Hung

I'm glad I didn't hear about Hung too early, because I would've been way too excited for it. I've only known about for a month or so now, and forgot it was on so I had to watch it, which was fine with me, on On Demand.

Here are the great things about it:

1) Alexander Payne, even though for only one episode, directed. I think his genius has gone unnoticed for a long time, minus Sideways, and though this won't turn many people onto his movies who don't know about them already, this is Alexander Payne through and through.

2) I don't know who the cinematographer is, because IMDB won't list it for some reason, but all you need to do is take a look at this clip from the pilot. Ray changes his clothes in front of this broken and grafitti'd wall, and suddenly, as he moves to the street, there's the weirdly beautiful and almost-feigned futuristic neon glow of this hotel in the middle of rundown Detroit. Wowness.

3) I've never been to Detroit, but Winston-Salem is one of the reasons George Washington is so good, since it acts as a character just waiting to be filmed. Say the same for Western Pennsylvania and why that was the major choice of filming locations for The Road, especially Pittsburgh. Detroit and school teachers, yes. But the shots in the opening minute or so, with all the broken down buildings, the location scouts probably didn't have to look too hard to find. I could walk around those buildings for hours, both cinematically and in real life. I hope there's a lot more.

4) Thomas Jane, who's been a favorite of mine since Boogie Nights (and you may not know who he is if you're not a huge fan of the movie, but I implore you to watch it again, because some of the best one-liners are written for him), and though tons of people didn't like The Mist, I loved it, and there's no one else who could've played that role in my eyes. He's perfect for Ray in Hung too. He's even great in Killshot, which is a complete waste of time, despite the Rourke and Gordon-Levitt in the other roles.

I can't say much for the writers, because I've never seen The Riches, but that's going to be the biggest question mark as the show moves on.

I do know that there's a ton of potential in this show, so let's hope it continues.

Watch the pilot if you haven't.

Listening

I have to post about how ridiculous the new Caspian song is, "Epochs in DMaj," which is streaming on their MySpace page.

Their new record, Tertia, will be out on August 11th. I have high hopes for it to be in my top three of the year, if it ends up not being number one.

They're inspiring folks. You should be listening.

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Oh, and there's a pretty awesome live show here.

First Book Interview #21 - Rauan Klassnik

It's here. We're back. I'm back. Or it's back.

#21 - Rauan Klassnik

Thanks to those who are actually reading and appreciating.

And sorry for the delay.

Few

Blake Butler's Scorch Atlas is now available for preorder at Amazon. If you buy any book during the rest of the year, let it be this one. And are you kidding me with the design?

I must say too that Blake's words have heavily influenced, I think, many of the words in the current poetry manuscript I'm working on. But his words are a lot better. So read them.

Also check out his blog for contests and reading tours and all other things Lynchian. Not that contests and reading tours are Lynchian.

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The new Memorious is up. It's one of my favorite online journals. Rebecca actually accepted a poem of mine a few years ago for an issue, but it was already spoken for, and I did email her to let her know, so chalk that up to an instance of lost email or what have you. That said, I will keep submitting until she takes something again, because the quality seems to get better every issue.

In particular, Adam Day's poems blew me away. How he doesn't have a book out yet is beyond me, and I imagine we'll all be hearing the good news soon if all is right with the world.

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I had this dream last night that the world was ending, which happens too often. But it was more vivid than usual this time. First I was walking through a friend's ocean side house, when the waves kept getting bigger and smashing into houses. Then lightning and rain. Then all these people I want to high school with crying hysterically. And more rain. And then a lot of running. I don't remember who was with me. Then a helicopter pilot on a loudspeaker or something from his helicopter. Then four helicopters were flung into the ground, each one exploding, and everyone running. The pilot was trying to warn us that the cars were going to start on their own and come after us, and we didn't know that until they started on their own and came after us. I remember a jeep chasing me, and suggested that if we ran into a secure, bricked building that all they could do was crash into it, since no one was driving. We never made it to the building. I realized when I woke up that no one ever dies in these dreams. I wake up before anything like that happens. Sounds and screams and waves crashing and thunder, but no blood of any kind, and no real witnessed deaths.

Tumbler

Earlier today, as I was talking to my brother about an amazing picture of Eli and Peyton Manning at a (seriously) Better than Ezra show from I think a night or two ago, I was twisting the top of our Topsy Turvy to get the tomatoes some more sunlight.

And bam, the hook, which wasn't strong to begin with, making it my fault for not getting a stronger one, snapped, sending it tumbling three floors to the sidewalk below.

Luckily no one was there, so it didn't hit anyone or anything, but it seriously could've caused some kind of injury, which is a bit weird and frightening.

So we moved it to the back porch and tried to hang it on a hook there. If the hook breaks and it goes tumbling down, it'll go down to the yard and that's it.

But then something happened to the screen door. It got caught, somehow, on the metal of the siding, which clearly I can't describe, almost acting as a kind of suction on the bottom. So I had to use remnants of an old desk chair to first get something wedged between the door and the siding at the top, and then I tried to crowbar the bottom with a metal rod from it, which finally worked.

It's days like these when I really anticipate moving, getting a new start, and getting back to things being new.

Flares

Upon reading "River Road" by Herbert Morris, I immediately went to Half.com and purchased his first three books, including shipping, for a total of $15.

I remember Wojahn in workshop talking about him once, and though I couldn't really get into What Was Lost, which I do own and am probably too young for it to really make an impact at this point, I need to take another crack at it, and there are other poems from AGNI you can find online by Herbert Morris also.

He was someone who I don't believe gave readings, and someone who didn't have a lot of biographical information floating around, which is both weird and admirable for the current times. He passed away in 2001.

I'm now ready to dive into his earlier work and climb up to What Was Lost.

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About a year ago I caved and bought a Bose Sound Dock from Target for my IPod.

A few months ago the thing broke. Maybe it was a power surge, because I didn't drop it or spill anything on it. It still worked, technically, a few months ago, but there was this annoying, bass-like and pounding pulsation that clearly was due to some speaker or other part malfunction within the system.

Then about a month ago the thing collapsed to a low hum when plugged in, and I can't even charge my IPod on it, much less play a song.

I was smart, though, and basically got the 3-year Target warranty free, since it was $29 and I saved 10% with the Red Card, to only be used then and immediately shredded later.

I called a few days ago and got the return FedEx label today, so now I just have to figure out the specifics of all the confusion going on with the instructions. It's this kind of thing that makes me consider technical writing as a field that could really help folks who can actually read not take a ton of extra time to figure out the perplexing logic of some of these seemingly simple sentences.

Hopefully I can figure it out, send the thing back as they request, get a new one, and probably plug the thing into a surge protector, because I think it did indeed get fried from a power surge.

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I lied about not sending out work until the fall.

I realized recently how many journals only take submissions from now until most other journals actually start accepting submissions for all their new reading periods, come September usually.

I have a handful of poems as ready as they're going to be, so I'm gearing up to submit.

Maybe something will slip through the cracks...

Soleil

I really wanted to like Sunshine Cleaning a lot, and though I did enjoy it by the end, as there were a few things to admire, I thought there were too many faults to make it lasting.

Too many loose ends in the script, or aspects they thought the audience wouldn't question (though I'm not sure how they legitimately thought this).

Too many indie movie cliches, and I really really hate that new trend. Just knowing now that there are indie movie cliches, very obvious ones that screenwriters still can't get away from, means bad things ahead I think. Or the same script recycled 874 times within a few years.

I feel like I'd give too much away if I talked about specifics, but Amy Adams I still think is great, and without her the movie probably couldn't have been made.

But if you really want to see an amazing movie (the real PSH Oscar performance) dealing with the tragicomedy tag looming over it, see Love Liza. It'll always be one of my favorites.

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Nolan Reimold hits home run #8. Hell yes. I'm not sure how I feel about slowly becoming an Orioles fan, but it seems like it's happening.

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Less than a month to go until our wedding day of July 18th. Then moving to Binghamton. I'm trying to be as relaxed as I can in the next few weeks to get prepared for Stress City.

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I started to realize that I have over 900 Facebook friends, which is hilarious. It'd take a while to see how many of them I've actually met or know well (maybe 50-100?), but I have no qualms about seeing that another friend is friends with say, a writer that's been around for a while that I like, or a writer whose work I just saw in a journal that blew me away, and adding them as a "friend."

I feel like I'm the only person at this point not on Twitter, but honestly I don't need additional excuses to waste time, especially with all that's coming up in the next few months, so I'll refrain, at least for now...