The Good & the Ugly

First, check next month for some poems up at Softblow.  In the meantime, go enjoy what they have now.  

But down in the garage space, the kickstart seemed like it was going to be great.  

Then I gave it kick, and the teeth promptly gave out.  I think I'm going to have to change the whole quadrant and just buy that with the matching kickstart lever.  At that point, I'm thinking I might as well just put on a new cylinder head and piston.  Needless, to do this job right, I'm going to have to get more stuff, which means I'll have to wait until I get a job and a proper work space.  I think it's time to shelf the baby for a few weeks until something lucrative develops.

The aftermath:

Signs of Life

Yesterday was one of those rest-all-day kinda days. Had to get out of the house for at least a little bit, picked up some new potting soil, and changed the few house plants.  

I've had an aloe that's been on the wane for about 8 months.  Progressively transitioning from green into a reddish color.  But check it out!

Yup.  A fresh, new life, peaking up out of the miracle-grow.  

See, I've been wary of keeping an aloe plant, and have held high hopes for this guy since my last aloe plant froze to death in the back of a car, parked over night in a Tennessee motel in 2001.  

A poem by Claude McKay

On The Road

Roar of the rushing train fearfully rocking, 

Impatient people jammed in line for food,

The rasping noise of cars together knocking, 

And worried waiters, some in ugly mood, 

Crowding into the choking pantry hole

To call out dishes for each angry glutton

Exasperated grown beyond control, 

From waiting for this soup or fish or mutton.

At last the station 's reached, the engine stops; 

For bags and wraps the red-caps circle round;

From off the stop the passenger lightly hops,

And seeks his cab or tram-car homeward bound;

The waiters pass out weary, listless, glum,

To spend their tips on harlots, cards and rum.  

This Just In

Did you know, if you read cnn.com (I'm not linking you there; just sayin') and click on the little shirts next to the headlines, you can order a t-shirt with that headline on it?  So, today, if you want, you can get a shirt that says "Baby Girl Doe meets man who found her" or "Prank promotes sex, booze after prom."  

If you're into that sort of thing.

Still waiting on the kickstart.  And a job.  

Also trying to figure out the riddle left for me in comments from the last post. Isn't the semester's end kinda cool?

Mr.T Rides Again.

That's a new clutch in a 1980 Ford F-100.

Oh weekend, where'd you go? Between Adam's visit, the gift he brought me, and reinstalling a transmission, I'm feeling mostly dead.  Here, have a James Wright poem:

I Was Afraid of Dying

Once

I was afraid of dying

In a field of dry weeds.

But now, 

All day long I have been walking among damp fields,

Trying to keep still, listening

To insects that move patiently.

Perhaps they are sampling the fresh dew that gathers slowly

In empty snail shells

And in the secret shelters of sparrow feathers fallen on the

      earth.

PIYP Day!

I know you're all Ninth Letter subscribers, so you should have a poem to carry around in your pocket today.  Whose did you get?

Meanwhile, please check out the new podcast at the site, Basquiat.

For All You Knitters Out There

A little something (right here), if you rock the needles...the other needles.  

Like her.  

Or her.  

Adam Clay is coming to town.  Find out all about it on the 9L Blog.  

Meanwhile, in Vespa news:

The last piece I need is on it's way.  Photos and blue-tinted exhaust to come. 

Want a little more?  The Ravi Shankar edited Language for a New Century is hot off the press.  Diggity-dig.  

If You're in NYC This Weekend:

Do what Ada says:

The infamous Alex Lemon is coming to town and he'll be reading from his new book Hallelujah Blackout.

Come join us for one reading, two readings? Take your pick!

Saturday, 04/19/08 Lemon & Limón Reading! (with Alex Lemon & Jerry Williams) The Ear Inn, NY, 3PM with 
Guest host Jennifer L. Knox

Sunday, 04/20/08  Lemon & Limón Reading! (with Alex Lemon), The Four-Faced Liar, NY, 2:30PM with 
host Shafer Hall

Come out and join us for a cocktail or a lemonade. 

Click here for more information.

http://adalimon.com/Site/Readings.html

What I Mean When I Say "Reading"

Graduate Reading today, fulfills part of the requirements to get the M.F.A.

Should be a good time. 

I can't think of a reading, or the idea of reading, without thinking of February 13th, 2004.  The whole family was there.  A few photos from that night:

A Poem by Russell Edson:

The Academic Sigh

     Some students were stretching a professor on a medieval torture rack.  He had offered himself to show them how an academic might be streched beyond his wildest dreams like a piece of chewing gum.  

     And as they turned the wheel the professor was getting longer and longer.

     Don't make me too long, or I'll look kind of goofy, sighed the professor as he grew longer and longer.

     Suddenly something snaps.

     What happened? sighs the professor from the rack.

    We were just stretching an academic when suddenly something snapped; you may have heard it...

     Yes, I was there.  Don't you remember? sighs the professor.

     And then we heard an academic sigh...

     Yes, I heard it, too, sighs the professor, it seemed to come from the rack where I was being stretched beyond my wildest drams like a piece of chewing gum.

Reading Tomorrow

I'm reading with Andrew Ervin, Eve Eure, Amy Sayre Roberts, Rebecca Faught and Juan Sanchez tomorrow, First Floor of the Levis Center, 1pm.

That's on UIUC campus, 919 W. Illinois St. 

If anyone was going to make a surprise showing...  

Got a Dollar?

It's here, just in time for NPM.

Check out *Big Game Books* for the other artists who have work out in this series.  

But hurry because only 50 were made!  And when they're gone, I think that's that....

Meanwhile I think I'm taking the day off.  If everything goes my way, I'll be able to push-start the Vespa by noon!

And what happened to the postcards?

Some Rest

Weekends are getting goofy.  Too many projects between Saturday and Sunday:

Saturday:

To get the shifting adjusted on the Vespa, you've got to mess with the cables from inside the handle bars.  Jesse's all over it:

Meanwhile, I'm pulling stuff around the gear box, while assured I'm not balding:

Not nearly the progress I expected on the vespa.  I think it's time to learn what all the switches on the handle bars to.  If anyone has any suggestions, I'm open.  And could use 7 hours of my life back.

Sunday:

Meanwhile, at the Land of Misfit Toys (Mr.T's place):

Nothing's really working right.  The Rambler needs a new head gasket so that it stops spitting oil all over the electrical components.  The transmission of the truck, the very thing that prompted the purchase of the Rambler, after a serious series of cost/benefit calculations, is now being dealt with.  Did you know that the absences of a transmission jack isn't a problem if you have a small floor jack and a skateboard?

Dropped it like an animal we're gonna eat.

Made enough space for me to do a sit-up behind the block so I could remove the bell housing:

It's a 10 inch clutch disc.  We could have finished the job (which I think we can do with relative ease), only this thing either had an 8 or 10 inch clutch disc, so we didn't know what to order until we got to this point. 

After transmission removal, in the bar's basement, it's Bloof Time: 

The crowd in the basement was about 20-strong.  The bouncer by the door?  Amazing writer.  I'll let you know all about that guy when he's ready to explode.  

My students have been reading Knox since Fall of '06.  They laughed.  They wept. They choked on their Rogue specials.  They doted.  It was everything they thought it would be and more...at least two poets more, what with Shanna and Danielle....

Students are presenting poets this week.  I'm going to try to rest now.  

The Window

Meanwhile, all the Vespa parts have arrived.  To make the process a little more interesting, I'm taking bets on what happens first: a job offer, or my induction into a gang of mods.  

The endorsement for today goes to Mo-Tech in North East England.  These fine people stock the exact helmet I was looking for.  When I found it, the website couldn't take orders from the US.  I emailed, and the NEXT DAY, it was all set up.  Of course the exchange rate is a killer, but I'll blame our country's silly economic practices for that.  Ain't we a goofy bunch?  

Plans for the weekend:

- Get Vespa running.

- Drop the transmission from Ted's truck.

- Host the Bloof Tour, coming to the basement of Murphy's near you.  

Hell.  I might even drive to Bloomington tomorrow morning.

Dig.

Because the Love is Unfadeable!

Maybe I plug them to you a little too often, but the love really doesn't stop flowing for and from San Diego.  Especially from the Sleeping Giant Crew.  Downloads are here.  They just gave me some hype on their blog, so all the B-folks are clicking over and saying, "Who the *beep* is this fool?!"  I'm just a guy who loves the sound of a scratching record.  And layered beats.  And instrumental tracks in unexpected loops.  

That doesn't mean you shouldn't also support ESA.  I know for a fact JoeMama's got some dope records!  I promise.

What do you listen to when you write?  When you create?  

Is it some Max Xiantu?  You can get his stuff for free now, don't cha know....

Shanna and Knox are blogging from the road. Dig!  They're going to be reading in my favorite campus bar on Sunday.  Did I mention love?