Monday, December 10, 2007

DC

i had a really great time in DC hanging out with kaplan and his LOVELY daughter... o, she's sweet... and jessica smith [who is also very sweet but can talk about poetry in a language i understand a little bit better than genevieve, k's daughter.]

i also got to meet and chat a little with mel nichols & rod smith! yay for me.

i met FLASH the basset hound. i love FLASH.

justin sirois read with me and i thought his reading was really good and i wanted it to last longer than it did. he said it was 20 minutes but it felt like 5... i wonder how his 30 minute readings feel? he could probably read for an hour and i'd still find it short! anyway, i'm looking forward to his book coming out, Secondary Sound and also looking forward to dragging him out here to durham for a reading and some drinks.

i read from RIGHT NEW BIOLOGY and it felt good. the DC folks have to be the most attentive audience i've ever seen... i was talking to chris vitiello about this yesterday & he has noticed this , too .... i know they have busy lives and must be just as exhausted as everyone else living in a city... but, wow... they seem to be able to really LISTEN. and i really appreciated the conversations i had following my reading... especially with ryan walker whom i had just met. i'm looking forward to reading his work someday.

anyway. it was a lot of and they were a very generous crowd.

8 comments:

Ryan W. said...

awwwww
nice to read

yeah, I think it's fair to say people listened. very interesting work, purposeful, indeterminate word to word, which I guess is a fancy way of saying I didn't know what was going to happen next. of course one never gets a complete gloss at a reading, but the word "granular" came to mind, which is a software word... meaning that things happen in the smallest possible units, everything seems like the result of a deliberation, whether it's quick deliberation or not. lots of switches in the circuit.

ahh, I know you weren't expecting a review here.

kathryn l. pringle said...

hi ryan, welcome to my blog. i wasn't expecting a review, no, but i do have an appreciation for yr thoughts and these especially. so, thank you, and i look forward to more conversations with you and also reading yr work [and blog now that kaplan has sent me the link.]

Ryan W. said...

next time we'll get you the president and a stout.

kathryn l. pringle said...

wow!

are you going to MAKE the stout? cause then i just might show up on Sunday...

Ryan W. said...

already made it. still have 30+ bottles left. it is the best thing about my life. is that sad? no. when I drink it I think to myself about how there is nothing to stop me from continuing to make beer and drink it for the rest of my life. unless I develop an alergy.

this thing in blogger is pretty fancy where you can check the box to get an email when a thread is updated. I need to get that feature in my blog somehow.

kathryn l. pringle said...

yeah. it is much easier than sitting on someone's blog all day... just... waiting...

30? cripes. i'm so sad i didn't get any! hmn. i have to work on sunday.

how long does it take to make that much beer?

Ryan W. said...

it takes quite a while. I've made two batches. the first time I probably put in upwards of 7-8 hours. the second time it probably took about half that long because I had my system down. time is spent cleaning bottles and equipment, cooking the wort, etc, and then bottling.

the brewing takes about 4-5 weeks, including aging in the bottles. all in all it's a much better way to kill time than facebook. it's not a big money saver. I use ingredient kits. which makes it a little more expensive, because everything is measured out. I probably end up spending $3-4 per 6 bottles. So there's a savings but it isn't dramatic. it tastes better than even the best stuff at the liquor store.

the equipment I think costs around $100 - 125. something like that. I got the equipment free from buck because someone gave it to him as a present and he doesn't drink. essential: a double blast bottle washer.

Jessica Smith said...

kate, i'm so glad you read in DC and that I got to see you! Right New Biology is very good, solid stuff. I'm looking forward to having my own copy in book-form :-)