happy halloween / blah vikings blah

boo on fox for showing the cards when they were supposed to be showing the vikes/pats game.

anyways, abe kept me posted & mike wobschall, the blogger for vikes.com, kept me posted. not too much to post on. another game the vikes shoulda won but didnt. painful.

anyways! it's halloween! happy halloween! i used to love halloween when i was a kid even into high school i still dressed up & went trick or treatin. tonite is 'of montreal' at the rialto--& i for sure wanna go...but i for sure gotta teach tomorrow morning. responsibility will prob win out. :(

friday night / things comes back / grading day / writing nite

my friday nites have evolved into writing down in mms office. she's also writing/revising. tonite i wrote from richard avedon's 'in the american west' photobook. the language around the pictures is what i'm most interested in. here are some of the pics somebody put into a collage on youtube. fascinating.

Ms Lyla G Bear Supreme turned ONE. Im the best Auntie yep. I got that baby grl a coupe / here she is cruisin the valley.

Tim Peterson's Intro for me at the EOAGH READING SERIES (back in June '10, bklyn, ny)

In reading Shelly Taylor’s brilliant new book, Black-Eyed Heifer, I was struck by the dramatic contrast in the blurbs on the back between Brenda Iijima, who sees the work as a “mighty anthem to down home local culture—the deeply rooted—the feisty sustaining rhythm that saturates the land,” and Jane Miller, who sees the book more as a series of late surrealist “hell-bent, mad-cap adventures,” that “poke through your eye & go straight through your head.” So one question I’d like to ask, but not answer, is: why does Shelly’s writing make such diverse interpretations possible? One thing I understand from knowing Shelly is that she doesn’t wish to think in terms of an academic discourse, and that she claims her work with language is largely intuitive, the voice she hears inside her head. Yet at the risk of completely overinterpreting Shelly’s original and fascinating work, I feel like I’ve heard this voice before, or perhaps it’s in my head too, or it’s out there somewhere available to all of us, and it invites our participation and our acts of projection and introjection as if we’re squinting at something blurry which is gradually becoming more clear as we get to know how this speaker from inside her head better. Another way of thinking about the dense texture of Taylor’s prose, which seems to channel literary precedents from Stein to Joyce to Dahlen to the New Sentence, is that she has discovered a way of working that takes a local idiom and rearranges it for a context specific to poetry. That is, Taylor has slightly dislocated dialect from its original language games and is using it to play other ones, or even to perversely (and delightfully) play the wrong ones. This tension opens a space to explore what Wittgenstein would call a private language, and she brings us along for a wild ride. Taylor’s delightful ear is like no one else’s, and the spirited, disruptive rhythms of her prose grab you by the collar and won’t let go. I’m pleased to welcome my friend Shelly Taylor to the EOAGH Reading Series today.

October 25, 2010 **Thank you, Tim. Lots of love!

Sat / mission food food wine champagne fur wigs karaoke flowers cards lots of pics love smart women fun

hey. today is football sunday. getting ready to go head to head w/ abe smith's paaaack who are going down. sunday duel, my favorite. go vikes go!

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yesterday was fun. up, roasted yams, visited w/ neighbor, tea in the backyard, picked up ms annie, went to the mission, to mms for a big ole wonderful people potluck--mm, dr danielle, deanne, annie, drew, & myself. went to best western for a lil hour of karaoke--drew & annie sang so well yes & when 'shelly t' was cued up i split fast as i could pay my tab & run to the car. drew & i went to the district where we met up w/ dan, who photographically looks stunning in my fur vest. fyi, drew is wearing a wig that makes him look like he's gonna set buildings on fire, or blow something up. good saturday. i start my 8 week lit 102 tomorrow, & though it stresses me a lil bit out, im financially needing it yep. go vikes!

friday / grita is staring at me / it's finally chilly in tucson

ah, i do so love a slow friday after the bumble of the week. had dinner last nite with mommy-to-be ms. dani, who is beautiful-beautiful. just got done w/ laundry & grading at mms--& a nice dinner of bowtie puttanesca & an oktoberfest. im revising tonite & taking nice hot bath. grita's still staring at me. & im smiling at her but she seems unenthused. happy friday!

thurs / i am a happy grl / a tired grl / & a full grl who has talked to her mama--all this already & it's just noon

last nite i went to drew krewer's reading at casa libre. how was it? it was amaaaaazing. i enjoyed myself thoroughly. afterward we all (me mike annie & drew) popped in che's for a drink & royally sweet treatment by aaron--then we leaped over to plush where my most fav terry w had freakout, then home by 1030ish cause 5am comes super-early, friends. early early early you have no idea. 8 more weeks of it then no more for this grl.

class was awesome today. two class periods of awesomeness. ive done my job & now im napping. dont call uh uh...sleeeepy. sugars!

tues / whoop vikes won / im cooking chkn collards rice & tomato gravy & sweet corn

yeh i'm really really really hungry hence the country lunch. and then im gonna nap. and then im dragging my butt up that mountain with renee again. class was good: whitman ginsberg & saul williams. you can imagine how cool that was huh? yep. didnt make it to tracie morris but i will on thursday. lunch!

Sam's Quince!

Quince

Sam's Quince more

Last nite / Samantha's Quinceanera

SUN / fooooooooooooootball game in progress. cowboys vs VIKINGS.

da da da da go go go! Get it, Vikes!

friday / test run ... check / leave me with your borneo i said leave me the way i was before ... / early life jams that wont quit

makeup & hair test run w/ precious sam is a check, yep. wine & pizza w/ mm. home revising new work. thanks to abraham s for inviting me to tour with him this late winter in nyc--made my day all kinds o' sparkly. (now if somebody'd only review my Heifer...)

tomorrow is the quinceanera. i gotta arrive early for beautifying purposes which i lurve. this celebration has taken weeks to plan, will involve a 17-piece mariachi band, a band, & a dj--& yes all of this will take place in mm's backyard--as will serving dinner to the 110 guests! should be fun. after that ima pop over to my sugar drew's mooooonster party, where he'll prob be dancing his ass off by himself in any free spot, & where I'll go from festive to having fake blood on my face. im, as always, excited. sure beats the hell outta club crawl!--where im going to be nowhere near--!--uh uh no no nope.

thurs / just got back from mms / closet searching

being girlie, picking out our outfits for the quinceanera on sat--& looking at mm's mother's fashionable clothes--ankle grazing cashmere thick coat, sequin coat, silk suits, shawls galore. talking fashion, how true elegance is perhaps achieved later in one's life. and then i think to my fav all time elegant fashionista in its purest term essence, the late nan kempner. who i love love & then i love some more.

wed / like religion / tim barry 'wait at milano' / fav song ever

vikes lost / but the magic is coming back / i need a pony

me & mark-a-hontas at the ga nbha finals. im ready to get back there.

it's 1:52 in tucson / i just graded 28 essays / yesterday i graded 27

since 2pm today ive been on it. bout 8pm i almost had a nervous breakdown. my handwriting on the papers did turn to pure scribble, i was hungry, & no i did not feel like cooking. what did i do? i went to wendys. and i got myself a treat of shiner oktoberfest, made in good ole shiner, tx. now, i dont know whether im tipsy or just plain done for. ive only had two beers but i swear im seeing double & am wonked out of my mind. my writing fingers got the blisters & i give up. i tried to pay morgan to help me--(this is a joke--just in case anyone job-related, my boss, or future bosses are reading)--but he said 'not on yer life.' see morgan what state youve left me in?

football sunday / but vikes play tomorrow / update: teacher's sunday, grading grading / temperance tus

vikes play tomorrow. gear up vikes.

i must thank renee for making me climb all the way up the mountain yesterday, despite my wanting to quit halfway up & her c'mon 'you can do its' & my 'im freakin dyings.'

being that my body couldnt take me straight up i did the second half of the climb backwards, walking backwards up a straight incline! today i simply cant really walk. everything in my lower half hurts. but i did get a good workout. & had the best conversation. so i reckon i'll be just fine. epsom salts!

SAT / here & there / lower 80s = happy happy

today is lovely.

here are some random pics--mms garden, lyla, karaoke w/ drew, annie, & mike at the best western (yes, the best western). drew is always his fabulous self. i like annie & mike a lot--they are a cute couple, both really intelligent & sweet. their house could be photographed for home & garden, like, tomorrow it's so gorgeous. they also live in the ole barrio like me & just moved here from bklyn--he, for writing, & she teaches architecture at the U. and yes, she's ballsy enough to wear a wig out & sing taylor swift. my kind of girl!

im grading away.

going on a hike in a lil bit w/ renee so that my brain doesnt cramp from all the analytical essays. i heart renee.

SAT / hello! / happenings

Happy 10th Birthday Lashels!

fri / taroh / champagne / board games

i had my taroh today w/ mm--& it was most pleasing.

had lovely tea time which turned into champagne w/ mm & friends deanne stillman (non-fiction writer, did the mustang book & 29 palms) who just moved to tucson & lovely quirky tony (reporter for the paper here). ran around a bit & am now pausing for dinner of spinach, mandarin oranges, & walnuts.

heading off in a bit for board game nite w/ my darlin'est drew, mike, & annie (who ive yet to meet but am excited to). then, while they go out for more fun, im coming home to grade around 10 more papers. whoop.

& write my part of morgan & my chapbook cause ive slacked for three days now.

thursday! / a beauty report

last nite i had dinner w/ mm & danielle, was lovely. met very interesting giovanna who is as mm says, very 'cosmopolitan.' indeed, she is wonderul. im doing her daughter sammantha's hair & makeup for her upcoming quinceanera--her fifteenth birthday celebration! yeeeeah! im stoked.

lit 101s update: we did some poems today & a lil poetry writing exercise & it was fun. i'm tired now. but im not napping--it throws my life out of whack. next week we're doing j harrison yesenin poems...always love this time of the semester.

this weekend will consist of grading. fun!

tues / ack my head aches / sherwin bitsui day in lit 101s / more rain / tus

i do have a headache goodness goodness.

today in lit 101s we switched genres to poetry. perfect cause we had sherwin bitsui (navajo poet) visit our lil pima nw campus. the individual poems in class might have been really difficult & confusing to first time contemporary poetry readers (they were difficult...yep. but also enjoyed in their abstraction), but i feel his reading & discussion of his work made everything gel. he gives a good reading. kind of closes his eyes & works from memory. very sacred feel to it. during the q & a someone asked how he knew his book was done. he said it was "done in 07" but not officially "done" til after it came out & he read it to his people on the reservation up in northern arizona, & then also when he read it to himself & aloud to the land in the canyon de chelly. lovely answer.

nap time yes.

monday / doo wop / isnt it fall yet?

i had myself a ball last nite. thing i realize--yes, it's one of those realization days--is that loves may come & go & come & go, but how important are friends?--sooo important. they can lift you right up out of literal death & they can keep you from drunk texting. (thanks d.k.) no seriously though, good friends & good family communication makes life so worthy. i am a happy grl. everything seems to work out, doesn't it?

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i had to run out to the campus to pick up my photocopied handouts & just HAD to have myself some cracker barrel dumplings & fried chicken--& granny & mama, no it was not the same, but i needed some southern food today. had to have it. and they also throw a lot of southern hospitality your way too--which i appreciate. i feel all wholesome. thanks, cracker barrel.

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ive recently gone through this period where journals are asking for new work. this is really cool to me--sure beats sending out blindly. what happens when a journal solicts work--they know my writing style, etc, i'm sure--& they don't want all of it, just some. this is bothering me. the poem they didnt take is good--i'll say it, it's good. but it may be content heavy: war stuff. very personal. i know i shouldnt let it bother me, but it does. is this common?--to be solicted from & then picked apart (for content...)? hmmm... kind of weird in my mind.

football sunday / yesterday we had rain / stuff im into

vikes got a bye at just the right time. dear abe s. says brett's prob 'toodlin round a 4wheeler' in Mississip, & i imagine he is, but i hope not. we vikes need better communication. so if our dear brett is down in the Sip, he hopefully has his wide receivers, offensive line, etc... down there too. hopefully. we got the jets next weekend, & i like the jets by proxy of past football-emotional-stuff, but still, i want my team to come alive. i want my boys to start kicking some major ass, is what i want. it's important.

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last nite drew & i exchanged books--how cool is that! his 'ars warholica' from spork press is amazing. i love i love.

we read new work which is healthy for writers. yep, sharing. we also 'i ching'-ed--i think i got some good info from that. i also ate some cheesy grits & shrimp. though i wanted mussels badly. i also watched 'waiting for the moon'--gloss of g stein & ms alice b.--& i enjoyed it mostly. drew brought over a lovely viognier. nice! i have two discs of fraggle rock waiting on me too. im just saying.



tonite i go to see the sisters 'cocorosie'--& im excited bout it.


i really love ava gardner as maxine faulk in 'the night of the iguana' (1964). tennessee williams, writer. john huston, director. ms tough maxine, earthy, needing, demure. styling was so perfect.

POG Reading / Nov 6 / 8pm / w Anselm Berrigan

bright saturday / still too hot / good coffee / tus

paris fashion week. top: mouret. bottom: dior. love love love love love love love.

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bout to shower up & go to mm's for my taroh reading. ive been waiting quite some time & the day is here. should be interesting.

last nite i saw terry wolf b/c it was his birthday! yay birthday! i tried to take some pics but they are all ridiculously blurry. i did rock one long feather earring given to me by my Rouch, & then one stud. big hair, lots of hairspray. fun fun.

and then i hung out with my fav dan h, who cooked me a late nite snack which was delish--big sausage dogs & really dill-ish pickles--perfect post-beer snack.