I’ve never chugged Four Loko but I imagine it is a lot like mainlining AWP. In that it’s great until your body can’t handle anymore and then you can’t remember anything.
Highlights
MY GF. C didn’t get to go last year, but this year we got to promenade around. Thus disproving theories that I made her up.
1913 & Friends reading at Comet Ping-Pong – All the readings I went to were great, but this one stood out both for its relatively sane length and how damn well everyone read. I found out Abe Smith is possessed by ghosts. Also Julie C kind of burned me on stage about my cowboy shirts. Which was funny.
Articles Press & Springgun reading at IOTA – Donald Dunbar got the audience to crowd the stage and then tell him to STFU. & A. Minetta Gould read like her head was on fire. Also gotta see J. Michael do it right.
Receiving the Esme Poems - Derrick at Peninsulas Now gave me a bunch of copies of this micro chap book which I wrote with C over the course of 2,3 weeks. They’re made of cannabilized library hard backs, paint, and general bad-assery. Thanks again to Derrick.
HelloHelloHello You know, seeing mostly everybody for a little. The frequency of encounters w/people at AWP and their brevity can make you feel like a shallow introducing self robot. “Hey!” “What’s up?” “You know, this stuff.” “Right. Me too.” So I was happy to have someone say something incredibly useful to me about the big picture on the floor of the book fair (Thanks JG). And to know that something that came out of my mouth wasn’t nothing (Rion pointed this out).
CommonWealth Gastropub in Columbia Heights. Was great. And not criminally expensive. Which makes it the place we’re going to go in DC now.
Lowlights
The hard sell. Dear authors standing at your table: the hard sell is a bad idea. I really don’t have any money. Stop reminding me and making me explain this. I’m not going to Costa Rica for a root canal for shits and giggles. C has termed the phenomena of aggressively pitching a book and then acting (and maybe being) let down when someone turns you down “THE GIRL SCOUT COOKIE EFFECT.” In that the pitcher is basically shaming you into buying something. No more cookies, ok?
Dumb Planning. Of course the Raven was too crowded for me to lug three bags in there. Dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb. But I heard the people I was gonna meet there had a fine time anyway.
Tuna Sandwich from CVS at 2 AM. Self-explanatory.
I Was Real Broke This Year, So C & I Spent 60 Combined. Books I Bought or Got in No Particular Order. ie “Booty.”
The Terror of Living by Urban Waite. Urban gave C & me a copy each in the lobby. And then I saw it reviewed in the MF-ing Onion. The turn around time for print reviews of fiction is a little quicker than w/poetry…
Bird Leaves Cornice by James Belflower – Springgun Press
The Drunk Sonnets by Daniel Bailey – Magic Helicopter Press. General thumbs up for MHP.
More Frisk Than Risk by Mark Horosky – Flying Guillotine Press
Smiles of the Unstoppable by Jason Bredle – Magic Helicopter Press. I’ve been told to read JB several times. I’m doing it.
Parents by Farrah Field – Immaculate Disciples Press (got The Heart is Green From So Much Waiting last year)
I, Afterlife: Essay in Mourning Time by Kristen Prevallet – Essay Press
Occasional Work and Seven Walks from the Office for Soft Architecture by Lisa Robertson (Thanks Robb for the continuing education).
Poetry Is Not a Project by Dorothea Lasky – Ugly Duckling Press
Dutch Baby Combo by A. Minetta Gould – Spooky Girlfriend Press
Applies to Oranges by Maureen Thorson – Ugly Duckling Press. Gotta hear Maureen read from this–twice!
Play by Mathias Svalina and Bully Bullied by James Scott and Ryan Call – The Cupboard. I’m pretty excited by these friendly little books. They’re going to save me from boredom in a tight space. Unless I get a smartphone first. Then whenever I’m bored I’ll just play Bejeweled.
Moving Blanket by Kostas Anagnopoulos – Ugly Duckling Press. C & I both don’t really know how this came into our possession. I hope we didn’t steal it.
I Bought One Magazine
It was Make out of Chicago. And I’m going to read it too.
And We Got Some Others
Noo #12
1913 Vol. 5 (Contributor’s copy what what. & C is in here as well. Along with a lot of people I would gladly donate a kidney to even though they don’t know who I am).
The Missouri Review Summer 2009
6×6 Vol. 21
Barrelhouse #9 (Contributor’s copy what what)
Presses I Wanted to Buy From/Books I Wanted to Buy But Didn’t Due To Said Lack of Monies
Octopus
Black Ocean - I’ll get Matt and Brandon’s books eventually. I’d kick myself off the crew if I didn’t.
Wave – The Book of Frank. I’ve tried so many times to get this. Fail.
Ahsatha – B & S Doller’s stuff. Encountered it in multiple formats non-book. Gotta fix this. Julie Carr’s 100 Notes.
Action Books - I bought a whole stack of them last year. And then I heard Abe Smith read this year…
And some other stuff. A whole lot of other stuff I want to read.
