Clinton hitting back

derek turned me on to this video... simply fascinating. it's especially interesting to me the way that Clinton insists on identifying the context surrounding the discussion.

Strings & Things

Because my Stephen King (Dark Tower) books have not yet arrived, I have decided to spend my spare time learning theoretical physics.

When I tell people things like this they look at me strangely. Specifically, I am trying to gain a basic comprehension of space-time and string theory. At the moment I am reading Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time which has been collecting dust on my shelf for some time. After that, I am going to read The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene. I got turned onto this book by watching documentaries on YouTube. If you search for "Elegant Universe" at www.youtube.com you should be able to see them yourself.

i-Robot Poetry by Jason Christie

Jason Christie's new book is almost out, and can be ordered here.

You can read about it here.

And don't forget to watch the TRAILER (that's right, his book has a trailer) here.

Whitewall of Sound #35

I published two concrete poems in the new issue of Whitewall of Sound. You can find more information about the issue, which is a CD-ROM magazine, here. I'm very proud to be included alongside many superstars of the form, and also some personal friends who do excellent work, like derek beaulieu, jason christie, and kevin mcpherson eckhoff.

If on a winter's night a traveler

Life has been stressful and annoying lately, but on the bright side I just received a copy of Italo Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveler which I am very excited to read one day soon. It contains the greatest first paragraph of any book I am aware of:

You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel, If on a winter's night a traveler. Relax. Concentrate. Dispel every other thought. Let the world around you fade. Best to close the door; the TV is always on in the next room. Tell the others right away, "No, I don't want to watch TV!" Raise your voice -- they won't hear you otherwise -- "I'm reading! I don't want to be disturbed!" Maybe they haven't heard you, with all that racket; speak louder, yell: "I'm beginning to read Italo Calvino's new novel!" Or if you prefer, don't say anything; just hope they'll leave you alone.

Idlewild

I haven't seen the Outkast movie yet, but why does everybody hate the new Outkast album? It's excellent. It's just not hip-hop. Which is why Outkast is so great -- they have never focused on fulfilling expectations, just on delivering great music in large doses. So three cheers for Outkast -- the most reliable, inventive musicians of the past ten years.