~~SOME BRIDGES MIGRATE, poem by Scott Pierce, images by Cherie Weaver. completely gorgeous book, letterpress printed and handstiched by our own Pilot author Friedrich Kerksieck. this book is incredible--the poem is ominous but beautiful in its strange comfort; the artifact itself is so stunning i am a little jealous of it, so i just keep reading it and turning it over and over in my hand. it's so hot off the press that a faint whiff of letterpress ink still wafts off the page. get one. seriously.
~~a selected grab-bag of H_ANGM_N chaps: flip/chap #1: ART by Dorothea Lasky and ADVICE FOR YOUNG COUPLES by Samuel Amadon, BETWEEN THE ROOM AND THE CITY by Erica Bernheim, and Elisa Gabbert's issue of COMBATIVES. i thought i ordered Andy Mister's COMBATIVES too, but alas. next time.
~~ the first issue of Saltgrass!! (thanks, Jules!) have you seen this? see a little bit here, now: then be tempted to order the whole shebang.
~~isn't this already a great mail pileup? i'm not even done yet
~~ a lovely care package of chapbooks from this lady. all of them signed to me! (thank you, C!) in the pack: THE AMPUTEE'S GUIDE TO SEX by Jillian Weise, A THING AND ITS GHOST by Evan Commander, and THE SMALL ANYTHING CITY by hers truly.
~~and last but entirely the opposite of least: one of the few remaining copies of the incomprable Matt Hart's SONNET which i can hardly wait to read. hardly wait. and tucked inside, a tiny collage/erasure showing me that "colors marked with a dagger may require multiple finish"... and a graph that measures the automatic natures of the machine called the moon. only from that Matt. he's one of my favorites.
i guess that means that i have a lot of books to keep me occupied until the next week of travel in may. hooray.
so, the jublilat/Juniper festival in amherst, mass was a mess of good times. i didn't make it to all of the readings and panels i had planned to make it to, partly because of timing but occasionally to do with whiskey. oops. but there was a LOT of excellent reading and chatting going on. Liz Hughey, Paul Fattaruso, Eric Baus, Timothy Donnelly and Sabrina Orah Mark were exceptionally amazing. fun time chatting (on a panel) about chapbook publishing/reading from those chapbooks with Matvei, Lori, Dan, and Alex to an incredibly engaged and kind crowd at Amherst Books---though i forgot to mention presspresspress. have you been there? go shopping!
all in all a fantastic weekend with dear friends, and met some new fantastic people too. huge applause in the direction of lisa olstein and dara and all the juniper folks for putting together such a great weekend po fest. many thanks to jj and Lori for putting me up as always. i love that part of the country and i can't wait to move there. i'm trying to convince Joanna to move there too. then all we need is Dean to move out of that rainy hippie city of his and join us on THIS coast. i can so see Open City and Pilot sharing a roomy office space, with windows all around, a swimming hole just down the road.
all of this makes the Seattle weekend feel like ages ago. but it too was memorable and full of poetry and dear ones. not as much whiksey though (surprisingly enough). Joshua took Matt and I to the friends of the library sale on friday (then went back twice on sat). just a few my great finds: the hardcover collected Stevens, Holmes' SHELLEY:THE PURSUIT, Gustov Dore's illustrated copy of the RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER, and a hardcover of Jim Tate's RETURN TO THE CITY OF WHITE DONKEYS that i gave to Dean (i'm such a sweet and giving co-editor) and which has subsequently inspired a future Pilot project to be revealed at a later date. heard Richard Siken (mezmerizing) read, and (measured, patient)GC Waldrep, and my lovely bus buddy Mary Jo Bang, and the often heart-breaking, and funny and smart and talented Vis a Vis Society... we made a feast. we made lots of popcorn in the whirlypop. we ate piroshkis. we Lebowski'd. we played poker. we poetried. the boys played music. on our last evening of Fun Camp, Joshua and Matt read aloud to me and Anthony the entirety of Oscar Wilde's "the Decay of Lying"... well, Matt read most of it, which was quite a feat. alternately frustrating and fascinating in all of its meanderings, i faded in and out (it was very late and much wine) but i think that was a fine and maybe fitting way to interact with it. many thanks to Joshua for putting me up as always, on either coast.
and now, my friends, i have talked long enough. now i sleep. (dean, move out east).
1 comment:
BETSY. How wonderful to spend the weekend with you. Can't wait until it's a regular thang, when you move here to our little valley.
Here's a way to kill 20 minutes: http://www.nationalcarpetisaband.com/music.html
See you at St. Marks.
j.j.
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