Keyhole #7

I'm glad there's a new issue of Keyhole so I can stop picturing that frightening drill from the Matt Bell story in the last one.

I made a stupid remark on facebook about how a lot of 'my boys' are in this issue. Do you need somebody to make a stupid remark for you? I'm your guy. What I meant was that there are a lot of people in this issue whose writing I admire and enjoy muchos.

My contribution to #7 is 7 of those Gymno things. This set includes some of my favorites. "Cheyenne" is one. And then the last one, "Boston," which is set during the early part of WWII and features the young Alden Pyle.

Unsaid #4: Out!

It's funny to imagine Unsaid editor David McLendon sitting down to a meeting w/ some MBA doing consulting work. The MBA would say 'Dude,' thinking this was McLendon's language. Dude, your release party for #4 was last night--in New Hampshire? Dude, your website says 'current issue! no. 3.' Dude, the only picture of the cover of the new one is on your freaking Facebook page. Dude, no paypal? Dude, come on.

One of the things that's so awesome about Unsaid: DM isn't really trying to sell you anything here. It's hard to think of any mag less focused on the sell. Email DM, though, and you can get one.....

I mean look at this...

ANNE CARSON, BRIAN EVENSON, BLAKE BUTLER, DAVID OHLE, EVELYN HAMPTON, PETER MARKUS, ALEXIS ALMEIDA, ROBERT LOPEZ, BEAR KIRKPATRICK, MICHAEL KIMBALL, MEGAN LAYTON, DAWN RAFFEL, EUGENE MARTEN, DAVID HOLLANDER, OTTESSA MOSHFEGH, SHELTON WALSMITH, JASON SCHWARTZ, RUDY WILSON, SARAH MANGUSO, PAUL MALISZEWSKI, RICHARD ST. GERMAIN, SAM MICHEL, EMILIA A. PHILLIPS, BRIAN KUBARYCZ, SVEN BIRKERTS, RICK POINSETT, ALYSON JANE, BIANCA GALVEZ, JOE WENDEROTH, M SARKI, JOANNA HOWARD, WILL ENO, JESSICA NEWMAN, PATRICIA O'CONNELL, MATTHEW THOMPSON, CAROLYN ALTMAN, PETER CHRISTOPHER, ANDY DEVINE, DANIELLE BLAU, RACHEL B. GLASER, PATRICK EHLEN, M.T. FALLON, JONATHAN CALLAHAN, LAUREN MCCOLLUM, KRISTINA BORN, JULIA HOLLEMAN, TRIA ANDREWS, VIRGINIA KONCHAN, BJORN VERENSON, MICHAEL STEWART, TRENT ENGLAND, DYLAN T. NICE, BRIAN SCHORN, RYAN MURPHY, SAM PINK, BENJAMIN LANDRY, EMILY MAHAN, SHANE JONES, THOMAS LAVERTY, A. MINETTA GOULD, COOPER ESTEBAN, LINDSAY ANDERSON, JOSHUA KORNREICH, SCOTT GARSON...

Pathology

I've written six shorts in two mornings. Three I'm pretty excited about -- gymnos for Rockland Harbor, Salt Lake City and NYC.

So why do I still feel worthless?

Hint Fiction Winners

If there's going to be any lasting evidence of this 'Year of the Micro' thing, it may be Robert Swartwood's Hint Fiction anthology, which he's recently announced is forthcoming from Norton.

This all comes out of the contest. Stewart O'Nan's picks are now up on RS's website.

Desert Island Collections @ RECOMMENDED READING

I think I'm going to annotate this list here, little by little.

Wet Dreeming

I'd really like to find some stranger's picture on the internet and create a facebook account for this person. I don't know what the name would be. I'd have to see the picture first. But let's just say Bob. Then I would have Bob add me, the real me, as a friend. Then I would have him add my sister. It would be so enjoyable waiting to see if my sister would give in and friend Bob. If she did, I would have Bob friend my mother. I'm pretty sure my mother wouldn't take Bob on as a friend, but I'd want to test it out. Once I got bored w/ my family, I'd start having Bob friend my other friends. The writers would be easy. The writers would say, Who is this guy? And then they'd look at mutual friends and go, Oh, a writer. It would be a little more fun to have Bob friend my old friends from high school. If they took him on, I'd have him leave half-true memories on their walls. Like, Do you remember that time you were passed out on the couch and turned over and threw up in my shoes?

How would people deal w/ that? I wonder.

And the statuses. I'd have Bob really go to town w/ the statuses. I'd have him say that he was thinking of dish soap. Two minutes later, I'd have him say that he was still thinking of dish soap. An hour later, I'd have him say that he'd been thinking of dish soap all this time. Then the next morning I'd have him ask, Does your ass ever itch? And a few minutes later: my ass itches right now. And a few minutes later: I don't know what to say right now because I'm not really thinking about my ass as much as thinking about not thinking about it. And then a few minutes later: it doesn't itch any more!

Obscure Anniversaries: "The Silos / The Silos"

I'm thinking ahead to next year here (you've got to be early if you want be the first to note a big anniversary):

Albums of 1990. Are there any big 20th anniversaries coming up?

I took a look at the Grammies of that year. Incredibly lame. Milli Vanilli won one.

In Pitchfork's list of 100 Best Albums of the '90s, only six from 1990 make the list: Pixies' "Bossanova," Cocteau Twins' "Heaven or Las Vegas," Breeders' "Pod," Sonic Youth's "Goo," Ride's "Nowhere," and Public Enemy's "Fear of a Black Planet."

Some good albums in there. I loved "Goo." But it's not "Daydream Nation." And "Fear of a Black Planet" -- same thing: it came second... It's not "It Takes a Nation of Millions."

So no big 20ths there.

What about from the mainstream lists? Also some good ones: Jane's Addiction's "Ritual do lo Habitual," Sinead O'Connor's "I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got," LL Cool J's "Mama Said Knock You Out," and Neil Young & Crazy Horse's "Ragged Glory."

Of all of these I've just mentioned, I think the Sinead O'Connor album is maybe most ripe for a big 20th next year.

But here's one that's even more deserving. It was left off nearly all the lists that year: The Silos' major label debut from RCA: "The Silos." It was the band's third album. Their second, "Cuba," is also fantastic, but with "The Silos" they really reached something....


Actually it was on one best-of list: Entertainment Weekly's Top Ten of 1990. That kind of shows how lost this album was, in terms of finding a market for itself that year. Here are some words on the album taken from the Silos website: "Its spacious, organic quality made it seem out of place in 1990; however, looking back at the album from within the Alternative-Indy glow of the decade's end, The Silos resonates like the work of visionaries."

My own take: thing of beauty. 'Spacious and organic' is really right. You can hear the bend in the spaces between singer-songwriter Walter Salas-Humara and his bandmates in the recording studio. The songs pop, but some of them, in the middles, get so quiet--quiet in a real way, an un-stagy way: it's almost like you're listening to something you shouldn't, something private.

Maybe my favorite thing about the album--and this is also very much in force on the predecessor, "Cuba" -- is how Salas-Humara makes intense affecting songs from the most simple, everyday materials: work schedules, the dispositions of friends, neighborhood gatherings, photos of old girlfriends, drives to the airport....

This is from "Out of Town": "I remember you telling me about a girl that you used to hang around with / you know I never did really believe it too much"

There's a lot of remembering going on in "The Silos." BUt it's not weak or nostalgic. It's full and primary, which seems right for guys in their twenties, which I think they were then....

Anyway good luck tracking this one down: the album's out of print....

Desert Island Collections (of Stories)

The rules: each of the last eight decades—including the one in progress—must be represented. No one decade can be represented more than twice. Collections may contain vsf but not novellas. Collections may not be retrospective (i.e. no 'Selected' or 'Collected' stories). You have twelve picks.

I made up those rules. One of my great pleasures in life: following rules of my own making.

What's on yr list of twelve? My list of twelve goes up soon @ Ravi Mangla's new site, Recommended Reading.

"Premises for an Action Plan" @ ASF

It's a web exclusive, part of the new monthly 'Pin-up' series of shorter stories, in the 1500 word range. The first few--by Laura Madeline Wiseman, Matthew Salesses and Stephanie Soileau--have been out-of-hand good.

Can't say enough about how awesome everyone there has been during the process. Very excited about this.

*update: tiny bit of background available at the ASF blog.

ryan manning v. scott garson

What if everything in the world was destroyed except for the part of the server containing Ryan Manning's Thunk interviews?

I like to imagine a tiny band of survivors reading ryan manning v. tao lin.

Mine's not as singular. But it now exists.

For a Short Time Only

Read a story of mine in Latin.

Darlin' Neal's Wigleaf story in Dzanc's Best of the Web '09

"Powwow," from February, I think. Go Darlin'!

Dan Wickett writes that the volume is now available for pre-order. A full list of contributors accompanies the announcement. Several Wigleaf friends, contributors among them (Go Molly!).

Nu @ HObart: "Ode to a Bad Album..."

As everybody knows, Hobart is one of the best reads on the net, so I'm happy happy to be there.

I think this is Matt's issue, so thanks to him. And thanks also to photo editor Ryan Molloy, who always does a great job and has done a great one in the case of my story particularly, I think. ANd thanks also to Aaron and the web team, for indulging me and putting in the Songza links. (I read it this morning with "Before They Make Me Run" playing from a minimized window. It was AWESOME!)

Other May people: Stephanie Johnson (whose collection, forthcoming from Keyhole Press, is purty impressive), T.M. DeVos, Sean Lovelace and David Aichenbaum. Like me, DeVos exposes Matt's weakness for recorded music. I read her story, "The Quality Controller," in proof a few days ago (I wasn't planning to -- just couldn't stop). Let me say: it's a good one. I dig how she sets up the peculiar scenario, and I dig the scenario itself. DeVos probes it fully, and yet the story has a really light touch, an uncertainty which seems right for its people....

Did I say enough right there to earn that 'Short Story Month' logo at the bottom of this post? Dan Wickett, I wait for your word.

Self-Interview RE: My Kid's Joker Obsession

Q: Is it really an 'obsession'?

A: She was mildly obsessed with tornados last summer. But six-year olds don't really get obsessed. So no, not an obsession. But she does kind of go nuts when and after we watch a Joker episode of Batman (the Animated Series.) She laughs maniacally and repeats all the dialogue, which is kind of creepy, because she's got it word for word.

Q: You're concerned.

A: No. I like to play like I'm concerned. Really I'm a proud father. I'm like, That's my girl!

Q: Why?

A: You know, there's a lot of dumb-ass lessons in kids' media. The values are all right, but the art is a yawn. I like to see her running with her delights.

Q: And why does the Joker delight her?

A: That's the Q, isn't it? What's especially interesting here is that in most all other cases she really really doesn't like it when the good guys are seriously vulnerable to the bad guys.

Q: And the opposite is the true in this case?

A: Not exactly. She's not disappointed when Batman nabs the Joker in the end. But she's not really pulling for Batman either. And she seems to really enjoy the parts where Joker fucks with his good-citizen captives.

Q: A six-year old sadist?

A: Let me go at that earlier Q--why Joker delights her. In her favorite episode, the Joker escapes from prison on Christmas Eve and immediately commandeers all the broadcast media in Gotham City. Bruce Wayne and his young ward (this is not the time for my usual adolescent jokes) are just sitting down to watch It's a Wonderful Life, but there's a message -- 'We interrupt this programming' -- and Joker comes on with his 'special.' He's got three special guests--the bound and candy-gagged Commisioner Gordon and a cop and a TV reporter, whom he's dressed as a 'family': "Daddy Lawful, Mommy Lawful and Baby Lawful." He teases them cleverly. He's got a laugh track lined up.

Q: This delights her because...?

A: There's no way to know, but here's what I'm thinking: it has to do w/ authority -- the voice of it, the image of it. How Joker always undermines these, but without really doing much harm.

Q: Without doing harm?

A: Joker likes toying with people more than he does hurting them. That's what comedy itself is about, right? Good comedy always involves the transgression of abstract boundaries. Joker's an embodiment of that. Order, sobriety, providence, gender, rationality, politesse, law -- all of this gets fucked with when Joker is around. Just in terms of vibe, I think that's what she's into.