wednesday obsession

Though I'm a terrible typist when it comes right down to it, ever reliant on that friendly backspace key, I still love old typewriters. Nothing can compare to the feeling of finality with each key stroke, that satisfying clacking, the impression on fine paper, the ding of the carriage return...



vintage Hermes Portable Rocket, Moxiethrift.




Polka Dotted Laptap Bag, $45. TrackandFieldDesigns



cast metal type writer pendant, $22. boygirlparty



her story will never be written - 12x18 print, $40. sixhours

three day weekends

I am just now beginning to feel a bit more like myself after my hellish 9-5 last week, but, alas, will finally be back to having my mornings free once again (if not my evenings, but those are no good if I'm tired as hell and non-functional anyway). This weekend, I devoted to finishing up a few projects, making some collages, dying some slips, and general organization. I listed about 40 new things in the shop, including all the thrifted goodies from my vacation and some new jewelry.. I suppose it's officially fall, a time when I get a little bit of clarity and a renewed sense of getting things done, at least in terms of my own writing which keeps getting pushed aside for other things. I want to get the kissing disease in some sort of order. Not sure what to DO with it afterwards since I'm sort of soured on contests and submitting in general. It has crossed my mind to just self-publish a couple years from now, completely in the realm of possibility...the new book will be out soon, girl show next fall, so I have a while to decide.

Of course, Labor Day weekend has alot of ghosts, and they've been kicking my ass this weekend.

new from dancing girl press

The Fire-Wife
Melissa Culbertson
dancing girl press, 2008
available here





divided highway
Kim Young
dancing girl press, 2008
available here



ALSO COMING SOON:
Elsewhere & Wise by Kristi Maxwell

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News bits:


*Tomorrow is not only the last chance to submit your chapbook for our annual reading period (details here..)but also the last chance to take advantage of our Summer Sale (5 books /$20).

*see pics here at the Blossombones blog from the reading with Melissa Culbertson and Leigh Stein. I can't remember any reading I've ever been to where the writing styles matched up so well...

*in October, Melissa, Simone Muench, and Susan Slaviero (whose book will be out in January) will be reading at WomanMade Gallery in conjuntion with the exhibit "Objects of Desire"..details to come...

ugh..why I really try not to follow politics since they just make me angry

When I saw this, my first thought was hmmm..interesting. That maybe Republicans weren't all entirely evil if they were willing to put (gasp!) a woman on the ticket, and much less, a rather young woman. And then I read further, and realized that indeed they really are as bad (or worse) as I thought--anti-abortion? anti gay marriage? wtf? I would have thought a woman, of all people would have her head on straight (wanting control of her own body, a little bit of empathy for those with different sexual preferences) There's no excuse...

For years, I was under the mistaken opinion that people of my generation (10 or so years earlier or younger than me)--basically, the entire fold of Generation X and the beginnings of Y were of a similar rather liberal perspective. After all, our parents had been hippies or 70's swingers. we'd seen the Reagan years and they weren't pretty. I imagined a generation more open to change and different lifestyles. Uh..apparently I was wrong..as my daily experience on the Etsy forums will attest (a shock after really only knowing poetry and artsy folks otherwise))there seems to be a serious backtracking . Not only is my generation not what I thought it was, but the next one is sometimes even scarier in their conservatism. Yikes..

why I heart the rebeccas

read here and here...

and here..

back in the saddle

or trying anway, including finishing up Kim Young's Divided Highway and copies of Melissa's Fire-Wife. I managed to get the webpage for the latter up before I headed out, but I still need to finish assembling the first batch (not counting the few I whipped up in time for the reading)...I am still tweaking the cover design for Kristi Maxwell's Elsewhere & Wise, but otherwise it's ready to go. Which just leaves two more behind schedule projects, books by Danielle Vogel and Claire Hero, which I hope to get wrapped up in September. I just keep telling myself it will all get done eventually. They will be ready when they are ready. Somehow I lost an entire summer of productivity to dayjob hell, daily drama, and autopilot mode...and yet I'm always working, but it seems I am always behind. I will be humming along on schedule and something else will need more immediate attention, and that will get done but four other things fall by the wayside until they become more pressing. It's like putting out a string of endless fires. put this one out and another flares up. Now, it's fall again, and the Wicked Alice inbox needs to be emptied before we open for submissions again (I decided to bypass the summer issue when it's harder for me to work on it and just do three issues a year--Fall, Winter, Spring.) And of course, dgp submissions, which I will be diving into very soon. I've been remarkably good about not peeking until now. Next year, I think I'll be taking a little break after our January release until May, but I'm still undecided on how many books I want to take after that.

I was thinking earlier today how absolutely insane the last year has been. I just extended the studio lease another year, all of which was barely a random thought even just a year ago. Now, a year, 15 titles, a handful of workshops/events, and a rather thriving shop later, things are even better than I imagined. (I had initially thought we might make the rent by charging for workshops, but I'd prefer them to be free and open to the public, so the etsy shop definitely picks up the slack, plus finances more books, more projects, more art-making...) And of course, maybe, one day, god willing, I might be making anough to do all this full-time, or at least that's the two year plan of attack...imagine getting out of bed and going to work at something you're passionate about and not just the usual day-job doldrums. I may die trying, but it's worth it...

this week's heinousness in poetry award goes to

this absolute horror story...

http://staceylynnbrown.blogspot.com/

For awhile I wasn't sure anyone could top Tupelo with the shenanigans and all, nor further my absolute dissolusionment with staus quo pobiz, but this takes the cake..