New night, new dream. It's been a big week for dreams. Almost as big a week as Earthquakes are having.

It's morning and I'm getting dressed. All my clothes are in a pile. Not a messy pile but a symmetrical pile bordering on pillar. The floor is all mirrors and as I'm filing through my clothes I notice that every tooth I've had to have replaced (for one reason, or another) is now the color of clam shells, a black that fades into gray. Three teeth, two on the top, one on the bottom. I grabbed each of them between my index finger and thumb, and rubbed them like you rub dirt off a quarter. Still black. I began to both worry about my future with black teeth and become really angry at what I assumed had done this to me...coffee. My hands and knees were smudging up the mirror. The smudges asked why I as missing teeth. I embarrassingly told the smudges (who's voices sounded like my nephews) that it wasn't that I was missing teeth, but that I had teeth that had turned black, and I invited them to reach into my mouth and feel each tooth as proof.

And that's all the further that one got.

Perhaps you can help me with this: Last night I dreamt that Joshua Beckman was reading collaborative poems with my wife/partner, Anne. They were reading in a factory that produced pirated CD's, some with passable cover art, most with just the titles written in black Sharpie. Specifically, there were scads of copies of a Radiohead record named, "saskatchewan." The poem Anne and Joshua were reading sounded like an old vaudeville bit and had a lot to do with docks and docking. Suddenly, I realized I needed to go to the bathroom. I found a toilet close by in an opposite corner of this same room, sat down on it and peed into a hole on the floor about 4 feet away. I then began to get really embarrassed as I realized I was also peeing on a stack of my favorite books that weren't my books at all, but belonged to either Joshua, Anne, or Johnny Greenwood who showed up just then working the pizza window that grew out of stacks of CD's. But the most terrifying bit of this dream is that I couldn't, for the life of me, stop peeing...and that's when I woke up and ran to my real bathroom.

In other poetry related news: Fellow former-Iowan, current Chicagoan, Brandi Homan's brand new book, "Hard Reds," is officially for sale, though not officially released. Buy it here.

Secondly, go and listen, completely free of charge, to Rebecca Stoddard read from Eric Baus' forthcoming book, "Tuned Droves." You can do just that here.

Lastly, we all need to celebrate the greatness that is Coconut 13. See these poets' poems: Rae Armantrout, David Lehman, Ariana Reines, Teresa K. Miller, Kate Colby, Carrie Olivia Adams, James Belflower, Anne Marie Rooney, Kristi Maxwell, Jason Zuzga, Megan Kaminski, Christopher Higgs, Nellie Haack, Claire Donato, Ravi Shankar, Emily Anderson, Laynie Browne, Jonathan Doherty, Kathleen Jesme, Matina Stamatakis, Mike Young, and Terence Winch, here.

Magic & BBQ. Their IL.

Please, Go Do This...

My good friend Aaron McNally will be reading here tonight. Go, party, listen to poems and rock music. God willing, it will be the loudest poetry reading you'll ever go to:

PLAYGROUND OF THE RIDICULOUS

Fridays
June 27, July 11, July 25
6:00 - 10:00 pm, Free admission, $1.00 Budweiser Selects

Check out the ridiculousness at the Contemporary during its new summer series The Playground of the Ridiculous. Ridiculous, serious, and inconsequential acts will be performed.

Friday, July 25
This evening will welcome a film screening of The Stan Laurel Collection, poetry readings hosted by Observable Books with poets Aaron McNally, John Gallaher, Alessandra Lynch, and Stefene Russell, "The Revival!" by BenchPress Burlesque, and music by Curb Service.

The tentative program (weather-permitting) is as follows:

6:00 pm Enjoy the exhibitions (Main Galleries & The Front Room)
6:30 pm Observable Books Poetry Readings (Perf. Space)
7:30 pm BenchPress Burlesque "The Revival!" (Perf. Space)
8:30 pm Music Performance by Curb Service (Perf. Space)
8:30 pm Film Screenings from portions of The Stan Lauerel Collection (Courtyard)

About the performers:

The Band

Curb Service
Combining loops, beats, turntables, pop sensibility and rapidfire tongue twisters, Champaign, Ill.'s Larry Gates presents a unique approach to modern music with Curb Service. Less than a year after the demise of his cult band Lorenzo Goetz, Gates released his first solo effort as Curb Service, Little Red Recovery Room, and began touring the region. His one-man-band has not only been turning heads, but making them nod infectiously.

The Poets
Aaron McNally is the author of Out of the Blue (Caveworks, 2008). His collaborations with Friedrich Kerksieck have been published widely.

John Gallaher is the author of Gentlemen in Turbans, Ladies in Cauls and The Little Book of Guesses. Recent work appears in Field, New American Writing, Iowa Review and The Best American Poetry 2008. He lives in rural Missouri and co-edits The Laurel Review.

Stefene Russell is a co-editor of 52nd City magazine (52ndcity.com) and a member of the arts collective Poetry Scores (poetryscores.com) which is dedicated to translating poetry into other media, including music, art, film and dance.

BenchPress Burlesque
BenchPress Burlesque is a radical multi-gendered, sex-positive, queer-positive, feminist feast of political performance art. The event features The Tin Lizzies, BenchPress Burlesque's very own house band, along with an exciting array of skits that encourage and challenge their audiences.

BenchPress Burlesque began in the fall of 2005. The troupe seeks inspiration from the historical roots of burlesque as a variety show of political satire and class critique and aims to merge a contemporary feminist viewpoint with the sexy performance art of burlesque. As their name suggests, they push the limits of expectation and show a tougher side of fishnets and corsets.

Chicago, Looking Up/Dog Fight & it's Sleepy Fallout

The Singing Knives, read by Bill Willett (Who the f is Bill Willett?)

I used to think the Clintons were the best thing to come out of Arkansas...

...but then I caught wind of this: The Frank Stanford Literary Festival, October 17 - 19, 2008
Fayetteville, Arkansas. Featuring a Small Press Reading, a panel on Stanford's life and works, a screening of the Stanford biopic It Wasn't a Dream It Was a Flood, a celebratory reading from Stanford's poems, and a marathon reading of The Battlefield Where the Moon Says I Love You.

I've said it before, in fact, I've said here before, but like Jack White falling in love with a girl, "it bears repeating." Frank Stanford was quite possibly the best poet of his time. Frank Stanford is the best poet of our time. Frank Stanford deserves this.

All pertinent information can and will be found here: http://frankstanfordfest.blogspot.com/

Also, from one hand of the Henriksen's to the other is Adam Clay's new chap on their press, Cannibal. "As Complete as a Thought Can Be," is for sale here: http://flesheatingpoems.blogspot.com/

Just buy it. AND, if you ever happen to bump into either Matt or Katy, tell them you love what they do, but that the Chicago Cubs make baby Jesus cry...everyone knows Christ is a Card's man.

These are things I REALLY want to see

And this is what I'll read as I get there: The Summer Fiction issue of Diagram. Go check it out:

www.thediagram.com

It's sweet...

Adam Clay on Linebreak

Clay's, "For the Weight of Gravity in Early Autumn" is up on my favorite new weekly poetry website. Why favorite? Because they work so hard to show us one poem in two forms that most poets work to keep separate; on the page and in the ears. Yes, we may all read our poetry aloud to whoever will listen, but by having someone outside the poems creation read the poem, it becomes performance.

Anyway, it's a great poem and an earnest reading, and you can see it all for yourself by clicking on the title of this post.

Is It Just Me...

...or does this sound like the coolest thing ever?

"Joshua Beckman, Noelle Kocot, Anthony McCann will be stationed on a boat out in the dark in the Santa Monica Bay. On the beach visitors will find a re-tooled rotary phone (really a cell phone), a lantern and a telescope. Any individual visitor who wishes that a poem be read to them can then hail the boat using the lantern. The deck of the boat will then light up and the beach telephone will ring. The individual listener can then listen to a poet read them a poem while watching said poet through the telescope. At the end of the poem the poet will hang up and the boat will go dark."

Details: http://www.smgov.net/smarts/glow/

I drew this a few months ago when I had nothing to do at work. I'm showing this to you now to help me tell you about all the exciting news happening over at Octopus Books, that is, on the off chance you don't already know... Julie Doxsee's book, "Undersleep" is ready to ship for a mere $12. Also coming up here in a few weeks, during the month of August, Octopus Magazine is reading submissions...so...mark that...down. To also, Julie will be touring the US of A during that same month, so keep your ears open. Not only is she great, but she's reading with a bunch of awesome folks as well.

Other news, Small Fires Press has just released what I'm told will be the first in a line of comics/graphic stories. It's called, "Cob Webs." It's written and illustrated by Laura Swan and it looks great. Get it here: http://smallfirespress.com/chapbooks.html

In more personal news, I know I promised to have a book for you by now, but funds are little tight (vacation+not working=no book). I wanted to tell you though, that as soon as I have money to print, you'll have a kick-ass book to read.

Zach Smackdown

Now, I know that ZS works as hard and as long on his poems as anyone else. I also know that the best poetry is poetry that appears effortless. But for the life of me, I have never read such effortlessly beautiful poems as the ones I read here:

http://weheartfourthings.com/4-poems-by-zachary-schomburg/

The play between biblical and journalistic language pulls you into Schomburg's world in which both all things and nothing surprises you. In a sense, it's like opening the news paper to see what God created today. "Honey, look at this. God made US today...Oh, and newspapers." I'm surprised I never thought of this before: the dichotomy between these two styles. When you think about it, much of the Bible is just reporting, and much of reporting is about creating a world. This too feeds into the effortlessness of the poem (The Pond, from which these shorter pieces were extracted). Through all this, what is genuinely surprising are these moments when the speaker says something completely open, outside poetry's shell.

Anyway, A and I are watching WWE wrestling on WGN. Why? Because it's Friday night. What are you doing right now?

god daMN! John Ashbery. Tuesday Afternoons.

It's Internet. Hooray Internet!

Okay, so although I spent the last few weeks on beaches, eating from crab shacks and rubbing sun screen from my eyes, internet was either spotty or expensive. But now I'm back in Chicago with all the necessary tools, and a few things to pass on.

Rabbit Light Movies #7 is on. In fact, it's SO on. Check out this morsel of greatness and be persuaded...


Johannes Göransson from joshuamarie on Vimeo.

Go, now, to www.rabbitlightmovies.com

Also, while in HI I finished the Stanford epic. I don't know how else to say this...so, don't be a punk, go and buy that book. From this day on, if I come to your house and you don't own that book, it would be in your best interest to not show me your book collection.