Digitalia

The reading at Allegheny College went extraordinarily well.

Endless thanks go to Christopher Bakken for getting everything set up and for inviting me back.

It doesn't seem like I graduated seven years ago, but I suppose time's doing anything but slowing down.

There were over 100 bodies in the seats, and to to be surrounded by such supportive family and friends was fantastic.

I had conferences with three students the next day, and I have high hopes for each one of them. Each student is ready not only to go to an MFA program, but to do good things there. I had no chops when I was their age (and most often I don't know if I have any chops now), and I'm excited to see what they all do in the future.

I suppose I should mention the oddness of watching the tsunami footage at 4 in the morning in a hotel room, though, since that will always be tied to such an amazing night for me.

That said, infinite thanks go to everyone for being there. It was a humbling and amazing experience.

*

Thanks again to Bear for publishing a poem from my new manuscript that's in the current issue of The National Poetry Review and The American Poetry Journal.

The idea's great, and though I'm sure it's not the first time this has ever happened, I've never seen a journal like this.

Sonora Review did a double issue (flip issue?) a while back like this, but here, you get issues of two different journals in the same space. Flip it over when you get to the end, and you get the Table of Contents in the other.

You should be able to order it here soon.

*

I was pleased to recently get acceptances from Copper Nickel and Whiskey Island Magazine.

The former took a poem from my second manuscript. It's one of my favorites and is the penultimate poem in the manuscript. Sometimes I wonder if it should be the last, but I think I made the right decision.

Whiskey Island Magazine took two poems that I hope will become part of a third manuscript. A couple weeks ago I sent some poems out to some journals, and this is the first I've heard from. The fact that it's not a rejection is welcomed.

I'm writing a lot of different stuff right now, so who knows what the third manuscript will become. I'm trying to work on a series of poems, unsurprisingly film-related, that I like. It gives me a chance to get risky and lyrical at the same time.

We'll see how they're received, but even if the reception's poor, I'm going to keep writing them. If anything, it keeps me on my toes. And if people hate the poems, that's almost always a good sign at this point. At least in my eyes.

*

I'm beginning my run at field exams, the first of which will be this summer.

I'm almost two years in, halfway done.

I plan on completing a third manuscript by the time I'm finished with my final degree.

I've said this before, but I'll say it again. Lofty, it is. Possible, I hope.

*

The VCU Rams are a huge inspiration this year in the NCAA tournament.

I didn't give myself a chance when I got there to do anything. It was a risk.

It paid off. I think.

So I'm thrilled to back a team that shouldn't have made it in the first place... so they say.

I haven't done a lot at this point, I know, but I'm going to keep at it.

*

Spring's here. Officially.

But in Binghamton, we'll see how official it is in a few weeks.

Schooling

Binghamton starts classes today, but my first day is tomorrow.

I didn't write much the first year, which I expected, but I'm hoping this year will change that.

*

I found out near the end of the reading tour that my new manuscript, currently titled Sirens and Wildfire, was a finalist for the Akron Poetry Prize and a semi-finalist for the Cleveland State Open Competition.

Like it was when I first started sending out what finally became Ghost Lights, it's just fuel for the fire. Late nights reading poems, thinking about order, feeling out if any should be cut or if new ones should be added. All of that will continue to happen with the new manuscript, and it becomes both fun and maddening at the same time.

I have a list of contests and open reading periods for 2010 and 2011, so it's back to getting it out again soon enough.

*

And somehow, since the tour, miraculously, I've been writing a lot of new poems. Since I wasn't able to send out a lot last year, I'm hoping I can have a good September to add more poems to the ones I've already written.

My goal, then, is to send out as many that I feel are ready for a big push at the beginning of October.

Maybe there's even the kernel of a third manuscript in there somewhere...?

*

Speaking of submissions, it's interesting to hear all the hullabaloo about New England Review and Ploughshares charging writers to submit their work now.

My take on it personally is this...

I haven't submitted to NER for one simple reason: currently I don't, and have never, sent to places who don't accept simultaneous submissions. If I wrote as much as Bob Hicok and had his reputation, I'd have enough poems to wait on a response before sending those poems to other journals. The simple fact is, however, that I don't write enough. So I respect the policy for non-simultaneous submissions. I know many others that don't feel this way, but I do.

I've sent to Ploughshares many times in the past, with form rejections following every single time, and with chances already slim to get in (because of the notoriety of the journal, the amount of submissions they get, and the guest editor usually soliciting a lot), I'd rather submit work to other journals at this point. But Ploughshares will be in my sights for the future.

If many journals follow with charging for submissions, which I hope they won't, I'll either go back to sending via snail mail or not sending to them at all.

With so many journals out there, I just don't think this is a huge concern for me. I know where folks are coming from as far as being annoyed, but alas, if I get the itch to send to some of these places, I'll just send via snail mail, or I'll look at other journals who don't charge.

Simple as that.

*

Bring on PhD year number two...

Release

I was pleased that the turnaround with Waccamaw was so quick. My poem from the new manuscript appears here. And you can view the entire issue here. Thanks again to Dan and the rest of the editors.

*

It looks like the release date for Ghost Lights (and the other two Orphic Prize finalists and winner from a year ago) will be May 15th.

Since the cover design's pretty much done, I suppose I'm finally allowed to post it below. I'm thrilled with everything about it (especially Felicia van Bork's beautiful painting). I also couldn't be happier about the generous blurbs from some of my favorite writers. I feel grateful and that I really lucked out. I also think the blurbs are very representative of the words inside the book, which always a plus.

In addition to all the online outlets where you can get copies (hopefully along with some bookstores, though I'm not sure which and where yet), I'll most likely be selling them, signed or not, through a new blog page, or this blog. Once I have everything set up, I'll let people know.

And finally, I'm setting up a 17-day tour for this July with Kyle McCord, who was the Orphic Prize winner last year for his great book, Galley of the Beloved in Torment. Lots of dates and venues to be confirmed still, but once we have everything locked up, I'll be posting the days and venues for anyone who's in those areas and wants to come out and hear us read. We're both looking forward to it, since this something neither of us have ever done.


*

My new manuscript is now around ten pages longer than Ghost Lights is / was (meaning the .doc file, and not page numbers in the actual book).

I'm starting to feel really good about it, and I'm not sure what else I can do with it at this point.

I can still write poems that could fit, but I think the best poems, and the most representational poems, considering the themes, are in there. And even though most of them have been published, I've revised almost every single one since it's either been published in print or online.

This is something I didn't do with Ghost Lights as much (mostly because I had worked the poems to death, mostly for my MFA thesis, before I sent them out as submissions), and I think I'm getting better at editing my own work.

But like Ghost Lights, time will tell. I'm aware of how this goes now. It could take me another year, and it could take me another ten years. But I'm still planning on doing what I can to try and get this new manuscript published before I get my PhD, and then move onto a new project, however the ideas arise that start to compromise it.

*

My first year at Binghamton University will be over in ten days.

With how fast this first year went, it really makes me aware that I need to do a lot more than I did this year as far as writing and reading. Because of everything that happened in the last year (marriage, book, starting the PhD, moving a few states away, learning the new teaching system at a new school, along with taking classes, etc.), I didn't get to read and write (outside of classes, that is) as much as I would've liked.

But I did work on my new manuscript like crazy, so the sacrifice I hope will have worked out in the end.

Now to find a job for the summer, plan the rest of the reading tour, and hopefully have at least a handful of new poems by the end.

Six Months

Got my second proof corrections finished for Ghost Lights about an hour ago.

I feel like I'm way too much of a stickler in some ways, but then I realize it's necessary.

It shouldn't take more than two more proofs to get everything good to go, but we'll see.

*

Spinning these records a lot lately:

• Beach House - Teen Dream
• Owen Pallett - Heartland
• Efterklang - Magic Chairs
• Tindersticks - Falling Down a Mountain
• The American Dollar - Atlas
• Vampire Weekend - Contra
• The Album Leaf - A Chorus of Storytellers

*

School starts back up officially in a week.

I'm ready to get back. Never did I think a break would be too long of a break. Until now.

But really I shouldn't complain.

*

Jess and I have been married for six months today. Time goes fast.

*

I feel like I'm repeating myself a lot.

New Leaves

I'm currently taking a course on Rhetoric and Composition right now at BU.

The one with the-professor-who-shall-not-be-named I took at VCU five years ago was one of the most horrendous graduate experiences I've ever had. It's in the top three easily (though really there were only three horrendous experiences, which is good four a five-year stretch). Bad things happened. Things were misconstrued. I was pretty miserable. But I was also young and immature. The class did not instruct me how to teach. The class taught me absolutely nothing. That's what I think the whole class was mostly so upset about by the end.

That said, I do thank VCU and the English Department wholeheartedly for giving me the opportunity to teach so many composition courses while I was there. I still have a lot to learn, but I have so many questions just from the experience, that I think I'll get much more out of teaching at BU now.

Just having the experience and time in front of students these days is severely underrated. I know I'm not the best teacher, I admit, but improving on the past, learning new methods, and always asking and trying to answer my questions will be something to keep track of as I go. And all that experience can and does certainly translate from course to course.

In other words, had I come here with little or no teaching experience, I'd feel completely overwhelmed. I'm glad I got that out of the way at VCU as the earlier part of my education.

*

See Trouble the Water as soon as you get a chance.

It's one of those documentaries that's just a complete experience, like Capturing the Friedmans, Man on Wire, How to Draw a Bunny, and many more.

Plus you never stop thinking and questioning after it's over. I didn't at least. And that's what a documentary should do (unless it has the unparalleled greatness and originality of American Movie)

*

I should have the galleys soon enough for Ghost Lights. Because I'm such a stickler for the look and feel of how things are presented on the page, I really want to get the font and the font size right so it's not weird or disjointed for the readers.

Many of the poems in the book (and almost all of the poems in the second manuscript I'm working on) are not left justified. You can look at Tar-era C.K. Williams and The Widening Spell of the Leaves-era Larry Levis (which also happen to be two of my favorite poetry collections of all time), and you see that there are indentations if the lines spill over into the next, though it's meant to be one line without any kind of enjambment.

I was in Wojahn's office a few years ago, and he showed me an original, square-sized copy of Tar from the 80s. He was making a case for the energy of the lines and (false?) enjambments of the later printings being the ones that do justice to the poems. I agreed. If you look at the Selected and the Collected of C.K. Williams, you'll notice that the run-over lines, because the size of the actual pages are different, are indented in different places. Because the poems are "enjambed" according to the size of the page; the long line has to be broken up at some point...

Same thing with an original copy of The Widening Spell of the Leaves and the Selected Levis. The latter keeps the lines intact, keeping them from spilling over, while the former is indented all over the place with the longer-lined poems.

If I had a whole book of long-lined poems, that wouldn't be a big deal to do; I agree with Wojahn that the energy is a bit different, in a good way, as weird as it may sound, when the lines look like they're enjambed.

But, when considering the poems in Ghost Lights, many of my long-lined poems are not left-justified, so you'd have almost a double sense of enjambment, and then it just looks completely out of whack.

My last poem of the four appearing in 42opus this month is a good example. It will run this Friday the 11th, and I'll probably point to it in another blog post if you're confused at what I'm saying...

It looks fine in the .doc file of my new manuscript, but you can think of the right side of the 42opus page as the end of the page limits for a .doc file. I don't mind how it will appear there, but I would certainly not want it to look that way in a book.

All these questions, and a lot of these I'm constantly interested in, make me think I might want to eventually go into publishing, or have publishing be a part of my life somehow.

Has anyone else questioned these issues with their books? We want to be as pleased with our final products as we hope our readers will be, so I'm making a point to really get involved as much as I can in the process of how it's going to look on the page.

*

Speaking of the new manuscript, I decided to grow some balls and send it out at the end of September. Worst case scenario: I spend a little extra cash to see how it does in the world, and it doesn't do anything. No biggie. Otherwise it'll be sitting here, electronically collecting dust.

I have about fifteen contests and open reading periods I'm looking at right now. I'm being more judicious this time. I sent Ghost Lights to places (when it was also About Ravishment) that I had no business sending to.

The contest was for a more experimental press. The contest was getting manuscripts above the level where I was as a writer (though there should always be shown growth from book to book, hopefully, as the years go on). The prize consisted of screeners who also read and rejected my work for a journal. There are probably more...

Case in point for the last one: The Journal. When I was sending out poems for the first book, I always sent to The Journal for some reason. Maybe ten times or so. They always rejected my poems. Not only that, but I always got the same slip, sans ink. Rejections aren't a big deal, and all the poems were eventually published elsewhere, but considering all of that, why in the hell would I sent to The Journal / OSU Award in Poetry?

The answer: I shouldn't have. But I did. I was testing every depth. Now I know better, especially when the odds are almost 100% against you for whatever reason. You have to learn the particulars and the limits, in other words, about how your work is doing and has done in the outside world of editorship.

There are so many contests when you're sending out that it's hard to learn. Most of the time you suck it up and spend your cash. That's how I learned. That's how (mostly) everyone learns.

But I'm trying to be smarter time around. I think I'm doing a decent job of picking better contests and places to send for consideration. Not "better," necessarily, but more fitting, I would say. That's crucial.

*

I've always been a fan of Owen. He's always writing the same song, but they're always pleasing to listen to. The production's great on his new record, New Leaves. It's a more mature record. Every song sounds like it could be a single, which reminds me of the newest Phoenix record also. That should be a goal for every collection of any constructed artistic medium in my opinion. Give it a listen when it's officially out soon enough.

Other worth-it spins:

Lucine - A Great Distance
Jim O'Rourke - The Visitor
James Bradshaw - His Last Three Records. SEEK THEM OUT.
The Clientele - Bonfires on the Heath
Imogen Heap - Ellipse
Caspian - Tertia
Polvo - In Prism
Port-Royal - Dying in Time
Sleeping at Last - Storyboards

Embers

I have four poems in 42opus appearing, one every few days, from now until the 14th of September, I believe. If you're interested, please check them out. They're all currently embedded somewhere in the new manuscript.

*

In the last three days, I've had six poems taken from three different journals. It's weird, because I'm suspect of these good-news onslaughts. Maybe because I'm naturally a pessimist? But I'm smiling.

Barn Owl Review was one of the three, but I'll wait until the contracts are here to name the other two. They're both print journals I really like, which is always nice when your words are appearing there.

Needless to say, I am thrilled and grateful, and I can't believe I've had some of the responses I've received when it comes to these poems in the second manuscript, which I'm constantly tweaking and working on and feeling better about as the days go on.

*

Looks like the schedule's pretty much locked up for the semester at Binghamton University. It's kind of a mirror, in a way, of my first semester schedule five years ago at VCU, only now I'm a little older and a little wiser and won't be fluttering around like a legless grasshopper. I hope not at least.

*

I think Paul Guest was the one who told me that a big move can sometimes foster the energy for getting a ton of stuff written. He probably put it more eloquently, but I think he's right. He's usually right about everything anyway.

*

My beautiful wife got a great job about five miles away from our apartment. She'll be working at a Neurosurgical Practice. I'm very proud of her, and I admire the hell out of her for how smart she is, and how she'll be doing amazing things for people. This is going to be a four-year stretch of busting our asses, and I hope we're both ready for it.

I'm confident we are.

Football Season

Listened to the new Volcano Choir twice today, and I don't understand why the track they introduce to the public months before the record comes out is the one that isn't representative of the album as a whole in the least.

Some of the songs are a little over-the-top experimental to me, and the album's a little too dissonant almost from track-to-track.

I thought I'd love it, especially with the Pele and Collections of Colonies of Bees members, and though I like it, I was hoping for much more and got a little too excited initially.

*

Inglourious Basterds was good. I need another viewing. QT's most tense movie to date. I'll be floored, like many, if Christoph Waltz doesn't get an Oscar nomination.

*

Watched Scott Walker: 30 Century Man yesterday.

It's pretty incredible, and the dude's still an enigma, despite all the interviews. It's for everyone, though, not just music lovers. Fascinating stuff.

I can't wait to give more of his music another shot, since there's much to go through.

The Drift is more intense and horrifying than most Black or Death Metal records. I do know that.

*

Got an acceptance from Barn Owl Review today. It'll be the first journal a poem of mine appears in back-to-back. It's also one of the newer journals that you should subscribe to if you're thinking about adding another one to your list. Issue #2 is great, which is the main reason I decided to send again.

*

Nervous about The Giants, like every fan is, at this point.

Preseason doesn't tell us a lot. Look at The Lions being 4-0 last year.

And yesterday's game was better, but we'll see come September 13th.

Final roster cuts soon too. Will they keep Moss?

I'm sure that Tyree's going at this point. He was a factor in the SB win, but he can't stay healthy. Someone will pick him up, though.

*

First day as a PhD Candidate in English Binghamton University tomorrow officially.

I'm ready for the semester to start and to get back into everything.

Finally.

21

The In-Laws are in town. They're out shopping with Jess. Getting hooks and the like so we can hang some of the things we brought from Richmond. We had many of our wedding gifts at Jess's house too so we didn't have to take them to Richmond and then move them, unnecessarily, again.

*

Saw World's Greatest Dad the other night. Quite possibly my favorite thing Robin Williams has ever done. Actually, it's hands-down my favorite thing he's ever done.

The movie had something that separates it from so many movies I've seen lately. It could be compared to Todd Solondz's work easily enough, but there's a lot I can't describe that I really liked that goes beyond that. Kind of almost so bizarre it represents a kind of artful reality that's so far out of reality that it immediately steps back in. Which makes no sense.

And it says a lot about worship in our culture. About suicide. About worship. About affectedness. About fathers and sons.

Props to Bobcat Goldthwait. I think he hit the nail on the head with this one. It isn't a perfect movie, but it's one I'll remember for a while. And with so much shit being made lately, that's something to be happy about.

*

Really excited about the Art Mission Theater in Binghamton. Moon is currently playing, which I really want to see.

Hopefully it keeps getting good movies, and it's something I hope to frequent.

*

Hoping to have all the Binghamton University paperwork done on Monday, before the first Orientation session on Tuesday.

Graduate Students also can start registering on Monday for classes, but hopefully soon enough I'll know who my advisor is so I can figure out what I'm going to take in addition to workshop.

Speaking of which, I can't wait to meet everyone and get this rolling again. Looking forward to being forced to write poems and getting out of my comfort zone that I'm in now.

*

The apartment's mostly set up. We got this amazing deal on Amazon for a 50" 1080p Samsung Plasma for $997 with tax and shipping.

Wanted to go for a 46" Samsung LCD, but it would've probably cost us $1200 - $1300 had we bought it from a nearby store.

Now we just need a stand and good HDMI cables, and we're ready to go.

And for those who don't know, I mention this because I've been wanting an HD TV forever. I waited for years because we didn't need one right away. So I'm happy to finally have one coming, that which should be here on Monday.

*

Put my in-progress second manuscript in three sections.

Gave it a new title (which is maybe worse than the other one).

Reworked a few poems.

Have a few more ideas kicking around on what else needs to be in the manuscript for now to make it around 48 pages.

Then the reality of it being truly a mess will start to hit me.

But with that I begin to take it more seriously if I want something (hopefully) solid to send out in eight months to a year.

Process

I love when writers talk about process, and though I don't know if there's anything specific here, I keep thinking I should get this stuff down.

I mentioned briefly in an earlier post how I had that kind of epiphanic moment on the plane. Well, I've written six poem drafts in the last two days.

From what I've read on blogs over the years, it seems like this may be some kind of transient phenomenon: poems literally making themselves apparent almost more quickly than you can try and write them down, usually before some big life change. Ours seems to be the move, since I really wasn't writing a lot the few weeks before we got married. And the slingshot effect does tend to happen with me more often than not, for better or for worse, though it's always exciting and bizarre when it does.

I need five pages or so to have a full 48-page second manuscript. Poems will eventually be cut for new ones. Poems will eventually be rearranged. Sections may happen eventually. I've changed the title, and I've lost "Nocturne" from every title except one, the one where it's an integral part of the title. But things are finally happening with this. Legitimately. And editors have been supportive in accepting poems for publication, many that I've still been tinkering with post-publication, something I didn't do a lot of with the poems in Ghost Lights, for whatever reason.

I've noticed also that right now there are only a handful of poems that go beyond the one-page mark. I had a fear that Ghost Lights, or About Ravishment in its first series of drafts, was getting ignored in part (a very, very small part, because there were many reasons folks were ignoring it in its early stages) because there are so many longer poems in the book, though none that go over two pages I don't think. It's tough to write a good longer poem that holds someone's interest: it's as simple as that.

But I've noticed I haven't felt the need to write and write and go on and go on as much, as if some of the poems make themselves apparent, say what they need to say, hopefully make an impact, then linger, though fairly quickly this time around, meaning to the point where the poems do linger. If that makes sense. I don't need thirty to fifty lines to execute successfully with these poems, or at least they seem to be finishing themselves well before I stray off the path.

I think this is a good thing, but then there's the question of a shorter poem really having to do more with every word, every verb, every adjective, enjambment, and line. There's no room to stray or have anything extraneous in a shorter poem, where sometimes in a longer poem that can be overlooked somewhat to a certain degree.

The manuscript, admittedly, is a mess right now, but my goal is to get five more pages of new work to integrate temporarily into it so I have a full 48 before we move to New York. That's a goal I'm pretty sure I can reach in two weeks. A lot of ideas are still floating around in my head.

My other goal: to have this manuscript accepted for publication before I turn thirty, which is two years and four months away, almost to the day. Too ambitious, I know, and if it doesn't happen that's fine with me. But I'd like to start something completely new in New York, a third manuscript that will eventually become my dissertation, a collection I can work four years on and have it be something I pour myself into for the entire time I'm there... This second manuscript, though it certainly feels like it will become a manuscript soon enough that I can send out (hopefully by next summer at the latest), doesn't feel like the one I need to be working on in New York, yet it feels like it's becoming a true book I can eventually be proud of.

Oh, and I forgot to mention the other advice, not quoted verbatim, that's been kicking around in my head for a while too: "A first book needs to have X very good poems to be successful, and all the others remain in existence around them." Many people have quoted that in different ways. I think this is great advice, but is there ever a book—second, third, fourth, etc.—that needs to be comprised of solely great poems, or attempted, if such a thing is possible, excluding a Selected or Collected?

There's just that weird gap between finally settling and never settling, and it seems if one doesn't make up their mind about one or the other, they're destined to cling to the latter, and nothing ever comes of that purgatorial sense of paralysis.

So I guess this all has to deal with the second manuscript. Folks with first books out or coming out, how have you dealt with these questions in compiling what will hopefully become your second book?

For me, if I stop questioning, I stop being passionate. And we all know what happens then.

Patience

Had a great time in Savannah, on Tybee Island, for Eric and Jenn's wedding.

There were family members there I haven't seen in a while, and there were pretty much no hitches. Overall it was a blast, but it went way too quickly, as good things often do.

Two brothers down. One to go.

Our official two-months-away mark is in six days.

*

This interview with David Wojahn from Gulf Coast has sparked some folks to comment, as Wojahn's words, rightfully, always do.

John Gallaher commented on it and got a whole mess of reply comments. It's interesting for me to see how many people love to fire back at Wojahn's words. I think the man's brilliant and would have preferred to learn from no other poet during my MFA years. Despite the fact that I busted my ass on Ghost Lights for the last few years, Wojahn had much to do with that as my former teacher. There's a reason so many younger poets who learned from him have books coming out maybe earlier than they should, me being one of them, and much of that has to do with his ability to make students—no matter what "school" they're writing from—work hard at perfecting where they want and need to go, not where he wants and needs to go.

That's a major difference from many other poet professors out there. Trust me on this.

But as far as the skittery poem and confessionalism and facile and trivial writing and younger poets wanting to stay away from confessionalism go, I think I'll save all my comments for the essays I'll be writing over the next four years at Binghamton, though I'm not sure these ideas will ever be within an essay.

*

I already got my TA assignment next year for Binghamton. As much as I'd be comfortable just being thrown into a composition course, I'll be TAing for a British Literature class, which meets on Monday and Wednesday afternoon.

I never had labs or anything like that in undergrad or for my MFA, but I guess I'm meeting with the students on Friday afternoon also to go over everything.

That said, it'll probably be nice to not be thrown into a composition course after trying to get used to a new place, new rules, a new school, etc.

I remember getting my TA assignment from VCU, however, about five days before classes began my first year, so it's nice to already know what's around the corner.

*

It's official: I sent my last batch of submissions out for the summer on April 28th. I have a ton of work out to a ton of places, all sent between February and April.

I hope that the rejections don't get lost since folks are slower over the summer at responding and we're moving soon.

Oh well.

And if there are anymore acceptances, I hope the editors use email.

*

Speaking of publications, on a weird note I just got a rejection from Front Porch. The thing is: they accepted poems a few months ago that are now published.

And then I checked the online submissions system, and sure enough, it says that they're declined.

A burp in the system, but one I thought was pretty funny, especially since this is the first time I've gotten accepted, published, and then rejected—all from the same batch. I don't think it happens often. Maybe I should buy some scratch-off tickets.

*

Watched a VHS screener of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh last night, and I have to say that it was pretty bad (though I do want to watch the proper DVD again to see Pittsburgh in its proper 2:35 nasty glory).

I'm all for the director / screenwriter taking liberties from the book. Look at how amazing The Shining is (and no, not the one with Steven Weber).

But Thurber just tried to do way too much with the characters, and much of it was flat all over the place. I agree with some of the reviews also about Peter Sarsgaard being typecast these days. He seems to be playing the same character in every movie.

Anyway, stick to the book instead, though the visuals are worth checking out. Then again, I'm more obsessed with cinematography mostly anyway, especially in bad movies.

*

I have a fear this summer's going to go faster than usual and it's going to completely pass me by.

I'm going to make sure that doesn't happen.

I have a lot of reading to do. Interviews to conduct. My own writing to attend to. My second manuscript to hopefully get close to finishing. Did I just say that? My aspirations are high. Why would anyone want theirs to be low? Plus, I said close to finishing...

I'm doing as much legwork as I can before our wedding, mostly for all things Binghamton (since the wedding's pretty much taken care of by now as far as dates and coordination and all of that).

Here's to productivity.

USPS

Got all the documents for Binghamton in the mail about an hour ago. Soon it will be officially official.

I also regrettably just sent my letter to Lisa Lewis, letting her know I won't be coming to OSU. I was looking forward, initially, to working with her and Ai, both of whom I respect and like so much as poets.

But there were too many factors drawing me toward Binghamton. And the crazy thing about finally making a decision is that you really never know what would've happened otherwise. I'll probably be writing different poems in New York than Oklahoma. That's the way things go. Now we can start thinking about our living situation and when we're going up there post-wedding to physically jump start the process.

I guess I'll be updating this once more and more information gets gathered over the summer and Jess and I start to make some moves. Along with the other random stuff that finds its way on here.

Oh, and I also want to thank all of the amazingly generous people who took the time to answer my many questions, the former and current students from many schools (you know if you're one of those folks or not if you're ready this). I haven't gotten the chance to do that yet for anyone, but I hope to repay the favor as I continue and other younger folks in a few years are getting ready to step up to this decision. It does end up being a big one, and I hope I put enough work into the whole process (which I'm confident of) to make the next four years of my life (and our life) good ones.

Official

I have officially accepted Binghamton University's offer.

I'll be a PhD Candidate in English starting in the fall. Signed paperwork in the mail on Wednesday (though the paperwork is signed and sitting here on my desk). Letting the other schools know I won't be accepting their offers also on Wednesday.

It's been a weird few months. And it's been tough to decide. I feel like a small weight is off my chest, but the weight will be back on come classes starting at the end of August.

Still, I'm excited and am ready to get this whole thing going again.