Time it should take to consider a manicure, decide you’d rather save the money, go to the store and buy a bottle of nail polish: 1.5 hours
Time it takes Amelia Gray: 7 days
- Teak Rose
(not pictured: crushing insecurity)
Five Things happened Friday night. I’m starting to get why having people read more than five minutes becomes appealing from a planning perspective—getting five readers together means all this buildup on the organization side for less than a half hour of listening pleasure. Dunno how the Quickies gals do it in Chicago. (Amphetamines.)
Keeping the time limit is worth it for the feeling of flash. The show featured our contest winners, so it was an extra treat to meet people and see them read at once. A couple of them told me they had never read on stage before, which was nuts with what they brought. After the reading the bands played and a girl danced with a pint of beer balanced on her head.
Speaking of readings, a must-see in Austin: Salvador Plascencia is reading at 7PM, Thurs., Feb 4 In the Joynes Reading Room, behind Carothers Residence Hall at 2501 Whitis Ave on the UT campus. The reading is free and open to the public. Call 512-471-5787 or mvalentine@mail.utexas.edu for more information.
Last night I went to see Anvil. They’ve been around and unknown for some thirty years until a documentary brought them fame at fifty. I haven’t seen the movie. Steve “Lips” Kudlow said at the show that metal was a timeless music and would never go away “because people have never heard of it.”
I’m dog-sitting this week. The dog must be walked, which really brings it home how little I am in charge of my cats. With their auto-feeder and auto-litter, they are more like roommates who barf on my floor. (I had a human roommate who would do this.) The dog likes to get its little paws muddy and smell found turds, which is unlike any roommate I have ever had. I do like walking the dog because it allows me the chance to be neighborly and wave at joggers and people in cars.
Today I’m looking through Joyce Carol Oates’s bibliography to find the work with the funniest name. She has written approximately seven hundred novels. So far the winner is After the Wreck, I Picked Myself Up, Spread My Wings, and Flew Away. That’s a cool title and it’s for a YA novel. I love Joyce Carol Oates. I would ask her to move in with me but she would get up at four in the morning to walk the dog and they would both come back covered in brambles, needing to get hosed off.
I made some breakfast rolls from last night’s dinner roll dough (so transformed with a cinnamon/sugar/butter glaze). They came out okay but the dough could have stood to rise more. Maybe I proofed the yeast too long. It is taking me a long time to figure bread out.
Thinking about Colossus of Roads today. I saw his tag twice on cars in Texas. Excited to learn that someone made a documentary about the secret hobo jungles.
Today’s a work day. My elbow is messed up from dancing last night. The Austin club scene involves a man in a white suit laying face-down in the street while a camera crew films him, drawing no crowd.
Everybody’s favorite Mary Hamilton won Rose Metal Press’ chapbook contest with her short short collection WE KNOW WHAT WE ARE. That finalist and semi-finalist list is quite the list. I can’t wait to see Mary’s work in lovely RMP style.
This summer I contributed to the playlist up at Wigleaf and forgot about it until it was posted today. And. My book release date got pushed up to August or September.
who's there
Also the winners of the Five Things contest A New Year are posted over there. I’m looking forward to the show. I don’t know who most of these people are. And. I made a poster.
Kim Parko’s incredible Cure All is out at Caketrain. Of it I wrote, “To call these pieces unique isn’t enough. With her fractured shards of advice, sweet little nightmares, tunneled eyes and sprouted scales, Kim Parko presents a twisting puzzle of fire blights and lonely spines. This book will crawl into your house.” It’s weird that it’s only $8.
Today I feel like a surgeon in Novolazarevskaya. I was on monster deadline Monday and it seeped into Tuesday. Today is some threats writing and comparing newspapers to wet babies. My face itches.
I need to update my syllabus for class Sunday. My friend is doing a food writing semester, brilliant, but I might head towards current events reading regardless. Read some newspapers, think some thoughts. I’m still curious to know what my students think about The Facebook.
PRIVET
Cedar. The scientists wonder how one human being could produce so much mucus. I’ve been meaning to post this picture of a blood orange. The blood orange is the poet’s orange.
my face seriously itches
A power line exploded outside my house the other day. I don’t think there is a transformer on that line but to be fair I have no idea what a transformer is. I was on deadline and there was this explosion that sent a baby ball of fire past my window. I called the fire department and they said that nobody should stand under the wires, so I ran downstairs and yelled at a homeless dude who was stomping on the fire that had started by the pole, and he yelled back but in a playful way, and stomped the fire out and threw some branches around then stood by and made fun of all the bystanders, and rightly so, but I was worried about him under the live wires and everything. Nobody was killed and the city came and fixed the wires. (“The city came.” The taxpayer entity personified into this one guy with a hardhat and a cherry-picker truck.)
there were four glasses of water
Now I am home. In Dallas I met fellow readers Will Clarke, Willy Razavi, and Katherine Center, plus Todd Zuniga and judges Ben Fountain and Tina Parker. (I already knew Owen but what the heck I’m on a linking frenzy.) I did not win (the rightful honor went to Will Clarke) but had a wonderful time regardless at the reading, dinner after that, and more good talks after that.
We accidentally checked out the Dallas club scene, which involves a girl lying on the ground and asking her boyfriend if he thinks she is hot. Boyfriend hefts her up, says “You are hot and I am going to need you to shut the fuck up.” This story is not about me.
I got up early and stood by the window drinking water. From the 20th floor of the Adolphus I saw that officers had closed off the streets below. Three horses stood in the center of the square and I was not sure if they were the attraction or merely backup.
While reading about the hotel—this was the kind of hotel you read about, or at least take its stationary—I learned that the old 19th floor ballroom had been stripped of its floors and sealed off permanently, accessible in two places: either by the roof, or by an unmarked door in an undisclosed location. I went exploring and found the door. It was a knowledge adventure and I was on Team Discovery. There was a padlock that wouldn’t budge with a few tugs so I went downstairs and had breakfast. Later I found some pictures. One neat thing is that there are rivets and not welds on the old beams.
After that I hung out with a baby and watched the Cardinals get creamed and spread on toast by the Saints. So ended my Dallas adventure. Thanks to Katie and Carolyn at the DMOA for hosting and helping, to Todd for inviting me, to the City of Dallas, and to whoever came up with the idea for the cinnamon roll.
I feel like I know Italian today. I’m eating roasted Brussels sprouts and typing about online education. I have 33 tabs open.
I preordered MLKNG SCKLS by Justin Sirois. I remember this summer I picked up Matthew Simmons in a rental car and drove him to his house, and as we were getting into the rental car he was telling me some convincing words about MLKNG SCKLS. It was sunny.
Also I ordered Aaron Burch’s chapbook HOW TO TAKE YOURSELF APART, HOW TO MAKE YOURSELF ANEW. PANK is contributing all proceeds from all sales (between now and 2/13/10) of the chapbook, and PANK 4 to the Red Cross and Médecins Sans Frontières.
Tonight I’m meeting with Stacy and others to do the last round of Five Things contest judging. We got some very strong and varied entries and I’m proud of Austin writers. Well anyway later.
The song about ruing the blues does exist on the internet! It is called, wait for it, “Rue The Blues” and it’s by Oakley Hall. You can hear it on their Myspace page. I feel silly that I searched for it wrong, but it’s worth it to find the song again and yes, to share it with you.
On Friday I’m doing a Literary Death Match in Dallas. Readers include Will Clarke (Dallas), William Razavi (San Antonio), and Katherine Center (Houston). I’m not sure what I’m going to read yet, but it could involve going for it and raising hell.
