Friday, February 27, 2009

on fortresses

Lately, I've been envisioning my entire apartment covered in blankets and compartmentalized into tiny rooms with different themes.



Because of scarce resources (and lack of skill when it comes to building large-scale things), I had to settle for just one tiny room. Attempting to arrange a cozy, warmly lit environment where both productivity and sufficient entertainment can be reached was a difficult task, but then I remembered--forts including the TV always increase value and success.



This is where I spent the better part of last week. Highlights: four hours watching Freaks and Geeks with Matt, five hours drinking wine and grading papers, two hours napping after drinking too much wine while grading papers, many hours writing very bad parts of poems, and eating a huge turkey sandwich picnic-style while watching Welcome Back Kotter.

Things I realized: Forts don't last forever. Eventually, the act of carefully climbing in and out of them becomes much too stressful. Also, it's possible that I'm too old for this.



...or maybe I just need to try harder.

Monday, February 2, 2009

the happenings



I just ordered Torpedo #4, a tribute issue to Richard Brautigan, where my good friend Shawn Mitchell's story "It's Not the Heat So Much as the Jelly" now lives. Should be a rousing good time for the whole family.



Also on the subject of good friends and buying things, I just pre-ordered Zach Savich's first book of poems, Full Catastrophe Living, winner of the 2008 Iowa Poetry Prize. It's going to be so good and so tingly, folks.

There are so many exciting things happening for the people I like, and even for me, that lately I've been feeling kind of like this: