used to be

that i would sit here in Durham and look at my west coast flickr friends pages and watch my little movies quite sadly and sickly and miserably.

it isn't that way anymore.

i'm officially NOT homesick anymore.

i'm just home.

now if some of you would move or visit....

*

i haven't written since i wrote a little piece for a collaboration with a certain white male writer currently residing in the bay area but possibly not for long ... hello white male writer...

too busy with the work that feeds me.

*

happy halloween.

i have to go find bear dog a tutu and percy a scout's uniform by 5pm. they are very excited about sitting on the porch all dressed up and waiting for the neighborhood children.

*

maggie has been really feeling the PhD student thing. reading 900+ pages a week, presentations, papers.... it sounds pretty good to me.... but i see it is wearing on her.

she still wouldn't go back to waitressing, though.

i almost had one fatal car accident on Saturday.

and i almost had two probably non-fatal but maybe, you know, INJURIOUS, on this same Saturday. for two of the three almosts i was driving. after those two i thought

maybe i shouldn't drive anymore today

and so i asked maggie to drive and she was driving for the third almost accident.

i have not had any more near car accidents since that one.

i was really wondering if i was having a Final Destination Saturday and i think that maybe i was but maybe it was just for Saturday.

in any case i am okay and so is everyone else i almost collided with.

MINOR AMERICAN READING: 11/2 GREENSTREET & VITIELLO

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE MINOR AMERICAN READING SERIES WILL NOW BE HELD IN A NEW [GORGEOUS, MORE COMFORTABLE] LOFT DOWNTOWN!!!
please join us next Friday 8 PM - 10PM
[we will start the reading soon after 8 AND THERE IS A BUZZER so try to be on time!]

204-208 Rigsbee [the Eleanor building]
right around the corner from Rue Cler
DOWNTOWN DURHAM

KATE GREENSTREET &
CHRIS VITIELLO

Kate Greenstreet is the author of case sensitive (Ahsahta Press, 2006)
and three chapbooks, Learning the Language (Etherdome Press, 2005),
Rushes (above/ground press, 2007), and This is why I hurt you
(Lame House Press,forthcoming). Statues, a Big Game Books tinyside,
was available briefly in 2006. Last March, Flash+Card published In Paradise
there is no art, a boxed set of 12 notecards (fragments of writing & art).

AND

Chris Vitiello lives in Durham and is concerned with,among other things:
clarification, light, stars, the sky, clouds, wind, trees, birds, deduction,
eyes,leaves, people and their observable behaviors,grasses,the soil, flowers
and their growth,description and representation, vegetables, skins and peels,
seeds, nuts,cross-sections, dictionary definitions, synonyms and antonyms but
especially synonyms, utility, analysis,skepticism, kindness,goodness, quantity,
measurement, direct commands,questions, and fact statements.

His book comes out from Ahsahta in march and is called "irresponsibility."
His other book is "nouns swarm a
verb" on xurban in 1999.

The Sexiest, Hottest Thing I've Heard in a LONG Time

Yes...it involves Bruce Springsteen. And It Don't Disappoint. It's going to make me go buy an ARCADE FIRE record. This tour is hot and I'm too poor to go until the summer! BUUCK -- You will love this...

SEXY

cold now.

i think 61 degrees is colder here than in San Francisco. i've learned that if i get too cold i get a sore throat. i am 35 years old and i've learned this now. the heat went on. i don't feel sick. maybe i need to train myself into cold. maybe i should stop jogging in the rain? no.

*

it has rained for many days now. i wonder if we have more than 71 days left of water now.

*

*where* is kate greenstreet now? i think she needs a locator device. i hope she knows how to get to my house.

*

i wrote something last night that i quite like. i also wrote three passages for my freelance gig... 1/ ants 2/ banana slug 3/ bones. i rather enjoyed writing last night.

durham

is down to 74 days of water.

can anyone tell me what happens if we run out?

i've never rooted for the Red Sox.

i simply cannot find it in myself to root for the Rockies.

i'm rooting for the American League because i prefer the American League teams. there.

go American League!

homoerotic pottery for jesus

homoerotic pottery for jesus
Originally uploaded by minor americans

at the fair.

thank you stephanie young

Click to Play

from minor americans to stephanie young...

proof of something, i'm sure....

chris has landed
Originally uploaded by minor americans

chris vitiello

state fair day

today durham is trying to have Fall weather. it actually rained a little for two days in a row, but keeps returning to the mid-80s & gorgeous sunshine. today is cold, CRISP is what people say in the Fall, right? CRISP...

and trees change color in the Fall.[yes, i knew that, but i have been reminded.] i already have a favorite bright orange tree. it is across the street from this house that i'm trying to convince maggie we should buy. it has 3brs & tons of workspaces... but we wouldn't be near downtown. we wouldn't be completely in the burbs either.

anyway.

this morning we are to meet Chris Vitiello and his daughter, Iris, at the state fair in Raleigh. [Raleigh came in 2nd to Salt Lake City for best city jobswise or some such thing... hello BAY AREA! come on out!].

here is the early history of the NC State Fair {i love the last earmark.}
1850-1899

1853 –State Agricultural Society holds the first State Fair; it was four days long. The largest attendance day had 4,000 fairgoers.

1861-1868 – Fair not held due to Civil War and Reconstruction period.

1869 – Fair reopens.

1873 – Fair moved to a larger site across from N.C. State University.

1877 – N.C. Department of Agriculture created.

1884 – Electricity is first used at the fairgrounds.

1891 – The first Midway ride, the Switchback Railway, is constructed on the fairgrounds.

1894 – Photography is a popular exhibit at the Fair.

1895 – Main attraction is chicken incubators.

***

our plan WAS to try the fried snickers and fried Coke-a-Cola.... because we have heard about them since we landed here from EVERYONE [bank tellers... cashiers... neighbors]... HOWEVER. i'm on a diet [3 years of good love from a good woman gives me a chubby glow.]... so i don't think i'm having any of this.

***

and then... we are coming home to read and write and i am going to make a little movie for Stephanie Young because a certain something showed up in the mail and she deserves nothing less than a little minor american flick.

my favorite poet

she's new, to me. but she's in the new Denver Quarterly
... and she's also here.

her name is kimberly lojek.

thanks.

jealous, bay area, very jealous right now:

Then on November 9 at 7 pm (and readings there start on time), Keith
and Rosmarie Waldrop will be reading in the final event of the fall
season at the DeYoung Museum. They are wonderful people and writers.
Come to see these poets, translators, and editors and publishers of
Burning Deck (for over 40 years) in a rare CA appearance. The cost
is $8 for museum members and $12 for everyone else.

my father found our blog.

last month, my father-in-law found our blog.

i really like this man.

i really like this film.

dogs.

at 3 am i woke up because i heard something.

and i walked into my office and i found Bear Dog in convulsions, foaming at the mouth, underneath the couch.
not the first time, but also, unusually severe. i try to get him outside but he can't even move towards anything.
[he doesn't like to be sick in front of us so he hides or goes out right away.]

but the convulsions are getting worse so i scream for maggie to wake up because Bear looks like a demon is about to posses him. or like the heartworm medicine we gave him at 9:30 is killing him.

i think, he can't have heartworms. no way. we've never missed a dose since we got here. he was tested clean in SF.

[if you give heartworm meds to a dog with heartworms you kill the worms but you also kill the dog.]

i call the emergency room because 1.1% of dogs have convulsions as a side-effect and i figure... maybe there is something we can do to help him while he's convulsing... but they just say, "I can't help you over the phone. Bring him in. But it will be 100."

[see, but for US... it is really 800... always. every time we go to emergency it is at least 800.]

so we put a blanket on him because he is all too willing and able to eat his sweet potatoes for a dog who is dying.

and we give him a Pepcid because he has acid reflux and this is actually a severe version of his acid reflux attack.

and then he slowly calms down. all the while percy is crying because he thinks Bear is getting all the good stuff and he tries to hump Bear because he thinks that will solve everything... humping Bear.

and so, two things you should know:

1/ dogs can get acid reflux and it is terrifying.

2/ i don't know that children are really in the cards because we spend all our money on Dogs.

[percy had to go in earlier in the week for his collapsing trachea.]

now i have to go to work.

dogwalking.

this is what keeps happening:

i want a certain baseball team to win. they don't win.

this has been going on for a year now. i think there really is no questioning my almost complete conversion to football, basketball, & hockey at this point. i don't know that i can give baseball up completely since i was always a little bit in love with steve garvey when i was a kid. but again... he didn't exactly turn out to be a winner either.

i'm so *over it* that i don't know i'll even watch the World Series this year. i hate boston. and i really can't stand the National League fans this year... what's all this God in my baseball???

still. it was hard for me not to cheer for bobby kielty. and eric byrnes. being former A's.

***

instead of baseball... or college football [just for today] i'm going to read the Maximus Poems and HD's Trilogy all day.

tomorrow i will watch the Cowboys and the Patriots and i am praying that the Patriots LOSE horribly but i don't know that God is on my side anymore since he went to the National League in baseball.

go indians.

i don't know...
maybe i should get off [ampersand]
since i'm NOT in the bay area

[except we will be in april!]

but then i like to know what's going on.

only it seems like it is all chad sweeney, all the time.

jessica smith: minor american reading series 10.06.07 : durham, nc

Click to Play

jessica smith takes on the Lucipo boys and Maggie Zurawski with one hand. and wins. extra special appearance by tony tost.

MAYBE YOU HAD WOODEN FINGERS IN A PAST LIFE

by ashely howe & brian howe

you can see the film they made/showed at our minor american event on October 6th

HERE!

the day after

Click to Play

an amazingly calm jessica smith gets locked out of her car. a quiet Sunday in the South on the minor american porch.

minor/american reading series

just wanted to let you all know that we have a few events coming up in November and then we will be on break in December.


11/2: kate greenstreet & chris vitiello

11/10: tony tost book party [time to be announced soonish.]

01/12/ 2008: Anne Boyer & Ken Rumble

February: Elise Ficarra & David Need.



April: we are taking April off because I am reading in St Louis for 8 Kates & Maggie has papers due!

May: is a special surprise that i can announce soonish i hope.

if you are an out-of-town poet that would like to come and read please let us know! we'd be more than happy to have you over!

cheers & see you soon.

string of small machines 3 is out and beautiful...


sabrina calle
harold abramowitz & amanda ackerman
kathryn l. pringle
cedar sigo
maureen thorson
mark lamoureux
brandon downing
roberto harrison
paul klinger
elizabeth robinson

cover: michael slosek


string of small machines is the house press poetry magazine, published in chicago, edited by luke daly, barrett gordon, and eric unger.

hey everyone,

i've been a little sick ever since maggie got well on saturday so i haven't been able to blog.

jessica, ashley, and brian were all REALLY great and it was a really fun night of squeezing 40 something folks into our not big enough house. we are looking into spaces for the reading series that can handle such crowds.

jessica did a write up on her time with us herelooktouch.

when i'm feeling better i will post some clips for you.

also, the film ashley & brian made will be posted on their website soon... i'll send a link when it is up.

thanks everyone for a great night and for showing up.

REMINDER: THIS SATURDAY

OCTOBER 6TH 2007
7PM, READING 8PM SHARP!
811 WILKERSON AVE
DURHAM, NC

ASHLEY HOWE & BRIAN HOWE
Ashley Howe and Brian Howe are neither married nor siblings (as far as they know). It's just a freaky coincidence. They've been excercising their creativity together for over a year. Specifically for this event, the Howes are creating a multimedia presentation revolving around the spontaneous instant of creation -- a sort of placeholder for an ongoing work that is always in flux, which more faithfully represents the spirit of their collaboration than the finished artifact.

JESSICA SMITH
Originally from Birmingham, Alabama, Jessica Smith received her B.A. summa cum laude in English and Comparative Literature and her M.A. in Comparative Literature from SUNY Buffalo, where she participated in the Poetics Program and started the poetry magazine name. She devotes her free time to Outside Voices and the D.C. poetry scene. Recent chapbooks include bird-book (House Press / Detumescence), The Plasticity of Poetry and Telling Time (No Press), and Shifting Landscapes (above/ground press). Her first book, Organic Furniture Cellar, is available from Outside Voices.

david antin:

theres a word close to talking a word that may finally
mean talking but used to have a very grand meaning a
word myth which has a very grand meaning for most people
and i know that robert duncan has given a lot of attention
to the word "myth" the one definition he did leave out when
he rehearsed the definitions for the middle voice greek verb
mytheomai is to talk which it was it was a verb "to
talk" and "to tell" and it was a verb meaning "to put a rap
in the air" when odysseus the great con-man the
trickster gets up to talk in council he "myths" and he
"myths" regardless of whether he "myths" the way nobody else
remembers

from talking at the boundaries

[incorrect spacing as you know he talks and how it is printed but i
can't seem to find a way to make blogger take the spaces. so. ]