BB & SB; Women in General; Degenerettes; Various; Maday

Blake Butler's chapbook is nigh on 7,000 views. When it hits 10,000 I'm going to bring him back to Baltimore and treat him to sleep therapy. I think maybe I will buy a hot air balloon that says "BUTLER 10K" on it and we'll fly it into the New Yorker offices. 7,000 views is whatever the free equivalent of a bestseller is. #2 in the popularity contest is Stephanie Barber with her mindmelding work of power, FOR A LAWN POEM. Have you read this? About 6,200 people who read PRETEND I AM THERE BUT VERY LITTLE have not read FOR A LAWN POEM, but they should.

Here is something that I ought not say: hey ladies: submit! I am looking at my schedule for the rest of the year and I do not have many submissions from women and in fact I have accepted no work from women (there's a thing in October that Ryan Call is making with his sister, so I mean, except for that). I guess it is not really something I should not say. I want to publish women more than men. Sorry dickwads.

Last night I went and saw The Degenerettes play for the first time since 2007. It was my first time to see them since then, I mean, but they've played a ton this year. And they were jaw-dropping good. Still there were some sound issues; Rahne Alexander's guitar was too low to really hear how good, how astounding and intricate her playing was. It was astounding and intricate. I saw Henry Flint on Saturday and even though he's like some legend and was using a music stand on it, I didn't think his playing was astounding or intricate. But Rahne played the way I sometimes wish I played, which is a loud, convoluted arpeggio Neil-Young-Ragged-Glory sort of thing. And she played it with lots of movement and aggression. And then Kristen Anchor's drumming was simple but composed brilliantly. Seems she thought out the song sections for maximum engagement. I wasn't mesmerized watching her play, like I am with some drummers, but I was interested. Any time I stopped thinking about her drumming she would beat a really cool sounding phrase and then I would stop wondering if I looked like an idiot bobbing my head and instead I would bug out a (very) little. Then I would stop some more.

I'm not trying to say anything against Henry Flint, you understand.

Yesterday at work I gave someone bad news and then he yelled at me over email and then concluded: "know this..I am not trying to shoot the messenger." What is the deal with the two-period ellipsis?

Last night I talked for a long time about the Nam with a friend of mine. We knew things about locations and terminology and dates and things that I would not have know that we knew. We're in our band together, WOLF SWEATPANTS. No, JK. It's just Sweatpants for real. Anyway, we have a song called "Vietnam."

There is a band called VIETNAM that I like a lot.

Yesterday I was told that my search for a punctuation mark that is somewhere between a period and an exclamation point is a waste of time. I don't think so. I am on the hunt. I'm wearing a pithy helmet!

I get to talk about my own poems with a sage prof for hours. He reads them slowly and then stops and tells me what he likes. He'll ask me how come I say something the way I say it and generally I have a good reason but I cannot say it very well. And then he talks about something for a minute and then I can say my reason pretty well. He's like a midwife then, and he bears out my little babies.

We talked about this poem a little bit. It's called Josh Maday.