from June 4: Looking Will Change (The French Problem)

(Afternoon and evening)

Third place is just at the coast. Because I call the digits.

True dreary for us, yes.

I have the point of the sea. I have the axe. Do you want a tour?

Apart from us, you arrived true.

Excellent. My health is dire, but we can’t pay the blockade.

We gotta get a school.

No, we need to rest in the parade of foolish shit.

Tell me slow.

K.

Cool. Got it.

I’m bored of the new calendar…now I have a figure to dance in the details.

Wwwwhhhheeeeeeee!

All you have to embrace are these lips?

Heh.

After the public call for encores, ok?

Gotta work certain change.

---

This is another draft piece I read at the reading the other week. The June writing project continues with day-by-day research and word/phrase gathering. The writing and arranging will flow from that, but not bound to the individual days.

Great Times at Minás & a Draft I Read

You can't tell from that picture, but the reading the Sunday before last (time goes so quickly) was well attended and well enjoyed. Thanks to Chris Toll for getting me involved, to Mark Sanders for playing emcee, and to everyone who came.

Here's a piece of a piece that I read, that's a piece of a longer piece that I'm writing, that's a draft, and that I'm sure will change a whole lot before I feel sure about it...

from June 2: There Is Subterfuge
(The Catalan Problem)

(Evening)

Else the content of my parents hold us in highest esteem.

The allure of travels and travesties and germane good stuff.

You don't say! A block of flavors! Did you compress the bullets with cream of air?

Hey dolts! The city is a turtle.

Conduct yourself.

Assuage the salad of your spirit! Xo

Yup yup!

Awesome!

Oh my armor is the spy. A real gift of the era.

Tell the turtle of time.

Some running mascara.

Holy cow, the electronic Rebels of Canada were correct.

Transmit it!

Some running mascara.

Yay!

Chris Toll and Jamie GP at Minás, Sunday June 6

I'm reading with the wonderful Chris Toll at Minás Gallery in Baltimore this Sunday, June 6.

Here's the details and RSVP on Facebook.

I'll be reading from a project I'm doing all this week (details currently undisclosed). Unless it turns out sucky in which case I have a bunch of other stuff I'll read. I'm guessing we'll grab a drink afterward... but where?

The Understanding Campaign, In Motion

Have I failed to mention the Understanding Campaign? This brainchild of Justin Sirois and Haneen Alshujairy aims to teach everyone a single word of Arabic -- a simple action you can take to help break down barriers.

Luca Dipierro of Little Burn Films (I Will Smash You and 60 Writers / 60 Places) just made this animation for the campaign. A little NSFW if your W is lame.



Check out the campaign. Do your part!

And hey newly crowned Miss USA Rima Fakih, if you are listening, we have buttons for you and could always use help with the cause!

In This Case, An Upper Boundary

MAY 9, 2010, FORT DAVIS, TX: This occurred after incredible consumption. Consumptive activities would be 100 years ago?

That wouldn't even break Confederate currency.
That's not enough. We are that far gone, I mean forward.

Nothing is further.

In this country you see the rain crossing the mountains in a solitary column. What we ran into was the fringe and the outskirts. Even though we weren't moving.

A century is to cyclists. As opposed to a Diet Coke is to cyclists. Or another day is to the cycle, as opposed to the upper boundary.

Look at two different things.
Imagine them on opposite sides of a board.
Make one side black, and the other white or red.
This is like dreaming when you are awake.
This is like ripping off a bandage but not exactly.
This is like someone else's crutch.

Not what I am. But not again.
Not this and not forward.
But more.

Trailing Edge

You talk to anyone and they'll tell you how data visualization was all the rage
And they'll have trouble pronouncing it.

And then oil fields, and round plots,
Interstates vs. bigger states vs.
It's daytime and we're leaving.

I promised you we wouldn't have to rush anymore once we got there.
It'll be slower.
It'll be drier.

It'll be dusk and expanses and the end of an era.
It'll be woodsmoke and dressed up tomato juice and no, those aren't boars.

It'll be something else.

FYI Marfa-Bound

Be well, San Antonio. Why do people pronounce you funny?

A Snippet of Saturday

A lil' bit o' Sweatpants... Had a great night with Red Sammy and the Cupcake tour. Thanks to all who made it.

(This is a test run for blogging from my phone... A key ingredient to my Marfa-sans-computer plan!)

Camera 5 (April 22, 2010)

Follow the road to the Y and then keep going

Some wondering may be required

Handful of cliches concerning the beaten path

I'm not sure that the movement is conveying like curtains or even chickens I've heard of in at least one case

When it is Thursday in Texas it is usually Thursday here

The gray area is where it gets interesting and yet barely matters

That's been the question all day

Camera 10 (April 21, 2010)

It's raining here.

The off in "on and off"

Teacupped

And then distracted from intention.

There is something new.

This is like everything.

This is like keeps it light.

Camera 10 (April 18, 2010)

I wish you could see the spinning
I'll find something better when I have time

Cleaning up pits
Over-accomodating, rationalizing, and appeasement
Against charity, neighborly, and The Zone
This morning in Baltimore.

Try to get your head around it while the stereo says the strobe lights and the disco will take us home

Six corners of my mind for five states and the District of Columbia

Camera 14 (April 15, 2010)

I could have had my eyes on you late last night
While windows were breaking under my windows.

Coolers of ice emptied over the pavement.
Five coolers is some kinda horrible party.

Sometimes when I say, “I don’t understand why _____,”
I’ve offered my daughter a shoulder
And been pulled inside the cone of shared ignorance.

Sometimes I’m just lying.

There might be 32 teeth in every mouth you meet
And that’s just the people.