Best American Poetry Comic

From Our Wonder World, copyright 1914

Stories from Homer

I remember listening to my mother read these stories aloud and looking at the illustrations, many of which are of naked men with blankets strategically and illogically hanging about them.

Others are of men dressed for battle. I always wondered about some of their outfits, esp. their head gear. Some have helmets, and others have this thing on their head that makes them look like an upside down broom.

Memoir Comic

Alice Comic

This is what I think -- when watching the Republican debates.

I Hear Four Symphonies

I keep thinking about this podcast of WNYC's Radio Lab called Shorts-a 4-Track Mind from July 26, 2011.
. . . about a man who can hear four symphonies at a time. Evidently, they tested him by giving him a few days to memorize 4 symphonies: a Brahms, Mendelson, Beethoven, and Schubert.
Then they put him a sound-proof room by himself and told him when each symphony was beginning--and to start listening to them in his mind. (The symphonies were actually playing in a control room.) At arbitrary times they asked him what was happening in each symphony.
He could say precisely what was happening in each symphony, down to the exact notes and instruments . . .
How does he do this? They don't know.
But he says he hears music as emotion. C major, for example, is like eating water soup. D minor makes him want to dance.

It Takes a Thief

I was reading this week's New Yorker and was struck by the bizarre connection between first the article called "Free Everything," by Miranda July, about a woman who was a compulsive thief, and
second, the creepy article, "State for Sale," by Jane Mayer, about Art Pope (who is affiliated with and much like the Koch brothers) and his ability to buy North Carolina's politicians.

Check out these quotes from "Free Everything." They sound a lot like Wall Street trader logic to me.

"But it wasn't just the supermarket--the whole world was one giant heist."p.58
"Everyone I knew did these things."p.58
"Because what is money anyway? It's just a concept some asshole made up." p. 58
"Still, for a long time I thought my biggest heist was fooling everyone into believing that I was an upstanding citizen, a sweet girl." p. 58

And here are a few quotes from the Pope article. It's a long article, worth reading, and I can't do it justice or quite show how it made me feel like a victim of some kind of heist. I suppose what really upsets me is that it seems that what is happening in North Carolina is also happening in Ohio, particularly the assault on unions, higher education, early voting. Even our local paper, here in a union town, is more and more like Fox News.

A few quotes:

1. . . ."3/4 of the spending by independent groups in North Carolina's 2010 state races came from accounts linked to Pope." p. 93
2. "Republican state legislators have also been devising new rules that, according to Democrats, are intended to suppress Democratic turnout in the state, such as limiting early voting and requiring voters to display government-issued photo I.D.s."p. 92
3. "Meanwhile, Bob Luebke, a researcher at the John W. Pope Civitas Institute in Raleigh, which the Pope family almost single-handedly funds, has written that the poor in America live better than the 'picture most liberals like to paint.'" . . . "a majority of the poor have refrigerators, cable television, microwaves, and shelter."p. 95
4. ". . . fellows at the Pope-funded think-tanks have repeatedly assailed minimum-wave laws."p.96
5."He also believes that the collapse of the traditional news business has provided an opening: 'Our goal is to fill in some of the gaps as the state press corps shrinks.'"p.99
6. "Another Pope-funded organization is the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, . . . It has pushed for deep budget cuts in the state's celebrated university system, and as been a harsh critic of its alleged liberal tilt." 100

Anne Marie Slaughter: Occupied Wall Street, Seen from Abroad

"I am beginning to suspect that people abroad with long experience of disenfranchisement and trampling of their dignity may in fact understand the fissures in our society better than we do ourselves."

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/06/opinion/occupied-wall-street-seen-from-abroad.html?_r=2&ref=opinion

Less Government, More Freedom Comic

I thought of this comic when my daughter, who is in Nairobi, was telling me that this year is an election year in Kenya. She overheard Kenyans talking about how some of the Somali pirates have taken their loot and moved to Kenya and are now a potential political force there.

Somalia, now that's a country that knows about less government.

Denise Duhamel, Best American Poetry 2011

Dear Professor, Do You Live in a Vacuum?

In a few weeks, Dear Professor will be out again. The book is based on comments, notes, and emails students have written to physics professors. It's a tiny book, a no big deal book, but it has sold out a few times (small press runs). I am wondering if I should do an expanded version, maybe as a kind of comic book. It's hard to find a press for a book like this because it's not poetry, not physics, not . . . Markets, right? Who needs those?

Dear Professor Do You Live in a Vacuum? $414.92

Okay, this is pretty funny. I guess my physics chapbook is currently sold out. But don't worry! You can still order it on Amazon
or get it used for a real bargain.
I cut and pasted this from Amazon . . .

Dear Professor: Do You Live in a Vacuum? by Nin Andrews (Jan 1, 2008)
Formats Buy new $414.92
Used from
Perfect Paperback $272.38

Facebook Comic

One More Comic

A last quote from Lauren Collins' article, A Reporter At Large, “House Perfect,” The New Yorker, October 3, 2011

In recent months, middle-aged singles have taken to congregating in a Shanghai IKEA in such numbers that management has been forced to cordon off a designated "match-making corner." p. 56

Comic: Generically pleasing?

I still have some of the lines from that IKEA article from The New Yorker stuck in my brain, like a pop song or something. I can't wait to see what article gets stuck in my head with the next issue . . .

2 more quotes:

Just as the goal of a real room is to look like a fake one, the goal of a fake room is to look like a real one. 63


IKEA attempts to make room sets generically pleasing . . . 64

IKEA Comic

Do you ever read The New Yorker and wonder, why am I reading this article? And you keep reading it, and the article seems to grow longer as you read?
Do you think they should offer a Cliff Notes version of the magazine?

Last week I read all about bullet-proof clothing. You just never know when a bullet-proof outfit might come in handy. Especially if Rick Perry is elected.
This week there was an entire treatise on IKEA. Why do I care about IKEA?

In case you missed the treatise on IKEA,
here are 3 quotes from Lauren Collins' article, A Reporter At Large, “House Perfect,” The New Yorker, October 3, 2011:

In “Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture,” Ellen Ruppel Shell argues that IKEA’s low prices and disposable furniture entail untold environmental, aesthetic, and social costs. p. 55

IKEA stores, like Chihuahuas and cilantro provoke extreme reactions. p. 56

You will see a friendly golden retriever curled up by the dining room table in the British catalogue, but not in the Emirate one. p. 64

Anne Marie Slaughter's blog, The Atlantic Monthly, Oct.3

In her blog entry for the Atlantic Monthly, Anne Marie Slaughter discussed last week's meetings at the UN. She writes of the shift of attention towards global issues related to poverty and the role of women:

"All of these shifts flow from a deeper vision of a global tree of life: a world in which personal mobile technology can connect every human being in every village in every country to the tap roots of knowledge, markets, services, and community. That vision is social, developmental, digital and global. It's a powerful motivator. And it's pushing out the foreign policy frontier."
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/10/the-future-of-global-connectivity/245943/

This is particularly interesting to me because my daughter, whose primary interest is micro-savings (not to be mistaken for micro-credit) is at a conference in Tanzania this week, addressing many of the same issues. The photo above is from a micro-savings meeting she attended recently in rural Kenya. She will be live-bloggin at:http://savings-revolution.org/

Comic: Snobs at Home

A Critic at Large, Browbeaten, Dwight Macdonald's War on Midcult by Louis Menand, The New Yorker, September 5, 2011 opens with this creepy statement:

" . . . there is often a discrepancy between public values and private tastes, but as long as these things are kept in separate compartments people have no obligation to justify their personal likes on political grounds. They can be democrats out in the time square and snobs at home."

But ends with this more interesting statement, which I have been thinking about even more:

"But it suggests the remorselessness of Macdonald's commitment to exposing the self-promotion, self-satisfaction, and self-delusion that are always wrapped up in the business of making and appreciating art. The exposure is one of the foundational tasks of criticism, and Macdonald is one of its great exemplars."

Thinking in Color

I have sisters who think in color. One had a weaving studio. She spun her own wool. Another batiks. Another is a nature photographer, forever catching light on paper. Another used to argue with me about the color of numbers, back when we were in grade school. We could only agree about the color of 3 which was definitely red, and 2, which was was navy blue.

My sister, Salley Knight, the batik artist, spends days dying silk. When I visit her home, she says, Look at this blue. Have you ever seen such a blue? She shows me around her living room, which is covered with rolls of fabric. There are piles of blues, greens, pinks, yellows . . . It isn’t just the colors . . . It’s the way she shapes the fabric. Some are swirls, some are waves, some are hanging from frames or lampposts or couches. Some are expansive, and some slender and wispy like dreams, afterthoughts or lost causes.

http://www.salleyknight.com/

The True Education

Manhattan Kitty Comic

WATCH FOR FALLING CATS

I love WNYC’s Radiolab. But ever since I listened to the radio show called Falling, I’ve been worried about all those falling cats in New York City. Evidently there’s a plague of falling cats there. In a five month period, 132 cats were taken to a Midtown Manhattan veterinarian’s office after falling from windows. That’s roughly 1 cat a day. And that, of course, doesn’t account for the cats that died, were taken to a different vet, or never received medial attention. They call this the feline high rise syndrome. Fortunately, some of the cats were relatively unharmed, even after falling from high floors. (One was fine after falling 42 stories.) The explanation? The cats hit terminal velocity, relaxed in mid-air, and glided to an easy landing. On their feet, of course.

Conspiracy Theory Comic

A Young Girl Traveling Alone

Hillary, Catch!

Should I have drawn these as knives?

Physics Comic

I have to thank one of Jim's students for these!

Cern Comic

Comic

Sandra Beasley

The essay appears in the 2012 Poet's Market.

HOW TO BE A POET

I have no idea how to be a poet. Maybe that’s why I’m a total sucker for books that try to answer that question. The 2012 Poet’s Market has all kinds of great suggestions, answers, and articles. I’m in love with the chapter, “101 Poetry Prompts,” which includes the prompts: Write a Worry Poem, Write an Apology Poem, Write an Insult Poem, Write a Farewell Poem. I’m still hoping someone will write The Recipe Poem, complete with fail-safe directions on how-to-write-a poem . . .
Of course there are also chapters full of helpful advice on publishing and marketing, advice I could use, plus essays and interviews by poets including Diane Lockward, Collin Kelley, Jeanine Hall Gailey, Erika Meitner, and Sandra Beasley.
Sandra Beasley’s essay, “ A Different Take on Truth and Poetry,” is particularly interesting. I love how she celebrates the art of lying. She writes: “I became a better poet when I stopped congratulating myself for being honest; when I stopped casting my heart’s shadow on the page and calling it a poem.”

Rimbaud

from The New Yorker article, "Rebel, Rebel" by Daniel Medelsohn August 29, 2011. The quote was from one of Rimbaud's letters, written when he was sixteen.

"The move from threat to confrontation may seem unlikely, but remember the inexorable, deadly sequence of mobilisation that turned the assassination of an Austrian archduke into first world war. These things can get out of hand quickly."
blogs.ft.com/the-a-list/2011/09/22/veto-or-no-veto-the-middle-east-is-on-the-brink/?#axzz1Yn1rPmbF

Lines of Inquiry by H.L. Hix

from "Ninety-five Theses:A Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of the Formal in Poetry"

The Orgone Box

From this weeks New Yorker article, "Novelty Acts," by Ariel Levy, on Wilhelm Reich and the sexual revolution:

1. "Still, many Americans were taken with Reich's contention that sexual liberation was crucial to resisting Fascism that was spreading through Europe."
2. Reich came up with "a new apparatus . . . " a machine to trap the potent, healing force of the orgasms. His orgone-energy accumulator, or orgone box, as it became known, resembled a wooden telephone booth lined with metal sheeting and steel wool."
3. "Like the celestial bed, the orgone box acquired a celebrity following: J.D. Salinger, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, William Burroghs, Saul Bellow, and Norman Mailer were all devotees.
4. "Reich had his detractors, notably Albert Einstein, who, after two weeks of tests on the box, declared it useless."
5. "In 1954, after an investigation by the Food and Drug Administration, a court ruled that Reich could no longer rent and sell his orgone boxes."
6. "In January, 1964, Time called Riech a "prophet," and claimed that "all America is one big Orgone Box . . .

After Don't Ask, Don't Tell

I drew this comic of my friends, Nicole and Deanna, who were married last summer. Deanna thought of the words to go with it. But now I'm thinking it should say:
Oh wait!! Now we can say we're gay!

Micro-Savings Meeting

Suzanne posted this photo from Makueni, Kenya of woman carrying a piece of wood ( to use as a chair) to their meeting site. For details on her work, check out http://savings-revolution.org/

Neighborhood Register by Marcus Jackson

I just received a copy of Marcus Jackson's wonderful book, "Neighborhood Register."

Comic

It's Math!

Math! In a country that ranks 28th in the International Comparison of Math Skills, just behind Latvia!

from Anne Marie Slaughter's blog, The Atlantic Monthly Sept. 18

"In plain English, the Cold War world was like chess. The 21st century world is more like
tennis . . . Or take surfing " Anne Marie writes in her article, Adapting US Policy in a Changing International System.
Now I'm really scared. I was never all that happy with the chess metaphor, considering that, statistically speaking, there are more chess games possible than there are atoms in the universe.

So, hmmm. Has anyone seen the surfing movie, Riding Giants?

Ann Patchett

I know. Everyone loves Ann Patchett. Everyone I know, that is. So I tried her.
First, I made it through Bel Canto. A novel in which a bunch of terrorists fall in love with an opera singer. I have trouble with this, but I admired her ability to keep telling the unlikely tale ad nauseum. It was nice to like terrorists so much. But these were all accidental terrorists. Terrorists who swoon over opera! So lovable. So sweet. It was so sad when they all died!
So then I read State of Wonder. I was told it's the next best thing. I would like to re-title the book, Menstruation Everlasting. I mean, I admit I was almost okay with the novel until she started describing a bunch of wild women who eat bark by biting trees . . . and thus become eternally fertile. 70 year old women are pregnant! Imagine how much fun that would be!

I don't mean to suggest I don't like peculiar tales of wonder. I am a huge fan of Murakami, whom I find infinitely more believable than Ann Patchett.

Good books I've read recently include 4 Murakami novels
Lisa See's Dreams of Joy and Shanghai Girls
Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick (fantastic book on North Korea)
Infidel and Nomad by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Sea of Poppies by Amitav Gosh

Rick Perry Comic

No ma'am.
It will cost you millions (pronounced
mee-yuns) to touch my trigger.

Ron Paul's Modest Proposal

GOP response to Ron Paul's Economic Plan