See YOU in New York

Maybe

Our reading in Nebraska is sort of embarrassingly well-documented on some blogs that I won't mention. I will mention that the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery is a beautiful building with a really stellar 20th century collection, and our hosts were really wonderful. Thank you! Being cold is kind of interesting. The midwest deserves a lot of love. I saw some fabulous hills in northern Missouri, western Iowa, and eastern Nebraska.

I also spent some time eating ribs in Kansas City, having sing-alongs in Johnson County, and scanning old photos at my parents house. Too bad my computer won't read the CD I burned them on. Luckily I had a couple in my email.

The biggest news of the weekend concerns Will Oldham and a forthcoming issue of your favorite online poetry journal.

Clean Part- It's not too late to come to Nebraska

http://www.thecleanpart.blogspot.com/

The Sculpture of Louise Nevelson: Constructing a Legend just closed at the De Young.

It was at the Jewish Museum in New York a few months ago. I don't know if it's going anywhere else. If you can see it, you should go. I didn't make it until the last day, but it was pretty amazing. I walked through several dark rooms filled with sculptures, the later ones made from found objects, mostly painted black. Then in the distance I saw white room-sized sculptural-assembly of objects into walls, columns, a sort-of bride and groom. I was immersed in that for a while, then in the distance, I saw gold. I liked the objects being subsumed into a single color.

I think she was doing installation art pretty early on compared with other artists, which I guess doesn't really matter, but it seems related to her work and life and persona. Apparently a drawing she did when she was five years old was of the top part of a chair. Her father was a junk dealer.

I was doing a google image search for Louise Nevelson and Kate Greenstreet's post came up, which you should check out: which you should check out

and which suggests that she did not like all chairs.

And this cast paper sculpture:

I grew up with this one:

CC taught me that you can't always get what you want is a great song. The sunroof is for all weather.

Me Reading

I'm reading next Saturday, January 12th at Pegasus Books in Berkeley at 7:30 PM. Poet-sanctioned fiction. Fiction-sanctioned poetry. ?

This should be a really excellent reading because it is for Pirate Pig Press. There will probably be free things given to you to drink. There will be some wildness. The other readers are some graduates of St. Mary's and other people as well. Really the first people to welcome me to northern California at a party in San Leandro four years ago and ever since.

Claire Becker, Sarah McKinnon, Matthew Thomas Russell, Dan Sanders, Ammon Torrence and Justin Kibbe. Pegasus. January 12th. 7:30 PM.

I will have copies of my chapbook to sell and the bookstore will too!

Happy 2008. Happy 2007. My new year's resolution last year was to be more social. This year I'm thinking about getting a bike and moving to San Francisco.