Autobiographical

My full-length book, Where We Think It Should Go, can be yours via Octopus Books, Small Press Distribution, or Amazon. We better celebrate these hard copies while we can. When I'm not writing poetry, I teach amazing young people who are blind. I believe in a healthier future.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

call a phone number for radio stories

If you have a Blackberry, maybe an iPhone, maybe a Google phone, or some phone that is also the internet; if you need the news read to you by National Public Radio; if you have lots of extra phone minutes; if you ride public transportation, you are going to be really happy. You are going to be really happy because you are so much like me, except you have a lot of phone minutes.

Go to www.npr.org from your mobile device. Next to the stories, there's a button that says Call. Push it, and your phone asks if you want to call the number. Call the number and you can hear the radio stories, one by one. It's pretty sweet. That's what I was doing yesterday when the cops came onto the BART train and arrested someone in the seat across the aisle from me. I was glad I looked busy.

I also recommend using speaker phone or headphones so you don't hurt your brain like I do.

books and stuff, now that people taught me

Hot off the Lame House presses,
Franklin Bruno's new chapbook Policy Instrument
is now available for $8.00 postpaid.
Policy Instrument is hand-bound and printed in a limited edition of 200 copies. Cover art by Dietmar Krumrey.

To order, visit Lame House

-----------------------------

From Flim Forum Press

The Alps
by Brandon Shimoda

www.theplacethereof.blogspot.com

ISBN 978-0-9790888-2-7
144 pages, 7x9
$14 (+ $2 shipping & handling)

to purchase, send $16 to:

Flim Forum Press
PO Box 549
Slingerlands, NY 12159

or to pay w/ credit card:

www.theplacethereof.blogspot.com
www.flimforum.blogspot.com

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

California Audio Voter Guide

I think the audio voter guide is useful to anyone who likes to listen to things that might be dense to read. Everything is read by a human. If you don't live in California, check your state's web resources for similar options.

You can access an audio version of the Official Voter Information Guide for the November 4th election on the California Secretary of State's website. There are two versions--the whole voter guide as a Zip file or individual sections of the voter guide as mp3 files accessed from the Table of Contents. For each Voter Proposition on the Ballot, there are separate files with the Official Title and Summary, Analysis by the Legislative Analyst, Arguments for and against, and Rebuttals.

Audio Version of the Official Voter Information Guide (separate files):
http://www.voterguide.sos.ca.gov/audio/

The entire audio version of the VIG is available for download at http://www.voterguide.sos.ca.gov/audio/en-2008pg.zip

Friday, October 24, 2008

A flaw in the model I perceived was the critical function in the structure that defines how the world works so to speak

"You find a flaw in the reality…" said House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman-just as Greenspan picked up the thought.

"A flaw in the model I perceived was the critical function in the structure that defines how the world works so to speak," Greenspan said.

he was exiled by Augustus (my favorite emperor)

I'm not turning 30 yet, but as one of my students writes, "I don't mind what the future brings." Regarding a conversation we were having, my sister sent me the following. I like how Augustus is her favorite emperor.
---
This is the book I decided to read in preparation for turning 30.

Ovid: Metamorphoses

He was a Roman, but the stories are mostly from Ancient Greece. Also interesting: he was exiled by Augustus (my favorite emperor) for a terrible crime which was never revealed. The Metamorphoses is a very very long poem comprised of stories about characters transformed; Ovid had hoped it would redeem his reputation and enable him to return to Rome.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Gina Myer's new chapbook Behind the R is now available from ypolita press. You can order it for $5.00 on the website . $5.00 is good for hard times.

Enlarge the graphic! It is genius. The letters are tiny. (I found it at SF Denmark Events Digest. )

LCB says, "If I had my own geography of circles there would be four and they'd be Aesthete, Ascetic, Marxist and Hippie. Maybe I could replace Marxist and Hippie with Anarchist and have only three, which would look nicer (Overlap categories TBD)."

Send me more circles! Mine is coming soon.

Does anyone know how to make alt-tags for images work with blogger's crazy HTML?
How to Make Your Blog Accessible to Blind Readers

I need to read that.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Halving Money for My Half-Birthday

I'm forty and a half.
With a thirteen-year old's
hair telling me I'm not
forty and a half.
Half fifty-five.
Half fifty-six
minus a half.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

A Child

It fell from the tree.
Fell in my mouth.
I chewed it; it was a dry leaf.

I rested by the sprinkler head.
It fell on my arm,
was a mossy limb,

circulated bugs.
It was a cloudy stream
with rock parts. Sweet tea

and bourbon jar.
Sleeping off. Sun’s far
but the shade tree

but the light’s much.
Strong
above the tree.
I like
Issue 1 .
Check out the other Claire Becker:
Clair Becker.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

PAIN


It is from Alaska
that we send those out to make sure that an eye
is being kept on

this very powerful nation
Russia because they
are right there



WITH THE IMPACTS OF CLIMATE


change what we can do
about that as governor

I was the first governor

to form a climate change to
start dealing

with the impacts


--partially courtesy of Maureen Dowd there on the media

Friday, October 3, 2008

Boo for the Bailout Bill! The current version. The passed version. Where's our government ownership stake?
Alex told me about The Great Schlep ! This is genius. My grandma lives in Florida, but unfortunately she can't vote.

I'm been having some nightmares about oversleeping on election day and not opening the polling place. I have to be there at 6 AM. I'll probably be too nervous to sleep at all.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Save This Country, Missouri

Hey Kansas Citians, October 8th is the LAST DAY you can register to vote in the November 4th election!

If you currently live in Missouri, but you're from Kansas, you CAN vote in Missouri. Switching your registration is not hard.

Simply download and print the application from this website OR fill out a simple form to have the application mailed to you, but don't delay! You can get one mailed to you if you click here.

I think you can also find applications at the library and DMV.

Missouri might just go your way...polls show a near-tie between Obama and McCain.