The past few weeks have been insanely busy with the end of the grading period plus stomach virus misery in the McClurg-Vineyard camp. I’ve had several projects cooking at once, and several of them I just can’t talk about yet. For one of them, a friend of mine is going to be knocking out some high profile and exciting stuff and I may be involved–or not. Either way, an incredible artist I know is about to be making some waves and that’s really cool.
I got to crank up some Napalm Death, etc. for inspiration for some recordings that may or may not see the light of day. If anything, I may be helping another good friend develop his blast beat chops. This has allowed me to check out some music that I haven’t listened to since I was thirteen. Blast beat etudes.
I’ll be reading at the Slash Pine Poetry Festival and I’ll have a poem in the commemorative anthology! The poem I turned in to the anthology is an important one for me. In some ways, I feel like it’s the best thing I’ve written, but, boy oh boy, has it racked up a lot of rejections. That’s just how it goes. I’m really excited about this especially since I gave my first poetry readings in Tuscaloosa at what was once the oldest bar in Alabama (The Chukker, R.I.P). Actually, I helped present a weekly reading series there, but I haven’t read there in about fourteen years and I haven’t done a poetry reading in about four years.
I have a new piece of flash fiction over at The 500.
My visiting writer series ended yesterday with Emma Bolden. Wow. She’s developed a great strategy for combining various inputs, including TV, into versions of found poetry. She’s fiercely intelligent and wonderfully down-to-earth. She’s also a great teacher!
I hope my students have gained something from this reading series. Every writer so far has taught me something.
One of the projects I worked on desperately needed some Anthrax. I went with Fistful of Metal:
And I’ve listened to lots of Swans lately:
