Long Way Down

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 03:32:52 -0500

People are wild. Friends shifty at best.

I’m Not the Most Cocksure Guy

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 13:01:42 -0500

Title is taken from the new Menomena album, Mines. Good stuff so far. Writing this post waiting for my buddy, Dan Z., to pick me up and take me to the library. We’re shooting pictures of a comic strip from an OLD Post Dispatch. No lie. The librarian helping us. His name is Charles Brown.

While I’m thinking of it, be sure to check out Robert Lopez’s new site. It’s full of no news. Almost as much as this site. He’s asked me to write something for it, and I want to. I also have a friend who asked me to paint his house. Probably won’t do that.

Month to Month

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 18:46:07 -0500

New tweaks to the site. No more butter knife. Trying to reduce the creepy factor because you never know what potential employer may take a look. Please send money.

Pages

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 22:41:13 -0500

One of us has one lung from emphysema. One of us has one lung from inhaling poison ivy from brush fire as a child.

Two Birds In The Light Together

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 16:52:27 -0500

Erin landed her graduate assistantship today. Mark Polott continues his search for a replacement pizza joint since his regular joint burnt down. I went to the St Louis Brewfest. A lot like Taste of St. Louis except instead of eating over trash cans people stand ankle deep in mud and sewage gulping 4 oz. beers. What else. Pizza. Interviews. Cardinal slump. Stay gold.

Cross Process

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 17:13:33 -0500

Laboring over photography is a strange way to go.

Poor Fella

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 16:42:05 -0500

Just got back in from NYC this week. About two million more people there since I left two years ago. Still hot ass summers. Still overpriced rent and beer. Still love it.

The reading went well. I’ll post the new material I read in the section. Hope to have those published soon. After the reading a few of us went to Prospect Park and drank beer in the grass. Robbie played some songs. Eric ate two eggs.

I think I was almost able to meet up with all the old friends. Erin and I have decided to visit in October for her 30th birthday. Hotels are expensive so we’re looking to arrange some creative accommodations (Penn Station).

Interview tomorrow. Interview next week. Erin’s new waitressing gig looks like it will pay a lot more money than the current. At least until school starts back up in the Fall. Maybe we’ll make it out of this alive.

Hoist Point

Thu, 20 May 2010 18:58:13 -0500

Someone take me camping. Someone bring me a taco. A burrito. Someone write this new story for me. Someone give me some work. Someone remove this goddamn mannequin already. Get me the big chair.

New Fiction

Wed, 19 May 2010 18:43:52 -0500

New short story of mine appears in May’s Collagist issue. Very excited to be in there. I was also interviewed about the story and provided an mp3 of me reading. Hopefully that will go up with it soon. Hard telling.

In the meantime, I have applied for over 9 college/university level teaching gigs. Was sent an email about an opening for a Project Coordinator at a direct mail house and said, “Jesus Christ.” I think any part of me that wants to be involved in the printing industry has dried up. I told my friend Tom at lunch last week that I felt done with it. He said, “Sounds like the industry might be done with you.” I believe he’s right. I would say it’s a shame that I spent four years in college to get the Graphic Arts Technology degree, but it opened up all sorts of doors for me. Probably wouldn’t have ever made it to New York. May have never felt compelled to be a writer.

And if you think all that sounds self-serving, you haven’t seen/heard this.

Ham

Mon, 17 May 2010 15:37:13 -0500

Last week I bought an 8.5 lb. ham at the grocery store. $1/lb. Good stuff. I wasn’t prepared for how much ham this ham was. Not until I was cutting it off the bone and filling up every Tupperware bowl in the house. Ham in sandwich bags. Ham to the dog. Ham snacks. Ham sandwiches for lunch and dinner.

I had this idea that I would buy a loaf of cheap wheat bread from the grocery store downtown. Some American cheese and mayonnaise. Now I’m not an incredibly giving person, but I had this idea that I would buy these things, make twenty ham sandwiches or so and then scooter around handing ham sandwiches out to some people in need (More later on distinguishing between people in need and people who are waste).

I’m at the grocery store downtown and I have this loaf of cheap wheat bread, American cheese and mayonnaise in my basket. I have maybe $20 to my name today, but I’m feeling good about helping out. Then there is this man pushing this other man in a wheelchair right next to me. The man in the wheelchair isn’t old. He has a blanket draped over his legs. He’s twitchy. There is a giant basket attached to the top of this wheelchair. It lays down over the man in the wheelchair’s lap. I can’t say much about the man pushing the wheelchair. He is wearing a baseball hat. Flat brim. Big $ on the front of it. The man pushing the wheelchair doesn’t look certified to be pushing anyone in a wheelchair. Let’s say these two men are in cahoots.

The man pushing the wheelchair lifts up the lap basket and the man in the wheelchair lifts his blanket. The man pushing the wheelchair picks up three 12 packs of Bud Light and places them between the man in the wheelchairs legs. Rests them on the foot step there. The man in the wheelchair places the blanket back over his legs. Down goes the lap basket. Away they go.

I put back the cheap wheat bread, American cheese and mayonnaise and buy some super glue and a Coca Cola instead.

Put the Two People in the Light Together

Thu, 6 May 2010 14:58:02 -0500

Week three of unemployment. Not fun, except I like hanging out with the dog and scootering around St. Louis. Found a tent city down by the river the other day. People cutting wood. Sitting on stumps staring at the wood. Watching the cutting of wood. Box cars. Barges. No pictures please. Erin has been reading up on where our food comes from. The landscape of our refrigerator has changed dramatically. Meaning there isn’t any food in it now. Go summer. It’s bikini season. My mom bought me some shorts. And I like going to the gym a little. And running a bath when I’m good and drunk.

Hey Little Buddy

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 11:32:20 -0500

Vannigan

Fri, 2 Apr 2010 23:00:52 -0500

Jesus Gonna Be Here 2

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 07:58:48 -0500

Soon as I put the first story up in the new section, it publishes. Way to go. Lorem ipsum will have to be the placeholder for now. Will be in Denver for AWP next weekend. Looking forward to meeting a bunch of cool folks. Never been to Denver. Some go to ski.

Jesus Gonna Be Here

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:59:48 -0600

Check out my new section. Inspired by rejection aplenty & the guilt I endure submitting for pub when I don't typically buy lit mags.

Have to remember I’m not writing for literary magazines. This writer or that writer. Workshop. Readings. Certain circles. All the taking it seriously can really put the brakes on. Lock me all up. So I’m afraid to write anything at all. I miss making goddamn chapbooks.

Now I know I don’t exactly keep my appointments with the chair. I don’t read as much as I should. But put me in coach. I can change. I swear.

I only hit me when I deserve it.

Turn Out the Lights

Thu, 4 Mar 2010 21:47:46 -0600

New jams.
New apartment.

The Pedantic Town

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 16:29:01 -0600

In this town nobody eats. They do not spend money. Life in the Pedantic Town is pleasurable. It is not bliss.

P1060607

Wed, 3 Feb 2010 23:07:07 -0600

One of us wants to be a unicorn, pilot or apple.

II.

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:52:22 -0600

One of us has a tattoo on his arm that reads, “LIVE TO KILL TIM.” He has dark circles around his eyes and a thick black beard. He will not look me in the eye. He has one hand that shakes not another’s hand but fidgets wildly. Says he kept a bear and mountain cat caged in the small yard behind his house. Says he’s not a very nice man but a good one to know if you’re ever in jail.

The Opt Out Town

Sat, 9 Jan 2010 16:50:28 -0600

Nobody in this town is important. All of the children live at home until they are able to earn a living. They build new homes in the Opt Out Town. On the off chance someone leaves, no one notices.

The No Ocean Town

Sat, 2 Jan 2010 10:30:44 -0600

Each morning the citizens of the No Ocean Town meet at a small tavern to confirm they are without a moving or sedentary body of water in any cardinal direction. There is nothing other than the halves of mussels to ash in, and the tavern has either a captain’s wheel, boat paddle or mounted fish nailed into every bit of wall or wood. Without proper consultation, a citizen might expect to walk right out the front door and into the sea. To consult the maps is to learn of true North and that citizens of the No Ocean Town will often move through town backwards.

There are seagulls in this town though it is not near the ocean.

Photo appears courtesy of the Agriculture Reader No. 2

The Horizon Town

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 20:32:48 -0600

This town can only be seen on the horizon. It is just a water tower with a long cylindrical basin, pointed roof and long spindly legs. Depending on the hour of day it appears blue or white or silver. From so far away it is difficult to make out the block lettering written on its side. So many have imagined what the words might read, it is easy to believe the Horizon Town’s water tower must say everything.

65453

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 20:48:14 -0600

The polling station.

65459

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 23:19:08 -0600

The ice cream store.

Marathongs 2

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 19:24:45 -0600

It has been said, and I believe, “The more you hang out with crazy people the more you start to act like them.” It has also been said, and I believe, “Everything in its time.”