December 30, 2008

Spent a good portion of the day running around downtown:

1. Avoided buying any more books or political pamphlets at DeLauer's and Goodwill, although I really wanted to.
2. Found out that Bank of America has no Beijing branches, making them useless to me after the move.
3. Got a haircut in Chinatown.
4. Checked on some of the better graffiti yards downtown. One is getting contructed over.
5. Ate lunch at Ying Kee. Their $4.60 lunch special is hard to pass by. OK food (it's better and cheaper than a burger combo at Burger King a few blocks away), better than avaerage egg drop soup (has tofu & pork in it), and tea.
6. The staff referred to me as "laowei" (foreigner) when talking amongst themselves. This got me thinking about language and nationalism.
7. Bought some cheap, fresh groceries at a 9th street market. Some of the greens I bought look more like a form of grass, but I thought I would try them with mushrooms to see how they taste.
8. Found out that the Oakland Museum is closed on Tuesdays. Looked at some of the sculptures outside the museum. More on that in a later post.
9. Read this article about the failure of some of Oakland's art establishments.
10. Came home and did a little unfinished work.
11. Began to read Two Gentleman of Verona. I am fascinated by the phrase "a month's mind" (I.ii). I might have to use that for a title of something soon.
12. Started this post because I really don't want to do the cleaning and weeding through all my stuff that I need to do.

December 25, 2008

The Cricket folks have put up a new issue.

December 25, 2008

Chris Stroffolino is easily the Elvis Costello, Leonard Cohen, name a decent poet turned singer-songwriter here of Oakland.

I support his Boots Riley for Oakland Poet Laureate campaign. I think that Chris Stroffolino would do just fine as Boots' Chief of Staff.

December 25, 2008

All of WORK are now up on Deep Oakland's Small Press Archive. 12 issues in as many months. It's been an interesting project & a good use of a long stapler.

I'd like to thank all of the contributors: Demoshtenes Agrafiotis, Stan Apps, Michael Basinski, Charles Bernstein, Jorge Boehringer, Lindsey Boldt, Brandon Brown, Thierry Brunet, David Buuck, CA Conrad, Paul Deppler, Lara Durback, Jacob Eichert, Mark Stephen Finein, Dan Fisher, Angela Genusa, Samantha Giles, Ariel Goldberg, Kenneth Goldsmith, Feneon Collective, Sean Hill, David Harrison Horton (yes, I'm thanking myself), Geof Huth, Eric King, Rodney Koeneke, Richard Kostelanetz, Erica Lewis, Chad Lietz, Liu Shasha, Dana Teen Lomax, Bill Luoma, Matthew Lusk, Catherine Meng, JD Mitchell-Lumsden, K. Silem Mohammad, William Moor, Jack Morgan, Rusty Morrison, Shin Yu Pai, Tony Perniciaro, Stephen Ratcliffe, Francis Raven, Jess Rowan, Linda Russo, John Sakkis, Angelo Sakkis, Jeffrey Schrader, Spencer Selby, Juliana Spahr, Erika Staiti, Chuck Stebelton, Brian Strang, Chris Stroffolino, Jeremy James Thompson, Rebecca van de Voort, Nico Vassilakis, Sara Wintz, and Stephanie Young.

December 24, 2008

So in my slow preparation for moving back to China (oh yeah, I'm going back to China), I've been putting all my CDs onto my laptop to minimize my baggage. Last night, I came across a disc that had most of the songs that one of my bands from when I was in Athens, GA recorded: so I decided to put Chase Park Girls up on myspace.

I think Plenty of Boats is perhaps our best song musically (I really like what Matt Lusk did on guitar). I also like our version of Cocaine Bill & Morphine Sue a whole lot. Peanut Butter & Jelly was our biggest "hit" on local college radio, WUOG.

By way of mythology making and telling the truth, Matt & I knew each other from the college radio station (WUOG) in fact we later did an awesome early Sunday morning show together called Polka Dots & Moon Beams where we played a fair few 78s, but we also worked at one time or another with Nat (although not at the same time) at the same candle factory where Natty got me a job as a chandler.

Yes, the Chase Park Girls all made candles, although not at the same time, but in the same shop.

December 16, 2008

Chuck Stebelton just pointed me to the google book version of John Sinclair's Work & Whe're magazines.

December 13, 2008

I am pleased to announce the arrival of WORK no. 12, featuring Stan Apps, Shin Yu Pai, David Harrison Horton, and Matthew Lusk.

Work is available at Issues in Oakland & Quimby's in Chicago. Copies are also available for $3 or trade (preferred) to:

dhh / 230 Wayne Ave #311 / Oakland CA 94606

December 12, 2008

When Senator Bob Corker can say that it's the rank and file who are the stumbling block to a federal bailout of the Big Three and journalists are parroting this line and people are beginning to think that the UAW is the problem, it makes me wonder where the labor movement is in America?

Nevermind that Corker is playing with 110,000 jobs in his own state, or that executive salaries at the Big 3 are wildly disproportionate to the guy punching a clock on the factory floor (is the CFO of Chrysler also going to get paid $1 if the company gets federal money?), or the fact that the UAW has assumed the responsibilty for retiree health care. The latter isn't getting much mention--it was a HUGE historic concession on the union's part before the current crisis--but yet is being misleadingly not mentioned in the press, leaving TV audiences & readers to assume these costs are a part of the so-called "legacy costs."

Does anyone remember how before the Wall Street meltdown that GM had turned a corner and the press was touting its virility?

It really is the economy, stupid.

Where are the other unions? Where is the true left?

December 09, 2008

J.D. Mitchell-Lumsden. In Vehicular 1 (2008): 3-17.

The opening poem "Resolution" sets the stage for everything that follows: it is a literal annulment through striking out the text of a congressional resolution. The next page offers a consideration of ecology and a natural order of things: "I am doing a report on an ocean ecosystem," which quickly attacks convenional morality: " Who could doubt that a firm belief in Genesis blinds principles of the symbiotic, suggesting strong romantic or sexual themes are to be avoided." Mitchell-Lumsden then begins to offer the reader structures of time & politics and economics, formulas & schema thereof to show how we become removed from the "mutual places" symbiotic, reciprical relationships.

Edited by Sara Wintz and Christiana Baik, of the Press Gang, the issue also includes 15 pages from Evan Abandoned.

December 08, 2008

After trading away half the bullpen mid-season, apparently the A's are thinking about Randy Johnson for next season. But more likely is that Jason Giambi will be back. The Yanks didn't resign him, Frank Thomas is 100 and only played 1/2 of last season, and, according to channel 11 news tonight, Giambi has been telling friends he's headed for Oakland. Let's hope they don't put him on 1st base; I don't think this was the veteran infield Dillon Westbrook was hoping for in an earlier comment (see comments Oct. 20, 2008).

December 7, 2008

Sunday, December 14th, 2008
in girum imus nocte et consumimur igni press presents
Kevin Killian & Stephanie Young
and the release of their books Action Kylie and Picture Palace
@ 21 Grand, 416 25th St. (at Broadway), Oakland
6:30 pm, 5 US Dollars

there may be free wine, and dancing later
and, for this single day, 20 bucks will get you in the door AND copies of the two new books
both already SPD bestsellers!

Special guest appearances by Jasper Bernes and Jane Dark...

KEVIN KILLIAN, born 1952, is an art writer, poet, novelist, critic and playwright. He has written two novels, Shy (1989) and Arctic Summer (1996), a book of memoirs, Bedrooms Have Windows (1989), two books of stories Little Men (1997) and I Cry Like a Baby (2001) and a collection of poems, Argento Series (1997). With Lewis Ellingham he has written a biography of the poet Jack Spicer—Poet Be Like God: Jack Spicer and the San Francisco Renaissance (Wesleyan University Press, 1998). For the San Francisco Poets Theater he has written 37 plays, including Stone Marmalade, with Leslie Scalapino, and Often, with the late Barbara Guest. His most recent book, from Hooke Press, is a volume of his Selected Amazon Reviews, edited by Brent Cunningham, and now there is Action Kylie.

STEPHANIE YOUNG lives and works in Oakland. She edited the anthology BAY POETICS (Faux Press, 2006) and is currently at work on the collaborative website DEEP OAKLAND. Hey, you should propose a project for DEEP OAKLAND! Her books of poetry are Picture Palace and Telling the Future Off. She is here very sometimes: www.stephanieyoung.org/blog.

December 6, 2008

I want to thank whoever put Deacon Lunchbox on myspace. Omni omni omni omni omni omni beer.

December 5, 2008

In WWII, the Chrysler plants put out tanks.

In the next war, are we going to be beholden to foreign companies to make our tanks? military vehicles? HumVees? Jeeps?

I like that Ford said they could weather the storm without, but would like a safety net, a bail-out if only need be.

The other 2?

Does anyone remember that the car companies were approaching profitability just 2 years ago? GM was looking daisies not too long ago.

The entire industry going in the shithole is an economic outcome, much like the party store on International and First shutting its doors.

December 3, 2008

Deep Oakland is happy to present Chad Lietz's "Canoizonata" EP.

December 1, 2008

via AK:

The AK Press Annual Winter Sale!
Friday, December 5th, 4–10 PM
Free Admission!

Join us at the AK Press warehouse for our semi-annual sale. Everything in the warehouse 25% off! Hundreds of historical, radical books on an even bigger sale, with some items as cheap as $1! Take a break from the pre-holiday frenzy and enjoy some snack and beverages on us. Bring your
pals!

AK Press 674-A 23rd. St Oakland, CA
b/t MLK and San Pablo - near 19th St. BART and West Grand Exit of 80/980
510.208.1700, akpress@akpress.org or visit www.akpress.org
All events at AK Press are wheelchair accessible.


About AK Press

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