stacey levine

the girl with brown fur by stacey levine

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Stacey Levine’s book, The Girl With Brown Fur, needed to be published because her publisher (MacAdam/Cage) isn’t doing it for some reason, possibly they don’t have their shit together. Matthew Stadler, who operated Clear Cut Press, printed a “bootleg” version of the book. You can buy it here.

It’s nice when people don’t worry about being sued and do something good.

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Adam fixed up the shit-talk composter a bit since people seem to be using it. You have to type a ReCaptcha now before you dump your stuff but that’s easy if you’re you and not a robot.

There is some good shit talk about being tired and not good enough. MacAdam/Cage, you can use the composter, it’s free. Just let it all out.

You can read what’s been composted here.

by the pit

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Today I had lunch by the pit. It’s going to be a park but isn’t yet. I’ve eaten there once before because it’s on my route from home to work, and sometimes I want to eat before I get anywhere. I sit on a large concrete block with my back to the road, facing brambles and trees. Some of the trees have ribbons tied to their branches, whatever that means. Today I was staring at the tree that’s easiest to see because it’s in the foreground of a denser tangle. I was looking at the tree but I guess really looking past it, into the tangle. Then I very slowly began to notice fruit in the branches of the tree. I saw it before I thought it, and it was like my eyes were creating the fruit for my brain to see. It was very slow and melodic seeing, like being woken up by a song. I picked some of the fruit and finished getting to work.

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There’s going to be a death match in Seattle on November 11, and Stacey Levine will be representing Dewclaw. I’m really excited because nobody’s going to die because Stacey Levine is going to win.

a nervous narrator

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On Tuesday I read with Amelia Gray. This was my second reading, ever, and while I think I improved slightly over the first time I read (at KGB in June for Unsaid Magazine), when I didn’t speak into the mic until I was about half finished with my story, I know I would like to be a much better reader, which for me means being able to project, using voice and gestures, the persona of the narrator, who is often not me and would move his or her body differently than I would, and use different intonation and patterns of emphasis than I do. I am too much myself when I am reading, and I think this contributes to my nervousness. For a nervous narrator, I would be a good reader.

Anyway, it was nice to be able to read with Amelia and musician Anna Lynne, and I thank Matthew for organizing.

I read something called Sag: A Saga, which will be in the second issue of Birkensnake. You can get that issue soon, and I think you will want to.

I met Stacey Levine at the reading. Stacey’s latest book, The Girl With Brown Fur, will be out in September, but it’s already out in Seattle, and I’ve read it, and it’s wonderful.

soon, slowly, moving

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I’m moving this site to lispservice.com soon, and after I do that (this weekend?) I will post the interviews with Stacey Levine and Lily Hoang, which are good, they both have things to say.

I’ve been spending a lot of time in a suburb where I’ll be working on election day, training for the work I’ll be doing, and where I walk around quite a bit between the election place and bus stops, and I have noticed this creepy decorative trend: statues of animals that probably once lived in this place before urban sprawl pushed them out. There are statues of black bears stranded between used car lots, in front of McDonald’s, their paws raised, claws and teeth bared. Maybe this is supposed to be ironic, these dark iron-looking statues, maybe this is suburban irony. These bears will be even creepier after the election if the election doesn’t go well and I pass them in the dark on the way to the bus back into the city.