Pretty sure Austin is ending in fire today. It is seriously the final thermodynamic state of the universe out there. I made dinner plans but I don’t think any of us will be alive in four hours. It was nice last week, when I was going out to sunbathe at Barton Springs, bringing along the latest copy of Pear Noir! to read and bend the cover and slop with sunscreen. I love abusing journals, I want to gobble them up in my chops. Some juicy parts:
- C.L. Bledsoe’s title “If You Meet a Man in the Street Who Claims to Be Rupert Murdoch, Kill Him; the True Rupert Murdoch Is Within” I read the title to my girl Amy, who was beside me on a towel at the springs. She said “That’s crazy.” I almost read her the piece, which is also good, but then I realized she was flirting with this bartender guy she knows, so I didn’t
- Gregory Sherl, all of it man all of it “Here, a Place I Have Never Touched” is rad. “Sometimes we’re so far from each other it’s like we’re not even connected by stars. The stars said fuck it and gave up.” Real happy to see sincerity in blend with this levity. His might be my favorite pieces in this. I spilled coffee on them
- Blake Butler’s “Camera Eye” After I read this outside it felt like I was being recorded or that the sun/sky was itself a recording. Good one: ”cut up, runny, on the roof” phew
- Rebecca Sherm’s “Cherry Pie” Super sexy. This marks the second time this summer I’ve read butter as sexy. Brings me one step closer to mayo erotica. I pulled this story out to mail my girl Sarah
- Shane Jones’s “Lumberjack and Bear” Strange and sweet. I wondered why it was in numbered grafs, though it did make me think of an advent calendar, and then think about how cool it would be to do a linked flash chapbook in the form of an advent calendar, and each day you pulled out a new piece of the story that also worked independently
- Ethel Rohan’s disease stories Spending a lot of time thinking about an infant covered in seeping brown crust
catching some rays
Check out a nice article in the Chronicle all about reading shows in Austin, new and old. Check out the weather in Austin and pity me because it’s 101°F but feels like the inside of a 109°F sponge. I’m gonna go delicately faint on a chaise.
