There's a line in daily bathing that is hard to pass by, but easy to forget once you do. I learned that, amongst other things, this last weekend while camping with some friends. Also, you know how tents say things like, "stays dry in extreme conditions?" We went beyond extreme...

You should probably come to Cup of Joe (in Cedar Falls, IA) this Saturday, say...around 8:00pm. It too will go beyond extreme. You know, I say that, and then I think, "it's a fucking poetry reading, what would need to happen for THAT to go beyond extreme?" And then I have a few ideas...

I've had a pretty eventful summer and I still have a vacation left to go on. I think I may be a pretty lucky dude...

Have you read Dorthea Lasky's new book yet? It's called, "Black Life," and reading it is like falling in love with every girl with you've ever been in love with, only, more rapidly and less intentionally. You fall in love with the weird girl and the next thing you know, you're falling in love with the smart girl, the goth girl, the oddly confident girl, the more-man-than-you girl, some girl, THE girl, another girl...

I guess what I'm saying is that, at the end of the day, I wound up with a pretty big crush on Dorthea Lasky, but I have no idea who that is...

Are you on vacation? Are you in Iowa? Want to make your vacation a bit more spectacular than it already must be (you are in Iowa, after all)? Then do I have the opportunity for you!

I'm having a sort of official release party for my book, Michigander, in Cedar Falls on July 31st. What...you want more? Then how about poetry readings by Aaron McNally, Jonathan Barrett and B.J. Love. This gonna be the realest shit you ever seen, son! You remember that time The Beastie Boys sampled Slick Rick and then everybody did? This reading is like that...only with poetry, "as we go a little something like this, hit it!" You should get on this train early because it's the ride you don't want to miss.

Hype, hype, hype!

Deets:

Jonathan Barrett, BJ Love, Aaron McNally reading poems at Cup of Joe, 102 Main Street, Cedar Falls, Iowa 50613...8pm, July 31st, 2010, and out for drinks afterward.

Jonathan Barrett works in banking and lives in Kansas City, MO with his wife, Megan, and three sons: Elijah, Gavin, and Brayden.

BJ Love is the author of Michigander (Greying Ghost) and the forthcoming We are Two Bastards (Indivia). Additionally, he is an MFA candidate in the Writer's Workshop at Iowa and edits Further Adventures Chapbooks and Pamphlets.

Aaron McNally is a poet, musician and amateur journalist from Waterloo, Iowa, who now lives in Kansas City, MO. He is one step away from obtaining his master's degree in English at the U of Northern Iowa. His first book, Out of the Blue, is available on Caveworks press. His collaborative poems with Friedrich Kerksieck have appeared as chapbooks on Pilot Books and Further Adventures Press, as well as within magazines such as effing and 6X6. Reviews penned in his hand have appeared in Rain Taxi Review of Books and the Cream City Review.

This is July and this is what happens then

On July 1st I left home, last night I got back. A lot of really great stuff happened, but it's become hard to remember it all. I know I was at camp for awhile. I think I almost got in a car accident in Minneapolis. I saw the sunrise once. I missed someone's wedding. I downloaded, like, 19 records from emusic. I started a gang fight. I made an 11-year old puke. I made myself puke. I ran out of clean clothes 3 days ago. I had to pull my dog of a dead snake...twice. I'm pretty sure I made many broad claims regarding things I know nothing about. I cried watching Sportcenter. I mourned for Harvey Pekar. I made payments by phone. I forgot to make my phone payment.

Some other stuff happened too, but now it's lunch time.

Have you seen the new penny yet?