat, a chipmunk, and a frog. Suprisingly no carnage this morning.
• Typed shorter poems from this past May last night.
• "A quail is a running hairdo."
• Let's hope the hefty lefty brings it tonight.

technical difficulties

Just to mention, there are some double spaced lines missing in that just posted poem. It looks fine in the preview, but not in actuality. So that is why the initial part of the poem looks a little congested. Still I'ma gonna leave it.

just so

Bright late sun
              rust splotched
ferns
       new books
                      tea

acorns plummet into rustles

tufts of leaves
        form sculpted

Laurels

        branchless trees.

        some branches
in sunlight glisten

Ambition wanes
           no tea
left.

Bunting’s Odes.
                                   
                A stump, a hunk
      chunky.

care to remember
        this left out
feeling
                     wayward
uncertainly days

Late season mosquito.

                        each morning
a new feeling
             what have I
done
             this resistance.

A wildflower.
                             A mania of birds.

Memory’s melancholy

                leaves hurtling flood

          cantering dragonflies dervish.
                                   
What will I
     leave
behind
     What will I
take? 
                eep eep of birds
                                     Swish of passing cars.

Alone since
           in this head found
jealous spoils.

       A castle to ruin.
                                   
                      Wine stain.

                      Better times.

now an inheritance

            beautifully
        just
            so.

head to head

Tie breaker, my ass. Since when?