At least the Yankees lost. A Snow Belt Series?

Okay, I am going to watch. Yikes!

Ten minutes to Cubs-Braves, Game 1. Do I watch? It's a little like watching your best friend making his acting debut. You love the guy, but deep down you're really afraid he'll make a total ass of himself, looking right at you the whole time saying "how'm I doing?" with his eyebrows.

See, before this didn't bother me so much because I could always go to campus and hook up to the network. But since the University of Chicago hates me and won't give me an email account (heck, even my library card didn't work yesterday) I'm marooned in slowberspace.

Monkey load time at current connection speed: 226.356 seconds. Grrrr.

If I don't get DSL I will never be able to read another Jim Side again. Stupid dial-up.

A squeaking & hissing radiator is a sound I haven't heard since my sophomore year in college (or before, really), but there they go. Over the weekend the temperature dropped about 20 degrees--it was a "brisk" 45 degrees this morning when I drove Robin to campus, warming up to the mid-50s but now cooling again. Plunging my arm down where no human hand has gone in a year (hint: roll sweater sleeve down, not up) to see if I can turn the knob and nudge a little more steam out of that sucker.

My computer steadfastly refuses to recognize our relocation to the Central Time Zone. It continues to insist that "Seattle is a city in the current time zone." Wishful thinking. I don't even drink coffee.

Woo-hoo! Notley and Jarnot back-to-back!

Not to mention this Strand fellow, who I hear is a nice dresser.

Poem Present:
Readings and Lectures for 2003-2004
University of Chicago


MARK STRAND
Thursday, October 16: Reading (Classics 10: 5:30pm)
Friday, October 17: "A Case from the Annals of Translation" (Classics
10: 1:00 pm)


WILLIAM FULLER
Thursday, October 30 : Reading (Classics 10: 5:30pm)
Friday, October 31: "Restatement of Trysts" (Wieboldt 408: 1:00 pm)


ALICE NOTLEY
Monday, November 10: Reading (Classics 10: 5:30pm)
Tuesday, November 11: "My Lines" (Wieboldt 408: 4:30pm)


LISA JARNOT
Thursday, February 12: Reading (Classics 10: 5:30pm)
Friday, February 13 : "The Opening of the Field" (Wieboldt 408: 1:00pm)


LOCAL TALENT
Thursday, March 11: Reading (Classics 10: 5:30pm)


ROBERT CREELEY
Thursday, April 1 : Reading (Classics 10 : 5:30pm)
Friday, April 2: Presentation (Classics 10: 1:00pm)


MARK DOTY (SHERRY POET)
Thursday, May 6: Reading (Classics 10: 5:30pm)
Friday, May 7: Lecture (Wieboldt 408: 1:00 pm)


LOCAL TALENT
Thursday, May 27: Reading (Classics 10: 5:30pm)


nb: If you don't know where you're going,
Classics and Weiboldt are best accessed
from 59th Street just east of Ellis.

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* * * * * * * * *
CHICAGO REVIEW
5801 South Kenwood Avenue
Chicago IL 60637
http://humanities.uchicago.edu/review/

Two potted citrus trees now live in our chilly sunroom. The first, a lemon tree, is named Woodstock. The second, a lime tree, is, of course, named Kasey.

Hey North Shore...

William Fuller
will be reading from Sadly (Flood Editions, 2003)

at The Bookstall, 811 Elm Street, Winnetka
Wednesday, October 1st, 7:30 pm

For more information
call 847-446-8880

Flood Editions
PO Box 3865
Chicago IL 60654-0865

Now that the tube map is back up...

Elephant & Castle [22]

These gallons are reaching
their limit, high-

shelving in the
circular rain.

The quays all point
one way, back

in toward the
snapped-to chain.

Tottering won’t be
here for long, if

you call that would.
More damp, more

clapping high-hat
lampreys waiting

in that three-ring cross
tell us nothing but

what’s nationally known:
pick two, pick three

and let the barker’s low-
rent dollhouse winch

in some eastern lane.

Hey you! Stop whatever it is you're doing and go read Ron Silliman on Del Ray Cross! He's an optimist, he's a love poet, he's the future of poetry!

Stephanie asks if anybody's yet talked about the way Combo doesn't give each poem its own page but just launches unceremoniously into the next one as soon as the last one's done. I.e. no "white space."

Oh, yes, your high school English teacher always told you the white space was really, really important. Usually, though, what it's meant to be is "classy," serious, like giving you time to pause and reflect upon the profundity of what you've just read. Running right on to the next poem is a mark of the amateur anthology--like those vanity-press things where they're trying to cram in as many poems as possible into the alloted pages so they can make as many people as possible buy the thing.

If so, well, hail amateurism. The effect in Combo is more giddy and breathless. What? stop to think? forget it, we got another kick-ass poem breathing down this one's neck. It keeps the poem from taking itself too seriously, which seems at least from the one issue I've read to be a vital part of the aesthetic. Breaks the frame around the artifact, or something. Keep it coming.

Thanks to Robin, the tube map is rightside-up again. This train is for Cockfosters.

Felix: A Series of New Writing
October 13, 2003. 4:30 p.m.
Department of Special Collections
Memorial Library ~ UW Madison.


Felix: A Series of New Writing brings focus to the world of small publishing, and particularly independent or "little" literary magazines. The new series is devoted to providing a venue for new literary works by young writers.

The debut event of Felix: A Series of New Writing showcases three independent poetry journals from the coast of Lake Michigan. The poets and editors of these magazines will read from their work and join in a discussion about "little" magazines and their role in American letters.

Jesse Seldess is the editor of the Chicago journal Antennae, which publishes new works of poetry and music. His most recent poetry is featured in the journals Kiosk, First Intensity and Crayon, among others. Seldess is co-curator of the Discrete Series, a venue for the performance of new poetry and music. Antennae has recently featured the work of important writers such as Lyn Hejinian, Ron Silliman and Leslie Scalapino, as well as younger poets including Patrick Durgin and K. Silem Mohammed.

Kerri Sonnenberg lives in Chicago and edits the poetry journal Conundrum. Sonnenberg has recently published poems in the journals Bird Dog and Chase Park, and has work forthcoming in PomPom and !Factorial. She is co-curator of the Discrete Series, a venue for new poetry and music. Conundrum has recently published new poetry by Joan Retallak, Rosmarie Waldrop and Rodrigo Toscano, among others.

Stacy Szymaszek is co-editor (with Drew Kunz) of the Milwaukee poetry journal Traverse. Two chapbooks are forthcoming in 2004, including her serial poem Some Mariners (EtherDome Press) and Mutual Aid (Gong Press). Her latest poetry is forthcoming in the journals Aufgabe, 26 and LVNG. Szymaszek is Literary Program Manager at Woodland Pattern Book Center and curator of the Redletter Reading Series. The forthcoming issue of Traverse pays homage to Robert Duncan and will include new work by Peter O'Leary, Susan Thackrey and others.

A small exhibit of poetry magazines from the 1950s to 1980s will accompany the reading. This is a rare opportunity to explore the shifting world of literary magazines and their place in literary history. Please feel free to forward this message to classes or colleagues who may be interested.

Felix is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided following the event.

Felix is sponsored by the Friends of the UW Libraries and kindly supported by the staff of the Department of Special Collections.

I really have to get a new template.

There was a weird floaty spot in the middle of my screen and I thought I'd been staring at it too long. Then I realized that the sun was hitting the back of my laptop in just such a way that it was passing through the translucent Apple logo on the front, producing a faint reversed-apple glow in the middle of my screen, growing and waning depending on the angle of light. Hail, o ye gods of design.

Although I guess I'm a South Sider now so I'm supposed to be a Sox fan. Which is exactly why they're blowing it.

Those damn Cubs are doing this late-September-contending thing just to torment me. Aren't they.

Welcome home, kiddo. We're about to win our first pennant in 58 years...oops...just kidding.