suzanne's poem in the snow... yes... cool

Sean Penn doesn't much like interviews or anything that smacks of self-promotion.

i've posted the following announcement over at fyp, so i should probably comment on it here... first the announcement:

if you would like a cheaply printed and bound paper copy of fyp's first line index 2003, please click here and submit your mailing address.

comment: it won't come right away because it's not exactly printed yet. but if there is some interest it will get printed sooner rather than later. i was trying awhile ago to decide which things from fyp might work well in a chapbook of sorts. but i couldn't decide. and couldn't decide. and then a few weeks ago i woke up thinking i'll publish the index. for starters. i've felt for a while that... at least in places... it reads as well or better than any of the pomes. and it has the advantage of a logical, irrational structure. the poem i wrote while i wasn't writing it. from a to z.

it could be useful as a sourcebook. for those moments when yr stuck for an idea. to be used the way i use certain uh sources in the construction of my things.

i have big plans for this little index. so take note. it came to me while setting it up that it might work well as an opera or theater piece with or without music. on stage or screen. i'll entertain all offers that come my way.

The 2004 Karen Sue Simonetti Cover Art Award

National Theatre : Production Seasons : His Dark Materials... i only just now read of this on sprial-bound (thanks again to sharon)... a pretty exciting thing for those of us who've fallen into the books... too bad i'm so far away... i need a subtle knife...

beard watch...

The Globe and Mail: Diet for an even smaller planet

the village voice reviews the meatyard photo exhibit...

Princeton Dante Project (2.0)... (via the spiral-bound list... thanks, sharon)

"While I seem to love America, and wish to see America prosperous, I do not seem able to bring myself to love America, to desire American prosperity, at the expense of some other nation or even of all other nations.""But must we not take care of home first of all?" asked Dudley. "Perhaps," replied W.: "but what is home-to the humanitarian what is home?"

from traubel's walt whitman in camden: Sunday, April 1, 1888.

To exist in fragments and in Greek is a doubly perilous claim on the attention of our time. Guy Davenport from his intro to 7 Greeks

i haven't lately told The Walt Whitman Archive how wonderful it is... it is

He lived almost exclusively off of Campbell's soup, beef jerky and Snickers. He kept a bowl of sugar water in his kitchen for wasps, hornets and ants.

as usual... wood s lot does a bang-up job with fascinating links to guy davenport stuff...

Former University of Kentucky English professor dies...
Davenport quit high school in Anderson, S.C., in 1944 to study art at Duke University and was selected as a Rhodes Scholar in 1948. At Oxford University, he wrote the first thesis on James Joyce to be accepted by that university. He received a literature degree in 1950 and returned to the United States.

Brilliant man helped green youth find self-esteem...
Guy Davenport was the smartest person I've ever known.

He enrolled at Duke University at 14, became a Rhodes Scholar and a Harvard Ph.D. He wrote acclaimed, difficult books. He dictated erudite essays over the phone to editors at the New York Times, using few if any notes.

Yet none of these facts, as I read them before me on my computer screen, captures the Davenport I experienced. He simply knew everything -- and then some.

Lexington Herald-Leader | 01/05/2005 | Retired UK professor was a renowned intellectual

Guy Davenport, renowned author, painter and UK professor, dies... o this is truly sad news... what a fine essayist fiction-maker poet translator artist... thinker

should i use staples... just... or is there some other way... to join these pages... what would you use...

village voice > music > Few bands were funnier, or better, at describing their own sound in song, always better than the critics they loved to hoodwink: 'electricity and lust,' 'tricks are everything,' 'style for miles and miles/so much style that it's wasted,' 'Can you treat it like an oil well/When it's underground, out of sight?' 'a special new band.'

Whitbread Book Awards

snow day has arrived... and i'm grateful... just finished making grrrades and posting online and exporting to the office and all that... ah...

o... junk mail report... i dumped 3,609 pieces this morning... and discovered from our tech people that the program is set to dump junk mail every seven days... so this may not be an accurate count for the entire vacation period... from 12.23 to 1.03... still... 3,609... something to behold

been making grades... waiting for the big snow... but it never come... that big snow... just a head full of hoping... almost done with making them grades... some happy surprises... a few tiny sad ones... but mostly good... and what will this new semester bring... i started whitman... weakly... today... tomorrow will be better... if the snow don't come... almost got the fyp first line index .03 in shape... ready for (self) printing... this i guess is the unofficial announcement... and a test to see who's reading who'd like a copy of the thing... if you are you better send me yr address... pretty soon... and if nobody wants one... i guess i'll have to inflict it on a few...

"she said as she sipped a cup of tea"...

i don't know why this line leaps out in my reading of this article... why does the writer insert this detail? the subject might also have been wiggling her right foot or picking at a spot on the table... why sipping tea... who sips tea... which is more likely to be sipped- tea or coffee... i never sip coffee but i do drink it very slowly taking care not to burn my tongue... but sip it - no... it's always tea they sip...

is she a good mother if she sips tea... does this detail make her imminent divorce more understandable... i just don't know... are tea-sippers more likely to live in EcoVillage... i just don't know

Paul Coomes could be rural romanticist Wendell Berry's worst nightmare.

Heritage Forests Campaign: The Roadless Rule...
On July 12th, 2004, the Bush administration announced a proposal to repeal the Roadless Area Conservation Rule. The administration plans to replace the rule with a meaningless process that allows governors to petition for protection of roadless areas in their states - or for more logging, mining and drilling. The day this proposal takes effect, millions of acres of our last wild forests will be immediately at risk.

from waldenlist...
The most anti-environmental Congress and President in a generation will resume their assault on our nation's air, water, and natural heritage in 2005. More than 1 million Americans have submitted comments on the Bush administration's proposed repeal of the landmark Roadless Area Conservation Rule. This brings to 3.5 million the total number of comments submitted since the original rule was first being developed in 1999.

It is clear that Americans care deeply about these forests and continue to overwhelmingly support a strong national policy to protect their last wild places, a fact the Bush administration can no longer ignore. Last week, the administration decided to extended the public comment period, originally scheduled to end today, to November 15. However, the administration still has not scheduled any public hearings.

By revoking the landmark Roadless Rule, the Bush administration is leaving wild forests across the country vulnerable to destructive commercial timber sales and road building. This proposal is part of the Bush administration's overall assault on National Forest protections. From day one, the administration has worked to weaken or eliminate the core protections for America's wild forests, putting the interests of the timber industry ahead of the clean water, recreational opportunities, economic benefits and wildlife habitat that these forests provide the country.