Review of Jon Cotner's Spontaneous City in The Faster Times

I took a walk with the consistently life-affirming poet Jon Cotner, as part of his new project Spontaneous Society. Then I wrote about it for The Faster Times. Handy handcarts, good-looking dogs, and good vibes ensue.

Some Updates about the Things I Have Been Doing

 
I wrote a short article for The Faster Times about Open City's sad demise. Included are excerpts/links/full-text transcriptions to some of my favorite things they've published, including a story by Sam Lipsyte and one of my favorite poems ever, by David Berman ("Classic Water").

From Lipsyte:

Once she told me the story of the time a minor movie star was leaving a party and motioned her to join him in the elevator. She hesitated. The door shut.

“I was waiting for your father,” she said. “He was in the can.”

“That guy just wanted to fuck you,” I said.

“How do you think anything beautiful begins?”

Here is where I wrote about David Berman's new blog (more on Berman below).

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This Thursday, March 10th, 2011, I will be participating in a "marathon reading" of Blake Butler's new novel There is No Year at the Center for Fiction in New York, NY. Some of the other readers include Cal Morgan, Giancarlo Ditrapano, Adam Robinson, Catherine Lacey, Dorothea Lasky, and others.

The reading is part of a 4-night run of readings for Butler, which will feature readers such as Lincoln Michel, Adam Wilson, Kendra Grant Malone, Justin Taylor, Ben Greenman, John Dermot Woods, Emma Straub, and others.

Here is where you can read more.

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The past few days I have been transcribing an interview I did recently with the novelist and short story writer Lynne Tillman for the forthcoming print issue of Gigantic.

The issue is, I think, packed with tremendously exciting stuff--short stories from John Haskell, Joshua Cohen, Diane Williams, and Anelise Chen; a truly wild conversation between Gordon Lish and Chloé Cooper Jones; an unprecedented collaborative poem between Joe Wenderoth and the aforementioned David Berman; art from Ian Huebert, Michael Crawford, and much, much more..

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Despite all the internal tumult, Harper's Magazine remains, as it will hopefully always remain, excellent. This month I particularly enjoyed the Readings section and this month's fiction, a story about an Egyptian pharaoh, by Daniel Mason.

It's a little heartbreaking that all this has been happening there. The only good thing I've gotten from this is this, applicable to so much of our daily exertions:

The editors clearly believe differently, but as a colleague once told Mr. Ross after an office disappointment, "Harper's will never love you as much as you love Harper's."

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The new NOON is going to be great (disclosure: I helped copy edit approximately 30% of it). If I'm remembering it correctly (it was in December when I read these pieces), Clancy Martin has a harrowing and unflinchingly clear piece on the history of suicides in his family and Deb Olin Unferth does a hilarious family/self-skewering centered around a family meal.

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Finally, Mike Bushnell named me #24 on his "Online Literary Power 25," quoting something Kyle Minor said on HTMLGiant, that I was "probably one of the four or five best writers in the United States who hasn’t yet published a book." Flattering. Thank you very much, Mike and Kyle, for your generous untruths.

i wrote about, and inspired by, david markson

r.i.p. david markson (1927-2010)

i wrote an essay about, and inspired by, david markson for the faster times indie books.

At one point, Markson makes mention of Wittgenstein's Mistress being rejected "54 times," before finally being accepted by a notable, but small independent press.

At another point, the phrase "stud lover boy" is recalled, as a reference to Markson.

Introducing the New Faster Times Indie Books

an introduction of my new section at the faster times, featuring art by lane hagood (above)

Indie Books at the Faster Times

Dear friends and internet writers that I don't know personally,

I'm excited to say that I'm the new Indie Books Editor at the Faster Times. If you have some ideas for things you'd like to write, or books you'd like to read and then write something about, or people you'd like to talk to in an engaging and interesting manner, please let me know at jamesyeh82 [at] gmail.com.

These could be conventionally engaging, formally experimental, or just fucking fun.

Thank you.

P.S. Interested visual artists should write me too. I'm also looking for artists and illustrators to work on "specially-commissioned" pieces to accompany the articles.

what i have been doing lately

illustration by james j. williams iii

the gigantic/opium/bomb party is tonight! it has been getting a lot of press: the new yorker, the rumpus, htmlgiant (twice), black book, the new york daily news, to list a few.

the party will be awesome and feature ben greenman and bob powers putting on short plays, john wesley harding, and many others. tickets are cheap. some discounted tickets with special "vip" free open bar access still available online here.

party goes from 8pm-12am at bowery electric in the east village with special "vip" free open bar from 7-8pm.

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i wrote a review of the new roberto bolano novel, the skating rink, for the faster times.

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i was filmed by luca dipierro and michael kimball for their movie 60 writers/60 places.

i'm pretty excited about this. on a side note, michael's novel dear everybody is beautiful. i have not read it yet, but hearing him read it, i am convinced of it's urgency, poignancy and control of language. it's pretty fucking dope. michael also guest-edited this recent issue of lamination colony, maybe the sweetest online lit thing i've ever seen.

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my story "some kind of change" was shit-talked by a random bro on the pen america blog.

says random bro: "seems written from the point-of-view of bourgeois people."

non-bike experiment related update: stuff i wrote illustrated and/or published

illustration by arthur jones

kick-ass artist arthur jones illustrated my one-line short story "i have a hard time having a good time" for his "the whole story project," one-line short stories illustrated onto post-it notes.

for a brilliant interview with the man and institution that is arthur jones, check out (friend and gigantic co-editor) rozalia jovanovic's piece up at the rumpus.

(also thanks to rozi who alerted me to the contest.)

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new online newspaper the faster times is featuring my interview with the novelist john wray, entitled "how to write on the subway."

a lot of big names contributing there, including gary shteyngart, clancy martin, and others. a little bit about the faster times, as reported by the new york observer.

(thanks to adam who asked me to do the interview.)

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in other news, i am thinking about entering this, npr's "three-minute fiction" contest. deadline july 18th, 2009.

meat scarf, softball, free mix cd download, my forthcoming interview with john wray

some of what's been going on in the past week or so:

-i interviewed john wray for the faster times, a new online newspaper, in which we discussed daniel johnston, strange jobs, writing on the subway, and sausage. the faster times website launches june 15 (though i'm not sure when the interview will be published)

-played softball for the new yorker

-saw leonard cohen in boston

-spent six hours or so making a mix cd for my friend dawn's going away party slash "long, lonesome drive back to san francisco." you can download it here.

the playlist:

Wouldn't It Be Nice (Vocals Only) - The Beach Boys
La Javanaise - Serge Gainsbourg
Sugar Man - Rodriguez
Circulation - Deerhunter
Make Believe Waltz - Som Imaginario
Number One Fool - Fabulous Emotions
Daytime Girl (Original) - Billy Nicholls
The New Pollution - Beck
Hot - Ratatat remix of Missy Elliott
Making Flippy Floppy - Talking Heads
Star Eyes (I Can't Catch It) - Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse, featuring David Lynch
Stringsong - Adron
Evening Gown - The Left Banke
Manta Ray - Pixies
Guys Eyes - Animal Collective
Gold Soundz - Pavement
Danny (Lonely Blue Boy) - Jon Brion
Unknown (Pre Cherry Peel Demo, Track 9) - Of Montreal
O Leaozinho - Caetano Veloso
We'll Meet Again - Johnny Cash

-went to see my friend, the lovely and talented sarah (line and a dot), play and hung out afterwards, wherein i discovered the difference between british and american cigarette warning labels, or as sarah so eloquently described it, "the meat scarf":

sarah also made a US tour video, in which tao lin, miles ross, ben blum, and i make appearances:

Line & a Dot - The Return to New York Tour from Line & a Dot on Vimeo.