POETICS . NARRATIVES . ERRATICA . INDIALOGUE . GALLERY . MUSIC

InDigest Issue 15 Newsletter  Uncategorized
by admin

CURRENT ISSUE 02/2010
InDigest no.15

Dear Readers,

Thank you for reading.

Dustin & David, InDigest Editors

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POETICS

POEMS BY:

James Cihlar

Gregory Lawless

TWIN CITIES

by James Cihlar

This city park sign tells me
Land that once was the highest point
Is now the lowest,

Just as where there once were trees
There now are lakes.
Curtainless windows at night

Read More »

NARRATIVES

A story by:

Dolan Morgan

In the abandoned building, deep in the industrial park, we make our way through the dusty office, climb onto a duct, and up to the highest point. Sitting there in the concrete courtyard, our legs dangling above the plants beneath, plants pushing up through desks, filing cabinets and scattered gears, we can see the Manhattan skyline. And there is a house just floating there, high above the streets. Fighter jets whiz by overhead in formation, hundreds of helicopters dotting the blue sky.

“This is a strange kind of terrorism,” she says.

Read More »

ERRATICA

Columns about Art, Books, Theater, Music, Film, and more…

Play by Play: Plays and The Myopia

by Rachel Cole

Of course, as Last Life is essentially a vehicle for epic displays of stage combat, the fight scenes, directed by Rod Kinter, are truly at the heart of this spectacle. His choreography is elegantly brutal, a dance like cutting open a rib cage and eating the still pulsing heart inside. Set to a techno soundtrack in the tradition of Kill Bill, each fight is filled with humor and story, a crude language that speaks of an elevated attention to the animal-like ferocity inside us all.

Read More »

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Artburn: No Room For a Revolution

by Charles Greene

One of life’s chief pleasures is the possibility that at any given moment something could come along and completely sweep us off of our feet, that some new creation, idea, or event can have such impact that it reshapes the world around us, and changes the way in which we understand our world. Such happenings are called revolutions, and they are the fuel that drives the engine of life. Revolutionary new products, revolutionary ideas, revolutionary discoveries, the Revolutionary War – these are the things that make the world go round. Movement is inherent in the very name: Revolution, an instance of revolving, that turning and churning, which makes things go. Love is a revolution. Revolutions are that which engender sudden and pervasive change, they shift paradigms, topple regimes – political, cultural, and personal – they are what we nowadays refer to as game changers.

Read More »

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Peculiar Travel Suggestions Are Like Dance Lessons From God OR: Oprah Schmoprah: Installment One

J. Albin Larson On The Princess Bride by William Goldman.

Goldman’s book is, on its most basic level, about what each great piece of fiction, no matter its scope or approach, attempts to be whether it wants to admit it or not: LIFE. Capital letters completely intended. The fact that Goldman is able to pull it off in a story that includes “Fencing. Fighting. Torture. Poison. True love. Hate. Revenge. Giants. Hunters. Bad men. Good men. Beautifulest ladies. Snakes. Spiders. Beasts of all natures and descriptions. Pain. Death. Brave men. Coward men. Strongest men. Chases. Escapes. Lies. Truth. Passion. Miracles” only makes that lofty ideal easier to swallow.
Read More »

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A Visit to Planet Lemtron: These Colors Give Me the Runs

by Alex Lemon

Drug-mule Green. Mopar Blue.
To-The-Max Black. Who Am I
To Disagree Magenta.
Read More »

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Literature in Translation: Chad W. Post of Open Letter Books

by Jay D. Peterson

The buzzwords in publishing these days are “literature in translation.” And, unlike most buzzwords in, say, politics or pop-culture, these three are welcomed, refreshing, and busy reviving a struggling industry. Leading the charge is the University of Rochester’s Open Letter Press. In just two seasons, it’s published an array of delightfully weird books, by overlooked but incredibly talented writers from Iceland, Spain, Poland, Norway and elsewhere.
Read More »

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The Cinefiles: Charles Chaplin’s ‘Easy Street’ and ‘One A.M.’ at New York Guitar Festival

by Dustin Luke Nelson

What’s fascinating about Easy Street is not the signature style of physical comedy but the dark political message that pervades the film. Chaos reigns on Easy Street, the cops are scared to enforce the law, it depicts marital abuse, theft, and street violence in a fashion that is largely atypical for comedies of this era – or American films at large during this period. Chaplin portrays how the approach to the problems in the streets is just the wrong method from top to bottom. The cops are looking for temporary enforcement and to jail the “criminals” in the streets, whereas Chaplin, ultimately, brings a sort of complete political reform to the neighborhood (mostly by accident in comedic sequences, but it is done nonetheless).
Read More »

GALLERY

Andrea Carlson

I work primarily on paper, utilizing many two-dimensional mediums on a single surface including oil, acrylic, gouache, color pencil, graphite, watercolor and ink. Although the work sometimes has the appearance of collage, because the styles and mediums vary so dramatically, the heavy-weight paper is entirely worked by hand. This process helps define my artistic role as a filter or translator, fully digesting my sources as a complication to the craft of appropriation.

See More »

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Literature in Translation: Chad W. Post of Open Letter Books  INDIALOGUE, Issue #15
by admin

The buzzwords in publishing these days are “literature in translation.” And, unlike most buzzwords in, say, politics or pop-culture, these three are welcomed, refreshing, and busy reviving a struggling industry. Leading the charge is the University of Rochester’s Open Letter Press. In just two seasons, it’s published an array of delightfully weird books, by overlooked but incredibly talented writers from Iceland, Spain, Poland, Norway and elsewhere.  Here’s a sampling:

Read More »

What We’ve Been Reading | 02.05.10  NEWS
by admin

tnimg130Dustin:
I finally got through The Sound & the Fury. I guess I talked about the talking things last week, but I’ve come to the conclusion that anyone who has had a hard time with the book before because of the first 150 or so pages, and then quit reading, has a totally false impression about the book. (Yes, it’s great, blah blah blah, I loved it, so did everyone else.) But it’s not as difficult as you think it is. If you can get through the first section the second isn’t that hard, and then Faulner reverts to standard narration and it’s easy to get through. No big deal.

I also just read Stranger by Laura Sims. All that need be said about how much I liked is that we invited her to read at 1207, she’s reading in April with Daniel Nester and CA Conrad. Excellent.

Finally, I’m currently re-reading The Lone Samurai: The Life of Miyamoto Musashi by William Scott Wilson. I happen to like the story of Musashi’s life quite a bit, so I’m a little biased. But this is one of my favorite biographies. Mostly because it’s one of the few times that a little bit drier of a biography actually works for me. Musashi’s life was so interesting and weird that the really factual style Wilson goes with in this book winds up working really well for him. If you’re not familiar with Miyamoto Musashi, he was a samurai (more-or-less, not in the strictest sense) who became a Japanese national hero. He never lost a match, was a big part of the Toyotomi side of the battle between the Toyotomi’s and Tokugawa’s just before the Tokugawa Ieysu unified Japan. Anyway, his stories are pretty crazy. First duel at 14, and he killed a well regarded (adult) samurai with a wooden stick. He killed everyone in an entire school in a series of duels, and then an ambush when they tried to regain their honor. If you don’t want to spend a week or two learning about his life I recommend watching Hiroshi Inagaki’s Samurai Trilogy, which is all about the life of Miyamoto Musashi. You’ll at least get the idea after the first one, Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto.

Read More »

American Life in Poetry: Column 254 | 02.02.10  NEWS
by admin

by Ted Kooser, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006

What might my late parents have thought, I wonder, to know that there would one day be an occupation known as Tooth Painter? Here’s a partial job description by Lucille Lang Day of Oakland, California.

Tooth Painter

He was tall, lean, serious
about his profession,
said it disturbed him
to see mismatched teeth.
Squinting, he asked me
to turn toward the light
as he held an unglazed crown
by my upper incisors.
With a small brush he applied
yellow, gray, pink, violet
and green from a palette of glazes,
then fired it at sixteen hundred
degrees. We went outside
to check the final color,
and he was pleased. Today
the dentist put it in my mouth,
and no one could ever guess
my secret: there’s no one quite
like me, and I can prove it
by the unique shade of
the ivory sculptures attached
to bony sockets in my jaw.
A gallery opens when I smile.
Even the forgery gleams.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2009 by Lucille Lang Day and reprinted from The Curvature of Blue, Cervena Barva Press, 2009, by permission of Lucille Lang Day and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2009 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

InDigest Picks | 02.01.10  NEWS
by admin

Picture 3Books:
The Boy Who Couldn’t Sleep and Never Had To by DC Pierson [Vintage]
+ Filmmaker, comedian, and writer DC Pierson is releasing his first novel this week. The Boy Who Couldn’t Sleep and Never Had To is a charming and hilarious novel. Darren is a pretty normal high school student. He like video games, comics, and the like. His friend Eric confides in Darren that he has never slept, he can’t. Darren’s inability to keep a secret leads to adventure of the brand he has always fantasized about. Pierson’s coming-of-age is totally unique and full of delightful oddities.

Watch DC Pierson give a tour of the book.

Point Omega by Don DeLillo [Scribner]
+ Don DeLillo is a constant no-brainer recommendation. Despite Esquire’s insistence that DeLillo lost his sense of humor and wit long ago it’s hard to deny that there isn’t at least something worth while in everything that has been done by the author of classics like White Noise, Underworld, and Mao II. In Point Omega DeLilo takes an aging documentarian and a politician who crafted war plans as they are shooting a documentary and admitting their wrongs. DeLillo is still in top form here, as always. No, it’s not as funny, it seems, as White Noise, but DeLillo still has an inherent sense of humor in all scenarios.

You can read a short excerpt from Point Omega here.

Read More »

Peculiar Travel Suggestions Are Like Dance Lessons From God OR: Oprah Schmoprah: Installment One.  ERRATICA, ERRATICA ARCHIVE, Issue #15
by jalbinlarson

by J. Albin Larson

Discussed in this article: The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern’s Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure by William Goldman [Harcourt]

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princessbrideI can’t imagine I’m the only person this has occurred to over the past however many years Oprah’s Book Club has been around (according to her website, it’s been around been around since 1996—that long? Really?) but why does Oprah get to pick the books that everyone reads? I mean, yes, she’s a billionaire multi-media mogul and everything, but seriously, literature, O? Not fair.[1] And I’m not even saying she’s done a bad job.[2] She hasn’t. She’s got Cormac McCarthy, for crying out loud. Tolstoy, even. But still, I don’t think we can let this stand. As someone—likely in the same boat with you since you’re visiting a small, independently run online literary magazine—who’s spent some, at the very least, moderately serious time with literature over the years, I don’t think it’s quite fair to let Oprah have a monopoly on the books we read. (Don’t think she has one? Check out the NY Times Bestseller’s list—you can pretty much count on her selections lining the dang thing[3].) So, with all due respect, O, someone else needs to chime in. You’ve done well and I thank you for your service to the industry. I guess you can even keep the book club going. Just don’t think you can have any of these.

Read More »

Two Poems by James Cihlar  Issue #15, POETICS, POETICS ARCHIVE
by JamesCihlar

ETHAN ALLEN IN LOVE

by James Cihlar

Lofty ideas. The living room space hides
a multitude of details.

You have cleverly done everything.
The crown molding was patched by hand.

Under the console table,
near the splatback chair,

My cat tries to tell me something.
We had lived in Hyde Park

Read More »

Play by Play: Plays and The Myopia  ERRATICA, ERRATICA ARCHIVE, Issue #15
by rachelcole

by Rachel Cole

Plays, by Gertrude Stein, and The Myopia, an epic burlesque of tragic proportions, by David Greenspan
Produced by The Foundry Theatre at Atlantic Stage 2
January 6th – February 7th
The Myopia Wednesday – Sunday at 7:30
Plays Saturday and Sunday at 4:30

Picture 2There are few and special occasions when I am reminded of how sublime it is to experience a truly genius actor in a role that he truly relishes. To roll along on an ever-shifting ride that stimulates the eyes, the ears, the body, the mind, is an experience necessary for even the most casual theater-goer. This experience can be found at The Foundry Theater’s double feature of Plays, by Gertrude Stein, and The Myopia, an epic burlesque of tragic proportions, by David Greenspan, both of which are performed by David Greenspan.

Plays is performed before The Myopia only on Saturdays and Sundays, however I can’t recommend the double billing enough as it serves as a reflexive lens for The Myopia in a way that make both pieces more potent. As the Doppelganger in The Myopia explains, Stein wrote this theatrical lecture “to be spoke – so it was writing to be heard.” With circular language structures and a subtle and self-satisfied wit Stein elucidates “just at present all I know about the theatre.” Read More »

Two Poems by Gregory Lawless  Issue #15, POETICS, POETICS ARCHIVE
by GregoryLawless

TEETH MUSE

       for Kristin

by Gregory Lawless

I don’t like the little girl
god and her glitters
and wolfsmells.

I don’t like the way
she’s always sniffling
drinking rainbow wine

Read More »

Artburn: No Room For a Revolution  ERRATICA, ERRATICA ARCHIVE, Issue #15
by CharlesGreene

by Charles Greene

One of life’s chief pleasures is the possibility that at any given moment something could come along and completely sweep us off of our feet, that some new creation, idea, or event can have such impact that it reshapes the world around us, and changes the way in which we understand our world. Such happenings are called revolutions, and they are the fuel that drives the engine of life. Revolutionary new products, revolutionary ideas, revolutionary discoveries, the Revolutionary War – these are the things that make the world go round. Movement is inherent in the very name: Revolution, an instance of revolving, that turning and churning, which makes things go. Love is a revolution. Revolutions are that which engender sudden and pervasive change, they shift paradigms, topple regimes – political, cultural, and personal – they are what we nowadays refer to as game changers.
Read More »