Wondermachine

McCain's Crew

This is pretty stunning.  Very well crafted and all true and just devastating.

Poetry Bailout Needed?

Charles Bernstein's big announcement (from Harpers):

"Let there be no mistake: the fundamentals of our poetry are sound. The problem is not poetry but poems. The crisis has been precipitated by the escalation of poetry debt—poems that circulate in the market at an economic loss due to their difficulty, incompetence, or irrelevance."

Beeker does Bizet

Good for a laugh. Watch out for Animal.

If Mr. of Nazareth can't decide

Brilliant parody.  And you know if Jesus were running they'd run this against him.

Grandpa at the Debates

Totally stolen from the Political Carnival.

Dream House

...of sorts.

What a sweet little film.  I have to say there's so much that's appealing to me about this sort of small little house.  Pete and I spent one of our vacations in a house a little bigger than this up in Provincetown.  It was actually a remodeled one-car garage.  And while it was a bit cramped at times I have to say I loved cooking in that tiny kitchen and relished the extra thought it takes to prepare for that. 

I think I love the cleverness of storage and the multiple use thought behind this home.  I find the kitchen/bath thing a cool correction.  Very cool indeed.  I'd imagine though that with a house like this the surrounding area would be more important as you're more wedded to the outside in a house this small than you would be with a larger home.

Any thoughts?

Vacay to the 19th Century

So last night we home alone.  Our housemate Jason was at school for a parent/teacher night.  Pete and I were sitting down apres dinner watching some politically related stuff online (have you seen Sarah Silverman's hysterical "Great Schlep" video?:)

Then the power went out.  It had been raining all afternoon and early evening but not hard.  Just like a consistent heavy drizzle.  The power would flicker on for a few seconds then we'd hear this hard BRRXXZHZHZH!!!  and then cut out again.  Again and again this happened.  Then we reached for the candles.

Turned out the transformer at the end of the block had gone kabloey and was sparking like crazy (hence the BRXXZHZHZH!! sounds everytime it tried coming on again).   Pete and I left the dogs inside and went to investigate.  A lot of neighbors were out as well checking out the goingson.  The power came back on at one point while we were out.  So when we finally got back from our scout, Pete turned out all the candles we'd lit (we luh-uVV us some candleage) and we carried on with dinner.

A few minutes later the power went off for the night and we were transported to the 19th century for the evening.  All in all not a bad thing to happen.  A few thoughts:

• We live in the city but its astonishing to actually hear the neighborhood in silence.  We could still hear the metro station three blocks away as the trains rolled in quietly.
• Is this a glimpse of the horrible state of our nation's infrastructure I keep reading about?  How our electrical grid is so decrepit and prone to serious outages that may effect us beyond one night's romantic off-the-grid vacation?
• The city is beautiful in darkness.  Nothing but the sound of gentle rain on the sills.
• If it were not raining we'd be outside gazing at the stars.

Sometime in the middle of the night the power returned.  I got up in the middle of the night and turned off the one hall light that had been left switched on.  We were back in the 21st century (or in the electric vestiges of the 20th).

Overheard in the house this morning:

Me:  "Tell your students they have to be able to spell whatever they throw at you."

Jason:  "Unfortunately they can spell 'desk.'"

After our roommate Jason had an encyclopedia thrown at him by one of his students in class yesterday.

McCain's Letterman screwup

So I had the reading last night and then got home and tuned into Project Runway.  I knew nothing about McCain's planned visit to David Letterman.  Or how he cancelled at the last minute saying he had to rush back to DC to work on the economy.  And then how it turned out he'd lied and was actually still in New York getting his nose powdered to be interviewed by Katie Couric.  And how Letterman caught all of this live on his show and showed the live feed on his show.  It was AMAZING!!  Here's clips from the show.  The whole thing is well worth your time as it actually progresses in real time.  You can tell from Letterman's first words towards McCain that he doesn't know yet that McCain lied to him and is actually still in New York and at another CBS studio.  Then it just gets more and more piqued and he lights into McCain at about the 5 minute mark and then its all gold till the very end when Letterman quips about McCain on Rachel Ray.  Watch it all:

Or watch the condensed version from this morning's Today show:

All Cream...Reading at Riverby!

So last night Michael Gushue and I had the pleasure of reading together at Riverby Books on Capitol Hill.  It was such a wonderful evening with a great crowd in a pleasing space.  I understand it may have been the largest crowd for that reading series (click on the photo at left to see the whole crowd).

  I want to thank everyone who came out in support of Michael and I and those who bought our books, Michael's chapbook Gathering Down Women and my new book from Beothuk Books, The Space Between Our Danger and Delight.  It was a pretty stunning turnout and I was moved to see so many friendly faces in the crowd.

Michael read first and I read second.  We both began our times by reading a poem by another author.  After a lot of thought it seemed appropriate to begin a reading for my new book by reading a few short poems from the very first book of poetry that impacted me.  Pablo Neruda's Libro de Preguntas/Book of Questions (the Copper Canyon editions with William O'Daly's marvelous translations) And then I had what I can only describe as sublime and mindbending..  the opportunity to read from my own book of poems.  It was great to read a few old poems and a number of newer poems from the book, especially those dealing with Texas and family.  Seemed fitting as I spied in the back of the crowded room my oldest friend on the planet, Rob Crangle.  We were in college together and have had the good fortune to stay in touch all these years.  He was around when I first started writing poetry during another Middle East war while we were in college.   Fitting to have him there.  Other highlights for me were a dear older friend who is the beloved matriarch of an extended group of friends Pete and I hold dear.  She came all the way from Alexandria and I was moved to be able to sign one of my books for her.  So many friends were there it was just very moving and humbling.  Pete even got me these lovely red roses for the evening!  How perfect is that?!?

Throughout our readings people kept walking in to find a seat, and when all the chairs were taken folks went for spots on the floor.  At one point my housemate Jason walked in with my friends Baba and Jomo and they carried with them pans of blondies and other treats and it became a surreal, almost Dr. Seussian scene.  It was all too lovely for words.   I'm still feeling over the moon about the book and the gracious response and all the lovely people at the reading tonight.  It's all cream.  All cream.

I know I left feeling incredibly thankful for the community of poets and friends that make an evening like this possible.  I want to particularly thank everyone who put the word out about the evening including Sandra Beasley who posted a nice note on her blog and Philip Clark over at The New Gay who posted a great announcement for the evening.  Monica Jacobe was such a great host and runs one of the nicest series in town.  Hope we get more evenings like tonight.

Reading Wednesday Night!!

Well, I hope any of you in the DC area will be at my big reading and book signing Wednesday night at Riverby Books!  I'll be reading with my publishing confrere Michael Gushue and the setting is one of the most charming bookstores in the city.  Hope you can join us!

Wednesday, September 24 at 7:30 pm

"A Space Inside" Reading Series
Michael Gushue & Dan Vera Reading Poetry
Signing copies of my new book from Beothuk Books!
Riverby Books on Capitol Hill
417 East Capitol Street • Washington, DC
202-543-4342
www.riverbybooks.com

Download poster in (PDF format)

And seeing as how my new book comes after writing poetry for about 18 years I figured it was fitting to include this nifty little film of a man's daily self-portraits over almost the same period of time (well a year less but still fascinating).