9.1.06
Allow me to be brief. Check out Snowden's Anti-Anti, The Black Keys' Magic Potion, and The Decemberists' The Crane Wife. Saw this Iron & Wine video about a month ago and it's still glowing in my head. Loved Megan Snyder-Camp's poems in the new Hayden's Ferry Review. Read at Leisure World last week. Overheard an elderly man say, "His poems are pretty deep." Overhead an elderly woman respond, "Maybe." I’m editing novel #2. Diego sleeps like this. There is only one blog worth reading. Only one. And here it is.
8.15.06
I've been rereading Alex Lemon's Mosquito, getting my socks knocked off all over again. I'll have to remember to duct-tape them to my shins the next time. I have no doubt in my mind that this image, from his poem "Plum," will be inducted into The Metaphor Hall of Fame: "I could see the patch of hair you'd missed shaving / glow on your calf like a gold brick in an Iowa cornfield." Do yourself a favor and check out his collection. You won't be disappointed. If you are, send Alex some hate mail.
Oh man, I can't wait to read Cormac McCarthy's new novel.
Been listening to M. Ward's latest, Post-War. It's so good. And you can stream the whole album here. Tokyo Police Club's blistering A Lesson in Crime has also demanded my ears' attention. You can hear three songs from the excellent EP on their MySpace page.
We adopted a kitten. Or a puppy on speed in a kitten suit, I'm not sure which. We named him Diego. Here are a few photos of him wearing his lampshade.
8.1.06
As promised, here are some pics from our trip to Italy.
6.15.06
I finished novel #2 last week, which took me exactly four months to complete. I worked on that thing every single day, for hours and hours, and it left me feeling like a zombie. It'll be good for me to start writing some poems again. Healthy. Less mind-consuming. More time for me to do other things like needlepoint and lawn bowling.
The infamous Alex Lemon and his lovely girlfriend Ariane came for a visit recently. We had so much fun with them. Here is a pic of my two favorite people in Minnesota.
Been reading the new issue of Zoetrope.
And listening to Thom Yorke's latest and Archie Bronson Outfit's Derdang Derdang. Good stuff.
So you won't be hearing from me for awhile. Lisa and I are leaving for Italy this Sunday and won't be back until July 28th. We've got a pair of amazing housesitters to take care of things while we're gone. Lisa received this amazing fellowship from Civitella Ranieri and will be working hard to finish her new novel The Nakeds. I'll be diving into novel #1 again and making some changes thanks to my brilliant editor Lauren Velivis.
Be good. I'll have lots of pictures from Italy to share with you on August 1st.
6.1.06
I'm almost done with novel #2, figuring out the ending on the page and in my head. I can't think about anything else. It's pretty distracting, actually. I'm surprised I haven't brushed my teeth with shampoo yet or washed my hair with Colgate.
5.15.06
I'm busy designing a website and doing a cover for Simon & Schuster and writing book #2, so I'll be brief and lazy with this journal entry. Not even links. I've been reading David Mitchell's Black Swan Green and loving it. (Imagine a wonderful passage from the novel here.) Been listening to lots of new great tunes: Sunset Rubdown's Shut Up I Am Dreaming (Click here to listen to the first track, "Stadiums and Shrines II"), the Cold War Kids' three EPs, Grandaddy's Just Like the Fambly Cat (No, that's not a typo), and Beirut's Gulag Orkestar, which, if you like Neutral Milk Hotel, you will dig. I received yet another email meant for the David Hernandez who lives in Chicago. (Click here to read my response.) I've got some more pictures to share with you. Here is a photo of Lisa working on her novel, The Nakeds. Here we are having a drink at our favorite bar in Long Beach, Bono's. Here's me balanced on a flagpole while hula hooping and juggling four kittens. Here's me a few seconds later juggling three.
5.1.06
Reason number 437 why you should pick up Charles D'Ambrosio's new collection of stories The Dead Fish Museum: "Her voice had no affect and its deadness sat me right back down on the bench. She turned away and flicked the wheel of the lighter, cupping the cigarette out of the wind. A paper plate rolled as if chased, around and around the patio, like a child’s game without the child. A white moth fell like a flower petal from the sky, dropped through a link in the fence, and came to light on my hand. The cooling night wind raised gooseflesh on my arms, and a cloud of smoke ripped into the air. The girl’s gown was smoldering. A leading edge of orange flame was chewing up the hem. I rose from my seat to tell the ballerina she was on fire. The moth flew from my hand, a gust fanned the flames, there was a flash, and the girl ignited, lighting up like a paper lantern. She was cloaked in fire. The heat moved in waves across my face and I had to squint against the brightness. The ballerina spread her arms and levitated, sur les pointes, leaving the patio as her legs, ass, and back emerged phoenix-like out of this paper chrysalis, rising up until finally the gown sloughed from her shoulders and sailed away, a tattered black ghost ascending in a column of smoke and ash, and she lowered back down, naked and white, standing there, pretty much unfazed, in first position." This passage comes from the story "Screenwriter," which you can read in its entirety on The New Yorker's website here.
Two new albums have held my ears' attention recently, the newest of the new being Elf Power's Back to the Web (Click here to listen to the second track, "An Old Familiar Scene"). The other album is Skeleton by the Figurines, who hail from Denmark but, strangely, don't sing in Danish. Skeleton is just as good as anything I've heard so far this year, right up there with Two Gallants and Tapes 'n Tapes. Check out the Pavement-meets-Modest-Mouse tune "The Wonder" and the comical video for "I Remember."
The latest Field is here with knockout poems like Jennifer Barber's "250 Wooden Matches" (I close my door / and strike one on the strip // that excites the flame, // a blue-yellow hood / raised from the red // knob of head // against the lightless / November day.) and Stephanie Taylor's "The Reading" (Bat braked against the window-screen / and stayed there, body balled / like a black fistful of hair.) and oh so much more. Subscribe already.
I forgot to mention that my new book of poems, Always Danger, is now available at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Powell's, and a garage sale in Ottawa, Canada.
I failed to take any photos while I was in Carbondale, but hey, that won't stop me from writing some captions. After my trip to Illinois, I had to fly back to Los Angeles and then hop on a plane a few hours later to Portland. I did manage to take some photos at the city's annual book festival, Wordstock. Had a hoot. Lisa and I got to hang out with Cheryl Strayed (Check out her first novel, Torch) and our hipster friends Margaret Malone & Brian Padian. Joyce Carol Oates showed up to Lisa's reading. Spotted Dave Eggers at the bookfair, Vendela Vida in the VIP room, and Curious George. Here are the pics.
Last Friday we went to the award ceremony for the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, then the reception afterwards (here are some photos). One of the highlights of the evening was meeting Gabriel García Márquez's son, Rodrigo García. Lisa and I told him how much we loved his movie Nine Lives. He was flattered and said something like, "You and the other thirty-seven people who saw it." Since I knew he was Colombian, I told him about my father and the poem I wrote about him when he was a kid in Bogota. Me: "So the genesis of the poem came from this idea that if he'd fallen differently in front of that taxicab, I wouldn't be here." Rodrigo: "There wouldn't be any poem, either." He's a tall, charming guy. Man, I just Googled his name...he's also directed a bunch of HBO shows (Six Feet Under, The Sopranos, Big Love, Carnivàle). I wish I'd known that when I met him. Oh well.
And I wish I was here Saturday night to see the decider and his wife squirm in their seats. You can watch Stephen Colbert's roasting of the president here.
4.15.06
I'll have more to say in two weeks, I promise (with perhaps some stories and photos to share from Carbondale and Portland), but for now enjoy this video for Wolf Parade's "Modern World."
posted by david @ 7:03 AM
3.15.06
Ah, it's been awhile since I've enjoyed a contemporary novel as much as Justin Tussing's The Best People in the World. It's comical and lovely, and the characters are so fully realized I could almost hear them breathing as I flip the pages. Tussing also has this gift for detail: "It started to rain. Outside the laundromat, suds formed on the sidewalk." That could be a haiku, couldn't it? "It started to rain. / Outside the laundromat, suds / formed on the sidewalk." I'm going to be sad when I'm done reading this one, I know it.
My favorite album right now? Tapes 'n Tapes' The Loon. If you dig Pavement, the Pixies, Wolf Parade, and Clap Your Feet Say Yippee, then you'll fall in love with this record, you'll dub "Just Drums" the best song ever, and you'll wish the band members were your neighbors even if they practice at three in the morning. Check out the infectiously catchy "Cowbell."
Best moment at AWP? Had to be the skunk that waddled into the bookfair and sprayed [insert your least favorite writer here].
Previous Journal Entries
12/1/05 - 3/1/06
8/1/05 - 11/15/05
4/14/05 - 7/19/05
1/15/05 - 4/4/05
9/28/04 - 1/1/05
8/17/04 - 9/15/04
5/2/04 - 7/31/04
1/30/04 - 4/15/04
10/17/03 - 1/15/04
7/2/03 - 9/30/03
4/21/03 - 6/15/03
1/7/03 - 4/18/03
9/24/02 - 12/24/02
